`` You were not here before ? '' he asked . `` No , sir , '' said I. '' `` There was another boy ? '' he asked again ; and when I had answered him , `` Ah ! '' says he , `` I thought that , '' and went and sat down , without another word , except to call for brandy . You may think it strange , but for all the horror I had , I was still sorry for him . He was a married man , with a wife in Leith ; but whether or no he had a family , I have now forgotten ; I hope not . Altogether it was no very hard life for the time it lasted , which -LRB- as you are to hear -RRB- was not long . I was as well fed as the best of them ; even their pickles , which were the great dainty , I was allowed my share of ; and had I liked I might have been drunk from morning to night , like Mr. Shuan . I had company , too , and good company of its sort . Mr. Riach , who had been to the college , spoke to me like a friend when he was not sulking , and told me many curious things , and some that were informing ; and even the captain , though he kept me at the stick 's end the most part of the time , would sometimes unbuckle a bit , and tell me of the fine countries he had visited . The shadow of poor Ransome , to be sure , lay on all four of us , and on me and Mr. Shuan in particular , most heavily . And then I had another trouble of my own . Here I was , doing dirty work for three men that I looked down upon , and one of whom , at least , should have hung upon a gallows ; that was for the present ; and as for the future , I could only see myself slaving alongside of negroes in the tobacco fields . Mr. Riach , perhaps from caution , would never suffer me to say another word about my story ; the captain , whom I tried to approach , rebuffed me like a dog and would not hear a word ; and as the days came and went , my heart sank lower and lower , till I was even glad of the work which kept me from thinking . CHAPTER IX THE MAN WITH THE BELT OF GOLD More than a week went by , in which the ill-luck that had hitherto pursued the Covenant upon this voyage grew yet more strongly marked . Some days she made a little way ; others , she was driven actually back . At last we were beaten so far to the south that we tossed and tacked to and fro the whole of the ninth day , within sight of Cape Wrath and the wild , rocky coast on either hand of it . There followed on that a council of the officers , and some decision which I did not rightly understand , seeing only the result : that we had made a fair wind of a foul one and were running south . The tenth afternoon there was a falling swell and a thick , wet , white fog that hid one end of the brig from the other .
All XXXXX , when I went on deck , I saw men and officers listening hard over the bulwarks -- `` for breakers , '' they said ; and though I did not so much as understand the word , I felt danger in the air , and was excited .
Ransome Riach Shuan afternoon days fro ill-luck night tobacco week