Datasets:

NicholasSynovic
/

Modified-VEAA

Dataset card Data Studio Files Files and versions Community

Split (2)

train · 42.9k rows

text stringlengths 1.96k 5.76k	author int64 1 50
pieces you will find it so when you look know this so long jack that he tom and the two went out together a means pulling it in on one side of the picking off the fish the hooks and passing them back to the sea again something like and linen on a wash line it is a business and rather dangerous for the long line may a boat under in a flash but when they heard and to thee o out of the fog the crew of the we re here took heart the alongside well loaded tom yelling for to act as relief boat the luck s cut square in two pieces said long jack in the fish while stood open mouthed at the skill with which the plunging was saved from destruction one half was jest tom wanted to haul her an ha done ut but i captains courageous said back the doctor that has the second sight an the other half come up full o big hurry man an bring s a tub o bait there s luck afloat to night the fish bit at the newly hooks from which their brethren had just been taken and tom and long jack moved up and down the length of the the boat s nose under the wet line of hooks the sea that they called off the fresh caught against the and s till dusk i take no risks said then not with him around so near won t sink fer a week heave in the an we dress after supper that was a mighty dressing down attended by three or four blowing it lasted till nine o clock and was thrice heard to chuckle as pitched the split fish into the hold say you re ahead fast said dan when they ground the knives after the men had turned in there s of a sea to night an i t heard you make no remarks on it captains courageous too busy replied a blade s edge come to think of it she is a high the little was all around her anchor among the silver tipped waves with a start of affected surprise at the sight of the strained cable she on it like a while the spray of her descent burst through the holes with the report of a gun shaking her head she would say well i m sorry i can t stay any longer with you i m going north and would off halting suddenly with a dramatic rattle of her as i was just going to observe she would begin as gravely as a drunken man addressing a lamp post the rest of the sentence she acted her words in dumb show of course was lost in a fit of the when she behaved like a a string a clumsy woman in a side saddle a hen with her head cut off or a cow stung by a exactly as the of the sea took her see her her piece she s henry said dan she swung sideways on a and with her boom from port to captains courageous but fer me give me liberty er give me death she sat down in the moon path on the water with a flourish of pride impressive enough had not the wheel gear in its box laughed aloud why it s just as if she was alive he said she s as as a an as dry as a said dan as he was across the deck in a of spray em off an em off an don t ye come me she look at her jest look at her you should see one o them up her anchor on her outer fifteen water what s a dan them new an boats fine s a forward with to em an an a that u d take our hold i ve heard that himself he made the models fer three or four of em s em on account o their an but there s heaps o money in em can find fish but he ain t no ways he don t go with the march o the times they re full o captains courageous labor an all ever seed the o she s a ef she is a what do they cost dan hills o dollars fifteen thousand p more there s gold leaf an everything you kin think of then to himself half under his breath guess i d call her h s y too chapter v that was the first of many talks with dan who told why he would transfer his s name to the imaginary heard a good deal about the real at saw a lock of her hair which dan finding fair words of no avail had as she sat in front of him at school that winter and a photograph was about fourteen years old with an awful contempt for boys and had been on dan s heart through the winter all this was revealed under oath of solemn secrecy on decks in the dead dark or in choking fog the wheel behind them the climbing deck before and without the sea once of course as the boys came to know each other there was a fight which raged from bow to stern till came up and separated them but promised captains courageous not to tell who thought fighting on watch rather worse than sleeping was no match for dan physically but it says a great deal for his new training that he took his defeat and did not try to get even with his conqueror by methods that was after he had been cured of a string of between his elbows and wrists where the wet and cut into the flesh the salt water stung them but when they were ripe dan treated them with s and	39
assured that now he was a blooded banker the affliction of being the mark of the caste that claimed him since he was a boy and very busy he did not bother his head with too much thinking he was exceedingly sorry for his mother and often longed to see her and above all to tell her of this wonderful new life and how brilliantly he was himself in it otherwise he preferred not to wonder too much how she was bearing the shock of his supposed death but one day as he stood on the ladder the cook who had accused him and dan of it occurred to him that this was a vast improve captains courageous ment on being by strangers in the smoking room of a hired he was a recognized part of the scheme of things on the we re here had his place at the table and among the and could hold his own in the long talks on stormy days when the others were always ready to listen to what they called his fairy tales of his life ashore it did not take him more than two days and a quarter to feel that if he spoke of his own life it seemed very far away no one except dan and even dan s belief was sorely tried him so he invented a friend a boy he had heard of who drove a miniature four pony drag in and ordered five suits of clothes at a time and led things called at parties where the oldest girl was not quite fifteen but all the presents were solid silver protested that this kind of was desperately wicked if not indeed positively but he listened as as the others and their at the end gave entirely new notions on clothes with gold leaf tips rings watches scent small dinner parties champagne card playing and hotel i captains courageous little by little he changed his tone when speaking of his friend whom long jack had the crazy kid the gilt edged baby the and other pet names and with his sea feet cocked up on the table would even invent histories about silk and specially imported to the friend s was a very person with a keen eye and ear for every face and tone about him before long he knew where kept the old green that they called the yoke under the bed bag in his when he took the sun and with the help of the old farmer s found the latitude would jump down into the cabin and scratch the reckoning and date with a nail on the of the stove pipe now the chief engineer of the could have done no more and no engineer of thirty years service could have assumed one half of the ancient air with which first careful to spit over the side made public the s position for that day and then and not till then relieved of the there is an etiquette in all these things captains courageous the said yoke an the farming blunt s coast pilot and s were all the weapons needed to guide him except the lead that was his spare eye nearly with it when tom taught him first how to fly the blue pigeon and though his strength was not equal to continuous sounding in any sort of a sea for calm weather with a seven pound lead on water used him freely as dan said t ain t s wants it s her up good would the cup at the end and carefully bring the sand shell or whatever it might be to who and smelt it and gave judgment as has been said when thought of he thought as a and by some long tested mixture of instinct and experience moved we re here from berth to berth always with the fish as a player moves on the unseen board but s board was the grand bank a two hundred and fifty miles on each side a waste of sea with fog vexed with with captains courageous drifting ice by the tracks of the reckless and dotted with the sails of the fishing fleet for days they worked in fog at the bell till grown familiar with the thick airs he went out with tom his heart rather in his mouth but the fog would not lift and the fish were biting and no one can stay helplessly afraid for six hours at a time devoted himself to his lines and the or stick as tom called for them and they rowed back to the guided by the bell and tom s instinct s sounding thin and faint beside them but it was an experience and for the first time in a month dreamed of the shifting smoking floors of water round the the lines that strayed away into nothing and the air above that melted on the sea below ten feet from his straining eyes a few days later he was out with on what should have been forty bottom but the whole length of the ran out and still the anchor found nothing and grew afraid for that his last touch with earth was lost whale hole said in that is good joke whiteness moved in the whiteness of it was his introduction to th summer or the bank captains courageous on come and he rowed to the to find tom and the others at the because for once he had led them to the edge of the barren the blank hole of the grand bank they made another berth through the fog and that time the hair of s head stood up when he went out in s a whiteness moved in the whiteness of the fog with a breath like the breath of the grave and there was a roaring a plunging and it was his first	39
introduction to the dread summer of the banks and he in the bottom of the boat while laughed there were days though clear and soft and warm when it seemed a sin to do anything but loaf over the hand lines and the drifting sun with an oar and there were days of light airs when was taught how to steer the from one berth to another it thrilled through him when he first felt the answer to his hand on the and slide over the long hollows as the back and forth against the blue sky that was magnificent in spite of saying that it would break a snake s back to captains courageous follow his wake but as usual pride ran before a fall they were sailing on the wind with the an old one luckily set and her right into it to show dan how completely he had mastered the art the went over with a bang and the and through the which was of course prevented from going over by the they lowered the wreck in awful silence and spent his leisure hours for the next few days under tom s lee learning to use a needle and palm dan with joy for as he said he had made the very same blunder himself in his early days all the men by turns till he had combined s peculiar stoop at the wheel long jack s swinging when the lines were hauled s round shouldered but effective stroke in a and tom s generous stride along the deck t is beautiful to see how he takes to ut said long jack when was looking out by the one thick noon i lay my an share t is more n half play to him an he himself he s a captains courageous watch his little bit a back now that s the way we all begin said tom the boys they make believe all the time till they ve cheated into bein men an so till they die an done it on the old i know stood my first watch harbor watch finer n dan s o the same kind o notions see em now to be moss backs every hair a an blood tar he spoke down the cabin stairs guess you re in your judgments fer once what in rome made ye tell us all here the kid was crazy he replied crazy a when he come aboard but i say he s up ble i cured him h e good said tom t other night he told us a kid of his own size a little an four up an down i think t was an to a crowd o sim lar cur us kind o fairy tale but blame he knows scores of em guess he strikes em his own head captains courageous called from the cabin where he was busy with the log book stands to reason that sort is all made up it don t take in no one but dan an he laughs at it i ve heard him behind my back y ever hear what sim on peter ca said when they up a match his sister an an the boys put up that joke on him to uncle who was dripping under the lee of the nest tom puffed at his pipe in scornful silence he was a cape man and had not known that tale more than twenty years uncle went on with a chuckle sim on peter ca he said an he was jest right ha af on the he said an t other ha af blame fool an they told me she s married a man sim on peter ca he n t no roof to his mouth an talked that way he did n t talk any dutch tom replied you d better leave a cape man to tell that tale the ca was way back i don t profess to be any captains courageous ist said i m to the moral o things that s jest what be ha af on the an t other ha af blame fool an there s some believe he s a rich man did ye ever think how sweet t would be to sail a full crew o said long jack ha af in the an other ha af in the heap as ca did not say an makes out he s a a little laugh went round at s expense held his tongue and wrought over the log book that he kept in a faced square hand this was the kind of thing that ran on page after soiled page july this day thick fog and few fish made berth to northward so ends this day july this day comes in with thick fog caught a few fish july this day comes in with light breeze from n e and fine weather made a berth to eastward caught plenty fish july this the sabbath comes in with fog and light winds so ends this day total fish caught this week xx i captains courageous they never worked on sundays but shaved and washed themselves if it were fine and sang hymns once or twice he suggested that if it was not an impertinence he thought he could preach a little uncle nearly jumped down his throat at the mere notion reminding him that he was not a preacher and must n t think of such things we d him next explained an what would happen then so they on his reading aloud from a book called it was an old volume smelling of a hundred voyages very solid and very like the bible but with accounts of battles and and they read it nearly from cover to cover otherwise was a silent little body he would not utter a word for three days on end sometimes though he played	39
listened to the songs and laughed at the stories when they tried to stir him up he would answer i don t wish to seem but it is because i have nothing to say my head feels quite empty i ve almost forgotten my name he would turn to uncle with an expectant smile i i i ii captains courageous why would shout you me next no never would say shutting his lips firmly of course he would repeat over and over sometimes it was uncle who forgot and told him he was or rich or but was equally content till next time he was always very tender with whom he pitied both as a lost child and as a lunatic and when saw that liked the boy he relaxed too was not an amiable person he esteemed it his business to keep the boys in order and the first time in fear and trembling on a still day managed to up to the main dan was behind him ready to help he esteemed it his duty to hang s big sea boots up there a sight of shame and derision to the nearest with took no liberties not even when the old man dropped direct orders and treated him like the rest of the crew to don t you want to do so and so and guess you d better and so forth there was something about the clean shaven lips and the corners captains courageous of the eyes that was to young blood showed him the meaning of the and pricked which he said laid over any government publication whatsoever led him pencil in hand from berth to berth over the whole string of banks le have western st green and grand talking meantime taught him too the principle on which the was worked in this dan for he had inherited a head for figures and the notion of stealing information from one glimpse of the sullen bank sun appealed to all his keen wits for other sea matters his age him as said he should have begun when he was ten dan could bait up or lay his hand on any rope in the dark and at a pinch when uncle had a sore on his palm could dress down by sense of touch he could steer in anything short of half a gale from the feel of the wind on his face the we re here just when she needed it these things he did as as he about the or made his a part of his own will and body captains courageous but he could not communicate his knowledge to still there was a good deal of general information flying about the on stormy days when they lay up in the or sat on the cabin while spare eye leads and rings rolled and rattled in the pauses of the talk spoke of voyages in the of great she slain beside their young of death agonies on the black tossing seas and blood that forty feet in the air of boats smashed to of patent that went off wrong end first and the trembling of cutting in and boiling down and that terrible of when twelve hundred men were made on the ice in three days wonderful tales all true but more wonderful still were his stories of the and how they argued and reasoned on their private deep down below the long jack s tastes ran more to the supernatural he held them silent with ghastly stories of the yo on beach that mock and lonely of sand and who were never properly buried of hidden treasure on captains courageous fire island guarded by the spirits of s men of ships that sailed in the fog straight over of that harbor in where no one but a stranger will lie at anchor twice in a certain place because of a dead crew who row alongside at midnight with the anchor in the bow of their old fashioned boat whistling not calling but whistling for the soul of the man who broke their rest had a notion that the east coast of his native land from mount desert south was chiefly by people who took their horses there in the summer and entertained in country houses with floors and he laughed at the ghost tales not as much as he would have done a month before but ended by sitting still and shuddering tom dealt with his interminable trip round the horn on the old in the days with a navy more extinct than the the navy that passed away in the great war he told them how red hot shot are dropped into a cannon a of wet clay between them and the how they and when they strike wood and how the little captains courageous ship boys of the miss jim buck water over them and shouted to the fort to try again and he told tales of long weeks of swaying at anchor varied only by the departure and return of that had used up their coal there was no change for the sailing ships of and cold cold that kept two hundred men night and day and at the ice on cable blocks and when the was as red hot as the shot and men drank by the bucket tom had no use for steam his service closed when that thing was comparatively new he admitted that it was a invention in time of peace but looked for the day when sails should come back again on ten thousand ton with hundred foot s talk was slow and gentle all about pretty girls in washing clothes in the dry beds of streams by moonlight under waving legends of saints and tales of queer dances or fights away in the cold ports was mainly agricultural for though he	39
read and it his mis captains courageous sion in life was to prove the value of green and specially of against every form of whatsoever he grew about he dragged greasy orange books from his and them his finger at to whom it was all greek little was so pained when made fun of s lectures that the boy gave it up and suffered in polite silence that was very good for the cook naturally did not join in these conversations as a rule he spoke only when it was absolutely necessary but at times a queer gift of speech descended on him and he held forth half in half in broken english an hour at a time he was specially with the boys and he never withdrew his prophecy that one day would he dan s master and that he would see it he told them of in the winter up cape way of the dog train that goes to and of the ram steamer that breaks the ice between the and prince edward island then he told them stories that his mother had told him of life far to the south captains courageous ward where water never and he said that when he died his soul would go to lie down on a warm white beach of sand with palm trees waving above that seemed to the boys a very odd idea for a man who had never seen a palm in his life then too regularly at each meal he would ask and alone whether the cooking was to his taste and this always made the second half laugh yet they had a great respect for the cook s judgment and in their hearts considered something of a by consequence and while was taking in knowledge of new things at each pore and hard health with every of the good air the we re here went her ways and did her business on the bank and the silvery gray of well pressed fish mounted higher and higher in the hold no one day s work was out of the common but the average days were many and close together naturally a man of s reputation was closely watched upon dan called it by his neighbors but he had a very pretty of giving them the slip through the fog banks i o captains courageous avoided company for two reasons he wished to make his own experiments in the first place and in the second he objected to the mixed of a fleet of all nations the bulk of them were mainly boats with a scattering from and some of the ports but the drew from goodness knows where risk and when is added there are fine chances for every kind of accident in the crowded fleet which like a mob of sheep is huddled round some leader let the two lead em said we re to lay among em fer a spell on the eastern though ef luck holds we won t to lay long where we are ain t considered good ain t it said who was drawing water he had learned just how to the bucket after an unusually long should n t mind striking some poor ground for a change then all the i want to see don t want to strike her is eastern point said dan say it looks s if we would n t to lay more n two weeks on the captains courageous i i you ii meet all the ny you want then that s the time we begin to work no lar meals fer no one then up when ye re hungry an sleep when ye can t keep awake good job you was n t picked up a month later than you was or we d never ha had you dressed in shape fer the old virgin understood from the that the old virgin and a nest of curiously named were the turning point of the and that with good luck they would wet the balance of their salt there but seeing the size of the virgin it was one tiny dot he wondered how even with the yoke and the lead could find her he learned later that was entirely equal to that and any other business and could even help others a big four by five hung in the cabin and never understood the need of it till after some blinding thick days they heard the of a foot power fog horn a machine whose note is as that of a elephant they were making a short berth the anchor under their foot to save trouble square fer his latitude said i captains courageous long jack the dripping red of a bark glided out of the fog and the we re here rang her bell thrice using sea the larger boat backed her with shrieks and frenchman said uncle scornfully boat from st the farmer had a sea eye i m most outer too same here said tom hi you butt ended where you from st eh ah ha out out st st et cried the other crowd waving caps and laughing then all together bring up the board beats me how them fetch america s forty six forty nine s good enough fer them an i guess it s right too dan the figures on the board and they hung it in the main to a chorus of from the bark s s captains courageous seems kinder to let em s off like this suggested feeling in his pockets ye learned french then last trip said don t want no more stone at us long o your boats same s you did off le have rush he said that was the way to rise em plain united states is good enough fer me we re all short on young don t you speak french oh yes	39
said and he hi say pour ah they cried and laughed again that hit em let s heave a over anyway said tom i don t exactly hold no on french but i know another that goes i guess come on an interpret the and confusion when he and were hauled up the bark s black side was indescribable her cabin was all stuck round with glaring colored prints of the virgin i captains courageous the virgin of they called her found his french of no recognized bank brand and his conversation was limited to and but tom waved his arms and got along the captain gave him a drink of unspeakable gin and the opera crew with their hairy throats red caps and long knives greeted him as a brother then the trade began they had tobacco plenty of it american that had never paid duty to france they wanted and rowed back to arrange with the cook and who owned the stores and on his return the and bags were counted out by the frenchman s wheel it looked like a division of but tom came out of it with black and stuffed with cakes of and smoking tobacco then those jovial swung off into the mist and the last heard was a gay chorus par ma ii y a un et le y et le et la captains courageous qui je et saint how was it my french did n t go and your sign talk did demanded when the had been distributed among the we re sign talk well yes t was sign talk but a heap older n your french them french boats are full o p an that s why are you a then looks that way don t it said the war s man his pipe and had another mystery of the deep sea to brood upon chapter vi the thing that struck him most was the exceedingly casual way in which some craft about the broad atlantic fishing boats as dan said were naturally dependent on the courtesy and wisdom of their neighbors but one expected better things of that was after another interesting interview when they had been chased for three miles by a big old all over on the upper deck that smelt like a thousand cattle pens a very excited officer at them through a speaking trumpet and she lay and helplessly on the water while ran the we we here under her lee and gave the a piece of his mind where might ye be eh ye don t deserve to be you barn yard go the road on the high seas with no blame consideration far your neighbors an your eyes in your coffee cups o in your silly heads i captains courageous at this the danced on the bridge and said something about s own eyes we have n t had an observation for three days d you suppose we can run her blind he shouted wa al can retorted what s come to your lead et it can t ye smell bottom or are them cattle too rank what d ye feed em said uncle with intense seriousness for the smell of the pens woke all the farmer in him they say they fall off on a v as it s any o my business but i ve a kind o notion that oil cake broke small an sprinkled thunder said a cattle man in a red as he looked over the side what asylum did they let his whiskers out of young began standing up in the fore let me tell fore we go any further that i ve the officer on the bridge took off his cap with immense politeness excuse me he said but i ve asked for my reckoning if the agricultural person with the hair will kindly shut his head the sea green with the wall eye may per condescend to us i captains courageous you ve made a show o me said angrily he could not stand up to that particular sort of talk and snapped out the latitude and without more lectures well that s a boat load of sure said the as he rang up the and tossed a bundle of newspapers into the oi all the blamed fools next to you him an his crowd are the i ve ever seen said as the we we here slid away i was jest him my on round these waters like a lost child an you must cut in with your fool can t ye never keep things rate dan and the others stood back one to the other and full of joy but and seriously till evening arguing that a cattle boat was practically a barn on blue water and that even if this were the case decency and pride demanded that he should have kept things rate long jack stood it in silence for a time an angry makes an unhappy crew and then he spoke across the table after supper captains courageous s the good o they say said he they tell that tale us fer years that s all said oil cake sprinkled with salt o course said reading the farming reports from a week old new york paper it s to all my feelings the went on can t see ut that way said long jack the look at here is there another packet afloat this day in this weather ha met a tramp an over an above her her over an above that i say ha her quite intelligent on the management an such at sea ut they will not t was the most conversation that double game an twice all to us dan kicked under the table and choked in his cup well said who felt that his honor had been somewhat i said i did n t know as	39
t any business o mine fore i spoke captains courageous an right there said tom experienced in discipline and etiquette right there i take it you should ha asked him to stop ef the conversation likely in your to be what it should n t but that s so said who saw his way to an honorable retreat from a fit of the why o course it was so said you bein here an i d cheerful stopped on a hint not from any or conviction but fer the sake o an example to these two blame boys of did n t i tell you t would come to us fore we d done always those blame boys but i would n t have missed the show fer a half share in a dan whispered still things should ha been rate said and the light of new argument lit in s eye as he cut into his pipe there s a power in things rate said long jack intent on the storm that s captains courageous of and hare s fund when he sent fer on the d o cap that was took with try an could n t go the we called him nick he never went aboard fer a night a pond o rum in the manifest said tom playing up to the lead he used to bum the c mission houses to boston fer the lord to make him captain of a tow boat on his merits sam up to atlantic give him his board free fer a year or more on account of his stories the dead these fifteen year ain t he seventeen i guess he died the year the was built but he could keep things separate him fer the reason the thief the hot stove there was else that season the men was all to the banks and he up an hard crowd fer crew rum ye ha floated the an all in they aboard her they boston harbor for the great grand bank a nor behind captains courageous em an all hands full to the an the looked after for a watch did they set an a rope did they lay hand to till they d seen the bottom a fifteen o that was about wan week so far as remembered if i only tell the tale as he told ut all that the wind blew like ould glory an the twas summer and they d give her a struck her gait and kept ut then the yoke an over it for a an made out that an the an the in his head that they was to the south ard o island along glorious but then they another an quit about fer another spell the she lay down she dropped boston light and she never her lee rail up to that time on one an the same but they saw no weed nor nor an they they d bin out a matter o fourteen days and they the bank had payment so they sounded an got sixty that s me that s me iv ry time i ve captains courageous run her on the bank fer you an when we get thirty we turn in like little men is the b y he the cast they got ninety either the lead line s to or else the bank s sunk they hauled ut up bein just about in that state when ut seemed right an reasonable and sat down on the deck the knots an her up the she d struck her gait an she ut an along come a tramp an spoke her ye seen any boats now he quite casual there s s them oflf the irish coast the tramp go shake have i to do the irish coast then are ye here the tramp christianity he always said that his sucked an he was not good christianity he where am i at thirty five mile west sou west o cape captains courageous clear the tramp if that s any consolation to you fetched wan jump four feet inches measured by the cook consolation he as brass d ye take me fer a dialect thirty five mile from cape clear an fourteen days from boston light christianity t is a record an by the same token i ve a mother to think ut the um but ye see he could keep things separate the crew was mostly cork an men one that wanted to go back but they called him a an they ran the ould into an they had an time around with on the ould sod fer a week thin they back an it cost em two an thirty days to beat to the banks again t was on towards fall and was low so ran her back to boston no more bones to ut and what did the firm say demanded could they the fish was on the banks an was at t wharf captains courageous his record trip east they their satisfaction out that an ut all came not the crew and the rum separate in the first place an in the second the rest his he was an citizen once i was in the said in his gentle voice they not want any of her in eh at give us no price so we go across the water and think to sell to some man then it blow fresh and we cannot see well eh at then it blow some more fresh and we go down below and drive very fast no one know where by and by we see a land and it get some hot then come two three in a brick eh at we ask where we are and they say now what you all think grand said after a moment shook his head smiling said tom no worse than that	39
we was below and the brick she was from so we sell our there not bad so eh at captains courageous can a like this go right across to africa said go the horn ef there s any thin worth goin fer and the holds said my father he run his packet an she was a kind o fifty ton i guess ci he s icy mountains the year ha af our fleet was after there an what s more he took my mother along with him to show her the money was earned i an they was all up an i was born at don t remember it o course we come back when the ice in the spring but they named me fer the place kinder mean trick to put up on a baby but we re all to make mistakes in lives sure sure said his head all to make mistakes an i tell you two boys here after you ve made a mistake ye don t make fewer n a hundred a day the next best thing s to own up to it like men long jack winked one tremendous wink that embraced all hands except and and the incident was closed captains courageous then they made berth after berth to the northward the out every day running along the east edge of the grand bank in thirty to forty water and fishing steadily it was here first met the who is one of the best but uncertain in his moods they were out of their one black night by of o from and for an hour and a half every soul aboard hung over his a piece of lead painted red and armed at the lower end with a circle of pins bent backward like half opened umbrella ribs the for some unknown reason likes and himself round this thing and is hauled up ere he can escape from the pins but as he leaves his home he first water and next ink into his s face and it was curious to see the men weaving their heads from side to side to the shot they were as black as sweeps when the ended but a pile of fresh lay on the deck and the large thinks very well of a little shiny piece of at the tip of a hook next day they caught many fish and met the to whom they shouted their l o captains courageous luck and she wanted to trade seven for one fair sized but would not agree at the price and the dropped sullenly to and half a mile away in the hope of striking on to some for herself said nothing till after supper when he sent dan and out to the we re here s cable and announced his intention of turning in with the broad axe dan naturally repeated these remarks to a from the who wanted to know why they were their cable since they were not on rocky bottom he would n t trust a within five mile o you dan howled cheerfully why don t he out then who s said the other cause you ve jest the same lee bowed him an he don t take that from any boat not to speak o a butt as you be she ain t any this trip said the man angrily for the had an reputation for breaking her captains courageous i i then d you make said dan it s her best p int o an ef she s quit what in thunder are you with a new boom that shot went home hey you organ take your monkey back to go back to school dan troop was the answer o ver o ver dan who knew that one of the s crew had worked in an factory the winter before you to call a man a is not well received dan answered in kind yourself ye ye with your brick in your and the forces separated but had the worst of it i knew t would be said she s the wind already some one put a i on packet she till midnight an jest when we re our sleep she strike adrift good job we ain t crowded with craft but i ain t goin to up anchor fer she may hold i captains courageous the wind which had hauled round rose at and blew steadily there was not enough sea though to disturb even a s tackle but the was a law unto herself at the end of the boys watch they heard the crack crack crack of a huge revolver aboard her glory glory sung dan here she comes butt end first in her sleep same s she done on had she been any other boat would have taken his chances but now he cut the cable as the with all the north atlantic to play in down directly upon them the we we here under and riding sail gave her no more room than was absolutely necessary did not wish to spend a week hunting for his cable but up into the wind as the passed within easy hail a silent and angry boat at the mercy of a of bank good said raising his head gear an does your garden grow go to an hire a mule said uncle we don t want no farmers here captains courageous will i lend you my anchor cried long jack your an stick it in the mud said tom say dan s voice rose shrill and high as he stood on the wheel box sa ay is there a strike in the o ver all factory or they hired girls ye out the lines cried and nail em to the bottom that was a salt jest he had been put up to by tom leaned over	39
long jack if had stayed jacob captains courageous did ye see his face when asked who he d been charged on all these years how is ut asleep dead asleep turned in like a child replied aft there won t be no till he wakes natural did ye ever see a gift in prayer he young outer the ocean s my belief was ble of his boy an i all along t was a on vain there s others jest as said that s retorted quickly s not all an i ain t only but my duty by him they waited those hungry men three hours till reappeared with a smooth face and a blank mind he said he believed that he had been dreaming then he wanted to know why they were so silent and they could not tell him worked all hands for the next three or four days and when they could not go out turned them into the hold to the ship s stores into smaller compass to make more room for the fish the packed mass ran from the cabin to the sliding captains courageous door behind the stove and showed how there is great art in cargo so as to bring a to her best the crew were thus kept lively till they recovered their spirits and was with a end by long jack for being as the man said sorrowful as a sick cat over could n t be helped he did a great deal of thinking in those dreary days and told dan what he thought and dan agreed with him even to the extent of asking for instead of them but a week later the two nearly upset the s in a wild attempt to a with an old tied to a stick the grim brute rubbed alongside the begging for small fish and between the three of them it was a mercy they all got off alive at last after playing s in the fog there came a morning when shouted down the hurry boys we re in chapter viii to the end of his days will never forget that sight the sun was just clear of the horizon they had not seen for nearly a week and his low red light struck into the riding sails of three of one to the north one to the westward and one to the south there must have been nearly a hundred of them of every possible make and build with far away a frenchman all bowing and one to the other from every boat were dropping away like bees from a crowded hive and the of voices the rattling of ropes and blocks and the splash of the oars carried for miles across the heaving water the sails turned all colors black and white as the sun mounted and more boats swung up through the mists to the southward the gathered in clusters separated captains courageous and broke again all heading one way while men hailed and whistled and and sang and the water was with rubbish thrown overboard it s a town said was right it ts town i ve seen smaller said there s about a thousand men here an yonder s the virgin he pointed to a vacant space of sea where there were no the ive re here skirted round the northern waving his hand to friend after friend and as neatly as a racing at the end of the season the bank fleet pass good in silence but a is all along the line jest in time fer the cried the mary salt most wet asked the king philip hey tom come t supper tonight said the henry clay and so questions and answers flew back and forth men had met one another before fishing in the fog and there is no place for gossip like the bank fleet they all seemed to know about s rescue and asked if he were worth his salt yet the young with dan captains courageous who had a lively tongue of his own and inquired after their health by the town they least liked countrymen at him in their own language and even the silent cook was seen riding the boom and shouting to a friend as black as himself after they had the cable all around the virgin is rocky bottom and carelessness means ground tackle and danger from drifting after they had the cable their went forth to join the mob of boats about a mile away the rocked and dipped at a safe distance like mother ducks watching their brood while the behaved like as they drove into the confusion boat boat s ears at the comments on his every dialect from to long island with french and with songs and and new oaths rattled round him and he seemed to be the butt of it all for the first time in his life he felt shy perhaps that came from living so long with only the we re among the scores of wild faces captains courageous that rose and fell with the small craft a gentle breathing swell three from to barrel would quietly shoulder up a string of painted they hung for an instant a wonderful against the sky line and their men pointed and hailed next moment the open mouths waving arms and bare disappeared while on another swell came up an entirely new line of characters like paper figures in a toy theatre so stared watch out said dan flourishing a when i tell you dip you dip the school any time from on where we lay tom pushing and greeting old friends here and warning old enemies there tom led his little fleet well to of the general crowd and immediately three or four men began to haul on their with intent to lee bow the we we but a yell of laughter went	39
up as a shot from her station with exceeding speed its pulling madly on the give her slack roared twenty voices let him shake it out captains courageous what s the matter said as the boat flashed away to the southward he s is n t he sure enough but his s kinder said dan laughing whale s it dip here they come the sea round them clouded and darkened and then up in showers of tiny silver fish and over a space of five or six acres the began to leap like in may while behind the three or four broad gray black backs broke the water into then everybody shouted and tried to haul up his anchor to get among the school and his neighbor s line and said what was in his heart and dipped furiously with his dip net and shrieked and advice to his companions while the deep like opened water and men and together flung in upon the bait was nearly knocked overboard by the handle of dan s net but in all the wild tumult he noticed and never forgot the wicked set little eye something like a elephant s eye of a whale that drove captains courageous along almost level with the water and so he said winked at him three boats found their by these reckless mid sea hunters and were half a mile ere their horses shook the line free then the moved off and five minutes later there was no sound except the splash of the the flapping of the and the of the as the men stunned them it was wonderful fishing could see the glimmering below swimming slowly in biting as steadily as they swam bank law strictly more than one hook on one line when the are on the virgin or the eastern but so close lay the boats that even single hooks and found himself in hot argument with a gentle hairy on one side and a howling on the other worse than any of fishing lines was the confusion of the below water each man had where it seemed good to him drifting and round his fixed point as the fish struck on less quickly each man wanted to haul up and get to better ground but every third man found himself that even captains courageous intimately connected with some four or five neighbors to cut another s is crime unspeakable on the banks yet it was done and done without detection three or four times that day tom caught a man in the black act and knocked him over the with an oar and served a fellow in the same way but s anchor line was cut and so was s and they were turned into relief boats to carry fish to the we we here as the filled the once more at twilight when the mad was repeated and at dusk they rowed back to dress down by the light of lamps on the edge of the pen it was a huge pile and they went to sleep while they were dressing next day several boats right above the cap of the virgin and with them looked down on the very weed of that lonely rock which rises to within twenty feet of the surface the were there in marching solemnly over the when they bit they bit all together and so when they stopped there was a slack time at noon and the began to search for amusement it was o captains courageous dan who sighted the hope of just coming up and as her boats joined the company they were greeted with the question who s the meanest man in the fleet three hundred voices answered cheerily nick it sounded like an organ chant who stole the lamp that was dan s contribution nick sang the boats who the salt bait fer soup this was an unknown a quarter of a mile away again the joyful chorus now was not especially mean but he had that reputation and the fleet made the most of it then they discovered a man from a boat who six years before had been convicted of using a tackle with five or six hooks a they call it on the naturally he had been jim and though he had hidden himself on the ever since he found his honors waiting for him full blown they took it up in a sort of fire chorus jim o jim jim o jim captains courageous jim that pleased everybody and when a poetical man he had been making it up all day and talked about it for weeks sang the s anchor does n t hold her for a cent the felt that they were indeed fortunate then they had to ask that man how he was off for beans because even poets must not have things all their own way every and nearly every man got it in turn was there a careless or dirty cook anywhere the sang about him and his food was a badly found the fleet was told at full length had a man tobacco from a he was named in meeting the name tossed from to s judgments long jack s market boat that he had sold years ago dan s sweetheart oh but dan was an angry boy s bad luck with s views on s little slips from virtue ashore and s handling of the oar all were laid before the public and as the fog fell around them in silvery sheets beneath the sun the voices sounded like a bench of invisible judges sentence o captains courageous the and and till a swell the sea then they drew more apart to save their sides and some one called that if the swell continued the virgin would break a reckless man with his nephew denied this hauled up anchor and rowed over	39
the very rock itself many voices called them to come away while others dared them to hold on as the smooth backed passed to the southward they the high and high into the mist and dropped her in ugly water where she spun round her anchor within a foot or two of the hidden rock it was playing with death for mere and the boats looked on in uneasy silence till long jack rowed up behind his countrymen and quietly cut their can t ye hear ut he cried pull for your miserable lives pull the men swore and tried to argue as the boat drifted but the next swell checked a little like a man on a carpet there was a deep sob and a gathering roar and the virgin flung up a couple of acres of foaming water white furious and ghastly over the sea then all the boats greatly ap captains courageous long jack and the way men held their tongue ain t it elegant said dan like a young seal at home she break about once every ha af hour now less the swell piles up good what s her time when she s at work tom once fifteen minutes to the you ve seen the greatest thing on the banks an but for long jack you d seen some dead men too there came a sound of merriment where the fog lay thicker and the were ringing their bells a big bark cautiously out of the mist and was received with shouts and cries of come along from the another frenchman said t you eyes she s a boat goin in fear an said dan we the very sticks out of her guess it s the time her ever met up with the fleet this way she was a black eight craft her was up and her in what little wind was moving now a bark is feminine io captains courageous beyond all other daughters of the sea and this tall hesitating creature with her white and gilt looked just like a bewildered woman half lifting her skirts to cross a muddy street under the of bad little boys that was very much her situation she knew she was somewhere in the neighborhood of the virgin had caught the roar of it and was therefore asking her way this is a small part of what she heard from the dancing the virgin are you of this is le have on a sunday go home an sober up go home ye go home an tell em we re half a dozen voices together in a most chorus as her stern went down with a roll and a into the she strikes hard up hard up fer your life you re on top of her now hard let go everything all hands to the an pole her here the lost his temper and said captains courageous things instantly fishing was suspended to answer him and he heard many curious facts about his boat and her next port of call they asked him if he were and whence he had stolen his anchor because they said it belonged to the they called his boat a mud and accused him of to frighten the fish they offered to tow him and charge it to his wife and one audacious youth slipped almost under the counter it with his open palm and up buck the cook emptied a pan of ashes on him and he replied with heads the bark s crew fired small coal from the and the threatened to come aboard and her they would have warned her at once had she been in real peril but seeing her well clear of the virgin they made the most of their chances the fun was spoilt when the rock spoke again a half mile to and the tormented bark set everything that would draw and went her ways but the felt that the honors lay with them all that night the virgin roared hoarsely and next morning over an angry sea saw the fleet with captains courageous ing waiting for a lead not a was out till ten o clock when the two of the day s eye imagining a lull which did not exist set the example in a minute half the boats were out and in the but troop kept the we re at work dressing down he saw no sense in dares and as the storm grew that evening they had the pleasure of receiving wet strangers only too glad to make any refuge in the gale the boys stood by the with the men ready to haul one eye cocked for the sweeping wave that would make them drop everything and hold on for the dear life out of the dark would come a yell of they would hook up and haul in a man and a half sunk boat till their decks were down with nests of and the were full five times in their watch did with dan jump at the fore where it lay lashed on the boom and cling with arms legs and teeth to rope and and canvas as a big wave filled the decks one was smashed to pieces and the sea pitched the man head first on to the decks cutting his captains courageous forehead open and about dawn when the racing seas white all along their cold edges another man blue and ghastly crawled in with a broken hand asking news of his brother seven extra mouths sat down to breakfast a a a boy from one and three men there was a general out among the fleet next day and though no one said anything all ate with better when boat after boat reported full aboard only a couple of and an old man from were drowned but many were cut or bruised and two had parted their tackle and been blown to the	39
southward three days sail a man died on a frenchman it was the same bark that had tobacco with the we re she slipped away quite quietly one wet white morning moved to a patch of deep water her sails all hanging anyhow and saw the funeral through s spy glass it was only an bundle slid they did not seem to have any form of service but in the night at anchor captains courageous heard them across the star powdered black water singing something that sounded hke a hymn it went to a very slow tune la qui va et s incline pour m oh pour adieu adieu tom visited her because he said the dead man was his brother as a it came out that a wave had doubled the poor fellow over the heel of the and broken his back the news spread like a flash for contrary to general custom the frenchman held an of the dead man s he had no friends at st or and everything was spread out on the top of the house from his red cap to the leather belt with the knife at the back dan and were out on twenty water in the s and naturally rowed over to join the crowd it was a long pull and they stayed some little time while dan bought captains courageous the knife which had a curious brass handle when they dropped and pushed off into a of rain and a of sea it occurred to them that they might get into trouble for the lines guess t won t hurt us any to be warmed up said dan shivering under his and they rowed on into the heart of a white fog which as usual dropped on them without warning there s too much blame tide to trust to your he said heave over the anchor and we fish a piece till the thing lifts bend on your biggest lead three pound ain t any too much in this water see how she s on her already there was quite a little at the bows where some bank current held the full stretch on her rope but they could not see a boat s length in any direction turned up his collar and himself over his with the air of a wearied fog had no special terrors for him now they awhile in silence and found the struck on well then dan drew the knife and tested the edge of it on the i captains courageous that s a said how did you get it so cheap on account o their blame said dan with the bright blade they don t fancy iron off of a dead man so to speak see them step back when i bid but an ain t taking anything off a dead man it s business we know it ain t but there s no goin in the teeth o superstition that s one o the advantages o in a country and dan began whistling oh double how are you now eastern point comes inter view the girls an boys we soon shall see at anchor off cape ann why did n t that man bid then he bought his boots ain t they don t know enough or they t got money enough to paint their in i ve seen em the man he told me that the knife had been used so the french captain told him used up on the french coast last year captains courageous cut a man heave s the hauled in his fish and threw over killed him course when i heard that i was n ever to get it christmas i did n t know it said turning round i give you a dollar for it when i get my wages say i give you two dollars honest d you like it as much as all that said dan flushing well to tell the truth i kinder got it for you to give but i did n t let on till i saw how you d take it it s yours and welcome because we re mates and so on and so forth an so catch a he held it out belt and all but look at here dan i don t see take it t ain t no use to me i wish you to it the temptation was irresistible dan you re a white man said i keep it as long as i live that s good said dan with a pleasant laugh and then anxious to change the subject look s if your line was fast to i captains courageous i guess said before he pulled up he fastened the belt round him and with deep delight heard the tip of the click on the concern the thing he cried she acts as though she were on bottom it s all sand here ain t it dan reached over and gave a act that way f he s sulky s no bottom her once or twice she gives sure guess we d better haul up an make certain they pulled together making fast at each turn on the and the hidden weight rose prize oh haul shouted dan but the shout ended in a shrill double shriek of horror for out of the sea came the body of the dead frenchman buried two days before the hook had caught him under the right and he swayed erect and horrible head and shoulders above water his arms were tied to his side and he had no face the boys fell over each other in a heap at the bottom of the and there they lay while the thing alongside held on the line the tide the tide brought him said captains courageous with quivering lips as he at the clasp of the belt oh lord	39
oh groaned dan be quick he s come for it let him have it take it off i don t want it don t want it cried i can t find the bu quick he s on your line sat up to the belt facing the head that had no face under its streaming hair he s fast still he whispered to dan who slipped out his knife and cut the line as flung the belt far the body shot down with a and dan cautiously rose to his knees than the fog he come for it he come for it i ve seen a stale one hauled up on a and i did n t much care but he come to us special i wish i wish i had n t taken the knife then he d have come on your line as would ha made any differ we re both scared out o ten years growth oh did ye see his head did i i never forget it but look at here dan it could n t have been meant it was only the tide tide he come for it why captains courageous they sunk him six mile to southward o the fleet an we re two miles from where she s now they told me he was with a an a half o chain cable wonder what he did with the knife up on the french coast something bad guess he s bound to take it with him to the judgment an so what are you with the fish heaving em overboard said what for we sha n t eat em i don t care i had to look at his face while i was the belt off you can keep your catch if you like i ve no use for mine dan said nothing but threw his fish over again guess it s best to be on the safe side he murmured at last i d give a month s pay if this fog u d lift things go in a fog that ye don t see in clear weather yo an and such like i m relieved he come the way he did o he might ha walked do on t dan we re right on top of him now wish i was safe aboard bein by uncle captains courageous they be fer us in a little the too ten dan took the tin dinner horn but paused before he blew go on said i don t want to stay here all night question is he d take it there was a man down the coast told me once he was in a where they n t ever blow a horn to the the not the man he was with but a captain that had run her five years before he d a boy alongside in a drunk fit an ever after that boy he d row alongside too and shout with the rest a muffled voice cried through the fog they again and the horn dropped from dan s hand hold on cried it s the cook what made me think o fool tale either said dan it s the doctor sure enough dan dan we re here sung both boys together they heard oars but could see nothing till the cook shining and dripping rowed into them captains courageous what happened said he you will be beaten at home s what we want s what we re for said dan anything s good enough fer us we ve had kinder company as the cook passed them a line dan told him the tale he come for hiss knife was all he said at the end never had the little rocking we we here looked so home like as when the cook born and bred in rowed them back to her there was a warm glow of light from the cabin and a satisfying smell of food forward and it was heavenly to hear and the others all quite alive and solid leaning over the rail and promising them a first class but the cook was a black master of he did not get the aboard till he had given the more striking points of the tale explaining as he backed and round the counter how was the to destroy any possible bad luck so the boys came as rather heroes and every one asked them questions instead of them for making trouble little captains courageous delivered quite a speech on the folly of but public opinion was against him and in favor of long jack who told the most ghost stories till nearly midnight under that influence no one except and said anything about when the cook put a lighted candle a cake of flour and water and a pinch of salt on a and floated them out to keep the frenchman quiet in case he was still restless dan lit the candle because he had bought the belt and the cook and muttered charms as long as he could see the point of flame said to dan as they turned in after watch how about progress and catholic i guess i m as enlightened and as the next man but when it comes to a dead st deck hand a couple o pore boys stiff fer the sake of a thirty cent knife why then the cook can take hold fer all o me i or dead next morning all except the cook were rather ashamed of the ceremonies and went captains courageous to work double tides speaking to one another the we we here was racing neck and neck for her last few loads against the and so close was the struggle that the fleet took sides and tobacco all hands worked at the lines or dressing down till they fell asleep where they stood beginning before dawn and ending when it was too	39
dark to see they even used the cook as and turned into the hold to pass salt while dan helped to dress down luckily a man his ankle falling down the and the we we gained could not see how one more fish could be crammed into her but and tom and and the mass down with big stones from the and there was always jest another day s work did not tell them when all the salt was he rolled to the aft the cabin and began out the big this was at ten in the morning the riding sail was down and the main and were up by noon and came alongside with letters for home their good fortune at last she cleared down captains courageous decks hoisted her flag as is the right of the first boat the banks up and began to move pretended that he wished to accommodate folk who had not sent in their mail and so worked her gracefully in and out among the in reality that was his little triumphant procession and for the fifth year running it showed what kind of he was dan s and tom s fiddle supplied the music of the magic verse you must not sing till all the salt is wet send your letters all our salt is an the anchor s off the bend oh bend your l we re back to with fifteen an fifteen old an grand the last letters pitched on deck wrapped round pieces of coal and the men shouted messages to their wives and and owners while the we re here finished the musical ride through the fleet her quivering like a man s hand wh n he raises it to say good by captains courageous very soon discovered that the we re here with her riding sail strolling from berth to berth and the we re here headed west by south under home canvas were two very different boats there was a bite and kick to the wheel even in boy s weather he could feel the dead weight in the hold flung forward across the and the streaming line of made his eyes dizzy kept them busy with the sails and when those were like a racing s dan had to wait on the big which was put over by hand every time she went about in spare moments they for the packed fish which does not improve a cargo but since there was no fishing had time to look at the sea from another point of view the low sided was naturally on most intimate terms with her surroundings they saw little of the horizon save when she a swell and usually she was and her steadfast way through gray gray blue or black hollows across across with streaks of shivering foam or rubbing herself along the flank of captains courageous some bigger water hill it was as if she said you would n t hurt me surely i m only the little we re here then she would slide away softly to herself till she was brought up by some fresh obstacle the of folk cannot see this kind of thing hour after hour through long days without noticing it and being anything but dull began to comprehend and enjoy the dry chorus of wave tops turning over with a sound of incessant tearing the hurry of the winds working across open spaces and the purple blue cloud shadows the splendid of the red sunrise the folding and packing away of the morning mists wall after wall withdrawn across the white floors the glare and blaze of noon the kiss of rain falling over thousands of dead flat square miles the chilly of everything at the day s end and the million wrinkles of the sea under the moonlight when the boom solemnly at the low stars and went down to get a from the cook but the best fun was when the boys were put on the wheel together tom within hail and she her lee rail down to the crashing blue and kept a little home made z captains courageous rainbow unbroken over her then the jaws of the against the and the sheets and the sails filled with roaring and when she slid into a hollow she trampled like a woman tripped in her own silk dress and came out her wet half way up yearning and peering for the tall twin lights of s island they left the cold gray of the bank sea saw the lumber ships making for by the straits of st with the salt from spain and found a friendly off bank that drove them within view of the east light of island a sight did not linger over and stayed with them past western and le have to the northern fringe of george s from there they picked up the deeper water and let her go merrily s pulling on the string dan confided to an ma next sunday you be a boy to throw water on the windows to make ye go to sleep guess you keep with us till your folks come do you know the best of ashore again captains courageous hot bath said his eyebrows were all white with dried spray that s good but a n shirt s better i ve been o night shirts ever since we bent our ye can your toes then ma a new one fer me all washed soft it s home it s home ye can sense it in the air we re into the of a hot wave an i can smell the wonder if we get in fer supper port a trifle the hesitating sails and in the close air as the deep smoothed out blue and round them when they whistled for a wind only the rain came in rods and and behind the rain the thunder and the	39
lightning of mid august they lay on the deck with bare feet and arms telling one another what they would order at their first meal ashore for now the land was in plain sight a boat drifted alongside a man in the little pulpit on the flourishing his his bare head down with the wet and all s well he sang cheerily as though he were watch on a big s waiting fer you what s the news o the fleet captains courageous shouted it and passed on while the wild summer storm overhead and the lightning along the from four different quarters at once it gave the low circle of hills round harbor ten pound island the fish sheds with the broken line of house roofs and each and on the water in blinding photographs that came and went a dozen times to the minute as the we re here crawled in on and the whistling moaned and mourned behind her then the storm died out in long separated vicious of flame followed by a single roar like the roar of a mortar battery and the shaken air under the stars as it got back to silence the flag the flag said suddenly pointing upward what is ut said long jack ha af mast they can see us shore now i d clean forgot he s no folk to has he girl he was goin to be married to this fall mary pity her said long jack and alongside with letters home captains courageous lowered the little flag half mast for the sake of swept overboard in a gale off le have three months before wiped the wet from his eyes and led the we we here to s wharf giving his orders in whispers while she swung round and night hailed her from the ends of black over and above the darkness and the mystery of the procession could feel the land close round him once more with all its thousands of people asleep and the smell of earth after rain and the familiar noise of a engine to herself in a freight yard and all those things made his heart beat and his throat dry up as he stood by the they heard the on a into a pocket of darkness where a lantern on either side somebody with a threw them a rope and they made fast to a silent wharf with great iron sheds full of warm and lay there without a sound then sat down by the wheel and sobbed and sobbed as though his heart would break and a tall woman who had been sit captains courageous ting on a weigh scale dropped down into the and kissed dan once on the cheek for she was his mother and she had seen the we re here by the lightning flashes she took no notice of till he had recovered himself a little and had told her his story then they went to s house together as the dawn was breaking and until the telegraph office was open and he could wire to his folk was perhaps the boy in all america but the curious thing was that and dan seemed to think none the worse of him for crying was not ready for s prices till sure that the we we here was at least a week ahead of any other boat had given him a few days to swallow them so all hands played about the streets and long jack stopped the rocky neck on principle as he said till the conductor let him ride free but dan went about with his nose in the air of mystery and most haughty to his family dan i to lay inter you ef you act this way said troop captains courageous we ve come ashore this time you ve bin a heap too fresh i d lay into him ef he was mine said uncle he and with the troops said dan shuffling with the round the back yard ready to leap the fence if the enemy advanced you ve welcome to your own but remember i ve warned ye your own flesh an blood ha warned ye t ain t any o my fault ef you re but i be on deck to watch ye an fer uncle s chief butler ain t in it o you you watch an wait you be under like your own blamed but me dan troop i flourish like a green bay tree because war n t stuck on my own opinion was smoking in all his shore dignity and a pair of beautiful carpet slippers you re crazy as poor you two go an an each other under the table till there s no peace in the said he there s goin to be a heap less fer some folks dan replied you wait an see captains courageous he and went out on the to east where they through the bushes to the and lay down on the big red and laughed themselves hungry had shown dan a and the two swore to keep silence till the shell burst s folk said dan with an face after supper well i guess they don t amount to much of anything or we d ha heard em by his pop keeps a kind o store out west maybe he give you s much as five dollars what did i tell ye said don t over your dan chapter ix whatever his private sorrows may be a like any other should keep abreast of his business senior had gone east late in june to meet a woman broken down half mad who dreamed day and night of her son drowning in the gray seas he had surrounded her with doctors trained nurses women and even faith cure companions but they were useless mrs lay still and moaned or talked of her boy by the	39
hour together to any one who would listen hope she had none and who could offer it all she needed was assurance that drowning did not hurt and her husband watched to guard lest she should make the experiment of his own sorrow he spoke little hardly realized the depth of it till he caught himself asking the on his writing desk what s the use of going on captains courageous there had always lain a pleasant notion at the back of his head that some day when he had rounded off everything and the boy had left college he would take his son to his heart and lead him into his possessions then that boy he argued as busy fathers do would instantly become his companion partner and ally and there would follow splendid years of great works carried out together the old head the young fire now his boy was dead lost at sea as it might have been a sailor from one of s big the wife was dying or worse he himself was trodden down by of women and doctors and maids and attendants worried almost beyond endurance by the shift and change of her poor restless hopeless with no heart to meet his many enemies he had taken the wife to his raw new palace in san where she and her people occupied a wing of great price and in a room between a secretary and a who was also a toiled along wearily from day to day there was a war of among four western in which he was supposed to be inter captains courageous a strike had developed in his lumber in and the of the state of which has no love for its makers was preparing open war against him ordinarily he would have accepted battle ere it was offered and have a pleasant and campaign but now he sat his soft black hat pushed forward on to his nose his big body shrunk inside his loose clothes staring at his boots or the chinese in the bay and to the secretary s questions as he opened the saturday mail was wondering how much it would cost to drop everything and pull out he carried huge could buy himself royal and between one of his places in and a little society that would do the wife good say in washington and the south islands a man might forget plans that had come to nothing on the other hand the click of the stopped the girl was looking at the secretary who had turned white captains courageous he passed a repeated from san picked up by fishing we re here having fallen off boat great times on banks fishing all well waiting mass care troop for money or orders wire what shall do and how is n the father let it fall laid his head down on the top of the shut desk and breathed heavily the secretary ran for mrs s doctor who found pacing to and fro what what d you think of it is it possible is there any meaning to it i can t quite make it out he cried i can said the doctor i lose seven thousand a year that s all he thought of the struggling new york practice he had dropped at s imperious bidding and returned the with a sigh you mean you d tell her may be a fraud what s the motive said the doctor coolly detection s too certain it s the boy sure enough captains courageous enter a french maid as an indispensable one who is kept on only by large wages mrs she say you must come at once she think you are seek the master of thirty millions bowed his head meekly and followed and a thin high voice on the upper landing of the great white wood square staircase cried what is it what has happened no doors could keep out the shriek that rang through the echoing house a moment later when her husband out the news and that s all right said the doctor serenely to the about the only medical statement in novels with any truth to it is that joy don t kill miss i know it but we ve a heap to do first miss was from somewhat direct of speech and as her fancy leaned towards the secretary she divined there was work in hand he was looking earnestly at the vast map of america on the wall we re going right across private car straight through boston fix the connections shouted down the staircase captains courageous i thought so the secretary turned to the and their eyes met out of that was born a story nothing to do with this story she looked doubtful of his resources he signed to her to move to the as a general brings into action then he swept his hand wise through his hair regarded the ceiling and set to work while miss s white fingers called up the continent of america h los the is at los is n t she miss miss nodded between as the secretary looked at his watch ready send private car here and arrange for special to leave here sunday in time to connect with new york limited at sixteenth street tuesday next click click click could n t you better that not on those that gives em sixty hours from here to they won t gain anything by taking a special east of that ready also arrange with lake captains courageous shore and southern to take on new york central and river to and b and a the same a to boston indispensable i should reach boston wednesday evening be sure nothing prevents have also and sign miss nodded and the secretary went on now then and of course ready please take my private car	39
from fe at sixteenth street next tuesday p m on n y limited through to and deliver n y c for ever bin to w york miss we ll go some day ready take car to on limited tuesday p m that s for have n t bin to york but i know that with a toss of the head beg pardon now boston and same instructions from through to boston leave three five p m you need n t wire that arrive nine five p m wednesday that covers everything will do but it pays to shake up the captains courageous it s great said miss with a look of admiration this was the kind of man she understood and appreciated t is n t bad said modestly now any one but me would have lost thirty hours and spent a week working out the run instead of handing him over to the fe straight through to but see here about that york limited himself could n t his car to her miss suggested recovering herself yes but this is n t it s lightning it goes even so guess we d better wire the boy you ve forgotten that anyhow ask when he returned with the father s message bidding meet them in boston at an appointed hour he found miss over the keys then laughed too for the frantic from los ran we want to know why why why general uneasiness developed and spreading ten minutes later appealed to miss in these words if crime of captains courageous is please warn friends in time we are all getting to cover here this was by a message from and wherein was concerned even could not guess shoot colonel we ii come down smiled grimly at the consternation of his enemies when the were laid before him they think we ve on the tell em we don t feel like fighting just now tell em what we re going for i guess you and miss had better come along though it is n t likely i shall do any business on the road tell em the truth for once so the truth was told miss in the sentiment while the secretary added the memorable quotation let us have peace and in board rooms two thousand miles away the representatives of sixty three million dollars worth of railroad interests breathed more freely was flying to meet the only son so restored to him the bear was seeking his not the hard men who had their knives drawn to fight for their financial lives put away the weapons and wished him god captains courageous speed while half a dozen panic smitten tin pot roads up their heads and spoke of the wonderful things they would have done had not buried the it was a busy week end among the wires for now that their anxiety was removed men and cities hastened to accommodate los called to san and that the southern might know and be ready in their lonely passed the word to the atlantic and pacific and flung it the whole length of the and fe management even into an engine combination car with crew and the great and gilded private car were to be over those two thousand three hundred and fifty miles the train would take of one hundred and seventy seven others meeting and passing and of every one of those said trains must be sixteen sixteen and sixteen would be needed each and every one the best available two and one half minutes would be allowed for changing engines three for watering and two for warn the captains courageous men and arrange and accordingly for is in a hurry a hurry a hurry sang the wires forty miles an hour will be expected and division will accompany this special over their respective divisions from san to sixteenth street let the magic carpet be laid down hurry oh hurry it will be hot said as they rolled out of san in the dawn of sunday we ve going to hurry just as fast as ever we can but i really don t think there s any good of your putting on your bonnet and gloves yet you d much better lie down and take your medicine i d play you a game o but it s sunday i be good oh i will be good only taking off my bonnet makes me feel as if we d never get there try to sleep a little and we be in before you know but it s boston father tell them to hurry the six foot drivers were their way to san and the but this was no grade for speed captains courageous that would come later the heat of the desert followed the heat of the hills as they turned east to the needles and the river the car cracked in the utter and glare and they put crushed ice to mrs s neck and toiled up the long long past ash fork towards where the forests and are under the dry remote skies the needle of the and to and fro the rattled on the roof and a whirl of dust sucked after the whirling wheels the crew of the combination sat on their panting in their shirt sleeves and found himself among them shouting old old stories of the railroad that every knows above the roar of the car he told them about his son and how the sea had given up its dead and they nodded and and rejoiced with him asked after her back there and whether she could stand it if the engineer let her out a piece and thought she could accordingly the great fire horse was let out from to till a division protested but mrs in the state captains courageous room where the french maid sallow white with fear	39
clung to the silver door handle only moaned a little and begged her husband to bid them hurry and so they dropped the dry sands and moon struck rocks of behind them and on till the crash of the and the of the told them they were at by the continental divide three bold and experienced men cool confident and dry when they began white quivering and wet when they finished their trick at those terrible wheels swung her over the great lift from to and beyond up and up to the on the state line whence they dropped rocking into la had sight of the and tore down the long slope to city where took comfort once again from setting his watch an hour ahead there was very little talk in the car the secretary and sat together on the stamped spanish leather cushions by the plate glass observation window at the rear end watching the and ripple of the ties crowded back behind them and it is believed captains courageous making notes of the scenery moved nervously between his own extravagant and the naked necessity of the combination an cigar in his teeth till the pitying forgot that he was their enemy and did their best to entertain him at night the lit up that palace of all the luxuries and they swinging on through the of abject desolation now they heard the of a water and the voice of a the of that tested the steel wheels and the oath of a tramp chased off the now the solid crash of coal shot into the tender and now a beating back of noises as they flew past a waiting train now they looked out into great a beneath their tread or up to rocks that barred out half the stars now and changed and rolled back to jagged mountains on the horizon s edge and now broke into hills lower and lower till at last came the true plains at city an unknown hand threw in a copy of a paper containing some captains courageous sort of an interview with who had evidently fallen in with an on from boston the joyful revealed that it was beyond question their boy and it soothed mrs for a while her one word hurry was conveyed by the to the at and where the are easy and they brushed the continent behind them towns and villages were close together now and a man could feel here that he moved among people i can t see the dial and my eyes ache so what are we doing the very best we can there s no sense in getting in before the limited we d only have to wait i don t care i want to feel we re moving sit down and tell me the miles sat down and read the dial for her there were some miles which stand for records to this day but the seventy foot car never changed its long steamer like roll moving through the heat with the hum of a giant bee yet the speed was not enough for mrs and the heat the august heat was making her giddy the clock captains courageous hands would not move and when oh when would they be in it is not true that as they changed engines at fort passed over to the brotherhood of an sufficient to enable them to fight him and his fellows on equal terms for he paid his obligations to and as he believed they deserved and only his bank knows what he gave the who had with him it is on record that the last crew took entire charge of operations at sixteenth street because she was in a at last and heaven was to help any one who her now the highly paid who the lake shore and southern limited from to is something of an and he does not approve of being told how to back up to a car none the less he handled the as if she might have been a load of and when the crew him they did it in whispers and dumb show said the and fe men discussing life later we were captains courageous n t for a record s wife she were sick back an we did n t want to her come to think of it our time from san to was you can tell that to them eastern way trains when we re try in for a record we let you know to the western man though this would not please either city and boston are cheek by and some encourage the delusion the limited whirled the into and the arms of the new york central and river illustrious with white whiskers and gold charms on their watch chains her here to talk a little business to who slid her gracefully into where the boston and completed the run from tide water to tide water total time eighty seven hours and thirty five minutes or three days fifteen hours and one half was waiting for them after violent emotion most people and all boys demand food they the returned prodigal behind drawn curtains cut off in their great happiness while the trains roared captains courageous in and out around them ate drank and enlarged on his adventures all in one breath and when he had a hand free his mother it his voice was with living in the open salt air his palms were rough and hard his wrists dotted with the marks of and a fine full flavor of fish hung round rubber boots and blue the father well used to judging men looked at him keenly he did not know what enduring harm the boy might have taken indeed he caught himself thinking that he knew very little whatever of his son but he distinctly remembered an faced youth who took delight in calling down	39
the old man and his mother to tears such a person as adds to the gaiety of public rooms and hotel where the young of the wealthy play with or the bell boys but this well set up youth did not looked at him with eyes steady clear and and spoke in a tone distinctly even respectful there was that in his voice too which seemed to promise that the change might be permanent and that the new had come to stay captains courageous some one s been him thought now would never have allowed that don t see as europe could have done it any better but why did n t you tell this man troop who you were the mother repeated when had expanded his story at least twice troop dear the best man that ever walked a deck i don t care who the next is why did n t you tell him to put you ashore you know papa would have made it up to him ten times over i know it but he thought i was crazy i m afraid i called him a thief because i could n t find the bills in my pocket a sailor found them by the that that night sobbed mrs that explains it then i don t blame troop any i just said i would n t work on a banker too and of course he hit me on the nose and oh i like a stuck my poor darling they must have abused you horribly quite well after that i saw a light his leg and chuckled this o captains courageous was going to be a boy after his own hungry heart he had never seen precisely that twinkle in s eye before and the old man gave me ten and a half a month he s paid me half now and i took hold with dan and pitched right in i can t do a man s work yet but i can handle a most as well as dan and i don t get rattled in a fog much and i can take my trick in light winds that s dear and i can most bait up a and i know my ropes of course and i can pitch fish till the cows come home and i m great on old and i show you how i can clear coffee with a piece of fish skin and i think i have another cup please say you ve no notion what a heap of work there is in ten and a half a month i began with eight and a half my son said that so you never told me sir you never asked i tell you about it some day if you care to listen try a stuffed olive troop says the most interesting thing in the world is to find out how the next man gets his it s great to have a trimmed captains courageous up meal again we were well fed though best on the banks fed us he s a great man and dan that s his son dan s my partner and there s uncle and his an he reads he s sure i m crazy yet and there s poor little and he is crazy you must n t talk to him about because and oh you must know tom and long jack and saved my life i m sorry he s a he can t talk much but he s an everlasting he found me struck adrift and drifting and hauled me in i wonder your nervous system is n t wrecked said mrs what for i worked like a horse and i ate like a and i slept like a dead man that was too much for mrs who began to think of her visions of a corpse rocking on the seas she went to her and curled up beside his father explaining his you can depend upon me to do everything i can for the crowd they seem to be good men on your showing captains courageous best in the fleet sir ask at said but believes still he s cured me of being crazy dan s the only one i ve let on to about you and our private cars and all the rest of it and i m not quite sure dan believes i want to em to morrow say can t they run the over to don t look fit to be moved anyway and we re bound to finish cleaning out by to morrow takes our fish you see we re first off the banks this season and it s four twenty five a we held out till he paid it they want it quick you mean you have to work to morrow then i told troop i would i m on the scales i ve brought the with me he looked at the greasy with an air of importance that made his father choke there is n t but three no two ninety four or five more by my reckoning hire a substitute suggested to see what would say can t sir i m man for the troop says i ve a better head for figures than dan troop s a mighty just man captains courageous well suppose i don t move the to night how you fix it looked at the clock which marked twenty past eleven then i sleep here till three and catch the four o clock freight they let us men from the fleet ride free as a rule that s a notion but i think we can get the around about as soon as your men s freight better go to bed now spread himself on the sofa kicked off his boots and was asleep before his father could shade the sat watching the	39
young face under the shadow of the arm thrown over the forehead and among many things that occurred to him was the notion that he might perhaps have been as a father one never knows when one s taking one s biggest risks he said it might have been worse than drowning but i don t think it has i don t think it has if it has n t i have n t enough to pay troop that s all and i don t think it has morning brought a fresh sea breeze through the windows the was side captains courageous among freight cars at and had gone to his business then he fall overboard again and be drowned the mother said bitterly we go and look ready to throw him a rope in case you ve never seen him working for his bread said the father what nonsense as if any one expected well the man that hired him did he s about right too they went down between the stores full of s to s wharf where the we re here rode high her bank flag still flying all hands busy as in the glorious morning light stood by the main and uncle at the tackle dan was swinging the loaded baskets as long jack and tom filled them and with a represented the s interests before the clerk of the scales on the salt sprinkled wharf edge ready cried the voices below haul cried hi said here said dan swinging the basket then they captains courageous heard s voice clear and fresh checking the the last of the fish had been whipped out and leaped from the string piece six feet to a as the shortest way to hand the shouting two ninety seven and an empty hold what s total said eight sixty five three thousand six hundred and seventy six dollars and a quarter wish i d share as well as well i won t go so far as to say you n t deserved it don t you want to slip up to s office and take him our who s that boy said to dan well used to all manner of questions from those idle called summer well he s a kind o was the answer we picked him up struck adrift on the banks fell overboard from a he he was a passenger he s by way o bein a now is he worth his keep ye this man wants to know ef s worth his keep say would you captains courageous like to go aboard we fix a ladder for her i should very much indeed t won t hurt you and you be able to see for yourself the woman who could not lift her head a week ago scrambled down the ladder and stood aghast amid the mess and aft be you interested in said well ye es he s a good boy an right hold jest as he s bid you ve heard we found him he was from nervous i guess v else his head had hit when we hauled him aboard he s all over that yes this is the cabin t ain t in order but you re quite welcome to look around those are his figures on the stove pipe where we keep the mostly did he sleep here said mrs sitting on a yellow and surveying the no he forward madam an only fer him an my boy an up when they ought to ha been captains courageous asleep i as i ve any special fault to find with him there were n t wrong with said uncle descending the steps he hung my boots on the main and he ain t over an above respectful to such as knows more n he do specially about but he were mostly by dan dan in the meantime by dark hints from early that morning was a war dance on deck tom tom he whispered down the his folks has come an t caught on yet an they re in the cabin she s a an he s all claimed he was by the looks of him smoke said long jack climbing out covered with salt and fish skin d ye his tale the kid an the little was i knew it all along said dan come an see in his judgments they came just in time to hear say i m glad he has a good character because he s my son s jaw fell long jack always vowed that he heard the click of it and captains courageous he stared alternately at the man and the woman i got his in san four days ago and we came over in a private car said dan he said ye might in a private car of course dan looked at his father with a of there was a tale he us four little in a his own said long jack was that now very likely said was it he had a little drag when we were in i think said the mother long jack whistled oh said he and that was all i i am in my worse n the men o said as though the words were being out of him i don t mind to you as i the boy to be crazy he talked kinder odd about money so he told me did he tell ye anything else cause captains courageous i him once this with a somewhat anxious glance at mrs oh yes replied i should say it probably did him more good than anything else in the world i t necessary er i would n t ha done it i don t want you to think we abuse our boys any on this packet i don t think you do mr troop mrs had been looking at the faces s ivory	39
yellow iron countenance uncle s with its rim of agricultural hair s bewildered simplicity s quiet smile long jack s grin of delight and tom s rough by her standards they certainly were but she had a mother s wits in her eyes and she rose with outstretched hands oh tell me which is who said she half sobbing i want to thank you and bless you all of you faith that pays me a time said long jack introduced them all in due form the captain of an old time could have done no better and mrs she nearly threw herself w captains courageous into arms when she understood that he had first found but how shall i leave him said poor what do you yourself if you find him so eh at we are in one good boy and i am ever so pleased he come to be your son and he told me dan was his partner she cried dan was already sufficiently pink but he turned a rich crimson when mrs kissed him on both cheeks before the assembly then they led her forward to show her the at which she wept again and must needs go down to see s identical and there she found the cook cleaning up the stove and he nodded as though she were some one he had expected to meet for years they tried two at a time to explain the boat s daily life to her and she sat by the post her hands on the greasy table laughing with trembling lips and crying with dancing eyes and who s ever to use the we we here after this said long jack to tom i feel it as if she d made a cathedral ut all cathedral sneered tom oh captains courageous ef it had bin even the fish c boat o this o ef we only some decency an order an when she goes over she have to climb that ladder like a hen an we we ought to be the yards then was not mad said slowly to no indeed thank god the big replied stooping down tenderly it must be terrible to be mad except to lose your child i do not know anything more terrible but your child has come back let us thank god for that said looking down upon them from the wharf i i said swiftly holding up a hand i in my ye need n t rub it in any more guess i take care o that said dan under his breath you be goin off won t ye well not without the balance of my wages less you want to have the we we here attached s jo i d clean forgot and he captains courageous counted out the remaining dollars you done all you contracted to do and you done it s well as ef you d been brought up here brought himself up he did not quite see where the sentence was going to end outside of a private car suggested dan come on and i show her to you said stayed to talk to but the others made a procession to the with mrs at the head the french maid shrieked at the invasion and laid the glories of the before them without a word they took them in in equal silence stamped leather silver door handles and rails cut velvet plate glass bronze iron and the rare woods of the continent i told you said i told you this was his crowning revenge and a most ample one mrs a meal and that nothing might be lacking to the tale long jack told afterwards in his boarding house she waited on them herself men who are ac captains courageous to eat at tiny tables in howling have curiously neat and finished but mrs who did not know this was surprised she longed to have for a butler so silently and easily did he himself among the frail and dainty silver tom remembered great days on the and the manners of foreign who dined with the officers and long jack being irish supplied the small talk till all were at their ease in the we we cabin the fathers took stock of each other behind their cigars knew well enough when he dealt with a man to whom he could not offer money equally well he knew that no money could pay for what had done he kept his own counsel and waited for an opening i n t done anything to your boy or fer your boy make him work a piece an learn him how to handle the yoke said he has twice my boy s head for by the way answered casually what d you calculate to make of your boy captains courageous removed his cigar and waved it round the cabin dan s jest plain boy an he don t allow me to do any of his he this able little packet when i m laid by he ain t anxious to quit the business i know that ever been west mr troop bin s fer york once in a boat i ve no use for no more dan salt water s good enough fer the troops i ve been most everywhere in the way o course i can give him all the salt water he s likely to need till he s a s that i thought you a kinder railroad king told me so when i was in my we re all apt to be mistaken i fancied perhaps you might know i own a line of san to six of em iron built about seventeen hundred and eighty tons apiece blame that boy he never told i d ha listened to o his an pony carriages he did n t know captains courageous little thing like that slipped	39
his mind i guess no i only took hold of the blue m and s old line this summer where he sat beside the stove great caesar almighty i i ve bin from one end to the other why he went from this very town six year back no seven an he s mate on the san now twenty six days was her time out his sister she s here yet an she reads his letters to my woman an you own the blue m nodded if i d known that i d ha jerked the we re here back to port all on the word perhaps that would n t have been so good for ef i d only known ef he d only said about the line i d ha understood i never stand on my own again never they re well found he says so i m glad to have a recommend from that captains courageous quarter s of the san now what i was getting at is to know whether you d lend me dan for a year or two and we see if we can t make a mate of him would you trust him to it s a taking a raw boy i know a man who did more for me that s look at here i ain t dan special because he s my own flesh an blood know bank ways ain t ways but he t much to learn steer he can no boy better ef say it an the rest s in our blood an get but i could wish he war n t so weak on will attend to that he ship as a boy for a voyage or two and then we can put him in the way of doing better suppose you take him in hand this winter and i send for him early in the spring i know the pacific s a long ways off we troops an dead are all around the earth an the seas thereof but i want you to understand and i mean this any time you think you d like to see him tell me and i attend to the t won t cost you a cent captains courageous ef you walk a piece with me we go to my house an talk this to my woman i ve bin so crazy in all my judgments it don t seem to me this was like to be real they went over to troop s eighteen hundred dollar blue trimmed white house with a retired full of in the front yard and a parlor which was a museum of plunder there sat a large woman silent and grave with the dim eyes of those who look long to sea for the return of their beloved addressed himself to her and she gave consent wearily we lose one hundred a year from only mr she said one hundred boys an men and i ve come so s to hate the sea as if t alive an god never made it fer to anchor on these o yours they go straight out i take it and straight home again as straight as the winds let em and i give a for record passages tea don t improve by being at sea when he little he used to play at keeping store an i had hopes he might follow that up but soon s he could a o captains courageous i knew that were goin to be denied me they re square mother an well found remember what s sister reads you when she his letters i ve never known as told lies but he s too like most of em that use the sea ef dan sees fit mr he can go fer all o me she jest the ocean explained an i i to act polite i guess er i d thank you better my father my own eldest brother two an my second sister s man she said dropping her head on her hand would you care fer any one that took all those was relieved when dan turned up and accepted with more delight than he was able to put into words indeed the offer meant a plain and sure road to all desirable things but dan thought most of commanding watch on broad decks and looking into far away mrs had spoken privately to the unaccountable in the matter of s rescue he seemed to have no desire for money pressed hard he said that he would captains courageous take five dollars because he wanted to buy something for a girl otherwise how shall i take money when i make so easy my eats and you will some if i like or no eh at then you shall me money but not that way you shall all you can think he introduced her to a priest with a list of as long as his as a strict mrs could not with the creed but she ended by respecting the brown little man faithful son of the church appropriated all the blessings on her for her charity that me out said he i have now ver good for six months and he strolled forth to get a handkerchief for the girl of the hour and to break the hearts of all the others went west for a season with and left no address behind he had a dread that these people with private cars might take undue interest in his companion it was better to visit inland relatives till the coast was clear never you be adopted by rich folk he said in the cars or take n break this board captains courageous over your head ef you your name which is you remember you belong with troop an	39
set down right where you are till i come fer you don t go after them whose eyes out with to chapter x but it was otherwise with the we we here s silent cook for he came up his in a handkerchief and the pay was no particular object and he did not in the least care where he slept his business as revealed to him in dreams was to follow for the rest of his days they tried argument and at last persuasion but there is a difference between one cape and two and the matter was referred to by the cook and porter the only laughed he presumed might need a some day or other and was sure that one was worth five let the man stay therefore even though he called himself and swore in the car could go back to boston where if he were still of the same mind they would take him west captains courageous with the which in his heart of hearts he departed the last remnant of s and he gave himself up to an energetic idleness this was a new town in a new land and he to take it in as of old he had taken in all the cities from to san of that world whence he hailed they made money along the crooked street which was half wharf and half ship s store as a leading professional he wished to learn how the noble game was played men said that four out of every five fish balls at new england s sunday breakfast came from and overwhelmed him with figures in proof of boats gear capital invested packing wages and profits he talked with the owners of the large whose were little more than hired men and whose were almost all or then he conferred with one of the few who owned their craft and compared notes in his vast head he himself away on chain in marine shops asking questions with cheerful western curiosity till all captains courageous the water front wanted to know what in thunder that man was after anyhow he into the mutual rooms and demanded explanations of the mysterious remarks up on the day by day and that brought down upon him of every s widow and orphan aid society within the city limits they begged each man anxious to beat the other institution s record and at his beard and handed them all over to mrs she was resting in a boarding house near eastern point a strange establishment managed apparently by the where the table were red and white and the population who seemed to have known one another intimately for years rose up at midnight to make if it felt hungry on the second morning of her stay mrs put away her diamond before she came down to breakfast they ve most delightful people she confided to her husband so friendly and simple too though they are all boston nearly that is n t he said looking across the behind the apple captains courageous trees where the were it s the other thing that we that i have n t got it can t be said mrs quietly there is n t a woman here owns a dress that cost a hundred dollars why we i know it dear we have of course we have i guess it s only the style they wear east are you having a good time i don t see very much of he s always with you but i ain t near as nervous as i was have n t had such a good time since died i never rightly understood that i had a son before this s got to be a great boy anything i can fetch you dear cushion under your head well we go down to the wharf again and look around was his father s shadow in those days and the two strolled along side by side using the as an excuse for laying his hand on the boy s square shoulder it was then that noticed and admired what had never struck him before his father s curious power of getting at the heart of new matters as learned from men in the street how d you make em tell you everything captains courageous without opening your head demanded the son as they came out of a s i ve dealt with quite a few men in my time and one sizes em up somehow i guess i know something about myself too then after a pause as they sat down on a wharf edge men can most always tell when a man has handled things for himself and then they treat him as one of themselves same as they treat me down at s wharf i m one of the crowd now has told every one i ve earned my pay spread out his hands and rubbed the palms together they ve all soft again he said keep em that way for the next few years while you re getting your education you can em up after ye es i suppose so was the reply in no delighted voice it rests with you you can take cover behind your of course and put her on to about your nerves and your high and all that kind of have i ever done that said uneasily captains courageous his father turned where he sat and thrust out a long hand vou know as well as i do that i can t make anything of you if you don t act straight by me i can handle you alone if you stay alone but i don t pretend to manage both you and life s too short anyway don t make me out much of a fellow does it i guess it was my fault a good deal but if you want	39
the truth you have n t been much of anything up to date now have you thinks say what d you reckon it s cost you to raise me from the start first last and all over smiled i ve never kept track but i should estimate in dollars and cents nearer fifty than forty thousand maybe sixty the young generation comes high it has to have things and it of em and the old man the bill whistled but at heart he was rather pleased to think that his had cost so much and all that s sunk capital is n t it invested invested i hope making it only thirty thousand the thirty captains courageous i ve earned is about ten cents on the hundred that s a mighty poor catch his head solemnly laughed till he nearly fell off the pile into the water has got a heap more than that out of dan since he was ten and dan s at school half the year too oh that s what you re after is it no i m not after anything i m not stuck on myself any just now that s all i ought to be kicked i can t do it old man or i would i presume if i d been made that way then i d have remembered it to the last day i lived and never forgiven you said his chin on his doubled fists exactly that s about what d do you see i see the fault s with me and no one else all the something s got to be done about it drew a cigar from his pocket bit off the end and fell to smoking father and son were very much alike for the beard hid s mouth and had his father s slightly nose close set black captains courageous eyes and narrow high cheek bones with a touch of brown paint he would have made up very as a red indian of the story books now you can go on from here said slowly me between six or eight thousand a year till you re a well we call you a man then you can go right on from that living on me to the tune of forty or fifty thousand besides what your mother will give you with a and a or a fancy where you can pretend to raise trotting stock and play cards with your own crowd like put in or the two de boys or old man s son s full of em and here s an eastern while we re talking a shiny black steam with mahogany deck house and pink and white striped puffed up the harbor flying the of some new york club two young men in what they conceived to be sea were playing cards by the saloon and a couple of women with red and blue looked on and laughed captains courageous should n t care to be caught out in her in any sort of a breeze no beam said as the to pick up her they re having what stands them for a good time i can give you that and twice as much as that how d you like it caesar that s no way to get a said still intent on the if i could n t slip a tackle better than that i d stay ashore what if i don t stay ashore or what and and live on the old man and get behind when there s trouble said with a twinkle in his eye why in that case you come right in with me my son ten dollars a month another twinkle not a cent more until you re worth it and you won t begin to touch that for a few years i d sooner begin sweeping out the office is n t that how the big start and touch something now than i know it we all feel that way but i captains courageous guess we can hire any sweeping we need i made the same mistake myself of starting in too soon thirty million dollars worth o mistake was n t it i d risk it for that i lost some and i gained some i tell you pulled his beard and smiled as he looked over the still water and spoke away from who presently began to be aware that his father was telling the story of his life he talked in a low even voice without gesture and without expression and it was a history for which a dozen leading journals would cheerfully have paid many dollars the story of forty years that was at the same time the story of the new west whose story is yet to be written it began with a boy turned loose in and went on through a hundred changes and of life the scenes shifting from state after western state from cities that sprang up in a month and in a season utterly withered away to wild in that are now laborious paved it covered the building of three and the deliberate wreck of captains courageous a fourth it told of forests and mines and the men of every nation under heaven creating and digging these it touched on chances of gigantic wealth flung before eyes that could not see or missed by the merest accident of time and travel and through the mad shift of things sometimes on horseback more often now rich now poor in and out and back and forth deck hand train hand boarding house keeper engineer real estate agent dead beat rum mine owner cattle man or tramp moved alert and quiet seeking his own ends and so he said the glory and advancement of his country he told of the faith that never deserted him even when he hung on the ragged	39
edge of despair the faith that comes of knowing men and things he enlarged as though he were talking to himself on his very great courage and resource at all times the thing was so evident in the man s mind that he never even changed his tone he described how he had his enemies or forgiven them exactly as they had or captains courageous forgiven him in those careless days how he had entreated and towns companies and all for their enduring good crawled round through or under mountains and dragging a string and iron railroad after him and in the end how he had sat still while tore the last fragments of his character to the tale held almost breathless his head a little cocked to one side his eyes fixed on his father s face as the twilight deepened and the red cigar end lit up the cheeks and heavy eyebrows it seemed to him like watching a across country in the dark a mile between each glare of the opened fire door but this could talk and the words shook and stirred the boy to the core of his soul at last pitched away the and the two sat in the dark over the water i ve never told that to any one before said the father gasped it s just the greatest thing that ever was said he that s what i now i m coming to captains courageous what i did n t get it won t sound much of anything to you but i don t wish you to be as old as i am before you find out i can handle men of course and i m no fool along my own lines but but i can t with the man who has been taught i ve picked up as i went along and i guess it sticks out all over me i ve never seen it said the son indignantly you will though you will just as soon as you re through college don t i know it don t i know the look on men s faces when they think me a a as they call it out here i can break them to little pieces yes but i can t get back at em to hurt em where they live i don t say they re way way up but i feel i m way way way off somehow now you ve got your chance you ve got to up all the learning that s around and you live with a crowd that are doing the same thing they be doing it for a few thousand dollars a year at most but remember you ii be doing it for millions you learn law enough to look after your own property when i m out o the light and you have captains courageous to be solid with the best men in the market they are useful later and above all you have to away the plain common with your chin on your elbows nothing pays like that and it s bound to pay more and more each year in our country in business and in politics you see there s no sugar my end of the deal said four years at college wish i d chosen the and the never mind my son insisted you re your capital where it bring in the best returns and i guess you won t find our property shrunk any when you re ready to take hold think it over and let me know in the morning hurry we be late for supper as this was a business talk there was no need for to tell his mother about it and naturally took the same point of view but mrs saw and feared and was a little jealous her boy who rode rough shod over her was gone and in his stead reigned a keen faced youth silent who addressed most of his conversation to his father she understood it was captains courageous business and therefore a matter beyond her premises if she had any doubts they were resolved when went to boston and brought back a new diamond ring what have you two men been doing now she said with a weak little smile as she turned it in the light talking just talking there s nothing mean about there was not the boy had made a treaty on his own account he explained gravely interested him as little as lumber real estate or what his soul after was control of his father s newly purchased sailing ships if that could be promised him within what he conceived to be a reasonable time he for his part diligence and at college for four or five years in he was to be allowed full access to all details connected with the line he had asked not more than two thousand questions about it from his father s most private papers in the safe to the in san harbor it s a deal said at the last you alter your mind twenty times before you leave college o course but if you take captains courageous hold of it in proper shape and if you don t tie it up before you re twenty three i make the thing over to you how s that never pays to split up a going concern there s too much competition in the world anyway and says blood kin to stick together his crowd never go back on him that s one reason he says why they make such big say the we re here goes off to the on monday they don t stay long ashore do they well we ought to be going too i guess i ve left my business hung up at loose ends between two and it s time to connect again	39
i just hate to do it though have n t had a holiday like this for twenty years we go without seeing off said and monday s memorial day let s stay over that anyway what is this memorial business they were talking about it at the boarding house said weakly he too was not anxious to spoil the golden days well as far as i can make out this business is a sort of song and dance act up for the summer don t captains courageous think much of it he says because they take up a collection for the and s independent have n t you noticed that well yes a little in spots is it a town show then the summer is they read out the names of the fellows drowned or gone astray since last time and they make speeches and and all then says the of the aid societies go into the back yard and fight over the catch the real show he says is in the spring the ministers all take a hand then and there are n t any summer around i see said with the brilliant and perfect comprehension of one born into and bred up to city pride we stay over for memorial day and get off in the afternoon guess i go down to s and make him bring his crowd up before they sail i have to stand with them of course oh that s it is it said i m only a poor summer and you re a banker full blooded banker called back as he a and captains courageous went on with his dreams for the future had no use for public functions where appeals were made for charity but pleaded that the glory of the day would be lost so far as he was concerned if the we re themselves then made conditions he had heard it was astonishing how all the world knew all the world s business along the water front he had heard that a philadelphia was going to take part in the exercises and he that she would deliver s ride personally he had as little use for as for summer but justice was justice and though he himself here dan had once slipped up on a matter of judgment this thing must not be so came back to east and spent half a day explaining to an amused with a royal reputation on two the of the mistake she contemplated and she admitted that it was justice even as had said knew by old experience what would happen but anything of the nature of a captains courageous lie was meat and drink to the man s soul he saw the hurrying west in the hot morning full of women in light summer dresses and white faced straw men fresh from boston the of outside the post office the go of busy officials greeting one another the slow and of in the heavy air and the important man with a the brick mother he said suddenly don t you remember after was burned out and they got her going again mrs nodded and looked down the crooked street like her husband she understood these all the west over and compared them one against another the began to mingle with the crowd about the town hall doors their women bare headed or for the most part clear eyed and men of the provinces french and with outside of and everywhere women in black who saluted one another with a gloomy pride for this was their day of great days and there were captains courageous ministers of many of great gilt edged at the for a rest with of the regular work from the priests of the church on the hill to bush bearded ex sailor hail fellow with the men of a score of boats there were owners of lines of large to the societies and small men their few craft to the with and marine agents captains of and water boats boat and and all the mixed population of the water front they drifted along the line of seats made gay with the dresses of the summer and one of the town officials and till he shone all over with pure pride had met him for five minutes a few days before and between the two there was entire understanding well mr and what d you think of our city yes madam you can sit anywhere you please you have this kind of thing out west i presume yes but we are n t as old as you that s so of course you ought to have been at the exercises when we celebrated our captains courageous two hundred and birthday i tell you mr the old city did herself credit so i heard it pays too what s the matter with the town that it don t have a hotel though right over there to the left heaps o room for you and your crowd why that s what tell em all the time mr there s big money in it but i presume that don t affect you any what we want is a heavy hand fell on his shoulder and the flushed of a coal and ice spun him half round what in thunder do you fellows mean by the law on the town when all decent men are at sea this way town s dry s a bone an smells a sight worse i quit might ha left us one saloon for soft drinks anyway don t seem to have your nourishment this morning i go into the politics of it later sit down by the door and think over your arguments till i come back what good s arguments to me in champagne s eighteen dollars a case o captains courageous and	39
the into his seat as an organ silenced him our new organ said the official proudly to cost us four thousand dollars too we have to get back to high license next year to pay for it i was n t going to let the ministers have all the religion at their those are some of our standing up to sing my wife taught em see you again later mr i m wanted on the platform high clear and true children s voices bore down the last noise of those settling into their places o all ye works of the lord bless ye the lord praise him and him for ever the women throughout the hall leaned forward to look as the filled the air mrs with some others began to breathe short she had hardly imagined there were so many in the world and instinctively searched for he had found the we we at the back of the audience and was standing as by right between dan and uncle returned the night before with from sound received him suspiciously captains courageous t your folk gone yet he what are you here young o ye seas and floods bless ye the lord praise him and him for ever t he good right said dan he s bin there same as the rest of us not in them clothes shut your head said your s gone back on you stay right where ye are then up and spoke the orator of the occasion another pillar of the bidding the world welcome to and incidentally pointing out wherein the rest of the world then he turned to the sea wealth of the city and spoke of the price that must be paid for the yearly harvest they would hear later the names of their lost dead one hundred and seventeen of them the stared a little and looked at one another here could not boast any overwhelming mills or her sons worked for such as the sea gave and they all knew that neither nor the banks were cow pastures the utmost that folk ashore could accomplish was to help the and the and after a few o captains courageous general remarks he took this opportunity of thanking in the name of the city those who had so public consented to in the exercises of the occasion i jest despise the pieces in it growled it don t give folk a fair notion of us ef folk won t be fore handed an put by when they ve the chance returned it stands in the nature o things they to be you take by that young riches but for a season ef you scatter them on but to lose everything everything said what can you do once i the watery blue eyes stared up and down as looking for something to steady them once i read in a book i think of a boat where every one was run down except some one and he said to me said cutting in you read a little less an take more int in your and you come nearer your keep among the felt a thrill that began in captains courageous the back of his neck and ended at his boots he was cold too though it was a stifling day that the from philadelphia said troop at the platform you ve fixed it about old man t ye ye know why it was not s ride that the woman delivered but some sort of poem about a fishing port called and a fleet of beating in against storm by night while the women made a guiding fire at the head of the with everything they could lay hands on they took the s blanket who shivered and bade them go they took the baby s cradle who could not say them no said dan peering over long jack s shoulder that s great must ha bin expensive though ground case said the man badly lighted port and knew not all the while if they were lighting a or only a funeral pile x io captains courageous the wonderful voice took hold of people by their and when she told how the were flung ashore living and dead and they carried the bodies to the glare of the fires asking child is this your father or wife is this your man you could hear hard breathing all over the benches and when the boats of go out to face the think of the love that travels like light upon their sails there was very little applause when she finished the women were looking for their handkerchiefs and many of the men stared at the ceiling with shiny eyes h m said that cost ye a dollar to hear at any maybe two some folk i can afford it seems downright waste to me how in did cap strike adrift here no him under said an man behind he s a poet an he s to say his piece comes from way too captains courageous he did not say that captain b had for five years to be allowed to a piece of his own composition on memorial day an amused and exhausted committee had at last given him his desire the simplicity and utter happiness of the old man as he stood up in his very best sunday clothes won the audience ere he opened his mouth they sat through seven and thirty verses describing at fullest length the loss of the off the in the gale of and when he came to an end they shouted with one kindly throat a far sighted boston slid away for a full copy of the and an interview with the author so that earth had nothing more to offer captain ex master and poet in the seventy third year of his age i call that	39
sensible said the man i ve bin over that with his jest as he read it in my two hands and i can testify that he s got it all in if dan here could n t do better n that with one hand before breakfast he ought to be captains courageous said the honor of on general principles not but what i m free to own he s considerable ery fer still guess uncle goin to die this trip compliment he s ever paid me dan what s wrong with you you act all quiet and you look sick don t know what s the matter with me replied seems if my were too big for my i m all crowded up and too bad we wait for the an then we quit an catch the tide the they were nearly all of that season s making themselves rigidly like people going to be shot in cold blood for they knew what was coming the summer girls in pink and blue stopped over captain s wonderful poem and looked back to see why all was silent the pressed forward as that town official who had talked with up on the platform and began to read the year s list of losses dividing captains courageous them into months last september s were mostly single men and strangers but his voice rang very loud in the stillness of the hall september th lost with all aboard off the master single main street city single street city single single main street city supposed single s city joseph joseph st john s no a voice cried from the body of the hall he from st john s said the reader looking to see i know it he belongs in my the reader made a on the margin of the list and resumed same i single may street city single captains courageous september th married drowned in off eastern point that shot went home for one of the where she sat clasping and her hands mrs who had been listening with wide opened eyes threw up her head and choked dan s mother a few seats to the right saw and heard and quickly moved to her side the reading went on by the time they reached the january and february the shots were falling thick and fast and the drew breath between their teeth february th harry on the way home from married main street city lost overboard february d hope went astray in robert married native of but his wife was in the hall they heard a low cry as though a little animal had been hit it was stifled at once and a girl staggered out of the hall she had been hoping against hope for months because some who have gone adrift in have been picked up by deep sea sailing ships captains courageous now she had her certainty and could see the policeman on the a hack for her it s fifty cents to the the driver began but the policeman held up his hand but i m goin there anyway jump right in look at here you don t pull me next time my lamps ain t lit see the side door closed on the patch of bright and s eyes turned again to the reader and his endless list april th lost on the banks with all hands edward master married city d married g w clay colored married city and so on and so on great were rising in s throat and his stomach reminded him of the day when he fell from the may loth we v f here the blood all over him single city lost overboard once more a low tearing cry from somewhere at the back of the hall l captains courageous she should n t ha come she should n t ha come said long jack with a of pity don t dan heard that much but the rest was all darkness spotted with fiery wheels leaned forward and spoke to his wife where she sat with one arm round mrs and the other holding down the catching hands lean your head right she whispered it go off in a minute i ca an t i do don t oh let me mrs did not at all know what she said you must mrs troop repeated your boy s jest fainted dead away they do that some when they re their growth wish to tend to him we can this side quite quiet you come right along with me my dear we re both women i guess we must tend to men folk come the ive we promptly went through the crowd as a body guard and it was a very white and shaken that they propped up on a bench in an his ma was mrs troop s only captains courageous comment as the mother bent over her boy how d you suppose he could ever stand it she cried indignantly to who had said nothing at all it was horrible horrible we should n t have come it s wrong and wicked it it is n t right why why could n t they put these things in the papers where they belong are you better darling that made very properly ashamed oh i m all right i guess he said struggling to his feet with a broken must ha been something i ate for breakfast coffee perhaps said whose face was all in hard lines as though it had been cut out of bronze we won t go back again guess t would be s well to to the wharf said it s close in along with them an the fresh air will fresh mrs up announced that he never felt better in his life but it was not	39
ht airs when was taught how to steer the from one berth to another hi say pour ah it was wonderful fishing could see the glimmering below biting as steadily as they swam but so close lay the boats that even single hooks dressing down on the we re here came alongside with letters for home the mrs the crew of the we re here to the his father turned where he sat and thrust out a long hand you know as well as i do that i can t make anything of you if you don t act straight by me farewell to the we re here captains courageous captains courageous a story of the grand banks chapter i the weather door of the smoking room had been left open to the north atlantic fog as the big rolled and lifted whistling to warn the fishing fleet that boy s the biggest nuisance aboard said a man in a overcoat shutting the door with a bang he is n t wanted here he s too fresh a white haired german reached for a and between i know der breed is full of dot kind i you you should ropes ends free under your there is n t any real harm to him he s more to be pitied than anything a man from new york as he lay at d captains courageous full length along the cushions under the wet they ve dragged him around from hotel to hotel ever since he was a kid i was talking to his mother this morning she s a lovely lady but she don t pretend to manage him he s going to europe to finish his education education is n t begun yet this was a curled up in a corner that boy gets two hundred a month pocket money he told me he is n t sixteen either his father t it said the german that and mines and lumber and shipping built one place at san the old man has another at los owns half a dozen half the lumber on the pacific slope and lets his wife spend the money the went on lazily the west don t suit her she says she just tracks around with the boy and her nerves trying to find out what amuse him i guess hot springs new york and round again he is n t much more than a second hand hotel clerk now when he s finished in europe he be a holy terror captains courageous j what s the matter with the old man attending to him personally said a voice from the d man s up the rocks don t want to be disturbed i guess he find out his error a few years from now pity because there s a heap of good in the boy if you could get at it a rope s end a rope s end growled the german once more the door and a slight slim built boy perhaps fifteen years old a half smoked hanging from one corner of his mouth leaned in over the high his yellow complexion did not show well on a person of his years and his look was a mixture of and very cheap he was dressed in a cherry colored red stockings and shoes with a red flannel cap at the back of the head after whistling between his teeth as he eyed the company he said in a loud high voice say it s thick outside you can hear the fish boats all around us say would n t it be great if we ran down one shut the door said the new captains courageous shut the door and stay outside you re not wanted here who stop me he answered deliberately did you pay for my passage martin guess i ve as good right here as the next man he picked up some from a and began throwing right hand against left say gen this is n mud can t we make a game of between us there was no answer and he puffed his swung his legs and on the table with rather dirty fingers then he pulled out a roll of bills as if to count them how s your this afternoon a man said i did n t see her at lunch in her state room i guess she s most always sick on the ocean i m going to give the fifteen dollars for looking after her i don t go down more n i can avoid it makes me feel mysterious to pass that butler s place say this is the first time i ve been on the ocean oh don t who s this is the first captains courageous time i ve crossed the ocean gen and except the first day i have n t been sick one little bit no sir he brought down his fist with a triumphant bang his finger and went on counting the bills oh you ve a high grade machine with the writing in plain sight the yawned you blossom into a credit to your country if you don t take care i know it i m an american first last and all the time i show em that when i strike europe my s out i can t smoke the the steward any gen got a real on him the chief engineer entered for a moment red smiling and wet say cried cheerfully how are we it much in the ordinary way was the grave reply the young are as polite as ever to their elders an their elders are e en try in to appreciate it a low chuckle came from a corner the german opened his cigar case and handed a black cigar to dot is der apparatus to smoke my young he said you dry it yes den you be so happy captains courageous lit	39
the thing with a flourish he felt that he was getting on in society it would take more n this to me over he said ignorant that he was lighting that terrible article a dot we shall see said the german where are we now mr just there or mr said the engineer well be on the grand bank to night but in a general way o we re all among the fishing fleet now we ve shaved three an near the boom off a frenchman since noon an that s close ye may say you like my cigar eh the german asked for s eyes were full of tears fine full flavor he answered through shut teeth guess we ve down a little have n t we i out and see what the log says i might if i you said the german staggered over the wet decks to the nearest rail he was very unhappy but he saw the deck steward chairs together and since he had boasted before the man that captains courageous he was never his pride made him go aft to the second saloon deck at the stern which was finished in a back the deck was deserted and he crawled to the extreme end of it near the flag pole there he doubled up in limp agony for the joined with the and jar of the screw to out his soul his head swelled sparks of fire danced before his eyes his body seemed to lose weight while his heels wavered in the breeze he was fainting from and a roll of the ship him over the rail on to the smooth lip of the back then a low gray mother wave swung out of the fog tucked under one arm so to speak and pulled him off and away to the great green closed over him and he went quietly to sleep he was roused by the sound of a such as they used to blow at a he had once attended in the slowly he remembered that he was drowned and dead in but was too weak to fit things together a new smell filled his nostrils wet and ran down his back and he was helplessly full of salt water when he opened his lo captains courageous eyes he perceived that he was still on the top of the sea for it was running round him in silver colored hills and he was lying on a pile of half dead fish looking at a broad human back clothed in a blue it s no good thought the boy i m dead sure enough and this thing is in charge he groaned and the figure turned its head showing a pair of little gold rings half hidden iii curly black hair you feel some pretty well now it said lie still so we trim better with a swift jerk he the flickering boat head on to a sea that lifted her twenty full feet only to slide her into a pit beyond but this mountain climbing did not interrupt blue s talk fine good job say that i catch you eh at better good job say your boat not catch me how you come to fall out i was sick said sick and could n t help it just in time i blow my horn and your boat she a little then i see you come all down eh at i think you are cut into by the screw but you to me and i make a big fish of you so you shall not die this time then a low gray mother wave swung out of the fog tucked under one arm so to speak and pulled him off and away to captains courageous where am i said who could not see that life was particularly safe where he lay you are with me in the my name and i come from we re here of i live to by and by we get supper eh at he seemed to have two pairs of hands and a head of cast iron for not content with blowing through a big shell he must needs stand up to it swaying with the sway of the flat and send a grinding shriek through the fog how long this entertainment lasted could not remember for he lay back terrified at the sight of the smoking he fancied he heard a gun and a horn and shouting something bigger than the but quite as lively loomed alongside several voices talked at once he was dropped into a dark heaving hole where men in gave him a hot drink and took off his clothes and he fell asleep when he he listened for the first breakfast bell on the steamer wondering why his state room had grown so small turning he looked into a narrow cave lit h captains courageous by a lamp hung against a huge square beam a three table within arm s reach ran from the angle of the bows to the at the after end behind a well used stove sat a boy about his own age with a flat red face and a pair of twinkling gray eyes he was dressed in a blue and high rubber boots several pairs of the same sort of foot wear an old cap and some lay on the floor and black and yellow swayed to and fro beside the the place was packed as full of smells as a is of cotton the had a peculiarly thick flavor of their own which made a sort of background to the smells of fish burnt paint and stale tobacco but these again were all together by one smell of ship and salt water saw with disgust that there were no sheets on his bed place he was lying on a piece of dingy full of and then too the boat s motion was not that	39
of a steamer she was neither sliding nor rolling but rather herself about in a silly way like a at the end of a ran by close to his ear and beams he must needs stand up to it swaying with the sway of the flat and send a grinding shriek through the fog captains courageous and about him all these things made him and think of his mother better said the boy with a grin some coffee he brought a tin cup full and it with is n t there milk said looking round the dark double tier of as if he expected to find a cow there well no said the boy ner there ain t likely to be till mid september t ain t bad coffee i made it drank in silence and the boy handed him a plate full of pieces of crisp pork which he ate i ve dried your clothes guess they ve shrunk some said the boy they ain t our style much none of em twist round an see ef you re hurt any stretched himself in every direction but could not report any injuries that s good the boy said heartily fix an go on deck wants to see you i m his son dan they call me an i m cook s an everything else aboard that s too dirty for the men there ain t no boy here me went overboard an he i captains courageous was only a an twenty year old at that how d you come to fall off in a dead flat ca am t was n t a calm said it was a gale and i was guess i must have rolled over the rail there was a little common swell yes day an last night said the boy but ef s your notion of a gale he whistled you know more fore you re through hurry s like many other unfortunate young people had never in all his life received a direct order never at least without long and sometimes tearful explanations of the advantages of obedience and the reasons for the request mrs lived in fear of breaking his spirit which perhaps was the reason that she herself walked on the edge of nervous he could not see why he should be expected to hurry for any man s pleasure and said so your can come down here if he s so anxious to talk to me i want him to take me to new york right away it pay him dan opened his eyes as the size and beauty of this joke dawned on say captains courageous he shouted up the he says you kin slip down an see him ef you ve anxious that way hear the answer came back in the deepest voice had ever heard from a human chest quit dan and send him to me dan and threw his shoes there was something in the tones on the deck that made the boy his extreme rage and console himself with the thought of gradually the tale of his own and his father s wealth on the voyage home this rescue would certainly make him a hero among his friends for life he hoisted himself on deck up a perpendicular ladder and stumbled aft over a score of to where a small clean shaven man with gray eyebrows sat on a step that led up to the quarter deck the swell had passed in the night leaving a long sea dotted round the horizon with the sails of a dozen fishing boats between them lay little black showing where the were out fishing the with a riding sail on the played easily at anchor and except for the man by the cabin roof house they call it she was deserted captains courageous good afternoon i should say you we nigh the clock around young was the greeting said he did not like being called young and as one rescued from drowning expected sympathy his mother suffered agonies whenever he got his feet wet but this did not seem excited let s hear all it it s quite first an last fer all concerned what might be your name where from we it s york an where we it s europe gave his name the name of the steamer and a short history of the accident winding up with a demand to be taken back immediately to new york where his father would pay anything any one chose to name h m said the shaven man quite unmoved by the end of s speech i can t say we think special of any man or boy even that falls overboard from that kind o packet in a flat ca am least of all when his excuse is he s excuse cried d you suppose i d fall overboard into your dirty little boat for fun p excuse cried d you suppose i d fall overboard into your dirty little boat for fun captains courageous not what your notions o fun may be i can t rightly say young but if i was you i would n t call the boat which under providence was the means o ye names in the first place it s blame in the second it s to my s an i m troop o the we re here o which you don t seem rightly to know i don t know and i don t care said i m grateful enough for being saved and all that of course but i want you to understand that the sooner you take me back to new york the better it pay you troop raised one shaggy over a suspiciously mild blue eye dollars and cents said delighted to think that he was making an impression cold dollars and cents he thrust a hand	39
work was very proud of that till the fall i tell you i will you hear troop regarded the top of the with deep interest for a while as fiercely all around him captains courageous he said at last i m out my in my own mind it s a matter o dan stole up and plucked by the elbow don t go to with any more he pleaded you ve called him a thief two or three times over an he don t take that from any bein i won t almost shrieked the advice and still troop meditated seems kinder he said at last his eye down to i don t blame you not a young nor you won t blame me when the s out o your be sure you sense what i say ten an a ha af fer second boy on the an all fund fer to teach you fer the sake o your health yes or no no said take me back to new york or i see you he did not exactly remember what followed he was lying in the holding on to a nose that while troop looked down on him serenely dan he said to his son i was this young when i first saw him on account o hasty never you be led captains courageous astray by hasty dan i m sorry for him because he s clear distracted in his upper works he ain t responsible fer the names he s give me nor fer his other statements nor fer overboard which i m ha af convinced he did you be gentle with him dan r i give you twice what i ve give him them the head let him it off troop went down solemnly into the cabin where he and the older men leaving dan to comfort the heir to thirty millions chapter ii i warned ye said dan as the drops fell thick and fast on the dark ain t hasty but you fair earned it there s no sense on so s shoulders were rising and falling in of dry sobbing i know the first time laid me out was the last and that was my first trip makes ye feel an know it does moaned that man s either crazy or drunk and and i can t do anything don t say that to whispered dan he s set all liquor an well he told me you was the madman what in creation made you call him a thief he s my sat up his nose and told the story of the missing of bills i m not crazy he wound up only your father has never seen more than a five dollar captains courageous bill at a time and my father could buy up this boat once a week and never miss it you don t know what the we we here s worth your must a pile o money how did he it can t shake out a straight go ahead in gold mines and things west i ve read o that kind o business out west too does he go around with a pistol on a trick pony same the they call that the wild west and i ve heard that their spurs an was solid silver you are a said amused in spite of himself my father has n t any use for when he wants to ride he takes his car car no his own private car of course you ve seen a private car some time in your life he one said dan cautiously i saw her at the union in boston with three her run dan meant cleaning the windows but he owns every railroad on long island they say an they say he s bought ha af an run a captains courageous line fence around her an filled her up with lions an an bears an an an such all he s a i ve seen his car yes well my father s what they call a and he has two private cars one s named for me the and one for my mother the hold on said dan don t ever let me swear but i guess you can fore we go ahead i want you to say hope you may die if you re lying of course said ain t say hope i may die if i ain t truth hope i may die right here said if every word i ve spoken is n t the cold truth hundred an thirty four dollars an all said dan i heard ye to an i ha af looked you d be up same s protested himself red in the face dan was a shrewd young person along his own lines and ten minutes questioning convinced him that was not lying much besides he had bound himself by the most captains courageous terrible oath known to boyhood and yet he sat alive with a red ended nose in the upon said dan at last from the very bottom of his soul when had completed an of the car named in his honor then a grin of mischievous delight his broad face i believe you s made a mistake fer once in his life he has sure said who was meditating an early revenge he be mad clear through jest hates to be in his dan lay back and his oh don t you the catch by on i don t want to be knocked down again i get even with him though never heard any man ever got even with but he d knock ye down again sure the more he was the more he d do it but gold mines and pistols i never said a word about pistols cut in for he was on his oath s so no more	39
you did two private cars then one named fer you an one fer her an two hundred dollars a month all knocked into the fer not captains courageous fer ten an a ha af a month it s the top haul o the season he exploded with noiseless then i was right said who thought he had found a you was wrong the kind o wrong you take right hold an pitch in o me or you catch it an i catch it fer you up always gives me double helps cause i m his son an he hates folk guess you re kinder mad at i ve been that way time an again but s a mighty jest man all the fleet says so looks like justice this don t it pointed to his outraged nose s lets the shore blood outer you did it for yer health say though i can t have s with a man that thinks me or or any one on the we we here s a thief we ain t any common wharf end crowd by any manner o means we re an we ve together for six years an more don t you make any mistake on that i told ye don t let me swear he calls em vain oaths and pounds me but ef i could say what you captains courageous said your an his s i d say that your dollars i what was in your pockets when i dried your fer i did n t look to see but i d say using the very same words you used jest now neither me nor an we was the only two that you after you was brought aboard knows any thin the money s my say the blood letting had certainly cleared s brain and maybe the loneliness of the sea had something to do with it that s all right he said then he looked down seems to me that for a fellow just saved from drowning i have n t been over and above grateful dan well you was shook up and silly said dan anyway there was only an me aboard to see it the cook he don t count i might have thought about losing the bills that way said half to himself instead of calling everybody in sight a thief where s your father in the cabin what d you want o him you see said and he stepped rather for his head was still singing captains courageous to the cabin steps where the little ship s clock hung in plain sight of the wheel troop in the and yellow painted cabin was busy with a note book and an enormous black pencil which he sucked hard from time to time i have n t acted quite right said surprised at his own what s wrong said the walked into dan ye no it s about you i m here to listen well i i m here to take things back said very quickly when a man s saved from drowning he ey you make a man yet ef you go on this way he ought n t begin by calling people names jest an right right an jest said troop with the ghost of a dry smile so i m here to say i m sorry another big troop heaved himself slowly off the he was sitting on and held out an eleven inch hand i t would do you sights o good an this shows i were n t in captains courageous my a smothered chuckle on deck caught his ear i am very seldom in my the eleven inch hand closed on s it to the elbow we put a little more to that we ve done with you young an i don t think any worse of ye fer s gone by you was n t fairly responsible go right your business an you won t take no hurt you re white said dan as regained the deck flushed to the tips of his ears i don t feel it said he i did n t mean that way i heard what said when allows he don t think the worse of any man s give himself away he hates to be in his too ho ho has a he d sooner dip his colors to the british than change it i m glad it s settled right up s right when he says he can t take you back it s all the we make here the men be back like after a dead whale in ha af an hour what for said supper o course don t your tell you you ve a heap to learn captains courageous guess i have said looking at the of ropes and blocks overhead she s a said dan misunderstanding the look wait till our s bent an she walks home with all her salt wet there s some work first though he pointed down into the darkness of the open main between the two what s that for it s all empty said you an me an a few more got to fill it said dan that s where the fish goes alive said well no they re so s to be dead an flat an salt there s a hundred o salt in the an we t more n covered our to now where are the fish though in the sea they say in the boats we pray said dan quoting a s proverb you come in last night with forty of em he pointed to a sort of wooden pen just in front of the quarter deck you an me we that out when captains courageous they re through send we full pens to night i ve seen her down ha af a foot with fish to clean an we stood	39
a half bad luck to ye said long jack i m murder in to fill your captains courageous slate ut for a bad catch the has me came another alongside and more fish shot into the pen two hundred and three let s look at the passenger the speaker was even larger than the man and his face was made curious by a purple cut running from his left eye to the right corner of his mouth not knowing what else to do each as it came down pulled out the foot boards and laid them in the bottom of the boat he s caught on good said the man who was tom watching him there are two ways o everything one s fashion any end first an a slippery over all an the other s what we did on the old t dan interrupted brushing into the knot of men with a long board on legs out o here tom an leave me fix the tables he one end of the board into two in the kicked out the leg and just in time to avoid a swinging blow from the man o war s man captains courageous an they did that on the too see said tom laughing guess they was eyed then fer it did n t home and i know who find his boots on the main ef he don t leave us alone haul ahead i m busy can t ye see ye lie on the cable an sleep all day said long jack you re the an i m persuaded ye corrupt our in a week his name s said dan waving two strangely shaped knives an he be worth five of any sou boston fore long he laid the knives on the table cocked his head on one side and admired the effect think it s forty two said a small voice and there was a roar of laughter as another voice answered then my luck s turned fer i m forty five though i be stung outer all shape forty two or forty five i ve lost count the small voice said it s an uncle catch this beats the any day said dan jest look at em captains courageous come in come in roared long jack it s wet out children forty two ye said this was uncle i count again then the voice replied meekly the two swung together and into the s side patience o snapped uncle water with a splash what a farmer like you to set foot in a boat beats me you ve nigh stove me all up i am sorry mr i came to sea on account of nervous you advised me i think you an your be drowned in the whale hole roared uncle a fat and little man you re down on me did ye say forty two or forty five i ve forgotten mr let s count don t see as it could be forty five m forty five said uncle you count troop came out of the cabin you pitch your fish in at once he said in the tone of authority captains courageous don t the catch dan murmured them two are on y jest mother delight he s them wan by wan howled long jack as uncle got to work laboriously the little man in the other counting a line of on the that was last week s catch he said looking up his forefinger where he had left off dan who darted to the after tackle and leaning far slipped the hook into the stern rope as made her fast forward the others pulled gallantly and swung the boat in man fish and all one two four nine said tom counting with a practised eye you re it dan let the run and slid him out of the stern on to the deck amid a torrent of his own fish hold on roared uncle by the waist hold on i m a bit mixed in my he had no time to protest but was and treated like forty one said tom beat by a farmer an you a sailor too captains courageous t were n t fair said he stumbling out of the pen an i m stung up all to pieces his thick hands were and white some folks will find bottom said dan addressing the newly risen moon ef they to fer it seems to me an others said uncle eats the fat o the land in an their own blood kin seat ye seat ye a voice had not heard called from the troop tom long jack and went forward on the word little bent above his square deep sea and the tangled lay down full length on the deck and dan dropped into the hold where heard him with a hammer salt he said returning soon as we re through supper we to dressing down you pitch to tom an they together an you hear em we re second ha af you an me an an the youth an beauty o the boat what s the good of that said i m hungry captains courageous they be through in a minute she smells good to night ships a good cook ef he do suffer with his brother it s a full catch to day ain t it he pointed at the pens piled high with what water did ye twenty father said the they strike on good an some day i show you the moon was beginning to walk on the still sea before the elder men came aft the cook had no need to cry second half dan and were down the and at table ere tom last and most deliberate of the elders had finished wiping his mouth with the back of his hand followed and sat down before a tin pan of s	39
tongues and sounds mixed with scraps of pork and a loaf of hot bread and some black and powerful coffee hungry as they were they waited while solemnly asked a blessing then they in silence till dan drew breath over his tin cup and demanded of how he felt most full but there s just room for another piece the cook was a huge jet black negro and captains courageous unlike all the had met did not talk himself with smiles and dumb show invitations to eat more see said dan with his fork on the table it s jest as i said the young an handsome men like me an an you an we re second ha af an we eats when the first ha af are through they re the old fish and they re mean an an their has to be so they come first which they don t deserve ain t that so doctor the cook nodded can t he talk said in a whisper to along not much o anything we know his natural tongue s kinder curious comes from the of cape he does where the farmers speak scotch cape s full o whose folk run in there war an they talk like the farmers all that is not scotch said that is so i read in a book reads a heap most of what he says is so when it comes to a o fish eh does your father just let them say how captains courageous many they ve caught without checking them said why yes where s the sense of a man fer a few old was a man once lied for his catch put in lied every day ten twenty more fish than come he say there was where was that said dan none o folk frenchman of ah them west shore don t anyway stands to reason they can t ef you run any of their soft hooks you know why said dan with an awful contempt always more and never less every time we come to dress long jack roared down the and the second ha af scrambled up at once the shadow of the and with the never riding sail rolled to and fro on the heaving deck in the moonlight and the pile of fish by the stern shone like a of silver in the hold there were and where troop and captains courageous tom moved among the salt dan passed a and led him to the end of the rough table where uncle was impatiently with a knife a tub of salt water lay at his feet you pitch to an tom down the an take uncle don t cut yer eye out said dan swinging himself into the hold i pass salt below and stood knee deep among in the pen flourishing drawn knives long jack a basket at his feet and on his hands faced uncle at the table and stared at the and the tub hi shouted stooping to the fish and bringing one up with a finger under its and a finger in its eye he laid it on the edge of the pen the knife blade with a sound of tearing and the fish from throat to vent with a nick on either side of the neck dropped at long jack s feet hi said long jack with a of his hand the s liver dropped in the basket another and sent the head and flying and the empty fish captains courageous slid across to uncle who fiercely there was another sound of tearing the flew over the and the fish and open in the tub sending the salt water into s astonished mouth after the first yell the men were silent the moved along as though they were alive and long ere had ceased wondering at the miraculous dexterity of it all his tub was full pitch uncle without turning his head and pitched the fish by and down the hi pitch em shouted dan don t scatter uncle is the best in the fleet watch him mind his book indeed it looked a little as though the round uncle were cutting magazine pages against time s body cramped over from the stayed like a statue but his long arms the fish without ceasing little toiled but it was easy to see he was weak once or twice found time to help him without breaking the chain of supplies and once howled because he had caught his finger in a french captains courageous man s hook these hooks are made of soft metal to be after use but the very often get away with them and are again elsewhere and that is one of the many reasons why the boats despise the down below the sound of rough salt rubbed on rough flesh sounded like the of a a steady to the click nick of the knives in the pen the and of torn heads dropped liver and flying the of uncle s knife away and the of wet opened bodies falling into the tub at the end of an hour would have given the world to rest for fresh wet weigh more than you would think and his back ached with the steady but he felt for the first time in his life that he was one of a working gang of men took pride in the thought and held on sullenly knife oh shouted uncle at last doubled up gasping among the fish bowed back and forth to himself and long jack leaned over the the cook appeared noiseless as a black captains courageous shadow collected a mass of and heads and retreated blood ends for breakfast an head said long jack his lips knife oh repeated uncle waving the flat curved s weapon look by your foot cried dan below saw half a dozen knives stuck in a in the he	39
me troop stared forward the pipe between his teeth with eyes that saw nothing as his son said he was studying the fish captains courageous his knowledge and experience on the banks against the in his own sea he accepted the presence of the inquisitive on the horizon as a compliment to his powers but now that it was paid he wished to draw away and make his berth alone till it was time to go up to the virgin and fish in the streets of that roaring town upon the waters so troop thought of recent weather and currents and other domestic arrangements from the point of view of a twenty pound was in fact for an hour a himself and looked remarkably like one then he removed the pipe from his teeth said dan we ve done our can t we go a piece it s good weather not in that cherry colored ner them ha af baked brown shoes give him fit to wear s pleased that settles it said dan dragging into the cabin while troop pitched a key down the steps keeps my spare where he kin it cause ma i m he through a and in less than captains courageous three minutes was adorned with s rubber boots that came half up his a heavy blue well at the elbows a pair of and a sou ye look like said dan hurry keep nigh an handy said troop an don t go the fleet ef any one asks you what i m latin to do speak the truth fer ye don t know a little red s lay of the dan hauled in the painter and dropped lightly on to the bottom boards while tumbled after that s no way o into a boat said dan ef there was any sea you d go to the bottom sure you got to learn to meet her dan fitted the pins took the forward and watched s work the boy had rowed in a lady like fashion on the but there is a difference between pins and well balanced light and eight foot sea oars they stuck in the gentle swell and short row short said dan ef you captains courageous your oar in any kind o sea you re liable to turn her over ain t she a mine too the little was clean in her bows lay a tiny anchor two of water and some seventy of thin brown a tin dinner horn rested in just under s right hand beside an ugly looking a short and a shorter wooden stick a couple of lines with very heavy leads and double hooks all neatly on square were stuck in their place by the where s the sail and mast said for his hands were beginning to dan chuckled ye don t sail much ye pull but ye need n t pull so hard don t you wish you owned her well i guess my father might give me one or two if i asked em replied he had been too busy to think much of his family till then that s so i forgot your s a you don t act any but a an craft an gear dan spoke as though she were a captains courageous costs a heap think your u d give you one fer fer a pet like should n t wonder it would be most the only thing i have n t stuck him for yet must be an expensive kinder kid to home don t way short s the trick because no sea s ever dead still an the crack the loom of the oar kicked under the chin and knocked him backwards that was what i was goin to say i to learn too but was n t more than eight years old when i got my regained his seat with aching jaws and a frown no good mad at things says it s our own fault ef we can t handle em he says le s try here give us the water the was rocking fully a mile away but when dan up ended an oar he waved his left arm three times thirty said dan a salt on to the hook over with the bait same s i do an don t your dan s line was out long before had captains courageous mastered the mystery of and heaving out the leads the drifted along easily it was not worth while to anchor till they were sure of good ground here we come dan shouted and a shower of spray rattled on s shoulders as a big and kicked alongside under your hand quick evidently could not be the dinner horn so passed over the and dan stunned the fish before he pulled it and out the hook with the short wooden stick he called a stick then felt a and pulled up why these are he shouted look the hook had among a bunch of red on one side and white on the other perfect of the land fruit except that there were no leaves and the stem was all and don t em em off don t the warning came too late had picked them from the hook and was admiring them captains courageous he cried for his fingers as though he had grasped many ye know what bottom means fish should be with the naked fingers says em off the an bait up won t help any it s all in the wages smiled at the thought of his ten and a half dollars a month and wondered what his mother would say if she could see him hanging over the edge of a fishing in mid ocean she suffered agonies whenever he went out on lake and by the way remembered distinctly that he used to laugh at her anxieties	39
suddenly the line flashed through his hand even through the the supposed to protect it he s a give him room to his strength cried dan i help ye no you won t snapped as he hung on to the line it s my first fish is is it a whale dan peered down into the water alongside and flourished the big ready for all chances some captains courageous thing white and oval and fluttered through the green i lay my an share he s over a hundred are you so anxious to land him alone s were raw and bleeding where they had been against the his face was purple blue between excitement and exertion he with sweat and was half blinded from staring at the about the swiftly moving line the boys were tired long ere the who took charge of them and the for the next twenty minutes but the big flat fish was and hauled in at last s luck said dan wiping his forehead he s all of a hundred looked at the huge gray creature with unspeakable pride he had seen many times on marble ashore but it had never occurred to him to ask how they came inland now he knew and every inch of his body ached with fatigue ef was along said dan up he d read the signs plain s print the fish are smaller an smaller an you ve took as a s we re apt to i ll lay my an share s over a hundred captains courageous find this trip yesterday s catch did ye notice it was all big fish an no he d read them signs right off says on the banks is signs an can be read wrong er right s deeper n the whale hole even as he spoke some one fired a pistol on the we re here and a basket was run up in the fore what did i say that s the call fer the whole crowd s something er he d never break this time o day up an we pull back they were to of the just ready to the over the still sea when sounds of woe half a mile off led them to who was around a fixed point for all the like a gigantic the little man backed away and came down again with enormous energy but at the end of each his swung round and herself on her rope we to help him else he root an seed here said dan what s the matter said this was a new world where he could not lay down the law to his elders but had to ask captains courageous questions humbly and the sea was horribly big and anchor s s always losing em lost two this trip on sandy bottom too an says next one he loses sure s he give him the that u d break s heart what s a said who had a vague idea it might be some kind of marine torture like in the big stone of an anchor you kin see a in the bows fur s you can see a an all the fleet knows what it means they d him dreadful could n t stand that no more n a dog with a to his tail he s so sensitive stuck again don t try any more o your come up on her and keep your straight up an down it does n t move said the little man panting it does n t move at all and indeed i tried everything what s all this s nest for ard said dan pointing to a wild of spare oars and all together by the hand of captains courageous oh that said proudly is a spanish mr showed me how to make it but even that does n t move her dan bent low over the to hide a smile once or twice on the and behold the anchor drew at once haul up he said laughing er she stuck again they left him regarding the weed hung of the little anchor with big pathetic blue eyes and thanking them oh say while i think of it said dan when they were out of ear shot ain t quite all he ain t dangerous but his mind s give out see is that so or is it one of your father s judgments asked as he bent to his oars he felt he was learning to handle them more easily ain t this time s a sure no he ain t exactly so much a harmless it was this way you re quite so an i tell you cause it s right you know he was a preacher once jacob his name told me an he lived with his wife an four children out captains courageous way well he took his folks along to a camp most like an they stayed over jest one night in you ve talk o considered yes i have but i don t know why it sticks in my head same as both was big accidents s why well that one single night and his folks was to the hotel was wiped out dam bust an her an the houses struck adrift an into each other an sunk i ve seen the pictures an they re he saw his folk drowned all n a heap fore he rightly knew what was his mind give out from that on he happened up to but for the poor life of him he could n t remember what an he jest drifted an he did n t know what he was nor what he bin an way he run uncle who was n city ha af my mother s folks they live scattered inside o an uncle he visits uncle he captains courageous kinder adopted well what	39
his trouble an he brought him east an he give him work on his farm why i heard him calling a farmer last night when the boats is your uncle a farmer farmer shouted dan there ain t water enough here an to wash the off n his boots he s jest farmer why i ve seen man up a bucket long towards an set the to the butt same s ef t a cow s bag he s much farmer well an he they ran the farm up way t uncle he sold it this spring to a from boston as wanted to build a summer an he got a heap for it well them two scratched along till one day s church he d belonged to the found out where he drifted an an wrote to uncle never what they said exactly but uncle was mad he s a mostly but he jest let em it both sides o the bow s if he was a an he war n t goin to give up to any blame con o captains courageous in or else then he come to w s two back an he an must fish a trip fer their health guess he thought the would n t hunt the banks fer jacob was agreeable fer uncle he d been off an on fer thirty years when he war n t patent an he took quarter share in the we we here an the trip done so much good made a habit o him some day he remember his wife an an then like s not he die don t ye talk ner such things to r uncle he heave ye overboard poor murmured i should n t ever have thought uncle cared for him by the look of em together i like though we all do said dan we ought to ha give him a tow but i wanted to tell ye first they were close to the now the other boats a little behind them you need n t heave in the till after dinner said troop from the deck we dress right off fix table boys captains courageous i deeper n the whale deep said dan with a wink as he set the gear for dressing down look at them boats that edged up they ve all on see em they are all alike to me and indeed to a the nodding around seemed run from the same they ain t though that dirty packet with her that way she s the hope of nick s her the meanest man on the banks we tell him so when we strike the main ledge way off s the day s eye the two own her she s from too an good luck but he d find fish in a them other three side along they re the smith rose and s all home guess we see the m won t we they re all over from the o you won t see many boats to morrow when troop called his son it was a sign that the old man was pleased boys we re too crowded he went on addressing the crew as they captains courageous we leave em to bait big an catch small he looked at the catch in the pen and it was curious to see how little and level the fish ran save for s there was nothing over fifteen pounds on deck i m on the weather he added ye have to make it yourself for there s no sign can see said long jack sweeping the clear horizon and yet half an hour later as they were dressing down the bank fog dropped on them between fish and fish as they say it drove steadily and in wreaths curling and smoking along the water the men stopped dressing down without a word long jack and uncle slipped the into their and began to heave up the anchor the as the wet cable strained on the barrel and tom gave a hand at the last the anchor came up with a sob and the riding sail as troop her at the wheel up and said he slip em in the shouted long jack making fast the sheet while the others raised the rattling rings of the and the fore boom as the captains courageous we re here looked up into the wind and off into blank whirling white there s wind behind this fog said troop it was all wonderful beyond words to and the most wonderful part was that he heard no orders except an occasional from troop ending with that s good my son never seen anchor weighed before said tom to gaping at the damp canvas of the no where are we going fish and make berth as you find out fore you ve bin a week aboard it s all new to you but we never know what may come to us now take me tom i d never ha thought it s better than fourteen dollars a month an a bullet in your belly said troop from the wheel ease your a grind dollars an cents better returned the man o war s man doing something to a big with a wooden tied to it but we did n t think o that when we the on the miss jim buck out s n captains courageous side harbor with fort hot shot at our stern an a gale of all where was you then jest here or replied my bread on the deep waters an sorry i can t accommodate you with red hot shot tom but i guess we come all right on wind fore we see eastern point there was an incessant and chatter at the bows now varied by a solid and a little of spray that down on the	39
the drops and the men along the lee of the house all save uncle who sat stiffly on the main nursing his stung hands guess she d carry stays l said rolling one eye at his brother guess she would n t to any profit what s the sense o canvas the farmer sailor replied the wheel almost in s hands a few seconds later a hissing wave top across the boat smote uncle between the shoulders and him from head to a few seconds later a hissing wave top smote uncle between the shoulders and him from head to foot captains courageous foot he rose and went forward only to catch another see chase him all around the deck said dan uncle he thinks his quarter share s our canvas s put this act up on him two hi that found him where he uncle had taken refuge by the but a wave him over the knees s face was as blank as the circle of the wheel guess she d lie easier under stay si said as though he had seen nothing set your old then roared the victim through a cloud of spray only don t lay it to me if anything happens you go below right off an your coffee you ought to more sense than to bum on deck this weather now they coffee an play till the cows come home said dan as uncle into the fore cabin looks to me like s if we d all be so fer a spell there s in creation n a banker when she ain t on fish i m glad ye spoke cried long captains courageous jack who had been casting round in search of amusement i d clean forgot we d a passenger under that t wharf hat there s no idleness for that don t know their ropes pass him along tom an we him t ain t my trick this time grinned dan you ve got to go it alone learned me with a rope s end for an hour long jack walked his prey up and down teaching as he said things at the sea that man must know blind or asleep there is not much gear to a seventy ton with a stump but long jack had a gift of expression when he wished to draw s attention to the peak he dug his into the back of the boy s neck and kept him at gaze for half a minute he the difference between fore and aft generally by rubbing s nose along a few feet of the boom and the lead of each rope was fixed in s mind by the end of the rope itself the lesson would have been easier had the deck been at all free but there appeared to be a place on it for everything and anything except a man forward lay the and captains courageous its tackle with the chain and all very unpleasant to trip over the and the by the to hold the fish aft of these the and of the main took all the space that was not needed for the and dressing pens then came the nests of lashed to ring by the quarter deck the house with and lashed all around it and last the sixty foot main boom in its things to duck and under every time tom of course could not keep his oar out of the business but ranged alongside with enormous and unnecessary descriptions of sails and on the old mind he says to me tom this s not the an you re mixing the bad he be ruined for life on a fore an after this way tom pleaded give him a chance to know a few principles s an art as i d show you if i had ye in the fore top o i know ut ye d talk him dead an tom now after all captains courageous i ve said how d you the take your time haul that in said pointing to the north no the boom then run that rope you showed me back there that s no way tom burst in quiet he s an has not the names good yet go on oh it s the i d hook the tackle on to the and then let down lower the sail child lower said tom in a professional agony lower the throat and peak went on those names stuck in his head lay your hand on said long jack obeyed lower till that on the after no it s till the was down on the boom then i d tie her up the way you said and then i d up the peak and throat again you ve forgot to pass the tack but time and help ye there s for an hour long jack walked his prey up and down teaching as he said things man must know blind or asleep captains courageous good and just reason for rope aboard or else t would be overboard d ye follow me t is dollars an cents i m into your pocket ye little so that ye ve filled out ye can ship from boston to an tell long jack you now i chase ye around a piece the ropes an you lay your hand on as i call he began and who was feeling rather tired walked slowly to the rope named a rope s end licked round his ribs and nearly knocked the breath out of him when you own a boat said tom with severe eyes you can walk till then take all orders at the run once more to make sure was in a glow the exercise and this last cut warmed him thoroughly now he was a singularly smart boy the son of a very clever man and a very sensitive woman with	39
a fine resolute temper that had nearly turned to obstinacy he looked at the other men and saw that even dan did not smile it was evidently all in the day s work though it hurt so he swallowed the hint with captains courageous a and a gasp and a grin the same that led him to take such advantage of his mother made him very sure that no one on the boat except maybe would stand the least nonsense one a great deal from a mere tone long jack called over half a dozen more ropes and danced over the deck like an at ebb tide one eye on tom ver good ver good done said after supper i show you a little i make with all her ropes so we shall learn class fer a passenger said dan he s jest allowed you be your salt maybe fore you re s a heap fer i learn you more our next watch together taller peering through the fog as it smoked over the bows there was nothing to be seen ten feet beyond the boom while alongside rolled the endless procession of solemn pale waves whispering and one to the other now i learn you something long jack can t shouted tom as from a by the stern he produced a battered deep sea lead at one end the hollow captains courageous from a full of mutton and went forward i learn you how to fly the blue pigeon did something to the wheel that checked the s way while with to help and a proud boy was let down the in a lump on the boom the lead sung a deep song as tom whirled it round and round go ahead man said long jack impatiently we ve not twenty five off fire island in a fog there s no trick to ut don t be jealous way the released lead into the sea far ahead as the slowly forward is a trick though said dan when your lead s all the eye you ve like to for a week what d you make it s face relaxed his skill and honor were involved in the march he had stolen on the rest of the fleet and he had his reputation as a master artist who knew the banks sixty ef i m any judge he replied with a glance at the tiny compass in the window of the house captains courageous sixty sung out tom in great wet the gathered way once more heave said after a quarter of an hour what d you make it dan whispered and he looked at proudly but was too proud of his own performances to be impressed just then fifty said the father i we re right over the nick o green bank on old sixty fifty fifty roared tom they could scarcely see him through the fog she s bust within a yard like the shells at fort bait up said dan for a line on the the seemed to be through the her wildly the men waited and looked at the boys who began fishing dan s lines on the and rail now in thunder did know help us here it s a big un too they hauled together and landed a captains courageous eyed twenty pound he had taken the bait right into his stomach why he s all covered with little cried turning him over by the great hook block they ve already said long jack ye your spare eyes under the splash went the anchor and they all heaved over the lines each man taking his own place at the are they good to eat panted as he in another covered sure when they re it s a sign they ve all been together by the thousand and when they take the bait that way they re hungry never mind how the bait sets they bite on the bare hook say this is great cried as the fish came in gasping and nearly all as dan had said why can t we always fish from the boat instead of from the can till we begin to dress the heads and u d scare the fish to boat ain t reckoned though unless ye know as much as knows guess we run captains courageous to night harder on the back this than the ain t it it was rather back breaking work for in a the weight of a is water borne till the last minute and you are so to speak abreast of him but e feet of a s make so much extra dead and stooping over the the stomach but it was d furious sport so long as it lasted and big pile lay aboard when the fish ceased biting where s and uncle asked the off his and up the line in careful imitation of the others s coffee and see under the yellow glare of the lamp on the post the table down and opened utterly unconscious of fish or weather sat the two r n a board between them uncle at s every move what s the matter said the former as one hand in the leather at the head of the ladder hung shouting to the cook big fish and heaps and heaps captains courageous replied quoting long jack how s the game little s jaw dropped t were n t none o his fault snapped uncle s were n t it said dan as staggered aft with the steaming coffee in a tin that lets us out o up to s a jest man they have to do it an two young i know bait up a tub or so o while they re said the wheel to his taste um guess i d clean up don t doubt it ye t though dress dress pitch while you two bait up why in	39
thunder did n t them blame boys tell us you d struck on said uncle shuffling to his place at the table this knife s blunt dan ef out cable don t wake ye guess you d better hire a boy o your own said dan about in the dusk over the full of line lashed to of the house oh don t ye want to slip down an s bait loo captains courageous bait we are said i will pay better things go that meant the boys would bait with selected of the as the fish were cleaned an improvement on in the little bait barrels below the were full of neatly line carrying a big hook each few feet and the and of every single hook with the of the line so that it should run clear when shot from the was a scientific business dan managed it in the dark without looking while caught his fingers on the and his fate but the hooks flew through dan s fingers like on an old maid s lap i helped bait up ashore fore i could well walk he said but it s a job all the same oh this shouted towards the where and tom were how many you reckon we need three hurry there s three hundred to each tub dan explained more n enough to lay out to night slipped up there i did he stuck his finger in his mouth i tell you there ain t money in captains courageous loi ter u d hire me to ship on a regular it may be but that it s the est business top of earth i don t know what this is if t is n t regular said my fingers are all cut to this is jest one o s blame experiments he don t less there s mighty good reason fer it knows s why he s he is we her full when we take her up er we won t see a fin and uncle cleaned up as had ordained but the boys little no sooner were the furnished than tom and long jack who had been exploring the inside of a with a lantern snatched them away loaded up the and some small painted and the boat overboard into what regarded as an exceedingly rough sea they be drowned why the s loaded like a freight car he cried we be back said long jack an in case you not be for us we lay into you both if the s i captains courageous the up on the crest of a wave and just when it seemed impossible that she could avoid against the s side slid over the ridge and was swallowed up in the damp dusk take here an keep steady said dan passing the of a bell that hung just behind the rang for he felt two lives depended on him but in the cabin in the log book did not look like a murderer and when he went to supper he even smiled at the anxious this ain t no weather said dan why you an me could set they ve only gone out jest far so s not to foul our cable they don t need no bell cling kept it up varied with occasional rub a for another half hour there was a and a alongside and dan to the hooks of the tackle long jack and tom arrived on deck together it seemed one half the north atlantic at their backs and the followed them in the air landing with a clatter captains courageous said tom as he you do yet the pleasure your company to the said long jack the water from his boots as he like an elephant and stuck an oil arm into s face we do be to honor the second half our presence and off they all four rolled to supper where stuffed himself to the brim on fish and and fell fast asleep just as produced from a a lovely model of the his first boat and was going to show the ropes never even his fingers as pushed him into his it must be a sad thing a very sad thing said watching the boy s face for his mother and his father who think he is dead to lose a child to lose a out o this said dan go aft and finish your game with uncle tell i stand s watch ef he don t keen he s played ver good boy said slipping out of his boots and disappearing into the black i captains courageous shadows of the lower he make good man i no see he is any so mad as your he says eh at dan chuckled but the chuckle ended in a it was thick weather outside with a rising wind and the elder men stretched their watches the hours struck clear in the cabin the bows and with the seas the stove pipe and as the spray caught it and the boys slept on while long jack tom and uncle each in turn aft to look at the wheel forward to see that the anchor held or to out a little more cable against with a glance at the dim anchor light between each round chapter iv to find the first half at breakfast the door drawn to a crack and every square inch of the singing its own tune the black bulk of the cook balanced behind the tiny over the glare of the stove and the pots and in the pierced wooden board before it and to each plunge up and up the climbed yearning and and quivering and then with a clear like came down into the seas he could hear the bows cut and and there was a pause ere the divided waters came down on the deck above like a of followed the	39
sound of the cable in the hole a and of the a a and a and the we re here gathered herself together to repeat the motions now ashore he heard long jack say io captains courageous ing ye ve an ye must do in any weather here we ve well clear of the fleet an we ve no an that s a good night all he passed like a big snake from the table to his and began to smoke tom followed his example uncle with fought his way up the ladder to stand his watch and the cook set for the second half it came out of its as the others had entered theirs with a shake and a it ate till it could eat no more and then filled his pipe with some terrible tobacco himself between the post and a forward cocked his feet up on the table and smiled tender and indolent smiles at the smoke dan lay at length in his with a gaudy gilt stopped whose tunes went up and down with the of the we re here the cook his shoulders against the where he kept the dan was fond of potatoes with one eye on the stove in event of too much water finding its way down the pipe and the general smell and were past all description considered affairs wondered that captains courageous he was not sick and crawled into his again as the and safest place while dan struck up i don t want to play in your yard as accurately as the wild allowed how long is this for asked of till she get a little quiet and we can row to perhaps to night perhaps two days more you do not like eh at i should have been crazy sick a week ago but it does n t seem to upset me now much that is because we make you these days if i was you when i come to i would give two three big candles for my good luck give who to be sure the virgin of our church on the hill she is very good to all the time that is why so few of us men ever are drowned you ve a roman catholic then i am a man i am not a boy shall i be then eh at i always give candles two three more when i come to the good virgin she never forgets me io captains courageous i don t sense it that way tom put in from his his face lit up by the glare of a match as he sucked at his pipe it stands to reason the sea s the sea and you jest about what s goin candles or fer that matter t is a mighty good thing said long jack to have a at though i m o s way o about tin years back i was crew to a sou boston market boat we was off s ledge a butt first of us thicker n the ould man was his chin on the an i to myself if i stick my boat into t wharf again i show the saints manner o craft they saved me out now i m here as ye can well see an the model of the ould that took me a month to make i gave ut to the priest an he hung ut up the altar there s more sense in a model that s by way o bein a work art than any candle ye can buy candles at store but a model shows the good saints ye ve trouble an are grateful captains courageous d you believe that irish said tom turning on his elbow would i do ut if i did not wa al fuller he made a model o the old and she s to museum now mighty pretty model too but i guess he never done it fer no sacrifice an the way i take it is there were the of an hour long discussion of the kind that love where the talk runs in shouting circles and no one proves anything at the end had not dan struck up this cheerful rhyme up jumped the with his striped back in the and haul on the tack for it s windy weather here long jack joined in and it s weather when the winds begin to blow pipe all hands together dan went on with a cautious look at tom holding the low in the up jumped the with his chuckle head went to the main chains to heave at the lead for it s windy weather etc no captains courageous tom seemed to be hunting for something dan crouched lower but sang louder up jumped the that to the ground chuckle head chuckle head mind where ye sound tom s huge rubber boot whirled across the and caught dan s uplifted arm there was war between the man and the boy ever since dan had discovered that the mere whistling of that tune would make him angry as he heaved the lead thought i d fetch yer said dan returning the gift with precision ef you don t like my music out your fiddle i ain t goin to lie here all day an listen to you an long jack candles fiddle tom or i learn here the tune tom leaned down to a and brought up an old white fiddle s eye and from somewhere behind the post he drew out a tiny thing with wire strings which he called a t is a concert said long jack beaming through the smoke a lar boston concert captains courageous there was a burst of spray as the opened and in yellow descended ye ve just in time s she outside jest this he dropped on to the with the push and heave of	39
the we re here we re to our down ye lead course said long jack guess there ain t more n two old songs i know an ye ve them both his excuses were cut short by tom into a most tune like unto the moaning of winds and the creaking of with his eyes fixed on the beams above began this ancient ancient tom flourishing all round him to make the tune and words fit a little there is a crack packet crack packet o fame she from york an the s her name you may talk o your swallow tail and black ball but the s the packet that can beat them all captains courageous now the she lies in the river because of the boat to take her to sea but when she s off you shortly will know chorus she s the liverpool packet o lord let her go now the she s the banks o where the water s all shallow and the bottom s all sand all the little fishes that swim to an chorus she s the liverpool packet o lord let her go there were scores of verses for he worked the every mile of the way between liverpool and new york as as though he were on her deck and the and the fiddle beside him tom followed with something about the rough and tough who would pilot the vessel in then they called on who felt very flattered to contribute to the entertainment but all that he could remember were some pieces of s ride that he had been taught at the camp school in the it seemed that they might be appropriate to the time and place but he had captains courageous no more than mentioned the title when brought down one foot with a bang and cried don t go on young that s a mistaken o the worst kind too it s to the ear i ha warned you said dan what s wrong said surprised and a little angry all you ve goin to say said a dead wrong from start to finish an he s to blame i have no special call to right any man but t were n t no fault o s my father he told me the tale time an again an this is the way t for the wan time put in long jack under his breath ben he was o the young home the banks that was before the war of but is at all times they fund the active o an o that town he was her they fund her off cape light there was a ble gale on an they was the home s fast as they could her well he said there war n t any sense to a boat in that sea ii captains courageous the men they would n t it and he laid it before them to stay by the active till the sea run a piece they would n t that either the cape in any weather or no they jest up an quit rally with em folks to was mad at him not the risk and day when the sea was ca am they never stopped to think o tha some of the active s folk was took off by a man they come into with their own tale to tell say in how had his town an so forth an so on an s men they was scared public em an they went back on an swore he was ble for the act t were n t the women neither that and him women don t act that way t was a o men an boys an they him town in an old till the bottom fell an he told em they d be sorry for it some day well the facts come later same s they usually do too late to be any ways useful to an honest man an he come along an picked up the slack of a tale an and ben all over more after he captains courageous was dead t was the only time ever slipped up an t were n t fair i dan good when he brought that piece back from school you don t know no better o course but i ve give you the facts hereafter an to be remembered ben were n t no kind o man as makes my father he knew him well before an after that business an you beware o hasty judgments young next had never heard talk so long and with burning cheeks but as dan said promptly a boy could only learn what he was taught at school and life was too short to keep track of every lie along the coast then touched the little to a queer tune and sang something in about ending with a full handed sweep that brought the song up with a jerk then obliged with his second song to an old fashioned tune and all joined in the chorus this is one now is over and melted the snow and outer we shortly must tow yes out o we shortly must clear we re the that never see wheat in the ear ii captains courageous here the fiddle went very softly for a while by itself and then wheat in the ear my true love s wheat in the ear we re goin oflf to sea wheat in the ear i left you fit for when i come back a loaf o bread you be that made almost weep though he could not tell why but it was much worse when the cook dropped the potatoes and held out his hands for the fiddle still leaning against the door he struck into a tune that was like something very bad but sure to happen whatever you did after a	39
little he sang in an unknown tongue his big chin down on the fiddle tail his white glaring in the lamp light swung out of his to hear better and amid the straining of the and the wash of the waters the tune and moaned on like lee surf in a blind fog till it ended with a wail christmas gives me the blue said dan what in thunder is it the song of fin said the cook when he going to his captains courageous was not thick but all clear cut as though it came from a faith i ve been to but i did n t make that noise t is like some of the old songs though said long jack sighing don t let s another between said dan and the struck up a rattling tune that ended it s six an twenty sundays la we saw the land with fifteen an fifteen old an grand hold on roared tom d ye want to nail the trip dan that s sure less you sing it after all our salt s wet no t ain t is it not unless you sing the very verse you can t learn me anything on what s that said what s a a s anything that spoils the luck sometimes it s a man sometimes it s a boy or a bucket i ve known a knife two till we was on to her said tom i captains courageous there s all sorts o jim was one till he was drowned on i d never ship with jim not if i was there a green on the flood was a too the worst sort o drowned four men she did an used to shine fiery o nights in the nest and you believe that said remembering what tom had said about candles and models have n t we all got to take what s served a of ran round the yes things can happen said don t you go a mock of young well ain t no day after we him dan cut in we had a good catch the cook threw up his head and laughed suddenly a queer thin laugh he was a most murder said long jack don t do that again doctor we ain t used to ut what s wrong said dan ain t he our and did n t they strike on good after we d struck him captains courageous oh said the cook i know that but the catch not finish yet he ain t goin to do us any harm said dan hotly where are ye an to iy all right no harm no but one day he will be your master that all said dan placidly he t not by a master said the cook pointing to man and he pointed to dan that s news soon said dan with a laugh in some years and i shall see it master and man man and master how in thunder d ye work that out said tom in my head where i can see this from all the others at once i do not know but so it will be he dropped his head and went on the potatoes and not another word could they get out of him well said dan a heap o things to come fore s any master o mine but i m glad the doctor ain t to mark him for a now i captains courageous uncle fer the in the fleet his own special luck ef it s same s he ought to be on the that boat s her own sure an gear make no differ to her christmas she loose in a flat ca am we re well clear o the fleet anyway said an all there was a on the deck uncle has his luck said dan as his father departed it s blown clear cried and all the tumbled up for a bit of fresh air the fog had gone but a sullen sea ran in great behind it the we re here slid as it were into long sunk avenues and which felt quite sheltered and if they would only stay still but they changed without rest or mercy and flung up the to crown one peak of a thousand gray hills while the wind through her as she down the slopes far away a sea would burst in a sheet of foam and the others would follow suit as at a signal till s eyes swam with the vision of and four or five mother captains courageous s chickens round in circles shrieking as they swept past the bows a rain or two strayed over the hopeless waste ran down wind and back again and melted away seems to me i saw jest over yonder said uncle pointing to the can t be any of the fleet said peering under his eyebrows a hand on the as the solid bows into the sea s over fast don t you want to up a piece an see how lays in his big boots trotted rather than climbed up the main this consumed with envy himself around the cross trees and let his eye till it caught the tiny black flag on the shoulder of a mile away swell she s all right he hailed sail o dead to the no th ard down like smoke she be too they waited yet another half hour the sky clearing in patches with a of sickly sun from time to time that made patches of olive green water then a stump captains courageous lifted and disappeared to be followed on the next wave by a high stern with wooden s horn the sails were red shouted dan no t ain t neither da ad that s no french said your blame luck holds n a screw in a head	39
i ve eyes it s uncle you can t tell fer sure the head king of all groaned tom oh why was n t you an asleep how could i tell said poor as the swung up she might have been the very flying so foul and was every rope and stick aboard her was some four or five feet high and her flew knotted and tangled like weed at a wharf end she was running before the wind her let down to act as a sort of extra they call it and her out over the side her cocked up like an old fashioned captains courageous s her boom had been and and nailed and beyond further repair and as she herself forward and sat down on her broad tail she looked for all the world like a bad old woman at a decent girl that s said full o gin an men an the judgments o providence fer him an never good he s run in to bait way he run her under said long jack that s no fer this weather not he v he d a done it long ago replied looks s if he to run us under ain t she by the head more n natural tom ef it s his style o her she ain t safe said the sailor slowly ef she s her he d better to his mighty quick the creature up wore round with a clatter and rattle and lay head to wind within ear shot a gray beard over the and a thick voice something could not understand but s face dark captains courageous he d every stick he to carry bad news says we re in fer a shift o wind he s in fer worse he waved his arm up and down with the gesture of a man at the and pointed forward the crew him and laughed ye an strip ye an trip ye uncle a gale a gale cast up fer your last trip all you you won t see no more no more crazy full as usual said tom wish he had n t us though she drifted out of hearing while the something about a dance at the bay of and a dead man in the shuddered he had seen the decks and the savage eyed crew an that s a fine little hell fer her draught said long jack i what mischief he s been at ashore he s a dan explained to an he runs in fer bait all along the coast oh no not home he don t go he along the south an east shore up yonder he nodded in the direction of the pitiless won t captains courageous never take me ashore there they ve a mighty tough crowd an s the you saw his boat well she s nigh seventy year old they say the last o the old heel they don t make them any more don t use though he ain t wanted there he s in debt an like you ve heard bin a fer years an years he liquor the boats fer an selling winds an such crazy i guess t won t be any use the to night said tom with quiet despair he come alongside special to us i d give my an share to see him at the o the old fore we quit jest six dozen an sam em on cross the heel danced down wind and all eyes followed her suddenly the cook cried in his voice it his own death made him speak so he i tell you look she sailed into a patch of watery sunshine three or four miles distant the patch and faded out and even as the captains courageous light passed so did the she dropped into a hollow and was not run under by the great hook block shouted jumping aft drunk or sober we ve got to help em heave short and break her out smart was thrown on the deck by the shock that followed the setting of the and for they short on the cable and to save time jerked the anchor bodily from the bottom heaving in as they moved away this is a bit of brute force seldom resorted to except in matters of life and death and the little we re here complained like a human they ran down to where s craft had vanished found two or three a gin bottle and a stove in but nothing more let em go said though no one had hinted at picking them up i would n t a match that belonged to aboard guess she run clear under must ha been her fer a week an they never thought to pump her that s one more boat gone along o port all hands drunk glory be said long jack we d ha been obliged to help em if they was top o water captains courageous o that myself said tom said the cook rolling his eyes he taken his own luck with him ver good thing i think to tell the fleet when we see eh at said if you that way before the wind and she work open her he threw out his hands with an indescribable gesture while sat down on the house and sobbed at the sheer horror and pity of it all could not realize that he had seen death on the open waters but he felt very sick then dan went up the cross trees and them back to within sight of their own just before the fog the sea once again we go mighty quick when we do go was all he said to you think on that fer a spell young that was liquor after dinner it was calm enough to fish from the decks and uncle	39
were very zealous this time and the catch was large and large fish has took his luck with him said the wind t backed captains courageous ner ner how the i despise superstition anyway tom insisted that they had much better haul the thing and make a new berth but the cook said the luck in two pieces you will find it so when you look know this so long jack that he tom and the two went out together a means pulling it in on one side of the picking off the fish the hooks and passing them back to the sea again something like and linen on a wash line it is a business and rather dangerous for the long line may a boat under in a flash but when they heard and to thee o out of the fog the crew of the we re here took heart the alongside well loaded tom yelling for to act as relief boat the luck s cut square in two pieces said long jack in the fish while stood open mouthed at the skill with which the plunging was saved from destruction one half was jest tom wanted to haul her an ha done ut but i captains courageous said i back the doctor that has the second sight an the other half come up full o big hurry man an bring s a tub o bait there s luck afloat to night the fish bit at the newly hooks from which their brethren had just been taken and tom and long jack moved up and down the length of the the boat s nose under the wet line of hooks the sea that they called off the fresh caught against the and s till dusk i take no risks said then not with him around so near won t sink fer a week heave in the an we dress after supper that was a mighty dressing down attended by three or four blowing it lasted till nine o clock and was thrice heard to chuckle as pitched the split fish into the hold say you re ahead fast said dan when they ground the knives after the men had turned in there s of a sea to night an i t heard you make no remarks on it captains courageous too busy replied at blade s edge come to think of it she is a high the little was all around her anchor among the silver tipped waves with a start of affected surprise at the sight of the strained cable she on it like a while the spray of her descent burst through the holes with the report of a gun shaking her head she would say well i m sorry i can t stay any longer with you i m going north and would off halting suddenly with a dramatic rattle of her as i was just going to observe she would begin as gravely as a drunken man addressing a lamp post the rest of the sentence she acted her words in dumb show of course was lost in a fit of the when she behaved like a a string a clumsy woman in a side saddle a hen with her head cut off or a cow stung by a exactly as the of the sea took her see her her piece she s henry said dan she swung sideways on a and with her boom from port to captains courageous but fer me give me liberty er give me death she sat down in the moon path on the water with a flourish of pride impressive enough had not the wheel gear in its box laughed aloud why it s just as if she was alive he said she s as as a an as dry as a said dan as he was across the deck in a of spray em off an em off an don t ye come me she look at her jest look at her you should see one o them up her anchor on her outer fifteen water what s a dan them new an boats fine s a forward with to em an an a that u d take our hold i ve heard that himself he made the models fer three or four of em s em on account o their an but there s heaps o money in em can find fish but he ain t no ways he don t go with the march o the they re full captains courageous labor an all ever seed the o she s a ef she is a what do they cost dan hills o dollars fifteen thousand p more there s gold leaf an everything you kin think of then to himself half under his breath guess i d call her s too chapter v that was the first of many talks with dan who told why he would transfer his s name to the imaginary heard a good deal about the real at saw a lock of her hair which dan finding fair words of no avail had as she sat in front of him at school that winter and a photograph was about fourteen years old with an awful contempt for boys and had been on dan s heart through the winter all this was revealed under oath of solemn secrecy on decks in the dead dark or in choking fog the wheel behind them the climbing deck before and without the sea once of course as the boys came to know each other there was a fight which raged from bow to stern till came up and separated them but promised captains courageous not to tell who thought fighting on watch rather worse than sleeping was no match for dan physically but it says a great deal for his new training that	39
he took his defeat and did not try to get even with his conqueror by methods that was after he had been cured of a string of between his elbows and wrists where the wet and cut into the flesh the salt water stung them but when they were ripe dan treated them with s and assured that now he was a blooded banker the affliction of being the mark of the caste that claimed him since he was a boy and very busy he did not bother his head with too much thinking he was exceedingly sorry for his mother and often longed to see her and above all to tell her of this wonderful new life and how brilliantly he was himself in it otherwise he preferred not to wonder too much how she was bearing the shock of his supposed death but one day as he stood on the ladder the cook who had accused him and dan of it occurred to him that this was a vast improve captains courageous ment on being by strangers in the smoking room of a hired he was a recognized part of the scheme of things on the we re here had his place at the table and among the and could hold his own in the long talks on stormy days when the others were always ready to listen to what they called his fairy tales of his life ashore it did not take him more than two days and a quarter to feel that if he spoke of his own life it seemed very far away no one except dan and even dan s belief was sorely tried him so he invented a friend a boy he had heard of who drove a miniature four pony drag in and ordered five suits of clothes at a time and led things called at parties where the oldest girl was not quite fifteen but all the presents were solid silver protested that this kind of was desperately wicked if not indeed positively but he listened as as the others and their at the end gave entirely new notions on clothes with gold leaf tips rings watches scent small dinner parties champagne card playing and hotel i captains courageous little by little he changed his tone when speaking of his friend whom long jack had the crazy kid the gilt edged baby the and other pet names and with his sea feet cocked up on the table would even invent histories about silk and specially imported to the friend s was a very person with a keen eye and ear for every face and tone about him before long he knew where kept the old green that they called the yoke under the bed bag in his when he took the sun and with the help of the old farmer s found the latitude would jump down into the cabin and scratch the reckoning and date with a nail on the of the stove pipe now the chief engineer of the could have done no more and no engineer of thirty years service could have assumed one half of the ancient air with which first careful to spit over the side made public the s position for that day and then and not till then relieved of the there is an etiquette in all these things captains courageous the said yoke an the farming s coast pilot and s were all the weapons needed to guide him except the lead that was his spare eye nearly with it when tom taught him first how to fly the blue pigeon and though his strength was not equal to continuous sounding in any sort of a sea for calm weather with a seven pound lead on water used him freely as dan said t ain t wants it s her up good would the cup at the end and carefully bring the sand shell or whatever it might be to who and smelt it and gave judgment as has been said when thought of he thought as a and by some long tested mixture of instinct and experience moved the we re here from berth to berth always with the fish as a player moves on the unseen board but s board was the grand bank a two hundred and fifty miles on each side a waste of sea with fog vexed with with captains courageous drifting ice by the tracks of the reckless and dotted with the sails of the fishing fleet for days they worked in fog at the bell till grown familiar with the thick airs he went out with tom his heart rather in his mouth but the fog would not lift and the fish were biting and no one can stay helplessly afraid for six hours at a time devoted himself to his lines and the or stick as tom called for them and they rowed back to the guided by the bell and tom s instinct s sounding thin and faint beside them but it was an experience and for the first time in a month dreamed of the shifting smoking floors of water round the the lines that strayed away into nothing and the air above that melted on the sea below ten feet from his straining eyes a few days later he was out with on what should have been forty bottom but the whole length of the ran out and still the anchor found nothing and grew afraid for that his last touch with earth was lost whale hole said in that is good joke a whiteness moved in the whiteness of the fog it was his first introduction to the dread summer of the bank captains courageous on come and he rowed to the to find tom and the others at the because for once he had led them to the edge of the barren the	39
blank hole of the grand bank they made another berth through the fog and that time the hair of s head stood up when he went out in s a whiteness moved in the whiteness of the fog with a breath like the breath of the grave and there was a roaring a plunging and it was his first introduction to the dread summer of the banks and he in the bottom of the boat while laughed there were days though clear and soft and warm when it seemed a sin to do anything but loaf over the hand lines and the drifting sun with an oar and there were days of light airs when was taught how to steer the from one berth to another it thrilled through him when he first felt the answer to his hand on the and slide over the long hollows as the back and forth against the blue sky that was magnificent in spite of saying that it would break a snake s back to captains courageous follow his wake but as usual pride ran before a fall they were sailing on the wind with the an old one luckily set and her right into it to show dan how completely he had mastered the art the went over with a bang and the and through the which was of course prevented from going over by the they lowered the wreck in awful silence and spent his leisure hours for the next few days under tom s lee learning to use a needle and palm dan with joy for as he said he had made the very same blunder himself in his early days all the men by turns till he had combined s peculiar stoop at the wheel long jack s swinging when the lines were hauled s round shouldered but effective stroke in a and tom s generous stride along the deck t is beautiful to see how he takes to ut said long jack when was looking out by the one thick noon i lay my an share t is more n half to him an he himself he s a captains courageous watch his little bit a back now that s the way we all begin said tom the boys they make believe all the time till they ve cheated into bein men an so till they die an done it on the old i know stood my first watch harbor watch finer n dan s o the same kind o notions see em now to be moss backs every hair a an blood tar he spoke down the cabin stairs guess you re in your judgments fer once what in rome made ye tell us all here the kid was crazy he replied crazy a when he come aboard but i say he s up ble i cured him he good said tom t other night he told us a kid of his own size a little an four up an down i think t was an to a crowd o sim lar cur us kind o fairy tale but blame he knows scores of em guess he strikes em his own head captains courageous called from the cabin where he was busy with the log book stands to reason that sort is all made up it don t take in no one but dan an he laughs at it i ve heard him behind my back y ever hear what sim on peter ca said when they up a match his sister an an the boys put up that joke on him to uncle who was dripping under the lee of the nest tom puffed at his pipe in scornful silence he was a cape man and had not known that tale more than twenty years uncle went on with a chuckle sim on peter ca he said an he was jest right ha af on the he said an t other ha af blame fool an they told me she s married a man sim on peter ca he n t no roof to his mouth an talked that way he did n t talk any dutch tom replied you d better leave a cape man to tell that tale the ca was way back i don t profess to be any captains courageous ist said i m to the moral o things that s jest what be ha af on the an t other ha af blame fool an there s some believe he s a rich man did ye ever think how sweet t would be to sail a full crew o said long jack ha af in the an other ha af in the heap as did not say an makes out he s a a little laugh went round at s expense held his tongue and wrought over the log book that he kept in a faced square hand this was the kind of thing that ran on page after soiled page july this day thick fog and few fish made berth to northward so ends this day july this day comes in with thick fog caught a few fish july this day comes in with light breeze from n e and fine weather made a berth to eastward caught plenty fish july this the sabbath comes in with fog and light winds so ends this day total fish caught this week iso captains courageous they never worked on sundays but shaved and washed themselves if it were fine and sang hymns once or twice he suggested that if it was not an impertinence he thought he could preach a little uncle nearly jumped down his throat at the mere notion reminding him that he was not a preacher and must n t think of such things we d him next explained an what would happen then so they on his reading aloud from a book	39
thousand ton with hundred foot s talk was slow and gentle all about pretty girls in washing clothes in the dry beds of streams by moonlight under waving legends of saints and tales of queer dances or fights away in the cold ports was mainly agricultural for though he read and it his mis captains courageous sion in life was to prove the value of green and specially of against every form of whatsoever he grew about he dragged greasy orange books from his and them his finger at to whom it was all greek little was so pained when made fun of s lectures that the boy gave it up and suffered in polite silence that was very good for the cook naturally did not join in these conversations as a rule he spoke only when it was absolutely necessary but at times a queer gift of speech descended on him and he held forth half in half in broken english an hour at a time he was specially with the boys and he never withdrew his prophecy that one day would he dan s master and that he would see it he told them of in the winter up cape way of the dog train that goes to and of the ram steamer that breaks the ice between the and prince edward island then he told them stories that his mother had told him of life far to the south captains courageous ward where water never and he said that when he died his soul would go to lie down on a warm white beach of sand with palm trees waving above that seemed to the boys a very odd idea for a man who had never seen a palm in his life then too regularly at each meal he would ask and alone whether the cooking was to his taste and this always made the second half laugh yet they had a great respect for the cook s judgment and in their hearts considered something of a by consequence and while was taking in knowledge of new things at each pore and hard health with every of the good air the we re here went her ways and did her business on the bank and the silvery gray of well pressed fish mounted higher and higher in the hold no one day s work was out of the common but the average days were many and close together naturally a man of s reputation was closely watched upon dan called it by his neighbors but he had a very pretty of giving them the slip through the fog banks i o captains courageous avoided company for two reasons he wished to make his own experiments in the first place and in the second he objected to the mixed of a fleet of all nations the bulk of them were mainly boats with a scattering from and some of the ports but the drew from goodness knows where risk and when is added there are fine chances for every kind of accident in the crowded fleet which like a mob of sheep is huddled round some leader let the two lead em said we re to lay among em fer a spell on the eastern though ef luck holds we won t to lay long where we are ain t considered good ain t it said who was drawing water he had learned just how to the bucket after an unusually long should n t mind striking some poor ground for a change then all the i want to see don t want to strike her is eastern point said dan say it looks s if we would n t to lay more n two weeks on the captains courageous i i you meet all the ny you want then that s the time we begin to work no meals fer no one then up when ye re hungry an sleep when ye can t keep awake good job you was n t picked up a month later than you was or we d never ha had you dressed in shape fer the old virgin understood from the that the old virgin and a nest of curiously named were the turning point of the and that with good luck they would wet the balance of their salt there but seeing the size of the virgin it was one tiny dot he wondered how even with the yoke and the lead could find her he learned later that was entirely equal to that and any other business and could even help others a big four by five hung in the cabin and never understood the need of it till after some blinding thick days they heard the of a foot power fog horn a machine whose note is as that of a elephant they were making a short berth the anchor under their foot to save trouble square fer his latitude said i captains courageous long jack the dripping red of a bark glided out of the fog and the we re here rang her bell thrice using sea the larger boat backed her with shrieks and frenchman said uncle scornfully boat from st the farmer had a sea eye i m most outer too same here said tom hi you butt ended where you from st eh ah ha out out st sl et cried the other crowd waving caps and laughing then all together bring up the board beats me how them fetch america s forty six forty nine s good enough fer them an i guess it s right too dan the figures on the board and they hung it in the main to a chorus of from the bark x n o c i n l l i i i a captains courageous seems kinder to let em s off like	39
this suggested feeling in his pockets ye learned french then last trip said don t want no more stone at us long o your boats same s you did off le have rush he said that was the way to rise em plain united states is good enough fer me we re all short on young don t you speak french oh yes said and he hi say pour ah they cried and laughed again that hit em let s heave a over anyway said tom i don t exactly hold no on french but i know another that goes i guess come on an interpret the and confusion when he and were hauled up the bark s black side was indescribable her cabin was all stuck round with glaring colored prints of the virgin i captains courageous the virgin of they called her found his french of no recognized bank brand and his conversation was limited to and but tom waved his arms and got along the captain gave him a drink of unspeakable gin and the opera crew with their hairy throats red caps and long knives greeted him as a brother then the trade began they had tobacco plenty of it american that had never paid duty to france they wanted and rowed back to arrange with the cook and who owned the stores and on his return the and bags were counted out by the frenchman s wheel it looked like a division of but tom came out of it with black and stuffed with cakes of and smoking tobacco then those jovial swung off into the mist and the last heard was a gay chorus par re ma ii y a un et le y et le et la captains courageous qui je et saint how was it my french did n t go and your sign talk did demanded when the had been distributed among the we we sign talk well yes t was sign talk but a heap older n your french them french boats are full o an that s why are you a then looks that way don t it said the war s man his pipe and had another mystery of the deep sea to brood upon chapter vi the thing that struck him most was the exceedingly casual way in which some craft about the broad atlantic fishing boats as dan said were naturally dependent on the courtesy and wisdom of their neighbors but one expected better things of that was after another interesting interview when they had been chased for three miles by a big old all over on the upper deck that smelt like a thousand cattle pens a very excited officer at them through a speaking trumpet and she lay and helplessly on the water while ran the we we here under her lee and gave the a piece of his mind where might ye be eh ye don t deserve to be you barn yard go the road on the high seas with no blame consideration fer your neighbors an your eyes in your coffee cups o in your silly heads x captains courageous at this the danced on the bridge and said something about s own eyes we have n t had an observation for three days d you suppose we can run her blind he shouted wa al can retorted what s come to your lead et it can t ye smell bottom or are them cattle too rank what d ye feed em said uncle with intense seriousness for the smell of the pens woke all the farmer in him they say they fall off on a v as it s any o my business but i ve a kind o notion that oil cake broke small an sprinkled thunder said a cattle man in a red as he looked over the side what asylum did they let his whiskers out of young began standing up in the fore let me tell fore we go any further that i ve the officer on the bridge took off his cap with immense politeness excuse me he said but i ve asked for my reckoning if the agricultural person with the hair will kindly shut his head the sea green with the wall eye may per condescend to us i captains courageous you ve made a show o me said angrily he could not stand up to that particular sort of talk and snapped out the latitude and without more lectures well that s a boat load of sure said the as he rang up the and tossed a bundle of newspapers into the of all the blamed fools next to you him an his crowd are the i ve ever seen said as the we we here slid away i was jest him my on round these waters like a lost child an you must cut in with your fool can t ye never keep things dan and the others stood back one to the other and full of joy but and seriously till evening arguing that a cattle boat was practically a barn on blue water and that even if this were the case decency and pride demanded that he should have kept things long jack stood it in silence for a time an angry makes an unhappy crew and then he spoke across the table after supper captains courageous s the good o they say said he they l tell that tale us fer years that s all said oil cake sprinkled with salt o course said reading the farming reports from a week old new york paper it s in to all my s the went on can t see ut that way said long jack the look at here is there another packet afloat this day in this weather ha met a tramp an over an above her her over	39
mud said tom say dan s voice rose shrill and high as he stood on the wheel box sa ay is there a strike in the o ver all factory or they hired girls ye out the lines cried and nail em to the bottom that was a salt jest he had been put up to by tom leaned over the stern and play the organ he flourished his broad thumb with a gesture of unspeakable contempt and derision while little covered himself with glory by up a come here they rode on their chain for the rest of the night a short uneasy motion as found and wasted half the recovering the cable but the boys agreed the trouble was cheap at the price of triumph and glory and they thought with grief over all the beautiful things that they might have said to the chapter vii next day they fell in with more sails all slowly from the east towards the west but just when they expected to make the by the virgin the fog shut down and they surrounded by the of invisible bells there was not much fishing but occasionally met in the fog and exchanged news that night a little before dawn dan and who had been sleeping most of the day tumbled out to hook there was no reason why they should not have taken them openly but they tasted better so and it made the cook angry the heat and smell below drove them on deck with their plunder and they found at the bell which he handed over to keep her goin said he i i hear ef it s anything i m best where i am so s to get at things x captains courageous s it was a forlorn little the thick air seemed to pinch it off and in the pauses heard the muffled shriek of a s and he knew enough of the banks to know what that meant it came to him with horrible distinctness how a boy in a cherry colored he despised fancy now with all a s contempt an ignorant boy had once said it would be great if a steamer ran down a fishing boat that boy had a with a hot and cold bath and spent ten minutes each morning picking over a gilt edged bill of fare and that same boy no his very much older brother was up at four of the dim dawn in streaming literally for the dear life on a bell smaller than the steward s breakfast bell while somewhere close at hand a thirty foot steel stem was along at twenty miles an hour the bitterest thought of all was that there were folks asleep in dry who would never learn that they had a boat before breakfast so rang the bell yes they slow one turn o their blame said dan applying himself i captains courageous to s fer to keep inside the law an that s when we ve all at the bottom hark to her she s a went the went the bell went the while sea and sky were all up in fog then felt that he was near a moving body and found himself looking up and up at the wet edge of a cliff like bow leaping it seemed directly over the a little feather of water curled in front of it and as it lifted it showed a long ladder of roman xv xvi xvii and so forth on a salmon colored gleaming side it forward and downward with a the ladder disappeared a line of brass port holes flashed past a jet of steam puffed in s helplessly uplifted hands a of hot water roared along the rail of the we re here and the little staggered and shook in a rush of screw torn water as a stern vanished in the fog got ready to faint or be sick or both when he heard a crack like a trunk thrown on a and all small in his ear a far away captains courageous voice heave to you ve sunk us is it us he gasped no boat out yonder ring we ve goin to look said dan running out a in half a minute all except and the cook were and away presently a s stump snapped clean across drifted past the bows then an empty green came by knocking on the we re here s side as though she wished to be taken in then followed something face down in a blue but it was not the whole of a man changed color and caught his breath with a click at the bell for he feared they might be sunk at any minute and he jumped at dan s hail as the crew came back the said dan cut clean in half up an on at that not a quarter of a mile away s got the old man there ain t any one else and there was his son too oh i can t stand it i ve seen he dropped his head on his arms and sobbed while the others dragged a gray headed man aboard i captains courageous what did you pick me up for the stranger groaned what did you pick me up for dropped a heavy hand on his shoulder for the man s eyes were wild and his lips trembled as he stared at the silent crew then up and spoke who was also or rich or when uncle forgot and his face was changed on him from the face of a fool to the countenance of an old wise man and he said in a strong voice the lord gave and the lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the lord i was i am a minister of the gospel leave	39
course kinder him outer water a craft ashore him right i take it to an jacob an such like reminiscences well there held him up a piece same s up a boat then bein weak them slipped an slipped an he down the ways an he s that s sense it they decided that was entirely correct t would ha all up said long jack if had stayed jacob captains courageous did ye see his face when asked who he d been charged on all these years how is ut asleep dead asleep turned in like a child replied aft there won t be no till he wakes natural did ye ever see a gift in prayer he young outer the ocean s my belief was ble of his boy an i all along t was a on vain there s others jest as said that s retorted quickly s not all an i ain t only but my duty by him they waited those hungry men three hours till reappeared with a smooth face and a blank mind he said he believed that he had been dreaming then he wanted to know why they were so silent and they could not tell him worked all hands for the next three or four days and when they could not go out turned them into the hold to the ship s stores into smaller compass to make more room for the fish the packed mass ran from the cabin to the sliding captains courageous door behind the stove and showed how there is great art in cargo so as to bring a to her best the crew were thus kept till they recovered their spirits and was with a rope s end by long jack for being as the man said sorrowful as a sick cat over could n t be helped he did a great deal of thinking in those dreary days and told dan what he thought and dan agreed with him even to the extent of asking for instead of them but a week later the two nearly upset the s in a wild attempt to a with an old tied to a stick the grim brute rubbed alongside the begging for small fish and between the three of them it was a mercy they all got off alive at last after playing s in the fog there came a morning when shouted down the hurry boys we re in chapter viii to the end of his days will never forget that sight the sun was just clear of the horizon they had not seen for nearly a week and his low red light struck into the riding sails of three of one to the north one to the westward and one to the south there must have been nearly a hundred of them of every possible make and build with far away a frenchman all bowing and one to the other from every boat were dropping away like bees from a crowded hive and the of voices the rattling of ropes and blocks and the splash of the oars carried for miles across the heaving water the sails turned all colors black and white as the sun mounted and more boats swung up through the mists to the southward the gathered in clusters separated captains courageous and broke again all heading one way while men hailed and whistled and and sang and the water was with rubbish thrown overboard it s a town said was right it is a town i ve seen smaller said there s about a thousand men here an yonder s the virgin he pointed to a vacant space of sea where there were no the we re here skirted round the northern waving his hand to friend after friend and as neatly as a racing at the end of the season the bank fleet pass good in silence but a is all along the line jest in time fer the cried the mary salt most wet asked the king philip hey tom come t supper tonight said the henry clay and so questions and answers flew back and forth men had met one another before fishing in the fog and there is no place for gossip like the bank fleet they all seemed to know about s rescue and asked if he were worth his salt yet the young with dan captains courageous who had a lively tongue of his own and inquired after their health by the town they least liked s countrymen at him in their own language and even the silent cook was seen riding the boom and shouting to a friend as black as himself after they had the cable all around the virgin is rocky bottom and carelessness means ground tackle and danger from drifting after they had the cable their went forth to join the mob of boats about a mile away the rocked and dipped at a safe distance like mother ducks watching their brood while the behaved like as they drove into the confusion boat boat s ears at the comments on his every dialect from to long island with french and with songs and and new oaths rattled round him and he seemed to be the butt of it all for the first time in his life he felt shy perhaps that came from living so long with only the we re among the scores of wild faces captains courageous that rose and fell with the small craft a gentle breathing swell three from to barrel would quietly shoulder up a string of painted they hung for an instant a wonderful against the sky line and their men pointed and hailed next moment the open mouths waving arms and bare disappeared while on another swell came up an entirely new line of characters like paper figures in a toy theatre so stared watch out said	39
dan flourishing a when i tell you dip you dip the school any time from on where we lay tom pushing and greeting old friends here and warning old enemies there tom led his little fleet well to of the general crowd and immediately three or four men began to haul on their with intent to lee bow the we re but a yell of laughter went up as a shot from her station with exceeding speed its pulling madly on the give her slack roared twenty voices let him shake it out captains courageous what s the matter said as the boat flashed away to the southward he s is n t he sure enough but his s kinder said dan laughing whale s it dip here they come the sea round them clouded and darkened and then up in showers of tiny silver fish and over a space of five or six acres the began to leap like in may while behind the three or four broad gray black backs broke the water into then everybody shouted and tried to haul up his anchor to get among the school and his neighbor s line and said what was in his heart and dipped furiously with his dip net and shrieked and advice to his companions while the deep like opened water and men and together flung in upon the bait was nearly knocked overboard by the handle of dan s net but in all the wild tumult he noticed and never forgot the wicked set little eye something like a elephant s eye of a whale that drove captains courageous along almost level with the water and so he said winked at him three boats found their by these reckless mid sea hunters and were half a mile ere their horses shook the line free then the moved off and five minutes later there was no sound except the splash of the the flapping of the and the of the as the men stunned them it was wonderful fishing could see the glimmering below swimming slowly in biting as steadily as they swam bank law strictly more than one hook on one line when the are on the virgin or the eastern but so close lay the boats that even single hooks and found himself in hot argument with a gentle hairy on one side and a howling on the other worse than any of fishing lines was the confusion of the below water each man had where it seemed good to him drifting and round his fixed point as the fish struck on less quickly each man wanted to haul up and get to better ground but every third man found himself it was wonderful fishing could see the below biting as steadily as they swam but so close lay the boats that even single hooks captains courageous intimately connected with some four or five neighbors to cut another s is crime unspeakable on the banks yet it was done and done without detection three or four times that day tom caught a man in the black act and knocked him over the with an oar and served a fellow in the same way but s anchor line was cut and so was s and they were turned into relief boats to carry fish to the we we here as the filled the once more at twilight when the mad was repeated and at dusk they rowed back to dress down by the light of lamps on the edge of the pen it was a huge pile and they went to sleep while they were dressing next day several boats right above the cap of the virgin and with them looked down on the very weed of that lonely rock which rises to within twenty feet of the surface the were there in marching solemnly over the when they bit they bit all together and so when they stopped there was a slack time at noon and the began to search for amusement it was o captains courageous dan who sighted the hope of just coming up and as her boats joined the company they were greeted with the question who s the meanest man in the fleet three hundred voices answered cheerily nick it sounded like an organ chant who stole the lamp that was dan s contribution nick sang the boats who the salt bait fer soup this was an unknown a quarter of a mile away again the joyful chorus now was not especially mean but he had that reputation and the fleet made the most of it then they discovered a man from a boat who six years before had been convicted of using a tackle with five or six hooks a they call it on the naturally he had been jim and though he had hidden himself on the ever since he found his honors waiting for him full blown they took it up in a sort of fire chorus jim o jim jim o jim captains courageous jim that pleased everybody and when a poetical man he had been making it up all day and talked about it for weeks sang the s anchor does n t hold her for a cent the felt that they were indeed fortunate then they had to ask that man how he was off for beans because even poets must not have things all their own way every and nearly every man got it in turn was there a careless or dirty cook anywhere the gang about him and his food was a badly found the fleet was told at full length had a man tobacco from a he was named in meeting the name tossed from to s judgments long jack s market boat that he had sold years ago dan s sweetheart oh but dan was an angry boy s bad luck with s views on s	39
cold edges another man blue and ghastly crawled in with a broken hand asking news of his brother seven extra mouths sat down to breakfast a a a boy from one and three men there was a general out among the fleet next day and though no one said anything all ate with better when boat after boat reported full aboard only a couple of and an old man from were drowned but many were cut or bruised and two had parted their tackle and been blown to the southward three days sail a man died on a frenchman it was the same bark that had tobacco with the we re she slipped away quite quietly one wet white morning moved to a patch of deep water her sails all hanging anyhow and saw the funeral through s spy glass it was only an bundle slid they did not seem to have any form of service but in the night at anchor captains courageous heard them across the star powdered black water singing something that sounded hke a hymn it went to a very slow tune la qui va et s incline pour m oh pour adieu adieu tom visited her because he said the dead man was his brother as a it came out that a wave had doubled the poor fellow over the heel of the and broken his back the news spread like a flash for contrary to general custom the frenchman held an of the dead man s he had no friends at st or and everything was spread out on the top of the house from his red cap to the leather belt with the knife at the back dan and were out on twenty water in the s and naturally rowed over to join the crowd it was a long pull and they stayed some little time while dan bought captains courageous the knife which had a curious brass handle when they dropped and pushed off into a of rain and a of sea it occurred to them that they might get into trouble for the lines guess t won t hurt us any to be warmed up said dan shivering under his and they rowed on into the heart of a white fog which as usual dropped on them without warning there s too much blame tide to trust to your he said heave over the anchor and we fish a piece till the thing lifts bend on your biggest lead three pound ain t any too much in this water see how she s on her already there was quite a little at the bows where some bank current held the full stretch on her rope but they could not see a s length in any direction turned up his collar and himself over his with the air of a wearied fog had no special terrors for him now they awhile in silence and found the struck on well then dan drew the knife and tested the edge of it on the i captains courageous that s a said how did you get it so cheap on account o their blame said dan with the bright blade they don t fancy iron off of a dead man so to speak see them step back when i bid but an ain t taking anything off a dead man it s business we know it ain t but there s no goin in the teeth o superstition that s one o the advantages o in a country and dan began whistling oh double how are you now eastern point comes inter view the girls an boys we soon shall see at anchor off cape ann why did n t that man bid then he bought his boots ain t they don t know enough or they t got money enough to paint their in i ve seen em the man he told me that the knife had been used so the french captain told him used up on the french coast last year captains courageous cut a man heave s the hauled in his fish and threw over killed him course when i heard that i was n ever to get it christmas i did n t know it said turning round i give you a dollar for it when i get my wages say give you two dollars honest d you like it as much as all that said dan flushing well to tell the truth i kinder got it for you to give but i did n t let on till i saw how you d take it it s yours and welcome because we re mates and so on and so forth an so catch a he held it out belt and all but look at here dan i don t see take it t ain t no use to me i wish you to it the temptation was irresistible dan you re a white man said i keep it as long as i live that s good said dan with a pleasant laugh and then anxious to change the subject look s if your line was fast to i captains courageous i guess said before he pulled up he fastened the belt round him and with deep delight heard the tip of the click on the concern the thing he cried she acts as though she were on bottom it s all sand here ain t it dan reached over and gave a act that way t he s sulky s no bottom her once or twice she gives sure guess we d better haul up an make certain they pulled together making fast at each turn on the and the hidden weight rose prize oh haul shouted dan but the shout ended in a shrill double shriek of horror for out of the sea came the body of the dead	39
frenchman buried two days before the hook had caught him under the right and he swayed erect and horrible head and shoulders above water his arms were tied to his side and he had no face the boys fell over each other in a heap at the bottom of the and there they lay while the thing alongside held on the line the tide the tide brought him said captains courageous with quivering lips as he at the clasp of the belt oh lord oh groaned dan be quick he s come for it let him have it take it off i don t want it don t want it cried i can t find the bu quick he s on your line sat up to the belt facing the head that had no face under its streaming hair he s fast still he whispered to dan who slipped out his knife and cut the line as flung the belt far the body shot down with a and dan cautiously rose to knees than the fog he come for it he come for it i ve seen a stale one hauled up on a and i did n t much care but he come to us special i wish i wish i had n t taken the knife then he d have come on your line as would ha made any we re both scared out o ten years growth oh did ye see his head did i i never forget it but look at here dan it could n t have been meant it was only the tide tide he come for it why captains courageous they sunk him six mile to southward o the fleet an we ve two miles from where she s now they told me he was with a an a half o chain cable wonder what he did with the knife up on the french coast something bad guess he s bound to take it with him to the judgment an so what are you with the fish heaving em overboard said what for we sha n t eat em i don t care i had to look at his face while i was the belt you can keep your catch if you like i ve no use for mine dan said nothing but threw his fish over again guess it s best to be on the safe side he murmured at last i d give a month s pay if this fog u d lift things go in a fog that ye don t see in clear weather yo an and such like i m relieved he come the way he did o he might ha walked do on t dan we re right on top of him now wish i was safe aboard bein by uncle captains courageous they be fer us in a little the dan took the tin dinner horn but paused before he blew go on said i don t want to stay here all night question is he d take it there was a man down the coast told me once he was in a where they n t ever blow a horn to the the not the man he was with but a captain that had run her five years before he d a boy alongside in a drunk fit an ever after that boy he d row alongside too and shout with the rest a muffled voice cried through the fog they again and the horn dropped from dan s hand hold on cried it s the cook what made me think o fool tale either said dan it s the doctor sure enough dan dan we re here sung both boys together they heard oars but could see nothing till the cook shining and dripping rowed into them captains courageous what happened said he you will be beaten at home s what we want s what we ve for said dan anything s good enough fer us we ve had kinder company as the cook passed them a line dan told him the tale he come for hiss knife was all he said at the end never had the little rocking we we here looked so home like as when the cook born and bred in rowed them back to her there was a warm glow of light from the cabin and a satisfying smell of food forward and it was heavenly to hear and the others all quite alive and solid leaning over the rail and promising them a first class but the cook was a black master of he did not get the aboard till he had given the more striking points of the tale explaining as he backed and round the counter how was the to destroy any possible bad luck so the boys came as rather heroes and every one asked them questions instead of them for making trouble little captains courageous delivered quite a speech on the folly of but public opinion was against him and in favor of long jack who told the most ghost stories till nearly midnight under that influence no one except and said anything about when the cook put a lighted candle a cake of flour and water and a pinch of salt on a and floated them out to keep the frenchman quiet in case he was still restless dan lit the candle because he had bought the belt and the cook and muttered charms as long as he could see the point of flame said to dan as they turned in after watch how about progress and catholic i guess i m as enlightened and as the next man but when it comes to a dead st deck hand a couple o pore boys stiff fer the sake of a thirty cent knife why then the cook can take hold fer all o me i	39
can your toes then ma a new one fer me all washed soft it s home it s home ye can sense it in the air we ve into the of a hot wave an i can smell the wonder if we get in fer supper port a trifle the hesitating sails and in the close air as the deep smoothed out blue and round them when they whistled for a wind only the rain came in rods and and behind the rain the thunder and the lightning of mid august they lay on the deck with bare feet and arms telling one another what they would order at their first meal ashore for now the land was in plain sight a boat drifted alongside a man in the little pulpit on the flourishing his his bare head down with the wet and all s well he sang cheerily as though he were watch on a big s waiting fer you what s the news o the fleet captains courageous shouted it and passed on while the wild summer storm overhead and the lightning along the from four different quarters at once it gave the low circle of hills round harbor ten pound island the fish sheds with the broken line of house roofs and each and on the water in blinding photographs that came and went a dozen times to the minute as the we re here crawled in on and the whistling moaned and mourned behind her then the storm died out in long separated vicious of flame followed by a single roar like the roar of a mortar battery and the shaken air under the stars as it got back to silence the flag the flag said suddenly pointing upward what is ut said long jack ha af mast they can see us shore now i d clean forgot he s no folk to has he girl he was goin to be married to this fall mary pity her said long jack and came alongside with letters for home captains courageous lowered the little flag half mast for the sake of swept overboard in a gale off le have three months before wiped the wet from his eyes and led the we re here to s wharf giving his orders in whispers while she swung round and night hailed her from the ends of black over and above the darkness and the mystery of the procession could feel the land close round him once more with all its thousands of people asleep and the smell of earth after rain and the familiar noise of a engine to herself in a freight yard and all those things made his heart beat and his throat dry up as he stood by the they heard the on a into a pocket of darkness where a lantern on either side somebody with a threw them a rope and they made fast to a silent wharf with great iron sheds full of warm and lay there without a sound then sat down by the wheel and sobbed and sobbed as though his heart would break and a tall woman who had been sit captains courageous ting on a weigh scale dropped down into the and kissed dan once on the cheek for she was his mother and she had seen the we we here by the lightning flashes she took no notice of till he had recovered himself a little and had told her his story then they went to s house together as the dawn was breaking and until the telegraph office was open and he could wire to his folk was perhaps the boy in all america but the curious thing was that and dan seemed to think none the worse of him for crying was not ready for s prices till sure that the we we here was at least a week ahead of any other boat had given him a few days to swallow them so all hands played about the streets and long jack stopped the rocky neck on principle as he said till the conductor let him ride free but dan went about with his nose in the air of mystery and most haughty to his family dan i to lay inter you ef you act this way said troop captains courageous we ve come ashore this time you ve bin a heap too fresh i d lay into him ef he was mine said uncle he and with the troops said dan shuffling with the round the back yard ready to leap the fence if the enemy advanced you ve welcome to your own but remember i ve warned ye your own flesh an blood ha warned ye t ain t any o my fault ef you ve but i be on deck to watch ye an fer uncle s chief butler ain t in it o you you watch an wait you be under like your own blamed but me dan troop i flourish like a green bay tree because war n t stuck on my own opinion was smoking in all his shore dignity and a pair of beautiful carpet slippers you re crazy as poor you two go an an each other under the table till there s no peace in the said he there s goin to be a heap less fer some folks dan replied you wait an see captains courageous he and went out on the to east where they through the bushes to the and lay down on the big red and laughed themselves hungry had shown dan a and the two swore to keep silence till the shell burst s folk said dan with an face after supper well i guess they don t amount to much of anything or we d ha heard em by his pop keeps a kind o store out west maybe he give you s much as five dollars	39
better that not on those that gives em sixty hours from here to they won t gain anything by taking a special east of that ready also arrange with lake captains courageous shore and southern to take on new york central and river to and b and a the same a to boston indispensable i should reach boston wednesday evening be sure nothing prevents have also and sign miss nodded and the secretary went on now then and of course ready please take my private car rom fe at sixteenth street next tuesday p m on n y limited through to and deliver n y c for y bin to n york miss we ll go some day ready take car to on limited tuesday p m that s for have n t bin to york but i know that with a toss of the head beg pardon now boston and same instructions from through to boston leave three five p m you need n t wire that arrive nine five p m wednesday that covers everything will do but it pays to shake up the captains courageous it s great said miss with a look of admiration this was the kind of man she understood and appreciated t is n t bad said modestly now any one but me would have lost thirty hours and spent a week working out the run instead of handing him over to the fe straight through to but see here about that york limited himself could n t his car to her miss suggested recovering herself yes but this is n t it s lightning it goes even so guess we d better wire the boy you ve forgotten that anyhow ask when he returned with the father s message bidding meet them in boston at an appointed hour he found miss laughing over the keys then laughed too for the frantic from los ran we want to know why why why general uneasiness developed and spreading ten minutes later appealed to miss in these words if crime captains courageous is please warn friends in time we are all getting to cover here this was by a message from and wherein was concerned even could not guess don t shoot colonel we ii come down smiled grimly at the consternation of his enemies when the were laid before him they think we ve on the tell em we don t feel like fighting just now tell em what we ve going for i guess you and miss had better come along though it is n t likely i shall do any business on the road tell em the truth for once so the truth was told miss in the sentiment while the secretary added the memorable quotation let us have peace and in board rooms two thousand miles away the representatives of sixty three million dollars worth of railroad interests breathed more freely was flying to meet the only son so restored to him the bear was seeking his not the hard men who had their knives drawn to fight for their financial lives put away the weapons and wished him god captains courageous speed while half a dozen panic smitten tin pot roads up their heads and spoke of the wonderful things they would have done had not buried the it was a busy week end among the wires for now that their anxiety was removed men and cities hastened to accommodate los called to san and that the southern might know and be ready in their lonely passed the word to the atlantic and pacific and flung it the whole length of the and f management even into an engine combination car with crew and the great and gilded private car were to be over those two thousand three hundred and fifty miles the train would take of one hundred and seventy seven others meeting and passing and of every one of those said trains must be sixteen sixteen and sixteen would be needed each and every one the best available two and one half minutes would be allowed for changing engines three for watering and two for warn the captains courageous men and arrange and accordingly for is in a hurry a hurry a hurry sang the wires forty miles an hour will be expected and division will accompany this special over their respective divisions from san to sixteenth street let the magic carpet be laid down hurry oh hurry it will be hot said as they rolled out of san in the dawn of sunday we re going to hurry just as fast as ever we can but i really don t think there s any good of your putting on your bonnet and gloves yet you d much better lie down and take your medicine i d play you a game o but it s sunday i be good oh i will be good only taking off my bonnet makes me feel as if we d never get there try to sleep a little and we be in before you know but it s boston father tell them to hurry the six foot drivers were their way to san and the but this was no grade for speed captains courageous that would come later the heat of the desert followed the heat of the hills as they turned east to the needles and the river the car cracked in the utter and glare and they put crushed ice to mrs s neck and toiled up the long long past ash fork towards where the forests and are under the dry remote skies the needle of the and to and fro the rattled on the roof and a whirl of dust sucked after the whirling wheels the crew of the combination sat on their panting in their shirt sleeves and found himself among them shouting old old stories	39
it his voice was with living in the open salt air his palms were rough and hard his wrists dotted with the marks of and a fine full flavor of fish hung round rubber boots and blue the father well used to judging men looked at him keenly he did not know what enduring harm the boy might have taken indeed he caught himself thinking that he knew very little whatever of his son but he distinctly remembered an faced youth who took delight in calling down the old man and his mother to tears such a person as adds to the gaiety of public rooms and hotel where the young of the wealthy play with or the bell boys but this well set up youth did not looked at him with eyes steady clear and and spoke in a tone distinctly even respectful there was that in his voice too which seemed to promise that the change might be permanent and that the new had come to stay captains courageous some one s been him thought now would never have allowed that don t see as europe could have done it any better but why did n t you tell this man troop who you were the mother repeated when had expanded his story at least twice troop dear the best man that ever walked a deck i don t care who the next is why did n t you tell him to put you ashore you know papa would have made it up to him ten times over i know it but he thought i was crazy i m afraid i called him a thief because i could n t find the bills in my pocket a sailor found them by the that that night sobbed mrs that explains it then i don t blame troop any i just said i would n t work on a banker too and of course he hit me on the nose and oh i like a stuck my poor darling they must have abused you horribly quite well after that i saw a light his leg and chuckled this o captains courageous was going to be a boy after his own hungry heart he had never seen precisely that twinkle in s eye before and the old man gave me ten and a half a month he s paid me half now and i took hold with dan and pitched right in i can t do a man s work yet but i can handle a most as well as dan and i don t get rattled in a fog much and i can take my trick in light winds that s dear and i can most bait up a and i know my ropes of course and i can pitch fish till the cows come home and i m great on old and i show you how i can clear coffee with a piece of fish skin and i think i have another cup please say you ve no notion what a heap of work there is in ten and a half a month i began with eight and a half my son said that so you never told me sir you never asked i tell you about it some day if you care to listen try a stuffed olive troop says the most interesting thing in the world is to find out how the next man gets his it s great to have a trimmed captains courageous up meal again we were well fed though best on the banks fed us he s a great man and dan that s his son dan s my partner and there s uncle and his an he reads he s sure i m crazy yet and there s poor little and he is crazy you must n t talk to him about because and oh you must know tom and long jack and saved my life i m sorry he s a he can t talk much but he s an everlasting he found me struck adrift and drifting and hauled me in i wonder your nervous system is n t completely wrecked said mrs what for i worked like a horse and i ate like a and i slept like a dead man that was too much for mrs who began to think of her visions of a corpse rocking on the seas she went to her and curled up beside his father explaining his you can depend upon me to do everything i can for the crowd they seem to be good men on your showing captains courageous best in the fleet sir ask at said but believes still he s cured me of being crazy dan s the only one i ve let on to about you and our private cars and all the rest of it and i m not quite sure dan believes i want to em to morrow say can t they run the over to don t look fit to be moved anyway and we re bound to finish cleaning out by to morrow takes our fish you see we re first off the banks this season and it s four twenty five a we held out till he paid it they want it quick you mean you have to work to morrow then i told troop i would i m on the scales i ve brought the with me he looked at the greasy with an air of importance that made his father choke there is n t but three no two ninety four or five more by my reckoning hire a substitute suggested to see what would say can t sir i m man for the troop says i ve a better head for figures than dan troop s a mighty just man captains courageous well suppose i don t	39
move the to night how you fix it looked at the clock which marked twenty past eleven then i sleep here till three and catch the four o clock freight they let us men from the fleet ride free as a rule that s a notion but i think we can get the around about as soon as your men s freight better go to bed now spread himself on the sofa kicked off his boots and was asleep before his father could shade the sat watching the young face under the shadow of the arm thrown over the forehead and among many things that occurred to him was the notion that he might perhaps have been as a father one never knows when one s taking one s biggest risks he said it might have been worse than drowning but i don t think it has i don t think it has if it has n t i have n t enough to pay troop that s all and i don t think it has morning brought a fresh sea breeze through the windows the was side captains courageous among freight cars at and had gone to his business then he fall overboard again and be drowned the mother said bitterly we go and look ready to throw him a rope in case you ve never seen him working for his bread said the father what nonsense as if any one expected well the man that hired him did he s about right too they went down between the stores full of s to s wharf where the ive re here rode high her bank flag still flying all hands busy as in the glorious morning light stood by the main and uncle at the tackle dan was swinging the loaded baskets as long jack and tom filled them and with a represented the s interests before the clerk of the scales on the salt sprinkled wharf edge ready cried the voices below haul cried hi said here said dan swinging the basket then they captains courageous heard s voice clear and fresh checking the the last of the fish had been whipped out and leaped from the string piece six feet to a as the shortest way to hand the shouting two ninety seven and an empty hold what s total said eight sixty five three thousand six hundred and seventy six dollars and a quarter wish i d share as well as well i won t go so far as to say you n t deserved it don t you want to slip up to s office and take him our who s that boy said to dan well used to all manner of questions from those idle called summer well he s a kind o was the answer we picked him up struck adrift on the banks fell overboard from a he he was a passenger he s by way o bein a now is he worth his keep ye this man wants to know ef s worth his keep say would you captains courageous like to go aboard we fix a ladder for her i should very much indeed t won t hurt you and you be able to see for yourself the woman who could not lift her head a week ago scrambled down the ladder and stood aghast amid the mess and aft be you interested in said well ye es he s a good boy an right hold jest as he s bid you ve heard we found him he was from nervous i guess v else his head had hit when we hauled him aboard he s all over that yes this is the cabin t ain t in order but you re quite welcome to look around those are his figures on the stove pipe where we keep the mostly did he sleep here said mrs sitting on a yellow and surveying the no he forward madam an only fer him an my boy an up when they ought to ha been captains courageous asleep i as i ve any special fault to find with him there were n t wrong with said uncle descending the steps he hung my boots on the main and he ain t over an above respectful to such as knows more n he do specially about but he were mostly by dan dan in the meantime by dark hints from early that morning was a war dance on deck tom tom he whispered down the his folks has come an t caught on yet an they re in the cabin she s a an he s all claimed he was by the looks of him smoke said long jack climbing out covered with salt and fish skin d ye his tale the kid an the little was i knew it all along said dan come an see in his judgments they came just in time to hear say i m glad he has a good character because he s my son s jaw fell long jack always vowed that he heard the click of it and captains courageous he stared alternately at the man and the woman i got his in san four days ago and we came over in a private car said dan he said ye might in a private car of course dan looked at his father with a of there was a tale he us four little in a his own said long jack was that now very likely said was it he had a little drag when we were in i think said the mother long jack whistled oh said he and that was all i i am in my worse n the men o said as though the words were being out of him i don t mind to you as i the boy to be crazy he talked kinder	39
odd about money so he told me did he tell ye anything else cause captains courageous i him once this with a somewhat anxious glance at mrs oh yes replied i should say it probably did him more good than anything else in the world i t necessary er i would n t ha done it i don t want you to think we abuse our boys any on this packet i don t think you do mr troop mrs had been looking at the faces s ivory yellow iron countenance uncle s with its rim of agricultural hair s bewildered simplicity s quiet smile long jack s grin of delight and tom s rough by her standards they certainly were but she had a mother s wits in her eyes and she rose with outstretched hands oh tell me which is who said she half sobbing i want to thank you and bless you all of you faith that pays me a time said long jack introduced them all in due form the captain of an old time could have done no better and mrs she nearly threw herself captains courageous into s arms when she understood that he had first found but how shall i leave him said poor what do you yourself if you find him so eh at we are in one good boy and i am ever so pleased he come to be your son and he told me dan was his partner she cried dan was already sufficiently pink but he turned a rich crimson when mrs kissed him on both cheeks before the assembly then they led her forward to show her the at which she wept again and must needs go down to see s identical and there she found the cook cleaning up the stove and he nodded as though she were some one he had expected to meet for years they tried two at a time to explain the boat s daily life to her and she sat by the post her hands on the greasy table laughing with trembling lips and crying with dancing eyes and who s ever to use the re here after this said long jack to tom i feel it as if she d made a cathedral ut all cathedral sneered tom oh captains courageous ef it had bin even the fish commission boat o this o ef we only some decency an order an when she goes over she have to climb that ladder like a hen an we we ought to be the yards then was not mad said slowly to no indeed thank god the big replied stooping down tenderly it must be terrible to be mad except to lose your child i do not know anything more terrible but your child has come back let us thank god for that said looking down upon them from the wharf i i said swiftly holding up a hand i in my ye need n t rub it in any more guess i take care o that said dan under his breath you be goin off won t ye well not without the balance of my wages less you want to have the we we here attached s so i d clean forgot and he captains courageous counted out the remaining dollars you done all you contracted to do and you done it s well as ef you d been brought up here brought himself up he did not quite see where the sentence was going to end outside of a private car suggested dan come on and i show her to you said stayed to talk to but the others made a procession to the with mrs at the head the french maid shrieked at the invasion and laid the glories of the before them without a word they took them in in equal silence stamped leather silver door handles and rails cut velvet plate glass bronze iron and the rare woods of the continent i told you said i told you this was his crowning revenge and a most ample one mrs a meal and that nothing might be lacking to the tale long jack told afterwards in his boarding house she waited on them herself men who are ac mrs the crew of the we re here to the captains courageous to eat at tiny tables in howling have curiously neat and finished but mrs who did not know this was surprised she longed to have for a butler so silently and easily did he himself among the frail and dainty silver tom remembered great days on the and the manners of foreign who dined with the officers and long jack being irish supplied the small talk till all were at their ease in the we we here s cabin the fathers took stock of each other behind their cigars knew well enough when he dealt with a man to whom he could not offer money equally well he knew that no money could pay for what had done he kept his own counsel and waited for an opening i n t done anything to your boy or fer your boy make him work a piece an learn him how to handle the yoke said he has twice my boy s head for by the way answered casually what d you calculate to make of your boy captains courageous removed his cigar and waved it round the cabin dan s jest plain boy an he don t allow me to do any of his he this able little packet when i m laid by he ain t anxious to quit the business i know that ever been west mr troop bin s fer york once in a boat i ve no use for no more dan salt water s good enough fer the troops i ve been most everywhere in the way o course	39
i can give him all the salt water he s likely to need till he s a s that i thought you a kinder railroad king told me so when i was in my we re all apt to be mistaken i fancied perhaps you might know i own a line of san to six of em iron built about seventeen hundred and eighty tons apiece blame that boy he never told i d ha listened to o his an pony carriages he did n t know captains courageous little thing like that slipped his mind i guess no i only took hold of the blue m and s old line this summer where he sat beside the stove great caesar almighty i i ve bin from one end to the other why he went from this very town six year back no seven an he s mate on the san now twenty six days was her time out his sister she s here yet an she reads his letters to my woman an you own the blue m nodded if i d known that i d ha jerked the we re here back to port all standing on the word perhaps that would n t have been so good for ef i d only known ef he d only said about the line i d ha understood i never stand on my own again never they re well found he says so i m glad to have a recommend from that captains courageous quarter s of the san now what i was getting at is to know whether you d lend me dan for a year or two and we see if we can t make a mate of him would you trust him to it s a taking a raw boy i know a man who did more for me that s look at here i ain t dan special because he s my own flesh an blood know bank ways ain t ways but he t much to learn steer he can no boy better ef say it an the rest s in our blood an get but i could wish he war n t so weak on will attend to that he ship as a boy for a voyage or two and then we can put him in the way of doing better suppose you take him in hand this winter and i send for him early in the spring i know the pacific s a long ways off we troops an dead are all around the earth an the seas thereof but i want you to understand and i mean this any time you think you d like to see him tell me and i attend to the t won t cost you a cent captains courageous ef you walk a piece with me we go to my house an talk this to my woman i ve bin so crazy in all my it don t seem to me this was like to be real they went over to troop s eighteen hundred dollar blue trimmed white house with a retired full of in the front yard and a parlor which was a museum of plunder there sat a large woman silent and grave with the dim eyes of those who look long to sea for the return of their beloved addressed himself to her and she gave consent wearily we lose one hundred a year from only mr she said one hundred boys an men and i ve come so s to hate the sea as if t alive an god never made it fer to anchor on these o yours they go straight out i take it and straight home again as straight as the winds let em and i give a for record passages tea don t improve by being at sea when he little he used to play at keeping store an i had hopes he might follow that up but soon s he could a o captains courageous i knew that were goin to be denied me they re square mother an well found remember what s sister reads you when she his letters i ve never known as told lies but he s too like most of em that use the sea ef dan sees fit mr he can go fer all o me she jest the ocean explained an i i to act polite i guess er i d thank you better my father my own eldest brother two an my second sister s man she said dropping her head on her hand would you care fer any one that took all those was relieved when dan turned up and accepted with more delight than he was able to put into words indeed the offer meant a plain and sure road to all desirable things but dan thought most of commanding watch on broad decks and looking into far away mrs had spoken privately to the unaccountable in the matter of s rescue he seemed to have no desire for money pressed hard he said that he would captains courageous take five dollars because he wanted to buy something for a girl otherwise how shall i take money when i make so easy my eats and you will some if i like or no eh at then you shall me money but not that way you shall all you can think he introduced her to a priest with a list of as long as his as a strict mrs could not with the creed but she ended by respecting the brown little man faithful son of the church appropriated all the blessings on her for her charity that me out said he i have now ver good for six months and he strolled	39
your high and all that kind of have i ever done that said uneasily captains courageous his father turned where he sat and thrust out a long hand vou know as well as i do that i can t make anything of you if you don t act straight by me i can handle you alone if you stay alone but i don t pretend to manage both you and life s too short anyway don t make me out much of a fellow does it i guess it was my fault a good deal but if you want the truth you have n t been much of anything up to date now have you thinks say what d you reckon it s cost you to raise me from the start first last and all over smiled i ve never kept track but i should estimate in dollars and cents nearer fifty than forty thousand maybe sixty the young generation comes high it has to have things and it of em and the old man the bill whistled but at heart he was rather pleased to think that his had cost so much and all that s sunk capital is n t it invested invested i hope making it only thirty thousand the thirty his father turned where he sat and thrust out a long hand you know as well as i do that i can t make anything of you if you don t act straight by me captains courageous i ve earned is about ten cents on the hundred that s a mighty poor catch his head solemnly laughed till he nearly fell off the pile into the water has got a heap more than that out of dan since he was ten and dan s at school half the year too oh that s what you re after is it no i m not after anything i m not stuck on myself any just now that s all i ought to be kicked i can t do it old man or i would i presume if i d been made that way then i d have remembered it to the last day i lived and never forgiven you said his chin on his doubled fists exactly that s about what d do you see i see the fault s with me and no one else all the something s got to be done about it drew a cigar from his pocket bit off the end and fell to smoking father and son were very much alike for the beard hid s mouth and had his father s slightly nose close set black captains courageous eyes and narrow high cheek bones with a touch of brown paint he would have made up very as a red indian of the story books now you can go on from here said slowly me between six or eight thousand a year till you re a well we call you a man then you can go right on from that living on me to the tune of forty or fifty thousand besides what your mother will give you with a and a or a fancy where you can pretend to raise trotting stock and play cards with your own crowd like put in or the two de boys or old man s son s full of em and here s an eastern while we re talking a shiny black steam with mahogany deck house and pink and white striped puffed up the harbor flying the of some new york club two young men in what they conceived to be sea were playing cards by the saloon and a couple of women with red and blue looked on and laughed captains courageous should n t care to be caught out in her in any sort of a breeze no beam said as the to pick up her they re having what stands them for a good time i can give you that and twice as much as that how d you like it caesar that s no way to get a said still intent on the if i could n t slip a tackle better than that i d stay ashore what if i don t stay ashore or what and and live on the old man and get behind when there s trouble said with a twinkle in his eye why in that case you come right in with me my son ten dollars a month another twinkle not a cent more until you re worth it and you won t begin to touch that for a few years i d sooner begin sweeping out the office is n t that how the big start and touch something now than i know it we all feel that way but i captains courageous guess we can hire any sweeping we need i made the same mistake myself of starting in too soon thirty million dollars worth o mistake was n t it i d risk it for that i lost some and i gained some i tell you pulled his beard and smiled as he looked over the still water and spoke away from who presently began to be aware that his father was telling the story of his life he talked in a low even voice without gesture and without expression and it was a history for which a dozen leading journals would cheerfully have paid many dollars the story of forty years that was at the same time the story of the new west whose story is yet to be written it began with a boy turned loose in and went on through a hundred changes and of life the scenes shifting from state after western state from cities that sprang up in a month and in a season utterly withered away to wild in that are now laborious paved it	39
covered the building of three and the deliberate wreck of captains courageous a fourth it told of forests and mines and the men of every nation under heaven creating and digging these it touched on chances of gigantic wealth flung before eyes that could not see or missed by the merest accident of time and travel and through the mad shift of things sometimes on horseback more often now rich now poor in and out and back and forth deck hand train hand boarding house keeper engineer real estate agent dead beat rum mine owner cattle man or tramp moved alert and quiet seeking his own ends and so he said the glory and advancement of his country he told of the faith that never deserted him even when he hung on the ragged edge of despair the faith that comes of knowing men and things he enlarged as though he were talking to himself on his very great courage and resource at all times the thing was so evident in the man s mind that he never even changed his tone he described how he had his enemies or forgiven them exactly as they had or captains courageous forgiven him in those careless days how he had entreated and towns companies and all for their enduring good crawled round through or under mountains and dragging a string and iron railroad after him and in the end how he had sat still while tore the last fragments of his character to the tale held almost breathless his head a little cocked to one side his eyes fixed on his father s face as the twilight deepened and the red cigar end lit up the cheeks and heavy eyebrows it seemed to him like watching a across country in the dark a mile between each glare of the opened fire door but this could talk and the words shook and stirred the boy to the core of his soul at last pitched away the and the two sat in the dark over the water i ve never told that to any one before said the father gasped it s just the greatest thing that ever was said he that s what i got now i m coming to captains courageous what i did n t get it won t sound much of anything to you but i don t wish you to be as old as i am before you find out i can handle men of course and i m no fool along my own lines but but i can t with the man who has been taught i ve picked up as i went along and i guess it sticks out all over me i ve never seen it said the son indignantly you will though you will just as soon as you re through college don t i know it don t i know the look on men s faces when they think me a a as they call it out here i can break them to little pieces yes but i can t get back at em to hurt em where they live i don t say they re way way up but i feel i m way way way off somehow now you ve got your chance you ve got to up all the learning that s around and you live with a crowd that are doing the same thing they be doing it for a few thousand dollars a year at most but remember you ii be doing it for millions you learn law enough to look after your own property when i m out o the light and you have captains courageous to be solid with the best men in the market they are useful later and above all you have to away the plain common with your chin on your elbows nothing pays like that and it s bound to pay more and more each year in our country in business and in politics you see there s no sugar my end of the deal said four years at college wish i d chosen the and the never mind my son insisted you ve your capital where it bring in the best returns and i guess you won t find our property shrunk any when you re ready to take hold think it over and let me know in the morning hurry we be late for supper as this was a business talk there was no need for to tell his mother about it and naturally took the same point of view but mrs saw and feared and was a little jealous her boy who rode rough shod over her was gone and in his stead reigned a keen faced youth silent who addressed most of his conversation to his father she understood it was captains courageous business and therefore a matter beyond her premises if she had any doubts they were resolved when went to boston and brought back a new diamond ring what have you two men been doing now she said with a weak little smile as she turned it in the light talking just talking there s nothing mean about there was not the boy had made a treaty on his own account he explained gravely interested him as little as lumber real estate or what his soul after was control of his father s newly purchased sailing ships if that could be promised him within what he conceived to be a reasonable time he for his part diligence and at college for four or five years in he was to be allowed full access to all details connected with the line he had asked not more than two thousand questions about it from his father s most private papers in the safe to the in san harbor it s a deal said at the last	39
you alter your mind twenty times before you leave college o course but if you take captains courageous hold of it in proper shape and if you don t tie it up before you ve twenty three i make the thing over to you how s that never pays to split up a going concern there s too much competition in the world anyway and says blood kin to stick together his crowd never go back on him that s one reason he says why they make such big say the we re here goes off to the on monday they don t stay long ashore do they well we ought to be going too i guess i ve left my business hung up at loose ends between two and it s time to connect again i just hate to do it though have n t had a holiday like this for twenty years we cant go without seeing off said and monday s memorial day let s stay over that anyway what is this memorial business they were talking about it at the boarding house said weakly he too was not anxious to spoil the golden days well as far as i can make out this business is a sort of song and dance act up for the summer don t captains courageous think much of it he says because they take up a collection for the and s independent have n t you noticed that well yes a little in spots is it a town show then the summer is they read out the names of the fellows drowned or gone astray since last time and they make speeches and and all then says the of the aid societies go into the back yard and fight over the catch the real show he says is in the spring the ministers all take a hand then and there are n t any summer around i see said with the brilliant and perfect comprehension of one born into and bred up to city pride we stay over for memorial day and get off in the afternoon guess i go down to s and make him bring his crowd up before they sail i have to stand with them of course oh that s it is it said i m only a poor summer and you re a banker full blooded banker called back as he a and captains courageous went on with his dreams for the future had no use for public functions where appeals were made for charity but pleaded that the glory of the day would be lost so far as he was concerned if the we we themselves then made conditions he had heard it was astonishing how all the world knew all the world s business along the water front he had heard that a philadelphia was going to take part in the exercises and he that she would deliver s ride personally he had as little use for as for summer but justice was justice and though he himself here dan had once slipped up on a matter of judgment this thing must not be so came back to east and spent half a day explaining to an amused with a royal reputation on two the of the mistake she contemplated and she admitted that it was justice even as had said knew by old experience what would happen but anything of the nature of a captains courageous lie was meat and drink to the man s soul he saw the hurrying west in the hot morning full of women in light summer dresses and white faced straw men fresh from boston the of outside the post office the go of busy officials greeting one another the slow and of in the heavy air and the important man with a the brick mother he said suddenly don t you remember after was burned out and they got her going again mrs nodded and looked down the crooked street like her husband she understood these all the west over and compared them one against another the began to mingle with the crowd about the town hall doors their women bare headed or for the most part clear eyed and men of the provinces french and with outside of and everywhere women in black who saluted one another with a gloomy pride for this was their day of great days and there were captains courageous ministers of many of great gilt edged at the for a rest with of the regular work from the priests of the church on the hill to bush bearded ex sailor hail fellow with the men of a score of boats there were owners of lines of large to the societies and small men their few craft to the with and marine agents captains of and water boats boat and and all the mixed population of the water front they drifted along the line of seats made gay with the dresses of the summer and one of the town officials and till he shone all over with pure pride had met him for five minutes a few days before and between the two there was entire understanding well mr and what d you think of our city yes madam you can sit anywhere you please you have this kind of thing out west i presume yes but we are n t as old as you that s so of course you ought to have been at the exercises when we celebrated our captains courageous two hundred and birthday i tell you mr the old city did herself credit so i heard it pays too what s the matter with the town that it don t have a hotel though right over there to the left heaps o room for you and your crowd why that s what tell	39
em all the time mr there s big money in it but i presume that don t affect you any what we want is a heavy hand fell on his shoulder and the flushed of a coal and ice spun him half round what in thunder do you fellows mean by the law on the town when all decent men are at sea this way town s dry s a bone an smells a sight worse i quit might ha left us one saloon for soft drinks anyway don t seem to have your nourishment this morning i go into the politics of it later sit down by the door and think over your arguments till i come back what good s arguments to me in champagne s eighteen dollars a case o captains courageous and the into his seat as an organ silenced him our new organ said the official proudly to cost us four thousand dollars too we have to get back to high license next year to pay for it i was n t going to let the ministers have all the religion at their those are some of our standing up to sing my wife taught em see you again later mr i m wanted on the platform high clear and true children s voices bore down the last noise of those settling into their places o all ye works of the lord bless ye the lord praise him and him for ever the women throughout the hall leaned forward to look as the filled the air mrs with some others began to breathe short she had hardly imagined there were so many in the world and instinctively searched for he had found the we we at the back of the audience and was standing as by right between dan and uncle returned the night before with from sound received him suspiciously captains courageous t your folk gone yet he what are you here young o ye seas and floods bless ye the lord praise and him for ever t he good right said dan he s bin there same as the rest of us not in them clothes shut your head said your s gone back on you stay right where ye are then up and spoke the orator of the occasion another pillar of the bidding the world welcome to and incidentally pointing out wherein the rest of the world then he turned to the sea wealth of the city and spoke of the price that must be paid for the yearly harvest they would hear later the names of their lost dead one hundred and seventeen of them the stared a little and looked at one another here could not boast any overwhelming mills or her sons worked for such as the sea gave and they all knew that neither nor the banks were cow pastures the utmost that folk ashore could accomplish was to help the and the and after a few o captains courageous general remarks he took this opportunity of thanking in the name of the city those who had so public consented to in the exercises of the occasion i jest despise the pieces in it growled it don t give folk a fair notion of us ef folk won t be fore handed an put by when they ve the chance returned it stands in the nature o things they to be you take warn in by that young riches but for a season ef you scatter them on but to lose everything everything said what can you do once i the watery blue eyes stared up and down as looking for something to steady them once i read in a book i think of a boat where every one was run down except some one and he said to me said cutting in you read a little less an take more int in your and you come nearer your keep among the felt a thrill that began in captains courageous the back of his neck and ended at his boots he was cold too though it was a stifling day that the from philadelphia said troop at the platform you ve fixed it about old man t ye ye know why it was not s ride that the woman delivered but some sort of poem about a fishing port called and a fleet of beating in against storm by night while the women made a guiding fire at the head of the with everything they could lay hands on they took the s blanket who shivered and bade them go they took the baby s cradle who could not say them no said dan peering over long shoulder that s great must ha bin expensive though ground case said the man badly lighted port and knew not all the while if they were lighting a or only a funeral pile io captains courageous the wonderful voice took hold of people by their and when she told how the were flung ashore living and dead and they carried the bodies to the glare of the fires asking child is this your father or wife is this your man you could hear hard breathing all over the benches and when the boats of go out to face the think of the love that travels like light upon their sails there was very little applause when she finished the women were looking for their handkerchiefs and many of the men stared at the ceiling with shiny eyes h m said that cost ye a dollar to hear at any maybe two some folk i can afford it seems downright waste to me how in did cap strike adrift here no him under said an man behind he s a poet an he s to say his piece comes from way too captains courageous he did not say	39
that captain b had for five years to be allowed to a piece of his own composition on memorial day an amused and exhausted committee had at last given him his desire the simplicity and utter happiness of the old man as he stood up in his very best sunday clothes won the audience ere he opened his mouth they sat through seven and thirty verses describing at fullest length the loss of the off the in the gale of and when he came to an end they shouted with one kindly throat a far sighted boston slid away for a full copy of the and an interview with the author so that earth had nothing more to offer captain ex master and poet in the seventy third year of his age i call that sensible said the man i ve bin over that with his jest as he read it in my two hands and i can testify that he s got it all in if dan here could n t do better n that with one hand before breakfast he ought to be captains courageous said the honor of on general principles not but what i m free to own he s considerable ery fer still guess uncle goin to die this trip compliment he s ever paid me dan what s wrong with you you act all quiet and you look sick don t know what s the matter with me replied seems if my were too big for my i m all crowded up and too bad we wait for the an then we quit an catch the tide the they were nearly all of that season s making themselves rigidly like people going to be shot in cold blood for they knew what was coming the summer girls in pink and blue stopped over captain s wonderful poem and looked back to see why all was silent the pressed forward as that town official who had talked with up on the platform and began to read the year s list of losses dividing captains courageous them into months last september s were mostly single men and strangers but his voice rang very loud in the stillness of the hall september th lost with all aboard off the master single main street city single street city single single main street city supposed single s city joseph joseph st john s no a voice cried from the body of the hall he from st john s said the reader looking to see i know it he belongs in my the reader made a on the margin of the list and resumed same liverpool single may street city single captains courageous september th married drowned in off eastern point that shot went home for one of the where she sat clasping and her hands mrs who had been listening with wide opened eyes threw up her head and choked dan s mother a few seats to the right saw and heard and quickly moved to her side the reading went on by the time they reached the january and february the shots were falling thick and fast and the drew breath between their teeth february th harry on the way home from married main street city lost overboard february d hope went astray in robert married native of but his wife was in the hall they heard a low cry as though a little animal had been hit it was stifled at once and a girl staggered out of the hall she had been hoping against hope for months because some who have gone adrift in have been picked up by deep sea sailing ships captains courageous now she had her certainty and could see the policeman on the a hack for her it s fifty cents to the the driver began but the policeman held up his hand but i m goin there anyway jump right in look at here you don t pull me next time my lamps ain t lit see the side door closed on the patch of bright sunshine and s eyes turned again to the reader and his endless list april th lost on the banks with all hands edward master married city d married g w clay colored married city and so on and so on great were rising in s throat and his stomach reminded him of the day when he fell from the may loth we v f here the blood all over him single city lost overboard once more a low tearing cry from somewhere at the back of the hall i captains courageous she should n t ha come she should n t ha come said long jack with a of pity don t dan heard that much but the rest was all darkness spotted with fiery wheels leaned forward and spoke to his wife where she sat with one arm round mrs and the other holding down the catching hands lean your head right she whispered it go off in a minute i ca an t i do don t oh let me mrs did not at all know what she said you must mrs troop repeated your boy s jest fainted dead away they do that some when they re their growth wish to tend to him we can this side quite quiet you come right along with me my dear we re both women i guess we must tend to men folk come the we we promptly went through the crowd as a body guard and it was a very white and shaken that they propped up on a bench in an his ma was mrs troop s only captains courageous comment as the mother bent over her boy how d you suppose he could ever stand it she cried indignantly to who had said nothing at all	39
three will be found all the events in which and were concerned followed by other military stories in black and white covers tales of native life in india and the phantom those which deal with matters more or less between the two worlds to under the has been added mrs sits out and to in black and white the of m p the story of the and the indian child stories stand as first issued alterations in matter and text have been avoided as much as possible but two tales neat and haunted have been added to plain tales from the hills these preface formed part of the original as it first appeared in india ten years ago the stories have been collected in one volume and arranged in introduction to outward bound edition to the or of this venture a letter or bill of instruction from the owner in the name of god the compassionate the merciful bis is a new voyage at all hie those which you have already taken to or or even to and the islands where we can count upon the therefore consider the matter carefully i have given you a new compass new sails and other gear suitable to the and cannot be picked up for the asking at or on sion t he cargo is all in new like by like to be reached more easily and i have painted her before and behind and i have put a new plank deck in place old and the are new as well this is at my risk and the returns must be prepared with zeal introduction and a single heart many men of tie seas have told me secretly selling and and ing the loss to tie waves and sea was long ago and now i do not all ae stories that come up from ae be road is west and by england where she wiu not touch for the cargo is ail for ae western and these if please you upon ae side of the sea it is cold water heavy and ships go up and down in their hundreds ing avoid these for they are of iron and suddenly wooden vessels none ae less i have carried many across and in lighter craft than the be men of those ports have lived among them and whose name be exalted has my understanding come down to trade early in ae day and their hours are longer we use in ae east do not then sleep in the or sung a under the stern neither the sleeping at on we pray before ae voyage at the we give thanks when the voyage is ever but during the voyage we must trade in trading it is to be that he many who can immediately discern the bad from ae good do not seek to such men mar talk or else we are say nothing let them choose and throw a sail over certain of lesser worth introduction tv be others stamping an ae deck and talking choose the worst o these it is to sell heads brass rods and coarse since it is written he blind pay for him who hath eyes and there is a third muster very cunning in the outside of things and full of words as the of wind these to the lower hold and show them that i do not altogether sell toys or looking remember too that of the are double and giving a new pattern in a shift of light some are best seen in full sun others under a lamp and a few are only good to be used in dark places where were made the women should know this however the little children come down to the hide away that which is let down the gang plank with the railing on either hand and spare nothing of the painted clay figures the talking the dancing bears the coloured lights or the sweet to give them t they wiu first plague their parents to buy and later for a child s memory is very long wiu bring their when we return but have a care that they do not wander through au tie holds or themselves in the but the chief part of our business lies with men who are wearied at the end of the day it is for the sake of these men that i have the seek these before all others at the end of the day as i have said and in whatever dress i have introduction dresses aboard may make than up by little them from and their occupations they come aboard the and whether they descend into the run and read the private marks i have put upon the or whether they lie upon the deck in the moonlight the small arms and whether they stare a little and go again or whether they take passage in the for a far voyage you are the servant of these and the is theirs so long as they please for though i am only a with no ware upon which there is not an open price i do not forget when i was wearied at the end of the day certain great captains sold me for a silver that which i could not now find in any market pay then that debt to these men who are my brothers f hey will not bring their aboard so the talk may be trimmed with a slack sheet j t he chances of the sea are many and come on all if ye spy any struggling in broken water or on hen that roll over and over do not consider the voyage but go to him with the tackle i have put aboard for such work as allows to his comfort i have myself been many times from calamity by ships whose	39
very names and were un to me answer questions as to the sun moon and stars openly according to the custom of the sea for wc find our way only by the lights of god the refuge introduction rf which are common to au it is not needed to strangers our for these be of and each must his mm for himself do not press her in a wind nor think that one good will serve without change to land and i have met long lasting i know that all is the free gift of to him who finds it hut still i say let not my be first in this work it is not to use stray gathered gear and who knows but in the very next port may wait the lawful owner and an open shame for the rest her place in port is sideways to the with all clear and your place is upon her after deck by the to re those coming aboard to make my to friends who remember me when i there to open out the to tempt new men to buy to give no credit and to keep a strict account of all on the black water it must be as it is ordained but in my estimation she is well found get ready now and take her out when the wind serves remembering this one thing sure in all uncertainty as it is written ob bis escape and are we all tbat is not contents three an extra lo thrown away miss s neat with an false dawn the rescue of s arrows his chance in life watches of the night the other man a haunted consequences the of a the arrest of lieutenant in the house of his wedded wife a com the broken beyond the pale in error a bank fraud in the pride of his youth pig the of the white rs the divorce case the of a friend s friend s the gate of the hundred sorrows the story of din on the strength of a likeness of the foreign office a by word of mouth to be filed for reference illustrations the gate of the hundred sorrows din the for thia and the have been in clay by john c l and the with the and the j ion the title ta the elephant headed the god of with special relation to the the or of good luck ii found over plain tales from the hills plain tales from the hills have cast out lore what gods are these yoa bid me please the in one the one in three not so to my own gods i go it may be they shall give me greater ease than your cold christ and tangled tbe she was the daughter of a man of the and h his wife one year their failed and two bears spent the night in their only field just above the valley on the side so next season they christian and brought their baby to the mission to be the her elizabeth and is the hill or later came into the valley and carried off and and plain tales from the hills came half servant half companion to the wife of the then of this was after the reign of the in that place but before had quite forgotten her title of mistress of the northern hills whether christianity improved or whether the gods of her own people would have done as much for her under any circumstances i do not know but she grew very lovely when a girl grows lovely she is worth travelling fifty miles over bad ground to look upon had a greek ice one of those people paint so often and see so seldom she was os a pale ivory colour and for her race extremely tall also she possessed eyes that were wonderful and had she not been dressed in the print affected by you would meeting her on the unexpectedly have thought her the original of the going out to took to christianity readily and did not abandon it when she reached womanhood as do some hill girls her own people hated her because she had they said become a white wo man and washed herself daily and the s wife did not know what to do with her one cannot ask a stately goddess five foot ten in her shoes to clean plates and dishes she played with the s children and took classes in the sunday school and read all the books in the house and grew more and more beautiful like the in tales the s wife said that the ought to take service in as a nurse or something genteel but did not want to take service she was very happy where she was when travellers there were not many in those years came in to used to lock herself into her own room for fear they might take her away to or out into the unknown world one day a few months after she was seventeen years old went out for a walk she did not walk in the manner of english ladies a mile and a half out with a carriage ride back again she covered between twenty and thirty miles in her little all about and about between and this time she came back at full dusk stepping down the descent into with something heavy in her arms the s wife was in the drawing room when came in breathing heavily and very exhausted with her burden put it down on the and said simply this is my husband i found him on the road he has hurt himself we will nurse him and when he is well your husband shall marry him to me plain tales from the hills this was the first mention	39
had ever made of her matrimonial views and the s wife shrieked with horror however the man on the sofa needed attention first he was a young englishman and his head had been cut to the bone by something jagged said she had found him down the and had brought him ia he was breathing and was unconscious he was put to bed and tended by the who knew something of medicine and waited outside the door in case she could be useful she explained to the that this was the man she meant to marry and the and his wife her severely on the of her conduct listened quietly and repeated her first proposition it takes a great deal of christianity to wipe out eastern instincts such as falling in love at first sight having found the man she worshipped did not see why she should keep silent as to her choice she had no intention of being sent away either she was going to nurse that englishman until he was well enough to marry her this was her programme after a fortnight of slight fever and the englishman recovered and thanked the and his wife and especially for their kindness he was a traveller in the east he said they never talked about globe in those days when the p o fleet was young and small and had come from to hunt for plants and among the hills no one at therefore knew about him he that he must have over the cliff while reaching out for a on a rotten tree trunk and that his must have stolen his baggage and fled he thought he would go back to when he was a little stronger he desired no more he made small haste to go away and recovered his strength slowly objected to being advised either by the or his wife therefore the latter spoke to the englishman and told him how matters stood in s heart he laughed a good deal and said it was very pretty and romantic but as he was engaged to a girl at home he that nothing would happen certainly he would behave with discretion he did that still he found it very pleasant to talk to and walk with and say nice things to her and call her pet names while he was getting strong enough to go away it meant nothing at all to him and everything in the world to she was very happy while the fortnight lasted because she had found a man to love being a savage by birth she took no trouble to hide her feelings and the englishman was amused s plain tales from the hills when he went away walked with him up the hill as far as very troubled and very miserable the s wife being a good christian and anything in the shape of fuss or scandal was beyond her management entirely had told the englishman to tell that he was coming back to marry her she is but a child you know and i fear at heart a heathen said the s wife so all the twelve miles up the hill the englishman his arm round s waist was assuring the girl that he would come back and marry her and made him promise over and over again she wept on the ridge till he had passed out of sight along the path then she dried her tears and went in to i in and said to the s wife he will k ba v and marry me he has gone to his i i i i to tell them so and the s w u i and said he will come at i ie end of two months grew and was told that the englishman had the seas to england she knew where was because she had read little but of course she had no con nature of the sea being a hill girl n old puzzle map of the world in f i had played with it when she he un again and put it i from the hills i u away li w with him up as very and bit the s j a and di x anything in shape t th wan beyond t had the v li that he was t back to ib but a you know i at heart a said the chap air s so all the twelve up ttie hill the en li with r ii wai t wa a the that come bat k and marry her and i in him r over and over again r w pi on till he had pi d o it oi y h the path r f til ut arid in to ko i o v w c i i l wife he i k he has to his r and the s u lid he come li grew i it he h had r land knew re r h id read g f r had no c f i b hi j ot the world in i with it w n he v a ar d put it a n together of evenings and cried to herself and tried to imagine where her englishman was as she had no ideas of distance or her notions were somewhat wild it would not have made the least difference had she been perfectly correct for the englishman had no intention of coming back to marry a hill girl he forgot all about her by the time he was butterfly hunting in he wrote a book on	39
the afterwards s name did not appear there at the end of three months made daily pilgrimage to to see if her englishman was coming along the road it gave her comfort and the s wife finding her happier thought that she was getting over her barbarous and most folly a little later the walks ceased to help and her temper grew very bad the s wife thought this a profitable time to let her know the real state of a rs that the englishman had only promised his love to keep her quiet that he had never meant anything and that it was wrong and improper of to think of marriage with an englishman who was of a superior clay besides being promised in marriage to a girl of his own people said that all this was clearly impossible because he had said he loved her and the s wife had with her own lips asserted that the englishman was coming back plain tales from the hills how can what he and you said be asked we said it as an excuse to keep you quiet child said the s wife then you have lied to me said you and he the s wife bowed her head and said nothing was silent too for a little time then she went out down the valley and returned in the dress of a hill girl dirty but without the nose and ear rings she had her hair into the long helped out with black thread that hill women wear i am going back to my own people said she you have killed there is only left old h s daughter the daughter of a and the servant of you are all you english by the time that the s wife had recovered from the shock of the announcement that had to her mother s gods the girl had gone and she never came back she took to her own people savagely as if to make up the of the life she had stepped out of and in a little time she married a who beat her after the manner of pa and her beauty soon there is no law whereby you can account for the of the heathen said the s wife and i believe that was always at heart an seeing she had been taken into the church of england at the mature age of five weeks this statement does not do credit to the s wife was a very old woman when she died she had always a perfect command of english and when she was sufficiently drunk could some times be induced to tell the story of her first it was hard then to that the wrinkled creature exactly like a of rag could ever have been of the mission three and an extra and are do with sticks but with after marriage arrives a sometimes a bi sometimes a little one but it sooner or later and must be over by both parties if desire the rest of their lives to go with the current in the case of the this reaction did not set in till the third year after the wedding was hard to hold at the best of times but he was a beautiful husband until the baby died and mrs wore black and grew thin and mourned as the bottom of the universe had out perhaps ought to have comforted her he tried to do so but the more he comforted the more mrs grieved and consequently the more uncomfortable grew the was that they both needed a and they got it mrs can rd to laugh now but it was no laughing matter to her at the time mrs appeared on the horizon and where she existed was r chance of trouble at lo three and an extra her by name was the she had won that title five times to my own certain knowledge she was a little brown thin almost woman with big rolling violet blue eyes and the sweetest manners in the world you had only to mention her name at afternoon for every woman in the room to rise up and call her not blessed she was clever witty brilliant and sparkling beyond most of her kind but possessed of many devils of malice and she could be nice though even to her own sex but that is another story went off at score after the baby s death and the general discomfort that followed and mrs him she took no pleasure in hiding her she him publicly and saw that the public saw it he rode with her and walked with her and talked with her and with her and at s with her till people put up their eyebrows and said shocking mrs stayed at home turning over the dead baby s and crying into the empty cradle she did not care to do anything else but some eight dear affectionate lady explained the situation at length to her in case she should miss the cream of it mrs listened quietly and thanked them for their good offices she was not as clever as mrs but she was no fool she kept her own counsel plain tales from the hills and did not speak to of what she had heard this is worth remembering speaking to or crying over a husband never did any good yet when was at home which was not often he was more affectionate than usual and that showed his hand the affection was forced partly to soothe his own conscience and partly to soothe mrs it failed in both regards then the a d c in waiting was commanded by their lord and lady to invite mr and mrs to on july at p m dancing in the bottom left hand comer i can t go said mrs it is too soon after	39
poor little but it need not stop you tom she meant what she said then and said that he would go just to put in an appearance here he spoke the thing which was not and mrs knew it she guessed a woman s guess is much more accurate than a man s certainty that he had meant to go the first and with mrs she sat down to think and the of her thoughts was that the memory of a dead child was worth considerably less than the affections of a living husband she made her plan and her all upon it in that hour she discovered that she knew tom thoroughly and this knowledge she acted on t three and an extra tom said she i shall be dining out at the on the evening of the th you d better dine at the club this saved from making an excuse to get away and dine with mrs so he was grateful and felt small and mean at the same time which was wholesome left the house at five for a ride about half past five in the evening a large leather covered basket came in from s for mrs she was a woman who knew how to dress and she had not spent a week on that dress and having it and hemmed and and tucked and or whatever the terms are for nothing it was a gorgeous dress slight mourning i can t describe it but it was what the queen calls a creation a thing that hit you straight between the eyes and made you gasp she had not much heart for what she was going to do but as she glanced at the long mirror she had the of knowing that she had never looked so well in her life she was a large and when she chose carried herself after the dinner at die she went on to the dance a little late and encountered with mrs on his arm that made her flush and as the men crowded round her for dances she looked magnificent she filled up all her dances except three and those she left plain tales from the hills blank mrs caught her eye once and she knew it was war real war between them she started in the struggle for she had ordered about just the least little bit in the world too much and he was beginning to resent it moreover he had never seen his wife look so lovely he stared at her from and glared at her from passages as she went about with her partners and the more he stared the more taken was he he could scarcely believe that this was the woman with the red eyes and the black stuff gown who used to weep over the eggs at breakfast did her best to hold him in play but after two dances he crossed over to his wife and asked for a dance i m afraid you ve come too late she said with her eyes twinkling then he begged her to give him a dance and as a great favour she allowed him the fifth luckily five stood vacant on his programme they danced it together and there was a little flutter round the room had a sort of a notion that his wife could dance but he never knew she danced so at the end of that he asked for another as a favour not as a right and mrs said show me your programme dear he showed it as a naughty little hands up sweets to a h three and an extra master there was a ur of h on it besides h at supper mrs said but she smiled contemptuously ran her pencil seven and nine two h s and returned the card with her own name written above a pet name that only she and her husband used then she shook her finger at him and said oh you silly silly boy mrs heard that and she owned as much felt she had the worst of it accepted seven and nine gratefully they danced seven and sat out nine in one of the little tents what said and what mrs did is no concern of any one when the band struck up the roast beef of old england the two went out into the and began looking for his wife s this was before days while she went into the cloak room mrs came up and said you take me in to supper i think mr turned red and looked foolish ah h m i m going home with my wife mrs i think there has been a little mistake being a man he spoke as though mrs were entirely responsible mrs came out of the cloak room in a cloak with a white cloud round her head she looked radiant and she had a right ta plain tales from the hills the couple went off into the darkness riding very close to the then said mr to me she looked a trifle and in the take my word for it the woman can manage a clever man but it needs a very clever woman to manage a fool then we went in to supper t thrown away and some are while some will plunge steady stand you f some you must gentle and some you must there who wants to kill you f some there are losses in every trade will break their hearts ere and made will fight like as the rope cuts hard and die dumb mad in the breaking yard to rear a boy under what parents call the sheltered life system is if the boy must go into the world and for himself not wise unless he be one	39
in a thousand he has certainly to pass through many unnecessary troubles and may possibly come to extreme grief simply from ignorance of the proper proportions of things let a eat the soap in the bath room or a newly boot he and until by and by he finds out that and old brown make him very sick so he that soap and boots are not wholesome any old dog about the house will soon show him the of biting big dogs plain tales from the hills ears being young he remembers and goes abroad at six months a well little beast with a appetite if he had been kept away from boots and soap and big dogs till be came to the full grown and with developed teeth consider how fearfully sick and he would be apply that notion to the sheltered life and see how it works it does not sound pretty but it is the better of two evils there was a boy once who had been brought up under the sheltered life theory and the theory killed him dead he with his people all his days from the hour he was bom till the hour he went into nearly at the top of the list he was beautifully taught in all that wins marks by a private and carried the extra weight of never having given his parents an hour s anxiety in his life what he at beyond the regular routine is of no great consequence he looked about him and he found soap and so to speak very good he ate a little and came out of not so as he went in then there was an interval and a scene with his people who expected much from him next a year of living from the world in a third rate where all the were children and all the old women and lastly he came out to india where he was cut off from the support of his parents and had no thrown away one to back on in time of trouble except himself now india is a place beyond all others where one must not take things too seriously the midday sun always too much work and too much energy kill a man just as as too much vice or too much drink does not matter because every one is being transferred and either you or she leave the station and never return good work does not matter because a man is judged by his worst and another man takes all the credit of his best as a rule bad work does not matter because other men do worse and hang on longer in india than anywhere else amusements do not matter because you must repeat them as soon as you have accomplished them once and most amusements only mean trying to win another person s money sickness does not matter because it s all in the day s work and if you die another man takes over your place and your office in the eight hours between death and burial nothing matters except home and acting and these only because they are scarce it is a slack country where all men work with imperfect instruments and the wisest thing is to escape as soon as ever you can to some place where amusement is amusement and a reputation worth the having plain tales from the hills other view altogether and have believed himself ruined beyond his colonel talked to him severely when the cold weather ended that made him more wretched than ever and it was only an ordinary colonel s what follows is a curious instance of the fashion in which we are all linked together and made responsible for one another tbe thing that kicked the beam in the boy s mind was a remark that a woman made when he was talking to her there is no use in repeating it for it was only a cruel little sentence out before thinking that made him flush to the roots of his hair he kept himself to himself for three days and then put in for two days leave to go shooting near a canal engineer s rest house about thirty miles out he got his leave and that night at mess was and more offensive than ever he said that he going to shoot big game and left at half past ten o clock in an which the only thing a man could get near the rest house is not big game so every one laughed next morning one of the came in from short leave and heard that the boy had gone out to shoot big game the had taken an interest in the boy and had more than once tried to check him the mayor put up his eye thrown away rug and the other half from the bred by stumbling out of his quiet life into the glare and excitement of a one no one told him about the soap and the because an average man takes it for granted that an average man is ordinarily careful in regard to them it was pitiful to watch the boy knocking himself to pieces as an over handled falls down and cuts himself when he gets away from the groom this license in amusements not worth the trouble of breaking line for much less over endured for six months all through one cold weather and then we thought that the heat and the knowledge of having lost his money and health and his horses would sober the boy down and he would stand steady in ninety nine cases out of a hundred this would have happened you can see the principle working in any indian station but this particular case fell through because the boy was sensitive and took things seriously as i may have said some seven times before	39
of course we could not tell how his struck him personally they were nothing very or above the average he might be crippled for life and want a little nursing still the memory of his performances would away in one hot weather and the would help him to tide over the money troubles but he must have taken an plain tales from the hills he made that pony fly a do nearly anything at a pinch we covered the thirty miles in under three hours but the poor brute was nearly dead once i said what s the blazing hurry he said quietly the boy has been by himself for two five fourteen hours now i tell you i don t feel easy this uneasiness spread itself to me and i helped to beat the pony when we came to the canal engineer s rest house the called for the boy s servant but there was no answer then we went up to the house calling for the boy by name but there was no answer oh he s out shooting said i just then i saw through one of the windows a little lamp burning this was at in the afternoon we both stopped dead in the holding our breath to catch every sound and we heard inside the room the of a multitude of flies the major said but he took off his and we entered very softly the boy was dead on the bed in the centre o die bare lime washed room he had shot his bead nearly to pieces with his revolver the gun cases were still so was the and on die table lay the boy s writing case with thrown away photographs he had gone away to die like a poisoned rat the major said to himself softly poor boy poor poor devil then he turned away from the bed and said i want your help in this business knowing the boy was dead by his own hand i saw exactly what that help would be so i passed over to the table took a chair lit a and began to go through the writing case the major looking over my shoulder and repeating to himself we came too late like a rat in a hole poor poor devil the boy must have spent half the night in writing to his people to his colonel and to a girl at home and as soon as he had finished must have shot himself for he had been dead a long time when we came in i read all that he had written and passed over each sheet to the major as i finished it we saw from his accounts how very seriously he had taken everything he wrote about disgrace which he was unable to bear shame criminal folly wasted life and so on besides a lot of private things to his ther and mother much too sacred to put into print the letter to the girl at home was the most pitiful of all and i choked as i read it the major made no attempt to keep dry eyed i respected bim for that he read and rocked himself to and plain tales from the hills fro and simply cried like a woman without caring to hide it the letters were so dreary and hopeless and touching we forgot all about the boy s follies and only thought of the poor thing on the bed and the sheets in our hands it was utterly impossible to let the letters go home they would have broken his either s heart and killed his mother after killing her belief in her son at last the major dried his eyes openly and said nice sort of thing to spring on an english what shall we do i said knowing what the major had brought me out for the boy died of we were with him at the time we can t commit ourselves to half measures come along then began one of the most grimly comic scenes i have ever taken part in the of a big written lie with evidence to soothe the boy s people at home i began the rough of the letter the major throwing in hints here and there while he gathered up all the stuff that the boy had written and burnt it in the fireplace it was a hot still evening when we began and the lamp burned very badly in due course i made the to my satisfaction setting forth how the boy was the pattern of all virtues loved by his regiment with every promise of a great career before him and so on how we had thrown away helped him through the sickness it was no time for little lies you will understand and how he had died without pain i choked while i was putting down these things and thinking of the poor people who would read them then i laughed at the of the affair and the laughter mixed itself up with the choke and the major said that we both wanted drinks i am afraid to say how much we drank before the letter was finished it had not the least effect on us then we took off the boy s watch and rings lastly the major said we must send a lock of hair too a woman that but there were reasons why we could not find a lock fit to send the boy was black haired and so was the major luckily i cut off a piece of the major s hair above the temple with a knife and put it into the packet we were making the laughing fit and the got hold of me again and i had to stop the major was nearly as bad and we both knew	39
that the worst part of the work was to come we sealed up the packet photographs ring letter and lock of hair with the boy s wax and the boy s seal then the major said for s sake let s get outside away from the room and think we went outside and walked on the banks of plain tales from the hills the canal for an hour eating and drinking what we had with us until the moon rose i know now exactly how a murderer feels finally we forced ourselves back to the r om with the lamp and the other thing in it and began to take up the next piece of work i am not going to write about this it was too horrible we burned the and dropped the ashes into the canal we took up the of the room and treated that in the same way i went off to a village and borrowed two big i did not want the villagers to help while the major arranged the other matters it took us four hours hard work to make the grave as we worked we argued out whether it was right to say as much as we remembered of the burial of the dead we things by saying the lord s prayer with a private prayer for the peace of the soul of the boy then we filled in the grave and went into the not the house to lie down to sleep we were dead tired when we woke the major said wearily we can t go back till to morrow we must give him a decent time to die in he died early this morning remember that seems more natural so the major must have been lying awake all the time thinking i said then why didn t we bring the body back to thrown away the major thought for a minute because the people bolted when they heard of the and the has gone that was strictly true we had forgotten all about the and he had gone home so we were left there alone all that stifling day in the canal rest house and re our story of the boy s death to see if it was weak in any point a native appeared in the afternoon but we said that a was dead of and he ran away as the dusk gathered the major told me all his fears about the boy and awful stories of suicide or nearly carried out suicide tales that made one s hair crisp he said that he himself had once gone into the same valley of the shadow as the boy when he was young and new to the country so he understood how things fought together in the boy s poor head he also said that in their moments consider their sins much more serious and than they really are we talked together all through the evening and the story of the death of the boy as soon as the moon was up and the boy just buried we struck across country for the station we walked from eight till six o clock in the but though we were dead tired we did not forget to go to the boy s rooms and put away his revolver with the proper amount of in the plain tales from the hills also to set his writing case on the table we found the colonel and reported the death feeling more like than ever then we went to bed and slept the clock round for there was no more in us the tale had as long as was necessary for every one forgot about the boy before a fortnight was over many people however found time to say that the major had behaved in not bringing in the body for a funeral the thing of all was the letter from the boy s mother to the major and me with big all over the sheet she wrote the sweetest possible things about our great kind ness and the obligation she would be under to us as long as she lived all things considered she was under an tion but not exactly as she meant p miss s when man and woman are agreed what can the do proverb some people say that there is no romance in india those people are wrong our lives hold quite as much romance as is good for us sometimes more was in the police and people did not understand him so they said he was a doubtful sort of man and passed by on the other side had himself to thank for this he held the extraordinary theory that a policeman in india should try to know as much about the natives as the natives themselves now in the whole of upper india there is only one man who can pass for or hide or priest as he pleases he is feared and respected by the natives from the to the and he is supposed to have the gift of and control over many devils but this has done him no good in the eyes of the indian government was foolish enough to take that man for his model and following out his absurd theory in places no respectable man plain tales from the hills would think of exploring all among the native he educated himself in this peculiar way for seven years and people could not appreciate it he was perpetually going among natives which of course no man with any sense believes m he was into the sat at once when he was on leave he knew the song of the and the dance which is a religious can can of a startling kind when a man knows who dance the and how and when and where he knows something to be proud of	39
he has gone deeper than the skin but was not proud though he had helped once at at the painting of the death bull which no must even look upon had mastered the thieves of the had taken a horse thief alone near and had stood under the sounding board of a border and conducted service in the manner of a his crowning achievement was spending eleven days as or priest in the gardens of at and there picking up the threads of the great murder case but people said justly enough why on earth can t sit in his office and write up his and and keep quiet instead of showing up the of his so the murder case did him no good but after miss s his first feeling of wrath he returned to his custom of into native life when a man once a taste for this particular amusement it with him all his days it is the most thing in the world love not where other men took ten days to the hills took leave for what he called put on the disguise that appealed to him at the time stepped down into the brown crowd and was swallowed up for a while he was a quiet dark young fellow spare black eyed and when he was not thinking of something else a very interesting companion on native progress as he had seen it was worth hearing natives hated but they were afraid of him he knew too much when the came into the station very gravely as he did everything fell in love with miss and she after a while fell in love with him because she could not understand him then told the parents but mrs said she was not going to throw her daughter into the worst paid department in the empire and old said in so many words that he s ways and works and would thank him not to speak or write to his daughter any more very well said for he did not wish to make his lady love s life a burden after one long talk plain tales from the hills he dropped the business tlie went up to in april in july secured three months leave on urgent private he locked up his house though not a in the province would have touched s gear for die world and went down to see a friend of an old at here all trace of him was lost a or groom met me on the with ordinary note ot fc a box of no i for preference are at ro i i at vm of e i ordered two boxes and handed them over to the with my love that was and was in old s employ attached to miss s the poor fellow was suffering for an english smoke and knew that happened i should hold my tongue till the business was over later on mrs who was wrapped up m her servants began talking at houses where she of her among the man who never too busy to get up in the morning miss and pick flowers for the breakfast table and who actually the hoofs of his horse like a london coachman the turn out of miss was a wonder and a delight i mean found his reward in the pretty things that miss said to him when she went out riding her parents were pleased to find she had forgotten all her foolishness for young and said she was a good girl vows that the two months of his service were the most rigid mental discipline he has ever gone through quite apart from the little fact that the wife of one of his fell in love with him and then tried to poison him with because he would have nothing to do with her he had to school himself into keeping quiet when miss went out riding with some man who tried to with her and he was forced to trot behind carrying the blanket and hearing every word also he had to keep his temper when he was in the theatre porch by a policeman especially once when he was abused by a he had himself from village or worse still when a young called him a pig for not making way quickly but the life had its he obtained great insight into die ways and of plain tales from the hills enough he says to have convicted half the population of the if he had been on business he became one of the leading players at bones which all and many play while they are waiting outside the house or the gaiety theatre of nights he learned to smoke tobacco that was three and he heard the wisdom of the of the house whose words are valuable he saw many things which amused him and he states on honour that no man can appreciate till he has seen it from the point of view he also says that if he chose to write all he saw his head would be broken in several places s account of the agony he endured on wet nights hearing the music and seeing the lights in with his toes for a and his head in a horse blanket is rather amusing one of these days is going to write a little book on his experiences that book will be worth buying and even more worth thus he served as jacob served for and his leave was nearly at an end when the explosion came he had really done his best to keep his temper in the hearing of the i have mentioned but he broke down at last an old and very distinguished took miss miss s for a ride and began that specially of you re only a little girl sort	39
of most difficult for a woman to aside and most to listen to miss was shaking with fear at the things he said in the hearing of her stood it as long as he could then he caught hold of the s bridle and in most invited him to step off and be flung over the cliff next minute miss began to cry and saw that he had hopelessly given himself away and everything was over the nearly had a fit while miss was sobbing out the story of the disguise and the engagement that was not recognised by the parents was furiously angry with himself and more angry with the for forcing his hand so he said nothing but held the horse s head and prepared to the as some sort of but when the had thoroughly grasped the story and knew who was he began to puff and blow in the saddle and nearly rolled off with laughing he said deserved a v c if it were only for putting on a blanket then he called himself names and vowed that he deserved a but he was too old to take it from then he miss on her lover the scandal of the business never struck him for he was a nice plain tales from the hills old man with a weakness for then he laughed again and said that old was a let go of the s head and suggested that the had better help them if was his opinion knew s weakness for men with titles and letters after their names and high official position rather uke a minute said the general but i will help if it s only to escape that tremendous i deserve along to your home my i and change into decent and i ll attack mr miss you may i ask you to home and wait about seven minutes later there was a wild at the club a with blanket and head rope was asking all the men he knew for heaven s sake lend me decent clothes as the men did not recognise him there were some peculiar scenes before could get a hot bath with in it in one room a shirt here a collar there a pair of trousers elsewhere and so on he galloped off with half the club wardrobe on his back and an utter stranger s pony under him to the house of old the general arrayed in purple and fine linen was before him what the had said never knew but received with moderate civility and mrs touched by the devotion miss s of the transformed was almost kind the general beamed and chuckled and miss came in and almost before old knew where he was the parental consent had been out and had departed with miss to the telegraph office to wire for his european the final embarrassment was when a stranger attacked him on the and asked for the stolen pony in the end and miss were married on the strict understanding that should drop his old ways and stick to routine which pays best and leads to was too fond of his wife just then to break his word but it was a sore trial to him for the streets and the and the sounds in them were fuu of meaning to and these called to him to come back and take up his wanderings and his discoveries some day i will tell you how he broke his promise to help a friend that was long since and he has by this time been nearly spoilt for what he would call he is forgetting the and the beggar s cant and the marks and the signs and the drift of the under currents which if a man would master he must always continue to learn but he fills in his returns neat the oldest trouble in the world comes from want of understanding and it is entirely the of the woman somehow she is built incapable of speaking the truth even to herself she only finds it out about four months later when the man is dead or has been then she says she never was so happy in her life and some one else who again touched some woman s heart elsewhere and did not know it but was mixed up with another man s wife only used him to a third man and so round again all cross out here where life goes quicker than at home things are more obviously tangled and therefore more pitiful to look al men speak the truth as they understand it and women as they think men would like to understand it and then they all act lies which would deceive solomon and the result is a heart that half a dozen open words would put straight this particular did not differ from any other you may see if you are not busy neat playing cross purposes yourself going on in a big station any cold season its only merit was that it did not come all right in the end as are made to do in the third volume i ve forgotten what the man was he was an ordinary sort of man man you meet any day at the a d c s end of the table and go away and forget about his name was but whether he was in the army or the p w d or the or the police or a victory i don t re member he wasn t a he was just an ordinary man of the light coloured variety with a moustache and with the average amount of pay that comes between twenty seven and from six to nine hundred a month he didn t dance and he did what little riding he wanted to do by himself and was busy in	39
office all day and never his head about women no man ever dreamed he would he was of the type that doesn t marry just because it doesn t think about marriage he was one of the plain cards whose only use is to make up the pack and furnish background to put the court cards against then there was a girl ordinary girl the variety daughter of a man in the army who played a little sang a little talked a little and furnished the background exactly as did she had been sent out here to get married if she could because there were many sisters at plain tales from the hills and aren t she with an aunt she was a miss and men her name on the when they couldn t catch what the said and she were thrown together in the same station one cold weather and the particular devil who looks after prompted miss to in love with he had spoken to her perhaps twenty times certainly not more but she fell as in love with him as if she had been and he she of course kept her own counsel and equally of course her manner to who never noticed manner or style or dress any than he noticed a sunset was icy not to say the deadly of struck her as reserve of force and she grew to believe he was wonderfully clever in some secret and sort of line she did not know what line but she believed and that was enough no one suspected anything of any kind for the simple reason that no one took any deep interest in miss except her aunt who wanted to get the girl off her hands this went on for some months till a man woke up to the that miss was the one woman in the world for him and told her sa she him without or reason and that night there followed one of those neat bedroom that men know nothing about miss s indignant and merciless with her mouth full of and her hands full of false hair set herself to find out by cross examination what in the name of everything wise prudent religious and dutiful miss meant by her the conference lasted for an hour and a half with question on question insult and of poverty appeals to providence then a fresh of hair pins then all the questions over again beginning with but what do you see to dislike in mr then a vicious at what was left of the mane then impressive and more appeals to heaven and then the of poor miss a tear stained arrangement in white on the couch at the foot of the bed and between sobs and the whole absurd little story of her love for now in all the forty five years experience of miss s aunt she had never heard of a girl throwing over a real genuine lover with an appointment for a lover to whom she had spoken merely in the course of the ordinary social visiting rounds so miss s aunt was struck dumb and merely praying that heaven might direct miss into a better frame of mind dismissed plain tales from the hills the and went to bed leaving miss to sob and moan herself to sleep understand clearly i don t for a moment defend miss she was wrong wrong but like hers must by the law of just to remind people that love is as as when first gave him his and told him to run away and play must be held innocent innocent as his own pony could he guess that when miss was as and as as she knew how she would have risen up and followed him from to at a word he didn t know anything or care anything about miss he had his work to do miss s aunt might have respected her niece s secret but she didn t what we call talking rank scandal she called seeking advice and she sought advice on the case of miss from the judge s wife in strict confidence my dear who told the s wife of course you won t repeat it my dear who told the s wife you understand it is to go no my dear who told the bride who was so delighted at being in possession of a secret concerning real grown up men and women that she told any one and every one who called on her so the went all over the station and from being no one neat in particular miss came to take of the last interesting between the judge s wife and the civil engineer s wife then began a really interesting system of persecution worked by women soft and sympathetic and but calculated to drive a girl off her head they were all so sorry for miss and they together and were kind and sweet in their manner to her as those who said you may confide in us my stricken deer miss was a woman and sensitive it took her less than one evening at the band stand to find that her poor little precious little secret that had been from her on the rack was known as widely as if it had been written on her hat i don t know what she went through women don t speak of these things and men ought not to guess but it must have been some specially refined torture for she told her aunt she would go home and die as a sooner than stay in this hateful hateful place her aunt said she was a rebellious girl and sent her home to her people after a couple of months and said no one knew what the pains of a s life were	39
poor miss had one pleasure just at the last half way down the line she caught a glimpse of who had gone down on duty plain tales from the hills and was then in the up train and he took o f his hat to her she went home and if she is not dead by this time must be living still months afterwards there was a lively dinner at the club for the races was about as usual and there was a good deal of idle talk flying every way finally one man who had taken more than was good for him said of something about s reserved ways ah you old fraud it s all very well for you to pretend i know a girl who was on you once dead nuts she was on old what had you been doing eh expected some sort of sell and said with a laugh who was she before any one could kick the man he out with the name and the secretary upset the half of a big of all over the table after the up the men went out to the but sat on and after ten minutes said very humbly to the only other man in the deserted dining room on your honour was there a word of truth in what the drunken fool said then the man who is writing this story who had known of the thing from the beginning and now felt all the and of it the neat waste and the said a good deal more than he meant truth o man man couldn t you see it said nothing but sat still smoking and smoking and thinking while the tent outside and the turned down the lamps to the best of my knowledge and belief that was the first thing ever knew about love but his awakening did not seem to delight him it must have been rather unpleasant to judge by the look on his ice he looked like a man who had missed a train and had been half stunned at the same time when the men came in firom the went out he wasn t in the mood for bones and horse talk he went to his tent and the last thing he said quite aloud to himself was i didn t see i didn t see if i had known even if he had known i don t believe but these things are and we only find out all about them just when any knowledge is too late with an i un dying for you ind you dying for another proverb when the tender left the p o steamer for and went back to catch the train to town there were many people in it crying but the one who wept most and most openly was miss she had reason to cry because the only man she ever loved or ever could love so she said was going out to india and india as every one knows is divided equally between and leaning over the side of the steamer in the rain felt very unhappy too but he did not cry he was sent out to tea what tea meant he had not the idea but that he would have to ride on a horse over hills covered with tea vines and draw a sim ip salary for doing so and he was very grateful to his uncle for getting him the berth he was really going to reform all his slack ways save a large proportion of his magnificent salary yearly and in a very short time to marry had been lying with an loose on his friends hands for three years and as he had nothing to do he naturally fell in love he was very nice but he was not strong in his views and opinions and principles and though he never came to actual grief his friends were thankful when he said good bye and went out to this mysterious tea business near they said god bless you dear boy let us never see your ice again or at least that was what was given to understand when he sailed he was very full of a great plan to prove himself several hundred times better than any one had given him credit for to work like a horse and triumphantly marry he had many good points besides his good looks his only being that he was weak the least little bit in the world weak he had as much notion of economy as the morning sun and yet you could not lay your hand on any one item and say is extravagant or reckless nor could you point out any particular vice in his character but he was and as as went about her duties at home her objected to the engagement with red eyes while was sailing to a port m the ocean as his mother used to tell her friends he was popular enough on made many acquaintances and a plain tales from the hills liquor bill and sent oflf huge letters to at each port then he fell to work on this plantation somewhere between and and though the salary and the horse and the work were not quite all he had fancied he succeeded well and gave himself much unnecessary credit for his perseverance in the course of time as he settled more into collar and his work grew fixed before him the ice of went out of his mind and only came when he was at leisure which was not he would forget all about her for a fort night and remember her with a start like a school boy who has forgotten to his lesson she did not forget because she was of the kind	39
that never forgets only another man a really desirable yoimg man presented himself before mrs and the chance of a marriage with was as r off as ever and his letters were so and there was a certain amount of domestic pressure brought to bear on the girl and the young man really was an eligible person as go and the end of all things was that married him and wrote a o a letter to in the of and said she should never know a happy moment all the rest of her life which was a true prophecy received that letter and held himself ill with an treated this was two years after he had come out but by dint of thinking of and looking at her photograph and patting himself on the back for being one of the most constant lovers in history and warming to the work as he went on he really that he had been very hardly used he sat down and wrote one final letter a really pathetic world without end amen explaining how he would be true to eternity and that all women were very much alike and he would hide his broken heart etc etc but if at any future etc etc he could to wait etc etc unchanged etc etc return to her old love etc etc for eight closely written pages from an artistic point of view it was very neat work but an ordinary who knew the state of s real feelings not the ones he rose to as he went on writing would have called it the thoroughly mean and selfish work of a thoroughly mean and selfish weak man but this verdict would have been in correct paid for the and felt every word he had written for at least two days and a half it was the last before the light went out that letter made very unhappy and she cried and put it away in her desk and became mrs somebody else for the good of her which is the first duty of every maid plain tales from the hills went his and thought no more of his letter except as an artist thinks of a touched in sketch his ways were not bad but were not altogether good until they brought him across the daughter of a major of our native army the girl had a strain of hill blood in her and like the was not a or woman who lives behind the veil where met or how he heard of her does not matter she was a good girl and handsome and in her way very clever and shrewd though of course a little hard it is to be remembered that was living very comfortably denying himself no small luxury never putting by a penny very satisfied with himself and his good intentions was dropping all his english one by one and beginning more and more to look upon india as his home some men ill this way and they are of no use afterwards the climate where he was stationed was good and it really did not seem to him that there was any reason to return to land he did what many have done him that is to say he made up his mind to marry a hill girl and settle down he was seven and twenty then with a long life before him but no spirit to go through with it so he married by the forms of the english church with an and some fellow said he was a fool and some said he was a wise man was a honest girl and in spite of her reverence for an englishman had a reasonable estimate of her husband s weaknesses she managed him tenderly and became in less than a year a very of an lady in dress and carriage it is curious to think that a hill man after a lifetime s education is a hill man still but a hill woman can in six months master most of the ways of her english sisters there was a woman once but that is another story dressed by preference in black and yellow and looked well meantime s letter lay in s desk and now and again she would think of poor resolute hard working among the and of toiling in the vain hope that she mi t come back to him her husband was worth ten except that he had of the heart three years after he was married and after he had tried nice and for his complaint he went to where he died and set being a devout woman she looked on his death and the place of it as a direct of providence and when she had recovered firom the shock she took out and re read s letter with the etc etc and the big and the and kissed it several plain tales from the hills times no one knew her in she had her husband s income which was a large one and was close at hand it was wrong and improper of course but she decided as do in novels to find her old lover to offer him her hand and her gold and with him spend the rest of her life in some spot firom souls she sat for two months alone in s hotel this decision and the picture was a pretty one then she set out in search of assistant on a tea plantation with a more than usually name she found him she spent a month over it for his plantation was not in the district at all but nearer was very little altered and ra was very nice to her now the particular sin and shame of the whole business is that who really is not worth ing of twice was and is loved by	39
and more than loved by the whole of whose life he seems to have spoilt worst of all is making a decent man of him and he will ultimately be saved from through her training which is ur i false dawn to night god knows what thing shall tide the earth is and faint expectant sleepless open eyed and we who from the earth were made thrill with mother s pain in no man will ever know the exact truth of this story though women may sometimes whisper it to one another after a dance when they are putting up their hair for the night and comparing lists of victims a man of course cannot assist at these functions so the tale must be told from the outside in the dark all never praise a sister to a sister in the hope of your compliments reaching the proper ears and so preparing the way for you later on sisters are women first and sisters afterwards and you will find that you do yourself harm knew this when he made up his mind to propose to the elder miss was a strange man with few merits so ir as men could see though he was popular with women and carried enough conceit to stock a s plain tales from the hills council and leave a little over for the chiefs staff he was a very took an interest in perhaps be cause his manner to them was offensive if you hit a pony over the nose at the outset of your he may not love you but he will take a deep interest in your movements ever afterwards the elder miss was nice plump winning and pretty the younger was not so pretty and from men the hint set forth above her style was and both girls had practically the same figure and there was a strong likeness between them in look and voice though no one could doubt for an instant which was the of the two made up his mind as soon as they came into the station from to marry the elder one at least we all made sure that he would which comes to the same thing she was two and twenty and he was thirty three with pay and of nearly fourteen hundred a month so the match as we arranged it was in every way a good one was his name and summary was his nature as a man once said having his resolution he formed a select committee of one to sit upon it and resolved to take his time in our the girls hunted in couples that is to say you could do nothing with one false dawn without the other they were very loving sisters but their mutual affection was sometimes inconvenient held the balance hair true between them and none but himself could have said to which side his heart inclined though every one guessed he rode with them a good deal and danced with them but he never succeeded in them from each other for any length of time women said that the two girls kept together through deep each fearing that the other would steal a march on her but that has nothing to do with a man was silent for good or bad and as business likely attentive as he could be having due regard to his work and his beyond doubt both girls were fond of as the hot weather drew nearer and made no sign women said that you could see their trouble in the eyes of the girls that they were looking strained anxious and irritable men are quite blind in these matters unless they have more of the woman than the man in their composition in which case it does not matter what they say or think i maintain it was the hot april days that took the colour out of the girls cheeks they should have been sent to the hills early no one man or woman feels an angel when the hot weather is approaching the younger sister grew more cynical not to say in her ways plain tales from the hills and the of die elder wore thin there was effort in it the station wherein all these things happened was though not a little one off the line of rail and suffered through want of attention there were no gardens or bands or amusements worth speaking of and it was nearly a day s journey to come into for a dance people were grateful for small things to interest them about the beginning of may and just before the final of hill when the weather was very hot and there were not more than twenty people in the station gave a moonlight riding at an old tomb six miles away near the bed of the river it was a s ark and there was to be the usual arrangement of quarter mile intervals between each couple on account of the dust six couples came altogether including moonlight are useful just at the very end of the season before all the girls go away to the hills they lead to and should be encouraged by especially those whose girls look sweetest in riding habits i knew a case once but that is another story that was called the great pop because every one knew would propose then to the eldest miss and besides his affair there was another which might possibly come to happiness the false dawn social atmosphere was heavily charged and wanted clearing we met at the parade ground at ten the night was fearfully hot the horses even at walking pace but anything was better than sitting still in our own dark houses when we moved oflf under the full moon we were four couples one and me rode with die girls and i at the tail of	39
the procession wondering with whom would ride home every one was happy and contented but we all felt that things were going to happen we rode slowly and it was nearly midnight before we reached the old tomb the ruined in the decayed gardens where we were going to eat and drink i was late in coming up and before i went into the garden i saw the horizon to the north carried a coloured feather but no one would have thanked me for so well managed an entertainment as this and a dust storm more or less does no great harm we gathered by the some one had brought out a which is a most sentimental instrument and three or four of us sang you must not laugh at this our amusements in way stations are very few indeed then we talked in groups or together lying under the trees with the sun baked roses dropping their pet plain tales from the hills al on our feet until supper was ready it was a beautiful supper as cold and as as you could wish and we stayed long over it i had felt that the air was growing and but nobody seemed to notice it until the moon went out and a burning hot wind began the orange trees with a sound like the noise of the sea before we knew where we were the dust storm was on us and everything was roaring whirling darkness the supper table was blown bodily into the we were afraid of staying anywhere near the old tomb for fear it might be blown down so we felt our way to the where the horses were and waited for the storm to blow over then the little light that was left vanished and you could not see your hand before your face the air was heavy with dust and sand from the bed of the river that filled boots and pockets and drifted down necks and eyebrows and it was one of the worst dust storms of the year we were all huddled together close to the trembling horses with the thunder chattering overhead and the lightning like water from a all ways at once there was no danger of course unless the horses broke loose i was standing with my head and my hands over my mouth hearing the trees each other i could not see who was next me till the flashes false dawn came then i found that i was packed near and the eldest miss with my own horse just in front of me i recognised the eldest miss because she had a round her and the younger had not all the in the air had gone into my body and i was quivering and from head to foot exactly as a com shoots and before rain it was a grand storm the wind seemed to be picking up the earth and it to in great heaps and the heat beat up from the ground like the heat of the day of judgment the storm slightly after the first and i heard a despairing little voice close to my ear saying to itself quietly and softly as if some lost soul were flying about with the wind my god then the younger miss stumbled into my arms saying where is my horse my horse i want to go home i want to go home take me home i thought that the lightning and the black darkness had frightened her so i said there was no danger but she must wait till the storm blew over she answered it is not that i want to go home oh take me away from here i said that she could not go till the light came but i felt her brush past me and go away it was too dark to see where then the whole sky was split open with one tremendous flash as if the plain tales from the hills end of the world were coming and all the women shrieked almost directly after this i felt a man s hand on my shoulder and heard in my ear through the rattling of the trees and howling of the wind i did not catch his words at once but at last i heard him say i ve proposed to the wrong one what shall i do had no occasion to make this confidence to me i was never a friend of his nor am i now but i fancy neither of us were ourselves just then he was shaking as he stood with excitement and i was feeling queer all over with the i could not think of to say except more fool you for proposing in a dust storm but i did not see how that would improve the mistake then he shouted where s was the younger sister i answered out of my astonishment what do you want with ber for the next two minutes he and i were shouting at each other like he that it was the younger sister he had meant to propose to all along and i telling him till my throat was hoarse that he must have made a mistake i cannot account for this except again by the feet that we were neither of us everything seemed to me like a bad dream from the stamping of the horses in the false dawn darkness to telling me the story of his loving from the first he was still my shoulder and begging me to tell him where was when another lull came and brought light with it and we saw the dust cloud forming on the plain in front of us so we knew the worst was over the moon was low down and there was just the glimmer of the dawn that comes about an hour before the real one but the	39
light was very int and the cloud roared like a bull i wondered where had gone and as i was wondering i saw three things together first s ce come smiling out of the darkness and move towards who was standing by me i heard the girl whisper and slide her arm through the arm that was not my shoulder and i saw that look on her ce which only comes once or twice in a lifetime when a woman is perfectly happy and the air is full of trumpets and coloured fire and the e into cloud because she loves and is loved at the same time i saw s ice as he heard s voice and fifty yards away from the of orange trees i saw a brown holland habit getting upon a horse it must have been my state of over excitement that made me so ready to with what did not me was moving off to plain tales from the hills the habit but i pushed him back and said stop here and explain i ll fetch her back and i ran out to get at my own horse i had a perfectly unnecessary notion that everything must be done decently and in order and that s first care was to wipe the happy look out of s face all the time i was up the chain i wondered how he would do it i after thinking to bring her back slowly on some pretence or another but she galloped away as soon as she saw me and i was forced to ride after her in earnest she called back over her shoulder away i m going home oh go away two or three times but my business was to catch her first and argue later the ride fitted in with the rest of the evil dream the ground was very and now and again we rushed through the whirling choking dust devils in the skirts of the flying storm there was a hot wind blowing that brought up a of stale with it and through the half light and through the dust devils across that desolate plain the brown habit on the gray horse she headed for the station at first then she wheeled round and set off for the river through beds of down grass bad even to ride pig over in cold blood i should never have dreamed of going over such a country at night false dawn but it seemed quite right and natural with the li overhead and a like the smell of the pit in my nostrils i rode and shouted and she bent forward and lashed her horse and the of the dust storm came up and caught us both and drove us like pieces of paper i don t know how ur we rode but the of the horse and the roar of the wind and the race of the int blood red moon the yellow mist seemed to have gone on for years and years and i was literally with sweat from my to my when the gray stumbled recovered himself and pulled up dead lame my brute was used up altogether was with dust and crying bitterly why can t you let me alone she said i only wanted to get away and go home oh let me go you have got to come back with me miss has something to say to you it was a foolish way of putting it but i hardly knew miss and though i was playing providence at the cost of my horse i could not tell her in as many words what had told me i thought he could do that better himself all her pretence about being tired and wanting to go home broke down and she rocked her plain tales from the self to and fro in the saddle as she sobbed and the hot wind blew her black hair to i am not going to repeat what she said because she was utterly this was the cynical miss and i almost an utter stranger to her was trying to tell her that loved her and she was to come back to hear him say so i believe i made myself understood for she gathered the gray together and made him somehow and we set off for the tomb while the storm went thundering down to and a few big drops of warm rain fell i found out that she had been standing close to when he proposed to her sister and had wanted to go home to cry in peace as an english girl should she her eyes with her pocket handkerchief as we went along and to me out of sheer lightness of heart and that was perfectly unnatural and yet it seemed all right at the time and in the place all the world was only the two girls and i in with the lightning and the dark and the guidance of this world seemed to lie in my hands when we to the tomb in the deep dead stillness that followed the storm the dawn was just breaking and nobody had gone away they were waiting for our return most of all his face was white and drawn as false dawn miss and i up he came forward to meet us and when he helped her down from her saddle he kissed her before all the it was like a scene in a theatre and the likeness was heightened by all the dust white ghostly looking men and women under the orange trees clapping their hands as if they were watching a play at s choice i never knew anything so un in my life lastly said we must all go home or the station would come out to look for us and would i be good enough to ride home with nothing would give	39
me greater pleasure i said so we formed up six couples in all and went back two by two walking at the side of who was riding his horse did not talk to me at any length the air was cleared and little by little as the sun rose i felt we were all dropping back again into ordinary men and women and that the great pop was a thing altogether apart and out of the world never to happen again it had gone with the dust storm and the in the hot air i felt tired and limp and a good deal ashamed of myself as i went in for a bath and some sleep there is a woman s version of this story but it will never be written unless cares to try the rescue of thus for a season they fought it she and his cousin may foes were they but can battle of man compare with merciless feminine and om mrs was sometimes nice to her own sex here is a story to prove this and you can believe just as much as ever you please was a in the he was even for a he was all over like a that had not finished itself the worst of it was that he had three times as much money as was good for him papa being a rich man and being the only son mamma adored she was only a little less than and she believed everything he said weakness was not believing what people said he preferred what he called trusting to his own judgment he had as much judgment as he had seat or hands and this preference tumbled the rescue of him into trouble once or twice but the biggest trouble ever came about at some years ago when he was four he began by trusting to his own judgment as usual and the result was that after a time he was bound hand and foot to mrs s wheels there was nothing good about mrs unless it was her dress she was bad fi om her hair which started life on a girl s head to her boot heels which were two and three eighth inches high she was not honestly mischievous like mrs she was wicked in a way there was never any scandal she had not generous impulses enough for that she was the exception which proved the rule that indian ladies are in every way as nice as their sisters at home she spent her life in proving that rule mrs and she hated each other fervently they hated too much to clash but the things they said of each other were startling not to say original mrs was honest honest as her own front teeth and but for her love of mischief would have been a woman s woman there was no honesty about mrs nothing but selfishness and at the beginning of the season poor little fell a prey plain tales from the hills to her she laid herself out to that end and who was to resist he trusted to his judgment and he got judged i have seen captain argue with a tough horse i have seen a driver a pony i have seen a broken to g m by a hard keeper but the breaking in of of the was beyond all these he to fetch and carry like a dog and to wait like one too for a word from mrs he to keep which mrs had no intention of keeping he to take dances which mrs had no intention of giving him he to shiver for an hour and a quarter on the side of while mrs was making up her mind to come for a ride he to hunt for a in a light dress suit rain and to walk by the side of that when he had found it he learned what it was to be spoken to like a and ordered about like a cook he all this and many other things besides and he paid for his perhaps in some way he that it was fine and impressive that it gave him a among men and was altogether the thing to do it was nobody s business to warn that he was unwise the pace that season was too good to inquire and with another man s folly the rescue of is always work colonel should have ordered him back to his regiment when he heard how things were going but had got himself engaged to a girl in england the last time he went home and if there was one thing more than another that the colonel detested it was a married he chuckled when he heard of the education of and said it was good training for the boy but it was not good training in the least it led him into spending money beyond his means which were good above that the education spoilt an average boy and made it a tenth rate man of an objectionable kind he wandered into a bad set and his little bill at the s was a thing to wonder at then mrs rose to the occasion she played her game alone knowing what people would say of her and she played it for the sake of a girl she had never seen tt i was to come out under of an aunt in october to be married to at the beginning of august mrs discovered that it was time to interfere a man who rides much knows exactly what a horse is going to do next before he does it in the same way a woman of mrs s experience knows accurately how a boy will behave under certain circumstances when he is with one of mrs s stamp she said	39
plain tales from the hills that sooner or later little would break engagement for nothing at all simply to gratify mrs who in return would keep him at her feet and in her service just so long as she found it worth her while she said she knew the signs of these things if she did not no one else could then she went forth to capture under the guns of the enemy just as mrs carried away under mrs s eyes this particular engagement lasted seven weeks we called it the seven weeks war and was fought out inch by inch on both sides a detailed account would fill a book and would be then any one who knows about these things can fit in the details for himself it was a superb fight there will never be another like it as long as stands and was the prize of victory people said shameful things about mrs they did not know what she was playing for mrs fought partly because was useful to her but mainly because she hated mrs and the matter was a trial of strength between them no one knows what thought he had not many ideas at the best of times and the few he possessed made him conceited mrs said the boy must be caught and the only way of catching him is by treating him well the rescue of so she treated him as a man of the world and of experience so long as the issue was doubtful little by little fell away from his old and came over to the enemy by whom he was made much of he was never sent on duty after any more nor was he given dances which never came off nor were the on his purse continued mrs held him on the and after his treatment at mrs s hands he appreciated the change mrs had broken him of talking about and made him talk about her own merits mrs acted otherwise and won his confidence till he mentioned his engagement to the girl at home speaking of it in a high and mi ty way as a piece of boyish folly this was when he was taking tea with her one afternoon and in what he considered a gay and style mrs had seen an earlier generation of his stamp bud and blossom and decay into fat captains and at a moderate estimate there were about twenty sides to that lady s character some men say more she began to talk to a ter the manner of a mother and as if there had been three hundred years instead of fifteen between them she spoke with a sort of in her voice which had a soothing effect what she said was anything but soothing u plain tales from the hills out the exceeding folly not to say r n s of conduct and the of i w then he stammered something about t n to his own judgment as a man of the and this paved the way for what she wanted sit next it would have withered up it come from any other woman but in the a n style in which mrs put it i i made him feel limp and as if been in some superior kind of church i by little very softly and she began i the conceit out of as they take the n out oi an umbrella before re covering il she tv td him what she thought of him and his judgment his knowledge of the world and how had made him ridiculous to other pr ami how it was his to make love to if she gave him the chance then she mid that marriage would be the making of him drew a pretty little picture all rose and of the mrs o the future going on the judgment and knowledge of the world of a husband who had nothing to reproach with how she reconciled these two she alone knew but they did not strike t as conflicting hen was a perfect little much better th n any clergyman could have given and it the rescue of ended with touching allusions to mamma and papa and the wisdom of taking his bride home then she sent out for a walk to think over what she had said left blowing his nose very hard and holding himself very straight mrs laughed what had intended to do in the matter of the engagement only mrs knew and she kept her own counsel to her death she would have liked it spoiled as a compliment i i enjoyed many talks with mrs during the next few days they were all to the same end and they helped in the path of virtue mrs wanted to keep him under her wing to the last therefore she his going down to to get married goodness only knows what might happen by the way she said is cursed with die curse of and india is no fit place for him in the end arrived with her aunt and having reduced his to some sort of order here again mrs helped him was married mrs gave a si of relief when both the i wills had been said and went her way took her advice about going home plain tales from the hills he left the service and is dow raising cattle inside green painted fences somewhere in england i believe he does this very he would have come to extreme grief in india for these reasons if any one says anything man than usually nasty about mrs tell him the story of the rescue of s arrows pit where the cooled his hide by the hot son emptied and and dried log in the grass hidden and lone dam where the earth rat s	39
sent mrs d seven eight a month but she felt the disgrace to the family very keenly all the same however in the course of a few sundays mrs brought herself to overlook these and gave her consent to the marriage of her daughter with on condition that should have at least fifty a month to start married life upon this wonderful prudence must have been a lingering touch of the s blood for across the people take a pride in marrying when they please not when they can having regard to his prospects mrs might as well have asked to go away and come back with the moon in his pocket but was deeply in love with miss and that helped him to endure he accompanied miss to mass one sunday and after mass walking home through the hot stale dust with her hand in his he swore by several saints whose names would not interest you never to forget miss and she swore by her honour and the saints the oath runs rather curiously in whatever the name of the she saint is and so forth ending with a kiss on plain tales from the hills the forehead a kiss on the left cheek and a kiss on the mouth never to forget next week was transferred and miss dropped tears upon the window of the as he left the station if you look at the telegraph map of india you will see a long line the coast from to was ordered to a little sub office one third down this line to send messages on from to and to think of miss and his chances of getting fifty a month out of office he had the noise of the bay of and a for company nothing more he sent foolish letters with crosses tucked inside the of the to miss when he had been at for nearly three weeks his chance came never forget that unless the outward and visible signs of our authority are always before a native he is as incapable as a child of understanding what authority means or where is the danger of it was a forgotten little place with a few in it these hearing nothing of the for some time and heartily the sub judge arranged to start a little riot of their own but the turned out and broke their heads when finding pleasant his chance in life and together raised an sort of just to see how they could go they each other s shops and paid off private in the regular way it was a nasty little riot but not worth putting in the newspapers was working in his office when he heard the sound that a man never forgets all his life the al of an angry crowd when that drops about three tones and changes to a thick the man who hears it had better go away if he is alone the native police ran in and told that the town was in an uproar and coming to wreck the office the put on his cap and quietly dropped out of the window while the police afraid but obeying the old race instinct which a drop of white blood as far as it can be said what orders does the i the decided though horribly frightened he felt that for the hour he the man with the jew and the uncle in his was the only representative of english authority in the place then he thought of miss and the fifty and took the situation cm himself there were seven native in and four crazy smooth bore among them all the men were gray with fear plain tales from the hills but not beyond leading dropped the key of the telegraph instrument and went out at the head of his army to meet the mob as the shouting crew came round a comer of the road he dropped and fired the men behind him instinctively at the same time the whole crowd to the back bone and ran leaving one man dead and another dying in the road was with fear but he kept his weakness under and went down into the town past the house where the sub judge had himself the streets were empty was more frightened than for the mob had been taken at the right time to the telegraph office and sent a message to asking for help before an answer came he received a of the elders of telling him that the sub judge said his actions generally were and trying to bully him but the heart of d was big and white in his breast because of his love for miss the nurse girl and because he had tasted for the first time responsibility and success those two make an drink and have ruined more men than ever has answered that the judge might say what he pleased but until the assistant came the telegraph his chance in life was the of india in and the elders of the town would be held account able for further then they bowed their heads and said show mercy or words to that effect and went back in great fear each the other of having begun the early in the dawn after a night s with his seven went down the road in hand to meet the assistant who had ridden in to but in the presence of this young englishman felt himself slipping back more and more into the native and the tale of the ended with the strain on the in an hysterical outburst of tears bred by sorrow that he had killed a man shame that he could not feel as uplifted as he had felt through the night and childish anger that his tongue could not do justice to his great deeds it was the white drop in s	39
veins dying out though he did not know it but the englishman understood and after he had those men of and had conferred with the judge till that excellent official turned green he found time to an official letter describing the conduct of which letter through the proper channels and ended in the transfer of up country once more on the imperial salary of sixty six a month plain tales from the hills so he and miss were married with great state and and now there are several about the of the central telegraph but if the whole of the department he serves were to be his reward could never never repeat what he did at fer the sake of miss the nurse girl which proves that when a man does good work out of all proportion to his pay in seven cases out of nine there is a woman at the back of the virtue the two must have from e watches of the night what is in the s books that is in the s heart neither yon nor i knew there was so much evil in the world this began in a practical joke but it has gone enough now and is getting serious the being poor had a watch and a plain leather guard the colonel had a watch also and r guard the lip of a chain lip make the best watch guards they are strong and short between a lip and an ordinary leather guard there is no great difference between one watch and another none at all every one in the station knew the colonel s lip he was not a man but he liked people to believe he had been one once and he fantastic stories of the hunting bridle to which this particular lip had belonged otherwise he was painfully religious and the colonel were dressing at the club both late for their engagements and both in a hurry that was the two watches were on a shelf below the looking glass guards plain tales from the hills hanging down that was carelessness changed first snatched a watch looked in the glass settled his tie and ran forty seconds later the colonel did exactly the same thing each man taking the other s watch you may have noticed that many religious people are deeply suspicious they seem for purely religious purposes of course to know more about than the perhaps they were specially bad before they became converted at any rate in the of things evil and in putting the worst construction on things innocent a certain type of good people may be trusted to all others the colonel and his wife were of that type but the colonel s wife was the worst she the station scandal and talked to her nothing more need be said the colonel s wife broke up the home the colonel s wife stopped the engagement the colonel s wife induced young to keep hi wife down in the plains through the first year of the marriage wherefore little mrs died and the baby with her these things will be remembered against the colonel s wife so long as there is a regiment in the country but to come back to the colonel and they went their several ways from the the colonel dined with two watches of the night while went to a bachelor party and to follow mark how things happen if s groom had put the new saddle on the mare the of the would not have worked through the leather and the old into the mare s when she was coming home at two o clock in the morning she would not have reared bolted into a ditch upset the cart and sent flying over an hedge on to mrs s well kept lawn and this tale would never have been written but the mare did all these things and while was rolling over and over on the turf like a shot rabbit the watch and guard flew from his waistcoat as an major s sword out of the when they are firing a de me and rolled and rolled in the moonlight till it stopped under a window stuffed his handkerchief under the put the cart straight and went home mark again how works this would not arrive once in a hundred years towards the end of his dinner with the two the colonel let out his waistcoat and leaned over the table to look at some mission reports the bar of the watch guard worked through the and the watch s watch slid quietly on to the carpet where the bearer found it next morning and kept it plain tales from the hills then the colonel went home to the wife of his bosom but the driver of the carriage was and lost his way so the colonel returned at an hour and his excuses were not accepted if the colonel s wife had been an ordinary vessel of wrath appointed for destruction she would have known that when a man stays away on purpose his excuse is always sound and original the very of the colonel s explanation proved its truth see once more the workings of the colonel s watch which came with hurriedly on to mrs s lawn chose to stop just under mrs s window where she saw it early in the morning recognised it and picked it up she had heard the crash of s cart at two o clock that morning and his voice calling the mare names she knew and liked him that day she showed him the watch and heard his story he put his head on one side winked and said how disgusting shocking old man with his religious training too i should send the watch to the colonel s wife and ask for mrs thought for a minute	39
of the whom she had known when and his wife believed in each other and answered i will send it i think it will do her good but remember we must never tell her the truth guessed that his own watch was in the colonel s possession and thought that the return watches of the night of the lip with a soothing note from mrs would merely create a small trouble for a few minutes mrs knew better she knew that any poison dropped would find good holding ground in the heart of the colonel s wife the packet and a note containing a few remarks on the colonel s calling hours were sent over to the colonel s wife who wept in her own room and took counsel with herself if there was one woman under heaven whom the colonel s wife hated with holy it was mrs mrs was a frivolous lady and called the colonel s wife old cat the colonel s wife said that somebody in revelation was remarkably like mrs she mentioned other scripture people as well from the old testament but the colonel s wife was the only person who cared or dared to say anything against mrs every one else accepted her as an amusing honest little body wherefore to believe that her husband had been shedding watches under that thing s window at hours coupled with the of his late arrival on the previous night was at this point she rose up and sought her husband he denied everything except the of the watch she him for his soul s sake to speak the truth he denied afresh plain tales from the hills with two bad words then a stony silence held the colonel s wife while a man could draw his breath five times the speech that followed is no of mine or yours it was made up of and womanly jealousy knowledge of old age and sunk cheeks deep bom of the text that says even little babies hearts are as bad as they make them tan hatred of mrs and the of the creed of the colonel s wife s over and above all was the lip away in the palm of her ing withered hand at that hour i think the wife a little of the restless suspicion she had into old s mind a little of poor miss s misery and some of the that ate into s heart as he watched his wife dying before his eyes the colonel stammered and tried to explain he remembered that his watch had disappeared and the mystery grew greater the colonel s wife talked and prayed by turns till she was tired and went away to devise means for the stubborn heart of her husband which translated means in our tail twisting being deeply impressed with the doctrine of original sin she could not believe in the face of appearances she knew too much and jumped to the wildest conclusions watches of the night but it was good for her it spoilt her life as she had spoilt the life of the she had lost her faith in the colonel and here the came in he might she argued have many times before a merciful providence at the hands of so unworthy an instrument as mrs had established his guilt he was a bad wicked gray haired this may sound too sudden a for a long wedded wife but it is a venerable fact that if a man or woman makes a practice of and takes a delight in believing and spreading evil of people indifferent to him or her he or she will end in believing evil of folk very near and dear you may think also that the mere incident of the watch was too small and trivial to raise this misunderstanding it is another aged fact that in life as well as racing all the worst accidents happen at little and cut down fences in the same way you sometimes see a woman who would have made a of arc in another century and climate herself to pieces over all the mean worry of housekeeping but that is another story her belief only made the colonel s wife more wretched because it insisted so strongly on the of men remembering what she had done it was pleasant to watch her and the penny attempts she made to hide it from the station but the station knew and s plain tales from the hills laughed for they had heard the story of the watch with much dramatic gesture from mrs s lips once or twice said to mrs seeing that the colonel had not cleared himself this thing has gone far enough i move we tell the colonel s wife how it happened mrs shut her lips and shook her head and vowed that the colonel s wife must bear her punishment as best she could now mrs was a frivolous woman in whom none would have suspected deep hate so took no action and came to be gradually from the colonel s silence that the colonel must have run off the line somewhere that night and therefore preferred to stand sentence on the lesser count of rambling into other people s out of calling hours forgot about the watch business after a while and moved down country with his regiment mrs went home when her husband s tour of indian service expired she never forgot but was quite right when he said that the joke had gone too far the and the tragedy of it which we cannot see and do not believe in are killing the colonel s wife and are making the colonel wretched if either of them read this story they can depend upon its being a fairly true account of the case and can kiss and make friends loo watches of the night shakespeare to the	39
pleasure of watching an engineer being by his own battery now this shows that poets should not write about what they do not understand any one could have told him that and are perfectly different branches of the service but if you correct the sentence and substitute for the moral comes just the same the other man the e was aod the skies were and the woods were with the dead man rode through the autumn mj to his love far back in the before they had built any public offices at and the broad road round lived in a pigeon hole in the p w d her parents made miss marry colonel he could not have been much more than thirty five years her senior and as he lived on two hundred a month and had money of his own he was well off he be longed to good people and suffered in the cold weather from complaints in the hot weather he on the brink of heat but it never quite killed understand i do not blame he was a good husband according to his lights and his temper only failed him when he was being nursed which was some seventeen days in each month he was almost generous to his wife about and that for him was a the other man still mrs was not happy they married her when she was this side of twenty and had given all her poor little heart to another man i have forgotten his name but we will call him the other man he had no money and no prospects he was not even good looking and i think he was in the or transport but in spite of all these things she loved him very badly and there was some sort of an engagement between the two when appeared and told mrs that he wished to marry her daughter then the other engagement was broken off washed away by mrs s tears for that lady governed her house by weeping over to her authority and the lack of reverence she received in her old age the daughter did not take after her mother she never cried not even at the wedding the other man bore hi loss and was transferred to as bad a station as he could find perhaps the climate consoled him he suffered from fever and that may have distracted him firom his other trouble he was weak about the heart also both ways one of the was affected and the fever made it worse this showed itself later on then many months passed and mrs took to being ill she did not pine away like people in story books but she seemed to pick up plain tales from the hills every of illness that went about a station from simple fever upwards she was never more than ordinarily pretty at the best of times and the made her ugly said so he himself on speaking his mind when she ceased being pretty he left her to her own devices and went back to the of his she used to trot up and down in a sort of way with a gray hat well on the back of her head and a shocking bad saddle under her s generosity stopped at the horse he said that any saddle would do for a woman as nervous as mrs she never was asked to dance because she did not dance well and she was so dull and uninteresting that her box very seldom had any cards in il said that if he had known she was going to be such a after her marriage he would never have married her he always himself on speaking his mind did he left her at one august and went down to his regiment then she revived a little but she never recovered her looks i found out at the club that the other man was coming up sick very sick on an off chance of recovery the fever and the heart had nearly killed him she knew that too and she knew what i had no interest in knowing when he was coming up the other man i suppose he wrote to tell her they had not seen each other since a month before the wedding and here comes the unpleasant part of the story a late call kept me down at the hotel till dusk one evening mrs had been flitting up and down the all the afternoon in the rain coming up along the cart road a passed me and my pony tired with standing so long set off at a just by the road down to the office mrs dripping from head to foot was waiting for the i as the was no of mine and just then she began to shriek i went back at once and saw under the office lamps mrs kneeling in the wet road by the back seat of the newly arrived screaming then she fell face down in the dirt as i came up sitting in the back seat very square and firm with one hand on the and the wet pouring off his hat and moustache was the other man dead the sixty mile had been too much for his i suppose the driver said this died two stages out of therefore i tied him with a rope lest he should out by the way and so came to will the give me it pointing to the other man should have given one plain tales from the hills the other man sat with a grin on his as if he enjoyed the joke of his arrival and mrs in the mud began to groan there was no one except us four in the office and it was heavily the first thing was to take mrs home and the second was to prevent her name	39
from being mixed up with the affair the driver received five to find a for mrs he was to tell the afterwards of the man and the was to make such arrangements as seemed mrs was carried into the shed out of the rain and for three quarters of an hour we two waited for the the other man was left exactly as he had arrived mrs would do everything but cry which might have helped her she tried to scream as soon as her senses came and then she began praying for the other man s soul had she not been as honest as the day she would have prayed for her own soul i waited to hear her do this but she did not then i tried to get some of the mud off her habit lastly the came and i got her away by force it was a terrible business from beginning to end but most of all when the had to squeeze between the wall and the and she saw by the that thin yellow hand grasping the ic the other man she was taken home just as every one was going to a dance at lodge it was then and the doctor found out that she had from her horse that i had picked her up at the back of and really deserved great credit for the prompt manner in which i had secured medical aid she did not die men of s stamp marry women who don t die easily they live and grow ugly she never told of her one meeting since her marriage with the other man and when the chill and cough following the exposure of that evening allowed her abroad she never by word or sign alluded to having met me by the perhaps she never knew she used to trot up and down the on that shocking bad saddle looking as if she expected to meet some one round the comer every minute two years afterwards she went home and died at i think when he grew at mess used to talk about my poor dear wife he always set great store on speaking his mind did haunted so long as the confined themselves to running and of that kind no one said anything but when they ran ghosts people put up their eyebrows man can t feel with a regiment that ghosts on its establishment it is against general orders the said that the ghosts were private and not property they referred you to for particulars and told you to go to the of ail he said that it was bad enough to have men making hay of his and breaking his strings when he was out without being afterwards and he would thank you to keep your remarks on ghosts to yourself this was before the had by their several lady loves that they were innocent of any intrusion into s quarters then mentioned casually at mess that a couple of white figures had been bounding about his room the night before and he did n t approve of it the denied that they had had any hand haunted in the and advised to consult i don t suppose that a believes in anything except his chances of a company but and were exceptions they came to believe in their ghosts they had reason used to find himself at about three o clock in the morning staring wide awake watch ing two white things about his room and jumping up to the ceiling was of a placid of mind after a week or so spent in watching his servants and lying in wait for strangers and trying to keep awake all night he came to the conclusion that he was haunted and that consequently he need not bother he wasn t going to encourage these ghosts by being frightened of them therefore when he woke as usual with a start and saw these things jumping like he only murmured go on don t mind me and went to sleep again said it s all very well for you to make fun show you can see your ghosts now i can t see mine and i don t half like it used to come into his room of nights and find the whole of his neatly stripped as if it had been done with one sweep of the hand from the top right hand comer of the to the bottom left hand comer also his lamp used to lie on the floor and generally his pet plain tales from the hills head was on the with all its strings broken took away the strings on the occasion of the third and the next night a man him on his playing the best music ever got out of a for half an hour which half hour said between nine and ten said the man had gone out to dinner at and had returned at l he talked to his bearer and threatened him unspeakable things the bearer was grey with fear i m a poor man said he if the is haunted by a devil what can i who says vm haunted by a devil howled for he was angry i have seen it said the bearer at night walking round and round your bed and that is why everything is in your room i am a poor man but i never go into your room alone the comes with me was thoroughly savage at this and be spoke to and the two laid traps to catch that devil and threatened their servants with dog if any more a i took but the servants were soaked with fear and it was no use adding to their when went out at night four of his men as a rule slept in	39
the of his until the no haunted without the strings struck up and then they fled one day had to put in a month at a fort with a of the fort might have been or but it wasn t he left rejoicing for his devil was on his mind and with him went another a junior but the devil came too after had been in the fort about ten days he went out to dinner when he came back he found his doing on a across the fort ditch as h t removed as might be the officers quarters what s wrong said the said listen and the two standing under the stars heard the officers quarters high up in the wall of the fort the of the which seemed to have an on hand that performance said the has been going on for three mortal hours i never wished to desert before but i do now i say old man you are the best of good fellows i m sure but i say look here now you are quite unfit to live with t in my commission you know that i m to serve under a a man with devils isn t it said if you make an ass plain tales from the hills of yourself i ll put you under arrest and m my room you can put me where you please but fm not going to assist at these infernal t right t natural look here i don t want to hurt your feelings but try to think now haven t you done something committed some murder that has slipped your memory or something well for an all round double fool you are the i dare say i am said the but you don t expect me to keep my wits with that row going on do you the was rattling away as if it had twenty strings sent up a stone and a shower of broken window pane fell into the fort ditch but the kept on hauled the other up to the quarters and found his room in frightful confusion lamp upset all over the floor chairs and table sideways he took stock of the wreck and said despairing oh this is lovely the was peeping in at the door i m glad you think so he said t lovely enough for me i locked up your room directly after you had gone out see here i think you d better apply for to come out in my place he s troubled with your complaint i i haunted and this business will make me a idiot if it goes on went to bed amid the very angry and next morning he rode into and asked to arrange to relieve that fool with me now you ve got em again have you said so ve i white figures this time worry through the entertainment together so and settled down in the fort together and the said pleasant things about seven other devils didn t see where the joke came in his room was thrown down three nights out of the seven was not troubled in any way so his ghosts must have been purely local ones on the other hand was personally haunted for his devil had moved with him from to the fort those two boys spent three parts of their time trying to find out who was responsible for the riot in s rooms at the end of a fortnight they tried to find out what was responsible and seven days later they gave it up as a bad job whatever it was it refused to be caught even when went out of the fort and lay under s with a revolver the servants were more afraid than ever and all the evidence showed that they had been playing no plain tales from the hills tricks as said to a haunted is a joke but s pose this keeps on just think what a haunted colonel would be and look here s pose i marry d you s pose a girl would live a week with me and this devil f i don t know said i haven t married often but i knew a woman once who lived with her husband when he had d t he s dead now and i she would you if you asked her she isn t exactly a girl though but she has a large experience of the other devils the blue variety she s a government now and you might write y know personally if i hadn t suffered from ghosts of my own i should rather avoid you that s just the point said this devil thing will end in getting me and you know i ve lived on and gone to bed at ten for weeks past t that sort of devil said it s either a first fraud for which some one ought to be killed or else you ve offended one of these indian devils it stands to reason that such a country should be of of all but why should the creature fix on mr said and why won t he show himself and have it out like a like a devil f they were talking outside the mess after dark haunted and even as they spoke they heard the begin to play in s room about twenty yards off ran to his own quarters for a shot gun and a revolver and and he crept up quietly the still playing to s door now we ve got it said as he threw the door open and let fly with the twelve bore off all six barrels into the dark as hard as he could pull the furniture was ruined and	39
the whole fort was awake but that was all no one had been killed and the was lying on the bed clothes as usual then sat down in the and used language that would have qualified him for the companionship of unlimited devils said things too but said the worst when the month in the fort came to an end both and were glad they held a final council of war but came to no conclusion seems to me your best plan would be to make your devil stretch himself go down to with the time expired men said if he really is a devil he ll come in the train with you t good enough said s no fit place to live in at this time of the year but i ll put in for duty at the hills and he did plain tales from the hills now here the tale rests the devil stayed below and went up and was free if i had invented this story i should have put in a u tory ending explained the as somebody s practical joke my business being to keep to u ts i can only say what i have said the devil may have been a if so it was one of the best ever arranged if it was not a but you must settle that for yourselves consequences in the had rise ye find their teachers still under s seek ye read what flood the tells ns of the dominant that runs through the of the read my story last and see at her there are yearly and two yearly and five yearly at and there are or used to be permanent whereon you stayed up for the term your natural life and secured red cheeks and a nice income of course you could descend in the cold weather for is rather dull then came from goodness knows where all away and away in some forsaken part of central india where they call a and drive behind trotting i believe he belonged to a regiment but what he really wanted to do was to escape from his regiment and live iii for ever and ever he had no preference plain tales from the hills for anything in particular beyond a good horse and a nice partner he thought he could do everything well which is a beautiful belief when you hold it with all your heart he was clever in many ways and good to look at and always made people round him comfortable even in central india so he went up to and because he was clever and amusing he naturally to mrs who could forgive everything but stupidity once he did her great service by changing the date on an invitation card for a big dance which mrs wished to attend but couldn t because she had quarrelled with the a d c who took care being a mean man to invite her to a small dance on the th instead of the big ball of the th it was a very clever piece of and when mrs showed the a d c her invitation card and him mildly for not better managing his he really thought that he had made a mistake and which was wise that it was no use to fight with mrs she was grateful to and asked what she could do for him he said simply tm a up here on leave on the for what i can i haven t a square inch of interest in all my name isn t known to any man with an appointment in his gift and i want an appointment a consequences good sound one i believe you can do anything you turn yourself to will you help me mrs thought for a minute and passed the lash of her riding whip through her lips as was her custom when thinking then her eyes sparkled and she said i will and she shook hands on it having perfect confidence in this great woman took no further thought of the business at all except to wonder what sort of an appointment he would win mrs began calculating the prices of all the heads of and members of council she knew and the more she thought the more she laughed because her heart was in the game and it amused her then she took a civil list and ran over a few of the there are some beautiful in the civil list eventually she decided that though was too good for the political department she had better begin by trying to place him there her own plans to this end do not matter in the least for luck or fate played into her hands and she had nothing to do but to watch the course of events and take the credit of them all when they first come out pass through the secrecy it wears off in time but they all catch it in the beginning because they are new to the country the particular who was from the com plain tales from the hills just then this was a long time ago before lord ever came from canada or lord from the bosom of the english church had it very badly and the result was that men who were new to keeping official secrets went about looking unhappy and the himself on the way in which he had notions of into his staff now the supreme government have a careless custom of committing what they do to printed papers these papers deal with all sorts of things from the payment of rs oo to a secret service native up to administered to and of native states and rather letters to native princes telling them to put their houses in order to refrain from women or filling with red and of that kind of	39
course these things could never be made public because native princes never and their states arc as well administered as our also the private to various queer are not exactly matters to put into newspapers though they give quaint reading sometimes when the supreme government is at these papers are prepared there and go round to the people who ought to see them in office boxes or by post the principle of secrecy was to that quite as important as the practice and he consequences held that a benevolent like ours should never allow even little things such as of subordinate clerks to out till the proper time he was always remarkable for his principles there was a very important of papers in preparation at that time it had to travel fi om one end of to the other by hand it was not put into an official envelope but a large square pale pink one the matter being in ms on soft paper it was addressed to the head clerk etc etc now between the head clerk etc etc and mrs and a flourish is no very great difference if the address be written in a very bad hand as this was the orderly who took the envelope was not more of an idiot than most he merely forgot where this most cover was to be delivered and so asked the first englishman he met who happened to be a man riding down to in a great hurry the englishman hardly looked at it said mrs and went on so did the orderly because that letter was the last in stock and he wanted to get his work over there was no book to sign r he thrust the letter into mrs s bearer s hands and went off to smoke with a friend mrs was expecting some cut out pattern things in paper from a friend as soon as she got the big plain tales from the hills square packet therefore she said oh the dear creature and tore it open with a paper knife and all the ms tumbled out on the floor mrs began reading i have said the was rather important that is quite enough for you to know it referred to some correspondence two measures a order to a native chief and two dozen other things mrs gasped as she read for the first glimpse of the naked machinery of the great indian stripped of its and and paint and guard rails even the most stupid man and mrs was a clever woman she was a little afraid at first and felt as if she had taken hold of a lightning flash by the tail and did not quite know what to do with it there were remarks and at the side of the papers and some of the remarks were rather more severe than the papers the belonged to men who are all dead or gone now but they were great in their day mrs read on and thought calmly as she read then the value of her struck her and she cast about for the best method of using it then dropped in and they read through all the papers together and not knowing how she had come by them vowed that mrs was the greatest woman on earth which i believe was true or nearly so consequences the honest course is always the best said after an hour and a half of study and conversation all things considered the intelligence branch is about my either that or the foreign office i go to lay siege to the high in their temples he did not seek a little man or a little big man or a weak head of a strong department but he called on the biggest and strongest man that the owned and explained that he wanted an appointment at on a good salary the compound insolence of this amused the strong man and as he had nothing to do for the moment he listened to the proposals of the audacious you have i presume some special besides the gift of self assertion for the claims you put forward said the strong man that sir said is for you to judge then he began for he had a good memory quoting a few of the more important notes in the papers slowly and one by one as a man drops into a glass when he had reached the order and it was a very order the strong man was troubled wound up and i fancy that special knowledge of this kind is at least as valuable for let us say a berth in the foreign office as the fact of being the nephew of a distinguished officer s wife that hit the strong plain tales from the hills man hard for the last appointment to the foreign office had been by black and he knew il ru see what i can do for you said the strong man many thanks said then he left and the strong man departed to see how the appointment was to be blocked followed a pause of eleven days with and and much the appointment was not a very important one carrying only between rs and rs a month but as the said it was the principle of secrecy that had to be maintained and it was more than likely that a boy so well supplied with special information would be worth so they translated they must have suspected him though he protested that his information was due to singular talents of his own now much of this story including the after history of the missing envelope you must fill in for yourself because there are reasons why it cannot be written if you do not know about things up above you won t understand how to fill in and you will	39
say it is impossible what the said when was introduced to him was this is the boy who rushed the of india is it consequences sir that is not done twice so he must have known something what said when he saw his appointment was if mrs were twenty years younger and i her husband i should be of india in fifteen years what mrs said when thanked her almost with tears in his eyes was first told you so and next to what fools men are the of ride with an idle whip ride with an unused heel but once in a way there will come a day when the must be taught to feel the lash that falls and the that and the sting of the steel s this is not a tale exactly it is a tract and i am immensely proud of it making a tract is a feat every man is entitled to his own religious opinions but no man least of all a junior has a right to thrust these down other men s throats the government sends out weird now and again but was the for a long time he was clever brilliantly clever but his cleverness worked the wrong way instead of keeping to the study of the he had read some books written by a man called i think and a man called you will find these books in the library they deal with people s from the the of point of view of men who have no there was no order against his reading them but his mamma should have him they in his head and he came out to india with a religion over and above his work it was not much of a creed it only proved that men had no souls and there was no and no hereafter and that you must worry along somehow for the good of humanity one of its minor seemed to be that the one thing more sinful than giving an order was obeying it at least that was what said but i suspect he had his i do not say a word against this creed it was made up in town where there is nothing but machinery and and building all shut in by the fog naturally a man grows to think that there is no one higher than himself and that the board of works made everything but in india where you really see humanity raw brown naked humanity with nothing between it and the blazing sky and only the used up over handled earth the notion somehow dies away and most folk come back to theories life in india is not long enough to waste in proving that there is no one in particular at the head of affairs for this reason the is above the assistant the above the the lieutenant governor above plain tales from the hills the and the above all four under the orders of the secretary of state who is responsible to the if the be not responsible to her maker if there is no maker for her to be responsible to the entire system of our administration must be wrong which is impossible at home men are to be excused they are up a good deal and get when you take a gross horse to exercise he and over the bit till you can t see the horns but the bit is there just the same men do not get in india the climate and the work are against playing bricks with words if had kept his creed with the capital letters and the in to himself no one would have cared but his on both sides had been and the preaching strain came out in his mind he wanted every one at the club to see that they had no souls too and to help him to his creator as a good many men told him be undoubtedly had no soul because he was so young but it did not follow that his were equally and whether there was another world or not a man still wanted to read his papers in this but that is not the point that is not the point used to say then men threw at him and told to go to any par the of place he might believe in they him the he said he came from a of that name somewhere in the ages and by insult and laughter strove to choke him dumb for he was an nuisance at the club besides being an offence to the older men his who was working on the frontier when was rolling on a told him that for a clever boy was a very big idiot and if he had gone on with his work he would have been caught up to the in a few years he was of the type that goes there all head no and a hundred theories not a soul was interested in s soul he might have had two or none or somebody else s his business was to obey orders and keep abreast of his instead of the club with he worked brilliantly but he could not accept any order without trying to better it that was the fault of his creed it made men too responsible and left too much to their honour you can sometimes ride an old horse in a but never a took more trouble over his cases than any of the men of his year he may have that thirty page judgments on cases both sides to the advanced the cause of humanity at any rate he worked too much and worried and fi over plain tales from the hills the he received and away on his ridiculous creed out of office till	39
the doctor had to warn him that he was it no man can toil eighteen in the in june without suffering but was still and proud of himself and his powers and he would take no hint he worked nine hours a day steadily very well said the doctor you ll break down because you are over for your beam was a little man one day the came as as if it had been meant to a tract it was just before the rains we were sitting in the in the dead hot close air gasping and praying that the black blue clouds would let down and bring the cool very very far away there was a faint whisper which was the roar of the rains breaking over the river one of the men heard it got out of his chair listened and said naturally enough thank god then the turned in his place and said why i assure you it s only the result of perfectly natural causes phenomena of the simplest kind why you should therefore return thanks to a being who never did exist who is only a the man in the next chair dry up and throw me over the the of we know all about your the reached out to the table took up one paper and jumped as if something had stung him then he handed the paper as i was saying he went on slowly and with an effort due to perfectly natural causes perfectly natural causes i mean hi you ve given me the the dust got up in little while the rocked and the whistled but no one was looking at the coming of the rains we were all staring at the who had risen firom his chair and was fighting with his speech then he said still more slowly perfectly conceivable dictionary red oak cause retaining alone s drunk said one man but the was not drunk he looked at us in a dazed sort of way and began with his hands in the half light as the clouds closed overhead then with a scream what is it can t ve market obscure but his speech seemed to in him and just as the lightning shot two tongues that cut the whole sky into three pieces and the rain fell in quivering sheets the was struck plain tales from the hills dumb he stood and like a hard held horse and his eyes were full of terror the doctor came over in three minutes and heard the story it s he said take him to his room i knew the would come we carried the across in the pouring rain to his quarters and the doctor gave him of to make him sleep then the doctor came back to us and told us that was like all the of head falling in a lump and that only once before in the case of a had he met with so complete a case i have seen mild in an man but this sudden was though as the himself might have said due to perfectly natural causes he ll have to take leave after this said the doctor he won t be fit for work for another three months no it isn t insanity or anything like it it s only complete loss of control over the speech and memory i fancy it will keep the quiet though two days later the found his tongue again the first question he asked was what was it the doctor enlightened him but i can t understand it said the fm quite sane but i can t be sure of my mind it seems my man memory can i the of up into the hills for three months and don t think about it said the doctor but i can t understand it repeated the it was my mm mind and memory i can t help it said the doctor there are a good many things you can t understand and by the time you have put in my length of service you ll know exactly how much a man dare call his own in this world the stroke the he could not understand it he went into the hills in fear and trembling wondering whether he would be permitted to reach the end of any sentence he began this gave him a wholesome feeling of the legitimate explanation that he had been himself failed to satisfy him something had wiped his lips of speech as a mother the lips of her child and he was afraid horribly afraid so the club had rest when he returned and if ever you come across laying down the law on things human he doesn t seem to know as much as he used to about things divine put your forefinger to your lip for a moment and see what happens don t blame me if he throws a glass at your head a h ii for the little tm gods when jove bat little tin gods make their little in the when wakes as a general it is to with questions of state in a land where men are j paid to work them out for you this tale is a exception once in every five years as you know we for a new and each with the rest of his baggage a private secretary who may or may not be the real vice just as fate fate looks after the indian empire because it is so big and so helpless there was a once who brought out with him a turbulent private secretary a hard man with a soft manner and a morbid passion for work this secretary was called wonder john wonder the possessed no name nothing but a string of	39
and the smoke rose till you could neither see nor breathe nor gasp however was used to il of he shouted bone thousand feet smoke per inch not a could live not a y but his had fled and was at the foot of the stairs while all like a hive red came in and the head plain tales from the hills who speaks english came in and came in and ladies ran downstairs screaming fire for the smoke was drifting through the house and out of the windows and along the and and across the gardens no one could enter the room where was on his till that unspeakable powder had itself out then an de camp who desired the v c rushed through the rolling clouds and hauled into the hall the was prostrate with laughter and could only his hands feebly at who was shaking a fresh of powder at him glorious glorious sobbed his not a as you justly observe could exist i can swear it a magnificent success then he laughed till the tears came and wonder who had caught the real on the entered and was deeply shocked at the scene but the was delighted because he saw that wonder would presently depart with the was also pleased for he felt that he had smashed the medical ring few men could tell a story like his when he took the trouble and his account of my dear good wonder s friend with the powder a went the round of and folk made wonder unhappy by their remarks but his told the tale once too often for wonder as he meant to do it was at a wonder was sitting just behind the and i really thought for a moment wound up his that my dear good wonder had hired an to clear his way to the throne every one laughed but there was a delicate sub in the s tone which wonder understood he found that his health was giving way and the allowed him to go and presented him with a flaming character for use at home among big people my entirely said his in after seasons with a twinkle in his eye my must always have been distasteful to such a man th rt b t tide in the of you bad and in forsaken and no decent tool would think of yon cannot stop the tide now and yon arrest some rash adventurer i m will thank a for are a and enlightened and is veiy shocking and the are sometimes peculiar the notion which is the continental notion which is the notion of arrange ing marriages of the personal tions of the married is sound think for a minute and you will see that it must be so un less of course you believe in in which case had better not read this tale how can a man who has never married who cannot be trusted to pick up at sight a sound horse whose haul is and with visions of domestic felicity go about the choosing of a wife f he cannot see t or straight if he tries and the same exist in the case of a but when mature married and discreet people arrange a match between a boy and a girl they do it sensibly with a view to the future and the young couple live happily ever afterwards as everybody knows properly speaking government should establish a matrimonial department with a jury of a judge of the chief court a senior and an awful warning in the shape of a love match that has wrong chained to the trees in the all marriages should be made through the department which might be subordinate to the department under the same penalty as that to the transfer of land without a stamped document but government won t take suggestions it that it is too busy however i will put my notion on record and explain the example that the theory once upon a time there was a good young man a first class officer in his own department a man with a career before him and possibly a k c i e at the end of it all his spoke well of him because he knew how to hold his and his pen at the proper times there are to day only eleven men in india who possess this secret and they have all with one exception attained great honour and enormous h plain tales from the hills this good young man was quiet and too old for his years by far which always carries its own punishment had a or a tea s assistant or anybody who life and has no care for to morrow done what he tried to do not a soul would have cared but when the virtuous economical quiet hard working young fell there was a flutter through five the manner of his fall was in this way he met a miss d it was originally but the family dropped the d for reasons and he fell in love with her even more than he worked understand clearly that there was not a breath of a word to be said against miss not a shadow of a breath she was good and very lovely possessed what innocent people at home call a spanish complexion with thick blue black hair growing low down on the forehead into a widow s peak and big violet eyes under eyebrows as black and as straight as the borders of a extraordinary when a big man dies but but but well she was a very sweet girl and very pious but for many reasons she was impossible quite so all good know what impossible means it was obviously absurd that should marry her the little tinted at the base of her finger	39
nails said this as plainly as print further marriage with miss meant marriage with several other lieutenant her papa mrs her mamma and all the of the family on fi om rs i to rs a month and wives and connections again it would have been cheaper for to have a with a dog whip or to have burned the records of a s office than to have contracted an alliance with the it would have his after career less even under a government which never forgets and never everybody saw this but he was going to marry miss he was being of age and drawing a good income and woe the house that would not afterwards receive mrs with the deference due to her husband s rank that was s and any remonstrance drove him these sudden most the men there was a case once but i will tell you of that later on you cannot account for the except under a theory directly the one about the place wherein marriages are made was anxious to put a round his neck at the outset of his career plain tales from the hills and had not the least effect on him he was going to marry miss and the business was his own business he would thank you to keep your advice to yourself with a man in this condition mere words only fix him in his purpose of course he cannot see that marriage in india does not concern the individual but the government he serves do you remember mrs the wonderful woman in india f she saved from mrs won his appointment in the foreign office and was defeat in open field by mrs she heard of the lamentable condition of and her brain struck out the plan that saved she had the wisdom of the serpent the logical of the man the of the child and the triple of the woman never no never as long as a down the dip or the couples go a riding at the back of summer hill will there be such a genius as mrs she attended the consultation of three men on s case and she stood up with the lash of her riding whip b et we en her lips and three weeks later dined with the men and the of india came in found to his surprise that he had been a month s leave don t ask me how this was managed i believe that if mrs gave the order the whole great indian administration would stand on its head the three men had also a month s leave put the down and said bad words then there came from the compound the soft of thieves the breed that don t and howl when they sit down and get up after i don t know what happened this much is certain disappeared vanished like smoke and the long foot rest chair in the house of the three men was broken to also a departed one of the mrs said that mr was shooting in with the three men so we were compelled to believe her at the end of the month was twenty days extension of leave but there was wrath and in the house of the marriage day had been fixed but the bridegroom never came and the d and lifted their voices and lieutenant as one who had been imposed upon mrs went to the wedding and was much astonished when did not appear after seven weeks h plain tales from the hills and the three men returned from r was in hard tough condition rather white and more than ever one of the three men had a cut on his nose caused by the kick of a gun twelve kick rather curiously then came lieutenant seeking for the blood of his son in law to be he said things vulgar and impossible things which showed the raw rough below the and i s eyes were opened anyhow he held his peace till the end when he spoke briefly lieutenant asked for a before he went away to die or bring a suit for breach of promise miss was a very good girl she said that she would have no breach of promise suits she said that if she was not a lady she was refined enough to know that ladies kept their broken hearts to themselves and as she ruled her parents nothing happened later on she married a most respectable and gentlemanly person he travelled for an firm in and was all that a good husband should be so came to his right mind again and did much good work and was honoured by all who knew him one of these days he will marry but he will marry a sweet pink and white s maiden on the government house list with a little money and some influential connections as every wise man should and he will never all his life tell her what happened during the seven weeks of his shooting tour in but just think how much trouble and expense for hire is not cheap and those brutes had to be fed like might have been saved by a properly conducted matrimonial department under the control of the general of education but corresponding direct with the the arrest of lieutenant forgotten the c oh you you i but the colonel c oh you arc are you i colonel or no colonel you waits ere till i m relieved an the reports on your ugly old i an s me soul twas the colonel after all but i waa a then of private if there was one thing on which himself more than another it was looking like an officer and a he said it was for the honour	39
of the service that he attired himself so but those who knew him best said that it was just personal vanity there was no harm about not an he recognised a horse when he saw one and could do more than fill a he played a very fair game at and was a sound man at the table every one liked him and nobody ever dreamed of seeing him on a the arrest of tion platform as a but this sad thing happened he was going down from at the end of his leave riding down he had run his leave as fine as he dared and wanted to come down in a hurry it was fairly warm at and knowing what to expect below he descended in a new suit tight fitting of a delicate olive green a blue tie white collar and a snowy white he himself on looking neat even when he was riding post he did look neat and he was so deeply concerned about his appearance before he started that he quite forgot to take anything but some small change with him he left all his notes at the hotel his servants had gone down the road before him to be ready in waiting at with a change of gear that was what he called travelling in light marching order he was proud of his faculty of what we call twenty two miles out of it began to rain not a mere hill shower but a good on wishing that he had brought an umbrella the dust on the roads turned into mud and the pony a good deal so did s but he kept on steadily and tried to think how pleasant the was plain tales from the hills his next pony was rather a brute at starting and s hands being slippery with the rain contrived to get rid of at a comer he chased the animal caught it and went ahead briskly the had not improved his clothes or his temper and he had lost one spur he kept the other one employed by the time that stage was ended the pony had had as much exercise as he wanted and in spite of the rain was freely at the end of another miserable half hour found the world disappear before his eyes in the rain had turned the of his huge and snowy into an evil smelling and it had closed on his head like a also the green was beginning to run did not say anything worth here he tore off and squeezed up as much of the brim as was in his eyes and on the back of the was flapping on his neck and the sides stuck to his ears but the leather band and green kept things roughly together so that the hat did not actually melt away where it presently the and the green stuff made a sort of which ran over in several directions down his back and bosom for choice the colour ran too it was really bad and sections of were brown and patches were violet and con the arrest of were and streaks were red and were nearly white according to the nature and peculiarities of the when he took out his handkerchief to wipe his u e and the green of the hat and the purple stuff that had soaked through on to his neck from the tie became thoroughly mixed the effect was amazing near the rain stopped and the evening sun came out and dried him up slightly it fixed the colours too three firom the last pony fell dead lame and was forced to walk he pushed on into to find his servants he did not know then that his had stopped by the roadside to get drunk and would come on the next day saying that he had his ankle when he got into he couldn t find his servants his boots were stiff and with mud and there were large quantities of dust about his body the blue tie had run as much as the so he took it off with the collar and threw it away then he said something about servants generally and tried to get a he paid eight for the drink and this revealed to him that he had only six more in his pocket or in the world as he stood at that hour he went to the station master to for a first class ticket to where he was stationed the clerk said something to the station plain tales from the hills master the station master said something to the telegraph clerk and the three looked at him with curiosity they asked him to wait for half an hour while they to for authority so he waited and four came and themselves round him just as he was preparing to ask them to go away the station master said that he would give the a ticket to if the would kindly come inside the stepped inside and the next thing he knew was that a was attached to each of his legs and arms while the station master was trying to a mail bag over his head there was a very all round the office and took a nasty cut over his eye through against a table but the con stables were too much for him and they and the station master him securely as soon as the mail bag was slipped he began expressing his opinions and the head said without doubt this is the soldier englishman we required listen to the abuse then asked the station master what the this and the that the proceedings meant the station master told him he was private john of the regiment ft in fair hair gray eyes and a dissipated appearance no marks on the body the arrest of who	39
had deserted a fortnight ago began explaining at great length and the more he explained the less the station master believed him he said that no lieutenant could look such a as did and that his instructions were to send his capture under proper escort to feeling very damp and uncomfortable and the language he used was not fit for publication even in an form the four saw him safe to in an and he spent the four hour journey in them as as his knowledge of the allowed at he was out on the platform into the arms of a and two men of the regiment drew himself up and tried to carry off matters he did not feel too in with four behind him and the blood from the cut on his forehead on his left cheek the was not either got as fer as this is a very absurd mistake my men when the told him to his lip and come along did not want to come along he desired to stop and explain he explained very well indeed until the cut in with tou a it s the like o you as brings disgrace on the likes of us fine plain tales from the hills you arc i know your regiment the rogue s march is the where you come from you re a black shame to the service kept his temper and began explain ing all over again from the beginning then he was marched out of the rain into the and told not to make a qualified fool of himself the men were going to run him up to fort and running up is a performance almost as as the march was nearly hysterical with rage and the chill and die mistake and the and the headache that the cut on his forehead had given him he really laid himself out to express what was in his mind when he had quite finished and his throat was feeling dry one of the men said i ve card a few beggars in the blind stiff and crack on a bit but i ve never any one to touch this ere they were not angry with him they rather admired him they had some beer at the room and offered some too because he had swore won they asked him to tell them all about the adventures of private john while he was loose on the country side and that made than ever if he had kept his wits about him he would have been quiet until an came but he attempted to run now the butt of a in the small of your the arrest of back hurts a great deal and rotten tears easily when two men are at your collar rose from the floor feeling very sick and giddy with his shirt open all down his breast and nearly all down his back he yielded to his luck and at that point the down train from came in carrying one of s this is the major s evidence in full there was the sound of a in the refreshment room so i went in and saw the most that i ever set eyes on his boots and breeches were with mud and beer he wore a muddy white sort of thing on his head and it hung down in slips on his shoulders which were a good deal scratched he was half in and half out of a shirt as nearly in two pieces as it could be and he was begging the guard to look at the name on the tail of it as he had the shirt all over his head i couldn t at first see who he was but i that he was a man in the first stage of d t fi om the way he swore while he with his rags when he turned round and i had made for a lump as big as a pork pie over one eye and some green war paint on the ice and some violet round the neck i saw that it was he was very glad to see me said the major and plain tales from the hills he hoped i would not tell the mess about il didn t but you can if you like now that has gone home spent the greater part of that summer in trying to get the and die two soldiers tried by court martial for an and a gentleman they were of course very sorry for their error but the tale into the and thence ran about the i in the house of a stone s out on either from that well ordered road we tread and all the world is wild and strange and and and shall bear us company to night for we have reached the oldest land wherein the powers of darkness range from the dusk t the the house of near the gate is two with four carved windows of old brown wood and a flat roof you may recognize it by five red hand prints arranged like the five of diamonds on the between the upper windows the and a man who says he gets his living by seal cutting live in the lower story with a troop of wives servants friends and the two upper rooms used to be occupied by and and a little tan that was stolen an englishman s house and given to by a soldier to day only lives in the upper rooms sleeps on the roof generally except when he sleeps in the street he used to go to plain tales from the war in the cold weather to visit his son who near the gate and then he slept under a real mud roof is a great friend of mine because his cousin had a son who secured thanks to my recommendation the post of	39
head messenger to a big firm in the station says that will make me a lieutenant governor one of these days i his prophecy will come true he is very very old with white hair and no teeth worth showing and he has his wits nearly everything except his fondness for his son at and are ladies of the city and theirs was an ancient and more or less honourable profession but has since married a medical student from the north west and has settled down to a most respectable life somewhere near is an and an he is very rich the man who is supposed to get his living by seal cutting to be very poor this lets you know as much as is necessary of the four principal tenants in the house of then there is me of course but i am only the chorus that comes in at the end to explain things so i do not count was not clever the man who pretended to cut was the of them all only knew how to lie except in the house of she was also beautiful but that was her own a s son at was attacked by and old was troubled the seal man heard of s anxiety and made capital out of it he was abreast of the times he got a friend in to telegraph daily accounts of the son s health and here the story begins s cousin s son told me one evening that wanted to see me that he was too old and feeble to come personally and that i should be an everlasting honour on the house of if i went to him i went but i think seeing how well off was then that he might have sent something better than an which fearfully to haul out a future lieutenant governor to the city on a april evening the did not run quickly it was full dark when we pulled up opposite the door of s tomb near the main gate of the fort here was and he said that by reason of my condescension it was absolutely certain that i should become a lieutenant governor while my hair was yet black then we talked about the weather and the state of my health and the wheat crops for fifteen minutes in the under the stars came to the point at last he said plain tales from the hills that had told him that there was an order of the against magic because it was feared that magic might one day kill the of india i didn t know anything about the state of the law but i fancied that something interesting was going to happen i said that so far firom magic being discouraged by the government it was highly commended the greatest of the state practised it themselves if the financial statement isn t magic i don t know what is then to encourage him further i said that if there was any i had not the least objection to giving it my countenance and sanction and to seeing that it was clean white magic as distinguished firom the which folk it took a long time before admitted that this was just what he had asked me to come for then he told me in and that the man who said he cut was a of the kind that every day he gave news of the sick son in more quickly than the lightning could fly and that this news was always by the letters further that he had told how a great danger was threatening his son which could be removed by clean and of course heavy payment i began to see exactly how the land lay and told that i also understood a little in the line and in the house of would go to his house to see that everything was done decently and in order we set oflf together and on the way told me that he had paid the utter between one hundred and two hundred already and the of that night would cost two hundred more which was cheap he said considering the greatness of his son s danger but i do not think he meant it the lights were all in the front of the house when we arrived i could hear awful noises from behind the seal s shop front as if some one were groaning his soul out shook all over and while we our way upstairs told me that the had begun and met us at the stair head and told us that the work was coming off in their rooms because there was more space there is a lady of a turn of mind she whispered that the was an invention to get money out of and that the seal would go to a hot place when he died was nearly crying with fear and old age he kept walking up and down the room in the half light repeating his son s name over and over again and asking if the seal ought not to make a in the case of his own landlord pulled me over to the shadow in the recess of the carved bow windows the boards were up and the rooms were only lit by one tiny oil lamp plain tales from the hills there was no chance of my being seen if i stayed still presently the groans below ceased and we heard steps on the staircase that was the seal he stopped outside the door as the and at the chain and he told to blow out the lamp this left the place in jet darkness except for the red glow from the two that belonged to and the seal came in and i heard throw himself down on the floor and groan caught her breath and backed on to one of the beds with	39
a shudder there was a of something and then shot up a pale flame near the ground the light was just enough to show pressed against one comer of the room with the between her knees with her hands clasped leaning forward as she sat on the bed ice down quivering and the seal i hope i may never see another man like that seal he was stripped to the waist with a wreath of white as thick as my wrist round his forehead a salmon coloured cloth round his middle and a steel on each ankle this was not awe inspiring it was the face of the man that turned me cold it was a blue gray in the first place in the second the eyes were rolled back till you could only see the of them in the house of and in the third the face was the face of a demon a anything you please except of the sleek old who sat in the over his turning downstairs he was lying on his stomach with his arms turned and crossed behind him as if he had been thrown down his head and neck were the only parts of him off the floor they were nearly at right angles to the body like the head of a at spring it was ghastly in the centre of the room on the bare earth floor stood a big deep brass basin with a pale blue green light floating in the centre like a night light round that basin the man on the floor himself three times how he did it i do not know i could see the muscles ripple along his and smooth again but i could not see any other motion the head seemed the only thing alive about him except that slow curl and of the back muscles from the bed was breathing seventy to the minute held her hands before her eyes and old at the dirt that had got into his white beard was crying to himself the horror of it was that the creeping thing made no sound only crawled and remember this lasted for ten minutes while the and shuddered and gasped and cried i felt the hair lift at the back of my head and my heart like a plain tales from the hills luckily the seal betrayed himself by his most impressive trick and made me calm again after he had finished that unspeakable triple crawl he stretched his head away from the floor as high as he could and sent out a jet of fire from his nostrils now i knew how fire is done i can do it myself so i felt at ease the business was a fraud if he had only kept to that crawl without trying to raise the effect goodness knows what i might not have thought both the girls shrieked at the jet of fire and the head dropped chin down on the floor with a the whole body lying then like a corpse with its arms there was a pause of five full minutes after this and the blue green flame died down stooped to settle one of her while turned her to the wall and took the in her arms put out an arm mechanically to s and she slid it across the floor with her foot directly above the body and on the wall were a couple of flaming portraits in frames of the queen and the prince of wales they looked down on the performance and to my thinking seemed to the of it all just when the silence was getting the body turned over and rolled away from the basin to the side of the room where it lay stomach up there was a faint from the basin i in the house of exactly like the noise a fish makes when it takes a fly and the green light in the centre revived i looked at the basin and saw in the water the dried black head of a native baby open eyes open mouth and shaved it was worse being so very sudden than the crawling exhibition we had no time to say anything before it began to speak read foe s account of the voice that from the dying man and you will less than one half of the horror of that head s voice there was an interval of a second or two between each word and a sort of ring ring ring in the note of the voice like the of a bell it slowly as if talking to itself for several minutes before i got rid of my cold sweat then the blessed solution struck me i looked at the body lying near the doorway and saw just where the hollow of the throat on the shoulders a muscle that had nothing to do with any man s regular breathing away steadily the whole thing was a careful of the egyptian that one reads about sometimes and the voice was as clever and as appalling a piece of as one could wish to hear all this time the head was lip lip against the side of the basin and speaking it told on his face again of his plain tales from the hills son s illness and of the state of the illness up to the evening of that very night i always shall respect the seal for keeping so faithfully to the time of the it went on to say that skilled doctors were night and day watching over the man s life and that he would eventually recover if the fee to the potent whose servant was the head in the basin were doubled here the mistake from the artistic point of view came in to ask for twice your fee in a voice that might have used when he rose from the	39

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.