s, and in
grim silence. He talked with ardour, despised and irrefutable. His
picturesque and filthy loquacity flowed like a troubled stream from a
poisoned source. His beady little eyes danced, glancing right and left,
ever on the watch for the approach of an officer. Sometimes Mr. Baker
going forward to take a look at the head sheets would roll with his
uncouth gait through the sudden stillness of the men; or Mr. Creighton
limped along, smooth-faced, youthful, and more stern than ever, piercing
our short silence with a keen glance of his clear eyes. Behind his back
Donkin would begin again darting stealthy, sidelong looks.--"'Ere's one
of 'em. Some of yer 'as made 'im fast that day. Much thanks yer got for
it. Ain't 'ee a-drivin' yer wusse'n ever?... Let 'im slip overboard....
Vy not? It would 'ave been less trouble. Vy not?" He advanced
confidentially, backed away with great effect; he whispered, he
screamed, waved his miserable arms no thicker than pipe-stems--stretched
his lean neck--spluttered squinted. In the pauses of his impassioned
orations the wind sighed quietly aloft, the calm sea unheeded murmured
in a warning whisper along the ship's side. We abominated the creature
and could not deny the luminous truth of his contentions. It was all so
obvious. We were indubitably good men; our deserts were great and our
pay small. Through our exertions we had saved the ship and the skipper
would get the credit of it. What had he done? we wanted to know. Donkin
asked:--"What 'ee could do without hus?" and we could not answer. We were
oppressed by the injustice of the world, surprised to perceive how long
we had lived under its burden without realising our unfortunate state,
annoyed by the uneasy suspicion of our undiscerning stupidity. Donkin
assured us it was all our "good 'eartedness," but we would not be
consoled by such shallow sophistry. We were men enough to courageously
admit to ourselves our intellectual shortcomings; though from that time
we refrained from kicking him, tweaking his nose, or from accidentally
knocking him about, which last, after we had weathered the Cape, had
been rather a popular amusement. Davis ceased to talk at him provokingly
about black eyes and flattened noses. Charley, much subdued since the
gale, did not jeer at him. Knowles deferentially and with a crafty air
propounded questions such as:--"Could we all have the same grub as the
mates? Could we all stop ashore till we got it? What would b