05 I Go to the Queen's Ferry (Kidnapped)

01CHAPTER V.

02I GO TO THE QUEEN'S FERRY.

03Much rain fell in the night, and the next morning there blew a bitter wintry wind out of the north-west, driving scattered clouds.

04For all that, and before the sun began to peep or the last of the stars had vanished, I made my way to the side of the burn, and had a plunge in a deep whirling pool.

05Must have been of other stuff than burning coal, for in all the shapes and pictures that I sat and gazed at, there was never a ship, never a seaman with a hairy cap, never a big bludgeon for my silly head, or the least sign of all those tribulations that were ripe to fall on me.

06For it's my delight of a shiny night in the season of the year.

07Get into the house, and you shall have a bite, if I go empty for it.

08With that I brought him in, and set him down to my own place, where he fell too greedily on the remains of breakfast, winking to me between whiles, and making many faces, which I think the poor soul considered manly.

09Meanwhile, my uncle had read the letter, and sat thinking.

10Then, suddenly, he got to his feet with a great air of liveliness, and pulled me apart into the farthest corner of the room.

11Read that, said he, and put the letter in my hand.

12Here it is, lying before me as I write.

13The Hawes Inn at the Queen's Ferry Sir, I lie here with my hawser up and down, and send my cabin boy to inform.

14If you have any further commands for overseas, to-day will be the last occasion, as the wind will serve us well out of the Firth.

15I will not seek to deny that I have had crosses with your doer, Mr.

16Rankyler, of which, if not speedily read up, you may look to see some losses follow.

17I have drawn a bill upon you, as per margin, and am, sir, your most obedient humble servant, Elias Hoseason, Agent.

18I have seen the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law, and the law made up my mind.

19Very well, says I.

20Let us go to the ferry.

21My uncle got into his hat and coat, and buckled an old rusty cutlass on, and then we trod the fire out, locked the door, and set forth upon our walk.

22The wind, being in that cold quarter of the northwest, blew nearly in our faces as we went.

23It was the month of June.

24The grass was all white with daisies, and the trees with blossoms, but to judge by our blue nails and aching wrists, the time might have been winter, and the whiteness of December frost.

25Uncle Ebenezer trudged in the ditch, jogging from side to side like an old ploughman coming home from work.

26He never said a word the whole way, and I was thrown for talk on the cabin-boy.

27He told me his name was Ransom, and that he had followed the sea since he was nine, but could not say how old he was, as he had lost his reckoning.

28He showed me tattoo-marks, bearing his breast and the teeth of the wind, and in spite of my remonstrances, for I thought it was enough to kill him.

29He swore horribly whenever he remembered, but more like a silly schoolboy than a man, and boasted of many wild and bad things that he had done—stealthy thefts, false accusations, aye, and even murder.

30But all with such a dearth of likelihood in the details, and such a weak and crazy swagger in the delivery, as disposed me rather to pity than to believe him.

31I asked him of the brig, which he declared was the finest ship that sailed, and of Captain Hoeseason, in whose praises he was equally loud.

32Hesiosi, for so he still named the skipper, was a man, by his account, that minded for nothing, either in heaven or earth, one that, as people said, would crack on all sail into the day of judgment.

33Rough, fierce, unscrupulous, and brutal.

34And all this my poor cabin-boy had taught himself to admire as something seaman-like and manly.

35He would only admit one flaw in his idol.

36"'He ain't no seaman,' he admitted.

37"'That's Mr.

38Sheewan that navigates the bridge.

39He's the finest seaman in the trade, only for drink.

40And I tell you I believe it.

41Why, look here!' And turning down his stocking he showed me a great raw red wound that made my blood run cold.

42"'He done that!

43Mr.

44Sheewan did that,' he said with an air of pride.

45"'What!' I cried.

46"'Do you take such savage usage at his hands?

47Why, you're no slave to be so handled?' "'No,' said the poor moon-calf, changing his tune at once.

48"'And so he'll find seer!' And he showed me a great case-knife, which he told me was stolen.

49"'Oh,' says he, "'let him see me try.

50I dare him to.

51I'll do for him.

52Oh, he ain't the first!' And he confirmed it with a poor, silly, ugly oath.

53I have never felt such pity for any one in this wide world as I felt for that half-witted creature, and it began to come over me that the Brig Covenant, for all her pious name, was little better than a hell upon the seas.

54"'Have you new friends?' said I.

55He said he had a father in some English seaport, I forget which.

56"'He was a fine man, too,' he said.

57"'But he's dead.' "'In heaven's name!' cried I.

58"'Can you find no reputable life on shore?' "'Oh, no,' says he, winking and looking very sly.

59"'They would put me to a trade.

60I know a trick worth two of that, I do.' I asked him what trade could be so dreadful as the one he followed, where he ran the continual peril of his life, not alone from wind and sea, but by the horrid cruelty of those who were his masters.

61He said it was very true, and then began to praise the life, and tell what a pleasure it was to get on shore with money in his pocket, and spend it like a man, and buy apples, and swagger, and surprise what he called stick-in-the-mud boys.

62"'And then it's not all as bad as that,' says he.

63"'There's worse off than me.

64There's the twenty-pounders.

65Oh, laws, you should see them taking on.

66Why, I've seen a man as old as you, I'd death say.

67To him I seemed old.

68Ah, and he had a beard, too.

69Well, and as soon as we cleared out of the river, and he had the drug out of his head—my, how he cried and carried on!

70I made a fine fool of him, I tell you.

71But then there's little uns, too.

72Oh, little by me.

73I tell you, I keep them in order.

74When we carry little uns, I have a rope-sand of my own to wallop them.

75And so he ran on, until it came in on me what he meant by twenty-pounders were those unhappy criminals who were sent overseas to slavery in North America, or the still more unhappy innocents who were kidnapped or trepanned, as the word went, for private interest or vengeance.

76At about half a mile off, and all alone in the anchorage, he showed me the covenant herself.

77There was a sea-going bustle on board.

78Yards were swinging into place.

79And as the wind blew from that quarter, I could hear the song of the sailors as they pulled upon the ropes.

80After all I had listened to upon the way, I looked at that ship with an extreme abhorrence, and from the bottom of my heart I pitied all poor souls that were condemned to sail in her.

81We had all three pulled up on the brow of the hill, and now I marched across the road and addressed my uncle.

82I think it right to tell you, sir, says I.

83There's nothing that will bring me on board that covenant.

84He seemed awakened from a dream.

85Eh?

86he said.

87What's that?

88I told him over again.

89Well, well, he said.

90We'll have to please ye, I suppose.

91But what are we standing here for?

92It's perishing cold.

93And if I'm no mistake, and they're busking the covenant for sea— End of chapter