Frederick R. Bechdolt

“ I come back to Big Joe on a run.
“Head on we two come together again. From the tail of me eye, I could see the crowd begin to gather; and I had sense enough to wonder where the cops was. By some good luck they was busy in another quarter. So it was him and me for it, and the lass standing by—close quarters too! He swung and I swung. I never seen a man need so much leeway fer his fists as he did. ”

“ Lad, ye do not know what a deep sea sailor had to stand in them days. The skipper was a crank and the mate was a hairy devil. I laid it all up with the reckoning I was to have with Mother Martin. Many an hour on deck and in me bunk I figured out my course and framed it up how I would find her when I come back to port. I would go straight down East Street, taking care to be just drunk enough; and I would clean out her joint from stem to starn. I would spile what I could lay my hands on, including her and the customers.
“All v'y'ges has to come to an end one way or another. ”

“ I've knowed a hell ship to pay as much as a hundred dollars for an ordinary seaman, and that was frequent too. Well, none of the whole crowd of them was busier than Mother Martin. Her boardin' house was like the bulk of them, a grog shop below and sleepin' quarters aloft. Like it is with this saloon of mine, ye had to take one step down, comin' in from the street. Ye never laid yer eyes on Mother Martin, did ye? A big woman, wide, with shoulders like a man; and she always kept her hair cut short off like a man. ”

“ You could hear the crack fer half a block as I landed on his jaw. He was capsizing as I caught him with the other; and that put him down like a bag of nails. I straightened up and seen Annette in the door.
“Lad, I was young then, and she was but a lass. It's passing strange how things is with young people; it's another matter when your blood is runnin' cold and thin. ”

“ She did not move a muscle, but looked me right between the eyes. 'That squares us, Lighthouse Tom,' says she.
“I told her that it did not, and started to say what was what, and how I felt fer what she had done fer me. 'Fer yé,' says she. '’Twas fer the girl.' But just the same, lad, l've always knowed how much I owed Mother Martin.”
Lighthouse Tom smoked a long time, and I was silent. At length he puffed out a great blue cloud. “Ye see the way it is,” said he. “Ye can never pass jedgment on man nor woman. ”

“ She knowed Old Pedro and all about Big Joe and all about the weddin' that was to come off on Sunday. She said as much, and she heard my yarn out. When I had done she went and locked the front door.
“'This dump,' says she, 'is closed down fer to-night. Now hark to what I tell ye, Lighthouse Tom. Ye will get no marriage license to-morrow nor the next day. I'm in command here, and ye will sail under my orders or I'll know the reason why. Mind that! I'll stow ye away here so that no one will find ye and we'll see what is to-come out of this. Ye've got yer courtin' to do now. ”

“ Yes, lad, I was one of the bearers, and there is no man had better reason to do that turn for Mother Martin. The time was when me heart was like black pizen ag'in her, and I had cause fer that, too. But things come different.”
We drank our liquor and Lighthouse Tom began amusing himself with the parrot, while I fidgeted. Finally, “Tell me,” I said. “What was it happened to you and Mother Martin?”
He grinned as he said: “You always want a yarn. I've laughed many a time watchin' ye pump the fishermen. ”

“ At the end of it, Mother Martin come to me. 'Twas in the arternoon.
“'Ye can slip out now,' says she, 'and get the marriage license. See to it that ye go uptown by way of the back streets. The lass is of age, but that wont do ye any good if Old Pedro or Big Joe gets wind of ye. So if ye've sense in that thick head of yours ye'll steer a roundabout course and keep a sharp lookout. And don't come back here till after dark. I know a preacher man will tie the knot. ”

“ And Annette was not like she had been when I took her in tow down East Street. No, sir. When a woman has the helm, she likes to hold it and she did sort of like to hold me to my course—that's sure. Ye see Mother Martin was always talkin' with her in Portugee, and 'twas one man ag'in two women. I had the worst of it. A good thing too, fer if it had not been so, if we had not run afoul of Mother Martin, lad, ye see I'd have had me own way. And a sailor is a sailor. ”

“ Then he stood us up and went to work. And, lad, while we two was standing alongside of one another, and he was making all fast, Annette spoke her first English. He asked her the question about signing the articles with me. And she says, 'Yes,' right back at him. Ye see, old Mother Martin had drilled that into her. And women catches onto such things mighty handy.
“Well, Old Pedro and Big Joe and the gang of them did not come. It turned out afterwards how they lost their bearings there at the landing place. They never run acrost us that night. ”

“ I could not tell ye why it was or how; but I stepped over Big Joe's hulk, and I took her by the hand. 'Come on, lass,' I says.
“And she slipped her hand in mine. We went away. We passed through the pack of them on the sidewalk, and they give us leeway as we come. We headed down East Street. I was not thinking of anything, only that I had her now, in tow. We just walked away together. never so much as wondered about Old Pedro. ”

“ I am some s1ze of a man, lad, but even in them days when I was a bully boy and my back was straighter than it is now, I was a kid beside Big Joe. Bows on, he come; his face was black with coal dust and the whites of his eyes was rollin'. He never said a word, but his big fists was swingin' alongside of him as he bore down on me. ”

“ I kissed her again; and then we went together down the main gangway. All sorts of men was there, but mostly drunks and other old derelicts. The preacher seen us comin' and he said something to them, I don't remember what; but he hove to in his talk. ”

“ I had it in my mind to let go of a dollar or two tanking up, and to hold to the rest fer to pay me fine. Fill up again, lad. 'Tis a windy yarn. We'll be sighting the Missus pretty quick.
“I was taking my second drink, down on East Street, when some one started a fight in the place that I was in. I had no wish to mix in anybody else's anybody fun with me own waiting fer me down the line. So I slipped my cable as soon as the fists began to fly. I wasn't really hot enough with whisky fer to do things up ship-shape, so I took me bearings like, on the edge of the sidewalk. ”