brief but well-chosen words what he and his officers and the whole
ship's company thought of them. He told them his opinion of their
charity, and of the wages they paid, and of the grub they put on
board their vessel. He went on to state in very vivid language what
was said of them all the world over, and then paused for a reply,
which they did not give him. He asked them what they thought of
themselves, and whatever they thought upon that subject they did not
venture to state it. He asked Thripp if he would like to say
anything, and Thripp did make a few remarks about things the captain
had omitted. Then Jordan asked them if they would like to hear Mr.
Cade on the subject, for if so Mr. Thripp could relieve the second
officer for a few minutes. They expressed no anxiety to hear any
more counsel for the prosecution, and then Gruddle made a
heart-rending appeal for mercy.
"Oh, take us into Gibraltar, captain, and we will forgive you all,
and even raise your pay to what you think is the proper figure. Oh,
don't take us to Capetown, for there isn't food enough, and I shall
die of indigestion."
"There is plenty of food," said Jordan. "Oh, there is heaps of grub
such as Mr. Shody sent on board himself, and as a lesson I'm goin' to
take you to South Africa, and I hope to the Lord that you will
survive it."
Shody shivered; he knew what bad pork was like. Gruddle, as a Jew,
was no judge of it. But the beef was even worse than the pork, and
the men for'ard were almost in mutiny about it already.
"But food like that is only fit for men who are doin' hard work,"
said the unlucky Shody. The skipper's eyes flashed and then twinkled.
"Is that so?" he said. "If it is so, there seems to be a remedy."
What the remedy was he declined to state, and the firm declined to
believe that it could be the one that occurred to them all with
dreadful vividness. Oh no, it could not be that! Captain Jordan
left them thinking, and retired into privacy for the remainder of the
night. The trouble of wondering what was to happen to them came to
an end in the morning, when by some strange chance, if it was a
chance, the deck hands came as a deputation to the captain and laid a
complaint against the grub. Jordan requested the presence on deck of
the partners, and they knew better than to refuse.
"What you have to say about the food will be better said before the
owners, my men," said the skipper. "As you know, they happen to be
on board."
As he spoke they crawled on deck, looking very unhappy. The steward,
Smith, who began to see how the land lay, and treated them with far
less respect already, told them what the trouble was.
"The men for'ard says the grub is rotten, gents, and they are furious
and fightable about it. Oh, they are savage and very 'ostile."
That was distinctly calculated to cheer them up, and they were as
cheerful as if they were ordered three dozen at the gangway. With
them went Sloggett, who had been released from irons.
"Oh, here you are, gentlemen," said the skipper cheerfully. For the
first time since he had been an officer all his sympathies were with
the men. He was no longer the captain only, he was also a man, and
he understood their point of view. "I thought it best that you
should hear the men's complaints about the food. Now then, my men,
what have you to say?"
The spokesman of the crew stood in front of the rest, and after some
half-audible encouragement from his fellows he burst into speech.
"The grub is 'orrid, sir. Oh, it is the 'orridest that we was ever
in company with. The pork stinks raw or boiled, and the beef fair
pawls the teeth of the 'ole crowd. The biscuit is full of worms, and
what isn't is as 'ard as flint. The butter makes us sick, sir. And
not to make a song about it, but to cut it short, we are bein'
starved."
"I'm sorry to hear it," said the captain. "But I am not responsible
for the food, men, and when we get to Capetown I'll do my best to see
that better stores are put on board. For the stores that you speak
of Mr. Shody is responsible."
"If they are bad I 'ave been imposed on," said Shody; but the men
made audible and disrespectful remarks which the captain suppressed
at once.
"That will do. Go for'ard and I'll see what can be done."
There was only one thing that could be done, and he did it there and
then. He had all the provisions that the partners had brought aboard
divided among the men for'ard. He sternly refused Thripp's
suggestion that the afterguard should share the plunder. Even more,
the remaining bottles of champagne went the same way, and for the
first time in their lives the deck-hands and stokers had a real glass
of wine that had cost someone ninety shillings a dozen. The firm
stood by in mute misery.
"That's the beginnin'," said the skipper sternly, and not one of them
had the pluck to ask him what he meant. Gruddle went in tears to
Thripp and asked him.
"You're the worst of the lot, you are," said the independent mate,
"and I decline to tell you. But I've no objection to throw out a
dark 'int that this boat is undermanned all round both on deck and in
the stokehold. Does the thought that that gives rise to in your mind
make you curl up? Oh, Gruddle, all this is real jam to us, and we
mean to scoff it to the very last spoonful. It will do us good!"
Gruddle grasped him by the sleeve.
"Oh, Mr. Thripp, if you'll 'elp us out of 'is 'ands we'll make you
the captain and give you anythin' you like to ask for in reason."
"Would it run to a thousand pounds, do you think?" asked the mate.
Gruddle groaned horribly, but said that he thought it might run so
far.
"Then let me tell you," said Thripp, "that Jordan is an old pal of
mine, and I wouldn't go back on him for ten thousand, or even more.
And over and above that, my son, I wouldn't lose the sight of you
trimmin' coal in a bunker for the worth of the firm."
He left Gruddle planted to the deck, a wretched sight for the gods,
and promptly told Jordan of the offer that had been made to him.
Jordan nodded.
"I ain't surprised," said Jordan. "But, after all, Gruddle is by no
means the worst of the gang, and I won't send him down into the
stokehold. I mean to keep that for Shody. And I want you to
understand that I ain't doin' this out of revenge, but out of a sense
of public duty."
He quite believed it, and Thripp saw that he did.
"It's all hunky so far as I'm concerned," said Thripp, "and I hope
that you will put Butterworth in Cade's watch and Sloggett in mine."
That was exactly what the skipper had decided on, and he was much
surprised to see that Thripp had fathomed his mind.
"To-morrow by noon we shall just about be abreast of Gib, and a long
way to the west of it," said Jordan. "I'll give 'em liberty till
then, and when I send 'em for'ard I will tell 'em how near Gib is.
It will serve them right. I will do it without visibly triumphing
over them, Thripp, for I don't believe in treadin' on those who are
down."
"No more do I, sir," said the mate, "not unless they thoroughly
deserve it."
He left the captain pondering over the situation, and presently
imparted to Butterworth the fate in store for him. As Butterworth
had nothing whatever to say he went on to the bridge and told Cade of
the joy to come. Cade was very magnanimous.
"I'll treat him no worse than any of the others," said Cade with a
smile, "no worse."
"That's good of you," said Thripp.
"Not a bit worse," said Cade again. "They are a holy lot of ruffians
in the starboard watch, as you know, and I'll give them all socks if
they don't look out. I tell you, sir, that I'm about sorry for
Butterworth in that gang. Almost, but not quite."
He had a habit of repeating his words, of chewing the cud of them,
and Thripp heard him once more mumble to himself that he was almost
sorry, 'but not quite.' The mate knew that the one who would be
quite sorry was Butterworth. He also had suspicions that Mr.
Sloggett as a deck hand under his own supervision was likely to learn
many things of which he was at present ignorant. He went to the
engine-room and saw the chief engineer. To him he revealed the
interesting fact that Shody was to be made an extra hand on the
engine-room staff. Old Maclehose grinned like a monkey at the sight
of a nut.
"Weel, weel, and do you say so?" asked Mac. "That is most
encouragin', and it's more than whusky to me. He's the man that is
responsible for all the stores, is he not, Thripp?"
Thripp said that he was.
"My boys will kill him, I shouldna wonder," said Mac. "But if they
should, I'm hopin' it will be an accident, Thripp."
He wiped his hands with a lump of waste, and thereby signified that
he wiped his hands of Shody's untimely decease.
"The oil is bad," said Mac. "I'm of a solid opeenion that Shody
won't be so oily after we are through the tropics as he is the noo."
He said no more. He was a man of few words. Thripp knew he could be
trusted for deeds. He went on deck and was almost sorry for Shody.
The partners were quite sorry for themselves, and felt as helpless as
flies in the web of a spider. They ceased to struggle, and when the
usual grub of the _Nemesis_ was served to them by an insolent
steward, who cared no longer for their authority, they sat and did
not eat it and said nothing.
The end came at noon next day, when they were all on deck in fine
weather, with Gibraltar far away on the port beam. Old Mac came on
deck and complained to the skipper that he was short-handed in the
stokehold. Cade spoke up with a pleasant grin.
"You know, Mr. Maclehose, that we can't spare you anyone from the
deck. We're short ourselves, are we not, Mr. Thripp?"
"Two short at least," said Thripp, who also smiled as if he were
pleased with the fact.
"I'll find you help," said Jordan, who was the only one who did not
smile. He turned to the partners, who were clustered together in a
sullen and disconsolate group.
"Do you hear, gentlemen, that the chief engineer is short of the
hands he should have? I think I told you so in the office, and if I
remember rightly, Mr. Shody said I would have to do on what the firm
thought enough."
Shody turned as white as new waste, and then grew the colour of waste
that has been used. The others fidgeted uneasily, but no one said
anything.
"Under the circumstances I have concluded to give you the assistance
of Mr. Shody," said the skipper.
"I won't go," roared Shody. "You can't make me. It is a crime, and
I protest. Oh, it is scandalous!"
"You _will_ go," said Jordan, "and I'll see that you do. I'm goin'
to teach you all something, I can assure you. And if you don't
follow Mr. Maclehose at once, I'll have the stokers up to carry you
down."
Gruddle implored the skipper to be merciful, and Jordan said that he
would be.
"You are the oldest of the lot, Gruddle, and I have decided that I
can best avail myself of your services by askin' you to assist the
steward. The duties will not be heavy, and all you are asked is to
be polite and willin'. You can now commence. If you stand there and
argue I will put you into the stokehold along with Mr. Shody."
Gruddle did not attempt to argue. He was much too afraid that the
captain would keep his word. He crawled down below and went to
Smith, who set him to work on the light and easy task of cleaning out
the captain's berth. While he was at it he heard loud yells from the
main-deck, and was told by the steward that four stokers were
carrying his partner Shody down below. Over what happened there a
decent veil may be drawn. Old Maclehose and the engine-room
complement had very little trouble with him and taught him a very
great deal in a very short time. Sloggett, whose spirit had been
taken out of him by being put in irons, went into the mate's watch
without a single kick; and though Butterworth began to say something,
what he was about to tell them never got further than his lips. Cade
caught him by the neck, and running him aft discharged him at the
door of the fo'c'sle, and recommended him to the tender mercies of
the watch below.
"There, that is done now," said Jordan. "I feel once more as if I
was captain of my own ship, and as if I had performed a public duty."
"We may get into trouble, you know," said Thripp.
"Not at all," said the skipper. "They will never dare say a word
about it, and when we anchor in Table Bay we'll lock them up, and
skip ashore and start for England under other names right off. Timms
of the _Singhalese_ will be about sailin' the very day we should get
there, and he'll be only too pleased to hear the yarn and give us a
passage. In two months we'll be runnin' the tug and lighter
business, Thripp, and Cade can run the coal-yard."
He smoked a happy pipe.
THE STRANGE SITUATION OF CAPTAIN BROGGER
"Brogger is no class!" said the crowd for'ard in the _Enchantress_, a
big barque belonging to Liverpool, and just then loading wheat at
Portland, Oregon. "Billy Brogger is no class; but mean--mean to the
backbone!"
They hated him worse than poison, for there are some kinds of poison
that sailormen do not hate. And Jack Eales, who was the head and
soul and mouthpiece of the starboard watch, for the hundredth time
explained the reason of their hatred.
"On'y it ain't 'atred," said Eales, "it ain't 'atred. It's plain,
straightforward despisery. I've sailed with rough and tough and 'ard
skippers, and never 'ated 'em. But our 'old man' is religious
without no religion. Oh, that's a mean thing, that is! And there's
no pleasin' of 'im. Never a decent word, nor a tot out of 'im if we
works our innards out. The skipper ain't no class! 'E lets on to
despise sailormen, and calls us ignorant. And what's 'is word for
ever when 'e's jawin'--'You no sailor, you!' And 'ere I am ready to
lay my duff for a month of Sundays against 'alf a pint of dandyfunk
that 'e couldn't make a four-stranded Mattie Walker to save 'is
unsaved soul! Called me no sailor, didn't 'e, over a real nice job
of wire splicin'! I'll bet the 'old man' couldn't do an eye splice
in a piece of inch and an 'alf manilla without thinkin' about it.
Those that know 'im say 'e was the clumsiest ass ever sent to sea.
Went up six times for 'is second mate's stiff. Why, the mate and the
second 'ere knows 'im for no seaman, and 'e's as 'andy with a 'ambone
as a pig with a pianner. They two loaths 'im just as much as us!"
There was a deal of truth in the indictment, for Brogger would never
have got a ship but for the fact that the chief owners of the
_Enchantress_ were his elder brothers.
"'Tis a pity we don't skip out here," said one of the men, "the old
swine would have his work cut out to get a fresh crowd."
"Ay, it's a pity we're such a quiet, sober crowd," replied Eales, who
on occasion was neither quiet nor sober; "but, as I showed you after
our passage out 'ere, it would be money in Brogger's pocket and the
owners' if we quit. And 'tis true 'e owns about three sixty-fourths
of 'er 'imself. The boardin'-'ouse bosses are selling sailors at
sixty dollars per 'ead. Flesh and blood are cheap to-day! I wish I
could hinvent somethin' to get even with the 'old man' in this bally,
rowdy, shanghain' old Portland. I'll give ten dollars to the son of
a gun that gives me the least 'int of a working scheme to do it."
"D'ye mean it, Jack Eales?" asked the whole crowd.
"Don't jump down a man's throat simultaneous," said Eales
indignantly, "for in course I means it. And what's more, I've got
the stuff. I ain't relyin' on that blasted old devil dodger aft for
no measly five bob a week. Since I took the pledge not to get
drunk--real drunk, that is--more'n once a month, I can trust myself
with money, and I've got it 'ere."
He kicked the chest on which he sat to show his bank.
"Blimy," said a young cockney called Corlett, who was the happiest
chap on board, "I'll 'ave a shot for Jack's ten dollars!"
"My chest's not locked," said Jack, and among so friendly a crowd the
suggestion, which was the friendliest joke, was marked up to Eales as
happy wit.
"I'm in the race for that purse," said Bush, who was the oldest
seaman on board.
"We're all after it," said the crowd, and for days afterwards they
chased Jack Eales with absurd proposals, the very least of which was
a felony, and the most pleasing absolute piracy.
"Oh, go to thunder," said Jack, when a lump of a chap called Pizzey
proposed to scuttle the _Enchantress_ as she lay alongside the wharf.
"Oh, very well," said Pizzey, who was much hurt at the way his plan
was received, "but I'll have you know that if you do it after all,
that ten dollars is mine."
The nature of seamen is so childlike, so forgetful, so forgiving,
that without further and continual irritation they would have talked
till the vessel was towed down the Willamette and the Columbia, and
for that matter all the way to Liverpool. But the skipper saw to it
that they had something to growl about. He kept them working a
quarter of an hour after knock-off time three times a week. He cut
down their usual five shillings a week to a dollar, on the ground
that he was reckoning in dollars just then. The fresh grub he sent
on board was enough, as they said in the fo'c'sle, to make a pig take
to fasting. And he nagged and growled without ceasing till Plump,
the mate, who was a very decent fellow, hated him worse than the crew
did. He listened to the second mate Dodman, when Dodman burst out
into long-suppressed bad language.
"I oughtn't to agree with you, but I do, I own it freely," said
Plump, as they stood against the poop-rail and watched Brogger pick
his way through the mud on the wharf. "I ought to tell you to dry
up, Mr. Dodman, but I find it hard to do my duty."
"He's a miserable, mean, measly, growling, discontented devil," said
Dodman in a red heat, as he mopped his forehead. "Comes and tells me
I ain't fit to stow mud in a mud-barge. Ain't it true when he was
second in this same old _Enchantress_ he stowed sugar on kerosine?
And if the old swab can rig a double Spanish burton, I'll eat this
belayin' pin. Our skipper's a know-nothing, sir."
"It's my duty not to listen to you," said Plump sadly. "I don't hear
you, Mr. Dodman."
"Then I'd like to roar it through a speakin' trumpet," said the
insubordinate second greaser. "I'd love to put it into flags, and
let every ship in Portland learn the precious truth. Didn't he say
it was your fault, sir, that Smith skipped out last night?"
"He did," said Plump darkly, "when he'd told the best worker in the
ship that he was a soldier! Told him he was a soldier!"
With the land alongside, what could any self-respecting seaman do but
go ashore after so dire an insult? They say at sea 'a messmate
before a shipmate, a shipmate before a dog, and a dog before a
soldier.' It was no wonder Smith skipped, and was just then roaring
drunk in Lant and Gulliver's, who were the boss boarding-house
masters in Portland, and bought and sold seamen as a ranchman might
cattle.
And that very night Corlett came up to Jack Eales as he was going
ashore, and put his hand on his shoulder. The young cockney had a
grin upon him which, properly divided, would have made the whole
ship's company look happy.
"That ten dollars is mine," said Corlett. "Jack, you're ten dollars
short. I wouldn't part with my claim on it for nine dollars and
ninety-nine cents."
"We've 'eard too many rotten dodges lately," said Eales, "to take
that in. What's the news now?"
But Corlett shook his head.
"I'm for the shore with you, sonny, and I'll tell you goin' along."
He bubbled as he walked, and every now and again burst into a roar of
laughter, which was so infectious that Eales joined in at last.
"You are a funny bloke," said Eales; "and I'll say this for you,
Corlett: I've never looked on you as no fool."
And Corlett sat down on a pile of lumber and laughed till he ached.
"Me a fool! Jack Eales, I'm the smartest cove on this coast. My
notion's worth an 'undred dollars. It's as clear as mud, and as easy
as eatin' good soft tack, and so neat that I wonder at myself. And
it fits everythin'--everythin'."
"Then out with it," said Eales.
And Corlett came out with it.
"By Gosh!" said Eales--"by Gosh!"
He collapsed upon an adjacent pile of lumber and gasped.
"You've no right to be at sea," he said presently; "a man with your
'ead, Corlett, ought to 'ave a public-'ouse in a front street, and
nothin' to pay for drinks. I've only three dollars on me. 'Ere's a
dollar and an 'alf. I owe you eight-fifty."
He walked ten yards and came back again.
"You should 'ave bumps on your 'ead," he sighed. "This is
hintellec', Corlett. It ain't mere cleverness, this isn't."
"You don't say so," said the cockney modestly.
"I do say so," replied Eales with great firmness; "I say it freely."
And they walked up town.
"You see," said Corlett, "'ow the 'ole thing stows itself away. It
'ardly needs management. Lant and Gulliver 'ates 'im, and they're
that jealous of Shanghai Smith down in 'Frisco with 'is games,
they'll jump at this. And then it's well known Mr. Plump ain't got
'is master's ticket. And young Dodman on'y got 'is second's ticket a
v'yge ago. There'll be no goin' back on it if the agents find the
right man. By the 'Oly Frost, Jack, we'll diskiver yet if old
Brogger is 'alf a bally seaman anyway."
"It's a merricle, Corlett, it's a merricle!" said Jack Eales. "I
never quite properly understood what books I've looked into meant by
the pure hintellec'. You're clean wasted at sea, so you are.
To-night we'll think it over, and to-morrow you and me will go as a
committee of deputation to Lant and Gulliver if we sees no flaw in
the thing."
"Take my word, there ain't no flaw in it," said Corlett.
"I'm inclined to believe you," said Eales, almost humbly. "I never
thought to own up that a man on board the _Enchantress_ was my equal,
let alone my superior."
He sighed, but Corlett encouraged him.
"'Tis on'y a fluke, Jack."
"No, no," said Jack; "no, no, this is real 'ead-work. I knows it
when I sees it. I'm proud to be shipmates with you, Corlett. Shake
'ands again."
They shook hands, and presently Corlett spent the one dollar and
fifty cents which he had earned by pure intellect.
"Per'aps I'm a fool to be at sea," he said to himself. "I shouldn't
wonder if Jack's right."
And next evening they walked up to Lant and Gulliver's, and demanded
to see either or both of the partners in private.
"'Tis puttin' our 'eads in the lion's mouth to come 'ere," said Jack
Eales, "and you and me will do well not to touch a drop, whatever
these land-sharks offer, Corlett. Doped drinks ain't for me just
now. So don't go large at all, my son."
"I won't," said Corlett, "if none of 'em don't offer me a drink three
times, I can 'old off it, Jack. Sayin' 'no' once is tol'rable easy.
I can squeeze out a second if it's a case of 'ave to; but what I
dread's the third."
Jack Eales nodded.
"The third time's what proves a man's principles, I own. I've gone
to four times more than once soon after bein' very much under the
weather. But 'ere we are."
They came to Lant and Gulliver's boarding-house, the whole front of
which was a saloon. It looked a 'tough' house, and it was tough both
inside and out. These gentry had a 'pull' in Portland which enabled
them to do as they pleased, and the only thing that pleased them was
to make money. Most of the other boarding-houses had been fined out
of existence, owing to a law that Mr. Lant had lobbied for at Salem.
His conduct in the matter had brought him much praise for noble
disinterestedness. He had asked for fines of five hundred dollars
for gross infractions of the law instead of fifty, and the
unsuspecting Legislature said it was a splendid suggestion, and
passed the Bill with unanimity. As a result, his rivals, who were
comparatively poor scoundrels without his control of the police, shed
their dollars once or twice and then went under, and he had a
monopoly. Both Lant and Gulliver had what Jack Eales called 'pure
hintellec''; they would have adorned the bench in Ohio; they might
have shone as Finance Ministers in Costa Rica or Panama.
"Well, wot is it?" asked Lant, who had the eyes and jaws and nose of
a pugilist, and the domed skull of a philosopher. "Wot's the trouble
here? What ship are you off of?"
"We wants a private talk with you, sir," said Eales, who had never
met Lant before, and was more scared of him than he would have been
of any admiral. For Lant and Gulliver's reputation is
world-wide--all men who go down to the sea in ships know them.
He wrinkled his brows at them and considered for a moment. Then he
led the way into the private snuggery, in which as much scoundrelism
had been concocted as if it had been the head office of a great Trust
or the Russian Foreign Office.
"Spit it out," said Lant as he sat down.
"We're in the _Enchantress_, sir," said Eales.
"And you want to get out, eh? What's my runners about? Haven't they
bin aboard of you yet?"