Voyages and Travels of Count Funnibos and Baron Stilkin Part 18

As the boat approached he could clearly distinguish the features of those in her. He could not be mistaken; three were ladies--the Vrouw Van Arent and her two daughters; three were gentlemen--Mynheer Van Arent, Mynheer Bunck.u.m, and a stranger. They helped the ladies out of the boat, and then all six walked along the beach. The stranger offered his arm to the fair Isabelle, which she took with evident willingness.

Mynheer Bunck.u.m walked on with Vrouw Margaret, and the old couple followed.

"No, I cannot join them. I cannot so demean myself as to ask for a pa.s.sage to the sh.o.r.e," muttered the Count. "I only hope that they will not discover me. I shall certainly not discover myself, if I can help it."

If curiosity had brought the party to the island, they were soon satisfied, for in a short time they re-embarked, and the Count had lost his chance of escaping for that time.

"It is better that it should be so," he said. "I should only have had to answer disagreeable questions, and perhaps have subjected myself to further indignities."

Hunger now compelled him to seek for food, and loading his gun, he looked out for a bird which might come within range, but the birds all kept at a wary distance. He observed, further to the south, that the island was very much lower, and that the birds frequented it in greater numbers; he accordingly bent his steps in that direction. It appeared level, and, as far as he could judge, easy to walk over. On reaching it, however, he found that it was sprinkled with so many shallow pools that he would speedily wet his boots through, therefore, sitting down on the first dry spot he came to, he pulled them off and hung them over his shoulders.

"Come, I feel something like a sportsman now," he said to himself.

Immediately afterwards a duck came quacking by within range. He fired, and, to his infinite satisfaction, brought it to the ground. He rushed eagerly forward to secure his prize, and although it went fluttering on for some distance, he succeeded in catching it, and, wringing its neck, hung it behind him.

"I need no longer fear dying of starvation, even although I may have to spend a day or two on this desert spot," he said to himself.

To his delight he brought down, before long, another duck, and was now thinking of returning to the higher ground, when he saw a boat pa.s.sing near the further end of the low part of the island. He rushed forward to make a signal, hoping to attract the attention of those on board, but by the time he had got to the point to which he was directing his steps, the boat was at such a distance that his signals could not be seen. On and on he went; the sea-fowl came shrieking and quacking round him, when, to his dismay, he observed that dark clouds were gathering in the sky, threatening a storm of no gentle nature.

"This sort of work is all very well in fine weather, but I have no fancy to be exposed to drenching rain and howling wind," he said to himself.

"I must get back, at all events, to the higher ground."

He had got so far from it, that this was no easy matter. Before he had walked for many minutes, down came the rain like a sheet of water, driven against him by the fierce wind.

He had now good reason to be seriously alarmed. The water in the pools, before scarcely up to his ankles, now reached almost to his knees. "Can the d.y.k.es have been burst through?" he thought. "If so, my fate is sealed--not only mine, but that of numbers of the inhabitants of the surrounding district." From the rapid way in which the surface of the Meer rose he felt convinced that this must be the case. Still the love of life compelled him to try and save himself, and he did not despair; although, as far as he could see, no means of making his escape were likely to present themselves.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

As he was hurrying on along the sh.o.r.e, he saw what looked to him like a wheelbarrow, with a heap of gourds or inflated skins, or some other roundish objects, though he could scarcely at the distance distinguish what they were. He reached the spot. "Come, at all events, if the waters rise, as I fear they will, these things will enable me to construct a raft on which I may manage to float on the troubled waters,"

he said to himself.

Las.h.i.+ng them together, he took his seat on the top of this curiously constructed raft. Scarcely had he done so, when the waters came rus.h.i.+ng over the island, and carried him and his raft far away as they swept onward in their course. On and on he went, his very natural fear being that he should be carried into the Zuyder Zee; he soon, however, came in sight of land raised above the waters, on which he could distinguish cottages and other buildings.

"Well, this is a new style of navigation, but I ought to be thankful that I have got something to keep me above water," he said to himself.

He of course, as he glided on, was looking about in all directions, and he now caught sight in the distance of what he hoped was a boat. Again and again he cast his eager gaze at the object. Yes, it was a boat, and a man was in her; he waved his hat and shouted. As he approached, the Count looked at him; yes, he was, there could be no doubt about it, the one-eyed mariner, old Pieter, who shouted--

"Hold on, Mynheer! hold on! and I will soon be up to you."

"What, don't you know me?" asked the Count, as Pieter got near.

"Bless me, of course I do; and glad I am to have come to take you on board, or you might have been carried away into the Zuyder Zee, or somewhere else, for aught I can tell. When I saw you on board Captain Jan Dunck's vessel, I tried to get near enough to warn you that you must beware of him, as I felt sure that he would play you some scurvy trick or other. He has been going on from bad to worse, all owing to the oceans of schiedam he has poured down that ugly mouth of his."

This was said when the Count was comfortably seated in the stern of Pieter's boat. There was another person on board whom the Count recognised as the small s.h.i.+p's boy, who had long been Pieter's faithful companion. He nodded and smiled his recognition, and seemed highly delighted at again meeting with the Count.

"And now where shall we go?" asked Pieter.

"To the nearest sh.o.r.e where I can obtain food and shelter, and change my wet garments," answered the Count.

"Well, you do look dampish," observed Pieter.

"Damp! I have been wet to the skin for these hours past, and almost starved to death in the bargain," said the Count.

"Then I will lose no time in taking you to Meppel, or any other place we can most easily reach." And bending his back to the oars, the one-eyed mariner pulled away.

"'One good turn deserves another,' as the old saying is," observed Pieter, for he wanted to say something to keep up the Count's spirits.

"You saved my life and gave me this boat, and now I have the satisfaction of saving yours."

"You are an honest fellow, Pieter, and as I prize honest men, of whom I have not discovered as many as I desire in the world, I should be glad if you and the small s.h.i.+p's boy will accompany me, and I will endeavour to obtain some post which I consider suited to your merits." Old Pieter gladly accepted the Count's offer, and it did not make him pull the less vigorously. All night long they rowed on, till they arrived at a part of the country which the flood had not reached. Here Pieter took the Count to the house of a farmer to whom the honest boatman was well known, having been on various occasions employed by him. The good farmer treated the Count with the utmost hospitality and kindness. It was some days, however, before the Count had sufficiently recovered to be once more himself, and able to extend his walks beyond the precincts of the farm. He had gone one day to some distance, when he saw a large and picturesque house rising amid an extensive shrubbery; an open gate invited him to enter. As he walked along he caught the sound of voices, and presently found himself in the presence of a party of gentlemen, seated round a table with books and papers before them. Conspicuous on one side was a large easel supporting a handsome picture. "Ah! this is something out of the way," thought the Count, and advancing he made a bow and introduced himself.

"You are welcome, n.o.ble Count, to our revels," said one of the gentlemen, who appeared to be the president. "But ours is a feast of reason and the flow of soul, and we are met here to discuss works of art, to hear read the practical effusions of our members, and to enjoy the society of men of intellect and erudition."

"A very praiseworthy and satisfactory mode of pa.s.sing time, and I am fortunate in having fallen into such good company," remarked the Count.

The various members of the society individually welcomed him. A poet had just read some verses he had composed, which were received with thundering applause, one of the excellent rules of the society being that every one was to praise the works of the rest. The artist now exhibited his paintings; when the others had admired them to their fill, the Count looked at them through his spectacles, and if he did make a mistake, and suppose that a horse was a cow, or a sheep a pig, he wisely kept his opinion to himself, merely exclaiming: "Beautiful! how true to nature. What exquisite colouring; what elegant outlines! yet all are equalled by the composition." As no one asked him to point out the individual excellencies of which he spoke, he was looked upon as a first-rate judge of art.

"Now, gentlemen, as our friend Scrubzen has not been able to-day to complete his grand picture, I am deputed to invite you to inspect it to-morrow, when it will be in a more forward state. We shall, I hope, be favoured by your presence, Count Funnibos?"

"By all means," answered the Count, who was highly pleased with the society into which he had fallen; and he parted from them to return to the house of his hospitable entertainer. The next morning he set out to repair to the house of which the president had given him the address.

"Several of Scrubzen's admirers have already arrived," said the president, whom he met at the door; "and with them a distinguished foreigner."

As the Count and the president entered, they saw at the further end of the room a large picture on an easel representing a coast scene. On one side stood the artist explaining the details of his painting; a number of ladies and gentlemen were gazing at it with admiring glances; but one figure especially attracted the attention of the Count. It was, there could be no doubt about it, Baron Stilkin, whom he thought had long since reached Amsterdam, or had returned to his family mansion. Yes, it was the Baron, not decreased in rotund proportions since they parted.

"Grand, very grand!" he exclaimed in sonorous tones, approaching the picture. "It reminds me forcibly of the best of Claude's productions; exquisite colouring!"

"And what is your opinion, Count Funnibos?" asked the President.

"He has grown wonderfully fat," answered the Count, who was thinking of the Baron. "I fear that no carriage can be found strong enough to take him home."

"I beg your pardon, Count, I was speaking of the picture," remarked the President. The Baron, however, had heard the Count's voice; turning round, he opened his arms to give him a friendly embrace.

"What, my dear Count! Is it you, yourself?"

"I think you ran away and left me to my mysterious fate," said the Count, with a slight degree of stiffness. "I conclude that you did not receive my letter requesting you to meet me at Amsterdam, and stating the reasons for my not rejoining you sooner; however, I am very glad to see you again."

"No, indeed, I received no letter," answered the Baron. "Had I done so, it would have saved me a world of anxiety."

"We must remember that we are in the presence of strangers," said the Count. "Our friend here desired to know my opinion of that magnificent picture. I may add that it surpa.s.ses my utmost expectations."

His opinion highly pleased the artist as well as the spectators, who were delighted to find their countryman's production so highly praised by two distinguished foreigners.

"And now, Count," said the Baron, as they walked away arm in arm, "I am compelled to return home. My son, the hope of my house, is about to marry a lady whose magnificent fortune will retrieve the fallen fortunes of our family. Will you accompany me?"

"By all manner of means," answered the Count. "I have met with sufficient adventures, or rather misadventures, to satisfy me for the rest of my life. I have seen a large portion of Holland, if not the whole of it, and I am satisfied that it is as well worth seeing as any country in the world."

"Your decision gives me infinite satisfaction," answered the Baron. "We will go back to-morrow, and I hope that you will be present at the wedding of my beloved son. I would rather he married the lady himself, though she is of an age which might have been considered suitable to me."