The Wreck of the Nancy Bell | Page 5

crash of crockery which they had heard, and which had been hitherto inexplicable, became at once clear; for, there on the floor of the deck was the debris of a pile of plates and scattered fragments of cups and saucers which had been suddenly dropped by the steward in his fright and were smashed to atoms; while, in the centre of the scene of devastation, was the dungeon-like cavity of the after-hatchway, the cover of which had been shifted from its coamings by the man, in order for him to get up some of the cabin provisions from the hold, whose gloomy depths were only faintly illumined by the feeble rays of a lantern, which as it lay on its side rolling on the deck, participated in the general upset.
Captain Dinks promptly took up the lantern, holding it over the open hatchway; and, as he did so, a second groan came from below, more hollow and sepulchral than before.
"Who's there?" shouted the captain down the hatchway.
There was no reply, save a fainter moan, apparently further away in the distance, followed by a sort of gurgling sound, and then the fall of some heavy object was heard in the hold.
"Who's there below?" repeated the captain, endeavouring to pierce the cimmerian darkness by waving the lighted lantern about and holding it as far down the hatchway as his arm could reach. "Speak or I'll fire!"
This was an empty threat of the skipper's, as he held no weapon in his hand save the lantern; but it had the necessary effect all the same.
"It's only me, massa," said a thick guttural voice from below; "only me," repeated the voice pleadingly. "Goramighty, massa, don't shoot!"
"And who's me?" interrogated the captain sternly, as the mate and the passenger looked at each other inquiringly, a smile creeping over Mr Meldrum's face, while the Irishman screwed up his left eye into a palpable wink.
"Me, Snowball, sah--a 'spectable collud genleman from Jamaikey, massa," replied the voice in the hold.
"And what the dickens are you doing aboard my ship?" asked Captain Dinks in an angry tone; but the others could see that he was half-laughing as he spoke.
"Me want passage, sah, back home. Very bad peoples, sah, in Plymouth; tieve all poah niggah's money and make him drunk. Snowball starbing; so um see lubly fine ship goin' way and get aboard in shore boat wid um last shillun: eb'ryting scramble and jumble when come on deck; so Snowball go get in cabin, and den down in hold, where he see steward stow um grub, and lie quiet till ship sail. When hold open, he try get out, but can't; box fall on um foot, and Snowball holler wid pain; steward tink um de Debbel and knock down tings. Snowball done no harm; um bery bad wid um leg!"
"Sure, an' it's an impedent schoundrel he is, the spalpeen!" said the mate. "Of all the cheeky stowaways I ever came across, he bates the lot entirely. Shall I rouse him up with a rope's end, cap'en?"
"No, wait a bit, McCarthy," said the captain; "we'll try a little persuasion first. Here, `Snowball,' or whatever else you call yourself, just sling your hook out of that, and come up here. I fancy I shall be able to accommodate you with something, besides a free passage at my owner's expense!"
"Can't, massa," replied the stowaway, after making a movement, as they could hear, below, succeeded by a suppressed cry of pain; "um leg jammed 'tween box and cask: Snowball feel bery bad--tink leg go squash: can't move um nohow."
"Be jabers!" exclaimed the good-natured Irishman, "sure an' the poor baste's hurt, and, by your lave, cap'en, I'll go down and say what's the matther."
"Do," said Captain Dinks; but ere he could get out the word, the mate, taking his consent for granted, had caught hold of the hatchway coamings with his powerful hands and swung himself down on to the lower deck; reaching up afterwards for the lantern, which the captain handed him, and then disappearing from view as he dived amongst the heterogeneous mass of boxes and casks, and bales of goods, mingled with articles of all sorts, with which the place was crammed.
After a moment's absence, he came back beneath the hatchway.
"Plaze, git a blanket or two out of one of the cabins, cap'en, to hoist him up," said he; "the unlucky beggar sames to be injured badly, and I think his ribs are stove in, besides a heavy box having fallen on his leg. He hasn't got such a chape passage this toime as he expected; for he has been more'n half suffocated in the flour hogshead where he first stowed himself away; and, begorrah, to look at him now, with his black face all whitened, like a duchess powthered for a ball, and