_In Which I Learn Something More About the Barney Twins_
The captain allowed Singh to wait upon his “Missee” to his heart’s
content, and I heard the two mates laughing over the fact that the
Hindoo insisted upon acting as steward and waiting upon the Captain
Sahib at table. The Old Man wasn’t used to having a man standing behind
his chair at meals and it near took his appetite away at first. But
Phillis being in the cabin and soon taking her meals at the first
table, pleased the officers immensely, I could see.
Forward, Singh was forever trying to do little things for me, and
learning that I thought a good deal of Thankful Polk, the Hindoo
included my chum in his voluntary services. He looked over our clothes
and mended them, and insisted upon doing our washing.
“That Jasper is just as handy as any house-broke nigger I ever saw,”
declared Thank. “My folks owned slaves before the war; but I don’t
know but being waited on by one is going to be too rich for my blood.”
Thank saw no difference between a Hindoo and a Negro; anything off
color was a “Jasper” to him. But it tickled him when Singh called him
“Polk Sahib.” With the other hands he was never familiar; but nobody
save Bob Promise treated him unkindly. Bob was a bully, and that mean
streak in him was bound to show on the surface every once in awhile.
Meantime the old Gullwing was snoring away up the coast of South
America. Not that the land was in sight, for we were miles and miles
off shore; but the course she followed was parallel to the coast. The
Seamew was not sighted for days at a stretch, and we did not know
whether she was ahead of us or astern. I had an idea, however, that
during the favorable weather she was walking away from us at a pretty
lively gait.
Since I had returned from my sojourn aboard the Seamew I thought that
Mr. Barney treated me differently. That is, when we were off duty and
chance threw us together. Before my accident I had put on the gloves
with him on several occasions, and he had been kind enough to say that
I was as good a sparring partner as he had ever had. We took up this
exercise again, as the weather remained so favorable.
He was curious about the attitude of the Seamew’s company toward us,
and whether they were as eager to win the race to Baltimore as were the
men aboard the Gullwing.
“More so,” I told him. “They mean to beat us if they can--from Cap’n
Somes all down the line.”
He threw off the gloves and said, with a side glance at me:
“My brother, too?”
“Yes, _sir_.”
“Just as eager as the others?”
“Just as eager, sir.”
He was silent a moment, as I got into my shirt, and then he shot at me:
“What did you think of my brother, Alf Webb?”
I was rather taken aback for a moment. Then I saw that he expected a
straight answer and I did not like to say that I did not like Mr. Alf
as well as I did him. So I stammered:
“I--I thought there was something troubling Mr. Alfred’s mind.”
“Aye?” returned Mr. Barney, cocking his eye. “There’s something
troubling both our minds, I reckon.” And then, after a moment’s
silence, he asked: “Will the Seamew beat us, Webb?”
“I hope not!” I cried. “But the spirit among the crew of the Seamew is
different from ours. Cap’n Somes would take any advantage he could to
beat us; so would Mr. Hollister and--and----”
“And my brother?”
“I--I am afraid so. That is the way it impressed me,” I admitted.
“Alf didn’t use to be like that,” said Mr. Barney, gravely. “But he and
I have been at outs for some time. It’s a bad, bad affair,” he added,
more to himself than to me. “And it’s Uncle Jothan’s fault. Confound
that old man, anyway!” he completed, with a good deal of emphasis.
Then it was just as Job Perkins had told me! The rivalry between the
Barney twins was fostered by their rich uncle. I had no comment to
make--it wasn’t my place. But Mr. Barney seemed to wish to talk to
somebody, and perhaps because I was so near his own age (he could not
have been twenty-three yet) and came from people who were more like his
own class, he warmed toward me for the moment. Perhaps, too, I am a
sympathetic listener.
“Alf and I,” said Mr. Barney, thoughtfully, “have always been more than
brothers. We’ve been _friends_. There’s a difference. We understand
each other fully--or always have until now. I never had any other chum,
nor did he. We have been just as close to each other all our lives as
the day we were born.
“I guess we had to be,” he added, thoughtfully. “There wasn’t anybody
else for us to get close to. Our mother died soon after we were born.
Father was lost in that old leaky bucket belonging to the firm, the
Timothy K.--named after T. K. Knight, who used to be head of Barney,
Blakesley & Knight before Uncle Jothan worked up in the firm.
“And that’s what makes the old man so crazy now. He wants a Barney to
take his place so that another Knight won’t boss things. He’s nutty on
it--that’s what he is!
“Uncle Jothan has had the care of us since we were small, you see. It’s
nothing to his credit, however. Father left some property--sufficient
to give Alf and me our education and set us out into the world with a
little something to rattle in our pants’ pockets besides a bunch of
keys!
“Old Uncle Jothan tried to set us boys at each other long ago. He tried
his best to set one off against the other--to make Alf sore on me, or
me sore on Alf. We didn’t see what he was getting at, at first.
“But he didn’t succeed very well. He made his favor, and his money, and
his influence an object for us to struggle for. As it happened, we just
wouldn’t struggle. We would not be rivals. What one had, t’other had.
And that satisfied us--until last year,” and Mr. Barney shook his head
dolefully.
“When we got our tickets the old man was crazy to find out if one of
us passed better than another. We were about equal, I reckon. What one
knows about seamanship, the other knows. In navigation I’m sure we
stood equal.
“That didn’t satisfy Uncle Jothan. The last day we saw Baltimore he had
us to breakfast with him. He was more ornery that morning than ever
before.
“‘You two boys make me sick!’ he said to us. ‘I believe you try your
blamedest to keep even in everything.’
“‘And what if we do?’ I asked him. ‘Ain’t that as it should be? We’re
twins.’
“‘You’re a pair of twin fools,’ says he, with his usual politeness.
‘One of you don’t know which side of his slice of bread the butter’s
on.’
“I looked at mine. ‘The top side,’ I says, ‘so far,’ and Alf laughed.
“‘And you’ll find it butter side down, if you don’t have a care,’
snarled Uncle Jothan. ‘I got about tired of waiting for one of you to
show some sense. I tell you there’s only room for one of you in the
firm, and that one is going to handle my money. The other is going to
be a poor man all his life.’
“‘Which one’s going to be poor, and which one rich?’ Alf asked him.
“‘You might as well tell us which will be rich, Uncle,’ I said,
laughing. ‘For if it’s Alf, then I can begin to borrow from him right
now.’
“‘That’s right,’ says Brother Alf. ‘What’s mine is yours.’
“That really made the old man mad, I expect. He pretty near gnashed his
teeth.
“‘I believe I’ve got a pair of totally condemned fools for nephews!’ he
yelled, only he put it even stronger.
“Oh, he was mad! I saw that we’d gone too far with him.
“‘Never mind, Uncle,’ I said, soothingly. ‘We’ll both do our best for
you----’
“‘And your “best” will be just exactly alike,’ he cried. ‘When you
get your mate’s tickets it will be the same, and in the end I’ll have
a couple of masters of windjammers as near alike as old Somes and
Bowditch. What one can do the other can do. Ye stood just the same in
your books at school, and you stand just the same in your rating at
sea.’
“I expect the old man was pretty well heated up. But we just laughed as
though it was a joke.
“‘I tell you what,’ says he, pushing back his chair. ‘You sha’n’t fool
me no more. One of you is going to take his place in the firm at the
end of this v’yge you are beginning. One of you will win and the other
will lose. And I’ll never let a penny of my money get into the hands of
the fellow that loses.’
“Oh, he was quite in earnest, we could see. Alf looked at me and shook
his head. It was past laughing at.
“‘The Gullwing and the Seamew,’ says uncle, ‘are putting to sea on the
same day. They will practically make the same voyage. Now listen to
me! Whichever of you boys steps ashore at Baltimore at the end of the
voyage, that boy will be my heir, and the other sha’n’t have a cent.
Now, that’s final. One of you has got to win, whether you want to, or
not. I’ll settle it myself.’
“And with that he walked off and left us, too mad to even bid us
good-bye,” said Mr. Barney.