diff options
Diffstat (limited to '30138-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 30138-0.txt | 7424 |
1 files changed, 7424 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/30138-0.txt b/30138-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a14c180 --- /dev/null +++ b/30138-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7424 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30138 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustration. + See 30138-h.htm or 30138-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30138/30138-h/30138-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30138/30138-h.zip) + + + + + +THE SEINERS + +by + +JAMES B. CONNOLLY + +Author of "Out of Gloucester," "Jeb Hutton," Etc. + + + + + + + +[Illustration: IT WAS THE FINEST KIND OF EXCITEMENT, OUR RUNNING TO +HARBOR] + + + +Charles Scribner's Sons +New York 1910 + +Copyright, 1904, by +Charles Scribner's Sons + +Published, May, 1904 + + + + +CONTENTS + + I. THE NEW VESSEL OF WITHROW'S 1 + II. A LITTLE JOG ALONG THE DOCKS 8 + III. MINNIE ARKELL 16 + IV. LITTLE JOHNNIE DUNCAN STANDS EXAMINATION 27 + V. FROM OUT OF CROW'S NEST 35 + VI. MAURICE BLAKE GETS A VESSEL 43 + VII. CLANCY CROSSES MINNIE ARKELL 51 + VIII. THE SEINING FLEET PUTS OUT TO SEA 61 + IX. MACKEREL 70 + X. WE LOSE OUR SEINE 82 + XI. AN OVER-NIGHT BREEZE 87 + XII. THE FLEET RUNS TO HARBOR 99 + XIII. WESLEY MARRS BRINGS A MESSAGE 119 + XIV. A PROSPECT OF NIGHT-SEINING 123 + XV. CLANCY TO THE MAST-HEAD 129 + XVI. WE GET A FINE SCHOOL 137 + XVII. A DRIVE FOR MARKET 144 + XVIII. A BRUSH WITH THE YACHTING FLEET 153 + XIX. MINNIE ARKELL AGAIN 159 + XX. THE SKIPPER PUTS FOR HOME 172 + XXI. SEINERS' WORK 175 + XXII. ON THE CAPE SHORE 184 + XXIII. DRESSING DOWN 193 + XXIV. THE WITHROW OUTSAILS THE DUNCAN 202 + XXV. TROUBLE WITH THE DOMINION CUTTERS 206 + XXVI. THE GOSSIP IN GLOUCESTER 211 + XXVII. IN CLANCY'S BOARDING-HOUSE 217 + XXVIII. IN THE ARKELL KITCHEN 220 + XXIX. MAURICE BLAKE COMES HOME 230 + XXX. THE MORNING OF THE RACE 235 + XXXI. THE START OF THE RACE 243 + XXXII. O'DONNELL CARRIES AWAY BOTH MASTS 250 + XXXIII. THE ABLE JOHNNIE DUNCAN 257 + XXXIV. MINNIE ARKELL ONCE MORE 265 + XXXV. CLANCY LAYS DOWN THE LAW 271 + XXXVI. MAURICE BLAKE IS RECALLED 281 + XXXVII. THE GIRL IN CANSO 289 + XXXVIII. THE DUNCAN GOES TO THE WEST'ARD 297 + XXXIX. THE HEART OF CLANCY 309 + + + + +THE SEINERS + + + + +THE SEINERS + +I + +THE NEW VESSEL OF WITHROW'S + + +It was only a few days before this that the new vessel of Mr. +Withrow's, built by him, as everybody supposed, for Maurice Blake, had +been towed around from Essex, and I remember how Maurice stood on the +dock that afternoon and looked her over. + +There was not a bolt or a plank or a seam in her whole hull, not a +square inch inside or out, that he had not been over half a dozen +times while she was on the stocks; but now he had to look her over +again, and as he looked his eyes took on a shine. She had been +designed by a man famous the world over, and was intended to beat +anything that ever sailed past Eastern Point. + +She certainly was a great-looking model of a vessel, and "If she only +sails and handles half so well as she looks, she'll do for me," said +Maurice. "Yes, sir, and if she's up to what I think she ought to be, I +wouldn't be afraid to bet my share of what we make out South that +she'll hold her own with anything out of Gloucester--give her a few +weeks to loosen up, of course." + +That was a good deal to say, for it was a great fleet of vessels +sailing out of Gloucester; but even so, even allowing for a young +skipper's pride in his first crack vessel, it meant a whole lot coming +like that from Maurice Blake. + +And on top of all that Maurice and Withrow had to quarrel, though what +about I never found out. I only know that I was ready to believe that +Withrow was to blame, for I liked Maurice and did not like Withrow, +even though Withrow was the man from whom I drew my pay every week. +And yet I could not understand it, for Maurice Blake had been far and +away the most successful skipper sailing for Withrow, and Withrow +always had a good eye for the dollar. + +No more came of it until this particular morning, some days after +Maurice and Withrow had quarrelled. Wesley Marrs and Tommie Clancy, +two men that I never tired of listening to, were on the dock and +sizing up the new vessel. Wesley Marrs was himself a great fisherman, +and master at this time of the wonderful Lucy Foster. + + When she swings the main boom over + And she feels the wind abaft, + + The way she'll walk to Gloucester'll + Make a steamer look a raft. + + For she's the Lucy Foster, + She's a seiner out of Gloucester,-- + +was the way the fishermen of the port used to sing about the Lucy; +while Tommie Clancy was Maurice Blake's closest friend. + +With ballast stored, masts stepped, rigging set up, and sails bent, +setting as sweet as could be to her lines and the lumpers beginning to +get her ready for the mackerel season, the Fred Withrow was certainly +a picture. + +After a couple of extra long pulls, blowing the smoke into the air, +and another look above and below, "That one--she'll sail some or I +don't know," said Wesley. + +"She sure will," said Tommie; "and it's a jeesly shame Maurice isn't +to have her." Then turning to me, "What in the devil's name ails that +man you work for, Joey?" + +I said I didn't know. + +"No, nor nobody else knows. I'd like to work in that store for him for +about ten minutes. I think I'd make him say something in that ten +minutes that would give me a good excuse for heaving him out the +window. He had an argument with Maurice, Wesley, and Maurice don't +know what it was half about, but he knows he came near to punching +Withrow." + +And Wesley and Tommie had to talk that out; and between the pair of +them, thinking of what they said, I thought I ought to walk back to +the store with barely a civil look for my employer, who didn't like +that at all, for he generally wanted to hand out the black looks +himself. + +Then the girls--my cousin Nellie and her particular chum, Alice +Foster--came in to weigh themselves, and also to remind me, they said, +that I was to take them over to Essex the next day for the launching +of the new vessel for the Duncan firm, which had been designed by a +friend of Nell's, a young fellow named Will Somers, who was just +beginning to get a name in Gloucester for fast and able models of +vessels. Withrow, who was not over-liberal with his holidays, said I +might go--mostly, I suspect, because Alice Foster had said she would +not make the trip without Nell, and Nell would not go unless I went +too. + +Then Nell and Miss Foster went on with the business of weighing +themselves. That was in line with the latest fad. It was always +something or other, and physical culture was in the air at this time +with every other girl in Gloucester, so far as I could see--either +Indian-club swinging or dumb-bell drilling, long walks, and things of +that kind, and telling how much better they felt after it. My cousin +Nell, who went in for anything that anybody ever told her about, was +trying to reduce her weight. According to some perfect-form charts, or +something or other on printed sheets, she weighed seven pounds more +than she should for her height. I thought she was about the right +weight myself, and told her so, but she said no--she was positively +fat. "Look at Alice," she said, "she's just the thing." + +I looked at Alice--Miss Foster I always called her myself--and +certainly she was a lovely girl, though perhaps a little too conscious +of it. She was one of the few that weren't going in for anything that +I could see. She wasn't even weighing herself, or at least she didn't +until Mr. Withrow, with his company manners in fine working order, +asked her if she wouldn't allow him to weigh her. + +There were people in town who said it was not for nothing that +Alice Foster was so chummy with my cousin Nell. They meant, of +course, that being chummy with Nell, who came down regularly to see +me, gave herself a good excuse to come along and so have a word with +Withrow. Fred Withrow himself was a big, well-built, handsome +man--an unusually good-looking man, I'd call him--and a great +heart-breaker, according to report--some of it his own. And he was +wealthy, too. I did not know, but somehow or other I did not believe +it, or maybe it was that I hoped rather than believed that Miss +Foster did not care particularly for him; for I did not like him +myself, although I worked for him and was taking his money. Being day +in and day out with him in the store, you see I saw him pretty much +as he really was, and I hated to think of a fine girl--for with +all her cool ways I knew Miss Foster was that--marrying him. Just +how Withrow thought he stood with Miss Foster I did not know--he +was a pretty close-mouthed man when he wanted to be. Miss Foster +herself was that reserved kind of a girl that you cannot always +place. She struck me as being a girl that would die before she would +confess a weakness or a troublesome feeling. And yet, without +knowing how it came there, there was always a notion in the back of +my head that made me half-believe that she did not come to the +store with my cousin out of pure companionship. There was something +besides--and what could it be but Withrow? + +After the weighing was done Nell asked me all at once, "I hear, Joe, +that Captain Hollis is going to have your new vessel? How is that? +We--I thought that Captain Blake was going master of her--and such a +pretty vessel!" + +I answered that I didn't know how it was, and looked over at my +employer, as much as to say, "Maybe he can tell you." + +I think now that I must have been a pretty impudent lad, letting my +employer know what I thought of him as I did in those days. I think, +too, he had a pretty shrewd notion of what I thought of himself and +Maurice Blake. At any rate, after the girls had gone, he worked +himself into a fine bit of temper, and I talked back at him, and the +end of it was that he discharged me--or 1 quit--I'm not sure which. I +do know that it was rapid-fire talk while it lasted. + +It was some satisfaction to me to tell Withrow just about what I did +think of him before I went. He didn't quite throw me out of the door, +although he was big enough for that; but he looked as if he wanted to. +And maybe he would have, too, or tried it, only I said, "Mind I don't +give you what Tommie Clancy threatened to give you once," and his +nerve went flat. I couldn't have handled him as Clancy had any more +than I could have hove a barrel of salt mackerel over my head, which +was what the strong fishermen of the port were doing about that time +to prove their strength; but the bluff went, and I couldn't help +throwing out my chest as I went out the door and thinking that I was +getting to be a great judge of human nature. + + + + +II + +A LITTLE JOG ALONG THE DOCKS + + +I was sorry to lose my job. I was twenty years old, without a trade or +special knowledge of any kind, and beyond the outfitting of fishing +vessels, knowing nothing of any business, and with no more than a high +school education--and that two years behind me--and I knew of no place +in Gloucester where I could begin all over and right away get as much +pay as I had left behind me. I might go to Boston, of course, and try +for something there--I was not ten minutes out of Withrow's before I +thought of doing that. But a little further thought and I knew there +were more capable men than I walking the streets of Boston looking for +work. However, a lot could happen before I would have to worry, and so +I decided to take the air and think it over. + +I might go fishing certainly--I had had a little experience in my +school vacations--if my mother would only stand for it. As to that I +did not know. If it came to fishing or starving--one or the +other--then of course she would have to let me go fishing. But my +father had been lost on the Grand Banks with his vessel and all +hands--and then one brother was already fishing. So I hardly thought +she would allow me, and anyway I knew she would never have a good +night's rest while I was out. + +However, I kept thinking it over. To get away by myself I took a ride +over to Essex. There I knew I would find half a dozen vessels on the +stocks, and there they were--the latest vessel for the Duncan firm and +three more for other firms. I knew one of the ship-carpenters in +Elwell's yard, Levi Woodbury, and he was telling me about some of the +vessels that had been launched lately. "Of course," he said, "you saw +the one launched a few days ago from here--that one built for Mr. +Withrow?" + +I said I had, and that she was a wonder to look at and that I wished +Maurice Blake, and not Sam Hollis, was to have her. + +"Yes," said Levi, "and a pity. Maurice Blake could have sailed her +right, though for that matter Sam Hollis is a clever hand to sail a +vessel, too. And she ought to sail some, that vessel. But look +here at this one for the Duncans and to be launched to-morrow. +Designed by Will Somers--know him? Yes? A nice young fellow. Ain't she +able-looking?" + +She certainly was, and handsome, and Levi went on to tell me about +her. He showed me where she was like and where she differed from the +Lucy Foster, the Fred Withrow, the Nannie O, the Colleen Bawn, and the +others which were then causing trouble in Gloucester with crews +fighting over their good qualities. I did not know a whole lot about +vessels, but having been born in Gloucester and having soaked in the +atmosphere all my life and loving vessels besides, I had a lot of +notions about them. And I liked this last Duncan vessel. By the wind +and in a sea-way, it struck me she would be a wonder. There was +something more than just the fine lines of her. There is that about +vessels. You can take two vessels, model them alike, rig them alike, +handle them alike, and still one will sail rings around the other. And +why is it? I've heard a hundred fishermen at different times say that +and then ask, Why is it? This one was awfully sharp forward, too sharp +some might have said, with little more forefoot than most of the +late-built flyers; but she was deep and had a quarter that I knew +would stand up under her sail. I liked the after-part of her. Racing +machines are all right for a few months or a year or two and in smooth +water, but give me a vessel that can stand up under sail. I thought I +could see where, if they gave her sail enough, especially aft, and a +skipper that would drive her, she might do great things. And +certainly she ought to be a comfort in a blow and bring a fellow +home--and there's a whole lot in that--being in a vessel that you feel +will bring you home again. + +I looked over the others, but none of them held me like the Duncan +vessel, and I soon came back to Gloucester and took a walk along the +waterfront. + +It was well into March at this time--the third week in March, I +remember--and there was a great business doing along the docks. The +salt bankers were almost ready to leave--twenty-eight or thirty sail +fitting out for the Grand Banks. And then there were the seiners--the +mackerel catchers--seventy or eighty sail of them making ready for the +Southern cruise. All that meant that things would be humming for a +while. So I took a walk along the docks to see it. + +Most of the vessels that had been fishing during the winter had been +stripped of their winter sails, and now aboard these they were bending +on the summer suits and slinging up what top spars had not already +been sent up. For the vessels that had been laid up all winter and +stripped of everything, they were getting out the gear from the lofts. +Everywhere it was topmasts being sent up, sails being dragged out, +stays swayed taut, halyards and sheets rove--an overhauling +generally. On the railways--Burnham's, Parkhurst's, and Tarr's--were +vessels having their bottoms scrubbed and painted and their topsides +lined out. And they all looked so handsome and smelt so fine with +their riggings being tarred, not with the smoky tar that people ashore +put on house-roofs, but the fine rich-smelling tar that goes into +vessels' rigging; and there was the black and dark sea-green paint for +the sides, with the gold or yellow or sometimes red stripe to mark the +run, and main and quarter rails being varnished. + +And the seine-boats! If there is anything afloat that sets more +easily on the water than a seine-boat I never saw it, unless it +might be a birch-bark canoe--and who'd want to be caught out in a +blow in a canoe? The seine-boats all looked as natural as so many +sea-gulls--thirty-six or thirty-eight feet long, green or blue +bottoms to just above the waterline so that it would show, and above +that all clear white except for the blue or red or yellow or green +decorations that some skippers liked. And the seines that went +with them were coming in wagons from the net and twine factory, +tanned brown or tarred black and all ready to be hauled on to the +vessels' decks or stowed in the holds below, until the fleet +should be in among the mackerel to the south'ard--off Hatteras or +Cape May or somewhere down that way. + +To feel all that and the rest of it--to walk to the tops of your shoes +in pine chips in the spar yards, to measure the lengths of booms and +gaffs for yourself if you weren't sure who were going to spread the +big mainsails, to go up in the sail-lofts and see the sailmakers, +bench after bench of them, making their needles and the long waxed +threads fly through the canvas that it seemed a pity wasn't to stay so +white forever--to see them spread the canvas out along the chalk lines +on the varnished floor, fixing leach and luff ropes to them and +putting the leather-bound cringles in, and putting them in too so +they'd stay, for by and by men's lives would depend on the way they +hung on--all that, railways, sail-lofts, vessels, boats, docks alive +with men jumping to their work--skippers, crews, carpenters, riggers, +lumpers, all thinking, talking, and, I suppose, dreaming of the +season's work ahead--m-m--there was life for a man! Who'd want to work +in a store after that? + +I stopped at Duncan's wharf and looked at Wesley Marrs's vessel, the +Lucy Foster, and then the Colleen Bawn. + + And O'Donnell drove the Colleen like a ghost through all that + gale, + And around 'twas roaring mountains and above 'twas blinding hail, + +and so on. And the Nannie O, another vessel that fishermen sang songs +about. + + Oh, the lovely Nannie O, + The able Nannie O, + The Nannie O a-drivin' through the gale. + +They were lying there, tied to the docks. They were all dreams, so +long and clean, with the beautiful sheer fore and aft, and the +overhang of the racers they were meant to be--the gold run, with the +grain of the varnished oak rails shining above the night-black of +their topsides, and varnished spars. They had the look of vessels that +could sail--and they could, and live out a gale--nothing like them +afloat I'd heard people say that ought to know. + +I walked along another stretch and at Withrow's dock I saw again the +new one that had been built for Maurice Blake but given to Sam Hollis, +who was a boon companion of Withrow's ashore, as I may have said +already. Hollis's gang were bragging even now that she'd trim anything +that ever sailed--the Lucy Foster, the Nannie O, the Colleen Bawn, and +all the rest of them. And there were some old sharks, too, upon the +docks who said they didn't know but she looked as if she could. But a +lot of other people didn't think it--she was all right as a vessel, +but Sam Hollis wasn't a Wesley Marrs, nor a Tom O'Donnell, nor a +Tommie Ohlsen, nor even a Maurice Blake, who was a much younger man +and a less experienced fisherman than any of the others. + +All that, with the vessels anchored in the stream and the little +dories running up and down and in and out--it all brought back again +the trips I'd made with my father, clear back to the time when I was a +little boy, so small that in heavy weather he wouldn't trust me to go +forward or aft myself, but would carry me in his arms himself--it all +made me so long for the sea that my head went round and I found myself +staggering like a drunken man as I tried to walk away from it. + + + + +III + +MINNIE ARKELL + + +There was nothing for it. For a thousand dollars a month I could not +stay ashore. Somebody or other would give me a chance to go seining, +some good skipper I knew; and if none of the killers would give me a +chance, then I'd try some old pod of a skipper. My mother would just +have to let me go. It was only summer fishing after all--seining +wasn't like winter trawling--and in the end she would see it as I +did. + +I walked along, and as the last man in my mind was Maurice Blake, of +course he was the first I had to run into. He was not looking well; I +mean he was not looking as he should have looked. There was a reckless +manner about him that no more belonged to him than a regularly quiet +manner belonged to his friend Tommie Clancy. And I guessed why--he had +been drinking. I had heard it already. Generally when a man starts to +drink for the first time everybody talks about it. I was surprised, +and I wished he hadn't. But we are always finding out new things about +men. In my heart I was not blaming Maurice so much maybe as I should. +I'd always been taught that drinking in excess was an awful habit, but +some otherwise fine men I knew drank at times, and I wasn't going to +blame Maurice till I knew more about it. + +And we can forgive a lot, too, in those we like. Maurice had no family +to think of, and it must have been a blow to him not to get so fine a +vessel as the Fred Withrow after he had been promised and had set his +heart on it. And then to see her go to a man like Sam Hollis! and with +the prospect of not getting another until a man like Withrow felt like +saying you could. Everybody in Gloucester seemed to know that Withrow +was doing all he could to keep Maurice from getting a vessel, and as +the owners had banded together just before this for protection, as +they called it, "against outside interference," and as Withrow was one +of the largest owners and a man of influence beyond his vessel +holdings, he was quite a power at this time. + +Maurice Blake was far from being drunk, however, when I met him this +day. Indeed, I do not believe that in his most reckless hour up to +this time he had ever lost control of himself so far as not to know +pretty nearly what he was doing all the time; but certainly he had +been drinking this day, and the drinking manner did not set well on +him. + +Maurice was standing on the front steps of Mrs. Arkell's boarding-house +when I saw him. It was Mrs. Arkell's granddaughter Minnie that married +the wealthy Mr. Miner--a rather loud sort of man, who had been reported +as saying that he would give her a good time and show her life. He may +have given her a good time--I don't know--but he was dead in two +years. He was supposed to be very rich--three or four millions--but on +settling up there was less than half a million. Of course that wasn't +bad--enough for Minnie to buy a big house next her grandmother's for +a summer home, and enough to go off travelling whenever she pleased. + +When she came back to Gloucester she was still a very handsome girl, +spoken of as the "Miner widow" among people who had known her only +since her marriage, but still called Minnie Arkell by most of those +who had known her when she was a child. In Gloucester she bought the +first house just around the corner from her grandmother's. A handy +passage between their two back yards allowed her to visit her +grandmother whenever she pleased. She wanted to be near her own +people, she said, and was more in her grandmother's house than her +own. + +Maurice came down the steps of Mrs. Arkell's boarding-house as I came +along, and joined me on the sidewalk. He asked me the first thing if +I wouldn't have a drink, and I said no. + +"Oh, I forgot," he said, "you don't drink. Have a cigar," and he +pulled one out of his pocket, and I took and lit it. Generally I +smoked a pipe, but I liked good cigars, though I couldn't afford them +myself. This was not a good one--more like the kind they hand out in +bar-rooms when men get tired of drinking and say they guess they'll +have a smoke. + +"How does it happen, Joe, you're not at the store? I always thought +Withrow held his men pretty close to hours." + +"Well, so he does, but I'm not working for him now." And then I told +him that I had had an argument with Withrow, been discharged, and was +thinking of going fishing. I didn't tell him at first how it all came +about, but I think he guessed it, for all at once, after a searching +look, he reached out and shook hands with me. + +"If ever I get a vessel again, Joe, and you still want to go fishing +and care for a chance with me, you can have it--if you can't go with a +better man, I mean. I'll take you and be glad to have you." + +That meant a good berth, of course, for Maurice was a killer. + +I looked at Maurice when he wasn't watching me, and felt sorry for +him. He was a man that anybody would like the looks of. It wasn't +that he was a handsome man--I never could get to like pretty men +myself--but there was something about him that made you feel you could +trust him. The heavy tan of his face and the grip of his jaw would +spoil almost anybody for a beauty man, I suppose, but he had fine eyes +and his mouth was all right, and he had a head that you'd like to +stand off one side and look at, with hair that seemed to lift and wave +with every breath of wind, and when he smiled you felt somehow that +he'd saved that particular smile for you. He was no better built than +a hundred other men I knew who were going fishing, and he was no +bigger than a thousand others sailing out of Gloucester, and not near +so big as a lot of others--five feet ten or eleven, maybe, he was, +with level shoulders, and very light on his feet--but looking at him +you knew he was all there. + +After smoking a while and watching him between puffs, it flashed on me +all at once that I was pretty thick. A word or two my cousin Nell had +let slip--not so much what she said as the way she said it--gave me a +hint of a whole lot of things. Looking at Maurice now I asked him if +he had seen my cousin or Miss Foster lately. + +He flushed up as he looked at me, and I saw that whatever he was +thinking of it had not been far away from what I had been thinking +of. "No, I haven't seen them"--slowly. "How is your cousin?" + +"Oh, she seems to be all right. They were both in to the store this +morning." + +"What doing?" I thought he was beginning to worry, but I tried not to +let on that I noticed it. I was beginning to feel like a sleuth, or a +detective, or a diplomat, or something. + +"Well, I don't know. Nell said they came in to see me, but all that +happened that I had any hand in was to weigh her. She gained another +pound last week, and it's worrying her. The more exercise she takes +the heavier she gets, she says. She's a hundred and thirty-one now. Of +course, while they're there Withrow had to help out and make himself +agreeable, especially to Miss Foster, but I can't see that she warms +up to him." + +"Ha? No? You don't think so?" + +"Not much, but maybe it's her way. She's pretty frosty generally +anyway, different from my cousin--she's something like." + +"Yes, your cousin is all right," said Maurice. + +"You bet," I said. "She don't stand around and chill the air." + +"Why--does Miss Foster always? Is that her way? I--don't--know--much +about her." + +"Well, I don't know so very much myself--mostly what my cousin tells +me. Still, I guess she's all right; but she strikes me as one of the +kind that might make an awful lot of a man and never let on until she +was dead sure of him." + +"H-m--That means she could think a whole lot of Withrow and not let +on, Joe?" + +I tried to look at Maurice like my oldest brother used to look at me +sometimes when he tried to make me feel that I was a very green kid +indeed, and said, "Well, if she's the kind to care for a man like +Withrow, all I've got to say is that she'll deserve all she'll get. +He's no good." + +"That may be, but how's she to know? I know, you know, and half the +men in Gloucester know that he's rotten; but take a woman who only +sees him at his best and when he's watching out--how's she to know?" + +"I don't know, but being a woman she ought to," was all I could say to +that. It came into my mind just then that when I next saw my cousin +Nell I'd tell her what I really knew, and more than that--what I +really thought of my old employer. Perhaps she'd carry it to Miss +Foster. If it was to be Maurice or Withrow, I knew on which side I was +going to be. + +Both of us were quiet then, neither of us quite knowing what to say +perhaps. Then together we started to walk to the corner of the side +street. We were past the side-door of the boarding-house when a voice +called out, "Oh, Maurice," and then, maybe noticing me, I suppose, +"Oh, Captain Blake," and Maurice turned. Minnie Arkell--Mrs. Miner +rather--was there at the kitchen window. I didn't know she was in town +at all--thought she hadn't got back from Florida, or North Carolina, +or wherever it was she had been for the winter. + +"Won't you come in a minute, Captain, and your friend? He doesn't +remember me--do you, Joe?--and yet we were playmates once," which was +true. I was often taken to Mrs. Arkell's when a little fellow by +skippers who were friends of my father's. They used to tell me about +him, and I liked to listen. + +"I thought I'd run over and see granny," she went on. "I'm back to the +old house for a while. Won't you come in?" + +My mind had long been set against Minnie Arkell. I knew about her +throwing over a fine young fellow, a promising skipper, to marry +Miner. I may have been too young at the time to judge anybody, but +after that I had small use for her. My ideas in the matter were of +course pretty much what older men had put into me. + +I had listened to them--skippers and others--and yet now, when she +held out her hand to me and smiled, I didn't feel nearly so set +against her. She certainly was a handsome girl, and yet I hoped that +Maurice wouldn't fall in love with her, as most everybody did that +came to the Arkell house. + +I said that I did not have time to come in, and started to make off. +Maurice asked me where I was bound. I told him that I thought of +taking a look in at Crow's Nest and getting the news. + +"Yes, you'll get it there, sure enough. When they can't tell you +anything else up there they can tell you what everybody's doing." He +smiled at that, turned slowly toward the side-door, as if he would +rather go with me to Crow's Nest, and I went off. + +Just outside the gate I saw Sam Hollis, a man I never did like. Tommie +Clancy, the man that could size up a person quicker than anybody I'd +ever met, used to say that deep down, if you could get at Hollis, +you'd find a quitter, but that nobody had ever got into him. I'd been +meeting Hollis after every trip in for two years in Withrow's store. +He was a successful fisherman, and a sharp, keen man ashore, but he +was a man I never quite took to. One of his ambitions, I felt +satisfied, was to be reckoned a devil of a fellow. He'd have given a +year's earnings, I knew, to have people point him out on the street +and say, "There's Sam Hollis--there's the boy to carry sail--nobody +ever made him take his mains'l in," the same as they used to say of a +half dozen or so that really would carry sail--that would drive a +vessel under before they would be the first to reef. But the people +didn't do that, although, let him tell it, he did wonderful things out +to sea, and he had such a way of telling it, too, that he'd almost +make you believe him. But as Clancy used to say, after he'd left you, +and you had time to think it over, you'd see where here and there his +story wasn't well-calked. My own idea was that he wanted a reputation +so that he could pose as a devil of a fellow with certain people +ashore. It is easy enough to see that even a more careful man than Sam +Hollis might take a chance for a smile from a woman like Minnie +Arkell. + +Anyhow, I never felt at home with Hollis, and so was willing to take +Clancy's judgment straight. Hollis was a man about forty, and had been +one of Minnie Arkell's admirers ever since I could remember--ever +since she was old enough to have any, I mean, and she wasn't any late +bloomer, as Clancy used to say. + +Hollis went into the Arkell house by the door that had only just +closed behind Maurice and Minnie Arkell. I didn't like that very much, +and was thinking of turning back and going in, too; but on second +thought it occurred to me that perhaps only Maurice would have a +welcome for me. So I didn't enter, but kept on to Crow's Nest +instead. + + + + +IV + +LITTLE JOHNNIE DUNCAN STANDS EXAMINATION + + +By this time I should have gone home, I suppose, and had something to +eat--it was getting on into the afternoon--but I didn't want to have a +talk with my mother yet awhile, and so kept on to Crow's Nest, where I +found half a dozen good-natured loafers. Not all were loafers +exactly--three or four were simply waiting around before shipping on +some seiner for the mackerel season. It promised to shower at the +time, too, and of course the gentlemen who formed old Peter's staff +could not think of venturing out in threatening weather. + +And there they were, with Peter Hines, the paid man in charge of +Crow's Nest, keeping a benevolent eye on them. Yarning, arguing, +skylarking, advising Peter, and having fun with little Johnnie Duncan +they were when I entered. Johnnie was the grandson of the head of the +Duncan firm, a fine, clear-eyed boy, that nobody could help liking. He +thought fishermen were the greatest people in the world. Whatever a +fisherman did was all right to Johnnie. + +I had got all the news at Crow's Nest and was just thinking of moving +along toward home when Tommie Clancy popped in. Of course that made a +difference. I wasn't going to move while Clancy was around. + +"My soul, but here's where the real gentlemen are," he had to say +first, and then, "Anybody seen Maurice to-day?" + +I told him I had, and where. + +"Anybody with him?" + +"Well, not with him exactly." I shook my head, and said nothing of +Minnie Arkell, nor of Sam Hollis, although Clancy, looking at me, I +could see, guessed that there was something else; and he might have +asked me something more only for the crowd and little Johnnie Duncan. + +Johnnie was trying to climb up onto Clancy, and so Clancy, turning +from me, took Johnnie up and gave him a toss that all but hit his head +against the roof. "And how's she heading, Johnnie-boy?" and taking a +seat stood Johnnie up beside him. + +"East-s'uth-east, and a fair, fair wind," answered Johnnie. + +"East-s'uth-east--my, but you said that fine. And a fair wind? Must be +bound Georges Bank way. And how long will you hold that course?" + +"From Eastern Point--a hundred and thirty-five mile." + +"Yes--and then?" + +"Then you throw her up and heave the lead." + +"And heave the lead--sure enough. And then?" + +"And then, if you find you're clear of the North Shoal, you put her to +the s'uth'ard and west'ard till you're in onto the Bank." + +"S'uth'ard and west'ard--that's the boy. Man, but I'll live to see you +going to the Custom House and taking out your master's papers yet." + +"And can I join the Master Mariners then?" + +"That's what you can, and walk down Main Street with a swing to your +shoulders, too. And now you're up on the Bank and twenty-five fathom +of water and the right bottom--and you're a hand-liner, say, after +cod--what then?" + +"Let go her chain and begin fishing." + +"And would you give her a short or a long string of cable?" + +"M-m--I'm not sure. A long string you'd hang on better, but a short +scope and you could get out faster in case you were dragging and going +onto the shoals. What would you do, Captain Clancy? You never told me +that, did you?" + +"Well, it would depend, too, though handliners generally calculate on +hanging on, blow how it will. But never mind that; suppose your +anchor dragged or parted and into the shoal water you went in a gale, +an easterly, say--and the bank right under your lee--wind sixty or +seventy or eighty mile an hour--what would you do?" + +"Anchor not hold? M-m--Then I'd--give her the second one." + +"And if that dragged, too--or parted?" + +"Both of 'em? M-m"--Johnnie was taking deep breaths now--"why, then +I'd have to put sail to her----" + +"What sail?" + +"Why, jib, jumbo, fore and main." + +"And the wind blowing eighty mile an hour?" + +"Why, yes, if she'd stand it." + +"My, but she'd have to be an able vessel that--all four lowers and the +wind blowing eighty mile an hour. Man, but you're a dog! Suppose she +couldn't stand it?" + +"Then I'd reef the mains'l." + +"And if that was too much--what then?" + +"Reef it again." + +"And too much yet?" + +"Balance-reef it--maybe take it in altogether--and the jib with it, +and get out the riding-sail." + +"And would you do nothing to the fores'l?" + +"M-m--I dunno--with some vessels maybe I'd reef that, too--maybe take +it in altogether." + +"My, but you're cert'nly a dog. And what then?" + +"Why, then I'd try to work her out." + +"And would you be doing anything with the lead?" + +"Oh, we'd be keeping the lead going all the time, for banging her +across and back like that you wouldn't know where you were just." + +"And would you come clear, d'y' think?" + +"Yes, sir--if the gear held and with an able vessel we ought to." + +"If the gear held--that's it. Be sure, Johnnie-boy, you see that the +gear is all right before ever you leave port. And with an able vessel, +you say? With that new one of your gran'pa's--would you come clear +with her?" + +"Oh, she'd come clear--built to go fresh halibuting next winter, that +one." + +"Yes--and seining this spring. But suppose now you were +haddocking--trawling--eight or ten dories, and you just arrived on the +grounds, picked out a good spot, and there you are--you're all baited +up and ready?" + +"Winter time?" + +"Winter time, yes." + +"First I'd single-reef the mains'l. Then I'd hold her up a little--not +too much--me being skipper would be to the wheel myself--and then I'd +give the order, 'Dories to the rail!' and then, when everything was +all right--when I'd be satisfied we wouldn't foul the next vessel's +trawls--I'd call out, 'Over with your wind'ard dory!'" + +"Loud and clear you'd holler, because the wind might be high." + +"Loud and clear, yes--'Let go your wind'ard dory!'--like that. And +'Set to the west'ard,' or the east'ard, whatever it was--according to +the tide, you know. I'd call that out to the dory as it went sliding +by the quarter--the vessel, of course, 'd be sailing all the time--and +next, 'Wind'ard dory to the rail!' And then, when we'd gone ahead +enough, again, 'Let go your looard dory!' and then, 'Looard dory to +the rail! Let go your wind'ard dory! Let go your looard dory!' and so +till they were all over the side." + +"And supposing, they being all out, it came on thick, or snowing, and +some of them went astray, and it was time to go home, having filled +her with eighty or ninety or a hundred thousand of fresh fish, a fair +wind, and every prospect of a good market--what then?" + +"Oh, I'd have to wait, of course--cruise around and stand by." + +"And suppose you couldn't find them again?" + +"Why, after waiting until I was sure they were gone, I'd come home." + +"And your flag?" + +"Half-mast." + +"Half-mast--that's it. I hope you'll never have to fly a half-masted +flag, Johnnie. But suppose you did see them, and they were in shoal +water, say--and the shoals to looard, of course, and it blowing----" + +"I'd stand in and get them." + +"And it blowing hard--blowing hard, Johnnie?--and shoal--shoal +water?" + +"Why"--Johnnie was looking troubled--"why, I'd have to stand in just +the same, wouldn't I?" + +"Your own men and you ask me, Johnnie-boy?" + +"Why, of course I'd have to stand in and get them." + +"And if you got in so far you couldn't get out--you got smothered, +say?" + +"Why, then--then we'd be lost--all hands would be lost." + +Poor Johnnie! he was all but crying. + +"That's it. And that's where some would say you showed yourself a man, +and some a fool, Johnnie-boy. Some would say, 'Use judgment--think of +the other eighteen or twenty men safe aboard the vessel.' Would you +use judgment, or what, Johnnie?" + +"M-m--I don't know. What would you do, Captain Clancy?" + +"What d'y' think I'd do, Johnnie?" Clancy drew the boy up and tucked +the little face to his own broad breast. The rest of us knew well +enough what Clancy would do. "Judgment hell!" Clancy would say, and go +in and get lost--or maybe get away with it where a more careful man +would be lost--but we waited to hear what Johnnie--such a little +boy--would say. He said it at last, after looking long into Clancy's +face. + +"I think you'd go in, Captain Clancy." + +Clancy laughed at that. "Lord, Johnnie-boy, no wonder everybody loves +you. No matter what a man does, all you see is the best that's in +him." + +It was time to clean up then, and Johnnie of course was bound to +help. + + + + +V + +FROM OUT OF CROW'S NEST + + +"What'll I do with this?" asked Johnnie, in the middle of the cleaning +up, holding up a pan of sweepings. + +"Oh, that"--Clancy naturally took charge--"heave it overboard. Ebb +tide'll carry it away. Heave it into the slip. Wait--maybe you'll have +to hoist the hatches. 'Tisn't raining much now, anyway, and it will +soon stop altogether. Might as well go aloft and make a good job of +the hatches, hadn't he, Peter?" + +"Wait a minute." Peter was squinting through the porthole. "I +shouldn't wonder but this is one of our fellows coming in. I know +she's a banker. The Enchantress, I think. Look, Tommie, and see what +you make of her." + +Clancy looked. "That's who it is, Peter. Hi, Johnnie, here'll be a +chance for you to hoist the flag. Hurry aloft and tend to the hatches, +as Peter says, and you can hoist the flag for the Enchantress home +from the Banks." + +In bad weather, like it was that day, the little balcony of Crow's +Nest was shut in by little hatches, arranged so that they could be run +up and down, the same as hatches are slid over the companionway of a +fisherman's cabin or forec's'le. Johnnie was a pretty active boy, and +he was up the rope ladder and onto the roof in a few seconds. We could +hear him walking above, and soon the hatches slid away and we all +could look freely out to sea again. + +"All right below?" called out Johnnie. + +"Not yet," answered Peter. He was standing by the rail of the balcony +and untwisting the halyards that served to hoist the signal-flags to +the mast-head. Peter seemed slow at it, and Clancy called out again, +"Wait a bit, and we'll overhaul the halyards." Then, looking up and +noticing that Johnnie was standing on the edge of the roof, he added, +"And be careful and not slip on those wet planks." + +"Aye, aye!" Johnnie was in high glee. "And then I can run up the flag +for the Enchantress?" + +"Sure, you've been such a good boy to-day." + +"M-m--but that'll be fine. I can catch the halyards from here if +you'll swing them in a little." + +"All right--be careful. Here you go now." + +"Let 'em come--I got----" + +The first thing we knew of what had happened was when we saw Johnnie's +body come pitching down. He struck old Peter first, staggering him, +and from there he shot down out of sight. + +Clancy jumped to the rail in time to save Peter from toppling over it +and just in time, as he said afterward, to see the boy splash in the +slip below. He yanked Peter to his feet, and then, without turning +around, he called out, "A couple of you run to the head of the +dock--there'll be a dory there somewhere--row 'round to the slip with +it. He'll be carried under the south side--look for him there if I'm +not there before you. Drive her now!" + +"Here, Joe, wake up!" Clancy had untied the ends of the halyards after +whirling them through the block above, and now had the whole line +piled up on the balcony. He took a couple of turns around his waist, +took another turn around a cleat under the balcony rail, passed the +bight of the line to me, and said, "Here, Joe, lower me. Take hold +you, too, Peter. Pay out and not too careful. Oh, faster, man! If he +ain't dead he'll drown, maybe--if he gets sucked in and caught under +those piles it's all off." + +He was sliding over the rail, the line tautening to his weight in no +time, and he talking all the time. "Lower away--lower, lower! +Faster--faster than that--he's rising again--second time--and drifting +under the wharf, sure's fate! Faster--faster--what's wrong?--what's +caught there?--let her run!" + +The halyards had become fouled, and Peter was trying to clear them, +calling to Clancy to wait. + +"Fouled?" roared Clancy. "Cast it off altogether. Let go altogether +and let me drop." + +"We can't--the bight of it's caught around Peter's legs!" I called to +him. + +"Oh, hell! take a couple of half-hitches around the cleat then--look +out now!" He gripped the halyards high above his head with both hands, +gave a jumping pull, and let himself drop. The line parted and down he +shot. + +He must have been shaken by the shock of his fall, but I guess he had +his senses with him when he came up again, for in no time he was +striking toward where Johnnie had come up last. Then I ran downstairs, +down to the dock, and was just in time to see Parsons and Moore rowing +a dory desperately up the slip, and Clancy with Johnnie chest-up, and +a hand under his neck, kicking from under the stringers, and calling +out, "This way with the dory--drive her, fellows, drive her!" + +I did not wait for any more--I knew Johnnie was safe with Clancy--but +ran to the office of the Duncans and told them that Johnnie had fallen +into the dock and got wet, and that it might be well to telephone for +a doctor. His grandfather knew it was serious without my saying any +more, and rang up at once. + +That had hardly been done when Clancy came in the door with Johnnie in +his arms. The boy was limp and unconscious and water was dripping from +him. Old Mr. Duncan was worried enough, but composed in his manner for +all that. He met Clancy at the door. "This way, Captain; lay him on +this couch. The doctor will be here in a very few minutes now. Perhaps +we can do something while he is on the way. Just how did it happen? +and we'll know better what to do, perhaps." + +Clancy told his story in forty words. "He's probably shook up and his +lungs must be full of water. But he may come out all right--his +eyelids quivered coming up the dock. Better strip his shirt and waist +off. He's got a lot of water in him--roll him over and we'll get some +of it out." + +He worked away on Johnnie, and had the water pretty well out of him by +the time the uncle and the doctor came. It was hard work for a time, +but it came at last to when the doctor stood up, rested his arms for a +breath, said, "Ah--he's all right now," and went on again. It was not +so very long after that that Johnnie opened his eyes--for about a +second. But pretty soon he opened them to stay. His first look was for +his grandfather, but his first word was for Clancy. "I could see you +when you jumped, Captain Clancy--it was great." + +Then they bundled Johnnie into a carriage and his uncle took him +home. + +"Lord, but I thought he was gone, Joe. But let's get out of this," +said Clancy, and we were making for the door, with Clancy's clothes +still wringing wet, when we were stopped by the elder Mr. Duncan, who +shook hands with both of us and then went on to speak to Clancy. + +"Captain Clancy----" + +"Captain once, but----" + +"I know, I know, but not from lack of ability, at any rate. Let me +thank you. His mother will thank you herself later, and make you feel, +I know, her sense of what she owes to you. And his cousin Alice--she +thinks the world of him. There, I know you don't want to hear any +more, but you shall--maybe later--though it may come up in another +way. But tell me--wait, come inside a minute. Come in you, too, Joe," +he said, turning to me, but I said I'd rather wait outside. I wanted +to have a smoke to get my nerves steady again, I guess. + +So Clancy and Mr. Duncan went inside, and through the window, whenever +I looked up, I could see them. As their talk went on I could see that +they were getting very much interested about something or other. +Clancy particularly was laying down the law with a clenched fist and +an arm that swung through the air like a jibing boom. Somebody, I +knew, was getting it. + +When they came out Mr. Duncan stopped at the door, and said, as if by +way of a parting word, "And so you think that's the cause of Withrow's +picking a quarrel with Maurice? Well, I never thought of that before, +but maybe you're right. And now, what do you say to a vessel for +yourself?" + +"Me take a vessel? No, sir--not for me. But when you've got vessels to +hand around, Mr. Duncan, bear Maurice in mind--he's a fisherman." + +We left Mr. Duncan then, he making ready to telephone to learn how +Johnnie was getting along. Clancy said his clothes were beginning to +feel so dry that he did not know as he would go to his boarding-house. +"I think we'd better go up to the Anchorage and have a little touch. +But I forgot--you don't drink, Joe? No? So I thought, but don't you +care--you're young yet. Come along, anyway, and have a smoke." + +And so we went along to the Anchorage, and while we were there, I +smoking one of those barroom cigars and Clancy nursing the after-taste +of his drink and declaring that a touch of good liquor was equal to a +warm stove for drying wet clothes, I told him what I would have told +him in Crow's Nest if there had not been so many around--about Minnie +Arkell calling Maurice back into her grandmother's house, and then Sam +Hollis coming along and going in after him. + +"What!" and stopped dead. Suddenly he brought his fist through the +air. "I'll"--and as suddenly stopped it midway. "No, I won't, either. +But I'll put Maurice wise to them. What should he know at his age and +with his up-bringing of what's in the heads of people like them. And +if I don't have something further to say to old Mr. Duncan! But now +let's go back to Arkell's--come on, Joe." + +But I didn't go back with him. I didn't think that I could do Maurice +any good then, and I might be in the way if Clancy wanted to speak his +mind out to anybody. I went home instead, where I expected to have +troubles of my own, for I knew that my mother wouldn't like the idea +of my going seining. + + + + +VI + +MAURICE BLAKE GETS A VESSEL + + +Three days after Johnnie Duncan fell out of Crow's Nest the new +Duncan vessel designed by Will Somers was towed around from Essex. +She had been named the Johnnie Duncan. I spent the best part of the +next three days watching the sparmakers and riggers at work on her. +And when they had done with her and she fit to go to sea, she did look +handsome. She had not quite the length of the new vessel of Sam +Hollis's, which lay at Withrow's dock just below her, and that +probably helped to give her a more powerful look to people that +compared them. Too able-looking altogether to be real fast, some +thought, to hold the Withrow vessel in anything short of a gale, but +I didn't feel so sure she wouldn't sail in a moderate breeze, too. +I had seen her on the stocks, and knew the beautiful lines below the +water-mark. And she was going to carry the sail to drive her. I took +particular pains to get the measurements of her mainmast while it +lay on the dock under the shears. It was eighty-seven feet--and +she only a hundred and ten feet over all--and it stepped plumb in +the middle of her, further forward than a mainmast was generally put +in a fisherman. To that was shackled a seventy-five foot boom, and +eighty-odd tons of pig-iron were cemented close down to her keel, and +that floored over and stanchioned snug. For the rest, she was very +narrow forward, as I think I said--everybody said she'd never stand +the strain of her fore-rigging when they got to driving her on a +long passage. And she carried an ungodly bowsprit--thirty-seven feet +outboard--easily the longest bowsprit out of Gloucester. Topmasts to +match, and there was some sail to drive a vessel. But she had the +hull for it, full and yet easy, with the greatest beam pretty well +aft of the mainmast, and she drew fifteen and a half feet of water. + +I was still looking her over, her third day in the riggers' and +sailmakers' hands, when Clancy came along. + +"Handsome, ain't she, and only needing a skipper and crew to be off on +the Southern cruise, eh, Joe?" + +"That's all. And according to the talk, you're to be the skipper." + +"Well, talk has another according coming to it." + +"I'm sorry to hear that. But what happened at Mrs. Arkell's the other +day?" + +"What happened? Joe, but I was glad you didn't come with me. You'd +have felt as I did about it, I know. There they were--the two of +them--Hollis and Withrow--yes, Withrow there--when I broke in on them, +and Maurice between them--drunk. Yes, sir, drunk and helpless. They +called it a wine-party, as though a man couldn't get as good and drunk +on wine in a private residence as ever he could on whiskey or rum in +the back room of a saloon. Well, sir, I asked a question or two, and +they tried to face me out, but out they went--first Hollis, and then +Withrow, one after the other, and both good and lively. And then +Minnie Arkell popped in from her own house by way of the backyard. She +didn't expect to see me--I know she didn't. Had gone over to her house +when the men began to drink, she said, and had just come over to see +granny. + +"Well, I told her what I thought. 'It means nothing to you,' I +said, 'to see a man make a fool of himself--that's been a good +part of your business in life for some time, now--to see men make +fools of themselves for you. Withrow had reasons for wanting him +disgraced--never mind why. Sam Hollis, maybe, has his reasons too. And +the two of them are being helped along by you. You could have stopped +this thing here to-day, but you didn't.' 'No, no, Tommie,' she says. +'Yes, yes,' I went on, 'and don't try to tell me different. If I +didn't know you since you were a little girl you might be able to +convince me, but I know you. Maurice, when he was himself, passed +you by. You were bound to have him. You know a real man, more's the +pity, when you see one, and you know that Maurice, young and green +and soft as he is, has more life and dash than a dozen of the kind +you've been mixing with lately.' + +"Oh, but I laid it on, Joe. Yes. A shame to have to talk like that to +a woman, but I just had to. I didn't stop there. 'You're handsome, and +you're rich, Minnie Arkell; got a lot of life left in you yet, and go +off travelling with people who get their names regularly in the Boston +papers; but just the same, Minnie Arkell, there are women in jail not +half so bad as you--women doing time who've done less mischief in the +world than you have.'" + +"Wasn't that pretty rough, Tommie?" + +"Rough? Lord, yes--but true, Joe, true. And if you'd only see poor +Maurice lying there! Cried? I could've cried, Joe--not since my mother +died did I come so near to it. But it was done. + +"Well, I made Minnie go and get her grandmother. And, Joe, if you'd +seen that fine old lady--oh, but she's got a heart in her--stoop and +put Maurice's head on her bosom as if he was a little child. 'The +poor, poor boy. No mother here,' she said, 'and the best man on earth +might come to it. Leave him to me, Tommie.' Lord, I could have knelt +down at her feet--the heart in her, Joe." + +"And how has Maurice been since?" + +"All right. That was the first time in his life that he was drunk. I +think it will be his last. But let's go aboard the Johnnie." + +After looking over the Johnnie Duncan and admiring her to our hearts' +content, we sat down in her cabin and began to talk of the seining +season to come. Others came down and joined in--George Moore, Eddie +Parsons among others--and they asked Clancy what he was going to do. +Was he going to see about a chance to go seining, or what? Moore said +he's been waiting to see what Maurice Blake was going to do; but as it +was beginning to look as though Maurice was done for, he guessed he'd +take a look around. He asked Clancy what he thought, and Clancy said +he didn't know--time enough yet. + +Maurice Blake himself dropped down then. He was looking better, and +everybody was glad to see it. He'd quit drinking--that was certain; +and now he was a picture of a man--not pretty, but strong-looking, +with his eyes glowing and his skin flushing with the good blood inside +him. He took a seat on the lockers and began to whittle a block of +soft pine into a model of a hull, and after a while, with a squint +along the sheer of his little model, he asked if anybody had seen Tom +O'Donnell or Wesley Marrs. Several said yes, they had, and he asked +where, and when they told him he got up and said he guessed he'd go +along--as he couldn't get a vessel himself, he might as well see about +a chance to go hand. "And as we've been together so much in times gone +by, Tommie, and you, Eddie and George, what do you say if we go +together now?" + +"All right," said Clancy, "but wait a minute--who's that in the +gangway?" + +It turned out to be Johnnie Duncan. He had a fat bundle under his arm, +and bundle and all Clancy took him up, tossed him into the air, said +"All right again, Johnnie-boy?" and kissed him when he caught him +down. + +Johnnie started to undo his bundle. "I tell you it's great to be out +again--the way they kept me cooped up the last few days," and then, +cutting the string to hurry matters, opened the bundle and spread a +handsome set of colors on the lockers. "The Johnnie Duncan's," said +he. "I picked out the kind they were to be, but mummer worked the +monograms herself. See, red and blue. And see that for an ensign! and +the firm's flag--and the highs--look!--the J. A. D. twisted up the +same as on the handkerchiefs we strained the coffee through last week. +And the burgee--the letters on the burgee--my cousin Alice worked +them. And these stars--see, on the ensign--mummer and my cousin both +worked them. Gran'pa said the vessel ought to be sure a lucky one, and +all she needs is an able master, he says, and if Captain Blake will +take her he'll be proud to have him sail the Johnnie Duncan----" + +Maurice Blake stood up. "Me?" + +"Yes," said Johnnie. "Gran'pa says that you can have her just as soon +as you go to the Custom House and get your papers. There, I think I +remembered it all, except of course that the colors are from me and +mummer and my cousin Alice, and will you fly them for us?" + +Maurice laid down his model and picked up the colors. Then he looked +at Johnnie and said, "Thank you, Johnnie; and tell your mother, +Johnnie, and your cousin, that I'll fly the Johnnie Duncan's +colors--and stand by them--if ever it comes to standing by--till she +goes under. Tell your grandfather that I'll be proud to be master of +his vessel and I'll sail her the best I know how." + +"That's you, Maurice," said Clancy. + +Maurice drew his hand across his eyes and sat down again. And as soon +as they decently could, Clancy, George Moore, and Eddie Parsons asked +him if they might ship with him for the Southern cruise. Maurice said +they very well knew that he'd be glad to have them. He asked me, too, +he felt so good, and of course I jumped at the chance. + + + + +VII + +CLANCY CROSSES MINNIE ARKELL + + +The Johnnie Duncan only needed to have her stores taken aboard to go +to sea. And that was attended to next morning, and she was out for her +trial trip the same afternoon. Everybody said she looked as handsome +as a photograph going out, though all the old sharks, when they saw +her mainsail hoisted for the first time, said she'd certainly have +need of her quarter and draught to stand up under it. + +It was a great day for sailing, though--the finest kind of a breeze, +and smooth water. We early carried away our foretopmast, which had a +flaw in it. It was just as well to discover it then. Without topsail +and balloon we had it out with the Eastern Point on her way back from +Boston. She was not much of a steamer for speed, but her schedule +called for twelve knots and she generally made pretty near it--eleven +or eleven and a half, according to how her stokers felt, I guess. We +headed her off after a while, and that was doing pretty well for that +breeze, with a new vessel not yet loosened up. + +"But the balloon was too much for her," said Mr. Duncan, as we shot +into the dock after beating the Eastern Point. + +"No, the balloon was all right--'twas the topm'st was a bit light," +answered Maurice. + +Old Mr. Duncan smiled at that. "But what do you think of her, Captain +Blake?" + +"Oh, she's like all the rest of them when she's alone--sails like the +devil," the skipper answered to that, but he smiled with it and we all +knew he was satisfied with her. + +That night was the Master Mariners' Ball, and I waited up till late to +talk with my cousin Nell, who had gone there with Will Somers. Finally +they came along past my house and I hailed them. + +Nell broke right in as usual with what was uppermost in her mind. "I +don't suppose you saw me and Alice, but we were in Mr. Duncan's office +when you and Mr. Clancy and Captain Blake were coming up the dock +to-day after the trial trip. Mr. Duncan told us what Captain Blake +said of the Johnnie Duncan, but now tell me, what did the rest of you +think of her? What does your friend Clancy say? He knows a vessel." + +"Clancy," I answered, "thought what we all thought, I guess--that +she's a fast vessel any way you take her, but he won't say she's the +fastest vessel out of Gloucester, even after she's put in trim and +loosened up. But in a sea-going way and with wind enough--with wind +enough, mind--he thinks she'll do pretty well." + +"With wind enough and in a sea-way?" repeated Nell. "Then I hope that +when the fishermen's race is sailed next fall it's a howling gale and +seas clear to your mast-head. Yes, and you needn't laugh--don't you +know what it means to Will?" + +And I did realize. Somers, a fine fellow, was just then beginning to +get a chance at designing fishermen. So far he had done pretty well, +but it was on the Johnnie Duncan, I knew, he had pinned his faith. For +his own sake, I hoped that the Johnnie would do great things, but for +Nell's sake I prayed she would. Nell thought a lot of Will and wasn't +ashamed to show her liking, and thinking of that set me to thinking of +other things. + +"Was Miss Foster to the ball?" I asked her. + +"She was," said Nell. + +"And with whom?" + +"Mr. Withrow." + +"Oh-h, Lord!" + +"Oh-h!--and why Oh-h-h?" + +"I wish she'd gone with Maurice." + +"H-m--that was drunk the other day?" + +"Yes, I suppose that queers him forever. And the other fellow does +ten times as bad, only under cover. Who told you?" + +"Never mind. Wasn't he?" + +"Was Maurice to the ball?" + +"He was." + +"And who with?" + +"With nobody." + +"Good. Was Mrs. Miner there?" + +"Mrs. Miner?"--and such a sniff!--"yes, she was there." + +"With Sam Hollis?" + +"Yes, and flirted with half the men in the hall and with your Maurice +Blake outrageously." + +"That so? Could Maurice help that much? But I wish, just the same, +that Miss Foster had gone with Maurice." + +"Well, there was one very good reason." + +"What?" + +"He didn't ask her. And Mr. Withrow made a handsome cavalier anyway." + +"A handsome"--I was going to say lobster, but I didn't. Instead I told +her why Maurice didn't ask Miss Foster--that he didn't think enough of +himself, probably. And that led up to a talk about Maurice Blake and +Clancy. Before I got through I had Nell won over. Indeed, I think she +was won over before I began at all. + +"There's a whole lot you don't know yet," she said at last. "Get +Captain Blake to make a name for himself seining, and for sailing his +vessel as she ought to be sailed, and I'll get down on my knees to +Alice for him--sail her as she ought to be sailed, remember. And make +a good stock with her, and you'll see." + +So, as I walked down the street with Nell and Will Somers a part of +the way, the talk was in that strain, and when I left them, after +passing Sam Hollis bound home, it was with the hope of things coming +out all right. I was feeling happy until I got near Minnie Arkell's +door, where my worrying began again, for there on the steps and in the +glare of the electric light was Minnie Arkell herself, as though she +were waiting for somebody. And not wanting to have her know that I saw +her waiting at her door steps at that time of night, I stepped in the +shadows until she should go in. It was then that Maurice came along, +and she called him up. And he went up and stood on the step below her +and she bent over him as if she wanted to lift him up. And it was less +than five minutes since Sam Hollis left her. + +"Come around by way of the side door of grandma's house, Maurice, and +through her yard and into my house, and nobody will see you. And then +no old grannies will talk and we'll have a little supper all to +ourselves. Hurry now." She was talking as if she owned him. I did not +hear what Maurice said, nor I did not want to hear; but making for the +corner, he went by me like a shot, and "O Lord!" I heard him groan as +he passed me, not recognizing me--not even seeing me, I believe. + +I did not know what to make of it and let him go by. But after he had +turned the corner and Minnie Arkell had shut her door--and she watched +him till he disappeared around the corner--I ran after him. In my +hurrying after him I heard the voice of Clancy coming down the street. +He was singing. I had heard from Nell of Clancy being at the ball, +where he was as usual in charge of the commissary. I could imagine how +they must have drove things around the punch-bowl with Clancy to the +wheel. He was coming along now and for blocks anybody that was not +dead could hear him. And getting nearer I had to admire him. He was +magnificent, even with a list to port. Not often, I imagined, did men +of Clancy's lace and figure get into evening dress. The height and +breadth of him!--and spreading enough linen on his shirt front to make +a sail for quite a little vessel. He was almost on top of me, with + + "Oh, hove flat down on th' Western Banks + Was the Bounding Billow, Captain Hanks-- + And----" + +when I hailed him. + +"Hulloh, if it ain't Joe Buckley. Why, Joey, but aren't you out pretty +late to-night? But maybe you're only standing watch for somebody? +Three o'clock, Joey, and no excuse for you, for you didn't have to +stand by the supplies--" But then I rushed him around the corner, and +down the street to the side door of Mrs. Arkell's and just in time to +head off Maurice, bound as I knew for Minnie Arkell's house across the +yard. I didn't have a chance to say a word to Tommie, but he didn't +have to be told. If I'd been explaining for a week he couldn't have +picked things up any better than he did. + +"Maurice--hi, Maurice! Oh, 'tis you, isn't it. Well, Maurice-boy, all +the night I waited for a chance to have a word with you, but ne'er a +chance could I get. Early in the evening--when I was fit for ladies' +company--Miss Foster said how proud she was to know me--me, who had +saved her cousin Johnnie's life. And then she asked me about the +vessel, and I told her, Maurice, that nothing like the Duncan ever +pushed salt water from out of her way before. 'Nothing with two sticks +in her,' says I, and I laid it on thick; 'and Maurice Blake,' says +I--and there, Maurice, I only spoke true catechism. 'Maurice Blake,' +says I, 'is the man to sail her.' She was glad, she said, to know +that, because her chum, Miss Buckley--Joe's cousin there--wanted that +particular vessel to be a success. And she herself was interested in +it. Never mind the reasons, she said. And she always did believe--and, +Maurice, listen now--she knew that Captain Blake would do the Johnnie +Duncan justice. And I said to her--well, Maurice, what I said you can +guess well enough. No, come to think, you can't guess, but I won't +tell you to your face. But thinking of it now, I mind, Maurice, the +time when we were dory-mates--you and me, Maurice--and the cold +winter's day our dory was capsized. And dark coming on and nothing in +sight, and I could see you beginning to get tired. But tired as you +were, Maurice, tired as you were and the gray look beginning to creep +over you, you says, 'Tommie, take the plug strap for a while, you.'" + +"But you didn't take it, Tommie." + +"No, I didn't take it--and why? I didn't take it--and why? Because, +though the mothers that bore us both were great women--all fire and +iron--'twas in me to last longer--you a boy and your first winter +fishing, and me a tough, hard old trawler. And you had all of life +before you, and I'd run through some hard years of mine. If I'd gone +'twould have been no great loss, but you, Maurice, innocent as a +child--how could I? I'd known men and women, good and bad--I'd lived +life and I'd had my chance and thrown it away--but at your age the +things you had to learn! Maybe I didn't think it all out like that, +but that was why I didn't take the plug strap. But, Maurice-boy, I +never forgot it. 'Take the plug strap, you, Tommie,' you says. We were +dory-mates, of course, but, Maurice-boy, I'll never forget it." + +Clancy took off his hat and drew his hand across his forehead. "And +where were you bound when we stopped you, Maurice?" + +"Oh, I don't know. To take a walk maybe." + +"Sure, and why not? Let's all take a walk. Let's take a walk down to +the dock and have a look at the vessel. Too dark? So it is, but we can +see the shadow of her masts rising up to the clouds and we can open up +the cabin and go below and have a smoke. Come, Maurice. Come on, +Joe." + +And down to the cabin of the Johnnie Duncan we went, and Clancy never +in such humor. For three hours--from a little after three o'clock +until after six--we sat on the lockers, Clancy talking and we smoking +and roaring at him. Only the sun coming up over Eastern Point, +lighting up the harbor and striking into the cabin of the Johnnie +Duncan, brought Clancy to a halt. + +He moved then and we with him. We left Maurice at the door of old Mrs. +Arkell's, the old lady herself in the doorway and asking us if we had +a good time at the ball. Standing on the steps, before he went in, +Maurice said to me: "Tell your cousin, Joe, that when I do race the +Johnnie, I'll take the spars out of her before anything gets by--take +the spars out or send her under. I can't do any more than that." + +The Johnnie Duncan was to leave at ten o'clock and so I left Clancy at +his boarding-house. He looked tired when I left him. But he was +chuckling, too. I asked him what it was that made him smile so. + +"I'll give you three guesses," he said, but I didn't guess. + + + + +VIII + +THE SEINING FLEET PUTS OUT TO SEA + + +The rest of that morning, between leaving Clancy and getting back to +the dock again, I spent in cleaning up and overhauling my home outfit. +My mother couldn't be made to believe that store bedding was of much +use--and she was right, I guess--and so a warranted mattress and +blankets and comforters and a pillow were made into a bundle and +thrown onto a waiting wagon. Then it was good-by to all--good-by to my +cousin Nell, who had come over from her house, good-by and a kiss for +her little sister--late for school she was, but didn't care she +said--and then good-by to my mother. That took longer. Then it was +into the wagon with my bedding and off to the dock. + +At Duncan's store I had charged up to me such other stuff as I needed: +Two suits of oilskins, yellow and black, two sou'westers, heavy and +light, two blue-gray flannel shirts, a black sweater, a pair of rubber +boots, two pairs of woollen mitts and four pairs of cotton mitts, +five pounds of smoking tobacco, a new pipe, and so on. When I had all +my stuff tied up, I swung up abreast of Clancy and together we headed +for the end of Duncan's dock, where the Johnnie Duncan lay. + +Quite a fleet went out ahead of us that morning. Being a new vessel, +there was a lot of things that were not ready until the last minute. +And then there was the new foretopmast--promised at nine o'clock it +was--not slung and stayed up until after ten. And then our second +seine, which finally we had to leave for Wesley Marrs to take next +morning. And there were the usual two or three men late. Clancy and +Andie Howe went up to have a farewell drink and were gone so long that +the skipper sent me after them. I found them both in the Anchorage, +where Clancy had met a man he hadn't seen for ten years--an old +dory-mate--thought he was lost five years before in the West Indies. +"But here he is, fine and handsome. Another little touch all around +and a cigar for Joe, and we're off for the Southern cruise." + +We left then and started for the dock, with Clancy full of poetry. +There happened to be a young woman looking out of a window on the way +down. Clancy did not know her, nor she him, so far as I knew, but +something about him seemed to take her eye. She leaned far out and +waved her handkerchief at him. That was enough. Clancy broke out-- + + "The wind blows warm and the wind blows fair, + Oh, the wind blows westerly-- + Our jibs are up and our anchor's in, + For the Duncan's going to sea. + And will you wait for me, sweetheart? + Oh, will you wait for me? + And will you be my love again + When I come back from sea? + + "Oh, sway away and start her sheets + And point her easterly-- + It's tackle-pennant, boom her out + And turn the Duncan free. + You'll see some sailing now, my boys, + We're off for the Southern cruise-- + They'll try to hold the Johnnie D, + But they'll find it of no use." + +I didn't wait any longer than that for Clancy, but ran ahead to the +Duncan. I found her with jibs up and paying off. I was in time to get +aboard without trouble, but Clancy and Howe coming later had to make a +pier-head jump of it. Clancy, who could leap like a hound--drunk or +sober--made it all right with his feet on the end of the bowsprit and +his fingers on the balloon stay when he landed, but Howe fell short, +and we had the liveliest kind of a time gaffing him in over the bow, +he not being able to swim. They must have heard us yelling clear to +Eastern Point, I guess. Andie didn't mind. "I must be with a lot of +dogs--have to jump overboard to get aboard." He spat out what water he +had to, and started right in to winch up the mainsail with the gang. +He had on a brand-new suit, good cloth and a fine fit. + +"You'll soon dry out in the sun, Andie-boy," they all said to him. + +"I s'pose so. But will my clothes ever fit me again like they +did?--and my fine new patent-leather shoes!" + +Drifting down by the dock next to Duncan's our long bowsprit almost +swept off a row of old fellows from the cap-log. They had to scramble, +but didn't mind. "Good luck, and I hope you fill her up," they called +out. + +"Oh, we'll try and get our share of 'em," our fellows called back. + +There was a young woman on the next dock--one of the kind that quite +often come down to take snap-shots. A stranger to Gloucester she must +have been, for not only that Gloucester girls don't generally come +down to the docks to see the fishermen off, but she said good-by to +us. She meant all right, but she should never have said good-by to a +fisherman. It's unlucky. Too many of them don't come back, and then +the good-by comes true. + +Andie Howe looked a funny sight when we were making sail. Clancy, who, +once he got started, took a lot of stopping, was still going: + + "Oh, the Johnnie Duncan, fast and able-- + Good-by, dear, good-by, my Mabel-- + And will you save a kiss for me + When I come back from sea?" + +"Yes," roared Andie, + + "And don't forget I love you, dear, + And save a kiss for me," + +with the salt water dripping from his fine new suit of clothes and the +patent-leather shoes he was so fond of. + +And Clancy again: + + "Oh, a deep blue sky and a deep blue sea + And a blue-eyed girl awaiting me," + +and Howe, + + "Oh, too-roo-roo and a too-roo-ree + And a hi-did-dy ho-did-dy ho-dee-dee," + +and Clancy, + + "Too-roo-roo and a too-roo-ree, + The Johnnie Duncan's going to sea," + +and Howe--a little shy on the words-- + + "Tum-did-dy dum-did-dy dum-did-dy-dum, + Hoo-roo-roo and a dum by gum." + +And by that time the gang were joining in and sheeting flat the +topsails with a great swing. + +I don't suppose that Gloucester Harbor will ever again look as +beautiful to me as it did that morning when we sailed out. Forty sail +of seiners leaving within two hours, and to see them going--to see +them one after another loose sails and up with them, break out +anchors, pay off, and away! It was the first day of April and the +first fine day in a week, and those handsome vessels going out one +after the other in their fresh paint and new sails--it was a sight to +make a man's heart thump. + +"The Johnnie Duncan, seiner of Gloucester--watch her walk across the +Bay to-day," was George Moore's little speech when he came on deck to +heave his first bucket of scraps over the rail. George was cook. + +And she did walk. We squared away with half a dozen others abreast of +us and Eastern Point astern of us all. Among the forty sail of +fishermen that were standing across the Bay that morning we knew we'd +find some that could sail. There was the Ruth Ripley, Pitt Ripley's +vessel. He worked her clear of the bunch that came out of the harbor +and came after us, and we had it with him across to Cape Cod. Forty +miles before we beat him; but Pitt Ripley had a great sailer in the +Ruth, and we would have been satisfied to hold her even. "Only wait +till by and by, when we get her in trim," we kept saying. + +"This one'll smother some of them yet," said Eddie Parsons, looking +back at the Ruth. He felt pretty good, because he had the wheel when +we finally crossed the Ruth's bow. + +"With good steering--yes," said Clancy. + +"Of course," exclaimed Eddie to that, and filled his chest full, and +then, looking around and catching everybody laughing, let his chest +flatten again. + +The skipper didn't have much to say right away about her sailing. He +was watching her, though. He'd look at her sails, have an eye on how +they set and drew, take a look over her quarter, another look aloft, +and then back at the Ruth, then a look for the vessels still ahead. +"We'll know more about it after we've tried her out with the Lucy +Foster or the Colleen Bawn or Hollis's new vessel," he said, after a +while. + +One thing we soon found out, and that was that she was a stiff vessel. +That was after a squall hit us off Cape Cod. We watched the rest of +them then. Some luffed and others took in sail, and about them we +could not tell. But those that took it full gave us an idea of how we +were behaving. "Let her have it and see how she'll do," said the +skipper, and Howe, who was at the wheel--with his clothes good and dry +again--let her have it full. With everything on and tearing through +the water like a torpedo-boat, one puff rolled her down till she +filled herself chock up between the house and rail, but she kept right +on going. Some vessels can't sail at all with decks under, but the +Johnnie never stopped. "She's all right, this one," said everybody +then. A second later she took a slap of it over her bow, nearly +smothering the cook, who had just come up to dump some potato parings +over the rail. The way he came up coughing and spitting and then his +dive for the companionway--everybody had to roar. + +"Did y'see the cook hop?--did y'see him hop?" called Andie, who was +afraid somebody had missed it. + +We passed the Marauder, Soudan McLeod, soon after. His mainmast had +broken off eight or ten feet below the head. They were clearing away +the wreckage. "I s'pose I oughter had more sense," he called out as we +went by. + +"Oh, I don't know--maybe the spar was rotten," said Maurice, and that +was a nice way to put it, too. + +That night it came a flat calm, and with barely steerage way for us. +There was a big four-masted coaster bound south, too, and light, and +for the best part of the night we had a drifting match with her. +Coasters as a rule are not great all-round sailers, but some of them, +with their flat bottoms and shoal draft, in a fair wind and going +light, can run like ghosts, and this was one of that kind. We had our +work cut out to hold this one while the wind was light and astern, but +in the morning, when it hauled and came fresher, we went flying over +the shoals. So far as the looks of it went the big coaster might as +well have been anchored then. + +All that day we held on. And it was a lesson in sailing to see the way +some of those seiners were handled. Our skipper spent most of that day +finding out how she sailed best and putting marks on her sheets for +quick trimming by and by. + +Trying each other out, measuring one vessel against another, the fleet +went down the coast. We passed a few and were passed by none, and that +was something. Ahead of us somewhere were a half-dozen flyers. If we +could have beaten some of them we should have had something to brag +about; but no telling, we might get our chance yet. + + + + +IX + +MACKEREL + + +Throughout all that night the lights of the fleet were all about us, +ahead and behind. At breakfast next morning--four o'clock--we were off +Delaware Breakwater, and that afternoon at two we began the mast-head +watch for fish. And on that fine April day it was a handsome +sight--forty sail of seiners in sight, spread out and cruising +lazily. + +The skipper was the first to get into his oilskins and heavy sweater, +for with a vessel hopping along at even no more than six or seven +knots by the wind it is pretty chilly aloft, nice and comfortable +though it may be on deck in the sun. + +There was a game of seven-up going on in the cabin, and the sun +striking down the companionway was bothering Andie Howe. He began to +complain. "Hi, up there to the wheel! Hi, Eddie--can't you put her on +the other tack?--the sun's in my eyes. How can a man see the cards +with the sun in his eyes?" + +Parsons didn't have the chance to talk back when the word came from +aloft to put the seine-boat over the side, and after that to overhaul +the seine and pile it in the boat. Vessels ahead had seen mackerel, +the skipper called out. We got into oilskins and boots and made ready. +Those who were going into the seine-boat had already picked out in +what positions they were going to row, and now there was an +overhauling of oars and putting marks on them so that they could be +picked out in a hurry. Clancy and I were to be dorymen. We made ready +the dory, and then Clancy went to the mast-head with the skipper and +Long Steve, whose watch it was aloft. + +Things began to look like business soon. Even from the deck we could +see that one or two vessels ahead had boats out. We began to picture +ourselves setting around a big school and landing the first mackerel +of the year into New York. I think everybody aboard was having that +dream, though everybody pretended not to be in earnest. You could hear +them: "A nice school now--three hundred barrels." "Or two hundred +would be doing pretty well." "Or even a hundred barrels wouldn't be +bad." There were two or three young fellows among the crew, fellows +like myself, who had never seen much seining, and they couldn't keep +still for excitement when from the mast-head came the word that a boat +ahead was out and making a set. + +We were going along all the time and when we could see from the deck +for ourselves the boats that were setting, Billie Hurd couldn't stand +it any longer, but had to go aloft, too. The four of them made a fine +picture--the skipper and Steve standing easily on the spreaders, one +leaning against the mast and the other against the back-stay, with +Hurd perched on the jib halyards block and Clancy on the spring-stay, +and all looking as comfortable as if they were in rockers at home. I'd +have given a hundred dollars then to be able to stand up there on one +foot and lean as easily as the skipper against the stay with the +vessel going along as she was. I made up my mind to practise it when +next I went aloft. + +I went to the mast-head myself by and by, and, seeing half a dozen +schools almost at once, I became so excited that I could hardly speak. +The skipper was excited, too, but he didn't show it, only by his eyes +and talking more jerkily than usual. He paid no attention to two or +three schools that made me just crazy just to look at, but at last, +when he thought it was time, he began to move. Ten or a dozen +Gloucester vessels were bunched together, and one porgy steamer--that +is, built for porgy or menhaden fishing, but just now trying for +mackerel like the rest of us. + +"There'll be plenty of them up soon, don't you think, Tommie?" the +skipper asked. + +"Plenty," answered Tommie, "plenty," with his eyes ever on the fish. +"I think Sam Hollis has got his all right, but Pitt Ripley--I don't +know." + +It was getting well along toward sunset then, with everybody worried, +the skipper still aloft, and one boat making ready to set about a mile +inside of us. "They'll dive," said our skipper, and they did. "There's +Pitt Ripley's school now," and he pointed to where a raft of mackerel +were rising and rippling the water black, and heading for the north. +"There's another gone down, too--they'll dive that fellow. Who is +it--Al McNeill?--yes. But they'll come up again, and when it does, +it's ours." And they did come up, and when they did the skipper made a +jump and roared, "Into the boat!" There was a scramble. "Stay up here, +you Billie, and watch the school," he said to Hurd, and "Go down, +you," to me. I slid down by the jib halyards. The skipper and Clancy +came down by the back-stay and beat me to the deck. They must have +tumbled down, they were down so quick. + +"Hurry--the Aurora's going after it, too." The Aurora was one of +Withrow's fleet and we were bound to beat her. I had hardly time to +leap into the dory after Clancy, and we were off, with nobody left +aboard but Hurd to the mast-head and the cook, who was to stay on deck +and sail the vessel. + +In the seine-boat it was double-banked oars, nine long blades and a +monstrous big one steering--good as another oar that--and all driving +for dear life, with Long Steve and a cork-passer standing by the seine +and the skipper on top of it, with his eyes fixed on the school +ahead--his only motions to open his mouth and to wave with his hands +to the steersman behind him. "Drive her--drive her," he called to the +crew. "More yet--more yet," to the steering oar. "There's the porgy +steamer's boat, too, after the same school. Drive her now, fellows!" + +The mackerel were wild as could be, great rafts of them, and +travelling faster than the old seiners in the gang said they had ever +seen them travel before, and what was worse, not staying up long. +There were boats out from three or four vessels before we pushed off +with ours. I remember the porgy steamer had cut in ahead and given +their boat a long start for a school. However, that school did not +stay up long enough and they had their row for nothing. But then their +steamer picked them up again and dropped them on the way to the same +school that we were trying for. How some of our gang did swear at +them! And all because they were steam power. + +It promised to be a pretty little race, but that school, too, went +down before either of us could head it, and so it was another row for +nothing. We lay on our oars then, both boats ready for another row, +with the skipper and seine-heaver in each standing on top of the seine +and watching for the fish to show again. Of course both gangs were +sizing each other up, too. I think myself that the Duncan's crowd were +a huskier lot of men than the steamer's. Our fellows looked more like +fishermen, as was to be expected, because in Gloucester good fishermen +are so common that naturally, a man hailing from there gets so that he +wants to be a good fisherman, too, and of course the men coming there +are all pretty good to begin with, leaving out the fellows who are +born and brought up around Gloucester and who have it in their blood. +A man doesn't leave Newfoundland or Cape Breton or even Nova Scotia or +Maine and the islands along the coast, or give up any safe, steady +work he may have, to come to Gloucester to fish unless he feels that +he can come pretty near to holding his end up. That's not saying that +a whole lot of fine fishermen do not stay at home, with never any +desire to fish out of Gloucester, in spite of the good money that a +fisherman with a good skipper can make from there, but just the same +they're a pretty smart and able lot that do come. And so, while our +gang was half made up of men that were born far away from Gloucester, +yet they had the Gloucester spirit, which is everything in deep-sea +fishing, when nerve and strength and skill count for so much. And this +other crowd--the porgy steamer's--did not have that look. + +"Look at what we're coming to," somebody called. "All steam boys soon, +and on wages--wages!" he repeated, "and going around the deck, with a +blue guernsey with letters on the chest of it--A.D.Q.--or some other +damn company." + +"Well, that would not be bad either, with your grub bill sure and your +money counted out at the end of every month," answered somebody else. + +I was sizing up the two gangs myself, I being in the dory with Clancy, +and I guess that nearly everyone of us was doing the same thing and +keeping an eye out for fish at the same time, when all at once a +school popped up the other side of the porgyman's boat. Perhaps, half +a mile it was and, for a wonder, not going like a streak. + +We saw it first and got to going first, but the Aurora's boat and the +steamer's boat were nearer, and so when we were all under good headway +there were two lengths or so that we had to make up on each. Well, +that was all right. Two lengths weren't so many, and we drove her. It +was something to see the fellows lay out to it then--doubled-banked, +two men to each wide seat and each man with a long oar, which he had +picked out and trimmed to suit himself, and every man in his own +particular place as if in a racing crew. + +And now every man was bending to it. A big fellow, named Rory +McKinnon, was setting the stroke. There was a kick and a heave to +every stroke, and the men encouraging each other. "Now--now--give it +to her," was all that I could hear coming out of him. All this time we +in the dory were coming on behind, Clancy and I having to beat their +dory just as our boat had to beat their boat. And we were driving, +too, you may be sure. Clancy was making his oars bend like whips. +"Blast 'em! There's no stiffness to 'em," he was complaining. And +then, "Sock it to her," he would call out to our fellows in the +seine-boat. "We've got the porgy crew licked--that's the stuff," came +from the skipper. From on top of the seine he was watching the fish, +watching the gang, watching the other boats, watching us in the +dory--watching everything. Whoever made a slip then would hear from it +afterwards, we knew. And clip, clip, clip it was, with the swash just +curling nicely under the bow of the other boat, and I suppose our own, +too, if we could have seen. + +Our boat was gaining on the Aurora's and the skipper was warming up. +The fish was going the same way we were, still a quarter of a mile +ahead. + +"Drive her," said the skipper. "Drive her--drive her--another length +and you got 'em. And, Kenney, it's the best of ash you've got. Don't +be afraid of breaking it. And, Dan Burns, didn't y'ever learn to keep +stroke in the Bay of Islands with nine more men beside you rowing? And +drive her--hit her up now--here's where we got 'em--they can't hold it +on their lives. Now then, another dozen strokes and it's over. One, +two, three--quicker, Lord, quicker--six, seven--oh, now she's fair +flying--look at her leap. You blessed lobster, keep rowing and not +looking over your shoulder. We got to get the fish first." + +A quarter mile of that with the foam ripping by us, and every man with +his blood like fire jumping to his oar, when the skipper leaped back +to the steering oar. "Stand by," he called, and then, "Now--over with +the buoy," and over it went, with the dory at hand and Tommie Clancy +right there to pick it up and hold it to windward. And then went the +seine over in huge armfuls. Just to see Long Steve throw that seine +was worth a trip South. And he was vain as a child of his strength +and endurance. "My, but look at him!" Clancy called out--"look at the +back of him!" "He's a horse," somebody else would have to say, and +"H-g-gh," Steve would grunt, and "H-g-gh" he would fill the air full +of tarred netting, "H-g-gh--pass them corks," and over it would go, +"H-g-gh," and the skipper would say, "That's the boy, Steve," and +Steve would heave to break his back right then and there. All the time +they were driving the seine-boat to its limit, and the skipper was +laying to the big steering oar, the longest of them all and taking a +strong man to handle it properly--laying to it, swinging from the +waist like a hammer-thrower, and the boat jumping to it. She came +jumping right for us in the dory in a little while. It doesn't take a +good gang long to put a quarter mile of netting around a school of +mackerel. + +It was a pretty set he made. "Pretty, pretty," you could almost hear +the old seiners saying between their teeth, even as they were all +rowing with jaws set and never a let-up until the circle was +completed, when it was oars into the air and Clancy leaping from the +dory into the seine-boat to help purse up. "It's a raft if ever we get +'em," were his first words, and everybody that wasn't too breathless +said yes, it was a jeesly raft of fish. + +"Purse in," it was then, and lively. And so we pursed in, hauling on +the running line in the lower edge of the seine, something as the +string around the neck of a tobacco bag is drawn tight. It was heavy +work of course, but everybody made light of it. We could not tell if +the fish were in it or not. The leaders might have dove when they felt +the twine against their noses and so escaped with the whole school +following after, or they might have taken no alarm and stayed in. + +So we pursed in, not knowing whether we were to have a good haul with +a hundred or a hundred and fifty dollars apiece at the end of it, or +whether we would have our work for nothing. All hands kept up the +pretence of joking, of course, but everybody was anxious enough. It +was more than the money--it was fisherman's pride. Were we to get into +New York and have it telegraphed on to Gloucester for everybody that +knew us to read and talk about--landing the first mackerel of the +year? We watched while the circle narrowed and the pool inside grew +shallower. Somebody said, "There's one," and we could see the shine of +it, and another--and another--and then the whole mass of them rose +flipping. They lashed the water into foam, rushed around the edges, +nosed the corks of the seine. I don't think myself that mackerel are +particularly intelligent, take them generally; but at times they seem +to know--these fellows, at least, seemed to know they were gone and +they thrashed about in fury. A mackerel is a handsome fish any time, +but to see him right you want to see him fresh-seined. They whipped +the water white now--tens of thousands of them. I don't believe that +the oldest seiner there didn't feel his heart beat faster--the first +mackerel of the year. "And Lord knows, maybe a couple of hundred +barrels," and the skipper's eyes shone--it meant a lot to him. And +some of the men began to talk like children, they were so pleased. + + + + +X + +WE LOSE OUR SEINE + + +Two hundred barrels the skipper had said, but long before we were all +pursed up we knew that five hundred barrels would never hold the fish +in that seine. The size of that school filled us with joy and yet it +was the very size of it that caused us our trouble. It was too big for +the seine, and when they began to settle down and take the twine with +them the trouble began for us. No bit of twine ever made to be handled +from a seine-boat was big enough to hold that school of fish when they +began to go down. + +The skipper was awake to it early and signalled for the vessel to come +alongside. So the Johnnie stood over to us, and Hurd, pushing the +spare dory over with Moore's help, came jumping with it to the side of +the seine where I was alone in the first dory. He hadn't even stopped +to get into his oilskins, he was in such a hurry. By the skipper's +orders I had made fast some of the corks to the thwarts in the dory +and Billie took some into the spare dory. The whole length of the +seine-boat they were making fast the seine too. In that way the +skipper hoped to buoy up the fish and hold them until we could lighten +the seine up by bailing some of the fish onto the deck of the vessel. +But it was of no use. There must have been a thousand barrels of them, +and dories and seine-boat began to go under. It was over the rail of +my dory and spare dory both, and both Billie and myself to our waists, +when the skipper sung out for us to jump and save ourselves. We hung +on a little longer, but it got to be too much for us and overboard we +went. We were not in danger then. It is true that the sea was making +and we were weighted down with oilskins and rubber boots, but we had +for support the corks that had not yet gone under. And along the corks +we hauled ourselves toward the seine-boat. I was praying that the +sharks that sometimes follow up mackerel would not bother us. It is +probable that they would not even if there were any around, as +mackerel are better eating. And such a fuss as we made hauling +ourselves through the water! We'd have scared away a whole school of +sharks. Before we could get to the seine-boat that, too, was under. +"Jump!" called the skipper, and "Jump everybody!" called Clancy, and +themselves both hanging on to a last handful of twine. The men in the +seine-boat jumped and struck out for the vessel, which was now quite +close, with the cook, the only man left aboard, throwing over +keelers, draw-buckets, the main sheet--anything within his reach that +was loose and would support a man. + +The skipper and Clancy hung on to the last. "Jump you, Tommie!" called +the skipper. "Not me till you go," answered Clancy. They couldn't do a +bit of good, but they hung on, each grabbing handfuls of twine in a +last effort to hold up the seine. The seine-boat went under--and they +up to their necks--and then it turned over and in toward the seine. +Some of us hollered--we were afraid that it was all up with both of +them--that they would be thrown toward the inside and tangled up in +the seine. But both of them bobbed up, the skipper saying nothing, but +Clancy sputtering like a crazy man. The dories coming loose gave a few +of us a chance to climb up on the bottom of them, and when the +seine-boat came bobbing up most of the others climbed up on the bottom +of that. And there was some swearing done then, you may be sure! The +gang would have been all right then, waiting to be picked up by the +cook from the vessel, which was then pretty handy; but the seine-boat +started to go under again and then came the slap of a little sea, and +overboard went seven or eight of us. Clancy was one of those thrown +into the water. We all remembered it afterwards because he called out +for Andie Howe. + +"Where's Andie?" + +"Here," said Andie. + +"Where?" + +"Hanging onto the bow of the seine-boat." + +"Well, hang on a while longer," said Clancy and struck out for the +vessel, and made it too, oilskins, big boots and all. He threw two or +three lines out at once--one especially to Thad Simpson, the other man +of the crew besides Andie Howe who it was known couldn't swim. So +Clancy hauled him in. The third man he hauled in was Billie Hurd. + +"Good Lord, Tommie," said Billie, "you hove a line over my head to +Andie Howe." + +"You pop-eyed Spanish mackerel!" roared Clancy at him, "you ought to +know by this time that Andie can't swim." + +"I know, but he was all oiled up, and look at me----" + +"Go to hell," said Clancy. + +We all got aboard after a while, but our fine new seine was gone, and +the big school of fish too. After a hard grapple we got the dories and +a little later the seine-boat, and after a lot more work we got them +right side up. The dories we pulled the plugs out of to let them drain +and then took them on deck, but the seine-boat we had to pump out. By +then it was pretty well on in the night and I remember how the moon +rose just as we had it fairly well dried out and dropped astern--rose +as big as a barrel-head and threw a yellow light over it, and then +went out of sight, for a breeze was on us. + +And "Oh, Lord! that thousand-barrel school!" groaned everybody. + + + + +XI + +AN OVER-NIGHT BREEZE + + +It wasn't bad enough that we came near losing a few men and our boat, +and our seine altogether, but it must come on to breeze up on top of +that and drive us off the grounds. After putting everything to rights, +we were having a mug-up forward and wondering if the skipper would +take sail off her or what, when we heard the call that settled it. + +"On deck everybody!" we heard. And when we got there, came from the +skipper, "Take in the balloon, tie it up and put it below. Haul down +your stays'l too--and go aloft a couple of you, fore and aft, and put +the tops'ls in gaskets." + +We attended to that--a gang out on the bowsprit, half a dozen aloft +and so on--with the skipper to the wheel while it was being done. When +we had finished it was, "Haul the seine-boat alongside--pump out what +water's left." Then, "Shift that painter and hook on the big painter. +Drop her astern and give her plenty of line. Where's the dorymen? +Where's Tommie and Joe? Haul the dories into the hatch, Tommie, and +make 'em fast. Gripe 'em good while you're at it. Clear the deck of +all loose gear--put it below, all of it--keelers, everything. Maybe +'twon't be much of a blow, but there's no telling--it may. She mayn't +be the kind that washes everything over, but put it all safe anyway." + +The skipper watched all this until he had seen everything cleared up +and heard "All fast the dory," from the waist. Then he looked up and +took note of sky and wind. "Don't feel any too good. Maybe 'twill blow +off, but we might's well run in. We'll have to wait for our other +seine anyway and Wesley will be sure to put into the Breakwater for +news on his way down, especially if it comes to blow." + +He dropped below then to light his pipe. Seeing me and Parsons, with +me trying to fix up Parsons's leg where it had been gashed--Eddie +never knew how--in the mix-up of the evening, the skipper said, +"There's some liniment in the chest and some linen in one of the +drawers under my bunk. Get it. And some of you might's well turn in +and have a nap. She'll be all right--the watch and myself can look +after her now," and he went on deck again, puffing like an engine to +keep his pipe going. + +Most of them did turn in and were soon asleep. Some of the older men +had a smoke and an overhauling of their wet clothes, while a few +joined in a little game of draw before turning in. One or two were +deploring the loss of the seine. The nearness to losing lives didn't +seem to be worrying anybody. For myself, I was somewhat worked up. +There was one time in the water when I thought I was gone. So I went +on deck after the skipper. It was a black night and breezing all the +time and I wanted to see how the vessel behaved. The Johnnie was +close-hauled at this time and swashing under, and I knew without +asking further that the skipper intended to make Delaware Breakwater. + +While hurrying forward, after lending a hand to batten down the main +hatch--the Johnnie plunging along all the time--and my head perhaps a +little too high in the air, I stumbled off the break and plump over a +man under the windward rail. I thought I was going to leeward and +maybe overboard, but somebody hooked onto the full in the back of my +oil-jacket, hauled me up the inclined deck again, and in a roaring +whisper said, "Get a hold here, Joey--here's a ring-bolt for you. +Don't let go on your life! Isn't it fine?" It was Clancy. He had +nights, I know, when he couldn't sleep, and like me, I suppose, he +wanted to watch the sea, which just then was firing grandly. Into this +sea the vessel was diving--nose first--bringing her bowsprit down, +down, down, and then up, up, up, until her thirty-seven-foot bowsprit +would be pointing to where the North star should be. Whenever she +heaved like that I could feel her deck swelling under me. I remember +when I used to play foot-ball at the high school at home and it was +getting handy to a touch-down, with perhaps only a few yards to gain +and the other side braced to stop it, that a fellow playing back had +to buck like that from under a line when he had to scatter tons, or +what he thought was tons, of people on top of him. The vessel was that +way now, only with every dive she had hundreds of tons to lift from +under. At a time like that you can feel the ribs of a vessel brace +within her just as if she was human. Now I could almost feel her heart +pumping and her lungs pounding somewhere inside. I could feel her +brace to meet it, feel her shiver, as if she was scared half to death, +and almost hear her screech like a winner every time she cleared it +and threw it over her head. + +Now down she went--the Johnnie Duncan--down and forward, for she +wouldn't be held back--shoulders and breast slap into it. Clear to her +waist she went, fighting the sea from her. To either side were +tumbling the broken waves, curling away like beach combers. The hollow +of each was a curved sheet of electric white, and the top--the +crest--was a heavier, hotter white. The crests would rise above our +rail and break, and back into the hollows would fall a shower of +shooting stars that almost sizzled. There wasn't a star above, but +millions on the water! + +"Ever see anything like that ashore, Joey-boy?" said Clancy, and I had +to roar a whisper that I never had. + +Through this play of fire the Johnnie leaped with great bounds. She +boiled her way, and astern she left a wake in which the seine-boat was +rearing and diving with a fine little independent trail of its own. + +Two men forward--the watch--were leaning over the windlass and peering +into the night. They were there for whatever they might see, but +particularly were they looking for the double white light of Five +Fathom Bank lightship. The skipper was at the wheel. When he got in +the way of the cabin light, we could catch the shine from his dripping +oil-clothes, and the spark from his pipe--which he kept going through +it all--marked his position when he stepped back into the darkness. + +Clancy noticed him. "There's a man for you, Joey. Think what it meant +to a young skipper with a new vessel--the loss of that school and the +seine on top of it the very first day he struck fish. If we'd got +that, he might have been the first vessel of the year into the New +York market. And think of the price the first fish fetch!--and the +honor of it--and he breaking his heart to make a reputation this year. +And yet not a yip out of him--not a cranky word to one of the gang all +night. A great man I call him--and a fisherman." I thought so, too. + +Sometimes I imagined I could see the wink of red and green lights +abreast and astern, which I probably did, for there should have been +fifty sail or so of seiners inside and outside of us--there were sixty +sail of the fleet in sight that afternoon--and I knew that, barring a +possible few that had got fish and were driving for the New York +market, all the others were like ourselves, under lower sails and +boring into it, with extra lookout forward, the skipper at the wheel +or on the quarter and all ears and eyes for the surf and lights +inshore when we should get there. + +"Something ahead! dead ahead! sa-ail!" came suddenly from forward. +There was a scraping of boot-heels at the wheel. "What d'y'make of +it?--all right, I see her!" In the shadow we saw the skipper pulling +the wheel down. Ahead I imagined I saw a dark patch, but to make sure +I squirmed up to the fore-rigging. Whoever she was, the light from her +cabin skylight was right there and I realized that we were pretty +close, but not really how close until a boat bobbed up under my jaws +almost. Right from under our bow it heaved. It was a seiner and that +was her seine-boat towing astern, and I could easily have heaved a +line to her helmsman as we swept by her. There was an awfully tall +shadow of sails--half up to the clouds I thought--and the black of the +hull looked as long as a dock. A voice was hurled to us, but we +couldn't quite make it out--but it was the watch, probably, saying a +word or two by way of easing his feelings. + +We worked up to the windward of that one and slowly crowded past her +tumbling green light. Then the skipper let the wheel fly up and we +shot ahead and soon we had her directly astern, with her one green and +one red eye looking after us. "That's one fellow we outsail," thought +I to myself, and I knew I was beginning to love the Johnnie Duncan. + +All through that night it went on like that. + +At four o'clock or so in the morning the cook stuck his head out of +the slit in the forec's'le companionway and spoke his welcome little +piece. "Can't have any reg'lar sit-down this morning, boys. Have to +leave the china in the becket for a while yet, but all that wants can +make a mug-up, and when we get inside--if we do in anything like a +decent hour--we'll have breakfast." + +At five o'clock the sky began to brighten to the eastward, but there +was no let-up to the wind or sea. If anything it was breezing up. At +six o'clock, when the short blasts of the lightship split the air +abreast of us, things were good and lively, but there was no daylight +to go by then. The wash that in the night only buried her bow good was +then coming over her to the foremast and filling the gangway between +the house and rail as it raced aft. The beauty of double-lashing the +dories began to appear, and all hands might have been towing astern +all night by the look of them. But the Johnnie Duncan was doing well +and the opinion of the crew generally was that the skipper could slap +every rag to her and she'd carry it--that is, if she had to. The +skipper put her more westerly after we had passed the lightship and on +we went. + +We had the company of a couple of coasters in this part of the drive; +and by that, if nothing else, a man might know we were inshore. Some +Gloucester men were in sight, too, though most of the fleet, we +guessed, were still outside of us. The coasters were colliers, +three-masters both, and reefed down, wallowing in the sea. One had her +foretopmast snapped short off, and such patched sails as she had on +looked lonesome. The gang, of course, had to make fun of her. + +"There's one way to house a topm'st!" + +"Broke your clothes-pole, old girl!" + +"Better take in your washing there--looks like rain!" + +"Go it, you beauty! I only wish I had my cameraw. If y'only suspected +how lovely you look!" + +Two big ocean tugs, one clear white and one all black, offered a +change in looks, though in nothing else, for each one, with two barges +of coal, was making desperate hauling of it, and the Breakwater yet a +good bit away. + +"Hustle 'em, you husky coal-jammers!" roared Parsons at them, as if he +could be heard beyond the rail. "I wouldn't be aboard of you for my +share of the Southern trip--and mackerel away up in G, too. Would you, +Billie?" + +"Then? Naw!" said Hurd, with a wrinkling of his little nose. + +"No, nor me neither," said Long Steve. "Hi--ever hear the cook--ever +hear George Moore's song:-- + + 'If ever you go to sea, my boy, + Don't ever you ship on a steamer; + There's stacks to scrape and rails to paint-- + It's always work to clean her. + When the wind is wrong and the shore is by, + They'll keep you clear of leeway, + But they roll and they jolt and they're never dry-- + They're the devil's own in a sea-way!'" + +Steve, trying to sing that, had one hand hooked into a ring-bolt under +the rail and he was slowly pickling--we were all pickling--like a +salted mackerel in a barrel. + +An hour past Five Fathom and the tall white tower of Cape Henlopen +could be made out ahead, as well as the gray tower of Cape May through +the mists to the northward. The wind was coming faster and it felt +heavier. We could judge best of how we were looking ourselves by +watching all our fellows near by. We could see to the bottom planks of +two to leeward of us, while on the sloping deck of one to windward it +was plain that only what was lashed or bolted was still there. When +they reared they almost stood up straight, and when they scooped into +it the wonder was that all the water taken aboard didn't hold her +until the next comber could have a fair whack at her. + +The men--that is, a few of them--might joke, but were all glad to be +getting in. There's no fun staying wet and getting wetter all night +long. If it wasn't for the wetness of a fellow it would have been +great, for it was the finest kind of excitement, our running to +harbor--that night--especially in the morning when we were passing +three or four and nobody passing us. We went by one fellow--the +Martinet she was--a fair enough sailer--passed her to windward of +course, our gang looking across at their gang and nobody saying a +word, but everybody thinking a lot, you may be sure. It was worth a +square meal that. + +With the Martinet astern, the skipper let her pay off and run for the +end of the Breakwater. For a while he let the wind take her fair +abeam, with sheets in, and the way she sizzled through the water was a +caution. There was a moment that an extra good blast hit her that my +heart sank, but I reflected that the skipper knew his business, and so +tried to take it unconcernedly. Everybody around me was joking and +laughing--to think, I suppose, that we would soon be in. + +A moment after that I went down to leeward. The sea was bubbling in +over her rail at the fore-rigging and I wanted to get the feel of it. +I got it. It is pretty shoal water on the bar at the mouth of the +Delaware River and quite a little sea on when it blows. One sea came +aboard. Somebody yelled and I saw it--but too late--and slap! over I +went--over the rail--big boots and oilskins I went down into the +roaring. For a second my head came up and I saw the vessel. Everybody +aboard was standing by. The skipper was whirling the spokes and the +vessel was coming around like a top. I never saw a vessel roll down so +far in all my life. I went under again and coming up heard a dull +shout. There was a line beside me. "Grab hold!" yelled somebody. No +need to tell me--I grabbed hold. It was the seine-boat's painter. The +Johnnie was still shooting and when the line tautened it came as near +to pulling my arms out of my shoulders as ever I want to have them +again. But I hung on. Then she came up, and they hauled the painter in +and gaffed me over the rail. + +"You blankety blank fool!" roared Clancy, as soon as I stood +up--"don't you know any better? A fine thing we'd have to be +telegraphing home, wouldn't it? Are you all right now?" + +"All right," I said, and felt pretty cheap. + +While being hauled in, knowing that I was safe, I had been thinking +what a fine little adventure I'd have to tell when we got back to +Gloucester, but after Clancy got through with me I saw that there were +two ways to look at it. So I took my old place under the windward rail +and didn't move from there again till it was time to take sail off +her. + + + + +XII + +THE FLEET RUNS TO HARBOR + + +Nearing the Breakwater we had more company. Other seiners, with boats +astern and dories on deck, were coming in; jumbo, jib, fore and reefed +mainsail generally, and all plunging gloriously with a harbor near at +hand. + +For the next few hours of that morning any watcher in the lighthouse +on the Breakwater could have seen plenty of samples of clever +seamanship. At our time we were only one of a half-dozen at the +business of working around the jetty, some making for one end and some +for the other. There was a great trying of tacks and some plain +criticism of tactics and weatherly qualities. There was one who tried +to cut in before he could quite make it. When he had to put back or +run ashore and lose her, a great laugh went up, though there was +nothing the matter with the try. He had only tried too much. + +Eddie Parsons was the sharp critic. "Trying to beat out the fleet, +hey? And with that old hooker? Nothing wrong with your nerve, old man, +but some fine day, when there's a little wind stirring, you'll roll +that tub over a little too far. That's right--jam her up now! Think +you got a steamboat? Wonder nobody ever told you about sailing a +vessel. Come out of it, old man, and let her swing off." + +We had yet to get in ourselves, and that we had the Johnnie Duncan to +eat into the wind we were thankful. At last we were by and reaching +down to the end of the jetty. We all began to feel good once we were +sure of it. It was fine, too, to listen to Clancy as we got near. He +was standing on the break, leaning against the weather rigging and +looking forward. + +"You'd think she'd been coming here for a hundred years, wouldn't you? +Look at her point her nose now at that beacon--don't have to give this +one the wheel at all. She's the girl. See her bow off now. Man, but +she knows as well as you and me she'll be inside and snug's a kenched +mackerel before long. Watch her kick into the wind now. Oh, she's the +lady, this one. I've sailed many of them, but she's the queen of them +all, this one." + +A half dozen of lucky fellows were in before us. We drove in among +them, under the bow of one and past the stern of another. They were +all watching us, after the custom of the fleet in harbor. We knew this +and behaved as smartly as we could without slopping over. + +By and by our skipper picked out a place to his fancy. "Stand by +halyards and down-hauls," was his warning. + +"Ready--all ready." + +"Ready with the anchor!" + +"All ready the anchor, sir!" + +"Down with your jib! Down with jumbo! Let go your fore halyards! Watch +out now--ready--let go your anchor!" + +Rattle--whizz--whir-r-r--splash! clink--and the Johnnie Duncan of +Gloucester was safe to her mooring. + +And not till then did our skipper, ten hours to the wheel, unclinch +his grip, hook the becket to a spoke, slat his sou'wester on the +wheel-box and ease his mind. + +"Thank the Lord, there's a jeesly blow behind us. There's some +outside'll wish they had a shore job before they get in. Hi, boys, +when you get her tied up for'ard, better all go below and have a bite +to eat. Let the mains'l stand and give it a chance to dry." Then he +looked about him. "And I didn't notice that anybody passed us on the +way." There was a whole lot in that last. + +After eating a bite, I went over in the dory to the lighthouse on the +jetty, where seamen's mail was taken care of. After leaving my letters +I stopped to watch some of the fleet coming. It was easy enough to +pick them. The long, slick-looking, lively seine-boat in tow and the +black pile of netting on deck told what they were, and they came +jumping out of the mists in a way to make a man's heart beat. + +There was a man standing on the jetty. He was master of a three-masted +coaster, he told me. "You come off one of them Gloucester +mackerel-catchers?" he asked me. I said yes. "That new-looking one +that came in a while ago?" I said yes again. + +"I was watching her--she's a dream--a dream. I never see anything like +them--the whole bunch of 'em. Look at this one--ain't she got on about +all she can stand up under though? My soul, ain't she staggering! I +expect her skipper knows his business--don't expect he'd be skipper of +a fine vessel like that if he didn't. But if 'twas me I'd just about +take a wide tuck or two in that ever-lastin' mains'l he's got there. +My conscience, but ain't he a-sockin' it to her! I s'pose that's the +way some of your vessels are sailed out and never heard from +again--that was never run into, nor rolled over, nor sunk in a reg'lar +way, but just drove right into it head-first trying to make a passage +and drowned before ever they could rise again. Well, good-luck to you, +old girl, and your skipper, whoever he is, and I guess if your canvas +stays on you'll be to anchor before a great while, for you're making +steamboat time. Go it, old girl, and your little baby on behind, go +it! There ain't nothing short of an ocean liner could get you now. Go +it! a sail or two don't matter--if it's a good mackerel season I +s'pose the owners don't mind if you blow away a few sails. Go it, God +bless you! Go it! you're the lads can sail a vessel, you fishermen of +Gloucester. Lord, if I dared to try a thing like that with my vessel +and my crew and the old gear I got, I rather expect I'd have a +rigger's bill by the time I got home--if ever I got home carryin' on +like that in my old hooker." + +I watched her, too. She was the Tarantula, Jim Porter, another +sail-carrier. Around the point and across she tore and over toward the +sands beyond, swung off on her heel to her skipper's heave, came down +by the wreck of a big three-master on the inner beach, and around and +up opposite what looked like a building on the hill. Then it was down +with the wheel, down with headsails, let go fore-halyards, over with +the anchor, and there she was, another fisherman of Gloucester, at +rest in harbor after an all-night fight with a lively breeze. + +And I left the master of the coaster there and went back to the +Duncan, where the crew were standing along the rail or leaning over +the house and having a lot of fun sizing up those who were coming in. +It is one of the enjoyments of the seining fleet--this racing to +harbor when it blows and then watching the others work in. I've heard +it said that no place in the world can show a fleet like them--all +fine vessels, from one hundred to one hundred and twenty feet over +all, deep draught, heavily sparred, and provided with all kinds of +sail. They were ably managed, of course,--and a dash to port makes the +finest kind of a regatta. No better chances are offered to try vessels +and seamanship--no drifting or flukes but wind enough for all hands +and on all points of sailing generally. + +They came swooping in one after the other--like huge sea-gulls, only +with wings held close. Now, with plenty of light, those already in +could easily see the others coming long before they rounded the jetty. +Even if we couldn't see the hulls of them, there were fellows who +could name them--one vessel after the other--just by the spars and +upper rigging. The cut of a topsail, the look of a mast-head, the set +of a gaff--the smallest little thing was enough to place them, so well +were they acquainted with one another. And the distance at which some +of them could pick out a vessel was amazing. + +George Moore, coming up out of the forec's'le to dump over some +scraps, spied one. "The Mary Grace Adams," he sang out,--"the +shortest forem'st out of Gloucester. She must've been well inside when +she started--to get in at this time. Slow--man, but she is slow, that +one." + +"Yes, that's the old girl, and behind her is the Dreamer--Charlie +Green--black mast-heads and two patches on her jumbo. She'll be in and +all fast before the Mary Grace's straightened out." + +And so it was--almost. The Mary Adams was one of the older fleet and +never much of a sailer. The Dreamer was one of the newer vessels, +able, and a big sailer. They were well raked by the critics, as under +their four lowers they whipped in and around and passed on by. + +After the Dreamer came the Madeline, with "Black Jack" Hogan, a fleshy +man for a fisherman, who minded his way and remained unmoved at the +compliments paid his vessel, one of the prize beauties of the fleet. +The Marguerite, Charley Falvey, a dog at seining, always among the +high-liners, who got more fun out of a summer's seining than most men +ever got out of yachting, who bought all the latest inventions in gear +as fast as they came out and who had a dainty way of getting fish. The +Marguerite dipped her bow as she passed, while her clever skipper +nodded along the line. + +The King Philip, another fast beauty, made her bow and dipped her +jibs to her mates in harbor. At sight of her master, Al McNeill, a +great shout goes up. "Ho, ho! boys, here's Lucky Al! Whose seine was +it couldn't hold a jeesly big school one day off here last spring but +Billie Simms'? Yes, sir, Billie Simms. Billie fills up and was just +about thinking he'd have to let the rest go when who heaves in sight +and rounds to and says, 'Can I help y'out, William?' Who but Lucky Al +McNeill, of course. Bales out two hundred barrels as nice fat mackerel +as anybody'd want to see. 'Just fills me up,' says Al, and scoots to +market. Just been to New York, mind you, that same week with two +hundred and fifty barrels he got twelve cents apiece for. 'Just fills +me up,' says Al, and scoots. No, he ain't a bit lucky, Captain Al +ain't--married a young wife only last fall." + +Then followed the Albatross, with Mark Powers giving the orders. Then +the Privateer, another fast one, but going sluggishly now because of a +stove-in seine-boat wallowing astern. Then the North Wind, with her +decks swept clear of everything but her house and hatches. Seine-boat, +seine and dory were gone. + +After her was a big, powerful vessel, the Ave Maria, with the most +erratic skipper of all. This man never appeared but the gossip broke +out. Andie Howe had his record. "Here comes George Ross. What's this +they say now?--that he don't come down from the mast-head now like he +used to, when he strikes a school. When I was with him he was a pretty +lively man comin' from aloft--used to sort of fall down, you know. But +now he comes down gentle-like--slides down the back-stay. Only trouble +now he's got to get new rubber boots every other trip, 'count of the +creases he wears in the legs of them sliding down the wire. I tell you +they all lose their nerve as they get older. There's Billie Simms +coming behind him. He's given up tryin' to sail his vessel on the side +and tryin' to see how long he c'n carry all he c'n pile on. Billie +says 't'ain't like when a fellow's young and ain't got any family. I +expect it's about the same with George since he got married." The +master of the Ave Maria didn't even glance over as he piloted his +vessel along. He very well knew that we were talking about him. + +Pretty soon came one that everybody looked at doubtfully. She sported +a new mainmast and a new fore-gaff. "Who's this old hooker with her +new spars? Looks like a vessel just home from salt fishing, don't she? +Lord, but she needs painting." Nobody seemed to know who she was, and +as she got nearer there was a straining of eyes for her name forward. +"The H-A-R-B-I--oh, the Harbinger. Must be old Marks and the old craft +he bought down East last fall. This the old man, of course--the +Harbinger. How long's she been down here? Came down ahead of the +fleet? Well, she ought to--by the looks of her she needs a good early +start to get anywhere. They ought to be glad to get in. I mind that +September breeze twenty year ago that the old man said blew all the +water off Quero and drove him ashore on Sable Island. He says he ain't +taking any more line storms in his. No, nor anybody else in the old +square-enders he gen'rally sails in. I'll bet he's glad to change +winter trawling for summer seining. I'll bet he put in a few wakeful +nights on the Banks in his time--mind the time he parted his cable and +came bumping over Sable Island No'the-east Bar? Found the only channel +there was, I callate. 'Special little angels was looking out for me,' +he says, when he got home. 'Yes,' says Wesley Marrs--he was telling it +to Wesley--'yes,' says Wesley, 'but I'll bet keepin' the lead goin' +had a hell of a lot to do with it, too.'" + +So they came rolling in by the end of the jetty until they could make +one last tack of it. Like tumbling dolphins they were--seiners all, +with a single boat towing astern and a single dory, or sometimes two +dories, lashed in the waist, all gear stowed away, under four lower +sails mostly--jumbo, jib, fore and main, though now and then was one +with a mainsail in stops and a trysail laced to the gaff, and all +laying down to it until their rails were washing under and the sea +hissed over the bows. + +Anybody would have to admire them as they came scooting past. When +they thought they were close enough to the Breakwater--and some went +pretty close--up or down would go the wheel, according to which end of +the jetty they came in by, around they would go, and across the flats +and down on the fleet they would come shooting. They breasted into the +hollows like any sea-bird and lifted with every heave to shake the +water from bilge to quarter. They came across with never a let-up, +shaving everything along the way until a good berth was picked out. +Then they let go sails, dropped anchor and were ready for a rest. + +Nobody got by our fellows without a word. And we weren't the only crew +of critics. Bungling seamanship would get a slashing here, but there +was none of that. It was all good, but there are degrees of goodness, +of course. First-class seamanship being a matter of course, only a +wonderful exhibition won approval from everybody. And crews coming in, +knowing what was ahead of them, made no mistakes in that harbor. + +A dozen ordinary skippers sailed past before a famous fisherman at +length came in. Everybody knew him--a dog, a high-liner, truly a +master mariner. A murmur went up. "There's the boy," said Tommie +Clancy. "I mind last summer when he came into Souris just such a day +as this, but with more wind stirring. 'Twas Fourth of July and we had +all our flags to the peak--and some fine patriotic fights going on +ashore that day--our flag and the English. The harbor was jammed with +seiners and fresh-fishers. You couldn't see room for a dory, looking +at 'em end on. But that don't jar Tom O'Donnell. What does he do? He +just comes in and sails around the fleet like a cup-defender on +parade--and every bit of canvas he had aboard flying--only his crew +had to hang onto the ring-bolts under the wind'ard rail. Well, he +comes piling in, looks the fleet over, sizes up everything, picks out +a nice spot as he shoots around, sails out the harbor again--clean +out, yes sir, clean out--comes about--and it blowing a living gale all +the time--shoots her in again, dives across a line of us, and fetches +her up standing. We could've jumped from our rail to his in +jack-boots, he was that close to us and another fellow the other side. +Slid her in like you slide the cover into a diddy box. Yes, sir, and +that's the same lad you see coming along now--Tom O'Donnell and his +Colleen Bawn." + +He certainly was coming on now, and a fine working vessel he had. She +showed it in every move. She came around like a twin-screw launch, +picked out her berth like she had intelligence in her eyes, made for +it, swirled, fluttered like a bird, felt with her claws for the ground +underneath, found it, gripped it, swayed, hung on, and at last settled +gently in her place. There was no more jar to the whole thing than if +she had been a cat-boat in a summer breeze. "Pretty, pretty, pretty," +you could hear the gang along our rail. + +"They talk about knockabout racing craft," said Clancy, "but did +y'ever see anything drop to a berth slicker than that? And that's a +vessel you c'n go to sea in, and in the hardest winter gale that ever +blew you c'n turn in when your watch is done and have a feeling of +comfort." + +"Where's the steam trawler, the porgy boat, we saw yesterday?" + +"Put into Chincoteague most likely--nearer than here." + +"That's what we'll have to come to yet--steamers, and go on wages like +a waiter in a hotel." + +"Yes," said Clancy, "I s'pose so, but with vessels like we got and the +seamen sailing out of Gloucester we'll stave 'em off a long time yet, +and even as it is, give me a breeze and a vessel like this one under +us and we'll beat out all the steam fishermen that ever turned a +screw." + +One of the latest experiments in a fishermen's model reached in then +and her coming started a chorus. They were always trying new models in +Gloucester, everybody was so anxious to have a winner. This one's +sails were still white and pretty and her hull still shiny in fresh +black paint. The red stripe along her rail and the gold stripe along +her run set off her lines; her gear didn't have a speck on it, her +spars were yellow as could be and to leeward we thought we could still +smell the patent varnish. For that matter there were several there as +new-looking as she was, our own vessel for one; but there had been a +lot of talk about this one. She was going to clean out the fleet. She +had been pretending to a lot, and as she hadn't yet made good, of +course she got a great raking. + +"She's here at last, boys--the yacht, the wonderful, marvellous +Victory! Ain't she a bird? Built to beat the fleet! Look at the +knockabout bow of her!" + +"Knockabout googleums--h-yah! Scoop shovel snout and a stern ugly as a +battle-ship's, and the Lord knows there was overhang and to spare to +tail her out decent. Cut out the yellow and the red and the whole lot +of gold decorations and she's as homely as a Newf'undland jack." + +"Just the same, she c'n sail," said somebody who wanted to start an +argument. + +"Sail! Yah! might beat a Rockport granite sloop. Ever hear of the +Henry Clay Parker, Mister Billie Simms, and the little licking she +gave this winner of yours? No? Well, you want to go around and have a +drink or two with the boys next time you're ashore and get the news. +It was like a dogfish and a mackerel--the Henry just eat her up. And +there's the others. Why, this one underneath us'd make a holy show of +her, I'll bet. And there's half a dozen others. There's the--oh, +what's the use?" + +"Oh, Eddie Parsons, a perfect lady and coming in like a high-stepper +and yet you must malign her beauty and make light of her virtue," and +Clancy jammed Parsons's sou'wester down over his eyes--"hush up, +Eddie." + +Into the harbor and after the Victory heaved another one. And she was +the real thing--handsome, fast and able. And she had a record for +bringing the fish home--an able vessel and well-known for it. She +could carry whole sails when some of the others were double-reefed and +thinking of dragging trysails out of the hold. And her skipper was a +wonder. + +"You c'n cut all the others out--here comes the real thing. Here's the +old dog himself. Did he ever miss a blow? And look at him. Every man +comes in here to-day under four lowers, no more, and some under +reefed mains'l, or trys'l, but four whole lowers ain't enough for this +gentleman--not for Wesley. He must carry that gaff-tops'l if he pulls +the planks out of her. He always brings her home, but if some of the +underwriters'd see him out here they'd soon blacklist him till he +mended his ways. It's a blessed wonder he ain't found bottom before +this. Look at her now skating on her ear. There she goes--if they'd +just lower a man over the weather rail with a line on him he could +write his name on her keel!" + +And she certainly was something to make a man's eyes stick out. There +had been a vessel or two that staggered before, but the Lucy fairly +rolled down into it, and there was no earthly reason why she should do +it except that it pleased her skipper to sport that extra kite. + +She boiled up from the end of the jetty, and her wake was the wake of +a screw steamer. She had come from home, we knew, and so it happened +she was one of the last to get in. The harbor was crowded as she +straightened out. We knew she would not have too much leeway coming +on, and what berth she was after kept everybody guessing. + +"If she goes where's she pointing--and most vessels do--she'll find a +berth down on the beach on that course, down about where the wreck is. +It'll be dry enough walking when she gets there. If she keeps on the +gait she's going now, she ought to be able to fetch good and high and +dry up on the mud. They'd cert'nly be able to step ashore--when they +get there. Ah-h-h, but that's more like it." + +She was taking it over the quarter then. She cleared the stern of the +most leeward of the fleet and then kicked off, heading over to where +the Johnnie Duncan and the Victory lay. The betting was that she would +round to and drop in between us two. There was room there, but only +just room. It would be a close fit, but there was room. + +But she didn't round to. She held straight on without the sign of a +swerve. On the Johnnie, the gang being almost in her path picked out a +course for her. Between the outer end of our seine-boat and the end of +the bowsprit of the Mary Grace Adams was a passage that may have been +the width of a vessel. But the space seemed too narrow. Our crew were +wondering if he would try it. Even the skipper, standing in the +companionway, stepped up on deck to have a better look. + +"He's got to take it quarterin', and it ain't wide enough," said Eddie +Parsons. + +"Quartering--yes, but with everything hauled inboard," said the +skipper. "He'll try it, I guess. I was with him for two years, and if +he feels like trying it he'll try it." + +"And s'pose he does try it, Skipper?" + +"Oh, he'll come pretty near making it, though he stands a good chance +to scrape the paint off our seine-boat going by. No, don't touch the +seine-boat--let her be as she is. We'll fool 'em if they think they +c'n jar anybody here coming on like that. There's room enough if +nothing slips, and if they hit it's their lookout." + +It looked like a narrow space for a vessel of her beam to go through, +but she hopped along, and the eyes of all the harbor followed her to +the point where she must turn tail or make the passage. + +She held on--her chance to go back was gone. + +"Watch her, boys. Now she's whooping--look at her come!" + +And she was coming. Her windward side was lifted so high that her +bottom planks could be seen. Her oil-skinned crew were crowded +forward. There were men at the fore-halyards, at jib-halyards, at the +down-hauls, and a group were standing by the anchor. Two men were at +the wheel. + +She bit into it. There was froth at her mouth. She was so near now +that we could read the faces of her crew; and wide awake to this fine +seamanship we all leaned over the rail, the better to see how she'd +make out. The crews of half the vessels inside the Breakwater were +watching her. + +She was a length away and jumping to it. It was yet in doubt, but she +was certainly rushing to some sort of a finish. She rushed on, and +w-r-r-rp! her weather bow came down on the Johnnie's seine-boat. But +it didn't quite hit it. Her quarter to leeward just cut under the +Adams' bowsprit and the leech of her mainsail seemed to flatten past. +For a moment we were not certain, but no jolt or lurch came and our +seine-boat seemed all right. Another jump and she was clear by. And +then we felt like cheering her, and her skipper Wesley Marrs, too, as +he stood to the wheel and sung out, "Couldn't scare you, could I, +Maurice. I thought you'd haul your seine-boat in. I've got your extra +seine," and swept by. + +From our deck and from the deck of the Adams, and from the decks of +half a dozen others, could be heard murmurs, and there was a general +pointing out of the redoubtable skipper himself to the green hands +that knew him only by reputation. "That's him, Wesley himself--the +stocky little man of the two at the wheel." + +If the stocky little man heard the hails that were sent after him, he +made no sign, unless a faint dipping of his sou'wester back over his +windward shoulder was his way of showing it. + +He had business yet, had Wesley Marrs. There was a tug and a barge and +another big seiner in his course. He clipped the tug, scraped the +barge, and set the seiner's boat a-dancing, and two lengths more he +put down the wheel and threw her gracefully into the wind. Down came +jib, down came jumbo, over splashed the anchor. She ran forward a +little, rattled back a link or two, steadied herself, and there she +was. Her big mainsail was yet shaking in the wind, her gaff-topsail +yet fluttering aloft, but she herself, the Lucy Foster of Gloucester, +was at your service. "And what do you think of her, people?" might +just as well have been shot off her deck through a megaphone, for that +was what her bearing and the unnatural smartness of her crew plainly +were saying. + +We all drew breath again. Clancy unbent from the rail and shook his +head in high approval. He took off his sou'wester, slatted it over the +after-bitt to clear the brim of water, and spoke his mind. "You'll see +nothing cleaner than that in this harbor to-day, fellows, and you'll +see some pretty fair work at that. That fellow--he's an able seaman." + +"Yes, sir--an able seaman," said the skipper also. + +And Clancy and the skipper were something in the line of able seamen +themselves. + + + + +XIII + +WESLEY MARRS BRINGS A MESSAGE + + +Generally a day in harbor is a day of loafing for the crew of a +seiner; but it was not so altogether with us that day. Within two +hours of the time that Wesley Marrs came in to the Breakwater in such +slashing style the skipper had us into the seine-boat and on the way +to the Lucy Foster. By his orders we took along ten empty mackerel +barrels. "We'll go over to the beach first and fill these barrels up +with sand." We all knew what the sand was for--the Johnnie Duncan was +going to be put in trim to do her best sailing. Coming down the coast +the skipper and Clancy decided that she was down by the stern a +trifle. + +So we attended to the sand, and on the way back hauled our second +seine out of the hold of the Lucy Foster, and piled it into the +seine-boat. With the last of the twine into the seine-boat and just as +we were about to push off from the Lucy, Wesley Marrs put a foot on +the rail of his vessel and spoke to Maurice. + +"And when I was taking the last of that aboard in the dock in +Gloucester, you wouldn't believe who it was stepped onto the cap-log +and looking down on the deck of the Lucy says, 'And you'll take good +care of that seine for Captain Blake, won't you, Captain Marrs?' Could +you guess now, Maurice?" + +"No," said Maurice. + +"No, I'll bet you can't. It isn't often she comes down the dock. Miss +Foster no less. 'And what makes you think I won't?' I asks her. 'Oh, +of course I know you will,' she says, 'and deliver it to him in good +order, too.' 'I'll try,' I says, as though it was a desp'rate job I +had on hand--to put a seine in the hold and turn it over to another +vessel when I met her. 'But what makes you worry about this partic'lar +seine, Miss Foster?' I asks." + +"Which Miss Foster was it, Wesley--the one your vessel is named +after?" broke in our skipper. + +"No--no--but the younger one--Alice. 'But what makes you worry?' I +asks her, and she didn't say anything, but that one that's with her +all the time--the one that goes with the lad that designed the Johnnie +Duncan----" + +"Joe's cousin here----" + +"That's it--the fat little Buckley girl--a fine girl too. And if I was +a younger man and looking for a wife, there's the kind for me--but +anyway she up and says, 'Alice is worried, Captain Marrs, because she +owns a third of Captain Blake's vessel--a good part of her little +fortune's in the Duncan--and if anything happens to the seine +one-third of it, of course, comes out of her. And it cost a good many +hundred dollars. So you must be careful.' 'Oh, that's it?' says I. +'Then it'll be shortened sail and extra careful watches on the Lucy +till I meet Maurice, for I mustn't lose any property of Miss +Foster's.'" + +We rowed away from the Lucy Foster, and I supposed that was the end of +it. But that night going on deck to take a last look at the stars +before turning in, there was the skipper and Clancy walking the break +and talking. + +"And did you know, Tommie, that Miss Foster owned any of this one?" +the skipper was saying. + +"No," said Tommie, "I didn't know, but----" + +"But you suspected. Well, I didn't even suspect. And there's that +seine we lost last night--cost all of eight hundred dollars." + +"That's what it did--a fine seine." + +A few minutes later the skipper went below, and Clancy, seeing me, +said, "Hold on, Joey. Did you hear what the skipper said?" + +"About Miss Foster owning a share of the vessel?" + +"Well, not that so much, but about the loss of the seine?" + +"Yes--why?" + +"Why? Joe, but sometimes a man would think you were about ten year +old. I tell you, Joe, I'm not too sure it's going to be Withrow. And +if you don't see some driving on this one when next we get among the +fish, then--" But he didn't finish it, only clucked his tongue and +went below. + +Clancy was right again. During the night the weather moderated, and in +the morning the first of the fleet to go out past the Breakwater was +the Johnnie Duncan. It looked to us as if the skipper thought the +mackerel would be all gone out of the sea before we got back to the +spot where we had struck them two days before. + + + + +XIV + +A PROSPECT OF NIGHT-SEINING + + +We might have stayed in harbor another twenty-four hours and lost +nothing by it. It was dawn when we put out from the Delaware +Breakwater, and by dark of the same day we were back to where we had +met the big school and lost the seine two days before. And there we +hung about for another night and day waiting for the sea to flatten +out. Mackerel rarely show in rough weather, even if you could put out +a seine-boat and go after them. But I suppose that it did us no harm +to be on the ground and ready. + +On the evening of the next day there was something doing. There was +still some sea on, but not enough to hurt. Along about eight o'clock, +I remember, I came off watch and dropped into the forec's'le to fix up +my arm, which was still badly strained from hanging onto the +seine-boat's painter when I was washed overboard. The skipper, taking +a look, told me not to go into the dory that night, but to let Billie +Hurd, who was spare hand, take my place, and for me to stay aboard. I +would rather have gone into the dory, of course, but was not able to +pull an oar--that is, pull it as I'd have to pull when driving for a +school--and knowing I would be no more than so much freight in the +dory there was nothing else to do. "And if we see fish, Clancy'll stay +to the mast-head to-night--as good a seine-master as sails out of +Gloucester is Tommie--better than me," he said. "I'm going in the +seine-boat, and Eddie Parsons, you'll take Clancy's place in the +dory." And buttoning his oil-jacket up tight, he put on his mitts and +went on deck. + +That evening the forward gang were doing about as much work as seiners +at leisure usually do. It was in the air that we would strike fish, +but the men had not yet been told to get ready. So four of them were +playing whist at the table under the lamp and two were lying half in +and half out of opposite upper bunks, trying to get more of the light +on the pages of the books they were reading. Long Steve, in a lower +port bunk nearer the gangway, was humming something sentimental, and +two were in a knot on the lockers, arguing fiercely over nothing in +particular. There was a fellow in the peak roaring out, "Scots wha hae +wi' Wallace bled." Only the cook, just done with mixing bread, seemed +to have ever done a lick of work in his life, and he was now standing +by the galley fire rolling the dough off his fingers. The cook on a +fisherman is always a busy man. + +Down the companionway and into the thick of this dropped Clancy, oiled +up and all ready to go aloft. To the mast-head of a vessel, even on an +April night in southern waters, it is cold enough, especially when, +like a seiner, she is nearly always by the wind; and Clancy was +wrapped up. "I think," said Clancy, as his boot-heels hit the floor, +"I'll have a mug-up." From the boiler on the galley-stove he poured +out a mug of coffee and from the grub-locker he took a slice of bread +and two thick slices of cold beef. He buried the bread among the beef +and leaned against the foremast while he ate. + +Once when Clancy was a skipper he did a fine bit of rescuing out to +sea, and after he got home a newspaper man saw him and wrote him up. I +had the clipping stuck on the wall of Withrow's store for months and +had read it so often that I knew it by heart. "In heavy jack-boots and +summer sou'wester, with a black jersey of fine quality sticking up +above the neck of his oil-jacket, with a face that won you at sight; +cheeks a nice even pink; damp, storm-beaten, and healthful; with +mouth, eyes, and jaw bespeaking humor, sympathy, and courage; +shoulders that seemed made for butting to windward--an attractive, +inspiring, magnetic man altogether--that is Captain Tommie Clancy of +the Gloucester fisherman, the Mary Andrews." That, was how it read, +and certainly it fitted him now, as he stood there in the middle of +the thick curling smoke of the pipes, holding the mug of coffee in one +hand and the sandwich of bread and meat in the other, leaning easily +against the butt of the foremast, and between gulps and bites taking +notice of the crew. + +"Give me," he said to the cook as the proper man for an audience, "a +seiner's crew when they're not on fish for real gentlemen of leisure. +Look at 'em now--you'd think they were all near-sighted, with their +cards up to their chins. And above them look--Kipling to starb'd and +the Duchess to port. Mulvaney, I'll bet, filled full of whiskey and +keeping the heathen on the jump, and Airy Fairy Lillian, or some other +daisy with winning ways, disturbing the peace of mind of half a dozen +dukes. Mulvaney's all right, but the Duchess! They'll be taking books +of that kind to the mast-head next. What d'y' s'pose I found aft the +other day? Now what d'y' s'pose? I'll bet you'd never guess. No, no. +Well, 'He Loved, but Was Lured Away.' Yes. Isn't that fine stuff for a +fisherman to be feeding on? But whoever was reading it, he was ashamed +of it. 'Well, who owns this thing?' says I, picking up the lured-away +lad. 'Nobody,' speaks up Sam there. Of course he didn't own it--O +no! + +"Violet Vance," went on Clancy, and took another bite of his sandwich. +"Violet Vance and Wilful Winnie and a whole holdful of airy creatures +couldn't help a fisherman when there's anything stirring. I waded +through a whole bunch of 'em once,"--he reached over and took a wedge +of pie from the grub-locker. "Yes, I went through a whole bunch of 'em +once--pretty good pie this, cook, though gen'rally those artificial +apples that swings on strings ain't in it with the natural tree apples +for pie--once when we were laying somewhere to the east'ard of Sable +Island, in a blow and a thick fog--fresh halibuting--and right in the +way of the liners. And I expect I was going around like a man asleep, +because the skipper comes up and begins to talk to me. It was my first +trip with him and I was a young lad. 'Young fellow,' says the skipper, +Matt Dawson--this was in the Lorelei--'young fellow,' says Matt, 'you +look tired. Let me call up the crew and swing a hammock for you from +the fore-rigging to the jumbo boom. How'll that do for you? When the +jumbo slats it'll keep the hammock rocking. Let me,' he says. +'P'raps,' he goes on, 'you wouldn't mind waking up long enough to give +this music box a turn or two every now and then while the fog lasts.' +We had a patent fog-horn aboard, the first I ever saw, and I'd clear +forgot it--warn't used to patent horns. But just another little wedge +of pie, George. + +"However, I suppose when there's nothing doing there's no very great +harm. But we'll try to keep some of you busy to-night. Praise the +Lord, the moon's out of the way and it's looking black already and the +sea ought to fire up fine later on. And there's a nice little breeze +to overhaul a good school when we see one. If any of you are beginning +to think of getting in a wink of sleep then you'd better turn in now, +for you're sure to be out before long. I'm going aloft." + +Clancy climbed up the companionway. Then followed the scraping of his +boot-heels across the deck. Half a minute later, had anybody cared to +go up and have a look, I suppose he would have been discovered +astraddle of the highest block above the forethroat--he and the +skipper--watching out sharply for the lights of the many other vessels +about them, but more particularly straining their eyes for the +phosphorescent trails of mackerel. + + + + +XV + +CLANCY TO THE MAST-HEAD + + +The men below knew their skipper and Clancy too well to imagine that +they were to be too long left in peace. And then, too, the next man +off watch reported a proper night for mackerel. "Not a blessed star +out--and black! It's like digging a hole in the ground and looking +into it. And the skipper's getting nervous, I know. I could hear him +stirrin' 'round up there when I was for'ard just now, and he hollered +to the wheel that up to the no'the'ard it looked like planty of fish. +'And I callate we ain't the only vessel got eyes for it,' he said." + +"Yes," said his watch-mate, who had just dropped down, "it's nothing +but side-lights all 'round and----" + +Just then came the skipper's voice from aloft. "Tell the boys they +might's well oil up and be ready." The watch did not have to repeat +it--we all heard it below, and fore and aft, in cabin and forec's'le, +the gang made ready. Cards, novels, and all the hot arguments went +by the board, and then after a mug-up for nearly all we slid into +oil-clothes, boots and sou'westers, and puffing at what was probably +to be the last pipeful of the evening, we lay around on lockers and +on the floor, backs to the butt of the mast and backs to the +stove--wherever there was space for a broad back and a pair of stout +legs our fellows dropped themselves, discussing all the while the +things that interested them--fish, fishing, fast vessels, big +shares, politics, Bob Fitzsimmons, John L. Sullivan, good stories, +and just then particularly, because two of the crew were thinking of +marrying, the awful price of real estate in Gloucester. + +By and by, ringing as clear as if he himself stood at the companionway, +came the skipper's voice from the mast-head: "On deck everybody!" No +more discussion, no more loafing--pipes were smothered into bosoms, +and up the companionway crowded oilskins and jack-boots. + +Then came: "It looks like fish ahead of us. Haul the boat alongside +and drop the dory over." + +We jumped. Four laid hands on the dory in the waist and ten or a dozen +heaved away on the stiff painter of the seine-boat that was towing +astern. Into the air and over the starboard rail went the dory, while +ploughing up to the vessel's boom at the port fore-rigging came the +bow of the seine-boat. + +Then followed: "Put the tops'ls to her--sharp now." + +The halyards could be heard whirring up toward the sky, while two +bunches of us sagged and lifted on the deck below. Among us it was, +"Now then--o-ho--sway away--good," until topsails were flat as boards, +and the schooner, hauled up, had heeled to her scuppers. + +"Slap the stays'l to her and up with the balloon. Half the fleet's +driving to the no'the'ard. Lively." + +The Johnnie liked that rarely. With the seventy-five foot main-boom +sheeted in to her rail, with the thirty-seven-foot spike bowsprit +poking a lane in the sea when she dove and a path among the clouds +when she lifted, with her midship rail all but flush with the sea and +the night breeze to sing to her--of course she liked it, and she +showed her liking. She'd tear herself apart now before she'd let +anything in the fleet go by her. And red and green lights were racing +to both quarters of her. + +"Into the boat!" It was the skipper's voice again, and fifteen men +leaped over the rail at the word. Two dropped into the dory and +thirteen jumped from the vessel's rail onto thwarts or netting or into +the bottom of the seine-boat--anywhere at all so that they get in +quickly. As extra hand on deck I had to stand by and pay out the +painter. + +In the middle of it came the skipper sliding down from the mast-head. +"Drop astern, boat and dory," he called out, and himself leaped over +the quarter and onto the pile of netting as into the Johnnie's boiling +wake they went. The thirty-eight-foot seine-boat was checked up a +dozen fathoms astern, and the dory just astern of that. The two men in +the dory had to fend off desperately as they slid by the seine-boat. + +On the deck of the Johnnie were the cook, who had the wheel, and +myself, who had to stand by the sheets. There would be stirring times +soon, for even from the deck occasional flashes of light, marking +small pods of mackerel, could be made out on the surface of the sea. +Clancy, now at the mast-head alone, was noting these signs, we felt +sure, and with them a whole lot of other things. To the mast-heads of +other vessels out in the night were other skippers, or seine-masters, +and all with skill and nerve and a great will to get fish. + +The Johnnie was making perhaps ten knots good now, and with every jerk +the painter of the seine-boat chafed and groaned in the taffrail +chock. The skipper from the boat called for more line. "Slack away a +bit, slack away. We're not porpoises." + +I jumped to attend to the painter just as Clancy's voice broke in from +above: "Swing her off about two points, ease your main sheet and keep +an eye on that light to looard. Off, off--that's good--hold her--and +Joe, slack stays'l and then foretops'l halyards. Be ready to let go +balloon halyards and stand by down-haul. Look alive." + +I paid out some sheet from the bitt by the wheel-box, unbuttoned the +after stays'l tack, jumped forward and loosed up halyards till her +kites dropped limp. + +"Down with your balloon there--and at the wheel there, jibe her over. +Watch out for that fellow astern--he's pretty handy to our boat. Watch +out in boat and dory!" The last warning was a roar. + +The big balloon gossamer came rattling down the long stay and the jaws +of the booms ratched, fore and main, as they swung over. From astern +came the voices of the men in boat and dory, warning each other to +hang on when they felt her jibing. Some of them must have come near to +being jerked overboard. "Why in God's name don't you slack that +painter?" came the voice of the skipper from the boat. + +I leaped to give them more painter, and "Draw away your jib--draw away +your jumbo," came from aloft. Sheets were barely fast when it was: +"Steady at the wheel, George--steady her--ste-a-dy--Great God! man, if +you can't see can't you feel that fellow just ahead? And, skipper, +tell them to close their jaws astern there--water won't hurt 'em. +Ready all now?" + +"Ready!" roared back the skipper. + +"All right. Down with your wheel a bit now, George. Down--more yet. +Hold her there." + +The vessels that we had dodged by this bit of luffing were now +dropping by us; one red light was slowly sliding past our quarter to +port, and one green shooting by our bow to starboard. Evidently Clancy +had only been waiting to steer clear of these two neighbors, for there +was plenty of fish in sight now. The sea was flashing with trails of +them. Clancy now began to bite out commands. + +"Stand ready everybody. In the boat and dory there--is everything +ready, skipper?" + +"All ready, boat and dory." + +Out came Clancy's orders then--rapid fire--and as he ripped them out, +no whistling wind could smother his voice, no swash of the sea could +drown it. In boat, dory and on deck, every brain glowed to understand +and every heart pumped to obey. + +"Up with your wheel, George, and let her swing by. Stea-dy. Ready in +the boat. Steady your wheel. Are you ready in the boat? Let her swing +off a little more, George. Steady--hold her there. Stand by in the +boat. Now then--now! Cast off your painter, cast off and pull to the +west'ard. And drive her! Up with the wheel. More yet--that's good. +Drive her, I say, skipper. Where's that dory?--I don't see the dory. +The dory, the dory--where in hell's the dory?--show that lantern in +the dory. All right, the dory. Hold her up, George. Don't let her +swing off another inch now. Drive her, boys, drive her! Look out now! +Stand by the seine! Stand by--the twine--do you hear, Steve! The +twine! Drive her--drive her--blessed Lord! drive her. That's the +stuff, skipper, drive her! Let her come up, George. Down with your +wheel--down with you wheel--ste-a-dy. Drive her, skipper, drive her! +Turn in now--in--shorter yet. Drive her now--where's that dory!--hold +her up!--not you, George! you're all right--ste-a-dy. Hold that dory +up to the wind!--that's it, boys--you're all right--straight ahead +now! That's the stuff. Turn her in now again, skipper. In the dory +there--show your lantern in the dory and be ready for the seine-boat. +Good enough. Now cover your lantern in the dory and haul away when +you're ready." + +To have experienced the strain and drive of that rush, to have held an +oar in the boat during that and to have shared with the men in the +confidence they gathered--ours was a skipper to steer a boat around a +school--and the soul that rang in Clancy's voice!--why, just to stand +on deck, as I did, and listen to it--it was like living. + +During this dash we could make out neither boat nor dory from deck, +but the flashes of light raised by the oars at every stroke were +plainly to be seen in that phosphorescent sea. Certainly they were +making that boat hop along! Ten good men, with every man a long, broad +blade, and double banked, so that every man might encourage his mate +and be himself spurred on by desperate effort. Legs, arms, shoulders, +back, all went into it and their wake alive with smoke and fire to +tell them they were moving! To be in that?--The middle of a black +night on the Atlantic was this, and the big seine-heaver was throwing +the seine in great armfuls. And Hurd and Parsons in the little dory +tossing behind and gamely trying to keep up! They were glad enough to +be in the dory, I know, to get hold of the buoy, and you can be sure +there was some lively action aboard of her when Clancy called so +fiercely to them to hold the buoy up to the wind, so that the efforts +of the crew of the seine-boat, racing to get their two hundred odd +fathoms of twine fence around the flying school, might not go for +naught. + + + + +XVI + +WE GET A FINE SCHOOL + + +With his "Haul away now when you're ready," Clancy came down from +aloft. He was sliding down evidently by way of the jib halyards, for +there was the sound of a chafing whiz that could be nothing else than +the friction of oilskins against taut manila rope, a sudden check, as +of a block met on the way, an impatient, soft, little forgivable oath, +and then a plump! that meant that he must have dropped the last twelve +or fifteen feet to the deck. Immediately came the scurry of his +boot-heels as he hurried aft. In another moment he stood in the glow +of the binnacle light, and reaching back toward the shadow of the +cook, but never turning his head from that spot out in the dark where +he had last seen the boat, he took the wheel. + +"All right, George, I've got you. A good-sized school, by the looks, +if they got them, and I think they have. Did you see that boat ahead +we near ran into?--the last time we put the wheel down? Man, but for a +second I thought they were gone. I hope no blessed vessel comes as +near to our fellows. And they were so busy rowing and heaving twine +they never saw us, and myself nearly cross-eyed trying to watch them +and our own boat and the fish all the time. Go below, George, she's +all right now, and tell Joe--where is he?--to go below, too, and have +a mug-up for himself. He must be soaked through taking the swash that +must've come over her bow for the last hour. But tell him to come +right up so's to keep watch out ahead." + +I didn't go below, however, but standing by the fore-rigging kept an +eye out ahead. Clancy himself stood to the wheel with his head ever +turned over one shoulder, until he saw the flare of a torch from the +seine-boat. "Good!" he exclaimed. "What there is is safe now, +anyway." + +After that his work was easy. He had only to dodge the lights of other +vessels now, the old red and green lights that had been our neighbors +all that evening, and a few new yellow flares that came from other +seine-boats. So his eyes ranged the blackness and in rings about his +own seine-boat he sailed the Johnnie Duncan. That the crew were quite +a little while pursing up only gave him satisfaction. "A nice school, +Joe, if they got it all," he said, "a nice school of 'em." And after a +pause, "I think I'll stand down and have a look." + +He ran down, luffed, and hailed, "Hi--skipper, what's it like?" + +From the row of figures that were seen to be crowding gunnel and +thwarts and hauling on the seine, one shadow straightened up beside +the smoky torch and spoke. "Can't be sure yet, Tommie, but things look +all right so far. A fair-sized school if we don't lose 'em." + +"Lord, don't lose 'em, skipper, though I think you've got 'em fast +enough now. Sounds natural to hear 'em flipping inside the corks, +don't it? Ought to be hurrying 'em up, skipper--it's getting along in +the night." + +Clancy, very well satisfied, stood away again and continued to sail +triangles around boat and dory. Being now clear of the greater part of +the mental strain his spirits began to lighten. Merely by way of being +sociable with himself he hummed some old ditties. There was that about +the old coaster, the Eliza Jane. I liked to hear him sing that, as, +dancing a one-footed jig-step by the wheel-box, he bumped it out: + + "Oh, the 'Liza Jane with a blue foremast + And a load of hay came drifting past. + Her skipper stood aft and he said, 'How do? + We're the 'Liza Jane and who be you?' + + He stood by the wheel and he says, 'How do? + We're from Bangor, Maine--from where be you?' + + "The 'Liza Jane got a new main truck-- + A darn fine thing but wouldn't stay stuck. + Came a breeze one day from the no'-no'-west + And the gosh-darned thing came down with the rest. + + Oh, hi-diddle-di--a breeze from the west-- + Who'd 'a' thunk the truck wouldn't stuck with the rest? + + "Oh, the 'Liza Jane left the wharf one day, + A fine flood tide and the day Friday, + But the darned old tide sent her bow askew + And the 'Liza Jane began for to slew. + + Oh, hi-diddle-di--she'd 'a' fairly flew, + If she only could sail the other end to. + + "Oh, the 'Liza Jane left port one day, + With her hold full of squash and her deck all hay. + Two years back with her sails all set + She put from Bath--she's sailing yet. + + Oh, hi-diddle-di for a good old craft + She'd 've sailed very well with her bow on aft." + +There was a long story to the Eliza Jane, but Clancy did not finish +it. Maybe he felt that it was not in harmony with that lowering sky or +that flashing sea. Maybe, too, in the waters that rolled and the wake +that smoked was the inspiration for something more stirring. At any +rate he began, in a voice that carried far, an old ballad of the war +of 1812. + +Two or three more stanzas to warm up, and the fight was on. And you +would think Clancy was in it. He laid every mast and yard of the +enemy over the side of her, he made her decks run with blood, and at +the last, in a noble effort, he caused her to strike her flag. + +By the time he had finished that, it happened that we were running +before the wind, and, going so, it was very quiet aboard the vessel. +There was none of the close-hauled wash through her scuppers, nor was +there much play of wind through stays and halyards. It was in fact +unusually quiet, and it needed only that to set Clancy off on a more +melancholy tack. So in a subdued voice he began the recitation of one +of the incidents that have helped to make orphans of Gloucester +children: + + "Twelve good vessels fighting through the night + Fighting, fighting, that no'the-east gale; + Every man, be sure, did his might, + But never a sign of a single sail + Was there in the morning when the sun shone red, + But a hundred and seventy fine men--dead-- + Were settling somewhere into the sand + On Georges shoals, which is Drowned Men's Land. + + "Seventy widows kneeling----" + +A long hail came over the water and a torch was raised and lowered. +"Hi-i--" hallooed the voice. + +"Hi-i-i--" hallooed back Clancy as he pulled down his wheel. You might +have thought he intended to run over them. But no, for at the very +last second he threw her up cleverly and let her settle beside the +boat, from which most of the men came tumbling immediately over the +side of the vessel. Of those who stayed, one shackled the boat's bow +onto the iron that hung from the boom at the fore-rigging, and having +done that, braced an oar between himself and the vessel's run to hold +the boat away and steady while another in the stern of the boat did +the same thing with his oar. In the boat's waist two men hung onto the +seine. + +A section of the cork edge of the seine was then gathered inboard and +clamped down over the vessel's rail, with the mackerel crowded into +the middle part, and the bunt of the seine thus held safely between +boat and vessel. Into this space the sea swashed and slapped after a +manner that kept all in the boat completely drenched and made it +pretty hard for the men in bow and stern to fend off and retain their +balance at the same time. + +And then began the bailing in. Guided by the skipper, who stood on the +break, our big dip-net, which could hold a barrel easily, was dropped +over the rail and in among the kicking fish. A twist and a turn and +"He-yew!" the skipper yelled. "Oy-hoo!" grunted the two gangs of us at +the halyards, and into the air and over the rail swung the dip-net, +swimming full. "Down!" We let it sag quickly to Clancy and Parsons, +who were at the rail. "Hi-o!" they called cheerfully, and turned the +dip-net inside out. Out and down it went again, "He-yew!" and up and +in it came again. "Oy-hoo!" "Hi-o!" and flop! it was turned upside +down and another barrel of fat, lusty fish flipped their length +against the hard deck. Head and tail they flipped, each head and tail +ten times a second seemingly, until it sounded--they beat the deck so +frantically--as if a regiment of gentle little drummer boys were +tapping a low but wonderfully quick-sounding roll. Scales flew. We +found some next morning glued to the mast-head. I never can get some +people to believe that it is so--mackerel scales to the mast-head. + +"He-yew!" called the skipper, "Oy-hoo!" hollered the halyards gang, +"Hi-o!" sung out Clancy and Parsons cheerily at the rail. "Fine fat +fish," commented the men in the seine-boat, the only men who had time +to draw an extra breath. + +Blazing torches were all around us. Arms worked up and down, big boots +stamped, while inboard and out swung the dip-net, and onto the deck +flopped the mackerel. "Drive her!" called the skipper, and "He-yew!" +"Oy-hoo!" and "Hi-o!" it went. Drenched oilskins steamed, wet faces +glowed, glad eyes shone through the smoke flare, and the pitching +vessel, left to herself, plunged up and down to the lift and fall of +every sea. + + + + +XVII + +A DRIVE FOR MARKET + + +Her deck was pretty well filled with mackerel when "All dry," said +Long Steve, and drew the last of the seine into the boat. + +"Then hurry aboard and drop that seine-boat astern. And--whose watch? +Take the wheel--wait till I give you the course--there. But don't +drive her awhile yet. Some of those fish might be washed over. But it +won't be for long." + +"Ready with the ice?" he asked next. + +"All ready," and the men who had been chopping ice and making ready +the pens in the hold stood by to take the mackerel as we passed them +down. + +As soon as we had enough of them off the vessel's deck to make it safe +to drive her, the skipper gave her a little more sheet and let her go +for New York. We hustled the seine-boat aboard too. Some other vessels +must have got fish, too, and there was no time to waste. + +It was a good-sized school and when we had them all iced and +below--more than thirty thousand count--it was time for all hands to +turn in--all but the two men on watch of course. I didn't turn in +myself, but after a mug-up and pipeful below came on deck again. It +was a pretty good sort of a night for a dark night, with a moderate +breeze that sang in your ears when you leaned against the halyards and +a sea that lapped bucketfuls of spray over her rail forward and that +tumbled away in a wide flat hump as our quarter slipped on and left it +behind. + +I found the skipper leaning against the weather rigging and watching a +red light coming up on us. Noticing me he said, "There's that porgy +steamer that we beat out for that school the other day overhauling us +now. There's the beauty of steam. The crew of this one knows more in a +minute than they know in a week about fishing in that steamer, and +we'd be carrying our summer kites when that gang, if they were in a +sailing vessel, would be laying to an anchor; and with our boat out +and their boat out and a school in sight they'd have to take our +leavings. But here's one of the times when they have the best of it." + +There wasn't much wind stirring then, but it promised to breeze up, or +so the skipper thought, and I'm sure I was glad to hear him say it, +for the harder it blew the sooner we would get to New York and the +better our chance to beat the porgyman. First in to market got the +cream. + +It was pretty well on to daybreak when the porgy steamer got up +abreast of us and after a while worked by. One of them took the +trouble to sing out to us when they went by, "Well, you got a school +before us, but we'll be tied up and into the dock and spending our +money ashore whilst you're still along the Jersey coast somewhere." + +And we supposed they would, but Hurd, who was then to our wheel, had +to call back to them, "Oh, I dunno. I dunno about that--it's a good +run to Fulton Market dock yet." And, turning to us, "I hope the bloody +old boiler explodes so nobody'll be able to find a mackerel of 'em +this side the Bay of Fundy. Of course I wouldn't want to see the men +come to any harm, but wouldn't it jar you--them scrubs?" + +The skipper wasn't saying anything. And it meant a lot to him, too. He +was looking after the steamer and, I know, praying for wind. We could +see it in his eyes. + +And sometimes things come as we like to have them. At full dawn it was +a nice breeze with the Johnnie Duncan washing her face in plenty of +good spray and the fine sun shining warm on a fresh sea-way. Another +hour, the wind hauling and still making, the Johnnie was down to her +rail, and awhile after that she was getting all the wind she needed. + +"We may have a chance to try her out on this run, who knows?" said the +skipper. We were coming up on the porgy steamer then and you should +have seen his eyes when they looked from the rail to the deck of his +vessel and from the deck again to aloft. On the steamer the gang were +in the waist watching us coming and they must have been piling the +coal into her below and giving her the jet steadily, for out of her +funnel was coming the smoke in clouds mixed with steam. + +"But their firemen can stoke till they're black in the face and they +won't get more than eleven or eleven and a half knots out of her," +said Clancy. "I know her--the Nautilus--and if this one under us ain't +logging her fourteen good then I don't know. And she'll be doing +better yet before we see New York." + +They were driving the porgyman then, but she was fated. Once we began +to get her she came back to us fast enough, and once she was astern +she troubled us no more. After the porgyman we passed a big white +yacht, evidently just up from the West Indies after a winter's cruise. +She looked a model for a good sailer, but there was no chance to try +her out, for they had her under shortened sail when we went by. + +There was a New York blue-fisherman on our weather bow bound for New +York, too, and the way we went by her was a scandal. And farther on +we drove by a big bark--big enough, almost, to take us aboard. They +were plainly trying to make a passage on her, but we left her too. +Then we passed another yacht, but she wasn't carrying half our sail. +Her hull was as long as ours, but she didn't begin to be sparred as we +were. We must have had ten feet on her main-boom and ten feet more +bowsprit outboard, and yet under her four lower sails she seemed to be +making heavy going of it. It's a good yacht that can hold a fisherman +in a breeze and a sea-way. We beat this one about as bad as we beat +the blue-fisherman. As we went by we tried to look as though we had +beaten so many vessels that we'd lost all interest in racing, and at +the same time we were all dancing on our toes to think what a vessel +we had under us. It was that passage we held the north-bound Savannah +steamer for seven hours. Her passengers stood by the rail and watched +us, and when at last we crowded our bowsprit past her nose, they waved +their handkerchiefs and cheered us like mad. + +"When we get this one loosened up a bit and down to her trim, she'll +sail some or I don't know," said our skipper. He stood in the cabin +gangway then and filled his boots with water, but he wouldn't take in +sail. Back behind us was another seiner. We could just make out that +they were soaking it to her too. The skipper nodded his head back at +her. Then, with one hand on the house and the other on the rail, he +looked out from under our main-boom and across at the steamer. "Not a +rag--let the spars come out of her." + +One thing was sure--the Johnnie was a vessel that could stand driving. +She didn't crowd herself as she got going. No, sir! The harder we +drove her the faster she went. Laying down on her side made no +difference to her. In fact we were not sure that she wouldn't do her +best sailing on her side. But it hadn't come to that yet. She was +standing up under sail fine. Most of them, we knew, would have washed +everything off their deck before that. And certainly there would have +been no standing down by the lee rail on too many of them with that +breeze abeam. + +Going up New York harbor, where we had to tack, the Savannah steamer +could have gone by if she had to, but big steamers slow down some +going into a harbor, and we holding on to everything made up for the +extra distance sailed. The wind, of course, was nothing to what it was +outside, and that made some difference. Anyway, we kept the Johnnie +going and held the steamer up to the Battery, where, as she had to go +up North River, she gave us three toots. The people on the Battery +must have had a good look at us. I guess it was not every day they saw +a schooner of the Johnnie's size carrying on like that. Billie Hurd +had to pay his respects to them. "Look, you loafers, look, and see a +real vessel sailing in." + +There was a sassy little East River towboat that wanted to give us a +tow, but our skipper said it would be losing time to take sail off and +wait for a line then. The tug captain said, "Oh, no; and you can't +dock her anyway in this harbor without a tug." + +"Oh, I can dock her all right, I guess," said our skipper. + +"Maybe you think you can, but wait till you try it, and have a nice +little bill for damages besides." + +"Well, the vessel's good for the damages, too." + +That towboat tailed us just the same, but we had the satisfaction of +fooling him. The skipper kept the Johnnie going till the right time +and then, when the tugboat people thought it was too late, he shot her +about on her heel and into the dock with her mainsail coming down on +the run and jibs dead. + +A couple of East Side loafers standing on the wharf cap-log were +nearly swept away by the end of our bowsprit, we came on so fast. Four +or five of us leaped ashore, and with lines out and made fast in no +time, we had her docked without so much as cracking a single shingle +of the house across the head of the dock. + +We sold our mackerel for nineteen cents apiece. Fifty-seven hundred +and odd dollars was our stock, and about a hundred and forty dollars +each man's share. We felt a little bit chesty after that. We were not +the first to market that year, but we were the first since the early +flurry, and the biggest stock so far that spring was to our credit. + +We stood on the deck and watched the porgy steamer come in and tie up, +too late for that day's market. Some of our fellows had to ask them +where they got their fish--to the s'uth'ard or where?--and two or +three fights came out of it, but no harm done. Then nearly everybody +drew some money off the skipper, and we smoked fifteen-cent cigars and +threw our chests out. We all went uptown, too, and took in the +theatres that night, and afterwards treated each other and pretty +nearly everybody else that we met along the East Side on the way back, +until the policemen began to notice us and ask if we didn't think we'd +better be getting back to our ships. One or two of the crew had to get +into fights with the toughs along the water front, but we were all +safely aboard by three o'clock in the morning. + +All but Clancy. Some of us were trying to get some sleep along towards +morning when Clancy came aboard with a fine shore list. The cook, who +was up and stirring about for breakfast, noticed him first. "It's a +fine list you've got, Tommie." + +"And why not?--and a fine beam wind coming down the street. I'm like a +lot of other deep-draught craft of good model, George--I sail best +with the wind abeam. A bit of a list gets you down to your lines." And +until we turned out for breakfast, after which it was time to be off +and away to the fleet again, he kept us all in a roar with the story +of his adventures. + + + + +XVIII + +A BRUSH WITH THE YACHTING FLEET + + +Through all of that month and through most of the month of May we +chased the mackerel up the coast. By the middle of May we were well up +front with the killers, and our skipper's reputation was gaining. The +vessel, too, was getting quite a name as a sailer. Along the Maryland, +Delaware, and Jersey coasts we chased them--on up to off Sandy Hook +and then along the Long Island shore, running them fresh into New +York. There were nights and days that spring when we saw some driving +on the Johnnie Duncan. + +Toward the end of May, with the fish schooling easterly to off No +Man's Land and reported as being seen on Georges and in the Bay of +Fundy--working to the eastward all the time--we thought the skipper +would put for home, take in salt, fill the hold with barrels and refit +for a Cape Shore trip--that is, head the fish off along the Nova +Scotia shore, from Cape Sable and on to anywhere around the Gulf of +St. Lawrence, and stay there until we had filled her up with salt +mackerel. We thought so, because most of the fleet had decided on +that plan and because we had been away from home since the first of +April. But no--he stayed cruising off Block Island and running them +fresh into Newport with the last half-dozen of the fleet. + +Our idea of it was that the skipper wanted to go home badly enough, +but he was set on getting a big stock and didn't care what it cost +himself or us to get it. Some of us would have given a lot to be +home. + + "Oh, fine blue sky and a fine blue sea + And a blue-eyed girl awaiting me," + +was how Clancy put it as he came down from aloft one afternoon and +took the wheel from me. "By the wind is it, Joe?" + +"By the wind," I said--the usual word when seiners are cruising for +mackerel, and I went aloft to take his place at the mast-head. It was +a lazy watch, as the mackerel generally were not showing at this time +in the middle of the day. They seemed to prefer the early morning or +the late afternoon, or above all a dark night. + +Long Steve, who came up this day to pass the time with me aloft, had +been telling me about his old home, when we both noticed the topsails +of what we knew must be the first of a fleet of big schooner yachts +racing to Newport--from New York, no doubt, on one of their ocean +races. Steve, of course, had to try to name the leader, while she was +yet miles away--seiners have wonderful eyes for vessels--and was still +at it, naming the others behind, when the next on watch relieved me +and I went below. + +The first of the yachts was almost on us when I came down, and Clancy +was watching her like a hawk when he turned the wheel over to the next +man. She was as about as big as we were. We knew her well. She had +been a cup defender and afterwards changed to a schooner rig. Our +skipper was taking a nap below at this time, or we supposed he was. He +had been up nearly a week, with no more than a two-hours' sleep each +day, and so was pretty well tired. That was what made Clancy stand by +the wheel and ask if the skipper was still asleep. + +"No," said the skipper himself. He had just turned out, and in his +stocking feet he came to the companionway and looked up. "What is +it?" + +"Here's this big yacht crawling by on our quarter--she'll be by us +soon. I thought you wouldn't like it." + +"I'll be right up. Tell the gang to sway up." + +He drew on his slip-shods and came on deck. He took a look over at the +yacht while we were swaying up. When we had everything good and flat +and trimmed sheets a bit, the skipper called out to take in the +fore-topsail. "She hasn't got hers set," he explained. + +Now, a fore-topsail does not help much--hauled up, as were the Johnnie +Duncan and the yacht, it would be a hindrance to most vessels, and, +perhaps, because it did not help her was why the yacht had not hers +set. But it showed the skipper's fairness. Ours had been left set, +because we might need it in a hurry, and also because with the skipper +below nobody could order it down. Now we clewed it up. + +Clancy, standing aft, threw a look at our seine-boat, which of course +we had in tow. "She's quite a drag," he suggested, "for a vessel +that's racing." + +"Yes," said the skipper, "but wait a while. We won't cast it off +unless we have to." + +We did not have to. We soon had her in trim. For weeks the skipper and +Clancy had been marking the Johnnie's sheets so that in an emergency +they could whip her into her best sailing in no time. With that, and +with the shifting of some barrels of salt that we had on deck, we soon +had her going. It is surprising what a lot of difference the shifting +of a few barrels of salt will make in the trim of a vessel. We had not +had a try with anything for two weeks or so and had become careless. +The last thing we did was to take some barrels of fresh water that +happened to be standing forward of the windlass and shift them aft, +and then the Johnnie began to go along for fair. + +Coming up to Block Island Light things were pretty even. Then it came +a question of who was to go to windward. The yacht hauled her +mainsheet in to two blocks. So did we, and, further, ran a line from +the cringle in her foresail to the weather rigging. She could not make +it--we had her. + +"Mind the time," said the skipper, when at last we had her under our +quarter--"mind the time, Tommie, when we used to do so much racing +down on the Cape shore? There's where we had plenty of time for racing +and all sorts of foolishness. I was pretty young then, but I mind it +well. A string of men on the rigging from the shear poles clear up to +the mast-head--yes, and a man astraddle the main gaff once or twice, +passing buckets of water to wet down the mains'l." + +"Yes, and barrels of water out toward the end of the main-boom keep +the sail stretched. Man, but those were the days we paid attention to +racing." + +"Those were the days," asserted the skipper. "But we can do a little +of it now, too." + +By that you will understand we were walking away from our yacht. We +were to anchor in the harbor while she was still coming, and we had +towed our seine-boat all the way. + +"Lord," said Clancy, as we were tying up our foresail, "but I'd like +to see this one in an ocean race with plenty of wind stirring--not a +flat breeze and a short drag like we had to-day." + + + + +XIX + +MINNIE ARKELL AGAIN + + +Coming on to dark that night a gig put off from the schooner-yacht and +rowed over to us. On the way she was hailed and passed a few words +with a steam-yacht anchored in between. The man in the stern of the +gig was not satisfied until he had been rowed three times around the +Johnnie. When he had looked his fill he came alongside. + +He mistook Clancy for the skipper. I suppose he couldn't imagine a man +of Clancy's figure and bearing to be an ordinary hand on a fisherman. +So to Clancy he said, "Captain, you've got a wonderful vessel here. +Put a single stick in her and she'll beat the world." + +"Yes," said Clancy, "and she'd be a hell of a fine fisherman then, +wouldn't she?" + +The rest of us had to roar at that. We at once pictured the Johnnie +rigged up as a sloop out on the Grand Banks, trawling or hand-lining, +with the crew trying to handle her in some of the winter gales that +struck in there. And a great chance she would have rigged as a sloop +and her one big sail, making a winter passage home eight or nine or +ten hundred miles, when as it was, with the sail split up to schooner +rig, men found it bad enough. + +The master of the yacht had a message for our captain, he said, and +Clancy told him the skipper was below. There they talked for a while +and after the yachtsman had gone Maurice, inviting four or five of us +along, dressed up, called for the seine-boat, got in and was rowed +over to a steam-yacht that we now remembered had hailed the +schooner-yacht's gig. All brass and varnish and white paint and gold +she would be in the daytime, but now she was all lit up with electric +lights below and Japanese lanterns on deck. + +When we came alongside, who should come to the gangway of the yacht +and welcome Maurice but Minnie Arkell--Mrs. Miner. She greeted all of +us for that matter--she never pretended not to see people--and invited +us all below for refreshments. There was a good lay-out there and we +pitched into it. Seiners are great people at table or in a bunk. They +can turn to and eat, or turn in and sleep any minute, day or night. So +now we turned to. Clancy did great things to the wine. Generally he +took whiskey, but he did not object to good wine now and then. He and +one fellow in a blue coat, white duck trousers, and a blue cap that +never left his head, had a great chat. + +"I callate that if he didn't have that cap with the button on front +nobody'd know he was a real yachtsman, would they?" Eddie Parsons +whispered in my ear. + +The owner of the steam-yacht was trying to convince Tommie that +yachting would be more in his line than fishing, but Tommie couldn't +see it. + +"But why not?" he asked at last. "Why not, Mr. Clancy? Is it a matter +of money? If it is, I'll make that right. I pay ordinary hands +twenty-five and thirty dollars a month and found, but I'll pay you +fifty--sixty--seventy dollars a month to go with me. I'm going to race +this steamer this summer and I want a quartermaster--a man like you +that can steer to a hair-line. Seventy dollars a month now--what do +you say?" + +"Come now, my good man, what do you say?" Clancy got that off without +so much as a smile. "But you couldn't make it seventy-five now, could +you? No, I didn't mean that quite, though I've been out the dock in +Gloucester of a Saturday noon and back again to the dock of a Tuesday +noon--three days--and shared two hundred dollars--not as skipper, mind +you, but just as hand. There now, I hope you're not going to get +angry. Hadn't we better have another little touch? But I can see +myself in a suit of white duck, touching my cap, and saying, 'Aye, +aye, sir,' to some slob--no reference to you, mind you--but some slob +in a uniform that's got a yacht, not because he loves the sea, but +because he wants to butt in somewhere--who lives aboard his yacht just +the same as he does in his house ashore--electric bells, baths, +servants, barber and all--and hugs the shore so close that he gets the +morning paper as regularly as when he's at home. When that kind go +yachting all they miss are the tables on the lawn and the automobiles +going by the door. They even have canary-birds--some of them--in +cages. Yes, and wouldn't be caught twenty miles off shore--no, not +even in a summer's breeze for--And where would he be in a winter's +gale? I can see myself rowing a gig with somebody like that in the +stern giving orders and fooling--well, some simple-minded women folks, +maybe, who know as much of the sea as they do of the next world--most +of them--fooling them into believing that he's a devil--yes, a clean +devil on the water. Seventy a month for that?--couldn't you make it +seventy-five?" + +"You don't mean to say that----" + +"Yes," said Clancy, "I do. I'd rather stick to fishing than--but +here's a shoot and let's call the quartermaster's job off." + +Minnie Arkell chimed in here. "A real fisherman, you must remember, +Mr. Keith, doesn't care much for yachting because--leaving out the +question of wages, for he does make more at fishing--he can remain a +fisherman and yet be independent." + +"You mean they don't have to take orders as if they were on a yacht, +Mrs. Miner?" + +"No, no--don't make any mistake there. The discipline of a yacht, so +far as I know it, is baby play to what they have on a good fisherman. +The discipline aboard a warship is nothing to that aboard a fisherman, +like Captain Blake's vessel say, when there is anything to be done. +Fishermen, it's true, don't have to touch their caps and say, 'Very +good, sir,' to a man who may be no more of a real man than themselves. +On your yacht I suppose you'd discharge a man who didn't do what he +was told, and on a warship he would be sent to the brig, I suppose. On +a fisherman he'd be put ashore. On a fisherman they not only obey +orders, but they carry them out on the jump. And why? Because they've +always done it. Why, deep-sea fishermen are always getting into places +where only the best of seamanship can save them, and they very early +get in the way of doing things up quick and right. When a Gloucester +skipper orders in the sail, say in a gale of wind, and more than apt +to be in the middle of the night--you don't see men trying to see how +long it will take them to get into oilskins--or filling another pipe +before they climb on deck. No, sir--the first man out on the bowsprit, +if it's the jib to come in--or out on the foot-ropes, if it's the +mainsail to be tied up--he's the man that will have a right to hold +his head high next day aboard that vessel. And so the crew of a +fisherman jump to their work--if they didn't there'd be a lot more of +them lost than there are." + +"Dear me," said Mr. Keith, "that never occurred to me before. But how +is it, Mrs. Miner, that you have it down so fine?" + +"My father was a Gloucester skipper, and since I was that high"--she +put her hand on a level with her knee--"I've been listening to +fishermen. And yachting life does tend to spoil a fisherman," she went +on to explain. "After a summer of yachting a fisherman will begin to +think that a winter of fishing is going to be a serious thing." She +was warmed up then and went on talking at a great rate. And listening +to her I could understand better why men took to her. She had warm +blood in her. If it were not for her weakness to be admired by men, +she would have been a great woman. "And they get so, that what seems +extraordinary work to you is only an every-day matter to them. Do you +remember that last schooner-yacht race across the Atlantic?--when two +or three reporters went along, and after they got back wrote all kinds +of stories of what a desperate trip it was--how rough it was and +dangerous! Well, that time there were three or four Gloucestermen +making the run to Iceland. Now, they were not as big as the racing +yachts and they were loaded down with all the stores for a long salt +trip--their holds full of salt, for one thing--and yet they made about +as good time to Iceland as that yachtsman made to Queenstown. And they +weren't driving their vessels either--they don't drive on the way out. +It's only coming home that they try to make passages. Now, they must +have got the same weather and yet nobody ever heard them in their +letters home report a word of bad weather, or ever afterward, either. +And yet--but were you to Iceland that time, Maurice?" + +"No," said the skipper, "but you were, Tommie?" + +"Yes," answered Clancy, "in the Lucy Foster. We made Rik-ie-vik inside +of fourteen days, carrying both tops'ls all the way. Wesley--Wesley +Marrs--wasn't hurrying her, of course. As Mrs. Miner says, the vessels +going to the east'ard don't hurry, except now and then when two of +them with records get together. And the Lucy was logy, of course, with +the three hundred and odd hogsheads of salt and other stuff in her. +If we'd been driving her going to Iceland that time we'd have had the +stays'l and balloon to her--and she'd have gone right along with them, +too." + +Mrs. Miner looked around at her yachting friends to see if they were +getting all that. + +"There was one day that passage it blew a bit," exclaimed Clancy. "And +that was the day we thought we saw a fellow to the east'ard. We had +men by the halyards all that day with splitting knives." + +"Why?" asked Keith. + +"Why, to cut before she could capsize." + +"Oh!" said Keith and said it with a little click. + +"But that's nothing. I've seen the gang with Tom O'Donnell standing +watch by the halyards for days with axes when he was making a +passage." + +Minnie Arkell filled another glass of champagne for Clancy, and Clancy +didn't give the fizz too much time to melt away either. + +"These men are the real things," she said, but Clancy, for fear we +were getting too much credit, broke in, "Not us seiners. It's the +winter fishermen--trawlers and hand-liners--that are the real things. +Of course, we lose men now and then seining, but it's in winter up on +the shoal water on the Banks that--there's where you have some seas +to buck against," and he went on to tell of a battle with a gale on a +winter's night on the Grand Banks. Clancy could tell a story as well +as anybody I ever met. He could make the blood jump to your heart, or +the tears to your eyes--or he could chill you till the blood froze. +When he got through you could hear them all breathing--men and women +both, like people who had just run a race. "Two hundred and odd men +sailing out of Gloucester," he said, "went down that night. There +weren't too many came safe out of that blow. The father of this boy +here was lost--the Mary Buckley warn't it, Joe?--named for your +mother?" + +"And my father, too, was lost soon after," said Minnie Arkell, and the +glance she gave me melted a lot of prejudice I had felt for her. That +was the good human side to her. + +"No better man ever sailed out of Gloucester, Mrs. Miner," said +Clancy. + +She flushed up. "Thank you, Tommie, for that, though I know he was a +reckless man." And, she might have added, he left some of his +recklessness in the blood of the Arkells. + +The skipper told them a lot about sea life that night. Some of the +stories he told, though long known in Gloucester, they took to be +yarns at first. They could not believe that men went through such +things and lived. And then the skipper had such an easy way of telling +them. After a man has been through a lot of unusual things--had them +years behind him and almost forgotten them--I suppose they don't +surprise him any more. + +The skipper looked well that night. When he warmed up and his eyes +took on a fresh shine and his mouth softened like a woman's, I tell +you he was a winner. I could not help comparing him with the +steam-yacht owner, who was a good-looking man, too, but in a different +way. Both of them, to look at, were of the same size. Both had their +clothes made by tailors who knew their business and took pains with +the fitting, though it was easy to fit men like Clancy and the +skipper, such fine level shoulders and flat broad backs they had. Now +the skipper, as I say, when he warmed up began to look something like +what he ought--like he did when walking the quarter and the vessel +going out to sea. Only then it would be in a blue flannel shirt open +at the throat and in jack-boots. But now, in the cabin of that yacht, +dressed as he was in black clothes like anybody else and in +good-fitting shoes, you had to take a second look at him to get his +measure. The yachtsman thought that he and the skipper were of about +the same size, and barring that the skipper's shoulders were a shade +wider there wasn't so much difference to look at. But there was a +difference, just the same. The yachtsman weighed a hundred and +seventy-five pounds. He asked what Maurice weighed. "Oh, about the +same," said Maurice. But I and Clancy knew that he weighed a hundred +and ninety-five, and Minnie Arkell, who knew too, finally had to tell +it, and then they all took another look at the two men and could see +where the difference lay. There was no padding to Maurice, and when +you put your hand where his shoulders and back muscles ought to be you +found something there. + +When we were leaving that night, Mrs. Miner stopped Maurice on the +gangway to say, "And when they have the fishermen's race this fall, +you must sail the Johnnie Duncan, Maurice, as you've never sailed a +vessel yet. With you on the quarter and Clancy to the wheel she ought +to do great things." + +"Oh, we'll race her as well as we know how if we're around, but Tom +O'Donnell and Wesley Marrs and Tommie Ohlsen and Sam Hollis and the +rest--they'll have something to say about it, I'm afraid." + +"What of it? You've got the vessel and you must win--I'll bet all the +loose money I have in the world on her. Remember I own a third of +her. Mr. Duncan sold me a third just before I left Gloucester." + +That was a surprise to us--that Mrs. Miner owned a part of the Johnnie +Duncan. It set Clancy to figuring, and turning in that night, he +said--he was full of fizzy wine, but clear-headed enough--"Well, what +do you make of that? The Foster girl a third and Minnie Arkell a third +of this one. I'm just wise to it that it wasn't old Duncan alone that +wanted Maurice for skipper. Lord, Lord, down at the Delaware +Breakwater do you remember that when we heard that the Foster girl +owned a part of this one, I said, like the wise guy I thought I was, +'Ha, ha,' I said, 'so Miss Foster owns a third? That's it, eh?' And +now it's Minnie Arkell a third. Where does Withrow come in? And did +you hear her when she invited Maurice to the time they're going to +have on that same steam-yacht to-morrow night?--that was when she +whispered to him at the gangway, when we were leaving. She tried to +get him to promise to come, and at last he said he would if he was in +the harbor. 'Then be sure to be in the harbor--you're skipper and can +do as you please. Do come,' she said at the last, good and loud, 'and +tell them how to sail a vessel in heavy weather. They only play at it, +so do come and tell them.' And then in a low voice--'But I want you to +come for yourself.' That's what she says--'For yourself,' she +says--in a whisper almost. 'Take a run into the harbor to-morrow night +if you can, Maurice,' she says. O Lord, women--women--they don't know +a thing--no," and Clancy turned in. + + + + +XX + +THE SKIPPER PUTS FOR HOME + + +We were out of Newport Harbor before daybreak of next morning, and +cruised inside Block Island all that day. We all thought the skipper +would be in to Newport that night--it was no more than a two hours' +run the way the wind was--and we waited. + +The test came after supper. We had supper as usual, at three o'clock. +Breakfast at four, dinner at ten, supper at three--mug-ups before and +after and in between. Along about four o'clock the skipper, standing +on the break, stood looking back toward where Newport lay. Had we +turned then we'd have been in nicely by dark. It was a fine +afternoon--the finest kind of an afternoon--a clear blue sky, and a +smooth blue sea with the surface just rippling beautifully. All fire +was the sun and the sails of every vessel in sight looked white as +could be. Several yachts passed us--steam and sail--all bright and +handsome and all bound into Newport, and the skipper's eyes rested +long on them--on one of them particularly with music aboard. + +The skipper looked back a long time--looked back, and looked back. He +began walking the quarter--back and forth, back and forth, back and +forth. The sun got lower and lower, the sea lost some of its blue, and +the air grew fresher, and still he kept looking back. + +"It'll be a grand sunset to-night, Tommie." + +"The finest kind. But one thing wrong with it." + +"What's that?" + +"We're not seeing it astern of us." + +The skipper stopped. "Astern? That's so, too--it _is_ a fine westerly, +isn't it?" + +Clancy said nothing, only leaned against the rigging, not a move out +of him--puffing his pipe and looking away. + +Nobody spoke till the skipper spoke again. + +"Who's to the wheel--you, Steve? How's she heading now?" + +"No'the by west." + +"No'the by west? Put her east by no'the--ease off your mainsheet. Let +it go to the knot. Call the gang and make sail--stays'l and +balloon--everything--we'll go home, I guess." + +Clancy snapped the pipe out of his mouth and hove it over the rail. +Then he went for the forec's'le gangway. In two jumps he was there. + +"Up, you loafers--on deck and make sail. 'To the east'ard,' says the +skipper, and over the shoals we'll put her to-night." + +"Home! Home--good enough--and hurroo!" we could hear from below. + +The skipper said nothing more--only all night long he walked the +quarter. + +Next day when we were almost abreast of Cape Cod Clancy began to +instruct me. "Here's a tip for any girl friends you got, Joe. See the +skipper last night? Tell them if they're after a man--a real man--even +if he's a bit shy--tell them--" Oh, the advice that Clancy could +give! + +About the time that we left Cape Cod light astern and squared away for +Thatcher's--with Gloucester Harbor almost in sight--with the rocks of +Eastern Point dead ahead--Clancy began to sing again: + + "Oh, a deep blue sky and a deep blue sea + And a blue-eyed girl awaiting me-- + Too-roo-roo and a too-roo-ree-- + Who wouldn't a Gloucester seiner be? + +Ha, Joey-boy?" and gave me a slap on the shoulder that sent me +half-way to the break. + +That was all right, but I went aloft so I could see the rocks of Cape +Ann a mite sooner. I was just beginning to discover that I had been +almost homesick. + + + + +XXI + +SEINERS' WORK + + +We were high line of the seining fleet when we got home from the +Southern cruise and we felt pretty proud of ourselves. It was +something to stand on the corner on one of the days when the Johnnie +was fitting out again, and have other fellows come up to you and say, +"What's that they say you fellows shared on the Southern trip?" And +when we'd tell them, and we trying not to throw out our chests too +much, it was fine to hear them say, "That so? Lord, but that's great. +Well, if Maurice only holds out he'll make a great season of it, won't +he?" + +"Oh, he'll hold out," we'd say, and lead the way down to the Anchorage +or some other place for a drink or a cigar, for of course, with the +money we'd made, we naturally felt like spending some of it on those +who were not doing so well. And of course, too, no seiner could ever +resist anybody who talks to him in a nice friendly way like that. + +The skipper's doings ashore interested all of his crew, of course, +although me, perhaps, more than anybody else, unless it was Clancy. I +got pretty regular bulletins from my cousin Nell. She was for the +skipper, first, last and all the time. + +"I like him," she said to me more than a dozen times. "I do like him, +but I never imagined that a man who does so well at sea could shrink +into himself as he does. Why, you almost have to haul him out by the +ears ashore. If it weren't for me I really believe--" and she +stopped. + +But I thought I understood what she meant. "Meaning your chum, Alice +Foster?" I said. + +"Yes, meaning my chum, Alice Foster. Why?" + +"Oh, I don't know. Sometimes I think she's a kind of a frost." + +"No, she isn't a frost, and don't you come around here again and tell +me so." + +Nor did I, for I would not have an argument with Nell for all the +Alice Fosters in the world, for if Nell were anybody else but my first +cousin, I think I would have fallen in love with her myself. + +And then we put out to sea and again we were living the life of +seiners, having it hard and easy in streaks. There were the times when +we went along for a week and did not do a tap but eat, sleep, stand a +trick at the wheel, a watch to the mast-head, and skylark around the +deck, and read, or have a quiet game of draw or whist or seven-up +below. But again there were times when we were on fish, and our +skipper being a driver, it was jump, jump, jump for a week on end. +There was that time in August when the fish were so plentiful on +Georges Bank, when, standing to the mast-head, you could see nothing +but mackerel schooling for fifteen or twenty miles either side of the +vessel. But, oh, they were wild! A dozen times we'd heave the +seine--put off from the vessel, put out that two hundred and odd +fathom of twine, drive seine-boat and dory to the limit, purse in--and +not so much as a single mackerel caught by the gills. That happened +fifteen or twenty times some days, maybe. We got our fill of sets that +month. But then again there was a week off Cape Cod and in the Bay of +Fundy and off the Maine coast when we ran them fresh to Boston market, +when we landed more mackerel it was said in a single week than was +ever landed before by one vessel. We were five days and five nights +that time without seeing our bunks. It was forever out and after them, +heave the seine, purse up and bail in, ice some, and dress the rest +along the way, and the vessel with everything on driving for Boston. + +We stood to it that week, you may be sure, until coming on the fifth +day some of us fell asleep over the keelers as the Johnnie was coming +into T Wharf. I remember that I could just barely see in a kind of a +hazy way the row of people along the cap-log when we made fast. And +yet after that we had to hoist them out of the hold and onto the dock. +That day, going out again, the skipper made all but the watch and +himself turn in. That afternoon, when everybody had had a little kink, +the skipper himself, who had been under a heavier strain than any of +us, suddenly fell backward over the house and sound asleep. And there +he lay all the rest of that day and that night. + +After ten or twelve hours of it we tried to wake him, but not a budge. +We tried again, but no use. At last he came to and without any help at +all. Sitting up, he asked where we were, and being told, he said +nothing for a moment or so, and then suddenly--"That so? How long was +I asleep?" We told him--seventeen hours. "Good Lord!" he groaned, and +after a mug-up scooted for the mast-head like a factory hand with the +seven o'clock whistle blowing. "He's a fisherman, the skipper," said +the gang as they watched him climb the rigging. + +And he was a fisherman. All that summer he drove things with but +little time for us ashore. Twice he put into Gloucester with a day to +ourselves and another time we had a chance to run down after we had +put into Boston for market, and that we suspected was because the +skipper found he could not keep away himself any longer. Things, we +judged, were going pretty well with him in Gloucester. He did not +pretend any longer now that he was not interested in Miss Foster, and +from my cousin Nell I got occasional hints, most of which I confided +to Clancy, who explained them as if they were so many parables. + +"It'll be all right," said Clancy, "if only Minnie Arkell stands +clear. I'm glad she's away for the summer, but she'll turn up in the +fall. You'll see her just before the race large as life, and some of +her swell-dressed friends, and a yacht, I'll bet." + +Considering how deeply the skipper was interested in Miss Foster, some +of us thought he ought to be putting in a little time ashore between +trips. After a run into the Boston fresh fish market, say, we would +have liked mighty well to take in the theatre, or a trip to the beach, +or some other little entertainment of a night. But no, it was in and +out--drive, drive, drive. + +He was all ambition, the skipper. He was going to be up front or break +something. Miss Foster was one of the ambitious kind, too. If she was +going to have a fisherman, he would have to be a killer or she would +know why. And so I suppose that had a lot to do with the way the +skipper drove things. + +We had our loafing spells, as I say, but mostly it was plenty of work. +That time when we stayed awake for five days and nights was not the +only one. Another time our legs swelled up and the blood came out of +the ends of our fingers with standing up to the keelers and dressing +fish without rest. But, Lord, nobody minded that. After we'd got +rested up we felt better than ever. + +We had good luck generally. We lost neither men nor gear to amount to +anything that summer. That seine we lost trying for our first school +to the s'uth'ard in the spring was the only bit of misfortune that +came, and we had long ago made up for that. But others were not so +lucky. There was the loss of the Ruth Ripley, Pitt Ripley's vessel. I +think I have said that she was a fast vessel. She was fast--fast, but +of the cranky type. We were jogging along a little to windward of her +one fine afternoon--it had been a fine September day and now it was +coming on to evening. To the westward of Cape Sable, in the Bay of +Fundy, it was, and no hint of a blow up to within a few minutes of the +time when the squall struck the Ruth. I suppose it would have been +more prudent on Pitt's part if he had had less sail on, but like most +of the skippers in the fleet I guess he was not looking for any record +for prudence. Any minute he might have to be up and driving her, and +keeping sail on was the quickest way to have it when you needed it in +a hurry. The squall hit her--it hit us, too, but we saw it coming and +met it and beyond washing a few keelers overboard, when she rolled +down, no harm was done to the Johnnie. On the Ripley, I suppose, they +saw it too, but the Ripley and the Duncan were not the same class of +vessel by any means. She went over--hove down, with her foremast under +water to the cross-trees almost. + +Most of her crew were below at the time, some in their bunks. Four or +five of those below never reached the deck at all--the water rushing +down the companionways cut them off. Some rushed aft where the stern +was high out of water and some piled into the rigging. Some were +calling out and giving advice to others. We could hear them plainly. +Two jumped to the wheel and threw it up, but she would not right. + +We had the Johnnie to keep right side up, but we saw the whole thing. +It could not have been more than two or three minutes from the time +the squall struck her when she was going down head-first. Those of her +crew who had gone to the stern were going with her, but those who had +taken to the rigging, by leaping wide came clear. Their seine-boat, +which had been towing astern, might have been of use to them, but +being fast to the vessel by the painter it was pretty well filled with +water before anybody had a chance to cut the painter. The man that +cut it went down with the vessel. He was all right, whoever he was. +Those in the water were looking about for the dory, and found that +half full of water, too. They were trying to bail the water out of the +dory, after hauling it across the bow of the submerged seine-boat, +when we got them in our seine-boat and picked up what was left of +them. + +Nine of them were lost, her skipper among them. One of the men +saved--the cook--said that when the squall struck the vessel, Captain +Ripley had been seen to jump for the boom tackle, which he unhitched, +and then to spring for the lashings of the dory, which he cut with his +knife. The cook also said that he thought the skipper lost his life +because of the half-stunning blow that he must have received from the +fore-boom while he was on the rail trying to free the dory. The vessel +was sinking all the time and it being dark--or near it in the +squall--I suppose Captain Ripley could not watch everything. No doubt, +it was the fore-boom hit him and knocked him overboard. Certainly he +was knocked overboard, and the last seen of him he was swimming and +pushing an empty barrel before him to one of the crew. "Keep your +nerve up," he called to the cook, and after that he suddenly +disappeared. He got a man's death, anyway. + +We rowed back to the Duncan with the survivors. Nine men gone--it was +a hard story to take home with us, but we had it to do. It was all a +part of fishing life, and so we put back for Gloucester. + + + + +XXII + +ON THE CAPE SHORE + + +While we were into Gloucester, after taking home the crew of the Ruth +Ripley, our vessel was put on the ways. That was after a talk between +the skipper and Mr. Duncan. There is always something that needs +attending to on a fisherman, and this time it was our water-tanks. And +while they were being looked after, the Johnnie was overhauled, her +bottom scrubbed and topsides painted. Old Mr. Duncan, we found, was +beginning to take a lot of pride in our vessel and balked at no +expense to have her in trim. And now that the Ripley was lost, he +would have only two vessels to represent him in the big fishermen's +race, which was then only four weeks away. + +"Hurry up home now," he said to Maurice as we left the dock that time. +"Hurry up, and give yourself plenty of time to tune her up and get her +in trim for the race. I've set my heart on it. You or the Lucy Foster +must win that race, and whatever else we do we've got to beat +Withrow's vessel, anyway." + +And Miss Foster said that one of her guardian's vessels would have to +win the race, and my cousin Nell said that the Johnnie Duncan would +have to win. There was a lot depending on it, she said. It meant a lot +to Will Somers, I suppose Nell meant. + +We figured that we had time to make a Cape shore trip, and, with fair +luck, to fill the Johnnie with salt mackerel and be back in time to +get her in good condition for the race, which this year, because it +was anniversary year in Gloucester, promised to be the greatest ever +sailed. + +Our plans were somewhat interfered with by a rescue we made. We found +a Glasgow bark, New York bound, in the Bay of Fundy, and her crew in +hard straits. We stood down and after a lot of trouble took them +off--Clancy and Long Steve in the dory. Billie Hurd came near being +the second man in the dory, but Clancy, grabbing him as he had one +foot over the rail, hauled him back with, "Way for your elders, little +man," and jumped in beside Long Steve. + +"Elders, but not betters," said Hurd. + +"Have it your own way," answered Clancy, "but I go in the dory." + +The rescue was really a fine thing, but the important thing was that +some of the rescued men had been exposed to the battering of the sea +so long that they needed medical attention, and so we drove for +home--and cracked our foremast-head doing it. That delayed us almost a +week, for the skipper had to have that spar just so. A lot might +depend on it, same as the rest of the gear. And it was a spar--as fine +a bit of timber, Oregon pine of course, as was ever set up in a +fisherman. And maybe that too was just as well, with the race coming +on. + +By the time we were down the Cape shore--down Canso way--and among the +fleet again, we had lost a week. Our hold was still to fill up, and +only two weeks and a day to the race. Wesley Marrs, Tom O'Donnell, Sam +Hollis, and the rest were then talking of going home and making ready +for the race. Bottoms would have to be scrubbed, extra gear put +ashore--a whole lot of things done--and a few try-outs in the Bay by +way of tuning up. + +The race was the talk of all the fleet. Half the crews on the Cape +shore wanted to be in Gloucester when the race came off, and some of +the skippers of the slower vessels, which would not enter because they +had no show to win, were already scheming to be home just before the +race so that they could be on hand to follow it. + +The morning after we were back among the fleet we got a small school +right from under the eyes of the Lynx, one of the English cutters +which were patrolling the coast to see that we didn't get any fish +within the three-mile limit. I remember that while we were satisfied +at the time that we were outside the line, we did not know what the +revenue-cutter might say, and particularly the Lynx, whose captain had +a hard name among our fleet for his readiness to suspect law-breaking +when there wasn't any. The cutter people generally seemed to want to +be fair toward us, but this Lynx's captain was certainly a vindictive +cuss. Anything hailing from Gloucester was an abomination in his eyes. +And so this morning, when, after we had decided that we were outside +the limit, and made ready to set, it was hard to have to take the +order of the Lynx and sheer off. Our judgment of distance ought to +have been as good as his--better, really, we thought it, because we +were always judging distances at sea, and more at home upon the sea, +too. But that made no difference--what the cutter people said had to +be law for us. + +So this time he ordered us not to set where we were or he'd seize our +vessel. Several Gloucester vessels had been confiscated just before +this and the owners had to pay the fine to recover them. One owner +disputed the judgment and his case was then waiting settlement. +Another who refused to pay saw his vessel turned into a lightship and +placed down Miramichi way in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where it is +yet. This day the commander of the Lynx might have some reason to +think that his order ended that for us--and we could almost see him +chuckling--but it didn't. A fog was creeping up at the time and in ten +minutes it was on us, and under cover of the fog we got a little +school--the same school we thought and on the exact spot where the +cutter was lying when she ordered us off. Didn't we cackle though when +we bailed it in? Oh, no! It was not much of a school--only twenty +barrels--but it made us all feel fine. Not alone did we feel that we +had got the better of the English cutter, but also that luck was +coming to us again. We justified ourselves by saying that we honestly +believed we were outside the three-mile limit, and that our judgment +was as good as theirs. + +That night the forec's'le of the Johnnie Duncan presented one of the +most beatific scenes I ever saw. Everybody was in the temper of an +angel. There was nothing doing--no whist at the table, no reading out +of upper bunks, no love song from the peak, and no fierce argument on +the lockers. We were discussing the cutters and the talk was very +soothing. The cook, as usual, was finishing up a batch of dough. You +might have thought he was the only man who had been working in a week, +were it not for the wet oil-clothes hanging up to dry, and the +overhauling of second suits of oil-clothes by some of the gang. Every +man, except the cook, who never smoked while at work, was puffing away +as if he misdoubted he would ever get another chance for a pipeful in +his life. "Harmony most ex-quis-ite," said somebody, and that's what +must have been that hung over the forec's'le, and it seemed to be +merely in keeping with the heavenly order of things that the +atmosphere showed pale blue wherever the rays of the lamp could get a +chance to strike through. + +When Clancy dropped down for his usual mug-up before going to the +mast-head for the night of course, he wasn't going to let that get by +without having a word to say about it. He leaned against the foremast +and took a look around. "My soul, but it's as if the blessed angels +were fanning their wings over this forehold. There's Brian Boru and +Lord Salisbury there double-banked on the same locker, and nothing +doing on any Irish question. There's the lad that sleeps in the peak +and not a single hallelujah of praise for his darling Lucille. The +other one--the wild man that sings the Bobbie Burns songs--not a +shriek out of him. And Bill and John no longer spoiling their eyesight +on bad print. I expect it's that little school of fish--the first in +two weeks or more. The prospect must be making you all pleased. Well, +it ought. A few hundred barrels of that kind of mackerel--as fine +fish as ever I see bailed over the rail. And some of you ready +reck'ners ought to easily figure up what'll be coming to us if we ever +fill her up--say five hundred barrels. A good thing--a few hundred +barrels of mackerel. A few too many of 'em for good trim, but it's +comforting to know they're there. She seemed to be in pretty nice trim +when we tried out one or two of the fleet this morning, didn't she? +And to-night, if it breezes up--and it looks now as if it will--we'll +get some more--if it's a night like last night. One time there last +night--did you notice her, cook?--that time that crazy lad started to +cross our bow and we luffed her. Why, man, she shot over like I don't +know what--just shot like one of those torpedo boats we see around +when the Navy goes evoluting. I was near shook overboard from aloft. +They tell me they're going crazy over the race in Gloucester. Well, +here's one that'll bet his summer's earnings----" + +"What's left of it, you mean, Tommie," said George Moore from his pan +of dough. + +"Well, yes, what's left of it--and what I c'n borrow. Old man +Duncan'll stake me, and there's others. I hope, though, it blows a +jeesly gale. For this one, God bless her, she c'n sail, and some of +them'll find it out--when it's too late, maybe. Sam Hollis for one. +There's a man I'd give my eye almost, to beat. And maybe the +skipper hasn't got it in for him! He doesn't say much, Maurice +don't, but a while ago, after coming down from aloft, Billie Simms +hails him and tells him that the cutter people know all about that +little school to-day--and who told him, who told him? Well, the +skipper'll drive this one to the bottom before he ever lets Sam +Hollis or any of Withrow's vessels get by him when we race. Yes, sir. +But, Georgie-boy"--Clancy shouldered away from the foremast--"how +is it for a wedge or two of one of those blueberry pies you got +cooling there? Just a little wedge, now. But you don't need to be +too close-hauled with your knife--no. Sailing by the wind is all +right when you're jogging in and out among the fleet, and nothing +partic'lar doing except an eye out for mackerel, but you want to +give her a full always--always, Georgie--when you're cutting pie. +There's the lad--straight across the beam. And now at right angles +again. And now lay one atop of the other, and you have it--an +invention of my own--a blueberry sandwich. M-m--but look at the +juice squish through her scuppers!" He held it up for all of us to +have a look. "Now another little wash of coffee in the wake of that +and I'll be all right for a fine little watch aloft." + +He jammed his sou'wester hard down, and heroically waved away the +remainder of the pie. "No, no. First thing I know I'll be having +dyspepsia. I never had it yet, but I might," and then heaved himself +up the companionway, humming, as he went, one of his old favorites: + + "Oh, the 'Liza Jane and the Maria Louise + Sailed a race one day for a peck of peas. + You'd hardly believe the way them two + Carried sail that day--they fairly flew. + + People ashore they said, 'Gee whiz! + The 'Liza Jane the fastest is.'" + +We could hear him scrambling, still humming, over the barrels on deck. +He halted long enough by the rail to say, "How is it, boys?" to the +watch on deck, and then swung himself up the rigging. Once aloft he +had his work cut out, with hours of strain on brain and nerve. But +Clancy never minded--he never minded anything so far as we could make +out. + + + + +XXIII + +DRESSING DOWN + + +That night was the worst I ever put in towing astern of a vessel. +"Owling" is the seiners' word for that kind of work. It was "owling" +sure enough, with the seine-boat on a short painter and the dory on a +shorter painter still and astern of the seine-boat again. We came near +to being lost in the dory. Mel Adams, who was in the dory with me, +thinking she was surely going to capsize one time she rode up over the +stern of the seine-boat, took a flying leap into the seine-boat. He +had a hard time getting back, for there was quite a little sea on. +Even in the seine-boat they were all glad enough to hear Clancy give +the word to cast off and pull after the school. + +It was a big school, and hard work in that sea, but we had them safe +at last. The vessel then came alongside and the bailing in began. +Having had a good long lay-off we bailed them in with plenty of +good-will. It was "He-yew!" "Oy-hoo!" "Hi-o!" and "Drive her!" all +along the line until we had on deck what the skipper thought was a +hundred barrels. Then the bag was put around the seine to protect the +rest of the mackerel from dogfish and sharks, and we were ready to +dress. + +Barrels were tossed out of the hold, keelers set up, sharp-edged +knives drawn from diddy-boxes below, and a chance had to see a smart +crew dressing a haul of mackerel that were to be salted. It was too +long a run, four hundred miles or so, to take a chance of getting them +fresh to market. It needed a fair and fresh breeze to be sure of it, +and besides with the market for salt mackerel getting stronger all the +time it was good judgment to salt down and fill her up before going +home. + +We had been through the same thing before, even with as good a +deckload, but now we were getting near the end of the season. This +trip, then the race, and maybe one more trip after the race, and we +would be done seining. And so we drove things. + +Four gangs of four men each took corners in the waist. Each gang had +two keelers--yard square boxes, eight inches or so in depth, and set +up on two or three barrels. Into the keelers the mackerel on deck were +bailed and around them the men gathered, with long-handled torches set +up all about. + +All hands came into the dressing--skipper and cook too--and the work +went on. It was one gang against the other, each jealously counting +barrels when they were filled, that full credit might be given for +speed. Sixteen men were accounted for in this way. The seventeenth and +eighteenth were to keep the keelers filled, draw water for pickle from +over the side, roll the filled barrels out of the way--in short, to +help out generally. + +It was fine to watch the splitters. One left-handed grab and the +mackerel was in place; flat and smooth, one right-handed slit and he +was laid open the length of his back. Forty-five mackerel a minute +either the skipper, Clancy or Moore could split--that is, pick them +up, place in position, split from nose to tail along the back, and +slide out of the way again. Sixty a minute they could do in spurts, if +somebody would place the mackerel in rows for them. + +The busiest man of all was the skipper. He had to keep an eye out for +the course of the Johnnie. Vessels that are dressing fish, vessels on +which the entire crew are soaked in blood, gills, intestines, and +swashing brine, might be allowed privileges, one might think; but no, +they must keep a lookout just the same. On this dark night, the +Johnnie Duncan, though making a great effort--considering that she had +jibs down and wheel in the becket--to stay as she was put, yet would +fall away or come-to, especially when the wind shifted two or three +points at a jump. And just as soon as she did the skipper would +notice it instantly, jump aft and set her right. Generally, to shift +the wheel a few spokes would be enough, but now and then he would have +to give the wheel a good round whirl. At such a time he would sing out +a warning, the torches would be lowered, we would duck our heads, the +boom would go swinging by in the smoky yellow glare, and the Johnnie +Duncan would be off on another tack. We would brace our legs to a new +angle, the skipper would hop back to his knife, and again the dressing +would go humming along. + +When we had the first hundred barrels of mackerel swashing in brine, +the rest of them, perhaps another hundred barrels, were bailed in. And +all night long like that we stood to it driving. Under the yellow and +smoky light of the torches I could see nothing but mackerel or the +insides of mackerel in the air. Keelers, deck, rail, our hands, faces, +boots and oilskins were sticky with the blood and gurry. At top speed +we raced like that through the night. Once in a while a man would drop +his knife or snap off his gibbing mitt, rinse his hand in the brine +barrel by his side, slap his hand across the hoops, and condemn the +luck of a split finger or a thumb with a fish-bone in it. Another +might pull up for a moment, glance up at the stars or down at the +white froth under the rail, draw his hand across his forehead, +mutter, "My soul, but I'm dry," take a full dipper from the +water-pail, drink it dry, pass dipper and pail along to the next and +back to his work. + +When the cook called out for breakfast we were still at it, with the +deck of the vessel covered with barrels of pickling mackerel. It was +beginning to get light then. "Oh, the blessed day's coming on. Smother +the torches, boys," said the skipper, and led the way below for the +first table to have a bite. + +Before the sun came up we were beginning to make out the rest of the +fleet. One after another they were coming into view, their long hulls +and high spars reaching across the wind. Between the gray sky and the +slaty sea their white sails looked whiter than chalk. + +We had to name the different vessels then. "There's Tom O'Donnell--and +Wesley Marrs--and Sam Hollis--and--" sung out Andie Howe. + +"Sam Hollis--where's Sam Hollis?" broke in Mel Adams. + +"Away to the east'ard, ain't it, Andie?--the fellow with jibs down?" +spoke up Billie Hurd, who was a bit proud that he too could pick her +out at such a distance. + +"So it is, ain't it?" said Mel, and he began to tell our troubles in +the dory. "'Twas him near ran over us last night--remember, Joe? +Leastways, it looked like Hollis's new one's quarter goin' by. He was +pointin' 'bout no'the-east then, but he couldn't 've held on that +tack long or he'd be somewhere up by Miquelon and not here this +mornin'--the gait he was goin'. Man, but there was smoke coming out +of his scuppers when he went by. 'Why don't y' come aboard whilst +you're about it--come aboard and be sociable,' I hollers. 'Oh, don't +cry, y' ain't hurted,' says whoever's to the wheel of her. Least it +sounded like that, 'Y' ain't hurted,' he says." + +"Must have been pretty close, Mel?" said Clancy, never stopping, but +keeping a string of split mackerel rolling into his keeler. Mel and I +were gibbing for Clancy. + +"Close? I could've touched his chain-plates like that," and Mel, +getting excited, reached his mittened hand across the keeler and +touched Clancy on the arm. Clancy's knife took a jump and cut a +finger. For a few seconds Clancy laid down the law of a splitting +knife to Mel, but Mel didn't mind. + +"That's just about the way I swore at the man to the wheel of the +Withrow. Didn't I, Joe? Yes, sir, I cert'nly swore at him good, but it +no more jarred him than--but when their seine-boat came by, half of +'em smokin', some half-breed among 'em has to sing out, 'Y'ought to +hang up a riding light if your vessel's hove-to,' he says. What do you +think of that, Tommie--'if your vessel's hove-to!'--and if the Johnnie +was going one she was going ten knots an hour." + +"That's right, Mel--I heard you to the mast-head," said Clancy. Clancy +heard it about as much as old Mr. Duncan back in Gloucester did, but +he was always ready to help a man out. + +"Did you? Well, I hove-to him. I hove the bailer at him, that's what I +did, and he ducked. But he ducked too late, I callate, for 'Bam!' it +caught him--or somebody in the seine-boat with him. He swore some, or +somebody swore, you c'n bet. 'I don't know who y'are,' he hollers, +'but if ever I meet you ashore,' and he was so far away then I +couldn't ketch no more of it. 'Don't know who y'are, but if I ketch +you ashore'--Lord----" + +"So, if a lad with a bump on the side of his head waltzes up to you on +Main Street and whangs you, Mel, next time you're ashore in +Gloucester, what'll you do?" asked Clancy. + +"I'll say, 'Where's that bailer, you loafer?' but first I'll whang him +back. I had to finish the bailing out with my sou'wester. I sings out +to Andie Howe in the boat here to hand me one of the bailers in the +boat. 'I'm usin' my hat,' I hollers, 'and Joe's using his sou'wester,' +thinkin' that would fetch him all right. 'Well, we're usin' ten +sou'westers here,' says Andie, 'and one or two of 'em leaks,' and that +was all the satisfaction I got." + +"Yes," said Eddie Parsons, "the seine-boat was sure wallerin' then. +The skipper had only just told Jimmie Gunn to quit his growling. +'You'll be wanting hot-water bags to your feet next, I suppose,' says +the skipper." + +"I was thinking of the boat--afraid she'd be so logy with the water in +her that we couldn't drive her when the time came," bristled up Jimmie +Gunn to that. + +"Y-yah!" snorted Eddie, "if you weren't scared, then I never saw a man +scared. Logy? I notice we made her hop along all right after we cast +off from the vessel. Man, but she fair hurdled some of them seas--some +of the little ones, I mean. Didn't she, Steve? We thought we'd lost +Joe and you, Mel, in the dory, didn't we, fellows?" + +"You did, hey? Well, you didn't, nor nowheres near it," broke in Mel. +"We were right there with the goods when they hove the seine, warn't +we, Joey?" + +And so it went on through all that day, while the men worked, +dressing, salting, and putting all in pickle. It was a drive all +through without any quitting by anybody, except when it was time to +relieve lookouts at the mast-head. In the middle of it all, had the +call of "School-O!" been heard from aloft, we would have been only too +glad to drop everything, jump into the boat and dory, get after the +mackerel, and do the same thing over--split, gibb and pack away--for +all of the next night, and the night after that--for a week if +necessary. + +Not until well into the afternoon, when the last mackerel was +flattened out in its barrel, did any of us feel that we could step +back in our own time, straighten ourselves out, and take a look over +our work. Then we counted the oozing barrels with great satisfaction, +you may be sure, even while we were massaging our swollen wrists with +our aching fingers. It was a good bit of work that, well and quickly +done, and it was fine to get a rest after it, although it might be +only for a little while. Even though we had to do it all over +again--to stay half-drowned and chilled through in the seine-boat or +dory for half the night and then dress down for eighteen or twenty +hours on top of it--what did a little hard work matter? "Think of the +hundred-dollar bill, maybe, to be carried home and laid in the wife's +lap," said Long Steve. + +"Or the roaring night ashore when a fellow's not a family man--m-m--!" +said Eddie Parsons. Eddie was not a family man. + + + + +XXIV + +THE WITHROW OUTSAILS THE DUNCAN + + +We certainly were feeling pretty good along about that time, and we +felt better when next day, cruising in and out among the fleet, other +crews began to take notice of our catch. By that time the word had +gone around. One after another they came sailing up--as if to size us +up was the last thing that could enter their heads--rounding to, and +then a hail. Something like this it went: + +"Hulloh, Maurice." + +"Hulloh, Wesley," or George Drake, or Al McNeill, or whoever it might +be. + +"That's a mighty pretty deckload of fish. When'd y'get 'em?" + +"Oh, twenty barrels yesterday morning and the rest last night." + +"That so? How many d'y'call 'em, Maurice?" + +"How many? Oh, two hundred and eighty or ninety wash barrels. Ought to +head up about two sixty." + +"That so? Fine, Maurice, fine. As handsome a deckload as I've seen +this year." + +And he would bear off, and another vessel would come and go through +the same ceremony. It was very satisfying to us and the skipper must +have felt proud. Not that a lot bigger hauls had not been made by +other men before--indeed, yes, and by the very men perhaps who were +complimenting him. But three hundred barrels, or near it, in pickle at +one time does look fine on a vessel's deck, and they looked especially +fine at this time because there was not another vessel in the fleet +that had half as many, so far as we knew. + +Not another but Sam Hollis--or so he claimed. He came ranging up that +same day and began asking how the Duncan was sailing lately, and +followed that up by saying he himself had two hundred odd barrels in +the hold. He showed about sixty wash barrels on deck. We did not +believe he had twenty below. She looked cork light. "If she sets as +high out of water with two hundred and forty barrels, then you ought +to put two hundred and forty more in her and she'd fly," called out +Clancy to Hollis, and that was pretty much what we all thought. + +And 'twas Sam Hollis made trouble for the Duncan that day. He bore off +then but came back in the afternoon. More talk there was, and it wound +up by our racing with him. We did not start out to race, but +gradually, as we found ourselves jogging along side by side, jibs +were drawn away and sheets began to be trimmed. The first thing we +knew we found ourselves swaying up sails, and then before we really +woke up to it we were both off and away before a little breeze. + +Hollis had all the best of it. He was bound to, with the Duncan +carrying most of her mackerel aft and away down by the stern. Even had +we had time to--we did shift some of it forward--we were too deep for +any kind of racing in that moderate breeze. We said that to ourselves, +anyway, and yet we held on. But it was no use--it wound up by Hollis +giving us a scandalous beating. And after running away from us he kept +straight on to the westward, and by that we knew that he was bound for +Gloucester to get ready for the big race. + +The skipper felt it. He was one that took things to heart. + +"I've been bragging about this one--what she could do. I told the old +man only the last time we were in that he could go broke that I'd beat +Sam Hollis, and here the first time we come together he makes her look +like a wood-carrier. The best thing I can do, I guess, is to keep out +of the race; maybe it will save the old man some money. I expected +he'd beat us, the trim we were in--but to beat us the way he did!" + +Nothing the crew could say seemed to make him think otherwise, and +that night it was not nearly so joyful below in the Johnnie Duncan. +The talk was that she would not go home for the race. Only Clancy +seemed to be as cheerful as ever. "Don't any of you get to worrying," +he said. "I know the skipper--the Johnnie Duncan'll be there when the +time comes." + +Yet next morning when Wesley Marrs went by us with the Lucy Foster +bound for home and sang out, "Come along, Maurice, and get ready for +the race--we'll have a brush on the way," our skipper only waved his +hand and said, "No--this old plug can't sail." Wesley looked mighty +puzzled at that, but kept on his way. + + + + +XXV + +TROUBLE WITH THE DOMINION CUTTERS + + +Next day after, in a calm, Clancy and I had to take the dory and row +out among the fleet for some salt. The skipper thought it likely that +some of the vessels that were going home might have salt to spare. He +doubted if he himself would have enough in case we struck another good +school. So we rowed out. We went from one vessel to another without +any luck, until we found ourselves aboard Tom O'Donnell--the Colleen +Bawn. And just as we got aboard a school showed near by her, and they +made a dash for it. The Colleen was pretty well inshore then, and yet +safe outside the three-mile limit in our judgment. Even in the +judgment of one of the Canadian revenue cutters, the Mink, she was +outside the limit. "You're all right, go ahead," her commander sang +out from the bridge. + +Yet trouble came of it. The Colleen's gang were making a set when +along came the Lynx, the same cutter that had ordered our own skipper +not to set two or three days back in the fog, and we had set in spite +of him. I think I said that he had a bad reputation among our fleet. +In this case some said afterwards that he had been watching the Duncan +since that time, and having seen a dory put out from her and go aboard +Tom O'Donnell, that he then had a special watch for O'Donnell. Anyway, +we know that as the Colleen Bawn's crew were pursing in the seine he +came along and ordered them to cast loose the fish. "You're inside the +limit," said this fellow now. + +"I may be, but I don't think so," said O'Donnell to that. + +"You're inside and you know it." + +"You're a liar if you say I know it." + +O'Donnell had had trouble with the Lynx before, and had small patience +with her captain. More words came out of it, and while they were +talking back and forth another of the fleet a mile to the east'ard put +out a boat. + +The cutter went after him, her captain singing out as he went, "You +wait here till I come back." "Wait like hell!" said O'Donnell, "and +this breeze making," and continued to purse up. Pursed up, the fish +aboard--there were forty or fifty barrels--he started off. One of +those sudden breezes were springing up and it promised to be wind +enough to suit anybody. We made out the Johnnie Duncan bearing down, +intending no doubt to take off Clancy and me. But the cutter was +coming toward us then, and O'Donnell said we had better stay aboard +or we would be picked up on the way by the cutter's people and maybe +get the Duncan and our skipper into trouble. That last--the thought +that our skipper or the vessel might get mixed up in it--kept us +aboard the Colleen Bawn. + +The Lynx could steam as fast as any cutter they had on the Cape shore +at that time, but the Colleen was a witch and O'Donnell a wonder at +sailing her. So we stayed with O'Donnell and watched him and the +cutter have it out. They had it, the cutter letting drive a shot every +once in a while. The first shot, I remember, went whistling by the ear +of one of O'Donnell's crew who was standing back-to in the waist, and +so astonished him, he not expecting it, that he fell into the +forehold. He raised a great racket among a lot of empty barrels. The +fall never hurt him, but the things he said when he came on deck +again! O'Donnell made him lie flat--and then all of us but Clancy, who +refused to lie down but compromised by leaning over the house and +watching the cutter and making comments on her actions for the benefit +of the rest of us. Through it all O'Donnell stood to the wheel and the +nearest he came to honoring the cutter by a compliment was when he'd +half turn his head, spit over the rail and swear at her. The wind and +sea-way together were too much for the cutter. The Colleen left her +behind, and she at last drew off after bunching a few farewell shots. + +O'Donnell then hove-to and took his seine-boat on deck. He had been +towing it the wrong end foremost for the whole forty miles, and he was +worried over it. "It's strained her maybe--and she almost a new boat," +he lamented. "For the rest I don't care. That lad had it in for me all +along. The other one though, he's decent--never bothers a man without +a little reason. I was going home anyway for the race, and so it don't +matter. I suppose Maurice will be along soon, Tommie? Did you see him +coming after the cutter--he held her fine and he in no trim. What's it +they say about Hollis beating the Johnnie yesterday? If he did, be +sure he was specially prepared, and the Johnnie had an off-day. But I +suppose he'll be holding on now for Gloucester?" + +Clancy said maybe, but no telling, and explained how it had been--the +skipper's discouragement after Hollis had beaten him. + +O'Donnell said he was foolish to worry over a thing like that. "I know +Sam Hollis," he said--"'twas a trap he laid for Maurice. He's got a +smart vessel in the Withrow, but he can't run away from Maurice. No, +nor beat him I doubt--with both in trim. But wait a while--let the day +of the race get near and Maurice to thinking it over, and you'll see +him flyin' home." + +We hoped so. For ourselves we went home on the Colleen. There was +nothing else for us to do. We had quite a time of it that trip with +O'Donnell. He sailed about five hundred miles out of his way--away to +the eastward and s'uth'ard. There might be cruisers and cutters galore +after him, he said--they might put out from Halifax, or telegraph +ahead--you couldn't tell what they might do, he said, and so he sailed +the Colleen out to sea. But we came across the Bay one dark night +without side-lights, and reached Boston all right. O'Donnell had a +suit of sails stowed away in an East Boston wharf that he wanted to +get out for the race. And also he didn't like his new foremast and was +going to have a new one put in if there was time. + + + + +XXVI + +THE GOSSIP IN GLOUCESTER + + +Clancy and I went home by train, reaching Gloucester as the first of +an easterly gale set in. There we found it was nothing but talk of the +race. We had not reached Main Street at all before Clancy was held up. +Clancy, of course, would know. Where was Maurice Blake? What were we +doing in Gloucester and the Johnnie not in? The Duncans--especially +the elder Mr. Duncan--Miss Foster, my cousin Nell, and Will Somers +were boiling over. Where was Maurice Blake? Where was the Johnnie +Duncan? Everybody in town seemed to know that Sam Hollis had given us +a bad beating down Cape shore way, and the news had a mighty +discouraging effect on all Maurice's friends, even on those of them +who knew enough of Sam Hollis not to take his talk just as he wanted +them to take it. Withrow's vessel had beaten the Johnnie Duncan with +Maurice Blake sailing her--they had to believe that part of it, and +that in itself was bad enough. Sam Hollis's stock was booming, you may +be sure--and the race right close to hand, too. + +"That little beating the Johnnie got didn't lose any in the telling by +Sam Hollis and his gang, did it, Joe?" said Clancy to me, and then he +went around borrowing all the money he could to bet the Johnnie Duncan +would beat the Withrow in the race. But would Maurice now enter at +all? I asked Clancy about that part--if there was not a chance that +Maurice might not stay down the Cape shore way and let the race go. +But he only laughed and said, "Lord--Joey-boy, you've a lot to learn +yet about Maurice in spite of your season's seining along with him." + +It was a Monday morning when Clancy and I reached Gloucester. The race +was to be sailed on Friday of that same week. For several days before +this, we were told, Wesley Marrs, Sam Hollis, Tommie Ohlsen, and the +rest of them had been out in the Bay tuning up their vessels like a +lot of cup defenders. Never before had fishermen given so much +attention to the little details before a race. The same day that we +got home they were up on the ways for a final polishing and primping +up. They were smooth as porcelain when they came off. And coming off +their skippers thought they had better take some of the ballast out of +them. "'Tisn't as if it was winter weather"--it was the middle of +September then--"with big seas and driving gales," was the way Wesley +Marrs put it, and they all agreed that the chances were ten to one +that the wind would not be strong enough to call for the heavy ballast +they carried. Fishermen, of course, are built to be at their best when +wind and sea are doing their worst, and so the taking out of ballast +for a September race looked like good judgment. So about forty tons of +ballast were taken out of most of them--the Lucy Foster, the Withrow, +the Nannie O, and half a dozen others. + +That looked all right, but on Tuesday night an easterly gale set in, +the wind blowing forty-odd miles an hour. All day Wednesday it blew, +and all day Thursday even harder, with a promise of blowing harder +still on Friday, which was to be the day of the race. The people of +Gloucester who had been praying for wind, "Wind for a fisherman's +race--wind--wind," seemed likely to get what they wanted. + +On Thursday I saw Tommie Ohlsen and Wesley Marrs in conference on the +street. Wesley had his nose up in the air, sniffing the breeze. He +shook his head with, "Tommie, I ought to've let the ballast stay in +the Lucy. It looks like it's going to be the devil's own breeze for +vessels that ain't prepared for it." + +"Yes," said Ohlsen, "wind fifty-two mile an hour the weather man says, +and still making. That's bad for light ballast and whole sail. If we +could only put the ballast back----" + +"Yes--if we could. But we can't put it back now--there ain't time to +do it right and everybody would laugh at us too. And besides, if we +did, all the others would put it back, and where's the difference?" + +"Of course," said Tommie, "but if all of us would put it back it would +make a better race." + +In view of the reputation of Wesley Marrs and Ohlsen and O'Donnell and +their vessels, we could not understand the confidence of Withrow and +his people in Sam Hollis. He had a great vessel--nobody doubted it. +But it was doubted by many if she was the equal of some of the others, +and few believed she was better. And Sam Hollis was not the man to +carry the sail, or at least the fishermen of Gloucester generally did +not think so. But Withrow and Hollis's gang kept on bragging and they +backed their bragging up, too. I drew what money I had saved that +summer out of my seining share--two hundred and twenty-five +dollars--and bet it myself with one of the Withrow's crew that the +Johnnie Duncan would beat the Withrow, whether the Johnnie was home to +race or not. It was really betting against Withrow himself, who, it +was said, was taking up every bet made by any of the Withrow's crew. +That was Thursday afternoon, and still no word of the Duncan. + +"Good for you, Joey," said Clancy when he heard of that. "Even if +Maurice don't come it's better to lose your money and shut them up. +But don't worry--he'll come. Do you think he's been standing and +looking at this easterly--it's all along the coast to Newf'undland I +see by the papers--and not swing her off? He's on his way now, and +swinging all he's got to her, I'll bet. Wait and see." + +"My," said my cousin Nell, "and so you bet your pile on the Johnnie +Duncan whether she's in or not?--and if she don't reach here in time +you lose it all?" and told it all over to her Will Somers, to whom I +learned she was now engaged. And from that time on I noticed that +Alice Foster beamed on me like an angel. + +Minnie Arkell was home for the race just as Clancy had prophesied. She +had come with some of her friends down from Boston three or four days +before this, in the same steam-yacht she had been aboard of at Newport +in June. Meeting me she asked me about our passage home on the Colleen +Bawn, and I told her of it. She listened with great interest. + +"Is Tom O'Donnell as fine-looking as he used to be--with his grand +figure and head and great beard? I remember some years ago I used to +think him the finest-looking man I ever saw." + +I told her that I guessed she'd think him fine-looking yet if she'd +seen him to the wheel of the Colleen Bawn with the six-pound shot +whistling by him, and he never so much as letting on he knew they were +there. Her eyes shone at that. Then she offered to take any bets I +made off my hands. "You can't afford to take your little savings out +of the bank and bet it on a vessel that may not be here in time. I'll +take it off your hands--come!" + +That was an attractive side to her--caring but little for money--but I +wasn't letting anybody take my bets off my hands. I still believed +that Maurice would be home, though that was seven o'clock Thursday +evening. I knew he would be home if he only guessed that his friends +were betting on his vessel--and they not even knowing whether she was +to be home in time for the race. And if he weren't home, I was ready +to lose my little roll. + + + + +XXVII + +IN CLANCY'S BOARDING-HOUSE + + +From Minnie Arkell, whom I met at the door of her own house, I went to +Clancy's boarding house. I did not find Clancy then and I went off, +but coming back again I found him, and a very busy man he was, with an +immense crock of punch between his knees. He was explaining down in +the kitchen to the other boarders--fifteen or twenty of the +thirstiest-looking fishermen I ever laid eyes on--just how it was he +made the punch. The bowl was about the size of a little beer keg. + +"On the night of last Fourth of July," he was saying--"and I mind we +came in that morning with a hundred and seventy-five barrels we got +off Mount Desert--that night I warn't very busy. I gets this +crock--four gallons--let you all have a look--a nice cold stony crock +you see it is, and that they'd been using then in the house here for +piccalilli--and a fine flavor still hanging to it. Wait a minute now +till I tell you. It'll taste better, too, after you hear. And into the +crock I puts two gallons of rum--fine rum it was--for a bottom. Every +good punch has to have a bottom. It's like the big blocks they put +under a house by way of a foundation, or the ballast down near the +keel of a vessel--there'd be no stiffening without it, and the first +good breeze she'd capsize, and then where'd you be? Now, on top of +those two gallons--it was two o'clock in the morning, I mind, when I +started to mix it--whiskey, brandy, and sherry--no, I can't tell what +parts of each--for that's the secret of it. A fellow was dory-mate +with me once--a Frenchman from Bordeaux--told me and said never to +tell, and I gave my oath--down in St. Peer harbor in Miquelon it +was--and afterwards he was lost on the Heptagon--and of course, never +being released from the oath, I can't tell. Well, there was the rum, +the whiskey, the brandy, and the sherry--and on top o' that went one +can of canned pine-apple--canned pine is better than the pine-apple +right out of its jacket. Why? Well, that's part of the secret. Then a +dozen squeezed lemons and oranges. Then some maraschino. I'd got it +off an Italian salt bark skipper in the harbor once. On top o' that I +put one quart of green tea--boiled it myself--it was three in the +morning then, I mind--and I sampled a cup of it. Wait now--wait. Just +ease your sheets and let me tell it. Here's the best part of it. I +takes that crock with the fourteen quarts of good stuff in it and +lowers it to the bottom of the old well out in the yard with a lot of +cold round little stones above and below and more little stones packed +all around and then I lowers down two good-sized rocks on top o' +that--and nails boards over the well--that's why nobody could get into +that well all this summer. Well, that was the morning after the last +Fourth of July--I mind the sun was coming up over the rocks of Cape +Ann when I was done. And that was July, and now the last of +September--three months ago. A while ago in the dark and a howling +gale--you all see me come in with it, didn't you? Yes, if you go out +quick, you c'n see the well just where I left it--I goes out and digs +it up--and here it is--and now it's here, we'll all have a little +touch in honor of to-morrow, for it's a great day when the wind blows +fifty or sixty miles an hour so that fishermen can have good weather +for a race." + +And they all had a little touch. Clancy sat on the table with the +crock between his feet and bailed it out while they all agreed it was +the smoothest stuff that ever slid down their throats. There was not a +man in the gang who was not sure he could put away a barrel of it. + +"Put away a barrel of it?" whispered Clancy--"yes. Let's get out +of here, Joe. In an hour they'll be going into the air like +firecrackers." + + + + +XXVIII + +IN THE ARKELL KITCHEN + + +We left Clancy's boarding house and went over to old Mrs. Arkell's +place, where most of the skippers who were going to race next day had +gathered. Clancy at once started in to mix milk-punches. And he sang +his latest favorite, with the gang supping his mixture between the +stanzas: + + "Oh, hove flat down on Quero Banks + Was the Bounding Billow, Captain Hanks, + And the way she was a-settlin' was an awful sight to see"-- + +Then Wesley Marrs sang a song and after him Patsie Oddie followed with +a roarer. + +The punch-mixing, singing and story-telling went on and in the middle +of it Tom O'Donnell came driving in. He was like a whiff of a +no'the-easter out to sea. "Whoo!" he said. "Hulloh, Wesley-boy--and +Patsie Oddie--and Tommie Ohlsen--and, by my soul, Tommie Clancy again. +Lord, what a night to come beating down from Boston! What's that, +Wesley?--did the Colleen outfoot the cutter down the Cape shore way? +Indeed and she did, and could do it over again in the same breeze to +half their logy old battleships. Into Boston I was Monday morning, and +the fish out of her the same morning. Tuesday I took her across to +Cape Cod, tuning her up, and into Provincetown that night. Next day it +was blowing pretty hard. A fine day for a run across the Bay, I +thinks, and waits for maybe a Boston vessel, one of the T Wharf fleet. +For I'll go to Boston, I thinks, to put the Colleen on the railway +to-day, because maybe in Gloucester I may have to wait--or may get no +chance at all--with half a dozen or more that will be waiting to be +scrubbed for the race. And who comes along then but Tom Lowrie. +'Waiting for me?' he asks, and I tells him I was hoping it would be +the new Whalen vessel. 'Here's one that's as good as any Whalen +vessel,' he says--'as good as anything out of Boston--or Gloucester,' +he says. So across the Bay we had it out. And, gentlemen, I'm telling +you the Colleen sailed--all the wind she wanted. She came along, and +Lowrie--by the looks of things then--he's sailing yet. Well, I never +did like that forem'st that was in the Colleen, and so, thinks I, +here's a chance to test it--and why not, with the race coming on? So I +jibed her over off Minot's just--and sure enough it cracked about ten +feet below the mast-head." + +"You were satisfied then, Tom?" + +"Sure and I was. And better before the race than in the race. And next +day--that's to-day--we spent putting in a new stick. I had to take +what I could get to save time, and I don't think it's what it ought to +be and maybe it won't last through to-morrow. But, anyway, you want to +have an eye out for the Colleen to-morrow, for I'm telling you I never +see her sail like she did yesterday coming across the Bay. Ask Tom +Lowrie next time you see him. Well, to-night I had to beat down here +to be sure and be here in time, and so out we put--and here I am. +Blowing? Indeed and it is. And thick, is it? Standing on her +knight-heads and looking aft you c'd no more than make out her +side-lights. We came along, and Boston inner and outer harbor crowded +with vessels, steamers and sail, waiting for it to moderate so they +c'd put out. A blessed wonder it was we didn't sink somebody--or +ourselves. Outside we went along by smell, I think, for only every +once in awhile could we see a light. One time we almost ran into +something--a fisherman it must have been, for I s'pose only a +fisherman would be going in on a night like this--out of a squall of +snow and blackness she came--man alive! but, whoever she was, she was +coming a great clip. Winged out and we didn't see her till the end of +her bowsprit caught the end of our main-boom--hauled in we were to two +blocks--and over we went on the other tack--yes, sir, over on the +other tack. Thinks I, ''Tis a new way to jibe a vessel over.' And the +end of her fore-boom all but swept me from beside the wheel and over +the rail as she went by--she was that close. And I sings out to her, +'Won't you leave us your name so I can thank you next time we meet?' +but Lord, not a word out of him. He kept on to Boston, I suppose, and +we kept on to Gloucester, and here I am." + +"And the Colleen, Tom--she's all right?" + +"Right, man? Watch her to-morrow. Barring that forem'st being too +light--but whoever looked for a breeze like this?--two days and three +nights now and blowing harder all the time. But never mind, she'll +make great going of it to-morrow. Divil take it, but we'll all make +great going of it. Tommie, dear, what's in the bowl? Milk? Man, but +don't be telling me things like that--and the one thing the doctors +warn me against is heart-trouble. Ah, milk-punch--that's better, man. +A wee droppeen. Look at it--the color of the tip of a comber in twelve +fathom of water and a cross-tide. Well, here's to every mother's son +of us that's going to race to-morrow. May ye all win if the Colleen +don't--all but you, Sam Hollis. But where's he gone--into the other +room? Well, if he was here 'twould be the same. He's got a vessel +that can sail. Let him sail her to-morrow and win, if it's in her--or +in him. But a thousand dollars--and outside my house and vessel, Lord +knows, it's all the money I've got in the world--beyond my house and +vessel--a thousand dollars the Colleen beats the Withrow. Hello, +there--what d'y'say, Sam Hollis--the Colleen and the Withrow--a +thousand dollars, boat for boat. But where the divil is he? Gone? Are +you sure? Gone! But a queer time to leave a party--just when it's +getting to be real sociable." + +"Never mind the betting now, Tom," spoke up Wesley Marrs. "Let the +owners have that to themselves. And according to accounts some of them +are having it. Fred Withrow and old Duncan are ready to go broke over +the race to-morrow. Whichever loses, he'll remember this race, I'm +thinking. Here's hoping it won't be Duncan. So to the devil with the +betting, Tom. Some of us have bet all we could afford--some of us more +than we could afford, I callate. Let's have a song instead, Tom." + +"Anything to please you, Wesley," and O'Donnell began to sing. He +started off first with his + + "Oh, seiners all and trawlers all," + +but Alec McNeill and Patsie Oddie interrupted. "Oh, give us the other +one, Tom--the Newf'undland and Cape Shore Men." + +"Ha!" laughed O'Donnell, "it's the mention of your own you want--you +and Patsie there. Well, it's all one to me. Any man from any place, so +long as he's a fair man and a brave man, and Lord knows ye're both +that. Well, here's to you both--a wee drop just, Tommie--easy--easy," +and he began: + + "Oh, Newf'undland and Cape Shore men, and men of Gloucester town, + With ye I've trawled o'er many banks and sailed the compass + roun'; + I've ate with ye, and bunked with ye, and watched with ye all + three, + And better shipmates than ye were I never hope to see. + I've seen ye in the wild typhoon beneath a Southern sky, + I've seen ye when the Northern gales drove seas to mast-head + high, + But summer breeze or winter blow, from Hatt'ras to Cape Race, + I've yet to see ye with the sign of fear upon your face. + + Oh, swingin' cross the Bay + Go eighty sail of seiners, + And every blessed one of them a-driving to her rail! + + There's a gale upon the waters and there's foam upon the sea, + And looking out the window is a dark-eyed girl for me, + And driving her for Gloucester, maybe we don't know + What the little ones are thinking when the mother looks out so. + Oh, the children in the cradle and the wife's eyes out to sea, + The husband at the helm and looking westerly-- + When you get to thinking that way, don't it make your heart's + blood foam? + Be sure it does--so here's a health to those we love at home. + + West half no'the and drive her, we're abreast now of Cape Sable, + It's an everlasting hurricane, but here's the craft that's able-- + When you get to thinking that way, don't it make your heart's + blood foam? + Be sure it does--so here's a health to those we love at home. + + Oh, the roar of shoaling waters and the awful, awful sea, + Busted shrouds and parting cables, and the white death on our + lee; + Oh, the black, black night on Georges when eight score men were + lost-- + Were ye there, ye men of Gloucester? Aye, ye were--and tossed + Like chips upon the water were your little craft that night, + Driving, swearing, calling out, but ne'er a call of fright. + So knowing ye for what ye are, ye masters of the sea, + Here's to ye, Gloucester fishermen, a health to ye from me. + + And here's to it that once again + We'll trawl and seine and race again; + Here's to us that's living and to them that's gone before; + And when to us the Lord says, 'Come!' + We'll bow our heads, 'His will be done,' + And all together let us go beneath the ocean's roar." + +I never again expect to hear a sea song sung as Tom O'Donnell sang it +then, his beard still wet with the spray and his eyes glowing like +coal-fire. And the voice of him! He must have been heard in half of +Gloucester that night. He made the table quiver. And when they all +rose with glasses raised and sang the last lines again: + + "And here's to it that once again + We'll trawl and seine and race again; + Here's to us that's living and to them that's gone before; + And when to us the Lord says, 'Come!' + We'll bow our heads, 'His will be done,' + And all together we shall go beneath the ocean's roar----" + +any stranger hearing and seeing might have understood why it was that +their crews were ready to follow these men to death. + +"The like of you, Tom O'Donnell, never sailed the sea," said Patsie +Oddie when they had got the last ro-o-ar--"even the young ladies come +in off the street to hear you better." + +He meant Minnie Arkell, who was standing in the doorway with her eyes +fixed on O'Donnell, who had got up to go home, but with Wesley trying +to hold him back. He was to the door when Minnie Arkell stopped him. +She said she had heard him singing over to her house and couldn't keep +away, and then, with a smile and a look into his eyes, she asked +O'Donnell what was his hurry--and didn't he remember her? + +In her suit of yachting blue, with glowing face and tumbled hair, she +was a picture. "Look at her," nudged Clancy--"isn't she a corker? But +she's wasting time on Tom O'Donnell." + +"What's your hurry, Tom?" called Wesley. "Another song." + +"No, no, it's the little woman on the hill. She knew I was to come +down to-night and not a wink of sleep will she get till I'm home. And +she knows there'll be bad work to-morrow maybe and she'd like to see +me a little before I go, and I'd like to see her, too." + +"She's a lucky woman, Captain O'Donnell, and you must think a lot of +her?" Minnie Arkell had caught his eye once more. + +"I don't know that she's so awfully lucky with me on her hands," +laughed O'Donnell, "but I do think a lot of her, child." + +"Child? to me? But you don't remember me, Captain?" + +"Indeed, and I do, and well remember you. And it's the beautiful woman +you've grown to be. But you always were a lovely child. It's often my +wife spoke of you and wondered how you were. She's heard me speak of +your father a hundred times, I know. A brave man your father, girl. +And she'll be glad to see you any time, little girl--or the daughter +of any fisherman lost at sea. If ever you have a blue day, go to her, +for 'tis she has the heart--and, God bless her, an extra weakness for +orphans. Her own children some day--there's no telling. But good-night +to you, dear"--he patted her head--"good-night all. Wesley, Tommie, +Patsie--all of ye, good-night. In the morning we'll have it out." Out +the door he went, and I fancied there was almost a blush on Minnie +Arkell's face. + +Tom O'Donnell was the kind of a man a fellow would like to have for a +father. + + + + +XXIX + +MAURICE BLAKE COMES HOME + + +From Mrs. Arkell's we walked back to Clancy's boarding house. Clancy +wanted to see how they made out with the punch. We found several of +them up in the wind, and so no great danger of them. But two or three +of them, Dave Campbell particularly, were running wild. "Boomed out +and driving," said Clancy, and began to remonstrate with Dave on the +evils of intemperance. He went on quite awhile, but Dave showed no +signs of remorse. "Wait and I'll fix him," said Clancy, and obeying a +motioning with his head two or three of the sober ones followed him +out. + +He led the way to the wood-shed next door where there was a goat, and +the goat we carried up three flights of stairs to Campbell's room. He +was a big, able goat, and we had quite a time to get him up stairs. At +last we got him tied to the post of Campbell's bed. Then we went down +stairs to the kitchen and Clancy persuaded Campbell to go up stairs to +bed, which after awhile he did. It was not yet morning and there was +no light in the bedroom. We took our position on the landing outside +where we could hear everything that went on in Campbell's room, which +was just at the head of the stairs. + +Dave went in and we could hear him falling over something in the dark. +"What's it?" we could hear him, and acting as if he was feeling +around. Taking off our shoes we crawled nearer. We could barely make +out his shadow in the dark, but we could easily hear him talking to +himself. "What's it? Eh, what?" He must have been feeling the horns +then, and the goat must have butted him. Again, and once more, for out +the door and down the stairs went Dave. We ran in and cut the goat +loose and down he went after Dave. The whole three flights they +raced. + +"He's got me at last," hollered Dave, bolting into the kitchen, +slamming the door behind him and bracing himself against it. + +We took the goat and put him back in the wood-shed and came back to +the kitchen by way of the window. Dave, who was still braced against +the door, did not know but what we had been in the kitchen all the +time, and that gave Clancy a fine chance to take up his lecture on +intemperance just where he had left it off,--at the very beginning. +"Intemperance, Dave, is an awful thing. You'll have to be doing +something for it soon, I think. Yes, when the devil himself gives you +a call it's time to do something. You'd better come with me and take +the pledge. Come up now to Father Haley." + +"I'm a Pres--a Pres--a Pres--by--ter--ian, Tommie." + +"Well, come with me to your church then--any church at all. What's the +odds, so long's you reform. Here, we'll do it right here now. Come, +hold up your hand," and then and there Clancy was about to get Dave to +promise not to look a glass of liquor or punch in the face for a year +again, when who comes bouncing in but Eddie Parsons. + +"Hurroo!" said Clancy, forgetting Dave and grabbing Eddie by the +shoulder, "and the Duncan's home?" + +"She is," said Eddie, "and four hundred and fifty barrels of mackerel +coming out of her hold. A dozen lumpers getting 'em out from both +holds and two at a lick they're coming onto Duncan's Dock. And what +d'y'think, Tommie----" + +"But what kept you so long, man? We've all been getting heart disease +waiting for you." + +"I know. We ought to've been in yesterday mornin', or in the +afternoon at the latest, for we swung her off Tuesday night +midnight--plenty of time with a fair wind. But on Wednesday afternoon, +coming like a race-horse--wung out--we sighted a dory and two men in +it signalizing. Astray they were, and we took 'em aboard, and all +that night we stood by. And warn't it chafing? Oh, no! Daylight came +thick and we waited for it to clear, keeping the horn goin'. It +lifted and we got another dory, but it was late afternoon then. +Then their vessel came along with all the others accounted for, and we +turned over our two and went on our way. And maybe she didn't come! +Oh, no! Blowing? A living gale all the time, but the skipper kept her +going. You'd hardly b'lieve if I told you where we was yesterday +afternoon and we here now. A no'the-easter and a howler all the way. +At four o'clock we passed in by the bell-buoy. Man, such a blow! +Are we in the race, you say? Are we! And oh, the skipper says for you +and Joe to be down after breakfast. We all knew you'd get home and be +all right with Tom O'Donnell. So be down after breakfast--the skipper +will be looking for you both. But say, let me tell you. What +d'y'think? Coming into the harbor a while ago who d'y' s'pose was +out in the stream with a lighter alongside his vessel? Who but Sam +Hollis and the Withrow. Yes, and the gang putting ballast back in +her." + +"No?" + +"Yes. And some one of them sees us going by in the dark. And we did go +by, too! 'Lord!' says somebody--'twas Withrow himself--'but if that +don't look like the ghost of Maurice Blake's vessel!' 'Yes,' hollers +back the skipper--and they must've been some surprised to hear +him--'and the ghost'll be with you to-morrow in the race. Yes,' the +skipper says, 'and we're all ready for it. Four weeks since we've been +on the ways and maybe a scrubbing wouldn't hurt her, but if it keeps +a-blowin' who'll mind that? Not the Johnnie.' Oh, Tommie, if you'd +seen her comin' across the Bay of Fundy yesterday afternoon and last +night. Did she come?--did she come? Lord--O Lord----" + +"And so that's Withrow--got his vessel tuned up like a fiddle and +now he's putting extra ballast in her. Blast him and Hollis for +schemers!" said Clancy. "And that's how it comes they're so ready +to bet--stiffenin' her so stiff for to-morrow that they know +something'll happen to the others first. But the Johnnie's a bit +stiff, too--and there's no ballast out of her. And, as the skipper +says, maybe we ain't been on the ways for a few weeks now, but Lord, +the Johnnie ought to be able to drag a few little blades of sea-grass +on her hull in this breeze. And so we're in the race, heh? Dave, I +can't stop to give you the pledge now-- + + Oh, the Johnnie Duncan fast and able, + Good-by, dear, good-by, my Mabel." + +And Clancy was the joyful man as he awoke the echoes in the gray of +that stormy morning. + + + + +XXX + +THE MORNING OF THE RACE + + +I don't think that the people of Gloucester will ever forget the +morning of that race, which, they will still tell you, was the only +race ever sailed. Wind was what the fishermen wanted, and they got +it--wind, and sea with it. The admiral of the White Squadron, then at +anchor at Rockport Harbor, just around the Cape, stood on the bridge +of his flagship that morning and looked out to sea. Somebody told him +that the fishermen were going to race that day. He took another look. +"Race to-day? Pooh! they'll do well to stay hove-to to-day." Of +course, that ought to have settled it, the admiral having said it. + +It blew that day. Leaving home I had time for a bite to eat and a +wash-up. I turned the corner and picked up Clancy, with Maurice Blake, +Tom O'Donnell and Wesley Marrs just ahead. We ran into Mr. Edkins, a +nice old gentleman, who had been made secretary of the race committee. +What he didn't know about fishing would be the making of a "killer," +but, of course, he wasn't picked out for that--he'd never fished a +day in his life--but because of his knowledge of the rules of yacht +racing. Having had long experience in managing yachting regattas, he +knew all about time allowances and sail measurements--though there +were to be no allowances of any kind here. It was to be boat for boat +in this race; every vessel for herself. So he was thought to be a good +man to have to look after the stake and judges' boats. It was +Gloucester's Anniversary celebration, with a lot of strangers in +town--the Governor and a whole holdful of national characters--and in +deference to them the race was to be managed so that spectators might +have a chance to see it. + +Mr. Edkins came along in his official regalia--tall hat, frock coat, +umbrella, gloves, and a pink in his button-hole. + +"Is it true, Captain O'Donnell, that the race is going to be held +to-day?" + +O'Donnell looked at him as though he didn't understand. "To-day? +to-day?--Good Lord, are we all on the wrong tack? And sure isn't this +the day?" + +"Oh, yes--oh, yes, Captain O'Donnell, this is the day appointed. And +that is the trouble. Surely you are not going to race to-day?" + +"We're not going to--" broke in Wesley Marrs, "and why aren't we going +to race to-day? What in the name of all that's good have we been +doing with our vessels up on the railway the last week or two? What +d'y'think we took the ballast out of our vessels for? What d'y'think I +had that everlasting new balloon made for last trip in, what for that +big mains'l that Tom here had bent on the Colleen yesterday, and for +what did Maurice drive the Johnnie Duncan home only last night? What +in----" + +"Wait, Captain, wait. What I mean is, do you know how it is outside? +They've telegraphed me that up in Boston Harbor there won't be a +steamer leave the harbor to-day--it's as stormy as that. There are two +big ocean liners--and we've got word that they won't leave--won't dare +to leave--not a steamer of any kind will leave Boston Harbor to-day. +And outside a heavy sea running--with the wind fifty-four miles an +hour, the weather bureau says. Fifty-four miles an hour. That's not +street corner talk--it's official. And----" + +"Divil take it, does being official make it blow any harder?" asked +O'Donnell. + +"And I know the way you fishermen will try to carry on. I know, I +know--don't tell me you're careful. I tell you, Captain O'Donnell, and +you, Captain Marrs, I tell you all--that if you persist in racing +to-day I wash my hands of the whole affair--completely wash my----" + +"Well, 'tis a fine wash day, too. Come, Wesley--come, Maurice, we'll +have to be getting on." + +They left Mr. Edkins standing there. A little farther on they overtook +the manager of the insurance company, which had policies on most of +the fishing vessels. He was just about to enter his office when +O'Donnell spied him. "Hullo, there's the man I want to see--" and +hailed, "Just heave to a minute, Mr. Brooks, if you please. Now look +here, you know we've took a few pigs of iron out our vessels, and you +know it looks like a bit of weather outside. Now, what I want to know +is if I capsize the Colleen Bawn to-day--if I don't come home with +her--does my wife get the insurance? That's what I want to know--does +my wife get the insurance?" + +Mr. Brooks looked at O'Donnell, rubbed his chin and scratched his +head, then looked at O'Donnell again. "Why, I suppose it all comes +under the usual risk of fishing vessels. I suppose so--but--h-m--it +will be pretty risky, won't it? But let me see--wait a moment +now--there's the President inside, and Mr. Emerson, too--he's a +director." + +He went inside, and we could see that they were talking it over. +Pretty soon they all came out with the President of the company in +front. "Good-morning, Captain O'Donnell--Captain Marrs, good-morning. +How do you do, Maurice? Captain O'Donnell, take it from me as +official, your insurance on the Colleen Bawn is safe. For the honor +and glory of old Gloucester go ahead and sink her." + +"And the Lucy Foster?" asked Wesley. + +"And the Lucy Foster, Captain Marrs." + +"Of course the Johnnie Duncan, speaking for the owners?" asked +Maurice. + +"For every vessel that we insure that leaves the harbor to race +to-day." + +"Hurroo!" said O'Donnell. "Don't tell me, Wesley, I'm no--what's +it?--dip-lo-mat. Yes, dip-lo-mat, by the Lord!" + +But it certainly was a desperate morning for a race. The streets +seemed to be full of men ready to go out. There were to be only nine +vessels in the race, but another half dozen vessels were going over to +see it, and that meant more than three or four hundred able fishermen +going out. The men that were going to stay ashore would go up to those +that were going out and say, "Well, good-by, old man. If you don't +come back, why, you know your grave'll be kept green." And the men +going out would grin and say, "That's all right, boy, but if she goes, +she'll go with every rag on her," in a half-joking way, too, but it +was the belief that morning that there might be a whole lot of truth +in that kind of joking. + +Before we reached the dock we knew that the whole town had learned +pretty much that half a dozen of the skippers had promised each other +in Mrs. Arkell's kitchen the night before, "No sail comes off except +what's blown off," and there promised to be some blown off. Men who +had only just heard their skippers speak of that were bragging of it +in the streets. "Why," said one of O'Donnell's crew as we were coming +down the dock, "if any crawly-spined crawfish loses his nerve and +jumps to our halyards, thinkin' the Colleen's going to capsize--why, +he'll get fooled--and why? Because our halyards are all housed +aloft--by the skipper's orders." + +That sounded strong, but it was true. When we reached the end of our +dock we looked for ourselves, and there it was. The Colleen's crew had +hoisted their mains'l already and there she lay swayed up and all +ready, and men aloft were even then putting the seizing on. Tom +O'Donnell himself was pointing it out to Sam Hollis with a good deal +of glee, thinking, I suppose, to worry Hollis, who, to uphold his +reputation, would have to do the same and take the chances that went +with it. By this time everybody knew that Hollis had put his ballast +back during the night. One of Wesley Marrs's men jumped onto the +Withrow and below and had a look for himself. He couldn't get down by +way of the hatches--they were battened down--but he dropped into the +forec's'le and, before anybody knew what he was up to, he had slipped +through the forehold and into the mainhold and there he saw where they +had hurriedly put back the flooring, and he also saw extra barrels of +sand tiered low for further stiffening of the Withrow. He was +discovered before he got on deck and nearly beaten to a jelly before +he got up on the wharf again. It ended in a fine little riot with some +of our gang and O'Donnell's mixing in. Clancy came down the back-stay +like a man falling from the mast-head, so as to be into it before it +was over. He was almost too late--but not quite. Only old Mr. Duncan +coming along with half a dozen other dignified owners stopped it. But +there was time for Clancy to speak his mind out to Sam Hollis. And +that gave Hollis a chance to say, "Well, talk away, Tommie Clancy, but +this is the day I make the Johnnie Duncan take in sail." And Clancy +answered him, "That so! Well, no matter what happens, put this down, +Maurice Blake hangs to his canvas longer than Sam Hollis to-day--hangs +to it or goes over with it or the spars come out of the Johnnie +Duncan." + +After the talking was over we thought Hollis would be shamed into +sending a man aloft to mouse his halyards too. But not for Hollis. +That was a little too much for him. Clancy and three or four others +finished attending to our own halyards and overhauling the gear aloft. +Our mains'l was already hoisted and the other three lowers with stops +loosed were all ready to hoist too. The mains'l had been left standing +just as it was when the Johnnie Duncan came in that morning. It was +flat as a board, and I remember how grieved we were when we had to +lower it again because the tug that came to give us a kick out from +the dock could not turn us around with it up--it was blowing so. The +tug captain said he might manage to turn it against the sun, but that +would be bad luck of course, and he knew the crew wouldn't stand for +it, especially with a race like this on hand. It had to be with the +sun; and so we had to lower it again, and when the vessel was turned +around, hoist it again, not forgetting to lash the halyards aloft +again too. But after we'd got it swayed up it didn't set near so well +as before--too baggy to our way of thinking. + + + + +XXXI + +THE START OF THE RACE + + +We got away at last and beat out the harbor with the Lucy Foster, the +Colleen Bawn, the Withrow, the Nannie O, and four others. For other +company going out there was a big steam-yacht with Minnie Arkell and +her friends aboard, which did not get out of the harbor. Out by the +Point they shipped a sea and put back, with Minnie Arkell waving her +handkerchief and singing out--"Don't take in any sail, Maurice," as +they turned back. There was also the Eastern Point, a high-sided +stubby steamer, at that time running regularly to Boston; and there +was the New Rochelle, a weak-looking excursioner that might have done +for Long Island Sound, where somebody said she'd just come from, but +which didn't seem to fit in here. Her passengers were mostly +fishermen--crews of vessels not in the race. There was also a big +powerful iron sea-tug, the Tocsin, that promised to make better +weather of it than any of the others. + +Billie Simms was one of the men who were not going in the race but +intended to see some of it. He was in the Henry Clay Parker, a +fine-looking vessel that was not so very fast, but had the reputation +of being wonderfully stiff. Coming out past Eastern Point lighthouse, +where he could begin to get a look at things, Billie hollered out that +he was sorry he hadn't entered. "Looks to me like the vessel that'll +stay right side up the longest ought to win this race, and that's the +Henry C." He hauled her across our stern while he was yelling and I +remember she took one roll down to her sheer poles when passing on, +and Maurice sang out, "Look out, Billie, or you'll capsize her." + +"Capsize this one? Lord, Maurice, I've tried it a dozen times and I'm +damned if I could," and he went rolling on like nothing I ever saw, +unless it was the rest of us who were then manoeuvring for the start. +We passed the Parker again before we got to the line, and old Peter +Hines, who was hanging to her main-rigging, had to yell us his good +wishes. "Drive her, Maurice-boy, and whatever you do don't let the man +that took your vessel from you beat you home," meaning Sam Hollis of +course. Maurice waved his hand, but said nothing. He was looking +serious enough, however. + +Tommie Clancy was the boy who wasn't worrying particularly. He saluted +Peter as if he were going out on a holiday excursion. "Ain't she a +dog, Peter? Watch her." + +"That's what she is--and drive her, Tommie--drive her." + +"Oh, we'll drive her, Peter," called back Tommie, and began: + + "Oh, I love old Ocean's smile, + I love old Ocean's frowning-- + I love old Ocean all the while, + My prayer's for death by drowning." + +"Let you alone, Tommie, and you'll get your prayer some day," was +Peter's last hail as we straightened out for the swoop across the +line. + +Clancy was to the wheel then with the skipper. Both were lashed and we +had life-lines around deck. To the wheel of every vessel in the fleet +were two men lashed, and they all had life-lines around deck. + +In crossing the line there was no attempt at jockeying such as one +often sees in yacht racing. There was no disposition on the part of +any skipper to do anything that would set anybody else back. Of +course, everybody wanted to be in a good berth and to cross between +the guns; but the idea was to give the vessels such a try out as they +would get out to sea--as if they were making a passage in a breeze. +The course--forty-two miles or so--was very short for a fisherman, +for one great thing in a fisherman is her power to stand a long drag. +Day and night in and day and night out and driving all the time is the +way a fisherman wants it. Any sort of racing machine could be built to +stand a little hard going for a while. But that wouldn't be living +through a long hard winter's gale on the Banks--one of those blows +where wind and sea--and in shoal water at that--have a chance to do +their worst. Fishermen are built for that sort of work and on their +sea-worthiness depends not only the fortunes of owners but the lives +of men--of real men--and the happiness and comfort of wives and +children ashore. And so the idea in everybody's mind that day was to +make this test as nearly fair as could be and see who had the fastest +and most weatherly boat in the fleet. There were men to the wheel that +day who could handle big fishermen as if they were cat-boats, who +would have dared and did, later, dare to sail their vessels as close +to a mark in this sea as men sail a twenty-foot knockabout in the +smoothest of waters inshore--only with the fishermen a slip-up meant +the loss of a vessel, maybe other vessels too, and twenty-five or +fifty lives perhaps. + +And so the skill of these men was not used to give anybody the worst +of it. A fair start and give everybody his chance was the idea. Thus +Tommie Ohlsen could have forced the Withrow outside the starting boat +and compelled her to come about and maybe lose a few minutes, but he +did not. He held up and let her squeeze through. O'Donnell in his turn +could have crowded Ohlsen when he let up on the Withrow, but he did +not. He, too, held up in turn and let Ohlsen have his swing going +across. + +Across we went, one after the other. West-sou'west was the course to a +stake-boat, which we were told would be found off Egg Rock, fourteen +miles away. We had only the compass to go by, for at the start it was +rain and drizzle, as well as wind and a big sea, and you couldn't see +a mile ahead. On the way we shot by the New Rochelle, which had +started ahead with the intention of waiting for the fleet at the first +stake-boat. Now she was headed back, wabbing awfully. From Billie +Simms, who went over part of the course in the Henry Clay Parker ahead +of the fleet, we got word of the trouble as we went by. The New +Rochelle was beginning to leak. "You c'n spit between her deck-planks +and into her hold--she's that loose," hollered Billie. I don't think +the fishermen aboard of her minded much so long as she stayed afloat, +but her captain, a properly licensed man, did, I expect, and so she +put back with some of them growling, I heard afterward, "and after +paying their little old three dollars to see only the start of the +race." Her captain reported, when he got in, that he didn't see +anything outside but a lot of foolish fishermen trying to drown +themselves. + +The first leg was before the wind and the Lucy Foster and the Colleen +Bawn went it like bullets. I don't expect ever again to see vessels +run faster than they did that morning. On some of those tough passages +from the Banks fishing vessels may at times have gone faster than +either of these did that morning. It is likely, for where a lot of +able vessels are all the time trying to make fast passages--skippers +who are not afraid to carry sail and vessels that can stand the +dragging--and in all kinds of chances--there must in the course of +years of trying be some hours when they do get over an everlasting lot +of water. But there are no means of checking up. Half the time the men +do not haul the log for half a day or more. Some of the reports of +speed of fishermen at odd times have been beyond all records, and so +people who do not know said they must be impossible. But here was a +measured course and properly anchored stake-boats--and the Lucy and +the Colleen did that first leg of almost fourteen sea-miles in fifty +minutes, which is better than a 16-1/2 knot clip, and that means over +nineteen land miles an hour. I think anybody would call that pretty +fast going. And, as some of them said afterward, "Lord in Heaven! +suppose we'd had smooth water!" But I don't think that the sea checked +them so very much--not as much as one might think, for they were +driving these vessels. + + + + +XXXII + +O'DONNELL CARRIES AWAY BOTH MASTS + + +We were next to the last vessel across the starting line. The Nannie +O--we couldn't see them all--about held the Lucy Foster and the +Colleen Bawn level. The Withrow showed herself to be a wonderful +vessel off the wind, too. Wesley Marrs was around the stake-boat +first. In the fog and drizzle the leaders did not find the stake-boat +at once. Wesley happening to be nearest to it when they did see it, +got the benefit and was first around. We were close up, almost near +enough to board the Withrow's quarter rounding. I am not sure that the +skipper and Clancy, who were to the wheel, did not try to give Hollis +a poke with the end of our long bowsprit; but if they did, the Johnnie +was not quite fast enough for that. The Withrow beat us around. +Looking back we could see the others coming like wild horses. Every +one of them, except one that carried away something and hauled up and +out of it, was diving into it to the foremast with every leap the same +as we had been. On that first leg nobody could stand anywhere for'ard +of the fore-hatch or he would have been swept overboard. + +Leaving Egg Rock and going for Minot's Ledge, the skipper left the +wheel and George Nelson took his place beside Clancy. It was drizzling +then, every now and then that settling down so that we couldn't see +three lengths ahead. At such times we simply hoped that nobody ahead +would carry away anything or in any way become disabled in the road. + +Well clear of the stake-boat, however, it lifted and we could see what +we were doing. The Lucy Foster was still ahead with O'Donnell and +Ohlsen and Hollis almost abreast--no more than a few lengths between. +Practically they were all about just as they started. We were next. It +was a broad reach to Minot's Ledge and hard going for all hands. It +must be remembered that we all had everything on, even to balloon and +staysails, and our halyards were lashed aloft. The men to the +mast-head, who were up there to shift tacks, were having a sweet time +of it hanging on, even lashed though they were. + +Everybody was pretty well strung up at this time. The skipper, a line +about his elbow, was hooked up to the main-rigging--the weather side, +of course--and it was up to a man's waist and boiling white on the lee +side. The crew were snug up under the weather rail and hanging on--no +mistake either about the way they were hanging on. Every once in +awhile one of us would poke his head up to see what they were doing to +windward of us. Mr. Duncan, who had come aboard just before we left +the dock, was trying to sit on the weather bitt near the wheel-box. He +had a line around his waist, too. He had bet a lot of money with +Withrow on the race, but I don't think that his money was worrying him +half so much as some other things then. + +So far as we could see at this time we were making as good weather as +any of them. And our best chance--the beat home--was yet to come. The +Johnnie had the stiffness for that. Had the Johnnie reached Gloucester +from the Cape Shore earlier she, too, would have been lightened up and +made less stiff. To be sure she would have had her bottom scrubbed and +we would have had her up to racing pitch, with every bit of sail just +so and her trim gauged to a hair's depth, but that did not matter so +very much now. The Johnnie was in shape for a hard drag like this, and +for that we had to thank the tricky Sam Hollis. We began to see that +after all it was a bit of good luck our vessel not being home in time +to tune up the same as the rest of the fleet. + +It was along about here--half-way on the reach to Minot's--that +Tommie Ohlsen broke his main-gaff. It was the fault of the Eastern +Point, the Boston steamer. She had gone ahead of the fleet, taking +almost a straight course for Minot's Ledge. Reaching across from +Half-Way Rock to Minot's the fleet began to overhaul her. She, making +bad weather of it along here, started to turn around. But, rolling to +her top-rail, it was too much for them, and her captain kept her +straight on for Boston. That was all right, but her action threw +Ohlsen off. She was right in the Nannie O's way, and to save the +steamer and themselves from a collision and certain loss of life, +Ohlsen had to jibe the Nannie O, and so suddenly that the Nannie O's +gaff broke under the strain. And that lost Ohlsen his chance for the +race. It was too bad, for with Ohlsen, Marrs, and O'Donnell, each in +his own vessel in a breeze, you could put the names in a hat and shake +them up. When we went by the Nannie O her crew were getting the +trysail out of the hold, and they finished the race with that, and +made good going of it, as we saw afterward. Indeed, a trysail that day +would have been sail enough for almost any men but these. + +Before we reached Minot's there was some sail went into the air. One +after the other went the balloons--on the Foster, the Colleen, the +Withrow and at last on us. I don't know whether they had any trouble +on the others--being too busy with our own to watch--but we came near +to losing men with ours. It got caught under our keel, and we started +to try to haul it in--the skipper having an economical notion of +saving the owner the expense of a new sail, I suppose. But Mr. Duncan, +seeing what he was at, sang out: "Let the sail go to the devil, +Captain--I'll pay for the new one myself." Even at that we had to +crawl out on the bowsprit--six or eight of us--with sharp knives, and +cut it away, and we were glad to get back again. The Johnnie never +slackened. It was desperate work. + +Rounding Minot's, Tom O'Donnell gave an exhibition of desperate +seamanship. He had made up his mind, it seems, that he was due to pass +Wesley Marrs along here. But first he had to get by the Withrow. Off +Minot's was the turning buoy, with just room, as it was considered, +for one vessel at a time to pass safely in that sea. + +O'Donnell figured that the tide being high there was easily room for +two, and then breasted up to the Withrow, outside of her and with the +rocks just under his quarter. Hollis, seeing him come, made a motion +as if to force him on the rocks, but O'Donnell, standing to his own +wheel, called out--"You do, Sam Hollis, and we'll both go." There +certainly would have been a collision, with both vessels and both +crews--fifty men--very likely lost, but Hollis weakened and kept off. +That kind of work was too strong for him. He had so little room that +his main-boom hit the can-buoy as he swept by. + +Once well around O'Donnell, in great humor, and courting death, worked +by Hollis and then, making ready to tack and pass Wesley's bow, let +the Colleen have her swing, but with all that sail on and in that +breeze, there could be only one outcome. And yet he might have got +away with it but for his new foremast, which, as he had feared, had +not the strength it should have had. He let her go, never stopped to +haul in his sheets--he had not time to if he was to cross Wesley's +bow. So he swung her and the full force of the wind getting her laid +both spars over the side--first one and then the other clean as could +be. + +Hollis never stopped or made a motion to help, but kept on after the +Lucy Foster. We almost ran over O'Donnell, but luffed in time, and the +skipper called out to O'Donnell that we'd stand by and take his men +off. + +O'Donnell was swearing everything blue. "Go on--go on--don't mind me. +Go on, I tell you. We're all right. I'll have her under jury rig and +be home for supper. Go on, Maurice--go on and beat that divil +Hollis!" + +Half way to Eastern Point on the way back saw us in the wake of the +Withrow, which was then almost up with the Lucy Foster. It was the +beat home now, with all of us looking to see the Withrow do great +things, for just off the ways and with all her ballast in she was in +great trim for it. Going to windward, too, was generally held to be +her best point of sailing. All that Hollis had to do was to keep his +nerve and drive her. + + + + +XXXIII + +THE ABLE JOHNNIE DUNCAN + + +Hollis was certainly driving her now. He ought to have felt safe in +doing so with the Lucy Foster to go by, for the Lucy, by reason of the +ballast taken out of her, should, everything else being equal, capsize +before the Withrow. + +Hollis must have had that in mind, for he followed Wesley Marrs's +every move. Wesley was sailing her wide. And our skipper approved of +that, too. To attempt a too close course in the sea that was out in +the Bay that day, with the blasts of wind that were sweeping down, +would have deadened her way altogether too much--maybe hung her up. +And so it was "Keep her a full whatever you do," and that, with coming +about when the others did--we being afraid to split tacks--made plenty +of work for us. + +"Hard-a-lee" it was one after the other, and for every "Hard-a-lee" +twenty of us went down into the roaring sea fore and aft and hauled in +and slackened away sheets, while aloft, the fellows lashed to the +foremast head shifted top and staysail tacks. They were wise to lash +themselves up aloft, for with every tack, she rolled down into it as +if she were never coming up, and when she did come up shook herself as +if she would snap her topmasts off. + +Half way to Eastern Point on the beat home it seemed to occur to the +skipper and to Clancy that the Johnnie Duncan stood a chance to win +the race. It was Clancy, still lashed to the wheel, now with Long +Steve, turned his head for just a second to Mr. Duncan and spoke the +first word of it. + +"Mr. Duncan, do you know, but the Johnnie's got a chance to win this +race?" + +"D'y'think so, Tommie--d'y'think so?" + +Some of us in the crew had been thinking of that same thing some time, +and we watched Mr. Duncan, who, with a life line about him, was +clinging to a bitt aft, and watching things with tight lips, a drawn +face and shiny eyes. We listened to hear what else he might have to +say. But he didn't realize at once what it meant. His eyes and his +mind were on the Lucy Foster. + +"What d'y'think of the Lucy and the Withrow, Tommie?" Mr. Duncan said +next. + +Tommie took a fresh look at the Lucy Foster, which was certainly doing +stunts. It was along this time that big Jim Murch--a tall man, but +even so, he was no more than six feet four, and the Lucy twenty-four +feet beam--was swinging from the ring-bolts under the windward rail +and throwing his feet out trying to touch with his heels the sea that +was swashing up on the Lucy's deck. And every once in a while he did +touch, for the Lucy, feeling the need of her ballast, was making +pretty heavy weather of it. Every time she rolled and her sheer poles +went under, Jim would holler out that he'd touched again. + +We could hear him over on the Johnnie at times. Mr. Duncan, who +believed that nothing ever built could beat the Lucy Foster, began to +worry at that, and again he spoke to Clancy. He had to holler to make +himself heard. + +"But what do you think of the Lucy's chances, Tommie?" + +Clancy shook his head. + +And getting nothing out of Clancy, Mr. Duncan called out then: "What +do you think of the Lucy, you, Captain Blake?" + +The skipper shook his head, too. "I'm afraid it's too much for her." + +And then--one elbow was hitched in the weather rigging and a half +hitch around his waist--the skipper swung around, and looking over to +the Withrow, he went on: + +"I don't see, Mr. Duncan, why we don't stand a pretty good chance to +win out on Hollis." + +"Why not--why not--if anything happens to the Lucy." + +It jarred us some to think that even there, in spite of the great race +the Johnnie was making of it, she was still, in the old man's eyes, +only a second string to the Lucy Foster. + +About then the wind seemed to come harder than ever, but Clancy at the +wheel never let up on the Johnnie. He socked it to her--wide and free +he sailed her. Kept her going--oh, but he kept her going. "If this one +only had a clean bottom and a chance to tune her up before going out," +said somebody, and we all said, "Oh, if she only had--just half a day +on the railway before this race." + +We were fairly buried at times on the Johnnie--on the Lucy Foster it +must have been tough. And along here the staysail came off the Withrow +and eased her a lot. We would all have been better off with less sail +along about that time. In proof of that we could see back behind us +where the Nannie O, under her trysail, was almost holding her own. But +it wouldn't do to take it off. Had they not all said before putting +off that morning that what sail came off that day would be blown +off?--yes, sir--let it blow a hundred miles an hour. And fishermen's +pride was keeping sail on us and the Foster. Hollis tried to make it +look that his staysail blew off, but we knew better--a knife to the +halyards did the work. + +It was after her big staysail was off and she making easier weather of +it that the Withrow crossed the Lucy's bow for the first time in the +race and took the lead. + +We all felt for Mr. Duncan, who couldn't seem to believe his eyes. We +all felt for Wesley, too, who was desperately trying to hold the wind +of the Withrow--he had even rigged blocks to his jib sheets and led +them to cleats clear aft to flatten his headsails yet more. And +Wesley's crew hauled like demons on those jib sheets--hauled and +hauled with the vessel under way all the time--hauled so hard, in +fact, that with the extra purchase given them by the blocks they +pulled the cleats clean out, and away went the Lucy's jib and +jumbo--and there was Wesley hung up. And out of the race, for we were +all too near the finish for her to win out then unless the Johnnie and +the Withrow capsized entirely. + +Mr. Duncan, when he saw the Lucy's crew trying to save the headsails, +couldn't contain himself. + +"Cut 'em away--cut 'em to hell!" he sang out, and we all had to smile, +he spoke so excitedly. But it was no use. The Lucy was out of the +race, and going by her, we didn't look at Mr. Duncan nor Wesley +Marrs--we knew they were both taking it hard--but watched the +Withrow. + +Over on the other tack we went, first the Withrow, then the Johnnie. +We were nearing the finish line, and we were pretty well worked +up--the awful squalls were swooping down and burying us. We could hear +Hollis's voice and see his crew go up when he warned his men at the +wheel to ease up on her when the squalls hit. On our vessel the +skipper never waved an arm nor opened his mouth to Clancy at the +wheel. And of his own accord you may be sure that Clancy wasn't easing +up. Not Tommie Clancy--no, sir--he just drove her--let her have it +full--lashed her like, with his teeth and eyes flashing through the +sea that was swashing over him. And the Johnnie fairly sizzled through +the water. + +There were several times in the race when we thought the going was as +bad as could be, but now we were all sure that this was the worst of +all. There was some excuse for Mr. Duncan when he called out: + +"My God, Tommie, but if she makes one of those low dives again, will +she ever come up?" + +"I dunno," said Clancy to that. "But don't you worry, Mr. Duncan, if +any vessel out of Gloucester'll come up, this one'll come up." + +He was standing with the water, the clear water, not the swash, well +up to his waist then, and we could hear him: + + "Oh, I love old Ocean's smile, + I love old Ocean's frowning-- + I love old Ocean all the while, + My prayer's for death by drowning." + +That was too much for Mr. Duncan, and, watching his chance, he dove +between the house and rail, to the weather rigging, where the skipper +grabbed him and made him fast beside himself. The old man took a look +down the slant of the deck and took a fresh hold of the rigging. + +"Captain Blake, isn't she down pretty low?" + +"Maybe--maybe--Mr. Duncan, but she'll go lower yet before the sail +comes off her. This is the day Sam Hollis was going to make me take in +sail." + +Less than a minute after that we made our rush for the line. Hollis +tried to crowd us outside the stake-boat, which was rolling head to +wind and sea, worse than a lightship in a surf gale--tried to crowd us +out just as an awful squall swooped down. It was the Johnnie or the +Withrow then. We took it full and they didn't, and there is all there +was to it. But for a minute it was either vessel's race. At the +critical time Sam Hollis didn't have the nerve, and the skipper and +Clancy did. + +They looked at each other--the skipper and Clancy--and Clancy soaked +her. Held to it cruelly--recklessly. It was too much to ask of a +vessel. Down she went--buried. It was heaven or hell, as they say, for +a while. I know I climbed on to her weather run, and it was from there +I saw Withrow ducking her head to it--hove to, in fact, for the blast +to pass. + +The Johnnie weathered it. Able--able. Up she rose, a horse, and across +the line we shot like a bullet, and so close to the judge's boat that +we could have jumped aboard. + +We all but hit the Henry Clay Parker, Billie Simms's vessel, on the +other side of the line, and it was on her that old Peter of Crow's +Nest, leaping into the air and cracking his heels together, called out +as we drove by: + +"The Johnnie Duncan wins--the able Johnnie Duncan--sailin' across the +line on her side and her crew sittin' out on the keel." + + + + +XXXIV + +MINNIE ARKELL ONCE MORE + + +We were hardly across the line when there was a broom at our truck--a +new broom that I know I, for one, never saw before. And yet I suppose +every vessel that sailed in the race that day had a new broom hid away +somewhere below--to be handy if needed. + +But it was the Johnnie Duncan, sailing up the harbor, that carried +hers to the truck. And it was Mr. Duncan who stood aft of her and took +most of the cheers, and it was Clancy and Long Steve who waved their +hands from the wheel-box, and it was the skipper who leaned against +the weather rigging, and the rest of us who lined the weather rail and +answered the foolish questions of people along the road. + +Every vessel we met seemed to think we had done something great; and I +suppose we had in a way--that is, skipper, crew and vessel. We had +out-carried and out-sailed the best out of Gloucester in a breeze that +was a breeze. We had taken the chance of being capsized or hove-down +and losing the vessel and ourselves. Mr. Duncan, I think, realized +more than anybody else at the time what we had been through. "I didn't +know what it really was to be," he said, "before I started. If I had, +I doubt very much if I'd have started." We all said--"No, no, you'd +have gone just the same, Mr. Duncan;" and we believed he would, too. + +Going up the harbor somebody hinted to Clancy that he ought to go and +have a mug-up for himself after his hard work--and it had been hard +work. "And I'll take your place at the wheel," said that somebody, +"for you must be tired, Tommie." + +"And maybe I am tired, too," answered Clancy, "but if I am, I'm just +thick enough not to know it. But don't fool yourself that if I stood +lashed to this wheel since she crossed the starting line this morning +I'm going to quit it now and let you take her up the harbor and get +all the bouquets. I'll have a mug-up by and by, and it'll be a mug-up, +don't you worry." + +And it was a mug-up. He took the gold and silver cup given to Maurice +as a skipper of the winning vessel, and with the crew in his wake +headed a course for the Anchorage, where he filled it till it +flowed--and didn't have to pay for filling it, either. + +"It's the swellest growler that I ever expect to empty. Gold and +silver--and holds six quarts level. Just a little touch all round, +and we'll fill her up again. 'Carte blanche, and charge it to me,' +says Mr. Duncan." + +"What kind is carte blanche, Tommie?" asked Andie Howe. + +"They'll tell you behind the bar," said Clancy. + +"Billie," ordered Andie, "just a little touch of carte blanche, will +you, while Clancy's talking. He's the slowest man to begin that ever I +see. Speeches--speeches--speeches, when your throat's full of +gurry--dry, salty gurry. A little touch of that carte blanche that Mr. +Duncan ordered for the crew of the Johnnie Duncan, Billie, will you?" + +"Carte blanche--yes," went on Clancy, "and I callate the old fizzy +stuff's the thing to do justice to this fe-lic-i-tous oc-ca-sion. Do I +hear the voice of my shipmates? Aye, aye, I hear them--and in accents +unmistakable. Well, here's a shoot--six quarts level--and a few pieces +of ice floating around on top. My soul, but don't it look fine and +rich? Have a look, everybody." + +"Let's have a drink instead," hollered Parsons. + +Clancy paid no attention to that. "Who was the lad in that Greek bunch +in the old days that they sank up to his neck in the lake--cold +sparkling water--and peaches and oranges and grapes floating on a +little raft close by--but him fixed so he couldn't bend his head down +to get a drink nor lift his head to take a bite of fruit--and hot +weather all the time, mind you. Lord, the thirst he raised after a +while! What was his--oh, yes, Tantalus--that's the lad, Tantalus--the +cold sparkling water. Man, the thirst he----" + +"The thirst of Tantalus ain't a patch on the thirst I got. And this is +something better than cold sparkling water. That's you all over, +Tommie--joking at serious times," wailed Parsons. + +"Is it as bad as that with you, Eddie? Well, let's forget Tantalus and +drink instead to the able-est, handsom-est, fast-est vessel that ever +weathered Eastern Point--to the Johnnie Duncan--and her skipper." + +"And Mr. Duncan, Tommie--he's all right, too." + +"Yes, of course, Mr. Duncan. And while we're at it, here's to the +whole blessed gang of us--skipper, owner and crew--we're all +corkers." + +"Drive her, Tommie!" roared a dozen voices, and Tommie drove her for a +good pint before he set the cup down again. + +It was a great celebration altogether. Wherever one of our gang was +there was an admiring crowd. Nobody but us was listened to. And the +questions we had to answer! And of course we were all willing enough +to talk. We must have told the story of the race over about twenty +times each. After a while, of course, some of our fellows, with all +the entertaining and admiration that was handed out to them, had to +put a touch or two to it. It was strong enough to tell the bare facts +of that race, I thought, but one or two had to give their imaginations +a chance. One man, a fisherman, one of those who had been on one of +the excursion boats, and so didn't see the race at all, came along +about two hours after the Duncan crew struck the Anchorage and +listened to Andie Howe for a while. And going away it was he who said, +"It must have been a race that. As near as I c'n make it out the +Johnnie sailed most of that race keel up." + +"Oh, don't go away mad," Andie called after him. "Come back and have a +little touch of carte blanche--it's on the old man." + +"I'll take it for him," came a voice. It was old Peter of Crow's Nest, +who took his drink and asked for Clancy. Clancy was in the back part +of the room, and I ran and got him. Peter led the way to the +sidewalk. + +"Tommie, go and get Maurice, if it ain't too late." + +"What is it?" + +"It's Minnie Arkell. Coming up the dock after the race she ran up and +grabbed him and threw her arms about his neck. 'You're the man to sail +a race in heavy weather,' she hollers, and a hundred people looking +on. And there's half a dozen of those friends of hers and they're up +to her house and now making ready for a wine celebration. Go and get +him before it is too late." + + + + +XXXV + +CLANCY LAYS DOWN THE LAW + + +Clancy started on the run and I after him. "We'll go to his +boarding-house first, Joe, and if he's not there, to Minnie +Arkell's." + +He wasn't in his boarding-house, and we hurried out. On the sidewalk +we almost ran into little Johnnie Duncan. + +"Oh, Captain Clancy--or you, Joe Buckley--won't you tell me about the +race? Grandpa was too busy to tell me, but went down the wharf with a +lot of people to show them the Johnnie Duncan. They all left the +office and told me to mind it. And my cousin Alice came in with Joe's +cousin Nell. And I saw Captain Blake with some people and ran after +him and I just caught up with him and they went off and left me. And +then a little while ago he came back by himself and ran toward the +dock and didn't even see me. And Captain Blake used to be so good to +me!" Poor Johnnie was all but crying. + +"Toward the dock? That's good," breathed Clancy. "Stay here, Johnnie, +and we'll tell you about the race when we get back," and led the way +to Mr. Duncan's office. + +We found the skipper in the outer office, standing beside the +bookkeeper's desk and looking out of the window next the slip. Hearing +us coming he turned and then we saw that he held in his hands an open +box with a string of beautiful pearls. Noticing us gaze at the pearls +in surprise, he said, "Mr. Duncan gave me these for winning the race. +And I took them, thinking that somebody or other might like them." + +"And don't she?" asked Clancy--it seemed to slip out of Tommie without +his knowing it. + +"I guess not," said Maurice. Only then did it flash on me what it all +might mean. + +"Did you try?" asked Clancy. + +"Try! Yes, and was made a fool of. Oh, what's the use--what in +hell's the use?" He stood silent a moment. "I guess not," he said +then--looked out the window again, and hove the whole string out +of the open window and into the slip. + +Clancy and myself both jumped to stop him, but we weren't quick +enough. They were gone--the whole beautiful necklace. The skipper +fixed his eyes on where they had struck the water. Then he turned and +left the office. At the door he stopped and said: "I don't know--maybe +I won't take the Johnnie next trip, and if I don't, Tommie, I hope +you'll take her--Mr. Duncan will let you have her if you want. I hope +you'll take her anyway, for you know what a vessel she is. You'll take +care of her--" and went and left us. + +Clancy swore to himself for a while. He hadn't quite done when the +door of the rear office opened and Miss Foster herself came out. She +greeted me sweetly--she always did--but was going out without paying +any attention to Clancy. She looked pale--although perhaps I would not +have noticed her paleness particularly only for what had just +happened. + +I was surprised to see then what Clancy did. Before she had got to the +door he was beside her. + +"Miss Foster, Miss Foster," he said, and his tone was so different +from what I had ever heard from him before that I could hardly believe +it. He was a big man, it must be remembered, and still on him were the +double-banked oilskins and heavy jack-boots he wore through the race. +Also his face was flushed from the excitement of the day--the salt +water was not yet dry on him and his eyes were shining, shining not +alone with the glow of a man who had been lashed to a wheel steering a +vessel in a gale--and, too, to victory--for hours, and not alone with +the light that comes from two or three quarts of champagne--it was +something more than that. Whatever it was it surprised me and held +Alice Foster's attention. + +"Mister Clancy," she said, and turned to him. + +"Yes, Mister Clancy--or Tommie Clancy--or Captain Clancy, as +it is at times--master of an odd vessel now and again--but +Clancy all the time--just Clancy, good-for-nothing Clancy--hard +drinker--reveller--night-owl--disturber of the peace--at best +only a fisherman who'll by and by go out and get lost like +thousands of the other fishermen before him--as a hundred every +year do now and have three lines in the paper--name, age, +birthplace, street and number of his boarding-house, and that +will be the end of it. But that don't matter--Tommie Clancy, +whatever he is, is a friend of Maurice Blake's. And he means +to speak a word for Maurice. + +"For a long time now, Miss Foster, Maurice has thought the world of +you. He never told me--he never told anybody. But I know him. He +waited a long time, I'm sure, before he even told himself--maybe even +before he knew it himself. But I knew it--bunk-mates, watch-mates, +dory-mates we've been. He's master of a fine vessel now and I'm one of +his crew. He's gone ahead and I've stayed behind. Why? Because he's +carried in his heart the picture of a girl he thought could be all a +woman ought to be to a man. And that was well A man like Maurice +needs that, and maybe--maybe--you're all that he thought and more +maybe, Miss Foster. Wait--he had that picture before his eyes all the +time. I hadn't any picture. Years ago, when I was Maurice's age, I +might have had something like it, and now look at me. And why? Why, +Miss Foster, you're a woman--could you guess? No? Think. What's +running in a man's head, do you think, in the long winter nights when +he's walking the deck, with the high heavens above and the great, +black rolling sea around him? What's in his head when, trawls hauled +and his fish aboard, when the danger and the hard work are mostly by, +his vessel's going to the west'ard? What when he's an hour to rest and +he's lying, smoking and thinking, in his bunk? What's been in +Maurice's head and in his heart all the years he's loafed with the +likes of me and yet never fell to my level? Anything he ever read +anywhere, do you think, or was it a warm image that every time he came +ashore and was lucky enough to get a look at you he could see was true +to the woman it stood for? When you had no more idea of it than what +was going on at the North Pole he was watching you--and thinking of +you. Always thinking of you, Miss Foster. He never thought he had a +chance. I know him. Who asks a woman like you to share a fisherman's +life? Is it a man like Maurice? Sometimes--maybe with the blood +racing through him after a great race he might. A while ago he did, +Miss Foster. And what gave him the courage? + +"Listen to me now, Miss Foster, and say what you please afterward. +Maurice and I are friends. Friends. I've been with him on the bottom +of a capsized dory when we both expected we'd hauled our last +trawl--with the seas washing over us and we both getting weak and him +getting black in the face--and maybe I was, too. I told you this once +before, but let me tell it again. 'Come and take the plug strap, +Tommie,' he says to me. 'Come and take the plug strap.' Do you know +what that means, Miss Foster?--and the seas sweeping over you and your +whole body getting numb? And I've been with him four days and four +nights--astray in the fog of the Western Banks in winter, and, for all +we knew and believed, we were gone. In times like those men get to +know each other, and I tell you, Miss Foster--" Clancy choked and +stopped. "To-day he sailed a race the like of which was never sailed +before. A dozen times he took the chance of himself going over the +rail. And why? The better to keep an eye on things and help his vessel +along? Yes. But why that? For that cup we've drowned a dozen times in +wine to-day? He never looked twice at it when he got ashore. He +hasn't seen it since he handed it to me on the dock. The boys might +like to look at it, he said. He's forgot he ever won it by now. He let +us take it up to a rum-shop and drink out of it the same as if it was +a tin-pail--the beautiful gold and silver cup--engraved. We used it +for a growler for all Maurice cared for the value of it, and there's +forty men walking the streets now that's got a list they got out of +that cup. We might have lost it, battered each other's drunken heads +in with it, and he wouldn't have said a dozen words about it. But +there was a necklace of pearls, and he thought you'd like them. 'To +you, Maurice, for winning the race,' says Mr. Duncan, 'for winning the +race,' and hands Maurice the pearls--your own guardian, Miss Foster, +and most crazy, he was that pleased. And that's what Maurice ran up to +get when the race was over--there was something a girl might like, or +thought so. And then what? On the way down a woman that I know--that +you know--tried to hold him up. Kissed him before a hundred +people--she knew you were waiting--she knew, trust a woman--and walked +down part way with him, because you were looking. And he being a man, +and weak, and only twenty-six--and the racing blood still running +through him--maybe forgot himself for five minutes--not knowing you +were within a mile. That doesn't excuse him? No, you're right, it +don't. But he, poor boy, knowing nothing--what does a boy of +twenty-six know?--knowing nothing--suspecting nothing--and yet, if he +forgot himself, he never really forgot you. He hurries on to you and +offers you the necklace that he risked his life to get. And you--what +did you say?" + +"What did I say? I told him that perhaps he knew somebody that he'd +rather give it to before me----" + +"Before you? There's a woman. You're not satisfied when a man fights +all the devil in himself for you, but you must rub it into him while +he's doing it. Maurice--or maybe you don't understand. You could say +things like that to a dog--if a dog could understand--and he'd come +back and lick your hand. Maurice has blood and fire in him. And here's +a woman--whatever else she is--is warm-blooded too. She wants Maurice, +and, by God, she'll get him if you keep on. Do you remember the night +of the Master Mariners' ball--the night before we sailed on the +Southern cruise? Well, that night this woman, she waits for Maurice +and stops him on his way home. But she didn't get him. He was up in +the wind for a minute or two, but one spoke of the wheel and he found +his head again. Again last June in Newport on a warm summer's +night--flowers, music, wine--the cabin of a beautiful yacht--she asks +him to wait over a day or two in Newport harbor. Does he? Does he? Not +Maurice. With never a touch of the wheel, off he swings and drives for +home. And why didn't he stay? Why, do you suppose? Didn't he tell you +a while ago? Good God! Look here--you're no fool. Look at me--ten +years ago I was another Maurice. And this woman--I tell you she knows +men. She don't care whether a man is rich or poor, tall or short, thin +or fat, so long as she likes him. And I tell you she loves Maurice--as +well as she can love--and she's not a good enough woman--there it is. +And they're all saying you're likely to marry Withrow. Wait now. +Withrow, I'm telling you, isn't fit to wash the gurry off Maurice's +jack-boots. I'm a careless man, Miss Foster, and in my life I've done +things I wish now I hadn't, but I draw the line above the head of a +man like Withrow. Whatever I am, I'm too good to be company for Fred +Withrow. And on top of all that he's so carried away with this other +woman--this same woman--and she caring more for Maurice's eyelash than +Withrow's whole two hundred and ten pounds--Withrow is so carried away +with her that he is ready to elope with her--elope with her! I know +that--never mind how. Bring Withrow and me together, and I'll tell +him--tell him, yes, and throw him through the door afterward if he +denies it. This woman is enough of a woman to want Maurice--Maurice +with nothing at all--before Withrow with all he's got and all he can +get her or give her--and she's clever enough to come pretty near +getting what she wants. And now, Miss Foster, suppose you think it +over. I'm going to hunt up Maurice, though I'm not too sure we'll find +him in a hurry. Good-by." + +He swept his sou'wester wide to her and went out the door. I said +good-by without looking at her. I was too ashamed--and went after +Clancy. But I think she was crying to herself as I went out. + + + + +XXXVI + +MAURICE BLAKE IS RECALLED + + +The morning after the race I was eating breakfast at home and I could +not remember when I enjoyed a meal like that one. I had had a fine +long sleep and the sleep that comes to a man after he's been through a +long and exciting experience does make him feel like a world-beater. I +felt that I could go out and about leap the length of a seine-boat or +rip up a plank sidewalk. It was worth while to be alive, and +everything tasted so good. + +I had put away six fried eggs and about fourteen of those little +slices of bacon before I even thought of slacking up (with my mother +piling them up as fast as I lifted them off)--and maybe I wouldn't +have slacked then only my cousin Nell came skipping in. + +She kissed my mother half a dozen times, and danced around the room. +"Four vessels off the Johnnie Duncan's model have already been +ordered. Four, auntie--four. There will be a fleet of them yet, you'll +see. And how are you, Joe?" + +"Fine," I said, and kept on eating. + +Nell didn't like my not noticing how glad she was feeling, I suppose, +for all at once, as I was about to sugar another cup of coffee, she +ran her hands through my hair and yanked till I couldn't pretend any +longer. + +"There, now, with your mind off your stomach, perhaps you'll look up +and converse when a lady deigns to notice you. How much money did Mr. +Withrow lose on the race?" + +"I don't know, but it was a good pile; I know that." + +"And how much did Mr. Duncan win?" + +"I don't know that, either; but I hope it was a good roll, for he won +about all Withrow lost." + +"M-m--but aren't you in love with your old employer? But let's not +mind common money matters. What do you think of the Johnnie Duncan for +a vessel?" + +"She's a dog--a dog." + +"Isn't she! And the fastest, able-est and the handsomest vessel that +ever sailed past Eastern Point, isn't she?" + +"That's what she is." + +"And who designed her?" + +"Who? Let me see. Oh, yes, some local man." + +"You don't know! Look up here. Who designed her!" + +"Oh, yes. 'Twas a Gloucester man." + +"A Gloucester man? Look up again. +Now--who--de--signed--the--John--nie--Dun--can!" + +"Ouch, yes. A ver-y fine and a-ble--and handsome gen-tle-man--a +wonderful man." + +"That's a little better. And his name?" + +"William Somers--William the Illustrious--William the First--'First in +war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of Gloucestermen'--and if +you let me stand up, I'll do a break-down to show you how glad I am." + +"Now you're showing something like appreciation. And now where do you +suppose your friend Clancy is and your skipper?" + +"Clancy? Lord knows. Maybe in a circle of admiring friends, singing +whatever is his latest. 'Hove flat down' was the last I heard. If it +was earlier in the day--about three in the morning--it would be pretty +sure to be that." + +"What a pity, and he such a fine man otherwise!" + +"What's a pity?" + +"Why, his getting drunk, as I hear he does very often." + +"Gets drunk? Who gets drunk? Clancy? That's news to me. As long as +I've known him I never saw him drunk yet. He gets mellow and +loose--but drunk! Clancy drunk? Why, Nell!" + +"Oh, well, all right, he's an apostle of temperance then. But Captain +Blake--where is he?" + +"I couldn't say--why?" + +"I have a message for him." + +"Did you try his boarding-house?" + +"Yes. That is, Will did, and he wasn't there, hadn't been there at +all, they said, since the afternoon before." + +"That so? Where else did you try? Duncan's office?" + +"We did, and no word of him there." + +"Try Clancy's boarding-house?" + +"Yes, and no word." + +"Try--h-m--the Anchorage?" + +"Oh, Joe, you don't think he's been loafing there since?" + +"No, I don't. And yet after the way he got turned down yesterday, you +know--there's no telling what a man might do." + +"Well, Will looked in there, too." + +"You fat little fox! Why didn't you say that at first? And no word?" + +"No." + +"Well, I don't know where he'd be then." + +"Nor I, except--did you notice the wind has hauled to the northwest?" + +"I did." + +"Well. Do you know that old vessel that Mr. Withrow's been trying to +get a crew for--the Flamingo?" + +"M-h-h." + +"Well, this morning early she went out--on a hand-lining trip to the +east'ard, it is said. And Will says that he thinks--he doesn't know, +mind you, because they won't tell him anything down to Withrow's--but +he thinks that Maurice Blake's shipped in her." + +"Wow! She won't last out one good breeze on the Banks." + +"That is just what Will said. And it's too bad, for I had a message +for him--a message that would make everything all right. I suppose you +can guess?" + +"Guess? H-m-m--I don't know as I want to." + +"Well, don't get mad about it, anyway. How would you feel if you saw +that horrid Minnie Arkell rush up and--Oh, you know what I mean. +However, I've been pleading with Alice since yesterday afternoon. For +two hours I was up in her room last evening, and poor Will walking the +veranda down below. I put Captain Blake's case as I thought a friend +of his would put it--as you would put it, say--perhaps better in some +ways--for I could not forget that he sailed the Johnnie Duncan +yesterday, and her winning meant so much to Will. Yes, and I'm not +forgetting Clancy and the rest of her crew--indeed, I'm not--I felt as +though I could kiss every one of them." + +"Well, here's one of them." + +"Don't get saucy because your mother is standing by. Go and find +Maurice Blake. Go ahead, won't you, Joe? Tell him that everything is +all right. She is proud." + +"That's a nice sounding word for it--pride. Stuck on herself is what +I'd say." + +"No, she isn't. You must allow a woman self-respect, you know." + +"I guess so. And it must be her long suit, seeing she's always leading +from it." + +"Oh, keep your fishermen's jokes for the mugging-up times on your +vessel. You go and get Maurice Blake--or find Mr. Clancy and have him +get him--if he hasn't gone on the Flamingo." + +So I went out. On a cruise along the water front I found a whole +lot of people. I saw Wesley Marrs and Tommie Ohlsen--sorrowful and +neither saying much--looking after their vessels--Ohlsen seeing to a +new gaff. "I ought to've lost," said Ohlsen. "Look at that for a +rotten piece of wood." Sam Hollis was around, too, trying to explain +how it was he didn't win the race. But he couldn't explain to +anybody's satisfaction how his stays'l went nor why he hove-to when +that squall struck him--the same squall that shot the Johnnie +Duncan across the line. Tom O'Donnell was there, looking down on the +deck of the vessel in which he took so much pride. "Two holes in +her deck where her spars ought to be," he was saying when I came +along. I asked him if he had seen Maurice that morning, and it was +from him I learned for certain that Maurice had shipped on the +Flamingo. "I didn't see her leaving, boy, but Withrow himself told +me this morning. 'And I hope he'll never come back,' he said at the +same time. ''Tis you that takes a licking hard. But maybe 'tis the +insurance,' I says. 'If that's what you're thinking,' says he, 'she +isn't insured.' 'Then it must be the divil's own repair she's in +when no company at all will insure her,' I says. Sure, we had hard +words over it, but that won't bring back Maurice--he's gone in the +Flamingo, Joe." + +I went after Clancy then, and after a long chase, that took me to +Boston and back, I caught up with him. He was full of repentance and +was gloomy. It was up in his boarding-house--in his room. He, looking +tired, was thinking of taking a kink of sleep. + +"Hulloh, Joe! And I don't wonder you look surprised, Joe. I must be +getting old. Thursday morning I got up after as fine a night's sleep +as a man'd want. That was Thursday. Then Thursday night, Friday, +Friday night, Saturday--two nights and three days, and I'm sleepy +already. Sleepy, Joe, and I remember the time I could go a whole week, +and then, after a good night's sleep, wake up fine and daisy and be +ready for another week. Joe, there's a moral in that if you can only +work it out." + +Clancy stayed silent after that, not inclined to talk, I could see, +until I told him about Maurice having shipped in the Flamingo and the +hard crew that had gone in her. + +That stirred him. "Great Lord, gone in that shoe-box! Why, Joe, I'd as +soon put to sea in a market basket calked with butter. And the man +that's got her--Dave Warner! He's crazy, Joe, if ever a man was crazy. +Clean out of his head over a girl that he met in Gloucester once, but +now living in Halifax, and she won't have anything to do with him. +He's daffy over her. If she was drowning alongside you'd curse your +luck because you had to gaff her in. That is, you would only she's a +woman, of course. Wants to get lost, Joe, I believe--wants to! If this +was Boston or New York and in older days, I'd say that Dave and +Withrow must have shanghaied a crew to man the Flamingo's kind. But +you c'n get men here to go in anything sometimes. Wait a bit and I'll +be along with you. We'll see old Duncan and maybe we c'n head the +Flamingo off." + + + + +XXXVII + +THE GIRL IN CANSO + + +That was Saturday evening. The crew of the Johnnie had been told just +after the race by the skipper that he would not need them again until +Monday. Scattering on that, some going to Boston, they could not be +got together again until Monday morning, and it was not until Monday +noon that we got away. + +We fitted out as though for a Cape Shore seining trip, and that's what +we were to do in case we missed the Flamingo or could not persuade her +skipper or Maurice himself that he ought to leave her and come back on +the Johnnie Duncan. It was Clancy who had the matter in charge. +Indeed, it was only Clancy who knew what it was really all about. + +We had a good run-off before a stiff westerly that gradually hauled to +the north, and Tuesday night late saw us in Halifax Harbor. It was too +late to do anything that night, but Clancy went ashore to find out +what he could. Before sunrise he was back with word to break out the +anchor and put to sea. He had word of the Flamingo. + +"That girl of Dave's--it seems she's moved to Canso with her folks, +and Dave's gone there. He's probably there before this--maybe left +again. She's an old plug, the Flamingo, but she ought've made Canso +before this. He only stayed a few hours here and left Monday." + +It was bang, bang, bang all the way to Canso, with Clancy swearing at +Withrow and the Flamingo and Dave Warner and the girl in the case--one +after the other and sometimes all together. "Blast Withrow and that +crazy fool Dave Warner, too. And why in the devil couldn't her folks +stayed in Gloucester--or in Halifax, at least. They ought've put a few +sticks of dynamite in her and blown her to pieces ages ago. She's +forty years old if she's a day--her old planks rotten. They won't keep +her afloat over-night if they're out in this. Why d'y's'pose people +leave a good lively little city like Halifax to go to a place like +Canso? Why?" + +Andie Howe happened to be within hearing, and "Maybe the rent's +cheaper," suggested Andie. + +"Maybe it is--and maybe if you don't talk sense I'll heave you over +the rail some fine day. Better give her a grain more fore-sheet. Man, +but it's a wicked night." + +We made Canso after the worst day and night we had had in the Johnnie +Duncan since she was launched. Outside Canso Harbor it looked bad. We +didn't think the skipper would try to enter the harbor that black +night, but he did. "Got to go in and get news," said Clancy, and in we +went. It was as black as could be--squalls sweeping down--and Canso is +not the easiest harbor in the world to make at night. + +I went ashore with Clancy to hear what the young woman might have to +say. We found her in a place run by her father, a sort of lodging +house and "pub," with herself serving behind the bar--a bold-looking +young woman, not over-neat--and yet attractive in her way--good +figure, regular features, and good color. "There, Joe, if you brought +a girl like that home your mother would probably die of a broken +heart, but there's the kind that a foolish man like Dave Warner would +sell his soul for." Then Clancy explained while we were waiting for +her to see us privately, "I don't know if she'll remember me, but I +met her two or three times in Gloucester." + +When she came in she recognized Clancy right away. "How do you do, +Captain Clancy?" + +"How do you do, Miss Luce? My friend, Mr. Buckley. Now what we've come +for--but first, suppose we have a little something by way of +sociability. A little fizzy stuff, say, and some good cigars, Miss +Luce." + +She brought the wine and the cigars. Clancy pulled the cork, filled +both glasses, pushed one glass toward the young woman and drew one to +himself. + +"But, Captain, your friend hasn't any." + +"My friend," said Clancy, "doesn't drink. The last thing the doctor +said to him before we came away was, 'Don't touch a drop of liquor or +your life will pay the forfeit.' You see, Miss Luce, he's been a +dissipated youth--drink--and having been dissipated and coming of +delicate people, it's affected his health." + +"You don't tell me? I'm sure he doesn't look it." + +"No, he don't--that's a fact. But so it is." + +"Stomach?" she asked me. + +"No--heart," answered Clancy for me. "What they call an aneurism. You +know what an aneurism is, of course?" + +"Yes-yes--oh, yes----" + +"Of course. Well, he's got one of them." + +"That's too bad. So he only smokes instead?" + +"That's all. Here, Joe, smoke up." + +"My, I always thought smoking was bad for the heart." + +"It is--for everything except aneurisms. Smoking's the death of +aneurisms. Have another cigar, Joe. And Miss Luce, shall we exchange a +health?" + +"But I never drank anything in all my life." + +"Of course not. But you will now, won't you? Consider the occasion and +I'm sure you won't let me drink alone. And I've come so far to see +you, too--only of course not--Well, here's to your good health, and +may you live long and----" + +The rest of it was smothered in the gurgle. And nobody would ever +think to see the way she put down hers that Miss Luce had never had a +drink of wine before. + +"And now, Miss Luce, may I ask how long it has been since your friend +Dave Warner left----" + +"Oh-h--Dave Warner? He's no friend of mine." + +"Isn't he? Well, he's no particular friend of mine, either. But a +friend of mine--of both of us, Joe here, too--is with Dave--Maurice +Blake. Any word of him?" + +"Oh, yes. A good-looking fellow, nice eyes and hair and nice manners. +I do like to see refined manners in people. Now if it was him----" + +"If it was him, you wouldn't have told him to go to sea and the devil +take him----" + +"I'd have you know, Captain Clancy, I don't swear." + +"Swear? You, Miss Luce? Dear me, whatever made you think I thought +that? But let's have another taste of wine. But of course you didn't +encourage Dave to stay ashore here?" + +"Him?--I guess not. When he said he didn't care if he never came back, +I told him I was sure I didn't--and out he went." + +"O woman, gentle woman," murmured Clancy in his glass, "especially +real ladies. But Dave never did know how to talk to a lady." + +"I should say he didn't." + +"No, not Dave. And so his money gone he's----" + +"Money? Why, he never had any money." + +"Well, that's bad. Not even enough to open a bottle of wine to drink a +lady's health?" + +"Bottle of wine? No, nor a thimbleful of tuppenny ale." + +"That was bad, Miss Luce. Dave ought've come better heeled---- + + 'And so his money gone he puts out to sea-- + It may happen to you or happen to me.' + +And which way did he say he was going?" + +"He didn't say and I didn't ask, though one of the men with him said +something about going to the Grand Banks." + +"Grand Banks, eh? That's comforting--it isn't more than a couple of +days' sail from here to the nearest edge of it, and twenty-odd +thousand or more square miles of shoal water to hunt over after you +get there. Had they taken their bait aboard, did you hear, Miss +Luce?" + +"Yes, they had. That was yesterday afternoon late. His vessel was +leaking then, I heard him say to that nice-looking man--Maurice Blake +his name, did you say? A nice name Maurice, isn't it? Well, he said to +Maurice going out the door, 'Well, we'll put out and I callate--I +don't know how she'll get out but out we'll go to-night.' 'The sooner +you go the better it will suit me,' Blake said, and they went off +together." + +"And how was Mr. Blake?" + +"How do you mean? How did he act? My, I never saw such a man. Wouldn't +open his head all night--wouldn't drink, but just sat and smoked like +your friend there. Anything the matter with him?" + +"With Maurice? Oh, in the way of aneurisms? Not that I know of. Oh, +yes, he has heart-trouble too, come to think. But I must be getting +back to the vessel." + +"So soon?" + +"Yes, we've got to go to sea. I'm like Dave Warner in that I'm going +to sea too." + +"But nobody's driving you away." She had her eyes on Clancy's face +then. + +He didn't look up--only stared into his glass. + +She was silent for a full minute. Clancy said nothing. "Nobody's +driving you away," she said again. + +At that Clancy looked at her. "There's no telling," he said at first, +and then hastily, "Oh, no--of course nobody's driving me to sea." + +"Then what's your hurry?" + +I got up and went to the door then. I heard the sound of a scraping +chair and then of Clancy standing up. A moment's quiet and then it +was: "No, dear, I can't stay--nobody's driving me away, I know that. +I'm sure you wouldn't--not with your heart. And you've a good heart if +you'd only give it a chance. But I can't stay." + +"And why not? You won't, you mean. Well, I never thought you were +_that_ kind of a man." + +"No? Well, don't go to giving me any moral rating. Don't go to +over-rating me--or maybe you'd call it under-rating. But you see, it's +my friend that's calling." + +"And you're going out in this gale?" + +"Gale. I'd go if it was a hundred gales. Good-by--and take care of +yourself, dear." + +"And will you come back if you don't find him?" + +"Lord, Lord, how can I say? Can anybody say who's coming back and who +isn't?" + +He went by me and out the door. She looked after him, but he never +turned--only plunged out of the house and into the street and I right +after him. + + + + +XXXVIII + +THE DUNCAN GOES TO THE WEST'ARD + + +Getting back to the vessel Clancy was pretty gloomy. "That's +settled. We can't chase them as far to the east'ard as the big +banks--a three hundred mile run to the nearest edge of it and tens of +thousands of square miles to hunt over after we'd got there. And it +would be child's work anyway to ask Maurice to leave her on the bank. +Who'd take his place even if Dave would stand for it? 'Twould mean +laying up a dory or taking his dory-mate too. Maurice wouldn't leave +her anyway, even if he believed he'd never get home--no real fisherman +would. And yet there it is--Dave in a devil of a mood, and a vessel +according to all reports that won't live out one good easterly. +And there's a crazy crew aboard her that won't make for the most +careful handling of a vessel. Oh, Lord, I don't see anything for +it, but, thank the Lord, Maurice has been behaving himself--and that +in spite of how blue he must have been feeling. By this time he's +cert'nly made up his mind he's with a pretty bad crowd, but maybe +he's glad of a little excitement. What I don't understand is how +Dave ever left old man Luce's place without breaking up the +furniture before going away. Gen'rally that's his style. Maybe +Maurice being along had something to do with it--a pretty able man in +close quarters is Maurice. Yes, he must be glad of the excitement, +but Lord, that won't save him from being lost. Oh, oh, and now +what'll we do? Let's see, the Flamingo's on the way to the Banks, +and that's the end of that chase. We've got to wait now and see that +she comes home--or don't come home--one or the other. I told that +girl that I was going to put out--put out if it blew a hundred gales. +And so I would if any good would come of it, but putting out to sea a +day like this because you bragged you would--risking your vessel and +crew, or making hard work for them if nothing else--that ain't good +sense, is it? Besides, I had to tell her something to get away +without setting up to be a model of virtue. What else could I do? +Women are the devil--sometimes--aren't they, Joe? There's some are. I +suppose it wouldn't do any great harm to head her for home. I don't +believe there's going to be much more fish going to be seined this +fall--and wouldn't she make a passage of it in this easterly? Oh, +Lord, it would be the race all over again, only ten times as long a +drag." + +While he sat there in the cabin, smoking and meditating, letting us +into his thoughts every now and then, the voices of some of our crew +were heard on deck. + +We all went up and got the word that was being passed around. A coast +steamer had just come to anchor in the harbor with the report that +just outside--about ten miles to the west'ard--was a vessel, dismasted +and clean-swept, and dragging toward the rocks. They could not help +her themselves--too rough--a hurricane outside--to launch a boat was +out of the question. They didn't mind taking a chance, they said, but +to attempt her rescue would be suicide. + +It looked like a pretty hard chance going out in that gale, but Clancy +didn't wait. "Nobody else seems to be hurrying to get out, and we +being the able-est looking craft in the harbor, I callate it's up to +us to go." He got the exact location of the distressed vessel from the +coaster, and then it was up anchor, make sail, and out we went. + +There were people who called Clancy a fool for ordering out his vessel +and risking his crew that day--men in that very harbor--and maybe he +was. But for myself, I want that kind of a fool for my skipper. The +man that will take a chance for a stranger will take a bigger chance +for his own by and by. + +We saw her while we were yet miles away, down to the west'ard--near +Whitehead and with the cruel stretch of rocks under her lee quarter. +Even with plenty of sea-room she could not have lasted long, and here +with these ledges to catch her she looked to be in for a short shrift. +We had a good chance to get a look at her as we bore down. Everything +was gone from her deck, even the house and rail. There was not as much +loose wood on deck as would make a tooth-pick. Afterwards we learned +that two seas hove her down so that they had to cut the spars away to +right her, and then just as she was coming up another monster had +caught her and swept her clean--not only swept clean, but stove in her +planks and started some of her beams so that she began to leak in a +fashion that four men to the pumps could just manage to keep up with. + +We could just see them--the men to the pumps working desperately--with +the others lashed to the stumps of the masts and the stanchions which +were left when the rail went. Her big hawser had parted and her chain +was only serving to slightly check her way toward the rocks. + +With spars and deck gear gone and her hull deep in the water, a vessel +is not so easily distinguished. But there was something familiar in +this one. We had seen her before. All at once it flashed on half a +dozen of us--"the Flamingo!" we said. "God! that's luck!" said +Clancy. + +She lay in a sort of inlet that was wide open to the gale, rocks on +the better part of three sides of her, north, south and west. She was +then within all but striking distance of the rocks, and the seas, high +and wicked, were sweeping over her. It looked like a bad place to work +out of if we should get close in, but Clancy held on. + +"Not much lee-room, but plenty of water under her keel anyway," and +himself to the wheel, sailed the Johnnie around the Flamingo. He +hailed Maurice as he went by, waved his hand to the others, and hove a +line aboard. They took the line, hauled in the hawser at the end of +it, made that fast to the windlass, and then we started off with her +in tow. + +We were doing pretty well, what with plenty of wind and the Johnnie +buckling down to her work like she was a steamer, till the hawser +parted and back toward the rocks went the Flamingo again. + +"No use," said Clancy, "sea's too much for any line we got. We'll try +it with the seine-boat. Who'll go in the seine-boat and try to take +them off? Think quick, but mind what it means." + +Every man of the crew of the Johnnie Duncan said, "Here!" The cook +even came out of the forec's'le and put in his "And me, too, +skipper." + +"You're good men," said Clancy,--"damn good men," and looked us up and +down. We felt proud, he said it in such a way. "But you're taking your +lives in your hands and some of you got wives and children--mothers or +something. Who hasn't anybody depending on him? Which of you hasn't +any woman somewhere, or little brothers or sisters?" + +About twelve of the sixteen men standing on the deck of the Johnnie +Duncan said "Me!" + +"Three-quarters of you, at least," said Clancy, "are damn liars. Over +with the seine-boat and be careful nobody gets hurt." + +Somebody did get hurt, though. Andie Howe got his foot smashed and was +helped below. Clancy gave the rest of us a scolding in advance. +"You're not hurt yet, but some of you will be--like Andie--if you +don't watch out. You'd think that some of you were out on some little +pond up in the country somewhere launching a canoe off one of those +club-house floats. Keep an eye out for those seas when they board. And +watch out for that deckload or some of you'll have a head cut off. A +man killed or a man washed over the rail--what's the difference--it's +a man lost. Look out now--watch, you Steve--damn you, watch out! Over +with it!" + +And over it went and with it leaped two men before it could sag away, +while the rest of us stood by the rail watching our chance. + +"Nelson," called Clancy, "come away from that rail! Steve, come +away!--come away, I say, and no back talk. Pat, you can go--jump +in--watch your chance or it's the last of you. Eddie, you can go, and +you Bill, and you Frenchy. Joe! stand away from that rail or I'll put +you in the hold and batten the hatches on you. Now, that's better. And +that's enough--six men to the oars and one to steer." + +"And who'll steer?" asked somebody. + +"You'll know in a minute," said Clancy, and he leaped for the +seine-boat and made it, and grabbed the steering oar. "Stand by--push +off! Fend off in the vessel there! Steve, if anything happens--you +know--you're to take the Johnnie home. Give way, fellows. Now! Watch +out!--now--now then, around with her--end on, and there she is like a +bird! And now drive her!" + +"A bird!" said Clancy--but a wild-looking bird--fifty feet she looked +to be going into the air one moment and down out of sight the next, +and water slamming aboard her so that we thought she was swamped half +a dozen times. Two had to leave the oars and go to bailing, while +Clancy with an arm and shoulders and back and swinging waist +like--well, like nothing a man ever had before--kept her end to it. + +"Good luck!" we called. + +"Never fear--we'll bring 'em back!" said Clancy. + +"Or stay with them," we thought. + +But he didn't stay with them. It was a ticklish job, but Clancy got +away with it. He didn't dare to go too near the Flamingo, for that +meant that the seas would pitch the seine-boat up and dash it to +kindling wood against her hull. What he did do was to go as near the +Flamingo as he could and keep her clear, then heave a line aboard and +call to her crew one after the other to make it fast around themselves +and jump overboard. It took some nerve to make that jump--from the +rigging of the Duncan we watched them--saw them shiver and draw +up--these were men accustomed to face danger--reckless men--but the +shiver was over in a breath, and then over the rail and into that +sea--a game fight--and they were hauled into the seine-boat. Some of +them we thought would never make it, for it was an awful sea. + +As fast as one of the Flamingo's men made the seine-boat he was set to +work bailing out or taking a haul at the oars, for it was a difficult +matter in that sea to keep the seine-boat at the right distance from +the Flamingo. But they got them all--ten of them. Two were hauled in +unconscious, but came to after awhile. + +To get aboard the Johnnie again was almost as bad as to get into the +seine-boat from the Flamingo. But we managed it. Long Steve was swept +over while we were at it, but we got him back with the help of Maurice +Blake and another of the Flamingo's crowd. By smart clever work they +grabbed Steve before he could go down and hauled him into the +seine-boat. + +When they were all safe aboard the Duncan Clancy shook hands with +Maurice. "I call that luck, Maurice--to come out to save a stranger +and find you've saved your own. And now whose trick to the wheel--you, +Joe? Put her on the off-shore tack till we're well clear of that +headland--maybe we c'n make it in one leg. No? Then a short tack and +have an eye out for the ledges--not too close. And Maurice, go +below--you and Dave and all hands of you, and we'll get out dry +clothes for you. Man, but you must be cold and hungry, but the cook's +getting coffee and grub ready. And for the Duncan's crew--on deck all +hands and put the tops'ls to her. For, Maurice-boy, we're going +home--going home, Maurice--where there's people waiting for you. Hang +on a while longer, Joe, and I'll take her myself." + +No need to tell me to hang on. If I hadn't hung on or been lashed to +the wheel I could never have kept my feet, for at this time it was so +bad that they had passed a line from my waist to the windward bitt and +I was up to my waist with every dive of her. + +"Lord, she's a dog, ain't she! If old man Duncan could see her now! +Remember Tom O'Donnell singing that song the other night: + + 'West half-no'the and drive her--we're abreast now of Cape + Sable-- + 'Tis an everlasting hurricane, but here's the craft that's + able.' + +We're not abreast of Cape Sable yet, but it won't take us too many +hours at this clip. And here's the craft that's able. Man, wouldn't it +be fine if Tom O'Donnell himself was with us and the pair of us racing +home? Let me take the wheel, Joe. And go for'ard and have a mug-up for +yourself--and have a care going, Joe, for it's leaping she is now and +seas that'd lift you a cable's length to looard if ever they caught +you fair. That's it--oh, but if your mother could see you now, Joe, +it's never to sea you'd come again." + +I made my way for'ard. A dash between the house and windward rail, a +shoot for the mainmast and holding on there for awhile. Another dive +for the gripes on the dories, another shoot between rail and dories, a +grip of the bow gripes, a swing around and I was at the forec's'le +hatch. Here I thought I heard him call and looked aft. + +He had a leg either side of the wheel, standing full height and sawing +the spokes a bit up and down to get the feel of her. The life line was +trailing from his waist to the bitt--the clear white sea was up to his +middle and racing over the taffrail. He had cast away his mitts the +better to grip the spokes, and even as I looked he took off his +sou'wester and sent it scaling. The wind taking hold of it must have +carried it a quarter a mile to leeward. Watching it go, himself +looking out under the boom, he laughed--laughed--such a roar of a +laugh--stamped his feet and began to sing: + + "Oh, I love old Ocean's smile, + I love old Ocean's frowning-- + My love's for Ocean all the while, + My prayer's for death by drowning." + +The devil was in him then. "Did you call me, skipper?" I sang out. + +"Did I? Did I? Lord, Joe, I don't know. Maybe I did. I feel like +calling from here to Gloucester, and if I did I bet they'd hear me. +God, Joe, but it's good to be alive, isn't it?--just to be alive. +Whew! but I wish I had a few more sou'westers--just to see 'em scale. +But what was it I wanted--but is the cook there?" + +"He is--I c'n hear him talking." + +"Then go below and tell him, Joe--tell him to mouse his pots and +kettles, for with sail alow and sail aloft, with her helmsman lashed +and her house awash, in a living gale and the devil's own sea, the +Johnnie Duncan's going to the west'ard." + +And she certainly went. + + + + +XXXIX + +THE HEART OF CLANCY + + +That trip ended seining for the Duncan that year. Everything went well +with our friends, after we got home. It was late in the season, and +Maurice Blake was to stay ashore to get married, for one thing. He had +made a great season of it and could afford to. So the Johnnie Duncan +was fitted out for fresh halibuting and Clancy took her. + +I went with him. I remember very well that I had no idea of going +winter fishing when the seining season ended, but, somehow or other +when Clancy came to get a crew together I was looking for a chance. + +So we put out, and on the rocks of Cape Ann, near Eastern Point +lighthouse, on the day we sailed on our first halibuting trip, were +Maurice Blake and Alice Foster, my cousin Nell and Will Somers, to +wave us good luck. Clancy hauled the vessel close in to get a better +look and they waved us until I suppose they could see us no longer. Of +course they should have been able to make us out long after we had +lost sight of them, we being a tall-sparred, white-sailed vessel; and +Clancy must have had that in mind, for long after all signs of them +had been lost to us he kept the glasses pointed to the rocks. He +turned at last with a "Well, I suppose they're all happy now, Joe?" + +"They ought to be," I said. + +"Yes, they ought to be," he repeated, and then again, "they ought to +be," and went for'ard. + +He stayed for'ard a long time, saying no word, but leaning over the +windlass and looking out ahead. Nobody disturbed him. Once or twice +when the sheets needed trimming--and in a deep sleep I think Clancy +would know that--he turned and gave the word, but the bare word and no +more. He had his spells we all knew, when he didn't want anybody near +him, and so he wanted to be alone, I suppose. And there he stayed, +with what spray came over the bow splashing him, but he paying no +attention. + +At supper call he moved, but not to go below and eat--only to shift to +walking the quarter, and walking the quarter he stayed until near +midnight. He went below then after giving a few words of instruction +to the watch--went below and got out his pipe. From my bunk, the +middle port bunk in the cabin, I watched him rummaging for tobacco in +his stateroom and then his coming out with his pipe and his filling +and lighting it slowly and thoughtfully, and then his sitting and +smoking under the cabin lamp. + +Looking over when he had finished that pipeful--I had not drawn my +curtain--he caught my eyes on him. He smiled, but said nothing--only +lit another pipeful, and kept on smoking. + +I fell asleep watching him--fell asleep and woke again. He must have +been watching me, for his eyes were on mine when I looked for him +again. He smiled and shook his pipe out, and made as though to turn +in. + +But he didn't turn in. He took off his jersey, loosened the collar of +his flannel shirt, cast off his slip-shods--stopped--looked into his +bunk, came back, filled and lit another pipeful and began to talk to +me. I thought I was sleepy, but in five minutes I didn't think so. +Joking, laughing, telling stories--in ten minutes he had me roaring. +Before long he had everybody in the cabin awake and roaring, too. Men, +coming off watch and into the cabin to warm up, or for one thing or +another, listened and stayed. He kept that up all the rest of the +night--until after six o'clock in the morning, and only the cook +called to breakfast there's no telling when he would have stopped. And +not until he was going for'ard to eat did I get a glimpse of what it +was he had been thinking of during all those earlier hours of the +night. The sun, I remember, was streaking the sky ahead of us--he +stopped just as he was about to drop into the forec's'le and pointed +it out. + +"A sunrise, Joe, on a fine October morning out to +sea--beautiful--beautiful--but just one thing wrong about it. And what +is it?--you don't see? Well, Joe, it's over the bow. A sunrise, Joe, +is most beautiful when it's over the stern--and why? 'Cause then +you're going home--of course. Going home, Joe--if you've got a home to +go to. Look to it, Joe, that you've got a home of your own to go to +before you're much older. Somebody to work for--somebody waiting for +you--a wife, Joe--wife and children--or you're in for some awful +lonesome times." + +That was Clancy--watch-mate, bunk-mate, dory-mate once, and now my +skipper--Clancy, who could be any man's friend, the man that everybody +jumped to shake hands with, and yet never a bit of use to himself. And +I couldn't but half wonder at that, and kept my eyes on him when, with +one foot on the top step of the companionway, he turned and looked +around again. + +"And if you can't get anybody, skipper?" + +"Then it's hard--though most likely you've deserved it." + +"But you haven't deserved it?" + +"Deserved it? Yes, and ten times over." + +"That's pretty rough." + +"Rough? No, it's right. When you do wrong you've got to make up for +it. It's all in the big scheme of the universe. You've got to strike a +balance some time--somewhere. And the sooner the better. Be thankful +if you have to settle it right away, Joe. If you don't and it drags +along--then it's worse again, and the Lord help those that come after +you--those that have to take up life where you've left it off. The +Lord have mercy on the heirs of your brain and heart and soul, boy. +What you hand them they've got to take. Yes, sir, you'll pay for it +somewhere--you yourself, or, what's worse, those you care for will +have to pay--in this world or another--whatever it is we're coming to, +a better or a worse world, it's there and waiting us. Be thankful, as +I said, Joe, if you have to settle for it here--settle for it yourself +alone." + +All around, above and below, ahead and astern, he looked, a long, long +look astern--his foot on the step, and singing softly, almost to +himself: + + "And if I come to you, my love, + And my heart free from guile, + Will you have a glance for me-- + Will you on me smile? + +Oh, Lord! pipe-dreams--pipe-dreams. Let's go below, Joe, and have a +bite to eat." + +So below we went; and her sails lit up by the morning sun, her decks +wet by the slapping sea, sheets off and sailing free, the Johnnie +Duncan clipped her way to the east'ard. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30138 *** |