The Adventures Harry Richmond — Complete eBook

We informed her of our arrival from the country, and wanderings in the fog.

‘And you’ll say you’re not tired, I know,’ the girl remarked, and laughed to hear how correctly she had judged of our temper.  Our thirst and hunger, however, filled her with concern, because of our not being used to it as she was, and no place was open to supply our wants.  Her friend, the saucy one, accompanied by a man evidently a sailor, joined us, and the three had a consultation away from Temple and me, at the end of which the sailor, whose name was Joe, raised his leg dancingly, and smacked it.  We gave him our hands to shake, and understood, without astonishment, that we were invited on, board his ship to partake of refreshment.  We should not have been astonished had he said on board his balloon.  Down through thick fog of a lighter colour, we made our way to a narrow lane leading to the river-side, where two men stood thumping their arms across their breasts, smoking pipes, and swearing.  We entered a boat and were rowed to a ship.  I was not aware how frozen and befogged my mind and senses had become until I had taken a desperate and long gulp of smoking rum-and-water, and then the whole of our adventures from morning to midnight, with the fir-trees in the country fog, and the lamps in the London fog, and the man who had lost his son, the fire, the Bench, the old woman with her fowl-like cry and limbs in the air, and the row over the misty river, swam flashing before my eyes, and I cried out to the two girls, who were drinking out of one glass with the sailor Joe, my entertainer, ‘Well, I’m awake now!’ and slept straight off the next instant.

CHAPTER XII

WE FIND OURSELVES BOUND ON A VOYAGE

It seemed to me that I had but taken a turn from right to left, or gone round a wheel, when I repeated the same words, and I heard Temple somewhere near me mumble something like them.  He drew a long breath, so did I:  we cleared our throats with a sort of whinny simultaneously.  The enjoyment of lying perfectly still, refreshed, incurious, unexcited, yet having our minds animated, excursive, reaping all the incidents of our lives at leisure, and making a dream of our latest experiences, kept us tranquil and incommunicative.  Occasionally we let fall a sigh fathoms deep, then by-and-by began blowing a bit of a wanton laugh at the end of it.  I raised my foot and saw the boot on it, which accounted for an uneasy sensation setting in through my frame.

I said softly, ‘What a pleasure it must be for horses to be groomed!’

‘Just what I was thinking!’ said Temple.

We started up on our elbows, and one or the other cried: 

’There’s a chart!  These are bunks!  Hark at the row overhead!  We’re in a ship!  The ship’s moving!  Is it foggy this morning?  It’s time to get up!  I’ve slept in my clothes!  Oh, for a dip!  How I smell of smoke!  What a noise of a steamer!  And the squire at Riversley!  Fancy Uberly’s tale!’