Fiction > Book editions > London, 1886 - Kidnapped

68                                      KIDNAPPED.
board, sir; that's what the story is; and I would give
five pounds out of my pocket it was true ! " He turned
to the table. "What made ye throw the good bottle
away?" he added.  There was nae sense in that, sir.
Here, David, draw me another. They're in the bottom
locker;" and he tossed me a key. "Ye'll need a glass
yourself, sir," he added, to Riach. "Yon was an ugly
thing to see."
So the pair sat down and hob-a-nobbed; and while
they did so, the murderer, who had been lying and
whimpering in his berth, raised himself upon his elbow
and looked at them and at me.
That was the first night of my new duties; and in
the course of the next day I had got well into the run
of them. I had to serve at the meals, which the captain
took at regular hours, sitting down with the officer who
was off duty; all the day through I would be running
with a dram to one or other of my three masters; and
at night I slept on a blanket thrown on the deck boards
at the aftermost end of the round-house, and right in
the draught of the two doors. It was a hard and a cold
bed; nor was I suffered to sleep without interruption;
for some one would be always coming in from deck to
get a dram, and when a fresh watch was to be set, two
and sometimes all three would sit down and brew a
bowl together. How they kept their health, I know
not, any more than how I kept my own.
And yet in other ways it was an easy service. There
was no cloth to lay; the meals were either of oatmeal