The cabin-boy Ransome (from whom I had first heard of these atrocities)came in at times from the round-house,where he berthed and served,now nursing a bruised limb in silent agony,now raving against the cruelty of Mr.Shuan.It made my heart bleed;but the men had a great respect for the chief mate,who was,as they said,"the only seaman of the whole jing-bang,and none such a bad man when he was sober."Indeed,I found there was a strange peculiarity about our two mates:that Mr.Riach was sullen,unkind,and harsh when he was sober,and Mr.Shuan would not hurt a fly except when he was drinking.I asked about the captain;but I was told drink made no difference upon that man of iron.
I did my best in the small time allowed me to make some thing like a man,or rather I should say something like a boy,of the poor creature,Ransome.But his mind was scarce truly human.He could remember nothing of the time before he came to sea;only that his father had made clocks,and had a starling in the parlour,which could whistle "The North Countrie;"all else had been blotted out in these years of hardship and cruelties.He had a strange notion of the dry land,picked up from sailor's stories:that it was a place where lads were put to some kind of slavery called a trade,and where apprentices were continually lashed and clapped into foul prisons.In a town,he thought every second person a decoy,and every third house a place in which seamen would be drugged and murdered.To be sure,I would tell him how kindly I had myself been used upon that dry land he was so much afraid of,and how well fed and carefully taught both by my friends and my parents:and if he had been recently hurt,he would weep bitterly and swear to run away;but if he was in his usual crackbrain humour,or (still more)if he had had a glass of spirits in the roundhouse,he would deride the notion.
It was Mr.Riach (Heaven forgive him!)who gave the boy drink;and it was,doubtless,kindly meant;but besides that it was ruin to his health,it was the pitifullest thing in life to see this unhappy,unfriended creature staggering,and dancing,and talking he knew not what.Some of the men laughed,but not all;others would grow as black as thunder (thinking,perhaps,of their own childhood or their own children)and bid him stop that nonsense,and think what he was doing.As for me,I felt ashamed to look at him,and the poor child still comes about me in my dreams.
All this time,you should know,the Covenant was meeting continual head-winds and tumbling up and down against head-seas,so that the scuttle was almost constantly shut,and the forecastle lighted only by a swinging lantern on a beam.There was constant labour for all hands;the sails had to be made and shortened every hour;the strain told on the men's temper;there was a growl of quarrelling all day,long from berth to berth;and as I was never allowed to set my foot on deck,you can picture to yourselves how weary of my life I grew to be,and how impatient for a change.
And a change I was to get,as you shall hear;but I must first tell of a conversation I had with Mr.Riach,which put a little heart in me to bear my troubles.Getting him in a favourable stage of drink (for indeed he never looked near me when he was sober),I pledged him to secrecy,and told him my whole story.
He declared it was like a ballad;that he would do his best to help me;that I should have paper,pen,and ink,and write one line to Mr.Campbell and another to Mr.Rankeillor;and that if Ihad told the truth,ten to one he would be able (with their help)to pull me through and set me in my rights.
"And in the meantime,"says he,"keep your heart up.You're not the only one,I'll tell you that.There's many a man hoeing tobacco over-seas that should be mounting his horse at his own door at home;many and many!And life is all a variorum,at the best.Look at me:I'm a laird's son and more than half a doctor,and here I am,man-Jack to Hoseason!"I thought it would be civil to ask him for his story.
He whistled loud.
"Never had one,"said he."I like fun,that's all."And he skipped out of the forecastle.
[10]Stroke.
[11]Blow.