"Ye don't have to, son," said the other quietly, "and ef you'll take
my advice, you won't. This hooker ain't fit to sail in. She'll go to
the bottom some of these days. Now, your uncle .... he's a swine from
'way back and you'd be safer away from him and his ships. He don't
care a cuss for you--in fact, I know he hates you like poison. You'd
better plan on skipping aout, sonny, when we get tied up to a
Vancouver wharf. Whatever you do, don't sail in this or any of your
uncle's ships."
McKenzie was impressed with the Nova Scotian's manner. Desert the
ship? He had given the matter some thought before, but had dismissed
the idea in his determination to serve his time and climb the ladder
to command. "How about my future at sea, sir?" he enquired perplexed.
"If I run away from the ship, how am I going to get on in my
profession?"
"Do you want to go ahead in this rotten business?" exclaimed the
captain earnestly. "What is there for a clever young nipper like you
in the lime-juice merchant service these days? Why, boy, you'd make
more money and have a better time of it on a Grand Bank fishing
schooner. Aye! in the Canadian coasting trade, the skipper of a
three-master'll make more money than the brass-bound commander of many
a big liner in the passenger trade! I'm telling you, son, and I don't
want you to spill it to your pals, that I'm not agoin' to stay in this
bally-hoo of blazes when she gits safely tied up. I've got friends in
Vancouver and Victoria, and I'm goin' into something on the Coast or
else back home in Nova Scotia. I've had enough of this slavin' and
drivin' and sailin' ships with useless, spineless dock wallopers and
sun-fish for crews.... Aye! I'm tired of it.... Howsomever, son, I've
taken a shine to you, and ef you'll follow me, I'll take care of you,
and I'll guarantee in a few years you'll be able to bring your mammy
aout to Canada an' live happily ever after as the story-books say."
Donald nodded. "It sounds good, sir. I'll think over it, and I thank
you for your kindness."
Nickerson knocked his pipe out on the rail and stretched himself.
"Alright, son, think it over, and say--nip along for'ard an' see ef
them light-tower windows ain't covered with snow or ice. Those
mole-eyed lookouts 'ud never think of giving 'em a look-over even
though they'll hail 'the lights are burnin' bright!'"
As the skipper surmised, the glasses of the side-light towers were
filmed with frozen spray and the lights were barely visible. Donald
cleared them and had hardly done so before he made out the ghostly
loom of a large ship ahead. No side-lights were visible, but he needed
no second look to convince him it was a ship close-hauled and not a
trick of the imagination. The look-out, coming up from a stolen visit
to the fo'c'sle, saw it too and yelled.
Donald, knowing that a running ship must keep clear of a vessel
close-hauled, shouted, "Hard down! Hard down! Ship dead ahead!"
Nickerson must have heard him and acted, as the _Kelvinhaugh_ swung
up to the wind and the watch tumbled up to the braces and trimmed the
yards as she came up. The other vessel careered past--a big,
deep-laden three-masted ship with painted ports--and as she went by to
loo'ard, a voice sung out, "What ship?"
"_Kelvinhaugh_--Clyde for Vancouver! What--ship--is--that?"
"_Craig Royston_--Frisco to Falmouth!" And she was swallowed up in the
night.
"Weather braces!" came the command from the poop, and the
_Kelvinhaugh_ swung on her course again--her crew having heard the
first strange voice in four long and weary months.
When McKenzie came aft again, the skipper met him. "Smart boy!" he
complimented. "I just h'ard ye in time. Another minute and that feller
would ha' bin slap-bang into us or us into him. Go down in the cabin
an' rouse that skulkin' stoo'ard aout an' tell him to make a mug-up
for the two of us!"
With such small rewards were deeds of vigilance, nerve and hardihood
commended--a cup of tea and a piece of soggy cake or a cabin biscuit!
At sea, however, on a deep-water ship, one is thankful for small
mercies, and to men and boys who lived as the _Kelvinhaugh's_ did, a
little bit of warming fire, a mite of extra food, and a cup of
indifferent tea stood out in the monotonous drudgery of sea-life as
pleasant sensations and bright reminiscences in the midst of drab
memories.