Keziah Coffin
Page 19
Elkanah. I remember that time when you and me and someof the fellers home from sea went out sailin' and the boom knocked youoverboard with your Sunday clothes on. Lordy, how the rest of us didholler! but you never cracked a smile. If you'd seen yourself when wehauled you in! whiskers runnin' salt water; beaver hat lookin' like adrownded kitten--"
"There! There! Never mind that. I think you'll find a good many of thesociety feel as I do, shocked and--hum--ha!--sorry. I'm surprised theyhaven't been here to say so."
"I expected them," remarked the minister.
"So did I," chimed in Captain Zeb. "But I cal'late to know why theyain't been. They're all too busy crowin' over the way Nat Hammondfetched the packet home last night. WHAT? You ain't heard? Greatfishhooks! it's the best thing ever--"
"I've heard about it," snapped Elkanah impatiently. "Mr. Ellery, I'mglad you realize that your action was a mistake and I will take pains tohave that immejitly made plain to--"
"YOU ain't heard, Keziah, have you?" broke in Zebedee. "Nor you, Mr.Ellery? Well, I must tell you. Here's where I gain a lap on DidamaRogers. Seems the Deborah S.--that's the packet's name, Mr. Ellery--shehauled out of Boston night afore last on the ebb, with a fair wind andsky clear as a bell. But they hadn't much more'n got outside of Minot's'fore the fog shut down, thicker'n gruel for a sick rich man. The windheld till 'long toward mornin'; then she flattened to a dead calm. 'BijePerry, the mate, he spun the yarn to me, and he said 'twas thick andflat as ever he see and kept gettin' no better fast.
"They drifted along till noon time and then they was somewheres out inthe bay, but that's about all you could say. Zach, he was stewin' andsputterin' like a pair of fried eels, and Lafayette Gage and EmulousPeters--they're Denboro folks, Mr. Ellery, and about sixteen p'intst'other side of no account--they was the only passengers aboard exceptNat Hammond, and they put in their time playin' high low jack in thecabin. The lookout was for'ard tootin' a tin horn and his bellerin'was the most excitin' thing goin' on. After dinner--corned beef andcabbage--trust Zach for that, though it's next door to cannibalism toput cabbage in HIS mouth--after dinner all hands was on deck when Natsays: 'Hush!' he says. 'Don't I hear somethin'?'
"They listened, and then they all heard it--all 'cept Zach, who's deefin his larboard ear.
"'Stand by!' roars Nat. 'It's a squall, dead astern and comin' abilin'!I'll take her, 'Bije. You look out for them tops'ls.'
"So Nat grabs the wheel and 'Bije tears for'ard and sends the twofo'mast hands aloft on the jump. Zach was skipper, but all he done wasrace around and holler and trip over his own feet. Oh, he's a prizesailor, he is! Don't talk to me about them Fosters! I--"
"Nobody is talkin' about 'em but you, Zeb," observed Keziah drily. "Goon. How about the squall?"
"It hit 'em 'fore they got even one tops'l clewed down. That one, theforetops'l 'twas, split to rags. The main tops'l was set, and when thesquall struck, the rotten old topmast went by the board 'Kerrash-o!''Course splinters flew like all possessed, and one of 'em, about a footlong, sailed past Nat's head, where he stood heavin' his whole weight onthe wheel, and lit right on the binnacle, smashin' it to matches.
"They say Nat never paid the least attention, no more'n if the chunk ofwood had been a June bug buzzin' past. He just held that wheel hard downand that saved the packet. She come around and put her nose dead inthe wind just in time. As 'twas, 'Bije says there was a second when thewater by her lee rail looked right underneath him as he hung onto thedeck with finger nails and teeth.
"Well, there they was, afloat, but with their upper riggin' gone andthe compass smashed flat. A howlin' no'thwester blowin' and fog thick asever. Zach was a whimperin', fidgetin' old woman, Lafayette and Emulouswas prayin' in the scuppers--and that ain't an exercise they're used to,neither--and even 'Bije was mighty shook up and worried--he says he washimself. But Nat Hammond was as cool and refreshin' as the bottom of mywell up home.
"'Better clear away that mess aloft, hadn't you?' he says to theskipper.
"Zach said he guessed so; he wa'n't sure of nothin'. However, theycleared it away, and incidentally 'Bije yanked the prayer meetin' outof the scuppers and set 'em to work. Then Nat suggests gettin' the sparecompass and, lo and behold you! there wa'n't any. Compasses cost moneyand money's made to keep, so Zach thinks.
"So there they was. Wind was fair, or ought to be, but 'twas blowin'hard and so thick you couldn't hardly see the jib boom. Zach he wantedto anchor, then he didn't, then he did, and so on. Nobody paid muchattention to him.
"'What'll we do, Nat?' says 'Bije. He knew who was the real seamanaboard.
"'Keep her as she is, dead afore it, if you ask me, says Nat. 'Guesswe'll hit the broadside of the cape somewheres if this gale holds.'
"So they kept her as she was. And it got to be night and they knewthey'd ought to be 'most onto the edge of the flats off here, if theirreck'nin' was nigh right. They hove the lead and got five fathom. Noflats about that.
"Zach was for anchorin' again. 'What do you think, Nat?' asks 'Bije.
"'Anchor, of course, if you want to,' Nat says. 'You're runnin' thiscraft. I'm only passenger.'
"'But what do you THINK?' whines Zach. 'Can't you tell us what you dothink?'
"'Well, if 'twas me, I wouldn't anchor till I had to. Prob'ly 'twillfair off to-morrow, but if it shouldn't, we might have to lay out hereall day. Anyhow, we'd have to wait for a full tide.'
"'I'm afraid we're off the course,' says 'Bije, else we'd been acrostthe bar by this time.'
"'Well,' Nat tells him, 'if we are off the course and too far inshore,we would have made the bar--the Bayport bar--if not the Trumet one. Andif we're off the course and too far out, we'd ought to have deeper waterthan five fathom, hadn't we? 'Course I'm not sure, but--What's that,lands-man?'
"'Three and a half, sir,' says the feller with the lead. That showedthey was edgin' in somewheres. Nat he sniffed, for all the world like adog catchin' a scent, so 'Bije declares.
"'I can smell home,' he says.
"Three fathom the lead give 'em, then two and a half, then a scant two.They was drawin' six feet. Zach couldn't stand it.
"'I'm goin' to anchor,' he squeals, frantic. 'I believe we're plumb overto Wellmouth and drivin' right onto Horsefoot Shoal.'
"'It's either that or the bar,' chimes in 'Bije. 'And whichever 'tis, wecan't anchor in the middle of it.'
"'But what'll we do?' shouts Zach. 'Can't nobody say somethin' to DO?'
"'Tell you I smell home,' says Nat, calm and chipper, 'and I'd know thatsmell if I met it in Jericho. Ha! there she deepens again. That was thebar and we're over it.'
"The wind had gone down to a stiff sailin' breeze, and the old Debby S.slapped along afore it. Sometimes there was twelve foot under her keeland sometimes eight or nine. Once 'twas only seven and a half. Zach and'Bije both looked at each other, but Nat only smiled.
"'Oh, you can laugh!' hollers Zach. ''Tain't your vessel you're runnin'into danger. YOU aint paid out your good money--'
"Nat never answered; but he stopped smilin'.
"And all to once the water deepened. Hammond swung her up into the wind.
"'NOW you can anchor,' says he.
"'And 'bout time, too, I guess,' says 'Bije. 'I cal'late the skipper'sright. This IS Horsefoot and we're right between the shoals. Yes, sir,and I hear breakers. Lively there!'
"They hove over the mudhook and dropped the sails. Nat shook his head.
"'Breakers or not,' says he, 'I tell you I've smelt home for the lasthalf hour. Now, by the jumpin' Moses, I can TASTE it!'
"And inside of a couple of shakes come the rain. It poured for a whileand then the fog cleared. Right acrost their bows was Trumet, with thetown clock strikin' ten. Over the flat place between the hills theycould see the light on the ocean side. And they was anchored rightin the deep hole inside the breakwater, as