"Sits like a duck, don't she, gentlemen?" said the captain proudly, as
they approached the riverside. "I don't say but what you may find
faster boats, but I do say you won't find a better-built or
better-proportioned brig afloat. Look at her."
The captain had good cause to be proud of his vessel, and he showed his
pride by having her in particularly trim order, while his crew of a
dozen men were smart, good-looking young fellows, as trim as their
vessel, and very different from the ordinary run of merchant seamen,
being quite the stamp of the smart, active, healthy-looking Jacks of Her
Majesty's Fleet.
Everything was smartly done, beginning with the manning and rowing
ashore of the captain's boat, while as the little party ran alongside
and stepped on deck the crew were gathered together ready to salute the
brothers with a cheer.
"Why, captain," said Sir Humphrey, after a sharp glance of satisfaction
around him, "you surprise me. The `Jason' looks more like a yacht than
a merchant brig."
"No, no, no, no, no, sir," said the captain, in a remonstrant tone; "as
clean and smart, p'raps; but there isn't the show. Look here, though,"
he continued, nodding to one of the brothers and taking the other by the
edge of his coat, "things happen rum sometimes, don't they?"
"Certainly," said Sir Humphrey, smiling at the skipper's mysterious way
of taking them into his confidence. "With regard to what? Has anything
happened rum, as you call it?"
"To be sure it has," said the skipper, screwing up his eyes. "You want
a boat suitable for going up rivers, don't you?"
"Certainly," said Sir Humphrey, "and I seem to have found her."
"You have, sir, and no mistake, accidentally, spontaneous-like, as you
might say. Do you know, I planned the rigging-out of that boat so that
she might go up big rivers in South America?"
"Indeed?" said Sir Humphrey, looking at the speaker curiously.
"Ah, you think I'm blowing, sir, as the Yankees call it--bragging."
"I have no right to doubt your word, captain," said Sir Humphrey
stiffly.
"Thankye, sir," said the captain; "but you do," he added sharply,
turning upon Brace.
"That I don't," said the latter quietly. "I don't know much about you,
captain, but you look too much of the straightforward Englishman to
boast."
The captain's eyes closed quite up now--well, not quite, for a sharp
flash came from out of the narrow slits as their owner chuckled softly
and clapped his young passenger heartily upon the shoulder.
"And thank you, youngster," he cried. "You and me's going to be good
friends, I see. No, my lad, there's no brag in my make. I've got
plenty of faults, including a bad temper; but sham was left out when I
was made. But about the `Jason': I did contrive her for river work."
"So much the better," said Sir Humphrey. "She draws little water, I
suppose?"
"Bit too much, sir; but I didn't mean that. I was alluding to her rig."
"Indeed!" said Sir Humphrey.
"Why, you ought to have had her schooner-rigged," said Brace sharply.
"Nay, I oughtn't," said the Skipper, screwing up his features more
tightly. "Schooner wouldn't do so well for these river waters. A
brig's best."
"Why?" said Sir Humphrey.
"Square sails up aloft come in handiest. I've seen the Hightalians who
do the fruit trade up the big rivers that run north from the Plate--La
Plata, you call it. They sail up for months to go and buy oranges to
bring down for Europe and the States. They use brigs with spars so long
you'd think they'd topple their boats over. Do you know why?"
Brace shook his head.
"Then I'll tell you, my lad. They sail up and up, and the banks close
in till at last they're going up what looks like a great canal with the
forest trees right down to the water's edge, shutting them quite in."
"That is just the sort of place we want to sail up, eh, Free?" said
Brace.
"Exactly," replied his brother.
"Plenty of 'em up where you're going," said the skipper, "and you'll be
able to sit on deck and fish and shoot without going ashore. But a
schooner of the regular sort would be no use there."
"Why?" asked Brace.
"Because a schooner would be becalmed. Her big fore and aft sails would
have all the wind shut out from them by the trees. With a brig like
this all you have to do is to run up a couple of topgallant spars like
those you see tucked under the bulwarks there, long thin tapering
fellows like fishing-rods, and hoist a couple of square sails high up on
them, and you catch the wind, and on you go."
"Yes, I see," said Brace. "Then those long thin masts are ready for
such an emergency."
"That's right, squire," said the captain, smiling; "only I don't call
that an emergency, only a matter of plain sailing. It makes one ready
to go straight on, for I don't know anything more wherriting to a sailor
than having a nice breeze blowing overhead and not coming down low
enough to fill his sails. I've been like that before now in one of
these rivers, but I don't think I shall be again. Of course one must
expect a stoppage now and then in the dry times when the water falls and
leaves the river shallow. There's no fighting against that, and no
seamanship will teach a skipper how to find the deep channels in a river
where the banks and shoals are always shifting. But come and look at
the quarters below. You won't find any polished wood and gilding,
squire," he continued, turning to Brace, with a dry smile.
"Do you suppose I expected any?" said Brace shortly.
"Well, no, I suppose not. But there is some polish, because the lads
put that on with elbow-grease. No stuffing neither on the seats."
"Of course not," said Brace. "We did not try to find a fancy yacht."
"That's right," said the captain; "but anyhow, when a man's tired, a
wooden seat is a bit hard, so I've got some horsehair cushions to go on
the lids of the lockers. I like 'em myself. Now then, gentlemen, can
you make shift here?"
"Yes, and a very good shift too," said Sir Humphrey as he and his
brother stood looking round the fairly roomy cabin, whose fittings were
of Quakerish simplicity, but scrupulously clean.
"As clean as on board a man-o'-war," said Brace.
"To be sure," said the skipper drily. "Why not?--Then you think it will
do, gentlemen?"
"Excellently," said Sir Humphrey.
"That's right, gentlemen. There are your berths in there. That's mine,
and those two belong to my mates," he continued, pointing out the
different divisions in the stern of the brig. "I've got a good cook
too, for I like decent eating and drinking. He can't make what you call
side dishes and French kickshaws. But he can make turtle-soup when we
catch a turtle, and I'll back him against any cook in the British Navy
to make a good cup of coffee."
"That will do," said Brace.
"Frizzle a rasher o' bacon."
"So will that."
"And make bread cakes."
"Why, Brace, we shall be in clover," said Sir Humphrey, laughing.
"But he has his faults, sir," said the captain solemnly.
"All cooks have," said Sir Humphrey, smiling. "What is his worst?"
"His plum-duff isn't fit to give a pig."
"Is it like the one of which the passenger complained?" said Brace,
laughing.
"Eh? I dunno," said the skipper, staring. "I don't know that I ever
heard of that one. What sort of a pudding was that?"
"It must have been worse than your cook's, for the passenger said he did
not mind putting up with flies for currants, but when it came to
cockroaches for raisins he felt bound to strike."
The skipper screwed his face up till there were so many wrinkles that
there did not seem to be room for another.
"No," he said, "my cook's plum-duff was never so bad as that, squire;
but there's no knowing what may happen. If it ever does get so bad you
and me'll drop him overboard. Now then, gentlemen, like to see the
men's quarters?"
"Oh, no, captain," said Sir Humphrey; "we're quite satisfied."
"You take the rest from the sample you've seen?"
"Certainly," replied Sir Humphrey.
"Then the next thing is to get your traps on board, sir--later on, as I
said."
"Exactly. We'll go back ashore, and you can look at them, and then I
suppose we may leave it to you."
"Yes, gentlemen; I'll give orders to my first mate, and he'll have 'em
brought aboard and stored in a compartment below that I've got
partitioned off with bulkheads. There's a hatch in the deck, and a way
in as well from the cabins, so that you can get to the stores when you
like."
"What about the ammunition?"
"There's a place below communicating with the compartment by a trap,
sir. Come and see."
The captain led the way into the dark store-like place, which proved to
be eminently satisfactory, cut off as it was from the brig's hold. Soon
afterwards the brothers went ashore, congratulating themselves upon how
capitally matters had turned out; and the first face they saw upon
landing was that of the American, who was seated under a tree smoking an
enormously long cigar and making the fumes of the tobacco hang round
beneath the wide brim of his white Panama hat.
"Keeps the flies off," he said, nodding to Brace. "Try one?"
"Thanks, no," said Brace, as he had a whiff of the strong, rank tobacco.
"I'd rather have the flies."
"So would I, Brace," said Sir Humphrey angrily, as they went into the
hotel; "and the smoke too, rather than that man's company. Bah! how he
does annoy me with his inquisitive ways!"