Jack at Sea Part 12

"Perhaps round by the Horn, touching at Monte Video, Rio, and the West Indies?" cried the captain excitedly.

"Perhaps," said Sir John, smiling. "It depends."

"That means a couple of years to do it well, sir."

"I am not tied for time," said Sir John.

"That's a lot of money for a yacht," said the doctor thoughtfully.

"Yes, sir, a pretty good sum, but she's worth it, and whether you buy the _Silver Star_ or no, I say, as an old seaman, don't you undertake such a trip without a good boat under you, a man who knows his business for sailing her, and a good crew. If you mind that, weather permitting, you'll have a pleasant voyage worth a man's doing. With a clumsy craft, a bad captain, and a sc.r.a.ped together mutinous crew, it will be a misery to you from the day you start to the day you come back--if you ever do."

"That is quite right," said Sir John, rising, for the captain had risen and picked up his cap. "What time shall we come on board to-morrow?"

"Come now if you like, sir."

"No, no; my son is tired. Will ten o'clock suit you?"

"Any hour you like to name, sir."

"Ten then," said Sir John. "Of course we can easily find a boatman to take us off?"

"At ten o'clock, sir, a boat will be waiting for you at the pier end,"

said the captain in a sharp businesslike tone. "Good-evening, gentlemen. Weather seems to be settling down for fine. My gla.s.s is very steady."

"Hah!" said the doctor, "I rather like that man."

"I don't," said Jack sharply. "He is insufferable. He treated me as if I were a child."

Sir John raised his brows a little in surprise to hear his son speak so sharply.

"Don't judge rashly, Jack," he said. "You don't know the man yet; neither do I; but he impressed me as being a very frank, straightforward fellow, one of Nature's rough gentlemen."

"Would you mind my going to bed, father?" said Jack hastily. "I am very tired."

"Go then, and have a good long night's rest."

"Yes," said the doctor; "and I say, Jack, leave your window open.

Sea-air is a splendid tonic."

"Good-night," said Jack shortly; and, shaking hands quickly, he hurried out of the room, and went to bed, after carefully seeing that the window was closely shut.

"That's a pile of money for a yacht, Meadows," said the doctor, as they sat together to watch the moon rise over the hills in front of the hotel away across the estuary.

"Yes, it is a heavy sum, Instow, but if it answers the captain's description the yacht must be worth the money."

"Yes, if it does. Seems to be an honest sort of fellow, and he's right about having a good s.h.i.+p and crew for such a voyage."

"Of course."

"But it's a deal to pay down."

"I'd pay ten times as much down to-morrow to see my poor boy hale and hearty--a frank, natural lad with an English boy's firmness and strength."

"Instead of a weak, irritable, sickly, overstrained, nervous fellow, who would give me the horrors if I did not know that I can put him right."

"You do feel this, Instow?"

"Of course I do. Why look at him to-night. He is tired, and speaks sharply, and almost spitefully; but already he is showing twice as much spirit, though it is in the way of opposition."

"Yes; the feeling that he is to exert himself is beginning to show itself," said Sir John musingly. "He'll come round if he is given something to call out his energy."

They sat very silent till bed-time, and on saying good-night, Sir John turned quickly upon his old friend.

"This is a chance, Instow," he said, "and if the vessel comes up to his description I shall close at once."

CHAPTER SIX.

JACK BEGINS TO WAKE.

The waters of the Dart were dancing merrily in the bright suns.h.i.+ne next morning, when, nervous and so anxious that his breakfast had been spoiled, Jack walked between his father and the doctor toward the pier, wondering what sort of a vessel the _Silver Star_, which had been finished too finely for the captain's taste, would prove.

"There she is," said the doctor suddenly. "That must be the yacht, for there is nothing else in sight at all answering her description."

"Yes, that is she, the one we saw as we came in yesterday. Why she must be quite half-a-mile away."

"Are we to go off to the yacht in a small boat?" asked Jack nervously.

"Yes, my boy," said Sir John. "You heard that the captain, said one would be waiting for us at ten, and it is now nearly that time. Look, there's a man-o'-war gig coming towards the pier. How well the men look in their white duck s.h.i.+rts and straw hats, and with the naval officer in the stern sheets. Those men row splendidly."

They stopped to look at the beautiful little boat glistening and brown in its varnish, with its three little fenders hanging on either side to protect it from chafing against boat-side or pier, and its rowlocks of highly polished gun-metal, and then lost sight of it behind the pier.

"Bringing the officer to land, I suppose," said Sir John. "I dare say she comes from the _Britannia_."

"No," said the doctor suddenly. "Why that's our captain and our boat."

"Oh no," said Sir John quickly. "That was a regular man-o'-war craft."

"I don't care; it was ours," said the doctor. "You'll see."

He proved to be right, for as they went on to the pier, they saw Captain Bradleigh climb up from a boat lying out of sight close in, and he came to meet them.

"Morning, gentlemen," he said. "You are punctuality itself. It's striking ten. This way. We'll go off at once, while the tide is with us, and save the lads' arms."

He led them to the end of the pier, where the so-called man-o'-war boat lay just beneath them, one of the sailors holding on by a boat-hook, while the other three smart-looking fellows sat quietly waiting on the thwarts. The gig was in the trimmest of conditions, and looked perfectly new, while it was set off by a gay scarlet cus.h.i.+on in the stern sheets, contrasting well with the brown varnished grating ready for the sitters' feet.

"But we are never going to the yacht in that crazy little boat?"

whispered Jack nervously.