The Red Rover & Other Sea Adventures – 3 Novels in One Volume. Джеймс Фенимор Купер

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СКАЧАТЬ offenders. The men listened to his rebukes, which were not altogether free from admonitory warnings of what might be the consequences of a similar transgression, like creatures who stood in presence of a being of a nature superior to their own. Though he spoke in his usual quiet tone, the lowest of his syllables went into the ears of the most distant of the crew; and, when his brief lesson was ended, the men stood before him not only like delinquents who had been reproved though pardoned, but with the air of criminals who were as much condemned by their own consciousness as by the general voice. Among them all was only one seaman who, perhaps from past service was emboldened to venture a syllable in his own justification.

      “As for the matter with the marines,” he said “your Honour knows there is little love between us, though certain it is a quarter-deck is no place to settle our begrudgings; but, as to the gentleman who has seen fit to step into the shoes of”——

      “It is my pleasure that he should remain there,” hastily interrupted his Commander. “Of his merit I alone can judge.”

      “Well, well, since it is your pleasure, sir, why, no man can dispute it. But no account has been rendered of the Bristol-man, and great expectations were had aboard here from that very ship. Your Honour is a reasonable gentleman, and will not be surprised that people, who are on the look-out for an outward-bound West-Indiaman, should be unwilling to take up with a battered and empty launch, in her stead.”

      “Ay, sir, if I will it, you shall take an oar, a tiler a thole, for your portion. No more of this You saw the condition of his ship with your own eyes; and where is the seaman who has not, on some evil day, been compelled to admit that his art is nothing, when the elements are against him? Who saved this ship, in the very gust that has robbed us of our prize? Was it your skill? or was it that of a man who has often done it before, and who may one day leave you to your ignorance to manage your own interests? It is enough that I believe him faithful. There is no time to convince your dulness of the propriety of all that’s done. Away, and send me the two men who so nobly stepped between their officer and mutiny.”

      Then came Fid, followed by the negro, rolling along the deck, and thumbing his hat with one hand, while the other sought an awkward retreat in a part of his vestments.

      “You have done well, my lad; you and your messmate”——

      “No messmate, your Honour, seeing that he is a nigger,” interrupted Fid. “The chap messes with the other blacks, but we take a pull at the can, now and then, in company.”

      “Your friend, then, if you prefer that term.”

      “Ay, ay, sir; we are friendly enough at odd times, though a breeze often springs up between us. Guinea has a d—d awkward fashion of luffing up in his talk; and your Honour knows it isn’t always comfortable to a white man to be driven to leeward by a black. I tell him it is inconvenient. He is a good enough fellow in the main, howsomever, sir; and, as he is just an African bred and born, I hope you’ll be good enough to overlook his little failings.”

      “Were I otherwise disposed,” returned the Rover, “his steadiness and activity to-day would plead in his favour.”

      “Yes, yes, sir, he is somewhat steady, which is more than I can always say in my own behalf. Then as for seamanship, there are few men who are his betters; I wish your Honour would take the trouble to walk forward, and look at the heart he turned in the mainstay, no later than the last calm; it takes the strain as easy as a small sin sits upon a rich man’s conscience.”

      “I am satisfied with your description; you call him Guinea?”

      “Call him by any thing along that coast; for he is noway particular, seeing he was never christened, and knows nothing at all of the bearings and distances of religion. His lawful name is S’ip, or Shipio Africa, taken, as I suppose, from the circumstance that he was first shipp’d from that quarter of the world. But, as respects names, the fellow is as meek as a lamb; you may call him any thing, provided you don’t call him too late to his grog.”

      All this time, the African stood, rolling his large dark eyes in every direction except towards the speakers, perfectly content that his long-tried shipmate should serve as his interpreter. The spirit which had, so recently, been awakened in the Rover seemed already to be subsiding; for the haughty frown, which had gathered on his brow, was dissipating in a look which bore rather the character of curiosity than any fiercer emotion.

      “You have sailed long in company, my lads,” he carelessly continued, addressing his words to neither of them in particular.

      “Full and by, in many a gale, and many a calm, your Honour. ‘Tis four-and-twenty years the last equinox, Guinea, since master Harry fell across our hawse; and, then, we had been together three years n the ‘Thunderer,’ besides the run we made round the Horn, in the ‘Bay’ privateer.”

      “Ah! you have been four-and-twenty years with Mr Wilder? It is not so remarkable that you should set a value on his life.”

      “I should as soon think of setting a price on the King’s crown!” interrupted the straight-going seaman “I overheard the lads, d’ye see, sir, just plotting to throw the three of us overboard, and so we thought it time to say something in our own favour and, words not always being at hand, the black saw fit to fill up the time with something that might answer the turn quite as well. No, no, he is no great talker, that Guinea; nor, for that matter, can I say much in my own favour in this particular; but, seeing that we clapp’d a stopper on their movements, your Honour will allow that we did as well as if we had spoken as smartly as a young midshipman fresh from college, who is always for hailing a top in Latin, you know, sir, for want of understanding the proper language.”

      The Rover smiled, and he glanced his eye aside, apparently in quest of the form of our adventurer. Not seeing him at hand, he was tempted to push his covert inquiries a little further, though too much governed, by self-respect, to let the intense curiosity by which he was influenced escape him in any direct and manifest interrogation. But an instant’s recollection recalled him to himself, and he discarded the idea as unworthy of his character.

      “Your services shall not be forgotten. Here is gold,” he said, offering a handful of the metal to the negro, as the one nearest his own person. “You will divide it, like honest shipmates; and you may ever rely on my protection.”

      Scipio drew back, and, with a motion of his elbow, replied,—

      “His Honour will give ‘em masser Harry.”

      “Your master Harry has it of his own, lad; he has no need of money.”

      “A S’ip no need ‘em eider.”

      “You will please to overlook the fellow’s manners sir,” said Fid, very coolly interposing his own hand, and just as deliberately pocketing the offering “but I needn’t tell as old a seaman as your Honour, that Guinea is no country to scrape down the seams of a man’s behaviour in. Howsomever, I can say this much for him, which is, that he thanks your Honour just as heartily as if you had given him twice the sum. Make a bow to his Honour, boy, and do some credit to the company you have kept. And now, since this little difficulty about the money is gotten over, by my presence of mind, with your Honour’s leave, I’ll just step aloft, and cast loose the lashings of that bit of a tailor on the larboard fore-yard-arm. The chap was never made for a topman as you may see, sir, by the fashion in which he crosses his lower stanchions. That fellow will make a carrick bend with his legs as easily as I could do the same with a yarn of white line!”

      The Rover signed for him to retire; and, turning where he stood, he found himself confronted by Wilder. The eyes of the confederates СКАЧАТЬ