Complete Works of Hall Caine, page 42
“Harm!” Mona had started the loom afresh, but she stopped once more. “Harm!” she exclaimed again. Then in a quieter way, “Keep away from them, Christian. You’ve seen too much of them of late.”
Christian started.
“Oh, I know it. But you can’t touch pitch — you mind the old saying.”
Mona had again started the loom, and was rattling at the levers with more than ordinary energy. Christian watched her for a minute with conflicting feelings. He felt that his manhood was being put to a severe strain. Therefore, assuming as much masculine superiority of manner as he could command, he said:
“We’ll not talk about things that you don’t quite understand, Mona. What Kisseck may do is no affair of ours, unless I choose to join him in any enterprise, and then I’m the best judge, you know.”
The girl stopped. Resting her elbow on the upper lever, and gazing absently out at the window where the light waves in the bay were glistening through a drowsy haze, she said, quietly:
“The man that I could choose out of all the world is not one who lives on his father and waits for the storm to blow over. No, nor one that clutches at every straw, no matter what. He’s the man who’d put his hand to the boats, or the plow, or the reins; and if he hadn’t enough to buy me a ribbon, I’d say to myself, proudly, ‘That man loves me!’”
Christian winced. Then assuming afresh his loftier manner, “As I say, Mona, we won’t talk of things you don’t understand.”
“I’ll not go back!” said the girl, as if by a leap of thought. The loom was started afresh with vigor.
“Then let me beg of you to be secret,” whispered Christian, coming close to her ear.
The girl laughed bitterly.
“Never fear,” she said, “it’s not for the woman to blab. No, the world is all for the man, and the law too. Men make the laws and women suffer under them — that’s the way of it.”
The girl laughed again, and continued in mocking tones, “‘Poor fellow, he’s been sorely tempted,’ says the world; ‘tut on her, never name her,’ says the law.”
And once more the girl forced a hollow, bitter laugh.
Just then a child’s silvery voice was heard in the street beneath. The blithe call was —
“Sweet violets and primroses the sweetest.”
The little feet tripped under the window. The loom stopped, and they listened. Then Christian looked into the young woman’s face, and blinding tears rose on the instant into the eyes of both.
“Mona!” he cried, in low passionate tones, and opened his arms. There was an unspeakable language in her face. She turned her head toward him longingly, yearningly, with heaving breast. He took one step toward her. She drew back. “No — not yet!” His arms fell, and he turned away.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Then the voice of Kerruish Kinvig could be heard in the outer factory.
“I’ve been middling long,” he said, hurrying in, “but a man, a bailiff from England, came bothering about some young waistrel that I never heard of in my born days — had run away from his debts, and so on — had been traced to the Isle of Man, and on here to Peel. And think of that tomfool of a Tommy-Bill-beg sending the man to me. I bowled him off to your father.”
“My father!” exclaimed Christian, who had listened to Kinvig’s rambling account with an uneasy manner.
“Yes, surely, and the likeliest man too. What’s a magistrate for at all if private people are to be moidered like yonder? But come, I’ll show you the sweet action of this loom in unwinding. Look now — see — keep your eye on those hooks.”
And Kerruish Kinvig rattled on with his explanation to a deaf ear.
“Mr. Kinvig,” interrupted Christian, “I happened to know that father is not risen yet this morning. That bailiff—”
“More shame for him; let him be roused anyhow. See here, though, press your hand on that level — so. Now when Mona puts down that other level — do you see? No! Why don’t you look closer?”
“Mr. Kinvig, do you know I half fancy that young fellow the man was asking for must have been an old college chum of mine. If you wouldn’t mind sending one of your girls after him to Balladhoo to ask him to meet me in half an hour at the harbor-master’s cottage on the quay—”
“Here! Let it be here;” calling “Jane!”
“No, let it be on the quay,” said Christian; “I have to go there presently, and it will save time, you know.”
“Bless me, man! have you come to your saving days at last?”
Kinvig turned aside, instructed Jane, and resumed the thread of his technical explanations.
“Let me show you this knot again; that bum-bailiff creature was bothering you before. Look now — stand here — so.”
“Yes,” said Christian, with the resignation of a martyr.
Then Kinvig explained everything afresh, but with an enthusiasm that was sadly damped by Christian’s manifest inability to command the complexities of the invention.
“I thought once that you were going to be a bit of an engineer yourself, Christian. Bless me, the amazing learned you were at the wheels, and the cranks, and the axles when you were a lad in jackets; but” — with a suspicious smile— “it’s likely you’re doing something in the theology line now, and that’s a sort of feeding and sucking and suction that won’t go with the engineering anyhow.” Christian smiled faintly, and Kinvig, as if by an after-thought shouted:
“Heigh-ho! Let’s take the road for it. We’ve kept this young woman too long from her work already.” (Going out.) “You didn’t give her much of a spell at the work while I was away.” (Outside.) “Oh, I saw the little bit of your sweethearting as I came back. But it’s wrong, Christian. It’s a shame, man, and a middling big one, too.”
“What’s a shame?” asked Christian, gasping out the inquiry.
“Why, to moider a girl with the sweethearting when she’s got her living to make. How would you like it, eh? Middling well? Oh, would you? All piecework, you know; so much a piece of net, a hundred yards long and two hundred meshes deep; work from eight to eight; fourteen shillings a week, and a widowed mother to keep, and a little sister as well. How would you like it, eh?”
Christian shrugged his shoulders and hung his head.
“Tut, man alive, you fine fellows browsing on your lands, you scarce know you’re born. Come down and mix among poor folks like this girl, and her mother, and the little lammie, and you’ll begin to know you’re alive.”
“I dare say,” muttered Christian, making longish strides to the outer gate. A broad grin crossed the face of Kerruish Kinvig as he added:
“But I tell you what, when you get your white choker under your gills, and you do come down among the like of these people with your tracts, and your hymns, and all those rigs, and your face uncommon solemn, and your voice like a gannet — none of your sweethearting, my man. Look at that girl Mona, now. It isn’t reasonable to think you’re not putting notions into the girl’s head. It’s a shame, man.”
“You’re right, Mr. Kinvig,” said Christian, under his breath, “a cursed shame.” And he stretched out his hand impatiently to bid good-by.
“No. I’ll go with you to Tommy-Bill-beg’s. Oh, don’t mind me. I’ve nothing particular on hand, or I wouldn’t waste my time on ye. Yes, as I say, it’s wrong. Besides, Christian, what you want to do now is to marry a girl with a property. That’s the only thing that will put yonder Balladhoo right again, and — in your ear, man — that’s about what your father’s looking for.”
Christian winced, and then tried to laugh.
“Oh, that’s it, is it?” he said, absently.
“But leave the girls alone. They’re amazin’ like the ghos’es, are the girls; once you start them you never know where they’ll stop, and they get into every skeleton closet about the house — but of course, of course, I’m an old bachelor, and as the saying is, I don’t know nothin’.”
“Ha! ha! ha! of course not,” laughed Christian with a tragic effort.
They had stopped outside the ivy cottage of the harbor-master, and that worthy, who was standing there, had overheard the last loud words of Kinvig’s conversation.
“What do you say, Tommy-Bill-beg?” asked Kinvig, giving him a prod in the ribs.
“I say that the gels in these days ought to get wedded while they’re babbies in arms—”
“That’ll do, that’ll do,” shouted Kinvig with a roar of laughter.
At the same moment one of the factory girls appeared side by side with a stranger.
“Good-by, Mr. Kinvig,” said Christian.
“Good-day,” Kinvig answered; and then shouting to the stranger, “this gentleman knows something of the young vagabond you want.”
“So I see,” answered the stranger with a cold smile, and Christian and the stranger stepped apart.
When they parted, the stranger said, “Well, one month let it be, and not a day longer.” Christian nodded his head in assent, and turned toward Balladhoo. After dinner he said:
“Father, I’d like to go out to the herrings this season. It would be a change.”
“Humph!” grunted his father; “which boat?”
“Well, I thought of the ‘Ben-my-Chree’; she’s roomy, and, besides, she’s the admiral’s boat, and perhaps Kisseck wouldn’t much like to hear that I’d sailed with another master.”
“You’ll soon tire of that amusement,” mumbled Mylrea Balladhoo.
CHAPTER VII
THE LAST OF “THE HERRINGS”
Some months later, as the season was chilling down to winter, the “Ben-my-Chree,” with the fleet behind her, was setting out from Peel for her last night at “the herrings.” On the deck, among others, was Christian Mylrea, in blue serge and guernsey, heavy sea-boots and sou’wester. It was past sundown; a smart breeze was blowing off the land as they rounded the Contrary Head and crossed the two streams that flow there. It was not yet too dark, however, to see the coast-line curved into covelets and promontories, and to look for miles over the hills where stretched the moles and hillocks of gorse and tussacs of long grass.
The twilight deepened as they rounded Niarbyl Point and left the Calf Islet on their lee, with Cronte-nay-Ivey-Lhaa towering into the gloomy sky. When they sailed through Fleshwick Bay the night gradually darkened, and they saw nothing of Ennyn Mooar. But the heavens lightened again and glittered with stars, and when they brought the lugger head to the wind in six fathoms of water outside Port Erin, the moon had risen behind Brada, and the steep and rugged headland showed clear against the sky.
“Have you found the herring on this ground at the same time in former seasons?” asked Christian of Kisseck.
“Not for seven years.”
“Then why try now?”
“See the gull there. She’s skipper to-night. She’s showing us the fish.”
And one after another the fleet brought to about them.
Danny Fayle had been leaning over the bow, and occasionally rapping with a stick at the timbers near the water.
“Any signs?” shouted Kisseck.
“Ay,” said Danny, “the mar-fire’s risin’.”
The wind had dropped, and luminous patches of phosphorescent light in the water were showing Danny that the herring were stirring.
“Let’s make a shot; up with the gear,” said Kisseck; and preparations were made for shooting the nets over the quarter.
“Davy Cain (the mate), you see to the lint. Tommy Tear, look after the corks. Danny — where’s that lad? — look to the seizings; d’ye hear?”
Then the nets were hauled from below and passed over a bank board placed between the hatchway and the top of the bulwark. Davy and Tommy shot the gear, and as the seizings came up, Danny ran aft and made them fast to the warp near the taffrail.
When the nets were all paid out, every net in the drift being tied to the next, and a solid wall of meshes nine feet deep had been swept away for half a mile behind them, Kisseck shouted, “Down with the sheets.”
The sails were taken in, the mainmast — made to lower backward — was dropped, and only the drift-mizzen was left to keep the boat’s head to the wind.
“Up with the light there,” shouted Kisseck.
On hearing this Danny popped his head out of the hatchways.
“Ah! to be sure, that lad’s never ready. Gerr out of that, quick.”
Danny took a lantern and fixed it on the top of the mitch-board.
Then vessel and nets drifted together. Christian and the skipper went below.
It was now a calm, clear night, with just light enough to show two or three of the buoys on the back of the first net as they floated under water. The skipper had not mistaken his ground. Large white patches came moving out of the surrounding pavement of deep black, lightened only with the occasional image of a star where the vanishing ripples left the sea smooth. Once or twice countless faint popping sounds were heard, and minute points of silver were seen in the water around. The herrings were at play about them. Shoals on shoals were breaking the sea into glistening foam.
After an hour had passed, Kisseck popped his head out of the hatchways, and cried, “Try the look-on.”
The warp was hauled in until the first net was reached. It came up as black as coal, save for a dog-fish or two that had broken a mesh here and there.
“Too much moon to-night,” said Kisseck; “they see the nets, and the ‘cute they are extraordinary.”
Half an hour later the moon went out behind a thick ridge of cloud that floated over the land. The sky became gray and leaden, and a rising breeze ruffled the sea. Some of the men on deck began to sing.
“Hould on there,” shouted Kisseck, “d’ye want to frighten all the herrin’ for ten miles?”
Hour after hour wore on, and not a fish came to the “look-on” net. Toward one o’clock in the morning the moon broke out again in full splendor.
“There’ll be a heavy strike now,” said Kisseck; and in another instant a luminous patch floated across the line of nets, sank, disappeared, and pulled three of the buoys down with them.
“Pull up now,” shouted Kisseck.
Then the nets were hauled. It was Danny Fayle’s duty to lead the warp through a snatch-block fixed to the mast-hole on to the capstan. Davy Cain disconnected the nets from the warps, and Tommy Tear and Mark Crennel pulled the nets over the gunwale. They came up, white in the moonlight, as a solid block of fish. Bill Kisseck and Christian passed the nets over the scudding pole and shook the herrings into the hold.
“Five barrels at least,” said Kisseck. “Try again.” And once more the nets were shot. The other boats of the fleet were signaled that the “Ben-my-Chree” had discovered a scale of fish. The blue light was answered by other blue lights on every side. The fishing was faring well.
One, two, three o’clock. The night was wearing on. The moon went out once more, and in the darkness that preceded the dawn the lanterns burning on the drifting boats gave out an eery glow. At last the gray light came in the east, and the sun rose over the land. The breeze was now fresh, and it was time to haul in the nets for the last time.
In accordance with ancient custom, the admiral’s flag went up to the mast-head, and at this sign every man in the fleet dropped on one knee, with his face in his cap, to offer his silent thanksgiving for the blessings of the season.
“Tumble up the sheets — bear a hand there — d —— the lad — gerr out of the way.”
In five minutes the lugger was running home before a stiff breeze.
“Nine barrels — not bad for the last night,” said Christian.
“Souse them well,” said Kisseck, and Davy Corteen sprinkled salt on the herrings as they lay in the hold.
Mark Crennel, who acted as slushy, otherwise cook, came up from below with a huge saucepan, which he filled with the fish. As he did so, the ear was conscious of a faint “cheep, cheep” — the herrings were still alive.
All hands then went below for a smoke, except the man at the tiller, and Kisseck and Christian, who stood talking at the bow. It is true that Danny Fayle lay on the deck, but the lad was hardly an entity. His uncle and Christian heeded him not at all, yet Danny heard their conversation, and, without thought of mischief, remembered what he heard.
Christian was talking earnestly of some impending disaster, of debts, and the near approach of the time when his father must be told.
“I’ve put that man off time after time,” he said; “he’ll not wait much longer, and then — God help us all!”
Kisseck laughed. “You’re allis in Paddy’s hurricane — right up and down,” he said, jeeringly. “Yer raely wuss till ever.”
“I tell you the storm is coming,” said Christian, with some vexation.
“Then keep your weather eye liftin’, that’s all,” said Kisseck, loftily.
Christian turned aside with an impatient gesture. After a pause he said, “You wouldn’t talk to me like that, Kisseck, if I hadn’t been a weak fool with you. It’s a true saying that when you tell your servant your secret you make him your master.”
Then Kisseck altered his manner and became suave.
“What’s to be done?” said Christian, irritated at some humiliating compliments.
“I’ve somethin’ terrible fine up here,” said Kisseck, tapping his forehead mysteriously. Christian smiled rather doubtfully.
“It’ll get you out of this shoal water, anyhow,” said the skipper.
“What is it?” asked Christian.
“The tack we’ve been on lately isn’t worth workin’. It isn’t what it was in the good ould days, when the Frenchmen and the Dutchmen came along with the Injin and Chinee goods, and we just run alongside in wherries and whipped them up. Too many hands at the trade now.”
“So, smuggling, like everything else, has gone to the dogs,” said Christian, with another grim smile.
“But I’ve a big consarn on now,” whispered Kisseck.
“What?”
“Och, a shockin’ powerful skame! Listen!”
