Blow the Man Down - A Romance of the Coast

"Look-a-here! you've been chasing me two days with new stories about

that seventh man. Haven't you known me long enough to know that you

can't trim me for another fee?"

"Cap'n Downs, you done know yo'self the present lucidateness of the

sailorman supply."

"I know that if you don't get that man aboard my schooner to-night or

the first thing to-morrow morning you'll never put another one aboard

for me. You go hustle! And look here! I see you making up your mouth!

Not another cent!"

The colored man backed off and went away.

Mayo accosted the captain when that fuming gentleman came lunging along

the sidewalk. "Ah done lak to have that job, cap'n," he pleaded.

"You a sailor?"

"Yas, sir."

"How is it you ain't hiring through the regular runners?"

"Ah doan' lak to give all my money to a dude nigger to go spotein' on."

"Well, there's something in that," acknowledged Captain Downs, softening

a bit. "I haven't got much use for that kind myself. You come along. But

if you ain't A-1, shipshape, and seamanlike and come aboard my vessel

to loaf on your job you'll wish you were in tophet with the torches

lighted. Got any dunnage laying around anywhere?"

"No, sir."

"Well, then, I guess you're a regular sailor, all right, the way the

breed runs nowadays. That sounds perfectly natural." The captain led the

way down to a public landing, where a power-yawl, with engineer and a

mate, was in waiting. "Will she go into the stream to-night, Mr. Dodge?"

asked Captain Downs, curtly.

"No, sir! About four hundred tons still to come."

Schooner captains keep religiously away from their vessels as long as

the crafts lie at the coal-docks.

"Come up for me in the morning as soon as she is in the stream. Here's

a man to fill the crew. If that coon shows up with another man kick the

two of 'em up the wharf."

"Will the passenger come aboard with you, sir?"

"He called me up at the hotel about supper-time and said something about

wanting to come aboard at the dock. I tried to tell him it was foolish,

but it's safe to reckon that a man who wants to sail as passenger from

here to Boston on a coal-schooner is a fool, anyway. If he shows up,

let him come aboard." Captain Downs swung away and the night closed in

behind him.