Fiction > Book editions > London, 1886 - Kidnapped

46                                     KIDNAPPED.
time of day, for the boat had just gone north with pas-
sengers. A skiff, however, lay beside the pier, with
some seamen sleeping on the thwarts ; this, as Ransome
told me, was the brig's boat waiting for the captain;
and about half a mile off, and all alone in the anchorage,
he showed me the Covenant herself. There was a sea-
going bustle on board; yards were swinging into place;
and as the wind blew from that quarter, I could hear
the song of the sailors as they pulled upon the ropes.
After all I had listened to upon the way, I looked at that
ship with an extreme abhorrence; and from the bottom
of my heart I pitied all poor souls that were condemned
to sail in her.
We had all three pulled up on the brow of the hill;
and now I marched across the road and addressed my
uncle. "I think it right to tell you, sir," says I,
"there's nothing that will bring me on board that
Covenant"
He seemed to waken from a dream. "Eh?" he
said. "What's that?"
I told him over again.
"Well, well," he said, "we'll have to please ye, I
suppose. But what are we standing here for? It's
perishing cold; and if I'm no mistaken, they're busking
the Covenant for sea."