Thats a true word, doctor.
And what does it mean, I said; in the more moderate cases decided dejection; unnatural features; bloated face; injured intellect and general discomfort; and in the worst cases delirium tremens, and death.
Ah, but you are speaking of the worst cases, doctor, the regular drunkards.
No, I said, I was speaking of the regular drinkers, the men who rarely get drunk, for they are inured to the liquor they consume.
I suppose you are right, doctor, he said; Jacob Wood went regularly mad with drink.
I dont know Jacob Wood, I said; but you may depend upon it if he did go regularly mad, as you call it, he had drunk until his internal organs were all in a state of disease that affected the brain; and if youll take my advice, my man
Youd turn teetotaller?
No, I dont put so heavy a tie upon you, I replied, you have been used to your beer; well, if you feel to want it make a stringent rule that you will never take any except with your meals; youll be a better man in a month, and will not need to come to me.
Pity poor old Jacob Wood didnt come to you, doctor.
Its a pity he did not, I said. Let me see, you are a warehouseman, are you not?
Yee, sir, I work up in one of the great Tooley Street warehouses, seven stories above the ground, and everywhere around me wool bales upon bales of wool which we crane up from waggons or lighters and in at an open door, where, if a fellow had had a little drop too much and slipped well, seven stories would be an awful fall.
Ours is a place worth going over, sir. Theres floors upon floors beneath, stored with jute and dye-woods, teas, coffees, spices, tobaccos, and lowest of all on the ground floor and in the cellarage, tallows in great hogsheads. Ah, its a busy place, and the stores there is worth some money, and no mistake.
I remember Jacob Wood doctor, he said, drawing in a long breath as if of pain, and no wonder; but its strange, how very little people see danger when its coming to them.
I was at our warehouse one day, and had been down for half-a-pint, when, Whats the matter with Jacob Wood this afternoon? says one of the men.
But, excepting that he looked a little wild about the eyes, I didnt see anything more about him than might often be seen in men who will drink heavily at times; and so I said. But at last, towards evening, when I was longing to get away home to spend my evening comfortably, I was left alone upon that floor with him, and felt a bit startled to see him go all at once to the open door where the crane landed the bales, and cut some strange capers, like a man going to dive off a board into the sea.
Putting down my work, which was getting ready two or three burst bales for the hydraulic press, so that they might be tied up again, I slipped quietly up behind him, and laid my hand upon his shoulder, when, with a yell, he shrieked out.
And the next moment, by the light of the gas on that foggy winters afternoon, we two were wrestling and fighting together, within a few feet of the door, out of which we should have fallen clear a hundred feet upon the stones of the wharf below.
I should have shouted, but all power of speech seemed taken away, as locked together we wrestled here and there, while his hot breath hissed against my cheek, and I could look close into his wild, glowering eyes as, flushing with rage, he bore me nearer and nearer to the doorway.
Used as I was at all times to standing close to the edge and receiving bales and packages, I could lean over usually without a shudder; but now, with this madman slowly forcing me back towards the certain death, I could feel the cold sweat standing upon my face, and trembled so with dread that my resistance became feebler and feebler; till as a last resource I managed
from being rather soft after her, what with the talk and tears, I used to be in anything but a good trim for my spell.
There, dont be such a chicken, I used to say, when shed laid her little head on my shoulder, and been talking a whole lot of unreasonable nonsense; but it was of no use to talk, she would be a chicken; and one night I went away, feeling as if I had caught the infection, for I never felt more chicken-hearted in my life.
An hour after I was on the river, with three more, pulling very gently along in and out amongst the shadows of the great ships. But whether we were in the shadow or out, it did not make much difference, for a darker night I never saw, and one and all we came to the conclusion that if we were lucky, there must be something for us to do; for that some of River Jacks gang would be at work we were one and all sure. You see, it was just the sort of night they would like; for looking out was no use, since we could see nothing four yards ahead; all we could do was to wait in the hope that our friends might come near us and come they did.
We had been paddling gently about for a couple of hours, and at last had pulled under the stern of a great vessel that had come up the river that evening, but had been too late to get into dock. She was fresh over from the East Indies; and besides saltpetre, and tea, and cochineal, she had on board a large freight of odds and ends curiosities and such-like. Of course we did not know this then; but a big vessel like she was seemed very likely to prove a bait to the river pirates, and there we lay holding on to the rudder chains.