THE DRINKING HOLE IN THE BOWERY.
The beauty of the entrance to the bay of New York, the amazing medley
of shipping activity and glorious scenery, have often been described.
Even to one who comes upon the capital of the New World, having seen
many cities and many men, there is a charm in the sweeping woods and
the distant heights, in the group of islets, and the massive buildings,
that is hardly rivalled by the fascinations of any other harbour, that
of San Francisco and the Golden Gates alone excepted. If you grant that
the mere material of man's making is all very new, its power and
dignity is no less impressive. Nor in any other city of the world that
I know does the grandeur of the natural environment force itself so
close to the very gates, as in this bay which Hudson claimed, and a
Dutch colony took possession of so long ago as 1614.
It was about six o'clock in the evening when we brought the _Celsis_
through the Narrows between Staten and Long Islands, and passed Forts
Wandsworth and Hamilton. Then the greater harbour before the city
itself rolled out upon our view; and as we steamed slowly into it the
Customs took possession of us, and made their search. It was a short
business, for we satisfied them that Paolo suffered from no malignant
disease, although one small and singularly objectionable fellow seemed
suspicious of everything aboard us. I do not wonder that he made the
men angry, or that Dan had a word with him.
"Look here, sir," he whispered, making pretence to great honesty; "I
won't go for to deceive you--p'r'aps that dog's stuffed wi' di'monds."
"Do you reckon I'm a fool?" asked the man.
"Well," said old Dan, "I never was good at calcerlations; but you
search that dog, and p'r'aps you'll find somethin'."
The man seemed to think a moment; but Dan looked so very solemn, and
Belle came sniffing up at the officer's legs; so he passed his hand
over her back, and lost some of his leg in return.
"Didn't I tell you," said Dan, "as you'd get something if you searched
that dog?--well, don't you go for to doubt me word next time we're
meetin'. Good-day to yer honour. Is there any other animal as I could
oblige you with?"
The officer went off, the men howling with laughter; and a short while
after we had made fast at the landing-stage, and were ready to go
ashore.
Paolo still lay very sick in his cabin, and we determined in common
charity to take no action until he had his health again; but we set the
men to keep a watch about the place, and for ourselves went off to dine
at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. There, before a sumptuous dinner, and with
all the novelty of the new scene, we nigh forgot all that happened
since the previous month; when, without thought of adventure or of
future, we had gone to Paris with the aimless purpose of the idle
traveller. And, indeed, I did my best to encourage this spirit of
forgetfulness, since through all the new enjoyment I could not but feel
that danger surrounded us on every hand, and that I was but just
embarked on that great mission I had undertaken.
In this mood, when dinner was done, I suggested that Roderick should
take Mary through the city awhile, and that I should get back to the
_Celsis_, there to secure what papers were left for me, and to arrange,
after thought, what my next step in the following of Captain Black
should be. The skipper had friends to see in New York, and agreed that
he would follow me to the yacht in a couple of hours, and that he would
meet the others in the hotel after they had come from their excursion.
This plan fell in with my own, and I said "Good-bye" cheerfully enough
to the three men as I buttoned up my coat; and sent for a coach. If I
had known then that the next time I should meet them would be after
weeks of danger and of peril, of sojourn in strange places, and of life
amongst terrible men!
I was driven to the wharf very quickly, and got aboard the yacht with
no trouble. There was a man keeping watch upon her decks; and Dan had
been in the sick man's cabin taking drink to him. He told me that he
was more easy, and spoke with the full use of his senses; and that he
had fallen off into a comfortable sleep "since an hour." I was glad at
the news, and went to my own cabin, getting my papers, my revolver, and
other things that I might have need of ashore.
This work occupied me forty minutes or more; but as I was ready to go
back to the others I looked into Paolo's cabin, and, somewhat to my
surprise, I saw that he was dressed, and seemingly about to quit the
yacht. This discovery set me aglow with expectation. If the man were
going ashore, whither could he go except to his associates, to those
who were connected with Black and his crew? Was not that the very clue
I had been hoping to get since I knew that we had a spy aboard us?
Otherwise, I might wait a year and hear no more of the man or of his
work except such tidings as should come from the sea. Indeed, my mind
was made up in a moment: I would follow Paolo, at any risk, even of my
life.
This thought sent me forward again into the fo'castle, where Dan was.
"Hist, Dan!" said I, "give me a man's rig-out--a jersey and some
breeches and a cap--quick," and, while the old fellow stared and
whistled softly, I helped to ransack his box; and in a trice I had
dressed myself, putting my pistols, my papers, and my money in my new
clothes; but leaving everything else in a heap on the floor.
"Dan," I said, "that Italian is going ashore, and I'm going to follow
him. No, you mustn't come, or the thing will be spoilt. Tell the
forward lookout to see nothing if the fellow passes, and get my rubber
shoes from my trunk."
Dan scratched his head again, and must have thought that I was
qualifying in lunacy; but he got the shoes, and not a moment too soon,
for, as I came on deck, I saw a shadow on the gangway. The man was
leaving the yacht at that moment, and I followed him, drawing my cap
right over my eyes, and lurking behind every inch of cover.
Once out into the city, and having turned two or three times to satisfy
himself that he had no one after him, Paolo struck for Broadway; thence
with staggering gait, the result of his weakness, he made straight for
the City Hall, at which point he turned and so got into Chatham Street
and the Bowery. At last, after a long walk, and when the man himself
was almost failing from the exertion of it, he stopped before an open
door in the dirtiest of the streets through which we had come, and
disappeared instantly. I came up to the door almost as soon as he had
passed through; and found myself before a steep flight of steps, at the
bottom of which through a glass partition I could see men smoking and
drinking, and hear them bawling uncouth songs.
It was a fearful hole, peopled by fearful men; all nations and all
sorts of villains were represented there: low Englishmen, Frenchmen,
Russians, even niggers and Chinamen; yet into that hole must I go if I
would follow Paolo to the end.
You may forgive me if I hesitated a moment; waited to balance up the
odds upon my recognition. I might have decided even then that the risk
was too great, the certainty of discovery too palpable; but at that
moment a party of six hulking seamen descended the steps before me,
and, taking advantage of the cover of their shoulders, I pulled my cap
right over my face and passed through the swinging door with them into
the most dangerous-looking place I have ever set foot in.
The room was long and narrow; banked its whole length by benches that
had once been covered with red velvet, but now showed torn patches and
the protruding wool of the stuffing. Mirrors were raised from the dado
of the ragged seats to the frieze of the smoke-blackened ceiling; but
they were for the most part cracked, and some had lost much of their
glass. The accommodation for drinkers consisted of marble-topped
tables, old and worn and stained with the dirt which was characteristic
everywhere of the foul den; but there was nothing but boards beneath
one's feet; and the wretched bar at the uppermost end of the chamber
was no more than a plain deal bin with a high stool behind it for the
serving man; he being a great negro, grotesquely attired as a man of
fashion. Indeed, had not the whole place been so threatening, I should
have paused to laugh at this dusky scoundrel, whose white hat sat
jauntily on the side of his woolly head, and whose well-cut black coat
was ornamented with a great bunch of white flowers. But there was evil
in this man's face, and in the faces of the others who sat close-packed
on the faded couches; and when I had paused for a moment to take
reckoning of the room, I passed quickly to a bench near the door, and
there sat wedged against a fair-haired seaman, whose look stamped him
to be a Russian.
The scene was very new to me. I had heard of these drinking dens in
that low quarter of New York called the Bowery; but my American friends
had cautioned me often to have no truck with them should I visit their
city. They spoke of the poor regard for life which prevailed there; of
murders committed with an impunity which was as astounding as it was
impossible for the police to suppress; of mysterious disappearances,
mysterious alone in the lack of knowledge as to the victim's end; and
they conjured me, if I would see such things, at least to go under the
escort of the police. All this I had paid scant attention to at the
time; but the reality was before me with its grim terror. The room was
filled with the scum of sea-going humanity; foul smoke from foul pipes
floated in choking clouds to the dirt-begrimed ceiling; great brown
pots of strong drink were emptied as though their contents had been
milk; horrid blasphemies were uttered as choice dishes of speech;
ribald songs rose in giant discord as the spirit moved the singers. Now
and again, betwixt the shouting and the singing, a young girl, whose
presence in such a company turned my heart sick, played upon a harp,
while to serve the crew with liquor there was a mahogany-faced hag whom
the men addressed as "Mother Catch." An old crone, bent and doubled
like a bow, yet vigorous in her work, and shuffling with quick steps as
she laid down the jugs, or took the uncouth orders so freely given to
her, she seemed to have the eye of a hawk; nor did I escape her glance,
for I had not been seated before the marble table a moment when she
shuffled up to me and stood glaring with her shining eyes, the very
presentment of an old-time witch.
"Ha!" she said sharply, "ha! a sailor boy in proper sailor clothes; ho,
little man, will ye wet yer throat for a pretty gentleman?"
I did not like her mock courtesy, or the way in which she pronounced
the word "gentleman"; but I called for some beer to get her away, and
when she brought it I remembered that I had no American money; but I
put an English florin before her and waited for the change. She hissed
at the sight of it like a serpent about to strike.
"Ha! Englishman! and no money; ho! ho! ye've got to find it, little
man. Mother Catch likes you; but she spits on it!"
She spoke the last words in such a loud voice that several men near me
turned to look, and I feared to become the centre of a brawl. This
would have defeated everything, so I threw her a half-sovereign, and,
feigning her own savage merriment, I said--
"Gold, little woman, English gold; spit on it for luck, little woman";
and I am bound to say that she did so, hobbling out of the room with
the gold piece clenched in her nut-cracker jaws. Then I began to search
with my eyes for Paolo; and, although the smoke was very thick, I saw
him seated near the drinking-bar, a tumbler of brandy before him, his
arms resting on the edge of the counter where the liquor was sold. I
judged then that he had made no idle visit to this place; and in a
quarter of an hour or so my surmise was proved. The glass door again
swung open; three men entered through it, and I recognised the three of
them in a moment. The first was the Irishman, "Four Eyes"; the
second-was the lantern-jawed Scotsman, who had been addressed in Paris
as "Dick the Ranter"; the third was "Roaring John," into whose face Dan
had emptied the contents of his duck-gun three days before. The ruffian
had his mouth all bound in a bloody rag, so I hugged myself with the
knowledge that he had been well hit; but he was in nowise depressed;
and, although the gun had stopped his speech, he smacked Paolo on the
back when he greeted him, and the others soon had their faces in the
great brown jugs.
The sight of this company warmed me to the work. I seemed to stand on
the threshold of discovery. If only I could follow them hence to
Black's house the whole aim of my journey would be fulfilled. And why
not? I said; they will leave this place and go to their leader some
time--if not now, at least to-morrow; and why should I lose touch with
them? So far it was certain that my presence was undiscovered. The hag
had suspicion of me, but not in their way; the men were too busy, I
thought, talking of their own affairs to meddle even with their
neighbours. Dan knew on what business I had left the ship, and would
quieten Roderick's alarm for me. It was plain that fortune had turned
kindly eyes on me.
I sat sipping the beer and smoking an old clay pipe, which I found in
the breast-pocket of Dan's garment, doing these things to escape the
remarks which the neglect of them would have occasioned, when there was
some change in the bibulous entertainment as yet provided for us in the
drink-hole. The hag raised her voice, worn to a croak with long
scolding, and shrieked--
"Jack's a-going to dance for ye! Silence, pretty boys. Ho! ho! Jack the
Fire-Devil, will ye listen, then? And it's help me move the tables ye
will, Master Dick, or ye're no minister that I took ye for. Back, my
pretty gentlemen, lest I throw me vitriol on ye. Ha! but they love me
like their own mother!"
She poked round with her stick at the seamen's feet, compelling them to
fall back, and to make a ring for the dancer in the centre; and I saw
with no satisfaction that the foul-mouthed villain who was called the
"Ranter" came to give her his help to the work.
"Hoots, mither," he cried in his broadest Scots, "did ye mistake that I
was a gentleman frae the Hielands o' bonnie Scotland? And I'll be verra
glad to throttle some for a wee cup o' yer pretty poison. So ho! ye
lubbers, it's an ower-fine discoors for a summer Sawbath that my boot
will teach you. Mak' way, mak' way!"
Thus, with unctuous mockery and rough menace, the fellow followed the
fury round the room, and forced the drunken crew to the wall. He came
to my seat; but I buried my head in my hands, lest he should have
carried the memory of my face from Paris; and he passed, having taken
no notice of me as I hoped. Soon he had made a great ring for the
dancing; and one of the long mirrors opened, showing a door, whose
existence I had not suspected; and a great negro with a flaming firepot
entered the room. His entry brought applause; but he was a common quack
of a performer at the beginning, for he made pretence to eat the fire,
and to bring it up again from his vitals. Then, to some wild music from
a fiddler, he bound coils of the flaming stuff about his head; and, the
lamps being lowered, he gave us a weird picture of a man dancing, all
circled with flame; working himself up until I recalled pictures of the
dervishes I had seen in the old quarter of Cairo. It was an
extraordinary exhibition, and it pleased the men about so that they
roared with delight. I was watching it at last as intent as they were;
but my attention was suddenly diverted by the sense that something
under the marble table at which I was sitting was pulling at my leg. I
looked down quickly, and saw a strange sight: it was the black face of
the lad Splinters, who had been treated so brutally in Paris. He,
crouching under the table, was making signs to me, earnest, meaning
signs, so that without any betrayal I leant my head down as though upon
my hands, and spoke to him--
"What is it, lad?" I asked in a whisper. "What do you want to say?"
"Don't stop here, sir!" he answered in a state of great agitation.
"They know you, and are going to kill you!"
He said no more, crawling away at once; but he left me hot with fear.
The mad dance was still going on, and the room was quite dark save for
the glow cast by the spirit flames about the huge negro. It occurred to
me at once that the darkness might save me if only I could reach the
door unobserved; and I left my seat, and pushed amongst the men,
passing nearer and nearer to the street, until at last I was at the
very portal itself. Then I saw that a change had been made while I had
been sitting. The doors of glass were wide open, but the way to the
street without was no longer clear--an iron curtain had been drawn
across the entrance, and a hundred men could not have forced it.
This was a terrible discovery. It seemed to me that the iron door had
been closed for an especial purpose. I knew, however, that when the
dance was over some of the audience would wish to go out, and so I
waited by the curtain until the lamps were turned up, and the negro had
disappeared. The men were then about to push their tables to the centre
again, but the hag raised her voice and cried--
"As you are, my pretty gentleman; it's only the first part ye've been
treated to. No, no; ye don't have the door drawn till ye've seen yer
mother dance awhile. Good boys, all of ye, there's work to do; ho! ho!
work to do, and Mother Catch will do it!"
At the words "work to do" a strange silence, which I did not then
understand, fell on the company. Somehow, all the men immediately
around me slunk away, and I found myself standing quite alone, with
many staring at me. The four men whom most I feared had turned their
backs, and were busy with their mugs; but the rest of the assembly had
eyes only for the terrible woman and for myself. Presently the
discordant music began again. The hag, who had been bent double, reared
herself up with a "Ho!" after the fashion of a Scottish sword-dancer,
and began to make a wretched shuffle with her feet. Then she moved with
a hobble and a jig to the far end of the room; and she called out,
beginning to come straight down to the door whereby I stood. I know not
what presentiment forewarned me to beware as the creature drew near;
but yet I felt the danger, and the throbbing of my heart. That I could
hope for help amongst such a crew was out of the question. I had my
revolver in my pocket, but had I shown it twenty barrels would have
answered the folly. There was nothing to do but to face the screeching
woman; and this I did as the unearthly music became louder, and the
stillness of the men was speaking in its depth.
At the last, the old witch, who had danced for some moments at a
distance of ten paces from the spot where I stood, became as one
possessed. She made a few dreadful antics, uttered a piercing shriek,
and hurled herself almost on me. In that instant I remember seeing the
three men with Paolo suddenly rise to their feet, while the others in
the room called out in their excitement. But the hag herself drew from
her breast something that she had concealed there; and, as she stood
within a yard of me, she brought it crash upon my head, and all my
senses left me.