Jack Harvey's Adventures Part 8

Captain Hamilton Haley having also come on deck, and it being now close on to five o'clock of this November morning, it was high time for the Brandt to get under way. Captain Haley motioned toward the forecastle.

"Get 'em out," he said curtly.

The mate walked briskly forward, and descended into the forecastle. The two seamen in the upper bunks, sleeping in their clothes, tumbled hastily out, at a word from the mate, and a shake of the shoulder. The men in the two lower bunks did not respond. Angrily raising one foot, shod in a heavy boot, Jim Adams administered several kicks to the slumberers. They stirred and groaned, and half awoke. Surveying them contemptuously for a moment, the mate pa.s.sed them by.

"I'll 'tend to you gentlemen later on, I reckon," he muttered. Jack Harvey, aroused by the stirring in the forecastle, had scrambled hastily out, and was on his feet when the mate approached. The latter grinned, showing two rows of strong, white teeth.

"Well done, sonny," he said. "Saved you'self gettin' invited, didn't you?

Just be lively, now, and scamper out on deck. Your mammy wants ter see you."

"All right," answered Harvey, and stooped for his shoes. To his surprise, he felt himself seized by the powerful hand of the mate, and jerked upright. The mate was still smiling, but there was a gleam in his eyes that there was no mistaking.

"See here, sonny," he said, "would you just mind bein' so kind as to call me 'mister,' when you speaks to me? I'm Mister Adams, if you please.

Would you just as lieves remember that?"

Jack Harvey was quick to perceive that this sneering politeness was no joke. He answered readily, "Certainly, Mr. Adams; I will, sir."

The mate grinned, approvingly.

"Get along," he said.

Pausing for a moment before the bunk in which Mr. Tom Edwards was still sleeping, the mate espied the black tailor-made coat which the owner had carefully folded and stowed in one corner before retiring. From that and the general appearance of the sleeper, it was evident Jim Adams had gathered an impression little favourable to the occupant of the bunk.

"Hmph!" he muttered. "Reckon he won't last long. Scroop's rung in a counter-jumper on Haley. Wait till Haley sees him."

His contempt for the garment, carefully folded, did not however, prevent his making a more critical inspection of it. Drawing it stealthily out of the bunk, the mate quickly ran through the pockets. The search disappointed him. There was a good linen handkerchief, which he appropriated; an empty wallet, which he restored to a pocket; and some papers, equally unprofitable. Tossing the coat back into the bunk, the mate seized the legs of the sleeper and swung them around over the edge of the bunk; which being accomplished, he unceremoniously spilled Mr. Tom Edwards out on the floor.

There was a gleam of triumph in his eyes as he did so; a consciousness that here, in these waters of the Chesapeake, among the dredging fleet, there existed a peculiar reversal of the general supremacy of the white over the black race; a reversal growing out of the brutality of many of the captains, and the method of s.h.i.+pping men and holding them prisoners, to work or perish; in the course of which, captains so disposed had found that there was none so eager to brow-beat and bully a crew of recalcitrant whites as a certain type of coloured mates.

Tom Edwards, awakened thus roughly, opened his eyes wide in astonishment; then his face reddened with indignation as he saw the figure of the mate bending over him.

"Would you just as lieve 'blige me by gettin' your coat on an' stepping out on deck?" asked the mate, with mock politeness.

Tom Edwards arose to his feet, somewhat shaky, and glared at the spokesman.

"I want to see the captain of this vessel," he said. "You fellows have made a mistake in your man, this time. You'd better be careful."

"Yes, sir, I'm very, unusual careful, mister," responded the mate, grinning at the picture presented by the unfortunate Mr. Tom Edwards, unsteady on his legs with the slight rolling of the vessel, but striving to a.s.sert his dignity. "Jes' please to hustle out on deck, now, an'

you'll see the cap'n all right. He's waiting for you to eat breakfas'

with him, in the cabin."

Tom Edwards, burning with wrath, hurriedly adjusted his crumpled collar and tie, put on his shoes and coat, and hastened on deck. Glancing forward, he espied Harvey engaged at work with the crew.

"Here, Harvey," he cried, "come on. I'll set you right, and myself, too, at the same time. I'll see if there's any law in Maryland that will punish an outrage like this."

Somewhat doubtfully, Jack Harvey followed him. Jim Adams, leering as though he knew what would be the result, did not stop him. The two seamen, also, paused in their work, and stood watching the unusual event.

Captain Hamilton Haley, standing expectantly near the wheel, eyed the approaching Mr. Edwards with cold unconcern. Perhaps he had met similar situations before.

Under certain conditions, and amid the proper surroundings, Mr. Thomas Edwards might readily have made a convincing impression and commanded respect; but the situation was unfavourable. His very respectable garments, in their tumbled and tom disarrangement, his legs unsteady, from recent experiences and from weakness, his face pale with the evidence of approaching sea-sickness, all conspired to defeat his attempt at dignity. Yet he was determined.

"Captain," he said, stepping close to the stolid figure by the wheel, "you have made a bad mistake in getting me aboard here. I was drugged and s.h.i.+pped without my knowing it. I am a travelling man, and connected with a big business house in Boston. If you don't set me ash.o.r.e at once, you'll get yourself into more kinds of trouble than you ever dreamed of.

I'm a man-of-the-world, and I can let this pa.s.s for a good joke among the boys on the road, if it stops right here. But if you carry it any farther, I warn you it will be at your peril. It's a serious thing, this man-stealing."

Captain Hamilton Haley, fortifying himself with a piece of tobacco, eyed Mr. Thomas Edwards sullenly. Then he clenched a huge fist and replied.

"I've seen 'em like you before," he said. "They was all real gentlemen, same as you be, when they come aboard, and most of 'em owned up to bein'

pickpockets and tramps when they and I got acquainted. I guess you're no great gentleman. When a man goes and signs a contract with me, I makes him live up to it. You've gone and signed with me, and now you get for'ard and bear a hand at that winch."

"That's an outrageous lie!" cried Tom Edwards, shaking his fist in turn at Captain Haley. "I never signed a paper in my life, to s.h.i.+p with you or anybody else. If they've got my signature, it's forged."

"Look here, you," answered Haley, advancing a step, "don't you go an'

tell me as how I lie, young feller. Ain't I seen the contract with my own eyes? Didn't Scroop show it, along with the contract of that other young chap there? Don't you go telling me I ain't doin' things legal like. I'll show you some Chesapeake Bay law."

"Well, Chesapeake Bay law is the same as the law for the rest of Maryland, I reckon," exclaimed Tom Edwards hotly. "You've got no law on your side. I've got the law with me, and I'll proceed against you. You'll find Chesapeake Bay law and State law is much the same when you get into court."

For a moment something like a grin overspread the dull features of Captain Hamilton Haley. Then he raised his arm, advanced another step forward, and shook his fist in the other's face.

"I reckon you ain't had no experience with Chesapeake Bay law," he cried angrily. "But it's easy to larn, and it don't take no books to teach it.

Do you see that fist?"

He brandished his huge, red bunch of knuckles in Tom Edwards's face.

"Do you see that fist?" he cried again, his own face growing more fiery.

"That's the law of the Bay. That's the law of the dredging fleet. There ain't no other. Any man that goes against that law, gets it laid down to him good and hard. There it is, and you gets your first lesson."

With a single blow of his arm, planting the aforesaid digest and epitome of dredging law full in the face of Tom Edwards, he stretched him sprawling on the deck, dazed and terrified.

Captain Hamilton Haley, having thus successfully demonstrated the might and majesty of dredging-fleet law, according to his own interpretation of its terms, proceeded now to expound it further. His anger had increased with his act of violence, and the veins in his neck and on his forehead stood out, swollen.

"See here you, young fellow," he cried, advancing toward Harvey, threateningly, "don't you go starting out uppish, too. Don't you begin sea-lawyerin' with me. I know the law. There it is, and I hand it out when needed. There ain't no other law among the dredgers that I knows of, from Plum Point down to the Rappahannock. Some of 'em larns it quick, and some of 'em larns it slow; and them as larns it quickest gets it lightest. Now what have you got to say?"

Jack Harvey, thus hopelessly confronted, thought-and thought quickly.

"I signed for a cruise, all right," he replied, returning the infuriated captain's gaze steadily, "and I'm ready to go to work."

"Then you get for'ard, lively now, and grab hold of that winch. You loafers get back and yank that anchor up. This ain't a town meetin'. Get them men to work again, mate. Take him along, too."

The captain pointed, in turn, to Harvey, to the sailors who had edged their way aft, to watch proceedings, and to the unfortunate Mr. Edwards, who had arisen from the deck and stood, a sorry, woe-begone object, unable physically to offer further resistance.

"Shake things up now, Jim Adams, shake 'em up," urged Haley. "Here we are losing good wind over a lot of tramps that costs ten dollars apiece to get here, and little good after we've got 'em. How's a man goin' to make his livin' dredging, when he pays high for men an' gets nothin' to show for his money? I'd like to get that fellow, Jenkins, out here once, himself. I'd show him this isn't a business for school-boys and counter-jumpers. I'd get ten dollars' worth of work out of him, and a good many more ten dollars' worth that he's got out of me, or he'd know the reason why."

Thus relieving his mind of his own troubles, Captain Hamilton Haley, in a state of highly virtuous indignation, watched with approval the actions of the mate. The latter, seizing Tom Edwards, hurried him forward unceremoniously and bade him take hold at the handle of the winch and help raise the anchor. Tom Edwards weakly grasped the handle, as directed, in company with one of the sailors. Jack Harvey and the other seaman worked at the opposite handle.

Two men could have done the job easily, and the four made quick work of it. By the time the anchor chain was hove short, the mate and Haley had got the main-sail up. One of the seamen left the windla.s.s and set one of the jibs; the anchor was brought aboard and stowed. The bug-eye, Brandt, began to swing off from its mooring, as the wind caught the jib, which was held up to windward. Easily the craft spun 'round, going before the wind out of the harbour and running across the bay, headed for the Eastern sh.o.r.e.