Two Years Ago Volume I Part 14

"I'll tell you frankly; I have an old father, sir,--a gentleman, and a scholar, and a man of science; once in as good a country practice as man could have, till, G.o.d help him, he went blind, sir--and I had to keep him, and have still. I went over the world to make my fortune and never made it; and sent him home what I did make, and little enough too. At last, in my despair, I went to the diggings, and had a pretty haul--I needn't say how much. That matters little now; for I suppose it's at the bottom of the sea. There's my story, sir, and a poor one enough it is,--for the dear old man, at least." And Tom's voice trembled so as he told it, that old Heale believed every word, and, what is more, being--like most hard drinkers--not "unused to the melting mood," wiped his eyes fervently, and went off for another drop of comfort; while Tom dusted and arranged on, till the shop began to look quite smart and business-like.

"Now, sir!"--when the old man came back--"business is business, and beggars must not be choosers. I don't want to meddle with your practice; I know the rules of the profession: but if you'll let me sit here and mix your medicines for you, you'll have the more time to visit your patients, that's clear,"--and, perhaps (thought he), to drink your brandy-and-water,--"and when any of them are poisoned by me, it will be time to kick me out. All I ask is, bed and board. Don't be frightened for your spirit-bottle, I can drink water; I've done it many a time, for a week together, in the prairies, and been thankful for a half-pint in the day."

"But, sir, your dignity as a--"

"Fiddlesticks for dignity; I must live, sir. Only lend me a couple of sheets of paper and two queen's heads, that I may tell my friends my whereabouts,--and go and talk it over with Mrs. Heale. We must never act without consulting the ladies."

That day Tom sent off the following epistle:--

"_To_ CHARLES SHUTER, Esq., M.D, _St. Mumpsimus's Hospital, London_.

"DEAR CHARLEY--

"'I do adjure thee, by old pleasant days, Quartier Latin, and neatly-shod grisettes By all our wanderings in quaint by-ways, By ancient frolics, and by ancient debts,'

"Go to the United Bank of Australia forthwith, and stop the notes whose numbers--all, alas! which I can recollect--are enclosed. Next, lend me five pounds. Next, send me down, as quick as possible, five pounds' worth of decent drugs, as per list; and--if you can borrow me one--a tolerable microscope, and a few natural history books, to astound the yokels here with: for I was s.h.i.+pwrecked here last night, after all at a dirty little west-country port, and what's worse, robbed of all I had made at the diggings, and start fair, once more, to run against cruel Dame Fortune, as Colston did against the Indians, without a s.h.i.+rt to my back. Don't be a hospitable fellow, and ask me to come up and camp with you. Mumpsimus's and all old faces would be a great temptation: but here I must stick till I hear of my money, and physic the natives for my daily bread."

To his father he wrote thus, not having the heart to tell the truth:--

"_To_ EDWARD THURNALL, Esq., M.D., _Whitbury_.

"My Dearest Old Father--I hope to see you again in a few weeks, as soon as I have settled a little business here, where I have found a capital opening for a medical man. Meanwhile let Mark or Mary write and tell me how you are--and for sending you every penny I can spare, trust me. I have not had all the luck I expected; but am as hearty as a bull, and as merry as a cricket, and fall on my legs, as of old, like a cat. I long to come to you; but I mustn't yet. It is near three years since I had a sight of that blessed white head, which is the only thing I care for under the sun, except Mark and little Mary--big Mary I suppose she is now, and engaged to be married to some 'bloated aristocrat.' Best remembrances to old Mark Armsworth.

"Your affectionate son,

"T.T."

"Mr. Heale," said Tom next, "are we Whigs or Tories here?"

"Why--ahem, sir, my Lord Scoutbush, who owns most hereabouts, and my Lord Minchampstead, who has bought Carcarrow moors above,--very old Whig connections, both of them; but Mr. Trebooze, of Trebooze, he, again, thorough-going Tory--very good patient he was once, and may be again--ha! ha! Gay young man, sir--careless of his health; so you see as a medical man, sir--"

"Which is the liberal paper? This one? Very good." And Tom wrote off to the liberal paper that evening a letter, which bore fruit ere the week's end, in the shape of five columns, headed thus:--

WRECK OF THE "HESPERUS."

"The following detailed account of this lamentable catastrophe has been kindly contributed by the graphic pen of the only survivor, Thomas Thurnall, Esquire, F.R.C.S., &c. &c. &c., late surgeon on board the ill-fated vessel." Which five columns not only put a couple of guineas into Tom's pocket, but, as he intended they should, brought him before the public as an interesting personage, and served as a very good advertis.e.m.e.nt to the practice which Tom had already established in fancy.

Tom had not worked long, however, before the Coast-guard Lieutenant bustled in. He had trotted home to shave and get his breakfast, and was trotting back again to the sh.o.r.e.

"Hillo, Heale! can I see the fellow who was saved last night?"

"I am that fellow," says Tom.

"The d.i.c.kens you are! you seem to have fallen on your legs quickly enough."

"It's a trick I've had occasion to learn, sir," says Tom. "Can I prescribe for you this morning?"

"Medicine?" roars the Lieutenant, laughing. "Catch me at it! No; I want you to come down to the sh.o.r.e, and help to identify goods and things. The wind has chopped up north, and is blowing dead on; and, with this tide, we shall have a good deal on sh.o.r.e. So, if you're strong enough--"

"I'm always strong enough to do my duty," said Tom.

"Hum! Very good sentiment, young man. Always strong enough for duty.--Hum! worthy of Nelson; said pretty much the same, didn't he?

something about duty I know it was, and always thought it uncommon fine.--Now, then, what can you tell me about this business?"

It was a sad story; but no sadder than hundreds beside. They had been struck by the gale to the westward two days before, with the wind south; had lost their foretopmast and boltsprit, and become all but unmanageable; had tried during a lull to rig a jury-mast, but were prevented by the gale, which burst on them with fresh fury from the south-west, with very heavy rain and fog; had pa.s.sed a light in the night, which they took for Scilly, but which must have been the Longs.h.i.+ps; had still fancied that they were safe, running up Channel with a wide berth, when, about sunset, the gale had chopped again to north-west;--and Tom knew no more. "I was standing on the p.o.o.p with the captain about ten o'clock. The last words he said to me were,--'If this lasts, we shall see Brest harbour to-morrow,' when she struck, and stopped dead. I was chucked clean off the p.o.o.p, and nearly overboard; but brought up in the mizen rigging. Where the captain went, poor fellow, Heaven alone knows; for I never saw him after.

The mainmast went like a carrot. The mizen stood. I ran round to the cabin-doors. There were four men steering; the wheel had broke out of the poor fellows' hands, and knocked them over,--broken their limbs, I believe. I was stooping to pick them up, when a sea came into the waist, and then aft, was.h.i.+ng me in through the saloon-doors, among the poor half-dressed women and children. Queer sight, Lieutenant! I've seen a good many, but never worse than that. I bolted to my cabin, tied my notes and gold round me, and out again."

"Didn't desert the poor things?"

"Couldn't if I'd tried; they clung to me like a swarm of bees. 'Gad, sir, that was hard lines! to have all the pretty women one had waltzed with every evening through the Trades, and the little children one had been making playthings for, holding round one's knees, and screaming to the doctor to save them. And how the ---- was I to save them, sir?" cried Tom, with a sudden burst of feeling, which, as in so many Englishmen, exploded in anger to avoid melting in tears.

"Ought to be a law against it, sir," growled the Lieutenant; "against women-folk and children going to sea. It's murder and cruelty. I've been wrecked, scores of times; but it was with honest men, who could s.h.i.+ft for themselves, and if they were drowned, drowned; but didn't screech and catch hold--I couldn't stand that! Well?"

"Well, there was a pretty little creature, an officer's widow, and two children. I caught her under one arm, and one of the children under the other;--said 'I can't take you all at once; I'll come back for the rest, one by one.'--Not that I believed it; but anything to stop the screaming; and I did hope to put some of them out of the reach of the sea, if I could get them forward. I knew the forecastle was dry, for the chief officer was firing there. You heard him?"

"Yes, five or six times; and then he stopped suddenly."

"He had reason.--We got out. I could see her nose up in the air forty feet above us, covered with fore-cabin pa.s.sengers. I warped the lady and the children upward--Heaven knows how; for the sea was breaking over us very sharp--till we were at the mainmast stump, and holding on by the wreck of it. I felt the s.h.i.+p stagger as if a whale had struck her, and heard a roar and a swish behind me, and looked back--just in time to see mizen, and p.o.o.p, and all the poor women and children in it, go bodily, as if they had been shaved off with a knife. I suppose that altered her balance; for before I could turn again she dived forward, and then rolled over upon her beam ends to leeward, and I saw the sea walk in over her from stem to stern like one white wall, and I was washed from my hold, and it was all over."

"What became of the lady?"

"I saw a white thing flash by to leeward,--what's the use of asking?"

"But the child you held?"

"I didn't let it go till there was good reason."

"Eh?"

Tom tapped the points of his fingers smartly against the side of his head, and then went on, in the same cynical drawl, which he had affected throughout--

"I heard that--against a piece of timber as we went overboard And, as a medical man, I considered after that, that I had done my duty.

Pretty little boy it was, just six years old: and such a fancy for drawing."

The Lieutenant was quite puzzled by Tom's seeming nonchalance.

"What do you mean, sir? Did you leave the child to perish?"

"Confound you, sir! If you will have plain English, here it is. I tell you I heard the child's skull crack like an egg-sh.e.l.l! There, let's talk no more about it, or the whole matter. It's a bad business, and I'm not answerable for it, or you either; so let's go and do what we are answerable for, and identify--"

"Sir! you will be so good as to recollect," said the Lieutenant, with ruffled plumes.

"I do; I do! I beg your pardon a thousand times, I'm sure, for being so rude: but you know as well as I, sir, there are a good many things in the world which won't stand too much thinking over; and last night was one."

"Very true, very true; but how did you get ash.o.r.e?"

"I get ash.o.r.e? Oh, well enough! Why not?"