Part 3 (1/2)
down, overworked and underpaid by rich owners; and of how the law won't do nothin' for us; and he shows us a plan how we can live in peace and happiness and enj'yment all the rest of our lives; and then you turns up and knocks the whole bag o' tricks into a c.o.c.ked hat! Which of ye is right? If you're right, I stays as I am all my life, a poor, miserable sh.e.l.lback, endin' my days by sellin' matches in the streets, when I'm too old and too stiff wi' the rheumatics to go to sea any longer. That bein' the case, I'll give Mr Wilde's plan a trial for a spell; right or wrong.”
”Very well,” said I, ”go your own way, if you will; but you will most certainly regret it some day when it is too late to retrace your steps.
And let me tell you this, Polson, you are attributing your position and its accompanying hards.h.i.+ps to the wrong cause altogether. The true state of the case is that you are an ignorant and unintelligent man through lack of education. Did you ever go to school?”
”No, never, Mr Troubridge,” answered my companion. ”What little I knows I larned myself. My father, who was supposed to be a wharfinger, was too fond of the drink ever to be able to hold a job, the consekence bein' that my poor mother had to keep things goin' by takin' in was.h.i.+n'; and, since there was seven of us young 'uns, it took her all her time to find us in grub and clo'es. She hadn't no money to spare for eddication. Consekence was I didn't have none. And when I was 'bout 'leven year old things got to such a pitch at home that I cut and run, goin' to sea as cabin-boy in a Geordie to start with, and gradually workin' my way up to bein' a bosun, as I am now.”
”Ah!” said I. ”Well, you have done a good deal better, Polson, than many others in like circ.u.mstances. But--and this is my point--if your father, instead of stupefying his brains with drink, had been a sober, steady, hard-working man, and had done his duty by you to the extent of sending you to school, you would have gained a vast amount of valuable knowledge. You would have cultivated your intellect; you would have learned to discriminate between right and wrong; you would have been able to reason, and to perceive that certain causes invariably produce certain effects. You would have discovered that knowledge is power, and that the more knowledge a man possesses the higher he is able to rise in the world. Instead of stopping at being a boatswain, you would have risen to be, first a mate, and then a master--and possibly an owner some day, as other men have done. Now, put that in your pipe and smoke it!”
And I jumped up and went below to fetch my s.e.xtant up on deck; for by this time it was drawing well on toward noon.
As the day wore on, the wind fell lighter, until by sunset the s.h.i.+p scarcely had steerage-way; consequently it was not until the next morning that we found ourselves off the island of Amsterdam, past which we drifted so slowly that, had there been anyone on the island, they would have had ample time to make their presence known. But we saw no one, nor anything in the least resembling a signal. After skirting the western side of the island to its northern extremity, I gave the order to bring the s.h.i.+p to the wind, and gave the officer of the watch a compa.s.s course of east-south-east for Cape Otway. I was not going to yield to Wilde at the first demand; and not at all, if I could possibly help it; although my talk with the boatswain was of anything but an encouraging character. There was still the carpenter, however; and I thought I would sound him as to his views on this visionary scheme of Wilde's, the very first step toward the realisation of which involved an act of piracy. But when I came to talk to him I soon found that he was even worse to deal with than the boatswain; for although perhaps not quite so ignorant as the latter, he was still ignorant enough to be convinced by the specious arguments of the Socialist, to readily accept the doctrine of perfect equality between all men, and--like most of those whose labour is of an arduous character, and whose life is one of almost constant hards.h.i.+p and privation--to be dazzled by the alluring prospect of being able to live out the rest of his days on an island where--according to Wilde--Nature would do all the work, and man would only need to stretch forth his hand to gather in her bounties.
I will do Wilde the justice to say that he manifested no impatience while awaiting the announcement of my decision relative to the proposal which he had made to me; on the contrary, when I met him at the cabin table at meal-times he was very chatty and friendly, with a certain subtle suggestion of patronage in his tone, however, that rather went against the grain with me; but he asked me no questions until I had set the course for Cape Otway, and the island of Amsterdam was melting into the haze astern of us. Then, being on the p.o.o.p at the moment when I gave the course to the helmsman, and hearing its direction, he came up to me and said:
”Are you aiming for any point in particular in directing the helmsman to steer east-south-east, Mr Troubridge?”
”Yes,” said I. ”If the wind will permit us to steer that course long enough it will eventually bring us within sight of Cape Otway.”
”Cape Otway!” he repeated. ”Um! the name seems not altogether unfamiliar to me, and as a man who has been for some years a schoolmaster I suppose I ought to be able to say, offhand, exactly where it is. But my memory upon such matters is a trifle weak, I am afraid.
Perhaps you will kindly tell me where Cape Otway is?”
”Cape Otway lies some sixty miles--more or less--south-west of Port Philip Heads,” said I, ”and, excepting Wilson Promontory, is the most southerly headland of Australia.”
”Of course, of course,” he exclaimed with a little air of vexation.
”Dear me! how marvellously easy it seems to forget such details. I am afraid our system of education does not attach nearly as much importance as it ought to the study of geography. Ah, well; what matters it? I have done with such trifles, I hope, for the remainder of my days. Does Cape Otway happen to be on our road to the Pacific, Mr Troubridge?”
”Yes,” I said; ”that is to say, if one elects to go south-about. But the Pacific is a big sheet of water, and there are two or three ways of getting to it from here. All depends, of course, upon the particular part of the Pacific to which one is bound.”
”Yes, of course,” agreed Wilde. Then he turned suddenly, and, looking me keenly in the face, remarked: ”Really, you know, Troubridge, you impress me very favourably--very favourably indeed! I shall be profoundly sorry if we are obliged to part with you, for you seem to me to be a lad of considerably more than average intelligence. That remark of yours touching 'the particular part of the Pacific to which one is bound'--by the way, have you a tolerably intimate knowledge of the Pacific?”
”No,” said I; ”I know nothing whatever of it except the part which lies between Australia and Cape Horn.”
”Which, I take it, comprises a very small portion of the whole?”
questioned he.
”A very small portion indeed,” I agreed.
”Ah!” he commented. ”Can you tell me whether there happens to be a map of the Pacific on board this s.h.i.+p?”
”It is quite possible,” I said. ”She is pretty well-stocked with charts; and, now that you come to mention it, I believe there is a chart of the Pacific in the rack.”
”Let us go down and ascertain, shall we?” said he. And, placing his hand within my arm, he gently but firmly led me off the p.o.o.p. It may, of course, have been pure imagination on my part, but his manner seemed to say as distinctly as words--”Don't mistake my politeness and geniality for weakness. I believe in putting things pleasantly, but when I make a suggestion I intend it to be accepted as a command.”
We descended together to the captain's cabin--which I now occupied--and he entered it with me, laughingly explaining that he was sure I would excuse the liberty he was taking in doing so, and at once fell to examining the labels of the charts in the rack.
”Ah! here we are,” he exclaimed, laying his hand upon a roll labelled ”Pacific Ocean”. ”Let us take it into the main cabin and study it together.”
He laid it out flat upon the cabin table and placed four weights at the corners to hold them down. Then he bent over the sheet and studied it with extraordinary interest.