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[Illustration: ARCHIE, FRED, AND EUGENE ON THE MAIN-CROSS-TREES
OF THE STRANGER.]
Frank Nelson Series.
FRANK NELSON IN THE FORECASTLE;
Or, The Sportsman's Club Among the Whalers.
by
HARRY CASTLEMON,
Author of "The Sportsman's Club Series," "Gunboat Series," "Rolling
Stone Series," &c.
Philadelphia:
Porter & Coates.
Cincinnati:
R. W. Carroll & Co.
* * * * * *
FAMOUS CASTLEMON BOOKS.
=GUNBOAT SERIES.= By HARRY CASTLEMON. Illustrated. 6 vols. 16mo.
Cloth, extra, black and gold.
FRANK THE YOUNG NATURALIST. FRANK ON A GUNBOAT. FRANK IN THE WOODS.
FRANK BEFORE VICKSBURG. FRANK ON THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI. FRANK ON THE
PRAIRIE.
=ROCKY MOUNTAIN SERIES.= By HARRY CASTLEMON. Illustrated. 3 vols.
16mo. Cloth, extra, black and gold.
FRANK AMONG THE RANCHEROS.
FRANK AT DON CARLOS' RANCHO.
FRANK IN THE MOUNTAINS.
=SPORTSMAN'S CLUB SERIES.= By HARRY CASTLEMON. Illustrated. 3 vols.
16mo. Cloth, extra, black and gold.
THE SPORTSMAN'S CLUB IN THE SADDLE.
THE SPORTSMAN'S CLUB AFLOAT.
THE SPORTSMAN'S CLUB AMONG THE TRAPPERS.
=GO-AHEAD SERIES.= By HARRY CASTLEMON. Illustrated. 3 vols. 16mo.
Cloth, extra, black and gold.
TOM NEWCOMBE. GO-AHEAD. NO MOSS.
=FRANK NELSON SERIES.= By HARRY CASTLEMON. Illustrated. 3 vols. 16mo.
Cloth, extra, black and gold.
SNOWED UP. FRANK IN THE FORECASTLE. BOY TRADERS.
=BOY TRAPPER SERIES.= By HARRY CASTLEMON. Illustrated. 3 vols. 16mo.
Cloth, extra, black and gold.
THE BURIED TREASURE; OR, OLD JORDAN'S HAUNT.
THE BOY TRAPPER; OR, HOW DAVE FILLED THE ORDER.
THE MAIL-CARRIER.
=ROUGHING IT SERIES.= By HARRY CASTLEMON. Illustrated. 16mo. Cloth,
extra, black and gold.
GEORGE IN CAMP.
_Other Volumes in Preparation._
* * * * * *
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876 by
R. W. Carroll & Co.,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
A Backwoodsman's Ideas Page 5
CHAPTER II.
"Man Overboard" 24
CHAPTER III.
A Sea Lawyer 41
CHAPTER IV.
"Shanghaied" 61
CHAPTER V.
The Trapper's Adventure 82
CHAPTER VI.
A Scamp on his Dignity 99
CHAPTER VII.
Too late 118
CHAPTER VIII.
Gentleman Black 141
CHAPTER IX.
"There she Blows" 159
CHAPTER X.
Frank's first Whale 178
CHAPTER XI.
Cutting In and Trying Out 198
CHAPTER XII.
How Frank saw the Consul 218
CHAPTER XIII.
Turned Adrift 241
CHAPTER XIV.
Old Times Revived 262
CHAPTER XV.
Frank on the Quarter-deck 285
CHAPTER XVI.
Conclusion 310
FRANK NELSON
IN THE FORECASTLE;
OR, THE
SPORTSMAN'S CLUB AMONG THE WHALERS.
CHAPTER I.
A BACKWOODSMAN'S IDEAS.
"I DECLARE this is almost like coming into another world, isn't it?"
"Yes, and I, for one, am glad to get back. I like a good horse, and no
one enjoys a few days' shooting and fishing better than I do; but when
I get tired of the saddle and the woods, I like to see the blue water
and feel the solid planks of a yacht's deck under my feet once more. We
had a good time though, in spite of all our adventures and mishaps."
"We certainly did. I am like Perk, who, after he had been down into the
Cave of the Winds, under Niagara Falls, said he would do it again for
no money, but seeing that he _had_ been down, he would not sell his
experience at any price. I couldn't be hired to make that same trip
to Fort Bolton again--being "snowed up" was the worst part of it to
me--but since it is all over and we are safely out of it, I am glad we
went."
This was a portion of the conversation carried on by our friends
Archie, Fred and Eugene, as they sat in the main-cross-trees of the
Stranger, swinging their feet in the air and looking out over the
shipping anchored off North Point Dock, in the harbor of San Francisco.
They had only just arrived that day, their trip across the mountains
being happily ended. They had discarded the half-savage, half-civilized
costumes they had worn during their sojourn in the wilderness and
substituted pea-jackets for their hunting-shirts, light shoes for their
high-top boots, and natty tarpaulins for their slouch hats. They looked
as though they had just come out of some lady's band-box, and one and
all declared that it was most refreshing to find themselves dressed up
like white folks once more.
The first thing these three uneasy youngsters did after they had donned
their "shore clothes," and put the suits they had worn in the mountains
carefully away in their trunks for safe-keeping, was to run all over
the vessel, looking into every locker and corner, just as they had done
when they first saw her on the stocks at New Orleans, and the next to
mount to the cross-trees to survey the harbor. Here they had sat for
half an hour, enjoying the prospect spread out before them, and talking
over their recent adventures and exploits. The other members of the
Club, Walter, Frank Nelson, George Le Dell and the rest, were seated
on the quarter-deck with Uncle Dick, talking to Dick Lewis and old Bob
Kelly.
Dick and Bob were objects of great interest to the sailors who composed
the Stranger's crew. They stared at everything with wide-open eyes, and
were as much out of place on the schooner's deck as the jolly tars
would have been in the mountains from which the backwoodsmen had just
arrived.
The Club had had a varied and eventful experience during the
comparatively short time that they had been absent from the Stranger,
and even now the hearts of some of them would beat a trifle faster
whenever they thought of what they had passed through. Walter drew a
long breath every time he recalled his experience in Potter's rancho;
Fred and Eugene shivered and drew their collars up around their ears
when they thought of the sight presented to their gaze on the day
they set out from their camp under the cliffs, to show the Pike and
his family the way to Fort Bolton, and imagined that they could see
the air filled with driving snow, and could hear the roaring of the
wind as it swept the prairie, just as they had seen it and heard it on
that long-to-be-remembered afternoon. Archie grew excited and elated
whenever he thought of the way he had captured the wild horse, and
then exasperated when he remembered how he had lost him before he had
had a chance to try even one race with his cousin. Frank shrugged his
shoulders when any of his companions called him "Chinny Billy," as they
often did, and thanked his lucky stars that he was well out of the
predicament which the genuine Chinny Billy had so nearly got him into,
when he denounced him as an impostor and spy in the presence of all the
members of Potter's gang; and even Uncle Dick Gaylord, hardened as he
was by a long life of adventure, did not like to recall the feelings of
anxiety and suspense that he had experienced on more than one occasion,
during the journey to Bolton and back. The two trappers were probably
the only ones in the party for whom the last few months had no especial
interest. Their lives were made up of just such scenes and incidents,
and they never thought of them again, unless something happened to
bring them vividly to their recollection.
The last night that the friends passed at Fort Bolton was given up
to enjoyment. The colonel and major entertained Uncle Dick at their
quarters, and the younger officers took charge of the boys. After
supper it was noticed that some of the officers and their guests
distributed themselves in little groups about the room, that the
members of each group carried on a very earnest conversation in a low
tone of voice, and that various little keepsakes were passed from one
to the other, which each promised to preserve in remembrance of the
giver. The gifts that passed between Frank and Lieutenant Gaylord
were the most valuable of any. These two young fellows had been fast
friends and almost constant companions ever since the night on which
the lieutenant recaptured Dick Lewis after his flight from the guard
house, and arrested Frank for assisting him to make his escape. Frank
had something he knew the lieutenant wanted, and that was the splendid
horse which Potter had given him. Frank could not take the animal
around the world with him, and besides he was already the happy owner
of a steed which was just as handsome and swift, and which held a much
higher place in his affections. That was Roderick. It was Uncle Dick's
intention to travel on horseback until the party reached a point from
which they could continue their journey by stage or railroad, and then
sell off their stock--their wagon, which would have been an almost
useless encumbrance to them, now that the roads were blocked with snow,
having been exchanged for pack mules--Frank would then have no further
use for his horse, so he offered him to the lieutenant, who was glad to
accept him.
The journey to San Francisco was made without the occurrence of any
exciting or noteworthy incidents. Among them all they managed to shoot
a few black-tails, and one grizzly bear, whose skin and claws were
preserved by the old members of the Club as trophies. They found the
snow fully as deep as they expected, the travelling difficult, and the
weather extremely cold; but their progress was steady, although slow,
until they reached the railroad, and then in a few hours they found
themselves in an almost tropical climate.
When they reached the railroad, Dick and Old Bob would have taken leave
of them, but the boys would not listen to it. They were determined
that, if they could have their own way, the trappers should remain
with them for a long time to come. They owed much to these two men, and
as they could not repay them in any other way, they would take them
around the world, introducing them to scenes and people of which they
had never dreamed. Of course this idea originated with rattle-brained
Eugene Gaylord, and Uncle Dick, who could not find it in his heart
to refuse his nephews anything they asked for, consented to the
arrangement, though not without a good deal of grumbling.
"They'll only be in the way, Eugene," said the old sailor. "They just
fit the mountains and the prairie--they were made for them; but how
will they look on the deck of the Stranger? There isn't room enough
aboard our little craft for that giant, Louis."
"O, Uncle, there are two or three empty bunks in the forecastle, and
they can sleep there as well as not," replied Eugene.
"But they will be so uneasy that they'll not enjoy themselves in the
least," continued Uncle Dick. "They will be frightened to death when
they find themselves out of sight of land, and the men will be playing
tricks on them all the while."
"But the men mustn't play tricks on them. We won't let them; and
besides it would be dangerous. As for being out of sight of land, that
need not trouble them. They'll not be in half as much danger as they
were while they were with Potter's gang. Then think of the fun we'll
have, Uncle! Didn't you notice how they opened their eyes the other
night when Bab was telling them of the elephants we expect to see in
India?"
"Well, well! do as you please," said the old sailor. "If they are
foolish enough to go, I shall have a fine time of it among you all; I
can see that plainly." And then he turned away to hunt up Frank Nelson,
to whom he always went when he had anything on his mind.
Eugene having gained his point went straight to Archie and Fred, who
declared that it was the best thing they ever heard of. The matter was
laid before the trappers with as little delay as possible, and the
proposition almost took their breath away. They opened their mouths and
eyes and looked wonderingly at each other, but said nothing. Archie
thought that was enough for one day, and although his friends wanted an
immediate answer, he succeeded in inducing them to retire and leave the
trappers to themselves. He thought it best to give them leisure to turn
the matter over in their minds (it seemed to be more than they could
grasp at once) and go to them for an answer at some future time.
Dick and old Bob seemed to grow timid as they approached the confines
of civilization, but they were coaxed on board the train, and when
the party reached San Francisco, they were taken off to the Stranger.
The matter of the voyage around the world had been brought for up
discussion a few times, but Dick had found his tongue at last, and
declared that it was not to be thought of. The boys knew better than to
press the subject, and hoped that time would accomplish what arguments
could never do. A few hours on board the Stranger in the harbor,
where vessels were constantly coming and going, might increase their
confidence, while it familiarized them in some slight degree with
life on ship-board, and perhaps they could then be induced to change
their minds. Archie had tried to persuade Dick to follow him and his
companions to the cross-trees; but the trapper, after glancing down at
his colossal proportions, and then up at the ratlines, which looked no
larger than so many threads, declared that the ropes wouldn't bear his
weight, and remained below.
"Now, this feels natural!" exclaimed Featherweight swinging back
and forth on his dizzy perch with such apparent recklessness that
Dick Lewis, who now and then looked up at him, fairly shook in his
moccasins; "and I am ready for new adventures and new sights beyond the
seas. Our fellows can say, what the books tell us comparatively few
American travellers can say, and that is, we have seen the most of the
wonders of our own country. I never expect to see anything grander than
the Yo Semite Valley. I wonder how long it will be before Uncle Dick
will hoist the signal for sailing?"
"Just as soon as the stores are aboard," said Eugene. "We may get off
to-morrow."
"Will Dick and Bob go with us?"
"No," said Archie. "We might as well give that up. And since I have
come to think of it, I don't want them to go unless they are perfectly
willing to do so."
"Nor I," said Eugene. "If it frightens them so badly to travel on
a railroad train, what would be their feelings when they found the
schooner tossing about on such waves as we saw coming around the Horn?
I shall urge them no more."
"They have been talking to Frank about it," continued Fred. "They
always go to him and believe every word he says--that is, almost every
word."
"Ah! yes; I was going to put that in," said Archie. "They don't like to
believe that the world is round. They don't say so with their mouths,
but they do with their eyes."
"And they don't know what to think about elephants as large as that
house of Potter's, and lions and tigers, and snakes twenty feet long,"
said Fred.
"And a whale bothers them," chimed in Eugene; "and Dick laughed the
other day when I told him about a flying-fish."
"What's going on down there?" asked Archie, as the sound of voices in
animated conversation came up from the deck.
The boys looked below and saw that the group, which they had last seen
scattered over the quarter-deck, were gathered about Dick Lewis, who
appeared to be making them a speech. Now and then he illustrated his
remarks by pointing to something he had placed at his feet; but the
boys could not see what it was, for the Club were crowded about it and
hid it from view. They were missing something, that was evident; but
they did not intend to miss any more of it, and it was but the work
of a few seconds to swing themselves out of the crosstrees on to the
ratlines, and descend to the deck. They ran up to the group, and found
that the object over which the trapper was holding forth was simply a
mess-pan filled with water.
"Them stories you've been a tellin' seems wonderful to me an' ole Bob,
who never heard the like afore," Dick was saying as the boys came up.
"We don't conspute 'em, 'cause bein' unedicated men, we never had no
book larnin', an' don't know nothing outside the mountains an' the
prairy. Now, you tell me that thar's three times as much water on the
'arth as thar is ground; that you're goin' to start from Fr'isco an'
sail clean around it in this yere little boat, an' that if me an' ole
Bob'll go with you, we won't even know that we're sailing round the
world. Won't we know when we come to the edge?"
"There isn't any edge to it," said Frank.
"Sho! Thar can't help bein' an edge if the world is round, can thar?
This yere," said Dick, pointing to the pan of water, "is the sea;
an' this yere," he continued, fumbling in the pockets of his hunting
shirt, "is the 'arth."
As he spoke he drew out a piece of hard tack, which he had rudely
shaped with his knife to represent his idea of the rotundity of the
earth. The corners were cut off, making the biscuit nearly round, and
there was a piece clipped out of the side of it, in shape something
like a bottle with a very short neck and wide body, to represent the
Golden Gate and the harbor of San Francisco. This miniature world Dick
placed in the middle of the pan of water, and then straightened up and
looked triumphantly at his audience. Eugene glanced at it, choked back
a laugh and then rushed off to find the steward, while the trapper went
on with his illustration.
"Now, thar's the 'arth," said he, placing his finger on the biscuit,
"flat like a pan-cake, as anybody can see it is, that's ever been out
on the prairy, an' round like _you_ say it is. Here is the sea all
around it, an' here's Fr'isco. Now, after you go out of the Golden Gate
an' start to sail round the 'arth," said Dick, moving his long finger
through the water around the biscuit, "can't you see the edge all the
way round? I can understand that, which wasn't so very plain to me a
few days ago, but now comes something I can't see into. You say the
'arth turns over onct every day, but that don't by no means stand to
reason, 'cause jest see what would happen,"--he went on, placing his
finger under the biscuit and raising one edge of it out of the water.
"If it turned over, one side of it would keep gettin' higher an' higher
all the time, an' finally the houses, an' trees, an' mountains, an'
folks would get to slidin' an' slidin', an' when they come to the edge,
they'd all slip off into the water; an' when the 'arth turned _cl'ar_
over"--here he flopped the biscuit up side down in the pan--"whar would
we all be?"
None of his auditors had attempted to interrupt the trapper, and the
reason was because there was not one among them who could trust himself
to speak, not even Uncle Dick. Believing from their silence that he
had got the better of all of them, the trapper said he was more firmly
convinced than he had ever been before, that all the learning in the
world was not to be found in books, and was about to throw the contents
of his mess-pan over the side, when Eugene came elbowing his way into
the group, carrying an apple in one hand and a small magnet in the
other.
"Now, Dick," said he, "let me talk a minute. You haven't quite got the
idea. In the first place, that piece of hard tack doesn't represent the
shape of the earth, but this apple does, pretty nearly. In the next
place, the globe doesn't revolve through water, for the water forms
part of the earth and turns with it."
"Sho!" exclaimed the trapper. "It would all spill out."
"Hold on a minute, and I'll show you that it can't spill out. The world
revolves through the air. Don't you fellows criticise now," continued
Eugene, turning to his companions. "If, when I get through, you want
to explain that the earth really revolves through space, and that the
air goes with it, except such portions as are left behind and form the
trade-winds, you are welcome to do it; but it is quite beyond me."
Eugene handed the magnet to Archie to hold until he was ready to use
it, and with the point of his knife rudely traced upon the apple the
shape of the continents and the principal oceans. This done, he went
on with his explanation, which was simply a repetition of what every
boy learns when he first begins the study of geography. He described
the motions of the earth as well as he could, and used the magnet to
illustrate the attraction of gravitation. Dick listened attentively,
and when Eugene finished, took the apple from his hand and looked at
it with a great deal of interest. He turned it over several times, and
appeared to be meditating upon something.
"They're goin' to sail round the 'arth this way," said he, moving
his finger slowly around the circumference of the apple, and talking
more to himself than to the boys standing about, "an' when they get
around here"--he stopped and thought a moment, holding the end of his
finger under the apple--"when they get around here, they'll be--Human
natur'!" he cried suddenly, as if frightened at the discovery he had
made. "When you get around here, on the under side of the 'arth,
you'll be walkin' with your heads downwards, won't you? Bob can do
as he likes, but _I_ won't go. Mebbe that little red hoss-shoe aint
strong enough to hold the boat fast to the 'arth--don't look as if it
was--an' some dark night she'll get to fallin' an' fallin'--Whew! I'm
as near that place now as I want to be, an' I'm off fur the mountains
to-morrow, bright an' 'arly."
Dick turned away, fairly trembling with excitement, and the boys
scattered as if some one had suddenly sent a charge of bird-shot among
them.