The Story of Paul Jones: An Historical Romance — John Shaqi
The Story of Paul Jones: An Historical RomanceLewis, Alfred Henry
General
The Story of Paul Jones: An Historical Romance
Lewis, Alfred Henry
Jones, John Paul, 1747-1792 -- Fiction
“And so,” concludes the excellent Sir Holman, “you’re to go home with
the rum, guest of the ship itself; and the thing I could weep over is
that I cannot send my kit aboard and sail with you.”
Two days go by, and the _King George’s Packet_ is sighted off Port
Royal; twenty-four hours later its master, Captain Macadam---a Solway
man--is drinking Sir Holman’s sangaree. Making good his word, Sir Holman
sends for first mate Jack Paul, and that business of going passenger to
Whitehaven is adjusted.
“True!” observes Captain Macadam, when he understands--“true, the
_George_ isn’t fitted up for passengers. But”--turning to first mate
Jack Paul--“you’ll no mind; bein’ a seaman yours eh?”
“More than that, Captain,” breaks in Sir Holman, “since the port is
reeling full of yellow jack, some of your people might take it to sea
with them. Should aught go wrong, now, why here is your passenger, a
finished sailorman, to give you a lift.”
Captain Macadam’s face has been tanned like leather. None the less,
as he hears the above the mahogany hue thereof lapses into a pasty,
piecrust color. Plainly that word yellow jack fills his soul with fear.
He mentions the wearisome fact to first mate Jack Paul, as he and that
young gentleman, after their cigars and sangaree with Sir Holman, are
making a midnight wake for the change house whereat they have bespoken
beds.
“It’s no kindly,” complains Captain Macadam, “for Sir Holman to let me
run my brig blindfold into sic a snare. But then he has a fourth share
in the tea, and another in the rum; and so, for his profit like, he lets
me tak’ my chances. He’d stude better wi’ God on high I’m thinkin’, if
he’d let his profit gone by, and just had a pilot boat standin’ off and
on at Port Royal, to gi’ me the wink to go wide. I could ha’ taken the
tea to New York weel enou’. But bein’ I’m here,” concludes the disturbed
Captain, appealing to first mate Jack Paul, “what would ye advise?”
“To get your tea ashore and your rum aboard as fast as you may.”
“Ay! that’ll about be the weesdom of it!”
Captain Macadam can talk of nothing but yellow jack all the way to the
change house.
“It’s the first time I was ever in these watters,” he explains
apologetically, “and now I can smell fever in the air! Ay! the hond o’
death is on these islands! Be ye no afeard, mon?”
First mate Jack Paul says that he is not. Also he is a trifle irritated
at the alarm of the timorous Captain Macadam.
“That’ll just be your youth now!” observes the timorous one. “Ye’re no
old enou’ to grasp the responsibeelities.”
At four in the morning Captain Macadam comes into first mate Jack Paul’s
room at the change house. He is clad in his linen sleeping suit, and his
teeth are chattering a little.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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