The Sea-Witch | Page 4

accomplished.

CHAPTER II
.
CAPTAIN WILL RATLIN.

THE watch below, after completing the work which had summoned
them for the time being on deck, tumbled helter-skelter down the fore
hatch once more, and left on the deck of the "Sea Witch" about a dozen
able seamen who formed the watch upon deck. A number of these were
now gathered in a knot on the forecastle, and while they were sitting
cross-legged, picking old rope, and preparing it in suitable form for
caulking the ship's seams, one of their number was spinning a yarn, the
hero of which was evidently him who now filled the post of
commander on board their vessel. The object of their remarks,
meanwhile, stood once more quietly leaning over the monkey-rail on
the weather side of the quarter-deck, quite unconscious that he was
supplying a theme of entertainment to the forecastle.
There was an absent expression in his handsome face, a look as though
his heart was far distant from the scene about him, and yet a habit of
watchful caution seemed ever and anon to recall his senses, and his
quick, keen glance would run over the craft from stem to stern with a
searching and comprehensive power that showed him master of his
profession, and worthy his trust. Trust?--what was the trust he held?
Surely, no legitimate commerce could warrant the outfit of such a
vessel as he controlled. A man-of-war could hardly have been more
fully equipped with means of offence and defence. Amidship, beneath
that long boat, was a long, heavy metalled gun that worked on a
traverse, and which could command nearly every point of the compass,
while the ship kept her course. Just inside the rise of the low
quarter-deck--the cabin being entered from the deck by the descent of a
couple of steps--there were ranged boarding pikes, muskets, cutlasses
and pistols, ready for instant use. In shape they formed stars, hearts and
diamonds, dangerous but fantastic ornaments.

The brightness of these arms, and the handy way in which they were
arranged in the sockets made to receive them, showed at once that they
were designed for use, while the various other fixtures of the cabin and
docks plainly bespoke preparation for conflict. A strong and lofty
boarding-netting being stowed, also, told of the readiness of the "Sea
Witch" to repel boarders. That all these preparations had been made
merely as ordinary precautions in a peaceful trade was by no means
probable; and yet there they were, and there stood the bright-eyed,
handsome and youthful commander upon the quarter-deck, but he did
not look the desperado--such a term would have poorly accorded with
his open and manly countenance, hie quiet and gentlemanly mien. A
pirate would hardly have dared to lay the course he steered in these
latitudes, where an English or French cruiser was very likely to cross
his track.
"He handles a ship as prettily as ever a true blue did yet," said one of
the forecastle group, in replying to some remark of a comrade
concerning the commander.
"That's true," answered another; "he seems to have a sort of natural way
with him, as though he'd been born aboard and never seed the land at
all; and as to that matter, there may be them on board who say as much
of him."
"That isn't far from the truth," answered Bill Marline, "seein' he started
so arly on the sea he can't tell when he wasn't there himself."
"How was that matter, Bill?" asked one of his messmates. "They say
you have kept the captain's reckoning, man and boy, these fifteen
years."
"That have I, and never a truer heart floated than the man you see
yonder leaning over the rail on the quarterdeck, where he belongs,"
answered Bill Marline.
"How did you first fall in with him, Bill?--Tell us that," said one of the
crew.
"Well, do ye see, messmates, it must have been the matter of thirteen
years ago, there or thereabouts, but I can't exactly say, seeing's I never
have kept a log and can't write; but must have been about that length of
time, when I was a foremast hand on board the 'Sea Lion,' as fine an
Indiaman as you would wish to see. We were lying in the Liverpool
docks, with sails bent and cargo stowed, under sailing orders, when one

afternoon there strolled alongside a boy rather ragged and dirty, but
with such eyes and such a countenance as would make him a passport
anywhere. Well, do ye see, we were lazing away time on board, and
waiting the captain's coming before we hauled out into the stream, and
so we coaxed the lad aboard. He either didn't know where he came
from or wouldn't tell, and when we proposed