Chapter 3

"--I have great comfort from this fellow: methinks he hath no drowning
mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows."

Tempest.

It has been said that the periagua was in motion, before our two
adventurers succeeded in stepping on board. The arrival of the Patroon of
Kinderhook and of Alderman Van Beverout was expected, and the schipper had
taken his departure at the precise moment of the turn in the current, in
order to show, with a sort of pretending independence which has a peculiar
charm for men in his situation, that 'time and tide wait for no man.'
Still there were limits to his decision; for, while he put the boat in
motion, especial care was taken that the circumstance should not subject a
customer so important and constant as the Alderman, to any serious
inconvenience. When he and his friend had embarked, the painters were
thrown aboard, and the crew of the ferry-boat began to set their vessel,
in earnest, towards the mouth of the creek. During these movements, a
young negro was seated in the bow of the periagua, with his legs dangling,
one on each side of the cut-water, forming no bad apology for a
figure-head. He held a conch to his mouth, and with his two glossy cheeks
inflated like those of Eolus, and his dark glittering eyes expressing the
delight he found in drawing sounds from the shell, he continued to give
forth the signal for departure.

"Put up the conch, thou bawler!" cried the Alderman, giving the younker a
rap on his naked poll, in passing, with the end of his cane, that might
have disturbed the harmony of one less bent on clamor. "A thousand windy
trumpeters would be silence itself, compared to such a pair of lungs! How
now Master Schipper, is this your punctuality, to start before your
passengers are ready?"

The undisturbed boatman, without removing the pipe from his mouth, pointed
to the bubbles on the water which were already floating outward, a certain
evidence that the tide was on the ebb.

"I care nothing for your ins and outs, your ebbs and floods," returned the
Alderman, in heat. "There is no better time-piece than the leg and eye of
a punctual man. It is no more pleasant to go before one is ready, than to
tarry when all business is done. Harkee, Master Schipper, you are not the
only navigator in this bay, nor is your craft the swiftest that was ever
launched. Have a care; though an acquiescing man by nature, I know how to
encourage an opposition, when the public good seriously calls for my
support."

To the attack on himself, the schipper was stoically indifferent, but to
impeach the qualities of the periagua was to attack one who depended
solely on his eloquence for vindication. Removing his pipe,