Part 2
You bloody-minded villain! I’m as well-known on ’Change in London as the Duke o’ Marlb’ro is at Blenheim! You’ll see Execution Dock for this; I swear it!
BIMBO (_warningly_)
You have a care when and where you speak of swearing. (_Looking at the ledger._) I make it sixteen score molasses, fourteen dozen rum, seventeen hogshead Jamaica cured tobacco, thirteen hundred sixty bushel of grain or thereabouts, mildewed and part useless; the tobacco of poor quality and the molasses dirty. (_He closes the ledger disgustedly._) There’s a fine cargo for you! I hazard there’s not seventy pounds value that’s worth our keeping. And yet landsmen say we have an easy profession and envy us.
THE GUNNER
Aye; they think all we have to do is overhaul a ship and carry away big chests o’ gold and jewels.
BIMBO
Jewels! (_Laughs hollowly._) We hain’t a jewel this twelvemonth. (_Angrily to DRISCOLL._) Do you know what we’ve got from the last seven ships we’ve taken? Fish! Salt fish! And if there’s one thing we don’t need it’s fish.
THE GUNNER (_violently_)
I hate fish!
BIMBO
It’s enough to make a man give up his calling! (_He throws himself into a chair._) Why, if I could ha’ known beforehand how many cargoes would prove just salt fish and spoilt grain, do you think I’d ever gone for this way of business?
THE GUNNER (_vehemently_)
No! And neither would any young man that could find another opening for himself.
BIMBO
If a youth came to me now for guidance, asking my advice whether or no to take up this calling, I’d bid him think it over, I would. In the first place: How many have the right gift for it? In the second, not one in a thousand has the patience; and in the third, not one in ten thousand has the gimp to persevere over the discouragements. The youth, all confidence and ignorance, thinks he has only to get him some brisk companions and take rich treasure ships----
THE GUNNER (_with a gloomy laugh_)
Aye, so I thought when I was new at it.
BIMBO
Fish! Seven cargoes o’ salt fish! Seven! And now, when we’ve been struggling on and wearing ourselves out to improve our conditions and lay by a little something except salt fish for our old age, all we get to reward us is spoilt grain, bad rum, tobacco not fit to smoke, and molasses full of dead bugs!
THE GUNNER (_hotly_)
Yes; and if I had my way, somebody’d suffer for ’t!
(_He makes a menacing gesture toward the three captives, who are grouped together upon the right. ROBERT sitting despondently, his elbows on his hands; LYDIA drooping unhappily in her chair; and DRISCOLL standing in an attitude of sturdy defiance. But at this sinister speech of the GUNNER, and his equally ominous gesture, LYDIA cries out faintly and begins to weep again._)
DRISCOLL (_sternly_)
Quiet, Lydia. Let these villains not believe they fright us!
LYDIA (_plaintively_)
Let them not believe they fright us? Don’t you see what they intend, Father?
(_She glances at the brazier, shuddering._)
DRISCOLL
Be quiet.
LYDIA
Look yonder! (_Rising, she points to the brazier._) Look yonder! That is for me. (_DRISCOLL looks at the brazier incredulously._) Don’t you understand? That is for me! He said it was for me!
BIMBO (_roughly_)
Well, what of it? What if it is for you?
DRISCOLL (_agitated and becoming violent_)
Wretch! Would you dare?
(_He is roughly grasped and restrained by the GUNNER._)
LYDIA (_becomes hysterical_)
They mean to burn me. I can’t bear it! Oh, Robert, help me! Father! Father!
ROBERT (_leaping to her, taking her in his arms_)
They shan’t touch you, Lydia! Sweetheart!
BIMBO (_roaring_)
Drag him away from her! Stop that!
(_The DEAF-AND-DUMB MAN and the PIRATE WITH THE BRAIDED BEARD spring upon ROBERT and LYDIA, dragging them apart and holding them fast._)
LYDIA (_stretching out her arms despairingly to ROBERT as she is dragged from him_)
Robert, beloved----
ROBERT (_struggling to reach her_)
My love! My love forever----
DRISCOLL (_astonished and angry_)
What! What do you call each other?
BIMBO (_indignantly_)
I should think you would ask that! They have no decency at all.
LYDIA (_faintly, as the PIRATE WITH THE BRAIDED BEARD forces her again into her chair_)
Save me, Robert! I love you!
DRISCOLL (_angrily_)
What do you?
LYDIA
I love him! They mean to burn me!
ROBERT (_struggling to reach her, though the DEAF-AND-DUMB MAN holds him fast_)
They shall not! I say they shall not!
DRISCOLL (_fiercely, at the same time_)
You shan’t love him! (_He struggles with the GUNNER and shouts_) You shan’t! You shan’t!
LYDIA (_writhing in her chair and screaming_)
Save me! Save me!
BIMBO (_roaring and stamping his foot_)
Silence!
(_The three pirates clap their right hands over the mouths of the three vociferating captives, and the latter, after trying to make themselves heard in spite of this encumbrance, relapse into a despairing acceptance of the situation._)
BIMBO (_exasperated_)
What’s all the pother? What’s the matter with you, mistress? Who talks of burning you?
LYDIA (_behind the hand of her captor, indistinctly_)
You did!
BIMBO
I said: Who talks of burning you? Let her speak.
(_The MAN WITH THE BRAIDED BEARD removes his hand from her mouth._)
LYDIA
You did!
BIMBO
Did what?
LYDIA (_pointing to the brazier fearfully_)
You said--that--was for me!
BIMBO
Because you shivered. It was because I thought you were cold.
LYDIA
You said, “Send brimstone with fire!”
BIMBO (_frowning; pointing to the DEAF-AND-DUMB MAN_)
His name’s Brimstone. He’s Salem born, too--Brimstone Smith.
LYDIA (_incredulous_)
It wasn’t to burn me?
BIMBO (_annoyed_)
It was to get you better comfort.
LYDIA (_relieved, but not greatly_)
Oh! Am I just to--(_shuddering_)--to be thrown into the sea?
BIMBO (_angrily_)
What! (_He turns back to the table as if to control himself; is silent a moment; then addresses his subordinates with an air of helpless indignation._) There it is! That’s the reputation such people as Low and Lowther and Teach get for our calling! Now you see what comes of drinking on duty! Men like that misbehave, and the reputation of a whole business suffers for it! I told Lowther the last time I saw him; I said: “I hear your crew was in liquor when they took a Portagee vessel and went and did harm to some o’ they poor Portagees,” I said. “Oh, well,” he says, “what of it? They was only Portagees,” he says. “What of it?” I asks him. “Why, there’s this of it,” I says. “You and such as you and your crew,” I says, “you’ll get a bad name to all of us!” I says. He didn’t like it, but I thought best to speak out to his face. And you see I spoke true.
THE GUNNER (_gloomily_)
So ye did! That’s it; let one or two bad uns get into any business, soon you’ll hear everybody saying the whole business is bad!
BIMBO (_crossly to LYDIA_)
Why, if we did you harm, don’t you know it would only set people against us when they come to hear of it? Why don’t you use your mind a little?
LYDIA (_vaguely and feebly_)
My mind?
BIMBO
Don’t you know that men in our way of business have got to keep the public confidence? We have to depend on trading off our goods, don’t we? Do you suppose if we lost the confidence of the coast folk we could hope to prosper? (_Shaking his head to the GUNNER._) I declare, it’s sickening, the little that people of one walk in life know of those in another walk in life!
THE GUNNER
Yes, ’tis. Sickening! (_Here he addresses DRISCOLL, in a tone of annoyance as DRISCOLL has begun to renew his struggle with him._) Stand quiet, you! What’s the matter now?
(_DRISCOLL replies with fury; but as his mouth is still obstructed by the GUNNER’S powerful swarthy and soiled hand, proper enunciation is impossible and no more than indignant but formless sounds are heard._)
BIMBO (_sharply_)
Let him be understood.
(_The GUNNER removes his hand._)
DRISCOLL (_instantly breaking out in great fury_)
The British Crown itself shall hear of this! He’s been working with tar, and claps his vile hand under my nose! The smell of tar always makes me sick. Wretch!
THE GUNNER
Stop your abuse o’ my hand!
DRISCOLL
You lay that dirty hand to my face again, and, blast your vitals, I’ll----
BIMBO (_vehemently_)
Shame! Close him up again! (_The GUNNER again puts his hand over DRISCOLL’S mouth and holds it there, despite the prisoner’s struggles. BIMBO approaches them and addresses DRISCOLL severely._) Don’t you know what day it is? Shame on you!
LYDIA (_amazed and confused_)
What it is? What day----
BIMBO (_severely_)
I hope that at least you, madam, are aware that this is the Sabbath.
LYDIA (_vacantly_)
Sunday? It’s Sunday?
BIMBO (_sternly_)
It is. (_To DRISCOLL._) We allow no profanity on this vessel on the Sabbath Day. According to our interpretation, “Blast your vitals” is profanity. Old man, if you can’t speak without profanity--and on the Seventh Day too--we won’t let you speak at all. Shame on you!
(_DRISCOLL struggles and mumbles under the GUNNER’S hand._)
LYDIA (_aghast_)
But you’re pirates! What difference does it make to a pi----
BIMBO (_annoyed, interrupting quickly_)
Pray use another term. We are a commonwealth of free seamen.
LYDIA (_breathlessly going on_)
But what have you to do with Sunday?
BIMBO
There it is!
(_The GUNNER groans, shaking his head, and BIMBO sinks despondently into a chair._)
LYDIA
But what could pi----
BIMBO (_quickly_)
Be silent, mistress! You but show your ignorance and rub salt in a galled wound. (_He clasps his forehead, suffering; then rises, returns to his table, and speaks resignedly._) ’Tis the way o’ the universe, so why should we complain? In all the world no man has full understanding of any other--nor has any woman--(_with a resentful side glance at LYDIA_)--of anything, I think. Hark ye, mistress; you’re young and may learn a little. What is the common error of mankind?
LYDIA
Why, sin.
BIMBO
I said error. The common error is to misjudge all who walk not in our own way, and to call them sinners. Then, having called them sinners, we think they sin every sin. That is the common error; and now, as it is the Seventh Day and meet for confession, I humbly confess to be an erring creature, not above this error myself. To make the matter plain to you, take the calling of a play actor. Now, that is a calling abhorrent to me from my earliest training. I look upon it as wholly sinful and wanton and of the way to everlasting fires. Therefore, unless I give heed to second thoughts, I would believe any play actor guilty of all sins--a man that would beat his wife and murder little children, perhaps even upon the Sabbath Day. Yet, if the truth were known, it might be found that just because a man is a play actor he would not of his nature’s necessity and habit do these things. Nevertheless, my first thought would be that he would--because he is a play actor. Fall not into the like misjudgments, mistress. Know that our ship’s company live under rigid law and rule. Else we could not hope to prosper. What think you may be our company’s recreations on this day?
LYDIA (_bitterly_)
I suppose they will take to gaming and to carousing on my father’s rum.
(_The GUNNER and the MAN WITH THE BRAIDED BEARD utter short, grim laughter._)
BIMBO (_sternly_)
When I took my dram o’ brandy I told you it was for no pleasure I had of it. No man of our company may have his dram o’ Sundays except one, and that for being cold inside him, nor may any perform any labor except to the ship’s pressing need. For recreation--none is permitted except the reading of some religious book.
LYDIA (_incredulously_)
What!
BIMBO (_going on, explaining to her with gloomy patience_)
As for gaming, neither dice nor cards shall ever be seen on any ship of mine, I promise you. We permit no gaming any day at all, much less upon the Seventh. So much for that, madam!
LYDIA (_bitterly_)
I see. Your only recreation is to torture your captives!
BIMBO (_shaking his head despondently_)
So! (_He exchanges a pained, satiric smile with the GUNNER._) That’s all they know of us, is it? (_He turns again to LYDIA._) Young madam, again you speak out of your ignorance. You and your father and the young man here have given us much provocation. Have you heard one word of profanity from us? Have you even heard a threatening expression?
LYDIA (_pointing at the GUNNER_)
He said we should be made to suffer for the badness of our cargo.
BIMBO (_severely_)
He meant a fine or toll should be levied against your father; but that would mean our holding him here and having his daily association with us on our ship until the fine or ransom could be sent from Jamaica. I would vote against it, because from what we have seen of him I would rather go without the money.
LYDIA
So you strip us of what goods we have----
BIMBO (_sharply_)
Only such as we shall not be ashamed to sell to honest folk. We shall not touch your father’s molasses. If he was a poor man and what we levied from him deeply injurious to his business, we should take up a gathering, or collection, for him.
LYDIA
You mock us!
BIMBO (_to the GUNNER, gloomily_)
If no one will give you credit for it, what is the good of a good action?
THE GUNNER (_gloomily_)
Aye! What’s the use?
BIMBO (_to LYDIA_)
Now, look ye: In all our ventures from first to last, never once have we took our toll of poor seafaring bodies that we did not pass the hat for ’em, and every man of our crew from captain to cook’s helper put in something to make life brighter and give our captives hope when we sent ’em on their way to begin their business over again. If your father had been a poor man--and of better morals--and if what we levy of his cargo sorely crippled his hope to make a living, we’d do as much for him. As it is, it’s not to be looked for.
LYDIA (_anxiously_)
But will you let us go?
BIMBO
Why, if what a merchant captain and his crew must expect from us is to be stripped of all and mishandled, we’d have a fine business of it! They’d strain twice as hard to outsail us, and fight to death afore we could board ’em. There’s ruffians in every business that make it harder for the good, practical men to make it pay; but you shouldn’t judge us by the exceptions just because the exceptions get more talked about.
LYDIA (_eagerly and hopefully_)
Then you’ll put us back aboard our own ship and let us go?
BIMBO
I didn’t say that.
LYDIA (_crestfallen_)
Oh!
BIMBO
Your father, yes. I wouldn’t keep a Sunday-swearing man among my crew at no price! One rotten apple in a barrel will contaminate the whole.
LYDIA (_anxiously_)
And Robert and me----
BIMBO
You scratched and fought or you’d not ha’ been touched. Now that you’ve learned what becomes a respectable-manner female, you’re not only free to go, but you must go. By the strictest law of our commonwealth, women are not permitted aboard except when the ship might be in a port, and then only on Saturday afternoons and only such as may be wife to one of the crew and accompanied by her mother.
LYDIA (_anxious_)
And Robert?
BIMBO (_looking ROBERT over_)
This is a different matter. He’s a fine, active-bodied seaman and knows the art of navigating. But more: he has familiar knowledge of all the upper coast of South America--I had it from the master of your ship--and we design to cruise upon those coasts. He’s needful to our company.
LYDIA (_piteously_)
You mean to take him with you?
BIMBO (_sharply_)
He must sign our articles and become one of our commonwealth.
LYDIA (_crying out_)
No! No! No!
BIMBO
Why, his case is none so bad. We’ll learn him our business, and if he’s diligent he’ll rise in it. Who can tell? If we get better cargoes, away from this discouraging fish and molasses belt of trade, he may come to you in England, retired and prosperous and ready to marry you--and all belike within seven or eight years from now!
LYDIA (_wailing_)
Seven or eight years! Seven or eight! Eight years! Eight----
BIMBO (_uncomfortably_)
Ha’ done with your caterwauling, young female; we must have him. There’s not one of us can pilot those coasts, and ’twould endanger us to let him go.
LYDIA (_throwing herself on her knees before him_)
Oh, pray don’t separate us!
BIMBO
Don’t beg me! This is a commonwealth, governed by law, and the law would depose me if I jeopardized the common safety by turning loose this pilot. He must sign with us. Let him speak.
(_The DEAF-AND-DUMB MAN releases ROBERT, who rushes to LYDIA and helps her to her feet._)
ROBERT (_his arms about her_)
Don’t kneel to this ruffian for me, sweetheart.
BIMBO (_angrily_)
I told you not to call her sweetheart. You do it for pleasure, and our law forbids it on the Seventh Day. Stand away from her! Take your arm from her! You do that for pleasure too.
ROBERT (_hotly_)
I do it to protect her.
BIMBO
You don’t. It’s for pleasure, and we won’t have it. Stand away from her, I say. (_ROBERT sullenly obeys._) Now we’ll fetch you to the articles of our company, and you’ll sign ’em.
ROBERT
Sign ’em? I’ll die first, ten thousand times!
BIMBO (_hotly_)
You’ll sign ’em. We’ll hold you and guide your hand. (_He takes a large and soiled parchment from the table drawer and places it upon the top of the table._)
LYDIA (_wailing_)
You’ll make him a pirate? Oh, death were better for us both!
BIMBO
Fetch him here.
(_The DEAF-AND-DUMB MAN and the MAN WITH THE BRAIDED BEARD push ROBERT to the table and into a chair there, where BIMBO forces a quill pen into his hand._)
ROBERT (_as this is done_)
They shall not make me! Let me go, you black villains! I defy you!
BIMBO (_forcibly guiding his hand on the parchment_)
There! You’re writing it, my lad. “Robert.” That’s done. It’s a bad hand, but legible. What’s your last name?
ROBERT (_panting_)
You’ll never know.
BIMBO (_grimly_)
Never mind. Robert is enough. Your hand’s been to our parchment, and you’re one of us by law.
LYDIA (_crying out_)
Oh! Ha’ mercy!
BIMBO
Hold him here while I get the old man and his daughter back to their own vessel. (_Moving toward the door._) Come, mistress.
LYDIA (_rushing to her father_)
Father, you can save him. You can pay ransom for him. You can promise to send them coin from England. Father!
BIMBO (_to the GUNNER_)
Bring them with me!
LYDIA (_despairingly_)
Father, tell them you’ll pay them. Father----
ROBERT (_appealing_)
Mr. Driscoll, if you will, I’ll pay you back. I’ll save till----
DRISCOLL (_furiously as the GUNNER removes his hand from his mouth to lead him toward the door_)
You villain! (_This is to ROBERT._) You think she’s for the likes of you, do you? You knew I meant to wed her to her cousin Jock in Liverpool, and you made love to her on the sly. Don’t look for help from me. You’ve got your deserts, and I’m glad of it. You’ll hang when they catch you, because you’re signed and made into a bloody pirate. Why, blast you----
BIMBO (_peremptorily_)
He’s profane again. Stop him!
(_The GUNNER again claps his hand over DRISCOLL’S mouth._)
DRISCOLL (_struggling_)
You’re a bloody--bluggy----
(_The GUNNER shuts him off._)
BIMBO
That’s another oath. You use that word as profanity. Shame! Lock him in his cabin on his own ship and let him swear there; we can’t have it on ours. Come, madam.
LYDIA
No!
ROBERT (_held by the two pirates_)
Lydia! I shall find a way to throw myself into the sea. (_Brokenly._) Think of me--sometimes!
LYDIA (_sobbing_)
Father, you shan’t abandon him. You don’t know--you don’t know--you don’t know----
BIMBO (_sharply_)
He doesn’t know what?
LYDIA
It is his own son he abandons.
BIMBO (_frowning_)
His son?
LYDIA
His son-in-law. We were married the night before we sailed from Jamaica!
(_DRISCOLL struggles fiercely and utters sounds._)
BIMBO (_staring at LYDIA_)
Oh--oh, pshaw!
(_He utters this with the vehemence of acute disappointment and throws himself in a chair, completely disheartened._)
THE GUNNER (_peevishly_)
Well, if that isn’t news to make a man sick! Just when we thought we had a fellow could pilot us on the richest coast in--well, it is--it’s a nuisance! (_To the struggling DRISCOLL._) Come along, you!
DRISCOLL
I won’t. (_Escaping for an instant, he makes at ROBERT._) Now, blast your vitals, I’ll----
THE GUNNER (_again securing the captive and silencing him_)
Stop it!
DRISCOLL
Bla----
THE GUNNER
Shame on you! It’s worse, him being your son-in-law and almost your own flesh and blood. Shame!
DRISCOLL (_indistinctly_)
He’s a bloody pirate! He’s a bl----
BIMBO (_rising, gloomily_)
No. No, he isn’t--not unless the lady consents. (_He turns to LYDIA appealingly._) Now, if he joins us, he might make a very good living and maybe a snug fortune before middle age. (_Hopefully._) Wouldn’t you consent to it?
LYDIA (_shuddering_)
Never!
BIMBO (_sighing heavily_)
That’s the end of it, then. (_At the table._) He’ll have to be crossed off. (_He draws a line through the scrawled signature “Robert,” and turns to LYDIA._) Our laws strictly forbid us to force a married man unless we obtain his wife’s consent. Let him go.
(_He turns aside in disappointment._)
ROBERT (_springing to LYDIA joyously_)
Lydia!
LYDIA (_rapturously_)
Robert!
BIMBO (_turning upon them sharply_)
No sweethearting, now. Stand away from her.
(_ROBERT and LYDIA, checked, stand looking at each other gloomily._)
ROBERT
Can’t I even kiss her?
BIMBO (_horrified_)
Kiss your wife--on Sunday! (_Sternly._) Where was you brought up?
LYDIA (_tenderly_)
But you can take comfort from this: you know I want to kiss you, Robert.
BIMBO (_crossly_)
Well, belike he can wait till Monday. To-morrow we’ll have what’s decent of your cargo aboard us, and you’ll be under way for England again. (_To the other pirates._) Take ’em all three to their own ship.
(_The GUNNER shoves DRISCOLL toward the DEAF-AND-DUMB MAN and the MAN WITH THE BRAIDED BEARD._)
DRISCOLL (_during the moment of this release, shouting at ROBERT_)
Blast you! Bla----
BIMBO (_fiercely_)
Stop it!
(_The two pirates seize DRISCOLL; and the MAN WITH THE BRAIDED BEARD claps his hand over his mouth. Struggling, they push and pull him to the door._)
BIMBO (_taking up his great plumed hat from the table_)
I will make a short address to the crew on the subject, Duty!
THE GUNNER (_bellowing out of the door_)
What ho! Trumpets there! His honor will speak to us on the subject, Duty! His honor will come on deck! Trumpets!
(_Trumpets and drums sound without. DRISCOLL, struggling and uttering sounds, is conducted forth by the DEAF-AND-DUMB MAN. The PIRATE WITH THE BRAIDED BEARD and the GUNNER stand by the door at salute. With a firm gesture BIMBO puts on his hat. Then he passes toward the door. Suddenly he halts and turns sharply upon ROBERT, who has leaned toward LYDIA. ROBERT instantly draws back, and he and LYDIA stand at salute._)
BIMBO (_severely to ROBERT_)
You was going to kiss her! How dare ye! And look at the state your father-in-law’s in about you, too. Pass before me.
(_They do so. As they go he folds his arms, then stalks after them to the door._)
THE GUNNER (_shouting_)
His honor will deliver his weekly address. Trumpets there for his honor!
(_The drums and trumpets sound fiercely again as the pirate captain stalks majestically out of the door._)
CURTAIN
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