FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142  
143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   >>  
ry. In the holds the layers of salted fish rose steadily under the phenomenal fishing. The salt-barrels were emptied and crowded out by the cod, hake, and pollock. It was these boats that Ellinwood watched with the eye of a hawk, for back in Freekirk Head he knew that Bill Boughton stood ready to pay a bonus for the first cargo to reach port. Now was the time when the advance orders from the West Indies were coming up, and, because of the failure of the season on the island itself, these orders stood unfilled. One or two of the smallest sloops had already wet their salt and weighed anchor for home, taking letters and messages; but these, Pete knew, could only supply an infinitesimal portion of the demand. What Boughton looked for was a healthy load of fifteen hundred to two thousand quintals all ready for drying. Night and day the work went on. With the first signs of daylight the dories were swung outboard and the men took their positions. A catch of two hundred good-sized cod was now considered the usual thing for a handliner, and night after night the piles of silver fish in the pens amidships seemed to grow in size. Now they dressed down under lantern light, sometimes aided by the moon, and the men stood to the tables until they fell asleep on their feet and split their fingers instead of the fish. Then, after buckets of hot coffee, they would fall to again and never stop until the last wet body had been laid atop of its thousands of brothers. The men were constantly on the trawls. Sometimes they did nothing all day but pick the fish and rebait, finding, after a trip to the schooner to unload, that a thousand others had struck on the long lines of sagging hooks while they were gone. It was fast and feverish work, and it seemed as though it would never end. The situation had resolved itself into a race between the schooners, and Ellinwood was of no mind to come off second best. Like a jockey before a race, he watched his rivals. He knew that foxy Bijonah Tanner, who sometimes looked like an old hump-backed cod himself, was his most dangerous rival. Tanner said nothing, but his boats were out early and in late, and the lanterns on his deck over the dressing pens could sometimes be seen as late as ten o'clock at night. Visits among the fleet had now ceased, both because there was no time for it, and because a man from another schooner was looked upon as a spy. At the start of the season it had bee
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142  
143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   >>  



Top keywords:

looked

 

thousand

 

season

 

Tanner

 

schooner

 

hundred

 

orders

 

Boughton

 
Ellinwood
 

watched


feverish
 

sagging

 

thousands

 
coffee
 

brothers

 
constantly
 
unload
 

struck

 

finding

 

trawls


Sometimes

 

rebait

 
dressing
 

lanterns

 
Visits
 

ceased

 

jockey

 

resolved

 
schooners
 

rivals


backed

 

dangerous

 

Bijonah

 

situation

 

considered

 

coming

 

failure

 

island

 
unfilled
 
Indies

advance

 

taking

 

letters

 

messages

 

anchor

 

smallest

 

sloops

 

weighed

 

steadily

 

phenomenal