Shifting Winds: A Tough Yarn Part 22

"How would you like to have it, my good woman?" asked the teller kindly.

"Eh?" exclaimed Mrs Gaff.

"Would you like to have it in notes or gold?" said the teller.

"In goold, of course, sir."

Tottie here glanced upwards through her tears. Observing that her mother had ceased to whimper, and was gazing in undisguised admiration at the proceedings of the teller, she turned her eyes in his direction, and forgot to cry any more.

The teller was shovelling golden sovereigns into a pair of scales with a bra.s.s shovel as coolly as if he were a grocer's boy scooping out raw sugar. Having weighed the glittering pile, he threw them carelessly out of the scale into the bra.s.s shovel, and shot them at Mrs Gaff, who suddenly thrust her ample bosom against the counter, under the impression that the coins were about to be scattered on the floor. She was mistaken. They were checked in their career by a ledge, and lay before her unbelieving eyes in a glittering ma.s.s.

Suddenly she looked at the teller with an expression of severe reproof.

"You've forgot to count 'em, sir."

"You'll find them all right," replied the teller, with a laugh.

Thereupon Mrs Gaff, in an extremely unbelieving state of mind, began to count the gold pieces one by one into a little cotton bag which had been prepared by her for this very purpose, and which Tottie held open with both hands. In ten minutes, after much care and many sighs, she counted it all, and found that there were two sovereigns too many, which she offered to return to the teller with a triumphant air, but that incredulous man smiled benignantly, and advised her to count it again.

She did count it again, and found that there were four pieces too few.

Whereupon she retired with the bag to a side table, and, in a state of profuse perspiration, began to count it over a third time with deliberate care.

Tottie watched and checked each piece like a lynx, and the sum was at last found to be correct!

Mrs Gaff quitted the bank with a feeling of intense relief, and met Lizzie Gordon walking with Emmie Wilson just outside the door.

"My dear Miss Gordon," exclaimed the poor woman, kissing Lizzie's hand in the fulness of her heart, "you've no ideer what agonies I've bin a-sufferin' in that there bank. If they're a-goin' to treat me in this way always, I'll draw out the whole o' my ten hundred thousand pound--if that's the sum--an' stow it away in my Stephen's sea-chest, what he's left behind him."

"Dear Mrs Gaff, what have they done to you?" asked Lizzie in some concern.

"Oh, it's too long a story to tell ye here, my dear. Come with me. I'm a-goin' straight to yer uncle's, Captain Bingley. Be he to home? But stop; did ye ever see a hundred golden pounds?"

Mrs Gaff cautiously opened the mouth of her bag and allowed Lizzie to peep in, but refused to answer any questions regarding her future intentions.

Meanwhile Emmie and Tottie had flown into each other's arms. The former had often seen my niece, both at the house of Mr Stuart and at my own, as our respective ladies interchanged frequent visits, and Miss Peppy always brought Emmie when she came to see us. Lizzie had taken such a fancy to the orphan that she begged Miss Peppy to allow her to go with her and me sometimes on our visits to the houses of distressed sailors and fishermen. In this way Emmie and Tottie had become acquainted, and they were soon bosom friends, for the gentle, dark-eyed daughter of Mrs Gaff seemed to have been formed by nature as a harmonious counterpart to the volatile, fair-haired orphan. Emmie, I may here remark in pa.s.sing, had by this time become a recognised inmate of Mr Stuart's house. What his intentions in regard to her were, no one knew. He had at first vowed that the foundling should be cast upon the parish, but when the illness, that attacked the child after the s.h.i.+p-wreck, had pa.s.sed away, he allowed her to remain without further remark than that she must be kept carefully out of his way. Kenneth, therefore, held to his first intention of not letting his father or any one else know that the poor girl was indeed related to him by the closest tie. Meanwhile he determined that Emmie's education should not be neglected.

Immediately on arriving at my residence, Mrs Gaff was, at her own request, ushered into my study, accompanied by Tottie.

I bade her good-day, and, after a few words of inquiry as to her health, asked if I could be of any service to her.

"No, capting, thank 'ee," she said, fumbling with her bag as if in search of something.

"No news of Stephen or Billy, I suppose?" said I in a sad tone.

"Not yet, capting, but I expect 'em one o' these days, an' I'm a-gettin'

things ready for 'em."

"Indeed! what induces you to expect them so confidently?"

"Well, capting, I can't well tell 'ee, but I do, an' in the meantime I've come to thank 'ee for all yer kindness to Tottie an' me when we was in distress. Yer Society, capting, has saved me an' Tottie fro'

starvation, an' so I've come for to give ye back the money ye sent me by Mr Stuart, for there's many a poor widder as'll need it more nor I do."

So saying, she placed the money on the table, and I thanked her heartily, adding that I was glad to be able to congratulate her on her recent good fortune.

"Moreover," continued Mrs Gaff, taking a small bag from the large one which hung on her arm, and laying it also on the table, "I feel so thankful to the Almighty, as well as to you, sir, that I've come to give ye a small matter o' goold for the benefit o' the Society ye b'longs to, an' there it be."

"How much is here?" said I, lifting up the bag.

"A hundred pound. Ye needn't count it, capting, for it's all c'rekt, though it _was_ shovelled out to me as if it war no better than coals or sugar. Good-day, capting."

Mrs Gaff, turning hastily round as if to avoid my thanks, or my remonstrances at so poor a woman giving so large a sum, seized Tottie by the wrist and dragged her towards the door.

"Stop, stop, my good woman," said I; "at least let me give you a receipt."

"Please, capting, I doesn't want one. Surely I can trust ye, an' I've had my heart nigh broke with bits o' paper this good day."

"Well, but I am required by the rules of the Society to give a receipt for all sums received."

Mrs Gaff was prevailed on to wait for the receipt, but the instant it was handed to her, she got up, bounced out of the room, and out of the house into the street. I hastened to the window, and saw her and Tottie walking smartly away in the direction of Cove, with their enormous bonnets quivering violently, and their ribbons streaming in the breeze.

Half an hour afterwards, Dan Horsey, who had been sent to me with a note from my friend Stuart, went down into my kitchen, and finding Susan Barepoles there alone, put his arm round her waist.

"Don't," said Susan, struggling unsuccessfully to get free. "What d'ye think Mrs Gaff has bin an' done?"

"Don't know, my jewel, no more nor a pig as has niver seen the light o'

day," said Dan.

"She's bin--and gone--and given--" said Susan, with great deliberation, "one--hundred--gold sovereigns--to the s.h.i.+pwrecked thingumbob Society!"

"How d'ye know that, darlint?" inquired Dan.

"Master told Miss Lizzie, Miss Lizzie told missis, and missis told me."

"You don't say so! Well, I wish I wor the s.h.i.+pwrecked thing-me-bob Society, I do," said Dan with a sigh; "but I an't, so I'll have to cut my stick, clap spurs to my horse, as the story books say, for Capting Bingley towld me to make haste. But there's wan thing, Susan, as I wouldn't guv for twice the sum."

"An' what may that be?" asked Susan shyly.

"It's _that_," said Dan, imprinting a kiss on Susan's lips, to the dismay of Bounder, who chanced to be in the back scullery and heard the smack.

Cook rushed to the kitchen, but when she reached it Dan was gone, and a few minutes later that worthy was cantering toward Seaside Villa, muttering to himself:

"Tin thousand pound! It's a purty little bit o' cash. I only wish as a brother o' mine, (if I had wan), would leave me half as much, an' I'd buy a coach and six, an' put purty Susan inside and mount the box meself, an' drive her to Africay or Noo Zealand, (not to mintion Ottyheity and Kangaroo), by way of a marriage trip! Hey! Bucephalus, be aisy now. It isn't Master Kenneth that's on yer back just now, so mind what yer about, or it'll be wus for ye, old boy."

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

THE OPEN BOAT ON THE PACIFIC--GAFF AND BILLY IN DREADFUL CIRc.u.mSTANCES-- A MESSAGE FROM THE SEA, AND A MADMAN'S DEATH.

While these events are taking place in the busy seaport of Wreck.u.moft, let us return to the little boat which we left floating, a solitary speck, upon the breast of the great Pacific Ocean.