登陆注册
15481000000003

第3章 Chapter 1 ON THE LOOK OUT(2)

'Here! and give me hold of the sculls. I'll take the rest of the spell.'

'No, no, father! No! I can't indeed. Father!--I cannot sit so near it!'

He was moving towards her to change places, but her terrified expostulation stopped him and he resumed his seat.

'What hurt can it do you?'

'None, none. But I cannot bear it.'

'It's my belief you hate the sight of the very river.'

'I--I do not like it, father.'

'As if it wasn't your living! As if it wasn't meat and drink to you!'

At these latter words the girl shivered again, and for a moment paused in her rowing, seeming to turn deadly faint. It escaped his attention, for he was glancing over the stern at something the boat had in tow.

'How can you be so thankless to your best friend, Lizzie? The very fire that warmed you when you were a babby, was picked out of the river alongside the coal barges. The very basket that you slept in, the tide washed ashore. The very rockers that I put it upon to make a cradle of it, I cut out of a piece of wood that drifted from some ship or another.'

Lizzie took her right hand from the scull it held, and touched her lips with it, and for a moment held it out lovingly towards him: then, without speaking, she resumed her rowing, as another boat of similar appearance, though in rather better trim, came out from a dark place and dropped softly alongside.

'In luck again, Gaffer?' said a man with a squinting leer, who sculled her and who was alone, 'I know'd you was in luck again, by your wake as you come down.'

'Ah!' replied the other, drily. 'So you're out, are you?'

'Yes, pardner.'

There was now a tender yellow moonlight on the river, and the new comer, keeping half his boat's length astern of the other boat looked hard at its track.

'I says to myself,' he went on, 'directly you hove in view, yonder's Gaffer, and in luck again, by George if he ain't! Scull it is, pardner--don't fret yourself--I didn't touch him.' This was in answer to a quick impatient movement on the part of Gaffer: the speaker at the same time unshipping his scull on that side, and laying his hand on the gunwale of Gaffer's boat and holding to it.

'He's had touches enough not to want no more, as well as I make him out, Gaffer! Been a knocking about with a pretty many tides, ain't he pardner? Such is my out-of-luck ways, you see! He must have passed me when he went up last time, for I was on the lookout below bridge here. I a'most think you're like the wulturs, pardner, and scent 'em out.'

He spoke in a dropped voice, and with more than one glance at Lizzie who had pulled on her hood again. Both men then looked with a weird unholy interest in the wake of Gaffer's boat.

'Easy does it, betwixt us. Shall I take him aboard, pardner?'

'No,' said the other. In so surly a tone that the man, after a blank stare, acknowledged it with the retort:

'--Arn't been eating nothing as has disagreed with you, have you, pardner?'

'Why, yes, I have,' said Gaffer. 'I have been swallowing too much of that word, Pardner. I am no pardner of yours.'

'Since when was you no pardner of mine, Gaffer Hexam Esquire?'

'Since you was accused of robbing a man. Accused of robbing a live man!' said Gaffer, with great indignation.

'And what if I had been accused of robbing a dead man, Gaffer?'

'You COULDN'T do it.'

'Couldn't you, Gaffer?'

'No. Has a dead man any use for money? Is it possible for a dead man to have money? What world does a dead man belong to?

'Tother world. What world does money belong to? This world.

How can money be a corpse's? Can a corpse own it, want it, spend it, claim it, miss it? Don't try to go confounding the rights and wrongs of things in that way. But it's worthy of the sneaking spirit that robs a live man.'

'I'll tell you what it is--.'

'No you won't. I'll tell you what it is. You got off with a short time of it for putting you're hand in the pocket of a sailor, a live sailor.

Make the most of it and think yourself lucky, but don't think after that to come over ME with your pardners. We have worked together in time past, but we work together no more in time present nor yet future. Let go. Cast off!'

'Gaffer! If you think to get rid of me this way--.'

'If I don't get rid of you this way, I'll try another, and chop you over the fingers with the stretcher, or take a pick at your head with the boat-hook. Cast off! Pull you, Lizzie. Pull home, since you won't let your father pull.'

Lizzie shot ahead, and the other boat fell astern. Lizzie's father, composing himself into the easy attitude of one who had asserted the high moralities and taken an unassailable position, slowly lighted a pipe, and smoked, and took a survey of what he had in tow. What he had in tow, lunged itself at him sometimes in an awful manner when the boat was checked, and sometimes seemed to try to wrench itself away, though for the most part it followed submissively. A neophyte might have fancied that the ripples passing over it were dreadfully like faint changes of expression on a sightless face; but Gaffer was no neophyte and had no fancies.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 福妻驾到

    福妻驾到

    现代饭店彪悍老板娘魂穿古代。不分是非的极品婆婆?三年未归生死不明的丈夫?心狠手辣的阴毒亲戚?贪婪而好色的地主老财?吃上顿没下顿的贫困宭境?不怕不怕,神仙相助,一技在手,天下我有!且看现代张悦娘,如何身带福气玩转古代,开面馆、收小弟、左纳财富,右傍美男,共绘幸福生活大好蓝图!!!!快本新书《天媒地聘》已经上架开始销售,只要3.99元即可将整本书抱回家,你还等什么哪,赶紧点击下面的直通车,享受乐乐精心为您准备的美食盛宴吧!)
  • 编外特勤011

    编外特勤011

    十一不全她,小名十一,目前是三山市某大型旅行社导游,性格活泼开朗,爱好冒险,而最擅长的就是推理.她的家庭背景可不一般,曾祖父在民国时期就是三山市有名的神探,后来去了台湾,音信全无.爷爷呢,在上世纪60年代是三山市警长,但后来因为她曾祖父的原因,在那个动荡的年代被批为“黑五类”.一时悲愤一口气没上来,就这么走了,在1979年得到平反.现在她的父亲是国内有名的痕检专家,专门为公安系统破获大案要案.传说她的父亲可以不用任何仪器,只要看一眼地上脚印就会立马判断出这人的身高,体重,以及是男是女.
  • 时空之诸界风云录

    时空之诸界风云录

    一部《玄黄宝典》,一扇天地之门,开启了一个穿越者的峥嵘岁月!“什么?我是萧家老四?萧炎是我三哥?”自此,萧玄黄便从斗破开始了他光(cao)荣(dan)的人生。ps:欢迎喜欢的朋友加书群329105495
  • 盛世霓姗:何以薄情

    盛世霓姗:何以薄情

    他以为他这辈子爱上了不该爱上的人,所以他以为自己会终身不娶。她以为她这辈子永远无法心安理得的得到幸福,所以她以为自己会遗憾终生。不过有时候你以为的就只是你以为的你以为。“我今天说的第一件事是,今天,我傅薄情和傅霓姗正式断绝兄妹关系。”“第二件事,从今天起我正式开始追求傅霓姗。”“我不同意!”“你没有资格,我只是想得到你身上的股份。”
  • 首席的致命情人:抵死不承欢

    首席的致命情人:抵死不承欢

    “你想逃?就算逃到天涯海角,也逃不过我顾家大少爷的手掌心!”他阴翳的说,带着玩世不恭的笑。“是吗?”她冷笑,骄傲的昂起头:“我的人你得到了,心你揉碎了,你还没玩够?”“乖,不是说了吗,你还没爱上我呢!”他是顾念北,在青江,他完全可以只手遮天。她不语,转头望着窗外蔚蓝的天空——她是夏雨桐,是青江艺术世家的小提琴公主,然而,如今,她却没有一只小鸟自由。……十日缠绵,画地为牢,他对她的好,她全都视而不见。一朝沦落,万劫不复,她对他的恨,他早已加倍偿还。谁叫她是总裁的女人,却抵死不承欢?
  • 告诉你一个弗洛伊德的故事

    告诉你一个弗洛伊德的故事

    精选了弗洛伊德人生中富有代表性的事件和故事,以点带面,从而折射出他充满传奇的人生经历和各具特点的鲜明个性。通过阅读《告诉你一个弗洛伊德的故事》。我们不仅要了解他的生活经历,更要了解他的奋斗历程,以及学习他在面对困难、失败和挫折时所表现出来的杰出品质。
  • 剑网3之乱世长歌

    剑网3之乱世长歌

    大唐盛世,歌舞升平。中原繁华锦绣,难掩边境狼烟四起。达官贵人吟风弄月,尽享富贵荣华;江湖儿女不畏风霜,率众赶赴南疆。没有过去的少女和没有未来的青年相遇,一个沐浴在阳光下,一个行走在黑暗中,身份悬殊,立场相悖,又逢家国遭难,天下烽火,他们该何去何从?“时至今日,我方知晓,千里江山,不及你回眸一笑。”--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 系统终结者

    系统终结者

    2017年11月07日00时00分,随着一阵巨响全球几十亿人口分分苏醒随着一阵机器般的声音人们知道世界变了......
  • 千亿总裁,我们不复婚

    千亿总裁,我们不复婚

    苏小希傻眼了,为啥她家亲亲老公失忆了?失忆了不说,忘了她这个老婆更不说,竟然还风流成性,到处拈花惹草!苏小希怒了,拳打小三怒赶小四,可怎么也抵不过一次次的打击——她心力交瘁,一纸离婚协议,结束了他们三年的感情。可没有多久之后——“苏小希!!!回来复婚!”“我不!”“你都怀了我的孩子,孩子怎么能够没有爹呢?”男人邪魅狂狷一笑,“我告诉你苏小希,你生是我的人,死是我的鬼!”
  • 墨渊大陆

    墨渊大陆

    有一个人对她说:“我会永远保护你,不受一点伤害。”她笑着答应。一个全息网游,她带着系统穿越到了另一个世界。那是空间之神送给她的礼物,也是他,送给她的礼物,她不知道。一块块记忆碎片的揭开,一个个让她恐惧的事实被揭露。她女扮男装寻他,原来,到头来……什么都不是。第一次拥有的友情,她只是心里与他人的距离隔上了一层霜。因为她,和以前一样,只是,知道了太多让她心里难过的事情。她……用男装,掩盖自己心里的脆弱。