The Fatal Cord Part 29

"How will this answer?" asked the captain. "'All for Each?'"

"All right," was the reply; "pa.s.s, gentlemen."

As the two young men walked forward, they were followed by the sailor, who still held the two pistols in his hands.

On arriving in front of the Spout, they found a beautiful row-boat, the bow of which just touched the sh.o.r.e. It was manned by four st.u.r.dy seamen, whose hands rested upon their oars, which were ready placed in their rowlocks. A boy, apparently between fifteen and sixteen years of age, in straw hat and light blue trousers and jacket, occupied the stern seat. This last-mentioned person was remarkably handsome; his face was beautifully oval in its shape; its complexion was a pale brunette (if I may use the phrase), there being in it no tinge of red. His form was slender and graceful; his large, soft black eyes had a thoughtful, or rather a dreamy expression, and ma.s.ses of jet-black curls hung down below his shoulders.

"Jump aboard, gentlemen," said the sailor in fancy dress; "the time is fully arrived, and we shall be expected as soon as we can make the distance. If we don't go at once, somebody will be disappointed."

"A moment, if you please, sir," said John, in a sarcastic tone and manner, and with a darkening expression of face. "May I claim the honour of knowing your name?"

"Certainly, sir," was the answer, accompanied by a mock-ceremonious bow, which did not tend to cool the rising wrath of young Coe. "My name is William Brown, better known as Billy Bowsprit. This latter name may seem, unaccompanied by a proper explanation, to derogate from the dignity of the fair position which I occupy in maritime society, and with which, by-the-bye, I will presently make you acquainted. But it originated in what was, in fact, a compliment to my wit and my other good qualities. A highly intelligent gentleman, of French inclinations--having probably been born of such a disposition, seeing that he was a native of Paris--once did me the honour, on account of some slight jocular remark which fell from me in a social hour, of saying that I was a _beau esprit_. The rude, unlettered sailors," he waved a hand towards those in the row-boat, "have, in their ignorance, manufactured out of this compliment the absurd name of Bowsprit. I submit to the _soubriquet_, partly because those who use it do not know any better, but mainly because it intimates a just compliment, seeing that, as the bowsprit is in advance of the s.h.i.+p, so do I take the lead of all on s.h.i.+pboard in all affairs where either sagacity or boldness is required."

"Well, Mr Brown," began young Coe--

"Allow me, if you please, sir," said Bowsprit, interrupting him, and making at the same time a low and apologetic bow; "I have not yet finished the catalogue of myself, a desire to become acquainted with which was intimated in your polite and very flattering inquiry. Permit me to add, to what I have already said, that I fill the honourable post of first-mate on board of as beautiful a little craft as eye was ever blessed with seeing."

The reader will, perhaps, be surprised at the great apparent improvement in the language of Billy Bowsprit since his first introduction in the second chapter. The fact is, that individual had received what is called a good ordinary education, and prided himself upon his ability to talk in either good English, or in what he styled "sailors' lingo."

"Well, Mr Brown, better known as Billy Bowsprit," said John Coe, in a tone of voice expressive of both anger and resolution, as soon as the voluble sailor gave him an opportunity of speaking, "I wish you to know that I do not allow myself to be dealt with in this summary manner. I shall return home, and any man who interferes with me will do so at his imminent peril."

Saying this, he drew both of his pistols, setting the hammers with his thumbs in the act of drawing them from his pockets.

Billy Bowsprit raised the pistol which was in his right hand, and was about to pull the trigger, when at a slight and rapid sign from Captain Marston, who stood a little in the rear of young Coe, he suddenly pointed the muzzles of both pistols towards the ground. At the same moment the captain drew both of his pistols also, and placed himself by the side of John.

"Come," he said, addressing Billy Bowsprit in a really stern voice, "if this is a jest--as I think it is--we have had enough of it. Tell us what you want, and what the whole of this singular affair means."

"Why, sir," replied the seaman, in a somewhat crestfallen tone, "no harm has been meant to either of you all the while; and if this young gentleman," looking at John, "hadn't been quite so fiery, everything would have been explained to you some time ago. The fact is, my captain is an old acquaintance of both of you; he hasn't seen either of you for years, and so is very anxious to see you both, if only for a short time.

He wants you to come and take breakfast with him this morning. He had business with the schooner up the river here as far as Benedict, to land a cargo of goods. He has to get to Baltimore as soon as possible, but was determined to see you both first. So he landed me early yesterday morning, on this side of the river, opposite Benedict, to carry a message to you. But not knowing the lat.i.tude and longitude of that part of the country, I was obliged to take bearings and to make observations so often, that I did not arrive in your neighbourhood till after midnight; and I did not of course like to waken up families who were strangers to me at such a time of night. The notion about the cards was one of my own--a kind of experiment. I know how much curiosity there is in the world; and I felt certain, therefore, of seeing you two gentlemen here this morning."

"Thank you for the compliment, Mr Bowlegs--I beg your pardon-- Bowsprit," said the captain. "You seem to be somewhat of a philosopher; you carry out a plan with so much coolness, so much self-possession, beings always on your guard neither to act nor to speak hastily or unadvisedly."

There was evidently sarcasm, if not irony, in the captain's remarks.

The sailor bowed merely; he seemed to be, to use a common expression, "struck dumb."

Young Coe laughed heartily. Yet he must doubtless have felt somewhat abashed at the conviction that Marston's course of treating the affair as a farce was decidedly more successful than his own, of viewing it as a melodrama.

There was silence for a minute or two, during which all the pistols which had been drawn were put out of sight. At length the stillness was broken by a question from John.

"How did you manage to get your card or note into my room?" he asked of the sailor.

"Allow me to keep that secret to myself," answered Billy Bowsprit, with a smile, holding out in his hand at the same time, however, several skeleton keys. "But you are not to suppose, Mr Coe, that these keys show that I have any bad habits; I have never used them except in such innocent ventures as the present."

John took the skeleton keys in his hand; he had never seen such instruments before.

"I don't think," he remarked, returning the keys, "that any one of those could possibly unlock my outer door."

"One must understand the use of them," replied Billy Bowsprit. "I have others, however."

"How did you so readily make your way to this point!" asked Captain Marston of Billy Bowsprit.

"Why, sir," was the reply, "I have been over this road before, many years ago now. On that occasion, I was for a short time at the houses of both your father and Mr Coe. I came here because this was the place where this boat here was to meet you two gentlemen and myself."

"Who is this friend of ours who wants to see us, Mr Bowsprit--I mean Mr Brown?" asked John.

"I beg your pardon, sir," was the answer. "My captain particularly ordered me not to tell you; he wanted, he said, to give you a pleasant surprise."

"What do you say, John?" asked Captain Marston. "Shall we accept the invitation of this unknown friend?"

"If we knew what to do with our horses," said John, "and I could get a note home to tell them what has become of me, I should say 'yes' at once."

"If that is all that is in the way, gentlemen," said Mr Brown, _alias_ Bowsprit, "get your notes ready at once. Here, Tom," he continued, addressing the youth who was sitting on the stern seat of the row-boat, "do you knew the way to Millmont and to Blue Oldfields?"

"If I don't, I can inquire for it, sir," answered the boy.

"Then, as soon as you get the notes which these gentlemen want you to deliver at their houses," said Bowsprit, "take their horses, which you will find just behind those trees, _there_," pointing, "where the road corners with the sh.o.r.e; and as soon as you can do so, deliver notes and horses to their proper addresses. You will then walk down to Drum Point, where we shall be by that time, and we will there take you aboard."

"Ay, ay, sir," said the boy.

While these directions were being given, Captain Marston had drawn a note-book and a couple of lead-pencils from his pocket. Tearing a blank leaf from the book, he handed that and one of the pencils to John.

Using their hats as writing-desks, the two young men soon finished their notes and handed them to the boy, who immediately started on his mission.

The four men in the boat had been merely lookers-on and listeners in respect to what had been taking place on the sh.o.r.e.

When the boy took his departure, Captain Marston, John Coe, and Billy Bowsprit leaped into the boat.

"Will you steer, Captain Marston, if you please?" asked Bowsprit.

"With pleasure," answered the captain. "Then, if Mr Coe will take his seat with you at the stern," said the sailor, "I will take my place at the bow, and act as lookout."

The seats were taken, and the boat having been driven from the sh.o.r.e by one or two backward strokes of the oars, her head was turned down the creek. The supple rowers bending "with a will" to the elastic blades, the light craft fleetly bounded on her course over the glowing tide of Saint Leonard's, towards the broad Clearwater, which lay before them in the morning suns.h.i.+ne as ever bright and beautiful.

STORY TWO, CHAPTER FIVE.

ON BOARD THE SCHOONER.

*Sebastian*. How are you, friends?

I'm very glad to see you.

_As You Will_.

*Toby*. Who are these men, sir?

*Wily Will*. They're travellers only.

_The Masquerade_.

The row-boats, carrying John, Captain Harry Marston, Billy Bowsprit, and the four seamen, leaving the mouth of Saint Leonard's Creek, entered upon that largest and fairest of the several lake-like expanses of the Clearwater--being six miles in length and three in width--which lies between Point Patience on the south-east, and Solitary Point on the north-west.