Many Cargoes Part 32

The old couple went below, and the young one remained on deck. Nancy went and leaned against the side; and as she appeared to have quite forgotten his presence, the mate, after some hesitation, joined her.

"Hadn't you better go down and get some supper?" she asked.

"I'd sooner stay here, if yon don't mind," said the mate. "I like watching the lights going up and down; I could stay here for hours."

"I'll leave you, then," said the girl; "I'm hungry."

She tripped lightly off with a smothered laugh, leaving the fairly-trapped man gazing indignantly at the lights which had lured him to destruction.

From below he heard the cheerful clatter of crockery, accompanied by a savoury incense, and talk and laughter. He imagined the girl making fun of his sentimental reasons for staying on deck; but, too proud to meet her ironical glances, stayed doggedly where he was, resolving to be off by the first train in the morning. He was roused from his gloom by a slight touch on his arm, and, turning sharply, saw the girl by his side.

"Supper's quite ready," said she soberly. "And if you want to admire the lights very much, come up and see them when I do-after supper."

AN ELABORATE ELOPEMENT

I have always had a slight suspicion that the following narrative is not quite true. It was related to me by an old seaman who, among other incidents of a somewhat adventurous career, claimed to have received Napoleon's sword at the battle of Trafalgar, and a wound in the back at Waterloo. I prefer to tell it in my own way, his being so garnished with nautical terms and expletives as to be half unintelligible and somewhat horrifying. Our talk had been of love and courts.h.i.+p, and after making me a present of several tips, invented by himself, and considered invaluable by his friends, he related this story of the courts.h.i.+p of a chum of his as ill.u.s.trating the great lengths to which young bloods were prepared to go in his days to attain their ends.

It was a fine clear day in June when Hezekiah Lewis, captain and part owner of the schooner Thames, bound from London to Aberdeen, anch.o.r.ed off the little out-of-the-way town of Orford in Suffolk. Among other antiquities, the town possessed Hezekiah's widowed mother, and when there was no very great hurry-the world went slower in those days-the dutiful son used to go ash.o.r.e in the s.h.i.+p's boat, and after a filial tap at his mother's window, which often startled the old woman considerably, pa.s.s on his way to see a young lady to whom he had already proposed five times without effect.

The mate and crew of the schooner, seven all told, drew up in a little knot as the skipper, in his sh.o.r.e-going clothes, appeared on deck, and regarded him with an air of grinning, mysterious interest.

"Now you all know what you have got to do?" queried the skipper.

"Ay, ay," replied the crew, grinning still more deeply.

Hezekiah regarded them closely, and then ordering the boat to be lowered, scrambled over the side, and was pulled swiftly towards the sh.o.r.e.

A sharp scream, and a breathless "Lawk-a-mussy me!" as he tapped at his mother's window, a.s.sured him that the old lady was alive and well, and he continued on his way until he brought up at a small but pretty house in the next road.

"Morning, Mr. Rumbolt," said he heartily to a stout, red-faced man, who sat smoking in the doorway.

"Morning, cap'n, morning," said the red-faced man.

"Is the rheumatism any better?" inquired Hezekiah anxiously, as he grasped the other's huge hand.

"So, so," said the other. "But it ain't the rheumatism so much what troubles me," he resumed, lowering his voice, and looking round cautiously. "It's Kate."

"What?" said the skipper.

"You've heard of a man being henpecked?" continued Mr. Rumbolt, in tones of husky confidence.

The captain nodded.

"I'm CHICK-PECKED" murmured the other.

"What?" inquired the astonished mariner again.

"Chick-pecked," repeated Mr. Rumbolt firmly. "CHIK-PEKED. D'ye understand me?"

The captain said that he did, and stood silent awhile, with the air of a man who wants to say something, but is half afraid to. At last, with a desperate appearance of resolution, he bent down to the old man's ear.

"That's the deaf 'un," said Mr. Rumbolt promptly.

Hezekiah changed ears, speaking at first slowly and awkwardly, but becoming more fluent as he warmed with his subject; while the expression of his listener's face gradually changed from incredulous bewilderment to one of uncontrollable mirth. He became so uproarious that he was fain to push the captain away from him, and lean back in his chair and choke and laugh until he nearly lost his breath, at which crisis a remarkably pretty girl appeared from the back of the house, and patted him with hearty good will.

"That'll do, my dear," said the choking Mr. Rumbolt. "Here's Captain Lewis."

"I can see him," said his daughter calmly. "What's he standing on one leg for?"

The skipper, who really was standing in a somewhat constrained att.i.tude, coloured violently, and planted both feet firmly on the ground.

"Being as I was pa.s.sing close in, Miss Rumbolt," said he, "and coming ash.o.r.e to see mother"-

To the captain's discomfort, manifestations of a further attack on the part of Mr. Rumbolt appeared, but were promptly quelled by the daughter.

"Mother?" she repeated encouragingly,

"I thought I'd come on and ask you just to pay a sort o' flying visit to the Thames." "Thank you, I'm comfortable enough where I am," said the girl.

"I've got a couple of monkeys and a bear aboard, which I 'm taking to a menagerie in Aberdeen," continued the captain, "and the thought struck me you might possibly like to see 'em." "Well, I don't know," said the damsel in a flutter. "Is it a big bear?"

"Have you ever seen an elephant?" inquired Hezekiah cautiously.

"Only in pictures," replied the girl.

"Well, it's as big as that, nearly," said he.

The temptation was irresistible, and Miss Rumbolt, telling her father that she should not be long, disappeared into the house in search of her hat and jacket, and ten minutes later the brawny rowers were gazing their fill into her deep blue eyes as she sat in the stern of the boat, and told Lewis to behave himself.

It was but a short pull out to the schooner, and Miss Rumbolt was soon on the deck, lavis.h.i.+ng endearments on the monkey, and energetically prodding the bear with a handspike to make him growl. The noise of the offended animal as he strove to get through the bars of his cage was terrific, and the girl was in the full enjoyment of it, when she became aware of a louder noise still, and, turning round, saw the seamen at the windla.s.s.

"Why, what are they doing?" she demanded, "getting up anchor?"

"Ahoy, there!" shouted Hezekiah sternly. "What are you doing with that windla.s.s?"

As he spoke, the anchor peeped over the edge of the bows, and one of the seamen running past them took the helm.

"Now then," shouted the fellow, "stand by. Look lively there with them sails."

Obeying a light touch of the helm, the schooner's bow-sprit slowly swung round from the land, and the crew, hauling l.u.s.tily on the ropes, began to hoist the sails.

"What the devil are you up to?" thundered the skipper. "Have you all gone mad? What does it all mean?"