By this time he was introduced, and at the name of Mrs. Falchion,
he cocked his head, and looked quizzically, as if trying to remember
something, then drew his hand once or twice across his forehead.
After a moment he said: "Strange, now, ma'am, how your name strikes me.
It isn't a common name, and I've heerd it before somewhere--somewhere.
It isn't your face that I've seen before--for I'd have remembered it if
it was a thousand years ago," he added admiringly. "But I've heard some
one use it; and I can't tell where."
She looked curiously at him, and said: "Don't try to remember, and it
will come to you in good time. But show us everything about your place
before we go back, won't you, please?"
He showed them his hut, where he lived, quite alone. It was supplied
with bare necessaries, and with a counter, behind which were cups and a
few bottles. In reference to this, Boldrick said: "Temperance drinks for
the muleteers, tobacco and tea and sugar and postage stamps and things.
They don't gargle their throats with anything stronger than coffee at
this tavern."
Then he took them to the cave in which puma, bear, and wapiti skins were
piled, together with a few stores and the kits of travellers who had left
their belongings in Boldrick's keeping till they should come again.
After Mrs. Falchion and Ruth had seen all, they came out upon the
mountain-side and waved their handkerchiefs to us, who were still
watching from below. Then Boldrick hoisted a flag on his hut, which he
used on gala occasions, to celebrate the event, and, not content with
this, fired a 'feu de joie', managed in this way: He took two anvils
used by the muleteers and expressmen to shoe their animals, and placed
one on the other, putting powder between. Then Mrs. Falchion thrust a
red-hot iron into the powder, and an explosion ensued. I was for a
moment uneasy, but Mr. Devlin reassured me, and instantly a shrill
whistle from the little mills answered the salute.
Just before they got into the cage, Mrs. Falchion turned to Boldrick,
and said: "You have not been trying to remember where you heard my name
before? Well, can you not recall it now?"
Boldrick shook his head. "Perhaps you will recall it before I see you
again," she said.
They started. As they did so, Mrs. Falchion said suddenly, looking at
Boldrick keenly: "Were you ever in the South Seas?"
Boldrick stood for an instant open-mouthed, and then exclaimed loudly,
as the cage swung down the incline: "By Jingo! No, ma'am, I was never
there, but I had a pal who come from Samoa."
She called back at him: "Tell me of him when we meet again. What was his
name?"
They were too far down the cable now for Boldrick's reply to reach them
distinctly. The descent seemed even more adventurous than the ascent,
and, in spite of myself, I could not help a thrill of keen excitement.
But they were both smiling when the cage reached us, and both had a very
fine colour.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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