The Anny was due to sail on the night tide and her crew were celebrating its departure with rum and song.
One of the long tables had been pulled out, and round this some ten or twelve men sprawled in more or less comfortable attitudes. Behind these were others sitting on rum kegs or leaning against the walls. They were all very merry, and from time to time loud shrieks of laughter shook the old Ship’s rafters and made them echo again and again.
Round the flickering fire, the first of the season, but a bright one, sat the Islanders, Joe Pullen, French, Cip de Musset, Granger, Gilbot, and a few others. They did not mix with the roaring, yelling crowd of seamen, but sat stolidly, drinking slowly, talking slowly, and enjoying themselves after their own quiet fashion. Now and again, perhaps, a young man would leave his seat to go over and split a joke and a pint with a sailor, but the majority kept themselves to themselves, neither objecting to, nor wholly approving, the noisy pleasure of the smugglers.
Hal, especially, was very taciturn. He stood quietly in a candlelit corner, cleaning pewter, and spoke hardly at all. Sue, however, was in a very good humour; in her best kirtle, and her hair tied with a bow of scarlet ribbon which French had given her, she flew hither and thither carrying the liquor.
Anny had not yet appeared, and Blueneck nudged Noah Goody as they sat at the long table, when the time crept on, and still she did not come.
Little Red sat on French’s knee keeping very still and listening to the conversation with the utmost interest.
Granger’s remark called forth a chorus of “Ay’s,” some disconsolate, but mostly cheerful.
Gilbot looked at the reeling crowd out of the corners of his little red-rimmed eyes; then he chuckled:
“Nish,” he said thickly, a weak, happy smile playing over his big puffy face. “Nish, oh! very nish indeed. Letsh have a song,” and he struck up “Mary Loo” in a thin, quavering voice.
At this moment the door was flung open and a wave of cold air blew round the stifling kitchen; several men from the table turned to swear at the intruder, but their mouths shut silently and they rose to their feet as they saw who it was.