Lady of the Barge

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Lady of the Barge

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Title: Lady of the Barge and Others, Entire Collection
Author: W.W. Jacobs
Release Date: April 22, 2004 [EBook #12133]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LADY OF
THE BARGE AND ***

Produced by David Widger

THE LADY OF THE BARGE

AND OTHER STORIES
By W. W. Jacobs

CONTENTS
THE LADY OF THE BARGE THE MONKEY'S PAW BILL'S
PAPER CHASE THE WELL CUPBOARD LOVE IN THE LIBRARY
CAPTAIN ROGERS A TIGER'S SKIN A MIXED PROPOSAL AN
ADULTERATION ACT A GOLDEN VENTURE THREE AT
TABLE

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
He denied it again, hotly frontispiece "You villain!" she said, in a
choking voice "What's that?" cried the old woman Mrs. Driver fell back
before the emerging form of Mr. Bodfish Burleigh, with a feeling of
nausea, drew back toward the door Gunn placed a hand, which lacked
two fingers, on his breast and bowed again "Don't you think Major Brill
is somewhat hasty in his conclusions?" she inquired softly He saw
another tatterdemalion coming toward him "You say you're a doctor?"
The second officer leaned forward "You get younger than ever, Mrs.
Pullen," "We'll leave you two young things alone,"

THE LADY OF THE BARGE
The master of the barge Arabella sat in the stern of his craft with his
right arm leaning on the tiller. A desultory conversation with the mate
of a schooner, who was hanging over the side of his craft a few yards
off, had come to a conclusion owing to a difference of opinion on the
subject of religion. The skipper had argued so warmly that he almost
fancied he must have inherited the tenets of the Seventh-day Baptists
from his mother while the mate had surprised himself by the warmth of
his advocacy of a form of Wesleyanism which would have made the

members of that sect open their eyes with horror. He had, moreover,
confirmed the skipper in the error of his ways by calling him a bargee,
the ranks of the Baptists receiving a defender if not a recruit from that
hour.
With the influence of the religious argument still upon him, the skipper,
as the long summer's day gave place to night, fell to wondering where
his own mate, who was also his brother-in-law, had got to. Lights
which had been struggling with the twilight now burnt bright and
strong, and the skipper, moving from the shadow to where a band of
light fell across the deck, took out a worn silver watch and saw that it
was ten o'clock.
Almost at the same moment a dark figure appeared on the jetty above
and began to descend the ladder, and a strongly built young man of
twenty-two sprang nimbly to the deck.
"Ten o'clock, Ted," said the skipper, slowly. "It 'll be eleven in an
hour's time," said the mate, calmly.
"That 'll do," said the skipper, in a somewhat loud voice, as he noticed
that his late adversary still occupied his favourite strained position, and
a fortuitous expression of his mother's occurred to him: "Don't talk to
me; I've been arguing with a son of Belial for the last half-hour."
"Bargee," said the son of Belial, in a dispassionate voice.
"Don't take no notice of him, Ted," said the skipper, pityingly.
"He wasn't talking to me," said Ted. "But never mind about him; I want
to speak to you in private."
"Fire away, my lad," said the other, in a patronizing voice.
"Speak up," said the voice from the schooner, encouragingly. "I'm
listening."
There was no reply from the bargee. The master led the way to the

cabin, and lighting a lamp, which appealed to more senses than one,
took a seat on a locker, and again requested the other to fire away.
"Well, you see, it's this way," began the mate, with a preliminary
wriggle: "there's a certain young woman--"
"A certain young what?" shouted the master of the Arabella.
"Woman," repeated the mate, snappishly; "you've heard of a woman
afore, haven't you? Well, there's a certain young woman I'm walking
out with I--"
"Walking out?" gasped the skipper. "Why, I never 'eard o' such a
thing."
"You would ha' done if you'd been better looking, p'raps," retorted the
other. "Well, I've offered this young woman to come for a trip with us."
"Oh, you