Rudyard Kipling - Rudyard Kipling - The Complete Novels and Stories

All that night the Virgin roared hoarsely; and next morning, over an angry, white-headed sea, Harvey saw the fleet with flickering masts waiting for a lead. Not a dory was hove out till ten o’clock, when the two Jeraulds of the Day’s Eye , imagining a lull which did not exist, set the example. In a minute half the boats were out and bobbing in the cockly swells, but Troop kept the We’re Heres 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 dory-tackles with lanterns, 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 ‘Dory, dory!’ They would hook up and haul in a drenched man and a half-sunk boat till their decks were littered down with nests of dories and the bunks were full. Five times in their watch did Harvey, with Dan, jump at the fore-gaff where it lay lashed on the boom, and cling with arms, legs, and teeth to rope and spar and sodden canvas as a big wave filled the decks. One dory was smashed to pieces and the sea pitched the man head first on to the decks, cutting his forehead open; and about dawn, when the racing seas glimmered 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 Swede; a Chatham skipper; a boy from Hancock, Maine; one Duxbury, and three Provincetown men.

dressing-down on the ‘we’re here.’

There was a general sorting out among the fleet next day; and though no one said anything, all ate with better appetites when boat after boat reported full crews aboard. Only a couple of Portuguese and an old man from Gloucester were drowned, but many were cut or bruised; and two schooners 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 traded tobacco with the We’re Heres . She slipped away quite quietly one wet, white morning, moved to a patch of deep water, her sails all hanging anyhow, and Harvey saw the funeral through Disko’s spy-glass. It was only an oblong bundle slid overside. They did not seem to have any form of service, but in the night, at anchor, Harvey heard them across the star-powdered black water singing something that sounded like a hymn. It went to a very slow tune:

‘La brigantine

Qui va tourner,

Roule et s’incline

Pour m’entrainer.

Oh, Vierge Marie,

Pour moi priez Dieu!

Adieu, patrie;

Québec, adieu!’

Tom Platt visited her, because, he said, the dead man was his brother as a Freemason. It came out that a wave had doubled the poor fellow over the heel of the bowsprit and broken his back. The news spread like a flash, for, contrary to general custom, the Frenchman held an auction of the dead man’s kit,—he had no friends at St. Malo or Miquelon,—and everything was spread out on the top of the house, from his red knitted cap to the leather belt with the sheath-knife at the back. Dan and Harvey were out on twenty-fathom water in the Hattie S ., and naturally rowed over to join the crowd. It was a long pull, and they stayed some little time while Dan bought the knife, which had a curious brass handle. When they dropped overside and pushed off into a drizzle of rain and a lop of sea, it occurred to them that they might get into trouble for neglecting the lines.

‘Guess ’twon’t hurt us any to be warmed up,’ said Dan, shivering under his oilskins, 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 hereabouts to trust to your instinks,’ he said. ‘Heave over the anchor, Harve, and we’ll 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 tightened on her rodin’ already.’

There was quite a little bubble at the bows, where some irresponsible Bank current held the dory full stretch on her rope; but they could not see a boat’s length in any direction. Harvey turned up his collar and bunched himself over his reel with the air of a wearied navigator. Fog had no special terrors for him now. They fished a while in silence, and found the cod struck on well. Then Dan drew the sheath-knife and tested the edge of it on the gunwale.

‘That’s a daisy,’ said Harvey. ‘How did you get it so cheap?’

‘On account o’ their blame Cath’lic superstitions,’ said Dan, jabbing with the bright blade. ‘They don’t fancy takin’ iron frum off of a dead man, so to speak. See them Arichat Frenchmen step back when I bid?’

‘But an auction 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’ livin’ in a progressive country.’ And Dan began whistling:

‘Oh, Double Thatcher, how are you?

Now Eastern Point comes inter view.

The girls an’ boys we soon shall see,

At anchor off Cape Ann!’

‘Why didn’t that Eastport man bid, then? He bought his boots. Ain’t Maine progressive?’

‘Maine? Pshaw! They don’t know enough, or they hain’t got money enough, to paint their haouses in Maine. I’ve seen ’em. The Eastport man he told me that the knife had been used—so the French captain told him—used up on the French coast last year.’

‘Cut a man? Heave’s the muckle.’ Harvey hauled in his fish, rebaited, and threw over.

‘Killed him! Course, when I heard that I was keener’n ever to get it.’

‘Christmas! I didn’t know it,’ said Harvey, turning round. ‘I’ll give you a dollar for it when I—get my wages. Say, I’ll 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 didn’t let on till I saw how you’d take it. It’s yours and welcome, Harve, because we’re dory-mates, and so on and so forth, an’ so followin’. Catch a-holt!’

He held it out, belt and all.

‘But look at here. Dan, I don’t see——’

‘Take it. ’Tain’t no use to me. I wish you to hev it.’

The temptation was irresistible. ‘Dan, you’re a white man,’ said Harvey. ‘I’ll keep it as long as I live.’

‘That’s good hearin’,’ said Dan, with a pleasant laugh; and then, anxious to change the subject: ‘Looks ’s if your line was fast to somethin’.’

‘Fouled, I guess,’ said Harve, tugging. Before he pulled up he fastened the belt round him, and with deep delight heard the tip of the sheath click on the thwart. ‘Con-cern the thing!’ he cried. ‘She acts as though she were on strawberry-bottom. It’s all sand here, ain’t it?’

Dan reached over and gave a judgmatic tweak. ‘Holibut ’ll act that way ’f he’s sulky. Thet’s no strawberry-bottom. Yank 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 cleats, and the hidden weight rose sluggishly.

‘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 arm-pit, 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 dory, and there they lay while the thing bobbed alongside, held on the shortened line.