Catty Atkins, Sailorman

by Clarence Budington Kelland

Catty turned to me quick as a flash. “Run down to the water,” he says, “and holler as loud as you can that you’ve found a boat. Then duck along the shore toward Nantucket and lie down in the sand. It’ll call them off our tracks a minute, anyhow.”

I didn’t stop to argue, but I wanted to argue. Just why I should be the sacrifice, I couldn’t make out. It was all very well to run down that way and holler, and then lie down. It sounded fine. But what would happen when everybody came running to see who hollered, and what if they stepped on me? I didn’t care for it.

But I went and I hollered, and about four thousand men came running pell-mell—on the inside of the barb wire. I was outside, by luck, and the way I skittered along that shore in the dark would make a deer jealous. I’ll bet I could have beaten the fastest deer in the woods by fifty yards in a hundred-yard dash. When I thought I was far enough I just dove head-first into the sand and lay there.

All the time I could imagine what Catty was trying to do with Mr. Dunn, and how he and Mr. House were slicing and tugging and jerking to get him under the wire. It must have been mighty exciting to have to stand there and keep cool and not hurry when, every second, somebody might happen onto you. But everybody was interested down by the shore where I had hollered, and they rampaged up and down for five minutes. By that time I thought it was safe to move, so I got onto my hands and knees and crawled back a ways from the shore and started toward Nantucket. I was all alone. Whether Catty had got Mr. Dunn through the wire or not I hadn’t the least idea. Lonesome! Say!

Well, the mutineers got tired looking along the shore, and began to scatter. I could hear them running and yelling behind me, and lanterns bobbed around all over. Some of them were coming my way, and you can bet I looked around for a place to hide. I never stopped a second, but kept running, or crawling when it seemed safer. Nobody got real close to me, but that didn’t hurt my feelings. I wasn’t so lonesome but what I could get along without the company of any mutineers. No, sir; bad as I wanted company I drew the line at that.

I could tell they hadn’t found Catty and the rest of them, because they kept on hunting, and there wasn’t any sign of a row, or yelling because the mutineers had succeeded. That made me feel a little better, anyhow. I knew how it would be if they did get caught. Catty would have expected me to hang around and rescue them, and of course, that’s what I would have had to try to do. Catty would have done it. But I knew I’d only get into some kind of a mess.

I kept on for quite a spell, until, all of a sudden, I saw something solid and black in front of me. It scared me at first, but I sneaked up on it to see what it was, and it turned out to be the fish shanty where Catty and I hung out that night, and where we hid that tin cylinder that had washed up on shore. It looked pretty good to me. I figured I could hide in it, and it wasn’t likely anybody would look there for me. The mutineers would think we had all put out for town.

I went in, and it was pitch dark. I didn’t mind that. The darker the better. It was comfortable, anyhow, and I sat down to think it over. The more I thought it over the more I came to the conclusion that thinking wasn’t my strong point. I didn’t get anywhere at all, nor think of anything. I didn’t even think of hurrying to town for help, and that was silly, because almost anybody could have thought that up. But not I. No, I had to sit there in the dark, and shiver, and wonder if I hadn’t better start to crawl back toward the mutineers’ camp to find Catty.

It wasn’t long before I heard a sound outside like folks sneaking along, and then I did get scairt. I wished there was a cellar in that fish shanty so I could crawl into it, and I was real angry with the fishermen for not building me a cellar. I crouched back in a corner and listened and waited. I couldn’t do a very good job of listening, because my heart beat so loud I couldn’t hear much of anything else.

Well, next I knew, somebody was feeling along the wall, and then they stopped and whispered.