"He wasn't drugged-nor robbed, either," he cried. "Don't you go talking like that, or you'll get into trouble. Leastwise, I don't know nothin'

about it. If he was fixed with drugs, it was afore he came into my hands.

I won't stand for anything like that. Get out, now, and take that stuff for'ard."

Harvey went forward, carrying his enforced purchases. An unpleasant sight confronted him as he neared the forecastle.

The two men that had been brought aboard the bug-eye, stupefied, had been dragged out on deck, where they lay, blinking and dazed, but evidently coming once more to their senses. The mate gave an order to one of the sailors. The latter caught up a canvas bucket, to which there was attached a rope, threw it over the side and drew it back on deck filled with water.

"Let's have that," said the mate.

He s.n.a.t.c.hed it from the sailor's hand, swung it quickly, and dashed the contents full in the face of one of the prostrate men. The fellow gasped for breath, as the icy water choked and stung him; he half struggled to his feet, opening his eyes wide and gazing about him with amazement. He had hardly come to a vague appreciation of where he was, putting his hands to his eyes and rubbing them, to free them of the salt water, before he received a second bucket-full in the face. He cried out in fright and, spurred on by that and the shock of the cold water, got upon his feet and stood, trembling and shivering. Jim Adams laughed with pleasure at the success of his treatment.

"Awful bad stuff they give 'em in Baltimore, sometimes," he said, chuckling, as though it were a huge joke; "but this fetches 'em out of it just like doctor's medicine. You got 'nuff, I reckon. Now you trot 'long down into the cabin, and get some of that nice coffee, an' you'll feel pretty spry soon."

The fellow shambled away, led by one of the crew.

Jack Harvey, his blood boiling at the inhumanity of it, saw Jim Adams's "treatment" applied with much the same success to the other helpless prisoner; and this man, too, soon went the way of the other, for such comfort and stimulus as the cabin and coffee afforded. Harvey deposited his load of clothing in the forecastle, and returned to the deck.

In the course of some seven miles of sailing, as Harvey reckoned it, they approached a small island which he heard called out as Barren island.

Still farther to the eastward of this, there lay a narrow stretch of land, some two or three miles long, lying lengthwise approximately north and south. Off the sh.o.r.e of this, which bore the name of Upper Hooper island, the dredging grounds now sought by the Brandt extended southward for some ten miles, abreast of another island, known as Middle Hooper island.

Preparations were at once begun to work the dredges; and Harvey watched with anxious interest. Here was the real labour, that he had by this time come to look forward to with dread. He recalled the utterance of the dismal sailor aboard the schooner, "You breaks yer back at a b.l.o.o.d.y winder;" and he saw a prospect now of the fulfilment of the man's description of the work.

In the mid-section of the bug-eye, on either side, there were set up what looked not unlike two huge spools. Wound around each one of these was fathom upon fathom of dredge line. Each spool rested in a frame that was shaped something like a carpenter's saw-horse, and, in the process of winding, was revolved by means of a crank at either end, worked by men at the handles. The frame was securely bolted to the deck at the four supports.

Connected with each dredge line, by an iron chain, was the dredge. This consisted, first, of four iron rods, coming to a point at the chain, and spread out from that in the form of a piece of cheese cut wedge-shaped, and rounded in a loop at the broad end. Fastened to this was a great mesh of iron links, made like a purse, or bag, This metal bag was a capacious affair, made to hold more than a bushel of oysters. There were two larger iron links in the mesh, by which it could be hooked and lifted aboard, when it had been wound up to the surface of the water.

There was a locking device on the end of the support, so that the spool would hold, without unwinding, when the handles were released.

The huge spools were set up lengthwise of the vessel. On either side of the craft were rollers; one of these was horizontal, to drag the dredge aboard on; one was perpendicular, for the dredge-line to run free on, as it was paid out, or drawn in, while the vessel was in motion.

Captain Haley, at the wheel, gave his orders sharply. The sailors and Jim Adams, lifting the dredges, threw them overboard on either side, and the work was begun. The bug-eye, with sheets started, took a zig-zag course, laterally across the dredging ground.

Obeying orders, Harvey took his place at one of the handles of a winder; one of the sailors at the other. Presently appeared Jim Adams, followed by the disconsolate Tom Edwards. The latter, pale and sea-sick, seemed scarcely able to walk, much less work; but the mate led him along to the handle of the other winder. Tom Edwards was not without making one more feeble attempt as resistance, however.

"See here," he said, addressing Adams, "you've got no right to force me to work here. I'm a business man, and I was brought down here by a trick, drugged. You'll pay dear for it. I warn you."

Jim Adams grinned from ear to ear, his expansive mouth exhibiting a shining row of white teeth. He put a big, bony hand on Tom Edwards's shoulder.

"Don't you go worrying 'bout what I'll get, mister," he answered; and there was a gleam of fire in his eyes as he spoke. "I reckon you might as well know, first as last, that I don't care where we get you fellows, nor how we gets yer; nor I don't care whether you come aboard drugged or sober; nor whether you've got clothes on, nor nothin' at all. All I cares is that you's so as you can turn at this ere windla.s.s. That's all there is 'bout that. Now you jes' take a-hold of that handle, and do's you're told, or you'll go overboard; and don't you forget that."

Tom Edwards was silent. He stood, hand upon the windla.s.s, shivering.

"You'll be warm 'nuff soon, I reckon," was Jim Adams's consolation.

They got the order to wind in, presently, and the men began to turn the handles. It was hard work, sure enough. The huge iron bags, filled with the oysters, torn from the reefs at the bed of the bay, were heavy of themselves; and the strain of winding them in against the headway of the bug-eye was no boys' play.

Harvey and his companion at their winder were strong and active, and presently the dredge was at the surface, whence it was seized and dragged aboard. There it was emptied of its contents, a ma.s.s of sh.e.l.ls, all shapes and sizes. Then followed the work of "culling," or sorting and throwing overboard the oysters that were under two inches and a half long, which the law did not allow to be kept and sold.

"You need a pair of mittens," volunteered Harvey's working comrade, as Harvey started in to help, with bare hands. "You'll get cut and have sore hands, if you don't," he added. "The cap'n sells mittens."

The mittens, at a price that would have made the most hardened shop-keeper blush, were provided, and Harvey resumed work.

The seriousness of the situation had developed in earnest. It was drudgery of the hardest and most bitter kind.

"Just wait till the month is up," said Harvey, softly; "I'll cut out of this pretty quick. A sea experience, eh? Well, I've got enough of it in the first half hour."

Spurred on by the harsh commands of the mate, Tom Edwards managed to hold out for perhaps three quarters of an hour. Then he collapsed entirely; and, seeing that nothing more could be gotten out of him for the rest of the day, the mate suffered him to drag himself off to the forecastle.

"But see that you're out sharp and early on deck here to-morrow morning,"

said Jim Adams. "We don't have folks livin' high here for nothin'. You'll jes' work your board and lodgin', I reckon."

Thus the day wore on, drearily. The exciting sea experience that Jack Harvey had pictured to himself was not at present forthcoming; only a monotonous winding at the windla.s.s-hard and tiring work-and the culling of the oysters, and stowing them below in the hold from time to time. He was sick of it by mid-day; and, as the shades of twilight fell, he was well nigh exhausted.

"And only to think of this for nearly four weeks more," he groaned. "Next time-oh, hang it! What's the use of thinking of that? I'm in for it. I've got to go through. But won't I scoot when the month is up!"

Toward evening, they ran up under the lee of Barren island, in what the mate said was Tar Bay, and anch.o.r.ed for the night. Almost too wearied to eat, too wearied to listen to the commiseration of Tom Edwards, who lay groaning in his bunk, Jack Harvey tumbled in with his clothes on, and was asleep as soon as he had stretched himself out.

CHAPTER VII DREDGING FLEET TACTICS

Jack Harvey was a strong, muscular youth, toughened and enured to rough weather, and even hardship, by reason of summers spent in yachting and his spare time in winter divided between open air sports and work in the school gymnasium. But the steady, laborious work of the first day at dredging had brought into action muscles comparatively little used before, and moreover overtaxed them. So, when Harvey awoke, the following morning, and rolled out of his bunk, he felt twinges of pain go through him. His muscles were stiffened, and he ached from ankles to shoulders.

He awoke Tom Edwards, knowing that if he did not, the mate soon would, and in rougher fashion. The companionship in misfortune, that had thus thrown the boy and the man intimately together, made the difference in their ages seem less, and their friendship like that of long standing. So it was the natural thing, and instinctive, for Harvey to address the other familiarly.

"Wake up, Tom," he said, shaking him gently; "it's time to get up."

Tom Edwards opened his eyes, looked into the face of his new friend and groaned.

"Oh, I can't," he murmured. "I just can't get up. I'm done for. I'll never get out of this alive. I'm going to die. Jack, old fellow, you tell them what happened to me, if I never get ash.o.r.e again. You'll come through, but I can't."

Harvey looked at the sorry figure, compa.s.sionately.

"It's rough on you," he said, "because you're soft and not used to exercise. But don't you go getting discouraged this way. You're not going to die-not by a good deal. You're just sea-sick; and every one feels like dying when they get that way. You've just got to get out, because Adams will make you. So you better start in. Come on; we'll get some of that beautiful coffee and that other stuff, and you'll feel better."

By much urging, Harvey induced his companion to arise, and they went on deck.

It was a fine, clear morning, and the sight that met their eyes was really a pretty one. In the waters of Tar Bay were scores of craft belonging to the oyster fleet. They were for the most part lying at anchor, now, with smoke curling up in friendly fashion from their little iron stove funnels. There were vessels of many sorts and sizes; a few large schooners, of the dredging cla.s.s, bulky of build and homely; punjies, broader of bow and sharper and deeper aft, giving them quickness in tacking across the oyster reefs; bug-eyes, with their sharp prows, bearing some fancied resemblance, by reason of the hawse-holes on either bow, to a bug's eye, or a buck's eye-known also in some waters as "buck-eyes"-clean-lined craft, sharp at either end; also little saucy skip-jacks, and the famous craft of the Chesapeake, the canoes.

These latter, known also as tonging-boats, were remarkably narrow craft, made of plank, about four feet across the gunwales and averaging about twenty feet long. Some of them were already under weigh, the larger ones carrying two triangular sails and a jib. It seemed to Harvey as though the sail they bore up under must inevitably capsize them; but they sailed fast and stiff.

A few of these craft were already engaged in tonging for oysters, in a strip of the bay just south of Barren Island, where the water shoaled to a depth of only one fathom. The two men aboard were alternately raising and lowering, by means of a small crank, a pair of oyster tongs, the jaws of which closed mechanically with the strain upon the rope to which it was attached.

To the southward, other vessels were beginning to come in upon the dredging grounds, until it seemed as though all of Maryland's small craft must be engaged in the business of oyster fishing.

With an eye to the present usefulness of his men, more than from any compa.s.sion upon their condition, Captain Hamilton Haley had ordered a better breakfast to be served. There was fried bacon, and a broth of some sort; and the coffee seemed a bit stronger and more satisfying. Harvey urged his comrade to eat; and Tom Edwards, who had rallied a little from his sea-sickness, with the vessel now steady under him, in the quiet water, managed to make a fair breakfast.