 CHAPTER XXV Can it be supposed that all this time Master Jeffrey Mordox of the city of York, land agent, the mayor and general factor and maker and doer of everything, whether general or particular, was spending his days and doing nothing, and his nights and dreaming? If so, he must have had a sunstroke on that very bright day of the year when he stirred up the minds of the washerwomen and the tongue of widow Precious, but Flamborough was not at all the place for sunstroke, although it reflects so much in the whitewash. Mordox had the head to be sunstruck, but a hard, impenetrable, wiry pawl, as weatherproof as felt asphalted. At first sight almost everybody said that he must have been a soldier at a time when soldiers were made of iron, whale-bone, whip-cord, and ramrods. Such opinions he rewarded with a grin and shook his straight shoulders straighter. If pride of any sort was not beneath him as a matter of strict business it was the pride which allowed his friends to take his military figure and aspect. This gentleman's place of business was scarcely equal to the expectations which might have been formed from a view of the owner. The old king's steth on the right hand after crossing Ooze Bridge from Mickelgate is a passageway scarcely to be called a street, but combining the features of an alley, a lane, a jetty, a quay, and a barge-walk, and ending ignominously. Nevertheless, it is a lively place sometimes and in moments of excitement. Also it is good place for business, and for brogue of the broadest, and a man who is unable to be happy there must have something on his mind unusual. Jeffrey Mordax had nothing on his mind except other people's business, which, as in the case of lawyer Jelly-Course, is a very favourable state of the human constitution for happiness. But though Mr. Mordax attended so to other people's business, he would not have anybody attend to his. No partner, no clerk, no pupil, had a hand in the inner-brest pockets of his business. There was nothing mysterious about his work, but he liked to follow it out alone. Things that were honest and wise came to him to be carried out with judgment, and he knew that the best way to carry them out is to act with discreet candor, for the slug shall be known by its slime, and the spider who shams death shall receive it. Now here upon a very sad November afternoon when the northern day was narrowing in, and the ooze which is usually of a ginger colour was nearly as dark as a nutmeg, and the bridge, and the steth, and the houses, and the people, resembled one another in tint and tone, while between the minster and the Clifford Tower there was not much difference of outline. Here and now Master Geoffrey Mordox was sitting in the little room where strangers were received. A live part of his household consisted of his daughter, and of every young Geoffrey, who did more harm than good, in a thoroughly hardworking country maid whose slowness was gradually giving way to pressure. The weather was enough to make anybody dull, and the sap of every human thing insipid, and the time of day suggested tea, hot cakes, and the crossing of comfortable legs. Mordox could well afford all these good things, and he never was hard upon his family, but every day he liked to feel that he had earned the bread of it, and this day he had laboured without seeming to earn anything. For after all the ordinary business of the morning he had been devoting several hours to the diligent revise-ole of his promises and data, in a matter which he was resolved to carry through, both for his credit and his interest. And this was the matter which had cost him two days' ride from York to Flamborough, and three days on the road home, as was natural after such a dinner as he made in Little Dunmark. But all that trouble he would not have minded, especially after his enjoyment of the place, if it had only borne good fruit. He had felt quite certain that it must do this, and that he would have to pay another visit to the head, and eat another duck, and have a flirt with the widow-precious. But up to the present time nothing had come of it, and so far as he could see he might just as well have spared himself that long, rough ride. Three months had passed, and that surely was enough, or even Flamborough folk to do something if they ever meant to do it. It was plain that he had been misled for once, that what he suspected had not come to pass, and that he must seek elsewhere the light which had gleamed upon him vainly from the Danish town. To this end he went through all his case again, while hope, being very hard to beat as usual, kept on rambling over everything unsettled, with a very sage conviction that there must be something there, and doubly sure because there was no sign of it. And at the time of life which he had reached, conducting their bodies with less suppleness of joint and administering food to them with greater care, began to have doubts about their intellect as well. Whether it can work as briskly as it used to do, and the mind falling under this discouragement of doubt asserts itself amiss in making feudal strokes even as a gardener can never work his best while conscious of suspicious glances through the window-blinds. Geoffrey Mordox told himself that it could not be the self it used to be in the days when no mistakes were made, but everything was evident at half a glance, and carried out successfully with only half a hand. In this flamboral matter he had felt no doubt of running triumphantly through, and being crowned with five hundred pounds in one issue of the case and five thousand in the other. But lo, here was nothing. And he must reply, by the next mail, that he had made a sad mistake. Suddenly while he was rubbing his wiry head with irritation and pouring over his letters for some clue, like a dunce going back through his pothooks, suddenly a great knock sounded through the house. One, two, three, like the thumping of a mallet on a cask to learn whether any beer may still be hoped for. This must be a flamboral man! cried Master Mordox, jumping up. That is how I heard them do it. They knocked the doors instead of knocking at them. It would be a very strange thing just now if news were to come from flamboral, but the stranger a thing is the more it can be trusted, as often is the case with human beings. Whoever it is, show them up at once. He shouted down the narrow stairs, for no small noise was arising in the passage. I canna come up, I want, I canna! was the answer in Kitty's well-known brogue. How canna when I had a gun on our legs? Oh, I see, said Mr. Mordox to himself. My veteran friend from the watchtower, doubtless. A man with no legs would not have come so far for nothing. Show the gentleman into the parlour, Kitty, and Miss Arabella may bring her work up here. The general factor, though eager for the news, knew better than to show any haste about it, so he kept the old mariner just long enough in waiting to damp a two covetous ardour. And then he complacently locked Arabella in her bedroom and bolted off Kitty in the basement, because they both were sadly inquisitive, and this strange arrival had excited them. Ah, my ancient friend of the tower, veteran Joseph, if my memory is right. Mr. Mordox exclaimed in his lively way as he went up and offered the old tower both hands to seat him in state upon the sofa. But the legless sailor condemned them swabs and crouched himself into a hard-bottom chair. Then he pulled off his hat and wiped his white head with a shred of old flag and began hunting for his pipe. First time he ever was in York City. And don't think much of it if this here is a sample. Joseph, you must not be supercilious. As Hose replied with an amiable smile, you will see things better through a glass of grog, and the state of weather points to something dark. You have had a long journey, and the scenery is new. Rum shall it be, my friend? Your countenance says yes. Rum like a ruby of the finest water, have I. And no water shall you have with it. But I will. A man without legs must keep himself well above water. First time I ever was in York City, the ancient watchman answered, and grog must be done as they does it here. A berth of them old walls would suit me well and no need to travel such a distance for my beer. And you would be a man of all the world for such a berth, said Master Mordox gravely as he poured the sparkling liquor into a glass that was really a tumbler. For such a post we want a man who is himself a post, a man who will not quit his duty, just because he cannot, which is the only way of making sure. Joseph, your idea is a very good one, and your beer should be brought to you in the middle of each watch. You shall be appointed. Sir, I am obliged to you, said the watchman, but never could I live a month without a wink of sea-stuff. Coming of the clouds and the dipping of the land and the waiting of the distance for what may come to be in it, let alone how they goes changing of their color, and making of a noise that is always out of sight, is the very same as my beer is to me, Master, I never could get on without it. Well, I can understand a thing like that, Mordox answered graciously. My water-butt leaked for three weeks, pat, pat, all night long upon a piece of slate, and when a man came and cocked it up I put all the blame upon the pillow. But the pillow was as good as ever. Not a wink could I sleep till it began to leak again, and you may trust a York workman that that wasn't very long. But Joseph, I have interest at Scarborough also. The castle needs a watchman for fear of tumbling down, and that is not the soldier's business, because they are inside. There you could have quantities of sea-stuff, my good friend, and the tap of the hooked cod is nothing to it there. Cheer up, Joseph, we will align you yet. How the devil did you manage now to come so far? Well, now, Your Honor, I had rare luck for it, as I must say, ever since I set eyes on you. There comes a son of mine, as I thought, we're lost at sea. But not he, he blow me nearly all of him came back with a handful of guineas in the memory of his father. Lord, I could have cried! And he up him blubbered fairly, a trick that he learned from ten Frenchmen he had killed. Ah, he have done his work well, and aimed a good conduct, four pence, half a penny a day, so long as ever he shall live thereafter. In this world, you mean, I suppose, my friend, but be not overcome such things will happen, but what did you do with all that money, Joseph? We never wasted none of it, not half a groat, sir. We finished out the cellar at the hooked cod first, and when Mother Precious made a grumble of it we gave her the money for to fill it up again, upon the understanding to come back when it was ready. And then we got to Burlington, and spent the rest in poshies like two gentlemen. And then we was down upon our stumps at last. For only one leg there is between us both, Your Honor. My boy, he ups and makes a rummage in his traps, which the Lord he put into his mind to do so. When he were gone a few good sheets in the wind, and there sure enough he finds five good guineas in the tale of an old handkercher he had clean forgotten, and he says, Now, Father, you can take care of them. Let us go and see the capital and that good old gentleman as you have picked up a bit of news for. So we shaped a course for York, on board the Schooner Marianne, and from Gull in a barge as far as this earbridge. And here we are, high and dry, Your Honor. I was half a mind to bring in my Bob, but he saith not without the old chap-axes. And being such a nosy one I took him at his word, though he hath found out what there was to find, not me. How noble a thing is parental love! cried the general factor in his hard, short way, which made many people trust him, because it was unpleasant. And filly old duty of unfathomable grog! Were the Joseph-letcher narrative proceed? They big words is beyond me, sir. What use is any man to talk over a chap's head? Then dash your eyes, go on, Joe. Can you understand that now? Yes, sir, I can, and I likes a thing put sensible. If a gentleman would always speak like that, there need be no difference between us. Well, it was all along that money-bag of Bob's that he and I found out anything. What good were your guinea? Who could stand treat on that more than a night or two? And a right man never near you. But when you keep a good shop open for a month, as Bob and me did with the widow-tapsy, it standeth the reason that you must have everybody, to be called at all respectable, for miles and miles around. For the first few nights or so some of them holds off, for an old chalk against them, or for doubt of what is afford, or for cowardliness of their wives, or things that they may have sworn to stop, or other bad manners. But only go on a little longer, and let them see that you don't care, and send everybody home as singing through the lanes as merry as a voting time for parliament, and the outer ones begins to shake their heads, and to say that they are bound to go, and stop the racket of it. And so you get them all, your honor, saints as well as sinners, if yow only keeps the tap turned long enough. Your reasoning is ingenious, Joseph. It shows a deep knowledge of human nature. But who is this tardy saint that came at last for grog? Your honor, he were as big a sinner as ever you clap eyes on. Me and my son was among the sawdust, spite of our three crutches, and he, spreading hands at us, over as a judge, for lumps of ungenerous iniquity. Mother Tapsee, you told us of it, the very next day, for it was not in our power to be accurate when he done it, and we see everybody laughing at us round the corner. But we took the wind out of his sails the next night, Captain, you may warrant us. Here's to your good health, sir, a four eye beats of windward. Why, Joseph, you seem to be making up lost way for years of taciturnity in the tower. They say there is a balance in all things. We had the balance of him next night, and no mistake, your honor. He was one of them long-sure beggars, as turns up here, there, and everywhere, galli-rakin like a stinking rayfish when the tide goes out, thundering scoundrels that make a livin' of it, pushing out for roguery with their legs tucked up no courage for smuggling nor honest enough. They goes on anyhow with their children paid for. We found out what he were, and made us more ashamed, for such a sneaking wrath to preach upon us, like a regular ordained chaplain, as might say a word or two, and mean no harm, with the license of the Lord to do it. So my son Bob and me called the court-martial in the old tower, so soon as we come round, and we had a red herring, because we was thirsty, and we jawed up a bit a big tail to keep it down. At first we was glum, but we got our peckers up as a family is bound to do when they come together. My son Bob was a sharp lad, and his time it could read the holy scripturbo for each who to quid, and I see the good deal of it in his mind now, remembering a King Solomon. "'Dad,' he says, fetch out that bottle whose was left of French white brandy, and rouse up a bit of fire in your porthole. We ain't got many toes to warm between us, only five you see you worship. Bob says he will warm up the currents where they used to be. According to what my son said I done, for he leadeth me now, being younger of the two, and still using half a shoemaker. For I says to him, warm yourself, it don't lay in my power to do that for you. He never said nothing, for he take after me, in tongue, and other likings. But he up with the kettle on the fire, and put in about a fathom and a half a big tail. "'So,' says I, and he says, so. And we both of us begin to laugh as long and as gentle as a pair of cockles with their tongues inside their shells. Well, your honour understands I never spake so much before since I ever pass my courting-time. We boiled down the pig-tail to a pint of tidy soup, and strained it bright as sturgeon juice, and then we got a bottle of navy supply on a bull's-eye in the belly of it, and we filled it with the French white brandy, and the pig-tail soup, and the noggin of molasses, and shook it all well together. And better contract rum, your honour never come into high admiral stores. "'But Joseph, good Joseph!' cried Mr. Mordox. "'Do forge ahead a little faster. Your private feelings and the manufacture of them are highly interesting to you. But I only want to know what came of it.' "'Your honour is like a child hearing a story. You want the end first, in the middle of it after. The eyeballs along with a hitch and a squirt from habit of forecastle, and the more you cross his house, the wider I shall head about, or down, helm, and bear off, may hop.' "'I can hear my Baba singing.' "'What a voice he hath! They tell me I comeeth from the timber of his leg, the same as a old Cremone. He turned up many times in yonder old barge, and shook the brown water like a frigate's wake. He would just make our fort and in the minister, they said, with black-eyed Susan and Tom Bolline. Truly he has a magnificent voice. What power! What compass! What a rich, clear tone! In spite of the fog I will have the window up.' Jeffrey Mordox loved good singing, the grandest of all melody, and impatient as he was he forgot all hurry, while the river and the buildings and the arches of the bridge were ringing and echoing and sweetly embossing the mellow delivery of the one-legged tar. And old Joe was highly pleased, although he would not show it, at such an effect upon a man so hard and dry. "'Now, Your Honor, it is over bad of you,' he continued with a softening grin, "'To hasten me so, and then to hear me out of the window, because Bob hath a sweeter pipe. Ah, he can whistle like a blackbird too, and gain a lot of money. Not there! What good! He sacrifices it all to the honour of his heart. First maggot to come into it, and he done the very same with Rick and Gould the Methodie-Galley-Raker. We never was so softy when I were afloat, but, Your Honor, shall hear and give judgment for yourself.' Mother Precious was ready in her mind to run out a double- shoted gun at Rickon, who lived it down upon the rabbit warren, to the other side of Bumpton, because he scarcely ever doth come nigh her. And when he do come, he puteth of both hands to bless her for hospitality, but neither of them into his breeches pocket. And being a lone woman, she doth feel it. Bob and me gave her sailing orders to amaze you, Captain, all was carried out as ships shape as the Battle of the Nile. I was wrecking gold at anchor with a spring upon his gable, having been converted, and he up inhaled that he would slip at the very first bad word we used. My son hath such knowledge of good words that he answered, amen, and so be it. Well, Your Honor, we goes on, decorous as our old quartermaster used to give the word, and we tried him first with the usual tipple, and several other hands dropped in. But my son and me never took a blessed drop except for a gin bottle full of cold water, till we see all the others with their scuppers well awash. Then, Bob, he findeth fault, nor how beautifully done it. With the scantling of the stuff, and he shouteth out, Mother, I'm blessed if I won't stand that old guinea bottle of best Jamaica, the one as you put by. Put the cobwebs on it for Lord Admiral. No, Lord Admiral, won't come now. Just you send away and hoist it up. Rick and gold bricked up his ugly ears at this, and Mother Tapsee did it bootiful, and, to cut a long yarn short, we spliced him, Captain, with never a thought of what would come of it. Only to have our revenge, Your Honor, he showed himself that greedy of our patent rum, that he never let the bottle out of his own elbow, and the more he stowed away the more his derrick chains was creakin. But, of any body reason, there he stood upon his rights and defied every way of seeing different until we was compelled to take and spread him down, in the little room with the sea-weeds over it. With all this, Bob and me was as sober as two judges, though Your Honor would hardly believe it, perhaps, but we left him in the dark to come round upon the weeds as the galle-raker ought to do. And now we began to have a little drop ourselves after towing the prize into port, and recovering the honour of the British navy. We stood all round every quarter of the compass, with the bottom of the locker still not come to shallow soundings. But, sudden, our harmony was spoiled by a scream, like a whistle from the very bottom of the sea. We all of us jumped up as if a gun had broke its lashings. And the last day a judgment was the thoughts of many bodies. But Bob, he down at once in his button-stump gun-metal, and takes the command of the whole of us, Bear a hand all on you, he saith quite steadfast, Rick and Gold is breaching to his own text to-night. And so was, sure enough, so was, Your Honor. We thought he must have died, although he managed to claw off of it, with confessing of his wickedness and striking to his maker. All of us was frightened, so there was no laugh among us till we come to talk over it afterward. There the thundering rascal lay, in the middle of that there menagerie of sea-stuff his mother precious is so proud of, that the village calleth it the widow's weeds. Last if he didn't think that he were a lion at the bottom of the sea, among the stars and cuddles, waiting for the day a judgment. Oh, Captain McNabbins and maid Covernay, he cries, the hand of the Lord hath sent me down to keep you company down here. I never would have done it, Captain Hard, as you was on me, if only I had known how dark and cold and shivery it would have be down here. I cut the plank out, I'll not lie, no lies is any good down here, with the fingers of the deep things pointing at me. The black nevel's wings coming over me, but a score of years have gone at work, and never no one dreamed of it. And oh, pull the way, pull, for God's sake, pull! The wet woman and three innocent bubbles crawling over me like coggers. This was the shadows of our legs, your honour, from good mother Tapsie's candle, for she was in a dreadful way by this time about her reputation and her weeds, and come down with her tongue upon the lot of us. Enter all them names upon the logs, as Ida Bob, for he prideth like a scholar, but Bob says, hold hard, dad, now or never. And with that, down he goeth on the deck himself, and wriggleeth up the rakin' through the weeds, with a hiss like a great sea-snake and grip of them. Name of ship, you sinner! cried Bob in his deep voice like old Nickah, hailing from the sepulcher. Golconda of Calcutta says the fellow with a groan has seemed to come out of the whites of his eyes and goes down his head again, enough to split a cat head, and that was the last of him we heard that night. Well, now, Captain, you scarcely would believe, but although my knob is so much older of the pair, and white were his as black as any coal, Bob was, as first, throw'd the painter up, for a hitchin' of his drifty to the stern of your concerns, and it never come across him till the docker was run out, and the two of us pullin' longer faces than our legs's, then, Bob, by the mercy of the Lord, like Peter, found them guineas in the corner of his swab. Some puts it round their necks, and some into their pockets. I never heard of such a thing till chaps run soft and watery. So we come to this ear-place to change the air and the breeding, and spin this yarn to your honor's honor, as hath a liberal twist in it, and then to take orders, and draw rations, and any rears of pay fall and do after all dibs gone in your service, and for Bob to tip a stave to the minister. You have done wisely and well in coming here, said Mr. Mordak's cheerfully, but we must have further particular as my friend. You seem to have hit upon the clue I wanted, but it must be followed very cautiously. You know where to lay your hand upon this villain. You have had the sense not to scare him off. Sight in your honor, I could clap the irons on him any hour you gives that signal. Capital, take your son to see the sights, and both of you come to me at ten to-morrow morning. Stop. You may as well take this half guinea, but, when you get drunk, drink inwards. CHAPTER XXVI. MAN OF SOLID TIMBER. Mr. Mordak's was one of those vivacious men who have strong faith in their good luck, and yet attribute their merits to whatever turns out well. In the present matter he had done as yet nothing at all in genius, or even to be called sagacious. The discovery of Monument Joe, or Peg Leg Joe, as he was called at Flamborough, was not the result of any skill whatever, either his own or the factors, but a piece of as pure luck as could be. For all that, however, Mr. Mordak's intended to have the whole credit as his soul and righteous do. Whenever I am at all downhearted samples of my skill turn up, he said to himself as soon as Joe was gone, and happy results come home on purpose to rebuke my dividends. When any other man have got so far as I have got by simple, straightforward, yet truly skillful action without a suspicion being started, old jelly-course lies on his bed of roses, snoring folios of long words without a dream of the gathering cloud. Those insolent ladies are reveling in the land from which they have ousted their only brother. They are granting leases not worth a straw. They are riding the high horse. They are bringing up that cub, who set the big dog at me, in every wanton luxury. But wait a bit, wait a bit, my ladies, as sure as I live, I shall have you. In the first place it is clear that my conclusion was correct concerning that poor Golconda, and why not also in the other issue. The Indian man was scuttled, and I never thought of that but only of a wreck. It comes to the same thing, only she went down more quietly, and that explains a lot of things. She was bound for Leith, with the boy to be delivered into the hands of his scotch relatives. She was spoken last off Yarmouth Roads, all well and under easy sale. Very good so far, I have solved her fate which for twenty years has been a mystery. We shall have all particulars in proper time by steering on the one side of the law which always huddles up everything. A keen eye must be kept upon that scoundrel, but he must never dream that he is watched at all. He has committed a capital offence, but as yet there is nothing but his own raving to convict him of baritry. The truth must be got at by gentle means, and I must not claim the five hundred pounds as yet, but I am sure of getting it, and I have excellent hopes of the five thousand pounds. Henry Mordox never took three nights to sleep upon his thoughts as the lawyer of Middleton loved to do, but rather was apt to overdrive his pervert with the goad of hasty action. But now he was quite resolved to be most careful, for the high hand would never do in such a ticklish matter, and the fewer the hands introduced at all of it, the better the chance of coming out clear and clean. The general factor had never done anything which, in his opinion, was not thoroughly upright, and now with his reputation made, and his conscience stiffened to the shape of it, even a large sum of money must be clean and cleanly got at to make it pay for handling. This made him counsel with himself just now, for he was a superior man upon the whole, in particular always in feeling sure that the right word in anything would be upon his side, not that he cared a groat for anybody's gossip, only that he kept a lofty tenor of good opinion, and sailors who made other sailors tipsy and went rolling about on the floor altogether, whether with natural legs or artificial, would do no credit to his stairs of office on a fine market day in the morning. On the other hand, while memory held sway, no instance could be cited of two jolly sailors coming to see the wonders of this venerable town, and failing to be wholly intoxicated with them, before the minster bell struck one. This was to be avoided, or rather forestalled, as a thing inevitable should be, even in York City, teeming as it is with most delightful queerities, the approach of two sailors with three wooden legs might be anticipated as a distant offing, so abundant are boys there and everywhere. Therefore, it was well provided on the part of Master Mordox that kidy, or coiti, the maid of all work, a damsel of muscular power and hard wit should hold trist with these mariners in the time of early bucket, and appoint a little meeting with her master by and by. Yes, she did cleverly, and they were not put out, because they were to dine at his expense at a snug little chaphouse in Parliament Street, and there to remain until he came to pay the score. All this happened to the utmost of desires, and before they had time to get thick-witted, Mordox stood before them. His sharp eyes took in Sailor Bob before the poor fellow looked twice at him, and the general factor saw that he might be trusted not to think much for himself. This was quite as Mr. Mordox hoped. He wanted a man who could hold his tongue and do what he was told to do. After a few words about their dinner and how they got on and so forth, the principal came to the point by saying, Now both of you must start tomorrow morning. Such clever fellows cannot be spared to go to sleep. You shall come and see York again with free billet and lashings of money in your pockets, as soon as you have carried out your sailing orders. Tonight you may jolify, but after that you are under strict discipline, for a month at least. What do you say to that, my men? Watchman Joe looked rather glum. He had hoped for a fortnight of stomping about, with a tale of admiring boys after him and the hailing of every public house the cut of whose jib was inviting. However, he put his knife into his mouth, with a bit of fat saved for a soft adieu to dinner, and knotted for his son to launch true wisdom into the vasty deep of words. Now Bob, the son of Joe, had striven to keep himself up to the paternal mark. He cited his father as the miracle of the age, when he was a long way off, and when he was nigh at hand he showed his sense of duty nearly always by letting him get tipsy first. Still, there were very sober fellows in the main and most respectable when they had no money. Sir, began Bob after jerking up his chin, as a sailor always does when he begins to think, perhaps for redditary counsel with the sky. My father and I had been hauling it over, and to do whatever is laid down by duty, without going in any way again ourselves, and this is the sense we become to, that we should like to have something handsome down to lay by again in chances, also document in black and white to bear us harmless of the law and enter the prize money. What a fine counselor would have made! Old Joe exclaimed with ecstasy, He had been round the world three times, excuse him, for only one leg left. My friend, how you condemn yourself! You have not been round the world at all, and yet you have no leg at all! So spake Mr. Mordox wishing to confuse ideas for the speech of Bob, misliked him. The corners of the body is the Lord's good will. Old Joe answered with his feelings hurt. He called at home a piece to let it rest by dawn, and give it longer time to it. So saith King David. It may be so, but I forget the passage now. What has your son Bob to say? Bob was a sailor of fine old British type, still to be found even nowadays, and fit to survive forever. Broad and resolute of aspects set with prejudice as stiff as his own pigtail. Truthful, one let alone, yet joyful and a lie. If anybody doubted him, peaceable and little things threw plenty of fight and great ones, gentle with women and children and generous with mankind and general. Expecting to be cheated, yet not duly resigned at being so. And subject to unaccountable extremes of laziness and diligence, his simple mind was now confused by the general factors appealed to him to pronounce his opinion. And he had just now pronounced it after great exertion. Sir, he said, I leave such things to father's opinion. He hath been ashore some years, and I almost forget how the land lays. See, fairing Robert, you are well advised. A man may go round the world till he has no limbs left, yet never overtake his father. So the matter is left to my decision. Very good. You shall have no reason to repent it. Tonight you shall have liberty to splice the main brace or whatever your expression for getting jolly drunk. In the morning you will be sobriety itself, sad and wise and aching. But hear my proposal before you take a gloomy view of things, such as to-morrow's shades may bring. You have been of service to me, and I have paid you with great generosity. But what I have done, including dinner, is dust in the balance to what I shall do, provided only that you act with judgment, discipline, and self-denial, never being tipsy more than once a week, which is fair naval average, and doing it then with only one another. Hard it may be, but it must be so. Now before I go any further, let me ask whether you, Joseph, as a watchman and a government, have lost your position by having left it for two months upon a private spree? Ah, now, Your Honor! Sure you must know more than that. I give that old woman eleven pence a week and a pot of beer a Sunday to carry out the duties of the government. You farmed out your appointment at a low figure. My opinion of your powers and discretion is enhanced. You will return to your post with redoubled adore and vigor renewed by recreation. You will be twice the man you were and certainly ought to get double pay. I have interest. I may be enabled to double your salary, if you go on well. This made both of them look exceeding downcast and chew the bitter quid of disappointment. They had laid their heads together over glass number one and resolved upon asking for a guinea a week. Over glass number two they had made up their minds upon getting two guineas weekly, and glass number three had convinced them that they must be poor fools to accept less than three. Also they felt that the guineas they had spent in drinking their way up to great discovery should, without hesitation, be made good ere they had another pint of health. And this catastrophe of large ideas the father gazed sadly at the son, and the son reproachfully reflected the paternal gaze. How little availed it to have come up here, wearily going upon yellow waters in a barge where the fleas could man the helm, without aid of the scouter-insectin, where a fresh-run sailor was in more demand than salmon, and even without that, which had largely enhanced the inestimable benefit of having wooden legs. This pair of tires had got into a state of mind to return the whole way upon horseback. No spurs could they wear, and no stirrups could they want, and to get up would be difficult. But what is the use of living except to conquer difficulties? They rejoiced all the more in the four legs of a horse, by reason of the paucity of their own, which approves a liberal mind. But now where was the horse to come from, or the money to make him go? You look sad, proceeded Mr. Mordox. It grieves me when any good man looks sad, and doubly so, when a brace of them do it. Explain your feelings, Joe, and Bob, if it lies in a human being to relieve them, I will do it. Captain, we only want what is our do, said Bob, with his chin up and his strong eyes stern. We have been on the loose, and it is the manner of us, and encouraged by the high authorities. We have come across, by luck or drink, a thing that seems to suit you, and we have told you all our knowledge without no conditions. If you take us for a pair of fools and want no more of us, you are welcome, and it will be what we are used to. But if your meaning is to use us, we must have fair wages, and even so we would have not to do with it if it was against an honest man, but a rogue who was scuttled a ship. La, there! Bob cast out the juice of his chew into the fire as if it were life blood of such a villain, and looked at his father who expressed approval by the like proceeding, and Jeffrey Mordox was well content in finding them made of decent stuff. It was not his manner to do things meanly, and he had only spoken so to moderate their minds and keep them steady. Mariner Bob, you speak well and wisely, he answered with a superior smile. Your anxiety is to ways and means does credit to your intellect. That subject has received my consideration. I have studied the style of life at Flambeau and the prices of provisions, would that such they were in York. And to keep you in temperate and healthy comfort without temptation and with mind's alert I am determined to allow for the two of you over and above all your present income from a grateful country, which pays a man lest when amputation is left less of him, the sum of one guinea and a half per week. But remember that, to draw this stipend, both of you must be in condition to walk one mile and a half on a Saturday night, which is a test of character. You will both be fitted up with solid steel ends by the Cutler at the end of Ooze Bridge, to-morrow morning, so that the state of the roads will not affect you. And take note of one thing. Mutual support, graceful though always it is, in paternal and filial communion, will not be allowed on a Saturday night. Each man must stand upon his own stumps. Sir, replied Bob, who had much education, which led him to knowledge of his failings, Never you fear but what we shall do it. Sunday will be the day of standing with a shake to it, for such is the habit of the Navy. Father, return, thanks, make a leg. No man can do it better. Master Mordox, you shall have your utmost duty, but a little brass in hand would be convenient. You shall have a fortnight in advance. After that you must go every Saturday night to a place I will appoint for you. Now keep your own counsel. Watch that fellow by no means scare him at first, unless you see signs of his making off. But rather let him think that you know nothing of his crime. Labor hard to make him drink again, then terrify him like Davy Jones himself, and get every particular out of him, especially how he himself escaped, where he landed, and who was with him. I want to learn all about the little boy. At least he may be a big man now, who is on board the ship Golconda under the captain's special charge. I cannot help thinking that the child escaped, and I got a little trace of something connected with him at Flamborough. I durst not make much inquiry there, because I am ordered to keep things quiet. Still I did enough to convince me almost that my suspicion was an error. For widow Precious, bear you no heed, sir, to any maneuvering a widow Precious, we find her no worse than the other women, but not a-blamed bit better. I think highly of the female race, at least in comparison with the male one. I have always found reason to believe that a woman put upon her medal by a secret will find it out or perish. Your honor, everybody knows as much as that, but it doth not follow that she tells that on again, without she has ordered not to do so. Bob, you have not been round the world for nothing. I see my blot, and you have hit it. You deserve to know all about the matter now. Match me that button, and you shall have ten guineas. The two sailors stared at the bead of Indian gold which Mordax pulled out of his pocket. Buttons were a subject for nautical contempt and condemnation, perhaps because there is nobody to sew them on at sea, while earrings, being altogether useless, are held in good esteem and honor. I have seen a brace of earrings like it, said old Joe, wading through deep thought. Bob, you know who was aware of him? Score them fishermen like enough? Cautious Bob answered, for he knew what his father meant but would not speak of the great free trader. For Master Mordax might even be connected with the revenue. What used to go on about such a gear? His honor wanted to hear of buttons, regulation buttons, by the look of it, and good enough for Lord Nelson. Will you let us take the scantle and the rig of it, your honor? By all means, if you can do so, my friend, but what have you to do it with? Hold on a bit, sir, and you shall see. With these words Bob clapped a piece of soft York bread into the hollow of his broad brown palm, moistened it with sugary drags of ale, such as that good city loves in kneading it firmly with some rapid flits of thumb, tempered and enriched it nobly with the mellow juice of quid, treated thus it took consistency, plastic, doso, and retentive pulp, and a color was something like that of gold which had passed according to its fate through a large number of unclean hands. Now the pattern, your honor? Said Bob with a grin. I could do it from memory but better from the thing. He took a bobble and set it on the foot of the runner which stood at the table, and in half a minute he had the counterpart in size, shape, and line, but without the inscription. A sample of them in the hollow will do, and good enough for the nigger-body words, he then writing to my mind. With lofty British intolerance he felt that it might be sinful thing to make such marks, nevertheless he impressed one side whereon the characters were boldest into the corresponding groove of his paced model. Then he scooped up the model in the broad side of a knife, and set it in the oven of the little fireplace in a part where the heat was moderate. Well done indeed! cried Mr. Mordox. You will have a better likeness of it than good mother-precious. Robert I admire your ingenuity, but all sailors are ingenious. Let's see in the trades or in a calm, sir, what have we to do but to twiddle our thumbs and practice fiddling with him. A lively tune is what I like, and a serving of the guns red-hot. A man must act according to what nature puts upon him, and nature hath taken one of my legs from me with a cannon shot from the French line of battleship, rites of mankind the name of her. CHAPTER 27 THE PROPER WAY TO ARGUE Alas how seldom is anything done in proper time and season. Either too fast or too slow is the clock of all human dealings, and what is the law of them when the sun, the regulator of works and ways, has to be allowed for very often on his own meridian. With the best intention every man sets forth to do his duty and to talk of it, and he makes quite sure that he has done it. to his privy-circle boasts, or lets them do it better for him, but before his lips are dry his ears apprise him that he was a stroke too late. So it happened with Master Mordox, who of all born men was foremost with his wiry fingers spread to pass them through the scattery forelock of that meddlesome horse, old time. The old horse galloped by him unawares and left him standing still to hearken the swish of the tail in the clatter of the hooves in the spirited nostrils neighing for a race, on the wide breezy down at the end of the lane. But Jeffrey Mordox was not to blame. His instructions were to move slowly until he was sure of something worth moving for. And of this he had no surety yet, and was only too likely to lose it all together by any headlong action. For instead of making any instant rush or belting on his pistols and hiring the sagacious quadruple that understood his character, content he was to advance deliberately upon one foot and three artificial legs. Meanwhile at Annerley Farm the usual fatness of full garners, the bright comfort of the evening hearth, the glow of peace which labor kindles in the mind that has earned its rest, and the pleasant laziness of heart which comes where family love lies careless, confident, and unassailed. The pleasure also of pitying the people who never can get in their wheat, and the hot benevolence of boiling down the bones for the man who has tumbled off his own rick. All these blisses, large and little, were not in their usual prime. The master of the house was stern and silent, heavy and careless of his customary vitals, neglectful also of his customary jokes. He disliked the worst side of a bargain as much as in his most happy moments, and the meditation which is generally supposed to be going on where speech is scarce, was not of such loftiness as to overlook the time a man stopped around the corner. As a horse settles down to strong work collar better when the gloss of the stable takes the ruffle of the air, so this man worked at his business all the harder with the brightness of his own home joys fading. But it went very hard with him more than once when he made a good stroke of salesmanship to have to put the money in the bottom of his pocket without even rubbing a bright half-crown, and saying to himself, I have almost a mind to give this to Mary. Now if this settled the steadfast man with three-quarters of his life gone over him in less and less time every year for considering soft subjects, in spite of all that was put out of his way by not being looked at as usual. Though for that matter perhaps himself failed to look in search of those looks as usual, what, on the other hand, was likely to remain of mirth and light-hardiness in a weaker quarter. Mary, who used to be as happy as a bird where worms abound and cats are scarce, was now in a grievous plight of mind, restless, lonely, troubled in her heart and doubtful of her conscience. Her mother had certainly shown kind feeling and even a readiness to take her part, which surprised the maiden after all her words and once or twice they had had a cry together, clearing and strengthening their intellect desirably. For the more Mistress Annerley began to think about it, the more she was almost sure that something could be said on both sides. She never had altogether approved of the farmer's volunteering, which took him away to drill at places where ladies came to look at him, and where he slept out of his own bed and got things to eat that she had never heard of, and he never was the better afterward. If that was a thing which set his mind against free trade so bitterly, it went far to show that free trade was good, and it made all the difference of a blanket. And more than that, as she had always said from the very first and even told the same thing to Captain Carroway in spite of his position that nobody knew what Robin Leith might not turn out in the end to be. He had spoken most highly of her, as Mary had not feared to mention. And she felt obliged to him for doing so, though, of course, he could not do otherwise. Still there were people who would not have done that, and it proved that he was a very promising young man. Mary was pleased with this conclusion and glad to have someone who did not condemn her, hopeful moreover that her mother's influence might have some effect by and by. But for the present it seemed to do more harm than good, because the farmer, having quite as much jealousy as justice, took it in the silent dungeon that the mother of his daughter, who regularly used to be hard upon her for next to nothing, should now turn round and take her part from downright womanism, in the teeth of all reason and of her own husband. Brave as he was he did not put it to his wife in so strong a way as that. But he argued it so to himself, and would let it fly forth without thinking twice about it if they went on in that style much longer, quite as if he were nobody and they could do better without him. Little he knew in his hurt state of mind for which he should really have been too old. How the heart of his child was slow and chill, stupid with the strangeness he had made, waiting for him to take the lead or open some door for entrance, and watching for the humors of the elder body as the young of the past generations did. And sometimes faithful as she was to be plighted with truth and tenderness one coaxing word would have brought her home to the arms that used to carry her. But while things were waiting to be done till they were thought of, the time for doing them went by, and to think of them was memory. Master Papowell had told Captain Annerley continually what his opinions were, barely giving him to know on each occasion that they were to be taken for what they were worth, that it did not follow from his own success in life that he might not be mistaken now, and that he did not care a dirt except for Christian feeling whether any fool harkened to him twice or not. He said that he never had been far out in any opinion that he had formed in all his life, but none the more for that would he venture to foretell a thing with cross-purposes about it. A man of sagacity and dealings with the world might happen to be right ninety-nine times in a hundred, and yet you might be wrong the other time. Therefore you would not give any opinion except that everybody would be sorry by and by when things were too late for mending. To this the farmer listened with an air of wisdom, not put forward too severely because Brother Papowell had got a lot of money, and must behave handsomely when in a better world. The simplest way of treating him was just to let him talk, for it pleased him and could do no harm, and then to recover self-content by saying what a fool he was when out of hearing. The Tanner partly suspected this and put his nature upon edge, for he always drove his opinions in as if they were so many tenpenny nails, when the other man must either clinch or strike back into his teeth outright. He would rather have that than flabby silence as if he were nailing into dry-rot. I tell you what it is, he said the third time he came over, which was well within a week, for nothing breeds impatience faster than retirement from work. You are so thick-headed in your farmhouse ways. Sometimes I am worn out with you. I do not expect to be thought of any higher because I have left off working for myself, and Deborah is satisfied to be called Debbie and walks no prouder than if she had got to clean her own steps daily. You cannot enter into what people think of me, counting Parson-Balo, and therefore it is no good saying anything about it. But Stephen, you may rely upon it that you will be sorry afterward. That poor girl, the prettiest girl in Yorkshire, and the kindest and the best, is going off her vitals and consuming of her substance, because you will not even look at her. If you don't want the child, let me have her. To us she is welcome as the flowers in May. If Mary wishes it, she can go with you. The farmer answered sternly, and, hating many words, he betook himself to work, resolving to keep at it until the tanner should be gone. But when he came home after dusk, his steadfast heart was beating faster than his stubborn mind approved. Mary might have taken him at his word and flown for refuge from displeasure, cold voice, and dull comfort, to the warmth and hearty cheer and love of the folk who only cared to please her, spoil her, and utterly ruin her. Folk who had no sense of fatherly duty or right conscience, but having piled up dirty money, thought it covered everything. Such people might think it fair to come between a father and his child, and truckle to her by backing her up in whims that were against her good, and making light of right and wrong as if they turned on money. But Mary, such a prudent lass, although she was a fool just now, must see through all such shallow tricks, such rigamarole about Parson Balo, who must be an idiot himself to think so much of Simon Papahwell, for Easter offerings, no doubt. But there, if Mary had the heart to go away, what used to stand mondering about it? Stephen Annerley would be dashed if he cared which way it was. Seeing all this, Stephen Annerley, however, carried it out in a style at variance with such reckless vigor. Instead of marching boldly in at his own door and throwing himself upon a bench and waiting to be waited upon, he left the narrow gravel walk which led from the horse-gate to the front door, and craftily fetched a compass through the pleasure-beds and little shrubs, upon the sword and in the dusk, so that none may see or hear him. Then, priding himself upon his stout as a man with whom it is rare may do. Yet knowing all the time that he was more than half ashamed of it, he began to peep in at his own windows, as if he were planning how to rob his own house. This thought struck him, but instead of smiling he sighed very sadly, for his object was to learn whether house and home had been robbed of that which he loved so fondly. There was no Mary in the kitchen, seeing to his supper. The fire was bright and the pot was there, but only shadow was rounded. No Mary in the little parlor, only Willie half asleep, with a stupid bulk upon his lap, and a wretched candle guttering. Then as a last hope he peered into the dairy, where she often went at fall of night to see things safe and sane to keep the ghosts away. She would not be singing now, of course, because he was so cross with her, but if she were there it would be better than the merriest song for him. But no, the place was dark and cold, tub and pan and wooden skimmer and the pails hung up to drain. All were left to themselves, and the depth of want of life was over them. She hadn't been there for an hour, thought he, a reek of milk and not my lassie. Very few human beings have such fragrance of goodwill as milk. The farmer knew that he had gone too far in speaking coarsely of the cow whose children must forgo their food for the benefit of ours, and then became veal to please us. My little maid is gone, said the lord of many cows who had robbed some thousand of their dear calves. I trow and must make up my mind to see my little maid no more. Without compunction for any mortal cow, though one was bellowing sadly in the distance that had lost her calf that day, and without even dreaming of a grievance there, Master Annerley sat down to think upon a little bench, hard by. His thoughts were not very deep or subtle, yet to him they were difficult because they were so new and sad. He had always hoped to go through life in the happiest way there is of it, with simply doing common work and heeding daily business and letting other people think the higher class of thought for him. To live his nature, cultivated quite enough for her own content, joys the round of months and years and changes of the earth and sky, and gentle slope of time subsiding to softer shadows and milder tones, and most of all to see his children, dutiful, good and loving, able and ready to take his place, when he should be carried from farm to church, to work the land he loves so well and to walk in his ways and praise him. And now he thought like Job and his sorrow, all these things are against me. The air was laden with a sense of autumn, rich in ripe and soothing, the sweet fulfilment of the year. The mellow odor of stacked wheat, the stronger perfume of clover, the brisk smell of apples newly gathered, the distant hint of onions roped and the luscious waft of honey spread and hung upon the evening breeze. What is the good of all this, he muttered, when my little lassie has gone away as if she had no father. Father, I am not gone away. Oh, father, I never will go away if you will love me as you did. Here Mary stopped for the short breath of a sob was threatening to catch her words, and her nature was too like her father's to let him triumph over her. The sense of wrong was in her heart as firm and deep as in his own, and her love of justice quite as strong only they differed as to what it was. Therefore Mary would not sob until she was invited. She stood in the arch of trimmed yew-tree almost within reach of his arms, and though it was dark he knew her face as if the sun was on it. Dear, sit down here, he said, there used to be room for you and me, without two chairs when you was my child. Father, I am still your child," she answered softly sitting by him. Were you looking for me just now? Say it was me you were looking for. There is such a lot of rogues to look out for. They skulk about so, and they fire the sacks. Now, father, you never could tell a fib. She answered, sidling closer up and preparing for his repentance. I say that I was looking for a rogue. If the cap fits—here he smiled a little, as much as to say, I had you there—and then without meaning it, from simple force of habit, he did a thing equal to utter surrender. He stroked his chin as he always used to do when going to kiss Mary that the bristles might lie down for her. The cap doesn't fit, nothing fits, but you—you—you—you—you my own dear father," she cried, and she kissed him again and again, and put her arms round to protect him. And nobody fits you but your own Mary. I knew you were sorry, you didn't say it. You are too stubborn, and I will let you off. Now don't say a word, father, I can do without it. I don't want to humble you, but only to make you good, and you are the very best of all people when you please. And you never must be cross again with your darling Mary. Promise me immediately, or you shall have no supper. Well, said the farmer, I used to think that I was gifted with the gift of argument. Not like a woman, perhaps, but still pretty well, for a man as can't spare time for speechifying and has to earn bread for self and youngens. Father, it is that arguing spirit that has done you so much harm. You must take things as Heaven sends them, and not go arguing about them. For instance, Heaven has sent you me. So am I, Master Annerley replied, but without a voice from the belly of a fish, I wouldn't believe that he sent Rob and Leith. End of Chapter 27 Chapter 28 of Mary Annerley. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Mary Annerley by Richard Dodgerage Blackmore. Farewell, wife and children, dear. Now Rob and Leith held himself in good esteem, as every honest man is bound to do, or surely the rogues will devour him. Modesty kept him silent as to his merits very often, but the exercise of self-examination made them manifest to himself. As the Yorkshireman said to his minister, when pressed to make daily introspection, I dare not do it, sir, it sets me up so, and leave it no chance for my neighbors. So the great free trader, in charity for others, for bore to examine himself too much. But without doing that, he was conscious of being as good as Master Annerley, and intended, with equal mind and manner, to state his claim to the daughter's hand. It was not, therefore, as the farmer thought, any deep sense of illegality which kept him from coming forward now as a gallant sailor always does, but rather the pressure of sterner business and the hard necessity of running goods according to honorable contract. After his narrow escape from outrage upon personal privilege, for the habeas corpus of the Constitution should at least protect a man while making love, it was clear that the field of his duties as a citizen was padlocked against him until next time. Accordingly he sought the wider bosom of the ever-liberal sea, and leaving the noble caraway to mourn, or in stricter truth alas, to swear, away he sailed at the quartering of the moon, for the land of the genial Dutchman. Now this was the time when the forces of the realm were mightily gathered together against him. Hitherto there had been much fine feeling on the part of his majesty's revenue, in a delicate sense of etiquette. All the commanders of the cutters on the coast, of whom and of which there now were three, had met at caraway's festive board, and, looking at his family, had won and all agreed to let him have the first chance of the good prize money. It was all saint's day of the year gone by when they met and thus enjoyed themselves, and they bade their host a point his time, and he said he should not want three months. At this they laughed, and gave him twelve, and now the twelve have slipped away. I would much rather never have him caught at all, said caraway to his wife, when his year of pre-caption had expired, than for any of those fellows to nab him, especially that prig last sent down. So would I, dear, so would I, of course, replied Mrs. Caraway, who had been all gratitude for their noble self-denial when they made the promise. What heirs they would give themselves, and what could they do with the money? Take it out! I am sure that the condition of our best tumblers, after they come, is something. People who don't know anything about it always fancy that glass will clean. Glass won't clean, after such men as those, and as for the table, don't talk of it. Two out of the three are gone, the lieutenant's conscience was not void of offence concerning tables. Gone upon promotion, everybody gets promotion, if he only does his very best never to deserve it. They ought to have caught Lyth long and long ago. What are such dummies fit for? But Charles, you know that they would have acted meanly and dishonestly if they had done so. They promised not to catch him, and they carried out their promise. Matilda, such questions are beyond you altogether. You cannot be expected to understand the service. One of those chumpery, half-decked craft, or they used to be half-deckers in my time, has had three of those fresh meat jammies over her in a single twelve month. But of course they were all bound by the bargain they had made. As for that, small thanks to them. How could they catch him, when I couldn't? They chop and they change so, I forget their names. My head is not so good as it was, with getting so much moonlight. Don't sense Charles, you know them like your fingers, but I know what you want. You want Geraldine. You are so proud to hear her tell it. Tilly, you are worse. You love to hear her say it. Well, call her in and let her do it. She is making an oyster-shell cradle over there, with two of the blessed babies. Charles, how very profane you are. All babes are blessed by the Lord in an independent parable, whether they can walk or crawl or put up their feet and take nourishment. Jerry, you come in this very moment. What are you doing with your two brothers there in a dead skate? Lest the children. Now say the cutters and their captains. Geraldine, who was a pretty little girl, as well as a good and clever one, swept her wind-tossed hair aside, and began to repeat her lesson, for which she sometimes got a penny when her father had made a good dinner. His Majesty's cutter, Swordfish, Commander Nettlebones, Senior Officer of the Eastern Division after my papa, although a very young man still, carries a swivel gun and two bow chasers. His Majesty's cutter, Kestrel, commanded by Lieutenant Bowler, is armed with three long johns, or strap guns, capable of carrying a pound of strap now. His Majesty's cutter, Albatross, Lieutenant Corcoran Donovan, carries no artillery yet. Not artillery, guns, child, your mother calls them artillery. Carries no guns yet, because she was captured from the foreign enemy, and as yet she has not been reported stanch, since the British fire made a hole in her. It is, however, expected that those asses at the dockyard. Geraldine, how often must I tell you that you are not to use that word? It is your father's expression. It is, however, expected that those donkeys at the dockyard will recommend her to be fitted with two brass Howe's ears. Howe, Whitzers, my darling, spell that word and you shall have your penny. Now you may run out and play again. Give your old father a pretty kiss for it. I often wish, continued the Lieutenant as his daughter flew back to the dead skate and the babies, that I had only got that child's clear head. Sometimes the worry is too much for me, and now if nettle bones catch his robin lith, to a certainty I shall be superseded, and all of us go to the workhouse. Oh, Tilly, why won't your old aunt die? We might be so happy afterward. Charles, it is not only sinful but wicked to show any wish to hurry her. The Lord knows best what is good for us, and our prayers upon such matters should be silent. Well, mine would be silent and loud too, according to the best chance of being heard. Not that I would harm the poor old soul. I wish her every heavenly blessing, and her time has come for all of them, but I never like to think of that, because one's own time might come first. I have felt very much out of spirits today, as my poor father did the day before he got his billet. You know, Matilda, he was under old Boscoine, and was killed by the very first shot fired. It must be five and forty years ago. How my mother did cry, to be sure, but I was too young to understand it. Ah, she had a bad time with us all. Matilda, what would you do without me? Why, Charles, you are not a bit like yourself. Don't go tonight, stay at home for once, and the weather is very uncertain too. They will never attempt their job tonight. Counterman the boat steer, I will send word to stop them. You shall not even go out of the house yourself. As if it were possible, I am not an old woman, nor even an old man yet, I hope. In half an hour I must be off. There will be a good time for a pipe, one more pipe in the old home tilly. After all, I am well contented with it, although now and then I grumble, and I don't like so much cleaning. The cleaning must be done, I can never leave off that. Your room is going to be turned out tomorrow, and before you go you must put away your papers, unless you wish me to do it. You really never seem to understand when things are really important. Do you wish me to have a great fever in the house? It is a fortnight since your boards were scrubbed, and how can you think of smoking? Very well tilly, I can have it by and by upon the dancing waves as little Tommy has picked up the song. Only I cannot let the men on duty, and to see them longing destroys my pleasure. Lord, how many times I should like to pass by pipe to Dick or Ellis if discipline allowed of it. A thing of that sort is not like feeding, which must be kept apart by nature, but this by custom only. And a very good custom, and most needful, answered Mrs. Careway, I never can see why men should want to do all sorts of foolish things with tobacco, dirty stuff and full of dust. No sooner do they begin, like a tinderbox than one would think that it made them all alike. They want to see another body puffing two great steams of reeking smoke from pipe and from mouth, as if their own was not enough. And their good resolutions to speak truth of one another float away like so much smoke, and they fill themselves with bad charity. Sir Walter Raleigh deserved his head off, and Henry VIII knew what was right. My dear, I fancy that your history is wrong. The king only chopped off his own wife's heads, but the moral of the lesson is the same. I will go and put away my papers. It will very soon be dark enough for us to start. Charles, I cannot bear your going. The weather is so dark, and the sea is so lonely, and the waves are making such a melancholy sound. It is not like the summer nights, when I can see you six miles off with the moon upon the sails and the land out of the way. Let anybody catch him that has the luck. Don't go this time, Charlie. Caraway kissed his wife, and sent her to the baby, who was squalling well up the stairs. And when she came down, he was ready to start, and she brought the baby for him to kiss. Goodbye, little chap, goodbye, dear wife. With his usual vigor and flourish, he said, I never knew how to kiss a baby, though I have had such a lot of them. Goodbye, Charlie dear. All your things are right, and here is the key of the locker. You are fitted out for three days, but you must on no account make that time of it. Tomorrow I shall be very busy. But you must be home by the evening. Perhaps there will be a favourite thing of yours for supper. You are going a long way, but don't be long. Goodbye, Tilly darling. Goodbye, Jerry dear. Goodbye, Tommy boy. And all my countless family. I am coming home to-morrow with a mint of money. CHAPTER XXIX The sea at this time was not pleasant, and nobody looking at it long to employ upon it any members of a shorter reach than eyes. It was not rushing upon the land, nor running largely in the offing, nor making white streaks on the shoals, neither in any other places doing things remarkable. No sign whatever of coming storm or gathering fury moved it. Only it was sullen, heavy, petulant, and out of sorts. It went about its business in a state of lumps irregular, without long bellows or big furrows, as if it took the impulse more of distant waters than of wind. And its colour was a dirty green. Ancient fishermen hate this, and ancient mariners do the same. For then the fish lie sulking on their bellies, and then the ship wallows without gift of sail. Bear off, Tompkins, and lay by till the ebb. I can only say, dest a whole of it. Commander Nutterbones of the Swordfish gave this order in disgust at last, for the tide was against her. With a heavy pitch of sea, and the mainsail scarcely drew the sheet, what little wind there was came off the land, and would have been fair if it had been firm. It often dropped altogether where the cliffs or the clouds that lay upon them held it. The cutter had slipped away from Scarborough as soon as it was dark last night, under orders for Robin Hood's Bay, where the albatross and a kestrel were to meet her, bring tidings, and take orders. Partly by coast riding and partly by coast signals, it had been arranged that these three revenue cruisers should come together in a lonely place during the haze of November morning, and hold privy counsel of importance. From Scarborough, with any wind at all, or even with ordinary tide run, a coal barge might almost make sure of getting to Robin Hood's Bay in six hours, if the sea was fit to swim in. Yet there was a cutter that valued herself upon her sailing powers already eighteen hours out, and headed back perpetually, like a donkey plow. Commander Nutterbones could not understand it, and the more impatient he became, the less could he enter into it. The sea was nasty, and the wind uncertain, also the tide against him, but how often had such things combined to hinder, and yet he had made much fairer way. For an aft he bestowed the planks and cast keen eyes at everything above, around, or underneath, but nothing showed him anything. Nutterbones was a Cornishman, and Cornishman at that time had a reverent faith of witchcraft. Robin Leith had brought the powers, or ancient caraway has done it, he said to himself in stronger language than is now reportable. Old caraway is against us, I know, from the confounded jealousy, and this cursed delay will floor all my plans. He deserved to have his best plans floored for such vile suspicion of caraway. Whatever the brave lieutenant did was loyal, faithful, and well above board, against the enemy he had his plans, as every great commander must, and he certainly did not desire to have his glory stolen by Nutterbones, but that he would have suffered with only a grin at the bad luck so habitual to do any crooked thing against it was not in his nature. The cause of grief of commander Nutterbones lay far away from caraway, and free trade was at the bottom of it. For now this trim and lively craft was doing herself but scanty credit, either on or off the wind. She was like a poor cat with her tail stuck in a gin, which sadly obstructs her progress. Even more was she liked the little horse of wood which sits on the edge of a table in gallops, with a balance weight limiting its energies. None of the crew could understand it if they were to be believed, and the more sagacious talked of currents and mysterious undertow, and sure enough it was undertow, the mystery of which was simple. One of the very best hands on board was a handy seaman from Flambeau, akin to old Robin Coxcroft, and no stranger to his adopted son. This gallant seaman fully entered into the value of long leverage, and he made fine use of a plughole which had come to his knowledge behind his birth. It was just above the waterline, and out of sight from deck, because the hollow of the run was there, and long ere the lights of Scarborough died into the haze of night as a cutter began to cleave watery way, the sailor passed a stout new rope from a blaying pin through his hole, and then he betrayed his watch on deck by hauling the end up with a clue, and gently returning it to the deep with a long grappling iron made fast to it. This had not fluke enough to lay fast-hold and bring the vessel up. For in that case it would have been immediately discovered, but it dragged along the bottom like a trawl, and by its weight and a hitch every now and then in some hole. It hampered quite sufficiently the objectionable voyage. Instead of meeting her consorts in the cloud of early morning, the swordfish was scarcely abreast of the southern cheek by the middle of the afternoon. No wonder if Commander Nettle-Bones was in a fury long ere that unfitted neither to give nor take the counsel of calm wisdom, and this condition of his mind, as well as the loss of precious time, would have been taken into more consideration by those contempt him of the things that followed. Better late than never, as they say, he cried, when the Kestrel and the Albatross hold in sight, Tompkins, single to make sail and close, we seem to be moving more lively at last. I suppose we're out of that infernal undertow. Well, sir, she seems like herself a bit more. She'd have had a witch on board of her, that's where it is. When I were a young her just joined his majesty's forty-two gun frigate, stole that, Tompkins. No time now. I remember all about it, and very good it is. Let us have it all again when this job is done with. Thor and Donovan will pick holes, if they can, after waiting for us half a day, not a word about our slow sailing, mind, leave that to me. They are framptious enough, having everything trim and all hands ready. When they range within hail, sing out for both to come to me. It was pretty to see the three-cutters meet, all handled as smartly as possible, for the flamboroman had cast off his clog, and the swordfish again was as nimble as need be. Lieutenant's Bola and Donovan were soon in the cabin of their senior officer, and durst not question him very strictly as to his breach of rendezvous, for his manner was short and sharp with them. There is plenty of time, if we waste not in docking," he said, when they had finished, comparing notes. All these reports were bound to receive and consider, but I would leave none of them. The reason why poor Callaway has made nothing but a mess of it is that he will listen to the country people's tales. They're all bound together, all tarred with one brush, all stuffed up in a heap of lies, to send us wrong. And as for the fishing boats and what they see, I have been here long enough already to be sure that their fishing is a sham nine times and ten, and their real business is to help those rogues. Our plan is to listen, and pretend to be misled. "'True for you, Captain,' cried the ardent Donovan. You boutship as soon as you can see them out of sight. "'My own opinion is this,' said Bowler, that we shall never catch any fellow until we have a large sum of money placed at our disposal. The general feeling is in their favour, and against us entirely. "'Why is it in their favour? Because they are generally supposed to run great risks and suffer great hardships, and so they do, but not half so much as we do, who keep the sea in all sorts of weather while they can choose their own, also because they outrun the law, which nature makes everybody long to do, and admire the lucky ones who can. But most of all, because they are free-handed, and we can be only niggers. They rob the king with impunity, because they pay well for doing it, and he pays badly, or not at all, to defend himself from robbery. If we had a thousand pounds apiece, with orders dispended on public service, take no receipt and give no account, I am sure that in three months we could stop all contraband work upon this coast. Upon me, Saul, and so we could, and it's me self that would go into the trade, so soon as it was stopped with a thousand pounds. "'We have no time for talking nonsense,' answered Nettlebone severely according to the universal law that the man who has wasted the time of others gets into a flurry about his own. Your suggestion, bowlers, a very wise one, and as full as possible of common sense. You also, Donovan, have shown with great sagacity what might come of it thereafter. But unluckily we have to get on as we can, without expense to spare for anybody. We know that the fishermen and the people on the coast, and especially the womankind, are all to a man, as our good friend here would say, banded in league against us. Nevertheless this landing shall not be, at least upon our district. What happens north of T's mouth is none of our business, and we should have the laugh of the old scotch-man there if they pay him a visit, as I hope they may, for he cuts many jokes at our expense. But, by the Lord Harry, there should be no run between the T's and yer this side of Christmas. If there is, we may call ourselves three old women. Shake hands, gentlemen, upon that point and we shall have a glass of grog to it. This was friendly, and rejoiced them all, for nettle-bones had been stiff at first. Readily enough they took his orders, which seemed to make it impossible almost for anything large to slip between them, except in case of a heavy fog, and in that case they were to land, and post their outlooks near the likely places. We have shed no blood yet, and I hope we never shall, said the senior officer pleasantly. The smugglers of this coast are too wise, and I hope too kind hearted for that sort of work. They are not like those desperate scoundrels of Sussex. When these men are nabbed, they give up their venture as soon as it goes beyond cudgel-play, and they never lie and wait for a murderous revenge. In the south I have known a very different race, who would jump up as an officer till he died, or lash him to death with their long cart whips. Such fellows as broke-upon pool, custom-house, and murdered-poor galley, and cater, and the rest, in a manner that makes human blood run cold. It was some time back, but their sons are just as bad, smuggling turns them all into devils. My belief is, Sebaler, who had a gift of looking at things from an outer point of view, that these fellows never proposed themselves to transgress the law, but to carry it out according to their own interpretation. One of them reasoned with me some time ago, and he talked so well about the Constitution that I was a loss to answer him. Me, Joe, forbear, shouted Donovan, a clout on the head is the only answer for them Constitutionals. Never will I go out of my mind about the time I was last in Kark, sure, then, and it was holiday time, and me sister's wife's cousin, young Tim O'Brady. Tim says to me, Now, cook run, my lad, Donovan! Netabone's suddenly broke in. We will have that story, which I can see by the cut of your jib is too good to be hurried, when first we come together after business done. The sun will be down in less than half an hour, and by that time we all must be well under way. We are watched from the land, as I need not tell you, and we must not let them spy for nothing. They shall see us all stand out to see and catch them in the open. As I said in the town hall of Scarborough yesterday on purpose. Everybody laughed, but I stuck to it, knowing how far the tale will go. They take it for a crotchet of mind and will expect it, especially after they have seen us standing out and their plans will be laid accordingly. The head-beast you have is beyond me entirely, and if you stand out, how will you lay close and sure? I'm returning, my good friend, before the morning breaks, each man to a station lying as close as he can by day. The proper outlook's hidden at the points, but standing along the coast every night and communicating with sentries have nothing to say to any fishing-boats. They are nearly all spies, and that puzzles them. This Robin Hood's bay is our center for the present, unless there comes a change of weather. One's beat is from Whitby to Teesmouth, mine from Whitby to Scarborough, the bowler's thence to Flamborough. Garroway goes where he likes, of course, as the matter of a man is. He is a little in at Oldrums now and likely enough to come meddling. From Flamborough to Hornssey is left to him, and quite as much as he can manage. Further south there is no fear, our Yarmouth men will see to that. Now I think that you quite understand. Good-bye! We shall nab some of them to a certainty this time, they are trying it on too large a scale. If they've run any goods through me, then just ye may reckon the legs of me four times over. And if they slip past me, sir bowler, without a thick fog or a storm that drives me off, I will believe more than all the wonders told of Robin Leith. Oh! Concern enough, fellow, by the by. Commander Netibone stopped his brother officers as they were making off. You know what a point poor Garroway has made, even before I was sent down here of catching the celebrated Robin for himself. He has even let his fellows fire at him once or twice when he was quietly departing, although we are not allowed to shoot except upon strenuous resistance. Then we may fire, but no muskets, according to wise ordinance. Luckily he has not hit him yet, and upon the whole we should be glad of it, for the young fellow was a prime sailor, as you know, and would make fine stuff for Nelson. Therefore we must do one thing of two, that Garroway catch him and get the money to pay for all the breeches and the petticoats we saw, or if we catch him ourselves say nothing but draft him right off to the harpy. Understand me? It is below us to get blood money upon the man. We are gentlemen, not thief-catchers." The Irishman agreed to this at once, but Bowler was not well pleased with it. Our duty is to give him up, he said. Your duty is to take my orders, answered Netibone severely. If there is a fuss about it, lay the blame on me. I know what I am about and what I say. Gentlemen, good-bye, and good-luck to you. After long shivers and teeth of the wind and pendulous labour of rolling, the three cutters joyfully took the word to go. With a creak and a cant and a swish of canvas upon their light heels they flew round and trembled with eagerness of leaping on their way. The taper-boom dip toward the running hills of the sea in the jib-four leech drew a wide arc against the darkness of the sky to the bowsprit's plunge. Even as each keen cut-water clove with the pressure of the wind upon the beam and the glistening bends lay over, green hurry of surges streaked with grey began the quick dance along them. Away they went merrily, scattering the brine and leaving broad tracks upon the closing sea. Away also went, at rapid scamper, three men who had watched them from the breastwork of the cliffs. One went northward, another to the south, the third rode a pony up an inland lane. Swiftly as the cutters flew over the sea the tidings of their flight took wing ashore and before the night swallowed up their distant sails everybody on the land whom it concerned to know knew as well as their steermen what course they had laid. End of Chapter 29 Recording by Keith Salas