AN UNLUCKY SMASH
Captain Duff's first order after peace was thus restored and he had
recovered the use of his voice, temporarily lost through amazement at
the spectacle of a sailor before the mast paying out of his own pocket
for a ship's stores, and stores of such an extraordinary character as
well, was that the goods thus acquired should be immediately transferred
to his own cabin. So Bonny, with Alaric to assist, began to carry the
things below.
The cabin was very small, dirty, and stuffy. It contained two wide
transom berths, one on each side, a table bearing the stains of
innumerable meals and black with age, and two stools. There was a clock
nailed to the forward bulkhead; beneath it was fastened a small, cheap
mirror, and beside this, attached to a bit of tarred twine, hung the
ship's comb.
One of the two berths was overlaid with a mattress, several soiled
blankets, and a tattered quilt. It formed the captain's bed, and it also
served as a repository for a number of tobacco-boxes and an assortment
of well-used pipes. In the other berth was a confusion of old clothing,
hats, boots, and whatever else had been pitched there to get it out of
the way. Here the captain proposed to have stored the providential
supply of food that had come to him as unexpectedly as that furnished by
the ravens to the prophet Elijah.
The air of the place was so pervaded with a combination odor of stale
tobacco smoke, mouldy leather, damp clothing, bilge-water, kerosene,
onions, and other things of an equally obtrusive nature, that poor
Alaric gasped for breath on first descending the short but steep flight
of steps leading to it. He deposited his burden and hurried out as
quickly as possible, in spite of the fact that Captain Duff, who sat on
his bunk, had begun to speak to him.
On his next trip below the lad drew in a long breath of fresh air just
before entering the evil-smelling cabin, and determined not to take
another until he should emerge from it. In his haste to execute this
plan he dropped his armful of cans, and, without waiting to stow them,
had gained the steps before realizing that the captain was ordering him
to come back.
Furious at hearing his command thus disregarded, the man reached out
with one of his crutches, caught it around the boy's neck, and gave him
a violent jerk backward.
The startled lad, losing his foothold, came to the floor with a crash
and a loud escaping "Ah!" of pent-up breath. At the same moment the
cabin began to be pervaded with a new and unaccustomed odor so strong
that all the others temporarily withdrew in its favor.
"Oh murder! Let me out," gasped Captain Duff, as he scrambled for the
companion-way and a breath of outer air. "Of all the smells I ever
smelled that's the worst!"
"What have you broken, Rick?" asked Bonny, anxiously, thrusting his head
down the companion-way. He had been curiously reading the unfamiliar
labels on the various jars, pots, and bottles, and now fancied that his
crew had slipped down the steep steps with some of these in his arms.
"Whew! but it's strong!" he continued, as the penetrating fumes greeted
his nostrils. "Is it the truffles or the pate grass or the cheese?"
"I'm afraid," replied Alaric, sadly, as he slowly rose from the cabin
floor and thrust a cautious hand into one of his hip-pockets, "that it
is a bottle of eau-de-Cologne."
"Cologne!" cried Bonny, incredulously, as he caught the word. "If these
foreign kinds of grub are put up in cologne, it's no wonder that I never
heard of them before. Why, it's poison, that's what it is, and nothing
less. Shall I heave the rest of the truck overboard, sir?"
"Hold on!" cried Alaric, emerging with rueful face from the cabin in
time to catch this suggestion. "It isn't in them. It was in my pocket
all by itself."
"I wish it had stayed there, and you'd gone to Halifax with it afore
ever ye brought the stuff aboard this ship!" thundered the captain.
"Avast, ye lubber! Don't come anigh me. Go out on the end of the dock
and air yourself."
So the unhappy lad, his clothing saturated with cologne, betook himself
to the wharf, where, as he slowly walked up and down, filling the air
with perfume, he carefully removed bits of broken glass from his moist
pocket, and disgustedly flung them overboard.
While he was thus engaged, the first mate, under the captain's personal
supervision, was fumigating the cabin by burning in it a bunch of oakum
over which was scattered a small quantity of tobacco. When the
atmosphere of the place was thus so nearly restored to its normal
condition that Captain Duff could again endure it, Bonny finished
stowing the supplies, and then turned his attention to preparing supper.
Meanwhile Alaric had been joined in his lonely promenade by a stranger,
who, with a curious expression on his face as he drew near the lad,
changed his position so as to get on the windward side, and then began a
conversation.
"Fine evening," he said.
"Is it?" asked Alaric, moodily.
"I think so. Do you belong on that sloop?"
"Yes."
"Able looking craft, and seems to have good accommodations. Where does
she run to from here?"
"The Sound," answered Alaric, shortly, for he was not in a humor to be
questioned.
"What does she carry?"
"Passengers and cargo."
"Indeed. And may I ask what sort of a cargo?"
"You may."
"Well, then, what sort?" persisted the stranger.
"Chinks and dope," returned Alaric, glancing up with the expectation of
seeing a look of bewilderment on his questioner's face. But the latter
only said:
"Um! About what I thought. Good-paying business, isn't it?"
"If it wasn't we wouldn't be in it," replied the boy.
"No, I suppose not; and it must pay big since it enables even the
cabin-boy to drench himself with perfumery. Good-night; you're too
sweet-scented for my company."
Ere Alaric could reply the stranger was walking rapidly away, and Bonny
was calling him to supper.
The first mate apologized for serving this meal on deck, saying that the
sloop's company generally ate together in the cabin, but that Captain
Duff objected to the crew's presence at his table on this occasion.
"So," said Bonny, "I told him he might eat alone, then, for I should
come out and eat with you."
"I hope he will always feel the same way," retorted Alaric, "for it
doesn't seem as though I could possibly stay in that cabin long enough
to eat a meal."
"Oh, I guess you could," laughed Bonny. "Anyway, it will be all right by
breakfast-time, for the smell is nearly gone now. But I say, Rick Dale,
what an awfully funny fellow you are anyway! What in the world made you
pay for all that truck? It must have taken every cent you had."
"So it did," replied Alaric. "But what of that? It was the easiest way
to smooth things over that I knew of."
"It wouldn't have been for me, then," rejoined Bonny, "for I haven't
handled a dollar in so long that it would scare me to find one in my
pocket. But why didn't you let them take back the things we didn't
need?"
"Because, having ordered them, we were bound to accept them, of course,
and because I thought we needed them all. I'm awfully tired of such
things myself, but I didn't know you were."
"What! olives and mushrooms and truffles, and the rest of the things
with queer names? I never tasted one of them in my life, and don't
believe the captain did, either."
"That seems odd," reflected Alaric.
"Doesn't it?" responded Bonny, quizzically. "And that cologne, too. What
ever made you buy it?"
"I don't know exactly. Because I happened to see it, I suppose, and
thought it would be a useful thing to have along. A little of it is nice
in your bath, you know, or to put on your handkerchief when you have a
headache."
"My stars!" exclaimed Bonny. "Listen to that, will you! Why, Rick, to
hear you talk, one would think you were a prince in disguise, or a
bloated aristocrat of some kind!"
"Well, I'm not," answered Alaric, shortly. "I'm only a sailor on board
the sloop _Fancy_, who has just eaten a fine supper and enjoyed it."
"Have you, really?" asked the other, dubiously. "It didn't seem to me
that just coffee without any milk, hard bread, and fried salt pork were
very fine, and I was afraid that perhaps you wouldn't like 'em."
"I do, though," insisted Alaric. "You see, I never tasted any of those
things before, and they are first-class."
"Well," said Bonny, "I don't think much of such grub, and I've had it
for more than a year, too; but, then, every one to his liking. Now, if
you are all through, let's hustle and clear away these dishes, for we
are going to sail to-night, you know, and I've got to notify our
passengers. You may come with me and learn the ropes if you want to."
"But we haven't any cargo aboard," objected Alaric.
"Oh, that won't take long. A few minutes will fix the cargo all right."
Alaric wondered what sort of a cargo could be taken aboard in a few
minutes, but wisely concluded to wait and see.
So the dishes were hastily washed in a bucket of sea-water and put away.
Then, after a short consultation with Captain Duff in the cabin, Bonny
reappeared, and, beckoning Alaric to follow him, both lads went ashore
and walked up into the town.
Although it was now evening, Bonny did not seek the well-lighted
business streets, but made his way to what struck Alaric as a peculiarly
disreputable neighborhood. The houses were small and dingy, and their
windows were so closely shuttered that no ray of light issued from them.
At length they paused before a low door, on which Bonny rapped in a
peculiar manner. It was cautiously opened by a man who held a dim lamp
over his head, and who evidently regarded them with suspicion. He was
reassured by a few words from the young mate; the door was closed behind
them, and, with the stranger leading the way, while Alaric, filled with
curiosity, brought up the rear, all three entered a narrow and very dark
passage, the air of which was close and stifling.