08 The Round House (Kidnapped)

01CHAPTER VIII.

02THE ROUNDHOUSE One night, about eleven o'clock, a man of Mr.

03Riach's 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.

04There was no need of a name.

05We 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.

06He 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.

07I was cold, and I drew in my breath as if I had been struck.

08"'Run away aft!

09Run away aft with ye!' cried Hoseason.

10And at that I brushed by the sailors and the boy, who neither spoke nor moved, and ran up the ladder on deck.

11The brig was shearing swiftly and giddily through a long cresting swell.

12She was on the starboard tack, and on the left hand, under the arch foot of the foresail, I could see the sunset still quite bright.

13This, at such an hour of the night, surprised me greatly, but I was too ignorant to draw the true conclusion, that we were going north about round Scotland, and were now on the high sea between the Orkney and Shetland Islands, having avoided the dangerous currents of the Pentland Firth.

14For my part, who had been so long shut in the dark, and knew nothing of head-winds, I thought we might be half-way or more across the Atlantic.

15And, indeed, beyond that I wondered a little at the lateness of the sunset light.

16I gave no heed to it, pushed on across the decks, running between the seas, catching at ropes, and only saved from going overboard by one of the hands on deck, who had always been kind to me.

17The round-house, for which I was bound, and where I was now to sleep and serve, stood some six feet above the decks, and, considering the size of the brig, was of good dimensions.

18Inside was a fixed table and bench, and two berths, one for the captain, and the other for the two mates, turn and turn about.

19It was all fitted with lockers from top to bottom, so as to stow away the officers' belongings in a part of the ship's stores.

20There was a second storeroom underneath, which you entered by a hatchway in the middle of the deck.

21Indeed, all the best of the meat and drink, and the whole of the powder were collected in this place, and all the firearms, except the two pieces of brass ordnance, were set in a rack in the aftermost wall of the round-house.

22The most of the cutlasses were in another place.

23A small window with a shutter on each side, and a skylight in the roof, gave it light by day, and after dark there was a lamp always burning.

24It was burning when I entered, not brightly, but enough to show Mr.

25Shuan sitting at the table, with the brandy bottle and a tin pannikin in front of him.

26He was a tall man, strongly made and very black, and he stared before him on the table like one stupid.

27He took no notice of my coming in, nor did he move when the captain followed and leant on the berth beside me, looking darkly at the mate.

28I stood in great fear of ho-season, and had my reasons for it, but something told me I need not be afraid of him just then, and I whispered in his ear, How is he?

29He shook his head like one that does not know and does not wish to think, and his face was very stern.

30Presently Mr.

31Riach came in.

32He gave the captain a glance that meant the boy was dead, as plain as speaking, and took his place like the rest of us, so that we all three stood without a word, staring down at Mr.

33Shuan, and Mr.

34Shuan, on his side, sat without a word, looking hard upon the table.

35All of a sudden he put out his hand to take the bottle, and at that Mr.

36Riach started forward and caught it away from him, rather by surprise than violence, crying out with an oath that there had been too much of this work altogether, and that a judgment would fall upon the ship.

37As he spoke, the weather sliding doors standing open, he tossed the bottle into the sea.

38Mr.

39Shuan was on his feet in a trice.

40He still looked dazed, but he meant murder, aye, and would have done it, for the second time that night, had not the captain stepped in between him and his victim.

41"'Sit down!' roars the captain.

42"'You sot and swine, do you know what you've done?

43You've murdered the boy!' Mr.

44Shuan seemed to understand, for he sat down again, and put up his hand to his brow.

45"'Hell,' he said, "'he brought me a dirty panicin!' At that word, the captain and I and Mr.

46Riach all looked at each other for a second with a kind of frightened look, and then Ho-Season walked up to his chief officer, took him by the shoulder, led him across to his bunk, and bade him lie down and go to sleep, as you might speak to a bad child.

47The murderer cried a little, but he took off his sea-boots and obeyed.

48"'Ha!' cried Mr.

49Riach, with a dreadful voice.

50"'You should have interfered long since.

51It's too late now.' "'Mr.

52Riach,' said the captain, "'this night's work must never be Kent in Dysart.

53The boy went overboard, sir.

54That's what the story is.

55And I would give five pounds out of my pocket, it was true.' He turned to the table.

56"'What made you throw the good bottle away?' He added.

57"'There was no sense in that, sir.

58Here, David, draw me another.

59They're in the bottom locker.' And he tossed me a key.

60"'You'll need a glass yourself, sir,' he added to Riach.

61"'Yan was an ugly thing to see.' So the pair sat down and hobanobed, and while they did so, the murderer, who had been lying and whimpering in his berth, raised himself upon his elbow and looked at them, and at me.

62That was the first night of my new duties, and in the course of the next day I had got well into the run of them.

63I had to serve at the meals, which the captain took at regular hours, sitting down with the officer who was off duty.

64All the day through I would be running with a dram to one or other of my three masters, and at night I slept on a blanket thrown on the deck-boards at the aftermost end of the round-house, and right in the draft of the two doors.

65It was a hard and a cold bed, nor was I suffered to sleep without interruption, for some one would always be coming in from deck to get a dram, and when a fresh watch was to be set, two and sometimes all three would sit down and brew a bowl together.

66How they kept their health I know not, any more than how I kept my own.

67And yet in other ways it was an easy service.

68There was no cloth delay, the meals were either of oatmeal porridge or salt junk, except twice a week, when there was duff, and though I was clumsy enough and, not being firm on my sea-legs, sometimes fell with what I was bringing them, both Mr.

69Riach and the captain were singularly patient.

70I could not but fancy they were making up leeway with their consciences, and that they would scarce have been so good with me if they had not been worse with Ransom.

71As for Mr.

72Shuan, the drink, or his crime, or the two together, had certainly troubled his mind.

73I cannot say I ever saw him in his proper wits.

74He never grew used to my being there, stared at me continually.

75Sometimes I could have thought with terror, and more than once drew back from my hand when I was serving him.

76I was pretty sure from the first that he had no clear mind of what he had done, and on my second day in the roundhouse I had the proof of it.

77We were alone, and he had been staring at me a long time, when all at once up he got as pale as death and came up close to me, to my great terror, but I had no cause to be afraid of him.

78You were not here before?

79he asked.

80No, sir, said I.

81There was another boy?

82he asked again, and when I had answered him, Ah!

83says he, I thought that, and went and sat down without another word except to call for Brandy.

84You may think it strange, but for all the horror I had, I was still sorry for him.

85He was a married man, with a wife and leith, but whether or no he had a family I have now forgotten.

86I hope not.

87Altogether it was no very hard life for the time it lasted, which, as you are to hear, was not long.

88I was as well fed as the best of them, even their pickles, which were the great dainty, I was allowed my share of, and had I liked I might have been drunk from morning to night, like Mr.

89Shuan.

90I had company, too, and good company of its sort.

91Mr.

92Riach, who had been to the college, spoke to me like a friend when he was not sulking, told me many curious things, and some that were informing, and even the captain, though he kept me at the stick's end the most part of the time, would sometimes unbuckle a bit and tell me of the fine countries he had visited.

93The shadow of poor Ransom, to be sure, lay on all four of us, and on me and Mr.

94Shuan in particular, most heavily.

95And then I had another trouble of my own.

96Here I was, doing dirty work for three men that I looked down upon, and one of whom, at least, should have been hung upon a gallows.

97That was for the present, and as for the future, I could only see myself slaving alongside of Negroes in the tobacco fields.

98Mr.

99Riach, perhaps from caution, would never suffer me to say another word about my story.

100The captain, whom I tried to approach, rebuffed me like a dog and would not hear a word, and as the days came and went, my heart sank lower and lower, till I was even glad of the work which kept me from thinking.

101End of chapter