第52章

"Don't be hard on a chap, old man!" he whined pitifully.

"Now then, get ashore at once.Do you hear?"Silence.He appeared to cringe, mute, as if words had failed him through grief; then - bang! came a concussion and a great flash of light in which he vanished, leaving me prone on my back with the most abominable black eye that anybody ever got in the faithful discharge of duty.Shadows! Shadows! I hope he escaped the enemies he was fleeing from to live and flourish to this day.But his fist was uncommonly hard and his aim miraculously true in the dark.

There were other experiences, less painful and more funny for the most part, with one amongst them of a dramatic complexion; but the greatest experience of them all was Mr.B-, our chief mate himself.

He used to go ashore every night to foregather in some hotel's parlour with his crony, the mate of the barque Cicero, lying on the other side of the Circular Quay.Late at night I would hear from afar their stumbling footsteps and their voices raised in endless argument.The mate of the Cicero was seeing his friend on board.

They would continue their senseless and muddled discourse in tones of profound friendship for half an hour or so at the shore end of our gangway, and then I would hear Mr.B- insisting that he must see the other on board his ship.And away they would go, their voices, still conversing with excessive amity, being heard moving all round the harbour.It happened more than once that they would thus perambulate three or four times the distance, each seeing the other on board his ship out of pure and disinterested affection.

Then, through sheer weariness, or perhaps in a moment of forgetfulness, they would manage to part from each other somehow, and by-and-by the planks of our long gangway would bend and creak under the weight of Mr.B- coming on board for good at last.

On the rail his burly form would stop and stand swaying.

"Watchman!"

"Sir."

A pause.

He waited for a moment of steadiness before negotiating the three steps of the inside ladder from rail to deck; and the watchman, taught by experience, would forbear offering help which would be received as an insult at that particular stage of the mate's return.But many times I trembled for his neck.He was a heavy man.

Then with a rush and a thump it would be done.He never had to pick himself up; but it took him a minute or so to pull himself together after the descent.

"Watchman!"

"Sir."

"Captain aboard?"

"Yes, sir."

Pause.

"Dog aboard?"

"Yes, sir."

Pause.

Our dog was a gaunt and unpleasant beast, more like a wolf in poor health than a dog, and I never noticed Mr.B- at any other time show the slightest interest in the doings of the animal.But that question never failed.

"Let's have your arm to steady me along."I was always prepared for that request.He leaned on me heavily till near enough the cabin-door to catch hold of the handle.Then he would let go my arm at once.

"That'll do.I can manage now."