The brig which I had been on board of on many previous occasions, the Saucy Sall, of South Shields, was lying alongside the jetty in her old berth, with a plank leading up to the gangway; and, seeing a light in the fo’c’s’le, I mounted up to her deck, telling Tom to follow me, making my way forwards towards the glimmer.
All the hands were ashore, carousing with their friends, with the exception of one man, who was reading a scrap of newspaper by the light of a sputtering dip candle stuck into a ship’s lantern. He looked rather surprised at receiving a visit from me at such a time of night; but, on my telling him the circumstances of our case, he made us both welcome. Not only this, he brought out some scraps of bread and meat which he had stored up in a mess-tin, most likely for his breakfast, urging on us to “fire away,” as we were heartily free to it, and regretting that was all he had with which to satisfy our hunger.
This man’s name was Jorrocks, and he was the first seafaring acquaintance I had made when I had timidly crept down to the quay two years before during the summer vacation; thus, we were now old friends, so to speak. He told us, after we had polished the mess-tin clean, that the brig was going to sail in the morning, for Newcastle, with the tide, which would “make,” he thought, soon after sunrise.
“Why, that’ll be the very thing for us,” I exclaimed. “Nothing can be better!”
But Jorrocks shook his head.
“I don’t know how the skipper’d like it,” he said doubtingly.
“Oh, bother him,” interposed Tom; “can’t you hide us somewhere till the vessel gets out to sea; and then, he’ll have to put up with our presence whether he likes it or not?”
“What, hide you down below, my kiddies!” said the man, laughing. “Why, he’ll larrup the life out of you with a rope’s-end when he finds you aboard. I tell you what, he a’most murdered the last stowaway we had coming out of Shields two years ago!”
“Never mind that,” I put in here; “we’ll have to grin and bear it, and take monkey’s allowance if he cuts up rough. All we want to do now is to get away from here; for, no matter how your captain may treat us, Dr Hellyer would serve us out worse if he caught us again! Do help us, Jorrocks, like a good fellow! Stow us away in the hold, or somewhere, until we are out of port.”
Our united entreaties at last prevailed, Jorrocks consenting finally to conceal us on board the brig, although not until after much persuasion.