‘He made you laugh heartily when he talked to me.’
‘Dot vhas to please him. For my part——’ He shrugged his shoulders. He then inquired if I had agreed for any wages, and expressed sorrow that we were not to share a berth. ‘I likes to make you my chum—dot is der verdt—whilst ve vhas togedder.’
Presently the steward called to us, and when I entered the cuddy I found Mr. Bates at table and the captain and officers gone. Mr. Bates was very quick with his dinner. He had charge of the deck. I believe he was not above ten minutes in despatching his meal. He took no notice of me. When he was gone, I helped the two stewards to strip the table, and whilst this was doing Will Johnstone put his head in at the cuddy door and called to the steward.
‘There’s some spare convicts’ mattresses stowed away aft,’ said he, in the peremptory voice of the sea. ‘You’re to let Marlowe have one; and throw in a couple of the convicts’ blankets for his use. D’ye hear me, steward?’
‘Yes, I hear you, young gentleman,’ answered the steward. ‘But who sent me that bit of noose?’
Will, however, had backed a step and disappeared in the blackness.
‘The order comes from Mr. Bates, I expect,’ said I. ‘I stepped on to the poop some time since, to see if he’d let me have a mattress.’
‘Well, pink me if you was behind the door when cheek was sarved out,’ said the steward. ‘Did he offer to throw you overboard?’
‘He asked me many questions. Mr. Bates seems one of the kindest-hearted of men.’
The steward stared at me for a moment, muttered to himself, and then, with something of an agitated hand, proceeded in his work of stripping the table. However, Will’s ruse, or ‘bounce,’ as he had called it, proved successful. Mr. Stiles, of course, supposed that the apprentice had come with direct instructions; and when he had cleared the table he took me into the steerage and, opening a cabin door, held up a lantern and bade me choose a mattress. A number of convicts’ mattresses lay stowed here, every one with a little pillow attached to it, and every one was numbered, as though as a provision for a larger assemblage of miscreants than had been shipped. Here, also, were two or three bales of spare blankets, to a couple of which I helped myself; and now, thanks to Will, I had a bed to lie on and clothes to cover me.