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The women heaped up the salt for the pickle in the holds of the vessels; the men saw to the masts and rigging. Yann's mother and sisters worked from morning till night at the making of the sou'westers and oilskin waterproofs. The weather was dull, and the sea, forefeeling the approach of the equinoctial gales, was restless and heaving.
Cards, novels, and all the hot arguments went by the board, and then after a mug-up for nearly all we slid into oil-clothes, boots and sou'westers, and puffing at what was probably to be the last pipeful of the evening, we lay around on lockers and on the floor, backs to the butt of the mast and backs to the stove wherever there was space for a broad back and a pair of stout legs our fellows dropped themselves, discussing all the while the things that interested them fish, fishing, fast vessels, big shares, politics, Bob Fitzsimmons, John L. Sullivan, good stories, and just then particularly, because two of the crew were thinking of marrying, the awful price of real estate in Gloucester.
She brought twenty-five passengers in her stomach men and women mainly a traveling dramatic company. In sight on deck were the crew, in sou'westers, yellow waterproof canvas suits, and boots to the thigh. The deck was never quiet for a moment, and seldom nearer level than a ladder, and noble were the seas which leapt aboard and went flooding aft.
The water dripped off the rims of our sou'westers in dismal fashion, and the fog hung like a blanket around the ship, while the sea lapped her sides unseen. Our fog-horn tooted at intervals, and everything was as damp, dark, and forlorn as could be. A knot of men were gathered under the lee of the after deckhouse, huddled together for warmth and companionship.
Tell you wot, it's that I-talian gunboat the guv'nor spoke about." "But she was not in port when we left." "No. We passed her comin' in." "Ah, she recognized us?" "Not much. We were under sail, an carried no masthead light. When I twigged hers I tied a couple of sou'westers over our side lights.
The sailors, grouped on the streaming deck-load of the steamer, waved their sou'westers, and, on the bridge, even the captain was expressing his admiration for the plucky craft. "Ah, you see! you see!" French Pete pointed astern. The sloop-yacht had been afraid to venture it, and was skirting back and forth on the inner edge of the bar. The chase was over.
Here a group of fishermen in guernseys and high boots, their sou'westers battened down upon their heads. Yonder Bane and his fellow actors in natty summer suits stood around the camera discussing with the director the possibility of making a film of the scene. Farther away huddled a party of women from the neighborhood, with shawls over their heads and children at their skirts.
Maynard, and bringing up the rear of the huddling oil-skins and sou'westers came Libby, soaked, and dripping as he walked. His eyes and Grace's encountered with a mutual avoidance; but whatever was their sense of blame, their victim had no reproaches to make herself. She was not in need of restoration.
We filled sea-chests, the rubber crowns of a couple of old sou'westers, and dumped water through the slats of the tiers of bunks so that it lodged in the angle between the side of the ship and the deck. While we were at this task Riggs was up in the scuttle, and from time to time we could hear the crackle of flames, and then the hissing of the water as he extinguished the burning planks.
Indeed he dropped off to sleep again, when the voice of the captain came from the wheel: "Pass the word to oil up." There was no need to say "Pass the word," for every man below heard the order, and tumbled up at once, sliding into sea-boots, oilskins, and sou'westers. Most of the men lighted a pipe, and one or two took a 'mug-up' from the coffee-kettle.
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