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"Then, abandon your habit of making free with the property of others."
"I abandon nothing. No man can say he ever knowed me to quit a deck while
a plank stuck to the beams; and shall I abandon, as you call it, my
rights? What is the mighty matter, that all hands must be called to see an
old sailor punished? You gave a lubberly fisherman, a fellow who has never
been in deeper water than his own line will sound you gave him, I say, a
glittering Spaniard, just for the use of a bit of a skiff for the night,
or, mayhap, for a small reach into the morning. Well, what does Dick do?
He says to himself--for d----e if he's any blab to run round a ship
grumbling at his officer--so he just says to himself, 'That's too much;'
and he looks about, to find the worth of it in some of the fisherman's
neighbours. Money can be eaten; and, what is better, it may be drunk;
therefore, it is not to be pitched overboard with the cook's ashes. I'll
warrant me, if the truth could be fairly come by, it would be found that,
as to the owners of this here yawl, and that there skiff, their mothers
are cousins, and that the dollar will go in snuff and strong drink among
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the whole family--so, no great harm done, after all."
Wilder made an impatient gesture to the other to obey, and walked up the
bank, while he had time to comply. Fid never disputed a positive and
distinct order, though he often took so much discretionary latitude in
executing those which were less precise. He did not hesitate, therefore,
to return the boat; but he did not carry his subordination so far as to do
it without complaint. When this act of justice was performed, Wilder
entered the skiff; and, seeing that his companions were seated at their
oars, he bade them to pull down the harbour, admonishing them, at the same
time, to make as little noise as possible.
"The night I rowed you into Louisbourg, a-reconnoitring," said Fid,
thrusting his left hand into his bosom, while, with his right, he applied
sufficient force to the light oar to make the skiff glide swiftly over the
water--"that night we muffled every thing even to our tongues. When there
is occasion to put stoppers on the mouths of a boat's crew, why, I'm not
the man to gainsay it; but, as I am one of them that thinks tongues were
just as much made to talk with, as the sea was made to live on, I uphold
rational conversation in sober society. S'ip, you Guinea where are you
shoving the skiff to? hereaway lies the island, and you are for going into
yonder bit of a church."
"Lay on your oars," interrupted Wilder; "let the boat drift by this
vessel."
They were now in the act of passing the ship, which had been warping from
the wharfs to an anchorage and in which the young sailor had so
clandestinely heard that Mrs Wyllys and the fascinating Gertrude were to
embark, on the following morning, for the distant province of Carolina. As
the skiff floated past, Wilder examined the vessel, by the dim light of
the stars, with a seaman's eye. No part of her hull, her spars, or her
rigging, escaped his notice, and, when the whole became confounded, by the
distance, in one dark mass of shapeless matter, he leaned his head over
the side of his little bark, and mused long and deeply with himself. To
this abstraction Fid presumed to offer no interruption. It had the
appearance of professional duty; a subject that, in his eyes, was endowed
with a species of character that might be called sacred. Scipio was
habitually silent. After losing many minutes in the manner, Wilder
suddenly regained his recollection and abruptly observed,--
"It is a tall ship, and one that should make a long chase!"
"That's as may be," returned the ready Fid. "Should that fellow get a free
wind, and his canvas all abroad, it might worry a King's cruiser to get
nigh enough to throw the iron on his decks; but jamm'd up close hauled,
why, I'd engage to lay on his weather quarter, with the saucy He--"
"Boys," interrupted Wilder, "it is now proper that you dhould know
something of my future movements. We have been shipmates, I might almost
say messmates, for more than twenty years. I was better than an infant,
Fid, when you brought me to the commander of your ship, and not only was
instrumental in saving my life, but in putting me into a situation to make
an officer."
"Ay, ay, you were no great matter, master Harry as to bulk; and a short
hammock served your turn as well as the captain's birth."
"I owe you a heavy debt, Fid, for that one generous act, and something, I
may add, for your steady adherence to me since."
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"Why, yes, I've been pretty steady in my conduct master Harry, in this
here business, more particularly seeing that I have never let go my
grapplings, though you've so often sworn to turn me adrift. As for Guinea,
here, the chap makes fair weather with you, blow high or blow low, whereas
it is no hard matter to get up a squall between us, as might be seen in
that small affair about the boat;"--
"Say no more of it," interrupted Wilder, whose feelings appeared sensibly
touched, as his recollections ran over long-past and bitterly-remembered
scenes: "You know that little else than death can part us, unless indeed
you choose to quit me now. It is right that you should know that I am
engaged in a desperate pursuit, and one that may easily end in ruin to
myself and all who accompany me. I feel reluctant to separate from you, my
friends, for it may be a final parting, but, at the same time, you should
know all the danger."
"Is there much more travelling by land?" bluntly demanded Fid.
"No; the duty, such as it is, will be done entirely in the water."
"Then bring forth your ship's books, and find room for such a mark as a
pair of crossed anchors, which stand for all the same as so many letters
reading 'Richard Fid.'"
"But perhaps, when you know"----
"I want to know nothing about it, master Harry Haven't I sailed with you
often enough under sealed orders, to trust my old body once more in your
company without forgetting my duty? What say you Guinea? will you ship? or
shall we land you at once, on yonder bit of a low point, and leave you to
scrape acquaintance with the clams?"
"'Em berry well off, here," muttered the perfectly contented negro.
"Ay, ay, Guinea is like the launch of one of the coasters, always towing
in your wake, master Harry; whereas I am often luffing athwart your hawse,
or getting foul, in some fashion or other, on one of your quarters.
Howsomever, we are both shipped, as you see, in this here cruise, with the
particulars of which we are both well satisfied. So pass the word among
us, what is to be done next, and no more parley."
"Remember the cautions you have already received returned Wilder, who saw
that the devotion of his followers was too infinite to need quickening,
and who knew, from long and perilous experience, how implicitly he might
rely on their fidelity, notwithstanding certain failings, that were
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