Backstay

“ So having nothing left on deck, we went into the cabin on a pretence of seeing how Moll fared, and Jack sneaked away an old jacket and I a stone bottle, and with these we stopped the sluice hole the best we could.
By the time we had made a job of this 'twas quite dark, and having nothing more to do but to await the end, we stood side by side, too dejected to speak for some time, thinking of the cruelty of fate which rescued us from one evil only to plunge us in a worse. ”

“ Come, let us go on deck."
"What! and leave them alone?"
"I will send a man down to see that they don't get into mischief."
"But I don't like this turn of affairs," stammered Arnold Baxter. He was half afraid the captain was going back on him.
"It's all right; come," answered the owner of the Peacock; and a moment later both men quitted the cabin.
CHAPTER XII. A DINNER OF IMPORTANCE. "The captain isn't such a bad fellow, after all," observed Sam, when the three Rovers were left to themselves.
"He certainly isn't a brute," answered Dick. "But about being bad, that's another story." ”

“ There’s not a soul up here yet but ourselves; so you’ll doubtless be inflicted with another letter in a day or two. I must go and read to Bertie. He is swinging in a hammock on the front veranda in the sun and does seem so much better. The mornings and nights are cold, but for several hours during the day the sun is heavenly, and one feels so close to it up here. You, too, are a lone figure, not on a mountain but on a moor, and dreadfully ennuyée, I fear ”

“ Fortescue, though I never knew any good come from havin' owners on board, but his son and heir gives me the hump. It's bad enough havin' a cargo of horses, and worse havin' these pit scrapin's to tend 'em, but Mr. Bertie makes me tired. If he gets into trouble with these Texans for'ard, the old man can read him out of it with hymns and the Pilgrim's Progress for all I care. I've been in the West, and I know he can't bull-doze this crowd. Oh, he makes me weary!'
When there is trouble in a ship, there's trouble for all hands. ”

“ A very portly old gentleman took possession of the berth, and he had just turned himself over, when down he came with a most terrible crash, berth and all falling on a very small man, who was in the berth below him, and away they rolled into the ladies' cabin. ”

“ You lie disconsolate in your berth, only desiring to be let alone to die; and then, if you are told, as you always are, that "you mustn't give way," that "you must rouse yourself" and come on deck, you will appreciate the value of simple attire. With every thing in your berth dizzily swinging backwards and forwards, your bonnet, your cloak, your tippet, your gloves, all present so many discouraging impossibilities ”

“ Feeling himself on the point of utter exhaustion, he nevertheless continued back-paddling, and steering and working inward, till he had succeeded in getting three files of logs between himself and the outer edge. Then, almost blind and with the blood roaring so loud in his ears that he could hardly hear the trampling of the falls, he hung on his log, praying that strength might flow back speedily into his veins and nerves. ”

“ With a view to lessening the painful effect of the constant jarring and shaking motion, a swinging bed was speedily improvised in the middle of the car, and here, surrounded by his sorrowing companions, lay Grit, enduring in silence the pains that his pale, sadly troubled face so keenly expressed. ”

“ But your chair asked me 'how long that fool was going to stay.' I replied as you heard. Pray don't move—I intend to change that chair for one more accustomed to polite society. To continue: I perfected myself in the language, and it was awfully jolly at first. Whenever I went by train, I heard not only all the engines said, but what every blessed carriage thought, that joined in the conversation. If you chaps only knew what rot those whistles can get off! And as for the brakes, they can beat any mule driver in cursing. ”

“ And upon reaching the village, I found this last statement fully verified; for the street lay empty and silent under the moon. Not a light showed in any of the houses on either side. All was darkness and silence.
And rendered even more uneasy by this ominous silence than by the open clamour of a few hours previous, I passed hastily up the street to where the moonlight fell upon a group of scarlet-coated figures gathered round the framework of the stocks.
As I approached the sergeant detached himself from the group and came to meet me. ”

“ The place was intensely dark, and even after my eyes became accustomed to the blackness, I could see little or nothing. On all sides not a light was to be seen, and overhead only a single streak of brightness around the hatch was visible. I was indeed a prisoner, and must make the best of it.
I crawled about the hold for quite a while, feeling everywhere for a place to escape, but none came to hand. Meanwhile I heard the creaking of the blocks as the sails were being hoisted, and the tramp of the sailors as they hurried around obeying orders. ”

“ To carry our saddles and valises to the stables, and prepare the horses for the road, was the work of an instant. The darkness in the stables was very great, and it was only by the light from our cigars that we could distinguish our steeds. ”

“ Presently, therefore, I desisted from my inspection, and seating myself upon the locker, I gave myself up to my reflections. The light grew feebler and feebler in the cabin, until at length it died out altogether, and I was left in the darkness to [218] speculate upon the strange adversities of fortune. As for the steward’s threat of the galleys, I swore desperately to myself that such a fate should not be mine, though as yet I could see no glimmer of light as to how I was to accomplish my escape. ”

“ Where they were going Bertie had not the faintest notion; he felt pretty certain that he was not really being taken home. His head was in a whirl; he was in such awe of his companion that he scarcely dared to move, far less to use his eyes in an endeavour to see where they were going. The cab almost immediately turned into a busy thoroughfare. The hubbub of the traffic and the confusion of the crowded streets completed the lad's bewilderment, making it seem to him as though they were journeying through pandemonium. ”

“ In the City, owing to several blocks, they almost lost it; and when they got into more fashionable regions amongst the less-frequented streets and quiet squares of the West End, matters were still worse, but at length, turning suddenly round a corner, they saw the identical cab standing before a large, gloomy-looking house, and its occupant speaking hurriedly to another gentleman on the steps. Bertie sprang out and ran up, flushed, breathless, and excited.
"If you please, sir, you dropped this in Mincing Lane," he said, "and I followed you as quickly as ever I could." ”

“ But presently, reflecting on the dangers we had escaped, and considering how we might yet be encompassed by those who had given us chase on the sands—for, if one parcel of wretches came hither by accident, why might not the rest?—it came into my head that if we could descend and possess ourselves of the empty boat while the men were yet sleeping, we might come to the other side of the river, and so secure ourselves from pursuit. ”

“ The men who had turned from their evil ways, were allowed to sit in a room used for an adult-school, in order that they might not be disturbed in reading and meditation, by those who still remained in folly, and would be disposed to deride them; and this man, on account of his infirmity, was allowed likewise to retire alone to one of the caves in the base of the island, to meditate and pray. Though he had lost an arm, he was not idle, but employed himself in carrying wood for fuel, after it was landed from the boat. ”

“ He had set the lantern upon the floor at his feet and in his left hand carried my coarse night fare. Without troubling to raise the light so as to satisfy himself as to my condition, he took two steps into the cabin and stooped to place the food upon the floor. But that was his undoing; for hastily changing my original intention, as the rogue bent down I swung the boot aloft, and with all the strength of arm and body brought down the heavy heel upon his head. ”

“ It is as if an invisible hand had been stealthily uplifted from the bottom to catch hold of her keel as it glides through the water.
More than any other event does stranding bring to the sailor a sense of utter and dismal failure. There are strandings and strandings, but I am safe to say that 90 per cent. of them are occasions in which a sailor, without dishonour, may well wish himself dead; and I have no doubt that of those who had the experience of their ship taking the ground, 90 per cent. ”

“ And in another second the enraptured prince found himself lying on her plate!
'Isn't he lovely?' she cried.
'Not bad,' said Bertie; 'give us a bit—I got him for you, you know.'
'Give you a bit!' she cried, with the keenest horror and disgust. 'Bertie! you don't really think I wanted him to—to eat.'
'Oh, the paint doesn't matter,' he said; 'I've eaten lots of them.'
'You really are too horrid,' she said; 'all you think about is eating things. I can't bear greedy boys. ”

“ If anything could grind us young again, it would be the wheels of a post-chaise. The only monotonous sight is the perpetual up-and-down movement of the postilion, who, we wish exceedingly, could take a chair. ”

“ You can detect their impatience by watching the sway of the mastheads against the motionless, the soulless gravity of mortar and stones. As you pass alongside each hopeless prisoner chained to the quay, the slight grinding noise of the wooden fenders makes a sound of angry muttering. ”

“ With hardly a second thought, I engaged him for the following afternoon.
I mounted at the stables, with just a passing qualm, perhaps, while my stirrup-leathers were being adjusted, and a little awkwardness in taking up my reins, which were more twisted than I could have wished; however, at length, I found myself embarked on the stream of traffic on the back of the chestnut—whose name, by the way, was Brutus. ”

“ Upon my word, I didn’t know what I was doing.”
“It—it isn’t you only,” gasped Berty. “It is everybody. Please excuse me, but I am tired and worried this morning. I’ve had some sick friends on our street—that’s what I came to see you about. [222] The autumn is starting in so dry that we are almost choked with dust. River Street hasn’t been watered for a week.” ”

“ Barton sprung into the main-rigging, and ran up aloft to take a view; when he descended, the admiral, whom some rumour had reached, was on deck.
"What dost make them out to be, Robert?"
"Three full-rigged ships, standing straight towards us; coming down with a fine breeze, and everything set aloft that will catch it." ”

“ I had, the day before this expedition, put on a pair of new shoes, which, not having got fitted to my feet, caused blisters upon them as large as cents.
The deserters were, all the time we were in pursuit of them, within three miles of the place where they left us. The man whom they forced off with them, made his escape from them soon after and returned; he told me that they saw us on our return; that they were then in Haverstraw mountan, not more than a quarter of a mile from us. Thus I had another useless and fatigueing expedition for nothing. ”

“ A'tim answered nothing as they journeyed down along the steep, heavily wooded river bank, its soft shale sides slid into mighty terraces, but in his heart was a murder thought, as he eyed the great bulk of his Brother Outcast, that he would also eat him. ”

“ Escape was now cut off. I had no sooner stepped outside the stable than I fled back in such a haste of fear that I nearly fell into the arms of the fugitive, who was obediently following. For the soldiers had arrived [Pg 93] at last, and I could see them leading their weary horses across the yard in the very direction of this block of stables that we occupied.
“Up, up,” I whispered my companion, “into the manger, force the hay-trap and mount into the loft! Up, I say! Can’t you hear their feet upon the yard?” ”

“ That fury outside was the splendid, natural vigor of the elements, a revel in which he would willingly have joined. It was the tense, in some way rigid, atmosphere of the cabin that dismayed him. It seemed as if that repulsive yellow figure in the bunk was tremendously holding this one little bubble of his surroundings, starkly stiff and resistant against the whole tumult of the earth ”

“ His colleagues dropped off, firing a parting shot; but the man whom Bertie had originally addressed kept steadily on, sticking close to his side. They crossed the bridge together. The sun was beginning to go home in the west, majestically enthroned in a bank of crimson clouds. ”

“ Take that to heart, Carstairs. God knows how much energy you've dissipated uselessly, in thoughts on other people, hopes and fears. Lord! I've been as happy as a bird all my life. That's true religion, Carstairs. I should like to have a talk with your guv'nor on that. He's a sound man, your guv'nor, but with a weakness for worrying over other people's troubles. ”

“ It isn’t like you in other things to be narrow.”
“Enter ye in at the strait gate,” began Joyce thoughtfully. “For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat; because strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” ”