“Of course, of course; the men must have baccy,” interrupted the skipper, “an’ we don’t need to buy their vile brandy unless we like. Yes, get the boat out, Jay, an’ we’ll go.”
Stephen Lockley was not the first man who has deceived himself as to his motives. Tobacco was his excuse for visiting the floating den of temptation, but a craving for strong drink was his real motive. This craving had been created imperceptibly, and had been growing by degrees for some years past, twining its octopus arms tighter and tighter round his being, until the strong and hearty young fisherman was slowly but surely becoming an abject slave, though he had fancied himself heretofore as free as the breezes that whistled round his vessel. Now, for the first time, Lockley began to have uncomfortable suspicions about himself. Being naturally bold and candid, he turned sharply round, and, as it were, faced himself with the stern question, “Stephen, are you sure that it’s baccy that tempts you aboard of the coper? Are you clear that schnapps has nothing to do with it?”
It is one of the characteristics of the slavery to which we refer, that although strong-minded and resolute men put pointed questions of this sort to themselves not unfrequently, they very seldom return answers to them. Their once vigorous spirits, it would seem, are still capable of an occasional heave and struggle—a sort of flash in the pan—but that is all. The influence of the depraved appetite immediately weighs them down, and they relapse into willing submission to the bondage. Lockley had not returned an answer to his own question when the mate reported that the boat was ready. Without a word he jumped into her, but kept thinking to himself, “We’ll only get baccy, an’ I’ll leave the coper before the lads can do themselves any harm. I’ll not taste a drop myself—not a single drop o’ their vile stuff.”
The Dutch skipper of the coper had a round fat face and person, and a jovial, hearty manner. He received the visitors with an air of open-handed hospitality which seemed to indicate that nothing was further from his thoughts than gain.
“We’ve come for baccy,” said Lockley, as he leaped over the bulwarks and shook hands, “I s’pose you’ve plenty of that?”
“Ya,” the Dutchman had “plenty tabac—ver sheep too, an’ mit sooch a goot vlavour!”
He was what the Yankees would call a ’cute fellow, that Dutchman. Observing the emphasis with which Lockley mentioned tobacco, he understood at once that the skipper did not want his men to drink, and laid his snares accordingly.
“Com’,” he said, in a confidential tone, taking hold of Lockley’s arm, “com’ b’low, an’ you shall zee de tabac, an’ smell him yourself.”
Our skipper accepted the invitation, went below, and was soon busy commenting on the weed, which, as the Dutchman truly pointed out, was “so sheep as well as goot.” But another smell in that cabin overpowered that of the tobacco. It was the smell of Hollands, or some sort of spirit, which soon aroused the craving that had gained such power over the fisherman.
“Have some schnapps!” said the Dutch skipper, suddenly producing a case-bottle as square as himself, and pouring out a glass.