The Yacht Club Part 22

"Well, Don John, you are a real lion," laughed Nellie Patterdale, when, at last, the young boat-builder obtained a place at her side, which had been the objective point with him since he entered the grounds.

"Better be a lion than a bear," replied Donald.

"Everybody says you have built a splendid yacht, and Maud is delighted to have it named after her."

"I think the Sea Foam ought to have been called the Nellie," added Donald.

"Pooh! I asked Ned to call her the Sea Foam."

"If I ever build a yacht on my own account, I shall certainly name her the Nellie Patterdale," continued Donald, though the remark cost him a terrible struggle.

"I thank you, Don John; but I hope you will never build one on your own account, then," answered she, with a slight blush.

"Why, wouldn't you like to have a boat named after you?" asked he, rather taken aback at her reply.

"I shouldn't like to have my whole name given to a boat. It is too long."

"O, well! Then I shall call her the Nellie."

"You are too late, Don John," laughed Laud Cavendish, who was standing within hearing distance, and who now stepped forward, raised his hat, bowed, and smirked. "I have already ordered the painter to inscribe that word on the bows and stern of the Juno, for I never liked her present name."

Nellie blushed deeper than before, but it was with anger this time, though she made no reply to Laud's impudent remark. At this moment Mr.

Rodman invited the party to gather around the tables and partake of the collation.

"Will Miss Patterdale allow me to offer her my arm?" added Laud, as he thrust his elbow up before her.

"No, I thank you," she replied, walking towards the tables, but keeping at Donald's side.

The boat-builder had not the courage to offer her his arm, though some of the sons of the nabobs had done so to the ladies; but he kept at her side. Laud was desperate, for Nellie seemed to be the key of destiny to him. If he could win her heart and hand, or even her hand without the heart, his fortune would be made, and the wealth and social position of which cruel fate had thus far robbed him would be obtained. Though she snubbed him, he could not see it, and would not accept the situation. If Donald had not been there, she would not have declined his offered arm; and he regarded the boat-builder as the only obstacle in his path.

"I wish you had not invited that puppy, Don John," said Nellie, as they moved towards the tables; and there was a snap in her tones which emphasized the remark.

"I didn't invite him," replied Donald, warmly.

"He came in with you, and Mr. Rodman said you must have asked him."

"Indeed, I did not; I had no right to invite him," protested Donald.

Nellie immediately told this to the host of the occasion, and in doing so she left Donald for a moment.

"Why don't you get out of the way, Don John, when you see what I am up to?" said Laud, in a low tone, but earnestly and indignantly, as though Donald had stepped between him and the cheerful destiny in which his imagination revelled.

"What are you up to?"

"I told you before that I liked Nellie, and you are all the time coming between me and her. She would have taken my arm if you had stepped aside."

"I don't choose to step aside," added Donald.

"I want to get in there, Don John," added Laud, in a milder tone.

"Paddle your own canoe."

"You don't care anything about her."

"How do you know I don't?"

"Do you?"

"That's my affair."

"She don't care for you."

"Nor you, either."

"Perhaps not now, but I can make it all right with her," said Laud, as he twirled his colored mustache, which he probably regarded as a lady-killer. "Besides, you are not old enough to think of such things yet, Don John."

"Well, I don't think of such things yet," replied Donald, who really spoke only the truth, so far as he was consciously concerned.

"But you ought not to stick by her to-day. You are the boat-builder, and you should bestow your attentions upon Maud Rodman, after whom the yacht was named. She is the daughter of the man who gave you the job. If you will just keep away from Nellie, I can paddle my own canoe, as you say."

"Mr. Cavendish," interposed Mr. Rodman, "I believe you are not a member of the Belfast Yacht Club."

"I am not yet, but I intend to join," replied Laud.

"In the mean time, this occasion is for the members of the club and their friends; and I wish to suggest the propriety of your withdrawing, as I believe you are here without an invitation," added Mr. Rodman.

"I came with Don John," said Laud, rather startled by the plain speech of the host.

"If Don John invited you--"

"I didn't invite him, or any one else. I did not consider that I had any right to do so," protested Donald, as he walked forward and joined Nellie.

Laud could not gainsay this honest avowal; but there was no limit to his wrath at that moment, and he determined to punish the boat-builder for "going back" on him, as he regarded it.

The collation was a sumptuous one, for when Belfast nabobs do anything, they do it. The guests had good appet.i.tes, and did abundant justice to the feast. The incident of which Laud Cavendish had been the central figure caused some talk and some laughter.

"He had the impudence to say he was going to name his boat after me,"

said Nellie Patterdale. "He don't like the name of Juno."

"Does he own the Juno?" asked Captain Patterdale, quietly.

"I suppose he does."

"How is that, Don John?" added the captain.

"Yes, sir, he owns her; Captain s.h.i.+vernock got tired of the Juno, and Laud bought her."

Captain Patterdale made a note of that piece of information, and regarded it as a clew to a.s.sist in the discovery of the tin box, which had not yet been found, though the owner and the deputy sheriff had been looking diligently for it ever since its disappearance.