Chapter 5

“Mark my words, my boy; keep on as you’re going and you’ll go far!” But I barely heard my uncle’s words, so anxious was I to share the wondrous news with my best friend Jean-Louis. “I’m to be the new foremast captain! And my uncle says that next time we sail, he’ll start teaching me navigation! But he says that I’ll need my own sextant, for he’ll not risk his fine Dollond instrument that he got from Jean LaFitte, who took it from a British captain. But there are others almost as fine to be had in New Orleans!”

“That’s all well and good, Jake, but if you’re to be foremast captain, what of Moore?” Jean-Louis asked. “Has your uncle decided to set him ashore?”

“He didn’t say,” I said thoughtfully. “Too many incidents of drinking aboard, too much dissatisfaction among the crew because of his bullying ways, and too many foremast hands leaving the ship at New Orleans were what he mentioned. I’m for going ashore, where I hope to locate replacement sailors, but I’d admire to buy you a glass of brandy while I look around! What say you?”

“I say yes, and thank you!” Jean-Louis beamed. “You will make a fine ship’s master one day!”

We took the longboat in with the last of the cargo and beached it near the shed where buyers waited. After seeing to the unloading and storing, which were part of my new responsibilities, we headed for Galvez town. Jean-Louis seemed to be quieter than usual on the way, but I paid little note, such was my mood. Until he put a hand on my sleeve and stopped me, just before we reached the dirt road which was often as far as sailors went into the town, being the location of grog shops and other places of entertainment.

“Jake, you should watch your back when we return to the ship. Did you mark the look of Smathers and Oakey, they who pulled the bow oars on our way in? They’ve had their fiddly businesses going on board, buying a few small things and selling when next we arrive at a port, all watched over by Moore. Now that you’re taking his place they’ll be wondering, and likely they’re not alone for Moore had his favorites. ‘Twas his own fault and the captain’s decision, but they’ll blame you. ‘Tis easy enough to cause you to slip when you’re aloft, and if it happens during the dark of night, who’s to know but what your death was an accident?”

“You’re right,” I said, “and good advice you’re giving me, my friend! I’ll be careful. I’ll also let them know that so long as they don’t endanger the ship, they can continue their fiddles to their heart’s content!”

As it turned out, the danger was more immediate. We had but stepped into one of the better saloons along the way when Jean-Louis poked my arm. “Moore!” he whispered.

But I had already seen him rising from a table where several other Eureka hands sat. Watched him heading toward us, brushing others away from his path. And just before he got to me, he bellowed, “Take my place, would you, you jumped-up toady?”

Before I could respond, I saw the knife in his hand, held low with the blade cutting-edge-up for the gutting stroke. I pushed Jean-Louis aside, for this was not his affair. I carried a knife too, as all sailors do, but it was in its sheath on my right hip where I could not reach it in time. I backed up until my hip touched the bar, then placed my hand on top, thinking to vault across it if I had time. But my hand fell on the club that the bar-tender used to start the bungs that sealed his beer tuns. His carelessness in not placing it in its usual place beneath the plank saved my life, for my hand closed naturally around it. Not a true bung-starter it was, more of a short club, but it was all I had for I’d no time to reach for my knife.

I had time for a brief thought only, that he was a knife fighter and I was not, but the bung-starter was not unlike one of the belaying pins that all sailors handle. So I swung it at his head as hard as I could. He saw it coming, and to give him his due, he was uncommonly quick as well as uncommonly strong. He turned his head aside, causing me to miss, but he was no longer balanced to stick his knife in my guts, which gave me time to set myself for another swing.

I made to aim the bung-starter at his knife wrist, but he pulled it back before I could, and with his left hand extended to catch my arm or block the next swing he came at me again.

The knife was near to touching my guts when my next swing connected. Not where I’d intended, against the side of his head just above the ear, but it staggered him. He braced his left hand on the plank and spat out teeth and a gobbet of blood, shook his head, then came for me again. But this time he was slower, and the hard-swung end of the bung-starter struck true. I heard faintly a cracking sound as it crushed in the side of his head, and he dropped to the sawdust layer that served for a floor, dead as the salted beef from Eureka’s casks.

Jean-Louis picked up the knife Moore had dropped and examined it, then glanced at the table he had come from. I transferred my trusty club to my left hand and withdrew my knife with my right, ready in case they thought to take up where Moore had failed. “Not what I would prefer, but ‘twill do, I expect.” So saying, Jean-Louis reached for his own knife. “Now, lads,” he said. “Ye have a choice, ye do. Take up his quarrel, or take up his body and see to the disposing of it. What say ye, for I’ve a thirst that only brandy will quench! And if your choice is to dispose of his body, why, such work makes a man thirsty. I’ll buy ye a drink before you depart, and yer new foremast captain will buy the next! What say ye, lads?”

They took the brandy, though more than one had already taken aboard more drink than he should, then dragged Moore’s body outside. Only then did Jean-Louis sigh with relief and put his knife away. Moore’s he stuck in the bar and slammed his hand against the handle’s side, breaking the blade. “A cheap thing, but dangerous,” he remarked, looking at the bar-tender where he waited down the bar. “You can leave your place and the shotgun that’s behind you, for the trouble is over. We’ll have another brandy each, the best you have this time, and my friend will pay for them and one for you as well.”