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diff --git a/10871.txt b/10871.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..667f900 --- /dev/null +++ b/10871.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1838 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of At Sunwich Port, Part 1., by W.W. Jacobs + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: At Sunwich Port, Part 1. + Contents: Chapters 1-5 + +Author: W.W. Jacobs + +Release Date: January 30, 2004 [EBook #10871] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT SUNWICH PORT, PART 1. *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + +AT SUNWICH PORT + +BY + +W. W. JACOBS + + +Part 1. + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +From Drawings by Will Owen + + + + +CHAPTER I + +The ancient port of Sunwich was basking in the sunshine of a July +afternoon. A rattle of cranes and winches sounded from the shipping in +the harbour, but the town itself was half asleep. Somnolent shopkeepers +in dim back parlours coyly veiled their faces in red handkerchiefs from +the too ardent flies, while small boys left in charge noticed listlessly +the slow passing of time as recorded by the church clock. + +It is a fine church, and Sunwich is proud of it. The tall grey tower is +a landmark at sea, but from the narrow streets of the little town itself +it has a disquieting appearance of rising suddenly above the roofs +huddled beneath it for the purpose of displaying a black-faced clock with +gilt numerals whose mellow chimes have recorded the passing hours for +many generations of Sunwich men. + +Regardless of the heat, which indeed was mild compared with that which +raged in his own bosom, Captain Nugent, fresh from the inquiry of the +collision of his ship _Conqueror_ with the German barque _Hans Muller_, +strode rapidly up the High Street in the direction of home. An honest +seafaring smell, compounded of tar, rope, and fish, known to the educated +of Sunwich as ozone, set his thoughts upon the sea. He longed to be +aboard ship again, with the Court of Inquiry to form part of his crew. +In all his fifty years of life he had never met such a collection of +fools. His hard blue eyes blazed as he thought of them, and the mouth +hidden by his well-kept beard was set with anger. + +Mr. Samson Wilks, his steward, who had been with him to London to give +evidence, had had a time upon which he looked back in later years with +much satisfaction at his powers of endurance. He was with the captain, +and yet not with him. When they got out of the train at Sunwich he +hesitated as to whether he should follow the captain or leave him. His +excuse for following was the bag, his reason for leaving the volcanic +condition of its owner's temper, coupled with the fact that he appeared +to be sublimely ignorant that the most devoted steward in the world was +tagging faithfully along a yard or two in the rear. + +The few passers-by glanced at the couple with interest. Mr. Wilks had +what is called an expressive face, and he had worked his sandy eyebrows, +his weak blue eyes, and large, tremulous mouth into such an expression of +surprise at the finding of the Court, that he had all the appearance of a +beholder of visions. He changed the bag to his other hand as they left +the town behind them, and regarded with gratitude the approaching end of +his labours. + +At the garden-gate of a fair-sized house some half-mile along the road +the captain stopped, and after an impatient fumbling at the latch strode +up the path, followed by Mr. Wilks, and knocked at the door. As he +paused on the step he half turned, and for the first time noticed the +facial expression of his faithful follower. + +"What the dickens are you looking like that for?" he demanded. + +"I've been surprised, sir," conceded Mr. Wilks; "surprised and +astonished." + +Wrath blazed again in the captain's eyes and set lines in his forehead. +He was being pitied by a steward! + +"You've been drinking," he said, crisply; "put that bag down." + +"Arsking your pardon, sir," said the steward, twisting his unusually dry +lips into a smile, "but I've 'ad no opportunity, sir--I've been follerin' +you all day, sir." + +A servant opened the door. "You've been soaking in it for a month," +declared the captain as he entered the hall. "Why the blazes don't you +bring that bag in? Are you so drunk you don't know what you are doing?" + +Mr. Wilks picked the bag up and followed humbly into the house. Then he +lost his head altogether, and gave some colour to his superior officer's +charges by first cannoning into the servant and then wedging the captain +firmly in the doorway of the sitting-room with the bag. + +"Steward!" rasped the captain. + +"Yessir," said the unhappy Mr. Wilks. + +"Go and sit down in the kitchen, and don't leave this house till you're +sober." + +Mr. Wilks disappeared. He was not in his first lustre, but he was an +ardent admirer of the sex, and in an absent-minded way he passed his arm +round the handmaiden's waist, and sustained a buffet which made his head +ring. + +"A man o' your age, and drunk, too," explained the damsel. + +Mr. Wilks denied both charges. It appeared that he was much younger than +he looked, while, as for drink, he had forgotten the taste of it. A +question as to the reception Ann would have accorded a boyish teetotaler +remained unanswered. + +In the sitting-room Mrs. Kingdom, the captain's widowed sister, put down +her crochet-work as her brother entered, and turned to him expectantly. +There was an expression of loving sympathy on her mild and rather foolish +face, and the captain stiffened at once. + +"I was in the wrong," he said, harshly, as he dropped into a chair; "my +certificate has been suspended for six months, and my first officer has +been commended." + +"Suspended?" gasped Mrs. Kingdom, pushing back the white streamer to the +cap which she wore in memory of the late Mr. Kingdom, and sitting +upright. You?" + +"I think that's what I said," replied her brother. + +Mrs. Kingdom gazed at him mournfully, and, putting her hand behind her, +began a wriggling search in her pocket for a handkerchief, with the idea +of paying a wholesome tribute of tears. She was a past-master in the art +of grief, and, pending its extraction, a docile tear hung on her eyelid +and waited. The captain eyed her preparations with silent anger. + +"I am not surprised," said Mrs. Kingdom, dabbing her eyes; "I expected it +somehow. I seemed to have a warning of it. Something seemed to tell me; +I couldn't explain, but I seemed to know." + +She sniffed gently, and, wiping one eye at a time, kept the disengaged +one charged with sisterly solicitude upon her brother. The captain, with +steadily rising anger, endured this game of one-eyed bo-peep for five +minutes; then he rose and, muttering strange things in his beard, stalked +upstairs to his room. + +Mrs. Kingdom, thus forsaken, dried her eyes and resumed her work. The +remainder of the family were in the kitchen ministering to the wants of a +misunderstood steward, and, in return, extracting information which +should render them independent of the captain's version. + +"Was it very solemn, Sam?" inquired Miss Nugent, aged nine, who was +sitting on the kitchen table. + +Mr. Wilks used his hands and eyebrows to indicate the solemnity of the +occasion. + +"They even made the cap'n leave off speaking," he said, in an awed voice. + +"I should have liked to have been there," said Master Nugent, dutifully. + +"Ann," said Miss Nugent, "go and draw Sam a jug of beer." + +"Beer, Miss?" said Ann. + +"A jug of beer," repeated Miss Nugent, peremptorily. + +Ann took a jug from the dresser, and Mr. Wilks, who was watching her, +coughed helplessly. His perturbation attracted the attention of his +hostess, and, looking round for the cause, she was just in time to see +Ann disappearing into the larder with a cream jug. + +[Illustration: "His perturbation attracted the attention of his +hostess."] + +"The big jug, Ann," she said, impatiently; "you ought to know Sam would +like a big one." + +Ann changed the jugs, and, ignoring a mild triumph in Mr. Wilks's eye, +returned to the larder, whence ensued a musical trickling. Then Miss +Nugent, raising the jug with some difficulty, poured out a tumbler for +the steward with her own fair hands. + +"Sam likes beer," she said, speaking generally. + +"I knew that the first time I see him, Miss," re-marked the vindictive +Ann. + +Mr. Wilks drained his glass and set it down on the table again, making a +feeble gesture of repulse as Miss Nugent refilled it. + +"Go on, Sam," she said, with kindly encouragement; "how much does this +jug hold, Jack?" + +"Quart," replied her brother. + +"How many quarts are there in a gallon?" + +"Four." + +Miss Nugent looked troubled. "I heard father say he drinks gallons a +day," she remarked; "you'd better fill all the jugs, Ann." + +"It was only 'is way o' speaking," said Mr. Wilks, hurriedly; "the cap'n +is like that sometimes." + +"I knew a man once, Miss," said Ann, "as used to prefer to 'ave it in a +wash-hand basin. Odd, ugly-looking man 'e was; like Mr. Wilks in the +face, only better-looking." + +Mr. Wilks sat upright and, in the mental struggle involved in taking in +this insult in all its ramifications, did not notice until too late that +Miss Nugent had filled his glass again. + +"It must ha' been nice for the captain to 'ave you with 'im to-day," +remarked Ann, carelessly. + +"It was," said Mr. Wilks, pausing with the glass at his lips and eyeing +her sternly. "Eighteen years I've bin with 'im--ever since 'e 'ad a +ship. 'E took a fancy to me the fust time 'e set eyes on me." + +"Were you better-looking then, Sam?" inquired Miss Nugent, shuffling +closer to him on the table and regarding him affectionately. + +"Much as I am now, Miss," replied Mr. Wilks, setting down his glass and +regarding Ann's giggles with a cold eye. + +Miss Nugent sighed. "I love you, Sam," she said, simply. "Will you have +some more beer?" + +Mr. Wilks declined gracefully. "Eighteen years I've bin with the cap'n," +he remarked, softly; "through calms and storms, fair weather and foul, +Samson Wilks 'as been by 'is side, always ready in a quiet and 'umble way +to do 'is best for 'im, and now--now that 'e is on his beam-ends and lost +'is ship, Samson Wilks'll sit down and starve ashore till he gets +another." + +At these touching words Miss Nugent was undisguisedly affected, and +wiping her bright eyes with her pinafore, gave her small, well-shaped +nose a slight touch _en passant_ with the same useful garment, and +squeezed his arm affectionately. + +"It's a lively look-out for me if father is going to be at home for +long," remarked Master Nugent. Who'll get his ship, Sam?" + +"Shouldn't wonder if the fust officer, Mr. Hardy, got it," replied the +steward. "He was going dead-slow in the fog afore he sent down to rouse +your father, and as soon as your father came on deck 'e went at +'arfspeed. Mr. Hardy was commended, and your father's certifikit was +suspended for six months." + +Master Nugent whistled thoughtfully, and quitting the kitchen proceeded +upstairs to his room, and first washing himself with unusual care for a +boy of thirteen, put on a clean collar and brushed his hair. He was not +going to provide a suspended master-mariner with any obvious reasons for +fault-finding. While he was thus occupied the sitting-room bell rang, +and Ann, answering it, left Mr. Wilks in the kitchen listening with some +trepidation to the conversation. + +"Is that steward of mine still in the kitchen?" demanded the captain, +gruffly. + +"Yessir," said Ann. + +"What's he doing?" + +Mr. Wilks's ears quivered anxiously, and he eyed with unwonted disfavour +the evidences of his late debauch. + +"Sitting down, sir," replied Ann. + +"Give him a glass of ale and send him off," commanded the captain; "and +if that was Miss Kate I heard talking, send her in to me." + +Ann took the message back to the kitchen and, with the air of a martyr +engaged upon an unpleasant task, drew Mr. Wilks another glass of ale and +stood over him with well-affected wonder while he drank it. Miss Nugent +walked into the sitting-room, and listening in a perfunctory fashion to a +shipmaster's platitude on kitchen-company, took a seat on his knee and +kissed his ear. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +The downfall of Captain Nugent was for some time a welcome subject of +conversation in marine circles at Sunwich. At The Goblets, a rambling +old inn with paved courtyard and wooden galleries, which almost backed on +to the churchyard, brother-captains attributed it to an error of +judgment; at the Two Schooners on the quay the profanest of sailormen +readily attributed it to an all-seeing Providence with a dislike of +over-bearing ship-masters. + +[Illustration: "A welcome subject of conversation in marine circles."] + +The captain's cup was filled to the brim by the promotion of his first +officer to the command of the _Conqueror_. It was by far the largest +craft which sailed from the port of Sunwich, and its master held a +corresponding dignity amongst the captains of lesser vessels. Their +allegiance was now transferred to Captain Hardy, and the master of a brig +which was in the last stages of senile decay, meeting Nugent in The +Goblets, actually showed him by means of two lucifer matches how the +collision might have been avoided. + +A touching feature in the business, and a source of much gratification to +Mr. Wilks by the sentimental applause evoked by it, was his renunciation +of the post of steward on the ss. _Conqueror_. Sunwich buzzed with the +tidings that after eighteen years' service with Captain Nugent he +preferred starvation ashore to serving under another master. Although +comfortable in pocket and known to be living with his mother, who kept a +small general shop, he was regarded as a man on the brink of starvation. +Pints were thrust upon him, and the tale of his nobility increased with +much narration. It was considered that the whole race of stewards had +acquired fresh lustre from his action. + +His only unfavourable critic was the erring captain himself. He sent +a peremptory summons to Mr. Wilks to attend at Equator Lodge, and the +moment he set eyes upon that piece of probity embarked upon such a +vilification of his personal defects and character as Mr. Wilks had never +even dreamt of. He wound up by ordering him to rejoin the ship +forthwith. + +"Arsking your pardon, sir," said Mr. Wilks, with tender reproach, "but I +couldn't." + +"Are you going to live on your mother, you hulking rascal?" quoth the +incensed captain. + +"No, sir," said Mr. Wilks. "I've got a little money, sir; enough for my +few wants till we sail again." + +"When I sail again you won't come with me," said the captain, grimly. +"I suppose you want an excuse for a soak ashore for six months!" + +Mr. Wilks twiddled his cap in his hands and smiled weakly. + +"I thought p'r'aps as you'd like me to come round and wait at table, and +help with the knives and boots and such-like," he said, softly. "Ann is +agreeable." + +"Get out of the house," said the captain in quiet, measured tones. + +Mr. Wilks went, but on his way to the gate he picked up three pieces of +paper which had blown into the garden, weeded two pieces of grass from +the path, and carefully removed a dead branch from a laurel facing the +window. He would have done more but for an imperative knocking on the +glass, and he left the premises sadly, putting his collection of rubbish +over the next garden fence as he passed it. + +But the next day the captain's boots bore such a polish that he was able +to view his own startled face in them, and at dinner-time the brightness +of the knives was so conspicuous that Mrs. Kingdom called Ann in for the +purpose of asking her why she didn't always do them like that. Her +brother ate his meal in silence, and going to his room afterwards +discovered every pair of boots he possessed, headed by the tall +sea-boots, standing in a nicely graduated line by the wall, and all +shining their hardest. + +For two days did Mr. Wilks do good by stealth, leaving Ann to blush to +find it fame; but on the third day at dinner, as the captain took up his +knife and fork to carve, he became aware of a shadow standing behind his +chair. A shadow in a blue coat with metal buttons, which, whipping up +the first plate carved, carried it to Mrs. Kingdom, and then leaned +against her with the vegetable dishes. + +The dishes clattered a little on his arm as he helped the captain, but +the latter, after an impressive pause and a vain attempt to catch the eye +of Mr. Wilks, which was intent upon things afar off, took up the spoon +and helped himself. From the unwonted silence of Miss Nugent in the +presence of anything unusual it was clear to him that the whole thing had +been carefully arranged. He ate in silence, and a resolution to kick Mr. +Wilks off the premises vanished before the comfort, to say nothing of the +dignity, afforded by his presence. Mr. Wilks, somewhat reassured, +favoured Miss Nugent with a wink to which, although she had devoted much +time in trying to acquire the art, she endeavoured in vain to respond. + +It was on the day following this that Jack Nugent, at his sister's +instigation, made an attempt to avenge the family honour. Miss Nugent, +although she treated him with scant courtesy herself, had a touching +faith in his prowess, a faith partly due to her brother occasionally +showing her his bicep muscles in moments of exaltation. + +"There's that horrid Jem Hardy," she said, suddenly, as they walked along +the road. + +"So it is," said Master Nugent, but without any display of enthusiasm. + +"Halloa, Jack," shouted Master Hardy across the road. + +"The suspense became painful." + +"Halloa," responded the other. + +"He's going to fight you," shrilled Miss Nugent, who thought these +amenities ill-timed; "he said so." + +Master Hardy crossed the road. "What for?" he demanded, with surprise. + +"Because you're a nasty, horrid boy," replied Miss Nugent, drawing +herself up. + +"Oh," said Master Hardy, blankly. + +The two gentlemen stood regarding each other with uneasy grins; the lady +stood by in breathless expectation. The suspense became painful. + +[Illustration: "The suspense became painful."] + +"Who are you staring at?" demanded Master Nugent, at last. + +"You," replied the other; "who are you staring at?" + +"You," said Master Nugent, defiantly. + +There was a long interval, both gentlemen experiencing some difficulty in +working up sufficient heat for the engagement. + +"You hit me and see what you'll get," said Master Hardy, at length. + +"You hit me," said the other. + +"Cowardy, cowardy custard," chanted the well-bred Miss Nugent, "ate his +mother's mustard. Cowardy, cowardy cus--" + +"Why don't you send that kid home?" demanded Master Hardy, eyeing the +fair songstress with strong disfavour. + +"You leave my sister alone," said the other, giving him a light tap on +the shoulder. "There's your coward's blow." + +Master Hardy made a ceremonious return. "There's yours," he said. +"Let's go behind the church." + +His foe assented, and they proceeded in grave silence to a piece of grass +screened by trees, which stood between the church and the beach. Here +they removed their coats and rolled up their shirt-sleeves. Things look +different out of doors, and to Miss Nugent the arms of both gentlemen +seemed somewhat stick-like in their proportions. + +The preliminaries were awful, both combatants prancing round each other +with their faces just peering above their bent right arms, while their +trusty lefts dealt vicious blows at the air. Miss Nugent turned pale and +caught her breath at each blow, then she suddenly reddened with wrath as +James Philip Hardy, having paid his tribute to science, began to hammer +John Augustus Nugent about the face in a most painful and workmanlike +fashion. + +She hid her face for a moment, and when she looked again Jack was on the +ground, and Master Hardy just rising from his prostrate body. Then Jack +rose slowly and, crossing over to her, borrowed her handkerchief and +applied it with great tenderness to his nose. + +"Does it hurt, Jack?" she inquired, anxiously. "No," growled her +brother. + +He threw down the handkerchief and turned to his opponent again; Miss +Nugent, who was careful about her property, stooped to recover it, and +immediately found herself involved in a twisting tangle of legs, from +which she escaped by a miracle to see Master Hardy cuddling her brother +round the neck with one hand and punching him as hard and as fast as he +could with the other. The unfairness of it maddened her, and the next +moment Master Hardy's head was drawn forcibly backwards by the hair. The +pain was so excruciating that he released his victim at once, and Miss +Nugent, emitting a series of terrified yelps, dashed off in the direction +of home, her hair bobbing up and down on her shoulders, and her small +black legs in an ecstasy of motion. + +Master Hardy, with no very well-defined ideas of what he was going to do +if he caught her, started in pursuit. His scalp was still smarting and +his eyes watering with the pain as he pounded behind her. Panting wildly +she heard him coming closer and closer, and she was just about to give up +when, to her joy, she saw her father coming towards them. + +Master Hardy, intent on his quarry, saw him just in time, and, swerving +into the road, passed in safety as Miss Nugent flung herself with some +violence at her father's waistcoat and, clinging to him convulsively, +fought for breath. It was some time before she could furnish the +astonished captain with full details, and she was pleased to find that +his indignation led him to ignore the hair-grabbing episode, on which, +to do her justice, she touched but lightly. + +That evening, for the first time in his life, Captain Nugent, after some +deliberation, called upon his late mate. The old servant who, since Mrs. +Hardy's death the year before, had looked after the house, was out, and +Hardy, unaware of the honour intended him, was scandalized by the manner +in which his son received the visitor. The door opened, there was an +involuntary grunt from Master Hardy, and the next moment he sped along +the narrow passage and darted upstairs. His father, after waiting in +vain for his return, went to the door himself. + +"Good evening, cap'n," he said, in surprise. + +Nugent responded gruffly, and followed him into the sitting-room. To an +invitation to sit, he responded more gruffly still that he preferred to +stand. He then demanded instant and sufficient punishment of Master +Hardy for frightening his daughter. + +Even as he spoke he noticed with strong disfavour the change which had +taken place in his late first officer. The change which takes place when +a man is promoted from that rank to that of master is subtle, but +unmistakable--sometimes, as in the present instance, more unmistakable +than subtle. Captain Hardy coiled his long, sinewy form in an arm-chair +and, eyeing him calmly, lit his pipe before replying. + +[Illustration: "Captain Hardy lit his pipe before replying."] + +"Boys will fight," he said, briefly. + +"I'm speaking of his running after my daughter," said Nugent, sternly. + +Hardy's eyes twinkled. "Young dog," he said, genially; "at his age, +too." + +Captain Nugent's face was suffused with wrath at the pleasantry, and he +regarded him with a fixed stare. On board the _Conqueror_ there was a +witchery in that glance more potent than the spoken word, but in his own +parlour the new captain met it calmly. + +"I didn't come here to listen to your foolery," said Nugent; "I came to +tell you to punish that boy of yours." + +"And I sha'n't do it," replied the other. "I have got something better +to do than interfere in children's quarrels. I haven't got your spare +time, you know." + +Captain Nugent turned purple. Such language from his late first officer +was a revelation to him. + +"I also came to warn you," he said, furiously, "that I shall take the law +into my own hands if you refuse." + +"Aye, aye," said Hardy, with careless contempt; "I'll tell him to keep +out of your way. But I should advise you to wait until I have sailed." + +Captain Nugent, who was moving towards the door, swung round and +confronted him savagely. + +"What do you mean?" he demanded. + +"What I say," retorted Captain Hardy. "I don't want to indulge Sunwich +with the spectacle of two middle-aged ship-masters at fisticuffs, but +that's what'll happen if you touch my boy. It would probably please the +spectators more than it would us." + +"I'll cane him the first time I lay hands on him," roared Captain Nugent. + +Captain Hardy's stock of patience was at an end, and there was, moreover, +a long and undischarged account between himself and his late skipper. He +rose and crossed to the door. + +"Jem," he cried, "come downstairs and show Captain Nugent out." + +There was a breathless pause. Captain Nugent ground his teeth with fury +as he saw the challenge, and realized the ridiculous position into which +his temper had led him; and the other, who was also careful of +appearances, repented the order the moment he had given it. Matters had +now, however, passed out of their hands, and both men cast appraising +glances at each other's form. The only one who kept his head was Master +Hardy, and it was a source of considerable relief to both of them when, +from the top of the stairs, the voice of that youthful Solomon was heard +declining in the most positive terms to do anything of the kind. + +Captain Hardy repeated his command. The only reply was the violent +closing of a door at the top of the house, and after waiting a short time +he led the way to the front door himself. + +"You will regret your insolence before I have done with you," said his +visitor, as he paused on the step. "It's the old story of a beggar on +horseback." + +"It's a good story," said Captain Hardy, "but to my mind it doesn't come +up to the one about Humpty-Dumpty. Good-night." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +If anything was wanted to convince Captain Nugent that his action had +been foolish and his language intemperate it was borne in upon him by the +subsequent behaviour of Master Hardy. Generosity is seldom an attribute +of youth, while egotism, on the other hand, is seldom absent. So far +from realizing that the captain would have scorned such lowly game, +Master Hardy believed that he lived for little else, and his +Jack-in-the-box ubiquity was a constant marvel and discomfort to that +irritable mariner. Did he approach a seat on the beach, it was Master +Hardy who rose (at the last moment) to make room for him. Did he stroll +down to the harbour, it was in the wake of a small boy looking coyly at +him over his shoulder. Every small alley as he passed seemed to contain +a Jem Hardy, who whizzed out like a human firework in front of him, and +then followed dancing on his toes a pace or two in his rear. + +This was on week-days; on the Sabbath Master Hardy's daring ingenuity led +him to still further flights. All the seats at the parish church were +free, but Captain Nugent, whose admirable practice it was to take his +entire family to church, never thoroughly realized how free they were +until Master Hardy squeezed his way in and, taking a seat next to him, +prayed with unwonted fervour into the interior of a new hat, and then +sitting back watched with polite composure the efforts of Miss Nugent's +family to re-strain her growing excitement. + +Charmed with the experiment, he repeated it the following Sunday. This +time he boarded the seat from the other end, and seeing no place by the +captain, took one, or more correctly speaking made one, between Miss +Nugent and Jack, and despite the former's elbow began to feel almost like +one of the family. Hostile feelings vanished, and with an amiable smile +at the half-frantic Miss Nugent he placed a "bull's-eye" of great +strength in his cheek, and leaning forward for a hymn-book left one on +the ledge in front of jack. A double-distilled perfume at once assailed +the atmosphere. + +Miss Nugent sat dazed at his impudence, and for the first time in her +life doubts as to her father's capacity stirred within her. She +attempted the poor consolation of an "acid tablet," and it was at +once impounded by the watchful Mrs. Kingdom. Mean-time the reek of +"bull's-eyes" was insufferable. + +The service seemed interminable, and all that time the indignant damsel, +wedged in between her aunt and the openly exultant enemy of her House, +was compelled to endure in silence. She did indeed attempt one remark, +and Master Hardy, with a horrified expression of outraged piety, said +"H'sh," and shook his head at her. It was almost more than flesh and +blood could bear, and when the unobservant Mrs. Kingdom asked her for the +text on the way home her reply nearly cost her the loss of her dinner. + +The _Conqueror,_ under its new commander, sailed on the day following. +Mr. Wilks watched it from the quay, and the new steward observing him +came to the side, and holding aloft an old pantry-cloth between his +finger and thumb until he had attracted his attention, dropped it +overboard with every circumstance of exaggerated horror. By the time a +suitable retort had occurred to the ex-steward the steamer was half a +mile distant, and the extraordinary and unnatural pantomime in which he +indulged on the edge of the quay was grievously misinterpreted by a +nervous man in a sailing boat. + +[Illustration: "Mr. Wilks watched it from the quay."] + +Master Hardy had also seen the ship out, and, perched on the extreme end +of the breakwater, he remained watching until she was hull down on the +horizon. Then he made his way back to the town and the nearest +confectioner, and started for home just as Miss Nugent, who was about +to pay a call with her aunt, waited, beautifully dressed, in the front +garden while that lady completed her preparations. + +Feeling very spic and span, and still a trifle uncomfortable from the +vigorous attentions of Ann, who cleansed her as though she had been a +doorstep, she paced slowly up and down the path. Upon these occasions of +high dress a spirit of Sabbath calm was wont to descend upon her and save +her from escapades to which in a less severe garb she was somewhat prone. + +She stopped at the gate and looked up the road. Then her face flushed, +and she cast her eyes behind her to make sure that the hall-door stood +open. The hated scion of the house of Hardy was coming down the road, +and, in view of that fact, she forgot all else--even her manners. + +The boy, still fresh from the loss of his natural protector, kept a wary +eye on the house as he approached. Then all expression died out of his +face, and he passed the gate, blankly ignoring the small girl who was +leaning over it and apparently suffering from elephantiasis of the +tongue. He went by quietly, and Miss Nugent, raging inwardly that she +had misbehaved to no purpose, withdrew her tongue for more legitimate +uses. + +"Boo," she cried; "who had his hair pulled?" + +Master Hardy pursued the even tenor of his way. + +"Who's afraid to answer me for fear my father will thrash him?" cried the +disappointed lady, raising her voice. + +This was too much. The enemy retraced his steps and came up to the gate. + +"You're a rude little girl," he said, with an insufferably grown-up air. + +"Who had his hair pulled?" demanded Miss Nugent, capering wildly; "who +had his hair pulled?" + +"Don't be silly," said Master Hardy. "Here." He put his hand in his +pocket, and producing some nuts offered them over the gate. At this Miss +Nugent ceased her capering, and wrath possessed her that the enemy should +thus misunderstand the gravity of the situation. + +"Well, give 'em to Jack, then," pursued the boy; "he won't say no." + +This was a distinct reflection on Jack's loyalty, and her indignation was +not lessened by the fact that she knew it was true. + +"Go away from our gate," she stormed. "If my father catches you, you'll +suffer." + +"Pooh!" said the dare-devil. He looked up at the house and then, opening +the gate, strode boldly into the front garden. Before this intrusion +Miss Nugent retreated in alarm, and gaining the door-step gazed at him in +dismay. Then her face cleared suddenly, and Master Hardy looking over +his shoulder saw that his retreat was cut off by Mr. Wilks. + +"Don't let him hurt me, Sam," entreated Miss Nugent, piteously. + +Mr. Wilks came into the garden and closed the gate behind him. + +"I wasn't going to hurt her," cried Master Hardy, anxiously; "as if I +should hurt a girl! + +"Wot are you doing in our front garden, then?" demanded Mr. Wilks. + +He sprang forward suddenly and, catching the boy by the collar with one +huge hand, dragged him, struggling violently, down the side-entrance into +the back garden. Miss Nugent, following close behind, sought to improve +the occasion. + +"See what you get by coming into our garden," she said. + +The victim made no reply. He was writhing strenuously in order to +frustrate Mr. Wilks's evident desire to arrange him comfortably for the +administration of the stick he was carrying. Satisfied at last, the +ex-steward raised his weapon, and for some seconds plied it briskly. +Miss Nugent trembled, but sternly repressing sympathy for the sufferer, +was pleased that the long arm of justice had at last over-taken him. + +"Let him go now, Sam," she said; "he's crying." + +"I'm not," yelled Master Hardy, frantically. + +"I can see the tears," declared Miss Nugent, bending. + +Mr. Wilks plied the rod again until his victim, with a sudden turn, +fetched him a violent kick on the shin and broke loose. The ex-steward +set off in pursuit, somewhat handicapped by the fact that he dare not go +over flower-beds, whilst Master Hardy was singularly free from such +prejudices. Miss Nugent ran to the side-entrance to cut off his retreat. +She was willing for him to be released, but not to escape, and so it fell +out that the boy, dodging beneath Mr. Wilks's outspread arms, charged +blindly up the side-entrance and bowled the young lady over. + +There was a shrill squeal, a flutter of white, and a neat pair of button +boots waving in the air. Then Miss Nugent, sobbing piteously, rose from +the puddle into which she had fallen and surveyed her garments. Mr. +Wilks surveyed them, too, and a very cursory glance was sufficient to +show him that the case was beyond his powers. He took the outraged +damsel by the hand, and led her, howling lustily, in to the horrified +Ann. + +"My word," said she, gasping. "Look at your gloves! Look at your +frock!" + +But Miss Nugent was looking at her knees. There was only a slight +redness about the left, but from the right a piece of skin was +indubitably missing. This knee she gave Ann instructions to foment with +fair water of a comfortable temperature, indulging in satisfied +prognostications as to the fate of Master Hardy when her father should +see the damage. + +The news, when the captain came home, was broken to him by degrees. +He was first shown the flower-beds by Ann, then Mrs. Kingdom brought in +various soiled garments, and at the psychological moment his daughter +bared her knees. + +"What will you do to him, father?" she inquired. + +The captain ignored the question in favour of a few remarks on the +subject of his daughter's behaviour, coupled with stern inquiries as to +where she learnt such tricks. In reply Miss Nugent sheltered herself +behind a list which contained the names of all the young gentlemen who +attended her kindergarten class and many of the young ladies, and again +inquired as to the fate of her assailant. + +Jack came in soon after, and the indefatigable Miss Nugent produced her +knees again. She had to describe the injury to the left, but the right +spoke for itself. Jack gazed at it with indignation, and then, without +waiting for his tea, put on his cap and sallied out again. + +He returned an hour later, and instead of entering the sitting-room +went straight upstairs to bed, from whence he sent down word by the +sympathetic Ann that he was suffering from a bad headache, which he +proposed to treat with raw meat applied to the left eye. His nose, which +was apparently suffering from sympathetic inflammation, he left to take +care of itself, that organ bitterly resenting any treatment whatsoever. + +He described the battle to Kate and Ann the next day, darkly ascribing +his defeat to a mysterious compound which Jem Hardy was believed to rub +into his arms; to a foolish error of judgment at the beginning of the +fray, and to the sun which shone persistently in his eyes all the time. +His audience received the explanations in chilly silence. + +"And he said it was an accident he knocked you down," he concluded; "he +said he hoped you weren't hurt, and he gave me some toffee for you." + +"What did you do with it?" demanded Miss Nugent. + +"I knew you wouldn't have it," replied her brother, inconsequently, "and +there wasn't much of it." + +His sister regarded him sharply. + +"You don't mean to say you ate it?" she screamed. + +"Why not?" demanded her brother. "I wanted comforting, I can tell you." + +"I wonder you were not too--too proud," said Miss Nugent, bitterly. + +"I'm never too proud to eat toffee," retorted Jack, simply. + +He stalked off in dudgeon at the lack of sympathy displayed by his +audience, and being still in need of comforting sought it amid the +raspberry-canes. + +His father noted his son's honourable scars, but made no comment. As to +any action on his own part, he realized to the full the impotence of a +law-abiding and dignified citizen when confronted by lawless youth. But +Master Hardy came to church no more. Indeed, the following Sunday he was +fully occupied on the beach, enacting the part of David, after first +impressing the raving Mr. Wilks into that of Goliath. + +[Illustration: "Master Hardy on the beach enacting the part of David."] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +For the next month or two Master Hardy's existence was brightened by the +efforts of an elderly steward who made no secret of his intentions of +putting an end to it. Mr. Wilks at first placed great reliance on the +saw that "it is the early bird that catches the worm," but lost faith in +it when he found that it made no provision for cases in which the worm +leaning from its bedroom window addressed spirited remonstrances to the +bird on the subject of its personal appearance. + +To the anxious inquiries of Miss Nugent, Mr. Wilks replied that he was +biding his time. Every delay, he hinted, made it worse for Master Hardy +when the day of retribution should dawn, and although she pleaded +earnestly for a little on account he was unable to meet her wishes. +Before that day came, however, Captain Nugent heard of the proceedings, +and after a painful interview with the steward, during which the latter's +failings by no means escaped attention, confined him to the house. + +[Illustration: "Mr. Wilks replied that he was biding his time."] + +An excellent reason for absenting himself from school was thus denied to +Master Hardy; but it has been well said that when one door closes another +opens, and to his great satisfaction the old servant, who had been in +poor health for some time, suddenly took to her bed and required his +undivided attention. + +He treated her at first with patent medicines purchased at the chemist's, +a doctor being regarded by both of them as a piece of unnecessary +extravagance; but in spite of four infallible remedies she got steadily +worse. Then a doctor was called in, and by the time Captain Hardy +returned home she had made a partial recovery, but was clearly incapable +of further work. She left in a cab to accept a home with a niece, +leaving the captain confronted with a problem which he had seen growing +for some time past. + +"I can't make up my mind what to do with you," he observed, regarding his +son. + +"I'm very comfortable," was the reply. + +"You're too comfortable," said his father. + +You're running wild. It's just as well poor old Martha has gone; it has +brought things to a head." + +"We could have somebody else," suggested his son. + +The captain shook his head. "I'll give up the house and send you to +London to your Aunt Mary," he said, slowly; "she doesn't know you, and +once I'm at sea and the house given up, she won't be able to send you +back." + +Master Hardy, who was much averse to leaving Sunwich and had heard +accounts of the lady in question which referred principally to her +strength of mind, made tender inquiries concerning his father's comfort +while ashore. + +"I'll take rooms," was the reply, "and I shall spend as much time as I +can with you in London. You want looking after, my son; I've heard all +about you." + +His son, without inquiring as to the nature of the information, denied it +at once upon principle; he also alluded darkly to his education, and +shook his head over the effects of a change at such a critical period of +his existence. + +"And you talk too much for your age," was his father's comment when he +had finished. "A year or two with your aunt ought to make a nice boy of +you; there's plenty of room for improvement." + +He put his plans in hand at once, and a week before he sailed again had +disposed of the house. Some of the furniture he kept for himself; but +the bulk of it went to his sister as conscience-money. + +Master Hardy, in very low spirits, watched it taken away. Big men in +hob-nailed boots ran noisily up the bare stairs, and came down slowly, +steering large pieces of furniture through narrow passages, and using +much vain repetition when they found their hands acting as fenders. The +wardrobe, a piece of furniture which had been built for larger premises, +was a particularly hard nut to crack, but they succeeded at last--in +three places. + +[Illustration: "A particularly hard nut to crack."] + +A few of his intimates came down to see the last of him, and Miss Nugent, +who in some feminine fashion regarded the move as a triumph for her +family, passed by several times. It might have been chance, it might +have been design, but the boy could not help noticing that when the +piano, the wardrobe, and other fine pieces were being placed in the van, +she was at the other end of the road a position from which such curios as +a broken washstand or a two-legged chair never failed to entice her. + +It was over at last. The second van had disappeared, and nothing was +left but a litter of straw and paper. The front door stood open and +revealed desolation. Miss Nugent came to the gate and stared in +superciliously. + +"I'm glad you're going," she said, frankly. + +Master Hardy scarcely noticed her. One of his friends who concealed +strong business instincts beneath a sentimental exterior had suggested +souvenirs and given him a spectacle-glass said to have belonged to Henry +VIII., and he was busy searching his pockets for an adequate return. +Then Captain Hardy came up, and first going over the empty house, came +out and bade his son accompany him to the station. A minute or two later +and they were out of sight; the sentimentalist stood on the curb gloating +over a newly acquired penknife, and Miss Nugent, after being strongly +reproved by him for curiosity, paced slowly home with her head in the +air. + +Sunwich made no stir over the departure of one of its youthful citizens. +Indeed, it lacked not those who would have cheerfully parted with two or +three hundred more. The boy was quite chilled by the tameness of his +exit, and for years afterwards the desolate appearance of the platform as +the train steamed out occurred to him with an odd sense of discomfort. +In all Sunwich there was only one person who grieved over his departure, +and he, after keeping his memory green for two years, wrote off fivepence +as a bad debt and dismissed him from his thoughts. + +Two months after the _Conqueror_ had sailed again Captain Nugent obtained +command of a steamer sailing between London and the Chinese ports. From +the gratified lips of Mr. Wilks, Sunwich heard of this new craft, the +particular glory of which appeared to be the luxurious appointments of +the steward's quarters. Language indeed failed Mr. Wilks in describing +it, and, pressed for details, he could only murmur disjointedly of +satin-wood, polished brass, and crimson velvet. + +Jack Nugent hailed his father's departure with joy. They had seen a +great deal of each other during the latter's prolonged stay ashore, and +neither had risen in the other's estimation in consequence. He became +enthusiastic over the sea as a profession for fathers, and gave himself +some airs over acquaintances less fortunately placed. In the first flush +of liberty he took to staying away from school, the education thus lost +being only partially atoned for by a grown-up style of composition +engendered by dictating excuses to the easy-going Mrs. Kingdom. + +At seventeen he learnt, somewhat to his surprise, that his education was +finished. His father provided the information and, simply as a matter of +form, consulted him as to his views for the future. It was an important +thing to decide upon at short notice, but he was equal to it, and, having +suggested gold-digging as the only profession he cared for, was promptly +provided by the incensed captain with a stool in the local bank. + +[Illustration: "A stool in the local bank."] + +He occupied it for three weeks, a period of time which coincided to a day +with his father's leave ashore. He left behind him his initials cut +deeply in the lid of his desk, a miscellaneous collection of cheap +fiction, and a few experiments in book-keeping which the manager +ultimately solved with red ink and a ruler. + +A slight uneasiness as to the wisdom of his proceedings occurred to him +just before his father's return, but he comforted himself and Kate with +the undeniable truth that after all the captain couldn't eat him. He was +afraid, however, that the latter would be displeased, and, with a +constitutional objection to unpleasantness, he contrived to be out when +he returned, leaving to Mrs. Kingdom the task of breaking the news. + +The captain's reply was brief and to the point. He asked his son whether +he would like to go to sea, and upon receiving a decided answer in the +negative, at once took steps to send him there. In two days he had +procured him an outfit, and within a week Jack Nugent, greatly to his own +surprise, was on the way to Melbourne as apprentice on the barque _Silver +Stream_. + +He liked it even less than the bank. The monotony of the sea was +appalling to a youth of his tastes, and the fact that the skipper, a man +who never spoke except to find fault, was almost loquacious with him +failed to afford him any satisfaction. He liked the mates no better than +the skipper, and having said as much one day to the second officer, had +no reason afterwards to modify his opinions. He lived a life apart, and +except for the cook, another martyr to fault-finding, had no society. + +In these uncongenial circumstances the new apprentice worked for four +months as he had never believed it possible he could work. He was +annoyed both at the extent and the variety of his tasks, the work of an +A.B. being gratuitously included in his curriculum. The end of the +voyage found him desperate, and after a hasty consultation with the cook +they deserted together and went up-country. + +Letters, dealing mainly with the ideas and adventures of the cook, +reached Sunwich at irregular intervals, and were eagerly perused by Mrs. +Kingdom and Kate, but the captain forbade all mention of him. Then they +ceased altogether, and after a year or two of unbroken silence Mrs. +Kingdom asserted herself, and a photograph in her possession, the only +one extant, exposing the missing Jack in petticoats and sash, suddenly +appeared on the drawing-room mantelpiece. + +The captain stared, but made no comment. Disappointed in his son, he +turned for consolation to his daughter, noting with some concern the +unaccountable changes which that young lady underwent during his +absences. He noticed a difference after every voyage. He left behind +him on one occasion a nice trim little girl, and returned to find a +creature all legs and arms. He returned again and found the arms less +obnoxious and the legs hidden by a long skirt; and as he complained in +secret astonishment to his sister, she had developed a motherly manner +in her dealings with him which was almost unbearable. + +"She'll grow out of it soon," said Mrs. Kingdom; "you wait and see." + +The captain growled and waited, and found his sister's prognostications +partly fulfilled. The exuberance of Miss Nugent's manner was certainly +modified by time, but she developed instead a quiet, unassuming habit of +authority which he liked as little. + +"She gets made such a fuss of, it's no wonder," said Mrs. Kingdom, with a +satisfied smile. "I never heard of a girl getting as much attention as +she does; it's a wonder her head isn't turned." + +"Eh!" said the startled captain; "she'd better not let me see anything of +it." + +"Just so," said Mrs. Kingdom. + +The captain dwelt on these words and kept his eyes open, and, owing to +his daughter's benevolent efforts on his behalf, had them fully occupied. +He went to sea firmly convinced that she would do something foolish in +the matrimonial line, the glowing terms in which he had overheard her +describing the charms of the new postman to Mrs. Kingdom filling him with +the direst forebodings. + +It was his last voyage. An unexpected windfall from an almost forgotten +uncle and his own investments had placed him in a position of modest +comfort, and just before Miss Nugent reached her twentieth birthday he +resolved to spend his declining days ashore and give her those advantages +of parental attention from which she had been so long debarred. + +Mr. Wilks, to the inconsolable grief of his ship-mates, left with him. +He had been for nearly a couple of years in receipt of an annuity +purchased for him under the will of his mother, and his defection left a +gap never to be filled among comrades who had for some time regarded him +in the light of an improved drinking fountain. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +On a fine afternoon, some two months after his release from the toils +of the sea, Captain Nugent sat in the special parlour of The Goblets. +The old inn offers hospitality to all, but one parlour has by ancient +tradition and the exercise of self-restraint and proper feeling been +from time immemorial reserved for the elite of the town. + +The captain, confident in the security of these unwritten regulations, +conversed freely with his peers. He had been moved to speech by the +utter absence of discipline ashore, and from that had wandered to the +growing evil of revolutionary ideas at sea. His remarks were much +applauded, and two brother-captains listened with grave respect to a +disquisition on the wrongs of shipmasters ensuing on the fancied +rights of sailor men, the only discordant note being struck by the +harbour-master, a man whose ideas had probably been insidiously sapped +by a long residence ashore. + +"A man before the mast," said the latter, fortifying his moral courage +with whisky, "is a human being." + +"Nobody denies it," said Captain Nugent, looking round. + +One captain agreed with him. + +"Why don't they act like it, then?" demanded the other. + +Nugent and the first captain, struck by the re-mark, thought they had +perhaps been too hasty in their admission, and waited for number two to +continue. They eyed him with silent encouragement. + +"Why don't they act like it, then?" repeated number two, who, being a +man of few ideas, was not disposed to waste them. + +Captain Nugent and his friend turned to the harbour-master to see how he +would meet this poser. + +"They mostly do," he replied, sturdily. "Treat a seaman well, and he'll +treat you well." + +This was rank heresy, and moreover seemed to imply something. Captain +Nugent wondered dismally whether life ashore would infect him with the +same opinions. + +"What about that man of mine who threw a belaying-pin at me?" + +The harbour-master quailed at the challenge. The obvious retort was +offensive. + +"I shall carry the mark with me to my grave," added the captain, as a +further inducement to him to reply. + +"I hope that you'll carry it a long time," said the harbour-master, +gracefully. + +"Here, look here, Hall!" expostulated captain number two, starting up. + +"It's all right, Cooper," said Nugent. + +"It's all right," said captain number one, and in a rash moment undertook +to explain. In five minutes he had clouded Captain Cooper's intellect +for the afternoon. + +He was still busy with his self-imposed task when a diversion was created +by the entrance of a new arrival. A short, stout man stood for a moment +with the handle of the door in his hand, and then came in, carefully +bearing before him a glass of gin and water. It was the first time that +he had set foot there, and all understood that by this intrusion Mr. +Daniel Kybird sought to place sea-captains and other dignitaries on a +footing with the keepers of slop-shops and dealers in old clothes. In +the midst of an impressive silence he set his glass upon the table and, +taking a chair, drew a small clay pipe from his pocket. + +[Illustration: "A diversion was created by the entrance of a new +arrival."] + +Aghast at the intrusion, the quartette conferred with their eyes, a +language which is perhaps only successful in love. Captain Cooper, who +was usually moved to speech by externals, was the first to speak. + +"You've got a sty coming on your eye, Hall," he remarked. + +"I daresay." + +"If anybody's got a needle," said the captain, who loved minor +operations. + +Nobody heeded him except the harbour-master, and he muttered something +about beams and motes, which the captain failed to understand. The +others were glaring darkly at Mr. Kybird, who had taken up a newspaper +and was busy perusing it. + +"Are you looking for anybody?" demanded Captain Nugent, at last. + +"No," said Mr. Kybird, looking at him over the top of his paper. + +"What have you come here for, then?" inquired the captain. + +"I come 'ere to drink two o' gin cold," returned Mr. Kybird, with a +dignity befitting the occupation. + +"Well, suppose you drink it somewhere else," suggested the captain. + +Mr. Kybird had another supposition to offer. "Suppose I don't?" he +remarked. "I'm a respect-able British tradesman, and my money is as good +as yours. I've as much right to be here as you 'ave. I've never done +anything I'm ashamed of!" + +"And you never will," said Captain Cooper's friend, grimly, "not if you +live to be a hundred." + +Mr. Kybird looked surprised at the tribute. "Thankee," he said, +gratefully. + +"Well, we don't want you here," said Captain Nugent. "We prefer your +room to your company." + +Mr. Kybird leaned back in his chair and twisted his blunt features into +an expression of withering contempt. Then he took up a glass and drank, +and discovered too late that in the excitement of the moment he had made +free with the speaker's whisky. + +"Don't apologize," interrupted the captain; "it's soon remedied." + +He took the glass up gingerly and flung it with a crash into the +fireplace. Then he rang the bell. + +"I've smashed a dirty glass," he said, as the bar-man entered. "How +much?" + +The man told him, and the captain, after a few stern remarks about +privacy and harpies, left the room with his friends, leaving the +speechless Mr. Kybird gazing at the broken glass and returning evasive +replies to the inquiries of the curious Charles. + +He finished his gin and water slowly. For months he had been screwing up +his courage to carry that room by assault, and this was the result. He +had been insulted almost in the very face of Charles, a youth whose +reputation as a gossip was second to none in Sunwich. + +"Do you know what I should do if I was you?" said that worthy, as he +entered the room again and swept up the broken glass. + +"I do not," said Mr. Kybird, with lofty indifference. + +"I shouldn't come 'ere again, that's what I should do," said Charles, +frankly. "Next time he'll throw you in the fireplace." + +"Ho," said the heated Mr. Kybird. "Ho, will he? I'd like to see 'im. +I'll make 'im sorry for this afore I've done with 'im. I'll learn 'im to +insult a respectable British tradesman. I'll show him who's who." + +"What'll you do?" inquired the other. + +"Never you mind," said Mr. Kybird, who was not in a position to satisfy +his curiosity--"never you mind. You go and get on with your work, +Charles, and p'r'aps by the time your moustache 'as grown big enough to +be seen, you'll 'ear something." + +"I 'eard something the other day," said the bar-man, musingly; "about you +it was, but I wouldn't believe it." + +"Wot was it?" demanded the other. + +"Nothing much," replied Charles, standing with his hand on the door-knob, +"but I wouldn't believe it of you; I said I couldn't." + +"Wot--was--it?" insisted Mr. Kybird. + +"Why, they said you once gave a man a fair price for a pair of trousers," +said the barman, indignantly. + +He closed the door behind him softly, and Mr. Kybird, after a brief +pause, opened it again and, more softly still, quitted the precincts of +The Goblets, and stepped across the road to his emporium. + +[Illustration: "He stepped across the road to his emporium."] + +Captain Nugent, in happy ignorance of the dark designs of the wardrobe +dealer, had also gone home. He was only just beginning to realize the +comparative unimportance of a retired shipmaster, and the knowledge was +a source of considerable annoyance to him. No deferential mates listened +respectfully to his instructions, no sturdy seaman ran to execute his +commands or trembled mutinously at his wrath. The only person in the +wide world who stood in awe of him was the general servant Bella, and she +made no attempt to conceal her satisfaction at the attention excited by +her shortcomings. + +He paused a moment at the gate and then, walking slowly up to the door, +gave it the knock of a master. A full minute passing, he knocked again, +remembering with some misgivings his stern instructions of the day before +that the door was to be attended by the servant and by nobody else. He +had seen Miss Nugent sitting at the window as he passed it, but in the +circumstances the fact gave him no comfort. A third knock was followed +by a fourth, and then a distressed voice upstairs was heard calling +wildly upon the name of Bella. + +At the fifth knock the house shook, and a red-faced maid with her +shoulders veiled in a large damp towel passed hastily down the staircase +and, slipping the catch, passed more hastily still upstairs again, +affording the indignant captain a glimpse of a short striped skirt as it +turned the landing. + +"Is there any management at all in this house?" he inquired, as he +entered the room. + +"Bella was dressing," said Miss Nugent, calmly, "and you gave orders +yesterday that nobody else was to open the door." + +"Nobody else when she's available," qualified her father, eyeing her +sharply. "When I give orders I expect people to use their common sense. +Why isn't my tea ready? It's five o'clock." + +"The clock's twenty minutes fast," said Kate. "Who's been meddling with +it?" demanded her father, verifying the fact by his watch. + +Miss Nugent shook her head. "It's gained that since you regulated it +last night," she said, with a smile. + +The captain threw himself into an easy-chair, and with one eye on the +clock, waited until, at five minutes to the hour by the right time, a +clatter of crockery sounded from the kitchen, and Bella, still damp, came +in with the tray. Her eye was also on the clock, and she smirked weakly +in the captain's direction as she saw that she was at least two minutes +ahead of time. At a minute to the hour the teapot itself was on the +tray, and the heavy breathing of the handmaiden in the kitchen was +audible to all. + +"Punctual to the minute, John," said Mrs. Kingdom, as she took her seat +at the tray. "It's wonderful how that girl has improved since you've +been at home. She isn't like the same girl." + +She raised the teapot and, after pouring out a little of the contents, +put it down again and gave it another two minutes. At the end of that +time, the colour being of the same unsatisfactory paleness, she set the +pot down and was about to raise the lid when an avalanche burst into the +room and, emptying some tea into the pot from a canister-lid, beat a +hasty re-treat. + +"Good tea and well-trained servants," muttered the captain to his plate. +"What more can a man want?" + +Mrs. Kingdom coughed and passed his cup; Miss Nugent, who possessed a +healthy appetite, serenely attacked her bread and butter; conversation +languished. + +"I suppose you've heard the news, John?" said his sister. + +"I daresay I have," was the reply. + +"Strange he should come back after all these years," said Mrs. Kingdom; +"though, to be sure, I don't know why he shouldn't. It's his native +place, and his father lives here." + +"Who are you talking about?" inquired the captain. + +"Why, James Hardy," replied his sister. "I thought you said you had +heard. He's coming back to Sunwich and going into partnership with old +Swann, the shipbroker. A very good thing for him, I should think." + +"I'm not interested in the doings of the Hardys," said the captain, +gruffly. + +"I'm sure I'm not," said his sister, defensively. + +Captain Nugent proceeded with his meal in silence. His hatred of Hardy +had not been lessened by the success which had attended that gentleman's +career, and was not likely to be improved by the well-being of Hardy +junior. He passed his cup for some more tea, and, with a furtive glance +at the photograph on the mantelpiece, wondered what had happened to his +own son. + +"I don't suppose I should know him if I saw him," continued Mrs. Kingdom, +addressing a respectable old arm-chair; "London is sure to have changed +him." + +"Is this water-cress?" inquired the captain, looking up from his plate. + +"Yes. Why?" said Mrs. Kingdom. + +"I only wanted information," said her brother, as he deposited the salad +in question in the slop-basin. + +Mrs. Kingdom, with a resigned expression, tried to catch her niece's eye +and caught the captain's instead. Miss Nugent happening to glance up saw +her fascinated by the basilisk glare of the master of the house. + +"Some more tea, please," she said. + +Her aunt took her cup, and in gratitude for the diversion picked out the +largest lumps of sugar in the basin. + +"London changes so many people," mused the persevering lady, stirring her +tea. "I've noticed it before. Why it is I can't say, but the fact +remains. It seems to improve them altogether. I dare say that young +Hardy--" + +"Will you understand that I won't have the Hardys mentiond in my house?" +said the captain, looking up. "I'm not interested in their business, and +I will not have it discussed here." + +"As you please, John," said his sister, drawing herself up. "It's your +house and you are master here. I'm sure I don't want to discuss them. +Nothing was farther from my thoughts. You understand what your father +says, Kate?" + +"Perfectly," said Miss Nugent. "When the desire to talk about the Hardys +becomes irresistible we must go for a walk." + +The captain turned in his chair and regarded his daughter steadily. She +met his gaze with calm affection. + +"I wish you were a boy," he growled. + +"You're the only man in Sunwich who wishes that," said Miss Nugent, +complacently, "and I don't believe you mean it. If you'll come a little +closer I'll put my head on your shoulder and convert you." + +"Kate!" said Mrs. Kingdom, reprovingly. + +"And, talking about heads," said Miss Nugent, briskly, "reminds me that I +want a new hat. You needn't look like that; good-looking daughters +always come expensive." + +She moved her chair a couple of inches in his direction and smiled +alluringly. The captain shifted uneasily; prudence counselled flight, +but dignity forbade it. He stared hard at Mrs. Kingdom, and a smile of +rare appreciation on that lady's face endeavoured to fade slowly and +naturally into another expression. The chair came nearer. + +"Don't be foolish," said the captain, gruffly. + +The chair came still nearer until at last it touched his, and then Miss +Nugent, with a sigh of exaggerated content, allowed her head to sink +gracefully on his shoulder. + +"Most comfortable shoulder in Sunwich," she murmured; "come and try the +other, aunt, and perhaps you'll get a new bonnet." + +[Illustration: "'Most comfortable shoulder in Sunwich,' she murmured."] + +Mrs. Kingdom hastened to reassure her brother. She would almost as soon +have thought of putting her head on the block. At the same time it was +quite evident that she was taking a mild joy in his discomfiture and +eagerly awaiting further developments. + +"When you are tired of this childish behaviour, miss," said the captain, +stiffly---- + +There was a pause. "Kate!" said Mrs. Kingdom, in tones of mild reproof, +how can you?" + +"Very good," said the captain, we'll see who gets tired of it first. "I'm +in no hurry." + +A delicate but unmistakable snore rose from his shoulder in reply. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of At Sunwich Port, Part 1., by W.W. Jacobs + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT SUNWICH PORT, PART 1. *** + +***** This file should be named 10871.txt or 10871.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/8/7/10871/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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