Blow The Man Down: A Romance Of The Coast Page 7

  VII ~ INTO THE MESS FROM EASTWARD

  Farewell to friends, farewell to foes, Farewell to dear relations. We're bound across the ocean blue-- Bound for the foreign nations. Then obey your bo's'n's call, Walk away with that cat-fall! And we'll think on those girls when we can no longer stay. And we'll think on those girls when we're far, far away. --Unmooring.

  For the first few moments, after being snatched up in that fashion, Mayohung from the dolphin-striker without motion, like a man paralyzed.He was astounded by the suddenness of this abduction. He was afraid tostruggle. Momentarily he expected that the fabric would let go and thathe would be rolled under the forefoot of the schooner. Then he began togrow faint from lack of breath; he was nearly garroted by his collar.Carefully he raised his hands and set them about a stay above his headand lifted himself so that he might ease his throat from the throttlinggrip of the collar. He dangled there over the water for some time,feeling that he had not strength enough, after his choking, to lifthimself into the chains or to swing to the foot-rope.

  He glanced up and saw the figurehead; it seemed to be simpering at himwith an irritating smile. There was something of bland triumph in thatgrin. In the upset of his feelings there was personal and provokingaggravation in the expression of the figurehead. He swore at it as if itwere something human. His anger helped him, gave him strength. He beganto swing himself, and at last was able to throw a foot over a stay.

  He rested for a time and then gave himself another hoist and was ableto get astride the bowsprit. He judged that they must be outside theheadland of Saturday Cove, because the breeze was stronger and the seagurgled and showed white threads of foam against the blunt bows. Hisstruggles had consumed more time than he had realized in the dazedcondition produced by his choking collar.

  He heard the popping of a motor-boat's engine far astern, and wascheered by the prompt conviction that pursuit was on. Therefore, he madehaste to get in touch with the _Polly's_ master. He scrambled inboardalong the bowsprit and fumbled his way aft over the piles of lumber,obliged to move slowly for fear of pitfalls, Once or twice he shouted,but he received no answer, He perceived three dim figures on thequarter-deck when he arrived there--three men. Captain Candage wasstamping to and fro.

  "Who in the devil's name are _you?_" bawled the old skipper. "Get off'mhere! This ain't a passenger-bo't."

  "I'll get off mighty sudden and be glad to," retorted Mayo.

  "Well, I'll be hackmetacked!" exploded Mr. Speed shoving his face overthe wheel. "It's--"

  "Shut up!" roared the master. "How comes it you're aboard here as astowaway?"

  "Don't talk foolishness," snapped Captain Mayo "Your old martingalespikes hooked me up. Heave to and let me off!"

  "Heave to it is!" echoed Oakum Otie, beginning to whirl the tiller.

  Captain Candage turned on his mate with the violence of a thunderclap."Gad swigger your pelt, who's giving off orders aboard here? Hold onyour course!"

  "But this is--"

  "Shut up!" It was a blast of vocal effort. "Hold your course!"

  "And _I_ say, heave to and let that motor-boat take me off," insistedMayo.

  Captain Candage leaned close enough to note the yacht skipper's uniformcoat. "Who do you think you're ordering around, you gilt-striped,monkey-doodle dandy?"

  "That motor-boat is coming after me."

  "Think you're of all that importance, hey? No, sir! It's a pack of 'emchasing me to make me go back into port and be sued and libeled andattached by cheap lawyers."

  "You ought to be seized and libeled! You had no business ratching out ofthat harbor in the dark."

  "Ought to have taken a rising vote of dudes, hey, to find out whether Ihad the right to h'ist my mudhook or not?"

  "I'm not here to argue. You can do that in court. I tell you to comeinto the wind and wait for that boat."

  "You'd better, Cap Candage," bleated Oakum Otie. "This is--"

  "Shut up! I'm running my own schooner, Mr. Speed."

  "But he is one of the--"

  "I don't care if he is one of the Apostles. I know my own business. Shutup! Hold her on her course!"

  He took two turns along the quarter-deck, squinting up into the night.

  "Look here, Candage, you and I are going to have a lot of trouble witheach other if you don't show some common sense. I must get back to myyacht."

  "Jump overboard and swim back. I ain't preventing. I didn't ask you onboard. You can leave when you get ready. But this schooner is bound forNew York, they're in a hurry for this lumber, and I ain't stopping atway stations!" He took another look at the weather, licked his thumb,and held it against the breeze. "Sou'west by sou', and let her run! Andshut up!" he commanded his mate.

  Mayo grabbed one of the yawl davits and sprang to the rail.

  "We're some bigger than a needle, but so long as the haystack staysthick enough I guess we needn't worry!" remarked Captain Candage,cocking his ear to listen to the motor-boat's exhaust.

  "Hoi-oi!" shouted Mayo into the night astern. He knew that men hearindistinctly over the noise of a gasoline-engine, but he had resolved tokeep shouting.

  "This way, men! This way with that boat!"

  "'Vast heaving on that howl!" commanded Candage.

  But Mayo persisted with all his might. His attention was confined whollyto his efforts, and he was not prepared for the sudden attack frombehind. The master of the _Polly_ seized Mayo's legs and yanked himbackward to the deck. The young man fell heavily, and his head thumpedthe planks with violence which flung him into insensibility.

  When he opened his eyes he looked up and saw a hanging-lamp that creakedon its gimbals as it swayed to the roll of the schooner. He was in the_Polly's_ cabin. Next he was conscious that he was unable to move. Hewas seated on the floor, his back against a stanchion, his hands lashedbehind him by bonds which confined him to the upright support. But themost uncomfortable feature of his predicament was a marlinespike whichwas stuck into his mouth like a bit provided for a fractious horse,and was secured by lashings behind his head. He was effectually gagged.Furthermore, the back of his head ached in most acute fashion. He rolledhis eyes about and discovered that he had a companion in misery. A verypretty young woman was seated on a camp-chair across the cabin. Her faceexpressed much sympathy.

  He gurgled a wordless appeal for help, and then perceived that she waslashed into her chair.

  "I wish I could take that awful thing out of your mouth, sir."

  He gave her a look which assured her that he shared in her desire.

  "My father has tied me into this chair. I tried to make him stop hisdreadful talk when the boats came and burned the lights. He put medown here and made a prisoner of me. It is terrible, all that has beenhappening. I can't understand! I hope you will not think too hard of myfather, sir. Honestly, he seems to be out of his right mind."

  He wanted to return some comforting reply to this wistful appeal, buthe could only roll his head against the stanchion and make inarticulatesounds.

  "He seemed to be very bitter when he brought you below. I could notmake him listen to reason. I have been thinking--and perhaps you're thegentleman who led the singing which made him so angry?"

  Mayo shook his head violently in protest at this suspicion.

  "I didn't mind," she assured him. "I knew it was only in fun." Shepondered for a few minutes. "Perhaps they wouldn't have teased one oftheir city girl friends in that way--but I suppose men must have a goodtime when they are away from home. Only--it has made it hard for me!"There were tears in her eyes.

  Mayo's face grew purple as he tried to speak past the restraining spikeand make her understand his sentiments on the subject of that serenade.

  "Don't try to talk, sir. I'm so sorry. It is shameful!"

  There was silence in the cabin after that for a long time. He looked upat the swinging lamp, his gaze wandered about the homely cabin. But hiseyes kept returning to he
r face. He could not use his tongue, and hetried to tell her by his glances, apologetic little starings, that hewas sorry for her in her grief. She met those glances with manifestembarrassment.

  After an absence which was prolonged to suit his own sour will in thematter, Captain Candage came stamping stormily down the companionway.He stood between his captives and glowered, first at one and then at theother.

  "Both of ye blaming me, I reckon, for what couldn't be helped."

  "Father, listen to me now, if you have any sense left in you," cried thegirl, with passion. "Take that horrible thing out of that gentleman'smouth."

  "It has come to a pretty pass in this world when an honest man can'tcarry on his own private business without having to tie up meddlers soas to have a little peace." He walked close to Mayo and shook a monitoryfinger under the young man's nose. "Now, what did ye come on board herefor, messing into my affairs?"

  The indignant captain put forth his best efforts to make suitableretort, but could only emit a series of "guggles."

  "And now on top of it all I am told by my mate, who never gets around todo anything that ought to be done till it's two days too late, thatyou are one of the Mayos! Why wasn't I informed? I might have madearrangements to show you some favors. I might have hove to and taken achance, considering who you was. And now it's too late. Everybody seemsto be ready to impose on me!"

  Again Mayo tried to speak.

  "Why don't you shut up that gobbling and talk sense?" shouted the irateskipper, with maddening disregard of the captive's predicament.

  "Father, are you completely crazy? You haven't taken that spike out ofhis mouth."

  "Expect a man to remember everything when he is all wrapped in his ownbusiness and everybody trying to meddle with it?" grumbled Candage. Hefumbled in his pocket and produced a knife. He slashed away the ropeyarn which lashed the marlinespike. "If you can talk sense I'll helpyou do it! I reckon you can holler all you want to now. Them dudes can'tfind their own mouths in a fog, much less this schooner. Now talk up!"

  Mayo worked his aching jaws and found his voice. "You know how Ihappened to get aboard, Captain Candage. I am skipper of the _Olenia_.Put back with me if you want to save trouble."

  "Not by a tin hoopus, sir! I ain't going about and tackle them reefs inthis fog. I've got open sea ahead, and I shall keep going!"

  Mayo was a sailor who knew that coast, and he admitted to himself thatCandage's stubbornness was justified.

  "I ain't responsible for your getting aboard here. I'll land you as soonas I can--and that covers the law, sir."

  During a prolonged silence the two men stared at each other.

  "At any rate, Captain Candage, I trust you will not consider that youhave a right to keep me tied up here any longer."

  "Now that there's a better understanding about who is boss aboard here,I don't know as I'm afraid to have you at large," admitted the skipper."I only warn you to remember your manners and don't forget that I'mcaptain."

  He flourished his clasp-knife and bent and cut the lashings. Then hestrode across the cabin and performed like service for his daughter.

  "I reckon I can afford to have _you_ loose, too, now that you can't tellme my business in front of a lot of skylarkers throwing kisses right andleft!"

  "Father! Oh, oh!" She put her hands to her face.

  Captain Candage seemed to be having some trouble in keeping up hisrole of a bucko shipmaster; he shifted his eyes from Mayo's scowl andsurveyed his daughter with uncertainty while he scratched his ear.

  "When a man ain't boss on his own schooner he might as well stop goingto sea," he muttered. "Some folks knows it's the truth, being in aposition to know, and others has to be showed!" He went stamping up thecompanionway into the night.

  Captain Mayo waited, for some minutes. The girl did not lift her head.

  "About that--What he said about--You understand! I know better!" hefaltered.

  "Thank you, sir," she said, gratefully, still hiding her face from him.

  "Men sometimes do very foolish things."

  "I didn't know my father could be like this."

  "I was thinking about the men who came and annoyed him. I can understandhow he felt, because I am 'a 'native' myself."

  "I thought you were from outside."

  "My name is Boyd Mayo. I'm from Mayoport."

  She looked up at him with frank interest.

  "My folks built this schooner," he stated, with modest pride.

  "I'm Polly Candage--I'm named for it."

  "It's too bad!" he blurted. "I don't mean to say but what the name isall right," he explained, awkwardly, "but I don't think that eitherof us is particularly proud of this old hooker right at the presentmoment." He went across the cabin and sat down on a transom and, testedthe bump on the back of his head with cautious palm.

  She did not reply, and he set his elbows on his knees and proceeded tonurse his private grouch in silence, quite excluding his companionfrom his thoughts. Now that he had been snatched so summarily from hishateful position on board the _Olenia_, his desire to leave her was notso keen. After Mayo's declaration to the owner, Marston might readilyconclude that his skipper had deserted. His reputation and his licenseas a shipmaster were in jeopardy, and he had already had a bitter tasteof Marston's intolerance of shortcomings. If Marston cared to botherabout breaking such a humble citizen, malice had a handy weapon. Butmost of all was Mayo concerned with the view Alma Marston would take ofthe situation. She would either believe that he had fallen overboardin the skirmish with the attacking Polly or had deserted withoutwarning--and in the case of a lover both suppositions were agonizing.His distress was so apparent that the girl, from her seat on theopposite transom, extended sympathy in the glances she dared to givehim.

  "How did you tear your coat so badly in the back?" she ventured at last.

  "Spikes your excellent father left sticking out of his martingale," hesaid, a sort of boyish resentment in his tones.

  "Then it is only right that I should offer to mend it for you."

  She hurried to a locker, as if glad of an excuse to occupy herself. Sheproduced her little sewing-basket and then came to him and held out herhand.

  "Take it off, please."

  "You needn't trouble," he expostulated, still gruff.

  "I insist. Please let me do a little something to make up for the_Polly's_ naughtiness."

  "It will be all right until I can get ashore--and perhaps I'll neverhave need to wear the coat again, anyway."

  "Won't you allow me to be doing something that will take my mind off mytroubles, sir?" Then she snapped her finger into her palm and there wasa spirit of matronly command in her voice, in spite of her youth. "Iinsist, I say! Take off your coat."

  He obeyed, a little grin crinkling at the corners of his mouth--aflicker of light in his general gloom. After he had placed the coat inher hands he sat down on the transom and watched her busy fingers.She worked deftly. She closed in the rents and then darned the raveledplaces with bits of the thread pulled from the coat itself.

  "You are making it look almost as good as new."

  "A country girl must know how to patch and darn. The folks in thecountry haven't as many things to throw away as the city folks have."

  "But that--what you are doing--that's real art."

  "My aunt does dressmaking and I have helped her. And lately I havebeen working in a millinery-shop. Any girl ought to know how to use herneedle."

  He remembered what Mr. Speed had said about the reason for her presenceon the _Polly_. He cast a disparaging glance around the bare cabin anddecided in his mind that Mr. Speed had reported truthfully and with fullknowledge of the facts. Surely no girl would choose that sort of thingfor a summer vacation.

  She bent her head lower over her work and he was conscious of warmersympathy for her; their troubled affairs of the heart were in similarplight. He felt an impulse to say something to console her and knew thathe would welcome understanding and consolation from her; promptly he wasafraid
of his own tongue, and set curb upon all speech.

  "A man never knows how far he may go in making fool talk when he getsstarted," he reflected. "Feeling the way I do to-night, I'd better keepthe conversation kedge well hooked."

  Now that her hands were busy, she did not find the silence embarrassing.Mayo returned to his ugly meditations.

  After a time he was obliged to shift himself on the transom. Theschooner was heeling in a manner which showed the thrust of wind. Heglanced up and saw that the rain was smearing broad splashes on thedingy glass of the windows. The companion hatch was open, and when hecocked his ear, with mariner's interest in weather, he heard the windgasping in the open space with a queer "guffle" in its tone.

  Instinctively he began to look about the cabin for a barometer.

  Already that day the _Olenia's_ glass had warned him by its downwardtendency. He wondered whether further reading would indicate somethingmore ominous than fog.

  Across the cabin he noted some sort of an instrument swinging from ahook on a carline. He investigated. It was a makeshift barometer, theadvertising gift of a yeast company. The contents of its tube wereroiled to the height of the mark which was lettered "Tornado."

  "You can't tell nothing from that!" Captain Candage had come down intothe cabin and stood behind his involuntary guest. "It has registered'Tornado' ever since the glass got cracked. And even at that, it's aboutas reliable as any of the rest of them tinkerdiddle things."

  "Haven't you a regular barometer--an aneroid?" inquired Captain Mayo.

  "I can smell all the weather I need to without bothering with one ofthem contrivances," declared the master of the schooner, in lordlymanner. He began to pull dirty oilskins out of a locker.

  Mayo hurried up the companionway and put out his head. There were bothweight and menace in the wind which hooted past his ears. The fog wasgone, but the night was black, without glimmer of stars. The whitecrests of the waves which galloped alongside flaked the darkness withominous signalings.

  "If you can smell weather, Captain Candage, your nose ought to tell youthat this promises to be something pretty nasty."

  "Oh, it might be called nasty by lubbers on a gingerbread yacht, butI have sailed the seas in my day and season, and I don't run for aninshore puddle every time the wind whickers a little." He was fumblingwith a button under his crisp roll of chin beard and gave the other mana stare of superiority.

  "You don't class me with yacht-lubbers, do you?"

  "Well, you was just on a yacht, wasn't you?"

  "Look here, Captain Candage, you may just as well understand, now andhere, that I'm one of your kind of sailors. Excuse me for personaltalk, but I want to inform you that from fifteen to twenty I was aGrand-Banksman. Last season I was captain of the beam trawler _Laura andMarion_. And I have steamboated in the Sound and have been a first matein the hard-pine trade in Southern waters. I have had a chance to findout more or less about weather."

  "Un-huh!" remarked the skipper, feigning indifference. "What about it?"

  "I tell you that you have no business running out into this mess that ismaking from east'ard."

  "If you have been so much and so mighty in your time, then youunderstand that a captain takes orders from nobody when he's on boardhis own vessel."

  "I understand perfectly well, sir. I'm not giving orders. But my ownlife is worth something to me and I have a right to tell you that youare taking foolhardy chances. And you know it, too!"

  Captain Candage's gaze shifted. He was a coaster and he was naturallycautious, as Apple-treers are obliged to be. He knew perfectly well thathe was in the presence of a man who knew! He had not the assurance todispute that man, though his general grudge against all the world atthat moment prompted him.

  "I got out because they drove me out," he growled.

  "A man can't afford to be childish when he is in command of a vessel,sir. You are too old a skipper to deny that."

  "I was so mad I didn't stop to smell weather," admitted the master,bracing himself to meet a fresh list of the heeling _Polly_. Heevidently felt that he ought to defend his own sagacity and absolvehimself from mariner's culpability.

  "Very well! Let it go at that! But what are you going to do?"

  "I can't beat back to Saturday Cove against this wind--not now! Shewould rack her blamed old butts out."

  "Then run her for Lumbo Reach. You can quarter a following sea. Sheought to ride fairly easy."

  "That's a narrow stab in a night as black as this one is."

  "I'll make a cross-bearing for you. Where's your chart?" Mayo exhibiteda sailor's alert anxiety to be helpful.

  "I 'ain't ever needed a chart--not for this coast."

  "Then I'll have to guess at it, sir." He closed his eyes in order toconcentrate. "You gave a course of sou'west by sou'. Let's see--it wasnine-fifteen when I just looked and we must have logged--"

  "It ain't no use to stab for such a hole in the wall as Lumbo Reach,"declared Candage in discouraged tones.

  "But you've got your compass and I can--"

  "There ain't no depending on my compass within two points and a half."

  "Confound it, I can make allowance, sir, if you'll tell me yourdeviation!"

  "But it's a card compass and spins so bad in a seaway there ain't notelling, anyway. In my coasting I haven't had to be particular."

  "Not as long as you had an apple-tree in sight," jeered Mayo, beginningto lose his temper.

  "I don't dare to run in the direction of anything that is solid--we'llhit it sure, 'n' hell-fire will toast corn bread. We've got to stay tosea!"

  Captain Mayo set his teeth and clenched his fists and took a few turnsup and down the cabin. He looked up into the night through the openhatch of the companion-way. The pale glimmer of the swinging lamp tosseda mild flare against the blackness and lighted two faces which werelimned against that pall. Both Oakum Otie and Smut-nosed Dolph were atthe wheel. Their united strength was needed because the schooner wasyawing madly every now and then when the mightier surges of the frothingsea hoisted her counter, chasing behind her like wild horses. Thosefaces, when Mayo looked on them, were very solemn. The two werecrouching like men who were anxious to hide from a savage beast. Theygrunted as they struggled with the wheel, trying to hold her up when the_Polly_ tobogganed with rushes that were almost breath-checking.

  Mayo hastened to the girl. "I must have my coat, Miss Candage. I thankyou. It will do now."

  She held it open for his arms, as a maid might aid her knight with hisarmor. "Are we in danger?" she asked, tremulously.

  "I hope not--only it is uncomfortable--and needless," he said, with someirritation.

  "Must I stay down here--alone?"

  "I would! It's only a summer blow, Miss Candage. I'm sure we'll be allright."

  Captain Candage had gone on deck, rattling away in his stiff oilskins.

  Mayo followed, but the master came down a few steps into thecompanionway and intercepted the volunteer, showing a final smolder ofhis surliness.

  "I want to notify you that I can run my own bo't, sir!"

  "Yes, run it with a yeast barometer, a straw bottom, a pinwheel compass,and your general cussedness of disposition," shouted Mayo into the whirlof the wind, his anxiety whetting his much-tried temper.

  "If you're feeling that way, I don't want you up here."

  "I'm feeling worse than you'll ever understand, you stubborn old fool!"

  "I let one man call me a fool to-day and I didn't make back talk--but Iknow where to draw the line," warned Candage.

  "Look here, I propose to start in with you right now, sir, on a basisyou'll understand! I say you're a fool and need a guardian--and from nowon I'm going to make my bigness aboard here! Get out of my way!"

  Captain Mayo then emphasized his opinion of Captain Candage by elbowingthe master to one side and leaping out on deck.

  "That may be mutiny," stated Mr. Speed through set teeth, checking thestartled exclamation from his helper at the wheel. "But, by the JudasI-scarrot, it
's a Mayo that's doing it! Remember that, Dolph!"