THE INTRUDER AT THE CABIN DOOR
Before he said anything about the Scotian and the Arran, Christy,
mindful of the injunction of his father, had closed the cabin door,
the portière remaining drawn as it was before. When he had taken this
precaution, he related some of the particulars which had been given to
him earlier in the day.
"It is hardly worth while to talk about the matter yet awhile," added
Christy. "I have my sealed orders, and I can not open the envelope until
we are in latitude 38, and that will be sometime to-morrow forenoon."
"I don't think that Captain Folkner, who expected to be in command
of the Teaser, as she was called before we put our hands upon her,
overestimated her speed," replied Lieutenant Flint, consulting his
watch. "We are making fifteen knots an hour just now, and Mr. Sampson
is not hurrying her. I have been watching her very closely since we left
Sandy Hook, and I really believe she will make eighteen knots with a
little crowding."
"What makes you think so, Flint?" asked Christy, much interested in the
statement of the first lieutenant.
"I suppose it is natural for a sailor to fall in love with his ship,
and that is my condition in regard to the Bronx," replied Flint, with
a smile which was intended as a mild apology for his weakness. "I used
to be in love with the coasting schooner I owned and commanded, and I
almost cried when I had to sell her."
"I don't think you need to be ashamed of this sentiment, or that
an inanimate structure should call it into being," said the young
commander. "I am sure I have not ceased to love the Bellevite; and in
my eyes she is handsomer than any young lady I ever saw. I have not been
able to transfer my affections to the Bronx as yet, and she will have to
do something very remarkable before I do so. But about the speed of our
ship?"
"I have noticed particularly how easily and gracefully she makes her way
through the water when she is going fifteen knots. Why that is faster
than most of the ocean passenger steamers travel."
"Very true; but like many of these blockade runners and other vessels
which the Confederate government and rich men at the South have
purchased in the United Kingdom, she was doubtless built on the Clyde.
Not a few of them have been constructed for private yachts, and I have
no doubt, from what I have seen, that the Bronx is one of the number.
The Scotian and the Arran belonged to wealthy Britishers; and of course
they were built in the very best manner, and were intended to attain the
very highest rate of speed."
"I shall count on eighteen knots at least on the part of the Bronx when
the situation shall require her to do her best. By the way, Captain
Passford, don't you think that a rather queer name has been given to our
steamer? Bronx! I am willing to confess that I don't know what the word
means, or whether it is fish, flesh or fowl," continued Flint.
"It is not fish, flesh or fowl," replied Christy, laughing. "My father
suggested the name to the Department, and it was adopted. He talked with
me about a name, as he thought I had some interest in her, for the
reason that I had done something in picking her up."
"Done something? I should say that you had done it all," added Flint.
"I did my share. The vessels of the navy have generally been named after
a system, though it has often been varied. Besides the names of states
and cities, the names of rivers have been given to vessels. The Bronx is
the name of a small stream, hardly more than a brook, in West Chester
County, New York. When I was a small boy, my father had a country place
on its banks, and I did my first paddling in the water in the Bronx.
I liked the name, and my father recommended it."
"I don't object to the name, though somehow it makes me think of a
walnut cracked in your teeth when I hear it pronounced," added Flint.
"Now that I know what it is and what it means, I shall take more kindly
to it, though I am afraid we shall get to calling her the Bronxy before
we have done with her, especially if she gets to be a pet, for the name
seems to need another syllable."
"Young men fall in love with girls without regard to their names."
"That's so. A friend of mine in our town in Maine fell in love with a
young lady by the name of Leatherbee; but she was a very pretty girl and
her name was all the objection I had to her," said Flint, chuckling.
"But that was an objection which your friend evidently intended to
remove at no very distant day," suggested Christy.
"Very true; and he did remove it some years ago. What was that noise?"
asked the first lieutenant, suddenly rising from his seat.
Christy heard the sounds at the same moment. He and his companion in the
cabin had been talking about the Scotian and the Arran, and what his
father had said to him about prudence in speaking of his movements came
to his mind. The noise was continued, and he hastened to the door of his
state room, and threw it open. In the room he found Dave hard at work on
the furniture; he had taken out the berth sack, and was brushing out the
inside of the berth. The noise had been made by the shaking of the slats
on which the mattress rested. Davis Talbot, the cabin steward of the
Bronx, had been captured in the vessel when she was run out of Pensacola
Bay some months before. As he was a very intelligent colored man, or
rather mulatto, though they were all the same at the South, the young
commander had selected him for his present service; and he never had
occasion to regret the choice. Dave had passed his time since the Teaser
arrived at New York at Bonnydale, and he had become a great favorite,
not only with Christy, but with all the members of the family.
"What are you about, Dave?" demanded Christy, not a little astonished to
find the steward in his room.
"I am putting the room in order for the captain, sir," replied Dave
with a cheerful smile, such as he always wore in the presence of his
superiors. "I found something in this berth I did not like to see about
a bed in which a gentleman is to sleep, and I have been through it with
poison and a feather; and I will give you the whole southern Confederacy
if you find a single redback in the berth after this."
"I am very glad you have attended to this matter at once, Dave."
"Yes, sir; Captain Folkner never let me attend to it properly, for he
was afraid I would read some of his papers on the desk. He was willing
to sleep six in a bed with redbacks," chuckled Dave.
"Well, I am not, or even two in a bed with such companions. How long
have you been in my room, Dave?" added Christy.
"More than two hours, I think; and I have been mighty busy too."
"Did you hear me when I came into the cabin?"
"No, sir, I did not; but I heard you talking with somebody a while ago."
"What did I say to the other person?"
"I don't know, sir; I could not make out a word, and I didn't stop in my
work to listen. I have been very busy, Captain Passford," answered Dave,
beginning to think he had been doing something that was not altogether
regular.
"Don't you know what we were talking about, Dave?"
"No, sir; I did not make out a single word you said," protested the
steward, really troubled to find that he had done something wrong,
though he had not the least idea what it was. "I did not mean to do
anything out of the way, Captain Passford."
"I have no fault to find this time, Dave."
"I should hope not, sir," added Dave, looking as solemn as a sleepy owl.
"I would jump overboard before I would offend you, Massa Christy."
"You need not jump overboard just yet," replied the captain, with a
pleasant smile, intended to remove the fears of the steward. "But I want
to make a new rule for you, Dave."
"Thank you, sir; if you sit up nights to make rules for me, I will obey
all of them; and I would give you the whole State of Florida before I
would break one of them on purpose, Massa Christy."
"Massa Christy!" exclaimed the captain, laughing.
"Massa Captain Passford!" shouted Dave, hastening to correct his
over-familiarity.
"I don't object to your calling me Christy when we are alone, for I look
upon you as my friend, and I have tried to treat you as a gentleman,
though you are a subordinate. But are you going to be a nigger again,
and call white men 'Massa?' I told you not to use that word."
"I done forget it when I got excited because I was afraid I had offended
you," pleaded the steward.
"Your education is vastly superior to most people of your class, and you
should not belittle yourself. This is my cabin; and I shall sometimes
have occasion to talk confidentially with my officers. Do you understand
what I mean, Dave?"
"Perfectly, Captain Passford: I know what it is to talk confidently and
what it is to talk confidentially, and you do both, sir," replied the
steward.
"But I am sometimes more confidential than confident. Now you must do
all your work in my state room when I am not in the cabin, and this is
the new rule," said Christy, as he went out of the room. "I know that I
can trust you, Dave; but when I tell a secret I want to know to how many
persons I am telling it. You may finish your work now;" and he closed
the door.
Christy could not have explained why he did so if it had been required
of him, but he went directly to the door leading out into the companion
way, and suddenly threw it wide open, drawing the portière aside at the
same time. Not a little to his surprise, for he had not expected it,
he found a man there; and the intruder was down on his knees, as if in
position to place his ear at the keyhole. This time the young commander
was indignant, and without stopping to consider as long as the precepts
of his father required, he seized the man by the collar, and dragged him
into the cabin.
"What are you doing there?" demanded Christy in the heat of his
indignation.
The intruder, who was a rather stout man, began to shake his head with
all his might, and to put the fore finger of his right hand on his mouth
and one of his ears. He was big enough to have given the young commander
a deal of trouble if he had chosen to resist the force used upon him;
but he appeared to be tame and submissive. He did not speak, but he
seemed to be exerting himself to the utmost to make himself understood.
Flint had resumed his seat at the table, facing the door, and in spite
of himself, apparently, he began to laugh.
"That is Pink Mulgrum, Captain Passford," said he, evidently to prevent
his superior from misinterpreting the lightness of his conduct. "As you
are aware, he is deaf and dumb."
[Illustration: Mulgrum at the captain's door.]
"I see who he is now," replied Christy, who had just identified the man.
"He may be deaf and dumb, but he seems to have a great deal of business
at the door of my cabin."
"I have no doubt he is as deaf as the keel of the ship, and I have not
yet heard him speak a word," added the first lieutenant. "But he is a
stout fellow, very patriotic, and willing to work."
"All that may be, but I have found him once before hanging around that
door to-day."
At this moment Mulgrum took from his pocket a tablet of paper and a
pencil, and wrote upon it, "I am a deaf mute, and I don't know what you
are talking about." Christy read it, and then wrote, "What were you
doing at the door?" He replied that he had been sent by Mr. Lillyworth
to clean the brasses on the door. He was then dismissed.