Billy John fished the conger gaff from under the blue and silver heap
of mackerel in the well and climbed laboriously on to the little
half-deck. So we were after some sort of flotsam, I could not see
what, because Billy John's expansive back-view obscured the prospect
ahead, but from his tense attitude I judged that it appeared
interesting. He signed to me to come up another couple of points, took
a firm grasp of the gaff and leaned over the bows. Then with a creak
of straining tackle and a hiss of riven water a gig was on us. She
swooped out of the blue, swept by not two fathoms to windward and with
a boat-hook snapped up the treasure trove (it looked suspiciously like
a small keg) right under our very noses as adroitly as a lurcher snaps
a hare. She ran on a cable's length, spun on her heel and slipped away
down the sound, a long lean craft, leaping like a live thing under her
press of canvas. She seemed full of redheaded men of all ages and was
steered by a brindled patriarch who wagged his vermilion beard at us
and cackled loudly. I roared with laughter; I had seldom seen anything
so consummately slick in my life.
Billy John roared too, but from other influences. He bellowed, he
spat, he danced with rage. He cursed the gig's company collectively
and singly, said they were nothing better than common pirates and that
they lured ships to destruction and devoured the crews--raw.
The gig's company were delighted; they jeered and waved their caps.
Billy John trembled with passion.
"Who stole the bar'l o' beef?" he trumpeted through his palms.
"Who--stole--the--bar'l--o'--beef? Hoo hoo!"
This last sally had a subduing effect on the gig's company; they
turned their faces away and became absorbed in the view ahead.
* * * * *
[Illustration: CHILDREN'S PRESENTS. CHRISTMAS, 1920.
_Mother._ "ISN'T IT A PERFECT GEM, DARLING?"
_Son._ "WOULDN'T BE SEEN DEAD WITH IT. I ASK YOU, WHERE'S THE H.P.
CYLINDER THAT DRIVES THE CRANK-PINS ON THE TRAILING WHEELS?"]
* * * * *
Billy John sat down with a grunt of satisfaction. "That settled 'em,"
he grinned. "They dunno who did steal the bar'l to this day, and each
wan do suspect t'other."
"St. Martin's islanders?" I queried.
Billy John shook his head. "Naw, from St. Helen's, o' course; deddn'
you see their red 'eads? They 're all red-'eaded over on Helen's--take
after their great-grandfather the Devil."
"They're pretty smart, anyhow," said I.
Billy John threw up both hands. "Smart! By dang you've said it!
Anythin' in the way o' honest work they do leave to us poor mainland
grabbers; they don't unnerstand it; but come a bit o' easy money in
the way of wreckage and we might as well stop bed as try to compete
with they; we eddn but children to 'em."
"What about this barrel of beef?" I asked.
Billy John chuckled. "Comed to pass years ago, Sir. There was a party
of us over 'ere crabbin'. My brother Zackariah 'ad married a Helen's
wumman, and a brear great piece she were too. They was livin' on
Helen's upon Lower Town beach, and we lodged with 'em.
"Wan mornin' before dawn along comes great Susan in her stockined
feet. 'Whist!' says she, 'rouse thee out an' don't make no noise; I
think I heerd a gun from Carnebiggal Ledges.'
"We sneaked out like shadows, got the boat afloat and pulled away,
mufflin' the oars with our caps. We got a fair start; nobody heerd us
go. It weren't yet light and the fog were like a bag, but we got there
somehow, and sure enough there were a big steamer fast on the rocks.
Great Susan were right. Oh, I tell you t'eddn guesswork with they St.
Helen's folk; male or female they got a nose for a wreck, same as cats
for mice. There was a couple o' ship's boats standing by on her port
side full o' men.
"'Where in 'ell are we?' shouts 'er skipper as we comed nosing through
the fog. 'I ain't seen the sun for two days.'
"We told en and lay by chattin' and wonderin' 'ow we was to plunder
she, with them in the road. Time went by and there we was still
chattin' about the weather an' suchlike damfoolery. Every minute I was
expectin' to see the Helen's gigs swarmin' out, and then it wouldn't
be pickin's we'd get but leavin's.
"''Ere,' whispers I to Zakky, 'scare 'im off for God's sake.'
"'I'll 'ave a try,' says 'e. 'Say, Mr. Captain, the tide's makin'. She
do come through 'ere like a river and you'll be swamped for certain.
Pull for the shore, sailor.'
"'Will you pilot me in?' says the captain.
"'Naw,' says Zakky. 'I got to be after my crab-pots; but I'll send my
nephew wid 'e.'
"'Keep 'em lost out in the Sound for a couple of hours, son,' he
whispers to the boy, and the lad takes 'em off into the fog. 'Now for
the plunder, my dears,' says Zakky; and we makes for the ship.
"But Lor' bless you, Sir, she were already plundered. While we was
chattin' away on her port side four Helen's gigs' crews had boarded
her quietly from starboard and was eatin' through her like a pest
o' ants. They'd come staggering on deck--fathers, sons and
grandfathers--with bundles twice as big nor themselves, toss 'em into
the gigs and go back for more. As for us, we stood like men mazed. I
tell you, Sir, a God-fearing man can't make a livin' 'mong that lot;
they'll turn a vessel inside out while he's thinkin' how to begin.
"By-'m-by they comed on the prize o' the lot--a bar'l o' beef. My
word, what an outcry! 'I seed 'en first!' 'Naw, you deddn': hands
off!' 'Leggo; 's mine!' Quarrellin' 'mong themselves now, mark you,
beef bein' as scarce as diamonds in them hard times. Old Hosea--the
old toad that you seed steerin' that gig just now--he puts a stop to
et.
"'Avast ragin', thou fools,' says 'e; "coastguards will be along in a
minute and then there'll be nothin' for nobody. Set en in my boat an'
I'll divide it up equal on the beach.'
"They done as they were told, and away goes old Hosea for the shore,
followed by the other gigs loaded that deep they could hardly swim.
Seein' they hadn't left us nothin' but the bare bones we pulled in
ourselves shortly after, and my dear life what a sight we did behold!
Fellows runnin' about in the fog on the beach, for all the world like
shadows on a blind, cursin', shoutin', fightin', tumblin' over each
other, huntin' high and low, and in the middle of 'em all old Hosea
crying out for his bar'l o' beef like a wumman after her first-born.
Somebody'd stole it! Mercy me! we mainlanders lay on our oars and
laughed till the tears rolled out of us in streams."
"Who did steal it? Do you know?" I asked.
Billy John nodded. "I do, Sir. Why, great Susan, o' course. They'd
forgotten she, livin' right upon the beach--wan o' their own breed.
Susan stalked en through the fog an' had en locked in her own house
before they could turn round. And many a full meal we poor honest
mainlanders had off it, Sir, take it from me."