THE PARTY THAT WENT TO SOUTHFIELD
Mr. Fobbington would still be happy to present the Oxford to his new
friend; but confronting the difficulty of spending his income, he
sympathized with him, and would not insist upon making the vessel an
entirely free gift. They would compromise the matter by making it a
sale, a merely nominal sale. Louis must not insist upon paying him too
large a price for the craft, and the young millionaire promised not to
be very hard upon him in this respect.
“Though it is, of course, a matter of no consequence to me, I
should like to ask, out of mere curiosity, at what figure you value
the Oxford,” said Louis, after they had compromised the principal
difficulty of the situation.
“She cost me in Scotland, where I bought her, thirty-one hundred
pounds, or about fifteen thousand dollars; but, as a matter of mere
form, I am going to sell her to you for ten thousand,” replied Mr.
Fobbington very graciously. “You must really indulge me in taking
off five thousand from what she cost me. I think that will be a fair
compromise.”
“Perhaps we shall be able to agree after I have seen the vessel,”
replied Louis, not ready to commit himself; and the compromise price
was double what he thought of paying for such a craft as would suit
him.
“I hope we shall agree, Mr. Belgrave; but I solemnly assure you that
I shall not permit you to pay me the sum she cost me. No, sir! Rather
than do that, I will take the schooner out to sea and sink or burn
her!” protested the owner of the Oxford very warmly.
“Very well, my friend; I will not insist upon your taking more than
ten thousand dollars for the vessel,” replied the intending yachtsman,
beginning to wonder if his companion was as liberal and disinterested
as he assumed to be.
“Now, Mr. Belgrave, when will you look at the Oxford? I trust you will
make it as soon as possible. I hoped that you would do me the favor
to accept the schooner without paying me anything for her; and then I
could have taken the train to-night for San Francisco.”
“I am very sorry to delay you even a day; but it was quite impossible
for me to lose the opportunity to spend five or ten thousand dollars of
my income for a craft that would suit me. You know how it is yourself,
and you ought to sympathize with me,” added Louis, much amused. “I
should like to have my mother see the vessel, for she is to be the
companion of my voyages.”
“Excellent, my young friend! If there is anything in this world that
excites my admiration, it is to see a young man attentive to his
mother. Mothers don’t grow on every tree; in fact, I don’t remember
any fellow who ever had more than one mother. I like to see a fellow
devoted to his mother, and it is a trait in your character, Mr.
Belgrave,” rattled the owner of the Oxford.
“I think we can go down to Southfield to-morrow; I will call at the
hotel, and let you know at what time,” added Louis, rising from his
seat.
He took his leave of Mr. Fobbington, and returned to the house of
Squire Scarburn, where Mrs. Belgrave was staying during the erection
of the new house the trustee was building for her and her son. The
unfledged yachtsman could not help thinking of his new acquaintance
as he walked to the squire’s, but he was not willing to accept him as
a friend till he knew more about him. He had a vessel to sell which
had answered his purpose as a yacht, and perhaps it would be equally
satisfactory to the young millionaire.
It was about tea-time, and he found his mother and the trustee in the
parlor. During the meal he told them about the gentleman who owned the
Oxford, and they asked him a great many questions. Mrs. Belgrave was
willing to see the vessel, and would go with him at ten the next day to
Southfield.
“It seems rather singular to me, my son, that you should want a yacht,
when you were brought up away from the salt water,” said Mrs. Belgrave.
“I never should have thought of such a thing, if we had not been out so
many times with Mr. Woolridge and his family,” replied Louis.
“Especially his family,” suggested Uncle Moses, with a twinkle of the
eyes.
“Or a certain member of his family,” added the lady.
“That’s all nonsense, mother!” exclaimed the young gentleman, with a
bright blush on his face.
Mr. Woolridge, the nabob who had invited Louis and his mother to sail
in his yacht, had a beautiful daughter of fifteen, who had attracted
the attention of the young man. After looking at her as he would
have regarded a pretty picture, he had innocently spoken of her with
considerable enthusiasm, calling her a sylph. This was before he became
a “bloated bondholder,” and his mother had been afraid he would get
into entangling relations with a maiden whose rich and aristocratic
father would show him the door, and thus break his heart as well as
that of the sylph.
“I think you were very polite and attentive to Miss Blanche,” continued
Mrs. Belgrave.
“Wasn’t I as polite to Mrs. Woolridge?” demanded Louis, repelling the
insinuation with energy.
“If you were not, you ought to have been.”
“And I was, mother; besides you are not consistent. You have consented
to the purchase of a vessel for me, so that I can sail on my own hook
rather than be dependent upon Mr. Woolridge. Why should I do that if I
preferred the society of Miss Blanche?”
“I think the defence has the argument,” added Uncle Moses. “But perhaps
Sir Louis will invite the sylph to sail in his yacht. By the way, what
is her name?”
“The young lady’s, or the yacht’s?”
“I should expect they would both have the same name, if it did not take
an act of Congress to alter a vessel’s name. The young lady can change
hers with less difficulty,” twinkled the squire.
“The vessel is called the Oxford now, and one Blanche is enough.”
“One among ten thousand--the girl, and not the vessel.”
“I don’t think I shall change the name of either the young lady or the
vessel,” added Louis.
“We shall see the vessel to-morrow, and we will drop both her and the
sylph for the present,” interposed Mrs. Belgrave. “Don’t you think it
strange we hear nothing more from John Scoble?”
She looked at her son as though she expected him to answer the
question. She had an intense dread of the man who had been her husband
for two years. Louis had met Scoble face to face a few weeks before,
had stunned him with the blow of a stick, and escaped from him; but all
this had been concealed from his mother to save her from anxiety and
terror.
“I have heard nothing of Scoble lately,” replied the son, meaning since
he escaped from him; and he thought the subject had better be changed.
“I hope you will go down to Southfield with us, Uncle Moses, and see
the Oxford.”
“I should be very glad to go if I could; but I have an engagement,”
replied the squire. “Take Captain Ringgold with you if he will go. He
knows all about vessels, and I know nothing at all.”
“I will go over to his house and see him about it after supper.”
Nothing more was said about Scoble, to the great relief of the young
man. He wondered what had become of the miscreant and his vessel,
which he had named the “Maud” after his wife, doubtless to assist
in conciliating her, and thus make easy his approach to the missing
million. Mr. Woolridge had employed detectives to watch the schooner
and her owner; but one night the vessel disappeared, and nothing more
had been heard from her. Louis had studied the ship-news for weeks
without being any the wiser for it.
The intending yachtsman hastened to the house of Captain Ringgold as
soon as he had finished his supper, and found him at home. The worthy
shipmaster had retired from the sea at forty with a competency, not
much of it acquired, however, in his profession. He promptly consented
to go with Louis on his visit to the Oxford, and to assist him with his
knowledge and experience. He asked him some questions about the vessel,
and turned up his nose literally at the idea of purchasing such a craft
as he described.
“You are behind the times, Louis,” said he with emphasis. “You don’t
want an old tub like the one you tell me about. You ought to have a
steam-yacht.”
“A steam-yacht!” exclaimed Louis, laughing at the idea of such
extravagance. “I ought to be a ten-millionaire to be able to do that.”
“You could be reasonable in running a steam-yacht as in anything else.
If you are going to keep a yacht, have something first-class.”
“I don’t want a high-flyer, and I am not up to a steam-yacht,” replied
Louis, unmoved by the argument.
“I know a first-rate chance for you to get the finest steamer that
floats, brand-new, and to be sold at a fair price,” Captain Ringgold
proceeded. “Colonel Singfield had her built in the very best manner for
his own use. She had made her trial trip, and that is all, when the
colonel died.”
“How much would she cost?” asked the embryo yachtsman rather tamely.
“To settle the estate she can be bought, just as she stands, all ready
for sea, inside of a hundred thousand dollars, though she cost a good
deal more than that.”
“Neither my mother nor Uncle Moses would consent to the purchase of a
vessel so expensive as that,” said Louis, shaking his head.
“If I could afford it I would buy her, for I should like to command
just such a craft,” added the captain with enthusiasm.
“It is useless for me to think of buying such a vessel. What is her
name? I should like to see her; but I am sure she will not be bought
for me.”
“She has no name yet. Colonel Singfield wished his daughter to find a
name, and then they had not agreed upon it when her father died. You
could name her to suit yourself, Louis.”
“I must not even think of such a thing as a steam-yacht. It would be a
very expensive plaything,” persisted Louis.
“All right, Louis; I won’t say too much about it. I will go with you
to-morrow at the time you say,” added Captain Ringgold, as the visitor
took his leave.
Louis went to the hotel and made the arrangement for the trip with Mr.
Fobbington. On his return to the squire’s house, he found that Felix
McGavonty, who had been a crony of Louis since both of them wore short
clothes, also desired to see the Oxford, and Uncle Moses gave his
consent.
At the appointed time the party arrived at the station in Southfield,
and Mr. Frinks Fobbington was there to receive them. Louis thought he
looked very much disconcerted about something, though he could not
imagine why he was so.
“I am glad to see you, Louis,” said Frinks, as he took the hand of the
young nabob, though he did not gush as he had the day before. “But I
did not suppose you were going to bring the whole population of the
Park with you.”
The unexpected number of the party seemed to be the cause of the
dissatisfaction on the part of the owner of the Oxford, though Louis
could not understand why this should annoy him. He introduced his
mother and the others.
“This is Captain Ringgold,” said he, in presenting him. “He is an
expert in vessels, and I wanted his opinion of the Oxford.”
The party took a carriage and proceeded to a wharf.
[Illustration: “AS HE REACHED THE FOOT OF THE COMPANION-WAY, HE
DISCOVERED JOHN SCOBLE.” Page 34.]