Charlie Codmans Cruise 18

Charlie Codmans Cruise 18

Some of the faces grew dark and threatening at this representation.

Nothing stirs up a sailor's heart to opposition so readily as anything

which resembles a threat.

 

Bill Sturdy hastened to reply.

 

"He is wrong. I don't threaten any of you. I only ask if it is right to

play tricks, and abuse a boy who has already been treated so scurvily

by the mate. I don't believe there's any one of you that wants to curry

favor with Mr. Randall and the captain. Now there is nothing they will

like better than to see you kicking round this lad."

 

Neither the captain nor the mate stood very high in the good graces of

the crew, and the effect produced by this statement showed that it was

adroitly conceived.

 

Bill Sturdy took advantage of this to add, "Now, lads, when I say I am

going to stand by this boy, and see that he isn't abused, I know you'll

stand by me."

 

This frank and bold speech produced a decided reaction in favor of

Charlie.

 

There was another murmur of approbation, which was interrupted by a

stamp upon the deck by Antonio, who, with a ferocious contortion of

countenance, shouted, "If you're all going to follow this man's lead,

and do like dogs whatever he bids you, you'll find there's one here

that dares to be independent."

 

Saying this, he advanced suddenly to Charlie, who was at work near by,

and, seizing him by the shoulder, was about to proceed to some act of

violence.

 

As soon as Bill Sturdy perceived his design, he sprang forward and gave

him a powerful blow which would have felled him to the deck, had not

Bill slipped a little, as he delivered it.

 

Instantly the Spaniard's sallow face was suffused, and, with a torrent

of oaths and a howl of fury, he precipitated himself upon Sturdy.

 

But it was easier to catch a weasel asleep, than to take the stout

sailor unprepared.

 

With his feet firmly planted upon the deck, and his fists in a proper

position, he received the bully, parrying his blows with wonderful

dexterity, and succeeding in planting others no less effective.

 

A ring of sailors gathered around, eager to watch the progress and

termination of the affray. There were not a few among them, who enjoyed

the punishment which they foresaw the Spaniard would receive from his

antagonist. He had so tyrannized over them in the past, that they felt

little sympathy for him now.

 

Baffled, blinded, and howling with mingled rage and vexation, the

Spaniard continued the unequal fight. As for Bill Sturdy, he was cool

and collected, apparently neither angry nor excited, but wary and on

the alert.

 

At length Antonio, perceiving a marlinespike at a little distance,

sprang towards it. It was a critical moment for Bill Sturdy, for a

marlinespike, in the hands of a furious and determined man, is a

formidable weapon.

 

His movement did not escape the notice of Sturdy.

 

He had acted principally on the defensive thus far, but he now saw that

something decisive must be done.

 

Springing forward, he closed with his assailant, lifted him from the

deck, and, carrying him to the companion-way, hurled him down stairs.

 

Then, turning to the crew, he exclaimed, "Shipmates, I call you to

witness that this quarrel was forced upon me. Have I done right or

wrong?"

 

"Right!" exclaimed all, in concert.

 

At this moment the mate, attracted by the noise, came on deck.

 

 

 

 

XVIII.

 

ANTONIO'S RESOLVE.

 

 

"What has been going on?" asked Randall, perceiving, from the position

of the sailors and their looks, that something had happened. What it

was, he surmised, having heard something of the noise of the conflict.

 

No one of the sailors spoke, but all looked at each other in hesitating

silence.

 

"What was it? Are you all deaf?" demanded the mate, impatiently.

 

"A little fight, that is all, Mr. Randall," answered Bill Sturdy,

coolly hitching up his pants.

 

"And you were one of the parties?"

 

"I believe I was."

 

"And who was the other?"

 

"Antonio."

 

"And where is he now?"

 

"He has gone below," said Bill, in a significant tone.

 

"What was the fight about?" inquired Randall, who, in ordinary cases,

would not have cared to pursue the subject farther, but had an

undefined idea that it was in some way connected with our hero, for

whom he felt no peculiar affection.

 

"The fact is," said Bill Sturdy, "Antonio undertook to abuse that lad

there," pointing to Charlie; "and I ain't one to stand by and see a boy

abused. Besides," he added, with a latent humor which all understood,

though he did not allow it to alter the gravity of his countenance, "I

knew he was your nephew, and that made me the more anxious to defend

him."

 

Randall was placed in an awkward predicament. He could not deny that

Charlie was his nephew after his express declaration to that effect,

while at the same time the relationship which he claimed was far from

exciting, in his own mind, any attachment for the boy. Still it closed

his mouth for the time. He only muttered, in an undertone, that the boy

must fight his own battles, and disappeared from the deck.

 

"Fight his own battles!" repeated Sturdy, indignantly. "A pretty sort

of an uncle he is, to match a boy of fourteen against a grown man, and

a strong one at that. However," added Sturdy, complacently, "the lad's

got a friend that is a match for Antonio at any time."

 

"That he has," answered a comrade; "but I say, Bill; I couldn't help

laughing to see how you made that old shark shut up his mouth by

telling him it was his nephew you were fighting for. It made him mad,

but he didn't know what to say against it."

 

"His nephew! No, Jack, it's well the lad isn't any kith or kin of his.

A drop of his blood would be enough to spile a decent lad."

 

"Ay, that it would."

 

Presently Antonio came on deck with a sullen air, half of defiance,

half of humiliation, at his recent defeat. He smarted under the

conviction, that henceforth his authority among the crew would be

small. Hitherto he had been the champion and bully of the quarter-deck,

and although the crew had no liking for him, but rather a decided

feeling of an opposite nature, yet strength and prowess always command

a certain rude respect among sailors, and that respect he enjoyed. But

now all was changed. He had been beaten, and that in a fair fight,

where all could see that no underhand means had been employed. Strength

had been matched against strength, and he had come off second best.

That had been a Waterloo day to him, and he knew that he returned to

the deck no longer the same man so far as consideration went.

 

Bill Sturdy was a generous antagonist. He had no idea of indulging in

exultation over his vanquished foe, but treated him as if nothing had

happened.

 

But Antonio's resentment was deep and implacable. He thirsted for

revenge, and determined to lull to sleep the suspicions of his late

opponent, until some opportunity should present itself for an effectual

and safe revenge.

 

Accordingly he suddenly recovered from his sullenness, and made some

half advances towards Sturdy, which the latter met, but not without

reserve.

 

"I can't kind o' feel as if the feller was to be trusted," said Bill to

Charlie, one evening, as they were alone together. "There's something

in his eye that I don't like; a sort of deceitful gleam, as if there

was something covered up that he didn't like to show. For my part, I

like to be fair and above board, and show just what I am."

 

"I'm sorry you have made an enemy of this man on my account," said

Charlie.

 

"Avast, my lad, do you think I was going to stand still and let him

abuse you? Thank heaven, old Bill Sturdy isn't such a lubber as that."

 

"But he may do you a mischief yet, Bill."

 

"Let him come within the reach of my arm," said Bill, swinging his

brawny right arm as he would a flail, "I guess he wouldn't want to try

it again."

 

"But he may take you at advantage."

 

"He will have to get up early in the morning, then," said Sturdy, in a

tone of confidence. "No lubberly foreigner is likely to get ahead of

Bill Sturdy, I can tell you that, my lad."

 

Both Bill and Charlie supposed that they were alone, and that this

conversation was unheard by any other person, but in this they were

mistaken.

 

On the other side of the mast crouched the dark figure of a man, who

seemed to be listening intently to the conversation between the two. He

remained very quiet, fearing, doubtless, that he should be observed.

Evidently what he heard did not affect him pleasantly. His brow

contracted, and a scowl of hatred made his features look even more

dark and forbidding than was their wont, especially when Bill Sturdy

made use of the last __EXPRESSION__, his face exhibited a concentrated

malice, which could only have been generated in a heart full of evil

passions.

 

He ground his white teeth together and muttered to himself, as he crept

cautiously from his place of concealment, and made his way to his bunk

in the forecastle. "We shall see, we shall see. No man shall insult and

triumph over me without repenting of it. He shall know, some time, what

it is to excite the vengeance of a desperate man. He thinks the lion

has become a lamb. He will find out his mistake."