CHAPTER VIII
THE ROUND-HOUSE
One night, about eleven o'clock, a man of Mr. Riach's watch (which wason deck) came below for his jacket; and instantly there began to go awhisper about the forecastle that "Shuan had done for him at last."There was no need of a name; we all knew who was meant; but we hadscarce time to get the idea rightly in our heads, far less to speak ofit, when the scuttle was again flung open, and Captain Hoseason camedown the ladder. He looked sharply round the bunks in the tossing lightof the lantern; and then, walking straight up to me, he addressed me, tomy surprise, in tones of kindness.
"My man," said he, "we want ye to serve in the round-house. You andRansome are to change berths. Run away aft with ye."
Even as he spoke, two seamen appeared in the scuttle, carrying Ransomein their arms; and the ship at that moment giving a great sheer into thesea, and the lantern swinging, the light fell direct on the boy's face.It was as white as wax, and had a look upon it like a dreadful smile.The blood in me ran cold, and I drew in my breath as if I had beenstruck.
"Run away aft; run away aft with ye!" cried Hoseason.
And at that I brushed by the sailors and the boy (who neither spoke normoved), and ran up the ladder on deck.
The brig was sheering swiftly and giddily through a long, crestingswell. She was on the starboard tack, and on the left hand, under thearched foot of the foresail, I could see the sunset still quite bright.This, at such an hour of the night, surprised me greatly; but I was tooignorant to draw the true conclusion--that we were going north-aboutround Scotland, and were now on the high sea between the Orkney andShetland Islands, having avoided the dangerous currents of the PentlandFirth. For my part, who had been so long shut in the dark and knewnothing of head-winds, I thought we might be half-way or more across theAtlantic. And indeed (beyond that I wondered a little at the lateness ofthe sunset light) I gave no heed to it, and pushed on across the decks,running between the seas, catching at ropes, and only saved from goingoverboard by one of the hands on deck, who had been always kind to me.
The round-house, for which I was bound, and where I was now to sleep andserve, stood some six feet above the decks, and, considering the size ofthe brig, was of good dimensions. Inside were a fixed table and bench,and two berths, one for the captain and the other for the two mates,turn and turn about. It was all fitted with lockers from top to bottom,so as to stow away the officers' belongings and a part of the ship'sstores; there was a second store-room underneath, which you entered by ahatchway in the middle of the deck; indeed, all the best of the meat anddrink and the whole of the powder were collected in this place; and allthe fire-arms, except the two pieces of brass ordnance, were set in arack in the aftermost wall of the round-house. The most of the cutlasseswere in another place.
A small window with a shutter on each side, and a skylight in the roof,gave it light by day; and after dark there was a lamp always burning. Itwas burning when I entered, not brightly, but enough to show Mr. Shuansitting at the table, with the brandy-bottle and a tin pannikin in frontof him. He was a tall man, strongly made and very black; and he staredbefore him on the table like one stupid.
He took no notice of my coming in; nor did he move when the captainfollowed and leant on the berth beside me, looking darkly at the mate. Istood in great fear of Hoseason, and had my reasons for it; butsomething told me I need not be afraid of him just then; and Iwhispered in his ear, "How is he?" He shook his head like one that doesnot know and does not wish to think, and his face was very stern.
Presently Mr. Riach came in. He gave the captain a glance that meant theboy was dead as plain as speaking, and took his place like the rest ofus; so that we all three stood without a word, staring down at Mr.Shuan, and Mr. Shuan (on his side) sat without a word, looking hard uponthe table.
All of a sudden he put out his hand to take the bottle; and at that Mr.Riach started forward and caught it away from him, rather by surprisethan violence, crying out, with an oath, that there had been too much ofthis work altogether, and that a judgment would fall upon the ship. Andas he spoke (the weather sliding-doors standing open) he tossed thebottle into the sea.
Mr. Shuan was on his feet in a trice; he still looked dazed, but hemeant murder, ay, and would have done it, for the second time thatnight, had not the captain stepped in between him and his victim.
"Sit down!" roars the captain. "Ye sot and swine, do ye know what ye'vedone? Ye've murdered the boy!"
Mr. Shuan seemed to understand; for he sat down again, and put up hishand to his brow.
"Well," he said, "he brought me a dirty pannikin!"
At that word, the captain and I and Mr. Riach all looked at each otherfor a second with a kind of frightened look; and then Hoseason walked upto his chief officer, took him by the shoulder, led him across to hisbunk, and bade him lie down and go to sleep, as you might speak to a badchild. The murderer cried a little, but he took off his sea-boots andobeyed.
"Ah!" cried Mr. Riach, with a dreadful voice, "ye should have interferedlang syne. It's too late now."
"Mr. Riach," said the captain, "this night's work must never be kennt inDysart. The boy went overboard, sir; that's what the story is; and Iwould give five pounds out of my pocket it was true!" He turned to thetable. "What made ye throw the good bottle away?" he added. "There wasnae sense in that, sir.--Here, David, draw me another. They're in thebottom locker"; and he tossed me a key.--"Ye'll need a glass yourself,sir," he added to Riach. "Yon was an ugly thing to see."
So the pair sat down and hob-a-nobbed; and while they did so, themurderer, who had been lying and whimpering in his berth, raised himselfupon his elbow and looked at them and at me.
That was the first night of my new duties; and in the course of the nextday I had got well into the run of them. I had to serve at the meals,which the captain took at regular hours, sitting down with the officerwho was off duty; all the day through I would be running with a dram toone or other of my three masters; and at night I slept on a blanketthrown on the deck boards at the aftermost end of the round-house, andright in the draught of the two doors. It was a hard and a cold bed; norwas I suffered to sleep without interruption; for some one would bealways coming in from deck to get a dram, and when a fresh watch was tobe set, two and sometimes all three would sit down and brew a bowltogether. How they kept their health I know not, any more than how Ikept my own.
And yet in other ways it was an easy service. There was no cloth to lay;the meals were either of oatmeal porridge or salt junk, except twice aweek, when there was duff: and though I was clumsy enough and (not beingfirm on my sea-legs) sometimes fell with what I was bringing them, bothMr. Riach and the captain were singularly patient. I could not but fancythey were making up lee-way with their consciences, and that they wouldscarce have been so good with me if they had not been worse withRansome.
As for Mr. Shuan, the drink, or his crime, or the two together, hadcertainly troubled his mind. I cannot say I ever saw him in his properwits. He never grew used to my being there, stared at me continually(sometimes, I could have thought, with terror), and more than once drewback from my hand when I was serving him. I was pretty sure from thefirst that he had no clear mind of what he had done, and on my secondday in the round-house I had the proof of it. We were alone, and he hadbeen staring at me a long time, when, all at once, up he got, as pale asdeath, and came close up to me, to my great terror. But I had no causeto be afraid of him.
"You were not here before?" he asked.
"No, sir," said I.
"There was another boy?" he asked again; and when I had answered him,"Ah!" says he, "I thought that," and went and sat down, without anotherword, except to call for brandy.
You may think it strange, but for all the horror I had, I was stillsorry for him. He was a married man, with a wife in Leith; but whetheror no he had a family, I have now forgotten; I hope not.
Altogether it was no very hard life for the time it lasted, which (asyou are to hear) was not long. I was as well fed a
s the best of them;even their pickles, which were the great dainty, I was allowed my shareof; and had I liked I might have been drunk from morning to night, likeMr. Shuan. I had company, too, and good company of its sort. Mr. Riach,who had been to the college, spoke to me like a friend when he was notsulking, and told me many curious things, and some that were informing;and even the captain, though he kept me at the stick's end the most partof the time, would sometimes unbuckle a bit, and tell me of the finecountries he had visited.
The shadow of poor Ransome, to be sure, lay on all four of us, and on meand Mr. Shuan in particular, most heavily. And then I had anothertrouble of my own. Here I was, doing dirty work for three men that Ilooked down upon, and one of whom, at least, should have hung upon agallows; that was for the present; and as for the future, I could onlysee myself slaving alongside of negroes in the tobacco-fields. Mr.Riach, perhaps from caution, would never suffer me to say another wordabout my story; the captain, whom I tried to approach, rebuffed me likea dog and would not hear a word; and as the days came and went, my heartsank lower and lower, till I was even glad of the work, which kept mefrom thinking.