To reach the “store-room” where Mr. M’Kinlay lay--for of course it is
needless to inform our readers he was the much-terrified voyager alluded
to--Luttrell was obliged to pass through the kitchen, and in so doing,
beheld a scene which had never before presented itself to his eyes in
that spot. Molly Ryan, feeling all the importance of the occasion, and
well knowing that her master would never remember to give her any orders
on the subject, had issued a general requisition for supplies all over
the island, which was so quickly, and well responded to, that the place
looked less like a room in a dwelling-house than a great mart for all
sorts of provisions.
Great baskets of fish stood on every side--fish of the strangest and
most uncouth forms, many of them, and with names as uncouth. There
were varieties of ugliness among them to gratify the most ‘exacting
naturalist, flat-headed, many-toothed, monsters, with bony projections
all over them, and dorsal fins like hand-saws. Even the cognate
creatures wore an especial wildness in that wild spot, and lobsters
looked fiercer, and crabs more crabbed, while oysters, least aggressive
of all floating things, had a ragged and rocky exterior that seemed to
defy all attempt at penetration. Besides, there were hampers of eggs,
and “creels” of potatoes, and such other garden produce as the simple
cultivation permitted. While, meekly in one corner, and awaiting his
fate with that air of conscious martyrdom which distinguishes the race,
stood a very lean sheep, fastened by a hay-rope to the leg of a dresser.
[Illustration: 169]
But the object which more than others attracted Luttrell’s attention,
was a pale, sallow-faced man, who sat next the fire on a low seat, all
propped up by pillows, and his legs enveloped in a blanket; his wan and
singular appearance being considerably heightened by the feathers of a
goose having lighted on him, giving him half the look of some enormous
fowl in the act of being plucked. This addition to his picturesqueness
was contributed by Harry, who, engaged in plucking a goose at the
opposite side of the fire, sent all the down and feathers in that
direction. Harry himself, without shoes or stockings, indeed with
nothing but a flannel shirt and trousers, was entertaining the stranger?
and giving him, so far as he could, an insight into the life and habits
of the islanders.
It is perhaps fortunate for me that it is not part of my task to record
the contributions to history which Harry Luttrell afforded the stranger;
they were not, possibly, divested of a little aid from that fancy which
narrators are sometimes led to indulge in, and certainly Mr. M’Kinlay
felt on hearing them, that terrible as were the perils of the voyage,
the dangers that beset his place of refuge seemed infinitely more
terrible. A few traditionary maxims were all that they knew of law, of
religion they knew still less; in a word, the stranger learned that he
was in the midst of a people who cared no more for British rule than
they did for the sway of the Grand Llama; and in a place where, if it
were very difficult to live, few things were so easy as to get rid of
life.
So intensely interested was M’Kinlay in the boy’s narrative, that
he never noticed Luttrell, who entered the kitchen, and made his way
towards him. Luttrell himself was so preoccupied with one thought, that
he hardly acknowledged the salutations of the people who made way for
him to pass. The thought that engaged him was this: that the man before
him was the bearer of a writ against him. That the law, which in his
fastness he had so long defied or evaded, had at last tracked him home,
and though he knew that, were this to be the case, nothing could be
easier for him than to conceal himself in the island--there were spots
there, where, had it been safe to have followed, no search could have
discovered him--yet, in the passionate boldness which prompted him
always to meet the coming peril half way, he now sought out this man,
whatever might be his mission, to confront him.
Who can tell, besides, what an insolent pride he felt in being able to
say to the emissary of the law, “Go back to those who sent you, and tell
them that you saw and spoke to Luttrell of Arran, but that you did not
dare to lay a hand upon him, nor utter the stupid formula of your craft,
because one single word from him would have settled your doom for ever;
that he did not avoid nor evade you; that he received you courteously,
and, so far as he could, hospitably; but, with the proud consciousness
that _he_ was more the master of _your_ fate than were you of _his_,
and that the wisest thing you could do was to forget the errand you
came upon, and go back as you came.” With some such thoughts as these
Luttrell now came forward and stood before the stranger, and for some
seconds each looked in silence at the other.
“Are you Mr. Luttrell of Arran?” asked M’Kinlay, in a low feeble tone.
“I am accustomed to believe, Sir, that a stranger usually announces
his own name and quality first, when presenting himself in the house of
another,” said Luttrell, slowly and gravely.
“I ask pardon; my name is Robert M’Kinlay, Sir, of Purniyal’s Inn, and
28, Regents-terrace, London, conveyancer.”
“And I am John Hamilton Luttrell of Arran. Now that we know each other,
are there any matters we can treat of, or is this meeting to have merely
the character of a pleasant ‘rencontre?’”
“It was business brought me here, Mr. Luttrell!” said M’Kinlay, with a
groan of such intense sincerity that Luttrell almost smiled at it.
“Whenever you feel equal to treat of it, you’ll find me at your
service,” said Luttrell.
“Could it be now, Mr. Luttrell--could it be now?” cried M’Kinlay, with
eagerness.
“It shall be this minute, if you desire it.”
Unwrapping the blanket from around him, and disposing it not very
gracefully, perhaps, over his shoulders, Mr. M’Kinlay scrambled rather
than walked after Luttrell to his room.
“Ah, Sir!” cried he, as he entered, “if I had but the shadow of a
suspicion of what the expedition was before me, I’d have refused flatly;
ay, Sir, if I had to throw up the agency for it the day after.”
“I am truly sorry, Sir, your impressions of this place should be so
unfavourable.”
Mr. M’Kinlay was too full of his disastrous experiences to listen to
excuses, and he went on: “People cross the Atlantic every week and don’t
suffer one-half what I did since I left Westport. I vow I think they
might round the Cape with less actual danger; and when we tacked about
and ran down to take up the creatures that were upset, one of our
sailors--no, indeed, but two of them--declared that it was at the
imminent risk of our own lives we were doing it; that if something
held on, or didn’t hold on, I forget which, and that if we were to get
entangled in the wreck--but I can’t describe it, only I remember that
the American--the greatest savage I ever met in my life--took a pistol
out of his pocket, and swore he’d shoot the man at the helm if he didn’t
bear up for the wreck. He swore--I’ll never forget his awful oaths,
doubly terrible at such a moment--that he saw a boy, or, as he called
it, ‘a buoy,’ on a spar waving his cap to us, and he said, ‘I’ll go down
to him if we upset beside him.’ Yes, Sir, it sounds incredible that
a man so dead to any sentiment of humanity could exist, and who could
declare that he’d imperil five lives, and his own too, just out of--what
shall I call it?--a whim, a caprice, a fancy, and for what?--for some
fishermen, some starving creatures whose miserable lives ought to make
death a release, and a boy that possibly, until your kind cook gave him
leave to sit at the kitchen fire, had no home to go to to dry himself.”
Luttrell’s face grew almost purple, and then, of a sudden, ashy pale.
To suppress the passionate impulse that worked within him, made him feel
sick almost to fainting, but he did suppress it, and with an immense
effort of self-control said, “And the American, you say, was resolved
that he’d save the boy.”
“Ah! at any cost! indeed, he had the cruelty to say to myself, ‘If the
boat goes over, mind that you keep up, to windward, or to leeward, or
somewhere, I don’t know where, for I was well aware that it was down I
should go. ‘You can swim,’ said he, ‘I suppose?’ ‘Not a stroke,’ said
I. ‘It don’t matter,’ said he, ‘you can grip on all the same.’ Yes, Sir,
that was his unfeeling remark. ‘You can grip on all the same.’”
“But he declared that the boy he _would_ save!” cried Luttrell, with a
scornful toss of his head at the other’s prolixity.
“That he did; I am willing to make oath of it, let the consequences be
what they may to him.”
“He never told _me_ of that,” said Luttrell, thoughtfully.
“I should think not, Sir; it’s not very likely that a man will parade
his own inhumanity, and declare how he risked five valuable lives to
save a few savage creatures, who might as well be drowned at sea as die
of starvation on shore.”
“You are severe, Sir. You judge us somewhat hardly. With all our
barbarism, we have our uses, and, more too, we have ties and affections
pretty much like our betters.” Though there was far more sadness than
sarcasm in the way Luttrell said these words, Mr. M’Kinlay winced under
the reproof they conveyed, and hastily blurted out his excuses.
“You cannot suppose I could have meant to include you, Sir. You couldn’t
imagine that in speaking of these poor ignorant creatures, I had the
slightest intention----”
“I never suspect an insult where it is possible to believe such was not
intended, Sir,” said Luttrell, haughtily. “But I don’t think that we are
here now to discuss the fishermen of Arran, or their claim to be deemed
civilised.”
“You are right--you are quite right, Mr. Luttrell. I ask pardon for all
this digression, the more since it was entirely personal; but a man’s
first shipwreck takes a wonderful hold on his imagination;” and the
lawyer laughed with one of those practised laughs, which, by setting
others off, frequently cut short an unpleasant discussion. Luttrell was,
however, impassive in his gravity; if anything, he looked more stern
than before. “I have come here,” resumed M’Kinlay, “at the request of my
friend and client, Sir Gervais Vyner. This letter is my introduction to
you.”
Luttrell took it, read the address, turned it round, and looked at the
seal, and then laid it down upon the table. He heaved a long sigh,
too, but it was a sigh of relief, for he had had sore misgivings as
to M’Kinlay’s visit, and visions of law and its dire consequences in
various ways had been flitting before his eyes.
“I opine that the letter will explain the object of my coming here more
briefly than I could.”
“Do me the favour to tell it in words, Sir,” said Luttrell, coldly; and
the other bowed and began.
Our reader may not be as patient a listener as was Luttrell, nor,
indeed, need he hear Mr. M’Kinlay’s account of a mission with which he
is already familiar; enough, then, if we say that he was listened to
for above an hour in perfect silence, not one word of remark, not a
question, not even a gesture interrupted the flow of the narrative, and
although at some moments the lawyer grew pathetic over peasant hardships
and privations, and at others was jocose over their drolleries, Luttrell
neither vouchsafed any show of sentiment or of mirth, but heard him
throughout, as might the Chancellor have heard a pleading in Equity.
Vyner had cautioned M’Kinlay not to divulge the name of the girl in
whose behalf Luttrell was entreated to act, until he had given some
pledge of his willingness to accept the trust. He knew well the proud
susceptibility of the man, and how instantaneously he would reject what
savoured of an advantage to those connected with him, not to speak of
the additional pain he would feel in knowing that these peasants had
been paraded as his near relatives, and so Vyner had said, “Keep the
name of the girl in the background, and even when asked for it, do not
appear aware of her being his connexion. Leave it entirely to him to
avow it or not, as he pleases. Remember,” said he, as he parted with
him, “you will have to treat with not only a very acute, ready-witted
man, but one of the most sensitive and easily irritated temperaments in
the universe.”
In fact, so profuse had Vyner been of his directions, his counsels, and
his warnings, that he frightened M’Kinlay considerably, impressing him
with a very wholesome fear of the man he was to deal with. “I’ll let him
pick out the facts from the brief itself,” thought he, as he handed the
letter. “I’ll not open the case by a speech.” This clever tactic was,
however, routed at once by Luttrell, as he said, “Let me hear the
statement from yourself, Sir. I will give it all my attention.”
Thus called upon, he spoke, and, apart from those little digressionary
excursions into the pathetic and the humorous, he spoke well. He owned,
that though Vyner’s desire to be an Irish proprietor met a certain
encouragement from himself, that he looked with little favour on the
other project, and less even of hope.
Indeed, of this plan, not being a father himself, he spoke less
confidently. “But, after all,” said he, smiling, “they are one and the
other but a rich man’s fancy. He can afford an unprofitable investment,
and a somewhat costly experiment.”
In all he said, Mr. M’Kinlay took pains to show that Sir Gervais was
acting under his own judgment; that he, M’Kinlay, was a cool, calm,
long-headed man of the world, and only looked on these matters as a
case he “was to carry,” not criticise; a question he was to consign to
parchment, and not ratify by an opinion.
Perhaps, he was a little prolix in his excuses and exculpation, dwelling
somewhat needlessly on the guarded prudence he had himself maintained
throughout the affair, for Luttrell at last said, and rather abruptly,
“Come to _me_ now, Sir. Let me hear what part is assigned to me in these
matters, for assuredly I cannot guess it.”
“My friend and client wishes you to be a trustee in this case; that you
will act for the young girl on whom he purposes to make the settlement,
and, in fact, consent to a sort of guardianship with respect to her.”
Luttrell gave a smile--it was a smile of much meaning, and full of
inexpressible sadness. “What a strange choice to have made,” said he,
mournfully. “When a captain loses a frigate, the Admiralty are usually
slow to give him another; at all events, they don’t pass over scores
of able and fortunate officers to fix upon this one unlucky fellow,
to entrust him with a new ship. Now this is precisely what your friend
would do. With a large and wide acquaintance, surrounded with friends,
as few men are, esteemed and loved by many, he goes out of his way to
seek for one whose very name carries disaster with it. If, instead of
conferring a benefit upon this poor child, he owed her a deep grudge,
then, and then only, I could understand his choice of me! Do you know,
Sir,” and here his voice became loud and full and ringing--“do you
know, Sir, it would be difficult to find a man who has accumulated more
failures on his head than he who now stands before you, and these not
from what we usually call fate, or bad luck, or misfortune, but simply
and purely from an intractable temper, a nature that refused to be
taught by its own hard experiences, and a certain stubborn spirit that
ever took more pleasure in breasting the flood, than others took in
swimming with the full tide of fortune. It takes very little knowledge
of life to teach a man one lesson--which is, to avoid such men as me!
They whose qualities ensure failure are truly ‘unlucky! Tell Sir Gervais
Vyner it is not out of apathy or indolence that I refuse him, it is
simply because, when he makes _me_ the partner of his enterprise, it
ensures disaster for it.”
Mr. M’Kinlay replied to this passionate outburst as lamely as men
usually do to such like appeals; that is, he strung platitudes and
common-places together, which, happily for him, the other never deigned
to pay the slightest attention to.
One only observation did reach Luttrell’s ears. It was a remark to which
the speaker imparted little force; for when he made it, he had come to
the end of his persuasive resources, and was in the position of those
gunners who, when their ammunition is expended, charge the piece with
the nearest rubbish they can lay hands upon. The remark was to this
purpose: that, simple as the act seems, the choice of a trustee is one
of the most puzzling things in the world, and nothing is often more
embarrassing than being refused by one upon whom, without ever directly
asking, we have confidently counted for that office.
Luttrell started; he suddenly bethought him of Harry. What would be more
forlorn or friendless in the world than that poor boy’s lot, if he were
left fatherless? Except Vyner, was there one he could ask to befriend
him? Indeed, whenever the contingency crossed his mind, and the thought
of death presented itself full before him, he at once reverted to the
hope that Vyner would not refuse this his last request. If, however, by
declining what was now asked of him any coldness or estrangement ensued,
he could not, of course, make this demand. “I shall have forfeited
all my claim upon him,” said he to himself, “if I deny him this small
service, and perhaps he will not understand, and, at all events, not
give any weight to the scruples I have detailed. He may say these are
but the gloomy fancies of a solitary, cheerless life.”--“Yes,” said he,
on the closing a discussion with himself and now speaking the result
aloud--“Yes. It shall be a bargain between us. Let Vyner be the guardian
of my boy, and I will accept this charge; and, to show what confidence
I place in his generosity, I shall accede at once; and when you get back
to England, you will tell him the compact I have made with him.”
“I do not feel myself in a position, Mr. Luttrell, to make a formal
pledge on the part of Sir Gervais Vyner,” began M’Kinlay----
“I shall not ask you, Sir,” broke in Luttrell, proudly; “we have been
friends some five-and-twenty years, without any assistance from lawyers,
and it is possible we may continue the attachment without their aid.
Tell me now of this trust, for I am ashamed to say how little attention
I have given the subject hitherto.”
It was a pleasure to Mr. M’Kinlay to leave diplomacy, and get back
again into those pleasant pasturages where duties are “recited,” and
obligations laid down, with all the rules of action stated, and with
the rigid cautions impressed, due stress being stamped at every step on
separate responsibility, and reiterated warning given, how “each acted
for himself, and not one for the other,” till Luttrell’s less practised
brain actually whirled with the repetitions and reiterations; nor was
he more comforted by learning that on certain difficulties, not at
all improbable, arising, he would have to recur to the law courts for
guidance--a gloomy prospect which all Mr. M’Kinlay’s fluent readiness
could not dispel, as he said, “A mere matter of form, I assure you, and
only requiring a short bill in Equity, and a hearing before the Master.”
“There, there, that will do,” cried he, at last; “don’t terrify me any
more. A surgeon never made his operation less painful by describing
every step of it beforehand to the patient; but, Sir, I accede; and now
forgive me if I leave you for one moment; I have a word to say to your
fellow-traveller, whom I see out yonder.”
The American was seated on a rock, smoking, and Harry beside him, when
Luttrell drew nigh.
“Come here, Harry,” cried he to the boy; “I want to speak to you.”
“Oh, papa,” said the boy, as he came up, “if you only heard all the
pleasant stories he has! There’s nowhere he hasn’t been. In countries
where the trees are covered with fruit, and monkeys and peacocks all
over them; in lands where there are mines of gold, and silver, and
diamonds, all for the taking; in seas, too, where you look down and see
great reefs that look like rocks, but are really precious stones. And
now he was telling me of a beautiful island, far, far away, so rich in
flowers and spices, that you can know for more than a hundred miles off
when you are coming to it.”
“Has he asked you to go away with him, Harry?”
“No, papa.”
“But you would like to do so? Speak out, boy; tell me frankly. Do you
wish it?”
“Would he take me, papa?” asked he, timidly.
“Yes.”
“And would you let me?” and he spoke with even a fainter voice, and
greater anxiety in his look.
“First answer me my question, Harry. Do you wish to go?”
“Yes, papa, greatly.”
Luttrell turned away his head and drew his hand across his eyes, and for
several minutes did not look round again. When he did, it was to see the
boy standing calm, firm, and erect before him. Not a trace of emotion on
his features, as his eyes confronted his own.
“I suppose you are right,” said Luttrell, half speaking to himself. “I
suppose you are right. It is very dreary here!”
“And there are no wild beasts to hunt, nor red men to fight, nor
beautiful birds to catch, papa; nor any gold----”
“No, boy! There is not any gold, assuredly. But, remember, Harry,
how many there are here who never saw gold, never heard of it; brave
fellows, too, who are not afraid to scale the straightest cliff, nor
venture out on the stormiest sea.”
“And for what, papa? For a curlew’s nest, or a hamper of fish; and he,
yonder, tells me, that one good voyage of his barque would buy out all
the islands here for ever.”
“So, then, you have eaten of the apple already,” cried he, with a bitter
laugh. “Well, as he has tempted, he may take you. Send him to me.”
The boy almost flew in his speed back, and gulping out a word or two,
pointed to his father.
“Are you of the same mind, now, that you were an hour or two back? Do
you wish to have that boy of mine on board your ship?” asked Luttrell.
“I’ll give you a thousand dollars for him down, Sir, and you shall keep
the gimcracks.”
“You may take him. There must be no money-dealings between us now,
Sir--I will sell you nothing. Come into the house with me; a very, few
minutes will be sufficient.”
As they walked side by side towards the house, the American, with a
quaint brevity, told all that Luttrell could have desired to know
of him. He and his craft, the _Quincey Squash_, were well known at
Liverpool and London, he was sole owner, and traded in everything,
from “lumber” to Leghorn bonnets; he went everywhere, and ventured in
everything; in fact, he liked an “assorted cargo of notions” better than
a single freight. “I won’t say he’ll come back a rich man to you, Sir,
in five years, but you may call me a Creole if he don’t know a bit of
life. Just look here,” said he, as he opened a pocket-map and spread it
over the table, “there’s ten years of my life marked out on that chart;
these lines--some of ‘em pretty long ones--is my voyages.” Captain--for
we must now give him his accustomed title--Captain Dodge spoke fluently,
and vaingloriously, too, of all he had travelled, and all he had seen;
of how he had traded for ivory on the Gold Coast, and for furs up at
Hudson’s Bay; how he had panted in the tropics, and shivered at
Behring’s Straits. If a little proud of his successes against Malays
and Moors, it was not quite certain that he “had not done” a little mild
buccaneering occasionally, when “freights were low and trade was heavy.”
Not that Luttrell gathered much of what he narrated, for a strange
confusion was in his brain, and as he gazed at the chart and tried to
follow the lines, a dimness obscured his sight, and he had to turn away
and wipe his eyes.
“Wud your honour like the dinner now?” whispered Molly Ryan from the
door; “the strange gentleman that was sick is dyin’ of hunger.”
“Yes, we’re quite ready,” said Luttrell; and taking a key from a nail,
he betook himself to a little closet which formed his cellar. A few
bottles of port, and two or three of Burgundy--remnants of a stock which
once had been famous--were all that survived, but he took them forth,
saying, “I am unlikely to play the host again, let us make festival for
the last time.”