Plays of William E. Henley and R.L. Stevenson Part 39

GAUNT. My name is John Gaunt. Who are you, my man, and what's your business?

PEW. Here's the facks, so help me. A lovely female in this house was Christian enough to pity the poor blind; and lo and belold! who should she turn out to be but my old commander's daughter! 'My dear,' says I to her, 'I was the Admiral's own particular bo'sun.'-'La, sailor,' she says to me, 'how glad he'll be to see you!'-'Ah,' says I, 'won't he just-that's all.'-'I'll go and fetch him,' she says; 'you make yourself at 'ome.' And off she went; and, Commander, here I am.

GAUNT (_sitting down_). Well?

PEW. Well, Cap'n?

GAUNT. What do you want?

PEW. Well, Admiral, in a general way, what I want in a manner of speaking is money and rum. (_A pause_.)

GAUNT. David Pew, I have known you a long time.

PEW. And so you have; aboard the old _Arethusa_; and you don't seem that cheered up as I'd looked for, with an old s.h.i.+pmate dropping in, one as has been seeking you two years and more-and blind at that. Don't you remember the old chantie?-

'Time for us to go, Time for us to go, And when we'd clapped the hatches on, 'Twas time for us to go.

What a note you had to sing, what a swaller for a pannikin of rum, and what a fist for the s.h.i.+ners! Ah, Cap'n, they didn't call you Admiral Guinea for nothing. I can see that old sea-chest of yours-her with the bra.s.s bands, where you kept your gold dust and doubloons: you know!-I can see her as well this minute as though you and me was still at it playing put on the lid of her . . . You don't say nothing, Cap'n? . . . Well, here it is: I want money and I want rum. You don't know what it is to want rum, you don't: it gets to that p'int, that you would kill a 'ole s.h.i.+p's company for just one guttle of it. What? Admiral Guinea, my old Commander, go back on poor old Pew? and him high and dry? [Not you!

When we had words over the negro la.s.s at Lagos, what did you do? fair dealings was your word: fair as between man and man; and we had it out with p'int and edge on Lagos sands. And you're not going back on your word to me, now I'm old and blind? No, no! belay that, I say. Give me the old motto: Fair dealings, as between man and man.]

GAUNT. David Pew, it were better for you that you were sunk in fifty fathom. I know your life; and first and last, it is one broadside of wickedness. You were a porter in a school, and beat a boy to death; you ran for it, turned slaver, and s.h.i.+pped with me, a green hand. Ay, that was the craft for you: that was the right craft, and I was the right captain; there was none worse that sailed to Guinea. Well, what came of that? In five years' time you made yourself the terror and abhorrence of your messmates. The worst hands detested you; your captain-that was me, John Gaunt, the chief of sinners-cast you out for a Jonah. [Who was it stabbed the Portuguese and made off inland with his miserable wife? Who, raging drunk on rum, clapped fire to the barac.o.o.ns and burned the poor soulless creatures in their chains?] Ay, you were a scandal to the Guinea coast, from Lagos down to Calabar? and when at last I sent you ash.o.r.e, a marooned man-your s.h.i.+pmates, devils as they were, cheering and rejoicing to be quit of you-by heaven, it was a ton's weight off the brig!

PEW. Cap'n Gaunt, Cap'n Gaunt, these are ugly words.

GAUNT. What next? You s.h.i.+pped with Flint the Pirate. What you did then I know not; the deep seas have kept the secret: kept it, ay, and will keep against the Great Day. G.o.d smote you with blindness, but you heeded not the sign. That was His last mercy; look for no more. To your knees, man, and repent! Pray for a new heart; flush out your sins with tears; flee while you may from the terrors of the wrath to come.

PEW. Now, I want this clear: Do I understand that you're going back on me, and you'll see me d.a.m.ned first?

GAUNT. Of me you shall have neither money nor strong drink: not a guinea to spend in riot; not a drop to fire your heart with devilry.

PEW. Cap'n, do you think it wise to quarrel with me? I put it to you now, Cap'n, fairly, as between man and man-do you think it wise?

GAUNT. I fear nothing. My feet are on the Rock. Begone! (_He opens the Bible and begins to read_.)

PEW (_after a pause_). Well, Cap'n, you know best, no doubt; and David Pew's about the last man, though I says it, to up and thwart an old Commander. You've been 'ard on David Pew, Cap'n: 'ard on the poor blind; but you'll live to regret it-ah, my Christian friend, you'll live to eat them words up. But there's no malice here: that ain't Pew's way; here's a sailor's hand upon it . . . You don't say nothing? (GAUNT _turns a page_.) Ah, reading, was you? Reading, by thunder! Well, here's my respecks (_singing_)-

'Time for us to go, Time for us to go, When the money's out, and the liquor's done, Why, it's time for us to go.

(_He goes tapping up to door_, _turns on the threshold_, _and listens_.

GAUNT _turns a page_. PEW, _with a grimace_, _strikes his hand upon the pocket with the keys_, _and goes_.)

DROP.

ACT II.

_The Stage represents the parlour of the_ '_Admiral Benbow_' _inn_.

_Fire-place_, _R._, _with high-backed settles on each side_; _in front of these_, _and facing the audience_, _R._, _a small table laid with a cloth_. _Tables_, _L._, _with gla.s.ses_, _pipes_, _etc._ _Broadside ballads on the wall_. _Outer door of inn_, _with the half-door in L._, _corner back_; _door_, _R._, _beyond the fire-place_; _window with red half-curtains_; _spittons_; _candles on both the front tables_; _night without_.

SCENE I

PEW; afterwards MRS. DRAKE, out and in

PEW (_entering_). Kind Christian friends-(_listening; then dropping the whine_.) Hey? n.o.body! Hey? A grog-shop not two cable-lengths from the Admiral's back-door, and the Admiral not there? I never knew a seaman brought so low: he ain't but the bones of the man he used to be. Bear away for the New Jerusalem, and this is what you run aground on, is it?

Good again; but it ain't Pew's way; Pew's way is rum.-Sanded floor. Rum is his word, and rum his motion.-Settle-chimbley-settle again-spittoon-table rigged for supper. Table-gla.s.s. (_Drinks heeltap_.) Brandy and water; and not enough of it to wet your eye; d.a.m.n all greediness, I say. Pot (_drinks_), small beer-a drink that I ab'or like bilge! What I want is rum. (_Calling_, _and rapping with stick on table_.) Halloa, there! House, ahoy!

MRS. DRAKE (_without_). Coming, sir, coming. (_She enters_, _R._) What can I do-? (_Seeing_ PEW.) Well I never did! Now, beggar-man, what's for you?

[PEW. Rum, ma'am, rum; and a bit o' supper.

MRS. DRAKE. And a bed to follow, I shouldn't wonder!

PEW. _And_ a bed to follow: _if_ you please.]

MRS. DRAKE. This is the '_Admiral Benbow_,' a respectable house, and receives none but decent company; and I'll ask you to go somewhere else, for I don't like the looks of you.

PEW. Turn me away? Why, Lord love you, I'm David Pew-old David Pew-him as was Benbow's own particular c.o.x'n. You wouldn't turn away old Pew from the sign of his late commander's 'ed? Ah, my British female, you'd have used me different if you'd seen me in the fight! [There laid old Benbow, both his legs shot off, in a basket, and the blessed spy-gla.s.s at his eye to that same hour: a picter, ma'am, of naval daring: when a round shot come, and took and knocked a bucketful of s.h.i.+vers right into my poor daylights. 'Damme,' says the Admiral, 'is that old Pew, _my_ old Pew?'

he says.-'It's old Pew, sir,' says the first lootenant, 'worse luck,' he says.-'Then damme,' says Admiral Benbow, 'if that's how they serve a lion-'arted seaman, damme if I care to live,' he says; and, ma'am, he laid down his spy-gla.s.s.]

MRS. DRAKE. Blind man, I don't fancy you, and that's the truth; and I'll thank you to take yourself off.

PEW. Thirty years have I fought for country and king, and now in my blind old age I'm to be sent packing from a measly public-'ouse? Mark ye, ma'am, if I go, you take the consequences. Is this a inn? Or haint it? If it is a inn, then by act of parleyment, I'm free to sling my 'ammick. Don't you forget: this is a act of parleyment job, this is.

You look out.

MRS. DRAKE. Why, what's to do with the man and his acts of parliament?

I don't want to fly in the face of an act of parliament, not I. If what you say is true-

PEW. True? If there's anything truer than a act of parleyment-Ah! you ask the beak. True? I've that in my 'art as makes me wish it wasn't.

MRS. DRAKE. I don't like to risk it. I don't like your looks, and you're more sea-lawyer than seaman to my mind. But I'll tell you what: if you can pay, you can stay. So there.

PEW. No c.h.i.n.k, no drink? That's your motto, is it? Well, that's sense.

Now, look here, ma'am, I ain't beautiful like you; but I'm good, and I'll give you warrant for it. Get me a noggin of rum, and suthin' to scoff, and a penny pipe, and a half-a-foot of baccy; and there's a guinea for the reckoning. There's plenty more in the locker; so bear a hand, and be smart. I don't like waiting; it ain't my way. (_Exit_ MRS. DRAKE, _R._ PEW _sits at the table_, _R._ _The settle conceals him from all the upper part of the stage_.)

MRS. DRAKE (_re-entering_). Here's the rum, sailor.

PEW (_drinks_). Ah, rum! That's my sheet-anchor: rum and the blessed Gospel. Don't you forget that, ma'am: rum and the Gospel is old Pew's sheet-anchor. You can take for another while you're about it; and, I say, short reckonings make long friends, hey? Where's my change?

MRS. DRAKE. I'm counting it now. There, there it is, and thank you for your custom. (_She goes out_, _R._)

PEW (_calling after her_). Don't thank me, ma'am; thank the act of parleyment! Rum, fourpence; two penny pieces and a Willi'm-and-Mary tizzy makes a s.h.i.+lling; and a spade half-guinea is eleven and six (_re-enter_ MRS. DRAKE _with supper_, _pipe_, _etc._); and a blessed majesty George the First crown-piece makes sixteen and six; and two s.h.i.+lling bits is eighteen and six; and a new half-crown makes-no it don't! O, no! Old Pew's too smart a hand to be bammed with a soft half-tusheroon.

MRS. DRAKE (_changing piece_). I'm sure I didn't know it, sailor.