“Jim Peterson,” said Eaton, brushing away a tear with the back of his hand, “was a black fellow, raal coal black, too,—a Guinea nigger, if you please; but if he’d been washed overboard, I’d a risked my life to save him quicker than for any shipmate I ever had; and I’m not all the one would have done it.”
“That’s so, Dan. I’m sure I never thought anything about his color.”
“But I don’t believe anything about his getting drunk (though I’ve no doubt the captain thinks so); for I’ve seen him tried and tempted hard to weather, by old shipmates, time and time again. He went ashore to get something to put in the stew; a sober man might make a misdeal in a hurry. No power on earth will ever make me believe Jim was drunk.”
“Then why didn’t he sing out?”
“He might strike his head on something, and stun him. There’s a good many will feel bad when we carry the news home, besides his own folks.”
“That’s so,” said Savage; “there’s nothing in the world that the Rhineses wouldn’t do for Peterson, and always would; and it was just so with the Griffins. I’ve heard that Peterson saved the captain’s life once. I remember one time a parcel of us boys got some withes, tied them together, and got a turn round Peterson’s waist when he was so drunk he couldn’t chase us, and began to pull him round. First thing I knew, I got a clip side of my head that sent me a rod; when I picked myself up, I saw the boys, some on the ground, some runnin’, and Lion Ben right among ‘em. I put her for home, and never stopped till I got under mother’s bed; but the rim of my ear was cut through, and my head was swelled for a week. I tell you, I looked sharp for Lion Ben after that, whenever I wanted to have any fun with Peterson.”
When the vessel arrived home, Captain Murch took charge, and Aldrich went back to Liverpool.
Percival, the mate, got to drinking, and became a miserable fellow; went to Boston, and sailed before the mast, sometimes second mate, and after his brief elevation, again before the mast; till, becoming so notorious a drunkard that no captain would have him, he was employed as a lumper about the wharves in Boston.
The next volume of this series, “The Young Deliverers,” will explain the mystery attending the disappearance of Peterson, and present the characters of Walter and Ned in an entirely new light.