Once Aboard the Lugger Part 2

"Someone, in some place concealed, indubitably smokes. Yourself you have noticed it. Follow the scent."

Exertion beaded upon Mr. Fletcher's brow. He drew his hand across it; thrust a damp and gloomy face between the foliage towards his master.

"I'd like to know," he asked, "if this is to be one of my regular jobs for the future? Was I engaged to 'unt smells all day? It's 'ard-d.a.m.n 'ard. I'm a gardener, I am; not a blood-'ound."

But Mr. Marrapit had pa.s.sed on.

"d.a.m.n 'ard," Mr. Fletcher repeated; drew the snail from his pocket; plunged to consolation.

V.

A short distance down the garden Mr. Marrapit himself discovered the source of the smell that had offended him. Bending to the left he came full upon it where it uprose from a secluded patch of turf: from the remains of a pipe there mounted steadily through the still air a thin wisp of smoke.

Outraged, Mr. Marrapit stared; fuming, turned upon the step that sounded on the path behind him.

The slim and tall young man who approached was that nephew George, whose coming into Mr. Marrapit's household had considerably disturbed Mr. Marrapit's peace. Orphaned by the death of his mother, George had gone into the guardians.h.i.+p of his uncle while in his middle teens. The responsibility had been thrust upon Mr. Marrapit by his sister. Vainly he had writhed and twisted in fretful protest; she shackled him to her desire by tearful and unceasing entreaty. Vainly he urged that his means were not what she thought; she a.s.sured him--and by her will bore out the a.s.surance--that with her George should go her money.

And the will, when read, in some degree consoled Mr. Marrapit for the sniffling enc.u.mbrance he took back with him to Herons' Holt after the funeral. It was a simple and trustful will--commended George into the keeping of her brother Christopher Marrapit; desired that George should be entered in her late husband's--the medical--profession; and for that purpose bequeathed her all to the said brother.

George was eighteen when Mr. Marrapit entered him at St. Peter's Hospital in mild pursuit of the qualification of the Conjoint Board of Surgeons and Physicians. "I am entering you," Mr. Marrapit had said, consulting notes he had prepared against the interview--"I am entering you at enormous cost upon a n.o.ble career which involves, however, a prolonged and highly expensive professional training. Your mother wished it."

Mr. Marrapit did not add that George's mother had expressly paid for it. This man had the knowledge that Youth would lose such veneration for Authority as it may possess were Authority to disclose the motives that prompt its actions.

He continued: "For me this involves considerable self-denial and patience. I do not flinch. From you it demands unceasing devotion to your books, your studies, your researches. You are no longer a boy: you are a man. The idle sports of youth must be placed behind you.

Stern life must be sternly faced."

"I do not flinch," George had replied.

"For your personal expenses I shall make you a small allowance. You will live in my house. Your wants should be insignificant."

In a faint voice George squeezed in: "I have heard that one can work far better by living near the hospital in digs."

"Elucidate."

"Digs--lodgings. I have heard that one can work far better by living near the hospital in lodgings."

"Adjust that impression," Mr. Marrapit had told him. "You are misinformed."

George struggled: "I should have the constant companions.h.i.+p of men absorbed in the same work as myself. We could exchange views and notes in the evenings."

"In your books seek that companions.h.i.+p. With them compare your views.

Let your notes by them be checked. They are infallible."

George said no more. At that moment the freedom of hospital as against the restraint of school, was a gallant steed upon which he outrid all other desires. The prospect of new and strange books in exchange for those he so completely abhorred, was an alluring delight. It is not until the bargain is complete that we discover how much easier to polish, and more comfortable to handle, are old lamps than new.

Mr. Marrapit had referred to his notes: "In regard to the allowance I shall make you. I earnestly pray no spur may be necessary to urge you at your tasks. Yet, salutary it is that spur should exist. I arrange, therefore, that in the deplorable event of your failing to pa.s.s any examination your allowance shall be diminished."

"Will it be correspondingly increased when I pa.s.s first shot?"

The fearful possibilities of this suggestion Mr. Marrapit had hesitated to accept. Speculation was abhorrent to this man. Visions of success upon success demanding increase upon increase considerably agitated him. Upon the other hand, the sooner these successes were won, the sooner, he reflected, would he be rid of this incubus, and, in the long-run, the cheaper. He nerved himself to the decision. "I agree to that," he had said. "The compact is affirmed."

It was a wretched compact for George.

But the sum had not yet been fixed. George, standing opposite his uncle, twisted one leg about the other; twined his clammy hands; put the awful question: "By how much will the allowance be increased or cut down?"

"By two pounds a quarter."

George plunged: "So if I fail in my first exam. I shall get eleven pounds at the quarter? if I pa.s.s, fifteen?"

Horror widened Mr. Marrapit's eyes; shrilled his voice: "What is the colossal sum you antic.i.p.ate?"

"I thought you said fifty-two pounds a year-a pound a week."

"A monstrous impression. Adjust it. Four pounds a quarter is the sum.

You will have no needs. It errs upon the side of liberality--I desire to be liberal."

George twisted his legs into a yet firmer knot: "But two failures would wipe it bang out."

"Look you to that," Mr. Marrapit told him. "The matter is settled."

But it was further pursued by George when outside the door.

"Simply to spite that stingy brute," vowed he, "I'll pa.s.s all my exams, with such a rush that I'll be hooking sixteen quid a quarter out of him before he knows where he is. I swear I will."

It was a rash oath. When Youth selects as weapon against Authority some implement that requires sweat in the forging Authority may go unarmed. The task of contriving such weapons is early abandoned. In three months George's hot resolve was cooled; in six it was forgotten; at the end of three years, after considerable fluctuation, his allowance stood at minus two pounds for the ensuing quarter.

Mr. Marrapit, appealed to for advance, had raved about his study with waving arms.

"The continued strain of renewing examination fees consequent on your callous failures," he had said, "terrifies me. I am haunted by the spectre of ruin. The Bank of England could not stand it."

Still George argued.

With a whirlwind of words Mr. Marrapit drove him from the study: "Precious moments fly even as you stand here. To your books, sir. In them seek solace. By application to them refresh your shattered pocket."

Shamefully was the advice construed. George sought and found solace in his books by selling his Kirke, his Quain and his Stone to Mr. Schoole of the Charing Cross Road; his microscope he temporarily lodged with Mr. Maughan in the Strand; to the science of bridge he applied himself with a skill that served to supply his petty needs.

Notwithstanding, his career at St. Peter's was of average merit.

George was now in the sixth year of his studies; and by the third part of his final examination, was alone delayed from the qualification which would bring him freedom from his uncle's irksome rule.

VI.

His attempt at this last examination had been concluded upon this July day that opens our history, and thus we return to Mr. Marrapit, to George, and to the line of smoke uprising from the tobacco.

Mr. Marrapit indicated the smouldering wedge.