Part 39 (1/2)
Boyd did not see him again that day, nor at the hotel during the evening, but on the following morning, true to his word, the big fellow walked into the warehouse followed by a score or more of fishermen. At first sight there was nothing imposing about these men: they were rough-garbed and unkempt, in the main; but upon closer observation Boyd noticed that they were thick-chested and broad-shouldered, and walked with the swinging gait that comes from heaving decks. While the majority of them were neither distinctly American nor markedly foreign in appearance, being rather of that composite caste that peoples the outer reaches of the far West, they were all deeply browned by sun and weather, and spoke the universal idiom of the sea. There were men here from Finland and Florida, Portugal and Maine, fused into one nondescript type by the melting-pot of the frontier.
Some wore the northern mackinaw in spite of the balmy April morning, others were dressed like ranch hands on circus day, and a few with the ornateness of b.u.t.te miners on parade.
Certain ones displayed fresh contusions on cheek and jaw, or peered forth from lately blackened eyes, and these, Boyd noticed, invariably fawned upon Big George or treated him with elephantine playfulness, winking swollen lids at him in a mysterious understanding which puzzled the young man, until he saw that Balt himself bore similar signs of strife. The big man's lips were cut, while back of one ear a knot had sprung up over night like a fungus.
They fell to work quickly, stripping themselves to their unders.h.i.+rts; they manned the hoists, seized trucks and bale-hooks, and began their tasks with a thoroughly non-union energy. Some of them were still so drunk that they staggered, their awkwardness affording huge sport to their companions, yet even in their intoxication they were surprisingly capable.
There was a great deal of laughter and disorder on every hand, and all made frequent trips to the water-taps, returning adrip to the waist, their hair and beards bejewelled with drops. Boyd saw one, a well-dressed fellow in a checked suit, remove his clothes and hang them carefully upon a nail, then painfully unlace his patent-leather shoes, after which, regardless of the litter under foot and the splinters in the floor, he tramped about in bare feet and red underwear. Without exception, they seemed possessed by the spirit of boys at play. Having seen them well under way and the winches working, George sought out Boyd and proudly inquired:
”What do you think of them, eh?”
”They are splendid. But where are the others?”
”Well, there are two or three that won't be able to get around at all.” He meditatively stroked the knuckles of his right hand, which were badly bruised. ”But the balance will be here to-morrow. These are just the mildest-mannered ones--the family men, you might say. The others will show up gradual. You see, if there had been any fighting going on here, I'd have got most of them right off the bat, but there wasn't any inducement to offer except hard work, so they wasn't quite so anxious to commence.”
”Humph! There ought to be enough excitement before long to satisfy any one,” said Boyd, with a trace of worry in his voice.
”As sure as you're a foot high!” exclaimed George, hopefully. ”It's the only way we'll get that s.h.i.+p loaded on time. All we need is a riot or two.”
A man pa.s.sed them trundling a heavy truck, but seeing Big George, he paused, wiped the sweat from his face, then grinned and winked fraternally.
”Hey! If this work is too heavy for you, why don't you quit?” growled Balt, but strangely enough the fellow took no offence. Instead, he closed his swollen eye for a second time, then spat upon his hands, and, as he struggled with his burden, grunted pleasantly:
”I pretty near--got you, Georgie. If you hadn't 'a' ducked, we'd 'a' been at it yet, eh?”
Balt smiled in turn, then gingerly felt of the k.n.o.b behind his ear.
”Did you have a fight with him?” queried Emerson.
”Not exactly a fight, but he put this nubbin on my conch,” answered the fisherman. ”He's a tough proposition, one of the best we've got.”
”What was the trouble?”
”Nothing! I used to have to lick him every year. We've sort of missed each other lately.”
”Then you were merely renewing a pleasant acquaintance?” laughed the younger man. ”He hit you in the mouth too, I see.”
”No, I got that from a stranger. I was bedding him down when he kicked me with his boot. He ain't here this morning.”'
”If I were you, I'd go up to the hotel and get some sleep,” Boyd advised.
”I'll oversee things.”
George hesitated. ”I don't know if I'd better go or not. They've all got hang-overs, and they're liable to bu'st out any minute if you don't watch them. They ain't vicious, understand; they just like to frolic around.”
”I'll watch them.”
After a contemplative glance at his companion's well-knit figure, Balt gave in, with the final caution: ”Don't let them get the upper hand, or there won't be no living with them.”
After his departure, Boyd was not long in learning the cause of his hesitancy, for no sooner did the men realize the change in authority over them than they undertook to feel out the mettle of their new foreman.
Directly one of them approached him, with the demand: