Speaker 1: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, chapter fifty four. It was
Speaker 1: one of those March days when the sun shines hot
Speaker 1: and the wind blows cold, when it is summer in
Speaker 1: the light and winter in the shade. We had our
Speaker 1: pea coats with us, and I took a bag of
Speaker 1: all my worldly possessions. I took no more than the
Speaker 1: few necessaries that filled the bag. Where I might go,
Speaker 1: what I might do, or when I might return were
Speaker 1: questions utterly unknown to me. Nor did I vex my
Speaker 1: mind with them, for it was wholly set on provis's safety.
Speaker 1: I only wondered for the passing moment, as I stopped
Speaker 1: at the door and looked back, under what altered circumstances
Speaker 1: I should next see those rooms? If ever, we loitered
Speaker 1: down to the temple stairs, and stood loitering there, as
Speaker 1: if we were not quite decided to go upon the
Speaker 1: water at all. Of course, I had taken care that
Speaker 1: the boats should be ready and everything in order. After
Speaker 1: a little show of indecision, which there were none to
Speaker 1: see but the two or three amphibious creatures belonging to
Speaker 1: our temple stairs, we went on board and cast off
Speaker 1: Herbert in the bow I steering. It was then about
Speaker 1: high water half past eight. Our plan was this the
Speaker 1: tide beginning to run down at nine, and being with
Speaker 1: us until three. We intended still to creep on after
Speaker 1: it had turned, and row against it until dark. We
Speaker 1: should then be well in those long reaches below Gravesend,
Speaker 1: between Canton, Essex, where the river is broad and solitary,
Speaker 1: where the waterside inhabitants are very few, and where lone
Speaker 1: public houses are scattered here and there, of which we
Speaker 1: could choose one for a resting place. There we meant
Speaker 1: to lie by all night. The steamer for Hamburg and
Speaker 1: the steamer for Rotterdam would start from London at about
Speaker 1: nine on Thursday morning. We should know at what time
Speaker 1: to expect them according to where we were, and would
Speaker 1: hail the first, so that if by any accident we
Speaker 1: were not taken aboard, we should have another chance. We
Speaker 1: knew the distinguishing marks of each vessel. The relief of
Speaker 1: being at last engaged in the execution of the purpose
Speaker 1: was so great to me that I felt it difficult
Speaker 1: to realize the condition in which I had been a
Speaker 1: few hours before. The crisp bare the sunlight, the movement
Speaker 1: on the river, and the moving river itself. The road
Speaker 1: that ran with us, seeming to sympathize with us, animate us,
Speaker 1: and encourage us on, freshened me with new hope. I
Speaker 1: felt mortified to be of so little use in the boat,
Speaker 1: But there were a few better oarsmen than my two friends,
Speaker 1: and they rowed with a steady stroke that was to
Speaker 1: last all day. At that time, the steam traffic on
Speaker 1: the Thames was far below its present extent, and the
Speaker 1: watermen's boats were far more numerous. Of barges, sailing, colliers
Speaker 1: and coasting traders there were perhaps as many as now,
Speaker 1: but of steamships great and small, not a tithe or
Speaker 1: a twentieth part so many. Early as it was, there
Speaker 1: were plenty of scullers going here and there that morning,
Speaker 1: and plenty of barges dropping down with the tide. The
Speaker 1: navigation of the river between bridges in an open boat
Speaker 1: was a much easier and commoner matter in those days
Speaker 1: than it is in these, and we went ahead among
Speaker 1: many skiffs and werries briskly. Old London Bridge was soon
Speaker 1: passed an old Billingscape market, with its oyster boats and dutchmen,
Speaker 1: and the White Tower and Trader's Gate, and we were
Speaker 1: in among the tiers of shipping. Here were the Leith,
Speaker 1: Aberdeen and Glasgow steamers loading and unloading goods, and looking
Speaker 1: immensely high out of the water as we passed alongside.
Speaker 1: Here were colliers by the score and scull, with the
Speaker 1: coal whippers plunging off stages on deck as counterweights to
Speaker 1: measures of coals swinging up, which were then rattled over
Speaker 1: the side into barges. Here at her Mooring's was Tomorrow's
Speaker 1: steamer for Rotterdam, of which we took good notice, and
Speaker 1: here Tomorrow's for Hamburg, under whose bowsprit we crossed. And
Speaker 1: now I, sitting in the stern, could see with a
Speaker 1: faster beating heart, mill pond bank and mill pond stairs.
Speaker 1: Is he there? Said Herbert, Not yet right. He was
Speaker 1: not to come down till he saw us. Can you
Speaker 1: see his signal? Not well from here, but I think
Speaker 1: I see it now. I see him pull both easy,
Speaker 1: Herbert oars. We touched the stairs lightly for a single moment,
Speaker 1: and he was on board, and we were off again.
Speaker 1: He had a boat cloak with him and al black
Speaker 1: canvas bag, and he looked as like a river pilot
Speaker 1: as my heart could have wished, dear boy, he said,
Speaker 1: putting his arm on my shoulder as he took his seat. Faithful,
Speaker 1: dear boy, well done, Thank you, Thank you again. Among
Speaker 1: the tiers of shipping in and out, avoiding rusty chain cables,
Speaker 1: frayed hempen hawsers and bobbing boys sinking for the moment,
Speaker 1: floating broken baskets, scattering floating chips of wood, and shaving
Speaker 1: cleaving floating scum of coal, in and out under the
Speaker 1: figurehead of the John of Sunderland making a speech to
Speaker 1: the winds, as is done by many Johns, and the
Speaker 1: Betsy of Yarmouth, with a firm formality of bosom and
Speaker 1: her knobby eyes starting two inches out of her head.
Speaker 1: In and out, Hammers going in shipbuilder's yards, saws going
Speaker 1: at timber, clashing, engines going at things unknown, Pumps going
Speaker 1: in leaky shipps, capstans going, ships going out to sea,
Speaker 1: and unintelligible sea creatures roaring curses over the bulwarks that responded.
Speaker 1: Lighterman in and out out at last upon the clearer river,
Speaker 1: where the ship's boys might take their fenders in, no
Speaker 1: longer fishing in troubled waters with them over the side,
Speaker 1: and where the festooned sails might fly out to the wind,
Speaker 1: at the stairs where we had taken him aboard. And
Speaker 1: ever since I had looked warily for any token of
Speaker 1: our being suspected, I had seen none. We certainly had
Speaker 1: not been, and at that time, as certainly, we were
Speaker 1: not either attended or followed by any boat. If we
Speaker 1: had been waited on by any boat, I should have
Speaker 1: run into shore and have obliged her to go on,
Speaker 1: or to make her purpose evident. But we held our
Speaker 1: own without any appearance of molestation. He had his boat
Speaker 1: cloak on him, and had looked, as I have said,
Speaker 1: a natural part of the scene. It was remarkable, but
Speaker 1: perhaps the wretched life he had led accounted for it.
Speaker 1: That he was the least anxious of any of us.
Speaker 1: He was not indifferent, for he told me that he
Speaker 1: hoped to live to see his gentlemen, one of the
Speaker 1: best of gentlemen in a foreign country. He was not
Speaker 1: disposed to be passive or resigned, as I understood it,
Speaker 1: But he had no notion of meeting danger half way.
Speaker 1: When it came upon him, he confronted it. But it
Speaker 1: must come before he troubled himself. If you know, dear boy,
Speaker 1: he said to me, what it is to sit here
Speaker 1: no longer, my dear boy, and have my smoke arter
Speaker 1: been day by day betwixt four walls. You'd envy me,
Speaker 1: but you don't know what it is. I think I
Speaker 1: know the delights of freedom, I answered, Ah, said, he
Speaker 1: shaking his head gravely. But you don't know it equal
Speaker 1: to me. You must have been under lock and key,
Speaker 1: dear boy, to know it equal to me. But I
Speaker 1: ain't a goin to be low. It occurred to me
Speaker 1: as inconsistent that for any mastering idea, he should have
Speaker 1: endangered his freedom and even his life. But I reflected
Speaker 1: that perhaps freedom without danger was too much, apart from
Speaker 1: all the habit of his existence, to be to him
Speaker 1: what it would be to another man. I was not
Speaker 1: far out, since he said, after smoking a little. You see,
Speaker 1: dear boy, when I was over yonder the other side
Speaker 1: of the world, I was always a lookin to this side,
Speaker 1: and it come flat to be there. For all I
Speaker 1: was a growing rich. Everybody knowed Magwitch, and Magwitch could
Speaker 1: come and Magwitch could go, and nobody's head will be
Speaker 1: troubled about him. They ain't so easy concerning me here,
Speaker 1: dear boy, wouldn't be leastwise if they knowed where I was.
Speaker 1: If all goes well, said I, you will be perfectly
Speaker 1: free and safe again within a few hours. Well, he returned,
Speaker 1: drawing a long breath. I hope so, and think so.
Speaker 1: He dipped his hand in the water over the boat's
Speaker 1: gunneale and said, smiling with that softened air upon him
Speaker 1: which was not new to me. Ay, I suppose I
Speaker 1: think so, dear boy. We'd be puzzled to be more
Speaker 1: quiet and easy goin than we are at present. But
Speaker 1: it's a flowin, so soft and pleasant through the water,
Speaker 1: perhaps as makes me think it. I was a thinkin
Speaker 1: through my smoke just then, that we can no more
Speaker 1: see to the bottom of the next few hours than
Speaker 1: we can see to the bottom of this river what
Speaker 1: I catches hold of. Nor yet we can't no more
Speaker 1: hold there tide than I can hold this. And it's
Speaker 1: run through my fingers and gone, you see, holding up
Speaker 1: his dripping hand. But for your face, I should think
Speaker 1: you were a little despondent, said I. Not a be
Speaker 1: it on it, dear boy. It comes a flowing on,
Speaker 1: so quiet, and of that there, rippling at the boat's head,
Speaker 1: making a sort of a Sunday tune. Maybe I'm growin'
Speaker 1: a trifle old. Besides, he put his pipe back in
Speaker 1: his mouth with an undisturbed expression of face, and sat
Speaker 1: as composed and contented as if we were already out
Speaker 1: of England. Yet he was as submissive to a word
Speaker 1: of advice as if he had been in constant terror.
Speaker 1: For when we ran ashore to get some bottles of
Speaker 1: beer into the boat, and he was stepping out, I
Speaker 1: hinted that I thought he would be safest where he was,
Speaker 1: and he said, do you, dear boy, and quietly sat
Speaker 1: down again. The air felt cold upon the rear, but
Speaker 1: it was a bright day and the sunshine was very cheering.
Speaker 1: The tide ran strong. I took care to lose none
Speaker 1: of it, and our steady stroke carried us on thoroughly well,
Speaker 1: by imperceptible degrees. As the tide ran out, we lost
Speaker 1: more and more of the nearer woods and hills, and
Speaker 1: dropped lower and lower between the muddy banks. But the
Speaker 1: tide was yet with us when we were off Gravesend.
Speaker 1: As our charge was wrapped in his cloak, I purposely
Speaker 1: passed within a boat or two's length of the floating
Speaker 1: custom house, and sew out to catch the stream, alongside
Speaker 1: of two emigrant ships, and under the bows of a
Speaker 1: large transport with troops on the forecastle looking down at us.
Speaker 1: And soon the tide began to slacken, and the craft
Speaker 1: lying at anchor to swing, and presently they had all
Speaker 1: swung round, and the ships that were taking advantage of
Speaker 1: the new tide to get up to the pool began
Speaker 1: to crowd upon us in a fleet. And we kept
Speaker 1: under the shore as much out of the strength of
Speaker 1: the tide now as we could, standing carefully off from
Speaker 1: low shallows and mud banks. Our oarsmen were so fresh
Speaker 1: by dint of having occasionally let her drive with the
Speaker 1: tide for a minute or two, that a quarter of
Speaker 1: an hour's rest proved full as much as they wanted.
Speaker 1: We got ashore among some slippery stones while we ate
Speaker 1: and drank what we had with us, and looked about.
Speaker 1: It was like my own marsh country, flat and monotonous
Speaker 1: and with a dim horizon, while the winding river turned
Speaker 1: and turned, and the great floating buoyze upon it turned
Speaker 1: and turned, and everything else seemed stranded and still for
Speaker 1: now the last of the fleet of ships was round
Speaker 1: the last low point we had headed, and the last
Speaker 1: green barge straw laden with brown sail, had followed, And
Speaker 1: some ballast sliders shaped like a child's first rude imitation
Speaker 1: of a boat, lay low in the mud, and a
Speaker 1: little squat shoal lighthouse on open piles stood crippled in
Speaker 1: the mud on stilts and crutches, and slimy stakes stuck
Speaker 1: out of the mud, and slimy stones stuck out of
Speaker 1: the mud, and red landmarks and tide marks stuck out
Speaker 1: of the mud, and an old landing stage and an
Speaker 1: old roofless building slipped into the mud, and all about
Speaker 1: us was stagnation and mud. We pushed off again and
Speaker 1: made what way we could. It was much harder worked now,
Speaker 1: but Herbert and star Top persevered and rowed and rowed
Speaker 1: and rowed until the sun went down. By that time
Speaker 1: the river had lifted us a little so that we
Speaker 1: could see above the bank. There was the red sun
Speaker 1: on the low level of the shore, in a purple
Speaker 1: haze fast deepening into black, And there was the solitary
Speaker 1: flat marsh, and far away there were the rising grounds,
Speaker 1: between which and us there seemed to be no life
Speaker 1: here and there in the foreground of melancholy gull. As
Speaker 1: the night was fast falling, and as the moon being
Speaker 1: past the full would not rise early, we held a
Speaker 1: little council, a short one, for clearly our course was
Speaker 1: to lie by at the first lonely tavern we could find.
Speaker 1: So they plied their oars once more, and I looked
Speaker 1: out for anything like a house. Thus we held on,
Speaker 1: speaking little for four or five dull miles. It was
Speaker 1: very cold, and a collier coming by us, with her
Speaker 1: galy fire smoking and flaring, looked like a comfortable home.
Speaker 1: The night was as dark by this time as it
Speaker 1: would be until morning, and what light we had seemed
Speaker 1: to come more from the river than the sky, as
Speaker 1: the oars, in their dipping struck at a few reflected stars.
Speaker 1: At this dismal time, we were evidently all possessed by
Speaker 1: the idea that we were followed. As the tide made
Speaker 1: it lapped heavily at irregular intervals against the shore, and
Speaker 1: whenever such a sound came, one or other of us
Speaker 1: was sure to start and look in that direction. Here
Speaker 1: and there, the set of the current had worn down
Speaker 1: the bank into a little creek, and we were all
Speaker 1: suspicious of such places, and eyed them nervously. Sometimes what
Speaker 1: was that ripple? One of us would say in a
Speaker 1: low voice, or another is that a boat yonder? And
Speaker 1: afterwards we would fall into a dead silence, and I
Speaker 1: would sit impatiently thinking with what an unusual amount of
Speaker 1: noise the oars worked in the fowls. At length we
Speaker 1: descried a light and a roof, and presently afterwards ran
Speaker 1: alongside a little causeway made of stones that had been
Speaker 1: picked up hard by leaving the rest in the boat.
Speaker 1: I stepped ashore and found the light to be in
Speaker 1: the window of a public house. It was a dirty
Speaker 1: place enough, and I dare say not unknown to smuggling adventurers.
Speaker 1: But there was a good fire in the kitchen, and
Speaker 1: there were eggs and bacon to eat, and various liquors
Speaker 1: to drink. Also, there were two double bedded rooms, such
Speaker 1: as they were. The landlord said no other company was
Speaker 1: in the house than the landlord, his wife, and a
Speaker 1: grizzled mail creature, the jack of the little causeway, who
Speaker 1: was as slimy and smeary as if he had been
Speaker 1: a low water mark too. With this assistant, I went
Speaker 1: down to the boat again, and we all came ashore
Speaker 1: and brought out the oars and rudder and boat hook
Speaker 1: and all else, and hauled her up for the night.
Speaker 1: We made a very good meal by the kitchen fire,
Speaker 1: and then apportioned the bedrooms. Herbert and Startop were to
Speaker 1: occupy one I and our charge the other. We found
Speaker 1: the air as carefully excluded from both as if air
Speaker 1: were fatal to life, and there were more dirty clothes
Speaker 1: and bamboxes under the beds than I should have thought
Speaker 1: the family possessed. But we considered ourselves well off, notwithstanding
Speaker 1: for a more solitary place we could not have found.
Speaker 1: While we were comforting ourselves by the fire after our meal,
Speaker 1: the jack who was sitting in a corner, and who
Speaker 1: had a bloated pair of shoes on which he had
Speaker 1: exhibited while we were eating our eggs in bacon as
Speaker 1: interesting relics that he had taken a few days ago
Speaker 1: from the feet of a drowned seaman wash ashore, ask
Speaker 1: me if we had seen a four ord galley going
Speaker 1: up with the tide. When I told him no, he
Speaker 1: said she must have gone down then, and yet she
Speaker 1: took up too when she left there. They must have
Speaker 1: thought better on it for some reason or other, said
Speaker 1: the jack, and gone down a four ord galley? Did
Speaker 1: you say, said I? A four said the jack, and
Speaker 1: too sitters? Did they come ashore? Here? They put in
Speaker 1: with a stone two gallon jar for some beer. I'd
Speaker 1: have been glad to pison the beer myself, said the jack,
Speaker 1: Or put some rattling physic in it. Why I know why,
Speaker 1: said the jack. He spoke in a slushy voice, as
Speaker 1: if much mud had washed into his throat. He thinks,
Speaker 1: said the landlord, a weakly meditative man with a pale eye,
Speaker 1: who seemed to rely greatly on his jack. He thinks
Speaker 1: they was what they wasn't I knows what I thinks,
Speaker 1: observed the Jack. You think's customs us, jack, said the landlord.
Speaker 1: I do, said the jack. Then you're wrong, Jack, am I?
Speaker 1: In the infinite meaning of his reply and his boundless
Speaker 1: confidence in his views, that jack took one of his
Speaker 1: bloated shoes off, looked into it, knocked a few stones
Speaker 1: out of it on the kitchen floor, and put it
Speaker 1: on again. He did this with the air of a
Speaker 1: jack who was so right that he could afford to
Speaker 1: do anything Why what do you make out that they'd
Speaker 1: done with their buttons? Then Jack asked the landlord, vacillating weakly,
Speaker 1: done with their buttons? Returned the jack chucked them overboard,
Speaker 1: swallered him, sewed them to come up small salad, done
Speaker 1: with their buttons? Don't be cheeky, Jack, remonstrated the landlord
Speaker 1: in a melancholy and pathetic way. A custom us officer
Speaker 1: knows what to do with his buttons, said the jack,
Speaker 1: repeating the obnoxious word with the greatest contempt, when they
Speaker 1: comes betwixt him and his own light a and two sitters.
Speaker 1: Don't go hanging and hovering up with one tide and
Speaker 1: down with another, and both with and against another, without
Speaker 1: there being custom us at the bottom of it, saying
Speaker 1: which he went out in disdain, and the landlord, having
Speaker 1: no one to reply upon, found it impracticable to pursue
Speaker 1: the subject. The dialogue made us all uneasy, and me
Speaker 1: very uneasy. The dismal wind was muttering round the house,
Speaker 1: the tide was flapping at the shore, and I had
Speaker 1: a feeling that we were caged and threatened. A four
Speaker 1: oared galley hovering about in so unusual a way as
Speaker 1: to attract. This notice was an ugly circumstance that I
Speaker 1: could not get rid of. When I had induced provis
Speaker 1: to go up to bed, I went outside with my
Speaker 1: two companions. Star top. By this time knew the state
Speaker 1: of the case, and held another council. Whether we should
Speaker 1: remain at the house until near the steamer's time, which
Speaker 1: would be about one in the afternoon, or whether we
Speaker 1: should put off early in the morning, was the question
Speaker 1: we discussed on the whole. We deemed it the better
Speaker 1: course to lie where we were until within an hour
Speaker 1: or so of the steamer's time, and then to get
Speaker 1: out in her track and drift easily with the tide.
Speaker 1: Having settled to do this, we returned into the house
Speaker 1: and went to bed. I lay down with the greater
Speaker 1: part of my clothes on, and slept well for a
Speaker 1: few hours. When I awoke, the wind had risen, and
Speaker 1: the sign of the house the ship was creaking and
Speaker 1: banging about with noises that startled me. Rising softly for
Speaker 1: my charge. Lay fast asleep, I looked out of the window.
Speaker 1: It commanded the causeway where we had hauled up our boat,
Speaker 1: and as my eyes adapted themselves to the light of
Speaker 1: the clouded moon, I saw two men looking into her.
Speaker 1: They passed by under the window, looking at nothing else,
Speaker 1: And they did did not go down to the landing place,
Speaker 1: which I could discern to be empty, but struck across
Speaker 1: the marsh in the direction of the nore. My first
Speaker 1: impulse was to call up Herbert and show him the
Speaker 1: two men going away, but reflecting before I got into
Speaker 1: his room, which was at the back of the house,
Speaker 1: and had joined mine that he and star Top had
Speaker 1: had a harder day than I and were fatigued, I forbore.
Speaker 1: Going back to my window. I could see the two
Speaker 1: men moving over the marsh in that light. However, I
Speaker 1: soon lost them, and, feeling very cold, lay down to
Speaker 1: think of the matter, and fell asleep again. We were
Speaker 1: up early. As we walked to and fro, all four
Speaker 1: together before breakfast, I deemed it right to recount what
Speaker 1: I had seen again. Our charge was the least anxious
Speaker 1: of the party. It was very likely that the men
Speaker 1: belonged to the custom house, he said quietly, and that
Speaker 1: they had no thought of us. I tried to persuade
Speaker 1: myself that it was so, as indeed it might easily be. However,
Speaker 1: I proposed that he and I should walk away together
Speaker 1: to a distant point we could see, and that the
Speaker 1: boat should take us aboard there, or as near there
Speaker 1: as might prove feasible at about noon, this being considered
Speaker 1: a good precaution. Soon after breakfast, he and I set forth,
Speaker 1: without saying anything. At the tavern. He smoked his pipe
Speaker 1: as we went along, and sometimes stopped to clap me
Speaker 1: on the shoulder. One would have supposed that it was
Speaker 1: I who was in danger, not he, and that he
Speaker 1: was reassuring me. We spoke very little. As we approached
Speaker 1: the point. I begged him to remain in a sheltered
Speaker 1: place while I went on to reconnoiter, for it was
Speaker 1: towards it that the men had passed in the night.
Speaker 1: He complied, and I went on alone. There was no
Speaker 1: boat off the point, nor any boat drop up anywhere
Speaker 1: near it, nor were there any signs of the men
Speaker 1: having embarked there, But to be sure, the tide was high,
Speaker 1: and there might have been some footprints under water. When
Speaker 1: he looked out from his shelter in the distance and
Speaker 1: saw that I waved my hat to him to come up,
Speaker 1: he rejoined me, and there we waited, sometimes lying on
Speaker 1: the bank, wrapped in our coats, and sometimes moving about
Speaker 1: to warm ourselves, until we saw our boat coming round.
Speaker 1: We got aboard easily and rowed out into the track
Speaker 1: of the steamer. By that time it wanted but ten
Speaker 1: minutes of one o'clock, and we began to look out
Speaker 1: for her smoke. But it was half past one before
Speaker 1: we saw her smoke, and soon afterwards we saw behind
Speaker 1: it the smoke of another steamer, as they were coming
Speaker 1: on at full speed. We got the two bags ready
Speaker 1: and took that opportunity of saying good bye to Herbert
Speaker 1: and startop. We'd all shaken hands cordially, and neither Herbert's
Speaker 1: eyes nor mine were quite dry when I saw a
Speaker 1: four oared galley shoot out from under the bank, but
Speaker 1: a little way ahead of us, and row out into
Speaker 1: the same track. A stretch of shore had been as
Speaker 1: yet between us and the steamer's smoke, by reason of
Speaker 1: the bend and wind of the river, But now she
Speaker 1: was visible coming head on. I called to Herbert in
Speaker 1: star top to keep before the tide, that she might
Speaker 1: see us lying by for her, and I had durd
Speaker 1: provis to sit quite still wrapped in his cloak. He
Speaker 1: answered cheerily trust to me, dear boy, and sat like
Speaker 1: a statue. Meantime, the galley, which was very skillfully handled,
Speaker 1: had crossed us, let us come up with her, and
Speaker 1: fallen alongside, leaving just room enough for the play of
Speaker 1: the oars. She kept alongside, drifting when we drifted, and
Speaker 1: pulling a stroke or two when we pulled of the
Speaker 1: two sitters. One held the rudder lines and looked at
Speaker 1: us attentively, as did all the rowers. The other sitter
Speaker 1: was wrapped up much as provis was, and seemed to
Speaker 1: shrink and whisper some instruction to the steerer as he
Speaker 1: looked at us. Not a word was spoken in either boat.
Speaker 1: Startop could make out after a few minutes which steamer
Speaker 1: was first, and gave me the word Hamburg in a
Speaker 1: low voice. As we sat face to face. She was
Speaker 1: nearing us very fast, and the beating of her paddles
Speaker 1: grew louder and louder. I felt as if her shadow
Speaker 1: were absolutely upon us. When the galley hailed us, I answered,
Speaker 1: you have a return transport. There said the man who
Speaker 1: held the lines. That's the man wrapped in the cloak.
Speaker 1: His name is Abel Magwitch. Otherwise provis I apprehend that
Speaker 1: man and call upon him to surrender, and you to assist.
Speaker 1: At the same moment, without giving any audible direction to
Speaker 1: his crew, he ran the galley abroad of us. They
Speaker 1: had pulled one sudden stroke ahead, had got their oars in,
Speaker 1: had run athwart us, and were holding on to our
Speaker 1: gunwale before we knew what they were doing. This caused
Speaker 1: great confusion on board the steamer. And I heard them
Speaker 1: calling to us, and heard the order given to stop
Speaker 1: the paddles, and heard them stop, but felt her driving
Speaker 1: down upon us irresistibly. In the same moment, I saw
Speaker 1: the steersman of the galley lay his hand on his
Speaker 1: prisoner's shoulder, and saw that both boats were swinging round
Speaker 1: when the force of the tide, And saw that all
Speaker 1: hands on board the steamer were running forward quite frantically.
Speaker 1: Still in the same moment, I saw the prisoners start up,
Speaker 1: lean across his captor, and pull the cloak from the
Speaker 1: neck of the shrinking sitter in the galley. Still in
Speaker 1: the same moment, I saw that the face disclosed was
Speaker 1: the face of the other convict of long ago. Still
Speaker 1: in the same moment, I saw the face tilt backward,
Speaker 1: with a white terror on it that I shall never forget,
Speaker 1: And heard a great cry on board the steamer, and
Speaker 1: a loud splash in the water, and felt the boat
Speaker 1: sink from under me. It was but for an instant
Speaker 1: that I seemed to struggle with a thousand mill wheirs
Speaker 1: and a thousand flashes of light. That instant past I
Speaker 1: was taken on board the galley. Herbert was there, and
Speaker 1: star Top was there, but our boat was gone, and
Speaker 1: the two convicts were gone. What with the cries aboard
Speaker 1: the steamer, and the furious blowing off of her steam,
Speaker 1: and her driving on and our driving on, I could
Speaker 1: not at first distinguish sky from water, or shore from shore.
Speaker 1: But the crew of the galley right at her with
Speaker 1: great speed, and pulling certain swift, strong strokes ahead, lay
Speaker 1: upon their oars, every man looking silently and eagerly at
Speaker 1: the water. Astern. Presently a dark object was seen in it,
Speaker 1: bearing towards us on the tide. No man spoke, but
Speaker 1: the steersman held up his hand, and all softly backed water,
Speaker 1: and kept the boat straight and true before it. As
Speaker 1: it came nearer, I saw it to be Magwitch swimming,
Speaker 1: but not swimming freely. He was taken on board, and
Speaker 1: instantly manacled at the wrists and ankles. The galley was
Speaker 1: kept steady, and the silent, eager lookout at the water
Speaker 1: was resumed. But the Rotterdam steamer now came up, and,
Speaker 1: apparently not understanding what had happened, came on at speed.
Speaker 1: By the time she had been hailed and stopped, both
Speaker 1: steamers were drifting away from us, and we were rising
Speaker 1: and falling in a troubled wake of water. The lookout
Speaker 1: was kept long after all was still again, and the
Speaker 1: two steamers were gone, but everybody knew that it was hopeless.
Speaker 1: Now at length we gave it up and pulled under
Speaker 1: the shore towards the tavern we had lately left, where
Speaker 1: we were received with no little surprise. Here I was
Speaker 1: able to get some comforts for Magwitch provis no longer,
Speaker 1: who had received some very severe injury in the chest
Speaker 1: and a deep cut in the head. He told me
Speaker 1: that he believed himself to have gone under the keel
Speaker 1: of the steamer and to have been struck on the
Speaker 1: head in rising the injury to his chest, which rendered
Speaker 1: his breathing extremely painful. He thought he had received against
Speaker 1: the side of the galley. He added that he did
Speaker 1: not pretend to say what he might or might not
Speaker 1: have done to Copysen, but that in the moment of
Speaker 1: his laying his hand on his cloak to identify him,
Speaker 1: that villain had staggered up and staggered back, and they
Speaker 1: had both gone overboard together when the sudden wrenching of
Speaker 1: him magwitch out of our boat, and the endeavor of
Speaker 1: his captor to keep him in it had capsized us.
Speaker 1: He told me in a whisper that they had gone
Speaker 1: down fiercely, locked in each other's arms, and that there
Speaker 1: had been a struggle under water, and that he had disengaged,
Speaker 1: aged himself, struck out, and swum away. I never had
Speaker 1: any reason to doubt the exact truth of what he
Speaker 1: thus told me. The officer who steered the galley gave
Speaker 1: the same account of their going overboard. When I asked
Speaker 1: this officer's permission to change the prisoner's wet clothes by
Speaker 1: purchasing any spare garments I could get at the public house,
Speaker 1: he gave it readily, merely observing that he must take
Speaker 1: charge of everything his prisoner had about him. So the
Speaker 1: pocket book, which had once been in my hands passed
Speaker 1: into the officers. He further gave me leave to accompany
Speaker 1: the prisoner to London, but declined to accord that grace
Speaker 1: to my two friends. The jack at the ship was
Speaker 1: instructed where the drowned men had gone down, and undertook
Speaker 1: to search for the body in the places where it
Speaker 1: was likeliest to come ashore. His interest in its recovery
Speaker 1: seemed to me to be much heightened when he heard
Speaker 1: that it had stockings on. Probably he it took about
Speaker 1: a dozen drowned men to fit him out completely, and
Speaker 1: that may have been the reason why the different articles
Speaker 1: of his dress were in various stages of decay. We
Speaker 1: remained at the public house until the tide turned, and
Speaker 1: then Magwitch was carried down to the galley and put
Speaker 1: on board. Herbert and Startop were to get to London
Speaker 1: by land as soon as they could. We had a
Speaker 1: doleful parting, and when I took my place by Magwitch's side,
Speaker 1: I felt that that was my place henceforth while he lived.
Speaker 1: For now my repugnance to him had all melted away.
Speaker 1: And in the hunted, wounded, shackled creature who held my
Speaker 1: hand in his I only saw a man who had
Speaker 1: meant to be my benefactor, and who had felt affectionately, gratefully,
Speaker 1: and generously towards me with great constancy through a series
Speaker 1: of years, I only saw in him a much better
Speaker 1: man than I had been to Joe. His breathing became
Speaker 1: more DIFFICUT called him painful as the night drew on,
Speaker 1: and often he could not repress a groan. I tried
Speaker 1: to rest him on the arm I could use in
Speaker 1: any easy position. But it was dreadful to think that
Speaker 1: I could not be sorry at heart for his being
Speaker 1: badly hurt. Since it was unquestionably best that he should die,
Speaker 1: that there were still living people enough who were able
Speaker 1: and willing to identify him, I could not doubt that
Speaker 1: he would be leniently treated. I could not hope he
Speaker 1: who had been presented in the worst light at his trial,
Speaker 1: who had since broken prison and been tried again, who
Speaker 1: had returned from transportation under a life sentence, and who
Speaker 1: had occasioned the death of the man who was the
Speaker 1: cause of his arrest. As we returned toward the setting
Speaker 1: sun we had yesterday left behind us, and as the
Speaker 1: stream of our hopes seemed all running back, I told
Speaker 1: him how grieved I was to think that he had
Speaker 1: come home for my sake. Dear boy, he answered, I'm
Speaker 1: quite content to take my chance. I've seen my boy,
Speaker 1: and he can be a gentleman without me. No, I
Speaker 1: had thought about that while we have been there side
Speaker 1: by side. No, apart from any inclinations of my own,
Speaker 1: I understood Wemmick's hint. Now I foresaw that being convicted,
Speaker 1: his possessions will be forfeited to the crown. Lookye here,
Speaker 1: dear boy, said he. It's best as a gentleman should
Speaker 1: not be knowed to belong to me. Now, only come
Speaker 1: to see me as if you come by chance a longer. Wemmick,
Speaker 1: Sit where I can see you when I am swore
Speaker 1: to for the last of many times, and I don't
Speaker 1: ask no more. I will never stir from your side,
Speaker 1: said I, when I am suffered to be near you,
Speaker 1: Please God, I will be as true to you as
Speaker 1: you have been to me. I felt his hand tremble
Speaker 1: as it held mine, and he turned his face away
Speaker 1: as he lay in the bottom of the boat, and
Speaker 1: I heard that old sound in his throat softened now
Speaker 1: like all the rest of him. It was a good
Speaker 1: thing that he had touched this point, for it put
Speaker 1: into my mind what I might not otherwise have thought
Speaker 1: of until too late. That he need never know how
Speaker 1: his hopes of enriching me had perished. End of chapter