We had all three pulled up on the brow of the hill; and now I marched across the road and addressed my uncle. I think it right to tell you, sir, says I, theres nothing that will bring me on board that Covenant.
He seemed to waken from a dream. Eh? he said. Whats that?
I told him over again.
Well, well, he said, well have to please ye, I suppose. But what are we standing here for? Its perishing cold; and if Im no mistaken, theyre busking the Covenant for sea.
CHAPTER VI
WHAT BEFELL AT THE QUEENS FERRY
As soon as we came to the inn, Ransome led us up the stair to a small room, with a bed in it, and heated like an oven by a great fire of coal. At a table hard by the chimney, a tall, dark, sober-looking man sat writing. In spite of the heat of the room, he wore a thick sea-jacket, buttoned to the neck, and a tall hairy cap drawn down over his ears; yet I never saw any man, not even a judge upon the bench, look cooler, or more studious and self-possessed, than this ship-captain.
He got to his feet at once, and coming forward, offered his large hand to Ebenezer. I am proud to see you, Mr. Balfour, said he, in a fine deep voice, and glad that ye are here in time. The winds fair, and the tide upon the turn; well see the old coal-bucket burning on the Isle of May before to-night.
Captain Hoseason, returned my uncle, you keep your room unco hot.
Its a habit I have, Mr. Balfour, said the skipper. Im a cold-rife man by my nature; I have a cold blood, sir. Theres neither fur, nor flannel no, sir, nor hot rum, will warm up what they call the temperature. Sir, its the same with most men that have been carbonadoed, as they call it, in the tropic seas.
Well, well, captain, replied my uncle, we must all be the way were made.
But it chanced that this fancy of the captains had a great share in my misfortunes. For though I had promised myself not to let my kinsman out of sight, I was both so impatient for a nearer look of the sea, and so sickened by the closeness of the room, that when he told me to run down-stairs and play myself awhile, I was fool enough to take him at his word.
Away I went, therefore, leaving the two men sitting down to a bottle and a great mass of papers; and crossing the road in front of the inn, walked down upon the beach. With the wind in that quarter, only little wavelets, not much bigger than I had seen upon a lake, beat upon the shore. But the weeds were new to me some green, some brown and long, and some with little bladders that crackled between my fingers. Even so far up the firth, the smell of the sea-water was exceedingly salt and stirring; the Covenant, besides, was beginning to shake out her sails, which hung upon the yards in clusters; and the spirit of all that I beheld put me in thoughts of far voyages and foreign places.
I looked, too, at the seamen with the skiff big brown fellows, some in shirts, some with jackets, some with coloured handkerchiefs about their throats, one with a brace of pistols stuck into his pockets, two or three with knotty bludgeons, and all with their case-knives. I passed the time of day with one that looked less desperate than his fellows, and asked him of the sailing of the brig. He said they would get under way as soon as the ebb set, and expressed his gladness to be out of a port where there were no taverns and fiddlers; but all with such horrifying oaths, that I made haste to get away from him.
This threw me back on Ransome, who seemed the least wicked of that gang, and who soon came out of the inn and ran to me, crying for a bowl of punch. I told him I would give him no such thing, for neither he nor I was of an age for such indulgences. But a glass of ale you may have, and welcome, said I. He mopped and mowed at me, and called me names; but he was glad to get the ale, for all that; and presently we were set down at a table in the front room of the inn, and both eating and drinking with a good appetite.
Here it occurred to me that, as the landlord was a man of that county, I might do well to make a friend of him. I offered him a share, as was much the custom in those days; but he was far too great a man to sit with such poor customers as Ransome and myself, and he was leaving the room, when I called him back to ask if he knew Mr. Rankeillor.
Hoot, ay, says he, and a very honest man. And, O, by-the-by, says he, was it you that came in with Ebenezer? And when I had told him yes, Yell be no friend of his? he asked, meaning, in the Scottish way, that I would be no relative.
I told him no, none.
I thought not, said he, and yet ye have a kind of gliff5 of Mr. Alexander.
I said it seemed that Ebenezer was ill-seen in the country.
Nae doubt, said the landlord. Hes a wicked auld man, and theres many would like to see him girning in the tow6. Jennet Clouston and mony mair that he has harried out of house and hame. And yet he was ance a fine young fellow, too. But that was before the sough7 gaed abroad about Mr. Alexander, that was like the death of him.
And what was it? I asked.
Ou, just that he had killed him, said the landlord. Did ye never hear that?
And what would he kill him for? said I.
And what for, but just to get the place, said he.
The place? said I. The Shaws?
Nae other place that I ken, said he.
Ay, man? said I. Is that so? Was my was Alexander the eldest son?
Deed was he, said the landlord. What else would he have killed him for?
And with that he went away, as he had been impatient to do from the beginning.
Of course, I had guessed it a long while ago; but it is one thing to guess, another to know; and I sat stunned with my good fortune, and could scarce grow to believe that the same poor lad who had trudged in the dust from Ettrick Forest not two days ago, was now one of the rich of the earth, and had a house and broad lands, and might mount his horse tomorrow. All these pleasant things, and a thousand others, crowded into my mind, as I sat staring before me out of the inn window, and paying no heed to what I saw; only I remember that my eye lighted on Captain Hoseason down on the pier among his seamen, and speaking with some authority. And presently he came marching back towards the house, with no mark of a sailors clumsiness, but carrying his fine, tall figure with a manly bearing, and still with the same sober, grave expression on his face. I wondered if it was possible that Ransomes stories could be true, and half disbelieved them; they fitted so ill with the mans looks. But indeed, he was neither so good as I supposed him, nor quite so bad as Ransome did; for, in fact, he was two men, and left the better one behind as soon as he set foot on board his vessel.
The next thing, I heard my uncle calling me, and found the pair in the road together. It was the captain who addressed me, and that with an air (very flattering to a young lad) of grave equality.
Sir, said he, Mr. Balfour tells me great things of you; and for my own part, I like your looks. I wish I was for longer here, that we might make the better friends; but well make the most of what we have. Ye shall come on board my brig for half an hour, till the ebb sets, and drink a bowl with me.
Now, I longed to see the inside of a ship more than words can tell; but I was not going to put myself in jeopardy, and I told him my uncle and I had an appointment with a lawyer.
Ay, ay, said he, he passed me word of that. But, ye see, the boatll set ye ashore at the town pier, and thats but a penny stonecast from Rankeillors house. And here he suddenly leaned down and whispered in my ear: Take care of the old tod;8 he means mischief. Come aboard till I can get a word with ye. And then, passing his arm through mine, he continued aloud, as he set off towards his boat: But, come, what can I bring ye from the Carolinas? Any friend of Mr. Balfours can command. A roll of tobacco? Indian feather-work? a skin of a wild beast? a stone pipe? the mocking-bird that mews for all the world like a cat? the cardinal bird that is as red as blood? take your pick and say your pleasure.