AN ARRIVAL AT THE WHARF.
The collision was so powerful that the Buffer's wife was thrown from her
seat; and every plank in the _Fairy_ oscillated with a crashing sound.
The Buffer and the Resurrection Man rushed upon the deck.
A single glance enabled them to ascertain the cause of the sudden alarm.
A lighter, nearly as large as the _Fairy_, and heavily laden, had been
so clumsily brought in against the barges moored off the wharf, that it
came with the whole weight of its broad-side upon the _Fairy_.
"Now then, stupids!" ejaculated the Buffer, applying this complimentary
epithet to the two men who were on the deck of the lighter which was
putting in.
"Hope we haven't hurt you, friends," exclaimed one of the individuals
thus addressed.
"More harm might have been done," answered the Buffer. "Who are you?"
"The _Blossom_," was the reply.
"Where d'ye come from?" demanded Wicks.
"Oh! up above bridge," cried the man, speaking in a surly and evasive
manner. "Here—just catch hold of this rope, will you—and let us lay
alongside of you."
"No—no," shouted the Buffer. "You'd better drop astern of us, and moor
alongside that chalk barge."
"Well, so we will," said the man.
While the _Blossom_ was executing this manœuvre, which it did in a most
clumsy manner, as if the two men that worked her had never been
entrusted with the care of a lighter before, the Buffer turned towards
the Resurrection Man, and said in a whisper, "We must remain outside all
the barges, 'cause of having room to run our boat alongside the _Fairy_
and get the things on board easy, when we come back from the expedition
down to the _Lady Anne_."
"To be sure," answered the Resurrection Man. "You did quite right to
make those lubbers get lower down. I'm pleased with you, Jack; and now I
see that I can let you be spokesman on all such occasions without any
fear that you'll commit yourself."
"Why, if you want to keep in the back-ground as much as possible, Tony,"
replied the Buffer, "it's much better to trust these little things to
me. But, I say—I think there's something queer about them chaps that
have just put in here."
"So do I, Jack," said Tidkins. "They certainly know no more about
managing a lighter than you and I did when we first took to it."
"Yes—but we had a regular man to help us at the beginning," observed the
Buffer.
"So we had. And I precious soon sent him about his business when he had
taught us our own."
"Well—p'rhaps them fellows have got a reg'lar man too," said Wicks. "But
let 'em be what and who they will, my idea is, that they've taken to the
same line as ourselves."
"We must find that out, Jack," observed the Resurrection Man. "If
they're what you think, they will of course be respected: if they don't
belong to the same class, we must ascertain what they've got on board,
and then make up our minds whether any of their cargo will suit us."
"Well said," returned the Buffer.
"But in any case you must be the person to learn all this," continued
the Resurrection Man. "You see, I'm so well known to a lot of different
people that would show me no mercy if they got hold of me, that I'm
compelled to keep myself as quiet as possible. There's Markham—there's
Crankey Jem—there's the gipsies—and there's the Rattlesnake: why—if I
was only to be twigged by one of them I should have to make myself
scarce in a minute."
"I know all this, Tony," cried the Buffer, impatiently; "and therefore
the less you're seen about, the better. In the day time always keep
below, as you have been doing; but at night, when one can't distinguish
particular faces, you can take the air;—or on such occasions as
to-morrow will be, for instance,—when we run down the river, and get
away from London——"
"Yes, yes," interrupted Tidkins: "don't think that I shall throw away a
chance. Those lubbers have managed to make their lighter fast to the
chalk barge now: just step across and try and find out what you can
about them."
The Buffer immediately proceeded to obey this order. He walked across
the barges, which, as we before stated, were so closely moored together
that they formed one vast floating pier; and approaching as close as
possible to the _Blossom_, without setting foot upon it, he said,
"Holloa, friend, there! You mustn't think that we meant any thing by
telling you not to lay alongside of us: 'twas only 'cause we expect to
be off to-morrow or next day."
"No offence is taken where none's intended," answered the man who had
before spoken.
The Buffer now perceived that the other individual on board the
_Blossom_, and who had charge of the helm, was a Black, of tall form,
and dressed in the rough garb of a sailor.
"You seem well laden," said the Buffer, after a pause.
"Yes—pretty deep," answered the first speaker.
"Do you discharge here, at Mossop's?"
"Don't know yet," was the laconic reply.
"And what may be your freight?"
"Bales of cotton," returned the man.
"Then I suppose you're the master of that lighter?" continued the
Buffer.
"Yes," was the brief answer.
"Well, it's a pleasant life," observed Wicks. "Have you been at it
long?"
"I've only just begun it," replied the master.
"And that sable gentleman there," said the Buffer, with a laugh,—"I
should think he's not a Johnny Raw on the water?"
"Not quite," returned the master. "Poor fellow! he's deaf and dumb!"
"Deaf and dumb, eh?" repeated the Buffer. "Well,—p'rhaps that's
convenient in more ways than one."
"I believe you," said the master, significantly.
"Ah! I thought so," cried Wicks, who now felt convinced that the
_Blossom_ was not a whit better than the _Fairy_. "Ain't there no one on
board but you and Blackee?"
"What the devil should we want any more hands for?" said the master,
gruffly.
"Oh! I understand," observed the Buffer. "Capital! you're the master—to
do as you like; Blackee's deaf and dumb, and can't blab; and you and him
are alone on board. I've hit it, you see."
"You're uncommon sharp, my fine feller," said the master. "Step on board
and wash your mouth out."
The Buffer did not hesitate to accept this invitation. The Black had
lighted his pipe, and was lounging on the deck over the after cabin. The
master disappeared down the hatchway of the small cabin, or cuddy,
forward; and in a few moments he returned with a bottle and two tin
pannikins.
"What's the name of your craft?" he said, as he poured out the liquor,
which exhaled the strong and saccharine flavour of rum.
"The _Fairy_," replied the Buffer.
"Then here's a health to the _Fairy_."
"And here's to the _Blossom_."
The master and the Buffer each took draughts of the raw spirit.
"Now let us drink to our better acquaintance," said the master. "You
seem an honest, open-hearted kind of a feller——"
"And to be trusted, too," interrupted Wicks.
"Well—I'm inclined to think you are," said the master, speaking
deliberately, as if he were meditating upon some particular idea which
then occupied his mind; "and it's very probable—it _may_ be, I mean—that
I shall want a little of your advice; for which, remember, I should be
happy to pay you well."
"You couldn't apply to a better man," returned the Buffer.
"And here's to you," said the master. "What sort of a fellow is Mossop,
that keeps this wharf?"
"He has no eyes, no ears, and no tongue for things that don't consarn
him," answered Wicks.
"Just the kind of agent I want," returned the master. "But I shall also
require two or three good fellers in a few days,—chaps that ain't over
partickler, you understand, how they earn a ten-pound note, so long as
it's sure."
"And you want two or three chaps of that kind?" asked the Buffer.
"Yes. I've a good thing in hand," returned the master. "But I shan't say
too much now."
"Well, you may reckon on me at any moment—to-morrow excepted," said
Wicks; "and my pal in the _Fairy_ will also be glad to row in the same
boat."
"What sort of a man is your pal?" demanded the master: "one of the right
kind?"
"If he wasn't, him and I shouldn't long hold together," answered the
Buffer. "But when do you think you'll want our services?"
"Very soon. You say you're both engaged for to-morrow?"
"Yes—both of us."
"The day after to-morrow, in the evening, you and your friend can come
and smoke your pipes with me; and we'll talk the matter over," said the
master.
"And if any thing should prevent us coming the day after to-morrow, the
evening after that will do p'rhaps?" remarked the Buffer,
interrogatively.
"Well—we must make that do, then," answered the master. "Good night."
"Good night," said Wicks; and he then returned to the _Fairy_.
"What can you make of them, Jack?" demanded the Resurrection Man, who
was smoking his pipe on the after deck.
"They're of the right sort, Tony," was the reply. "The master seems a
good kind of a feller: the only other man on board with him is a Black;
and he's deaf and dumb. The master sounded me about Mossop; and that
shows that he knows what's what. Besides, he hinted that he'd a good
thing in view, but wanted more hands, and so he made an appointment for
you and me to smoke a pipe with him in the course of two or three
evenings, to talk over the matter."
"You didn't say much about me?" exclaimed the Resurrection Man, hastily.
"Not more than was proper. It's all right—I could tell _that_ with half
an eye."
"Well, business seems dropping in upon us," observed the Resurrection
Man; "but we must be very cautious what we do. And now let's turn in,
for we have to get up early, recollect."