CHAPTER VIII

THE ROUND-HOUSE

One night, about eleven o'clock, a man of Mr. Riach's watch
(which was on deck) came below for his jacket; and instantly
there began to go a whisper about the forecastle that "Shuan had
done for him at last." There was no need of a name; we all knew
who was meant; but we had scarce time to get the idea rightly in
our heads, far less to speak of it, when the scuttle was again
flung open, and Captain Hoseason came down the ladder. He looked
sharply round the bunks in the tossing light of the lantern; and
then, walking straight up to me, he addressed me, to my surprise,
in tones of kindness.

"My man," said he, "we want ye to serve in the round-house. You
and Ransome are to change berths. Run away aft with ye."

Even as he spoke, two seamen appeared in the scuttle, carrying
Ransome in their arms; and the ship at that moment giving a great
sheer into the sea, and the lantern swinging, the light fell
direct on the boy's face. It was as white as wax, and had a look
upon it like a dreadful smile. The blood in me ran cold, and I
drew in my breath as if I had been struck.

"Run away aft; run away aft with ye!" cried Hoseason.

And at that I brushed by the sailors and the boy (who neither
spoke nor moved), and ran up the ladder on deck.

The brig was sheering swiftly and giddily through a long,
cresting swell. She was on the starboard tack, and on the left
hand, under the arched foot of the foresail, I could see the
sunset still quite bright. This, at such an hour of the night,
surprised me greatly; but I was too ignorant to draw the true
conclusion -- that we were going north-about round Scotland, and
were now on the high sea between the Orkney and Shetland Islands,
having avoided the dangerous currents of the Pentland Firth. For
my part, who had been so long shut in the dark and knew nothing
of head-winds, I thought we might be half-way or more across the
Atlantic. And indeed (beyond that I wondered a little at the
lateness of the sunset light) I gave no heed to it, and pushed on
across the decks, running between the seas, catching at ropes,
and only saved from going overboard by one of the hands on deck,
who had been always kind to me.

The round-house, for which I was bound, and where I was now to
sleep and serve, stood some six feet above the decks, and
considering the size of the brig, was of good dimensions. Inside
were a fixed table and bench, and two berths, one for the captain
and the other for the two mates, turn and turn about. It was all
fitted with lockers from top to bottom, so as to stow away the
officers' belongings and a part of the ship's stores; there was a
second store-room underneath, which you entered by a hatchway in
the middle of the deck; indeed, all the best of the meat and
drink and the whole of the powder were collected in this place;
and all the firearms, except the two pieces of brass ordnance,
were set in a rack in the aftermost wall of the round-house. The
most of the cutlasses were in another place.

A small window with a shutter on each side, and a skylight in the
roof, gave it light by, day; and after dark there was a lamp
always burning. It was burning when I entered, not brightly, but
enough to show Mr. Shuan sitting at the table, with the brandy
bottle and a tin pannikin in front of him. He was a tall man,
strongly made and very black; and he stared before him on the
table like one stupid.

He took no notice of my coming in; nor did he move when the
captain followed and leant on the berth beside me, looking darkly
at the mate. I stood in great fear of Hoseason, and had my
reasons for it; but something told me I need not be afraid of him
just then; and I whispered in his ear: "How is he?" He shook his
head like one that does not know and does not wish to think, and
his face was very stern.

Presently Mr. Riach came in. He gave the captain a glance that
meant the boy was dead as plain as speaking, and took his place
like the rest of us; so that we all three stood without a word,
staring down at Mr. Shuan, and Mr. Shuan (on his side) sat
without a word, looking hard upon the table.

All of a sudden he put out his hand to take the bottle; and at
that Mr. Riach started forward and caught it away from him,
rather by surprise than violence, crying out, with an oath, that
there had been too much of this work altogether, and that a
judgment would fall upon the ship. And as he spoke (the weather
sliding-doors standing open) he tossed the bottle into the sea.

Mr. Shuan was on his feet in a trice; he still looked dazed, but
he meant murder, ay, and would have done it, for the second time
that night, had not the captain stepped in between him and his
victim.

"Sit down!" roars the captain. "Ye sot and swine, do ye know
what ye've done? Ye've murdered the boy!"

Mr. Shuan seemed to understand; for he sat down again, and put up
his hand to his brow.

"Well," he said, "he brought me a dirty pannikin!"

At that word, the captain and I and Mr. Riach all looked at each
other for a second with a kind of frightened look; and then
Hoseason walked up to his chief officer, took him by the
shoulder, led him across to his bunk, and bade him lie down and
go to sleep, as you might speak to a bad child. The murderer
cried a little, but he took off his sea-boots and obeyed.

"Ah!" cried Mr. Riach, with a dreadful voice, "ye should have
interfered long syne. It's too late now."

"Mr. Riach," said the captain, "this night's work must never be
kennt in Dysart. The boy went overboard, sir; that's what the
story is; and I would give five pounds out of my pocket it was
true!" He turned to the table. "What made ye throw the good
bottle away?" he added. "There was nae sense in that, sir.
Here, David, draw me another. They're in the bottom locker;" and
he tossed me a key. "Ye'll need a glass yourself, sir," he added
to Riach. "Yon was an ugly thing to see."

So the pair sat down and hob-a-nobbed; and while they did so, the
murderer, who had been lying and whimpering in his berth, raised
himself upon his elbow and looked at them and at me.

That was the first night of my new duties; and in the course of
the next day I had got well into the run of them. I had to serve
at the meals, which the captain took at regular hours, sitting
down with the officer who was off duty; all the day through I
would be running with a dram to one or other of my three masters;
and at night I slept on a blanket thrown on the deck boards at
the aftermost end of the round-house, and right in the draught of
the two doors. It was a hard and a cold bed; nor was I suffered
to sleep without interruption; for some one would be always
coming in from deck to get a dram, and when a fresh watch was to
be set, two and sometimes all three would sit down and brew a
bowl together. How they kept their health, I know not, any more
than how I kept my own.

And yet in other ways it was an easy service. There was no cloth
to lay; the meals were either of oatmeal porridge or salt junk,
except twice a week, when there was duff: and though I was clumsy
enough and (not being firm on my sealegs) sometimes fell with
what I was bringing them, both Mr. Riach and the captain were
singularly patient. I could not but fancy they were making up
lee-way with their consciences, and that they would scarce have
been so good with me if they had not been worse with Ransome.

As for Mr. Shuan, the drink or his crime, or the two together,
had certainly troubled his mind. I cannot say I ever saw him in
his proper wits. He never grew used to my being there, stared at
me continually (sometimes, I could have thought, with terror),
and more than once drew back from my hand when I was serving him.
I was pretty sure from the first that he had no clear mind of
what he had done, and on my second day in the round-house I had
the proof of it. We were alone, and he had been staring at me a
long time, when all at once, up he got, as pale as death, and
came close up to me, to my great terror. But I had no cause to
be afraid of him.

"You were not here before?" he asked.

"No, sir," said I."

"There was another boy?" he asked again; and when I had answered
him, "Ah!" says he, "I thought that," and went and sat down,
without another word, except to call for brandy.

You may think it strange, but for all the horror I had, I was
still sorry for him. He was a married man, with a wife in Leith;
but whether or no he had a family, I have now forgotten; I hope
not.

Altogether it was no very hard life for the time it lasted, which
(as you are to hear) was not long. I was as well fed as the best
of them; even their pickles, which were the great dainty, I was
allowed my share of; and had I liked I might have been drunk from
morning to night, like Mr. Shuan. I had company, too, and good
company of its sort. Mr. Riach, who had been to the college,
spoke to me like a friend when he was not sulking, and told me
many curious things, and some that were informing; and even the
captain, though he kept me at the stick's end the most part of
the time, would sometimes unbuckle a bit, and tell me of the fine
countries he had visited.

The shadow of poor Ransome, to be sure, lay on all four of us,
and on me and Mr. Shuan in particular, most heavily. And then I
had another trouble of my own. Here I was, doing dirty work for
three men that I looked down upon, and one of whom, at least,
should have hung upon a gallows; that was for the present; and as
for the future, I could only see myself slaving alongside of
negroes in the tobacco fields. Mr. Riach, perhaps from caution,
would never suffer me to say another word about my story; the
captain, whom I tried to approach, rebuffed me like a dog and
would not hear a word; and as the days came and went, my heart
sank lower and lower, till I was even glad of the work which kept
me from thinking.

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