WHAT THE DOCTOR OVERHEARD IN THE FORECASTLE BUNKS.
The love he bore Rose, the love that she permitted him to bear, and
which she so fully reciprocated, together with the regard and esteem
he had for the grave, gentle Ethel, and good, easy Mr. Basset,
increased the anxiety with which the young Scotch surgeon beheld the
growing discontent of the crew.
On deck, he more than once had heard them conferring in most
unpleasant terms about the disappearance of the third mate, and, in
reply to some remark of Sharkey's, Zuares Barradas said, with a
cunning twinkle in his eyes:
"_Bueno! paso a paso va lejos._"
"Wot the devil does that mean, shipmate? Avast with your Spanish.
Carn't you speak the queen's English?"
"Well, it means that 'step by step goes far'. Manfredi is gone; a
little spell and we shall have it all our own way," replied the
Spanish American, as he hitched up his trousers and slunk forward.
"These rascals are decidedly up to something--or whence all this
skulking about, this whispering in gangs, and knife-sharpening," said
Heriot to the captain.
"The grindstone has never been idle all day," observed Mr. Quail, who
was looking, as the captain remarked, "rather white about the gills,
in consequence."
After a long conference in the cabin, Dr. Heriot offered, there being
no moon about the middle of the first night-watch, to creep forward
to the forecastle bunk, where, in defiance of orders, the crew now
kept a light burning after sundown, and endeavour to overhear their
conversation. The duty of acting eavesdropper was not a pleasant,
but, in this instance, a most necessary one.
The first night Heriot attempted this, he failed to get forward
unseen; but on the second, as the atmosphere, though very cloudy, was
fine, and the ship under easy sail was going large, that is, with the
wind abaft the beam, which careened her slightly to port, Heriot,
armed with a sharp bowie-knife, concealed in his breast, so as to be
ready for any emergency (for if discovered by the watch he might be
sent overboard after poor Manfredi) crept forward on the leeside,
keeping his head close under the bulwarks, and in the shadow.
The men of the watch were all grouped to windward, smoking with their
backs against the long-boat, and the steersman could see little else
than the lights that glared in the binnacles, and the ship's canvas,
that towered aloft between him and the sky.
Through the two yolks of dense, thick glass that admitted light to
the forecastle bunks, in which the seamen had their chests and
berths, he could see nothing, save that they had, as usual with them,
in defiance of the captain's order, a lamp or lantern, the light of
which glared as from two bull's-eyes upon the forehatchway, the foot
of the foremast, the gallows-bitts abaft it, the scuttle-butt, and so
forth.
These two lines of light had the effect of rendering the rest of the
deck dark, thus favouring the purpose of Heriot, who reached unseen
the forecastle, and crept along it, until he found himself close to
the coaming of the scuttle, or small square hatchway, which gave
access thereto, and from whence there ascended into the pure saline
atmosphere of the midnight sea a combination of odours that were
neither of Araby nor of Ind; for more than a dozen of dirty, tarry,
unwashed, and uncombed specimens of those seamen usually denominated
"coloured," the most ruffianly of their class, such, as may be seen
lounging and loafing about the quays and grog-shops of Liverpool and
Birkenhead, were all seated closely round a chest, which was lashed
by ringbolts to the deck, and formed the table, whereon they had
recently supped on scalding-hot "scouse" from a greasy wooden kid;
and the fumes of this savoury mess yet mingled with the tar with
which their clothes were saturated, and the coarse tobacco in which
they were all indulging freely, by means of pipes, quids, and
cigarettes.
A ship's lantern, in which a candle sputtered, shed a wavering light
through the perforated tin upon the black hair, massive frontal
bones, and square jaw of Pedro Barradas, and on his coarse,
leather-like ears, in which a pair of silver rings were glittering;
on the dark olive face of his brother, Zuares, a villain of a more
pleasing type, only because he was younger and handsomer; on the
cruel, sardonic visage, the keen eyes, hooked nose, and enormous
chin, and tangled elf-locks of Bill Badger, the long-legged and
ungainly Yankee; on the huge head and giant hands of the odious
Sharkey, who sat with his cheeks wedged between his hands, his elbows
planted on the chest, and his eyes that, from under the bloody
bandage encircling his temples, glared at each speaker alternately;
and on all the rest of the ill-selected crew--fell the lantern's dim
uncertain ray, bringing some forward into light, and leaving others
almost in shadow.
Though quite sober, for as yet they had no means for procuring
alcohol, they generally all spoke at once, and were engaged in an
angry dispute, which, however, they were still cautious enough to
conduct with suppressed voices.
Pedro Barradas grasped in his left hand an old dice-box, which was
served round with spunyarn, and two suspicious-looking dice were
rattled in it from time to time.
At the moment that Heriot peeped in, it would seem as if our Spanish
acquaintance suddenly lost his temper. His black eyes filled with
fire, his swarthy cheek grew livid and pale, he showed all his sharp
white teeth like a dog about to bite, and striking his drawn knife
into the lid of the chest, round which they were all grouped, and
with a force of action that made them all shrink back, he uttered a
tremendous oath, and said, in a low, hoarse voice:
"It is agreed, then, that we take the ship, and make all the people
aft walk the plank. Am I to understand this?"
"Yes, yes," from all hands was the reply; "and all must walk the
plank to leeward."
"Except the women," suggested the Canadian seaman, named Bolter.
"In course we shall keep them!" said Badger, laying a long and dirty
finger on one side of his hawk nose, and closing an eye wickedly;
"and take very partik'lar care o' the darlings, too."
"We take the ship," resumed Pedro Barradas, speaking good English,
and with an air of authority; "and then we shall run her on her own
account."
"How?" asked one.
"In the slaving or piccarooning line, or anything else that comes to
hand."
"But where to?" asked the Canadian, who seemed a man of doubts.
"Anywheres, darn your nutmeg of a head!" growled the Yankee;
"anywheres, arter we has had a jolly spree ashore."
"On what shore, mate?"
"On the coast ov Africy, in course; but not afore, mate--not afore, I
calc'late."
"Come, now, I likes this," observed Sharkey, putting in his voice;
"if water and wittles runs short, we may overhaul an Ingeeman,
homeward-bound, or an Australian liner----"
"With sojers aboard, mayhap," said Bolter; "so what will you dew
then?"
"Hail or signal for a boat, to be sure, and sink it to leeward with a
cold shot through its ribs. Shout that it has been swamped under the
counter, and to send another, and another, and so knock 'em all on
the head. Then run her aboard, take all out of her--the women, too,
if any--then scuttle or burn her."
"A game you won't play long athout being overhauled by some cussed
man-o'-war," said the Canadian. "I tell you, mates, the good old
piratical times have been put out o' fashion long since. Even the
slaving business is knocked up by them blazing smoke-jacks and
gun-boats of the African squadron. The sea ain't wot it was, mates,
when old Kidd sailed the _Vulture_ down the Channel with a skull and
marrow-bones flying at his foremasthead."
"Hooray! I'll ship with you, Barradas," cried another. "Grog for
the drinking, a grab at these gals, and the pick o' the good things
in the passengers' trunks and cabin-lockers."
"And till that time comes," added Sharkey, "we'll work Tom Cox's
traverse with old Phillips--that we shall. Precious little work
he'll get out of me."
"But I don't like usin' the knife or plank if they could be done
athout, mates," said the Canadian ponderingly.
"The Reverend Mr. Ben Bolter, a Methody parson, 'll offer up a
blessin' over the empty mess-kids," sneered the Yankee.
"_Par todos santos_," growled Pedro Barradas, giving the Canadian a
glance of profound scorn, while Zuares uttered a shrill and ferocious
laugh.
"I say, cooky," said Sharkey, in a way which he supposed to be very
jocular, "as Ben Bolter don't like the stickin' business, couldn't
you put summut tasty into the mess-kid o' the cabbin passingers, and
pison the whole bilin' o' them? I have known o' such things being
done afore now, mates, and many other things, too, that never
appeared in the ship's log. Have you any Calabar beans aboard?"
"Yaas," replied the cook, with a regular negro grin, for he was a
black Virginian, named Quaco; "dere's a bagful in de hold. Why?"
"I have known of a handful, put in a copper of peasoup, doing for a
whole ship's crew afore now."
"When?"
"In the Gulf of Florida once, and again among the Coral Islands, in
the Pacific. Aye, aye, mates, I have seen some rum sprees in my
time."
"And you are likely to see more," added the Yankee, "ere this cussed
old craft gets her anchors over the bows, and her ground-tackle rove.
Ha, ha! But as for the pison, you darned fool, wot of old Basset's
gals? We wants 'em partik'lar, you know. So avast with your Calabar
beans. I guess, mate, you're up a tree, rayther."
Sharkey was abashed into silence.
"And that Scotch doctor," said a gaunt, unhealthy-looking seaman,
named Cribbit, who had not yet spoken, and who so frequently required
Heriot's medical aid that he had imbibed half the contents of his
medicine-chest, "must he, too, walk the plank?"
"In course he must," drawled Bill Badger, stuffing an enormous quid
in the inmost recesses of his capacious mouth.
"No, no, _demonio_, no!" said the elder Barradas; "we must keep him
alive so long as we want him. We can't physic ourselves,
_companeros_, especially if fever comes aboard, which it is likely to
do if we hug the land."
"But in physicking us he might poison the whole blessed gang,"
suggested the Canadian.
"No fear of that. We'll have him chained to the mainmast, and if a
man dies in his hands, then _el senor doctor de medicena_ shall be
tipped overboard after the others."
"Thank you, my Spanish _patrone_," thought Heriot, who had listened
to all this with blood that alternately boiled and curdled; "a
pleasant little medical practice you are likely to find me here!"
"Mayhap that fellow, Hawkshaw, would join us?" suggested the Canadian
again.
"He, the white-livered Perro!" exclaimed Pedro, "I long to have my
Albacete knife between his ribs. I'll teach him to play off
quarter-deck airs with me, the God-abandoned Piccaro! Well, is it
agreed that, instead of letting old Phillips haul up for Table Bay,
we keep the ship off the land whether he will or will not take her
before we are abreast of La Tierra de Natal; hug the coast of Africa
after; have a run through the Mozambique Channel, and then stand
right across the Indian Sea for whatever we may overhaul?"
A unanimous clapping of very hard and very dirty hands responded
heartily to this programme.
"Now, Pedro, the _dados_ (dice)," said Zuares, impatiently.
"Yes, mates, the dice!" added the Yankee, setting his chin, which was
like a shoemaker's knife, upon his knees, and clasping his hands over
his ankles, so that he squatted on his hams like a huge baboon.
"Hooray! the old _Herminey_ has been trimmed by the starn since she
saw Dungeness Light; but we'll trim her by the head arter we doubles
the Cape--eh, mates? So now to draw lots for them two pretty
creeturs, as I calculate is just agoin' to bed about this blessed
time. Think o' that, mates! I'm a thorough-bred Yankee--half bull,
half shark, with an uncommon cross of the snake; so I'm blowed if I
can wait almost till we leave Table Bay astarn and bear up towards
Natal. But rattle away, Pedro, my boy!--Captain Pedro that is to be,
I reckon."
The blood of the young Scotchman grew cold as he listened, longing
for a brace of loaded revolvers, that he might shoot down the whole
band; but the talkative Yankee began his nasal drawling again.
"How I'd like to have one of 'em under a big palm-tree in some snug
diggin' on the Africy coast, or in a wigwam on the Mozambique,
thatched with leaves, no topsails to reef o' nights, and nothin' to
do all day, but keep on admiring her, and swigging the grog old
Phillips has aboard, or blowing a whiff of 'baccy--eh, mates?
Jeerusalem! that's summut like life, I calculate!"
"_Morte de Dios!_" swore Pedro Barradas, with a very dark look; "haul
in your slack, and be hanged to you! There are other things than the
two girls worth casting lots for!"
"Is there really, now?" drawled Badger. I was looking into the
senoras' cabin the other night, and saw them going to bed. I saw
lovely necks and shoulders, and all that; but I saw more, I can tell
you, _companeros_."
"Smite my timbers!" "Shiver my tawpsails!" "Darn my eyes!" "Oh,
Jeerusalem!" And "What did you see?" asked several all at once.
"A splendid jewel-case," replied the Spaniard, while an avaricious
gleam sparkled in his dark eyes; "a box with diamond rings for the
ears and fingers; carbuncles, turquoises, and topazes, in bracelets
and necklets, all glittering on the trays of blue and crimson velvet.
So he who loses the girls should have a chance----"
"Of grabbing the jewels," interrupted Badger; "in course he
should--in course!"
"Jewels or not," said Zuares Barradas, laughing, while he rolled up a
fresh cigarito, "I'll teach one senora, at least, that it is no
longer here _mira y no totas_, as they say in Minorca."
"Which means, in your cussed lingo?" asked Bolter.
"_Look_ at me, but _touch_ me not!" replied the young Spaniard, with
a grin.
"I'm rayther pertik'lar," observed Mr. Badger, "and I might do
neither one nor t'other, if I wor in Minorky."
"Ay, mate; but if you saw the Minorca girls in their robazillas of
white lace or silk, pinned under their pretty dimpled chins, and
falling over their shoulders, to be lifted at times by the wind, only
as if to show the low bodice and rounded bosom beneath--_hombre_."
"Here is a sentimental young villain, with an eye for the
picturesque!" thought Heriot.
"Now, then, the dados," said Pedro, rattling the dice-box. "I throw
myself first."
"_Maladetto_, Pedro!" interrupted Zuares. "Content yourself with rum
and plunder; you are too old and crank for either of these girls to
be pleased with you."
"_Vaya usted al Satanos!_" responded his affectionate elder brother.
"The girls, at all events, are not too young for me to be pleased
with them. I am not more than forty, you son of a burnt castano."
"Take the old nurse, Pedro--you'll have her a free gift, gratis, all
for nothin', and Badger's blessing into the bargain. If one o' these
gals falls to me," continued the talkative Yankee, "I reckon I must
get shaved by the doctor, and be fixed anew; have my 'air swabbed
down with some o' the cook's slush, and a hextra pull up o' my shirt
collar--eh, mates?"
Amid the ferocious laughter which these and similar remarks drew
forth, and while the dice-box rattled on the sea-chest lid Dr. Heriot
withdrew, and crept aft, just as he had done forward, by keeping
close under the lee bulwarks.
Reaching the companion-way unseen, he slipped downstairs, with a
burning brain and aching heart--a heart sick and sore with
apprehension for others rather than for himself; and now, with his
ear tingling with countless coarse oaths, obscenities, and foul
jokes, which, of course, have been omitted in our relation of the
remarkable discussion he had overheard, he sought at once the cabin
of Captain Phillips, to communicate the dreadful game that was on the
_tapis_ in the forecastle of the ill-fated _Hermione_.