52
WYLDER'S HAJVD.
"he was exactly like the picture in the story-books. And
as we were lying off — I forget the cursed name of it —
he begged me to put him ashore. He could not speak a
word of English, but one of the fellows with him interpret-
ed, and they were all anxious to get ashore. Poor devils,
they had a notion, I believe, we were going to sell them
for slaves, and he made me a present of a ring, and told
me a long yarn about it. It was a talisman, it seems, and
no one who wore it could ever be lost. So I took it for a
keepsake; here it is,'' and he extended his stumpy, brown
little finger, and showed a thick, coarsely-made ring of
gold, with an uncut red stone, of the size of a large cherry
stone, set in it.
"The stone is a humbug," said Wylder. "It's not
real. I showed it to Platten and Foyle. It's some sort
of glass. But I would not part with it. I got a fancy
into my head that luck would come with it, and maybe
that glass stuff was the thing that had the virtue in it.
Now look at these Persian letters on the inside, for that's
the oddest thing about it. Hang it, I can't pull it off —
I'm growing as fat as a pig — but they are like a queer
little string of flowers; and I showed it to a clever fellow
at Malta — a missionary chap — and he read it off slick,
and what do you think it means: 'I will come up
again 'and he swore a great oath. "It's as true as you
stand there — our motto. Is not it odd? So I got the
"resurgam" you see there engraved round it, and by Jove!
it did bring me up. I was near lost, and did rise again.
Eh?"
Well, it certainly was a curious accident. Mark had
plenty of odd and not unamusing lore. Men who beat
about the world in ships usually have.
- "When I got this ring, Charley, three hundred a year
and a London life would have been Peru and Paradise to
poor Pilgarlick, and see what it has done for me."