human
I say overside is the only place. A devil's name, what do you want of a pisstail boy on such an errand?
gpt
Watch that tongue, Judah. Watch it, man, against the day the rations'll run short and I'll be a-mind to cut it off and ram it down your gullet for amusement and nourishment, now that's no lie.
human
I said nothing, only spoke m' futtering mind.
gpt
Good. You may do it again. You may speak up plain and tell me who's captain of this bloody sloop.
human
You are, Mister Shawn. I'm only saying, a God-damn boy is no use here. Are you soft on the pup?
gpt
You could say one thing too much one day.
human
Dead in hell or alive in hell with one eye, what's the difference? Comes to that, though, betwix' you and me, maybe I won't be the one that dies. Be you going below--sir?
gpt
I am in a moment. You too.
human
Leaving only Joey and Manuel on deck, and Joey scared of a tiller he don't know yet, and the God-damn night blacker 'n a witch's box?
gpt
What's to be scared of, you fool?
human
I a'n't scared of nothing, never was. Piss on 'em all. What've I got left any man could take from me? You want Joey to pile up the tub on Noddle's Island it's no beshitten difference to me and you know it.
gpt
Noddle's is it? You're daft. We're miles south of it, and clear of Dorchester Neck too, and nothing to watch but a sweet wide-open sea. Steady as she goes, Joey Mills! Why, Judah, man, I can feel and smell the sea and the land in the dark, the way they lie.
human
I'll ever recall how Quelch give you a rope's end once for that same mad Irish brag. Nobody can feel land in the dark.
gpt
Mother of God, what I put up with from you! Peace on it, Judah.... Keep your eye sharp for riding lights, Manuel--any lights. You won't see 'em, and yet you might. Close 'em just once, any more 'n you need to blink, and you'll hear old Shawn speak in a manner unkind. That's my boy, Manuel--steady as she goes! O the fair night, and we better off without a moon!... Well, Judah, well--say I brought the boy on impulse, though it's not that entirely. I never planned it, that I did not, but didn't I find him, the poor puzzled thing, hiding in the doorway where I was a-mind to hide me own self for a last look at _Artemis_ going down the bay? And didn't I learn the way he'd set his own heart on going with her, and Kenny played him false too, with promises and then a chopping and a changing? God damn the old fart, I could puke to think of the way I all but licked the boots of him for a berth on her, and then to be shoved aside, shoved aside! We'll learn how far they'll be shoving old Shawn aside! Why, Ben's heart was set on her, so it was, he was that full of it you wouldn't know the thing he'd do, to be sailing on her--wisha, he shall!
human
If he was that hot for it why'd you bother to drug him?
gpt
This fishy tub will not have been his notion of going to sea.
human
What are you laughing at now?
gpt
You wouldn't know. There's a sailor in that boy, Judah. There's an explorer in that boy.
human
Ah! Still beating that dead horse.
gpt
Steady as she goes, Judah! You know how much you can say to me--don't exceed! Ah, at that I might've persuaded him, seeing how sweet he come aboard of us here for a gossip with old Shawn, and was telling some of his boy's troubles but not all, not all, and believing everything old Shawn was a-mind to tell him over the little drinks, and the fish stink, why, he wasn't minding it, and the lantern light winking on the pretty face of him----
human
Shit, you're drunk.
gpt
Drunk on sea water, Judah, you with your leather heart, you wouldn't know. He might'a' come along of his own will, now that's no lie. He was halfway so minded. He did believe I'd been given command, for a quick fishing trip to the Banks and so home--I think he did. But there'd have been much to explain later, and the devil with all explaining, the drop of opium didn't go amiss and will do him no hurt.... Judah, you fool, don't you know he saw you there at the Lion--and you that clumsy, and giving him your dead-window look, the way you might as well have written a letter to their Select Watch, that you might.
human
What if he did? The others is bought and paid for.
gpt
You'll run me no such errand again, Judah--nor wouldn't've then, had not my voice told me there was need. Mother of God, to think I may have misheard, and a man died for nothing! But it can't be so.
human
Voice?
gpt
You wouldn't know. How many times did you strike?
human
I don't know.
gpt
I do. Thirteen. And he didn't die till morning. He lived to speak.
human
He's dead enough now, and never spoke of me. He never saw me nor Tom. Tom got the rag on his eyes and I came at him from behind. Thirteen, was it?
gpt
It was. Judah, I think you've never been as close to your Maker as you be this moment. You bungled that thing. He suffered, and no need, and now it seems there was no profit in the thing at all.
human
Easy, Shawn! We'll take _Artemis_ the easier and him not there.
gpt
True enough. All the same I'm trying--while you're here so near the rail and a weak puky thing too--I'm trying to recall if you had any part in persuading me to it.
human
You're mad, Shawn. You know I never....
gpt
I think you hadn't. God help you if ever I'm receiving different instruction!... Come below, Judah. I'll show you something. I'll discover if there's any juice in that leather heart at all. Mind the hatch, you clumsy son of a bitch! And go in front--I'm not so green you'll ever find yourself behind me with a rag over me eyes.... Hath he been quiet, Dummy? Shake your head for ay or no. Dummy's a good man, Dummy is. Mind if I'm touching your hump for luck, Dummy? And that headshake is ay?--good enough. Look here, Judas----
human
Judah.
gpt
Touchy, man? Look here, and look well. Nay, drink first, there's something left here, and don't cut your stupid eye at me! I'm drinking first from the same bottle, am I not? I say, drink it!... Now look here: this is the mortal image and presentment of a man, Judah. O the quiet sleep! Look on this chin, rounded like a woman's and firm with all the fair power of a god! But you can't see, you haven't the eye to see or the mind to know. Look on this hand, how firm already, and will it not be all the nobler when its wondrous jointure is acquainted with the rope, and the leap of a tiller and the burning of salt and wind? This is a man. This is the man who'll go with me, and be my friend, and stand by me in the new world when the rest of you are stinking carrion. And yet it hurts me a little, that I should be taking him away from his brother who loved him.... Go back on deck, Judah. Your one eye sees nothing. Go back on deck. Well, lively, man! I'm following.... Come for'd. We must have a feather under the bow.
human
You're drunk and raving. I've no mind to go for'd unless you make it an order, Shawn, and take care how you do it.
gpt
Then bide here aft, seeing I care nothing what you think or do, and your one eye blinder than the one that's gone.... Any lights, Manuel?
human
No, sir.
gpt
That's well enough. She'll be far ahead. Belike we sha'n't see her till a certain day when we're standing on and off outside Sherburne. We'll see her then, Manuel, boy, but she won't see us until the time I choose. And Tom Ball and French Jack aboard her, they'll know the time I choose, they'll see us come out of the north long before the others do, I don't care who's aloft. Good men, those, Manuel. Can you hear the water, Manuel? What does it say, Manuel?
human
I don't know, Mr. Shawn.
gpt
But I know. It saith, there be many islands.