Blow The Man Down: A Romance Of The Coast

by Holman Day

  XXI ~ BITTER PROOF BY MORNING LIGHT

  Bad news, bad news to our captain came That grieved him very sore; But when he knew that all of it was true, It grieved him ten time more, Brave boys! It grieved him ten times more! --Cold Greenland.

  Morning brought to him neither cheer nor counsel. The winds swept thefog off the seas, and the brightness of the sunshine only mocked thegloom of Captain Mayo's thoughts.

  He was most unmistakably far off his course. He took his bearingscarefully, and he groped through his memory and his experience forreasons which would explain how he came to be away up there on HedgeFence. Two of the masts of the sunken stone-schooner showed above thesea, two depressing monuments of disaster. He took further bearings andtested his compass with minute care. So far as he could determine it wascorrect to the dot.

  It was a busy forenoon for all on board the steamer. The revenue cutterstook off the passengers. Representatives of the underwriters came outfrom Wood's Hole on a tug. The huge _Montana_, set solidly into its bedof sand, loomed against the sky, mute witness of somebody's inefficiencyor mistake.

  Late in the day Captain Mayo and General-Manager Fogg locked themselvesin the captain's cabin to have it out.

  When the master had finished his statement Mr. Fogg flicked the ash fromhis cigar, studied the glowing end for a time, and narrowed his eyes.

  "So, summing it all up, it happened, and you don't know just how ithappened. You were off your course and don't know how you happened to beoff your course. You don't expect us to defend you before the steamboatinspectors, with that for an explanation, Mayo?"

  "All I can do is to tell the truth at the hearing, sir."

  "They'll break you, sure as a mule wags ears. There are five deadmen inside that wreck yonder. Don't you reckon you'll be indicted formanslaughter?"

  "I shall claim that the collision was unavoidable."

  "But you were off your course--were in a place you had no business to bein. That knocks your defense all to the devil. You are in almighty bad,Mayo. You must wake up to it."

  The young man was pale and rigid and silent.

  "The Vose line is in bad enough as it is, without trying to defend you.I suppose I'll be blamed for putting on a young captain. Mayo, I amolder than you are and wiser about the law and such matters. Why don'tyou duck out from under, eh?"

  "You mean run away?"

  "I wouldn't put it quite as bluntly as that. I mean, go away and keepout of sight till it quiets down. If you stay they'll put you on therack and get you all tangled up by firing questions at you. And whatwill you gain by going through the muss? You've got to agree with methat the inspectors will suspend you--revoke your license. Here's thissteamer here, talking for herself. If you stay around underfoot, and allthe evidence is brought out at the hearing, then the Federal grandjury will take the thing up, probably. They'll have a manslaughter caseagainst you."

  Still Captain Mayo did not speak.

  "If you simply drop out of sight I don't believe they'll chase you.Personally, having watched you last night, I don't believe you areguilty of any very bad break. It simply happened wrong. We don't wantall the notoriety a court trial would bring to the line. And here's whatI'll do, Mayo. I'll slip you a few hundred for expenses so that you cango away and grab into the shipping game somewhere else. A fellow likeyou can land on his feet."

  "Mr. Fogg, a renegade steamboat man stands a mighty poor show. I may besuspended, and worse may happen to me, but I'm not going to ruin myselfand my good name by running away. That's confession! It's wrecking allmy prospects forever--and I have worked too hard for what I've got. I'mgoing to stay here and face the music--tell my story like a man."

  "It will make a fine story--and you have told me yourself that theyare just waiting to make a smashing example of somebody," sneered Fogg."You, a cub captain, broke the navigation rules last night by running atleast fifteen knots in the fog. Your log and the testimony of your mateswill show that. I'm not blaming you, son. I'm showing you how it looks!You got off your course and rammed a schooner at anchor, and you didn'teven stop to pick up her men. I saw that much. Mayo, the only sensiblething for you to do is to duck out from under. It will save the linefrom a lot of scandal and bad advertising. By gad! if you don't do thatmuch for us, after the offer I've just made you, I'll go onto the standand testify against you."

  "You seem to be mighty ready and anxious to make me the goat in thisthing," blazed the young man, his temper getting away from him. He hadbeen without sleep for many hours, his soul had been crucified by thebitter experiences he had been through.

  "Are you looking for a fight?"

  "No, Mr. Fogg, I'm looking for a square deal. I haven't done anythingintentionally to make me a fugitive from justice. I won't run away."

  "You won't be the first witness who has helped big interests by keepingout of sight and out of reach of the lawyers. It's business, Mayo."

  "It may be, Mr. Fogg. I don't know the inside of the big deals. I'm onlya sailor. I associate with sailors. And I've got a little pride in mygood name."

  Mr. Fogg looked at this recalcitrant with scorn. He wanted to tell thisstubborn individual that he was merely a two-spot in the big game whichwas being played. But the expression on Mayo's face encouraged neitherlevity nor sneers.

  "I'll give you a thousand dollars expense money for your trip and willtalk job with you next year after you get your license back," profferedthe general manager.

  Captain Mayo fixed flaming eyes on the tempter. "What special, privatereason have you got for wanting to bribe me?" demanded the young man,with such heat that Fogg flinched. "You are making something verymysterious out of what should be open and aboveboard. That may be WallStreet tactics, Mr. Fogg, but it doesn't go with a sailor who has earneda master's papers and is proud of it."

  "Well, pass on then," directed Fogg. "There's a tug alongside to takethe underwriters back to Wood's Hole. Go along--to jail, or wherever itis you'll fetch up."

  "I shall stay aboard this ship as her captain until I am relievedaccording to the formalities of the admiralty law," declared CaptainMayo, with dignity. "I don't propose to run away from duty orpunishment, Mr. Fogg."

  The general manager pursed a contemptuous mouth and departed from thecabin. He went away on the tug without further word to Mayo.

  During the next two days small craft buzzed about the stricken giantlike flies around a carcass. There were insurance men, wreckers withplans and projects, sightseers, stockholders--and one visitor wasCaptain Zoradus Wass.

  "Nothing else to do just now, boy, except to come and sympathize withyou." He clucked his tongue against his teeth as he looked the steamerover. It was condolence without words. "Now tell me the story ofit--with all the fine details," he demanded, after they were closetedin the captain's cabin. He sat with elbows on his knees and gazed at thefloor during the recital, and he continued to gaze at the floor for sometime after Mayo had ceased speaking.

  "I admit that the quartermaster let her off for just a minute--less thana minute," repeated the young man. "I had only just looked away for aninstant. I helped him put her over. We couldn't have done more than cuta letter S for a few lengths. But the more I think of it, the queerer itseems. Two points off, almost in a finger-snap!"

  "Tell that part of it over and over again, while I shut my eyes and getit fixed in my mind as if I had seen it," requested Captain Wass. "Whowas there, where did they stand, and so forth and et cetry. When a thinghappens and you can't figger it out, it's usually because you haven'tpawed over the details carefully enough. Go ahead! I'm a good listener."

  But after he had listened he had no comments to make. He went out of thecabin after a few minutes' wait which was devoted to deep meditation,and strolled about the ship, hands behind his back, scuffing his feet.A half-hour later, meeting Captain Mayo on his rounds, the veteraninquired:

  "How do you happen to have Oliver Burkett aboard here?" "I don't knowhim."


  "You ought to know him. He is the captain the Vose line fired off the_Nirvana_ three years ago. He gave the go-ahead and a jingle when he wasmaking dock, and chewed up four fishing-boats and part of the pier. Hehad to choose between admitting that he was drunk, crazy, or bribed bythe opposition. And I guess they figured that he was all three. Was heaboard here the night it happened?"

  "I don't know, sir."

  "According to my notion it's worth finding out," growled Captain Wass."I'm not seeing very far into this thing as yet, son, and I'll admitit. But if dirty work was done to you, Burkett would have been a handiertool for Fogg than a Stillson wrench in a plumbing job. No, don't askme questions now. I haven't got any consolation for you or confidence inmyself. I'm only thinking."

  The next day the wounded _Montana_ was formally surrendered to theunderwriters.

  Captain Boyd Mayo was ordered to appear before the United Statesinspectors, and he went and told his story as best he could. But hisbest was an unconvincing tale, after all. He left the hearing after histestimony and walked down to the little hotel by the water-front to waitfor news.

  Captain Wass came bustling down to the little hotel, plumping along atan extra rate of speed, setting his heels down hard, a moving monumentof gloom.

  His protege, removing disconsolate gaze from the dusty chromos on theoffice walls, did not require verbal report; Captain Wass's demeanortold all.

  "And you couldn't expect much of anything else," declared the oldman. "I made the best talk I could for you after you had finished yourtestimony and had gone out. But it was no use, son! The department hasbeen laying for a victim. Both of us have known that right along. Theyhave soaked it to you good and proper."

  "How long am I suspended for?" faltered Mayo.

  "That's the point! Indefinitely. You were meat. Everybody watching thecase. They trimmed you."

  Mayo set his hands into his thick hair, propped his head, and stared atthe floor.

  "Indefinitely doesn't mean forever, but there ain't much comfort inthat. I'll tell you what it does mean, boy. It means that if there hasbeen crooked work we've got to show it up in order to reinstate you.And now get a good brace on yourself. I've taken a peek in at the UnitedStates court."

  The young man, without lifting his head, gave the veteran a piteousside-glance.

  "Fletcher Fogg is buzzing around the outside of that hive. He hasBurkett along for an understrapper. They are marshaling in witnessesbefore the grand jury--those men from the _Warren_, and you know whatthey'll say, of course! Your mates and quartermasters, too! Mayo,they're going to railroad you to Atlanta penitentiary. They have putsomething over on you because you are young and they figured that you'dbe a little green. It seemed queer to me when Fogg was so mighty nice toyou all of a sudden. But they don't lay off a man like Jacobs and put ina new man just to be nice. They either felt they couldn't work Jacobs,or else they felt a green man would give 'em a good excuse for whathappened."

  "But they couldn't arrange to have a schooner--"

  "That was probably more than they figured on. But as long as it hashappened they're going to use it to best advantage. You're going to haveboth tin cans tied to you, son. Every cussed bit of influence is goingto be used against you. Poor devils on the outside, like you and I,don't understand just how slick the ways can be greased. Mayo, I'm goingto give you good advice. Duck out!"

  "Run away like a confessed criminal? That's the advice Fogg gave me. Idon't think your advice is good, Captain Wass. I won't run away."

  "It may not be good advice. I ain't wise enough to know everythingthat's best. But if they put you behind the bars in Atlanta, son, you'llstay there till your term is up. No matter what is found out in yourcase, it will take money and a lot of time to get the truth before theright people. But if you ain't in prison, and we can get a line on thiscase and dig up even a part of the truth, then you've got a fightingchance in the open. If we can get just enough to make 'em afraid to putyou onto the witness-stand, that much may make 'em quit their barking.You're a sailor, boy! You know a sailor can't do much when his hands aretied. Stay outside the penitentiary and help me fight this thing."

  "I don't know what to do," mourned the young man. "I'm all in a whirl.I'm no coward, Captain Wass. I'm willing to face the music. But I'm sohelpless."

  "Stay outside jail till the fog lifts a bit in this case," adjured hismentor. "Are you going to lie down and stick up your legs to have 'emtied, like a calf bound for market? Here are a few things you can do ifyou duck out of sight for a little while. I'll go ahead and--"

  Suddenly he checked himself. He was facing the window, which commandeda considerable section of street. He wasted no further breath on goodadvice.

  "I know those men coming down there," he cried. "They're bailiffs. I sawthem around the court-house. They're after you, Mayo! You run! Getaway! There must be a back door here. Scoot!" He pulled the unresistingscapegoat out of his chair and hustled him to the rear of the office.

  A young man may have the best intentions. He may resolve to be a martyr,to bow to the law's majesty. But at that moment Mayo was receivingimperious command from the shipmaster whose orders he had obeyed for solong that obedience was second nature. And panic seized him! Men were athand to arrest him. There was no time to reason the thing out. Flight isthe first impulse of innocence persecuted. Manly resolve melted. He ran.

  "I'll stay behind and bluff 'em off! I'll say you're just out for aminute, that I'm waiting here for you," cried Captain Wass. "That willgive you a start. Try the docks. You may find one of the boys who willhelp."

  Mayo escaped into a yard, dodged down an alley, planning his movementsas he hurried, having a mariner's quickness of thought in an emergency.

  He made directly for the pier where steam-vessels took water. A hugeocean-going tug was just getting ready to leave her berth under thewater-hose. Her gruff whistle-call had ordered hawsers cast off. Mayo's'longcoast acquaintance was fairly extensive. This was a coal-barge tug,and he waved quick greeting to the familiar face in her pilot-house andleaped aboard. He climbed the forward ladder nimbly.

  "I reckon you'll have to make it hello and good-by in one breath, mate,"advised the skipper. "I'm off to take a light tow down-coast. Norfolknext stop."

  "Let her go--sooner the better," gasped the fugitive. "I'll explain whyas soon as you are out of the dock."

  "You don't say that you want to take the trip?"

  "I've got to take it."

  The skipper cocked an eyebrow and pulled his bell. "Make yourself tohome, mate," he advised. "I hope you ain't in so much of a hurry to getthere as you seem to be, for I've got three barges to tow."

  Mayo sat down on the rear transom and was hidden from all eyes on thepier.

  There was no opportunity for an explanation until the barges had beenpicked up, for there was much manouver-ing and much tooting. But hefound ready sympathy after he had explained.

  "The law sharps are always hankering to catch a poor cuss who is tryingto navigate these waters and suit the inspectors and the owners at thesame time," admitted the master of the tug. "I have read everything thepapers had to say about your case, and I figured they didn't give you afair show. Newspapers and lawyers and owners don't understand what afellow is up against. I'm glad you're aboard, mate, because I want tohear your side, with all the details."

  The threshing over of the matter occupied many hours of the long wallowdown the Jersey coast, and the tug captain weighed all features of thecase with the care of a man who has plenty of time on his hands and withthe zest a mariner displays in considering the affairs of his kind offolk.

  "If I didn't know you pretty well, Mayo, and know what kind of a manyou got your training with, I might think--just as those law sharpswill probably say--that you were criminally careless or didn't know yourbusiness. But that dodge she made on you! Two points off her course!You've got to put your finger right on there and hold it! Let me tellyou something. It was a queer thing in my own case. That was a queerthing in your case.
Stand two queer things in our business up besideeach other and squint at 'em and you may learn something."

  "She was on her course--I put her there with my own hands," persistedMayo.

  "Sure! You know your business. If this thing was going to be left tothe bunch that know you, you'd go clear. But here's what happened in mycase: I had a new man in the wheel-house, here, and he almost rammed meinto Cuttyhunk, gave me a touch and go with the Pollock Rip Lightship,and had me headed toward Nauset when the fog lifted. And he was steeringmy courses to the thinness of a hair, at that! Say, I took a suddentumble and frisked that chap and dragged a toad-stabber knife out of hispocket--one of those regular foot-long knives. It had been yawing offthat compass all the way from a point to a point and a half. When didyou shift wheel-watch?"

  "Before we made Vineyard Sound."

  "And no trouble coming up the sound?"

  "Made Nobska and West Chop to the dot."

  "Then perhaps your general manager, who was in that pilot-house, had aniron gizzard inside him. Most of them Wall Street fellows do have!" saidthe skipper, with sarcasm.

  "There's something going on in the steamboat business that I can'tunderstand," declared Mayo. "It's high up; it hasn't to do with uschaps, who have to take the kicks. Fogg brought a man aboard the old_Nequasset_, and he didn't bring along a good explanation to go withthat man. I have been wondering ever since how it happened that Fogg gotto be general manager of the Vose line so almighty sudden."

  "Them high financiers play a big game, mate. And if you happened to bea marked card in it, they'd tear you up and toss you under the tablewithout thinking twice. If you'll take a tip from me, you lay low anddo a lot of thinking while Uncle Zoradus does his scouting. What are yougoing to do when you get to Norfolk?"

  "I haven't thought."

  "Well, the both of us better think, and think hard, mate. If the UnitedStates is really after you there'll be a sharp eye at every knot-hole. Ican't afford to let 'em get in a crack at me for what I've done."

  "I'll jump overboard outside the capes before I'll put you in wrong,"asserted Mayo, with deep feeling.

  That night the captain of the tug took a trick at the wheel in person.

  His guest lay on the transom, smoking the skipper's spare pipe, andracking his mind for ways and means. After a time he was conscious thatthe captain was growling a bit of a song to relieve the tedium of histask. He sang the same words over and over--a tried and true Chesapeakeshanty:

  "Oh, I sailed aboard a lugger, and I shipped aboard a scow, And I sailed aboard a peanut-shell that had a razor bow. Needle in a haystack, brick into a wall! A nigger man in Norfolk, he ain't no 'count at all!"

  Mayo rolled off the transom and went to the captain's side. "There'smore truth than poetry in that song of yours, sir," he said. "You havegiven me an idea. A nigger in Norfolk doesn't attract much attention.And I haven't got to be one of the black ones, either. Don't you supposethere's something aboard here I can use to stain my face with?"

  "My cook is a great operator as a tattoo artist."

  "I don't think I want to make the disguise permanent, sir," stated theyoung man, with a smile.

  "What I mean is, he may have something in his kit that he can use topaint you with. What's your idea--stay there? I'm afraid they'll nailyou." >

  "I'll stay there just long enough to ship before the mast on a schooner.There isn't time to think up any better plan just now. Anything to keepout of sight until I can make up my mind about what's really best to bedone."

  "We'll have that cook up here," offered the captain. "He's safe."

  The cook took prompt and professional interest in the matter. "Sure!" hesaid. "I've got a stain that will sink in and stay put for a long time,if no grease paint is used. Only you mustn't wash your face."

  "There's no danger of a fellow having any inducement to do that whenhe's before the mast on a schooner in these days," declared the tugcaptain, dryly.

  An hour later, Captain Boyd Mayo, late of the crack liner _Montana_,was a very passable mulatto, his crisply curling hair adding to thedisguise. He swapped his neat suit of brown with a deck-hand, andreceived some particularly unkempt garments.

  The next night, when the tug was berthed at the water station, heslipped off into the darkness, as homeless and as disconsolate as anabandoned dog.