Speaker 1: Chapter fifty four of Great Expectations. This is a LibriVox recording.
Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. This
Speaker 1: recording is by Mark Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina. Great
Speaker 1: Expectations by Charles Dickens, chapter fifty four. It was one
Speaker 1: of those March days when the sun shines hot and
Speaker 1: the wind blows cold, when it is summer in the
Speaker 1: light and winter in the shade. We had our pea
Speaker 1: coats with us, and I took a bag of all
Speaker 1: my worldly possessions. I took no more than the few
Speaker 1: necessaries that filled the bag. Where I might go, what
Speaker 1: I might do, or when I might return were questions
Speaker 1: utterly unknown to me. Nor did I vex my mind
Speaker 1: with them, for it was wholly set on provis's safety.
Speaker 1: I only wondered for the passing moment, as they 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 solid terry,
Speaker 1: where the water side inhabitants are very few, and where
Speaker 1: lone public houses are scattered here and there, of which
Speaker 1: we could choose one for a resting place. There we
Speaker 1: meant to lie by all night. The steamer for Hamburg
Speaker 1: and the steamer for Rotterdam would start from London at
Speaker 1: about nine on Thursday morning. We should know at what
Speaker 1: time to expect them according to where we were, and
Speaker 1: would hail the first, so that if by any accident
Speaker 1: we were not taken aboard, we should have another chance.
Speaker 1: We knew the distinguishing marks of each vessel. The relief
Speaker 1: of being at last engaged in the execution of the
Speaker 1: purpose was so great to me that I felt it
Speaker 1: difficult to realize the condition in which I had been
Speaker 1: a few hours before. The crisp bare, the sunlight, the
Speaker 1: movement on the river, and the moving river itself, the
Speaker 1: road that ran with us, seeming to sympathize with us,
Speaker 1: animate us, and encourage us on, freshened me with new hope.
Speaker 1: I felt mortified to be of so little use in
Speaker 1: the boat, But there were few better oarsmen than my
Speaker 1: two friends, and they rowed with a steady stroke that
Speaker 1: was to last all day. At that time, the steam
Speaker 1: traffic on the Thames was far below its present extent,
Speaker 1: and the watermen's boats were far more numerous. Of barges, sailing,
Speaker 1: colliers 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 score were 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 moorings 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 in a 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 ye, thank ye again. Among
Speaker 1: the tiers of shipping in and out, avoiding rusty chain cables,
Speaker 1: frayed hempen hawsers and bobbing buoys, 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 his 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, shipbuilders yards, saws going
Speaker 1: at timber, clashing, engines going at things unknown, pumps going
Speaker 1: in leaky ships, capstans going ships going out to sea,
Speaker 1: and unintelligible sea creatures, roaring curses over the bulwarks that
Speaker 1: responded lightermen in and out out at last upon the
Speaker 1: clearer river, where the ship's boys might take their fenders
Speaker 1: in no longer fishing in troubled waters with them over
Speaker 1: the side, and where the festooned sails might fly out
Speaker 1: to the wind at the stairs where we had taken
Speaker 1: him aboard. And ever since I had looked warily for
Speaker 1: any token of our being suspected, I had seen none.
Speaker 1: We certainly had not been, And at that time, as
Speaker 1: certainly we were not either attended or followed by any boat.
Speaker 1: If we had been waited on by any boat, I
Speaker 1: should have run into shore and have obliged her to
Speaker 1: go on, or to make her purpose evident. But we
Speaker 1: held our own without any appearance of molestation. He had
Speaker 1: his boat cloak on him, and it looked, as I
Speaker 1: have said, a natural part of the scene. It was remarkable,
Speaker 1: but 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 dear boy, and have my smoke.
Speaker 1: Ar'd 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 to the other
Speaker 1: side of the world. I was always a lookin to
Speaker 1: this side, and it come flat to be there. For
Speaker 1: all I was a growing rich everybody knowed Magwitch, and
Speaker 1: Magwitch could come and Magwitch could go, and nobody's head
Speaker 1: will be troubled about him. They ain't so easy concerning
Speaker 1: me here, dear boy, wouldn't be leastwise if they knowed
Speaker 1: where I was. If all goes well, said I, you
Speaker 1: will be perfectly free and safe again within a few hours. Well,
Speaker 1: he returned, drawing a long breath. I hope so, and
Speaker 1: think so. He dipped his hand in the water over
Speaker 1: the boat's gunnel and said, smiling with that softened air
Speaker 1: upon him, which was not new to me. Ay, I
Speaker 1: suppose I think so, dear boy. We'd be puzzled to
Speaker 1: be more quiet and easy going than we are at present.
Speaker 1: But 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 beit
Speaker 1: on it, dear boy. It comes a flowing on so quiet,
Speaker 1: and of that there rippling at the boat's head, making
Speaker 1: a sort of a Sunday tune. Maybe I'm growing a
Speaker 1: trifle old. Besides, he put his pipe back in his
Speaker 1: mouth with an undisturbed expression of face, and sat as
Speaker 1: composed and contented as if we were already out of England.
Speaker 1: Yet he was as to a word of advice as
Speaker 1: if he had been in constant terror. For when we
Speaker 1: ran ashore to get some bottles of beer into the boat,
Speaker 1: and he was stepping out, I hinted that I thought
Speaker 1: he would be safest where he was, and he said,
Speaker 1: do you, dear boy, and quietly sat down again. The
Speaker 1: air felt cold upon the river, but it was a
Speaker 1: bright day, and the sunshine was very cheering. The tide
Speaker 1: ran strong. I took care to lose none of it,
Speaker 1: and our steady stroke carried us on thoroughly well by
Speaker 1: imperceptible degrees. As the tide ran out, we lost more
Speaker 1: and more of the nearer woods and hills, and dropped
Speaker 1: lower and lower between the muddy banks. But the tide
Speaker 1: was yet with us when we were off Gravesend. As
Speaker 1: our charge was wrapped in his cloak, I purposely passed
Speaker 1: within a boat or two's length of the floating custom house,
Speaker 1: and so out to catch the stream alongside of two
Speaker 1: emigrant ships, and under the bows of a large transport,
Speaker 1: with troops on the forecastle looking down at us. And
Speaker 1: soon the tide began to slacken, and the craft lying
Speaker 1: at anchor to swing, and presently they had all swung round,
Speaker 1: and the ships that were taking advantage of the new
Speaker 1: tide to get up to the pool began to crowd
Speaker 1: upon us in a fleet, and we kept under the
Speaker 1: shore as much out of the strength of the tide
Speaker 1: now as we could, standing carefully off from low shallows
Speaker 1: and mud banks. Our oarsmen were so fresh by dint
Speaker 1: of having occasionally let her drive with the tide for
Speaker 1: a minute or two, that a quarter of an hour's
Speaker 1: rest proved full as much as they wanted. We got
Speaker 1: ashore among some slippery stones while we ate and drank
Speaker 1: what we had with us, and looked about. It was
Speaker 1: like my own marsh country, flat and monotonous and with
Speaker 1: a dim horizon, while the winding river turned and turned,
Speaker 1: and the great floating buoys upon it turned and turned,
Speaker 1: and everything else seemed stranded and still. For now, the
Speaker 1: last of the fleet of ships was round the last
Speaker 1: low point we had headed, and the last green barge
Speaker 1: straw laden with brown sail had followed, And some ballast
Speaker 1: liders shaped like a child's first rude imitation of a boat,
Speaker 1: lay low in the mud, and a little squat shoal
Speaker 1: lighthouse on open piles stood crippled in the mud, on
Speaker 1: stilts and crutches, and slimy stakes stuck out of the mud,
Speaker 1: and slimy stones stuck out of the mud, and red
Speaker 1: landmarks and tide marks stuck out of the mud, and
Speaker 1: an old landing stage and an old roofless building slipped
Speaker 1: into the mud, and all about us was stagnation and mud.
Speaker 1: We pushed off again and made what way we could.
Speaker 1: It was much harder worked now, but Herbert and star
Speaker 1: Top persevered and rowed and rowed and rowed until the
Speaker 1: sun went down. By that time the river had lifted
Speaker 1: us a little so that we could see above the
Speaker 1: bank there was the red sun on the low level
Speaker 1: of the shore in a purple haze fast deepening into black,
Speaker 1: And there was the solitary flat marsh, and far away
Speaker 1: there were the rising grounds, between which and us there
Speaker 1: seemed to be no life save here and there in
Speaker 1: the foreground of melancholy gull. As the night was fast falling,
Speaker 1: and as the moon being past the full would not
Speaker 1: rise early, we held a little council, a short one,
Speaker 1: for clearly our course was to lie by at the
Speaker 1: first lonely tavern we could find. So they plied their
Speaker 1: oars once more, and I looked out for anything like
Speaker 1: a house. Thus we held on, speaking little for four
Speaker 1: or five dull miles. It was very cold, and a
Speaker 1: collier coming by us with her galley fire smoking and flaring,
Speaker 1: looked like a comfortable home. The night was as dark
Speaker 1: by this time as it would be until morning, and
Speaker 1: what light we had seemed to come more from the
Speaker 1: river than the sky, as the oars, in their dipping
Speaker 1: struck at a few reflected stars. At this dismal time,
Speaker 1: we were evidently all possessed by the idea that we
Speaker 1: were followed. As the tide made it flapped heavily at
Speaker 1: irregular intervals against the shore, and whenever such a sound came,
Speaker 1: one or other of us was sure to start and
Speaker 1: look in that direction. Here and there the set of
Speaker 1: the current had worn down the bank into a little creek.
Speaker 1: And we were all suspicious of such places and eyed
Speaker 1: them nervously. Sometimes what was that ripple? One of us
Speaker 1: would say in a low voice, or another is that
Speaker 1: a boat yonder? And afterwards we would fall into a
Speaker 1: dead silence, and I would sit impatiently thinking with what
Speaker 1: an unusual amount of noise the oars worked in the fowls.
Speaker 1: At length we descried a light and a roof, and presently,
Speaker 1: afterwards ran alongside a little causeway made of stones that
Speaker 1: had been picked up hard by leaving the rest in
Speaker 1: the boat. I stepped ashore and found the light to
Speaker 1: be in the window of a public house. It was
Speaker 1: a dirty place enough, and I dare say not unknown
Speaker 1: to smuggling adventurers. But there was a good fire in
Speaker 1: the kitchen, and there were eggs and bacon to eat,
Speaker 1: and various liquors to drink. Also, there were two double
Speaker 1: bedded rooms, such as they were. The landlord said no
Speaker 1: other company was in the house than the landlord, his wife,
Speaker 1: and a grizzled mail creature, the Jack of the little causeway,
Speaker 1: who was as slimy and smeary as if he had
Speaker 1: been a low water mark too. With this assistant, I
Speaker 1: went down to the boat again, and we all came
Speaker 1: ashore and brought out the oars and rudder and boat
Speaker 1: hook 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 bam boxes under the beds than I should have
Speaker 1: thought the family possessed. But we considered ourselves well off,
Speaker 1: notwithstanding 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 and 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 fore 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: two 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
Speaker 1: done with their buttons? Then, Jack asked the landlord, vacillating weakly,
Speaker 1: done with their buttons? Returned the jack, chucked em overboard,
Speaker 1: swallered em sewed em 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. Accustom us officer knows
Speaker 1: what to do with his buttons, said the jack, repeating
Speaker 1: the obnoxious word with the greatest contempt. When they comes
Speaker 1: betwixt him and his own light, A four and two sitters,
Speaker 1: don't go hanging and hovering up with one tide and
Speaker 1: down with another. I'm 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 dialog 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 fore
Speaker 1: ared galley hovered 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 this 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 our 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 no noises that startled me, rising softly
Speaker 1: for my charge lay fast asleep. I looked out of
Speaker 1: the window. It commanded the causeway where we had hauled
Speaker 1: up our boat, and as my eyes adapted themselves to
Speaker 1: the light of the clouded moon, I saw two men
Speaker 1: looking into her. They passed by under the window, looking
Speaker 1: at nothing else, and they did not go down to
Speaker 1: the landing place, which I could discern to be empty,
Speaker 1: but struck across the marsh in the direction of the nore.
Speaker 1: My first impulse was to call up Herbert and show
Speaker 1: him the two men going away, but reflecting before I
Speaker 1: got into his room, which was at the back of
Speaker 1: the house, and adjoined mine that he and star Top
Speaker 1: had had a harder day than I and were fatigued.
Speaker 1: I forbore. Going back to my window, I could see
Speaker 1: the two men moving over the marsh in that light. However,
Speaker 1: I soon lost them, and, feeling very cold, lay down
Speaker 1: to think of the matter, and fell asleep again. We
Speaker 1: were up early. As we walked to and fro, all
Speaker 1: four together before breakfast, I deemed it right to recount
Speaker 1: what I had seen. Again. Our charge was the least
Speaker 1: anxious of the party. It was very likely that the
Speaker 1: men belonged to the custom house, he said quietly, and
Speaker 1: that they had no thought of us. I tried to
Speaker 1: persuade myself that it was so, as indeed it might
Speaker 1: easily be. However, I proposed that he and I should
Speaker 1: walk away together to a distant point we could see,
Speaker 1: and that the boat should take us aboard there, or
Speaker 1: as near there as might prove feasible, at about noon,
Speaker 1: this being considered a good precaution. Soon after breakfast, he
Speaker 1: and I set forth, without saying anything. At the tavern.
Speaker 1: He smoked his pipe as we went along, and sometimes
Speaker 1: stopped to clap me on the shoulder. One would have
Speaker 1: supposed that it was I who was in danger, not he,
Speaker 1: and that he was reassuring me. We spoke very little.
Speaker 1: As we approached the point. I begged him to remain
Speaker 1: in a sheltered place while I went on to reconnoiter,
Speaker 1: for it was towards it that the men had passed
Speaker 1: in the night. He complied, and I went on alone.
Speaker 1: There was no boat off the point, nor any boat
Speaker 1: drawn up anywhere near it, nor were there any signs
Speaker 1: of the men having embarked there. But to be sure,
Speaker 1: the tide was high and there might have been some
Speaker 1: footprints under water. When he looked out from his shelter
Speaker 1: in the distance and saw that I waved my hat
Speaker 1: to him to come up, he rejoined me, and there
Speaker 1: we waited, sometimes lying on the bank, wrapped in our coats,
Speaker 1: and sometimes moving about to warm ourselves, until we saw
Speaker 1: our boat coming round. We got aboard easily and rowed
Speaker 1: out into the track of the steamer. By that time
Speaker 1: it wanted but ten minutes of one o'clock. We began
Speaker 1: to look out for her smoke, but it was half
Speaker 1: past one before we saw her smoke, and soon afterwards
Speaker 1: we saw behind it the smoke of another steamer, as
Speaker 1: they were coming on at full speed. We got the
Speaker 1: two bags ready and took that opportunity of saying good
Speaker 1: bye to Herbert and startop. We'd all shaken hands cordially,
Speaker 1: and neither Herbert's eyes nor mine were quite dry when
Speaker 1: I saw a four oared galley shoot out from under
Speaker 1: the bank, but a little way ahead of us, and
Speaker 1: row out into the same track. A stretch of shore
Speaker 1: had been as yet between us and the steamer's smoke,
Speaker 1: by reason of the bend and wind of the river.
Speaker 1: But now she was visible coming head on. I called
Speaker 1: to Herbert and star Top to keep before the tide,
Speaker 1: that she might see us lying by for her, and
Speaker 1: I had dured Provis to sit quite still, wrapped in
Speaker 1: his cloak. He answered cheerily, trust to me, dear boy,
Speaker 1: and sat like a statue. Meantime, the galley, which was
Speaker 1: very skillfully handled, had crossed us. Let us come up
Speaker 1: with her, and fallen alongside, leaving just room enough for
Speaker 1: the play of the oars. She kept alongside, drifting when
Speaker 1: we drifted, and pulling a stroke or two. When we
Speaker 1: pulled of the two sitters, one held the rudder lines
Speaker 1: and looked at us attentively, as did all the rowers.
Speaker 1: The other sitter was wrapped up much as Provis was,
Speaker 1: and seemed to shrink and whisper some instruction to the
Speaker 1: steerer as he looked at us. Not a word was
Speaker 1: spoken in either boat. Startop could make out after a
Speaker 1: few minutes which steamer was first, and gave me the
Speaker 1: word Hamburg in a low voice. As we sat face
Speaker 1: to face. She was nearing us very fast, and the
Speaker 1: beating of her paddles grew louder and louder. I felt
Speaker 1: as if her shadow were absolutely upon us. When the
Speaker 1: galley hailed us, I answered, you have a returned transport. There,
Speaker 1: said the man who held the lines. That's the man
Speaker 1: wrapped in the cloak. His name is Abel Magwitch. Otherwise
Speaker 1: provis I apprehend that man and call upon him to surrender,
Speaker 1: and you to assist. At the same moment, without giving
Speaker 1: any audible direction to his crew, he ran the galley
Speaker 1: abroad of us. They had pulled one sudden stroke ahead,
Speaker 1: had got their oars in, had run athwart us, and
Speaker 1: were holding on to our gunwale before we knew what
Speaker 1: they were doing. This caused great confusion on board the steamer.
Speaker 1: And I heard them calling to us, and heard the
Speaker 1: order given to stop the paddles, and heard them stop,
Speaker 1: but felt her driving down upon us irresistibly. In the
Speaker 1: same moment, I saw the steersman of the galley lay
Speaker 1: his hand on his prisoner's shoulder, and saw that both
Speaker 1: boats were swinging round when the force of the tide,
Speaker 1: and saw that all hands on board the sie steamer
Speaker 1: were running forward quite frantically. Still in the same moment,
Speaker 1: I saw the prisoners start up, lean across his captor
Speaker 1: and pull the cloak from the neck of the shrinking
Speaker 1: sitter in the galley. Still in the same moment, I
Speaker 1: saw that the face disclosed was the face of the
Speaker 1: other convict of long ago. Still in the same moment,
Speaker 1: I saw the face tilt backward, with a white terror
Speaker 1: on it that I shall never forget, And heard a
Speaker 1: great cry on board the steamer, and a loud splash
Speaker 1: in the water, and felt the boat sink from under me.
Speaker 1: It was but for an instant that I seemed to
Speaker 1: struggle with a thousand mill whears and a thousand flashes
Speaker 1: of light. That instant passed. I was taken on board
Speaker 1: the galley. Herbert was there, and star Top was there.
Speaker 1: But our boat was gone, and the two convicts were gone.
Speaker 1: What with the cries aboard the steamer and the furious
Speaker 1: blowing off of her steam, and her driving on and
Speaker 1: our driving on, could not at first distinguish sky from
Speaker 1: water or shore from shore. But the crew of the
Speaker 1: galley righted her with great speed, and pulling certain swift,
Speaker 1: strong strokes ahead, lay upon their oars, every man looking
Speaker 1: silently and eagerly at the water astern. Presently a dark
Speaker 1: object was seen in it, bearing towards us on the tide,
Speaker 1: no man spoke, but the steersman held up his hand
Speaker 1: in all softly backed water, and kept the boat straight
Speaker 1: and true before it. As it came nearer, I saw
Speaker 1: it to be Magwitch swimming, but not swimming freely. He
Speaker 1: was taken on board, and instantly manacled at the wrists
Speaker 1: and ankles. The galley was kept steady, and the silent,
Speaker 1: eager lookout at the water was resumed. But the Rotterdam
Speaker 1: steamer now came up, and, apparently not understanding what had happened,
Speaker 1: came on at speed. By the time she had been
Speaker 1: hailed and stopped, both steamers were drifting away from us,
Speaker 1: and we were rising and falling in a troubled wake
Speaker 1: of water. The lookout was kept long after all was
Speaker 1: still again, and the two steamers were gone, but everybody
Speaker 1: knew that it was hopeless. Now at length we gave
Speaker 1: it up and pulled under the shore towards the tavern
Speaker 1: we had lately left, where we were received with no
Speaker 1: little surprise. Here I was able to get some comforts
Speaker 1: for Magwitch, provis no longer, who had received some very
Speaker 1: severe injury in the chest and a deep cut in
Speaker 1: the head. He told me that he believed himself to
Speaker 1: have gone under the keel of the steamer, and to
Speaker 1: have been struck on the head in rising the injury
Speaker 1: to his chest, which rendered his breathing extremely painful, he
Speaker 1: thought he had received against the side of the galley.
Speaker 1: He added that he did not pretend to say what
Speaker 1: he might or might not have done to Copysen, but
Speaker 1: that in the moment of his laying his hand on
Speaker 1: his cloak to identify him, that villain had staggered up
Speaker 1: and staggered back, and they had both gone overboard together
Speaker 1: when the sudden wrenching of him magwitch out of our boat,
Speaker 1: and the endeavor of his captor to keep him in
Speaker 1: it had capsized us. He told me in a whisper
Speaker 1: that they had gone down fiercely, locked in each other's arms,
Speaker 1: and that there had been a struggle under water, and
Speaker 1: that he had disengaged himself, struck out, and swum away.
Speaker 1: I never had any reason to doubt the exact truth
Speaker 1: of what he thus told me. The officer who steered
Speaker 1: the galley gave the same account of their going overboard.
Speaker 1: When I asked this officer's permission to change the prisoner's
Speaker 1: wet clothes by purchasing any spare garments I could get
Speaker 1: at the public house. He gave it readily, merely observing
Speaker 1: that he must take charge of everything his prisoner had
Speaker 1: about him. So the pocket book, which had once been
Speaker 1: in my hands, passed into the officers. He further gave
Speaker 1: me leave to accompany the prisoner to London, but declined
Speaker 1: to accord that grace to my two friends. The jack
Speaker 1: at the ship was instructed where the drowned men had
Speaker 1: gone down, and undertook to search for the body in
Speaker 1: the places where it was likeliest to come ashore. His
Speaker 1: interest in its recovery seemed to me to be much
Speaker 1: heightened when he heard that it had stockings on. Probably
Speaker 1: it took about a dozen drowned men to fit him
Speaker 1: out completely, and that may have been the reason why
Speaker 1: the different articles of his dress were in various stages
Speaker 1: of decay. We remained at the public house until the
Speaker 1: tide turned, and then Magwitch was carried down to the
Speaker 1: galley and put on board. Herbert and Startop were to
Speaker 1: get to London by land as soon as they could.
Speaker 1: We had a doleful parting, and when I took my
Speaker 1: place by Magwitch's side, I felt that that was my
Speaker 1: place henceforth while he lived. For now my repugnance to
Speaker 1: him had all melted away. And in the hunted, wounded,
Speaker 1: shackled creature who held my hand in his, I only
Speaker 1: saw a man who had meant to be my benefactor,
Speaker 1: and who had felt affectionately, gratefully, and generously towards me
Speaker 1: with great constancy through a series of years. I only
Speaker 1: saw in him a much better man than I had
Speaker 1: been to Joe. His breathing became more difficult and painful
Speaker 1: as the night drew on, and often he could not
Speaker 1: repress a groan. I tried to rest him on the
Speaker 1: arm I could use in any easy position. But it
Speaker 1: was dreadful to think that I could not be sorry
Speaker 1: at heart for his being badly hurt. Since it was
Speaker 1: unquestionably best that he should die, that there were still
Speaker 1: living people enough who were able and willing to identify him,
Speaker 1: I could not doubt that he would be leniently treated.
Speaker 1: I could not hope he who had been presented in
Speaker 1: the worst light at his trial, who had since broken
Speaker 1: prison and been tried again, who had returned from transportation
Speaker 1: under a life sentence, and who had occasioned the death
Speaker 1: of the man who was the cause of his arrest.
Speaker 1: As we returned toward the setting sun we had yesterday
Speaker 1: left behind us, and as the stream of our hopes
Speaker 1: seemed all running back, I told him how grieved I
Speaker 1: was to think that he had come home for my sake.
Speaker 1: Dear boy, he answered, I'm quite content to take my chance.
Speaker 1: I've seen my boy, and he can be a gentleman
Speaker 1: without me. No, I had thought about that while we
Speaker 1: have been there side by side. No, apart from any
Speaker 1: inclinations of my own, I understood Wemmick's hint. Now I
Speaker 1: foresaw that being convicted, his possessions would be forfeited to
Speaker 1: the crown. Lookye here, dear boy, said he. It's best
Speaker 1: as a gentleman should not be knowed to belong to me. Now,
Speaker 1: only come to see me as if you come by
Speaker 1: chance a longer. Wemmick, Sit where I can see you
Speaker 1: when I am swore to for the last of many times,
Speaker 1: and I don't ask no more. I will never stir
Speaker 1: from your side, said I, when I am suffered to
Speaker 1: be near you, Please God, I will be as true
Speaker 1: to you as you have been to me. I felt
Speaker 1: his hand tremble as it held mine. And he turned
Speaker 1: his face away as he lay in the bottom of
Speaker 1: the boat, and I heard that old sound in his throat,
Speaker 1: softened now like all the rest of him. It was
Speaker 1: a good thing that he had touched this point, for
Speaker 1: it put into my mind what I might not otherwise
Speaker 1: have thought of until too late. That he need never
Speaker 1: know how his hopes of enriching me had perished. End
Speaker 1: of chapter