Part 4 (1/2)
”And you say the Trafladagar is at anchor off the p'int?” added Christy, not daring to call the steamer by her true name.
”That's jest where she is; and the West Wind is. .h.i.tched to her, like a tandem team,” replied Bird Riley. ”Look yere, Tom Bulger, you don't make love to that bottle as though you meant business. Take another drink, and show you done got some manhood in yer.”
The bottle went the rounds again, and the guests apparently took long pulls; but really they did not taste a drop of the infernal liquid.
”That's good pizen, Bird Riley; but it is not jest the stingo that I like best,” said Christy, as he wiped his mouth with his sleeve in proper form, for he did not like the smell of the fluid lightning that clung to his lips.
”Whiskey suits me most; but they waste the corn makin' bread on't, and there ain't much on't left to make the staff of life. Howsomever, we don't choke to death on apple-jack, when we can get enough on't,” argued Bird Riley.
”Jest now you got a tandem team hitched up out on the Trafladagar and the West Wind,” continued Christy cautiously, and with apparent indifference, drawing the mate of the schooner back to the matter in which he was the most deeply interested. ”What's this team hitched up that way for? Is the steamer go'n' to tow the schooner up to Mobile?”
”I reckon you're a little more'n half drunk, Tom Bulger,” replied Bird Riley, with a vigorous horse laugh. ”Tow the schooner up to Mobile!
Didn't I tell yer the Trafladagar's been waiting here three days for a good chance to run out?”
”You said that as true as you was born,” added Graines, who thought it necessary to say something, for he had been nearly silent from the beginning.
”Sam Riley ain't quite so drunk as you be, Tom Bulger; an' he knows what's what; and thar he shows the Riley blood in his carca.s.s,” chuckled the mate.
”And you said the West Wind was loaded with cotton, in the hole and on deck,” added Graines, hoping to hurry the conference along a little more rapidly.
”That's jest what I said. I reckon you ain't much used to apple-jack, fur it fusticates your intelleck, and makes yer forget how old y'are.
Come, take another, jest to set your head up right,” said Bird, pa.s.sing the bottle to Christy, who was doing his best to keep up the illusion by talking very thick, and swaying his body about like a drunken man.
Both the guests went through the ceremony of imbibing, which was only a ceremony to them. The fire had exhausted its supply of fuel, and it was fortunate that the darkness prevented the revellers from measuring the quant.i.ty left in the bottles as they were returned to the owners, or they might have seen that the strangers were not doing their share in consuming the poison.
”Sam Riley does honor to the blood as runs in his body, for he ain't no more drunk'n I am; an' he knows what we been talkin' about,” said the mate, who seemed to be greatly amused at the supposed effect of the liquor upon Christy. ”You won't know nothin' about the Trafladagar or the West Wind in half an hour from now, Tom Bulger. I reckon it don't make no difference to you about the tandem team, and to-morrer mornin'
you won't know how the team's. .h.i.tched up.”
”I don't think I will,” replied Christy boozily, as he rolled over on the sand, and then struggled for some time to resume his upright position, to the great amus.e.m.e.nt of Bird Riley and his companions. ”But Sam Riley's got blood in him, the best blood in Alabammy, and he kin tell you all about it if yer want ter know. He kin stan' up agin a whole bottle o' apple-jack.”
”I say, Cousin Bird, what's this tandem team hitched up fer?” asked Graines, permitting his superior officer to carry out the illusion upon which he had entered, in order more effectually to blind the mate, and induce him to talk with entire freedom.
”I reckon you ain't too drunk to un'erstan' what I say, Sam, as t'other feller is.”
”I'm jest drunk enough to un'erstan' yer, Cousin Bird; but I cal'late I won't know much about it by to-morrer mornin',” added Graines.
”Let's take another round, Sam; but I reckon Tom Bulger's got more'n he can kerry now,” continued the mate.
Bird took a long draught from the bottle, and then pa.s.sed it to his guest. Three of the four revellers had already toppled over at full length on the ground; and Christy thought he could hurry matters by doing the same thing, and he tumbled over all in a heap. Graines drank nothing himself, though he contrived to spill a quant.i.ty of the fluid on the ground, so that it might not seem too light to his only remaining wakeful companion. The last dram of Bird had been a very heavy one, and the engineer realized that he could not hold out much longer.
”What's that tandem team fer?” asked Graines, in the thickest of tones, while he swayed back and forth as Bird was doing by this time.
”The Trafladagar's gwine to tow the West Wind out; and both on 'em's sure to be tooken,” stammered the mate. ”We uns don't bleeve in't, and so we runned away, and left Captain Sullendine to paddle his own punt.
They get off at three in the morn in'.”
Bird Riley took another drink, and then he toppled over.
CHAPTER V