Chapter Five
The Tempter’s Victory
“I wouldn’t mind the frost or snow, or anything else,” growled Joe Stubley, pausing in the midst of his labours among the fish, “if it warn’t for them sea-blisters. Just look at that, Jim,” he added, turning up the hard sleeve of his oiled coat, and exposing a wrist which the feeble rays of the lantern showed to be badly excoriated and inflamed.
“Ay, it’s an ugly bracelet, an’ I’ve got one myself just begun on my left wrist,” remarked Jim Freeman, also suspending labour for a moment to glance at his mate’s wound. “If our fleet had a mission ship, like some o’ the other fleets, we’d not only have worsted mitts for our wrists, but worsted helmets for our heads an’ necks—to say nothin’ of lotions, pills an’ plasters.”
“If they’d only fetch us them things an’ let alone tracts, Bibles, an’ religion,” returned Stubley, “I’d have no objection to ’em, but what’s the use o’ religion to a drinkin’, swearin’, gamblin’ lot like us?”
“It’s quite clear that your notions about religion are muddled,” said David Duffy, with a short laugh. “Why, what’s the use o’ physic to a sick man, Stubs?”
“To make him wuss,” replied Stubs promptly.
“You might as well argify with a lobster as with Joe Stubs,” said Bob Lumsden, who, although burdened with the cares of the cooking department, worked with the men at cleaning and packing.
“What does a boy like you know about lobsters, ’cept to cook ’em?” growled Stubley. “You mind your pots an’ pans. That’s all your brains are fit for—if you have brains at all. Leave argification to men.”
“That’s just what I was advisin’ Duffy to do, an’ not waste his breath on the likes o’ you,” retorted the boy, with a grin.
The conversation was stopped at this point by the skipper ordering the men to shake out a reef, as the wind was moderating. By the time this was accomplished daybreak was lighting up the eastern horizon, and ere long the pale grey of the cold sea began to warm up a little under the influence of the not yet visible sun.
“Goin’ to be fine,” said Lockley, as he scanned the horizon with his glass.
“Looks like it,” replied the mate.
Remarks were few and brief at that early hour, for the men, being pretty well fagged, preferred to carry on their monotonous work in silence.
As morning advanced the fleet was clearly seen in all directions and at all distances around, holding on the same course as the Lively Poll. Gradually the breeze moderated, and before noon the day had turned out bright and sunny, with only a few thin clouds floating in the wintry sky. By that time the fish-boxes, or trunks, were all packed, and the men availed themselves of the brief period of idleness pending the arrival of the steam-carrier from Billingsgate to eat a hearty breakfast.
This meal, it may be remarked, was a moveable feast, depending very much on the duties in hand and the arrival of the steamer. To get the fish ready and shipped for market is always regarded as his first and all-important duty by the deep-sea trawler, who, until it is performed, will not condescend to give attention to such secondary matters as food and repose. These are usually taken when opportunity serves. Pipes and recreation, in the form of games at cards, draughts, dominoes, and yarns, are also snatched at intervals between the periods of severe toil. Nevertheless, there are times when the fisherman’s experience is very different. When prolonged calms render fishing impossible, then time hangs heavily on his hands, and—in regard to the fleet of which we write and all those similarly circumstanced—the only recreations available are sleeping, drinking, gambling, and yarn-spinning. True, such calms do not frequently occur in winter, but they sometimes do, and one of them prevailed on the afternoon of the particular winter’s day of which we treat.
After the departure of the carrier that day, the wind fell so much that the admiral deemed it advisable not to put down the nets. Before long the light air died away altogether, and the fleet was left floating idly, in picturesque groups and with flapping sails, on the glassy sea.
Among the groups thus scattered about, there was one smack which had quietly joined the fleet when the men were busy transhipping or “ferrying” the fish to the steam-carrier. Its rig was so similar to that of the other smacks that a stranger might have taken it for one of the fleet but the fishermen knew better. It was that enemy of souls, that floating grog-shop, that pirate of the North Sea, the coper.
“Good luck to ’ee,” muttered Joe Stubley, whose sharp, because sympathetic, eye was first to observe the vessel.
“It’s bad luck to you anyhow,” remarked Bob the cook, who chanced to pass at the moment.
“Mind your own business, Lumpy, an’ none o’ your sauce, if you don’t want a rope’s-endin’,” retorted the man.
“Ain’t I just mindin’ my own business? Why, wot is sauce but part of a cook’s business?” returned the boy.
“I won’t go to her,” thought Stephen Lockley, who overheard the conversation, and in whose breast a struggle had been going on, for he also had seen the coper, and, his case-bottle having run dry, he was severely tempted to have it replenished.
“Would it not be as well, skipper, to go aboard o’ the coper, as she’s so near at hand!” said the mate, coming aft at the moment.
“Well, no, Peter; I think it would be as well to drop the coper altogether. The abominable stuff the Dutchmen sell us is enough to poison a shark. You know I’m not a teetotaller, but if I’m to be killed at all, I’d rather be killed by good spirits than bad.”
“Right you are,” replied Jay, “but, you see, a lot of us are hard up for baccy, and—”
“Of course, of course; the men must have baccy,” interrupted the skipper, “an’ we don’t need to buy their vile brandy unless we like. Yes, get the boat out, Jay, an’ we’ll go.”
Stephen Lockley was not the first man who has deceived himself as to his motives. Tobacco was his excuse for visiting the floating den of temptation, but a craving for strong drink was his real motive. This craving had been created imperceptibly, and had been growing by degrees for some years past, twining its octopus arms tighter and tighter round his being, until the strong and hearty young fisherman was slowly but surely becoming an abject slave, though he had fancied himself heretofore as free as the breezes that whistled round his vessel. Now, for the first time, Lockley began to have uncomfortable suspicions about himself. Being naturally bold and candid, he turned sharply round, and, as it were, faced himself with the stern question, “Stephen, are you sure that it’s baccy that tempts you aboard of the coper? Are you clear that schnapps has nothing to do with it?”
It is one of the characteristics of the slavery to which we refer, that although strong-minded and resolute men put pointed questions of this sort to themselves not unfrequently, they very seldom return answers to them. Their once vigorous spirits, it would seem, are still capable of an occasional heave and struggle—a sort of flash in the pan—but that is all. The influence of the depraved appetite immediately weighs them down, and they relapse into willing submission to the bondage. Lockley had not returned an answer to his own question when the mate reported that the boat was ready. Without a word he jumped into her, but kept thinking to himself, “We’ll only get baccy, an’ I’ll leave the coper before the lads can do themselves any harm. I’ll not taste a drop myself—not a single drop o’ their vile stuff.”
The Dutch skipper of the coper had a round fat face and person, and a jovial, hearty manner. He received the visitors with an air of open-handed hospitality which seemed to indicate that nothing was further from his thoughts than gain.
“We’ve come for baccy,” said Lockley, as he leaped over the bulwarks and shook hands, “I s’pose you’ve plenty of that?”
“Ya,” the Dutchman had “plenty tabac—ver sheep too, an’ mit sooch a goot vlavour!”
He was what the Yankees would call a ’cute fellow, that Dutchman. Observing the emphasis with which Lockley mentioned tobacco, he understood at once that the skipper did not want his men to drink, and laid his snares accordingly.
“Com’,” he said, in a confidential tone, taking hold of Lockley’s arm, “com’ b’low, an’ you shall zee de tabac, an’ smell him yourself.”
Our skipper accepted the invitation, went below, and was soon busy commenting on the weed, which, as the Dutchman truly pointed out, was “so sheep as well as goot.” But another smell in that cabin overpowered that of the tobacco. It was the smell of Hollands, or some sort of spirit, which soon aroused the craving that had gained such power over the fisherman.
“Have some schnapps!” said the Dutch skipper, suddenly producing a case-bottle as square as himself, and pouring out a glass.
“No, thank ’ee,” said Stephen firmly.
“No!” exclaimed the other, with well-feigned surprise. “You not drink?”
“Oh yes, I drink,” replied Lockley, with a laugh, “but not to-day.”
“I not ask you to buy,” rejoined the tempter, holding the spirits a little nearer to his victim’s nose. “Joost take von leetle glass for goot vellowship.”
It seemed rude to decline a proposal so liberally made, and with such a smiling countenance. Lockley took the glass, drank it off and went hurriedly on deck, followed by the Dutchman, with the case-bottle in one hand and the glass in the other. Of course the men had no objection to be treated. They had a small glass all round.
“That’s the stuff for my money!” cried Stubley, smacking his lips. “I say, old chap, let’s have a bottle of it. None o’ your thimblefuls for me. I like a good swig when I’m at it.”
“You’d better wait till we get aboard, Joe, before you begin,” suggested Lockley, who was well aware of Joe’s tendencies.
Joe admitted the propriety of this advice, but said he would treat his mates to one glass before starting, by “way o’ wetting their whistles.”
“Ya, joost von glass vor vet deir vistles,” echoed the Dutchman, with a wink and a look which produced a roar of laughter. The glass was accepted by all, including Lockley, who had been quite demoralised by the first glass.
The victory was gained by the tempter for that time at least. The fishermen who went for baccy, remained for schnapps, and some of them were very soon more than half drunk. It was a fierce, maddening kind of spirit, which produced its powerful effects quickly.
The skipper of the Lively Poll kept himself better in hand than his men, but, being very sociable in disposition, and finding the Dutchman a humorous and chatty fellow, he saw no reason to hurry them away. Besides, his vessel was close alongside, and nothing could be done in the fishing way during the dead calm that prevailed.
While he and his men were engaged in a lively conversation about nothing in particular—though they were as earnest over it as if the fate of empires depended on their judgment—the Dutch skipper rose to welcome another boat’s crew, which approached on the other side of the coper. So eager and fuddled were the disputants of the Lively Poll that they did not at first observe the newcomers.
It was the Fairy’s boat, with Dick Martin in charge.
“Hallo, Dick, mein boy; gif me your vlipper.”
A sign from Martin induced the Dutchman to lean over the side and speak in lower tones.
“Let’s have a keg of it,” said Dick, with a mysterious look. “Ned Bryce sent me for a good supply, an’ here’s fish to pay for it.”
The fish—which of course belonged to the owner of the Fairy, not to Ned Bryce—were quickly passed up, and a keg of spirits passed down. Then the Dutchman asked if Dick or his men wanted tabac or schnapps for themselves.
“I vill take jersey, or vish, or sail, or boots, or vat you please in exchange. Com’ aboard, anyhow, an’ have von leetle glass.”
Dick and his men having thus smartly transacted their chief business, leaped on deck, made fast their painter, let the boat drop astern, and were soon smoking and drinking amicably with the crew of the Lively Poll. Not long afterwards they were quarrelling. Then Dick Martin, who was apt to become pugnacious over his liquor, asserted stoutly that something or other “was.” Joe Stubley swore that it “was not,” whereupon Dick Martin planted his fist on Joe Stubley’s nose and laid its growly owner flat on the deck.
Starting up, Joe was about to retaliate, when Lockley, seizing him by the neck thrust him over the side into the boat, and ordered his more or less drunken crew to follow. They did so with a bad grace, but the order was given in a tone which they well understood must not be disobeyed.
As they pushed off, Stubley staggered and fell into the sea. Another moment and he would have been beyond all human aid, but Lockley caught a glimpse of his shaggy black head as it sank. Plunging his long right arm down, and holding on to the boat with his left, he caught the drowning man by the hair. Strong and willing arms helped, and Stubley was hauled inboard—restored to life, opportunity, and hope—and flung into the bottom of the boat.
The oars were shipped, and they pulled for the Lively Poll. As they rode away they saw that other boats were proceeding towards the coper. The men in them were all anxious to buy baccy. No mention was made of drink. Oh dear no! They cared nothing for that, though, of course, they had no sort of objection to accept the wily Dutchman’s generous offer of “von leetle glass vor goot vellowship.”
Chapter Six
The Power of Sympathy
One fine afternoon, not long after the visit to the coper, Bob Lumsden, alias Lumpy, was called from his culinary labours to assist in hauling in the net.
Now it is extremely interesting to note what a wonderful effect the power of loving sympathy can have on a human being. Lumpy was a human being—though some of his mates insisted that he must have been descended from a cod-fish, because his mouth was so large. No doubt it was, and when the boy laughed heartily he was, indeed, apt to remind one of that fish; nevertheless it was a good, well-shaped mouth, though large, with a kindly expression about it, and a set of splendid white teeth inside of it. But, whether human or fishy in his nature, Bob Lumsden had been overwhelmed by a flood of sympathy ever since that memorable day when he had first caught a glimpse of the sweet, pale face of the little invalid Eve Mooney. It was but a brief glimpse, yet it had opened a new sluice in Lumpy’s heart through which the waters of tenderness gushed in a wild torrent.
One of the curious results of this flood was that Bob was always more prompt to the summons to haul up the trawl than he had ever been before, more energetic in clawing the net inboard, and more eager to see and examine the contents of the cod-end. The explanation is simple. He had overheard his skipper say how fond Eve was of shells—especially of those which came from the bottom of the North Sea, and of all sorts of pretty and curious things, wherever they came from.
From that hour Bob Lumpy became a diligent collector of marine curiosities, and the very small particular corner of the vessel which he called his own became ere long quite a museum. They say that sympathy is apt to grow stronger between persons of opposite constitutions. If this be so, perhaps it was his nature—his bold, hearty, gushing, skylarking spirit, his strong rugged frame, his robust health, his carroty hair, his appley cheeks, his eagle nose, his flashing eyes—that drew him so powerfully to the helpless, tender little invalid, with her delicate frame and pale cheeks, straight little nose, bud of a mouth, and timid, though by no means cowardly, spirit.
On another occasion Bob overheard Lockley again talking about Eve. “I’m sorry for the poor thing,” he said to Peter Jay, as they paced the deck together; “she’s got such a wretched home, an’ her mother’s such a drunken bru—”
Lockley checked himself, and did not finish the sentence.
“The doctor says,” he resumed, “that if Eve had only a bath-chair or suthin’ o’ that sort, to get wheeled about in the fresh air, she’d very likely get better as she growed older—specially if she had good victuals. You see, small as she is, and young as she looks, she’s over fifteen. But even if she had the chair, poor thing! who would wheel it for her? It would be no use unless it was done regular, an’ her mother can’t do it—or won’t.”
From that hour Bob Lumpy became a miser. He had been a smoker like the rest of the crew, but he gave up “baccy.” He used to take an occasional glass of beer or spirits when on shore or on board the copers, but he became a total abstainer, much to his own benefit in every way, and as a result he became rich—in an extremely small way.
There was a very small, thin, and dirty, but lively and intelligent boy in Yarmouth, who loved Bob Lumsden better, if possible, than himself. His name was Pat Stiver. The affection was mutual. Bob took this boy into his confidence.
One day, a considerable time after Bob’s discovery of Eve, Pat, having nothing to do, sauntered to the end of Gorleston Pier, and there to his inexpressible joy, met his friend. Before he had recovered sufficiently from surprise to utter a word, Bob seized him by the arms, lifted him up, and shook him.
“Take care, Lumpy,” cried the boy, “I’m wery tender, like an over-young chicken. You’d better set me down before I comes in pieces.”
“Why, Stiver, you’re the very man I was thinkin’ of,” said Lumpy, setting the boy on the edge of the pier, and sitting down beside him.
Stiver looked proud, and felt six inches taller.
“Listen,” said Bob, with an earnest look that was apt to captivate his friends; “I want help. Will you do somethin’ for me?”
“Anything,” replied the boy with emphasis, “from pitch and toss to manslaughter!”
“Well, look here. You know Eve Mooney?”
“Do I know the blessedest angel in all Gorleston? In course I does. Wot of her?”
“She’s ill—very ill,” said Lumpy.
“You might as well tell me, when it’s daytime, that the sun’s up,” returned Pat.
“Don’t be so awful sharp, Stiver, else I’ll have to snub you.”
“Which you’ve on’y got to frown, Bob Lumpy, an’ the deed’s done.”
Bob gave a short laugh, and then proceeded to explain matters to his friend: how he had been saving up his wages for some time past to buy a second-hand bath-chair for Eve, because the doctor had said it would do her so much good, especially if backed up with good victuals.
“It’s the wittles as bothers me, Stiver,” said Bob, regarding his friend with a puzzled expression.
“H’m! well,” returned the small boy seriously, “wittles has bothered me too, off an’ on, pretty well since I was born, though I’m bound to confess I does get a full blow-out now an’—”
“Hold on, Stiver; you’re away on the wrong tack,” cried Bob, interrupting. “I don’t mean the difficulty o’ findin’ wittles, but how to get Eve to take ’em.”
“Tell her to shut her eyes an’ open her mouth, an’ then shove ’em in,” suggested Pat.
“I’ll shove you into the sea if you go on talking balderdash,” said Bob. “Now, look here, you hain’t got nothin’ to do, have you!”
“If you mean in the way o’ my purfession, Bob, you’re right. I purfess to do anything, but nobody as yet has axed me to do nothin’. In the ways o’ huntin’ up wittles, howsever, I’ve plenty to do. It’s hard lines, and yet I ain’t extravagant in my expectations. Most coves require three good meals a day, w’ereas I’m content with one. I begins at breakfast, an’ I goes on a-eatin’ promiskoously all day till arter supper—w’en I can get it.”
“Just so, Stiver. Now, I want to engage you professionally. Your dooties will be to hang about Mrs Mooney’s but in an offhand, careless sort o’ way, like them superintendent chaps as git five or six hundred a year for doin’ nuffin, an’ be ready at any time to offer to give Eve a shove in the chair. But first you’ll have to take the chair to her, an’ say it was sent to her from—”
“Robert Lumsden, Esquire,” said Pat, seeing that his friend hesitated.
“Not at all, you little idiot,” said Bob sharply. “You mustn’t mention my name on no account.”
“From a gentleman, then,” suggested Pat.
“That might do; but I ain’t a gentleman, Stiver, an’ I can’t allow you to go an’ tell lies.”
“I’d like to know who is if you ain’t,” returned the boy indignantly. “Ain’t a gentleman a man wot’s gentle? An’ w’en you was the other day a-spreadin’ of them lovely shells, an’ crabs, an’ sea-goin’ kooriosities out on her pocket-hankercher, didn’t I see that you was gentle?”
“I’ll be pretty rough on you, Pat, in a minit, if you don’t hold your jaw,” interrupted Bob, who, however, did not seem displeased with his friend’s definition of a gentleman. “Well, you may say what you like, only be sure you say what’s true. An’ then you’ll have to take some nice things as I’ll get for her from time to time w’en I comes ashore. But there’ll be difficulties, I doubt, in the way of gettin’ her to take wittles w’en she don’t know who they comes from.”
“Oh, don’t you bother your head about that,” said Pat. “I’ll manage it. I’m used to difficulties. Just you leave it to me, an’ it’ll be all right.”
“Well, I will, Pat; so you’ll come round with me to the old furnitur’ shop in Yarmouth, an’ fetch the chair. I got it awful cheap from the old chap as keeps the shop w’en I told him what it was for. Then you’ll bring it out to Eve, an’ try to git her to have a ride in it to-day, if you can. I’ll see about the wittles arter. Hain’t quite worked that out in my mind yet. Now, as to wages. I fear I can’t offer you none—”
“I never axed for none,” retorted Pat proudly.
“That’s true Pat; but I’m not a-goin’ to make you slave for nuthin’. I’ll just promise you that I’ll save all I can o’ my wages, an’ give you what I can spare. You’ll just have to trust me as to that.”
“Trust you, Bob!” exclaimed Pat, with enthusiasm, “look here, now; this is how the wind blows. If the Prime Minister o’ Rooshia was to come to me in full regimentals an’ offer to make me capting o’ the Horse Marines to the Hemperor, I’d say, ‘No thankee, I’m engaged,’ as the young woman said to the young man she didn’t want to marry.”
The matter being thus satisfactorily settled, Bob Lumsden and his little friend went off to Yarmouth, intent on carrying out the first part of their plan.
It chanced about the same time that another couple were having a quiet chat together in the neighbourhood of Gorleston Pier. Fred Martin and Isa Wentworth had met by appointment to talk over a subject of peculiar interest to themselves. Let us approach and become eavesdroppers.
“Now, Fred,” said Isa, with a good deal of decision in her tone, “I’m not at all satisfied with your explanation. These mysterious and long visits you make to London ought to be accounted for, and as I have agreed to become your wife within the next three or four months, just to please you, the least you can do, I think, is to have no secrets from me. Besides, you have no idea what the people here and your former shipmates are saying about you.”
“Indeed, dear lass, what do they say?”
“Well, they say now you’ve got well they can’t understand why you should go loafing about doin’ nothin’ or idling your time in London, instead of goin’ to sea.”
“Idlin’ my time!” exclaimed Fred with affected indignation. “How do they know I’m idlin’ my time? What if I was studyin’ to be a doctor or a parson?”
“Perhaps they’d say that was idlin’ your time, seein’ that you’re only a fisherman,” returned Isa, looking up in her lover’s face with a bright smile. “But tell me, Fred, why should you have any secret from me?”
“Because, dear lass, the thing that gives me so much pleasure and hope is not absolutely fixed, and I don’t want you to be made anxious. This much I will tell you, however: you know I passed my examination for skipper when I was home last time, and now, through God’s goodness, I have been offered the command of a smack. If all goes well, I hope to sail in her next week; then, on my return, I hope to—to take the happiest. Well, well, I’ll say no more about that, as we’re gettin’ near mother’s door. But tell me, Isa, has Uncle Martin been worrying mother again when I was away?”
“No. When he found out that you had got the money that was left to her, and had bought an annuity for her with it, he went away, and I’ve not seen him since.”
“That’s well. I’m glad of that.”
“But am I to hear nothing more about this smack, not even her name?”
“Nothing more just now, Isa. As to her name, it’s not yet fixed. But, trust me, you shall know all in good time.”
As they had now reached the foot of Mrs Martin’s stair, the subject was dropped.
They found the good woman in the act of supplying Granny Martin with a cup of tea. There was obvious improvement in the attic. Sundry little articles of luxury were there which had not been there before.
“You see, my boy,” said Mrs Martin to Fred, as they sat round the social board, “now that the Lord has sent me enough to get along without slavin’ as I used—to do, I takes more time to make granny comfortable, an’ I’ve got her a noo chair, and noo specs, which she was much in want of, for the old uns was scratched to that extent you could hardly see through ’em, besides bein’ cracked across both eyes. Ain’t they much better, dear?”
The old woman, seated in the attic window, turned her head towards the tea-table and nodded benignantly once or twice; but the kind look soon faded into the wonted air of patient contentment, and the old head turned to the sea as the needle turns to the pole, and the soft murmur was heard, “He’ll come soon now.”