Old Gold Part 13

"Then you know now, sir. Pretending to me that you were going to a dinner--_eating_."

"So I was," cried the mate.

"Not you, sir. Going somewhere drinking."

"That I wasn't. Mr Franklyn Briscoe came and asked me to go and have a bit of dinner with him."

"What! that American?" cried the captain.

"Yes."

"Then that makes worse of it."

"There, I don't know: bad or worse," said the mate. "All I know is that I went to sleep after dinner, and when I woke up he was gone and I couldn't find my hat."

The first mate exchanged glances with the captain, who spoke out at once.

"Then how did your hat come on board, sir?"

"I don't know, I tell you, captain," cried Lynton. "All I know is that as soon as I woke up I went half-mad, and ran down to the river, to find you'd sailed without me; and then I got that black fellow to paddle me down after you in his canoe."

"And a deal of good that would have been if I hadn't anch.o.r.ed," growled the captain. "There, sir, get to your duties, and let's have no more of it."

"But I want to clear my character, captain, before the crew and these two gentlemen."

"You hold your tongue, my lad, or you'll be making worse of it."

"But there's some mystery about it," said the mate warmly. "Yes, I can see you nodding and winking, Dellow, and making signs to the men. Here you, Tom Jinks, you said I came on board last night?"

"Yes, me and my mate here rowed you aboard; didn't we, mate?"

"Ay, ay, lad," was the reply, and their questioner banged his right fist down into his left palm as if to get rid of some of his rage.

"There," he cried, "have it your own way, all of you; but you don't catch me going ash.o.r.e to dine with a gentleman again."

"No," said the captain sharply, "I shan't. Now then, look alive there."

The anchor was soon after swinging from the bows, the sails filled, and the brig began to glide down with the stream, and by the time the cabin breakfast was at an end the banks of the muddy river were growing distant, and various signs pointed to the fact that they were approaching the open sea. That evening, with a gentle breeze from the north sending them swiftly along, the low coast-line looked dim and distant across the muddy waters, the mighty rivers discolouring the sea far away from land, and, gla.s.s in hand, Brace was seated in a deck chair trying to make out some salient point of the South American coast.

Then all at once something dark eclipsed the picture formed by the gla.s.s, and Brace Leigh lowered it suddenly from his eye to try and make out what it was. He found that it was the second mate's head.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

SOMETHING STARTLING.

"Evening, sir," said Lynton. "Growing too dark to see much with a gla.s.s, isn't it?"

"Yes; I was just going to shut it up and put it in the case," replied Brace. "I say, don't you go and sham dead to upset us all again."

"There you go!" cried the mate angrily. "I did think it was going to drop now. n.o.body seems to believe my word."

"Don't say n.o.body, for I will," said Brace quietly. "I was only joking you a bit. But tell me: that coast-line I could see before it grew so dark was all forest, I suppose?"

"A lot of it," replied the mate, with a sigh or relief; "great thick dense forest with dwarfish trees growing out of the mud, and if you could see now, you'd find all the leaves sparkling with fireflies up the creeks and streams."

"Then the sooner we reach our river and begin to sail up, the better I shall like it. How soon it grows dark out here!"

"It does in these lat.i.tudes," replied the mate.

"But I say, Mr Leigh, don't you go thinking that I went ash.o.r.e carrying on and drinking, because I didn't."

"I promise you I will not."

"Thankye," said the mate, as he stood looking along the darkened deck, with the lanthorns now swinging aloft. Beneath a rough awning the captain had made the men rig up over the cabin, that gentleman was seated chatting with Sir Humphrey, while the first mate stood by them, listening to their conversation, and occasionally putting in a word.

Three or four folding-chairs had been placed aft for the benefit of the pa.s.sengers, one of which Brace had marked down for his own use, and he was thinking of fetching it along to where they stood, as he talked to the second and fastened the strap of his binocular case.

"Ah," said the mate, "you'll find that little gla.s.s handy when you begin shooting for picking out the birds and serpents and things, and--"

He took off his straw hat to wipe his forehead, for the air was hot, moist, and sultry. He did not, however, apply his handkerchief, but stood with it in his right hand, his straw hat in his left, gazing down at it.

"Puzzles me," he said, changing the subject suddenly.

"What: how to find the birds and reptiles among the leaves of the great trees?"

"No, no," said the mate impatiently. "I mean, how it was this straw hat of mine came on board."

Then, in a hoa.r.s.e whisper: "Mr Leigh, sir: look--look there!"

He stretched out his hand with the hat in it, using it to point towards the spot where one folding-chair stood, dimly seen, close up to the starboard bulwark.

"Well, I see it," said Brace. "It does not seem any the worse for coming on board without you."

"But I can't make it out," whispered the man, in a strange way. "I hung it up in the American gent's room--the one you had, sir--and the last I remember is seeing him sitting opposite to me across the table; and now look there. See him?"

"No," said Brace; "I can see no him. What do you mean?"

"The American," whispered Lynton, catching the young man by the arm.

"There, can't you see him sitting in the dark yonder?"

"No," said Brace quietly. "I say, Mr Lynton, you'll be better when you've had a good night's rest. You talk as if you could see a ghost."

"That's it, sir; that's it," whispered the man wildly. "Come away--come away."

"Nonsense, man. There's nothing over yonder, only--"