The Red Eric Part 42

"Oh, then you did _not_ see the drogue attached to the whale?" said Mr Tooth, with a glance at the jury; "and you were so taken up with the antic.i.p.ated fight, I suppose, that you scarcely gave your attention to the whale at all! Were the other men in your boat in a similarly un.o.bservant condition?"

"Eh?" exclaimed Scroggles.

"Were the other men as eager for the fight as you were?"

"I s'pose they wos; you'd better ax 'em. _I_ dun know."

"No, I don't suppose you do, considering the state of mind you appear to have been in at the time. Do you know which part of the whale struck your boat? Was it the head?"

"No; it was the tail."

"Are you quite sure of that?"

"Ho, yes, quite sartin, for I've got a knot on my head this day where the tip of its flukes came down on me."

"You're quite sure of that? Might it not have been the part of the fish near the tail, now, that struck you, or the fin just under the tail?"

"No; I'm quite sartin sure it warn't _that_."

"How are you so sure it wasn't that?"

"Because whales hain't got no fins just under their tails!" replied Scroggles, with a broad grin.

There was another loud laugh at this, and Mr Tooth looked a little put out, and the judge cried "Silence" again, and threatened to clear the court.

After a few more questions Jim Scroggles was permitted to retire, which he did oppressed with a feeling that his evidence had done the case little good, if not some harm, yet rather elated than otherwise at the success of his last hit.

That evening Captain Dunning supped with Ailie and his sisters in low spirits. Glynn and the doctor and Tim Rokens and the two mates, Millons and Markham, supped with him, also in low spirits; and King b.u.mble acted the part of waiter, for that sable monarch had expressed an earnest desire to become Captain Dunning's servant, and the captain had agreed to "take him on," at least for a time. King b.u.mble was also in low spirits; and, as a natural consequence, so were Aunts Martha and Jane and little Ailie. It seemed utterly incomprehensible to the males of the party, how so good a case as this should come to wear such an unpromising aspect.

"The fact is," said the captain, at the conclusion of a prolonged discussion, "I don't believe we'll gain it."

"Neither do I," said the doctor, helping himself to a large quant.i.ty of salad, as if that were the only comfort now left to him, and he meant to make the most of it before giving way to total despair.

"I knew it," observed Aunt Martha firmly. "I always said the law was a wicked inst.i.tution."

"It's a great shame!" said Aunt Jane indignantly; "but what could we expect? It treats every one ill."

"Won't it treat Captain Dixon well, if he wins, aunt?" inquired Ailie.

"Dear child, what can you possibly know about law?" said Aunt Martha.

"Would you like a little more tart?" asked Aunt Jane.

"Bravo! Ailie," cried Glynn, "that's a fair question. I back it up."

"How much do you claim for damages, George?" inquired Aunt Martha, changing the subject.

("Question!" whispered Glynn.)

"Two thousand pounds," answered the captain.

"What!" exclaimed the aunts, in a simultaneous burst of amazement. "All for _one_ fish?"

"Ay, it was a big one, you see, and d.i.c.k Jones, one of the men of the _Termagant_, told me it was sold for that. It's a profitable fis.h.i.+ng, when one doesn't lose one's s.h.i.+p. What do you say to go with me and Ailie on our next trip, sisters? You might use up all your silk and worsted thread and crooked pins."

"What nonsense you talk, George; but I suppose you really do use pretty large hooks and lines when you fish for whales?"

Aunt Martha addressed the latter part of her remark to Tim Rokens, who seemed immensely tickled by the captain's pleasantry.

"Hooks and lines, ma'am!" cried Rokens, regarding his hostess with a look of puzzled surprise.

"To be sure we do," interrupted Glynn; "we use anchors baited with live crocodiles--sometimes elephants, when we can't get crocodiles. But hippopotamuses do best."

"Oh! Glynn!" cried Ailie, laughing, "how can you?"

"It all depends on the drogue," remarked the doctor. "I'm surprised to find how few of the men can state with absolute certainty that they saw the drogue attached to the whale when the boat came up to it. It all hinges upon that."

"Yes," observed Mr Millons, "the 'ole case 'inges on that, because that proves it was a fast fish."

"Dear me, Mr Millons," said Aunt Martha, smiling, "I have heard of fast young men, but I never heard of a fast fish before."

"Didn't you, ma'am?" exclaimed the first mate, looking up in surprise, for that matter-of-fact seamen seldom recognised a joke at first sight.

Aunt Martha, who very rarely ventured on the perpetration of a joke, blushed, and turning somewhat hastily to Mr Markham, asked if he would "take another cup of tea." Seeing that there was no tea on the table, she subst.i.tuted "another slice of ham," and laughed. Thereupon the whole company laughed, and from that moment their spirits began to rise.

They began to discuss the more favourable points of the evidence led that day, and when they retired at a late hour to rest, their hopes had again become sanguine.

Next morning the examination of the witnesses for the defendant came on.

There were more of them than d.i.c.k Jones had expected; for the crew of the _Termagant_ happened to be partly made up of very bad men, who were easily bribed by their captain to give evidence in his favour. But it soon became evident that they had not previously determined, as Captain Dunning's men had done, to stick to the simple truth. They not only contradicted each other but each contradicted himself more than once; and it amazed them all, more than they could tell, to find how easily Mr Rasp turned their thoughts outside in, and caused them to prove conclusively that they were telling falsehoods.

After the case had been summed up by the judge, the jury retired to consult, but they only remained five minutes away, and then came back with a verdict in favour of the pursuers.

"Who's the `pursooers?'" inquired Gurney, when this was announced to him by Nikel Sling. "Ain't we all pursooers? Wasn't we all pursooing the whale together?"

"Oh, you grampus!" cried Nikel, laughing. "Don't ye know that _we_ is the purshooers, 'cause why? We're purshooin' the cap'en and crew of the _Termagant_ at law, and means to purshoo 'em too, I guess, till they stumps up for that air whale. And they is the defendants, 'cause they're s'posed to defend themselves to the last gasp; but it ain't o'

no manner o' use."

Nikel Sling was right. Captain Dixon _was_ pursued until he paid back the value of his ill-gotten whale, and was forcibly reminded by this episode in his career, that "honesty is the best policy" after all.

Thus Captain Dunning found himself suddenly put in possession of a sum of two thousand pounds.

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.

THE CONCLUSION.

The trouble, and worry, and annoyance that the sum of 2000 pounds gave to Captain Dunning is past all belief. That worthy man, knowing that Glynn Proctor had scarcely a penny in the world, not even his "kit" (as sailors name their sea-chests), which had been lost in the wreck of the _Red Eric_, and that the boy was about to be cast upon the world again an almost friendless wanderer--knowing all this, we say, Captain Dunning insisted that as Glynn had been the first to strike the whale, and as no one else had had anything to do with its capture, he (Glynn) was justly ent.i.tled to the money.

Glynn firmly declined to admit the justice of this view of the case; he had been paid his wages; that was all he had any right to claim; so he positively refused to take the money. But the captain was more than his match. He insisted so powerfully, and argued so logically, that Glynn at last consented, on condition that 500 pounds of it should be distributed among his s.h.i.+pmates. This compromise was agreed to, and thus Glynn came into possession of what appeared in his eyes a fortune of 1500 pounds.