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Essays of Travel-Part7_ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON(1850-1894)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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in his narration. The Engineers, for instance, was a service which

he praised highly; it is true there would be trouble with the



sergeants; but then the officers were gentlemen, and his own, in

particular, one among ten thousand. It sounded so far exactly like



an episode in the rakish, topsy-turvy life of such an one as I had

imagined. But then there came incidents more doubtful, which showed



an almost impudent greed after gratuities, and a truly impudent

disregard for truth. And then there was the tale of his departure.



He had wearied, it seems, of Woolwich, and one fine day, with a

companion, slipped up to London for a spree. I have a suspicion that



spree was meant to be a long one; but God disposes all things; and

one morning, near Westminster Bridge, whom should he come across but



the very sergeant who had recruited him at first! What followed? He

himself indicated cavalierly that he had then resigned. Let us put



it so. But these resignations are sometimes very trying.

At length, after having delighted us for hours, he took himself away



from the companion; and I could ask Mackay who and what he was.

'That?' said Mackay. 'Why, that's one of the stowaways.'



'No man,' said the same authority, 'who has had anything to do with

the sea, would ever think of paying for a passage.' I give the



statement as Mackay's, without endorsement; yet I am tempted to

believe that it contains a grain of truth; and if you add that the



man shall be impudent and thievish, or else dead-broke, it may even

pass for a fair representation of the facts. We gentlemen of England



who live at home at ease have, I suspect, very insufficient ideas on

the subject. All the world over, people are stowing away in coal-



holes and dark corners, and when ships are once out to sea, appearing

again, begrimed and bashful, upon deck. The career of these sea-



tramps partakes largely of the adventurous. They may be poisoned by

coal-gas, or die by starvation in their place of concealment; or when



found they may be clapped at once and ignominiously into irons, thus

to be carried to their promised land, the port of destination, and



alas! brought back in the same way to that from which they started,

and there delivered over to the magistrates and the seclusion of a



county jail. Since I crossed the Atlantic, one miserable stowaway

was found in a dying state among the fuel, uttered but a word or two,



and departed for a farther country than America.

When the stowaway appears on deck, he has but one thing to pray for:



that he be set to work, which is the price and sign of his

forgiveness. After half an hour with a swab or a bucket, he feels



himself as secure as if he had paid for his passage. It is not

altogether a bad thing for the company, who get more or less



efficient hands for nothing but a few plates of junk and duff; and

every now and again find themselves better paid than by a whole



family of cabin passengers. Not long ago, for instance, a packet was

saved from nearly certain loss by the skill and courage of a stowaway



engineer. As was no more than just, a handsome subscription rewarded

him for his success: but even without such exceptional good fortune,



as things stand in England and America, the stowaway will often make

a good profit out of his adventure. Four engineers stowed away last



summer on the same ship, the CIRCASSIA; and before two days after

their arrival each of the four had found a comfortable berth. This



was the most hopeful tale of emigration that I heard from first to

last; and as you see, the luck was for stowaways.



My curiosity was much inflamed by what I heard; and the next morning,

as I was making the round of the ship, I was delighted to find the



ex-Royal Engineer engaged in washing down the white paint of a deck

house. There was another fellow at work beside him, a lad not more



than twenty, in the most miraculous tatters, his handsome face sown

with grains of beauty and lighted up by expressive eyes. Four



stowaways had been found aboard our ship before she left the Clyde,

but these two had alone escaped the ignominy of being put ashore.



Alick, my acquaintance of last night, was Scots by birth, and by

trade a practical engineer; the other was from Devonshire, and had






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