The Dream of X and Other Fantastic Visions

by William Hope Hodgson; Douglas A. Anderson

  The Saucy Lady was a private venture ship—in other words, an English privateer—at the time of the French war. She had been a French brig, named La Gavotte, and had been sold at Portsmouth for prize money.

  Monsieur Jeynois and Captain Drool had bought her, and fitted her out against the French, with six twenty-four-pounder cannonades a side, and two long eighteen-pounders—the one mounted aft and the other for’ard, for chasers.

  The brig was a matter of three hundred and fifty tons burthen, and sailed very fast, and made good weather of it.

  We had ninety-six able-bodied sailors for’ard in a fine, great, new fo’cas’le, that was fitted up when Monsieur Jeynois and Captain Drool had the vessel altered. There were also six gunners, that we had helped to run free of the Royal Navy, and good men they were, but mighty opinionated, and nothing would serve them but to sneer and jeer at all and aught because we were not so fine as a King’s ship. And, indeed, why they troubled to sail in us was a thing to make a man wonder!

  There were, also, twelve boys in the ship. Six of these were named midshipmen, and were from rich tradesmen’s families of Portsmouth Town, and paid some sort of premium to walk the lee side of the after-deck and play lob-lolly to the captain and the two mates.

  I was one of the other six—just common lads off the water front at Portsmouth, though I was no Portsmouth lad, but Lancashire bred and born, but part reared on the Welsh coast and afterwards in the south, for my father had been a shipwright in Liverpool, and then went to Cardiff, and came in the end to Portsmouth, where he worked in the Royal Dockyards till the day he died, which was two years before this story. And a poor and ignorant lad I was, as I do mind me, and talked a strange mixture of dialects and rough words. But this by the way.

  We wanted to fight the French, and make good prize money at brave work. And there you have the crew of us, with added thereto the bo’sun and the two carpenters.

  Now, if you have never heard tell of Monsieur Jeynois, you might wonder to hear that he helped fit out a ship against the French. But, indeed, in Portsmouth Town, we had no trouble on this score, for a better hater of Frenchmen, and a greater fighter, never put a pegged boot to good deck-planks.

  There were some that said he had been a great man the other side; and this I can well believe, for he was a great man, as all in that ship knew in their inwards. He had a steady, brown eye, that looked down into a man; and you knew that he feared nothing, save it might be God, which I do believe.

  As for his hatred of the French, there were many tales to account for it; but none of them to the mark, as I must suppose. Yet, because he was a Frenchman, despite the many times that he had proved himself upon them, there were a thousand to hate him for no more than his name or his blood, both or either, as suited their poor brute minds. Also, while many had a deep respect for him, few loved him, because he was too quiet and aloof. And, indeed, I doubt not that, because there was something great of heart within him, there were many of the poorer souled that hated him for no other cause than that he waked in them—though scarce they knew it—a knowledge of their own inward weeviliness.

  And this was the man that sat in the cabin with Captain Drool and the two mates—Hankson and Abbott—and would listen to their rude arguing, that even I, the cabin lad, could oft see the gross folly of. And then, maybe, by a dozen quiet words, he would show them their own poor selves, in a mirror of brief speech that made them and their thoughts and child’s plans of no more account than they were; so that I have seen the three of them stare at him out of eyes of dumb hatred.

  And then he would show them the way that the thing should be done, and they would be forced to admit the rightness of his reasoning; yet hating him the more for his constant rightness, and the way that he seemed to know all and to fear naught.

  Only one thing he did not know, and that was the science to navigate; else I venture he had never sailed with any captain other than himself.

  And there, in this little that I have told, you have the causes that led to the greatest fight that ever a single man put up against a multitude.

  It came about in this wise. After dinner the captain and the mate that was not in charge of the deck would sit awhile and drink a sort of spiced rum-toddy. But Monsieur Jeynois drank only plain water, flavoured with molasses, and often left the table with a quiet excuse, that he would see the weather.

  Then, when he was gone, the captain and whichever of the two mates that was with him, would fall to cursing him, from his keel upwards, and taking no more heed of me—whom I do venture to think they thought no more of than a wood deck-bucket!—than if I were not there; save, in truth, one of them needed the molasses or the hot water or the ground nutmeg; whereupon I was as like to get a clout as a word, to make known their wants.

  And clout me they would do at any moment and were at first as handy to it if monsieur were with them as if he were on deck. Not that monsieur said ever a word, one way or the other, for he had no foolish softness about him; yet he never struck me. And once, when Captain Drool had opened my head with his pewter mug, I looked quick over at monsieur, and there was a look in his eyes that made me think he disliked to see me treated so, though he forbore to say aught, but yet I could think had come near to that point at which he might speak.

  And, indeed, this is but poorly said; yet, in part, expresses the thought that came to me, before I was knocked down again, for not hastening to fetch another dipper of rum.

  But late that same night, when I was lying very sick and hot-headed under the cabin table—for I was allowed no hammock—Monsieur stooped and looked under the table, and asked me how I was; and he fetched me, presently, a draught with his own hand, and afterwards put a wet cloth on my head, so that in a while I went over asleep, and woke pretty fresh in the morning.

  And I found the cloth on my head to be a strip off one of monsieur’s neck-clothes; and I put the thing inside my shirt, along with a big memory, as a boy will do that is badly treated, and has a great kindness where no kindness was ever expected; for I was but a common ship’s boy, and monsieur a great soldier and a shipowner, as I have told.

  And after that time I noticed that neither Captain Drool nor the mates touched me when monsieur was in the cabin; so that I supposed he had spoken quietly with them, when I was not there, against striking me.

  Yet, when he was up on the deck, they would clout me as ever, and talk very loose and rash before me, as I have said, against monsieur. But threats are easy blows, so that I took little heed for a good while.

  Then, one night after dinner, when we were heading up for the channel, they got talking in a way that set me taking sudden note of their words; for there was a real meaning and intention in what they were saying.

  Presently, Captain Drool sent me to fetch aft the bo’sun to drink with them, which was a thing they had done several times of late after monsieur had gone up on to the deck.

  They drank more that night than ever before, and the bo’sun so much as any. And every now and again Abbott, the second mate, would come down into the cabin and have a tot with them, and join in their talk; and me kept mighty busy, in the small pantry-place, scraping nutmeg for their spice-rum-toddy—that was the captain’s own invention— and keeping water a-boil over a slush-lamp, all of which I did, despite the rolling of the ship, by holding the kettle with one hand and rubbing the nutmeg on to an iron grater with the other. And all the time I listened, so well as I could, for I had began to see that they were planning to kill monsieur quietly in the cabin, and afterwards to dump him secretly over the side, and so let it be supposed he had been washed overboard at night; for we were shipping a deal of heavy water with the strong gale that we were running before.

  Then Captain Drool should have the ship entire his own, for Monsieur Jeynois was a lone man, and none in England, so it was thought, to be an heir to him and his moneys. And to pay the two mates and the bo’sun for their help in this dire and brutal murder, the captain proposed to pay them the share of the prize
money that was coming to monsieur, and also a hundred golden guineas between them, each to share equal, but that they should claim no rights in the ship. And this they were well enough pleased with, being but vulgar and brutal men, and each as ignorant as the other; for it was only Captain Drool that knew the science of navigating.

  And whether the man for’ard should suspect or not, seemed no great matter to these brutes as they guzzled and planned this foul deed; for there were a deal of men, I doubt not, as I have told, who could not get it out of their stomachs that monsieur was a Frenchman, and should be treated as such. There was not much love that we had those days for Frenchmen. Yet, in the main, the four men desired to keep secret the method of the end of monsieur, lest the crew should demand that monsieur’s share of the prize money be distributed, which the crew might certainly have done, deeming it their right, because monsieur was French, and because they would suppose that if the captain and the mates murdered monsieur, it would be with intent to “nig” his share of the prize money. And this would most surely offend the crew, who would refuse to have them profit without the whole ship’s company should profit. But, were the crew deceived in the matter, to believe that monsieur was truly washed overboard in a natural and wholesome fashion, then they would demand nothing, but expect the usual routine in such matters, which was that a man’s prize-money be paid to his widow or to his heir, and this Captain Drool would provide for, by the aid of his brother who was a penman, and could write the name so clever upon the will that monsieur would think it his own were he to return again to life.

  There you have it all, with the methods of their poor and brutish reasonings, which truly betray them for what they were. And I, you must picture, holding the kettle above the slush-lamp in the pantry-room off the cabin, and grinding scarce enough nutmeg to supply their needs, for the grinding of the nutmeg upon the iron scraper made a noise that prevented me from hearing them; and so I was fain to keep stopping every moment to listen. And, indeed, once I set all my sleeve alight, with the ship rolling so, for I was taking no heed of the way I held the kettle, but stopping, as I have told, to hark very desperate; and suddenly I smelled the stink of my sleeve burning in the lamp, for I had my sleeve over the flame and the kettle nowhere near.

  Yet they never so much as knew, for they had drunk a matter of four dippers of rum between them, and they could think of nothing but the dreadful murder they planned so earnest.

  Now, at four bells—by which I mean ten o’clock of the night—monsieur came down from the deck, and for the first time in all that voyage I heard him speak his mind to the captain, nor minded who heard him; only first he had word with the bo’sun.

  “Bo’sun” he said, “you are in the wrong part of the ship. Go up on to the deck and take charge until you are relieved.”

  Just that and nothing more, and spoken as quiet as you like, with good English that no man could better; for monsieur was French, to my thinking, only in name.

  And the bo’sun! A great hulk of a man that weighed fifteen stone as he lolled there. It was fine to watch, as you will acknowledge! I peeped out of the pantry and saw him make first as if he had heard nothing, and then in a moment, though monsieur said never another word, only looked at him, he tried to catch the eyes of Captain Drool and the two mates, smiling in a silly, ugly way as he did so; but they looked everywhere but at him, like animals that have had guilty intentions, and are full of unease when their master comes near them.

  There was not a sound in all the cabin, only the cracking and groaning of the bulkheads as the ship rolled in the storm, and the shuffling of the captain’s mug as he pushed it to and fro upon the table top. And still monsieur stood and looked quiet and calm at the bo’sun.

  Then the bo’sun rose up slowly, looking very awkward and oafish. He made to drain his mug, to show that he was at ease, but I heard the rim of it clitter foolish against his teeth, and he slopped the half of the toddy down the front of his serge shirt.

  And still monsieur never spoke, nor said a further word, only looked after him, calm and quiet as he went out on to the deck, through the cuddy doorway, which opened out of the fore-end of the cabin.

  Then monsieur turned to the captain and the two mates.

  “I should think shame, gentlemen,” he said, “to so demean yourselves upon the high seas by this drinking and easy speech with the rough shipmen; and more than this, by the neglecting of your duties as officers, so that the ship has been the great part of this watch without an officer upon the decks.”

  He said never another word but what I have told, and all spoken quiet and almost gentle. And those three rough men, that had just been planning his murder, answered him nothing; nor did one of them look at him, but sat there and shuffled their mugs and looked at their hands, all like the oafs they were; only, I could tell by the purple of Captain Drool’s ears, that he was like a mad beast that is like to burst with the great stress of its anger and its cowardice.

  Monsieur stood a matter of a few seconds; then, saying not another word, he went into his own cabin and closed the door.

  When he was gone, the three men at the table stopped playing with their mugs and looking at their great hands, and they stared at each other. Captain Drool turned, and put out his tongue at monsieur’s shut door, also he put his thumb to his nose and twiddled his great, coarse fingers; then he got up and went towards the companion steps. He tip-toed as he went, as if he were afraid monsieur might hear him. He crooked his finger to the two mates to follow him. And the three of them went up the steps into the night.

  Presently, when I had cleared up the odd gear upon the table, and washed all, I put out the slush-lamp in the small pantry place, for there was a lamp that hung always alight in the cabin. Then I fetched out my blanket from the locker, and hove it under the cabin table. I had no proper pillow, but used my sea-bag always, with my spare shift in it, for this purpose.

  Also, it was my habit, each night when I turned in, to rig a length of spun yarn from one leg of the table to another, about a foot from the floor, so that if Captain Drool or the mates should want me in the night, I should escape being kicked in the head or face, for it was their way to wake me at any time by kicking at me under the table; but the spun yarn saved me a deal, for they never bothered to see what it was that their great sea-boots brought up against.

  Now, when I had fixed all up for the night, and was rolled comfortable in the blanket, I lay a good while thinking, and half-minded to go to monsieur’s door and knock gently to wake him. Yet, if they were watching the cabin from the deck—which they could do very easy without me seeing them—through the glass of the skylight, then I should be discovered, and they would, maybe, kill me when they murdered monsieur.

  However, in the end, Monsieur Jeynois saved me the need of this risk, for he came out of his cabin presently, with his pea-jacket on, by which I saw that he meant to go up again on deck.

  Then I put my head out a little from under the table, and said, “ Monsieur!” But I was so in fear of them seeing me from the deck, that I spoke too low, and he was gone half across the cabin with his great strides—for he was a big man—before I had courage to call him proper.

  But now I pushed my head out from under the table, and took my risk as I hoped a man should take it.

  “Monsier! Monsieur!” I said out loud. “Monsieur!”

  He stopped, and I came out clean from under the table, dropping my blanket upon the floor, and standing there in my shirt, for I had no drawers.

  “What is it, boy?” he asked in his quiet way, yet seeming to smile ever so little as he looked down at me.

  “You’re in horful danger, sir,” I told him, for that was how I spoke those days, before ever I was given the good schooling that I had later.

  “How, boy?” he asked me.

  “Cappen Drool an’ Mestur Hankson an’ Mestur Abbott an’ Mestur Johns the bo’sun is going to murder you, sir. An’ Cappen Drool is to have th’ brig, an’ he’ve offered t’others yourn share
o’ the prize money an’ a hundred guineas, an’ they’m not to make no claim to own the ship,” I told him, getting my words out all in a heap, because of my earnestness and eagerness to warn him.

  And I can vouch that I had not one thought in that one and particular moment concerning my own safety, for which I am pleased to this day to remember.

  “Go on, boy,” said monsieur, still in his quiet voice. “What reason have you for saying this?”

  “Aa heerd ’em, sir, whiles I were boilin’ yon kettle an’ grindin’ the nutmeg for the toddy. Aa’m feared, sir, they’m meanin’ to hout you ta-neet. Doan’t ’ee go up on deck, sir, but hide yere in the cabing, an’ I’ll load ye a mint o’ pistols, sir, an’ we’ll blow ’em into hell when they come down to murder ye.”

  “Boy,” he said, “I put my trust in God, clean living, and a straight sword. And by these means, and your honest warning, am I prepared; but first, before we go further, if you must kill a man, why send him down in to hell? I would rather pray, as I slew him, that he might find heaven and a gladder wisdom.”

  I can remember now the quaint smile, kindly and human, that he gave me as I stood there in my shirt, staring up at him, and puzzled somewhat to know all the meanings of his speech, yet not entirely to misunderstand him.

  “Now,” he said in a moment, and clapping me twice gently upon the shoulder, “get back into your blanket, boy, and leave me freedom to meet my kind intentioned visitors when they come.”

  Then suddenly I saw that he looked at my legs.

  “Boy,” he said,“where are your drawers?”

  “Aa’ve got none, sir,” I told him. “Maybe I’ll buy two pair with my prize money for next trip when we reach port.”