THE LOST POACHER
"But they won't take excuses. You're across the line, and that's enough.They'll take you. In you go, Siberia and the salt-mines. And as forUncle Sam, why, what's he to know about it? Never a word will get backto the States. 'The _Mary Thomas_,' the papers will say, 'the_Mary Thomas_ lost with all hands. Probably in a typhoon in theJapanese seas.' That's what the papers will say, and people, too. In yougo, Siberia and the salt-mines. Dead to the world and kith and kin,though you live fifty years."
In such manner John Lewis, commonly known as the "sea-lawyer," settledthe matter out of hand.
It was a serious moment in the forecastle of the _Mary Thomas_. Nosooner had the watch below begun to talk the trouble over, than thewatch on deck came down and joined them. As there was no wind, everyhand could be spared with the exception of the man at the wheel, and heremained only for the sake of discipline. Even "Bub" Russell, thecabin-boy, had crept forward to hear what was going on.
However, it was a serious moment, as the grave faces of the sailors borewitness. For the three preceding months the _Mary Thomas_ sealingschooner, had hunted the seal pack along the coast of Japan and north toBering Sea. Here, on the Asiatic side of the sea, they were forced togive over the chase, or rather, to go no farther; for beyond, theRussian cruisers patrolled forbidden ground, where the seals might breedin peace.
A week before she had fallen into a heavy fog accompanied by calm. Sincethen the fog-bank had not lifted, and the only wind had been light airsand catspaws. This in itself was not so bad, for the sealing schoonersare never in a hurry so long as they are in the midst of the seals; butthe trouble lay in the fact that the current at this point bore heavilyto the north. Thus the _Mary Thomas_ had unwittingly drifted acrossthe line, and every hour she was penetrating, unwillingly, farther andfarther into the dangerous waters where the Russian bear kept guard.
How far she had drifted no man knew. The sun had not been visiblefor a week, nor the stars, and the captain had been unable to takeobservations in order to determine his position. At any moment a cruisermight swoop down and hale the crew away to Siberia. The fate of otherpoaching seal-hunters was too well known to the men of the _MaryThomas_, and there was cause for grave faces.
"Mine friends," spoke up a German boat-steerer, "it vas a pad piziness.Shust as ve make a big catch, und all honest, somedings go wrong, undder Russians nab us, dake our skins and our schooner, und send us mitder anarchists to Siberia. Ach! a pretty pad piziness!"
"Yes, that's where it hurts," the sea lawyer went on. "Fifteen hundredskins in the salt piles, and all honest, a big pay-day coming to everyman Jack of us, and then to be captured and lose it all! It'd bedifferent if we'd been poaching, but it's all honest work in openwater."
"But if we haven't done anything wrong, they can't do anything to us,can they?" Bub queried.
"It strikes me as 'ow it ain't the proper thing for a boy o' your ageshovin' in when 'is elders is talkin'," protested an English sailor,from over the edge of his bunk.
"Oh, that's all right, Jack," answered the sea-lawyer. "He's a perfectright to. Ain't he just as liable to lose his wages as the rest of us?"
"Wouldn't give thruppence for them!" Jack sniffed back. He had beenplanning to go home and see his family in Chelsea when he was paid off,and he was now feeling rather blue over the highly possible loss, notonly of his pay, but of his liberty.
"How are they to know?" the sea-lawyer asked in answer to Bub's previousquestion. "Here we are in forbidden water. How do they know but what wecame here of our own accord? Here we are, fifteen hundred skins in thehold. How do they, know whether we got them in open water or in theclosed sea? Don't you see, Bub, the evidence is all against us. If youcaught a man with his pockets full of apples like those which grow onyour tree, and if you caught him in your tree besides, what'd you thinkif he told you he couldn't help it, and had just been sort of blownthere, and that anyway those apples came from some other tree--what'dyou think, eh?"
Bub saw it clearly when put in that light, and shook his headdespondently.
"You'd rather be dead than go to Siberia," one of the boat-pullers said."They put you into the salt-mines and work you till you die. Never seedaylight again. Why, I've heard tell of one fellow that was chained tohis mate, and that mate died. And they were both chained together! Andif they send you to the quicksilver mines you get salivated. I'd ratherbe hung than salivated."
"Wot's salivated?" Jack asked, suddenly sitting up in his bunk at thehint of fresh misfortunes.
"Why, the quicksilver gets into your blood; I think that's the way. Andyour gums all swell like you had the scurvy, only worse, and your teethget loose in your jaws. And big ulcers form, and then you die horrible.The strongest man can't last long a-mining quicksilver."
"A pad piziness," the boat-steerer reiterated, dolorously, in thesilence which followed. "A pad piziness. I vish I was in Yokohama. Eh?Vot vas dot?"
The vessel had suddenly heeled over. The decks were aslant. A tinpannikin rolled down the inclined plane, rattling and banging. Fromabove came the slapping of canvas and the quivering rat-tat-tat of theafter leech of the loosely stretched foresail. Then the mate's voicesang down the hatch, "All hands on deck and make sail!"
Never had such summons been answered with more enthusiasm. The calm hadbroken. The wind had come which was to carry them south into safety.With a wild cheer all sprang on deck. Working with mad haste, they flungout topsails, flying jibs and stay-sails. As they worked, the fog-banklifted and the black vault of heaven, bespangled with the old familiarstars, rushed into view. When all was ship-shape, the _Mary Thomas_was lying gallantly over on her side to a beam wind and plunging aheaddue south.
"Steamer's lights ahead on the port bow, sir!" cried the lookout fromhis station on the forecastle-head. There was excitement in the man'svoice.
The captain sent Bub below for his night-glasses. Everybody crowded tothe lee-rail to gaze at the suspicious stranger, which already began toloom up vague and indistinct. In those unfrequented waters the chancewas one in a thousand that it could be anything else than a Russianpatrol. The captain was still anxiously gazing through the glasses, whena flash of flame left the stranger's side, followed by the loud reportof a cannon. The worst fears were confirmed. It was a patrol, evidentlyfiring across the bows of the _Mary Thomas_ in order to make herheave to.
"Hard down with your helm!" the captain commanded the steers-man, allthe life gone out of his voice. Then to the crew, "Back over the jib andforesail! Run down the flying jib! Clew up the foretopsail! And aft hereand swing on to the main-sheet!"
The _Mary Thomas_ ran into the eye of the wind, lost headway, andfell to courtesying gravely to the long seas rolling up from the west.
The cruiser steamed a little nearer and lowered a boat. The sealerswatched in heartbroken silence. They could see the white bulk of theboat as it was slacked away to the water, and its crew sliding aboard.They could hear the creaking of the davits and the commands of theofficers. Then the boat sprang away under the impulse of the oars, andcame toward them. The wind had been rising, and already the sea was toorough to permit the frail craft to lie alongside the tossing schooner;but watching their chance, and taking advantage of the boarding ropesthrown to them, an officer and a couple of men clambered aboard.The boat then sheered off into safety and lay to its oars, a youngmidshipman, sitting in the stern and holding the yoke-lines, in charge.
The officer, whose uniform disclosed his rank as that of secondlieutenant in the Russian navy, went below with the captain of the_Mary Thomas_ to look at the ship's papers. A few minutes later heemerged, and upon his sailors removing the hatch-covers, passed downinto the hold with a lantern to inspect the salt piles. It was a goodlyheap which confronted him--fifteen hundred fresh skins, the season'scatch; and under the circumstances he could have had but one conclusion.
"I am very sorry," he said, in broken English to the sealing captain,when he again came on deck, "but it is my duty, in the name of the tsar,to seize
your vessel as a poacher caught with fresh skins in the closedsea. The penalty, as you may know, is confiscation and imprisonment."
The captain of the _Mary Thomas_ shrugged his shoulders in seemingindifference, and turned away. Although they may restrain all outwardshow, strong men, under unmerited misfortune, are sometimes very closeto tears. Just then the vision of his little California home, and of thewife and two yellow-haired boys, was strong upon him, and there was astrange, choking sensation in his throat, which made him afraid that ifhe attempted to speak he would sob instead.
And also there was upon him the duty he owed his men. No weakness beforethem, for he must be a tower of strength to sustain them in misfortune.He had already explained to the second lieutenant, and knew thehopelessness of the situation. As the sea-lawyer had said, the evidencewas all against him. So he turned aft, and fell to pacing up and downthe poop of the vessel over which he was no longer commander.
The Russian officer now took temporary charge. He ordered more of hismen aboard, and had all the canvas clewed up and furled snugly away.While this was being done, the boat plied back and forth between thetwo vessels, passing a heavy hawser, which was made fast to the greattowing-bitts on the schooner's forecastle-head. During all this workthe sealers stood about in sullen groups. It was madness to think ofresisting, with the guns of a man-of-war not a biscuit-toss away; butthey refused to lend a hand, preferring instead to maintain a gloomysilence.
Having accomplished his task, the lieutenant ordered all but four of hismen back into the boat. Then the midshipman, a lad of sixteen, lookingstrangely mature and dignified in his uniform and sword, came aboard totake command of the captured sealer. Just as the lieutenant prepared todepart, his eyes chanced to alight upon Bub. Without a word of warning,he seized him by the arm and dropped him over the rail into the waitingboat; and then, with a parting wave of his hand, he followed him.
It was only natural that Bub should be frightened at this unexpectedhappening. All the terrible stories he had heard of the Russians servedto make him fear them, and now returned to his mind with double force.To be captured by them was bad enough, but to be carried off by them,away from his comrades, was a fate of which he had not dreamed.
"Be a good boy, Bub," the captain called to him, as the boat drew awayfrom the _Mary Thomas_'s side, "and tell the truth!"
"Aye, aye, sir!" he answered, bravely enough, by all outward appearance.He felt a certain pride of race, and was ashamed to be a coward beforethese strange enemies, these wild Russian bears.
"Und be politeful!" the German boat-steerer added, his rough voicelifting across the water like a fog-horn.
Bub waved his hand in farewell, and his mates clustered along therail as they answered with a cheering shout. He found room in thestern-sheets, where he fell to regarding the lieutenant. He didn't lookso wild or bearish, after all--very much like other men, Bub concluded,and the sailors were much the same as all other man-of-war's men he hadever known. Nevertheless, as his feet struck the steel deck of thecruiser, he felt as if he had entered the portals of a prison.
For a few minutes he was left unheeded. The sailors hoisted the boat up,and swung it in on the davits. Then great clouds of black smoke pouredout of the funnels, and they were under way--to Siberia, Bub could nothelp but think. He saw the _Mary Thomas_ swing abruptly into lineas she took the pressure from the hawser, and her side-lights, red andgreen, rose and fell as she was towed through the sea.
Bub's eyes dimmed at the melancholy sight, but--but just then thelieutenant came to take him down to the commander, and he straightenedup and set his lips firmly, as if this were a very commonplace affairand he were used to being sent to Siberia every day in the week. Thecabin in which the commander sat was like a palace compared to thehumble fittings of the _Mary Thomas_, and the commander himself, ingold lace and dignity, was a most august personage, quite unlike thesimple man who navigated his schooner on the trail of the seal pack.
Bub now quickly learned why he had been brought aboard, and in theprolonged questioning which followed, told nothing but the plain truth.The truth was harmless; only a lie could have injured his cause. He didnot know much, except that they had been sealing far to the south inopen water, and that when the calm and fog came down upon them, beingclose to the line, they had drifted across. Again and again he insistedthat they had not lowered a boat or shot a seal in the week they hadbeen drifting about in the forbidden sea; but the commander chose toconsider all that he said to be a tissue of falsehoods, and adopted abullying tone in an effort to frighten the boy. He threatened andcajoled by turns, but failed in the slightest to shake Bub's statements,and at last ordered him out of his presence.
By some oversight, Bub was not put in anybody's charge, and wandered upon deck unobserved. Sometimes the sailors, in passing, bent curiousglances upon him, but otherwise he was left strictly alone. Nor could hehave attracted much attention, for he was small, the night dark, and thewatch on deck intent on its own business. Stumbling over the strangedecks, he made his way aft where he could look upon the side-lights ofthe _Mary Thomas_, following steadily in the rear.
For a long while he watched, and then lay down in the darkness close towhere the hawser passed over the stern to the captured schooner. Oncean officer came up and examined the straining rope to see if it werechafing, but Bub cowered away in the shadow undiscovered. This, however,gave him an idea which concerned the lives and liberties of twenty-twomen, and which was to avert crushing sorrow from more than one happyhome many thousand miles away.
In the first place, he reasoned, the crew were all guiltless of anycrime, and yet were being carried relentlessly away to imprisonment inSiberia--a living death, he had heard, and he believed it implicitly.In the second place, he was a prisoner, hard and fast, with no chanceof escape. In the third, it was possible for the twenty-two men on the_Mary Thomas_ to escape. The only thing which bound them was afour-inch hawser. They dared not cut it at their end, for a watch wassure to be maintained upon it by their Russian captors; but at this end,ah! at his end----
Bub did not stop to reason further. Wriggling close to the hawser, heopened his jack-knife and went to work, The blade was not very sharp,and he sawed away, rope-yarn by rope-yarn, the awful picture of thesolitary Siberian exile he must endure growing clearer and more terribleat every stroke. Such a fate was bad enough to undergo with one'scomrades, but to face it alone seemed frightful. And besides, the veryact he was performing was sure to bring greater punishment upon him.
In the midst of such somber thoughts, he heard footsteps approaching.He wriggled away into the shadow. An officer stopped where he had beenworking, half-stooped to examine the hawser, then changed his mind andstraightened up. For a few minutes he stood there, gazing at the lightsof the captured schooner, and then went forward again.
Now was the time! Bub crept back and went on sawing. Now two parts weresevered. Now three. But one remained. The tension upon this was so greatthat it readily yielded. Splash! The freed end went overboard. He layquietly, his heart in his mouth, listening. No one on the cruiser buthimself had heard.
He saw the red and green lights of the _Mary Thomas_ grow dimmerand dimmer. Then a faint hallo came over the water from the Russianprize crew. Still nobody heard. The smoke continued to pour out of thecruiser's funnels, and her propellers throbbed as mightily as ever.
What was happening on the _Mary Thomas_? Bub could only surmise;but of one thing he was certain: his comrades would assert themselvesand overpower the four sailors and the midshipman. A few minutes laterhe saw a small flash, and straining his ears heard the very faint reportof a pistol. Then, oh joy! both the red and green lights suddenlydisappeared. The _Mary Thomas_ was retaken!
Just as an officer came aft, Bub crept forward, and hid away inone of the boats. Not an instant too soon. The alarm was given. Loudvoices rose in command. The cruiser altered her course. An electricsearch-light began to throw its white rays across the sea, here, there,everywhere; but in its flashing path no tos
sing schooner was revealed.
Bub went to sleep soon after that, nor did he wake till the gray ofdawn. The engines were pulsing monotonously, and the water, splashingnoisily, told him the decks were being washed down. One sweeping glance,and he saw that they were alone on the expanse of ocean. The _MaryThomas_ had escaped. As he lifted his head, a roar of laughter wentup from the sailors. Even the officer, who ordered him taken below andlocked up, could not quite conceal the laughter in his eyes. Bub thoughtoften in the days of confinement which followed, that they were not veryangry with him for what he had done.
He was not far from right. There is a certain innate nobility deep downin the hearts of all men, which forces them to admire a brave act, evenif it is performed by an enemy. The Russians were in nowise differentfrom other men. True, a boy had outwitted them; but they could not blamehim, and they were sore puzzled as to what to do with him. It wouldnever do to take a little mite like him in to represent all thatremained of the lost poacher.
So, two weeks later, a United States man-of-war, steaming out of theRussian port of Vladivostok, was signaled by a Russian cruiser. A boatpassed between the two ships, and a small boy dropped over the rail uponthe deck of the American vessel. A week later he was put ashore atHakodate, and after some telegraphing, his fare was paid on the railroadto Yokohama.
From the depot he hurried through the quaint Japanese streets to theharbor, and hired a _sampan_ boatman to put him aboard a certainvessel whose familiar rigging had quickly caught his eye. Her gasketswere off, her sails unfurled; she was just starting back to the UnitedStates. As he came closer, a crowd of sailors sprang upon the forecastlehead, and the windlass-bars rose and fell as the anchor was torn fromits muddy bottom.
"'Yankee ship come down the ribber!'" the sea-lawyer's voice rolled outas he led the anchor song.
"'Pull, my bully boys, pull!'" roared back the old familiar chorus, themen's bodies lifting and bending to the rhythm.
Bub Russell paid the boatman and stepped on deck. The anchor wasforgotten. A mighty cheer went up from the men, and almost before hecould catch his breath he was on the shoulders of the captain,surrounded by his mates, and endeavoring to answer twenty questions tothe second.
The next day a schooner hove to off a Japanese fishing village, sentashore four sailors and a little midshipman, and sailed away. These mendid not talk English, but they had money and quickly made their way toYokohama. From that day the Japanese village folk never heard anythingmore about them, and they are still a much-talked-of mystery. As theRussian government never said anything about the incident, the UnitedStates is still ignorant of the whereabouts of the lost poacher, nor hasshe ever heard, officially, of the way in which some of her citizens"shanghaied" five subjects of the tsar. Even nations have secretssometimes.