Page:The romance of Runnibede (IA romanceofrunnibe00rudd).pdf/73

with, then telling it you wanted the jewellery returned, and having to force it out of its hands at the same time. And in their simplicity, those wild women were little more than babies. For only after much smiling and coaxing and sisterly persuasion on the part of the governess, was Mrs. Curricomb, who had sandy hair and red eyes, induced to disgorge the Governor’s silver-mounted tobacco box; then the lady gave a most weird exhibition of wailing over the loss of it that ever Ted and I heard. We had listened to dogs lamenting, and native bears weeping, but the moans and lamentations of Mrs. Currieomb gave us more joy than the efforts of all such things put together.

As the moment went by, though, the guests seemed to forget their disappointments and to gain more confidence in their hosts and in themselves. They moved freely about the room, sitting, or rather squatting—first in one chair, then in another; peeping under the table and behind the window curtains—our windows were then draped with the richest Venetian brocade—and even to closely scrutinising Ted and me, and grinning broadly upon us. And at obe stage, while mother was decorating the three of them with necklaces of glass beads, Mrs. Captain and Mrs. Combo, both brunettes with bobbed hair, barbered with a lighted fire stick as was the fashion, stood so close to the sofa that the back muscles of their sinewy limbs were nearly touching Ted and me. Whether it was telepathy or what the inspiration I really don’t know, but each of us at the same moment conceived the same happy piece of villainy, and put it to the test at the same instant. Each of