What a dreary waking was that of Tony's on the morning after the orgies!
Not a whit the less overwhelming from the great difficulty he had in
recalling the events, and investigating his own share in them. There was
nothing that he could look back upon with pleasure. Of the dinner
and the guests, all that he could remember was the costliness and the
tumult; and of the scene at Mrs. M'Grader's, his impression was of
insults given and received, a violent altercation, in which his own
share could not be defended.
How different had been his waking thoughts, had he gone as he proposed,
to bid Dora a good-bye, and tell her of his great good fortune! How full
would his memory now have been of her kind words and wishes; how much
would he have to recall of her sisterly affection, for they had been
like brother and sister from their childhood! It was to Dora that Tony
confided all his boyhood's sorrows, and to the same ear he had told his
first talc of love, when the beautiful Alice Lyle had sent through his
heart those emotions which, whether of ecstasy or torture, make a new
existence and a new being to him who feels them for the first time.
He had loved Alice as a girl, and was all but heart-broken when she
married. His sorrows--and were they not sorrows?--had all been intrusted
to Dora; and from her he had heard such wise and kind counsels, such
encouraging and hopeful words; and when the beautiful Alice came back,
within a year, a widow, far more lovely than ever, he remembered how
all bis love was rekindled. Nor was it the less entrancing that it was
mingled with a degree of deference for her station, and an amount of
distance which her new position exacted.
He had intended to have passed his last evening with Dora in talking
over these things; and how had he spent it? In a wild and disgraceful
debauch, and in a company of which he felt himself well ashamed.
It was, however, no part of Tony's nature to spend time in vain regrets;
he lived ever more in the present than the past. There were a number of
things to be done, and done at once. The first was to acquit his debt
for that unlucky dinner; and, in a tremor of doubt, he opened his little
store to see what remained to him. Of the eleven pounds ten shillings
his mother gave him he had spent less than two pounds; he had
travelled third-class to London, and while in town denied himself every
extravagance. He rang for his hotel bill, and was shocked to see that it
came to three pounds seven-and-sixpence. He fancied he had half-starved
himself, and he saw a catalogue of steaks and luncheons to his share
that smacked of very gluttony. He paid it without a word, gave an
apology to the waiter that he had run himself short of money, and could
only offer him a crown. The dignified official accepted the excuse
and the coin with a smile of bland sorrow. It was a pity that cut both
ways,--for himself and for Tony too.
There now remained but a few shillings above five pounds, and he sat
down and wrote this note:--
“My dear Skeffington,--Some one of your friends, last
night, was kind enough to pay my share of the reckoning for
me. Will you do me the favor to thank and repay him? I am
off to Ireland hurriedly, or I 'd call and see you. I have
not even time to wait for those examination papers, which
were to be delivered to me either to-day or to-morrow. Would
you send them by post, addressed T. Butler, Burnside,
Coleraine? My head is not very clear to-day, but it should
be more stupid if I could forget all your kindness since we
met.
“Believe me, very sincerely, &c.,
“Tony Butler.”
The next was to his mother:--
“Dearest Mother,--Don't expect me on Saturday; it may be
two or three days later ere I reach home. I am all right,
in rare health and capital spirits, and never in my life
felt more completely your own
“Tony Butler.”
One more note remained, but it was not easy to write it, nor even to
decide whether to address it to Dora or to Mr. M'Gruder. At length he
decided for the latter, and wrote thus:--
“Sir,--I beg to offer you the very humblest apology for
the disturbance created last night before your house. We had
all drunk too much wine, lost our heads, and forgotten good
manners. If I had been in a fitting condition to express
myself properly, I 'd have made my excuses on the spot. As
it is, I make the first use of my recovered brains to tell
you how heartily ashamed I am of my conduct, and how
desirous I feel to know that you will cherish no ungenerous
feelings towards your faithful servant,
“T. Butler.”
“I hope he 'll think it all right. I hope this will satisfy him. I trust
it is not too humble, though I mean to be humble. If he's a gentleman,
he 'll think no more of it; but he may not be a gentleman, and will
probably fancy that, because I stoop, he ought to kick me. That would be
a mistake; and perhaps it would be as well to add, by way of P.S., 'If
the above is not fully satisfactory, and that you prefer another issue
to this affair, my address is T. Butler, Burnside, Coleraine, Ireland.'
“Perhaps that would spoil it all,” thought Tony. “I want him to forgive
an offence; and it's not the best way to that end to say, 'If you like
fighting better, don't balk your fancy.' No, no; I 'll send it in its
first shape. I don't feel very comfortable on my knees, it is true, but
it is all my own fault if I am there.
“And now to reach home again. I wish I knew how that was to be done!
Seven or eight shillings are not a very big sum, but I 'd set off with
them on foot if there was no sea to be traversed.” To these thoughts
there was no relief by the possession of any article of value that he
could sell or pledge. He had neither watch nor ring, nor any of those
fanciful trinkets which modern fashion affects.
He knew not one person from whom he could ask the loan of a few pounds;
nor, worse again, could he be certain of being able to repay them
within a reasonable time. To approach Skeffington on such a theme was
impossible; anything rather than this. If he were once at Liverpool,
there were sure to be many captains of Northern steamers that would
know him, and give him a passage home. But how to get to Liverpool?
The cheapest railroad fare was above a pound. If he must needs walk,
it would take him a week; and he could not afford himself more than one
meal a day, taking his chance to sleep under a corn-stack or a hedgerow.
Very dear, indeed, was the price that grand banquet cost him, and
yet not dearer than half the extravagances men are daily and hourly
committing; the only difference being that the debt is not usually
exacted so promptly. He wrote his name on a card, and gave it to the
waiter, saying, “When I send to you under this name, you will give my
portmanteau to the bearer of the message, for I shall probably not come
back,--at least, for some time.”
The waiter was struck by the words, but more still by the dejected look
of one whom, but twenty-four hours back, he had been praising for his
frank and gay bearing.
“Nothing wrong, I hope, sir?” asked the man, respectfully.
“Not a great deal,” said Tony, with a faint smile.
“I was afraid, sir, from seeing you look pale this morning, I fancied,
indeed, that there was something amiss. I hope you 're not displeased at
the liberty I took, sir?”
“Not a bit; indeed, I feel grateful to you for noticing that I was not
in good spirits. I have so very few friends in this big city of yours,
your sympathy was pleasant to me. Will you remember what I said about
my luggage?”
“Of course, sir, I 'll attend to it; and if not called for within a
reasonable time, is there any address you 'd like me to send it to?”
Tony stared at the man, who seemed to flinch under the gaze; and it shot
like a bolt through his mind, “He thinks I have some gloomy purpose in
my head.” “I believe I apprehend you,” said he, laying his hand on the
man's shoulder; “but you are all wrong. There is nothing more serious
the matter with me than to have run myself out of money, and I cannot
conveniently wait here till I write and get an answer from home; there
's the whole of it.”
“Oh, sir, if you 'll not be offended at a humble man like me,--if you 'd
forgive the liberty I take, and let me as far as a ten-pound note;” he
stammered, and reddened, and seemed positively wretched in his attempt
to explain himself without any breach of propriety. Nor was Tony,
indeed, less moved as he said,--
“I thank you heartily; you have given me something to remember of this
place with gratitude so long as I live. But I am not so hard pressed as
you suspect. It is a merely momentary inconvenience, and a few days will
set it all right Good-bye; I hope we'll meet again.”
And he shook the man's hand cordially in his own strong fingers, and
passed out with a full heart and a very choking throat.
When he turned into the street, he walked along without choosing his
way. His mind was too much occupied to let him notice either the way or
the passers-by; and he sauntered along, now musing over his own lot, now
falling back upon that trustful heart of the poor waiter, whose position
could scarcely have inspired such confidence.
“I am certain that what are called moralists are unfair censors of their
fellow-men. I 'll be sworn there is more of kindness and generosity and
honest truth in the world than there is of knavery and falsehood; but
as we have no rewards for the one, and keep up jails and hulks for the
other, we have nothing to guide our memories. That's the whole of it;
all the statistics are on one side.”
While he was thus ruminating, he had wandered along, and was already
deep in the very heart of the City. Nor did the noise, the bustle,
the overwhelming tide of humanity arouse him, as it swept along in its
ceaseless flow. So intently was his mind turned inward, that he narrowly
escaped being run over by an omnibus, the pole of which struck him, and
under whose wheels he had unquestionably fallen, if it were not that a
strong hand grasped him by the shoulder, and swung him powerfully back
upon the flag-way.
“Is it blind you are, that you didn't hear the 'bus?” cried a somewhat
gruff voice, with an accent that told of a land he liked well; and Tony
turned and saw a stout, strongly built young fellow, dressed in a sort
of bluish frieze, and with a bundle on a stick over his shoulder. He was
good-looking, but of a more serious cast of features than is common with
the lower-class Irish.
“I see,” said Tony, “that I owe this good turn to a countryman. You're
from Ireland?”
“Indeed, and I am, your honor, and no lie in it,” said he, reddening, as
if--although there was nothing to be ashamed of by the avowal--popular
prejudice lay rather in the other direction.
“I don't know what I was thinking of,” said Tony, again; and even yet
his head bad not regained its proper calm. “I forgot all about where I
was, and never heard the horses till they were on me.”
“'Tis what I remarked, sir,” said the other, as with his sleeve he
brushed the dirt off Tony's coat. “_I_ saw you was like one in a
dhream.”
“I wish I had anything worth offering you,” said Tony, reddening, while
he placed the last few shillings he had in the other's palm.
“What's this for?” said the man, half angrily; “sure you don't think
it's for money I did it;” and he pushed the coin back almost rudely from
him.
While Tony assuaged, as well as he might, the anger of his wounded
pride, they walked on together for some time, till at last the other
said, “I'll have to hurry away now, your honor; I 'm to be at Blackwall,
to catch the packet for Derry, by twelve o'clock.”
“What packet do you speak of?”
“The 'Foyle,' sir. She's to sail this evening, and I have my passage
paid for me, and I mustn't lose it.”
“If I had my luggage, I 'd go in her too. I want to cross over to
Ireland.”
“And where is it, sir,--the luggage, I mean?”
“Oh, it's only a portmanteau, and it's at the Tavistock Hotel, Covent
Garden.”
“If your honor wouldn't mind taking charge of this,” said he, pointing
to his bundle, “I 'd be off in a jiffy, and get the trunk, and be back
by the time you reached the steamer.”
“Would you really do me this service? Well, here 's my card; when you
show this to the waiter, he 'll hand you the portmanteau; and there is
nothing to pay.”
“All right, sir; the 'Foyle,' a big paddle-steamer,--you 'll know her
red chimney the moment you see it;” and without another word he gave
Tony his bundle and hurried away.
“Is not this trustfulness?” thought Tony, as he walked onward; “I
suppose this little bundle contains all this poor fellow's worldly
store, and he commits it to a stranger without one moment of doubt or
hesitation.” It was for the second time on that same morning that his
heart was touched by a trait of kindness; and he began to feel that if
such proofs of brotherhood were rife in the world, narrow fortune was
not half so bad a thing as he had ever believed it.
It was a long walk he had before him, and not much time to do it in, so
that he was obliged to step briskly out. As for the bundle, it is
but fair to own that at first he carried it with a certain shame and
awkwardness, affecting in various ways to assure the passers-by that
such an occupation was new to him; but as time wore on, and he saw, as
he did see, that very few noticed him, and none troubled themselves as
to what was the nature of his burden, he grew more indifferent, well
consoled by thinking that nothing was more unlikely than that he should
be met by any one he knew.
When he got down to the river-side, boats were leaving in every
direction, and one for the “Foyle,” with two passengers, offered itself
at the moment. He jumped in, and soon found himself aboard a large
mercantile boat, her deck covered with fragments of machinery and metal
for some new factory in Belfast. “Where's the captain?” asked Tony of a
gruff-looking man in a tweed coat and a wideawake.
“I'm the captain; and what then?” said the other.
In a few words Tony explained that he had found himself short of cash,
and not wishing to be detained till he could write and have an answer
from home, he begged he might have a deck passage. “If it should cost
more than I have money for, I will leave my trunk with your steward till
I remit my debt.”
“Get those boats aboard; clear away that hawser there; look out, or you
'll foul that collier,” cried the skipper, his deep voice ringing above
the din and crash of the escaping steam, but never so much as noticing
one word of Tony's speech.
Too proud to repeat his address, and yet doubting how it had been taken,
he stood, occasionally buffeted about by the sailors as they hurried
hither and thither; and now, amidst the din, a great bell rang out; and
while it clattered away, some scrambled up the side of the ship, and
others clambered down, while with shouts and oaths and imprecations on
every side, the great mass swung round, and two slow revolutions of her
paddles showed she was ready to start Almost frantic with anxiety for
his missing friend, Tony mounted on a bulwark, and scanned every boat he
could see.
“Back her!” screamed the skipper; “there, gently; all right Go ahead;”
and now with a shouldering, surging heave, the great black monster
lazily moved forward, and gained the middle of the river. Boats were now
hurrying wildly to this side and to that, but none towards the “Foyle.”
“What will become of me? What will he think of me?” cried Tony; and he
peered down into the yellow tide, almost doubtful if he ought not to
jump into it.
“Go on,” cried the skipper; and the speed increased, a long swell
issuing from either paddle, and stretching away to either bank of the
river. Far away in this rocking tide, tossing hopelessly and in vain,
Tony saw a small boat wherein a man was standing, wildly waving his
handkerchief by way of signal.
“There he is, in one minute; give him one minute, and he will be here,”
cried Tony, not knowing to whom he spoke.
“You 'll get jammed, my good fellow, if you don't come down from that,”
said a sailor. “You'll be caught in the davits when they swing round;”
and seeing how inattentive he was to the caution, he laid a hand upon
him and forced him upon deck. The ship had now turned a bend of the
river, and as Tony turned aft to look for the boat, she was lost to him,
and he saw her no more.
For some miles of the way, all were too much occupied to notice him.
There was much to stow away and get in order, the cargo having been
taken in even to the latest moment before they started. There were
some carriages and horses, too, on board, neither of which met from the
sailors more deferential care than they bestowed on cast-metal cranks
and iron sleepers, thus occasioning little passages between those in
charge and the crew, that were the reverse of amicable. It was in one
of these Tony heard a voice he was long familiar with. It was Sir
Arthur Lyle's coachman, who was even more overjoyed than Tony at the
recognition. He had been sent over to fetch four carriage-horses and two
open carriages for his master, and his adventures and mishaps were, in
his own estimation, above all human experience.
“I'll have to borrow a five-pound note from you,” said Tony; “I have
come on board without anything,--even my luggage is left behind.”
“Five-and-twenty, Mr.. Tony, if you want it. I'm as glad as fifty to see
you here. You'll be able to make these fellows mind what I say. There's
not as much as a spare tarpaulin to put over the beasts at night; and if
the ship rocks, their legs will be knocked to pieces.”
If Tony had not the same opinion of his influence, he did not however
hesitate to offer his services, and assisted the coachman to pad the
horse-boxes, and bandage the legs with an overlaid covering of hay rope,
against any accidents.
“Are you steerage or aft?” asked a surly-looking steward of Tony, as he
was washing his hands after his exertions.
“There's a question to ask of one of the best blood in Ireland,”
interposed the coachman.
“The best blood in Ireland will then have to pay cabin fare,” said the
steward, as he jotted down a mem. in his book; and Tony was now easy
enough in mind to laugh at the fellow's impertinence as he paid the
money.
The voyage was not eventful in any way; the weather was fine, the sea
not rough, and the days went by as monotonously as need be. If Tony had
been given to reflection, he would have had a glorious opportunity to
indulge the taste, but it was the very least of all his tendencies.
He would indeed, have liked much to review his life, and map out
something of his future road; but he could do nothing of this kind
without a companion. Asking him to think for himself and by himself was
pretty much like asking him to play chess or backgammon with himself,
where it depended on his caprice which side was to be the winner.
The habit of self-depreciation had, besides, got hold of him, and he
employed it as an excuse to cover his inertness. “What's the use of my
doing this, that, or t'other? I 'll be a stupid dog to the end of the
chapter. It's all waste of time to set me down to this or that. Other
fellows could learn it,--it's impossible for _me_.”
It is strange how fond men will grow of pleading _in forma pauperis_ to
their own hearts,--even men constitutionally proud and high-spirited.
Tony had fallen into this unlucky habit, and got at last to think it was
his safest way in life to trust very little to his judgment.
“If I had n't been 'mooning,' I 'd not have walked under the pole of the
omnibus, nor chanced upon this poor fellow, whose bundle I have carried
away, nor lost my own kit, which, after all, was something to me.”
Worse than all these--infinitely worse--was the thought of how that
poor peasant would think of him! What a cruel lesson of mistrust
and suspicion have I implanted in that honest heart! “What a terrible
revulsion must have come over him, when he found I had sailed away and
left him!” Poor Tony's reasoning was not acute enough to satisfy him
that the man could not accuse him for what was out of his power to
prevent,--the departure of the steamer; nor with Tony's own luggage in
his possession, could he arraign his honesty, or distrust his honor.
He bethought him that he would consult Waters, for whose judgment in
spavins, thoroughpins, capped hocks, and navicular lameness, he had the
deepest veneration. Waters, who knew horses so thoroughly, must needs
not be altogether ignorant of men.
“I say, Tom,” cried he, “sit down here, and let me tell you something
that's troubling me a good deal, and perhaps you can give me some advice
on it.” They sat down accordingly under the shelter of a horse-box,
while Tony related circumstantially his late misadventure.
The old coachman heard him to the end without interruption. He smoked
throughout the whole narrative, only now and then removing his pipe
to intimate by an emphatic nod that the “court was with the counsel.”
Indeed, he felt that there was something judicial in his position, and
assumed a full share of importance on the strength of it.
“There 's the whole case now before you,” said Tony, as he
finished,--“what do you say to it?”
“Well, there an't a great deal to say to it, Mr. Tony,” said he, slowly.
“If the other chap has got the best kit, by course he has got the best
end of the stick; and you may have an easy conscience about that. If
there's any money or val'able in _his_ bundle, it is just likely there
will be some trace of his name, and where he lives too; so that, turn
out either way, you 're all right.”
“So that you advise me to open his pack and see if I can find a clew to
him.”
“Well, indeed, I 'd do that much out of cur'osity. At all events, you
'll not get to know about him from the blue hand-kercher with the white
spots.”
Tony did not quite approve the counsel; he had his scruples, even in a
good cause, about this investigation, and he walked the deck till
far into the night, pondering over it. He tried to solve the case by
speculating on what the countryman would have done with _his_ pack. “He
'll have doubtless tried to find out where I am to be met with or come
at. He 'll have ransacked my traps, and if so, there will be the less
need of _my_ investigating _his_. _He 's_ sure to trace _me_.” This
reasoning satisfied him so perfectly that he lay down at last to sleep
with an easy conscience and so weary a brain that he slept profoundly.
As he awoke, however, he found that Waters had already decided the
point of conscience which had so troubled him, and was now sitting
contemplating the contents of the peasant's bundle.
“There an't so much as a scrap o' writing, Mr. Tony; there an't even a
prayer-book with his name in it,--but there 's a track to him for all
that. I have him!” and he winked with that self-satisfied knowingness
which had so often delighted him in the detection of a splint or a
bone-spavin.
“You have him,” repeated Tony. “Well, what of him?”
“He's a jailer, sir,--yes, a jailer. I won't say he 's the chief,--he 's
maybe second or third,--but he 's one of 'em.”
“How do you know that?”
“Here's how I found it out;” and he drew forth a blue cloth uniform,
with yellow cuffs and collar, and a yellow seam down the trousers. There
were no buttons on the coat, but both on the sleeve and the collar were
embroidered two keys, crosswise. “Look at them, Master Tony; look at
them, and say an't that as clear as day? It's some new regulation, I
suppose, to put them in uniform; and there's the keys, the mark of the
lock-up, to show who he is that wears them.”
Though the last man in the world to read riddles or unravel
difficulties, Tony did not accept this information very willingly. In
truth, he felt a repugnance to assign to the worthy country fellow a
station which bears, in the appreciation of every Irishman, a certain
stain. For, do as we will, reason how we may, the old estimate of the
law as an oppression surges up through our thoughts, just as springs
well up in an undrained soil.
“I 'm certain you're wrong, Waters,” said he, boldly; “he had n't a bit
the look of that about him: he was a fine, fresh-featured, determined
sort of fellow, but without a trace of cunning or distrust in his face.”
“I 'll stand to it I 'm right, Master Tony. What does keys mean? Answer
me that. An't they to lock up? It must be to lock up something or
somebody,--you agree to that?”
Tony gave a sort of grunt, which the other took for concurrence, and
continued.
“It's clear enough he an't the county treasurer,” said he, with a
mocking laugh,--“nor he don't keep the Queen's private purse neither;
no, sir. It's another sort of val'ables is under his charge. It's
highwaymen and housebreakers and felony chaps.”
“Not a bit of it; he's no more a jailer than I'm a hangman. Besides,
what is to prove that this uniform is his own? Why not be a friend's,--a
relation's? Would a fellow trained to the ways of a prison trust the
first man he meets in the street, and hand him over his bundle? Is that
like one whose daily life is passed among rogues and vagabonds?”
“That's exactly how it is,” said Waters, closing one eye to look more
piercingly astute. “Did you ever see anything trust another so much as
a cat does a mouse? She hasn't no dirty suspicions at all, but lets him
run here and run there, only with a make-believe of her paw letting him
feel that he an't to trespass too far on her patience.”
“Pshaw!” said Tony, turning away angrily; and he muttered to himself as
he walked off, “how stupid it is to take any view of life from a fellow
who has never looked at it from a higher point than a hayloft!”
As the steamer rounded Fairhead, and the tall cliffs of the Causeway
came into view, other thoughts soon chased away all memory of the poor
country fellow. It was home was now before him,--home, that no humility
can rob of its hold upon the heart; home, that appeals to the poorest of
us by the selfsame sympathies the richest and greatest feel! Yes, yonder
was Carrig-a-Rede, and there were the Skerries, so near and yet so far
off. How slowly the great mass seemed to move, though it was about an
hoar ago she seemed to cleave the water like a fish! How unfair to stop
her course at Larne to land those two or three passengers, and what
tiresome leave-takings they indulge in; and the luggage, too, they 'll
never get it together! So thought Tony, his impatience mastering both
reason and generosity.
“I 'll have to take the horses on to Derry, Master Tony,” said Waters,
in an insinuating tone of voice, for he knew well what able assistance
the other could lend him in any difficulty of the landing. “Sir Arthur
thought that if the weather was fine we might be able to get them out on
a raft and tow them into shore, but it's too rough for that.”
“Far too rough,” said Tony, his eyes straining to catch the well-known
landmarks of the coast.
“And with blood-horses too, in top condition, there's more danger.”
“Far more.”
“So, I hope, your honor will tell the master that I did n't ask the
captain to stop, for I saw it was no use.”
“None whatever. I 'll tell him,--that is, if I see him,” muttered Tony,
below his breath.
“Maybe, if there was too much sea 'on' for your honor to land--”
“What?” interrupted Tony, eying him sternly.
“I was saying, sir, that if your honor was forced to come on to Derry--”
“How should I be forced?”
“By the heavy surf, no less,” said Waters, peevishly, for he foresaw
failure to his negotiation.
“The tide will be on the flood till eleven, and if they can't lower a
boat, I 'll swim it, that's all. As to going on to Derry with you, Tom,”
added he, laughing, “I'd not do it if you were to give me your four
thoroughbreds for it.”
“Well, the wind 's freshening, anyhow,” grumbled Waters, not very sorry,
perhaps, at the turn the weather was taking.
“It will be the rougher for you as you sail up the Lough,” said Tony, as
he lighted his cigar.
Waters pondered a good deal over what he could not but regard as a great
change in character. This young man, so gay, so easy, so careless, so
ready to do anything or do nothing,--how earnest he had grown, and how
resolute, and how stern too! Was this a sign that the world was going
well, or the reverse, with him? Here was a knotty problem, and one
which, in some form or other, has ere now puzzled wiser heads than
Waters's. For as the traveller threw off in the sunshine the cloak
which he had gathered round him in the storm, prosperity will as often
disclose the secrets of our hearts as that very poverty that has not
wealth enough to buy a padlock for them.
“You want to land here, young man,” said the captain to Tony; “and
there's a shore-boat close alongside. Be alive, and jump in when she
comes near.”
“Good-bye, Tom,” said Tony, shaking hands with him. “I 'll report well
of the beasts, and say also how kindly you treated me.”
“You 'll tell Sir Arthur that the rub on the off shoulder won't signify,
sir; and that Emperor's hock is going down every day. And please to say,
sir,--for he 'll mind _you_ more than me,--that there 's nothing will
keep beasts from kicking when a ship takes to rollin'; and that when the
helpers got sea-sick, and could n't keep on deck, if it had n't been
for yourself--Oh, he's not minding a word I'm saying,” muttered he,
disconsolately; and certainly this was the truth, for Tony was now
standing on a bulwark, with the end of a rope in his hand, slung whip
fashion from the yard, to enable him to swing himself at an opportune
moment into the boat, all the efforts of the rowers being directed to
keep her from the steamer's side.
“Now's your time, my smart fellow,” cried the Captain,--“off with you!”
And, as he spoke, Tony swung himself free with a bold spring, and, just
as the boat rose on a wave, dropped neatly into her.
“Well done for a landsman!” cried the skipper; “port the helm, and keep
away.”
“You 're forgetting the bundle, Master Tony,” cried Waters, and he flung
it towards him with all his strength; but it fell short, dropped into
the sea, floated for about a second or so, and then sank forever.
Tony uttered what was not exactly a blessing on his awkwardness, and,
turning his back to the steamer, seized the tiller and steered for
shore.