If there'd ever been any stock issued by
the Ellins-Hemmingway Exploration and Development Company, I'll bet you
could have bought in a controllin' interest for two stacks of cigarette
coupons and a handful of assorted campaign buttons.
You see, Old Hickory and Auntie had hung all their bright hopes on this
Captain Rupert Killam. They'd listened to his tale about a secret
mangrove island with a gold and jewel stuffed mound in the middle, and
they'd taken it right off the fork. His mysterious and romantic
motions had them completely buffaloed--at first.
But on the way down here Rupert's reputation as a bold, bad adventurer
had gradually been oozin' away, like a slow air leak from a tire. His
last play of hidin' his head when the _Agnes_ had been held up by a
gunboat had got 'most everybody aboard lookin' squint-eyed at him.
Even Mrs. Mumford had crossed him off her hero list.
Just what his final fluke was I'm only givin' a guess at, but I judge
that when Mr. Ellins called on him to point out the pirate hoard, now
we were right on the ground, Rupert begun stallin' him off. Anyway, I
saw 'em havin' a little private session 'way up in the bow soon after
we got the hook down. By the set of Old Hickory's jaw I knew he was
puttin' something straight up to Rupert.
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