Ramgolam. Then a traitor with a dark skin, but darker soul——
Tickell. Then another black-hearted nigger——
Ramgolam. Came furiously and misappropriated the charm thus piously obtained——
Tickell. Ran in and stole it from me.
Ramgolam. And bereft me of the excellences I was inheriting: and—
Here Sharpe interrupted the dialogue by putting the misappropriator of other men's virtues in irons, and the surgeon insisted on the cabin being cleared. But Dodd would not part with the three friends yet; he begged them to watch him, and see nobody else came to take his children's fortune.
“I'll sink or swim with it; but oh! I doubt we shall have no luck while it is aboard me. I never had a pirate alongside before, in all these years. What is this?—here's something in it now—something hard—something heavy: and—why, it's a bullet!”
On this announcement, an eager inspection took place: and, sure enough, a bullet had passed through Dodd's coat and waistcoat, &c., and through the oilskin and the leather pocketbook, and just dented the “Hard Cash;” no more.
There was a shower of comments and congratulations.
The effect of this discovery on the sick man's spirits was remarkable. “I was a villain to belie it,” said he. “It is my wife's and my children's, and it has saved my life for them.”