ENCOUNTER MY NEW UNCLE--AUNT BRETTA'S HOME--HAPPY MEETING--SETTLE AT
HOME--A DESCRIPTION OF MY UNCLE--OLD JERRY VINCENT--HIS STORIES--THE
SMOKE-WORMS, AND HIS CRUISE ROUND THE ISLE OF WIGHT.
On reaching Portsmouth, I buttoned my money tight up in my pockets, for,
thought I, "I'll have no land-sharks taking it from me in the way many
poor fellows have lost all the profits of their toils." I had no
difficulty in finding my way through the gate under the ramparts to
Southsea Common, and then I turned to the left till I reached a number
of small, neat little houses. The fine big mansions and great hotels
which stand there now were not built in those days. I walked up and
down for some time trying to discover the house my aunt lived in from
what Miss Rundle had told me, but I could not make up my mind to knock
at any door by chance to inquire. At last I saw a stout, fine
sailor-like looking man come stumbling along the road on a wooden leg.
I looked at his face. He had a round, good-natured countenance,
somewhat weather-beaten, with kind-looking eyes, and a firm mouth, full
of fine white teeth.
"You're the man who will give me a civil answer at all events, and maybe
help me to find my aunt, so I'll just speak to you," I thought to
myself. "Please, sir," said I, stepping up to him, "can you tell me if
a young woman called Bretta Wetherholm lives any way handy here?" He
looked at me very hard as I spoke, with some surprise in his
countenance. Then I recollected myself; "that was her name, I mean,
sir," said I; "it's now Mrs Kelson, I am told. Her husband is Tom
Kelson. Yes, that's his name."
"I think I can show you the house, young man," said the stranger,
casting his eye all over me. "You are a stranger here."
"Yes, sir," said I, "this is the first time I have been at Portsmouth.
I've been knocking about at sea all my life. There are very few days in
which I have set foot in England since I was a little boy."
"Just paid off from a ship, I suppose."
"Yes, sir," said I, "a few days ago."
"Ah, I see, come round from Plymouth," he remarked, stumping on at a
pace which kept me at a quick walk.
I always addressed him as sir, for I thought very likely he was a
post-captain, or perhaps an admiral. I did not like, therefore, to say
that I had just come from Guernsey, as he would at once have guessed
that I had been serving on board a privateer, and I knew that many
officers did not at all like the calling. I therefore said, "I beg
pardon, sir, but I fear that I am taking you out of your way."
"Not in the least, young man," he answered in a good-natured tone.
"Your way is my way."
"Well, you are indeed a very civil, kind gentleman," I thought. Then
all of a sudden I remembered the land-sharks I had been warned against,
but when I looked in his face I felt certain that he was not one of
them.
"And so you have heard speak of Tom Kelson," said he, looking at me.
"Not much, sir," I answered. "There's a lady down at Plymouth whom I
know, Miss Rundle, who just spoke about him, and told me about my aunt's
marriage, and how she didn't quite think--"
"Oh, never mind what Miss Molly Rundle thought," said he, laughing, as
he pushed open the door of a house and walked in. "You'll find Mrs
Kelson in there," and he pointed to a parlour on one side of the
passage. "Here, Bretta, come down; here's a young man come to see you.
Who he is I don't know. He's a friend of Molly Rundle's, that is all I
can make out," I heard my new friend hail at the foot of the stairs.
I found myself in a very pretty, neat little sitting-room, with the
picture of a ship over the mantelpiece, and lumps of coral and large
shells, and shell flowers, on it, and bows and arrows, and spears and
models of eastern craft, and canoes from the Pacific, and some stuffed
birds and snakes, and, indeed, all sorts of curious things arranged in
brackets on the walls, or nailed up against them, or filling the shelves
of cabinets. Indeed, the room was a perfect museum, only much better
arranged than museums generally are. I had some little time to look
about me. "Well, Aunt Bretta is comfortably housed at all events," I
thought to myself.
At last the door opened, and a portly fair dame, with fair hair and a
pleasant smile on her countenance, entered the room. "Who are you
inquiring for, young man?" said she, dropping a sort of curtsey.
I looked at her very hard without answering. "Yes, it must be Aunt
Bretta," I thought. "But if it is her, she is a good deal changed. And
yet I don't know. Those kind eyes and that smile are just the same.
Oh, yes, it is her."
"Aunt Bretta," I exclaimed, running towards her; "don't you know me?
I'm Willand Wetherholm, your nephew!"
"You my nephew! I heard that without doubt he was dead. Yet let me
look at you, boy!" she exclaimed, taking both my hands and fixing her
eyes on my countenance. "Yes, you are Willand--you are my own dear
boy--welcome, welcome back to life, and to one who loved you as her own
son!" And she flung her arms round my neck and burst into tears. "Oh,
Willand, had but dear mother been alive, how it would have done her
heart good to see you! She never ceased talking of you, and always felt
sure that you would come back when you could."
I will not describe the scene any farther. I pretty nearly cried too--
indeed I am not certain that I did not, but they were tears of
happiness, and not yet entirely of happiness. There was sorrow for one
I had lost--regret for my own obstinacy and thoughtlessness, and many
other emotions mingled with the satisfaction of finding myself under the
roof of one in whom I had the most perfect confidence, who I knew loved
me sincerely. I think I have said it before, but if not, I now urge
those who are blessed with real friends, to prize the lore their hearts
bestow as a jewel above price, which wealth cannot purchase, and which,
let them wander the world round, they may never find again.
After my aunt and I had sat a little time, in came the fine old
gentleman I had met. I now guessed who he must be. He very quickly
understood who I was. "You are not the first seaman I have known who
has been lost for years, and has at last turned up again when he was
least expected," said he; "but welcome, Willand, I'm very glad to see
you, and to own you for my nephew." He very soon gave evidence of the
sincerity of his words, for a kinder, better-hearted man I never met,
and I felt thankful that Aunt Bretta had married a man so well worthy of
her.
My uncle accompanied me back to the inn where I had left my chest and
bag, and we got a porter to carry them to his house; and now, for the
first time since I went to sea, I found myself settled with my relations
quietly on shore. I had been very happy with the La Mottes, but still
they were strangers. My kind aunt never seemed tired of trying to find
out what would please me. She had done something to spoil me as a boy--
it appeared as if there was a great probability of her spoiling me as a
man. We had much to talk about. I told her of my falling in with the
old lady at Plymouth, and of my visit to my grandmother's tomb. I found
that Miss Rundle had never written to her, or if she had written, the
letter had not reached her.
"I suspect that she was afraid I might answer her letter, and she did
not like the idea of having to pay the return postage. It shows that
she does not consider my friendship worth ninepence."
Still I was surprised that Miss Rundle had not written, as she had so
positively promised to do. I could not exactly make it out. I found
that my aunt knew nothing of old Mrs Sandon and her niece. She was
very much interested with my description of the young lady. "So,
Willand," said she, "I hope you will go back to Plymouth and find her
out again. There are very many good girls in the world, but, like sweet
violets, they often bloom unseen, and it is not so easy to find them.
From what you tell me of her, and I can bring her clearly before my
mind's eye, she is just the sort of person to make a man a good wife,
and I hope that you may be able to win her." Now, when my aunt spoke
thus, I laughed, and said that I had not thought of settling, and that
it was not likely I should win a young lady like her, who was a great
deal too good to be the wife of a foremast man like me, and anything
else I never expected to be.
"You need not say that, Willand," replied Aunt Bretta. "I have
something to say to you on that subject. You must know, Willand, that
your father left some money to your grandmother for her life, and
afterwards it was to go to you; but when you were supposed to be dead I
took possession of it. Now, my dear boy, that you have come back, your
uncle and I have been preparing to give it up to you. It is yours by
every law of right, so do not say a word about it. We can manage very
well without it."
"Indeed, I will not deprive you of a farthing of it, dear aunt!" I
exclaimed. "I would rather go to sea for a dozen years longer and never
come back again, than take the bread out of your mouths. I won't take
it, so don't be pressing it on me. I have got plenty without it.
There, take care of that." And I gave her the cash I had been carrying
in my pocket. "You can make me your heir, if you like, and I hope it
will be a very long time before I come into my fortune."
My uncle soon after came in, and we had a long talk over the matter. I
succeeded at last in making them keep the money. The fact was, I knew
myself better than they knew me, and I felt pretty certain that some day
or other I might spend it all, and nobody would be the better for it.
This affair settled, we lived together still more pleasantly than ever,
for they had it off their minds, and I felt that I had done what was
right. I found that my uncle had once been what Miss Rundle called a
common sailor--that is to say, he had been mate of a merchantman, and
had been pressed on board a man-of-war, where he had obtained a warrant
as boatswain. While acting as such, he had lost his leg. After he had
recovered he got command of a large merchantman, for he was a good
navigator as well as a first-rate seaman. He was not very refined,
according to some people's notions, I dare say, nor were some of his
acquaintance. He valued them, as he did all things, for their sterling
qualities, and cared very little for their outside. A good many of his
old friends and shipmates used to look in on him, and I was much struck
by the kind and hospitable way in which my aunt always received them.
"They are my husband's friends, and I inquire no further," she used to
say. "I know that he will never ask anybody I shall not be glad to
receive."
Scarcely an evening passed without our having one or more guests, and
this made it very pleasant. Just as we were sitting down to tea one
evening, a ring was heard, and on my uncle's opening the door (I found
that he always did that sort of work), I heard him exclaim, "Come in,
Jerry! come in, old boy! There is only my nephew here, and he won't be
sorry to hear you talk, I'm sure." There was a shuffling and cleaning
of shoes, and then my uncle ushered in as odd a looking old man as I
ever saw. He was of diminutive figure, very wizened and wiry, with long
grizzly hair and small bright eyes, with a wonderfully roguish
expression in them.
"This is Jerry Vincent, an old shipmate of mine, nephew," observed my
uncle, as he placed a chair for the old man. "He can tell you more
curious things than most people when he has a mind. Can you not,
Jerry?"
Our guest nodded, and his eyes twinkled curiously.
"Sarvant, missus; sarvant, all," said he, pulling a lock of his hair and
putting his tarpaulin hat under the seat which had been offered him.
"Why, old ship, I've seen some rum things in the course of my life, and
I don't forget them, like some does," he remarked, smoothing down his
hair with his long, rough, bony hand.
I told him that I should much like to hear some of his adventures, but
he did not become loquacious till my aunt had served him out three or
four cups of tea, into which she poured, as if it was a usual thing, a
few drops of cordial, a proceeding which always made the old man's eyes
twinkle cheerily. During the course of conversation, I found that Jerry
Vincent was not only peculiar in his appearance but in his habits also.
He never by any chance, from choice, slept in a bed. When at sea, a
caulk on a locker was the only rest he took, and most of his nights, in
summer, were passed under the thwarts of his boat. My uncle told a
story of him, to the effect that one cold winter's night he had gone to
sleep under his boat, which had been hauled up and turned over on the
beach, and that when he awoke in the morning his dog had been frozen to
death, while he was only a little stiff in the neck. At all events, it
was evident that he was a very hardy old man.
"There are many like to hear my yarns," he observed. "Now, for example,
there was a gentleman down here from Lunnon, and he used to go out in my
boat off to Spithead, and sometimes across to the Wight. One day I
thought I would try one of my yarns on him, so I spun it off the reel.
He said, when I had finished, that it was a very good one, though it was
very short, and when he stepped out of the boat he tipped me
half-a-crown. The next day I took him out again, and spun him another
yarn rather tougher than the first, and he gave me three shillings. Ho,
ho, thought I to myself. If you pay according to the toughness of a
yarn, I'll give you something worth your money. Well, the third day
down he came, and said he wanted to go across to Cowes, if the tide
would suit, and I told him it would; and now, I thought, here's a fine
time for spinning a long yarn. I'll give you a tough one, and no
mistake. Well, I spun away, and my eye if it didn't beat the two others
hollow! We had a pretty quick run to the Wight and back, and just
before I landed him, `I hope you liked the story, sir,' says I. `Very
much,' says he. `And by the by, I should pay you for it. Here's a
couple of shillings.' I looked at the coin with disdain. `Pardon,
sir,' says I; `that story's worth five shillings if it's worth a penny,
and I can take nothing less.'
"`Are you in earnest, my man?' says he. `Yes, sir,' says I; `the story,
if written down, would be worth ten times the money.'
"`Then you are an extortionate old scoundrel, without a scrap of a
conscience,' says he. `Hard words, sir,' says I; `but it can't be
helped. We poor fellows must submit to great people.' But all I could
say wouldn't do. He vowed that he would never give me anything again,
and what is more, he never did, and never again would take my boat."
"Served you right too, old ship," said my uncle. "You learned by that,
I hope, that moderation is the best policy. But heave ahead. You are
not to charge us at the rate of a shilling a fathom for your yarns,
remember that."
Old Jerry cocked his eye with a knowing wink, and began. "Well then,
one morning after I had been sleeping up at my uncle's, for some reason
or other--it might have been that I'd had a drop too much the night
afore, but I can't say, as it's some time ago--I don't score those
things down in my log, d'ye see--I was going down the street with my
boat-hook in my hand--I know that I had the boat-hook because I took it
up with me. It was rather dusky, so to speak, because the sun wasn't
up, nor would be for some hours to come, when, as I was passing a house
with a deep porch before the door, what should I see but a big pair of
fiery eyes glaring out at me like hot coals from a grate in a dark room.
Never in all my life did I see such fierce red sparklers, but I never
was a man to be daunted at anything, not I, so I gripped my boat-hook
firmly in both hands and walked towards it. I wasn't given to fancy
things, and I had never seen any imps of Satan, or Satan himself, and
never wished to see them, so I thought this might be a dog or a cat,
maybe, troubled with sore eyes, which made them look red. On I marched,
therefore, as steady as a judge or a grenadier on parade, when, just as
I got near the door, a dark shaggy form rose up right before me, the
eyes glowing redder and hotter than ever. It grew, and it grew, and
grew, every moment getting taller and bigger, till it reached right up
to the top of the house. I kept looking at it, thinking when it would
have done growing; but as for running away, even if I had had any fancy
for running, I knew that it would have come after me and would overhaul
and gobble me up, in a quarter less no time, so I stood where I was,
considering what would happen next. At last, thinks I to myself, you
are not going to look at me in that way whatever you are; so, shutting
my eyes, for I couldn't for the life of me bear its glare any longer, I
made a desperate dash at it with my boat-hook. You should have heard
the hullabaloo there was, and I found the boat-hook dragged right out of
my hands. I opened my eyes just in time to see the monster, big as he
was, bolt right through the door, carrying my boat-hook with him. I
rushed after him to try and get it back, for it was a new ash one I had
bought but a few days before, and I did not want to lose it, but I only
knocked my head a hard rap against the door, and though I looked about
everywhere I never could find it from that day to this; and that, mates,
mind you, is the circumstantial and voracious way Jerry Vincent lost his
boat-hook." And the old man gave one of his comical and expressive
winks, and a pull at the glass of swisell which my uncle had placed by
his side.
"Don't you all acknowledge that that story was well worth half-a-crown
to a Lonnoner, seeing as how it was quite new, and he could never have
heard it afore? Of course you'll all agree with me, now, to my mind,
those Lonnoners are generally such know-nothing sort of chaps, though
they think themselves so wise that they never will believe what you tell
'em. They are just like the old lady whose nevy had just come from sea.
When he told her that he'd seen flying-fish scores of times, she said
he was trying to hoax her, and wouldn't listen to him, but when he said
he'd been up the Red Sea, and that the water there was the colour of a
soldier's coat, she said that she had no doubt about that, and that she
was glad to listen to him when he spoke the truth. But," continued
Jerry, who had now got into his talkative vein, "what I have been
telling you is as nothing to what happened to me soon after then. I had
been ill for some time, and could not tell what was the matter with me,
when I happened one day to go to Portsdown fair. I thought the walk
would do me good, and I wanted to see some of the fun going on. Well,
after I had been to see the beasts and the raree shows, and the
tumblers, and theatres, and conjurers, and taken a turn in a roundabout,
on a wooden horse, which I found more easy to ride than a real one,
because, do ye see, the wooden one never kicks, while, to speak the
truth, whenever I've got on a regular-built animal, he to a certainty
has shied up his stern and sent me over his bows, sometimes right into a
hedge, or a ditch, or a pond, or through a window, into a shop, or
parlour, I happened to catch sight of a man standing at the end of an
outlandish sort of a cart or a van, painted all over with red and
yellow, and blue and gold, with a sort of a Chinaman's temple at one end
of it.
"`Now, ladies and gentlemen,' says he, for he was a very polite sort of
a chap, `here's the universal 'lixier of life; it cures all complaints,
and takes a man, if he has a mind to it and has proper faith in what it
will do for him, right clear away to the end of the world. It's as
infallible as the Pope of Rome and all his cardinals, and is patronised
by all the first haristocracy and clergy in the country. Only one
shilling a bottle, ladies and gentlemen; taken how you will and when you
will--it's all the same--in a glass of grog, a bowl of punch, or a basin
of pap; for old or young, for boys or girls, it will cure them all, and
they will never feel ill again as long as they continue to take it.
Take enough of it, and take it long enough, and you will see the wonders
it will work.'
"On hearing all this, I asked of those who were looking on, who the chap
was, and they told me he was the celebrated Doctor Gulliman, who was
going to send all the old regular practitioners to the right about, and
it was wonderful what good he did, and how much more he would do if
people would but trust him. I afterwards found out that the fellow who
told me this was a friend of the doctor's, and stood there on purpose to
say a good word in his favour, though he pretended to have nothing at
all to do with him.
"Well, thinks I to myself, maybe he'll know how to cure me; so I made
bold and went up to him.
"When he saw me he stooped down from his carriage, and says he, `Well,
my good fellow, what's the matter with you? But never mind; whatever it
is I'll cure you. Trust Doctor Gulliman for that.'
"I didn't much fancy having to tell my complaint among so many hearers.
You see my modesty stood in my way.
"`Come, come, tell me all about it, my good man,' says he in an
encouraging tone.
"So I put my hand on my bread-basket, and told him that I was troubled
with pains in them parts, and that for the life of me I couldn't get
well, though there was seldom a night I didn't take half-a-dozen
tumblers of grog to set me to rights.
"`Put out your tongue, my man,' says he.
"I stuck it out so that from where he stood he could look right down my
throat.
"`Oh, oh! my dear man, I guessed what it was that ails you. But never
fear, I'll cure you in a jiffy. You're troubled with smoke-worms.
That's it. And they are very dangerous things if you don't get rid of
them, mind that. You see this invaluable stuff which I hold in my hand.
If you want to get cured you must take six bottles of it. I don't say
but that it would be safer for you if you took twelve. But do as you
like about that. Mix each of them in a stiff glass of grog. You may
take three a day if you like, and then come back to me for more. At the
end of three days--trust the word of an honest man and a true friend of
the whole human race--you will be clear of them all, and every complaint
you have at the same time.'
"Well," thinks I to myself, "`in for a penny, in for a pound,' though
there is a difference between the shilling my friend in the crowd said I
should have to pay and the twelve shillings the doctor demands. But
then, to be sure, the stuff can't be unpleasant, and the grog, at all
events, is no bad thing. `Well, doctor,' says I, `I'll take the twelve
bottles, but I should like to know what the stuff you give me is made
of?'
"`What!' he sings out, drawing himself up and looking as proud as a
prince. `What! Do you just imagine for one quarter of a moment that I
would tell you, or any man like you, alive on this terrestrial sphere,
what my infallible Obfucastementi-scoposis is composed of? No; not to
satisfy the gaping curiosity of twenty such wretched creatures as you
are would I reveal that golden, all-important, mysterious secret. If
you are not content, go! Give me back my invaluable 'lixier and cut.'
"`Yes, doctor,' says I, going to give him the twelve bottles, `and just
do you in return hand me out my twelve shillings.'
"`Your twelve shillings! you audacious rascal. Here's a man asks me for
twelve shillings in exchange for my 'lixier, which is worth twelve
pounds at least. Ladies and gentlemen, he ain't fit to be among such as
you. Hoot him--hoot him--hiss him--kick him out from among you.'
"On this my friend in the crowd, who advised me to buy the stuff, began
to hoot and to hiss and to shove me about, and others followed his
example, till I saw that there was no use of attempting to hold my own,
and I wasn't sorry to be able to get clear of them, and to bolt with a
whole skin on my body, though two of the bottles were broken in the row.
"I got home at last, not over well pleased with Doctor Gulliman and the
way I had been treated. However, as I had paid for my whistle, I
thought I might as well try if the stuff would do me any good. As soon
as I got into Portsmouth I bought a bottle of old rum; for, thinks I to
myself, if I am to take the stuff, the sooner I begin the better.
"When I reached my boat, I recollected that I was engaged to go out to
Spithead to bring on shore an officer from one of the ships lying there,
so I stowed away a glass and a can of water, not forgetting the rum and
'lixier, and shoved off. I just paddled down the harbour, for I was in
no hurry, and the ebb was making strong. At last says I to myself, just
as I got off the kickers, `I'll just take a bottle of the 'lixier and
see how I feel after it.' So I got a bottle, and poured it out, and put
in some old rum, just on the top of it, to take the taste away, and then
I took the can of water, but I found that there was a hole at the bottom
of it, and that most of the water had leaked out. So, do you see, I was
obliged to be very careful of the water, and couldn't put much of it at
a time in the glass. If I had, you see, I shouldn't have had any of the
precious fluid, as they calls it, left for another glass. Well, I
tossed off the liquid, and when I had smacked my lips, I began to think
much better of the doctor. His stuff, you see, wasn't so bad after all.
Thinks I to myself, `If one glass is good, two must be better; so,
before I take to the oars again, I'll have another.' Somehow the second
was even better than the first. Then it struck me all of a heap like,
that the doctor said I should take three bottles of his stuff in a day;
so, as it was now getting towards sundown, thinks I, `The sooner I takes
the third the better.'
"Howsomedever, when I came to look at the can, I found that every drop
of water had leaked out, so I had no help for it but to fill the tumbler
up with the rum. I can't say it tasted bad, though it was, maybe,
rather stiffish. Well, as the tide was sending me along nicely, I
didn't get out the oars again, but sat in the boat meditating like, when
all of a sudden I felt myself very queer in the inside, and pains came
on just for all the world as if I had swallowed a score or two of big
mackerel, and they were all kicking and wriggling about in my
bread-basket. `They are the smoke-worms the doctor told me about,'
thinks I. `They don't like the taste of his stuff, that's the truth of
it.' Well, I felt queerer and queerer, and Southsea Castle began to
spin round and round, and the kickers went dancing up and down, and the
ships in the harbour were all turning summersets, and every sort of
circumvolution and devilment you could think of took place. Thinks I to
myself, `There's something in that doctor's stuff, there's no doubt
about that, though whether its worth a shilling a bottle is another
matter.' Just then I felt more queer than ever. `Heugh! heugh!' There
was a rattling and a kicking, and such commotion in my inside, and up
came what I soon knew was the smoke-worms right out of my mouth, and
overboard they went as I put my head over the gunwale. There was a
bushel of them if there was one.
"Never afore nor since have I seen such things, for every mother's son
had hairy backs and forked tails. Yes, gentlemen and ladies, forked
tails and hairy backs. Believe Jerry Vincent for the truth of what he
says. The moment they got into the water they began to frisk and frolic
about as if it was natural to them, and to grow bigger and bigger and
bigger, till the first which came up was as big as a frigate's
jolly-boat. I made short work of it, and threw them all up till I felt
there wasn't another morsel of any one of them in my locker. Then
thinks I to myself, `It's time to look out sharp, or some of these merry
chaps with forked tails will be playing me a trick;' for you see that
they'd already begun to open their mouths very wide, and to splash the
water right over me as they whisked about round the boat, just like
sharks in the West Indies. So I got out my oars pretty sharp, and began
to pull away towards Spithead, thinking to get clear of them, and to
carry my freight ashore as I'd engaged to do. But I soon found that the
smoke-worms weren't quite so ready to part company with me, and as my
boat began to gather way, they began to swim after her. The big fellow
led, and all the others followed. There was hundreds of them, of all
sizes, and one little chap, who brought up the rear, was no bigger than
a sprat. After me they came with open months and big red eyes, all the
hair on their backs standing up, and their tails whisking about like the
flukes of a whale in a flurry. Didn't I just pull for dear life, for I
knew what they'd be after if they once grappled me. They would have
swallowed me, every one of them. I soon gave up all thoughts of
fetching up the ship I was bound for. It would never have done to have
gone alongside one of his Majesty's crack frigates with such a train
after me. I should have lost my character, you know. On I pulled; I
didn't spare the oars, depend upon it; but, somehow or other, the way in
which the tide set, and the manner in which the brutes dodged me, made
me go right out to Spithead, and there I found myself pulling among a
whole fleet of men-of-war and Indiamen. The officers and ships'
companies crowded into the hammock nettings and rigging to see me pass,
and never have I heard such shouts of laughter as they raised as I
pulled by. Neither to the one side nor to the other could I turn; for
if I did, as surely one of the beasts would instantly swim up, with open
mouth, and make a grab at my oar to keep me going straight ahead. I
sung out to the people aboard the ships in mercy's name to take a shot
at some of the bigger brutes, for I thought that I could grapple with
the little ones; but either they didn't or wouldn't hear me; so away I
pulled right out towards the Nab. Thinks I to myself, `Perhaps the
people in the lightship will lend a helping hand to an old seaman;' but
not a bit of it. When they saw me coming with my train of forked-tailed
brutes after me, they sung out that I must sheer off, or they would let
fly at me. So there I was fairly at sea, followed by as disagreeable a
set of customers as a man ever had astern of him.
"I didn't bless Doctor Gulliman exactly, for I could not help thinking
that somehow or other he had had a hand in the mystification. I now
pulled up my larboard oar a little, and found that I was going right
round by the Culver cliffs. `Well, I'll get on shore at the back of the
Wight anyhow, and do them,' I thought to myself. But what do ye think;
the moment I tried the dodge, the cunning brutes kept edging me off the
land, till I saw that there was no hope for me but to go on. All the
time they made such a tremendous hissing and splashing and whisking,
that you'd have thought a whole ship's company was washing decks above
your head, and heaving water about in bucketsful. It was now night, but
there was light enough and to spare to enable me to see the beasts as
they kept way with me. I passed Sandown and Ventnor and Steephill, and
could see the lights in the houses all along the shore; but as to being
able to land, the wriggling brutes in my wake, as I said, took good care
that I shouldn't do that. By the time I got off Saint Catherine's my
arms began to ache a bit, and I felt as if I couldn't pull another
stroke; but when I just lay on my oars to take breath and to knock the
drops off my brow, which were falling down heavy enough to swamp the
boat, the look of their wicked eyes and big mouths, as they came hissing
up open-jawed alongside, set me off again pretty fast. I passed
Blackgang Chine, and caught a sight of Brooke, and then I thought I
would try to pull into Freshwater Gate, when I would beach the boat, and
have a run for my life on shore, for I didn't think they would come out
of the water after me. The truth was that I couldn't bear the look of
them any longer; but the wriggling beasts were up to me, and before I
had so much as turned the boat's head towards the Gate, three or four of
the biggest fellows ranged up on my starboard side, and cut me off. I
sung out in my rage and disappointment, but this only made matters
worse, and my eyes if they didn't begin to laugh at me, and such a laugh
I never did hear before, and hope I never may again. It was like ten
thousand donkeys troubled with sore throats trying which would sing out
the loudest, and twice as many jackals mocking them, all joined in
chorus. At last I got to Scratchell's Bay. `Now's my time,' thinks I,
`if they once get me on a course down Channel, they may drive me right
round the world, or over to the coast of America at shortest.' I knew
well the passage through the Needle rocks. The flood was about making.
There might be just water for the boat, but none to spare. `No odds,'
thinks I. So, while I pretended to be steering for Portland, I shoved
the boat round, and then gave way with a will. `If I knock the boat to
pieces against the rocks, I shall not be worse off than I am now,' I
said to myself, as I pulled for the passage. I just hit it. The keel
of the boat grazed over a rock below water; but the tide was running
strong, and I shot through like an arrow, and there I was in Alum Bay.
Now the passage was too narrow, you see, for the forked-tailed beasts to
get through, and they had a good chance of hurting themselves on the
rocks if they attempted it; so, if they had been as wise as I took them
for, I knew that they would go all the way round the outer Needle rock,
and that this would give me a great start. Instead of that, in their
eagerness to follow me, what should they do but bolt right at the
passage. The big fellow stuck fast, and the little ones couldn't get by
him, and there they were, to my great delight, all knocking their noses
against the rocks, and wriggling and hissing and struggling and kicking
up such a row, that I thought the people at Milford and Yarmouth, and
all along the coast, would be awoke up out of their quiet sleep to
wonder what it was all about. However, it would never have done for me
to lay on my oars to watch the fun, because I thought it just as likely
as not, when the tide rose, that the noisy brutes might shove through
and be after me again, so I pulled away as hard as ever right up the
Solent, till I got safe back again into Portsmouth harbour. Luckily, I
had the whole of the flood with me, or I never could have done it. My
arms ached as it was not a little. I moored my boat securely, and as it
wasn't yet daybreak, I lay down in the bottom of the boat, and fell
asleep. I never slept so soundly in my life, and no wonder, after the
pull I had had.
"When I awoke the sun was shining out brightly, and I heard some one on
board a vessel coming up the harbour hail and call somebody or other a
drunken old rascal. Who he meant of course I couldn't tell; that was
nothing to me. At last I sat up in my boat, and rubbed my eyes, and
there was the doctor's bottles and the empty rum bottle and the can,
without any water in it, just as I left them when I was taken ill. I
half expected to see the whole troop of wriggling, twisting,
forked-tailed smoke-worms coming up the harbour with the last of the
flood; but though I looked out till the tide had done, they didn't come,
and it's my belief that they knocked themselves about so much against
the Needle rocks, that they put about and went down Channel; and all I
can say is that I hope that every one of 'em was drowned or came to some
other bad end out at sea, and that I may never as long as I live have
such a night as the one I spent after taking Doctor Gulliman's physic.
Sarvant, marm and gentlemen, you'll agree that story is worth five
shillings. Howsomedever, I never charges my friends, but gives them all
free gratis and for nothing." And old Jerry gave one of his most
knowing winks as he finished off his glass and took up his hat to
prepare for his departure.
I ought perhaps to apologise for giving such a story; but it is a fair
specimen of the style of narrative in which old seamen of Jerry
Vincent's stamp are apt to indulge, and I have heard many such, though
seldom told with so much spirit, during my career at sea.