"The mariners shout,
The ships swing about.
The yards are all hoisted,
The sails flutter out."
_The Saga of King Olaf_.
The docks were very quiet now. Only a few footfalls broke the silence,
and the water sobbed a little round the piles, and there was some
creaking and groaning and grinding, and the vessels drifted at their
moorings, and bumped against the wharves.
The watchman paced up and down, and up and down. I did not hear him very
clearly from under the tarpaulin, and sometimes when he went farther
away I did not hear him at all. At last I was so long without hearing
him that I peeped cautiously out. What Biddy had said might be, seemed
really to have happened. The watchman was sitting in a sort of arm-chair
of ironbound cotton-bales; his long coat was tucked between his legs,
his hat was over his nose, and he was fast asleep.
I did not need any one to tell me that now was my time; but it was with
limbs that almost refused their office from sheer fright, that I crept
past the sleeping man, and reached the edge of the wharf. There was the
vessel moving very slightly, and groaning dismally as she moved, and
there was the hole, and it was temptingly dark. But--the gangway that
had been laid across from the wharf was gone! I could have jumped the
chasm easily with a run, but I dared not take a run. If I did it at all
it must be done standing. I tried to fetch a breath free from
heart-throbs, but in vain; so I set my teeth, and pulled nerves and
sinews together and jumped.
It was too much for me, and I jumped short and fell. Then my training
under the half-caste told in my favour. I caught the edge of the hole
with my hands, and swung suspended over the water, with quite presence
of mind enough to hear and think of what was going on about me. What I
heard was the watchman, who roused up to call out, "Who's there?" and
then he shot a sharp ray of light from his lantern right into the hole.
It was very lucky for me that I was so low, for the light went over my
head, and he saw nothing of me, my dark clothes making no mark against
the ship's black hull.
My head was cool enough now, and my heart steady, and I listened with an
intensity that postponed fear, though my predicament was not a pleasant
one, and the rippling water below me was confusing.
The suspense was no doubt shorter than it seemed, before the light
disappeared, and with a thankful heart I distinctly heard the watchman
flop down again among the cotton-bales. Then I drew myself up over the
edge and crept noiselessly into the ship. I took care to creep beyond
reach of the lantern, and then the swaying of the vessel made me feel so
giddy that I had to lie still for a while where I was, before I could
recover myself enough to feel about for a suitable hiding-place.
As I afterwards learnt, I was on the lower deck, which was being used
for cargo instead of passengers. The said cargo seemed so tightly
packed, that in spite of creeping, and groping, and knocking myself
pretty hard, I could feel no nook or corner to my mind. Then I turned
giddy again and reeled against the door of a cabin, which gave way so
far as to let me fall inwards on to a heap of old sails, ropes, and
other softish ship lumber stowed away within. As I fell my hand struck
something warm, which I fancied gave a writhe out of my grasp. I groped
and seized it again, and now there was no mistake. It was somebody's
arm, who said in a quick undertone, "Gently, gently, sirs; I'm coming
along with ye. I'll gie ye my word I'm after no harm."
I was taken aback, but thought it well to keep up my position, which
appeared to be one of advantage. The young man (for it was a youngster's
voice) was evidently no ship's officer. If he were a dockyard pilferer,
it was a nuisance, and a complication in my affairs, but I might pull
through the difficulty with presence of mind.
"Speak low!" I whispered sharply. "What's your name, and where do you
come from?"
"Alister Auchterlay, they call me" (the whisper was a reluctant one, but
I jogged his arm rather fiercely to shake the truth out of him). "I come
from Aberdeenshire. But, man! if ye're for having me up in court, for
GOD'S sake let me plead in another name, for my mother taks the papers."
"What are you doing here?" I whispered in a not very steady whisper, as
I think my prisoner detected.
"I'm just stowing away," he said eagerly; "I'm no harming a thing. Eh,
sir, if you're a ship's 'prentice, or whatever may be your duties on
this vessel, let me bide! There's scores of stowaways taken every day,
and I'll work as few could."
"Do, _do_ try and speak low," I whispered; "or we shall both be found
out _I'm stowing away myself_!"
"Whew, laddie! How long will ye have been in Liverpool?"
"Only to-day. How long have you been here?"
"A week, and a sore week too."
"You've no friends here, have you?"
"Freens, did ye say? I've no freens nearer than Scotland."
"You must have had a hard time of it," I whispered.
"Ye may say so. I've slept four nights in the docks, and never managed
to stow till to-night. There's a watchman about."
"I know," said I.
"I shouldn't have got in to-night, but the misconducted body's asleep,
though I'll say it's the first time I saw him sleeping these four days.
Eh, sirs! there's an awful indifference to responsibility, when a man
does a thing like yon. But it'll be whisky, I'm thinking; for I heard
him at clishmaclavers with one of these randy, drucken old Eirishers."
My blood boiled. "She was _not_ drunk!" said I. "And she's--she's a
great friend of mine."
"Whisht! whisht, man! We'll be heard. I ask your pardon, I'm sure."
I made no reply. The Scotchman's tone was unpleasantly dry. Besides it
was very difficult to give vent to one's just indignation in whispers,
and I still felt giddy, though I was resting my back against some of the
lumber, rather comfortably.
"You'll no be Eirish, yourself?" the Scotchman asked in his own accent,
which was as strong in its way as Biddy's.
"I'm English," I said.
"Just so. And edyucated, I dare say?"
"I suppose so."
"Ye've not forgiven me that I wronged the old lady? Indeed, but I ask
your pardon, and hers no less. It's not for the best of us to sit in
judgment on the erring, as my mother has often said to me, unless it
comes in the plain path of duty. But maybe your own temper would be a
bit soored if your head was as light and your heart as sick as mine with
starvation and hope deferred--"
"Are you hungry?" I interrupted.
"I'll not be sorry when we get a meal."
"What have you had to-day?" I asked.
"I've been in the dock all day," he answered evasively, "but I'm no
great eater at the best of times, and I chewed two bits of orange-peel,
not to speak of a handful of corn where there was a big heap had been
spilt by some wasteful body or another, that had small thoughts of it's
coming to use. Now hoo in this world's a man to make honest profit on a
commodity he entrusts--"
"Sh! sh! You're raising your voice again," said I. "Where's your hand?
It's only a cake, but it'll be better than nothing." And I held out the
cake Biddy had made me put in my pocket.
"I'll no take it from ye. Keep it for your own needs; I'm harder than
yourself, it's likely," he said, pushing my hand aside, and added almost
peevishly, "but keep the smell of it from me."
"I can spare it perfectly," I whispered. "I've had plenty to eat quite
lately."
I shall never forget how he clutched it then. I could hear his teeth
clash with the eagerness of his eating. It almost frightened me in the
darkness.
"Eh! man, that was good!" he gasped. "Are ye sure indeed and in truth ye
could spare it all? I didn't think they made such bannocks out of
Scotland. But we've much to learn in all matters, doubtless. Thank ye a
thousand times."
"The old Irishwoman gave it me!" I said with some malice. "She made me
put it in my pocket, though she had given me a good meal before, for
which she would take nothing."
"It was leeberal of her," said Alister Auchterlay. "Verra leeberal; but
there are good Christians to be met with, amongst all sorts, there's not
a doot aboot it."
I should probably have pursued my defence of Biddy against this
grudging--not to say insulting--tribute to her charity, if I had not
begun to feel too tired to talk, and very much teased by the heaving of
the vessel.
"I wish the ship would be quiet till we start," I said. "We're not at
sea yet."
In reply to this Alister at some length, and with as much emphasis as
whispering permitted, explained to me that a ship could not, in the
nature of things, keep still, except in certain circumstances, such as
being in dry dock for repairs or lying at anchor in absolutely still
water.
"Good gracious!" I interrupted. "Of course I know all that. You don't
suppose I expect it not to move?"
"I understood ye to say that ye wushed it," he replied with dignity, if
not offence.
"I don't know what I wish!" I moaned.
My companion's reply to this was to feel about for me and then to begin
scrambling over me; then he said--"Move on, laddie, to your right, and
ye'll find space to lie on the flat of your back, close by the ship's
side. I'm feared you're barely fit for the job ye've undertaken, but
ye'll be easier if ye lie down, and get some sleep."
I moved as he told me, and the relief of lying flat was great--so great
that I began to pull myself together again, and made ready in my mind to
thank my unseen companion for the generosity with which he had
evidently given me the place he had picked for himself. But whilst I was
thinking about it I fell fast asleep.
When I woke, for the first minute I thought I was at home, and I could
not conceive what Martha could be doing, that there should be, as far as
one could hear, chimney-sweeping, cinder-riddling, furniture-moving,
clock-winding, and Spring-cleaning, of the most awful nature, all going
on at once, and in a storm of yelling and scolding, which was no part of
our domestic ways. But in another minute I knew where I was, and by the
light coming through a little round porthole above me, I could see my
companion.
He was still sleeping, so that I could satisfy my keen curiosity without
rudeness. He had indeed given up the only bit of space to me, and was
himself doubled up among lumber in a fashion that must have been very
trying to the length of his limbs. For he was taller than I, though not,
I thought, much older; two years or so, perhaps. The cut of his clothes
(not their raggedness, though they were ragged as well as patched)
confirmed me in my conviction that he was "not exactly a gentleman"; but
I felt a little puzzled about him, for, broad as his accent was, he was
even less exactly of the Tim Binder and Bob Furniss class.
He was not good-looking, and yet I hardly know any word that would so
fittingly describe his face in the repose of sleep, and with that bit of
light concentrated upon it, as the word "noble." It was drawn and
pinched with pain and the endurance of pain, and I never saw anything so
thin, except his hands, which lay close to his sides--both clenched. But
I do think he would have been handsome if his face had not been almost
aggressively intelligent when awake, and if his eyebrows and eyelashes
had had any colour. His hair was fair but not bright, and it was
straight without being smooth, and tossed into locks that had no grace
or curl. And why he made me think of a Bible picture--Jacob lying at the
foot of the ladder to heaven, or something of that sort--I could not
tell, and did not puzzle myself to wonder, for the ship was moving, and
there was a great deal to be seen out of the window, tiny as it was.
It looked on to the dock, where men were running about in the old
bewildering fashion. To-day it was not so bewildering to me, because I
could see that the men were working with some purpose that affected our
vessel, though the directions in which they ran, dragging ropes as thick
as my leg, to the grinding of equally monstrous chains, were as
mysterious as the figures of some dance one does not know. As to the
noises they made, men and boys anywhere are given to help on their work
with sounds of some sort, but I could not have believed in anything
approaching to these, out of a lunatic asylum, unless I had heard them.
I could hear quite well, I could hear what was said, and a great deal of
it, I am sorry to say, would have been better unsaid. But the orders
which rang out interested me, for I tried to fit them on to what
followed, though without much result. At last the dock seemed to be
moving away from me--I saw men, but not the same men--and every man's
eye was fixed on us. Then the thick brown rope just below my window
quivered like a bow-string, and tightened (all the water starting from
it in a sparkling shower) till it looked as firm as a bar of iron, and I
held on tight, for we were swinging round. Suddenly the voice of command
sang out--(I fancied with a touch of triumph in the tone)--"Let go the
warp!" The thick rope sprang into the air, and wriggled like a long
snake, and it was all I could do to help joining in the shouts that rang
from the deck above and from the dock below. Then the very heart of the
ship began to beat with a new sound, and the Scotch lad leaped like a
deerhound to the window, and put his arm round my shoulder, and
whispered, "That's the screw, man! _we're off_!"