Boon Island - Kenneth Roberts [64]
I followed my father's instructions to the letter. Swede, when I told him the Nottingham must sail that day, and the reason why, looked almost relieved. "This is the way I've always wanted it," he said: "A way for us to be together. Ever since I signed on with Captain Dean, I've been like a fish out of water in this damned hospital, with all the political pensioners that don't know a futtock shroud from a wallpiece. If Neal killed a man, he did it for a good reason. I'd have done it for him if I couldbut he wouldn't talk about such things. They made him freeze up inside. I suppose it was my fault for giving him the knife, but I'm glad I did it all the same."
He felt his shoulder and seemed pleased. "Damp mornings like this, my shoulder used to feel sore, but since I signed on with Captain Dean, it's been all right! Yes, sir, I can pull my weight!"
My father had two seamen's bags ready for us. "Get to the quay as fast as you canand don't look so glum, Miles. Remember what I told you: a smile is the best ticket to Heaven that any man can carry."
He pushed us toward the door. "Get out of here before somebody finds that piece of carrion and comes running to me to do something about it."
He put my bag on my shoulder, kissed me lightly and coughed as if to show me he wasn't overly concerned at my departure. "Every young man ought to travel, and any kind of travel is uncomfortable; so you'll be no worse off aboard the Nottingham than all the other young Englishmen who run off to France and Italy every summer."
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I knew how my father felt. I was always low in my mind when I left him to go up to Oxford; but now I was even more unhappy, because he showed so clearly that he was concerned, and deeply. For the life of me I couldn't say a word: could only hope that someday I could show my feelings in a proper manner.
As we went down the steps and turned toward the oily, misty river, my father called after us, "Watch over him, Swede, as though he were your own boy." I always remembered his words, and Swede never forgot them either.
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Chapter 5
An argument was in progress between Langman and Captain Dean, when we came over the Nottingham's bulwarks that morning of July 30th. Langman was protesting because Captain Dean had ordered him to remove his dunnage from the after cabin so that there might be room for other passengersthe others being his younger brother Henry, Neal Butler, Swede and me.
Probably for those of us who don't have villainy in our heartsand villainy, of course, includes jealousy, which is responsible for most of the ills that beset this worldstupidity is our besetting sin. I have never been jealous of any man, but I have been stupid far too often. I was stupid not to see why Langman was so determined to retain a foothold in the after cabin.
"You made an agreement with me," he told Captain Dean. "I was to have a cabin, same as yours. I was captain of my own ship under Woodes Rogers, and captain of this vessel, too, before I sold her to your brother, and you've got no right"
"Now just a minute," Captain Dean said. "My brother
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Jasper made a gentleman's agreement with you. He bought your ship and paid three hundred pounds for it, and no questions asked. He made just one concession to you, and that was that you were to sail on her as first mate under me as captain, and could ship Mellen and White along with you."
"All those other things are in the contract," Langman said. "He promised me"
"Come now, Langman," Captain Dean said moderately, "my brother has no secrets from me. He told me exactly the arrangements he made with you, and I've followed them precisely. You're first mate of this ship, and you'll continue to be so, no matter how many lies you tell me. Nicholas Mellen and George White were signed on as sailors on this ship at your insistence. First you said I'd promised you a berth in the after cabin. I didn't. Then you said my brother guaranteed you the same. He didn't, any more than he guaranteed