During the voyage Captain Hampton saw but little of Jacob. Each day he
went to the rope across the deck marking the division between the cabin
and the steerage passengers, and the boy at once came running up to him.
His report always was that he was getting on 'fust rate,' while each day
his wonder at the amount of water increased.
'I would not have believed if I hadn't seen it that there could be so
much water, Captain. I can't think where it all comes from. I heard some
of them say it was tremendous deep--ten times as deep as that monument
with the chap on the top of it in Trafalgar Square. Why, it must have
rained for years and years to have got such a lot of water here as this.
And it tastes bad. I had a wash in a bucket on deck this morning, and
some of the water got in my mouth and it wur as nasty as could be--awful
it wur. What can make it like that? Why the water in the Thames looks
ten times as dirty, but it don't taste particular nasty for all that.'
'I will tell you about it some day, Jacob; it is too long to go into
now. You remind me of it some evening, when we are at a lonely inn, with
nothing to do. How do you get on at night?'
'I sleeps all right, sir; it is awful hot down there in them bunks, as
they call 'em, one above another, just like a threepenny lodging-house
where I used to sleep sometimes when I had had good luck. The first
night or two was bad, there was no mistake about it. Most of 'em was
awful ill, and made noises enough to frighten one. I could not think
what made them so; it seemed to me as if someone must have put pison in
the food, and I kept on expecting I was going to be took bad too; but a
young chap tells me in the morning as most people is so the first day
they goes to sea. If they wur to drink that water I could understand it,
but it is all right what they gives us; and there are some of them as
grumbles at the food, but I calls it just bang up. How much more of this
water is there, sir?'
'About five more days' steaming, Jacob; it is a twelve-days' voyage from
Liverpool to New York. I suppose some day they will get to do it in six,
for they keep on building faster and faster steamers.'
'We are going wonderful fast now,' the boy said; 'a chap's cap as was
sitting up in the end there blew off yesterday, and I ran to keep
alongside with it, but it went a lot faster than I could run. I shall be
glad when it is over, Captain; not as I ain't jolly, for I never was so
jolly before, but I ain't doing nothing for you here, and I wants to be
at work for you somehow. If they would let me wait on you, and put stuff
on those white shoes, I should not so much mind.'
'I am very well waited on, Jacob, and if you were to try to wait on me
at table while the vessel is rolling, you would be pretty sure to spill
a plate of soup down my neck, or something of that sort. You amuse
yourself in your own way, and don't worry about me; when there is
anything to do I know you will do it.'
'I find you won't land till to-morrow, Jacob,' Captain Hampton said, as
the vessel neared the wharf. 'Here is the name of the hotel where I
shall be, in case by any chance I should miss you. They say you will
probably come ashore at nine o'clock in the morning.'
'Why can't we all land at once, sir?'
'It is late now, Jacob, and it is as much as they will be able to do to
get through the cabin passengers' baggage before dark; indeed it is
probable they will only examine the light luggage.'
'What do they want to examine it for, sir? What business have they with
your luggage?'
'They always do it when you go into a foreign country. They do it in
England too, when you come in from abroad; everything has to be opened.
There are some things that pay duty going into a country, and they want
to see that you have got none of them in your boxes; for, if you have,
you must pay for them.'
'Then must I open my box if they ask me?'
'You must, Jacob.'
'And let them rummage my things about?'
'If they want to, Jacob; but I don't suppose they search the steerage
baggage much; they will probably ask you who you are, and where you are
going, and you must tell them that you are my servant, and that I am at
the Metropolitan Hotel. But I am pretty sure to be here to see you
through.'
However, at half-past eight, as Captain Hampton went to the door of the
hotel with the intention of taking a vehicle down to the wharf, he saw
Jacob coming along carrying his little portmanteau.
'Why, Jacob, I was just starting to the wharf. They told me that you
were not to land till nine.'
'They said so last night, Captain, but they began just about seven. I
heard there was another ship come in and they wanted to get us out of
the way. I was one of the fust ashore, and it didn't take many minutes
afore I was out of the shed where they looks at the things. I says to
the first chap I meets, "Where can I take a 'bus to the Metropolitan
Hotel?" "You won't get no 'bus here," says he. "How far is it?" "Better
than two miles," he says. That settled it, and I started off to walk. I
ought to have been here sooner, but some one I asked the way of put me
wrong, I suppose, and a box like this feels wonderful heavier the second
mile than it does the first.'
An arrangement had already been made for Jacob's board and lodging, and
a messenger boy showed him up to his little room at the top of the
house, and then took him down to a room where the few white servants in
the hotel had their meals. In half an hour he returned to the hall which
served as smoking-room and general meeting-place. Captain Hampton had
already had a talk with the clerk.
'I have not seen a young woman like that,' the latter said positively,
when the photograph was produced, 'but then if the man had registered
and written her name and his she might not have come up to the desk. If
you go up to the entrance of the dining-room and ask the negro who takes
the hats there, he will tell you for certain. He has a wonderful head,
that chap has. Sometimes there are as many as three hundred come in to
dinner between five and seven. He takes their hats and puts them on the
pegs and racks, and as they come out he will give every man his own hat
and never make a mistake. I never saw such a chap for remembering
faces.'
The negro replied unhesitatingly, on seeing the photograph, that no such
lady had taken any meals at the hotel.
'De ladies don't come into my department, sah, but I notice them as they
goes in and out, and if that young lady had been here I should have
noticed her for sartin.' Captain Hampton returned to the clerk in the
hall, who, as he happened for the moment to be disengaged, was not
averse to a talk. 'The darkey has not seen her.'
'Then you may be sure she hasn't been here. Yes, I reckon that is about
the list of the hotels most of the passengers by the steamers go to,' he
said, as he glanced down a list of names Captain Hampton had got a
fellow passenger to draw up. 'I will put down two or three others; they
are not first-class, but they are a good deal used by people to whom a
dollar a day more or less makes a difference. And so you say they have
been doing some swindling across the water. She don't look that sort
either from her photograph, but they get the things up so one can never
tell. I see you haven't got any German hotels; and if, as you say, you
think they came by the line from Hamburg, they might have gone to one of
them.'
'I should not think it likely they spoke German,' Captain Hampton said.
'Oh, that makes no odds. The waiters all talk English, and like enough
on the voyage they would make friends with some Germans who have been
here before, and they would recommend them one of their own people.'
'That is probable; and they would be likely to go there too,' Captain
Hampton agreed, 'because anyone coming over to search for them would be
less likely to search in such places than in houses like yours.'
'Then, again, you see, they might have gone straight through without
going into an hotel at all. That would be the safest way, because then
there would be no trace left of them.'
'But I suppose not many people do that.'
'Oh, yes, they do--lots of them. A man saves his hotel bills if he goes
straight to the train, and there is only one move; but, of course, that
is only when a man has quite made up his mind where he is going. As a
rule, when a Britisher comes here he waits a few days and asks
questions, and tries to find out about things, unless he is going
somewhere straight to a friend. Is that boy looking for you? he has been
standing there staring at you for the last five minutes.'
'Oh, yes, that is my servant. Will you give me the address of the
Central Police Station?'
The clerk wrote the address on a piece of paper and handed it to him.
'I don't think you will get much good from them,' he said. 'When people
want to hunt a man up here they generally go to an agency. They are a
way ahead of the regular police, and have got some smart fellows among
them, I can tell you.'
'Thank you. I should prefer carrying out the matter myself if I can. If
not I will certainly go to an agency.'
'There is one advantage in going to the police first,' the man said.
'You will find at a good many hotels the people will have nothing to say
to you if you go by yourself. It is no business of theirs whether the
people who stay at their hotels are swindlers or not, and they ain't
going to meddle in it; but if you can get the police to give you a sharp
officer to go round with you it will be a different thing altogether.'
'Yes, that is what I thought myself, and why I am going to the police in
the first place.'
Turning from the desk he joined Jacob.
'You have had your breakfast?' he asked.
'I just have had a breakfast, Captain; I never seed such a lot of
things--and scrumptious, too; I only wish I could have eaten twice as
much.'
'I am going out now, Jacob, and as I shall be calling at several places,
you had better go your own way. Remember this street is Broadway; it is
the principal street here, so if you do by any chance lose yourself any
one can tell you the way.'
'What time am I to be here again, Captain?'
'Did you ask what time dinner was, Jacob?'
'The black man who brought the things to me said it was two o'clock, but
I shan't never be able to eat again so soon.'
'Oh, yes, you will, Jacob. Take a good long walk and you will soon get
your appetite back again.'
On stating his business at the Central Police Station, he was shown into
the room of the chief, a quiet but keen-faced man, dressed in plain
clothes. He presented to him the letter from Scotland Yard.
'I shall be happy to help you, Captain Hampton, if I can,' he said,
after glancing through it. 'If you had known for certain what steamer
they came over by, we should no doubt be able to lay hold of them in the
course of a few hours, if they are still in the city.'
'I think the probabilities are greatly in favour of their having come by
the "Bremen," which sailed from Hamburg on July 20 and got here, as I
saw, on August 4. If they did not come by that I think it likely they
sailed from some English port two or three days later. My first object,
of course, is to find the hotel at which they put up.'
'I will send one of my men round with you,' and the chief touched a
bell. 'Is Mr. Tricher in? If so, ask him to come here.'
A young man entered the room two minutes later.
'Mr. Tricher, this gentleman has brought us a letter from Scotland Yard;
he is in search of two swindlers who have made off with a good deal of
money. His name is Captain Hampton; he does not belong to the British
force but is a friend of some of the parties who have been swindled, and
has made it his business to find these people. They are believed to have
come out in the "Bremen," which arrived here on August 4; but, if not,
they may have come by a boat from an English port within a few days of
that date. Of course they may have come to Boston or Halifax, or one of
the Southern ports. Our first step is to inquire at all the hotels here;
will you please to go with him and give him any assistance you can? If
you are unsuccessful in your search, Captain Hampton, I shall be glad if
you will come in again and talk the matter over with me. I have all the
dates of the arrivals of the steamers from the other side, which may
help you in deciding at which port you had better continue your search.'
Captain Hampton's guide proved to be a pleasant and chatty young fellow.
'Your first visit here, Captain Hampton?' he asked, as they issued out
on the street.
'Yes, it is the first time I have crossed the Atlantic. I have not had
much chance of coming before, for I have been out with my regiment in
India for the last six years.'
'I suppose it is a big business this, as you have taken the trouble to
come out about it.'
'No; in point of money it is not a very large amount. A thousand pounds
in money and about two thousand pounds worth of diamonds. I am
interested in the matter chiefly because suspicion has fallen upon a
lady of my acquaintance, between whom and this woman there is an
extraordinary likeness: so great a one that I myself was once deceived
by it. The woman herself knows of it, for she personated my friend, and
in her name obtained the jewels and money; so you see it is a matter of
extreme importance to get her back to England.'
'I can quite understand that. I suppose you have a likeness of her?'
'Yes; at least, a likeness of the lady, which will be quite sufficient
to enable anyone to identify the woman at once.'
He handed Dorothy's likeness to the detective.
'There ought to be no difficulty in identifying that,' he said, after
examining it closely. 'No one who has seen her will be likely to forget
it in a hurry; and what is the man like?'
'He is old enough to be her father, and no doubt passes as being so. He
is a clean-shaved man--at least he was when I last saw him. He is a
betting man of the lowest type, but has had the education of a
gentleman, and when well dressed and got up would no doubt pass as one
anywhere. This is the list of hotels I obtained as being those they
would be most likely to go to. You see there are some German ones
included, as, if they came out in the "Bremen," they might have been
directed by Germans returning here to go to one of their hotels, and
would have done so, as they would be less likely to meet English people
and attract attention.'
'Yes, that is a good idea. However, we will try the others first.
Nineteen out of twenty cabin passengers who land here and don't go
straight on, put up at one or other of the principal places.'
Hotel after hotel was visited, until they arrived at the end of the
list. The detective did the talking; he was well known to all the
clerks.
'I generally am put on hotel thief business,' he said, as his companion
remarked on his acquaintance with all the houses they visited; 'no doubt
that is why the chief sent me with you. Now we will try these German
houses. You may take it for granted that they have not been at any of
the others. If none of the clerks or waiters recognise that photograph,
it is because she wasn't there. You see they all said "No" right off
when they saw it. If it had been an ordinary face, they would have
thought it over, but they did not want half a minute to say they had
never seen her.'
At the first two German houses they went to they received the usual
answer.
'Now I have rather hopes of this next place,' the detective said; 'it is
a quiet sort of house, and used by a good class of Germans--rich men who
have been over to Europe, and are waiting here for a day or two before
they go West again. If the man was asking, as he would be likely to do,
for a quiet hotel, and said that he did not mind paying for comfort, a
German who knew the ropes would probably send him here. This is the
house.'
He went up to the clerk's desk.
'Good morning, Mr. Muller. How goes on business?'
'Pretty brisk, Mr. Tricher. What can I do for you, this morning? You are
on business, too, I suppose.'
'Yes. The chief asked me to come round with this gentleman, Captain
Hampton, from England. He wants to find out about a man and a woman who
are believed to have come across on the "Bremen," which arrived here on
August 4. I think it likely enough that they may have been recommended
to your house. Will you turn to August 4?'
The clerk turned over the leaves of the register.
'Had you an English lady and gentleman, father and daughter, arrive on
that day?'
'I had. Mr. and Miss White. The man was clean shaven, about forty-five
years old.'
'This is the portrait of his daughter.'
'That is all right,' the clerk said. 'She was just as good-looking a
girl as ever I saw.'
Captain Hampton uttered an exclamation of satisfaction. Here then was
the first absolute proof that his theory was correct, and that there
really existed a double of Dorothy, and the evidence of this clerk would
in itself go far to disprove the charge against her.
'How long did they stay here?' the detective asked.
The clerk turned to the ledger. 'Two days. They left on the evening of
the sixth. They were charged the full day.'
'How did they go?'
'By carriage. Here is the charge--a dollar and a half.'
'Which station did they go to?'
'Ah, that I cannot tell you. We have two carriages and they are both out
now, but I can find out this evening. Anything else?'
'Yes; I want to know if they made any inquiries about trains.'
'I don't know that they inquired, but the man spent a whole morning
going through the train books and looking through the tables hanging up
there. I wondered what in thunder he could be wanting to spend such a
time over them, when a couple of minutes would have shown him the train
time to any place he wanted to go to. I expect he had not made up his
mind where to go. I reckon that was it. I saw him come in with half a
dozen books under his arm the morning after they got here.'
'Well, we can do nothing till we hear what station they were taken to. I
will look in again this evening.'
'Do you mean to say they were bad ones, Mr. Tricher?'
The detective nodded.
'Well, well, one never knows what to believe. I don't know about the
man, but that gal I should never have thought could have been bad.'
'Please look at the photograph again,' Captain Hampton said. 'Examine it
closely; is it what you would call a very good likeness?'
'It is a good likeness,' the man said. 'I should have known it if I had
seen it in a shop window anywhere; but photographs are never quite
like--men's may be, but I have never seen a woman's that was the real
thing. They always smooth out their faces somehow, and put on a sort of
company expression. This is as like her as two peas, and yet it isn't
quite like, if you can understand it. That has got a pretty, innocent
sort of expression. The girl's face was harder than that; it was just as
pretty, but somehow it looked older, as if she had had some sort of
disappointment, and had had a bad time of it. This one looks like the
face of a thoroughly happy girl. The other didn't, you know. I said to
myself that she had made up her mind to marry some chap her father
didn't like, and that he had brought her over here to get her out of his
way. You see, she was an unusual sort of woman. I don't know that I ever
saw a much prettier one--and one naturally reckoned her up a bit. She
only went out once while they were here, and did not seem to have much
interest in the city.'
'Well, I think we have been pretty lucky, Captain Hampton,' the
detective said when he went out.
'Wonderfully lucky. I am more thankful than I can express; the evidence
of that man alone would go a long way towards clearing my friend, for it
would at any rate prove that just after these robberies were committed,
and at the exact time at which a thief would reach here from England, a
woman precisely like her arrived here with a man answering to the
description of the one believed to be her accomplice.'
'That would be a great thing certainly; at any rate, if I were you,
Captain Hampton, I would get an affidavit, made by Muller and one or two
of the waiters, to the effect that a man of whom they would give a
description, and the original of a portrait that would of course be
marked for identification, arrived at the hotel on August 4, having come
by the steamer "Bremen" from Hamburg. There is nothing like getting an
affidavit when you can, and the waiters are to hand now; there is no
saying where they might be three months hence. I don't say that Muller
is likely to leave, but he is bright, and might get a better offer any
day from one of the big hotels at St. Louis or Cincinnati, or any other
place where there are many Germans.'
'I will certainly do so, and send it across to England at once.'
Arranging with the detective to call for him at the Metropolitan at
seven o'clock that evening, Captain Hampton returned to the hotel. It
had been a splendid morning's work. Even if all further search was
unsuccessful, enough had been done to establish at least a strong case
in favour of the contention that the person who called upon the jeweller
and Mr. Singleton was not Dorothy Hawtrey. The interview he himself had
witnessed, which, had he been compelled to give evidence, would have
been in itself almost fatal to her, was now strongly in her favour, for
it showed the connecting link between the person who had taken the
jewels and this man who was now proved to be passing as her father in
the States. It was no longer Dorothy Hawtrey buying off the man who had
been persecuting her, but Truscott's partner in the crime informing him
of the success of her operations.
Jacob was standing at the door of the hotel when he arrived there. He
had long since been made acquainted with the object for which a search
was being made for the betting man Marvel, and the woman whose likeness
he had been shown. He was greatly delighted at learning that a trace had
been obtained of him, and eager to set to work to follow it up.
'It will be bang up, Captain, if we find them here while all them
perlice at home is running after them everywhere.'
'Well, I did not think of it in that light, and I don't much care
whether they are run down by us or by any one else, so long as they are
caught at last, but it is a long way between hearing of them here and
catching them. You must remember that this country is twenty times as
large as England, and we have really nothing to go upon. We don't know
what the man's intentions are. If he intended to go in for swindling, I
should think he would have done better on the Continent than here. There
are not many very large towns where he could as a stranger expect to
make much money, and it would be easier to trace him here than in
Europe, where the distances are so much shorter that one can get out of
any country in a few hours. If he intends, as I should think most
likely, only to stop over here for a short time so as to be out of the
way, and then go back and begin the same thing over again, he might take
lodgings here or anywhere else.
'He may know some one who has come over here and has gone in for
farming, and may be going to stay with him for a time. There is no
saying, in fact, what he may be going to do. I do not suppose that he
has the slightest fear that the share he and this woman have played has
been discovered, and his motive in coming away was chiefly to ensure
Miss Hawtrey's disgrace, and he was anxious that there should be no
chance whatever of any one who knew her meeting this woman and
discovering that there was some one about who was so strikingly like
Miss Hawtrey as to be able to pass for her. My best hope is that we
shall get some clue this evening from the man who drove them away from
the hotel.'
This hope was realised. On reaching the hotel with the detective the
clerk at once sent for the driver. 'He remembers the parties well
enough, but I don't know that you will find his news altogether
satisfactory. You have got a crafty bird to deal with. Here is the man,
he had better tell you himself. Now, Mike, this is the gentleman who
wants to know about those people I was speaking to you about.'
'I mind them well enough, sor--a gintleman with as pretty a little girl
as I've seen since I left ould Ireland. I drove them down to the wharf
and saw the baggage carried on board the steamer.'
'And what steamer was it, Mike?' the detective asked.
'The steamer for New Orleans, of course; that was where they told me to
take them. She had got her steam up when we got there, and a
nice-looking crowd there was going on board.'
'Would the steamer touch anywhere else on its way?' Captain Hampton
asked.
'It might put in at Mobile; some do and some don't,' the detective
replied, 'but as we know the day she sailed there will be no difficulty
at finding that out at the office.'
'That was the lady, I suppose,' Captain Hampton said, showing the
photograph to the driver.
'That's her, sor. I would swear to her anywhere.'
'Well, here is a couple of dollars for you now; I shall want to see you
again to-morrow.'
'We shall be getting some affidavits out,' the detective said to the
clerk. 'It is important to us to be able to prove that they have been
here, even if we never succeed in catching them. It will be a simple
thing, merely a statement signed before a justice of the peace to the
effect that you make oath that a man of the appearance and description
set down and a young woman passing as his daughter, and whose
photograph, which will of course be marked and verified, you recognise
as being hers without any possibility of doubt, arrived at this hotel on
August 4, and left on August 6, being driven from here and seen on board
a steamer starting for New Orleans. I shall be glad of the signatures of
yourself and as many of the waiters as attended upon them at their meals
and can recognise the portrait, also of the chambermaid. We shall have a
separate affidavit drawn out for the driver.'
'Very well. Can you leave the photograph with me? I will give it to the
head waiter and tell him to show it to the others; as they were here two
days and took all their meals here I should say most of the crowd would
recognise her. Look here, you had better bring a justice round here to
swear them, for it would be difficult to let a dozen of them all go at
once.'
'I will manage that. Well, can you spare a couple of minutes to come
round into the bar and have a drink?'
The clerk thought he could manage it, and drinks were taken in due
course.
'Now what is my best way of getting down to New Orleans?' Captain
Hampton asked, as they left the hotel.
'Steamer,' the detective said; 'the railway is not fairly through yet,
and it will take pretty nearly as long as if you go by boat, and be a
deal more uncomfortable.'
'How often do the boats go?'
'Once or twice a week, sometimes more. There are considerable people
travelling down there now. A good many of the folk going to California
go that way; they either strike across from there or go up the river by
steamer and then make across the plains; it saves a long land journey.
But I will tell you about it when I see you in the morning. I will go
round the first thing and find out whether that boat that sailed on the
6th put in anywhere, and also what her name was; also whether they took
their berths under the name of White or changed them again; then I will
see when the next boat goes. I will bring the man before whom they can
take an affidavit round here with me--I know two or three I can lay my
hands on any time--and then we will go together to the hotel.'
By twelve o'clock next day the business was finished, and the affidavits
sworn in duplicate by thirteen witnesses, in addition to that of the
driver.
When all was done, Captain Hampton asked the detective as to how much he
was indebted to him.
'Nothing at all, sir. My services were placed at your disposal by the
chief, and it is all in the way of business. I am very glad to have been
of assistance to you.'
'You have been of immense assistance, indeed, Mr. Tricher, and I feel
deeply obliged to you. I should never have got on by myself in the same
way; it was entirely owing to the clerk at the hotel knowing you that he
so readily gave me the information I required, and interested himself in
the matter. Well, will you come round and lunch with me at the hotel at
two o'clock? We shall go on board the steamer this evening. I am going
round now to thank your chief.'
'I shall be happy to lunch with you, and, by the way, you might as well
ask the chief to give you a line to the chief at New Orleans. You might
find it very useful there; it is a pretty lively place, and if this man
happens to have any pals there, you may find it mighty useful to have
the aid of the police.'
'Thank you very much for the suggestion, which I will certainly follow.'
On saying good-bye to the detective, Captain Hampton, with much
pressure, succeeded in inducing him to accept, as a remembrance, a
handsome meerschaum that he had the evening before admired.
Upon the voyage down, Captain Hampton was much struck at the difference
between the passengers on board the 'Enterprise,' and those with whom he
was associated on his passage across the Atlantic. There were among them
a sprinkling of Southern gentlemen, a few travellers and Northern
manufacturers, but the majority were men who were bound to the far west,
some to Texas only, but California was the destination of the greater
part. These again were sharply divided into two sections, the one
composed of hardy-looking men, the sons of Eastern farmers, or British
emigrants who were going out with the fixed intention of making their
fortune at the goldfields.
Few of the other section were, he thought, likely to get so far. They
were simply rough characters who were more likely to remain at New
Orleans or some of the river towns than to undertake a long and perilous
journey. Whatever might be their nominal vocation, he set them down as
being thieves, gambling-house bullies, or ruffians ready to turn their
hand to any scoundrelism that presented itself. The real working men
soon came to know each other, and being bound by a common object kept
aloof from the others, and generally sat in little groups discussing the
journey before them and the best methods of proceeding.
Some were in favour of ascending the Missouri to Omaha, others of going
up the Arkansas and striking across by the Santa Fe route. All had
evidently studied the newspapers diligently, and had almost by heart the
narratives of travel that had appeared there, and before the end of the
voyage several parties had been made up of men who agreed to journey
together for mutual aid and protection.
In the saloon gambling went on all day. As night came on, voices were
raised in anger, and fierce quarrels took place, which were only
prevented from going further by the captain's prompt intervention, and
by his declaration that any man who drew pistol or bowie knife should be
put in irons for the rest of the voyage.
Captain Hampton was heartily glad when the vessel entered the
Mississippi. He had associated principally with two or three of the
Southern gentlemen, and had kept as far as possible aloof from the rowdy
portion of the passengers. This, however, he had been unable to do
altogether. He himself was an object of general curiosity. He was a
Britisher; he was not bound for the West; he was not thinking of taking
up land; he was unconnected with any commercial house. His explanation
that he was travelling for pleasure and intended to go up the two great
rivers of the continent, was considered altogether unsatisfactory, and
one after another most of his fellow passengers endeavoured, by a series
of searching questions, to get at the facts of the case. Jacob, on the
other hand, enjoyed the voyage greatly; unconsciously to himself he was
a student of human nature, and this was a phase entirely new to him.
'It seems to me, Captain,' he said to his master one evening, 'that most
of this 'ere gang ought to be in Newgate. Why, to hear what they say of
themselves, there is scarce one of them that hasn't killed one or two
men in his time. I have been a-listening to some of that black-bearded
chap's stories, and if all that he says is true, he has killed over
twenty; I counted them up careful. I can't make out how it is that a
chap like that is going about free; why, he would have been hung a dozen
times if he had been at home. What is the good of the perlice if they
lets a chap like that go on as he likes?'
'You may be sure that the greater part of his stories are lies, Jacob,
though some of them may be true. New Orleans is perhaps as rough a city
as any of its size in the world, and as you go farther West, life
becomes still more unsafe. In so vast a country the law is powerless,
and men settle their disputes in their own way. Almost every one carries
arms, and shooting affrays are of common occurrence, and as long as what
is considered fair play is preserved, no one thinks of interfering. A
man who is killed is buried, and the one who killed him goes his way
unconcernedly; so, though a good many of these stories you hear are
lies, there may be more truth in some of them than you would think.'
'They have been a-pumping me, lots of them has,' Jacob said, 'and trying
to find out what you are doing out here. I have stuffed them up nicely;
I have told them as you had been out in India, and had killed thousands
upon thousands of lions, and tigers, and elephants.'
'What was the use of telling lies, Jacob?' Captain Hampton asked
angrily.
'Well, sir, I don't suppose as they believe it all, because I don't
believe their stories; but it was, I thought, just as well as they
should think you was a great fighter, and could shoot wonderful
straight. I know by what they said that some of them was half inclined
to get up a quarrel with you. "'Cause," as they said, "you was stuck up,
and thought yourself better than other people;" and it seemed to me as
it was best they should think as you wasn't a good man to quarrel with.
"Bless you," says I, over and over again, "there ain't nothing stuck up
about my master; only I know as he hates getting into trouble, 'cause he
don't like having to kill a man and so he keeps hisself to hisself;" and
then I pitches it in strong about killing Indians, and that sort of
thing, and I do think, Captain, as it has kept them a bit quiet.'
Captain Hampton laughed.
'Well, perhaps it may have done, Jacob; these fellows seldom interfere
with a man unless they think it safe to do so. Still, I would much
rather in future you did not invent any stories about me. Always stick
to the truth, lad; lying never pays in the long run.'