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07 - Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson · Classic Adventure Books - Daily

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  Speaker 1: Chapter seven, I go to Sea in the brig Covenant
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  Speaker 1: of Dysart. I came to myself in darkness, in great pain,
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  Speaker 1: bound hand and foot, and deafened by many unfamiliar noises.
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  Speaker 1: There sounded in my ears a roaring of water as
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  Speaker 1: of a huge mill damp, the thrashing of heavy sprays,
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  Speaker 1: the thundering of the sails, and the shrill cries of seamen.
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  Speaker 1: The whole world now heaved giddily up and now rushed
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  Speaker 1: giddily downward. And so sick and hurt was I in body,
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  Speaker 1: and my mind so much confounded that it took me
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  Speaker 1: a long while, chasing my thoughts up and down, and
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  Speaker 1: ever stunned again by a fresh stab of pain, to
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  Speaker 1: realize that I must be lying somewhere, bound in the
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  Speaker 1: belly of that unlucky ship, and that the wind must
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  Speaker 1: have strengthened to a gale. With a clear perception of
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  Speaker 1: my plight. There fell upon me a blackness of despair,
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  Speaker 1: a horror of remorse at my own folly, and a
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  Speaker 1: passion of anger at my uncle, that once more bereft
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  Speaker 1: me of my senses. When I returned again to life,
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  Speaker 1: the same uproar, the same confused and violent movements shook
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  Speaker 1: and deafened me, and presently to my other pains and distresses,
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  Speaker 1: there was added the sickness of an unused landsman on
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  Speaker 1: the sea. In that time of my adventurous youth, I
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  Speaker 1: suffered many hardships, but none that was so crushing to
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  Speaker 1: my mind and body. Were lit by so few hopes
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  Speaker 1: as these first hours aboard the brig, I heard a
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  Speaker 1: gun fire, and supposed the storm had proved too strong
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  Speaker 1: for us, and we were firing signals of distress. The
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  Speaker 1: thought of deliverance, even by death in the deep sea,
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  Speaker 1: was welcome to me. Yet it was no such matter.
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  Speaker 1: But as I was afterwards told a common habit of
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  Speaker 1: the captain's which I here set down to show that
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  Speaker 1: even the worst man may have his kindly as side
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  Speaker 1: we were then passing, it appeared within some miles of Dysart,
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  Speaker 1: where the brig was built, and where old missus hose season,
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  Speaker 1: the Captain's mother had come some years before to live.
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  Speaker 1: And whether outward or inward bound, the covenant was never
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  Speaker 1: suffered to go by that place by day without a
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  Speaker 1: gun fired, and colors shown I had no measure of time.
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  Speaker 1: Day and night were alike in that ill smelling cavern
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  Speaker 1: of the ship's bowels where I lay, and the misery
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  Speaker 1: of my situation drew out the hours to double. How
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  Speaker 1: long therefore I lay, waiting to hear the ship split
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  Speaker 1: upon some rock, or to feel her real head foremost
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  Speaker 1: into the depths of the sea. I have not the
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  Speaker 1: means of computation, but sleep at length stole from me
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  Speaker 1: the consciousness of sorrow. I was awakened by the light
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  Speaker 1: of a hand lantern shining in my face. A small
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  Speaker 1: man of about thirty, green eyes and a tangle of
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  Speaker 1: fair hair, stood looking down at me. Well, said he,
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  Speaker 1: how goes it? I answered by a sob, And my
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  Speaker 1: visitor then felt my pulse and temples, and set himself
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  Speaker 1: to wash and dressed the wound upon my scalp. Aye
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  Speaker 1: said he a swor duant, what man? Cheer up? The
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  Speaker 1: world's no done. You've made a bad start of it,
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  Speaker 1: but you'll make a better Have you had any meat?
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  Speaker 1: I said, I could not look at it, And thereupon
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  Speaker 1: he gave me some brandy and water in a tin pannikin,
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  Speaker 1: and left me once more to myself. The next time
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  Speaker 1: he came to see me, I was lying betwixt sleep
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  Speaker 1: and waking, my eyes wide open in the darkness, the
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  Speaker 1: sickness quite departed, but succeeded by a horrid giddiness and
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  Speaker 1: swimming that were almost worse to bear. I ached besides
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  Speaker 1: in every limb, and the cords that bound me seemed
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  Speaker 1: to be of fire. The smell of the hole in
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  Speaker 1: which I lay seemed to have become a part of me.
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  Speaker 1: And during the long inter since his last visit, I
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  Speaker 1: had suffered tortures of fear, now from the scurrying of
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  Speaker 1: the ship's rats that sometimes pattered on my very face,
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  Speaker 1: and now from the dismal imaginings that haunt the bed
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  Speaker 1: of fever. The glimmer of the lantern, as a trap opened,
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  Speaker 1: shone in like the heaven sunlight, And though it only
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  Speaker 1: showed me the strong dark beams of the ship that
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  Speaker 1: was my prison, I could have cried aloud for gladness.
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  Speaker 1: The man with the green eyes was the first to
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  Speaker 1: descend the latter, and I noticed that he came somewhat unsteadily.
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  Speaker 1: He was followed by the captain. Neither said a word,
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  Speaker 1: but the first set to and examined me and dressed
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  Speaker 1: my wound as before, while Hoseason looked me in my
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  Speaker 1: face with an odd black look. Now, sir, you see
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  Speaker 1: for yourself, said the first, A high fever, no appetite,
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  Speaker 1: no light, no meat. You see for yourself what that means.
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  Speaker 1: I am no conjuror, mister Riach, said the captain. Give
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  Speaker 1: me leave, sir, said Riach, you've a good head upon
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  Speaker 1: your shoulders and a good Scotch tongue to ask with.
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  Speaker 1: But I will leave you no manner of excuse. I
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  Speaker 1: want that boy taken out of this hole and put
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  Speaker 1: in the forecastle. What you may want, sir, as a
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  Speaker 1: matter of concern to nobody but yourself, returned the captain.
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  Speaker 1: But I can tell you that which is to be here,
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  Speaker 1: he is here. He shall bide, admitting that you have
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  Speaker 1: been paid in proportion, said the other. I will crave
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  Speaker 1: leave humbly to say that I have not paid I
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  Speaker 1: am and none too much to be the second officer
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  Speaker 1: of this old tub. And you can very well if
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  Speaker 1: I do my best to earn it. But I was
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  Speaker 1: paid for nothing more. If ye could hold back your
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  Speaker 1: hand from the tin pan, mister Riach, I would have
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  Speaker 1: no complaint to make. If you returned the skipper and
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  Speaker 1: instead of asking riddles, I make bold to say that
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  Speaker 1: you would hold your breath to cool your porridge. We'll
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  Speaker 1: be required on deck, he added in a sharper note,
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  Speaker 1: and set one foot upon the ladder. Mister Riach caught
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  Speaker 1: him by the sleeve, admitting that you've been paid to
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  Speaker 1: do a murder, he began. Ho Sesan turned upon him
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  Speaker 1: with a flash. What's that? He cried? What kind of
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  Speaker 1: talk is that? It seems it is to talk that
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  Speaker 1: you can understand, said mister Riach, looking him steadily in
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  Speaker 1: the face. Mister reach I have sailed with ye three cruises,
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  Speaker 1: replied the captain in all that time, Sir, you should've
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  Speaker 1: learned to know me. I'm a stiff man and a
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  Speaker 1: dour man. But for what you say, the now fie
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  Speaker 1: fie it comes from a bad heart and a black conscience.
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  Speaker 1: If you say the lad will die, ay, he will,
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  Speaker 1: said mister Reach. Well, sir, is that not enough? Said Ho, suesan.
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  Speaker 1: Flit him where you please. Thereupon the captain ascended the latter,
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  Speaker 1: and I, who had lain silent throughout this strange conversation,
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  Speaker 1: beheld mister Riach turn after now as low as to
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  Speaker 1: his knees in what was plainly a spirit of derision.
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  Speaker 1: Even in my then state of sickness, I perceived two things.
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  Speaker 1: That the mate was touched with liquor, as the captain hinted,
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  Speaker 1: and that, drunk or sober, he was like to prove
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  Speaker 1: a valuable friend. Five minutes afterwards my bonds were cut.
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  Speaker 1: I was hoisted on a man's back, carried up to
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  Speaker 1: the forecastle, and laid in a bunk on some sea blankets,
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  Speaker 1: where the first thing that I did was to lose
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  Speaker 1: my senses. It was a blessed thing, indeed, to open
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  Speaker 1: my eyes again upon the daylight, and to find myself
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  Speaker 1: in the society of men. The forecastle was a roomy
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  Speaker 1: place enough, set all about with berths in which the
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  Speaker 1: men of the watch below were seated, smoking or lying
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  Speaker 1: down asleep. The day being calm in the wind fair,
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  Speaker 1: the scuttle was open, and not only the good daylight,
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  Speaker 1: but from time to time, as the ship rolled, a
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  Speaker 1: dusty beam of sunlight shone in, dazzled and delighted me.
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  Speaker 1: I had no sooner moved moreover than one of the
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  Speaker 1: men brought me a drink of something healing, which mister
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  Speaker 1: Riach had prepared, and bade me lie still, and I
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  Speaker 1: should soon be well again. There were no bones broken,
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  Speaker 1: he explained, The clour on the head were nothing, man
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  Speaker 1: said he. It was me that gave it. You. Here
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  Speaker 1: I lay, for the space of many days a close prisoner,
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  Speaker 1: not only got my health again, but came to know
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  Speaker 1: my companions. They were a rough lot, indeed, as sailors
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  Speaker 1: mostly are, being men rooted out of all the kindly
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  Speaker 1: parts of life, and condemned to toss together on the
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  Speaker 1: rough seas with masters no less cruel. There were some
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  Speaker 1: among them that had sailed with the pirates and seen
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  Speaker 1: things that would be a shame even to speak of.
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  Speaker 1: Some were men that had from the king's ships, and
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  Speaker 1: went with a halter round their necks, of which they
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  Speaker 1: made no secret, And all, as the saying goes, were
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  Speaker 1: at a word and a blow with their best friends.
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  Speaker 1: Yet I had not been many days shut up with
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  Speaker 1: them before I began to be ashamed of my first judgment,
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  Speaker 1: when I had drawn away from them at the fairy pier,
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  Speaker 1: as though they had been unclean beasts. No class of
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  Speaker 1: man is altogether bad, but each has its own faults
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  Speaker 1: and virtues, and these shipmates of mine were no exception.
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  Speaker 1: To the rule rough. They were sure enough, and bad,
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  Speaker 1: I suppose, but they had many virtues. They were kind
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  Speaker 1: when it occurred to them, simple even beyond the simplicity
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  Speaker 1: of a country lad like me, and had some glimmerings
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  Speaker 1: of honesty. There was one man of maybe forty that
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  Speaker 1: would sit on my birth side for hours and tell
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  Speaker 1: me of his wife and child. He was a fisher
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  Speaker 1: that had lost his boat and thus been driven to
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  Speaker 1: the deep sea voyaging. Well, it is years ago now,
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  Speaker 1: but I have never forgotten him. His wife, who was
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  Speaker 1: young by him, as he often told me, waited in
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  Speaker 1: vain to see her man return. He would never again
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  Speaker 1: make the fire for her in the morning, nor yet
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  Speaker 1: keep the baron when she was sick. Indeed, many of
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  Speaker 1: these poor fellows, as the event proved, were upon their
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  Speaker 1: last cruise the deep seas, and cannibal fish received them,
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  Speaker 1: and it is a thankless business to speak ill of
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  Speaker 1: the dead. Among other good deeds that they did, they
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  Speaker 1: returned my money, which had been shared among them, and
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  Speaker 1: though it was about a third short, I was very
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  Speaker 1: glad to get it and hoped great good from it.
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  Speaker 1: In the land I was going to. The ship was
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  Speaker 1: bound for the Carolinas. And you must not suppose that
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  Speaker 1: I was going to that place merely as an exile.
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  Speaker 1: The trade was even then much depressed. Since that, and
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  Speaker 1: with the rebellion of the colonies and the formation of
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  Speaker 1: the United States, it has of course come to an end.
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  Speaker 1: But in those days of my youth, white men were
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  Speaker 1: still sold into slavery on the plantations, and that was
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  Speaker 1: the destiny to which my wicked uncle had condemned me.
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  Speaker 1: The cabin boy Ransom, from whom I had first heard
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  Speaker 1: of these atrocities, came in at times from the roundhouse
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  Speaker 1: where he berthed and served, now nursing a bruised limb,
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  Speaker 1: and silent agony, now raving against the cruelty of mister Chuan.
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  Speaker 1: It made my heart bleed. But the men had a
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  Speaker 1: great respect for the chief mate, who was, as they said,
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  Speaker 1: the only seamen of the whole jing Bang, and none
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  Speaker 1: such a bad man when he was sober. Indeed, I
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  Speaker 1: found there was a strange peculiarity about our two mates,
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  Speaker 1: that mister Riach was sullen, unkind and harsh when he
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  Speaker 1: was sober, and mister Chuan would not hurt a fly
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  Speaker 1: except when he was drinking. I asked about the captain,
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  Speaker 1: but I was told drink made no difference upon that
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  Speaker 1: man of iron. I did my best in the small
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  Speaker 1: time allowed me to make something like a man, or rather,
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  Speaker 1: I should say something like a boy of the poor
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  Speaker 1: creature ransom. But his mind was scarce, truly human. He
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  Speaker 1: could remember nothing of the time before he came to sea,
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  Speaker 1: only that his father had made clocks and had a
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  Speaker 1: starling in the parlor which could whistle the north country.
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  Speaker 1: All else had been blotted out in these years of
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  Speaker 1: hardship and cruelties. He had a strange notion of the
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  Speaker 1: dry land, picked up from sailor's stories, that it was
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  Speaker 1: a place where lads were put to some kind of
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  Speaker 1: slavery called a trade, and where apprentices were continually lashed
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  Speaker 1: and clapped into foul prisons. In a town. He thought
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  Speaker 1: every second person a decoy, and every third house a
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  Speaker 1: place in which seamen would be drugged and murdered. To
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  Speaker 1: be sure, I would tell him how kindly I had
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  Speaker 1: myself been used upon that dry land he was so
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  Speaker 1: much afraid of, and how well fed and carefully taught
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  Speaker 1: both by my friends my parents, And if he had
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  Speaker 1: been recently hurt, he would weep bitterly and swear to
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  Speaker 1: run away. But if he was in his usual crack
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  Speaker 1: brain humor, or still more, if he had had a
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  Speaker 1: glass of spirits in the roundhouse, he would deride the notion.
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  Speaker 1: It was mister Riach, Heaven forgive him, who gave the
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  Speaker 1: boy drink, and it was doubtless kindly meant. But besides that,
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  Speaker 1: it was ruined to his health. It was the pitifulest
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  Speaker 1: thing in life to see this unhappy, unfriended creature staggering
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  Speaker 1: and dancing and talking. He knew not what. Some of
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  Speaker 1: the men laughed, but not all. Others would grow as
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  Speaker 1: black as thunder, thinking perhaps of their own childhood or
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  Speaker 1: their own children, and bid him stop that nonsense and
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  Speaker 1: think what he was doing. As for me, I felt
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  Speaker 1: ashamed to look at him, and the poor child still
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  Speaker 1: comes about me in my dreams. All this time, you
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  Speaker 1: should know, the Covenant was meeting ten head winds and
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  Speaker 1: tumbling up and down against head seas, so that the
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  Speaker 1: scuttle was almost constantly shut, and the forecastle lighted only
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  Speaker 1: by a swinging lantern on a beam. There was constant
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  Speaker 1: labor for all hands. The sails had to be made,
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  Speaker 1: and shortened every hour. The strain told on the men's temper.
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  Speaker 1: There was a growl of quarreling all day long, from
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  Speaker 1: birth to birth. And as I was never allowed to
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  Speaker 1: set my foot on deck, you can picture to yourselves
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  Speaker 1: how weary of my life I grew to be, and
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  Speaker 1: how impatient for a change, and a change I was
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  Speaker 1: to get, as you shall hear. But I must first
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  Speaker 1: tell of a conversation I had with mister Riach which
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  Speaker 1: put a little heart in me to bear my troubles
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  Speaker 1: getting him in a favorable stage of drink. For indeed,
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  Speaker 1: he never looked near me when he was sober. I
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  Speaker 1: pledged him to secrecy and told him my whole story.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: He declared it was like a ballad, that he would
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  Speaker 1: do his best to help me. That I should have paper,
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  Speaker 1: pen and ink and write one line to mister Campbell
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  Speaker 1: and another to mister Rangkeyler, and that if I had
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  Speaker 1: told the truth ten to one, he would be able
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  Speaker 1: with their help to pull me through and set me
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  Speaker 1: in my rights. And in the meantime, says he, keep
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  Speaker 1: your heart up. You're not the only one. I'll tell
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: you that there's many a man hoeing tobacco overseas that
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  Speaker 1: should be mounting his horse at his own door at home,
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  Speaker 1: many and many, and life is all a very orum
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  Speaker 1: at the best. Look at me. I'm a laird's son
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  Speaker 1: and more than half a doctor. And here I am
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  Speaker 1: man Jack, the host season. I thought it would be
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  Speaker 1: civil to ask him for a story. He whistled loud,
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  Speaker 1: never had one, said he. I like fun, that's all,
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  Speaker 1: And he skipped out of the forecastle. End of chapter