THE LADY OF THE BARGE

AND OTHER STORIES

By W. W. Jacobs




THE LADY OF THE BARGE


The master of the barge Arabella sat in the stern of his craft with his
right arm leaning on the tiller. A desultory conversation with the mate
of a schooner, who was hanging over the side of his craft a few yards
off, had come to a conclusion owing to a difference of opinion on the
subject of religion. The skipper had argued so warmly that he almost
fancied he must have inherited the tenets of the Seventh-day Baptists
from his mother while the mate had surprised himself by the warmth of his
advocacy of a form of Wesleyanism which would have made the members of
that sect open their eyes with horror. He had, moreover, confirmed the
skipper in the error of his ways by calling him a bargee, the ranks of
the Baptists receiving a defender if not a recruit from that hour.

With the influence of the religious argument still upon him, the skipper,
as the long summer's day gave place to night, fell to wondering where his
own mate, who was also his brother-in-law, had got to. Lights which had
been struggling with the twilight now burnt bright and strong, and the
skipper, moving from the shadow to where a band of light fell across the
deck, took out a worn silver watch and saw that it was ten o'clock.