Chapter 18

An opportunity offered almost immediately for taking a passage home with
the Tonsberger before alluded to, and Salvé gladly availed himself of
it, calculating upon being taken off by one of the pilot boats off the
coast of Arendal.

It was with a strange deep feeling that he once more trod the deck of a
home vessel, and as he went about and listened to the people's talk,
felt himself an object for their curiosity. The southern brown of his
face, the foreign cut of his clothes, and his whole exterior, marked him
as coming from a much higher condition of sailor life than any with
which they were acquainted, and he passed for an Englishman or an
American; for he purposely avoided being recognised by them as a
countryman, and had made his agreement with the skipper in English.

It was certainly a long time since he had been on board a craft so
miserably found in every way as this leaky old galliot was. She had been
bought by auction for a small sum at Færder; and in shape resembled an
old wooden shoe, in which her skipper venturesomely trudged across to
Holland through the spring and winter storms, calculating that he and
his crew could always lash themselves to something to avoid being washed
overboard; that their timber cargo would keep them afloat; and that as
long as the rigging held they could sail. He carried no
top-gallant-mast, so as not to strain her; her sails were all in holes,
as if they had been riddled with bullets; and where ropes had broken in
the rigging, they had been tied in clumsy knots, instead of being
spliced in proper sailor-like fashion. There was not much to boast of in
the way of navigation either; the captain keeping his log by the simple
method of spitting over the side, or throwing a chip of wood overboard,
and making his calculations according to the pace it drifted past. The
food, too, was on a par with all the rest, and the cook could be heard
beating the dried fish with the back of an axe to make it tender. Salvé
seemed to have dropped all at once into home life and ways again.

The crew were dressed in thick winter clothing, and had the appearance
of navvies rather than of sailors, but they were all fearless,
hardy-looking fellows, as most of the men who risk their lives on these
timber vessels are; and what immediately struck him with a feeling of
pleasure, was the honest expression which every countenance, without
exception, wore. It was long since he had seen a sight of the kind, and
he felt ashamed of himself for going about with his knife ready to hand,
as had been his custom for so many years, and put it away in his chest
the very first day. He took a pleasure in leaving his watch and money
out on the top where they might easily have been taken,