The Dark Sea-Horse by Charley Wood Read online

  admiring eyes of the bartender. Shortly

  “You the cap’n!” scoffed one. “A after he could have been seen pulling skinny capstan bar like you fer a master.

  furtively away from the wharf in a two-Haw!”

  oared dory, with his sea-bag laid across

  “A hundurd-year-old baby face

  her stern, and her bow pointed toward a without no whiskers!” laughed another.

  rather aged, two-posted schooner, with Captain Wagg grew white with

  “Hannah Snider” painted across her stern.

  anger as he advanced.

  Arriving there he climbed aboard and

  “Up with my gear now,” he

  walked straight to the poop with a stride thundered, “er in two seconds I rubs them and bearing no one but a master could red noses into them empty heads for assume.

  you.”

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  “Stow that noise—” began the

  sprang for the rail with the capless mate mate.

  in the lead and the cook, clumsily but

  “You grog rats!” hissed the

  hurriedly, bringing up the rear; and no skipper as he sprang forward. “I’ll show one, to see them at that moment, would you a real captain if you never seen one!”

  have believed that a few minutes before Before the mate was aware of it

  they had been engaged in mutiny.

  his cap had received the full effect of a tigerish swing, and had he not ducked at IV.

  the proper moment his head might have followed it as it spun over the side.

  IT was not till Friday evening that the The crew had not completed a

  first complete list of the participating gasp when a capstan bar, like magic, boats in the morrow’s race was

  appeared in the skipper’s hand. One published. The favorites were the Flying fleeting glance at the way it was handled Wedge, Lightning, and Nancy O, each told them that the skill of long practice fast schooners with at least one cup to her was behind its flourishes. At the first credit.

  resounding whack which fell on the Captain Swiggles and Captain

  cook’s broad back, they slid and fell into Stubbler, studying the list to help pass a the fore hatch for the safety of the hold, lonely evening in the short-handed and suddenly the skipper stood alone on cottage, ran their index fingers down it his deck.

  till at the bottom, they were startled to This matter attended to, he lighted see:

  his pipe and leaned with more or less satisfaction against the fore shrouds as he Hannah Snider, owned by Jeremiah smoked it and thought of the lubberly Sniffen, Captain Samuel Jimson, sailing-years which had passed since he had master

  trimmed a crew. With the last puff he summoned the trembling group before With fingers on this entry they

  him.

  paused and stared at each other.

  Walking the deck before them he

  “Glorious

  sheerpoles!”

  exclaimed

  told them it was evident they had never Captain Stubbler. “That’s Jerry down at sailed with a skipper of his time, and that the Dog-Watch! Here’s where we gets to even then he was far from being the man sail in that race!”

  he was ten years ago; and while they

  “We been buyin’ of our grog

  mentally thanked their stars for the elapse there for ten year, too,” said Captain of time he added that he had undertaken Swiggles. “If he don’t let us aboard he to put the Hannah Snider across the line ain’t worth a mouldy ship’s biscuit.”

  for first prize and make every other Salty

  “What a shame poor old Henry

  Boy craft look like a canal-boat with a can’t be here to ride ’er with us!”

  ton of buckets trailing astern.

  mourned Captain Stubbler as they sprang

  “An’ that’s what happens,” he

  through the door.

  finished up, “er there won’t be a whole A moment later they burst in upon bone left among you. Now, jump down Jerry. As they did so a lean, smooth-an’ get my gear aboard!”

  faced man who had been standing at the The crew of the Hannah Snider

  bar made a hurried exit through the side

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  door.

  crew o’ deep-sea guys.”

  “Did you see that guy jest goin’

  The captains had difficulty in

  out?” were the bartender’s words as he restraining themselves at this retort.

  guiltily smoothed an imaginary wrinkle

  “You mongrel!” flared Captain

  from his apron.

  Swiggles. “I seen more deep water than

  “No,” replied Captain Swiggles.

  your whole crew together.”

  “What was the matter of him?”

  “Any poor fish can say that,”

  The bartender sighed in relief as retorted the bartender with an angry slap he reached for a bottle. “Nothin’,” said of his towel.

  he, “only you missed seein’ the greatest

  “So far as that goes, there’s more sailor in the world. Have a drop on me.”

  good sailors on Staten Island than any The skippers observed the laying place in the world,” contended Captain out of the free grog in surprise, and Stubbler.

  nudged each other at the apparent

  “I don’t want none of ’em, and

  pleasant turn of things.

  that goes. See?”

  “I seen in the paper about you

  With disgust and anger written on their havin’ a jammer in the race, Jerry,” began faces, the skippers tossed off their free Captain Swiggles.

  grog in ungrateful silence.

  “Yep,” replied the bartender,

  “I wouldn’t sail on your jammer, looking startled, but quickly recovering.

  anyhow,” said Captain Stubbler, as they

  “She’s goin’ to take first prize, too.”

  went toward the door. “You won’t see

  “You deserves it, an’ there ain’t nothin’ but the tails o’ them other boats no-buddy in the world I’d rather see win from ’er.”

  it than you, aworkin’ hard like you do,

  “Can them sour grapes,” returned an’ layin’ out good grog night arter Jerry. “You’d ride onto her quick enough night,” solicited Captain Swiggles.

  if I’d do you the favor o’ lettin’ you.”

  “Skippers an’ barkeeps is two

  “Favor! What does a lubber what

  professions that can only be held down sells blarsted bilge-water fer good grog by the best o’ men,” followed Captain know about favors?” delivered Captain Stubbler generously.

  Swiggles before banging the door after Jerry glanced gratefully at them as him.

  he polished the bar.

  They made their way back to the

  “Do you need a couple o’ the best cottage, lighted the swinging lamp and sailors in the world for to help you win their pipes with the same match, and that race?” asked Captain Swiggles.

  remarked, more or less profanely, on the

  “Nope,” answered the bartender

  way of land-lubbers. After an hour promptly. “I got seven o’ the best salt Captain Swiggles went back to another guys in the world already onto her.”

  wistful scrutiny of the list and suddenly

  “What do you know about

  looked up.

  sailors?” asked Captain Swiggles sharply.

  “Here’s Dr. Benning what owns

  “You let us aboard for the race, an’ she the Dart, Stubbler,” said he. “He might leaves every hooker there hull down.”

  ship us.”

  “No, sir,” said Jerry, with a

  “Fine!”

  ejaculated

  Captain

  decisive slap of his cloth. “I don’t want Stubbler, with a slap on his knee. “He’s no Stapleton sailors onto that boat. I got a
the one that cured that carbuncle I had

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  five year ago.”

  rousing, syncopated harmonies on the

  “He shipped my knee-cap that

  dock, and added to the festive mood of time I fell often the mast, too.”

  the gathering crowd.

  “And that Dart’s a clean-cut little At the outboard end of the float hooker!”

  the Dart lay, with sails and running gear

  “With the right handlin’ show ’er ready for use at a moment’s notice; for tail to all them lubbers’ boats!”

  the doctor was a dyed-in-the-wool Captain Stubbler sprang to his

  sportsman, and it was part of his category feet and flipped up the clasp to his sea-to be first boat at the starting line.

  chest.

  He was seated in a camp chair on

  “He’s the man for us,” he said, as his quarter-deck with his sailing master, he began to rummage. “We’ll lay out our

  “Cap” Towers, leaning on the taffrail best gear for in the mornin’, an’ go down behind him. Off their port quarter lay the an’ ast him. We’ll show that barkeep!”

  Hannah Snider, unobtrusively at anchor, and all but unnoticed in the throng of the V.

  craft.

  Suddenly her jib and mainsail

  THE next morning turned out to be bright went up, showing a mammoth 13

  and clear, with as snappy a breeze as any plainted in black letters on the latter, and yachtsman could wish for, and

  the clank of her windlass smote the indications that it had come to stay and doctor’s ears.

  grow stronger as the day progressed.

  “What boat is that, cap?” he

  Stapleton was in a froth of excitement asked.

  from the first peep of the sun over the

  “The

  Hannah Snider, owned by

  Brooklyn house-tops.

  Jerry up at the Dog-Watch,” was the Decorations were everywhere, but answer. “She’s been runnin’ up and down particularly along the water-front, and and around the bay since Tuesday, and ranged all the way from bandanna she’s got a crew that jumps around her handkerchiefs to full-sized Old Glories, like dogs with fire-crackers tied to their with the lemon-colored Salty Boys’ flag tails.”

  predominating. The more sailorly

  “Hang it! She’s going to beat us inclined resorted to halliards bent full of to the start!”

  international signal-code flags. Never in At that moment a pair of sailorly the annals of the club had it received such figures, geared in skipper’s full regalia, an ovation.

  hove up on the physician’s shoreward Inside the flag-blazoned, barnlike horizon, and his starting was further structure which it used for a club-house delayed.

  the members stood about in

  “Ahoy there, doctor!” bawled

  argumentative groups and made

  Captain Swiggles jauntily.

  swaggering bets; and long odds were

  “Howdy, boys?” replied the

  given on the Flying Wedge, the doctor with much good humor. “How are Lightning, and the Nancy O.

  the carbuncle and the knee-cap to-day?”

  While these details were attended

  “Fine,” replied Captain Stubbler.

  to inside, a negro band in uniforms of

  “But we didn’t come for no aches an’

  nineteen different patterns smashed out pains; we come to ast you a favor.”

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  “Out with it,” commanded the

  At the entrance of the first leg of doctor, looking curiously over his the course they saw a row of thirteen glasses.

  anchor-buoys of all shapes, but painted a

  “We warnts for to come aboard

  uniform red with a black numeral, which an’ sail the race with you,” said Captain was to correspond with the number of the Swiggles. “Men like us carn’t stay ashore boat which tied up to it.

  while this is goin’ on.”

  When

  the

  Dart arrived numbers

  Captain Stubbler went on to

  one, three, and thirteen—the latter being explain, with a glance of mingled the number shunted onto the Hannah jealousy and disapproval at Cap Towers, Snider—were already moored to their that their advice, now and then, would respective buoys.

  win the race for him, according to the In answer to the captains’

  looks of his skipper.

  inquiries the doctor explained that there The doctor, with an unrestrained were to be no flying starts, and therefore laugh, told them to jump aboard and the course would be to leeward, to welcome, and that they were to consider windward, and return. Each boat was to themselves his guests. The words had moor to its buoy and lower sails. At the hardly left his lips before the skippers crack of the gun on the stake boat the had straddled the rail and were aboard.

  contending boats were to unmoor and get Chairs were brought up for them, and away as best they could.

  they seated themselves and watched the

  “I’d like for to have my old gig-sailing master critically as he hoisted sail crew here for to show ’em how to do it,”

  and swung the Dart’s head toward remarked Captain Swiggles.

  Gravesend Bay.

  The

  Dart took her place at her By now all the contenders were

  buoy, and with the skippers fidgeting clearing, and as each caught the wind and impatiently in their chairs, the wait for swung away, it was sent off with a cheer the start began.

  from the crowd ashore. Craft of all sorts, At last every boat was moored to cargoed with passengers, swung off with its buoy, and a fluttering hush fell on the them. The band was put aboard a flat crowd as they watched every move of the scow, borrowed for the purpose, and starter. Sailors braced themselves to fly at towed out.

  their duties, conversation was in Arriving at the start and finishing whispers, even the band became silent line, the skippers looked with wonder at and gathered around a keg in its midst.

  the tremendous number of boats gathered Leisurely the starter picked up his there. The stake boat was there, cargoed megaphone and directed it along the line.

  with the racing committee and a small

  “Has every participant

  cannon, and in and out cruised a police familiarized himself with the rules of this boat, detailed to serve out law and order race?” he bawled.

  to the buoyant crowds. They observed the There was a hearty response in

  lemon-colored club flag whipping in a the affirmative.

  hundred different locations and angles,

  “Stand

  by!1'

  and remarked that it was just like lubbers

  “Fire!”

  to select a color that meant quarantine in The grocery clerk detailed for the the mariner’s code.

  purpose tremblingly applied the match.

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  At the resulting boom pandemonium Nancy O. The doctor laughed in tense broke lose. Sailors dived to their work, glee.

  masters yelled, running-blocks creaked,

  “That’s the way we’ll beat them

  gaskets scraped, sails thundered, and the three boats,” said Captain Swiggles, “by band struck up.

  what you might call super-seamanship.”

  The skippers leaned forward in

  “It’s hard to sit here like cargo, their chairs and chewed rabbit-fashion in though, when you know you can do their excitement. “Cap” Towers took his better’n the man what’s skipper’n ’er,”

  place at the wheel, his station throughout complained Captain Stubbler.

  the race.

  “You couldn’t do a danged bit

  In spite of the dangers occasioned better,” snapped the sailing master with by such a start, every contestant, with the rising anger.

  exception of a pair of fouled catboats, got

&
nbsp; “I’ll come up there an’ blast—”

  clearly away. The skippers looked

  “Here, here,” interjected the

  worried as they watched the Flying doctor quickly, “let’s be true sportsmen Wedge, Lightning, and Nancy O plow and have no arguments, boys.”

  head of the canted field, but most of the In the ensuing silence the Dart crowd’s eyes were directed at the slower gained another length on the Nancy O, Hannah Snider, whose crew flew about and was almost nose and nose with her.

  her decks and rigging like so many ring-The Flying Wedge and Lightning had also tailed gorillas, and jumped at every move ceased to gain, although they were well of her lean helmsman.

  ahead.

  “ It looks as if we’ve got just

  “The next leg will show it!”

  three boats to lick, eh, boys?” exclaimed exclaimed the doctor. “We’ll have the the doctor, excitedly polishing his wind ahead and modus operandi will be glasses.

  the deciding factor.”

  “Them’s fast boats, all right,”

  As they drew near the buoy which answered Captain Swiggles. “Whether marked the end of the first leg they were we beat ’em depends on the seamanship still forging ahead of the Nancy O, but o’ this captain what you got.”

  not an inch could they gain on the two

  “Tell him to haul a bit on that

  leaders.

  main sheet an’ she’ll hold more wind,”

  The cheering of the crowd could

  advised Captain Stubbler.

  be plainly heard as the Flying Wedge

  “He ought to be holdin’ of ’er