Free English passengers by Matthew Kneale

whaleboat was a tidy vessel with a good sail on her and, though Ned was all foolishness at the tiller, so I even had to give him a cuffing or two, still it only took us two days.
    Now, George Town is all well and good but it is taking a chance. Mostly you can trust them, as it’s a small enough place, but you never do know what strangers might be passing through and who they might go talking to, while the last thing I was looking for was getting dropped back into prison clothes after all the trouble we’d had escaping free of them. So we didn’t stop once but went straight over to Haskins. We hadn’t been for a year, nearly, and first we just had ourselves a proper good look. He had some prettiest glass marbles, all different colours, like I hadn’t seen since I was a lad back in Dorking in the old country. Also I found something for my cheek where my skinning knife had caught it a month back, leaving a proper gash of a cut that never would settle. I told Ned to stay quiet during the talk, as Ned was a fool for business, being only any use on the seals, and in the end I got us a good trade for ourhides, with enough flour and tea and rum to last nicely, and the medicine for my cheek. There was a few coins over, too, and I did think of paying a call at the inn, and perhaps even take a turn with that Lill, but Ned was whining that we’d be noticed, so back in the boat we climbed.
    Usually the journey back from George Town was a proper fight against the westerlies but this time we’d hardly set out when the breeze veered round to the northeast pretty as could be, which was a proper piece of luck. We couldn’t have had an easier run and inside three days we were almost home. It was then, the wind keeping sweet, that I got to wondering about something else I might get besides tea and flour and rum. Ned, being a cowardly bugger, didn’t much like the idea, having a scare of them that I was thinking of, but I won him round, calling him names and saying if we got two then he could have one all for himself. Ned was always one who could be talked along. He paid dear enough for it, too, in the end, as things turned out.
    So we carried on clean past the island and then turned south along the coast that is mostly trees, till I saw smoke from one of their fires up ahead. After that we went careful. I took the sail down and took us close in to the shore to be less seen. It wasn’t easy landing there, as the surf was wild, but in the end we beached her in a creek a mile or two distant from them. It was while we were hiding the boat in bushes that Ned came over with his scares, and bad too, so he was no use even after cuffing talk, so I left him there and went off alone, keeping myself hid in the trees. A good bitch I spotted straight off, too, diving off a rock for shellfish, not an inch of clothes on her, with a good pair of racks, and her fluff and crack showing like she was just waiting for it.
    After that I went back to the boat and Ned till the time was right. We couldn’t have a fire, of course, and that night was cold. A while before first light I went off, going quiet, finding my way by the moon till I saw their fire. There must have been thirty of them, all sleeping close to the blaze as they could without getting burned, as if they were scared of what might come out of the dark. That gave me a chuckle. I crept round to the gin I’d seen before, and hauled her up by the arm. Well, she was trouble, that piece, yelling and biting like some raw animal, and getting the others after me, too. I was expecting that, mind, and when they got close I put a bullet through the nearest, which scared the rest nicely,though it didn’t stop her from squirming and such. Even when Ned and me got her in the boat she was carrying on worse than ever, so I quite worried she might capsize us and spill our stores over the side. I said to Ned, ‘‘We ’ve got ourselves a right warrior here.’’ She was that bad, in fact, that when we finally