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diff --git a/1407.txt b/1407.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3775f40 --- /dev/null +++ b/1407.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1788 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Message from the Sea, by Charles Dickens + + +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: A Message from the Sea + + +Author: Charles Dickens + +Release Date: April 3, 2005 [eBook #1407] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MESSAGE FROM THE SEA*** + + + + + +Transcribed from the 1894 Chapman and Hall "Christmas Stories" edition by +David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + + +A MESSAGE FROM THE SEA + + +CHAPTER I--THE VILLAGE + + +"And a mighty sing'lar and pretty place it is, as ever I saw in all the +days of my life!" said Captain Jorgan, looking up at it. + +Captain Jorgan had to look high to look at it, for the village was built +sheer up the face of a steep and lofty cliff. There was no road in it, +there was no wheeled vehicle in it, there was not a level yard in it. +From the sea-beach to the cliff-top two irregular rows of white houses, +placed opposite to one another, and twisting here and there, and there +and here, rose, like the sides of a long succession of stages of crooked +ladders, and you climbed up the village or climbed down the village by +the staves between, some six feet wide or so, and made of sharp irregular +stones. The old pack-saddle, long laid aside in most parts of England as +one of the appendages of its infancy, flourished here intact. Strings of +pack-horses and pack-donkeys toiled slowly up the staves of the ladders, +bearing fish, and coal, and such other cargo as was unshipping at the +pier from the dancing fleet of village boats, and from two or three +little coasting traders. As the beasts of burden ascended laden, or +descended light, they got so lost at intervals in the floating clouds of +village smoke, that they seemed to dive down some of the village +chimneys, and come to the surface again far off, high above others. No +two houses in the village were alike, in chimney, size, shape, door, +window, gable, roof-tree, anything. The sides of the ladders were +musical with water, running clear and bright. The staves were musical +with the clattering feet of the pack-horses and pack-donkeys, and the +voices of the fishermen urging them up, mingled with the voices of the +fishermen's wives and their many children. The pier was musical with the +wash of the sea, the creaking of capstans and windlasses, and the airy +fluttering of little vanes and sails. The rough, sea-bleached boulders +of which the pier was made, and the whiter boulders of the shore, were +brown with drying nets. The red-brown cliffs, richly wooded to their +extremest verge, had their softened and beautiful forms reflected in the +bluest water, under the clear North Devonshire sky of a November day +without a cloud. The village itself was so steeped in autumnal foliage, +from the houses lying on the pier to the topmost round of the topmost +ladder, that one might have fancied it was out a bird's-nesting, and was +(as indeed it was) a wonderful climber. And mentioning birds, the place +was not without some music from them too; for the rook was very busy on +the higher levels, and the gull with his flapping wings was fishing in +the bay, and the lusty little robin was hopping among the great stone +blocks and iron rings of the breakwater, fearless in the faith of his +ancestors, and the Children in the Wood. + +Thus it came to pass that Captain Jorgan, sitting balancing himself on +the pier-wall, struck his leg with his open hand, as some men do when +they are pleased--and as he always did when he was pleased--and said,-- + +"A mighty sing'lar and pretty place it is, as ever I saw in all the days +of my life!" + +Captain Jorgan had not been through the village, but had come down to the +pier by a winding side-road, to have a preliminary look at it from the +level of his own natural element. He had seen many things and places, +and had stowed them all away in a shrewd intellect and a vigorous memory. +He was an American born, was Captain Jorgan,--a New-Englander,--but he +was a citizen of the world, and a combination of most of the best +qualities of most of its best countries. + +For Captain Jorgan to sit anywhere in his long-skirted blue coat and blue +trousers, without holding converse with everybody within speaking +distance, was a sheer impossibility. So the captain fell to talking with +the fishermen, and to asking them knowing questions about the fishery, +and the tides, and the currents, and the race of water off that point +yonder, and what you kept in your eye, and got into a line with what else +when you ran into the little harbour; and other nautical profundities. +Among the men who exchanged ideas with the captain was a young fellow, +who exactly hit his fancy,--a young fisherman of two or three and twenty, +in the rough sea-dress of his craft, with a brown face, dark curling +hair, and bright, modest eyes under his Sou'wester hat, and with a frank, +but simple and retiring manner, which the captain found uncommonly +taking. "I'd bet a thousand dollars," said the captain to himself, "that +your father was an honest man!" + +"Might you be married now?" asked the captain, when he had had some talk +with this new acquaintance. + +"Not yet." + +"Going to be?" said the captain. + +"I hope so." + +The captain's keen glance followed the slightest possible turn of the +dark eye, and the slightest possible tilt of the Sou'wester hat. The +captain then slapped both his legs, and said to himself,-- + +"Never knew such a good thing in all my life! There's his sweetheart +looking over the wall!" + +There was a very pretty girl looking over the wall, from a little +platform of cottage, vine, and fuchsia; and she certainly dig not look as +if the presence of this young fisherman in the landscape made it any the +less sunny and hopeful for her. + +Captain Jorgan, having doubled himself up to laugh with that hearty good- +nature which is quite exultant in the innocent happiness of other people, +had undoubted himself, and was going to start a new subject, when there +appeared coming down the lower ladders of stones, a man whom he hailed as +"Tom Pettifer, Ho!" Tom Pettifer, Ho, responded with alacrity, and in +speedy course descended on the pier. + +"Afraid of a sun-stroke in England in November, Tom, that you wear your +tropical hat, strongly paid outside and paper-lined inside, here?" said +the captain, eyeing it. + +"It's as well to be on the safe side, sir," replied Tom. + +"Safe side!" repeated the captain, laughing. "You'd guard against a sun- +stroke, with that old hat, in an Ice Pack. Wa'al! What have you made +out at the Post-office?" + +"It _is_ the Post-office, sir." + +"What's the Post-office?" said the captain. + +"The name, sir. The name keeps the Post-office." + +"A coincidence!" said the captain. "A lucky bit! Show me where it is. +Good-bye, shipmates, for the present! I shall come and have another look +at you, afore I leave, this afternoon." + +This was addressed to all there, but especially the young fisherman; so +all there acknowledged it, but especially the young fisherman. "_He's_ a +sailor!" said one to another, as they looked after the captain moving +away. That he was; and so outspeaking was the sailor in him, that +although his dress had nothing nautical about it, with the single +exception of its colour, but was a suit of a shore-going shape and form, +too long in the sleeves and too short in the legs, and too +unaccommodating everywhere, terminating earthward in a pair of Wellington +boots, and surmounted by a tall, stiff hat, which no mortal could have +worn at sea in any wind under heaven; nevertheless, a glimpse of his +sagacious, weather-beaten face, or his strong, brown hand, would have +established the captain's calling. Whereas Mr. Pettifer--a man of a +certain plump neatness, with a curly whisker, and elaborately nautical in +a jacket, and shoes, and all things correspondent--looked no more like a +seaman, beside Captain Jorgan, than he looked like a sea-serpent. + +The two climbed high up the village,--which had the most arbitrary turns +and twists in it, so that the cobbler's house came dead across the +ladder, and to have held a reasonable course, you must have gone through +his house, and through him too, as he sat at his work between two little +windows,--with one eye microscopically on the geological formation of +that part of Devonshire, and the other telescopically on the open +sea,--the two climbed high up the village, and stopped before a quaint +little house, on which was painted, "MRS. RAYBROCK, DRAPER;" and also +"POST-OFFICE." Before it, ran a rill of murmuring water, and access to +it was gained by a little plank-bridge. + +"Here's the name," said Captain Jorgan, "sure enough. You can come in if +you like, Tom." + +The captain opened the door, and passed into an odd little shop, about +six feet high, with a great variety of beams and bumps in the ceiling, +and, besides the principal window giving on the ladder of stones, a +purblind little window of a single pane of glass, peeping out of an +abutting corner at the sun-lighted ocean, and winking at its brightness. + +"How do you do, ma'am?" said the captain. "I am very glad to see you. I +have come a long way to see you." + +"_Have_ you, sir? Then I am sure I am very glad to see _you_, though I +don't know you from Adam." + +Thus a comely elderly woman, short of stature, plump of form, sparkling +and dark of eye, who, perfectly clean and neat herself, stood in the +midst of her perfectly clean and neat arrangements, and surveyed Captain +Jorgan with smiling curiosity. "Ah! but you are a sailor, sir," she +added, almost immediately, and with a slight movement of her hands, that +was not very unlike wringing them; "then you are heartily welcome." + +"Thank'ee, ma'am," said the captain, "I don't know what it is, I am sure; +that brings out the salt in me, but everybody seems to see it on the +crown of my hat and the collar of my coat. Yes, ma'am, I am in that way +of life." + +"And the other gentleman, too," said Mrs. Raybrock. + +"Well now, ma'am," said the captain, glancing shrewdly at the other +gentleman, "you are that nigh right, that he goes to sea,--if that makes +him a sailor. This is my steward, ma'am, Tom Pettifer; he's been a'most +all trades you could name, in the course of his life,--would have bought +all your chairs and tables once, if you had wished to sell 'em,--but now +he's my steward. My name's Jorgan, and I'm a ship-owner, and I sail my +own and my partners' ships, and have done so this five-and-twenty year. +According to custom I am called Captain Jorgan, but I am no more a +captain, bless your heart, than you are." + +"Perhaps you'll come into my parlour, sir, and take a chair?" said Mrs. +Raybrock. + +"Ex-actly what I was going to propose myself, ma'am. After you." + +Thus replying, and enjoining Tom to give an eye to the shop, Captain +Jorgan followed Mrs. Raybrock into the little, low back-room,--decorated +with divers plants in pots, tea-trays, old china teapots, and +punch-bowls,--which was at once the private sitting-room of the Raybrock +family and the inner cabinet of the post-office of the village of +Steepways. + +"Now, ma'am," said the captain, "it don't signify a cent to you where I +was born, except--" But here the shadow of some one entering fell upon +the captain's figure, and he broke off to double himself up, slap both +his legs, and ejaculate, "Never knew such a thing in all my life! Here +he is again! How are you?" + +These words referred to the young fellow who had so taken Captain +Jorgan's fancy down at the pier. To make it all quite complete he came +in accompanied by the sweetheart whom the captain had detected looking +over the wall. A prettier sweetheart the sun could not have shone upon +that shining day. As she stood before the captain, with her rosy lips +just parted in surprise, her brown eyes a little wider open than was +usual from the same cause, and her breathing a little quickened by the +ascent (and possibly by some mysterious hurry and flurry at the parlour +door, in which the captain had observed her face to be for a moment +totally eclipsed by the Sou'wester hat), she looked so charming, that the +captain felt himself under a moral obligation to slap both his legs +again. She was very simply dressed, with no other ornament than an +autumnal flower in her bosom. She wore neither hat nor bonnet, but +merely a scarf or kerchief, folded squarely back over the head, to keep +the sun off,--according to a fashion that may be sometimes seen in the +more genial parts of England as well as of Italy, and which is probably +the first fashion of head-dress that came into the world when grasses and +leaves went out. + +"In my country," said the captain, rising to give her his chair, and +dexterously sliding it close to another chair on which the young +fisherman must necessarily establish himself,--"in my country we should +call Devonshire beauty first-rate!" + +Whenever a frank manner is offensive, it is because it is strained or +feigned; for there may be quite as much intolerable affectation in +plainness as in mincing nicety. All that the captain said and did was +honestly according to his nature; and his nature was open nature and good +nature; therefore, when he paid this little compliment, and expressed +with a sparkle or two of his knowing eye, "I see how it is, and nothing +could be better," he had established a delicate confidence on that +subject with the family. + +"I was saying to your worthy mother," said the captain to the young man, +after again introducing himself by name and occupation,--"I was saying to +your mother (and you're very like her) that it didn't signify where I was +born, except that I was raised on question-asking ground, where the +babies as soon as ever they come into the world, inquire of their +mothers, 'Neow, how old may _you_ be, and wa'at air you a goin' to name +me?'--which is a fact." Here he slapped his leg. "Such being the case, +I may be excused for asking you if your name's Alfred?" + +"Yes, sir, my name is Alfred," returned the young man. + +"I am not a conjurer," pursued the captain, "and don't think me so, or I +shall right soon undeceive you. Likewise don't think, if you please, +though I _do_ come from that country of the babies, that I am asking +questions for question-asking's sake, for I am not. Somebody belonging +to you went to sea?" + +"My elder brother, Hugh," returned the young man. He said it in an +altered and lower voice, and glanced at his mother, who raised her hands +hurriedly, and put them together across her black gown, and looked +eagerly at the visitor. + +"No! For God's sake, don't think that!" said the captain, in a solemn +way; "I bring no good tidings of him." + +There was a silence, and the mother turned her face to the fire and put +her hand between it and her eyes. The young fisherman slightly motioned +toward the window, and the captain, looking in that direction, saw a +young widow, sitting at a neighbouring window across a little garden, +engaged in needlework, with a young child sleeping on her bosom. The +silence continued until the captain asked of Alfred,-- + +"How long is it since it happened?" + +"He shipped for his last voyage better than three years ago." + +"Ship struck upon some reef or rock, as I take it," said the captain, +"and all hands lost?" + +"Yes." + +"Wa'al!" said the captain, after a shorter silence, "Here I sit who may +come to the same end, like enough. He holds the seas in the hollow of +His hand. We must all strike somewhere and go down. Our comfort, then, +for ourselves and one another is to have done our duty. I'd wager your +brother did his!" + +"He did!" answered the young fisherman. "If ever man strove faithfully +on all occasions to do his duty, my brother did. My brother was not a +quick man (anything but that), but he was a faithful, true, and just man. +We were the sons of only a small tradesman in this county, sir; yet our +father was as watchful of his good name as if he had been a king." + +"A precious sight more so, I hope--bearing in mind the general run of +that class of crittur," said the captain. "But I interrupt." + +"My brother considered that our father left the good name to us, to keep +clear and true." + +"Your brother considered right," said the captain; "and you couldn't take +care of a better legacy. But again I interrupt." + +"No; for I have nothing more to say. We know that Hugh lived well for +the good name, and we feel certain that he died well for the good name. +And now it has come into my keeping. And that's all." + +"Well spoken!" cried the captain. "Well spoken, young man! Concerning +the manner of your brother's death,"--by this time the captain had +released the hand he had shaken, and sat with his own broad, brown hands +spread out on his knees, and spoke aside,--"concerning the manner of your +brother's death, it may be that I have some information to give you; +though it may not be, for I am far from sure. Can we have a little talk +alone?" + +The young man rose; but not before the captain's quick eye had noticed +that, on the pretty sweetheart's turning to the window to greet the young +widow with a nod and a wave of the hand, the young widow had held up to +her the needlework on which she was engaged, with a patient and pleasant +smile. So the captain said, being on his legs,-- + +"What might she be making now?" + +"What is Margaret making, Kitty?" asked the young fisherman,--with one of +his arms apparently mislaid somewhere. + +As Kitty only blushed in reply, the captain doubled himself up as far as +he could, standing, and said, with a slap of his leg,-- + +"In my country we should call it wedding-clothes. Fact! We should, I do +assure you." + +But it seemed to strike the captain in another light too; for his laugh +was not a long one, and he added, in quite a gentle tone,-- + +"And it's very pretty, my dear, to see her--poor young thing, with her +fatherless child upon her bosom--giving up her thoughts to your home and +your happiness. It's very pretty, my dear, and it's very good. May your +marriage be more prosperous than hers, and be a comfort to her too. May +the blessed sun see you all happy together, in possession of the good +name, long after I have done ploughing the great salt field that is never +sown!" + +Kitty answered very earnestly, "O! Thank you, sir, with all my heart!" +And, in her loving little way, kissed her hand to him, and possibly by +implication to the young fisherman, too, as the latter held the parlour- +door open for the captain to pass out. + + + + +CHAPTER II--THE MONEY + + +"The stairs are very narrow, sir," said Alfred Raybrock to Captain +Jorgan. + +"Like my cabin-stairs," returned the captain, "on many a voyage." + +"And they are rather inconvenient for the head." + +"If my head can't take care of itself by this time, after all the +knocking about the world it has had," replied the captain, as +unconcernedly as if he had no connection with it, "it's not worth looking +after." + +Thus they came into the young fisherman's bedroom, which was as perfectly +neat and clean as the shop and parlour below; though it was but a little +place, with a sliding window, and a phrenological ceiling expressive of +all the peculiarities of the house-roof. Here the captain sat down on +the foot of the bed, and glancing at a dreadful libel on Kitty which +ornamented the wall,--the production of some wandering limner, whom the +captain secretly admired as having studied portraiture from the figure- +heads of ships,--motioned to the young man to take the rush-chair on the +other side of the small round table. That done, the captain put his hand +in the deep breast-pocket of his long-skirted blue coat, and took out of +it a strong square case-bottle,--not a large bottle, but such as may be +seen in any ordinary ship's medicine-chest. Setting this bottle on the +table without removing his hand from it, Captain Jorgan then spake as +follows:-- + +"In my last voyage homeward-bound," said the captain, "and that's the +voyage off of which I now come straight, I encountered such weather off +the Horn as is not very often met with, even there. I have rounded that +stormy Cape pretty often, and I believe I first beat about there in the +identical storms that blew the Devil's horns and tail off, and led to the +horns being worked up into tooth-picks for the plantation overseers in my +country, who may be seen (if you travel down South, or away West, fur +enough) picking their teeth with 'em, while the whips, made of the tail, +flog hard. In this last voyage, homeward-bound for Liverpool from South +America, I say to you, my young friend, it blew. Whole measures! No +half measures, nor making believe to blow; it blew! Now I warn't blown +clean out of the water into the sky,--though I expected to be even +that,--but I was blown clean out of my course; and when at last it fell +calm, it fell dead calm, and a strong current set one way, day and night, +night and day, and I drifted--drifted--drifted--out of all the ordinary +tracks and courses of ships, and drifted yet, and yet drifted. It +behooves a man who takes charge of fellow-critturs' lives, never to rest +from making himself master of his calling. I never did rest, and +consequently I knew pretty well ('specially looking over the side in the +dead calm of that strong current) what dangers to expect, and what +precautions to take against 'em. In short, we were driving head on to an +island. There was no island in the chart, and, therefore, you may say it +was ill-manners in the island to be there; I don't dispute its bad +breeding, but there it was. Thanks be to Heaven, I was as ready for the +island as the island was ready for me. I made it out myself from the +masthead, and I got enough way upon her in good time to keep her off. I +ordered a boat to be lowered and manned, and went in that boat myself to +explore the island. There was a reef outside it, and, floating in a +corner of the smooth water within the reef, was a heap of sea-weed, and +entangled in that sea-weed was this bottle." + +Here the captain took his hand from the bottle for a moment, that the +young fisherman might direct a wondering glance at it; and then replaced +his band and went on:-- + +"If ever you come--or even if ever you don't come--to a desert place, use +you your eyes and your spy-glass well; for the smallest thing you see may +prove of use to you; and may have some information or some warning in it. +That's the principle on which I came to see this bottle. I picked up the +bottle and ran the boat alongside the island, and made fast and went +ashore armed, with a part of my boat's crew. We found that every scrap +of vegetation on the island (I give it you as my opinion, but scant and +scrubby at the best of times) had been consumed by fire. As we were +making our way, cautiously and toilsomely, over the pulverised embers, +one of my people sank into the earth breast-high. He turned pale, and +'Haul me out smart, shipmates,' says he, 'for my feet are among bones.' +We soon got him on his legs again, and then we dug up the spot, and we +found that the man was right, and that his feet had been among bones. +More than that, they were human bones; though whether the remains of one +man, or of two or three men, what with calcination and ashes, and what +with a poor practical knowledge of anatomy, I can't undertake to say. We +examined the whole island and made out nothing else, save and except +that, from its opposite side, I sighted a considerable tract of land, +which land I was able to identify, and according to the bearings of which +(not to trouble you with my log) I took a fresh departure. When I got +aboard again I opened the bottle, which was oilskin-covered as you see, +and glass-stoppered as you see. Inside of it," pursued the captain, +suiting his action to his words, "I found this little crumpled, folded +paper, just as you see. Outside of it was written, as you see, these +words: 'Whoever finds this, is solemnly entreated by the dead to convey +it unread to Alfred Raybrock, Steepways, North Devon, England.' A sacred +charge," said the captain, concluding his narrative, "and, Alfred +Raybrock, there it is!" + +"This is my poor brother's writing!" + +"I suppose so," said Captain Jorgan. "I'll take a look out of this +little window while you read it." + +"Pray no, sir! I should be hurt. My brother couldn't know it would fall +into such hands as yours." + +The captain sat down again on the foot of the bed, and the young man +opened the folded paper with a trembling hand, and spread it on the +table. The ragged paper, evidently creased and torn both before and +after being written on, was much blotted and stained, and the ink had +faded and run, and many words were wanting. What the captain and the +young fisherman made out together, after much re-reading and much +humouring of the folds of the paper, is given on the next page. + +The young fisherman had become more and more agitated, as the writing had +become clearer to him. He now left it lying before the captain, over +whose shoulder he had been reading it, and dropping into his former seat, +leaned forward on the table and laid his face in his hands. + +"What, man," urged the captain, "don't give in! Be up and doing _like_ a +man!" + +"It is selfish, I know,--but doing what, doing what?" cried the young +fisherman, in complete despair, and stamping his sea-boot on the ground. + +"Doing what?" returned the captain. "Something! I'd go down to the +little breakwater below yonder, and take a wrench at one of the +salt-rusted iron rings there, and either wrench it up by the roots or +wrench my teeth out of my head, sooner than I'd do nothing. Nothing!" +ejaculated the captain. "Any fool or fainting heart can do _that_, and +nothing can come of nothing,--which was pretended to be found out, I +believe, by one of them Latin critters," said the captain with the +deepest disdain; "as if Adam hadn't found it out, afore ever he so much +as named the beasts!" + +Yet the captain saw, in spite of his bold words, that there was some +greater reason than he yet understood for the young man's distress. And +he eyed him with a sympathising curiosity. + +"Come, come!" continued the captain, "Speak out. What is it, boy!" + +"You have seen how beautiful she is, sir," said the young man, looking up +for the moment, with a flushed face and rumpled hair. + +"Did any man ever say she warn't beautiful?" retorted the captain. "If +so, go and lick him." + +The young man laughed fretfully in spite of himself, and said-- + +"It's not that, it's not that." + +"Wa'al, then, what is it?" said the captain in a more soothing tone. + +The young fisherman mournfully composed himself to tell the captain what +it was, and began: "We were to have been married next Monday week--" + +"Were to have been!" interrupted Captain Jorgan. "And are to be? Hey?" + +Young Raybrock shook his head, and traced out with his fore-finger the +words, "_poor father's five hundred pounds_," in the written paper. + +"Go along," said the captain. "Five hundred pounds? Yes?" + +"That sum of money," pursued the young fisherman, entering with the +greatest earnestness on his demonstration, while the captain eyed him +with equal earnestness, "was all my late father possessed. When he died, +he owed no man more than he left means to pay, but he had been able to +lay by only five hundred pounds." + +"Five hundred pounds," repeated the captain. "Yes?" + +"In his lifetime, years before, he had expressly laid the money aside to +leave to my mother,--like to settle upon her, if I make myself +understood." + +"Yes?" + +"He had risked it once--my father put down in writing at that time, +respecting the money--and was resolved never to risk it again." + +"Not a spectator," said the captain. "My country wouldn't have suited +him. Yes?" + +"My mother has never touched the money till now. And now it was to have +been laid out, this very next week, in buying me a handsome share in our +neighbouring fishery here, to settle me in life with Kitty." + +The captain's face fell, and he passed and repassed his sun-browned right +hand over his thin hair, in a discomfited manner. + +"Kitty's father has no more than enough to live on, even in the sparing +way in which we live about here. He is a kind of bailiff or steward of +manor rights here, and they are not much, and it is but a poor little +office. He was better off once, and Kitty must never marry to mere +drudgery and hard living." + +The captain still sat stroking his thin hair, and looking at the young +fisherman. + +"I am as certain that my father had no knowledge that any one was wronged +as to this money, or that any restitution ought to be made, as I am +certain that the sun now shines. But, after this solemn warning from my +brother's grave in the sea, that the money is Stolen Money," said Young +Raybrock, forcing himself to the utterance of the words, "can I doubt it? +Can I touch it?" + +"About not doubting, I ain't so sure," observed the captain; "but about +not touching--no--I don't think you can." + +"See then," said Young Raybrock, "why I am so grieved. Think of Kitty. +Think what I have got to tell her!" + +His heart quite failed him again when he had come round to that, and he +once more beat his sea-boot softly on the floor. But not for long; he +soon began again, in a quietly resolute tone. + +"However! Enough of that! You spoke some brave words to me just now, +Captain Jorgan, and they shall not be spoken in vain. I have got to do +something. What I have got to do, before all other things, is to trace +out the meaning of this paper, for the sake of the Good Name that has no +one else to put it right. And still for the sake of the Good Name, and +my father's memory, not a word of this writing must be breathed to my +mother, or to Kitty, or to any human creature. You agree in this?" + +"I don't know what they'll think of us below," said the captain, "but for +certain I can't oppose it. Now, as to tracing. How will you do?" + +They both, as by consent, bent over the paper again, and again carefully +puzzled out the whole of the writing. + +"I make out that this would stand, if all the writing was here, 'Inquire +among the old men living there, for'--some one. Most like, you'll go to +this village named here?" said the captain, musing, with his finger on +the name. + +"Yes! And Mr. Tregarthen is a Cornishman, and--to be sure!--comes from +Lanrean." + +"Does he?" said the captain quietly. "As I ain't acquainted with him, +who may _he_ be?" + +"Mr. Tregarthen is Kitty's father." + +"Ay, ay!" cried the captain. "Now you speak! Tregarthen knows this +village of Lanrean, then?" + +"Beyond all doubt he does. I have often heard him mention it, as being +his native place. He knows it well." + +"Stop half a moment," said the captain. "We want a name here. You could +ask Tregarthen (or if you couldn't I could) what names of old men he +remembers in his time in those diggings? Hey?" + +"I can go straight to his cottage, and ask him now." + +"Take me with you," said the captain, rising in a solid way that had a +most comfortable reliability in it, "and just a word more first. I have +knocked about harder than you, and have got along further than you. I +have had, all my sea-going life long, to keep my wits polished bright +with acid and friction, like the brass cases of the ship's instruments. +I'll keep you company on this expedition. Now you don't live by talking +any more than I do. Clench that hand of yours in this hand of mine, and +that's a speech on both sides." + +Captain Jorgan took command of the expedition with that hearty shake. He +at once refolded the paper exactly as before, replaced it in the bottle, +put the stopper in, put the oilskin over the stopper, confided the whole +to Young Raybrock's keeping, and led the way down-stairs. + +But it was harder navigation below-stairs than above. The instant they +set foot in the parlour the quick, womanly eye detected that there was +something wrong. Kitty exclaimed, frightened, as she ran to her lover's +side, "Alfred! What's the matter?" Mrs. Raybrock cried out to the +captain, "Gracious! what have you done to my son to change him like this +all in a minute?" And the young widow--who was there with her work upon +her arm--was at first so agitated that she frightened the little girl she +held in her hand, who hid her face in her mother's skirts and screamed. +The captain, conscious of being held responsible for this domestic +change, contemplated it with quite a guilty expression of countenance, +and looked to the young fisherman to come to his rescue. + +"Kitty, darling," said Young Raybrock, "Kitty, dearest love, I must go +away to Lanrean, and I don't know where else or how much further, this +very day. Worse than that--our marriage, Kitty, must be put off, and I +don't know for how long." + +Kitty stared at him, in doubt and wonder and in anger, and pushed him +from her with her hand. + +"Put off?" cried Mrs. Raybrock. "The marriage put off? And you going to +Lanrean! Why, in the name of the dear Lord?" + +"Mother dear, I can't say why; I must not say why. It would be +dishonourable and undutiful to say why." + +"Dishonourable and undutiful?" returned the dame. "And is there nothing +dishonourable or undutiful in the boy's breaking the heart of his own +plighted love, and his mother's heart too, for the sake of the dark +secrets and counsels of a wicked stranger? Why did you ever come here?" +she apostrophised the innocent captain. "Who wanted you? Where did you +come from? Why couldn't you rest in your own bad place, wherever it is, +instead of disturbing the peace of quiet unoffending folk like us?" + +"And what," sobbed the poor little Kitty, "have I ever done to you, you +hard and cruel captain, that you should come and serve me so?" + +And then they both began to weep most pitifully, while the captain could +only look from the one to the other, and lay hold of himself by the coat +collar. + +"Margaret," said the poor young fisherman, on his knees at Kitty's feet, +while Kitty kept both her hands before her tearful face, to shut out the +traitor from her view,--but kept her fingers wide asunder and looked at +him all the time,--"Margaret, you have suffered so much, so +uncomplainingly, and are always so careful and considerate! Do take my +part, for poor Hugh's sake!" + +The quiet Margaret was not appealed to in vain. "I will, Alfred," she +returned, "and I do. I wish this gentleman had never come near us;" +whereupon the captain laid hold of himself the tighter; "but I take your +part for all that. I am sure you have some strong reason and some +sufficient reason for what you do, strange as it is, and even for not +saying why you do it, strange as that is. And, Kitty darling, you are +bound to think so more than any one, for true love believes everything, +and bears everything, and trusts everything. And, mother dear, you are +bound to think so too, for you know you have been blest with good sons, +whose word was always as good as their oath, and who were brought up in +as true a sense of honour as any gentleman in this land. And I am sure +you have no more call, mother, to doubt your living son than to doubt +your dead son; and for the sake of the dear dead, I stand up for the dear +living." + +"Wa'al now," the captain struck in, with enthusiasm, "this I say, That +whether your opinions flatter me or not, you are a young woman of sense, +and spirit, and feeling; and I'd sooner have you by my side in the hour +of danger, than a good half of the men I've ever fallen in with--or +fallen out with, ayther." + +Margaret did not return the captain's compliment, or appear fully to +reciprocate his good opinion, but she applied herself to the consolation +of Kitty, and of Kitty's mother-in-law that was to have been next Monday +week, and soon restored the parlour to a quiet condition. + +"Kitty, my darling," said the young fisherman, "I must go to your father +to entreat him still to trust me in spite of this wretched change and +mystery, and to ask him for some directions concerning Lanrean. Will you +come home? Will you come with me, Kitty?" + +Kitty answered not a word, but rose sobbing, with the end of her simple +head-dress at her eyes. Captain Jorgan followed the lovers out, quite +sheepishly, pausing in the shop to give an instruction to Mr. Pettifer. + +"Here, Tom!" said the captain, in a low voice. "Here's something in your +line. Here's an old lady poorly and low in her spirits. Cheer her up a +bit, Tom. Cheer 'em all up." + +Mr. Pettifer, with a brisk nod of intelligence, immediately assumed his +steward face, and went with his quiet, helpful, steward step into the +parlour, where the captain had the great satisfaction of seeing him, +through the glass door, take the child in his arms (who offered no +objection), and bend over Mrs. Raybrock, administering soft words of +consolation. + +"Though what he finds to say, unless he's telling her that 't'll soon be +over, or that most people is so at first, or that it'll do her good +afterward, I cannot imaginate!" was the captain's reflection as he +followed the lovers. + +He had not far to follow them, since it was but a short descent down the +stony ways to the cottage of Kitty's father. But short as the distance +was, it was long enough to enable the captain to observe that he was fast +becoming the village Ogre; for there was not a woman standing working at +her door, or a fisherman coming up or going down, who saw Young Raybrock +unhappy and little Kitty in tears, but he or she instantly darted a +suspicious and indignant glance at the captain, as the foreigner who must +somehow be responsible for this unusual spectacle. Consequently, when +they came into Tregarthen's little garden,--which formed the platform +from which the captain had seen Kitty peeping over the wall,--the captain +brought to, and stood off and on at the gate, while Kitty hurried to hide +her tears in her own room, and Alfred spoke with her father, who was +working in the garden. He was a rather infirm man, but could scarcely be +called old yet, with an agreeable face and a promising air of making the +best of things. The conversation began on his side with great +cheerfulness and good humour, but soon became distrustful, and soon +angry. That was the captain's cue for striking both into the +conversation and the garden. + +"Morning, sir!" said Captain Jorgan. "How do you do?" + +"The gentleman I am going away with," said the young fisherman to +Tregarthen. + +"O!" returned Kitty's father, surveying the unfortunate captain with a +look of extreme disfavour. "I confess that I can't say I am glad to see +you." + +"No," said the captain, "and, to admit the truth, that seems to be the +general opinion in these parts. But don't be hasty; you may think better +of me by-and-by." + +"I hope so," observed Tregarthen. + +"Wa'al, _I_ hope so," observed the captain, quite at his ease; "more than +that, I believe so,--though you don't. Now, Mr. Tregarthen, you don't +want to exchange words of mistrust with me; and if you did, you couldn't, +because I wouldn't. You and I are old enough to know better than to +judge against experience from surfaces and appearances; and if you +haven't lived to find out the evil and injustice of such judgments, you +are a lucky man." + +The other seemed to shrink under this remark, and replied, "Sir, I _have_ +lived to feel it deeply." + +"Wa'al," said the captain, mollified, "then I've made a good cast without +knowing it. Now, Tregarthen, there stands the lover of your only child, +and here stand I who know his secret. I warrant it a righteous secret, +and none of his making, though bound to be of his keeping. I want to +help him out with it, and tewwards that end we ask you to favour us with +the names of two or three old residents in the village of Lanrean. As I +am taking out my pocket-book and pencil to put the names down, I may as +well observe to you that this, wrote atop of the first page here, is my +name and address: 'Silas Jonas Jorgan, Salem, Massachusetts, United +States.' If ever you take it in your head to run over any morning, I +shall be glad to welcome you. Now, what may be the spelling of these +said names?" + +"There was an elderly man," said Tregarthen, "named David Polreath. He +may be dead." + +"Wa'al," said the captain, cheerfully, "if Polreath's dead and buried, +and can be made of any service to us, Polreath won't object to our +digging of him up. Polreath's down, anyhow." + +"There was another named Penrewen. I don't know his Christian name." + +"Never mind his Chris'en name," said the captain; "Penrewen, for short." + +"There was another named John Tredgear." + +"And a pleasant-sounding name, too," said the captain; "John Tredgear's +booked." + +"I can recall no other except old Parvis." + +"One of old Parvis's fam'ly I reckon," said the captain, "kept a +dry-goods store in New York city, and realised a handsome competency by +burning his house to ashes. Same name, anyhow. David Polreath, +Unchris'en Penrewen, John Tredgear, and old Arson Parvis." + +"I cannot recall any others at the moment." + +"Thank'ee," said the captain. "And so, Tregarthen, hoping for your good +opinion yet, and likewise for the fair Devonshire Flower's, your +daughter's, I give you my hand, sir, and wish you good day." + +Young Raybrock accompanied him disconsolately; for there was no Kitty at +the window when he looked up, no Kitty in the garden when he shut the +gate, no Kitty gazing after them along the stony ways when they begin to +climb back. + +"Now I tell you what," said the captain. "Not being at present +calculated to promote harmony in your family, I won't come in. You go +and get your dinner at home, and I'll get mine at the little hotel. Let +our hour of meeting be two o'clock, and you'll find me smoking a cigar in +the sun afore the hotel door. Tell Tom Pettifer, my steward, to consider +himself on duty, and to look after your people till we come back; you'll +find he'll have made himself useful to 'em already, and will be quite +acceptable." + +All was done as Captain Jorgan directed. Punctually at two o'clock the +young fisherman appeared with his knapsack at his back; and punctually at +two o'clock the captain jerked away the last feather-end of his cigar. + +"Let me carry your baggage, Captain Jorgan; I can easily take it with +mine." + +"Thank'ee," said the captain. "I'll carry it myself. It's only a comb." + +They climbed out of the village, and paused among the trees and fern on +the summit of the hill above, to take breath, and to look down at the +beautiful sea. Suddenly the captain gave his leg a resounding slap, and +cried, "Never knew such a right thing in all my life!"--and ran away. + +The cause of this abrupt retirement on the part of the captain was little +Kitty among the trees. The captain went out of sight and waited, and +kept out of sight and waited, until it occurred to him to beguile the +time with another cigar. He lighted it, and smoked it out, and still he +was out of sight and waiting. He stole within sight at last, and saw the +lovers, with their arms entwined and their bent heads touching, moving +slowly among the trees. It was the golden time of the afternoon then, +and the captain said to himself, "Golden sun, golden sea, golden sails, +golden leaves, golden love, golden youth,--a golden state of things +altogether!" + +Nevertheless the captain found it necessary to hail his young companion +before going out of sight again. In a few moments more he came up and +they began their journey. + +"That still young woman with the fatherless child," said Captain Jorgan, +as they fell into step, "didn't throw her words away; but good honest +words are never thrown away. And now that I am conveying you off from +that tender little thing that loves, and relies, and hopes, I feel just +as if I was the snarling crittur in the picters, with the tight legs, the +long nose, and the feather in his cap, the tips of whose moustaches get +up nearer to his eyes the wickeder he gets." + +The young fisherman knew nothing of Mephistopheles; but he smiled when +the captain stopped to double himself up and slap his leg, and they went +along in right goodfellowship. + + + + +CHAPTER V {1}--THE RESTITUTION + + +Captain Jorgan, up and out betimes, had put the whole village of Lanrean +under an amicable cross-examination, and was returning to the King +Arthur's Arms to breakfast, none the wiser for his trouble, when he +beheld the young fisherman advancing to meet him, accompanied by a +stranger. A glance at this stranger assured the captain that he could be +no other than the Seafaring Man; and the captain was about to hail him as +a fellow-craftsman, when the two stood still and silent before the +captain, and the captain stood still, silent, and wondering before them. + +"Why, what's this?" cried the captain, when at last he broke the silence. +"You two are alike. You two are much alike. What's this?" + +Not a word was answered on the other side, until after the seafaring +brother had got hold of the captain's right hand, and the fisherman +brother had got hold of the captain's left hand; and if ever the captain +had had his fill of hand-shaking, from his birth to that hour, he had it +then. And presently up and spoke the two brothers, one at a time, two at +a time, two dozen at a time for the bewilderment into which they plunged +the captain, until he gradually had Hugh Raybrock's deliverance made +clear to him, and also unravelled the fact that the person referred to in +the half-obliterated paper was Tregarthen himself. + +"Formerly, dear Captain Jorgan," said Alfred, "of Lanrean, you recollect? +Kitty and her father came to live at Steepways after Hugh shipped on his +last voyage." + +"Ay, ay!" cried the captain, fetching a breath. "_Now_ you have me in +tow. Then your brother here don't know his sister-in-law that is to be +so much as by name?" + +"Never saw her; never heard of her!" + +"Ay, ay, ay!" cried the captain. "Why then we every one go back +together--paper, writer, and all--and take Tregarthen into the secret we +kept from him?" + +"Surely," said Alfred, "we can't help it now. We must go through with +our duty." + +"Not a doubt," returned the captain. "Give me an arm apiece, and let us +set this ship-shape." + +So walking up and down in the shrill wind on the wild moor, while the +neglected breakfast cooled within, the captain and the brothers settled +their course of action. + +It was that they should all proceed by the quickest means they could +secure to Barnstaple, and there look over the father's books and papers +in the lawyer's keeping; as Hugh had proposed to himself to do if ever he +reached home. That, enlightened or unenlightened, they should then +return to Steepways and go straight to Mr. Tregarthen, and tell him all +they knew, and see what came of it, and act accordingly. Lastly, that +when they got there they should enter the village with all precautions +against Hugh's being recognised by any chance; and that to the captain +should be consigned the task of preparing his wife and mother for his +restoration to this life. + +"For you see," quoth Captain Jorgan, touching the last head, "it requires +caution any way, great joys being as dangerous as great griefs, if not +more dangerous, as being more uncommon (and therefore less provided +against) in this round world of ours. And besides, I should like to free +my name with the ladies, and take you home again at your brightest and +luckiest; so don't let's throw away a chance of success." + +The captain was highly lauded by the brothers for his kind interest and +foresight. + +"And now stop!" said the captain, coming to a standstill, and looking +from one brother to the other, with quite a new rigging of wrinkles about +each eye; "you are of opinion," to the elder, "that you are ra'ather +slow?" + +"I assure you I am very slow," said the honest Hugh. + +"Wa'al," replied the captain, "I assure you that to the best of my belief +I am ra'ather smart. Now a slow man ain't good at quick business, is +he?" + +That was clear to both. + +"You," said the captain, turning to the younger brother, "are a little in +love; ain't you?" + +"Not a little, Captain Jorgan." + +"Much or little, you're sort preoccupied; ain't you?" + +It was impossible to be denied. + +"And a sort preoccupied man ain't good at quick business, is he?" said +the captain. + +Equally clear on all sides. + +"Now," said the captain, "I ain't in love myself, and I've made many a +smart run across the ocean, and I should like to carry on and go ahead +with this affair of yours, and make a run slick through it. Shall I try? +Will you hand it over to me?" + +They were both delighted to do so, and thanked him heartily. + +"Good," said the captain, taking out his watch. "This is half-past eight +a.m., Friday morning. I'll jot that down, and we'll compute how many +hours we've been out when we run into your mother's post-office. There! +The entry's made, and now we go ahead." + +They went ahead so well that before the Barnstaple lawyer's office was +open next morning, the captain was sitting whistling on the step of the +door, waiting for the clerk to come down the street with his key and open +it. But instead of the clerk there came the master, with whom the +captain fraternised on the spot to an extent that utterly confounded him. + +As he personally knew both Hugh and Alfred, there was no difficulty in +obtaining immediate access to such of the father's papers as were in his +keeping. These were chiefly old letters and cash accounts; from which +the captain, with a shrewdness and despatch that left the lawyer far +behind, established with perfect clearness, by noon, the following +particulars:-- + +That one Lawrence Clissold had borrowed of the deceased, at a time when +he was a thriving young tradesman in the town of Barnstaple, the sum of +five hundred pounds. That he had borrowed it on the written statement +that it was to be laid out in furtherance of a speculation which he +expected would raise him to independence; he being, at the time of +writing that letter, no more than a clerk in the house of Dringworth +Brothers, America Square, London. That the money was borrowed for a +stipulated period; but that, when the term was out, the aforesaid +speculation failed, and Clissold was without means of repayment. That, +hereupon, he had written to his creditor, in no very persuasive terms, +vaguely requesting further time. That the creditor had refused this +concession, declaring that he could not afford delay. That Clissold then +paid the debt, accompanying the remittance of the money with an angry +letter describing it as having been advanced by a relative to save him +from ruin. That, in acknowlodging the receipt, Raybrock had cautioned +Clissold to seek to borrow money of him no more, as he would never so +risk money again. + +Before the lawyer the captain said never a word in reference to these +discoveries. But when the papers had been put back in their box, and he +and his two companions were well out of the office, his right leg +suffered for it, and he said,-- + +"So far this run's begun with a fair wind and a prosperous; for don't you +see that all this agrees with that dutiful trust in his father maintained +by the slow member of the Raybrock family?" + +Whether the brothers had seen it before or no, they saw it now. Not that +the captain gave them much time to contemplate the state of things at +their ease, for he instantly whipped them into a chaise again, and bore +them off to Steepways. Although the afternoon was but just beginning to +decline when they reached it, and it was broad day-light, still they had +no difficulty, by dint of muffing the returned sailor up, and ascending +the village rather than descending it, in reaching Tregarthen's cottage +unobserved. Kitty was not visible, and they surprised Tregarthen sitting +writing in the small bay-window of his little room. + +"Sir," said the captain, instantly shaking hands with him, pen and all, +"I'm glad to see you, sir. How do you do, sir? I told you you'd think +better of me by-and-by, and I congratulate you on going to do it." + +Here the captain's eye fell on Tom Pettifer Ho, engaged in preparing some +cookery at the fire. + +"That critter," said the captain, smiting his leg, "is a born steward, +and never ought to have been in any other way of life. Stop where you +are, Tom, and make yourself useful. Now, Tregarthen, I'm going to try a +chair." + +Accordingly the captain drew one close to him, and went on:-- + +"This loving member of the Raybrock family you know, sir. This slow +member of the same family you don't know, sir. Wa'al, these two are +brothers,--fact! Hugh's come to life again, and here he stands. Now see +here, my friend! You don't want to be told that he was cast away, but +you do want to be told (for there's a purpose in it) that he was cast +away with another man. That man by name was Lawrence Clissold." + +At the mention of this name Tregarthen started and changed colour. +"What's the matter?" said the captain. + +"He was a fellow-clerk of mine thirty--five-and-thirty--years ago." + +"True," said the captain, immediately catching at the clew: "Dringworth +Brothers, America Square, London City." + +The other started again, nodded, and said, "That was the house." + +"Now," pursued the captain, "between those two men cast away there arose +a mystery concerning the round sum of five hundred pound." + +Again Tregarthen started, changing colour. Again the captain said, +"What's the matter?" + +As Tregarthen only answered, "Please to go on," the captain recounted, +very tersely and plainly, the nature of Clissold's wanderings on the +barren island, as he had condensed them in his mind from the seafaring +man. Tregarthen became greatly agitated during this recital, and at +length exclaimed,-- + +"Clissold was the man who ruined me! I have suspected it for many a long +year, and now I know it." + +"And how," said the captain, drawing his chair still closer to +Tregarthen, and clapping his hand upon his shoulder,--"how may you know +it?" + +"When we were fellow-clerks," replied Tregarthen, "in that London house, +it was one of my duties to enter daily in a certain book an account of +the sums received that day by the firm, and afterward paid into the +bankers'. One memorable day,--a Wednesday, the black day of my +life,--among the sums I so entered was one of five hundred pounds." + +"I begin to make it out," said the captain. "Yes?" + +"It was one of Clissold's duties to copy from this entry a memorandum of +the sums which the clerk employed to go to the bankers' paid in there. It +was my duty to hand the money to Clissold; it was Clissold's to hand it +to the clerk, with that memorandum of his writing. On that Wednesday I +entered a sum of five hundred pounds received. I handed that sum, as I +handed the other sums in the day's entry, to Clissold. I was absolutely +certain of it at the time; I have been absolutely certain of it ever +since. A sum of five hundred pounds was afterward found by the house to +have been that day wanting from the bag, from Clissold's memorandum, and +from the entries in my book. Clissold, being questioned, stood upon his +perfect clearness in the matter, and emphatically declared that he asked +no better than to be tested by 'Tregarthen's book.' My book was +examined, and the entry of five hundred pounds was not there." + +"How not there," said the captain, "when you made it yourself?" + +Tregarthen continued:-- + +"I was then questioned. Had I made the entry? Certainly I had. The +house produced my book, and it was not there. I could not deny my book; +I could not deny my writing. I knew there must be forgery by some one; +but the writing was wonderfully like mine, and I could impeach no one if +the house could not. I was required to pay the money back. I did so; +and I left the house, almost broken-hearted, rather than remain +there,--even if I could have done so,--with a dark shadow of suspicion +always on me. I returned to my native place, Lanrean, and remained +there, clerk to a mine, until I was appointed to my little post here." + +"I well remember," said the captain, "that I told you that if you had no +experience of ill judgments on deceiving appearances, you were a lucky +man. You went hurt at that, and I see why. I'm sorry." + +"Thus it is," said Tregarthen. "Of my own innocence I have of course +been sure; it has been at once my comfort and my trial. Of Clissold I +have always had suspicions almost amounting to certainty; but they have +never been confirmed until now. For my daughter's sake and for my own I +have carried this subject in my own heart, as the only secret of my life, +and have long believed that it would die with me." + +"Wa'al, my good sir," said the captain cordially, "the present question +is, and will be long, I hope, concerning living, and not dying. Now, +here are our two honest friends, the loving Raybrock and the slow. Here +they stand, agreed on one point, on which I'd back 'em round the world, +and right across it from north to south, and then again from east to +west, and through it, from your deepest Cornish mine to China. It is, +that they will never use this same so-often-mentioned sum of money, and +that restitution of it must be made to you. These two, the loving member +and the slow, for the sake of the right and of their father's memory, +will have it ready for you to-morrow. Take it, and ease their minds and +mine, and end a most unfortunate transaction." + +Tregarthen took the captain by the hand, and gave his hand to each of the +young men, but positively and finally answered No. He said, they trusted +to his word, and he was glad of it, and at rest in his mind; but there +was no proof, and the money must remain as it was. All were very earnest +over this; and earnestness in men, when they are right and true, is so +impressive, that Mr. Pettifer deserted his cookery and looked on quite +moved. + +"And so," said the captain, "so we come--as that lawyer-crittur over +yonder where we were this morning might--to mere proof; do we? We must +have it; must we? How? From this Clissold's wanderings, and from what +you say, it ain't hard to make out that there was a neat forgery of your +writing committed by the too smart rowdy that was grease and ashes when I +made his acquaintance, and a substitution of a forged leaf in your book +for a real and torn leaf torn out. Now was that real and true leaf then +and there destroyed? No,--for says he, in his drunken way, he slipped it +into a crack in his own desk, because you came into the office before +there was time to burn it, and could never get back to it arterwards. +Wait a bit. Where is that desk now? Do you consider it likely to be in +America Square, London City?" + +Tregarthen shook his head. + +"The house has not, for years, transacted business in that place. I have +heard of it, and read of it, as removed, enlarged, every way altered. +Things alter so fast in these times." + +"You think so," returned the captain, with compassion; "but you should +come over and see _me_ afore you talk about _that_. Wa'al, now. This +desk, this paper,--this paper, this desk," said the captain, ruminating +and walking about, and looking, in his uneasy abstraction, into Mr. +Pettifer's hat on a table, among other things. "This desk, this +paper,--this paper, this desk," the captain continued, musing and roaming +about the room, "I'd give--" + +However, he gave nothing, but took up his steward's hat instead, and +stood looking into it, as if he had just come into church. After that he +roamed again, and again said, "This desk, belonging to this house of +Dringworth Brothers, America Square, London City--" + +Mr. Pettifer, still strangely moved, and now more moved than before, cut +the captain off as he backed across the room, and bespake him thus:-- + +"Captain Jorgan, I have been wishful to engage your attention, but I +couldn't do it. I am unwilling to interrupt Captain Jorgan, but I must +do it. _I_ knew something about that house." + +The captain stood stock-still and looked at him,--with his (Mr. +Pettifer's) hat under his arm. + +"You're aware," pursued his steward, "that I was once in the broking +business, Captain Jorgan?" + +"I was aware," said the captain, "that you had failed in that calling, +and in half the businesses going, Tom." + +"Not quite so, Captain Jorgan; but I failed in the broking business. I +was partners with my brother, sir. There was a sale of old office +furniture at Dringworth Brothers' when the house was moved from America +Square, and me and my brother made what we call in the trade a Deal +there, sir. And I'll make bold to say, sir, that the only thing I ever +had from my brother, or from any relation,--for my relations have mostly +taken property from me instead of giving me any,--was an old desk we +bought at that same sale, with a crack in it. My brother wouldn't have +given me even that, when we broke partnership, if it had been worth +anything." + +"Where is that desk now?" said the captain. + +"Well, Captain Jorgan," replied the steward, "I couldn't say for certain +where it is now; but when I saw it last,--which was last time we were +outward bound,--it was at a very nice lady's at Wapping, along with a +little chest of mine which was detained for a small matter of a bill +owing." + +The captain, instead of paying that rapt attention to his steward which +was rendered by the other three persons present, went to Church again, in +respect of the steward's hat. And a most especially agitated and +memorable face the captain produced from it, after a short pause. + +"Now, Tom," said the captain, "I spoke to you, when we first came here, +respecting your constitutional weakness on the subject of sun-stroke." + +"You did, sir." + +"Will my slow friend," said the captain, "lend me his arm, or I shall +sink right back'ards into this blessed steward's cookery? Now, Tom," +pursued the captain, when the required assistance was given, "on your +oath as a steward, didn't you take that desk to pieces to make a better +one of it, and put it together fresh,--or something of the kind?" + +"On my oath I did, sir," replied the steward. + +"And by the blessing of Heaven, my friends, one and all," cried the +captain, radiant with joy,--"of the Heaven that put it into this Tom +Pettifer's head to take so much care of his head against the bright +sun,--he lined his hat with the original leaf in Tregarthen's +writing,--and here it is!" + +With that the captain, to the utter destruction of Mr. Pettifer's +favourite hat, produced the book-leaf, very much worn, but still legible, +and gave both his legs such tremendous slaps that they were heard far off +in the bay, and never accounted for. + +"A quarter past five p.m.," said the captain, pulling out his watch, "and +that's thirty-three hours and a quarter in all, and a pritty run!" + +How they were all overpowered with delight and triumph; how the money was +restored, then and there, to Tregarthen; how Tregarthen, then and there, +gave it all to his daughter; how the captain undertook to go to +Dringworth Brothers and re-establish the reputation of their forgotten +old clerk; how Kitty came in, and was nearly torn to pieces, and the +marriage was reappointed, needs not to be told. Nor how she and the +young fisherman went home to the post-office to prepare the way for the +captain's coming, by declaring him to be the mightiest of men, who had +made all their fortunes,--and then dutifully withdrew together, in order +that he might have the domestic coast entirely to himself. How he +availed himself of it is all that remains to tell. + +Deeply delighted with his trust, and putting his heart into it, he raised +the latch of the post-office parlour where Mrs. Raybrock and the young +widow sat, and said,-- + +"May I come in?" + +"Sure you may, Captain Jorgan!" replied the old lady. "And good reason +you have to be free of the house, though you have not been too well used +in it by some who ought to have known better. I ask your pardon." + +"No you don't, ma'am," said the captain, "for I won't let you. Wa'al, to +be sure!" + +By this time he had taken a chair on the hearth between them. + +"Never felt such an evil spirit in the whole course of my life! There! I +tell you! I could a'most have cut my own connection. Like the dealer in +my country, away West, who when he had let himself be outdone in a +bargain, said to himself, 'Now I tell you what! I'll never speak to you +again.' And he never did, but joined a settlement of oysters, and +translated the multiplication table into their language,--which is a fact +that can be proved. If you doubt it, mention it to any oyster you come +across, and see if he'll have the face to contradict it." + +He took the child from her mother's lap and set it on his knee. + +"Not a bit afraid of me now, you see. Knows I am fond of small people. I +have a child, and she's a girl, and I sing to her sometimes." + +"What do you sing?" asked Margaret. + +"Not a long song, my dear. + + Silas Jorgan + Played the organ. + +That's about all. And sometimes I tell her stories,--stories of sailors +supposed to be lost, and recovered after all hope was abandoned." Here +the captain musingly went back to his song,-- + + Silas Jorgan + Played the organ; + +repeating it with his eyes on the fire, as he softly danced the child on +his knee. For he felt that Margaret had stopped working. + +"Yes," said the captain, still looking at the fire, "I make up stories +and tell 'em to that child. Stories of shipwreck on desert islands, and +long delay in getting back to civilised lauds. It is to stories the like +of that, mostly, that + + Silas Jorgan + Plays the organ." + +There was no light in the room but the light of the fire; for the shades +of night were on the village, and the stars had begun to peep out of the +sky one by one, as the houses of the village peeped out from among the +foliage when the night departed. The captain felt that Margaret's eyes +were upon him, and thought it discreetest to keep his own eyes on the +fire. + +"Yes; I make 'em up," said the captain. "I make up stories of brothers +brought together by the good providence of GOD,--of sons brought back to +mothers, husbands brought back to wives, fathers raised from the deep, +for little children like herself." + +Margaret's touch was on his arm, and he could not choose but look round +now. Next moment her hand moved imploringly to his breast, and she was +on her knees before him,--supporting the mother, who was also kneeling. + +"What's the matter?" said the captain. "What's the matter? + + Silas Jorgan + Played the-- + +Their looks and tears were too much for him, and he could not finish the +song, short as it was. + +"Mistress Margaret, you have borne ill fortune well. Could you bear good +fortune equally well, if it was to come?" + +"I hope so. I thankfully and humbly and earnestly hope so!" + +"Wa'al, my dear," said the captain, "p'rhaps it has come. He's--don't be +frightened--shall I say the word--" + +"Alive?" + +"Yes!" + +The thanks they fervently addressed to Heaven were again too much for the +captain, who openly took out his handkerchief and dried his eyes. + +"He's no further off," resumed the captain, "than my country. Indeed, +he's no further off than his own native country. To tell you the truth, +he's no further off than Falmouth. Indeed, I doubt if he's quite so fur. +Indeed, if you was sure you could bear it nicely, and I was to do no more +than whistle for him--" + +The captain's trust was discharged. A rush came, and they were all +together again. + +This was a fine opportunity for Tom Pettifer to appear with a tumbler of +cold water, and he presently appeared with it, and administered it to the +ladies; at the same time soothing them, and composing their dresses, +exactly as if they had been passengers crossing the Channel. The extent +to which the captain slapped his legs, when Mr. Pettifer acquitted +himself of this act of stewardship, could have been thoroughly +appreciated by no one but himself; inasmuch as he must have slapped them +black and blue, and they must have smarted tremendously. + +He couldn't stay for the wedding, having a few appointments to keep at +the irreconcilable distance of about four thousand miles. So next +morning all the village cheered him up to the level ground above, and +there he shook hands with a complete Census of its population, and +invited the whole, without exception, to come and stay several months +with him at Salem, Mass., U.S. And there as he stood on the spot where +he had seen that little golden picture of love and parting, and from +which he could that morning contemplate another golden picture with a +vista of golden years in it, little Kitty put her arms around his neck, +and kissed him on both his bronzed cheeks, and laid her pretty face upon +his storm-beaten breast, in sight of all,--ashamed to have called such a +noble captain names. And there the captain waved his hat over his head +three final times; and there he was last seen, going away accompanied by +Tom Pettifer Ho, and carrying his hands in his pockets. And there, +before that ground was softened with the fallen leaves of three more +summers, a rosy little boy took his first unsteady run to a fair young +mother's breast, and the name of that infant fisherman was Jorgan +Raybrock. + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + +{1} Dicken's didn't write chapters three and four and they are omitted +in this edition. The story continues with Captain Jorgan and Alfred at +Lanrean. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MESSAGE FROM THE SEA*** + + +******* This file should be named 1407.txt or 1407.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/0/1407 + + + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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