by Holman Day
XXII ~ SPECIAL BUSINESS OF A PASSENGER
O Ranzo was no sailor, He shipped on board a whaler. O pity Reuben Ran-zo, Ran-zo, boys! O poor old Reuben Ranzo, Ranzo, boys! --Reuben Ranzo.
Captain Mayo kept out of the region of the white lights for some time.He had a pretty wide acquaintance in the Virginia port, and he knew thebeaten paths of the steamboating transients, ashore for a bit of a blow.
He lurked in alleys, feeling especially disreputable. He was not atall sure that his make-up was effective. His own self-consciousnessconvinced him that he was a glaring fraud, whose identity would berevealed promptly to any person who knew him. But while he sneaked inthe purlieus of the city several of his 'longshore friends passed himwithout a second look. One, a second engineer on a Union line freighter,whirled after passing, and came back to him.
"Got a job, boy?"
"No, sir."
"We need coal-passers on the _Drummond_. She's in the stream. Comeaboard in the morning."
But it was not according to Mayo's calculation, messing with steamboatmen. "Ah doan' conclude ah wants no sech job," he drawled.
"No, of course you don't want to work, you blasted yaller mutt!" snappedthe engineer. He marched on, cursing, and Mayo was encouraged, for theman had given him a thorough looking-over.
He went out onto the wider streets. He was looking for a roving schoonercaptain, reckoning he would know one of that gentry by the cut of hisjib.
A ponderous man came stumping down the sidewalk, swinging his shoulders.
"He's one of 'em," decided Mayo. The round-crowned soft hat, undented,the flapping trouser legs, the gait recognized readily by one who hasever seen a master mariner patrol his quarter-deck--all these marked himas a safe man to tackle. He stopped, dragged a match against the brickside of a building, and relighted his cigar. But before Mayo could reachhim a colored man hurried up and accosted the big gentleman, whippingoff his hat and bowing with smug humility. Mayo hung up at a littledistance. He recognized the colored man; he was one of the numerousNorfolk runners who furnish crews for vessels. He wore pearl-graytrousers, a tailed coat, and had a pink in his buttonhole.
"Ah done have to say that ah doan' get that number seven man up to now,Cap'n Downs, though I have squitulate for him all up and down. But ahdone expect--"
Captain Downs scowled over his scooped hands, puffing hard at his cigar.He threw away the match.
"Look-a-here! you've been chasing me two days with new stories aboutthat seventh man. Haven't you known me long enough to know that youcan't trim me for another fee?"
"Cap'n Downs, you done know yo'self the present lucidateness of thesailorman supply."
"I know that if you don't get that man aboard my schooner to-night orthe first thing to-morrow morning you'll never put another one aboardfor me. You go hustle! And look here! I see you making up your mouth!Not another cent!"
The colored man backed off and went away.
Mayo accosted the captain when that fuming gentleman came lunging alongthe sidewalk. "Ah done lak to have that job, cap'n," he pleaded.
"You a sailor?"
"Yas, sir."
"How is it you ain't hiring through the regular runners?"
"Ah doan' lak to give all my money to a dude nigger to go spotein' on."
"Well, there's something in that," acknowledged Captain Downs, softeninga bit. "I haven't got much use for that kind myself. You come along. Butif you ain't A-1, shipshape, and seamanlike and come aboard my vesselto loaf on your job you'll wish you were in tophet with the torcheslighted. Got any dunnage laying around anywhere?"
"No, sir."
"Well, then, I guess you're a regular sailor, all right, the way thebreed runs nowadays. That sounds perfectly natural." The captain led theway down to a public landing, where a power-yawl, with engineer and amate, was in waiting. "Will she go into the stream to-night, Mr. Dodge?"asked Captain Downs, curtly.
"No, sir! About four hundred tons still to come."
Schooner captains keep religiously away from their vessels as long asthe crafts lie at the coal-docks.
"Come up for me in the morning as soon as she is in the stream. Here'sa man to fill the crew. If that coon shows up with another man kick thetwo of 'em up the wharf."
"Will the passenger come aboard with you, sir?"
"He called me up at the hotel about supper-time and said something aboutwanting to come aboard at the dock. I tried to tell him it was foolish,but it's safe to reckon that a man who wants to sail as passenger fromhere to Boston on a coal-schooner is a fool, anyway. If he shows up,let him come aboard." Captain Downs swung away and the night closed inbehind him.
Mayo took his place in the yawl and preserved meek and proper silenceduring the trip down the harbor.
When they swung under the counter of the schooner which was theirdestination, the young man noted that she was the _Drusilla M. Alden_,a five-master, of no very enviable record along the coast, so far as themethods and manners of her master went; Mayo had heard of her master,whose nickname was "Old Mull." He had not recognized him under the nameof Captain Downs when the runner had addressed him.
The new member of the crew followed the mate up the ladder--only a fewsteps, for the huge schooner, with most of her cargo aboard, showed lessthan ten feet of freeboard amidships.
"Sleepy, George?" asked the mate, when they were on deck.
"No, sir."
"Then you may as well go on this watch."
"Yass'r!"
"We'll call it now eight bells, midnight. You'll go off watch eightbells, morning."
Mayo knew that the hour was not much later than eleven, but he didnot protest; he knew something about the procedure aboard coastwisecoal-schooners.
Search-lights bent steady glare upon the chutes down which rushed thestreams of coal, black dust swirling in the white radiance. The greatpockets at Lambert Point are never idle. High above, on the railway,trains of coal-cars racketed. Under his feet the fabric of the vesseltrembled as the chutes fed her through the three hatches. Sweating,coal-blackened men toiled in the depths of her, revealed below hatchesby the electric lights, pecking at the avalanche with their shovels,trimming cargo.
The young man exchanged a few listless words with the two negroes whowere on deck, his mates of the watch.
They were plainly not interested in him, and he avoided them.
The hours dragged. He helped to close and batten the fore-hatch,and later performed similar service on the hatch aft. The main-hatchcontinued to gulp the black food which the chute fed to it.
Suddenly a tall young man appeared to Mayo. The stranger was smartlydressed, and his spick-and-span garb contrasted strangely with thegeneral riot of dirt aboard the schooner. He trod gingerly over thedust-coated planks and carried two suit-cases.
"Here, George," he commanded. "Take these to my stateroom."
Mayo hesitated.
"I'm going as passenger," said the young man, impatiently, and Mayoremembered what the captain had told the mate.
Passengers on coal-schooners, sailing as friends of the master, were notunknown on the coast, but Mayo judged, from what he had heard, that thisperson was not a friend, and had wondered a bit.
"I am not allowed to go aft, sir, without orders from the mate."
"Where is the mate?"
"I think he is below, sir."
"Asleep?"
"I wouldn't wonder."
Mayo did not trouble to use his dialect on this stranger, a merepassenger, who spoke as if he were addressing a car-porter. The toneproduced instant irritation, resentment in the man who had so recentlybeen master of his ship.
The passenger set down his baggage and pondered a moment. He looked Mayoover in calculating fashion; he stared up the wharf. Then he pickedup his bags and hurried along the port alley and disappeared down thecompanionway.
He returned in a few moments, came into the waist of the vessel,and made careful survey of all about him. There were two sailors
farforward, merely dim shadows. For some reason general conditions on theschooner seemed to satisfy the stranger.
"The thing is breaking about right--about as I reckoned it would," hesaid aloud. "Look here, George, how much talking do you do about thingsyou see?"
"Talking to who, sir?"
"Why, to your boss--the captain--the mate."
"A sailor before the mast is pretty careful not to say anything to acaptain or the mates unless they speak to him first, sir."
"George, I'm not going to do anything but what is perfectly all right,you understand. You'll not get into any trouble over it. But what youdon't see you can't tell, no matter if questions are asked later on.Here, take this!" He crowded two silver dollars into Mayo's hands andgave him a push. "You trot forward and stay there about five minutes,that's the boy! It's all right. It's a little of my own privatebusiness. Go ahead!"
Mayo went. He reflected that it was none of his affair what a passengerdid aboard the vessel. It was precious little interest he took in thecraft, anyway, except as a temporary refuge. He turned away and put themoney in his pocket, the darkness hiding his smile.
He did not look toward the wharf. He strolled on past the forward house,where the engineer was stoking his boiler, getting up steam for theschooner's windlass engine. When he patrolled aft again, aftera conscientious wait, he found the passenger leaning against thecoachhouse door, smoking a cigarette. The electric light showed hisface, and it wore a look of peculiar satisfaction.
Just then some one fumbled inside the coach-house door at the stranger'sback, and when the latter stepped away the first mate appeared, yawning.
"I'm the passenger--Mr. Bradish," the young man explained, promptly. "Ijust made myself at home, put my stuff in a stateroom, and locked thedoor and took the key. Is that all right?"
"May be just as well to lock it while we're at dock and stevedores areaboard," agreed the mate.
"How soon do we pull out of here?"
The mate yawned again and peered up into the sky, where the first grayof the summer dawn was showing over the cranes of the coal-pockets."In about a half-hour, I should say. Just as soon as the tug can usedaylight to put us into the stream."
The roar of the coal in the main-hatch chute had ceased. The schoonerwas loaded.
"Go strike eight bells, Jeff, and turn in!" ordered the mate, speakingto Mayo.
"Well, I'll stay outside, here, and watch the sun rise," said Bradish."It will be a new experience."
"It's an almighty dirty place for loafing till we get into the streamand clean ship, sir. I should think taking an excursion on a coal-luggerwould be another new experience!" There was just a hint of grim sarcasmin his tone.
"The doctor ordered me to get out and away where I wouldn't hear ofbusiness or see business, and a friend of mine told me there were plentyof room and comfort aboard one of these big schooners. That cabin andthe staterooms, they're fine!"
"Oh, they have to give a master a good home these days. That's a Wintoncarpet in the saloon," declared the mate, with pride. "And we've got aone-eyed cook who can certainly sling grub together. Yes, for a cheapvacation I dun'no' but a schooner is all right!"
The two were getting on most amicably when Mayo went forward. He wasdog-tired and turned in on tie bare boards of his fo'cas'le berth.
No bedding is furnished men before the mast on the coal-carriers.
If a man wants anything between himself and the boards he must bring itwith him, and few do so. At the end of each trip a crew is dischargedand new men are hired, in order to save paying wages while a vessel isin port loading or discharging. Therefore, a coastwise schooner harborsonly transients, for whom the fo'cas'le is merely a shelter betweenwatches.
But Mayo was a sailor, and the bare boards served him better thanbedding in which some dusky and dirty son of Ham had nestled. He laidhimself down and slept soundly.
The second mate turned out the watch below at four bells--six in themorning. The schooner was in the stream and all hands were needed towork hose and brooms and clear off the coal-dust. Mayo toiled in thewallow of black water till his muscles ached.
There was one happy respite--they knocked off long enough to eatbreakfast. It was sent out to them from the cook-house in one huge,metal pan without dishes or knives or forks.
A white cook wash dishes for negroes?
Mayo knew the custom which prevailed on board the schooners between thecoal ports and the New England cities, and he fished for food with hisfingers and cut meat with his jack-knife with proper meekness.
When he was back at his scrubbing again the cook passed aft, bearingthe zinc-lined hamper which contained the breakfast for the cabin table.That this cook had the complete vocabulary of others of his ilk wasrevealed when the man with the hose narrowly missed drenching thehamper.
"That's right, cook!" roared Captain Downs, climbing ponderously onboard from his yawl. "Talk up to the loafing, cock-eyed, pot-coloredsons of a coal-scuttle when I ain't here to do it. Turn away that hose,you mule-eared Fiji!" He turned on Mayo, who stood at one side and waspoising his scrubbing-broom to allow the master to pass. "Get to work,there, yellow pup! Get to work!"
Ordinarily the skipper addresses one of his sailors only through themate. But there was no mate handy just then.
"One hand for the owners and one hand for yourself when you're aloft,but on deck it's both hands for the owners," he stated, as he ploddedaft, giving forth the aphorism for the benefit of all within hearing.
The passenger was still on deck, and Mayo heard Captain Downs greet himrather brusquely.
Then the cook's hand-bell announced breakfast, and before the captainand his guest reappeared on deck a tug had the _Alden's_ hawser and wastowing her down the dredged channel on the way to Hampton Roads and tosea.
Mayo went at his new tasks so handily that he passed muster as anable seaman. If a sailor aboard a big schooner of these days is quick,willing, and strong he does not need the qualities and the knowledgewhich made a man an "A. B." in the old times.
While the schooner was on her way behind the tug they hoisted her sails,a long cable called "the messenger" enabling the steam-winch forward todo all the work. Mayo was assigned to the jigger-mast, and went aloftto shake out the topsail. It was a dizzy height, and the task tried hisspirit, for the sail was heavy, and he found it difficult to keep hisbalance while he was tugging at the folds of the canvas. He was obligedto work alone--there was only one man to a mast, and very tiny insectsdid his mates appear when Mayo glanced forward along the range of themasts.
The tug dropped them off the Tail of the Horseshoe; a smashingsou'wester was serving them.
With all her washing set, the schooner went plowing out past the capes,and Mayo was given his welcome watch below; he was so sleepy that hishead swam.
When he turned out he was ordered to take his trick at the wheel. Theschooner had made her offing and was headed for her northward run alongthe coast, which showed as a thin thread of white along the flashingblue of the sea.
Mayo took the course from the gaunt, sooty Jamaican who stepped awayfrom the wheel; he set his gaze on the compass and had plenty to occupyhis hands and his mind, for a big schooner which is logging off sixor eight knots in a following sea is somewhat of a proposition for asteersman. Occasionally he was obliged to climb bodily upon the wheel inorder to hold the vessel up to her course.
Captain Downs was pacing steadily from rail to rail between the wheeland the house. At each turn he glanced up for a squint at the sails. Itwas the regular patrol of a schooner captain.
In spite of his absorption in his task, Mayo could not resist takingan occasional swift peep at the passenger. The young man's demeanor hadbecome so peculiar that it attracted attention. He looked worried, illat ease, smoked his cigarettes nervously, flung over the rail one whichhe had just lighted, and started for the captain, his mouth open. Thenhe turned away, shielded a match under the hood of the companionway, andtouched off another cigarette. He was plainly wrestling with a p
roblemthat distressed him very much.
At last he hurried below. He came up almost immediately. He had the airof a man who had made up his mind to have a disagreeable matter overwith.
"Captain Downs," he blurted, stepping in front of Old Mull and haltingthat astonished skipper, "will you please step down into the cabin withme for a few moments? I've something to tell you."
"Well, tell it--tell it here!" barked the captain.
"It's very private, sir!"
"I don't know of any privater place than this quarterdeck, fifteen milesoffshore."
"But the--the man at the wheel!"
"Good Josephus! That ain't a man! That's a nigger sailor steering myschooner. Tell your tale, Mr. Bradish. Tell it right here. That fellowdon't count any more 'n that rudder-head counts."
"If you could step down into the cabin, I--"
"My place is on this quarter-deck, sir. If you've got anything to say tome, say it!" He began to pace again.
Bradish caught step, after a scuff or two.
"I hope you're going to take this thing right, Captain Downs. It maysound queer to you at first," he stammered.
"Well, well, well, tell it to me--tell it! Then I will let you knowwhether it sounds queer or not."
"I brought another passenger on board with me. She is locked in astateroom."
Old Mull stopped his patrol with a jerk. "She?" he demanded. "You meanto tell me you've got a woman aboard here?"
"We're engaged--we want to get married. So she came along--"
"Then why in tophet didn't ye go get married? You don't think this is aparsonage, do you?"
"There were reasons why we couldn't get married ashore. You have to havelicenses, and questions are asked, and we were afraid it would be foundout before we could arrange it."
"So this is an elopement, hey?"
"Well, the young lady's father has foolish ideas about a husband for hisdaughter, and she doesn't agree with him."
"Who is her father?"
"I don't intend to tell you, sir. That hasn't anything to do with thematter."
Captain Downs looked his passenger up and down with great disfavor. "Andwhat's your general idea in loading yourselves onto me in this fashion?"
"You have the right, as captain of a ship outside the three-mile limit,to marry folks in an emergency."
"I ain't sure that I've got any such right, and I ain't at all certainabout the emergency, Mr. Bradish. I ain't going to stick my head into ascrape."
"But there can't be any scrape for you. You simply exercise your rightand marry us and enter it in your log and give us a paper. It will beenough of a marriage so that we can't be separated."
"Want to hold a hand you can bluff her father with, hey? I don't approveof any such tactics in matrimony."
"I wouldn't be doing this if there were any other safe way for us,"protested Bradish, earnestly. "I'm no cheap fellow. I hold down a goodjob, sir. But the trouble is I work for her father--and you know how italways is in a case like that. He can't see me!"
"Rich, eh?"
"Yes, sir!" Bradish made the admission rather sullenly.
"It's usually the case when there's eloping done!"
"But this will not seem like eloping when it's reported right in thenewspapers. Marriage at sea--it will seem like a romantic way of gettingrid of the fuss of a church wedding. We'll put out a statement of thatsort. It will give her father a chance to stop all the gossip. He'll beglad if you perform the ceremony."
"Say, young fellow, you're not rehearsing the stuff on me that you usedon the girl, are you? Well, it doesn't go!
"Captain Downs, you must understand how bull-headed some rich men are inmatters of this kind. I am active and enterprising. I'll be a handy manfor him. He likes me in a business way--he has said so. He'll be allright after he gets cooled down."
"More rehearsal! But I ain't in love with you like that girl is."
"We're in a terrible position, captain! Perhaps it wasn't a wise thingto do. But it will come out all right if you marry us."
"What's her name?"
"I can't tell you."
"How in the devil can I marry you and her if I don't know her name?"
"But you haven't promised that you will do your part! I don't want toexpose this whole thing and then be turned down."
"I ain't making any rash promises," stated Captain Downs, walking to therail and taking a squint at the top-hamper. "Besides," he added, on histramp past to the other rail, "he may be an owner into this schoonerproperty, for all I know. Sixteenths of her are scattered from tophet toTar Hollow!"
"You needn't worry about his owning schooner property! He is doing quitea little job at putting you fellows out of business!"
Curiosity and something else gleamed in Captain Downs's eyes. "Chancefor me to rasp him, hey, by wishing you onto the family?"
This new idea in the situation appealed instantly to Bradish as apossibility to be worked. "Promise man to man that you'll perform themarriage, and I'll tell you his name; then you'll be glad that you havepromised," he said, eagerly.
"I don't reckon I'd try to get even with Judas I-scarrot himselfby stealing his daughter away from him, sir. There's the girl to beconsidered in all such cases!"
"But this isn't stealing! We're in love."
"Maybe, but you ain't fooling me very much, young fellow. I don't saybut what you like her all right, but you're after something else, too."
"A man has to make his way in the world as best he can."
"That plan seems to be pretty fashionable among you financing fellowsnowadays. But I'm a pretty good judge of men and you can't fool me, Isay. Now how did you fool the girl?"
It was blunt and insulting query, but Bradish did not have the courageto resent it; he had too much need of placating this despot. The loverhesitated and glanced apprehensively at the man at the wheel.
"Don't mind that nigger!" yelped Captain Downs, "How did you ever getnigh enough to that girl to horn-swoggle her into this foolishness?"
"We met at dances. We were attracted to each other," explained Bradish,meekly.
"Huh! Yes, they tell me that girls are crazy over hoof-shaking thesedays, and I suppose it's easy to go on from there into a general stateof plumb lunacy," commented Old Mull, with disgust. "You show you ain'treally in love with her, young man. You'd never allow her to cut up thiscaper if you were!"
He stuck an unlighted cigar in his mouth and continued to patrol hisquarter-deck, muttering.
Bradish lighted a cigarette, tossed it away after two puffs, and leanedagainst the house, studying his fingertips, scowling and sullen.
Mayo had heard all the conversation, but his interest in the identity ofthese persons was limited; New York was full of rich men, and there weremany silly daughters.
"Look here," suggested the captain, unamiably, "whatever is done later,there's something to be done now. It's cruelty to animals to keep thatgirl shut up in that stateroom any longer."
"She didn't want to come out and show herself till I had had a talkwith you, sir. I have spoken to her through the door a few times." Hestraightened himself and assumed dignity. "Captain Downs, I call itto your attention--I want you to remember that I have observed all theproprieties since I have been on board."
Captain Downs snorted. "Proprieties--poosh! You have got her into anice scrape! And she's down there locked in like a cat, and probablystarving!"
"She doesn't care to eat. I think she isn't feeling very well."
"I shouldn't think she would! Go bring her up here, where she can getsome fresh air. I'll talk to her."
After a moment's hesitation Bradish went below. He returned in a littlewhile.
In spite of his efforts to pretend obliviousness Mayo stared hard atthe companionway, eager to look on the face of the girl. But she did notfollow her lover.
"She doesn't feel well enough to come on deck," reported Bradish. "Butshe is in the saloon. Captain Downs, won't you go and talk to her andsay something to make her feel easy in her
mind? She is very nervous.She is frightened."
"I'm not much of a ladies' man," stated Old Mull. But he pulled off hiscap and smoothed his grizzled hair.
"And if you could only say that you're going to help us!" pleaded thelover. "We throw ourselves on your mercy, sir."
"I ain't much good as a life-raft in this love business." He started forthe companionway.
"But don't tell her that you will not marry us--not just now. Wait tillshe is calmer."
"Oh, I sha'n't tell her! Don't worry!" said Captain Downs, with a grimset to his mouth. "All she, or you, gets out of me can be put in aflea's eye."
He disappeared down the steps, and Bradish followed. A mate had comeaft, obeying the master's hand-flourish, and he took up the watch. In alittle while Mayo was relieved. He went forward, conscious that he wasa bit irritated and disappointed because he had not seen the heroine ofthis love adventure, and wondering just a bit at his interest in thatyoung lady.
An hour later Mayo, coiling down lines in the alley outside theengine-room, overheard a bulletin delivered by the one-eyed cook to theengineer.
The cook had trotted forward, his sound eye bulging out and thus mutelyexpressing much astonishment. "There's a dame aft. I've been making teaand toast for her."
"Well, you act as if it was the first woman you'd ever seen. What's thespecial excitement about a skirt going along as passenger?"
"She wa'n't expected to be aboard. I heard the old man talking with her.The flash gent that's passenger has rung her in somehow. I didn't getall the drift be-cause the old man only sort of purred while I was inhearing distance. But I caught enough to know that it ain't according toschedule."
"Good looker?" The engineer was showing a bit of interest.
"She sure is!" declared the cook, demonstrating that one eye is ashandy, sometimes, as two. "Peaches and cream, molasses-candy hair, handsas white as pastry flour. Looks good enough to eat."
"Nobody would ever guess you are a cook, hearing you describe a girl,"sneered the engineer.
"There's a mystery about her. I heard her kind of taking on before thedude hushed her up. She was saying something about being sorry that shehad come, and that she wished she was back, and that she had alwaysdone things on the impulse, and didn't stop to think, and so forth, andcouldn't the ship be turned around."
Mayo forgot himself. He stopped coiling ropes and stood there andlistened eagerly until the cook's indignant eye chanced to take a swingin his direction.
"Do you see who's standing there butting in on the private talk of twogents?" he asked the engineer. "Hand me that grate-poker--the hot one.I'll show that nigger where he belongs."
But Mayo retreated in a hurry, knowing that he was not permitted toprotest either by word or by look. However, the cook had given himsomething else besides an insult--he had retailed gossip which kept theyoung man's thoughts busy.
In spite of his rather contemptuous opinion of the wit of a girl whowould hazard such a silly adventure, he found himself pitying herplight, guessing that she was really sorry. But as to what was going onin the master's cabin he had no way of ascertaining. He wondered whetherCaptain Downs would marry the couple in such equivocal fashion.
At any rate, pondered Mayo, how did it happen to be any affair of his?He had troubles enough of his own to occupy his sole attention.
Their spanking wind from the sou'west let go just as dusk shut down. Ayellowish scud dimmed the stars. Mayo heard one of the mates say thatthe glass had dropped. He smelled nasty weather himself, having thesailor's keen instinct. The topsails were ordered in, and he climbedaloft and had a long, lone struggle before he got the heavy canvasfolded and lashed.
When he reached the deck a mate commanded him to fasten the canvascovers over the skylights of the house. The work brought him withinrange of the conversation which Captain Downs and Bradish were carryingon, pacing the deck together.
"Of course I don't want to throw down anybody, captain," Bradish wassaying. There was an obsequious note in his voice; it was the tone of aman who was affecting confidential cordiality in order to get on--to wina favor. "But I have a lot of sympathy for you and for the rest of theschooner people. I have been right there in the office, and have hada finger in the pie, and I've seen what has been done in a good manycases. Of course, you understand, this is all between us! I'm not givingaway any of the office secrets to be used against the big fellows. ButI'm willing to show that I'm a friend of yours. And I know you'll be afriend of mine, and keep mum. All is, you can get wise from what I tellyou and can keep your eyes peeled from now on."
Mayo heard fragmentary explanation of how the combination of steamboatand barge interests had operated to leave only pickings to theschooners. The two men were tramping the deck together, and at the turnswere too far away from him to be heard distinctly.
"But they're putting over the biggest job of all just now," proceededBradish. "Confound it, Captain Downs, I'm not to be blamed for runningaway with a man's daughter after watching him operate as long as I have.His motto is, 'Go after it when you see a thing you want in this world.'I've been trained to that system. I've got just as much right to goafter a thing as he. I'm treasurer of the Paramount--that's the trustwith which they intend to smash the opposition. My job is to ask noquestions and to sign checks when they tell me to, and Heaven only knowswhat kind of a goat it will make of me if they ever have a show-down inthe courts! They worked some kind of a shenanigan to grab off the Voseline; I wired a pot of money to Fletcher Fogg, who was doing the dirtywork, and it was paid to a clerk to work proxies at the annual meeting.And then Fogg put up some kind of a job on a greenhorn captain--workeda flip trick on the fellow and made him shove the _Montana_ onto thesands. I suppose they'll have the Vose line at their price before I getback."
Mayo sat there in the shadow, squatting on legs which trembled.
This babbler--tongue loosened by his new liberty and by the antagonismhis small nature was developing, anticipating his employer's enmity--haddropped a word of what Mayo knew must be the truth. It had been atrick--and Fletcher Fogg had worked it! Mayo did not know who FletcherFogg's employer might be. From what office this tattler came he did notknow; but it was evident that Bradish was cognizant of the trick. Asa result of that trick, an honest man had been ruined and blacklisted,deprived of opportunity to work in his profession, was a fugitive, adespised sailor, kicked to the Very bottom of the ladder he had climbedso patiently and honorably.
Furious passion bowled over Mayo's prudence. He leaped down from the topof the house and presented himself in front of the two men.
"I heard it--I couldn't help hearing it!" he stuttered.
"Here's a nigger gone crazy!" yelped Captain Downs. "Ahoy, there,for'ard! Tumble aft with a rope!"
"I'm no nigger, and I'm not crazy!" shouted Mayo.
The swinging lantern in the companionway lighted him dimly. But in thegloom his dusky hue was only the more accentuated. His excitement seemedthat of a man whose wits had been touched.
"I knew it was a trick. But what was the trick?" he demanded, startingtoward Bradish, his clutching hands outspread.
Captain Downs kicked at this obstreperous sailor, and at the same timefanned a blow at his head with open palm.
Mayo avoided both the foot and the hand. "What does the law say aboutstriking a sailor, captain? Hold on, there! I'm just as good a man asyou are. Don't you tell those men to lay hands on me." He backed awayfrom the sailors who came running aft, with the second mate marshalingthem. He stripped up his sleeve and held his arm across the radiance ofthe binnacle light. "That's a white man's skin, isn't it?" he demanded.
"What kind of play-acting is all this?" asked Old Mull, with astonishedindignation.
In that crisis Mayo controlled his tongue after a mighty effort tosteady himself. He was prompted to obey his mood and announce hisidentity with all the fury that was in him. But here stood the man whohad served as one of the tools of his enemies, whoever they were. Forhis weapon against this man Mayo had
only a few words of gossip whichhad been dropped in an unwary moment; he realized his position; heregretted his passionate haste. He was not ready to put himself into thepower of his enemies by telling this man who he was; he remembered thathe was running away from the law.
Bradish gaped at this intruder without seeming to understand what it allmeant.
"Passengers better get below out of the muss," advised Captain Downs."Here's a crazy nigger, mate. Grab him and tie him up."
Mayo backed to the rack at the rail and pulled out two belaying-pins,mighty weapons, one for each hand.
Bradish hurried away into the depths of the house, manifestly glad toget out from underfoot.
"Don't you allow those niggers to lay their hands on me," repeated theman at bay. "Captain Downs, let me have a word to you in private." Hehad desperately decided on making a confidant of one of his kind. Hebitterly needed the help a master mariner could give him.
"Get at him!" roared the skipper. "Go in, you niggers!"
"By the gods! you'll be short-handed, sir. I'll kill 'em!"
That threat was more effective than mere bluster. Captain Downsinstinctively squinted aloft at the scud which was dimming the stars; hesniffed at the volleying wind.
"One word to you, and you'll understand, sir!" pleaded Mayo. He put thepins back into the rack and walked straight to the captain.
There was no menace in his action, and the mate did not interfere.
"Just a word or two to you, sir, to show you that I have done more thanthrow my hat into the door of the Masters and Mates Association." Heleaned close and whispered. "Now let me tell you something else--inprivate?" he urged in low tones.
Captain Downs glanced again at the bared arm and surveyed this sailorwith more careful scrutiny. "You go around and come into the for'ardcabin through the coach-house door," he commanded, after a littlehesitation.
Mayo bowed and hurried away down the lee alley.
That cabin designated as the place of conference was the dining-saloonof the schooner. He waited there until Captain Downs, moving his bulkmore deliberately, trudged down the main companionway and came into theapartment through its after-door which no sailor was allowed to profane.
"Can anybody--in there--hear?" asked Mayo, cautiously. He pointed to themain saloon.
"She's in her stateroom and he's talking through the door," grunted theskipper. "Now what's on your mind?"
Mayo reached his hand into an inside pocket of his shirt and drew fortha document. He laid it in Captain Downs's hand. The skipper sat down atthe table, pulled out his spectacles, and adjusted them on his bulgingnose in leisurely fashion, spread the paper on the red damask cloth, andstudied it. He tipped down his head and stared at Mayo over the edge ofhis glasses with true astonishment.
"This your name in these master's papers?" he demanded.
"Yes, sir."
"You're--you claim to be the Captain Mayo who smashed the _Montana?_"
"I'm the man, sir. I hung on to my papers, even though they have beencanceled."
"How do I know about these papers? How do I know your name is Mayo? Youmight have stolen 'em--though, for that matter, you might just as wellcarry a dynamite bomb around in your pocket, for all the good they'll doyou."
"That's the point, sir. They merely prove my identity. Nobody else wouldwant them. Captain Downs, I'm running away from the law. I own up toyou. Let me tell you how it happened."
"Make it short," snapped the captain, showing no great amiability towardthis plucked and discredited master. "The wind is breezing up."
He told his story concisely and in manly fashion, standing up whileCaptain Downs sat and stared over his spectacles, drumming his stubbyfingers on the red damask.
"There, sir, that's why I am here and how I happened to get here," Mayoconcluded.
"I ain't prepared to say it isn't so," admitted Old Mull at last, "nomatter how foolish it sounds. And I'm wondering if next I'll find theKing of Peruvia or the Queen of Sheba aboard this schooner. New folksare piling in fast! I know Captain Wass pretty well, though I never laideye on you to know you. Where's that wart on his face?"
"Starboard side of his nose, sir."
"What does he do, whittle off his chaw or bite the plug?"
"Neither. Chews fine cut."
"What's his favorite line of talk?"
"Reciting the pilot rules and jawing because the big fellows slam alongwithout observing them."
"Last remark showing that you have been in the pilothouse along withCaptain Wass! Examination is over and you rank one hundred and the boardstands adjourned!" He rose and shook hands with Mayo. "Now what can I dofor you?"
"I don't suppose you can do much of anything, Captain Downs. But I'mgoing to ask you this, master to masted. Don't let a soul aboard thisschooner know who I am--especially those two back there!" He pointed tothe door of the main saloon.
"Seems to be more or less of a masked-ball party aboard here!" growledthe skipper.
"That man you call Bradish, whoever he is, knows what kind of a gamethey played on me. I want to get it out of him. If he knows who I am hewon't loosen! I was a fool to break in as I did. He was coming across toyou."
"Seemed to be pretty gossipy," admitted the captain. "Is trying to be myspecial chum so as to work me!"
"Don't you suppose you can get some more out of him?"
"Might be done."
"I feel that it's sailors against the shore pirates this time, sir.Won't you call that man out here and ask him some questions and allow meto listen?"
"Under the circumstances I'll do it. Sailors first is my motto. You stepinto the mate's stateroom, there, and put ear to the crack o' the door."
But when Bradish appeared, answering the captain's summons, all hischattiness had left him. He declared that he knew nothing about thetrouble in the _Montana_ case.
"But you said something about a scheme to fool a green captain?"
"It was only gossip--I probably got it wrong. I have thought it over andreally can't remember where I heard it or much about it. Might have beenjust newspaper faking."
He kept peering about the dimly lighted room.
"You needn't worry, young man. That nigger isn't here."
"But he said he was a white man. And how does he come to be interested?"
"It's a nigger gone crazy about that case--he has probably been readingfake stories in the papers, too," stated Captain Downs, grimly. "I mustremind you again, Bradish, that you were talking to me in pretty livelystyle."
"Oh, a man lets out a lot of guesswork when he is nervous about his ownbusiness."
"Well, I might fix it so that you'd be a little less nervous, providingyou'll show a more willing disposition when I ask you a few questions,"probed the skipper. But this insistence alarmed Bradish and his blinkingeyes revealed his fears and suspicions.
"I don't know anything about the _Montana_ case. I don't intend to doany talking about it."
Captain Downs tapped harder on the table, scowled, and was silent.
"Anything else, sir?" inquired Bradish, after a pause.
"Guess not, if that's the way you feel about it!" snapped Captain Downs.
Bradish went back into the main saloon, and the eavesdropper venturedforth.
"I don't know just what the dickens to do about you, now that I know whoyou are," confessed the master, looking Mayo up and down.
"There isn't anything to do except let me go back to my work, sir."
"I'm in a devil of a position. You're a captain."
"I shipped on board here before the mast, Captain Downs, and knewexactly what I was doing. I'll take my medicine."
"I don't like to have you go for'ard there among those cattle, Mayo."
"Captain Downs, it was wrong for me to make the break I did on yourquarter-deck. I ought to have kept still; but the thing came to me sosudden that I went all to pieces. I'd like to step back into the crewand have you forget that I'm Boyd Mayo. I'll sneak ashore in Boston andlose myself."
The c
aptain tipped up his cap and scratched the side of his head. "Seemsas if I remember you being at the wheel, Mayo, when that fellow wasunloading some pretty important information on to me."
"I couldn't help hearing, sir."
"So you know he's eloping with a girl?" The old skipper lowered hisvoice.
"Yes, sir."
"Did you ever hear of such a cussed, infernal performance? And I havetalked with the girl, and she really doesn't seem to be that sort atall. She's flighty, you can see that. She has been left to run loose toomuch, like a lot of girls in society are running loose nowadays. Theythink of a thing that's different, and, biff! they go do it. She iswishing she hadn't done this. That shows some sense." He studied theyoung man. "Do you know anything about this right a captain has toperform marriage ceremonies?"
"Nothing special."
"It will probably be a good thing for that girl to be married andsettled down. She seems to have picked out Bradish. Mayo, you're oneof my kind, and I want to help you. I'll take a chance on my right toperform the ceremony. What say if we get Bradish back in here and swap amarriage for what he can tell us about the _Montana_ business?"
"Captain Downs, a fellow who will put up a job of this kind on a girl,no matter if she has encouraged him, is a cheap pup," declared Mayo,promptly and firmly. "I don't want to buy back my papers in any suchfashion."
"Then you don't approve of my marrying them?"
"I haven't any right to tell you what you shall do, sir. I'm talkingmerely for myself."
Captain Downs pondered. "If he's her father's right-hand man, he'sprobably just as good as most of the land pirates who have been courtingher. If she goes home married, even if it is only marriage on the highseas, contract between willing persons with witnesses and the master ofthe vessel officiating, as I believe it's allowed, she'll have her goodname protected, and that means a lot. I don't know as I have any rightto stand out and block their way, seeing how far it has gone. What doyou think, Mayo?"
"I don't believe I want to make any suggestions, sir."
At that moment the door aft opened. Mayo was near the door of the mate'sstateroom in the shadows, and he dodged back into his retreat. He heardBradish's voice.
"Captain Downs, this young lady has something to say to you and I hopeyou'll listen!"
Then the girl's voice! It was impetuous outburst. She hurried her wordsas if she feared to wait for second and saner reflection.
"Captain Downs, I cannot wait any longer. You must act. I beg of you. Ihave made up my mind. I am ready!"
"Ready to get married, you mean?"
"Yes! Now that my mind is made up, please hurry!"
Her tone was high-pitched, tears were close behind her desperation, herwords rushed almost incoherently. But Mayo, staring sightlessly in theblack darkness of the little stateroom, his hearing keen, knew thatvoice. He could not restrain himself. He pulled the door wide open.
The girl was Alma Marston.
Her eyes were bright, her cheeks were flushed, and it was plain that herimpulsive nature was flaming with determination. The shadows were deepin the corners of the saloon, and the man in the stateroom door was notnoticed by the three who stood there in the patch of light cast by theswinging lamp.
"I ask you--I beg you--I have made up my mind! I must have it overwith."
"Don't have hysterics! This is no thing to be rushed."
"You must."
"You're talking to a captain aboard his own vessel, ma'am!"
From Mayo's choking throat came some sort of sound and the girl glancedin his direction, but it was a hasty and indifferent gaze. Her ownaffairs were engrossing her. He reeled back into the little room, andthe swing of the schooner shut the door.
"You are captain! You have the power! That's why I am talking to you,sir!"
"But when you talked with me a little while ago you were crawfishing!"was Captain Downs's blunt objection.
"I am sorry I have been so imprudent. I ought not to be here. I havesaid so. I do too many things on impulse. Now I want to be married!"
"More impulse, eh?"
"I must be able to face my father."
There was silence in the saloon.
Mayo shoved trembling fingers into his mouth and bit upon them to keepback what his horrified reason warned him would be a scream of protest.In spite of what his eyes and ears told him, it all seemed to be somesort of hideous unreality.
"It's a big responsibility," proceeded Captain Downs, mumbling his wordsand talking half to himself in his uncertainty. "I've been trying to getsome light on it from another--from a man who ought to understand moreabout it than what I do. It's too much of a problem for a man to wrasslewith all alone."
He turned his back on them, gazed at the stateroom door, tipped his capawry, and scratched his head more vigorously than he had in his pastponderings.
"Say, you in there! Mate!" he called, clumsily preserving Mayo'sincognito. "I'm in a pinch. Say what you really think!"
There was no word from the stateroom.
"You're an unprejudiced party," insisted the skipper. "You have goodjudgment. Now what?"
"Who is that, in there?" demanded Bradish.
"Why should this person, whoever he is, have any-thing to say about myaffairs?" asked the girl.
"Because I'm asking him to say!" yelped the skipper, showing anger. "I'mrunning this! Don't try to tell me my own business!" He walked towardthe door. "Speak up, mate!"
"It's an insult to me--asking strangers about my private affairs!" Theprotest of the girl was a furious outburst.
"I resent it, captain! Most bitterly resent it," stated Bradish.
The old skipper walked back toward them. "Resent it as much as youcondemned like, sir! You're here asking favors of me. I want to do whatis right for all concerned. You ought to be married--I admit that. Butwhat sort of a position does it leave me in? Are you going to tell methis girl's name?"
"I'm Alma Marston!" She volleyed the name at him with hystericalviolence, but he did not seem to be impressed. "I am Julius Marston'sdaughter!"
The skipper looked her up and down.
"Now you will be so good as to proceed about your duty!" she commanded,haughtily.
"Well, you can't expect me to show any special neighborly kindness tothe Wall Street gouger who kept me tied up without a charter two monthslast spring with his steamboat combinations and his dicker deals!"
"How are we to take that, sir?" asked Bradish.
The girl was staring with frank wonder at this hard-shelled mariner whomshe had not been able to impress by her name or her manner.
"Just as you want to."
"I demand an explanation."
"Well, I'll give it to you, seeing that I'm perfectly willing to. Takeit one way, and I'm willing to wallop Julius Marston by handing himthe kind of a son-in-law you'd make; take it the other way, and I ain'tparticular about doing anything to accommodate anybody in the Marstonfamily." He eyed them sardonically.
"So, you see, I'm betwixt and between in the matter! It's like settlinga question by flipping a cent. And I'll tell you what I'm going to do!"He smacked his palm on the table. He strode back toward the stateroomdoor. "Mate, ahoy, there! Sailor to sailor, now, and remember that youhave asked something of _me!_ If you were captain of this schooner wouldyou marry off these two?"
They waited in silence, in which they heard the whummle and screechof the wind outside and the angry squalling of the sheathing of theplunging schooner's cabin walls.
The voice which replied to Captain Downs's query did not sound human. Itwas a sort of muffled wail, but there was no mistaking its positiveness.
"No!" said the man behind the door.
Back to the table lurched Captain Downs. He pounded down his fist. "Thatsettles it with me!" Then he poised his big hand on the edge of thetable-cover. "I was ready to tip one way or the other and it neededonly a little push. I have tipped." Down came the palm flat on thetable-cloth with final and decisive firmness. "Young man," he informedBradish, "t
here's an extra stateroom, there, off this dining-saloon. Youtake it!"
"What can I tell my father?" wailed the girl, the fire of herdetermination suddenly quenched by sobbing helplessness.
"You can tell him that I temporarily adopted you as my daughter at threebells on this particular evening, and I'll go to him and back you up ifit becomes necessary." He opened the door leading aft and bowed. "Now,you trot along to your stateroom, sissy!"
After hesitating a few moments she hurried away. The skipper locked thedoor and slipped the key into his pocket.
"Do you think I'm going to--" began Bradish, angrily.
"I ain't wasting any thoughts on you, sir. I'm saving 'em all for the_Drusilla M. Alden_ just now."
The craft's plunging roll gave evidence that the sea was making. Atthat instant the first mate came down a few steps of the forwardcompanionway, entering through the coach-house door.
"She's breezing up fresh from east'ard, sir!" he reported.
"So I've judged from the way this sheathing is talking up. I'll be ondeck at once, Mr. Dodge."
That report was a summons to a sailor; Mayo came staggering out of thestateroom. He looked neither to right nor left nor at either of the menin the saloon. He stumbled toward the companionway, reaching his handsin front of him after the fashion in which a man gropes in the dark.
"Are you letting a nigger--and a crazy one at that--decide the biggestthing in my life?" raged Bradish.
"I know what I'm doing," Captain Downs assured him. But the skipper wasmanifestly amazed by the expression he saw on Mayo's face.
"I won't stand for it! Here, you!" Bradish rushed across the room andintercepted Mayo.
"Come away from that man!" commanded the skipper.
But Bradish was not in a mood to obey authority. "There's somethingbehind this and I propose to be let in on it! Stop, you!" He pushedMayo back, but the latter's face did not change its expression of dull,blank, utter despair which saw not and heard not. Mayo recovered himselfand came on again, looking into vacancy.
"If you have a grudge against me, by the gods, I'll wake you up and makeyou explain it!" shouted Bradish. He drew back his arm and drove a quickpunch squarely against the expressionless face. The blow came with alurch of the vessel and Mayo fell flat on his back. He went down asstiffly as he had walked, with as little effort to save himself as astore dummy would have made.
But he was another man when he came upon his feet.
Bradish had awakened him!
The master of the _Alden_ hurried around the table, roaring oaths, andtried to get between them, but he was an unwieldy man on his short legs.Before he was in arm's-length they were at each other, dodging here andthere.
Bradish was no shrimp of an adversary; he was taller than hisantagonist, and handled his fists like a man who had been trained as anamateur boxer.
They fought up and down the cabin, battering each other's face.
The indignant master threatened them with an upraised chair, tried tostrike down their hands with it, but they were in no mood to mind amediator. They fought like maddened cats, banging against the cabinwalls, whirling in a crazy rigadoon to find an opening for their fists;Captain Downs was not nimble enough to catch them. Uttering awfulprofanity, he threatened to shoot both of them and rushed into the mainsaloon, unlocking the door.
"I'm coming back with a gun!" he promised. But the fight ended suddenlyin a wrestling trick.
Mayo closed in, got Bradish's right hand in a grip, and doubled the armbehind his adversary's back. Then he tripped the city man and laidhim backward over the table and against its edge with a violence thatbrought a yell of pain and made Bradish limp and passive. Mayo held himthere.
"My grudge, eh? My grudge!" the victor panted. "Because you wouldn'ttell me how the sneaks ruined me? No! The girl isn't here now. I'll tellyou! It's because you stole her self-respect and her good name, and itmakes you too dirty a dog to be her husband!"
He picked up Bradish and threw him on the floor. When he turned he sawthe girl's white, agonized, frightened face at the crack of the saloondoor.
"Captain Downs!" she shrieked, "that negro is killing him. He's killingRalph!"
The victor turned his back on her and lurched around the table on hisway out. He stroked blood from his face with his palm, and was glad thatshe had not recognized him; and yet, her failure to do so, even thoughhe was such a pitiable figure of the man she had known, was one moreslash of the whip of anguish across his raw soul. For a moment they hadstood there, face to face, and only blank unrecognition greeted him; itmade this horrible contretemps seem all the more unreal.
Mayo did not pause to listen to the ravings of Captain Downs, whocame thrusting past her. Dizzy, bleeding, half blind, he rushed up theforward companionway and went into the black night on deck.
The mate was bawling for all hands to shorten sail, and Mayo took hisplace with the toilers, who were manning sheets and downhauls.