by E. H. Visiak
“Ay, ay, he did come ready, your worship,” answered Obadiah. “You might suppose as that he was come a purpose, or sent, he did come so ready. He was a-swimming close aboard. I hallooed, and the rest of our men come crowded to the side, though much afeared when they catched sight of his figure-head.
“Some were for letting fly at him with their pistols; but our quartermaster stopped that, and sent one to call the Captain, that lay abed (for he was ever a late riser). But while this was doing, it had quite amazed ye, as it did me and all of us - and terribly frightened us, too - to see him rear himself up out of the sea, and come clawing up the side with his fish-claw hands, and his blubber head, and his terrible grim visage. We thought we should all be murdered to death; and we run scattering all about the deck, some swarming up the rat-lines. Trust me not if we did not think it was a devil come up out of the sea to murder us all and deliver our souls to the Evil One, like as it might be a catch of fish; for the Evil One doth ever use to keep his fish-hooks and nets overboard, in a manner of speaking, for to take and catch up poor mariners.”
CHAPTER XVII -
Obadiah’s Narrative Continued
At this juncture, Obadiah, who was become much more easy and free in his relation, made a stop; and, after observing Mr.Huxtable awhile with his crafty small eyes, and after a slow, halting manner:
“I be willing to go on and furnish you, your worship, in every part, concerning what I be now come to tell you, how I came to consort with what you calls my companion, as what did after befall; but, being little accustomed to the manner of speaking long on end, my mouth and throat is all parched” (said he, writhing his lips) “like sand for dryness. If your worship would but give me a dram to drink, I should make the better way.”
Upon this, Mr Huxtable bade me provide him a drink of water; which was not the sort of dram that he wanted. But, however, making a virtue of necessity (as the saying is), he took and drunk it down, looking round afterward with somewhat of a sour countenance.
“See that you make no more stops,” said Mr Huxtable, while Obadiah returned the cup into my hand, “or I shall quite take back and cancel the pardon I offered you. Go on, sirrah, and no not palter!”
This moment sufficiently brought Obadiah to his course; and, having excused himself after an obsequious manner, “I was relating, your worship,” said he, how that Jerry (as I afterward called him) came aboard our ship. We had no cause to be so scared of him; for he never offered anybody the least violence, and was as harmless as a turtle-dove. We made much of him, and gave him pork and biscuit; but he never would go for to eat nothing else but fish, which he ate very hearty; which was the occasion I wanted so much fish for us to feed him.
“He was very diverting to all on us as soon as we was become accustomed to him; and our chirurgeon, Mr Vertembrex, was much taken with him, being, as you might say (begging your worships’ pardon) a sort of cur’osity, or outlandish discovery, such as Mr Vertembrex much affected, and would write of ‘em in his journal-book —”
“Hold,” cried Mr Huxtable, interrupting him. “What was this Mr Vertembrex? Not the same as him I found in the abandoned ship?”
“Ay,” replied Obadiah, “he was the same, your worship, and no other.”
“Why, you plainly told me,” said Mr Huxtable, “that he was not with you on your ship, and that you had never seen him before!”
“I did much amiss, your worship,” answered Obadiah, with a whining tone, “and I do own and confess it, and asks your pardon.”
“But what reason could you have for lying to me?” asked Mr Huxtable. “What possibly could it profit you to deceive me in such a point as this?”
“No profit at all, your worship,” said he. “But I was afeared you would get the wind of my having Jerry lying concealed in the ship. It don’t signify of itself, that’s true; but, as all rivers flow into the sea (as the saying is), how could I be certain sure but what, if you should have got the wind in one quarter, it might not waft ye to the other? I did much amiss, as I owns and confesses, but now makes amends by a-telling of you plain and faithful; and so I hopes as you will parson me and suffer it to drive astern.”
“You’re a great rogue,” said Mr Huxtable; “but, as you have confessed, and I find you in other points honest in your relation, I’ll pass it over. Continue where you broke off, which was of the creature you call Jerry and of Mr Vertembrex writing of him in his journal-book.”
“Ay, ay,” said Obadiah, “I was a-telling you as how Mr Vertembrex took in hand to be much in company with Jerry for to learn all he might as to what manner of creature he was, a-coming up out of the sea so oddly, and did write of him in his journal-book; for he did write hearty.”
“This is it,” said Mr Huxtable to the Captain, “that I saw in the journal, and intended to have looked at again, as I told you; for I do recollect seeing the word sea-savage. We will search it out anon. But was Mr Vertembrex able to hold any converse with this sea-creature?” (said he, turning himself again towards Obadiah). “Had he any faculty of speech? But hold! If this Mr Vertembrex be the same as the person I found on the abandoned ship, he could not speak with him if he was in that condition he is now in; for he seems not able to utter a word. Had he, then, his speech when he was with you, and did he demean himself like an ordinary man?”
“Ay, your honour,” said Obadiah, “he was ordinary enough when he was aboard with us, like you and me (begging your worship’s pardon), although much given to writing, as I have told you;and what can possibly have changed him like to what he is now, I knows not, not has the least notion of, any more than I can tell you what is become of the rest of the crew. May be something has befallen him beyond natural, and he has seen what nobody ought; and, as I do recollect, I have heard tell of an antic dumb sailor as was taken up driving at sea in a ship’s boat and set ashore on the India coast, but what did become of him I knows not. Also, I mind me of an ancient sea-saying; which is that the sea yields not up his bone save to him as never after can divulge that it had.”
“Why, what do you mean by that?” said the Captain, who much affected proverbs, apophthegms, and the like.
Mr Huxtable himself provided the interpretation (which will be sufficiently clear to the reader), and quickly put Obadiah under way again.
But it were tedious to proceed further in such a homely vagabond style; which we ourselves had scarce been able to hear with patience, if the matter had not so nearly concerned us. To be brief, accordingly, Obadiah told us that Mr Vertembrex contrived to hold discourse with that sea-savage in some degree by means of signs; that it could speak, after a manner - or, at any rate, utter sounds; and that he understood it very well; that, in appointing him as his emissary to Mr Huxtable, his Captain (that is, the captain of the pirate ship) gave him leave to take Jerry (as he called the creature) along with him to England; that it had conceived a particular regard for him, and would perform his bidding exactly in every article.
He did intend to have shown it for a sight in England, as Captain Dampier did his painted man, Prince Jeoly, and after to sell him. But being come with him to Bristol, he was afraid what notice such a remarkable exhibition might draw upon himself, who, being a pirate’s man, was not sedulous of public observation.
Upon taking up his lodgings, therefore, which he found at the Shakespeare tavern, beside the court where I delivered him Mr Huxtable’s letter, he was more in care to conceal the creature than to show him, and absconded him as much as he possibly could in his chamber in the inn.
He ought now to have performed his Captain’s errand; but a foolish fear, or diffidence, of meeting Mr Huxtable came over him, being, as he said, quite without his element on the land (so that Mr Huxtable was in the right in the conjecture that he proposed to me at the farm in regard to Obadiah’s sending the matter by me); and he kept delaying day after day, regaling himself at the inn till pretty near all his money was spent. In this time, he fell in with Mr Falconer, who was wont to come and sit nightly in the tavern
.
“There he would sit” said Obadiah (for I continue in his style, as near as I am able) “with a cup before him, and never a word nor a look at anybody. We smelled the sea on his coat, for all his whey face - me and my gossips - and took him for the mate, or second mate, of some vessel lying in the river; and the look of him was like a cold chill mizzling rain. None of us ever spoke to him. One, coming new to the inn, would speak to him, passing the time o’day, or the like, but had such a mopish return as made him sheer off quick, lest, lying anyways abroad of him, he should be drawn down presently into a deep dump.
“Howsoever, a-coming in one evening, and stepping to my place near the hearth, I saw him lift a finger and beckon to me. What, do you take the face to be a-beckoning to me? says I to myself, as if you was on your quarter deck? I’ll strike before I goes to ye!
So, I sits me down, and calls for rum; and my gossip pulls out his box and counters; and, all the time, while we was a-casting of the dice, I was sensible he observed me; and, looking up, his eyes did come turning on me, so as it give me a shog, your honour, like as they would pluck me from my seat on the bench. All on a sudden, scarce knowing what I was acting, I rises up after a cast, with no care how the dice fell, and betook myself to beside where he sat.
“I have a word for you in your ear, says he, and makes a motion to me to sit down by his side.
“So I sits me down; and he says in my ear: Make no delay, but get you gone, for there’s a watch and observation on ye.
“How know you this? says I, being set all on a tremor.
“Spend not the time with questions, says he, unless you will be taken, but bethink you where to abscond yourselves. Seek out some place and lie close until the ship sails.
This gave me a turn too, your worship, seeing as it plainly showed he knew I had Jerry with me; so I resolves to do what he admonished me. And, as to a place to abscond into, by good luck, as it chanced, I had gone for to spy out your worship’s farm on the day previous, and so bethought me of the mill which I took particular notice of, being empty, and wondering why it should be.
“So I tells Mr Falconer (not as his name was be known to me then, but not till after), and he answered that I should remove therein with Jerry no later than the morrow night; and, being in, neither of us should once issue forth by day, but only by night, and that only on dark nights. But how shall we do for victuals? said I. Rest you easy as to that, says he, I shall provide your wants.
“It needs not to be a-telling you, your worships, ’twas but a dismal look out got a poor misfortunate man, such as I was - nor yet any man else, for that matter - and, if I goes for to take along with me aboard the mill a store of rum, ’tis no more than what another would ha’ done in the like predicament, as any sailor would bear me out. And so I did, your worships; which near brought about our ruin, a-setting the mill afire, as your worship was witness - I mean, of the fire; not of the misfortunate cause. Mr Falconer provided us with supplies, coming in the middle of the night, both beef and bread, and good store of salted herrings for Jerry; for he seemed to know without my acquainting him that Jerry did feed on fish.
“I am not able to tell you what Mr Falconer was concerned in my matters, to deliver me by admonishing me in the inn, nor yet how he came to know of me and Jerry. ’Tis all perplexity and mists and darkness. I was delivered safe from the town bailiff, or whoever was after me, and more I cared not. I have no head-piece for such puzzling gear; and Mr Falconer would tell me nought. He admonished me that your worship would forbid my having Jerry aboard with, very like, when the ship sailed, and that I should abscond with him on the ballast, if I desired to have him with me (as I did) and that he would assist me —”
He broke off; for the Captain began to rail at Mr Falconer, calling him by ever opprobrious epithet he could set his tongue to.
“I have ever known him for a rogue,” cried he, transporting himself in his chair. “Ha! a rogue, with his snivelling whey face. A rogue! a fox! a snipe! Assist you, would he? Ha! I’ll —”
He started up while he spoke, and made a pace toward the door; but Mr Huxtable prevented him.
“Sir, I beseech you,” said he, lifting up his finger. “First let us hear this man to an end. There will be time to deal with Mr Falconer. Let us learn all that we possibly can; we are sufficiently in the dark. Indeed, I had thought you had desired it no less than I.”
Upon this, the captain sat down again, surlily chafing and murmuring, and Mr Huxtable bade Obadiah to continue.
“Well, your worship,” said he, “I don’t know but that I have much more to tell’e. I had set my heart on taking Jerry along with me in the ship, though I was willing to have sold him afore; and, if you enquires of me how that was, I couldn’t tell’e. I don’t go for to profess myself to be one of your saints. There ain’t much of the milk of human kindness (in a manner of speaking) in me; and I don’t know as if I ever saw a dog, or a cat, or a ship’s boy, but what I’d a - but that’s from my course” (said he, perceiving Mr Huxtable to grow impatient at this tedious talk). “What I was telling you was how I had set my heart on taking Jerry along with me aboard the ship. So Mr Falconer gives me a hint, a night or two before the ship sailed, to take him along with me to the river for to get him on board and stowed away in the peak, and tells me he had gone to work with the two men that lay aboard, keeping watch. I asks him, has he bribed them. He told me no; for that was to have run too great a hazard to have endeavoured to have bribed them since they were Mr Huxtable’s men, body and soul, alow and aloft.
“I have not bribed them, says he; but I have drugged them, and tells me how he put on the clothes and habit of a common huckster and sold them some bottles of rum with poppy in it. This made me laugh hearty; though he did tell it to me with his face as solemn as a parson at a funeral.
“So we sallied forth, Jerry and me, towards the river. But I mistook the hour (having, as I do own, drunken too much liquor), so as it was too soon in the night. And also, your worship, I had kept no look out at the window, as I was won’t to do, spying on your goings out and your comings in (asking your worship’s pardon). So, when we comes to the river, and was a-going for to go on board, we nigh run foul of you; for, it seems, you was come aboard the ship with this-here young gentlemen.
“Howsoever, I learned my error in time. On a sudden, I hears voices, which was not of the watch, and sees a glimmering light a-coming up the hatchway. Back runs I in the darkness, never taking thought of Jerry. But he, beholding the bright lantern, immediately makes a dive in the river, as his instinct told him, belike, being very a water-creature. For, this be a very curious particular in Jerry, your worship, that he can live nigh as well in water as in air, remaining below a powerful long time on end, so as you would think he was never going for to come up any more; which was one of his wonderful strange performances I was a-going to turn to account if I had showed him for a sight.”
“How long can he remain under water?” asked Mr Huxtable, interrupting him. “A full minute? Two?”
“A minute, your worship!” cried Obadiah. “Why, I have known him ride it out full half an hour; as my old shipmates could be witness what saw it on a day when we lay becalmed, for we delighted to see him perform it, your worship, and would give him rewards such as he fancied - an old montero cap, a gaudy handkerchief, and the like. Sometimes we was nigh wearied out with watching for him, he stayed so long below, and concluded he was certainly drowned, or else was quite gone away. Sometimes he would bring us back something from the bottom; and look ‘e here, your worship, here be a cur’osity for ye, if it be no offence I does in a-proffering it to you. This be a present from the bottom of the sea, fetched up by Jerry; and I hopes, if you will pleasure me by accepting of it, so as it will bring you good luck.”
While he spoke, he pulled from his belt a knife of a very curious figure and fashion. ’Twas of stone, being all of a piece, The blade was wrought in the pattern of a long slender leaf; and at the heel of the haft, or handle, was a cross w
ithin a ring, with other strange devices about the middle. This he gave to Mr Huxtable, making a comical scrape; while the Captain and I rose up from our chairs to obtain the nearer view.
“That’s a great cur’osity, your worship,” said he; “and, though you was to search through the whole world, I doubt you would not find its like; which inclines me to think your worship will not be unwilling to accept of it.”
This capacious offer a little stumbled Mr Huxtable; who at first (as plainly appeared) was going to treat it as an impertinence. But, after a moment’s pause: “I see not why I should not accept of it,” said he; “and ’tis as you have said, a great curiosity. Well, I shall set a value on it,” said he, with kind and gracious accents; which curiously contented Obadiah so that he stood smiling like a great child.
But, while he spoke, there came a sound of our men running together on the deck; and, as it ceased not, but rather increased, Mr Huxtable bid me go and see what the matter was.
I went in haste, being exceeding unwilling to lose what more Obadiah might divulge while I was gone.