"Very likely six months," said Biddle solemnly.
"Six months would soon pa.s.s away," said Miss Evans briskly, as she wiped her eye.
"It would be a rest," said Miss Williams coaxingly.
The men not seeing things in quite the same light, they announced their intention of having nothing more to do with them, and crowding together in the bows beneath two or three blankets, condoled tearfully with each other on their misfortunes. For some time the men stood by offering clumsy consolations, but, tired at last of repeated rebuffs and insults, went below and turned in, leaving the satisfied skipper at the wheel.
The night was clear and the wind light. As the effects of his libations wore off the skipper had some misgivings as to the wisdom of his action, but it was too late to return, and he resolved to carry on.
Looking at all the circ.u.mstances of the case, he thought it best to keep the wheel in his own hands for a time, and the dawn came in the early hours and found him still at his post.
Objects began to stand out clearly in the growing light, and three dispirited girls put their heads out from their blankets and sniffed disdainfully at the sharp morning air. Then after an animated discussion they arose, and casting their blankets aside, walked up to the skipper and eyed him thoughtfully.
"As easy as easy," said Jenny Evans confidently, as she drew herself up to her full height, and looked down at the indignant man.
"Why, he isn"t any bigger than a boy," said Miss Williams savagely.
"Pity we didn"t think of it before," said Miss Davies. "I s"pose the crew won"t help him?"
"Not they," said Miss Evans scornfully. "If they do, we"ll serve them the same."
They went off, leaving the skipper a prey to gathering uneasiness, watching their movements with wrinkled brow. From the forecastle and the galley they produced two mops and a broom, and he caught his breath sharply as Miss Evans came on deck with a pot of white paint in one hand and a pot of tar in the other.
"Now, girls," said Miss Evans.
"Put those things down," said the skipper in a peremptory voice.
"Sha"n"t," said Miss Evans bluntly. "You haven"t got enough on yours,"
she said, turning to Miss Davies. "Don"t spoil the skipper for a ha"porth of tar."
At this new version of an old saw they laughed joyously, and with mops dripping tar and paint on the deck, marched in military style up to the skipper, and halted in front of him, smiling wickedly.
Then the heart of the skipper waxed sore faint within him, and, with a wild yell, he summoned his trusty crew to his side.
The crew came on deck slowly, and casting furtive glances at the scene, pushed Ephraim Biddle to the front.
"Take those mops away from "em," said the skipper haughtily.
"Don"t you interfere," said Miss Evans, looking at them over her shoulder.
"Else we"ll give you some," said Miss Williams bloodthirstily.
"Take those mops away from "em!" bawled the skipper, instinctively drawing back as Miss Evans made a pa.s.s at him.
"I don"t see as "ow we can interfere, sir," said Biddle with deep respect.
"What!" said the astonished skipper.
"It would be agin the lor for us to interfere with people," said Biddle, turning to his mates, "dead agin the lor."
"Don"t you talk rubbish," said the skipper anxiously. "Take "em away from "em. It"s my tar and my paint, and-"
"You shall have it," said Miss Evans rea.s.suringly.
"If we touched "em," said Biddle impressively, "it"d be an a.s.sault at lor. "Sides which, they"d probably muss us up with "em. All we can do, sir, is to stand by and see fair play."
"Fair play!" cried the skipper dancing with rage, and turning hastily to the mate, who had just come on the scene. "Take those things away from "em, Jack."
"Well, if it"s all the same to you," said the mate, "I"d rather not be drawn into it."
"But I"d rather you were," said the skipper sharply. "Take "em away."
"How?" inquired the mate pertinently.
"I order you to take "em away," said the skipper. "How, is your affair."
"I"m not goin" to raise my hand against a woman for anybody," said the mate with decision. "It"s no part of my work to get messed up with tar and paint from lady pa.s.sengers."
"It"s part of your work to obey me, though," said the skipper, raising his voice; "all of you. There"s five of you, with the mate, and only three gells. What are you afraid of?"
"Are you going to take us back?" demanded Jenny Evans.
"Run away," said the skipper with dignity. "Run away."
"I shall ask you three times," said Miss Evans sternly. "One-are you going back? Two-are you going back? Three---"
In the midst of a breathless silence she drew within striking distance, while her allies, taking up a position on either flank of the enemy, listened attentively to the instructions of their leader.
"Be careful he doesn"t catch hold of the mops," said Miss Evans; "but if he does, the others are to hit him over the head with the handles. Never mind about hurting him."
"Take this wheel a minnit, Jack," said the skipper, pale but determined.
The mate came forward and took it unwillingly, and the skipper, trying hard to conceal his trepidation, walked towards Miss Evans and tried to quell her with his eye. The power of the human eye is notorious, and Miss Evans showed her sense of the danger she ran by making an energetic attempt to close the skipper"s with her mop, causing him to duck with amazing nimbleness. At the same moment another mop loaded with white paint was pushed into the back of his neck. He turned with a cry of rage, and then realising the odds against him flung his dignity to the winds and dodged with the agility of a schoolboy. Through the galley and round the masts he went with the avenging mops in mad pursuit, until breathless and exhausted he suddenly sprang on to the side and climbed frantically into the rigging.
"Coward!" said Miss Evans, shaking her weapon at him.
"Come down," cried Miss Williams. "Come down like a man."
"It"s no good wasting time over him," said Miss Evans, after another vain appeal to the skipper"s manhood. "He"s escaped. Get some more stuff on your mops."
The mate, who had been laughing boisterously, checked himself suddenly, and a.s.sumed a gravity of demeanour more in accordance with his position.
The mops were dipped in solemn silence, and Miss Evans approaching regarded him significantly.
"Now, my dears," said the mate, waving his hand with a deprecatory gesture, "don"t be silly."
"Don"t be what?" inquired the sensitive Miss Evans, raising her mop.
"You know what I mean," said the mate hastily. "I can"t help myself."