Two seamen then came up, and I asked one of them when the fun was to begin. Arrah, then it’ll be before long, when Tim Curtin, the fiddler, has come to himself; but he’s been drunk all the blessed morning, since last night, and they’re dousing him outside with cold water to bring him to. My new acquaintance being evidently inclined to be communicative, I plied him with further questions, and I gained his confidence by calling for another glass of whisky, with which I insisted on treating him. I, however, let Larry carry on the chief part of the conversation.
“If you’ve run from a man-of-war, you’ll have to lie snug as mice in their holes till she sails, or there’s three dozen at least for each of you, if they don’t run you up at the yard-arm, as they did at Portsmouth the other day to a poor boy, just because he wanted to go home to his wife and family,” said the man.
This, though a fact as far as the hanging was concerned, I hadn’t heard of before. Larry didn’t show that he doubted the truth of the story, but pretended to be very frightened.
“Thin what should we be after doing?” he asked.
“Why, as I tell yer,” he said, keep close; “you’ll be wise not to show your noses out of doors for a week or two to come, if you’ve got money enough to pay old Mother McCleary, for she doesn’t keep us boys for nothing, you may stake yer davey.”
“What should we be after doing, then, supposing the press-gang were to come down upon us and find us out?” asked Larry.
“It will be at the end of a long day before the press-gang get in here; but see now, there’s a room overhead where you can sleep secure, either in bed or out of it. Then there’s that door in the middle of the room, that leads to a long passage, just like the one you passed through when you came in here. At the end of it there’s a court, and on the opposite side you’ll find a door. Go through that when it opens, which it will do when you have given three raps quick together, and you’ll be in a house with well-nigh as many rooms and cellars as there’s days in the month. It will be a hard matter if you don’t stow yourselves away out of sight in one of them. I’ll be after showing you the way by and by, when the dancing is over, and we’ve had a few more glasses of Mother McCleary’s whisky.”
While our friend, whose name we had not as yet learned, was speaking, I observed several more persons entering the room; and presently others came in, carrying among them a humpbacked little fellow, with a fiddle under his arm, who seemed scarcely able to walk by himself. They made their way to the platform I have described, and speedily lifted him into the chair.
“Strike up, Tim,” cried several voices. “Give us a tune to set our feet agoing. Be alive, man, if you know now where you are.”
Tim, though apparently half-asleep, put his fiddle to his chin, and began scraping away, nodding his head and stamping with his foot in time to the tune he was eliciting from his instrument. The effect was magical. The whole party, men and women,—there were not a few of the latter, not among the most refined of their sex,—began dancing jigs. Tim next played slower, but his speed increased again as he saw the dancers warming to their work, till his bow moved so rapidly over the strings of his fiddle, and his arm and his head gave such eccentric jerks, that I half expected at any moment to see the one fly off at a tangent and the other come bounding into the middle of the room. Larry and I kept on one side, trying to look greatly interested with the performance, while we managed to have a few words now and then with some of the men, who were either seated on the benches or standing against the wall. Among them were several who had not the appearance of seamen, and who, I surmised, were highwaymen or housebreakers. Two of them were especially ruffianly looking. As I examined the countenance of one of these, I felt convinced that I had seen it before, and not long ago either. I was careful, however, that he should not discover that I was observing him. I took an opportunity of asking Larry if he knew who the man was.