The Shoes of Fortune

by Neil Munro

  CHAPTER VIII

  I RIDE BY NIGHT ACROSS SCOTLAND, AND MEET A MARINER WITH A GLEED EYE

  That night was like the day, with a full moon shining. The nextafternoon I rode into Borrowstounness, my horse done out and myself sorefrom head to heel; and never in all my life have I seen a place with amore unwelcome aspect, for the streets were over the hoof in mud; thenatives directed me in an accent like a tinker's whine; the Firth ofForth was wrapped in a haar or fog that too closely put me in mind of myprospects. But I had no right to be too particular, and in the course ofan hour I had sold the mare for five pounds to a man of much Christianprofession, who would not give a farthing more on the plea that she waslikely stolen.

  The five pounds and the clothes I stood in were my fortune: it did notseem very much, if it was to take me out of the reach of the long arm ofthe doomster; and thinking of the doomster I minded of the mole uponmy brow, that was the most kenspeckle thing about me in the event of adescription going about the country, so the first thing I bought withmy fortune was a pair of scissors. Going into a pend close in one of thevennels beside the quay, I clipped off the hair upon the mole and felt alittle safer. I was coming out of the close, pouching the scissors, whena man of sea-going aspect, with high boots and a tarpaulin hat, stumbledagainst me and damned my awkwardness.

  "You filthy hog," said I, exasperated at such manners, for he washimself to blame for the encounter; "how dare you speak to me likethat?" He was a man of the middle height, sturdy on his bowed legs inspite of the drink obvious in his face and speech, and he had a rovinggleed black eye. I had never clapped gaze on him in all my life before.

  "Is that the way ye speak to Dan Risk, ye swab?" said he, ludicrouslyaffecting a dignity that ill suited with his hiccough. "What's the goodof me being a skipper if every linen-draper out of Fife can cut into myquarter on my own deck?"

  "This is no' your quarter-deck, man, if ye were sober enough to ken it,"said I; "and I'm no linen-draper from Fife or anywhere else."

  And then the brute, with his hands thrust to the depth of his pockets,staggered me as if he had done it with a blow of his fist.

  "No," said he, with a very cunning tone, "ye're no linen-draper perhaps,but--ye're maybe no sae decent a man, young Greig."

  It was impossible for me to conceal even from this tipsy rogue myastonishment and alarm at this. It seemed to me the devil himself mustbe leagued against me in the cause of justice. A cold sweat came on myface and the palms of my hands. I opened my mouth and meant to give himthe lie but I found I dare not do so in the presence of what seemed amiracle of heaven.

  "How do you ken my name's Greig?" I asked at the last.

  "Fine that," he made answer, with a grin; "and there's mony an odd thingelse I ken."

  "Well, it's no matter," said I, preparing to quit him, but in great fearof what the upshot might be; "I'm for off, anyway."

  By this time it was obvious that he was not so drunk as I thought him atfirst, and that in temper and tact he was my match even with theglass in him. "Do ye ken what I would be doing if I was you?" said heseemingly determined not to let me depart like that, for he took a stepor two after me.

  I made no reply, but quickened my pace and after me he came, lurchingand catching at my arm; and I mind to this day the roll of him gave methe impression of a crab.

  "If it's money ye want-" I said at the end of my patience.

  "Curse your money!" he cried, pretending to spit the insult from hismouth. "Curse your money; but if I was you, and a weel-kent skipper likeDan Risk--like Dan Risk of the _Seven Sisters_--made up to me out of aredeeculous good nature and nothing else, I would gladly go and splicethe rope with him in the nearest ken."

  "Go and drink with yourself, man," I cried; "there's the money for achappin of ate, and I'll forego my share of it."

  I could have done nothing better calculated to infuriate him. As I heldout the coin on the palm of my hand he struck it up with an oath andit rolled into the syver. His face flamed till the neck of him seemed around of seasoned beef.

  "By the Rock o' Bass!" he roared, "I would clap ye in jyle for less thanyour lousy groat."

  Ah, then, it was in vain I had put the breadth of Scotland between meand that corpse among the rushes: my heart struggled a moment, and sankas if it had been drowned in bilge. I turned on the man what must havebeen a gallows face, and he laughed, and, gaining his drunken goodnature again he hooked me by the arm, and before my senses were my ownagain he was leading me down the street and to the harbour. I had nevera word to say.

  The port, as I tell, was swathed in the haar of the east, out of whichtall masts rose dim like phantom spears; the clumsy tarred bulwarksloomed like walls along the quay, and the neighbourhood was noisy withvoices that seemed unnatural coming out of the haze. Mariners werehanging about the sheds, and a low tavern belched others out to keepthem company. Risk made for the tavern, and at that I baulked.

  "Oh, come on!" said he. "If I'm no' mistaken Dan Risk's the very manye're in the need of. You're wanting out of Scotland, are ye no'?"

  "More than that; I'm wanting out of myself," said I, but that seemedbeyond him.

  "Come in anyway, and we'll talk it over."

  That he might help me out of the country seemed possible if he was not,as I feared at first, some agent of the law and merely playing with me,so I entered the tavern with him.

  "Two gills to the coffin-room, Mrs. Clerihew," he cried to the woman inthe kitchen. "And slippy aboot it, if ye please, for my mate here's beendrinking buttermilk all his life, and ye can tell't in his face."

  "I would rather have some meat," said I.

  "Humph!" quo' he, looking at my breeches. "A lang ride!" He ordered thefood at my mentioning, and made no fuss about drinking my share of thespirits as well as his own, while I ate with a hunger that was soonappeased, for my eye, as the saying goes, was iller to satisfy than myappetite.

  He sat on the other side of the table in the little room that doubtlessfairly deserved the name it got of coffin, for many a man, I'm thinking,was buried there in his evil habits; and I wondered what was to be next.

  "To come to the bit," said the at last, looking hard into the bottom ofhis tankard in a way that was a plain invitation to buy more for him."To come to the bit, you're wanting out of the country?"

  "It's true," said I; "but how do you know? And how do you know my name,for I never saw you to my knowledge in all my life before?"

  "So much the worse for you; I'm rale weel liked by them that kens me.What would ye give for a passage to Nova Scotia?"

  "It's a long way," said I, beginning to see a little clearer.

  "Ay," said he, "but I've seen a gey lang rope too, and a man danglin' atthe end of it."

  Again my face betrayed me. I made no answer.

  "I ken all aboot it," he went on. "Your name's Greig; ye're from aplace called the Hazel Den at the other side o' the country; ye've beensailing wi' a stiff breeze on the quarter all night, and the climeo' auld Scotland's one that doesna suit your health, eh? What's theamount?" said he, and he looked towards my pocket "Could we no' mak' ithalfers?"

  "Five pounds," said I, and at that he looked strangely dashed.

  "Five pounds," he repeated incredulously. "It seems to have been hardlyworth the while." And then his face changed, as if a new thought hadstruck him. He leaned over the table and whispered with the infernaltone of a confederate, "Doused his glim, eh?" winking with his hale eye,so that I could not but shiver at him, as at the touch of slime.

  "I don't understand," said I.

  "Do ye no'?" said he, with a sneer; "for a Greig ye're mighty slow inthe uptak'. The plain English o' that, then, is that ye've killed a man.A trifle like that ance happened to a Greig afore."

  "What's your name?" I demanded.

  "Am I no tellin' ye?" said he shortly. "It's just Daniel Risk; and wherecould you get a better? Perhaps ye were thinkin' aboot swappin' nameswi' me; and by the Bass, it's Dan's family name would suit very weelyour present position," a
nd the scoundrel laughed at his own humour.

  "I asked because I was frightened it might be Mahoun," said I. "It seemsgey hard to have ridden through mire for a night and a day, and landwhere ye started from at the beginning. And how do ye ken all that?"

  "Oh!" he said, "kennin's my trade, if ye want to know. And whatever wayI ken, ye needna think I'm the fellow to make much of a sang aboot it.Still and on, the thing's frowned doon on in this country, though inplaces I've been it would be coonted to your credit. I'll take anithergill; and if ye ask me, I would drench the butter-milk wi' somethingo' the same, for the look o' ye sittin' there's enough to gie me thewaterbrash. Mrs. Clerihew--here!" He rapped loudly on the table, andthe drink coming in I was compelled again to see him soak himself at myexpense. He reverted to my passage from the country, and "Five pounds islittle enough for it," said he; "but ye might be eking it oot by partlyworking your passage."

  "I didn't say I was going either to Nova Scotia or with you," said I,"and I think I could make a better bargain elsewhere."

  "So could I, maybe," said he, fuming of spirits till I felt sick. "Andit's time I was doin' something for the good of my country." With thathe rose to his feet with a look of great moral resolution, and made asif for the door, but by this time I understood him better.

  "Sit down, ye muckle hash!" said I, and I stood over him with a mostthreatening aspect.

  "By the Lord!" said he, "that's a Greig anyway!"

  "Ay!" said I. "ye seem to ken the breed. Can I get another vessel abroadbesides yours?"

  "Ye can not," said he, with a promptness I expected, "unless ye wait onthe _Sea Pyat_. She leaves for Jamaica next Thursday; and there's no'a spark of the Christian in the skipper o' her, one Macallum fromGreenock."

  For the space of ten minutes I pondered over the situation. UndoubtedlyI was in a hole. This brute had me in his power so long as my feet wereon Scottish land, and he knew it. At sea he might have me in his powertoo, but against that there was one precaution I could take, and I madeup my mind.

  "I'll give you four pounds--half at leaving the quay and the other halfwhen ye land me."

  "My conscience wadna' aloo me," protested the rogue; but the greed wasin his face, and at last he struck my thumb on the bargain, and whenhe did that I think I felt as much remorse at the transaction as at thecrime from whose punishment I fled.

  "Now," said I, "tell me how you knew me and heard about--about--"

  "About what?" said he, with an affected surprise. "Let me tell ye this,Mr. Greig, or whatever your name may be, that Dan Risk is too much ofthe gentleman to have any recollection of any unpleasantness ye maymention, now that he has made the bargain wi' ye. I ken naethin'aboot ye, if ye please: whether your name's Greig or Mackay or HabbieHenderson, it's new to me, only ye're a likely lad for a purser's berthin the _Seven Sisters._" And refusing to say another word on the topicthat so interested me, he took me down to the ship's side, where I foundthe _Seven Sisters_ was a brigantine out of Hull, sadly in the want oftar upon her timbers and her mainmast so decayed and worm-eaten that itsounded boss when I struck it with my knuckles in the by-going.

  Risk saw me doing it. He gave an ugly smile.

  "What do ye think o' her? said he, showing me down the companion.

  "Mighty little," I told him straight. "I'm from the moors," said I, "butI've had my feet on a sloop of Ayr before now; and by the look of thiscraft I would say she has been beeking in the sun idle till she rotteddown to the garboard strake."

  He gave his gleed eye a turn and vented some appalling oaths, and woundup with the insult I might expect--namely, that drowning was not myportion.

  "There was some brag a little ago of your being a gentleman," said I,convinced that this blackguard was to be treated to his own fare if hewas to be got on with at all. "There's not much of a gentleman in thelike of that."

  At this he was taken aback. "Well," said he, "don't you cross my temper;if my temper's crossed it's gey hard to keep up gentility. The ship'ssound enough, or she wouldn't be half a dizen times round the Horn andas weel kent in Halifax as one o' their ain dories. She's guid enoughfor your--for our business, if ye please, Mr. Greig; and here's my mateMurchison."

  Another tarry-breeks of no more attractive aspect came down thecompanion.

  "Here's a new hand for ye," said the skipper humorously.

  The mate looked me up and down with some contempt from his own height oflittle more than five feet four, and peeled an oilskin coat off him.I was clad myself in a good green coat and breeches with fine woolrig-and-fur hose, and the buckled red shoon and the cock of my hat Idaresay gave me the look of some importance in tarry-breeks' eyes.At any rate, he did not take Risk's word for my identity, but at lasttouched his hat with awkward fingers after relinquishing his look ofcontempt.

  "Mr. Jamieson?" said he questioningly, and the skipper by this time wassearching in a locker for a bottle of rum he said he had there for thesigning of agreements. "Mr. Jamieson," said the mate, "I'm glad to seeye. The money's no; enough for the job, and that's letting ye know. It'sall right for Dan here wi' neither wife nor family, but--"

  "What's that, ye idiot?" cried Risk turning about in alarm. "Do ye tak'this callan for the owner? I tell't ye he was a new hand."

  "A hand!" repeated Murchison, aback and dubious.

  "Jist that; he's the purser."

  Murchison laughed. "That's a new ornament on the auld randy; he'll beto keep his keekers on the manifest, like?" said he as one who cracks agood joke. But still and on he scanned me with a suspicious eye, andit was not till Risk had taken him aside later in the day and seeminglyexplained, that he was ready to meet me with equanimity. By that timeI had paid the skipper his two guineas, for the last of his crew was onboard, every man Jack of them as full as the Baltic, and staggering atthe coamings of the hatches not yet down, until I thought half of themwould finally land in the hold.