The Astonishing History of Troy Town Part 3

The credit of Trojan humour was saved. With a final oath the Admiral dashed through his front gate and into the house. The _volgus infidum_ formed in procession again, and marched back with shouts of merriment; the _popularis aura_ of the five-and-twenty fifers resumed the "Conquering Hero," and Mr. Fogo was left standing alone in the middle of the road.

CHAPTER III.

OF A BLUE-JERSEYED MAN THAT WOULD HOIST NO MORE BRICKS; AND A NIGHTCAP THAT HAD NO BUSINESS TO BE WHERE IT WAS.

No one acquainted with the character of that extraordinary town will be surprised when I say that, within an hour after the occurrences related in the last chapter, Troy had resumed its workday quiet.

By two o'clock nothing was to be heard but the tick-tack of mallets in the ship-building yards, the puffing of the steam-tug, the rattle of hawsers among the vessels out in the harbour, and the melodious "Woo-hoo!" of a crew at capstan or windla.s.s. Troy in carnival and Troy sober are as opposite, you must know, as the poles. Fun is all very well, but business is business, and Troy is a trading port with a character to keep up: for who has not heard the bye-word-- "Working like a Trojan"?

At two o'clock on this same day a little schooner lay alongside the town quay, busily discharging bricks. That is to say, a sunburnt man, blue-jerseyed and red with brick-dust, leisurely turned a windla.s.s which let down an empty bucket and brought it up full.

Another blue-jerseyed man, also sunburnt and red with brick-dust, then pulled it on sh.o.r.e, emptied and returned it; and the operation was repeated. A choleric little man, of about fifty, presumably the proprietor of the bricks, stood on the edge of the quay, and swore alternately at the man with the windla.s.s and the man ash.o.r.e.

"Look 'ere," said the man at the windla.s.s, after a bit.

"Stop cussin'. This ain't a hurdy-gurdy, and if you expec's music you'll have to toss us a copper."

The owner of the bricks swore worse than ever.

Round went the windla.s.s as leisurely as might be and another bucketful was hoisted ash.o.r.e. The man on deck spat on his hands, and broke into cheerful song:--

"Was you iver to Que-bec, Bonnie laddie, Hieland laddie Was you iver to Que-bec, Rousing timber over the deck?

Hey my bonny laddie!

Wur-roo! my heart's--"

The rage of the little man found extra vent.

"Look here, Caleb Trotter," he concluded, after a full minute of profanity, "how do you think I'm to get my living and pay a set of lubberly dolts like you?"

Caleb paused with his hand on the windla.s.s, and suggested retrenchment of the halfpenny a week hitherto spent in manners.

"'Cos, you see, all this po-liteness of yourn es a'runnin' to waste,"

he explained with fine irony.

But before the next load was more than three-parts hoisted, Caleb's patience was exhausted. What he did was simple but decisive.

He removed his hold; the handle whizzed violently round, and the bucket of bricks descended to the hold with a crash.

"Now I tell 'ee straight. Enough's enough; an' I han't got time, at my time o' life, to be po-lite to ivery red-faced chap I meets.

You can pay me or no, as you likes; but I'm off to get a drink.

An' that's all about et; an' wen 'tes over, 'tes over, as Joan said by her weddin'."

With this Caleb stepped ash.o.r.e, spat good-naturedly, put his hands in his pockets, and went off whistling.

At this moment Mr. Fogo, who had been on the quay long enough to hear this altercation, touched him softly by the arm.

"You said you were going to have a drink, I believe. May I go with you? I wish to ask you a few questions."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "You said you were going to have a drink, I believe.

May I go with you?"]

"Sutt'nly, sir," said Caleb with a stifled grin, as he recognised the hero of the morning. "_I_ generally patronises the 'King o'

Prooshia' for beer. It won't make your hair curl, nor yet prevent your seein' a hole dro' a ladder: but perhaps neither o' these is your objec'."

Mr. Fogo, a little bewildered, replied modestly that he pursued neither of these aims. Caleb led the way across the quay, and they ascended the steps of the "King of Prussia" together.

"My object," said Mr. Fogo timidly, as they were seated together in the low-roofed parlour before two foaming mugs--"My object was this.

In the first place, I like your look."

"Same to you, sir," said Caleb, and acknowledged the compliment with a draught, "though 'tes what my gal said afore she desarted me for a Rooshan."

"Are you a single man, then?"

"To be sure, sir."

"So much the better--but I will talk of that presently. I, too, am a single man, with rather peculiar tastes. One of these is solitude.

I had heard of Troy as a place where I was likely to find this, though my experience of this morning--"

"Never mind, sir. Accidents will happen even in the best reggylated families. You was took for another, which has happened even to Bible characters afore this--though Jacob's the only one I can call to mind just now."

"Still, I should be sorry to go back with the knowledge that my journey has been in vain. But I must have solitude at any price, and the reason why I am consulting you is that you might possibly know of a house to let in this neighbourhood, where I could be alone and secure against visitors."

Caleb scratched his head.

"I'm sure, sir, 'tes hard to say. Troy's a powerful place for knowin' what your neighbour's got for dinner, and they _do_ say as the Admiral's telescope will carry dro' a brick wall."

Mr. Fogo's face fell.

"Stop a bit," said Caleb more brightly. "About livin' inside o' the town, now--es that a shiny cannon?"

"A what?"

"A shiny cannon--which es the same as to say, won't et do elst?"

"Oh, a _sine-qua-non_," said Mr. Fogo; "no, I am not particularly anxious to live in the town itself."

"Wud the matter of a mile up the river be out o' the way?"

"Not at all."

"An' about rent?"

"Within reasonable limits, that would not matter."

"Then my advice to you, sir, es to see the Twins about et."

Mr. Fogo's mild face looked more puzzled than ever. He removed his spectacles, wiped and resumed them.