Well, well, he said, well have to please ye, I suppose. But what are we standing here for? Its perishing cold; and if Im no mistaken, theyre busking the Covenant for sea.
Chapter VI
What Befell at the Queensferry
As soon as we came to the inn, Ransome led us up the stair to a small room, with a bed in it, and heated like an oven by a great fire of coal. At a table hard by the chimney, a tall, dark, sober-looking man sat writing. In spite of the heat of the room, he wore a thick sea-jacket, buttoned to the neck, and a tall hairy cap drawn down over his ears; yet I never saw any man, not even a judge upon the bench, look cooler, or more studious and self-possessed, than this ship-captain.
He got to his feet at once, and coming forward, offered his large hand to Ebenezer. I am proud to see you, Mr. Balfour, said he, in a fine deep voice, and glad that ye are here in time. The winds fair, and the tide upon the turn; well see the old coal-bucket burning on the Isle of May[33] before tonight.
Though I had promised myself not to let my kinsman out of sight, I was both so impatient for a nearer look of the sea, and so sickened by the closeness of the room, that when he told me to run down-stairs and play myself awhile, I was fool enough to take him at his word. Away I went, therefore, leaving the two men sitting down to a bottle.
Even so far up the firth, the smell of the sea-water was exceedingly salt and stirring; the Covenant, besides, was beginning to shake out her sails, which hung upon the yards in clusters; and the spirit of all that I beheld put me in thoughts of far voyages and foreign places.
Ransome soon came out of the inn and ran to me, crying for a bowl of punch. I told him I would give him no such thing, for neither he nor I was of an age for such indulgences. But a glass of ale you may have, and welcome, said I. He mopped and mowed at me, and called me names; but he was glad to get the ale, for all that; and presently we were set down at a table in the front room of the inn, and both eating and drinking with a good appetite.
Here it occurred to me that, as the landlord was a man of that county, I might do well to make a friend of him. I offered him a share, as was much the custom in those days; but he was far too great a man to sit with such poor customers as Ransome and myself, and he was leaving the room, when I called him back to ask if he knew Mr. Rankeillor.
Hoot, ay, says he, and a very honest man. And, O, by-the-by, says he, was it you that came in with Ebenezer? And when I had told him yes, Yell be no friend of his? he asked, meaning, in the Scottish way, that I would be no relative.
I told him no, none.
I thought not, said he, and yet ye have a kind of gliff[34] of Mr. Alexander. I said it seemed that Ebenezer was ill-seen in the country.
Nae doubt, said the landlord. Hes a wicked auld man, and theres many would like to see him girning in the tow[35]. Jennet Clouston and mony mair that he has harried out of house and hame. And yet he was ance[36] a fine young fellow, too. But that was before the sough[37] gaed abroad about Mr. Alexander, that was like the death of him.
And what was it? I asked.
Ou, just that he had killed him, said the landlord.
Did ye never hear that?
And what would he kill him for? said I.
And what for, but just to get the place, said he.
The place? said I. The Shaws?
Nae other place that I ken, said he.
Ay, man? said I. Is that so? Was my was Alexander the eldest son?
Deed[38] was he, said the landlord. What else would he have killed him for? And with that he went away, as he had been impatient to do from the beginning.
Of course, I had guessed it a long while ago; but it is one thing to guess, another to know; and I sat stunned with my good fortune, and could scarce grow to believe that the same poor lad who had trudged in the dust from Ettrick Forest not two days ago, was now one of the rich of the earth.
I sat staring before me out of the inn window and my eye lighted on Captain Hoseason down on the pier among his seamen, and speaking with some authority. And presently he came marching back towards the house, with no mark of a sailors clumsiness, but carrying his fine, tall figure with a manly bearing, and still with the same sober, grave expression on his face. I wondered if it was possible that Ransomes stories could be true, and half disbelieved them; they fitted so ill with the mans looks. But indeed, he was neither so good as I supposed him, nor quite so bad as Ransome did; for, in fact, he was two men, and left the better one behind as soon as he set foot on board his vessel.
The next thing, I heard my uncle calling me, and found the pair in the road together. It was the captain who addressed me, and that with an air (very flattering to a young lad) of grave equality.
Sir, said he, Mr. Balfour tells me great things of you; and for my own part, I like your looks. I wish I was for longer here, that we might make the better friends; but well make the most of what we have. Ye shall come on board my brig for half an hour, till the ebb sets, and drink a bowl with me.
Now, I longed to see the inside of a ship more than words can tell; but I was not going to put myself in jeopardy, and I told him my uncle and I had an appointment with a lawyer.
Ay, ay, said he, he passed me word of that. But, ye see, the boatll set ye ashore at the town pier, and thats but a penny stonecast from Rankeillors house. And here he suddenly leaned down and whispered in my ear: Take care of the old tod[39]; he means mischief. Come aboard till I can get a word with ye. And then, passing his arm through mine, he set off towards his boat. When we were at the boat-side he handed me in. I did not dream of hanging back; I thought (the poor fool!) that I had found a good friend and helper, and I was rejoiced to see the ship.
As soon as we were alongside, Hoseason, declaring that he and I must be the first aboard, ordered a tackle to be sent down from the main-yard. In this I was whipped into the air and set down again on the deck, where the captain stood ready waiting for me, and instantly slipped back his arm under mine.
But where is my uncle? said I suddenly.
Ay, said Hoseason, with a sudden grimness, thats the point.
I felt I was lost. With all my strength, I plucked myself clear of him and ran to the bulwarks. Sure enough, there was the boat pulling for the town, with my uncle sitting in the stern. I gave a piercing cry Help, help! Murder! so that both sides of the anchorage rang with it, and my uncle turned round where he was sitting, and showed me a face full of cruelty and terror.
It was the last I saw. Already strong hands had been plucking me back from the ships side; and now a thunderbolt seemed to strike me; I saw a great flash of fire, and fell senseless.
Chapter VII
I Go to Sea in the Brig Covenant of Dysart
I came to myself in darkness, in great pain, bound hand and foot, and deafened by many unfamiliar noises. The whole world now heaved giddily up, and now rushed giddily downward; and so sick and hurt was I in body, and my mind so much confounded, that it took me a long while, chasing my thoughts up and down, and ever stunned again by a fresh stab of pain, to realise that I must be lying somewhere bound in the belly of that unlucky ship, and that the wind must have strengthened to a gale. To my other pains and distresses, there was added the sickness of an unused landsman on the sea.
I had no measure of time; day and night were alike in that ill-smelling cavern of the ships bowels where, I lay; but sleep at length stole from me the consciousness of sorrow.
I was awakened by the light of a hand-lantern shining in my face. A small man of about thirty, with green eyes and a tangle of fair hair, stood looking down at me.
Well, said he, how goes it?
I answered by a sob; and my visitor then felt my pulse and temples, and set himself to wash and dress the wound upon my scalp.
Ay, said he, a sore dunt[40]. What, man? Cheer up! The worlds no done; youve made a bad start of it but youll make a better. Have you had any meat?
I said I could not look at it: and thereupon he gave me some brandy and water in a tin pannikin, and left me once more to myself.
The next time he came to see me I was lying betwixt sleep and waking. I ached in every limb, and the cords that bound me seemed to be of fire. I had suffered tortures of fear, now from the scurrying of the ships rats that sometimes pattered on my very face and from the dismal imaginings that haunt the bed of fever.
The glimmer of the lantern, as a trap opened, shone in like the heavens sunlight. The man with the green eyes was the first to descend the ladder, and I noticed that he came somewhat unsteadily. He was followed by the captain. Neither said a word; but the first set to and examined me, and dressed my wound as before, while Hoseason looked me in my face with an odd, black look.
Now, sir, you see for yourself, said the first: a high fever, no appetite, no light, no meat: you see for yourself what that means. I want that boy taken out of this hole and put in the forecastle, said Riach.
What ye may want, sir, is a matter of concern to nobody but yoursel, returned the captain; but I can tell ye that which is to be. Here he is; here he shall bide, he added, in a sharper note, and set one foot upon the ladder.
But Mr. Riach caught him by the sleeve.
Admitting that you have been paid to do a murder he began.
Hoseason turned upon him with a flash. Whats that? he cried. What kind of talk is that?
It seems it is the talk that you can understand, said Mr. Riach, looking him steadily in the face.
Mr. Riach, I have sailed with ye three cruises, replied the captain. In all that time, sir, ye should have learned to know me: Im a stiff man, and a dour man; but for what ye say the now fie, fie! it comes from a bad heart and a black conscience. If ye say the lad will die
Ay, will he! said Mr. Riach.
Well, sir, is not that enough? said Hoseason. Flit him where ye please!
Thereupon the captain ascended the ladder; and I, who had lain silent throughout this strange conversation, beheld Mr. Riach turn after him and bow as low as to his knees in what was plainly a spirit of derision. Even in my then state of sickness, I perceived two things: that the mate was touched with liquor and that (drunk or sober) he was like to prove a valuable friend.
Five minutes afterwards my bonds were cut, I was hoisted on a mans back, carried up to the forecastle, and laid in a bunk on some sea-blankets; where the first thing that I did was to lose my senses.
Here I lay for the space of many days a close prisoner, and not only got my health again, but came to know my companions. They were a rough lot indeed, as sailors mostly are. There were some among them that had sailed with the pirates and seen things it would be a shame even to speak of; some were men that had run from the kings ships, and went with a halter round their necks, of which they made no secret; and all, as the saying goes, were at a word and a blow with their best friends. Yet I had not been many days shut up with them before I began to be ashamed of my first judgment, when I thought they had been unclean beasts. Rough they were, sure enough; and bad, I suppose; but they had many virtues. They were kind when it occurred to them, simple even beyond the simplicity of a country lad like me, and had some glimmerings of honesty.
Among other good deeds that they did, they returned my money, which had been shared among them; and though it was about a third short, I was very glad to get it, and hoped great good from it in the land I was going to. The ship was bound for the Carolinas; In those days of my youth, white men were still sold into slavery on the plantations, and that was the destiny to which my wicked uncle had condemned me.
The cabin-boy Ransome (from whom I had first heard of these atrocities) came in at times from the round-house, where he berthed and served, now nursing a bruised limb in silent agony, now raving against the cruelty of Mr. Shuan. It made my heart bleed; but the men had a great respect for the chief mate, who was, as they said, the only seaman of the whole jing-bang, and none such a bad man when he was sober.
I did my best in the small time allowed me to make something like a man, or rather I should say something like a boy, of the poor creature, Ransome. But his mind was scarce truly human. He could remember nothing of the time before he came to sea. He had a strange notion of the dry land, picked up from sailors stories: that it was a place where lads were put to some kind of slavery called a trade, and where apprentices were continually lashed and clapped into foul prisons. To be sure, I would tell him how kindly I had myself been used upon that dry land he was so much afraid of, and how well fed and carefully taught both by my friends and my parents: and if he had been recently hurt, he would weep bitterly and swear to run away; but if he was in his usual crackbrain humour, or (still more) if he had had a glass of spirits in the round-house, he would deride the notion.
All this time, you should know, the Covenant was meeting continual head-winds and tumbling up and down against head-seas, so that the scuttle was almost constantly shut, and the forecastle lighted only by a swinging lantern on a beam. I was never allowed to set my foot on deck, you can picture to yourselves how weary of my life I grew to be, and how impatient for a change.
And a change I was to get, as you shall hear; but I must first tell of a conversation I had with Mr. Riach, which put a little heart in me to bear my troubles. Getting him in a favourable stage of drink (for indeed he never looked near me when he was sober), I pledged him to secrecy, and told him my whole story.
He declared it was like a ballad; that he would do his best to help me; that I should have paper, pen, and ink, and write one line to Mr. Campbell and another to Mr. Rankeillor; and that if I had told the truth, ten to one he would be able (with their help) to pull me through and set me in my rights.
And in the meantime, says he, keep your heart up. Youre not the only one, Ill tell you that. Theres many a man hoeing tobacco over-seas that should be mounting his horse at his own door at home; many and many! And life is all a variorum, at the best. Look at me: Im a lairds son and more than half a doctor, and here I am, man-Jack[41] to Hoseason!
I thought it would be civil to ask him for his story.
He whistled loud.
Never had one, said he. I like fun, thats all. And he skipped out of the forecastle.
Chapter VIII
The Round-House
One night, about eleven oclock, a man of Mr. Riachs watch (which was on deck) came below for his jacket; and instantly there began to go a whisper about the forecastle that Shuan had done for him at last. There was no need of a name; we all knew who was meant; but we had scarce time to get the idea rightly in our heads, far less to speak of it, when the scuttle was again flung open, and Captain Hoseason came down the ladder. He looked sharply round the bunks in the tossing light of the lantern; and then, walking straight up to me, he addressed me, to my surprise, in tones of kindness.