CHAPTER VI

WHAT BEFELL AT THE QUEEN'S 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
wind's fair, and the tide upon the turn; we'll 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."

"It's a habit I have, Mr. Balfour," said the skipper. "I'm a
cold-rife man by my nature; I have a cold blood, sir. There's
neither fur, nor flannel -- no, sir, nor hot rum, will warm up
what they call the temperature. Sir, it's 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
we're made."

But it chanced that this fancy of the captain's 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, "Ye'll 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 gliff[6] of
Mr. Alexander."

[6]Look.


I said it seemed that Ebenezer was ill-seen in the country.

"Nae doubt," said the landlord. "He's a wicked auld man, and
there's many would like to see him girning in the tow[7]. 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 sough[8] gaed abroad about Mr. Alexander, that was
like the death of him."

[7]Rope.
[8]Report.


"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 sailor's 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 Ransome's stories could be true, and half
disbelieved them; they fitted so ill with the man's 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 we'll 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
boat'll set ye ashore at the town pier, and that's but a penny
stonecast from Rankeillor's house." And here he suddenly leaned
down and whispered in my ear: "Take care of the old tod;[9] 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. Balfour's 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."

[9] Fox.


By this time we were at the boat-side, and he was handing me in.
I did not dream of hanging back; I thought (the poor fool!) that
I had found a good friend and helper, and I was rejoiced to see
the ship. As soon as we were all set in our places, the boat was
thrust off from the pier and began to move over the waters: and
what with my pleasure in this new movement and my surprise at our
low position, and the appearance of the shores, and the growing
bigness of the brig as we drew near to it, I could hardly
understand what the captain said, and must have answered him at
random.

As soon as we were alongside (where I sat fairly gaping at the
ship's height, the strong humming of the tide against its sides,
and the pleasant cries of the seamen at their work) Hoseason,
declaring that he and I must be the first aboard, ordered a
tackle to be sent down from the main-yard. In this I was whipped
into the air and set down again on the deck, where the captain
stood ready waiting for me, and instantly slipped back his arm
under mine. There I stood some while, a little dizzy with the
unsteadiness of all around me, perhaps a little afraid, and yet
vastly pleased with these strange sights; the captain meanwhile
pointing out the strangest, and telling me their names and uses.

"But where is my uncle?" said I suddenly.

"Ay," said Hoseason, with a sudden grimness, "that's the point."

I felt I was lost. With all my strength, I plucked myself clear
of him and ran to the bulwarks. Sure enough, there was the boat
pulling for the town, with my uncle sitting in the stern. I gave
a piercing cry -- "Help, help! Murder!" -- so that both sides of
the anchorage rang with it, and my uncle turned round where he
was sitting, and showed me a face full of cruelty and terror.

It was the last I saw. Already strong hands had been plucking me
back from the ship's side; and now a thunderbolt seemed to strike
me; I saw a great flash of fire, and fell senseless.

****

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