"To--to Dock, sir," I stammered. "Let me go, please: I"m in a hurry."
My captor held me out at arm"s length and eyed me. He was a sailor, and rigged out in his best sh.o.r.e-going clothes--tarpaulin hat, blue coat and waistcoat, and a broad leathern belt to hold up his duck trousers, on which my sooty head had left its mark. He grinned at me good-naturedly. I saw that he had been drinking.
"In a hurry? And what"s your hurry about? Business?"
"Ye--es, sir."
""Stonishing what spirit boys"ll put into work nowadays! I"ve seen boys run for a leg o" mutton, and likewise I"ve seen "em run when they"ve broken ship; but on the path o" duty, my sonny, you"ve the legs of any boy in my ex-perience. Well, for once, you"ll put pleasure first. I"m bound for Dock or thereabouts myself, and under convoy." He waved his hand up the street, where twelve or fifteen hackney-coaches stood in line ahead.
"If you please, sir--"
He threw open the coach door. "Jump in. The frigate sets the rate o" sailing. That"s Bill."
I hesitated, rebellious.
"That"s Bill. Messmate o" mine on the _Bedford_, and afore that on the _Vesuvius_ bomb. There, sonny--don"t stand gaping at me like a stuck pig: I never expected ye to _know_ him! And now the time"s past, and ye"ll go far afore finding a better. Bill Adams his name was; but Bill to me, always, and in all weathers." Here for a moment he became maudlin. "Paid off but three days agone, same as myself, and now--cut down like a flower! He"s the corpse, ahead, in the first conveyance."
"Is this a funeral, sir?"
"Darn your eyes, don"t it look like one? And after the expense I"ve been to!" He paused, eyed me solemnly, opened his mouth, and pointed down it with his forefinger. "Drink done it." His voice was impressive. "Steer you wide of the drink, my lad; or else drop down on it gradual. If drink must be your moorings, don"t pick "em up too rash. "A boiled leg o" mutton first," says I, persuasive; "_and_ turnips," and got him to Symonds"s boarding-house for the very purpose, Symonds being noted. And Symonds--I"ll do him that justice--says the same. Symonds says--"
But at this point a young woman--and pretty, too, though daubed with paint--thrust her hat and head out of a window, three carriages away, and demanded to know what in the name of Moses we were waiting for.
"Signals, my dear. The flagship"s forra"d; and keep your eye lifting that way, _if_ you please. I"m main glad you fell in with us," he went on affably, turning to me; "because you round it up nicely.
Barring the sharks in black weepers, you"re the only mourning-card in the bunch, and I"ll see you get a good position at the grave."
"Thank you, sir."
"Don"t mention it. We"re doin" our best. When poor Bill dropped down in Symonds"s"--he jerked his thumb towards the boarding-house door--"Symonds himself was for turning everyone out. Very nice feeling he showed, I will say. "d.a.m.n it, here"s a go!" he says; "and the man looked healthy enough for another ten year, with proper care!"--and went off at once to stop the fiddlers and put up the shutters. But, of course, it meant a loss to him, the place being full at the time; and I felt a sort of responsibility for having introduced Bill. So I went after him and says I, "This is a most unforeseen occurrence." "Not a bit," says he; "accidents will happen." I told him that the corpse had never been a wet blanket; it wasn"t his nature; and I felt sure he wouldn"t like the thought.
"If that"s the case, says Symonds, "I"ve a little room at the back where he"d go very comfortable--quite shut off, as you might say.
We must send for the doctor, of course, and the crowner can sit on him to-morrow--that is, if you feel sure deceased wouldn" think it any disrespect." "Disrespect?" says I. "You don"t know Bill.
Why, it"s what he"d arsk for!" So there we carried him, and I sent for the undertaker same time as the doctor, and ordered it of oak; and next morning, down I tramped to Dock and chose out a grave, brick-lined, having heard him say often, "Plymouth folk for wasting, but Dock folk for lasting." I won"t say but what, between whiles, we"ve been pretty lively at Symonds"s; and I won"t say--Hallo!
Here"s more luck! Your servant, sir!"
He stepped forward--leaving me shielded and half hidden by the coach door--and accosted a stranger walking briskly up the pavement towards us with a small valise in his hand; a gentlemanly person of about thirty-five or forty, in clerical suit and bands.
"Eh? Good-morning!" nodded the clergyman affably.
"Might I arsk where you"re bound?" Then, after a pause, "My name"s Jope, sir; Benjamin Jope, of the _Bedford_, seventy-four, bo"sun"s mate--now paid off."
The clergyman, at first taken aback by the sudden question, recovered his smile. "And mine, sir, is Whitmore--the Reverend John Whitmore-- bound just now in the direction of Dock. Can I serve you thereabouts?"
Mr. Jope waved his hand towards the coach door. "Jump inside! Oh, you needn"t be ashamed to ride behind Bill!"
"But who is Bill?" The Rev. Mr. Whitmore advanced to the coach door like a man in two minds. "Ah, I see--a funeral!" he exclaimed as a mute advanced--a.s.sailed from each coach window, as he pa.s.sed, with indecorous obloquy--to announce that the _cortege_ was ready to start. For the last two minutes heads had been popping out at these windows--heads with dyed ringlets and heads with artificially coloured noses--and their owners demanding to know if Ben Jope meant to keep them there all day, if the corpse was expected to lead off the ball, and so on; and I, cowering by the coach step, had shrunk from their gaze as I flinched now under Mr. Whitmore"s.
"Hallo!" said he, and gave me (as I thought) a searching look.
"What"s this? A chimney-sweep?"
"If your Reverence will not object?"
I turned my eyes away, but felt that this clergyman was studying me.
"Not at all," said he quietly after a moment"s pause. "Is he bound for Dock, too?"
"He said so."
"Eh? Then we"ll see that he gets there. After you, youngster!"
To my terror the words seemed charged with meaning, but I dared not look him in the face. I clambered in and dropped into a seat with my back to the driver. He placed himself opposite, nursing the valise on his knees. Ben Jope came last and slammed-to the door after him.
"Way-ho!" he shouted. "Easy canvas!" and with that plumped down beside me, and took off his tarpaulin hat, extracted a handkerchief, and carefully wiped his brow and the back of his neck.
"Well!" he sighed. "Bill"s launched, anyhow."
"Shipmate?" asked the clergyman.
"Messmate," answered Mr. Jope; and, opening his mouth, pointed down it with his forefinger. "Not that a better fellow ever lived."
"I can quite believe it," said Mr. Whitmore sympathetically. He had a pleasant voice, but somehow I did not want to catch his eye.
Instead I kept my gaze fastened upon the knees of his well-fitting pantaloons. No divine could have been more correctly attired, and yet there was a latent horsiness about his cut. I set him down for a sporting parson from the country, and wondered why he wore clothes so much superior to those of the Plymouth parsons known to me by sight.
"Just listen to that now!" exclaimed Mr. Jope. A cornet in one of the coaches ahead had struck up _Tom Bowling_, and before we reached the head of the street from coach after coach the funeral party broke into song:
"Here, a sheer hulk, lies poor Tom Bowling, The darling of his crew-ew; No more he"ll hear the te--empest how--wow--ling, For death has broach"d him to.
His form was of the--e ma--hanliest beau--eau--ty--"
"I wouldn"t say that, quite," observed Mr. Jope pensively. "To begin with, he"d had the small-pox."
"_De gustibus nil nisi bonum_," Mr. Whitmore observed soothingly.
"What"s that?"
"Latin."
"Wonderful! Would ye mind saying it again?"
The words were obligingly repeated.
"Wonderful! And what might be the meaning of it, making so bold?"
"It means "Speak well of the dead.""
"Well, we"re doing of it, anyhow. Hark to "em ahead there!"
The _cortege_, in fact, was attracting general attention. Folks on the pavement halted to watch and grin as we went by: one or two, catching sight of familiar faces within the coaches, waved their handkerchiefs or shouted back salutations: and as we crawled out of Old Town Street and past St. Andrew"s Church a small crowd raised three cheers for us. And still above it the cornet blared and the mourners" voices rose uproarious:
"His friends were many and true-hearted, His Poll was kind and fair; And then he"d sing so blithe and jolly, Ah, many"s the time and oft!
But mirth is turned to melanchol--ol--y-- For Tom is gone aloft."
"Bill couldn"t sing a note," Mr. Jope murmured: "but as you say, sir--Would you oblige us again?" Again the Latin was repeated, and he swung round upon me. "Think of that, now! Be you a scholar, hey?--read, write and cipher? How would you spell "sojer" for instance?"