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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10784 ***
+
+SAILORS' KNOTS
+
+By W.W. Jacobs
+
+
+1909
+
+
+
+SENTENCE DEFERRED
+
+
+[Illustration: "An elderly man with a wooden leg, who joined the
+indignant officer in the pursuit."]
+
+Fortunately for Captain Bligh, there were but few people about, and the
+only person who saw him trip Police-Sergeant Pilbeam was an elderly man
+with a wooden leg, who joined the indignant officer in the pursuit.  The
+captain had youth on his side, and, diving into the narrow alley-ways
+that constitute the older portion of Wood-hatch, he moderated his pace
+and listened acutely.  The sounds of pursuit died away in the distance,
+and he had already dropped into a walk when the hurried tap of the wooden
+leg sounded from one corner and a chorus of hurried voices from the
+other.  It was clear that the number of hunters had increased.
+
+He paused a second, irresolute.  The next, he pushed open a door that
+stood ajar in an old flint wall and peeped in.  He saw a small, brick-
+paved yard, in which trim myrtles and flowering plants stood about in
+freshly ochred pots, and, opening the door a little wider, he slipped in
+and closed it behind him.
+
+"Well?"  said a voice, sharply.  "What do you want?"
+
+Captain Bligh turned, and saw a girl standing in a hostile attitude in
+the doorway of the house.  "H'sh!" he said, holding up his finger.
+
+The girl's cheeks flushed and her eyes sparkled.
+
+"What are you doing in our yard?" she demanded.
+
+The captain's face relaxed as the sound of voices died away.  He gave his
+moustache a twist, and eyed her with frank admiration.
+
+"Escaping," he said, briefly.  "They nearly had me, though."
+
+"You had no business to escape into our yard," said the girl.  "What have
+you been escaping from?"
+
+"Fat policeman," said the skipper, jauntily, twisting his moustache.
+
+Miss Pilbeam, only daughter of Sergeant Pilbeam, caught her breath
+sharply.
+
+"What have you been doing?" she inquired, as soon as she could control
+her voice.
+
+"Nothing," said the skipper, airily, "nothing.  I was kicking a stone
+along the path and he told me to stop it."
+
+"Well?" said Miss Pilbeam, impatiently.
+
+"We had words," said the skipper.  "I don't like policemen--fat
+policemen--and while we were talking he happened to lose his balance and
+go over into some mud that was swept up at the side of the road."
+
+"Lost his balance?" gasped the horrified Miss Pilbeam.
+
+The skipper was flattered at her concern.  "You would have laughed if you
+had seen him," he said, smiling.  "Don't look so frightened; he hasn't
+got me yet."
+
+"No," said the girl, slowly.  "Not yet."
+
+She gazed at him with such a world of longing in her eyes that the
+skipper, despite a somewhat large share of self-esteem, was almost
+startled.
+
+"And he shan't have me," he said, returning her gaze with interest.
+
+Miss Pilbeam stood in silent thought.  She was a strong, well-grown girl,
+but she realized fully that she was no match for the villain who stood
+before her, twisting his moustache and adjusting his neck-tie.  And her
+father would not be off duty until nine.
+
+"I suppose you would like to wait here until it is dark?" she said at
+last.
+
+"I would sooner wait here than anywhere," said the skipper, with
+respectful ardor.
+
+"Perhaps you would like to come in and sit down?" said the girl.
+
+Captain Bligh thanked her, and removing his cap followed her into a small
+parlor in the front of the house.
+
+"Father is out," she said, as she motioned him to an easy-chair, "but I'm
+sure he'll be pleased to see you when he comes in."
+
+"And I shall be pleased to see him," said the innocent skipper.
+
+Miss Pilbeam kept her doubts to herself and sat in a brown study,
+wondering how the capture was to be effected.  She had a strong
+presentiment that the appearance of her father at the front door would be
+the signal for her visitor's departure at the back.  For a time there was
+an awkward silence.
+
+"Lucky thing for me I upset that policeman," said the skipper, at last.
+
+"Why?" inquired the girl.
+
+"Else I shouldn't have come into your yard," was the reply.  "It's the
+first time we have ever put into Woodhatch, and I might have sailed away
+and never seen you.  Where should we have been but for that fat
+policeman?"
+
+Miss Pilbeam--as soon as she could get her breath--said, "Ah, where
+indeed!" and for the first time in her life began to feel the need of a
+chaperon.
+
+"Funny to think of him hunting for me high and low while I am sitting
+here," said the skipper.
+
+Miss Pilbeam agreed with him, and began to laugh--to laugh so heartily
+that he was fain at last to draw his chair close to hers and pat her
+somewhat anxiously on the back.  The treatment sobered her at once, and
+she drew apart and eyed him coldly.
+
+"I was afraid you would lose your breath," explained the skipper,
+awkwardly.  "You are not angry, are you?"
+
+He was so genuinely relieved when she said, "No," that Miss Pilbeam,
+despite her father's wrongs, began to soften a little.  The upsetter of
+policemen was certainly good-looking; and his manner towards her so
+nicely balanced between boldness and timidity that a slight feeling of
+sadness at his lack of moral character began to assail her.
+
+"Suppose you are caught after all?" she said, presently.  "You will go to
+prison."
+
+The skipper shrugged his shoulders.  "I don't suppose I shall be," he
+replied.
+
+"Aren't you sorry?" persisted Miss Pilbeam, in a vibrant voice.
+
+"Certainly not," said the skipper.  "Why, I shouldn't have seen you if I
+hadn't done it."
+
+Miss Pilbeam looked at the clock and pondered.  It wanted but five
+minutes to nine.  Five minutes in which to make up a mind that was in a
+state of strong unrest.
+
+"I suppose it is time for me to go," said the skipper, watching her.
+Miss Pilbeam rose.  "No, don't go," she said, hastily.  "Do be quiet.
+I want to think."
+
+Captain Bligh waited in respectful silence, heedless of the fateful
+seconds ticking from the mantelpiece.  At the sound of a slow, measured
+footfall on the cobblestone path outside Miss Pilbeam caught his arm and
+drew him towards the door.
+
+"Go!" she breathed.  "No, stop!"
+
+She stood trying in vain to make up her mind.  "Upstairs," she said.
+"Quick!" and, leading the way, entered her father's bedroom, and, after a
+moment's thought, opened the door of a cupboard in the corner.
+
+"Get in there," she whispered.
+
+"But--" objected the astonished Bligh.
+
+The front door was heard to open.
+
+"Police!" said Miss Pilbeam, in a thrilling whisper.  The skipper stepped
+into the cupboard without further parley, and the girl, turning the key,
+slipped it into her pocket and sped downstairs.
+
+Sergeant Pilbeam was in the easy-chair, with his belt unfastened, when
+she entered the parlor, and, with a hungry reference to supper, sat
+watching her as she lit the lamp and drew down the blind.  With a
+lifelong knowledge of the requirements of the Force, she drew a jug of
+beer and placed it by his side while she set the table.
+
+"Ah! I wanted that," said the sergeant.  "I've been running."
+
+Miss Pilbeam raised her eyebrows.
+
+"After some sailor-looking chap that capsized me when I wasn't prepared
+for it," said her father, putting down his glass.  "It was a neat bit o'
+work, and I shall tell him so when I catch him.  Look here!"
+
+He stood up and exhibited the damage.
+
+"I've rubbed off what I could," he said, resuming his seat, "and I s'pose
+the rest'll brush off when it's dry.  To-morrow morning I shall go down
+to the harbor and try and spot my lord."
+
+He drew his chair to the table and helped himself, and, filling his mouth
+with cold meat and pickles, enlarged on his plans for the capture of his
+assailant; plans to which the undecided Miss Pilbeam turned a somewhat
+abstracted ear.
+
+By the time her father had finished his supper she was trying, but in
+vain, to devise means for the prisoner's escape.  The sergeant had opened
+the door of the room for the sake of fresh air, and it was impossible for
+anybody to come downstairs without being seen.  The story of a sickly
+geranium in the back-yard left him unmoved.
+
+"I wouldn't get up for all the geraniums in the world," he declared.
+"I'm just going to have one more pipe and then I'm off to bed.  Running
+don't agree with me."
+
+He went, despite his daughter's utmost efforts to prevent him, and she
+sat in silent consternation, listening to his heavy tread overhead.  She
+heard the bed creak in noisy protest as he climbed in, and ten minutes
+later the lusty snoring of a healthy man of full habit resounded through
+the house.
+
+She went to bed herself at last, and, after lying awake for nearly a
+couple of hours, closed her eyes in order to think better.  She awoke
+with the sun pouring in at the window and the sounds of vigorous brushing
+in the yard beneath.
+
+"I've nearly got it off," said the sergeant, looking up.  "It's
+destroying evidence in a sense, I suppose; but I can't go about with my
+uniform plastered with mud.  I've had enough chaff about it as it is."
+
+Miss Pilbeam stole to the door of the next room and peeped stealthily in.
+Not a sound came from the cupboard, and a horrible idea that the prisoner
+might have been suffocated set her trembling with apprehension.
+
+"H'sh!" she whispered.
+
+An eager but stifled "H'st!" came from the cup-board, and Miss Pilbeam,
+her fears allayed, stepped softly into the room.
+
+"He's downstairs brushing the mud off," she said, in a low voice.
+
+"Who is?"  said the skipper.
+
+"The fat policeman," said the girl, in a hard voice, as she remembered
+her father's wrongs.
+
+"What's he doing it here for?" demanded the astonished skipper.
+
+"Because he lives here."
+
+"Lodger?" queried the skipper, more astonished than before.
+
+"Father," said Miss Pilbeam.
+
+A horrified groan from the cupboard fell like music on her ears.  Then
+the smile forsook her lips, and she stood quivering with indignation as
+the groan gave way to suppressed but unmistakable laughter.
+
+"H'sh!" she said sharply, and with head erect sailed out of the room and
+went downstairs to give Mr. Pilbeam his breakfast.
+
+To the skipper in the confined space and darkness of the cupboard the
+breakfast seemed unending.  The sergeant evidently believed in sitting
+over his meals, and his deep, rumbling voice, punctuated by good-natured
+laughter, was plainly audible.  To pass the time the skipper fell to
+counting, and, tired of that, recited some verses that he had acquired at
+school.  After that, and with far more heartiness, he declaimed a few
+things that he had learned since; and still the clatter and rumble
+sounded from below.
+
+It was a relief to him when he heard the sergeant push his chair back and
+move heavily about the room.  A minute later he heard him ascending the
+stairs, and then he held his breath with horror as the foot-steps entered
+the room and a heavy hand was laid on the cupboard door.
+
+"Elsie!" bawled the sergeant.  "Where's the key of my cupboard?  I want
+my other boots."
+
+"They're down here," cried the voice of Miss Pilbeam, and the skipper,
+hardly able to believe in his good fortune, heard the sergeant go
+downstairs again.
+
+At the expiration of another week--by his own reckoning--he heard the
+light, hurried footsteps of Miss Pilbeam come up the stairs and pause at
+the door.
+
+"H'st!" he said, recklessly.
+
+"I'm coming," said the girl.  "Don't be impatient."
+
+A key turned in the lock, the door was flung open, and the skipper, dazed
+and blinking with the sudden light, stumbled into the room.
+
+"Father's gone," said Miss Pilbeam.
+
+The skipper made no answer.  He was administering first aid to a right
+leg which had temporarily forgotten how to perform its duties, varied
+with slaps and pinches at a left which had gone to sleep.  At intervals
+he turned a red-rimmed and reproachful eye on Miss Pilbeam.
+
+[Illustration: "He was administering first aid to a right leg."]
+
+"You want a wash and some breakfast," she said, softly, "especially a
+wash.  There's water and a towel, and while you're making yourself tidy
+I'll be getting breakfast."
+
+The skipper hobbled to the wash-stand, and, dipping his head in a basin
+of cool water, began to feel himself again.  By the time he had done his
+hair in the sergeant's glass and twisted his moustache into shape he felt
+better still, and he went downstairs almost blithely.
+
+"I'm very sorry it was your father," he said, as he took a seat at the
+table.  "Very."
+
+"That's why you laughed, I suppose?" said the girl, tossing her head.
+
+"Well, I've had the worst of it," said the other.  "I'd sooner be upset a
+hundred times than spend a night in that cupboard.  However, all's well
+that ends well."
+
+"Ah!" said Miss Pilbeam, dolefully, "but is it the end?"
+
+Captain Bligh put down his knife and fork and eyed her uneasily.
+
+"What do you mean?" he said.
+
+"Never mind; don't spoil your breakfast," said the girl.  "I'll tell you
+afterwards.  It's horrid to think, after all my trouble, of your doing
+two months as well as a night in the cupboard."
+
+"Beastly," said the unfortunate, eying her in great concern.  "But what's
+the matter?"
+
+"One can't think of everything," said Miss Pilbeam, "but, of course, we
+ought to have thought of the mate getting uneasy when you didn't turn up
+last night, and going to the police-station with a description of you."
+
+The skipper started and smote the table with his fist.
+
+"Father's gone down to watch the ship now," said Miss Pilbeam.  "Of
+course, it's the exact description of the man that assaulted him.
+Providential he called it."
+
+"That's the worst of having a fool for a mate," said the skipper,
+bitterly.  "What business was it of his, I should like to know?  What's
+it got to do with him whether I turn up or not?  What does he want to
+interfere for?"
+
+"It's no good blaming him," said Miss Pilbeam, thinking deeply, with her
+chin on her finger.  "The thing is, what is to be done?  Once father gets
+his hand on you----"
+
+She shuddered; so did the skipper.
+
+"I might get off with a fine; I didn't hurt him," he remarked.
+
+Miss Pilbeam shook her head.  "They're very strict in Woodhatch," she
+said.
+
+"I was a fool to touch him at all," said the repentant skipper.  "High
+spirits, that's what it was.  High spirits, and being spoken to as if I
+was a child."
+
+"The thing is, how are you to escape?" said the girl.  "It's no good
+going out of doors with the police and half the people in Woodhatch all
+on the look-out for you."
+
+"If I could only get aboard I should be all right," muttered the skipper.
+"I could keep down the fo'-c's'le while the mate took the ship out."
+
+Miss Pilbeam sat in deep thought.  "It's the getting aboard that's the
+trouble," she said, slowly.  "You'd have to disguise yourself.  It would
+have to be a good disguise, too, to pass my father, I can tell you."
+
+Captain Bligh gave a gloomy assent.
+
+"The only thing for you to do, so far as I can see," said the girl,
+slowly, "is to make yourself up like a coalie.  There are one or two
+colliers in the harbor, and if you took off your coat--I could send it on
+afterwards--rubbed yourself all over with coal-dust, and shaved off your
+moustache, I believe you would escape."
+
+"Shave!" ejaculated the skipper, in choking accents.  "Rub--!
+Coal-dust!"
+
+"It's your only chance," said Miss Pilbeam.
+
+Captain Bligh leaned back frowning, and from sheer force of habit passed
+the ends of his moustache slowly through his fingers.  "I think the coal-
+dust would be enough," he said at last.
+
+The girl shook her head.  "Father particularly noticed your moustache,"
+she said.
+
+"Everybody does," said the skipper, with mournful pride.  "I won't part
+with it."
+
+"Not for my sake?" inquired Miss Pilbeam, eying him mournfully.  "Not
+after all I've done for you?"
+
+"No," said the other, stoutly.
+
+Miss Pilbeam put her handkerchief to her eyes and, with a suspicious
+little sniff, hurried from the room.  Captain Bligh, much affected,
+waited for a few seconds and then went in pursuit of her.  Fifteen
+minutes later, shorn of his moustache, he stood in the coal-hole, sulkily
+smearing himself with coal.
+
+"That's better," said the girl; "you look horrible."
+
+She took up a handful of coal-dust and, ordering him to stoop, shampooed
+him with hearty good-will.
+
+[Illustration: "She took up a handful of coal-dust and, ordering him to
+stoop, shampooed him with hearty good-will."]
+
+"No good half doing it," she declared.  "Now go and look at yourself in
+the glass in the kitchen."
+
+The skipper went, and came back in a state of wild-eyed misery.  Even
+Miss Pilbeam's statement that his own mother would not know him failed to
+lift the cloud from his brow.  He stood disconsolate as the girl opened
+the front door.
+
+"Good-by," she said, gently.  "Write and tell me when you are safe."
+
+Captain Bligh promised, and walked slowly up the road.  So far from
+people attempting to arrest him, they vied with each other in giving him
+elbow-room.  He reached the harbor unmolested, and, lurking at a
+convenient corner, made a careful survey.  A couple of craft were working
+out their coal, a small steamer was just casting loose, and a fishing-
+boat gliding slowly over the still water to its berth.  His own schooner,
+which lay near the colliers, had apparently knocked off work pending his
+arrival.  For Sergeant Pilbeam he looked in vain.
+
+He waited a minute or two, and then, with a furtive glance right and
+left, strolled in a careless fashion until he was abreast of one of the
+colliers.  Nobody took any notice of him, and, with his hands in his
+pockets, he gazed meditatively into the water and edged along towards his
+own craft.  His foot trembled as he placed it on the plank that formed
+the gangway, but, resisting the temptation to look behind, he gained the
+deck and walked forward.
+
+"Halloa!  What do you want?"  inquired a sea-man, coming out of the
+galley.
+
+"All right, Bill," said the skipper, in a low voice.  "Don't take any
+notice of me."
+
+"Eh?" said the seaman, starting.  "Good lor'!  What ha' you----"
+
+"Shut up!" said the skipper, fiercely; and, walking to the forecastle,
+placed his hand on the scuttle and descended with studied slowness.  As
+he reached the floor the perturbed face of Bill blocked the opening.
+
+"Had an accident, cap'n?" he inquired, respectfully.
+
+"No," snapped the skipper.  "Come down here--quick!  Don't stand up there
+attracting attention.  Do you want the whole town round you?  Come down!"
+
+"I'm all right where I am," said Bill, backing hastily as the skipper,
+putting a foot on the ladder, thrust a black and furious face close to
+his.
+
+"Clear out, then," hissed the skipper.  "Go and send the mate to me.
+Don't hurry.  And if anybody noticed me come aboard and should ask you
+who I am, say I'm a pal of yours."
+
+The seaman, marvelling greatly, withdrew, and the skipper, throwing
+himself on a locker, wiped a bit of grit out of his eye and sat down to
+wait for the mate.  He was so long in coming that he waxed impatient, and
+ascending a step of the ladder again peeped on to the deck.  The first
+object that met his gaze was the figure of the mate leaning against the
+side of the ship with a wary eye on the scuttle.
+
+"Come here," said the skipper.
+
+"Anything wrong?" inquired the mate, retreating a couple of paces in
+disorder.
+
+"Come--here!" repeated the skipper.
+
+The mate advanced slowly, and in response to an imperative command from
+the skipper slowly descended and stood regarding him nervously.
+
+"Yes; you may look," said the skipper, with sudden ferocity.  "This is
+all your doing.  Where are you going?"
+
+He caught the mate by the coat as he was making for the ladder, and
+hauled him back again.
+
+"You'll go when I've finished with you," he said, grimly.  "Now, what do
+you mean by it?  Eh?  What do you mean by it?"
+
+"That's all right," said the mate, in a soothing voice.  "Don't get
+excited."
+
+"Look at me!" said the skipper.  "All through your interfering.  How dare
+you go making inquiries about me?"
+
+"Me?" said the mate, backing as far as possible.  "Inquiries?"
+
+"What's it got to do with you if I stay out all night?"  pursued the
+skipper.
+
+"Nothing," said the other, feebly.
+
+"What did you go to the police about me for, then?" demanded the skipper.
+
+"Me?" said the mate, in the shrill accents of astonishment.  "Me?
+I didn't go to no police about you.  Why should I?"
+
+"Do you mean to say you didn't report my absence last night to the
+police?"  said the skipper, sternly.
+
+"Cert'nly not," said the mate, plucking up courage.  "Why should I?  If
+you like to take a night off it's nothing to do with me.  I 'ope I know
+my duty better.  I don't know what you're talking about."
+
+"And the police haven't been watching the ship and inquiring for me?"
+asked the skipper.
+
+The mate shook his bewildered head.  "Why should they?" he inquired.
+
+The skipper made no reply.  He sat goggle-eyed, staring straight before
+him, trying in vain to realize the hardness of the heart that had been
+responsible for such a scurvy trick.
+
+"Besides, it ain't the fust time you've been out all night," remarked the
+mate, aggressively.
+
+The skipper favored him with a glance the dignity of which was somewhat
+impaired by his complexion, and in a slow and stately fashion ascended to
+the deck.  Then he caught his breath sharply and paled beneath the
+coaldust as he saw Sergeant Pilbeam standing on the quay, opposite the
+ship.  By his side stood Miss Pilbeam, and both, with a far-away look in
+their eyes, were smiling vaguely but contentedly at the horizon.  The
+sergeant appeared to be the first to see the skipper.
+
+"Ahoy, Darkie!" he cried.
+
+Captain Bligh, who was creeping slowly aft, halted, and, clenching his
+fists, regarded him ferociously.
+
+"Give this to the skipper, will you, my lad?" said the sergeant, holding
+up the jacket Bligh had left behind.  "Good-looking young man with a very
+fine moustache he is."
+
+[Illustration: "Give this to the skipper, will you, my lad?"  said the
+sergeant.]
+
+"Was," said his daughter, in a mournful voice.
+
+"And a rather dark complexion," continued the sergeant, grinning madly.
+"I was going to take him--for stealing my coal--but I thought better of
+it.  Thought of a better way.  At least, my daughter did.  So long;
+Darkie."
+
+He kissed the top of a fat middle finger, and, turning away, walked off
+with Miss Pilbeam.  The skipper stood watching them with his head
+swimming until, arrived at the corner, they stopped and the sergeant came
+slowly back.
+
+"I was nearly forgetting," he said, slowly.  "Tell your skipper that if
+so be as he wants to apologize--for stealing my coal--I shall be at home
+at tea at five o'clock."
+
+He jerked his thumb in the direction of Miss Pilbeam and winked with slow
+deliberation.  "She'll be there, too," he added.  "Savvy?"
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sentence Deferred, by W.W. Jacobs
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10784 ***