“‘It’s no use your grumbling,’ says Cap’en Jarvis, with a queer grin on his face that was more angry-like than a pain, ‘It’s no use your grumbling with me! Aloft with you, and make that fore topsail all snug, and set storm staysails, for we’ve got something rougher coming. I’ll settle with you, Master Harry, by-and-by!’”
“You haven’t told me yet about this man, though I’ve read his name in the papers. Who was Black Harry?” asked I.
“Haven’t I told you about him yet? No; then, I’ll tell you all about him now, for he had more to do with the row aboard the Gulnare than anybody else! He was a regular dare-devil of a pocket-a-win, as they are called at Liverpool—a tall, lean, down-east Yankee from Boston, with jet-black hair, and a swarthy face, which made you think he had nigger blood in him and got him his name of ‘Black Harry.’ A powerful man and a good foremast hand; but an all-fired lazy devil about work, and as sulky as a bear when he didn’t get his grub regular. He was no coward though; and no skulker in danger, as some white-livered chaps are who ought to be ashamed to ship as sailors, for he’d venture aloft sometimes when no one else would dare, and was the first man at the weather-earing when it was ‘Reef topsails!’ But he had a temper as skittish as the cap’en’s, and couldn’t stand being swore at. I’ve heard him many a time mutter after the captain had been going on at him. I know I’d not have liked to have said half to him that Captain Jarvis did, for Black Harry looked like a man who would never forget nor forgive a grudge.
“Well, by-and-by the hands came down from aloft; and amongst them Black Harry, who lagged behind the rest, although he had been the first in the foretop going up.
“‘Come here, you lubber!’ said the cap’en to him, singing out aloud as he touched the deck—‘you, I mean, Black Harry. I’ve got a little matter to settle, I think, with you. Who incited the hands to mutiny just now? I don’t forget, Master Harry—I don’t forget!’
“‘Neither do I!’ grumbled Harry below his voice.
“‘What is that, you mutinous dog?’ exclaimed the cap’en, flying into a violent passion again, although he had somewhat calmed down from his former rage—‘Answer me to my teeth, you scoundrel? Take that!’ and he hit a drive full fair in the centre of the forehead, with the butt-end of his revolver, holding it by the barrel, felling Harry to the deck senseless, like a bullock under the poleaxe!
“Some of the crew murmured ‘Shame!’ But the cap’en kept up his authority. ‘Silence there!’ he cried out. ‘Down with you, watch below, if you want to see your bunks to-night, and take that hulking carcass with you, or I’ll throw it overboard!’ And then the men went below, and took poor Black Harry, with them; the vessel was made snug under her jib, storm staysails, and close-reefed mainsail; and Captain Jarvis, who hadn’t been off the deck, except to fetch his revolver that time, once in the twenty-four hours, returned to his cabin to have a bit of sleep, leaving me on the watch; the second officer and boatswain, who acted also as third mate, having also turned in for a caulk and gone down into the steerage.
“The sun, which we couldn’t see, had set long since, before indeed that little misunderstanding had occurred about going aloft; and the moon shone feebly now and then through an occasional opening in the clouds, which had piled up atop of each other so heavy to windward that they were like a pall in the sky.
“There was only myself and the steersman aft, the rest of the watch, which were only five in number altogether, being stowed somewhere under the bulwarks amidships, trying to get an odd wink if the seas that were shipping in as the ship’s bows fell would let them. Not a sound was to be heard save the whistle and screech of the wind through the cordage, and the creak of a block occasionally aloft; and I was looking out at the weather, wondering how soon the next squall would tackle us, when my arms were seized by somebody behind me, who held them down close to my sides, and a gag of a reef-knot or some piece of rope shoved into my mouth, so that I couldn’t cry out.