Page:Buried Caesars.djvu/207

 Before that, Riley had called the poem "delishamous," and "a masterly and exquisite ballad of delicious horrificness." But Riley missed an opportunity; in my opinion, the last line of his stanza should have been written, "Y. E. A. and a bottle of rum!"

What Riley meant by his stanza was that Allison took the original four lines, as they occur in Stevenson's "Treasure Island," and wrote the tremendous poem known as "Derelict," using the Stevenson quatrain as a text; and that is the truth. Like other readers, Allison was captured by the grisly charm of the chorus, and wondered where Stevenson had got it, and whether there were any more of it. Like one or two others, he determined to finish it himself. Allison, I think, never was certain whether the original stanza was Stevenson's own composition; but recently I became curious on this score, and now I am enabled to quote from a letter written by Mr. Lloyd Osbourne, stepson of R. L. S., for whom "Treasure Island" was written and to whom the work was dedicated. Says Mr. Osbourne: "'Fifteen Men' was wholly original with Stevenson, and it has always been a regret to me that he never saw the Allison extension of the chanty."

But long before the Times controversy brought the whole matter before the public, an