Old Plantation Days (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 Excerpt: ...for the negro. Scipio pulled down on the trigger and sprang aside. But the whirl of the brute's head and the rip of the curving tusks caught him in the leg and bared the bone. Close on the charge of the Specter came a hurrying human figure; it was Pino, Scipio's brother, who had followed, fearing for the hunter's safety, and it was he who had called out of the darkness. And now he bent over Scipio and began to bind his wound. But there was no further charge from the creature that had so long and so cruelly haunted Romney. For with a sullen groan, the great wild boar sank back on his haunches, fell over on his side, and was dead. And so was buried the fear of the Romney Specter. And to this day men are shown the grass tussocks behind which the negro hunter crouched; and one of the most cherished trophies in Scipio's cabin is the huge pair of snowy tusks that once menaced his life. XV THE LONE BULL OF MAYBANK COUNTLESS white bubbles rose to the surface of the dark swamp water. The lily-pads, anchored by their long black stems, were sliding softly here and there on the surface, moved from the depths of the morass by some invisible power. Gently among the bubbles there then appeared what looked like a walnut, floating on the water. Higher it rose, growing wider, more irregular. Dimly two great eyes in protruding sockets cleared the level of the water. Next, the huge armored body of a bull alligator appeared, monstrous and scaly, looking like a dragon of medieval tapestry. With his body half-submerged and his wicked head thrust partly up on a spongy grass tussock, he lay still in the mellow sunshine, hideously contented. A gray squirrel, with tail arched divinely, barked at him from a cool retreat among the tender leaves of a sweet-gum. A foolish blue jay, that ...