TO PAMLICO SOUND FOR DUCK. 171 



canned goods, and groceries, while a tinued feast before. They gulped 



ten-gallon keg contained as fine a down oysters by the can, potted meats, 



grade of Malaga wine as was ever fer- sweetmeats, sauces, condensed extracts 



mented in the tropics, besides a demi- of beef and mutton, washing it down 



John of the ardent. with copious libations, and in forty- 



Our intention was to stay a month, eight hours they had cleaned us out of 



and we all thought our supplies would everything, and only a pile of empty 



be amply sufficient. Had we known cans and drained kegs were left, which 



the character of the Goose Creek Is- they looked at sullenly, wiped their 



landers, we would have chartered a mouths on the back of their hands, 



steamer, armed her with carronades, slouched out and silently hoisted sail 



hoisted the American flag, and treated and departed for their homes, where 



them as pirates. we devoutly hoped every mother's son 



About two hours after our friends of them might have an attack of cramp 



left, we descried a small flotilla of colic. 



sailing boats making for the island, George Randall had been a gallant 

 and Nancy informed us that the na- soldier in his teens ; in the Black Horse 

 tives were paying us a sociable visit. cavalry, and later, a miner in the far 

 We welcomed them at the landing, and West for thirty years ; after he had 

 Shades of Laveter ! what a set. Fully made a fortune he returned to his na- 

 a dozen, each having the same charac- tive State, Virginia, to spend it. He 

 teristics : tall, slab-sided, and bony, had that wild Western hospitality, 

 There was not enough fat among the which shares his ranch and bottle with 

 whole crowd to make a single rotund his guest. But even he was outraged, 

 man. Their faces were sallow from George was not a temperance man, 

 countless attacks of ague fever, their and when he examined the keg and 

 eyes dull, their noses long, their the demijohn and thought of the fu- 

 mouths wide with a gutter on either ture, his composure was greatly ruffled, 

 side, worn by the dripping tobacco and he denounced the gang , in terms 

 juice. Their hands were horny and both loud and eloquent, 

 knuckled, and their feet enormous. For several days thereafter, the 

 They were men of few words, and weather being fine, the boy Gus hoist- 

 after a grunt and a nod, sank into an ed the sail of his boat and we headed 

 impassive silence. An invitation to for some prominent point where we 

 drink started the whole crowd as if would place our decoys and sit in 

 touched by an electric battery. No weary vigil over them until night, oc- 

 bar-room hanger-on could advance casionally bringing down a stray black 

 with such alacrity on an invitation to duck or a brant. Only once did I have 

 "walk up and take something." They any kind of sport. Gus and I went off, 

 literally charged on the house, and leaving George at the lighthouse, 

 each man filled his glass to the brim. where, he said, he preferred to brood 

 Then they coolly hauled in their boats, alone ; but in reality, attracted by 

 took down the sails, made themselves Nancy's black eyes and queer vernacu- 

 at home, and actually remained at the lar, albeit her ideas were few, and but 

 lighthouse two days, eating and drink- illy expressed. But, oh, horrors ! 

 ing, in a way I never believed possible Nancy played the accordion and sang ! 

 for mortal man to do. Camels, it is The instrument- was an old, battered 

 said, have three stomachs, but these family heirloom, half of the stops re- 

 Goose Creek Islanders can stow away fused to sound, and the balance wheez- 

 more in one stomach ; and when it ed, shrieked and groaned, whistling in 

 came to filling twelve, our provisions such a way as to give a timid man a 

 soon melted away. I doubt whether congestive chill, or a nervous woman 

 any of them ever had such a long con- convulsions. 



