DICK KNUCKLEDUSTER.
Wakened by rolling off the sea-chest, on which I had fallen asleep
overnight, I found that day had broken--that it was considerably
advanced indeed, by the appearance of the light, and for a minute I
could scarcely realize my locality or that I was not in a dream.
Alone in the lower story of a lighthouse, against the timbers and
below the floor of which I heard the sea gurgling and washing with
ceaseless and monotonous sound; the apartment was octagonal: built
like the sides of a ship, caulked and pitched, with enormous beams of
oak bolted together by cramps and knees of iron. The furniture and
appurtenances consisted of two sea-chests, two campstools, seated
with old canvas; a few pistols, cutlasses, spy-glasses, and
signal-flags, stowed away among salt beef, biscuits, combs, razors,
butter, plates, pots, and pans on the dirty shelves, which were
bracketed within the sloping timbers. Besides these, were various
casks, and odds and ends, the salt-encrusted state of which indicated
their having been found in vessels stranded among the adjacent sands.
I ascended a ladder which led to the upper story. It contained two
truckle beds, which, being formed of teased oakum and tarry shakings,
emitted a frightful odour, and thereon were my worthy hosts in
profound slumber. I resolved to turn to account the brief liberty
this gave me, and commenced an immediate inspection of the place. A
ladder and hatch led me from this place to the roof, where I found
the lights extinguished, and, from a slender iron gallery formed
round the summit, I had a view of the dreary sea boiling over ridges
of sand, that were dry or covered alternately, as the tide ebbed and
flowed. The shore was visible, but so flat as to seem far off,
though only a mile or so distant. The sky was grey and lowering--the
sea a dingy russet green, flecked with foam and full of shifting
sands. The blackened ribs of an old wreck, half-buried in sand and
covered by sea-weeds, lay near, and thereon was perched a solitary
gull with grey and drooping wings.
The only other feature in this cheerless scene was one of those old
square church towers peculiar to England. It seemed dim and distant
in the haze; but indicated the locality of a township or parish, and
in that quarter now all my hopes were centred.
The lighthouse was evidently without a boat, the two occupants being
apparently men who could not be trusted with one. Provisions and
other necessaries were brought off to them, from time to time, by
certain officials on shore.
My spirit writhed and my heart sank at the prospect of residing with
such wretches, even for a week; and I had, moreover, the miserable
conviction, that neither my life nor liberty were safe with them,
after the conversation I had overheard. On that day, and the next,
they were alternately sullen and sneering, while, telescope in hand,
from their upper gallery they kept a sharp look-out for a king's ship.
So did I, but with very different feelings.
Finding the double necessity of killing the dreary and anxious hours,
and perhaps of conciliating--if such were possible--these sullen and
brutal spirits, I assisted them in trimming the huge lamps and
reflectors, in cooking our repast of salt junk, and brewing a great
can of egg-flip; but having been detected, in the evening, waving my
handkerchief as a signal to a passing schooner, the master of which,
on seeing it, actually altered his course and bore up for the
lighthouse, I fell into a serious scrape.
Suddenly I was confronted by my two tyrants. Dick's eyes glared like
those of a wild beast, as he gave me a violent blow on the ear with a
heavy telescope, while the other, with gratuitous ferocity, struck me
down by a stroke from a handspike, exclaiming,--
"Look out! or, split me, if I won't cut your rascally throat from
clue to earing! Who the devil is going to keep a loblolly-boy like
you in grub and grog for nothing?"
I fell senseless and bleeding on the upper deck, or roof of the
lighthouse.
I must have lain long thus; for, on recovery, I found that darkness
had set in, that the beacon was lighted, and its three lamps, from
the cavity of their vast reflectors, were again shedding their
radiated lustre far across the heaving waves of the darkened sea.
There was no moon visible, but a few tremulous stars were shimmering
through the gauze-like vapour that veiled the gloomy sky.
Stiff, sore, and chilled, with an aching head and eyes full of
tears--my cheeks damp and my hair encrusted by the saline nature of
the atmosphere--I staggered up and sat in the outer gallery for a
time, gazing sadly, and full of bitter thoughts, upon the restless
sea, which boiled and seethed some thirty feet below me.