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Updated: June 28, 2025
And when I came aboard and said I was Thompson, you gulped down the bait, hey, you bleeding fool. Who the dickens do you think I am, anyhow?" "I happen to know that you pass by the name of Jackwell," I said. "Here, Chips," I called, but the carpenter was already at my side. "What name did Jim give the captain, and what was his business?" "'Tis no use av makin' any more av it, cap'n.
I let go her hand and drew myself up, for I was uncertain. "I say, Rolling, what the deuce are you two doing?" bawled the voice of Jackwell from the companion, and then I realized that there was little privacy aboard a ship of three hundred tons. We went aft guiltily, and met the rest coming up the companion with bottled beer and sandwiches which were served as refreshments.
One fellow, waving his hand, cried out to report Bill Jones of Nantucket as "bein' tolerable well, thank ye." It was evident they knew nothing of Jackwell and treated the going of the brig as a good joke on greenhorns. "That beats me," said Ford, panting from his last exertions. "An' me too," said Johnson. "If we'd had Tom and one or two more along we'd have beat her easy.
Jackwell was willing to go with the ladies, as he thought it might prove a diversion. There was no chance for a breeze, and the ships were within half a mile of each other, with a smooth sea between. He insisted, however, that I go along to command the boat. Chips and I had from the first decided to try and get a peep at the captain's trunk, and this might prove our chance.
The soot makes the canvas black sometimes, but there ain't no sparks to speak of ever comes out of that top, as it's mostly blubber we burns." Jackwell became silent for several minutes, and then, as his eyes were still directed at the masthead, I looked again and noticed the topsail yard settled below the lower masthead. "How do you suppose he keeps it up like that?"
I expected him to shoot the sailor who had the audacity to pitch him overboard, but he controlled himself. The incident, however, ended the fun aboard the brig, Henry, between fits of laughing, telling the mate to serve all hands with all the grog they wanted. "Do not wait for me, madam," said Jackwell, to Mrs. Sackett. "I shall not come aboard my ship in this condition. You get Mr.
Then came Miss Jennie, and last of all our captain. Jackwell sprang up the ladder quickly, and stood in the gangway. "How are you, sir, Captain Thomp " Captain Henry checked himself, looking at our skipper as though he had seen a ghost. "Why, Jack " But Jackwell had put up his hand, smiling pleasantly. "Jack it is, old man.
I asked Jackwell, trying to be civil. "Keeps what up like what?" he said, in his old tone. "The yard," I answered shortly. "Oh, mostly by force of habit, I reckon," said he, nodding sarcastically at me and wrinkling his nose. "That's it, ain't it, Henry? Your yards stay mastheaded mostly by force o' habit, hey? They don't need no ropes."
Jim's face was so serious that I asked what he meant, and with the heat of the work upon him and the absolute hopelessness of ever getting back aboard our ship before his eyes, he spoke out: "Did you ever hear of Jackwell, the fellow who cracked the Bank of Sydney?" he asked. Chips and I both admitted that we had. He was the most notorious burglar in the southern hemisphere.
Sackett stood with our friend Thompson, better known in the Antipodes as Jackwell, the burglar. As I watched him standing there pointing to us, I thought of poor Jim. "Wheel down," I heard Trunnell bawl as the ship came within fifty fathom. "Slack away that lee brace; steady your wheel." Before the ship's headway had slackened we had out the oars and were rowing for her.
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