“Let fall!” comes the sharp command, as he seizes the tiller-ropes.
The four sailors bend their strong backs, the four oars3 swing together like clockwork, and the gig heads for the plantation landing where a twenty-ton sloop4, current-vexed, lies gnawing5 at her ropes.
At twenty-six, Captain Jack Paul is the very flower of a quarter-deck nobility. He has not the advantage of commanding height; but the lean, curved nose, clean jaw6, firmly-lined month, steady stare of the brown eyes, coupled at the earliest smell of opposition7 with a frowning falcon8 trick of brow like a threat, are as a commission to him, signed and countersigned9 by nature, to be ever a leader of men. In figure he is five feet seven inches, and the scales telling his weight consent to one hundred and forty-five pounds. His hands and feet are as small as a woman’s. By way of offset10 to this, his shoulders, broad and heavy, and his deep chest arched like the deck of a whale-back, speak of anything save the effeminate. In his movements there is a feline11 graceful12 accuracy> with over all a resolute13 atmosphere of enterprise. To his men, he is more than a captain; he is a god. Prudent14 at once and daring, he shines a master of seamanship, and never the sailor serves with him who would not name him a mariner15 without a flaw. He is born to inspire faith in men. This is as it should be, by his own abstract picture of a captain, which he will later furnish Doctor Franklin:
“Your captain,” he will say, when thus informing that philosopher, “your captain, Doctor, should have the blind confidence of his sailors. It is his beginning, his foundation, wanting which he can be no true captain. To his men your captain must he prophet, priest and king. His authority when off-shore is necessarily absolute, and therefore the crew should be as one man impressed that the captain, like the sovereign, can do no wrong. If a captain fail in this, he cannot make up for it by severity, austerity or cruelty. Use force, apply restraint, punish as he may, he will always have a sullen16 crew and an unhappy ship.”
The nose of the gig grates on the river’s bank, and Captain Jack Paul leaps ashore17. He is greeted by a tall, weather-beaten old man—grizzled and gray. The form of the latter is erect18, with a kind of ramrod military stiffness. His dress is the rough garb19 of the Virginia overseer in all respects save headgear. Instead of the soft wool hat, common of his sort, the old man cocks over his watery20 left eye a Highland21 bonnet22, and this, with its hawk’s feather, fastened by a silver clasp, gives to his costume a crag and heather aspect altogether Scotch23.
The gray old man, with a grinning background of negro slaves, waits for the landing of Captain Jack Paul. As the latter springs ashore, the old man throws up his hand in a military salute24.
“And how do we find Duncan Macbean!” cries Captain Jack Paul. “How also is my brother! I trust you have still a bale or two of winter-cured tobacco left that we may add to our cargo25!”
“As for the tobacco, Captain Paul,” returns old Duncan Macbean, “ye’re a day or so behind the fair, since the maist of it sailed Englandward a month hack26, in the brig Flora27 Belle28. As for your brother William of whom ye ask, now I s’uld say ye were in gude time just to hear his dying words.”
“What’s that, Duncan Macbean!” exclaims Captain Jack Paul. “William dying!”
“Ay, dying! He lies nearer death than he’s been any time since he and I marched with General Braddock and Colonel Washington, against the red salvages29 of the Ohio. But you s’uld come and see him at once, you his born brother, and no stand talking here.”
“It’s lung fever, Jack,” whispers the sick man, as Captain Jack Paul draws a chair to the side of the bed. “It’s deadly, too; I can feel it. I’ll not get up again.”
“Come, come, brother,” retorts Captain Jack Paul cheerfully, “you’re no old man to talk of death—you, with your fewer than fifty years. I’ll see you up and on your pins again before I leave.”
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“No, Jack, it’s death. And you’ve come in good time, too, since there’s much to talk between us. You know how our cousin left me his heir, if I would take his name of Jones?”
“Assuredly I know.”
“And so,” continues the dying man, “my name since his passing away has been William Paul Jones. Now when it is my turn to go, I must tell you that, by a clause of the old man’s will, he writes you in after me as legatee. I’m to die, Jack; and you’re to have the plantation. Only you must clap ‘Jones’ to your name, and be not John Paul, but John Paul Jones, as you take over the estate.”
“What’s this? I’m to heir the plantation after you?”
“So declares the will. On condition, however, that you also take the name of Jones. That should not be hard; ‘Jones’ is one of our family names, and he that leaves you the land was our kinsman30.”
“Why, then,” cries Captain Jack Paul, “I wasn’t hesitating for that. Paul is a good name, but so also is Jones. Only, I tell you, brother, I hate to make my fortune by your death.”
“That’s no common-sense, Jack. I die the easier knowing my going makes way for your good luck. And the plantation’s a gem31, Jack; never a cold or sour acre in the whole three thousand, but all of it warm, sweet land. There’re two thousand acres of woods; and I’d leave that stand.” The dying man, being Scotch, would give advice on his deathbed. “The thousand acres now under plow32 are enough.” Then, after a pause: “Ye’ll be content ashore? You’re young yet; you’re not so wedded33 to the sea, I think, but you’ll turn planter with good grace?”
“No fear, William. I’ve had good fortune by the sea; but then I’ve met ill fortune also. By and large, I shall be very well content to turn planter.”
“It’s gainful, Jack, being a planter is. Only keep Duncan Macbean by you to manage, and he’ll turn you in one thousand golden guineas profit every Christmas day, and you never to lift hand or give thought to the winning of them.”
“Is the plantation as gainful as that? Now I have but three thousand guineas to call mine, after sailing these years.”
“Ay! it’s gainful, Jack. If you will work, too, there’s that to keep you busy. There’s the grist mill, the thirty slaves, the forty horses, besides the cows and swine and sheep to look after; as well as the negro quarters, the tobacco houses, the stables, and the great mansion34 itself to keep up. They’ll all serve to fill in the time busily, if you should like it that way. Only Jack, with the last of it, always leave everything to Duncan Macbean. A rare and wary35 man is old Duncan, and saving of money down to farthings.”
“Whose sloop is that at the landing!” asks Captain Jack Paul, willing to shift the subject.
“Oh, yon sloop! She goes with the plantation; she’ll be yours anon, brother. And there you are: When the sea calls to you, Jack, as she will call, you take the sloop. Cato and Scipio are good sailors, well trained to the coast clear away to Charleston.”
And so William Paul Jones dies, and John Paul takes his place on the plantation. His name is no longer John Paul, but John Paul Jones; and, as his dying brother counselled, he keeps old Duncan Macbean to be the manager.
When his brother is dead, Captain Jack Paul joins his mate, Laurence Edgar, on the deck of the Two Friends, swinging tide and tide on her anchors.
“Mate Edgar,” says Captain Jack Paul, “it is the last time I shall plank36 this quarterdeck as captain. I’m to stay; and you’re to take the ship home to Whitehaven. And now, since you’re the captain, and I’m no more than a guest, suppose you order your cabin boy to get us a bottle of the right Madeira, and we’ll drink fortune to the bark and her new master.”
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1
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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2
plantation
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| n.种植园，大农场 | |
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oars
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| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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sloop
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| n.单桅帆船 | |
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gnawing
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| a.痛苦的，折磨人的 | |
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jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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7
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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falcon
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| n.隼，猎鹰 | |
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countersigned
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| v.连署，副署，会签 （文件）( countersign的过去式 ) | |
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offset
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| n.分支，补偿；v.抵消，补偿 | |
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feline
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| adj.猫科的 | |
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graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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prudent
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| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
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mariner
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| n.水手号不载人航天探测器，海员，航海者 | |
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sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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17
ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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garb
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| n.服装，装束 | |
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20
watery
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| adj.有水的，水汪汪的；湿的，湿润的 | |
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highland
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| n.(pl.)高地，山地 | |
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bonnet
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| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
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23
scotch
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| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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24
salute
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| vi.行礼，致意，问候，放礼炮；vt.向…致意，迎接，赞扬；n.招呼，敬礼，礼炮 | |
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25
cargo
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| n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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hack
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| n.劈，砍，出租马车；v.劈，砍，干咳 | |
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flora
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| n.(某一地区的)植物群 | |
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28
belle
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| n.靓女 | |
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29
salvages
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| 海上营救( salvage的名词复数 )； 抢救出的财产； 救援费； 经加工后重新利用的废物 | |
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kinsman
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| n.男亲属 | |
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31
gem
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| n.宝石，珠宝；受爱戴的人 [同]jewel | |
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32
plow
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| n.犁，耕地，犁过的地；v.犁，费力地前进[英]plough | |
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33
wedded
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| adj.正式结婚的；渴望…的，执著于…的v.嫁，娶，（与…）结婚( wed的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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34
mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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wary
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| adj.谨慎的，机警的，小心的 | |
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plank
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| n.板条，木板，政策要点，政纲条目 | |
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