human
Another name was mentioned--a new bosun, Tom Ball--will that mean bosun of your ketch _Artemis_, Mr. Kenny? And could you or the Captain tell me anything of him?
gpt
I've met him only to shake hands. Peter?
human
Good sailor, said Captain Jenks thickly.
gpt
Obeys orders, works hard, keeps his mouth shut--more'n that I never ask of my men.
human
Another thing, Mr. Kenny, and I'll be on my way. Have you ever heard tell of one named Jack Marsh, or some say it should be Judah Marsh, or Judas?
gpt
Think back, sir, ten or eleven years. Eleven it is--'96. An occasion when a certain Captain Avery, or Every, alias Bridgeman and sometimes called Long Ben, was allowed to enter Boston, and that openly, to dicker for the sale of his plunder gotten under the black flag. To the great scandal, I must say, of any man who can tell a privateer from a gallows-bird, but so it was, Mr. Stoughton being acting Governor.
human
Mph, yes, and m'lord Bellomont as Governor had his Captain Kidd, yes yes. Of course, Mr. Derry, I remember Avery, as who would not?
gpt
We suffered much odious brawling in the town by Avery's men.
human
I recall it.
gpt
One of them, known then as Judah or Judas Marsh, did have his left eye gouged out in a brush with--umph--some of the ruder element. A glint in the brown eyes suggested he might not be wholly innocent after all.
human
It happened near my establishment, though I didn't witness it.
gpt
And I recall the roustabout who blinded him was flogged, and Marsh--(but wasn't it March, Mr. Derry?)--nursed the wound at the Alms House as an idle, drunken and disorderly person.
human
And escaped.
gpt
Oh?--that I'd forgotten. So many have done so, and we still continue to use the Alms House, damn the thing, because the House of Correction is not in fit posture to restrain ailing rats. And by the way, Constable, if the Meeting shall ever instruct the Selectmen and Justices in this particular, I predict nothing will come of it. Go on, pray.
human
Amen, sir. Yes, Marsh escaped after Captain Avery had gone his way. Later Marsh was seen, oh, here and there--Plymouth, Salem Village--alway with an evil reputation. And disappeared--for good, it was thought--about the time we began to hear tell of John Quelch. A month ago I received intelligence from a worthy man of my acquaintance at Gloucester, who is a justice of the peace and a man of substance.
gpt
I was obliged to serve a year once as constable, at Roxbury--mph--must confess that lieth further in the past than 1696. Onerous occupation. He smiled like a December thaw. Mr. Derry looked politely attentive and slightly sulky. Mr. Kenny sighed and obliged:
human
You heard, from your friend at Gloucester--?
gpt
I heard that this man Marsh--sometimes his name did appear as March, it's all one--had been hanging about there recent, seeking a berth with one of the fishing vessels, but because of his foul conversation and ugly habit, none would have him. My informant advised me that Marsh had left, possibly for Boston, and recommended I be watchful, seeing trouble follows this man as stink follows a polecat. Marsh, I hear, is quick with a knife, and nowadays they do call him Smiling Jack. I believe, sir, that thanks to this timely aid from Mr. Cory, we may be able to conclude the grievous happening of last night by persuading Mister Marsh to dance without benefit of a floor.
human
Still, what do we know, man? Mr. Kenny bleakly asked.
gpt
Item, he left the tavern when Dyckman did. Any man might have done so for any of a dozen innocent reasons.
human
Mr. Kenny, if Marsh be found anywhere in the town, I can detain and question him. Why, I dare say he'll be found before Mr. Dyckman must be buried. He shall be brought before the body, and does any man doubt the wounds will bleed?
gpt
May I be there!
human
Peter. He waited until the Captain turned to look at him.
gpt
Peter, I will not delay the sailing of _Artemis_. When she hath her cargo and her complement, and the tide is right, she'll go, sir, and landside justice no concern of hers.
human
Well, John--- Captain Jenks sighed cavernously.
gpt
Well, John.... For the dozenth time he rubbed at his flushed face as if cobwebs clung to it; his gaze wandered until it met Constable Derry's, and then he spoke more or less as to a friend:
human
Find him soon, Constable.
gpt
It's the hard thing such a man as Mr. Dyckman should die, and for what? The poor scrap of money he may have had with him--what's money beside a man's life, Mother of God?
human
I expect to find him soon enough, and you have the right to be present when he's examined. You understand, sir, there'll be no interference with the law, no cheating of the gallows, for except I be strangely deluded, the man will hang.
gpt
And that no great loss, I suppose, said Mr. Kenny. A tumbling of disorderly papers on the desk had threatened to submerge his gold-headed cane. He rescued it and rubbed the handle, that was shaped into an elfin woman's leg and thigh, against the dry sagging skin beneath his jaw.
human
But Jan will still be dead.
gpt
Mr. Kenny, surely you, sir, will not display a froward heart before the will of the Lord? We are insects before his footstool: we do what we may, more we cannot. Is it for us to question the judgment? Did not your friend himself commend his soul to God? He said: 'God's will be done!' Amen.
human
I am sure he said it. Mr. Kenny gazed at the Constable politely.
gpt
Mr. Dyckman was a Lutheran, by the way. If you find Marsh, and if his guilt be proven on him, I shall not protest his being hanged, or hanged, drawn and quartered since that ever pleaseth the multitude, and left on the handiest gallows Boston can provide, as a plain apodeixis --Mr. Derry winced and looked largely wise--
human
Yes, Mr. Eames, he's within, but engaged.
gpt
He will have time for me.