Part 33 (1/2)
”Why, what's the matter with you, Jack?” asked Stevenson.
”Nothin's the matter wi' me, old man--'cept--”
Here he indulged in another chuckle.
”Goin' mad, with over-fatigue,” said Simkin, looking suspiciously at him.
”Ay, that's it, messmate, clean mad wi' over-fatigue.”
He wiped his eyes with the hairy back of his hand, for the chuckling, being hearty, had produced a few tears.
”No, but really, Jack, what is it you're laughing at?” asked Armstrong.
”If there _is_ a joke you might as well let us have the benefit of laughing along wi' you, for we stand much in need of something to cheer us here.”
”Well, Billy boy, I may as well make a clean breast of it,” said Molloy, raising himself on one elbow and becoming grave. ”I do confess to feelin' raither ashamed o' myself, but you mustn't be hard on me, lads, for circ.u.mstances alters cases, you know, as Solomon said--leastwise if it warn't him it was Job or somebody else. The fact is, I've bin shammin', mates!”
”Shamming!”
”Ay, shammin' _weak_. Purtendin' that I was shaky on the legs, an' so not quite up to the cargo they were puttin' aboard o' me.”
”If what you've been doing means shamming _weak_, I'd like to see you coming out _strong_,” observed Miles, with a short laugh.
”Well, p'r'aps you'll see that too some day,” returned the sailor, with an amiable look.
”But do you really mean that all that groaning--which I confess to have been surprised at--was mere pretence?”
”All sham. Downright sneakin'!” said Molloy. ”The short an' the long of it is, that I see'd from the first the on'y way to humbug them yellow-faced baboons was to circ.u.mwent 'em. So I set to work at the wery beginnin'.”
”Ah, by takin' a header,” said Simkin, ”into one o' their bread-baskets!”
”No, no!” returned the seaman, ”that, I confess, was a mistake. But you'll admit, I've made no more mistakes o' the same sort since then.
You see, I perceived that, as my strength is considerable above the average, the baboons would be likely to overload me, so, arter profound excogitation wi' myself, I made up my mind what to do, an' when they had clapped on a little more than the rest o' you carried I began to groan, then I began to shake a bit in my timbers, an' look as if I was agoin'
to founder. It didn't check 'em much, for they're awful cruel, so I went fairly down by the head. I had a pretty fair guess that this would bring the lash about my shoulders, an' I was right, but I got up wery slowly an' broken-down-like, so that the baboons was fairly humbugged, and stopped loadin' of me long afore I'd taken in a full cargo--so, you see, boys, I've bin sailin' raither light than otherwise.”
”But do you mean to tell me that the load you've bin carryin' is not too heavy for you?” asked Moses.
”That's just what I does mean to tell you, lad. I could carry a good deal more, an' dance with it. You see, they ain't used to men o' my size, so I was able to humbug 'em into a miscalkilation. I on'y wish I could have helped you all to do the same, but they're too 'cute, as the Yankees say. Anyway, Moses, you don't need to trouble your head when I gives you a helpin' hand again.”
”Ah, that expression, `a helping hand,' sounds familiar in my ears,”
said Stevenson, in a sad tone.
”Yes, what do it recall, lad?” asked Molloy, extending himself again on his broad back.
”It recalls places and friends in Portsmouth, Jack, that we may never again set eyes on. You remember the Inst.i.toot? Well, they've got a new branch o' the work there for the surrounding civilian poor, called the _Helping Hand_. You see, Miss Robinson understands us soldiers out and out. She knew that those among us who gave up drink and sin, and put on the blue-ribbon, were not goin' to keep all the benefit to ourselves.
She knew that we understood the meaning of the word `enlist' That we'd think very little o' the poor-spirited fellow who'd take the Queen's s.h.i.+llin' and put on her uniform, and then s.h.i.+rk fightin' her battles and honouring her flag. So when some of us put on the Lord's uniform-- which, like that of the Austrians, is white--and unfurled His flag, she knew we'd soon be wantin' to fight His battles against sin--especially against drink; so instead of lookin' after our welfare alone, she encouraged us to hold out a _helpin' hand_ to the poorest and most miserable people in Portsmouth, an' she found us ready to answer to the call.”
”Ah, they was grand times, these,” continued the marine, with kindly enthusiasm, as he observed that his comrades in sorrow were becoming interested, and forgetting for the moment their own sorrows and sufferings. ”The Blue-Ribbon move was strong in Portsmouth at the time, and many of the soldiers and sailors joined it. Some time after we had held out a helping hand to the poor civilians, we took it into our heads to invite some of 'em to a grand tea-fight in the big hall, so we asked a lot o' the poorest who had faithfully kept the pledge through their first teetotal Christmas; and it _was_ a scrimmage, I can tell you. We got together more than forty of 'em, men and women, and there were about three hundred soldiers and sailors, and their wives to wait on 'em an'
keep 'em company!”