AN OBDURATE PRISONER
Captain Scoble had made noise enough during the struggle on the divan
to be heard in the stateroom where Mrs. Belgrave was passing her time
in fear and anxiety. It was not for herself that she worried and
trembled; but she was in constant dread that Louis would be overpowered
and seriously injured in the conflict she was now assured was in
progress.
“O Louis! Louis!” she screamed as she came out of her room in time to
see the conclusion of the conflict, and hastened as rapidly as the
uneasy motion of the vessel would permit to the scene of action.
“Don’t be alarmed, mother,” returned the son, as he ran to her support.
“It is all over now, and you have nothing to fear.”
“What is all over? What have you been doing?” asked the lady, hardly
able to speak in the violence of her emotion.
“You can see that Scoble is in irons, and it is not possible for him to
harm you or me just now,” replied Louis.
“In irons? What does that mean?”
“He has a pair of handcuffs, which he brought out for me, on his
wrists.”
“But what are you going to do with him, my son?” asked the lady, who
seemed to be hardly less terrified now than before.
“I don’t know yet, mother: we have not decided what to do, though of
course we shall get back to the Park as soon as possible. We have
disposed of Scoble for the present, and we shall soon ascertain what we
shall do next. What makes you tremble so, mother? You have nothing to
alarm you now.”
“I am afraid you will get hurt, Louis.”
“But you need not be afraid, for there are three of us, and Captain
Ringgold is a match for any two of the men on board of the Maud. Flix
and I are not ciphers, and we can manage the matter very well, I assure
you. I have no idea of being conveyed to England, or of permitting you
to be conveyed there. I hope and expect you will be at the Park some
time this evening. Now be a good mother, and go into your stateroom
again, and keep very quiet there.”
“But what are you going to do, my son?” demanded Mrs. Belgrave, still
filled with terror and anxiety.
“I don’t know yet. We have fought the battle in the cabin, and won the
victory, and that practically settles the whole matter. Scoble can do
none of us any harm now.”
“But he and his men may be armed with pistols; and I am confident he
would shoot you if you resisted him.”
“You forget, mother, that I took his revolvers from his room, and I
have given them to Captain Ringgold, who has them in his pockets at
this moment. Our party are all armed, though I hope we shall not be
compelled to use our weapons. Now come to your room, and as soon as we
have decided what to do, I will see you and tell you all about it,”
said Louis, as he took the arm of Mrs. Belgrave and conducted her to
her room. “Now lock the door, and lie down in your berth. Make yourself
as comfortable as you can, for this state of things cannot last much
longer.”
She went into the stateroom, though she was plainly very reluctant to
do so. Nervous and timid as she was, she would have thrown herself
physically into any affray in which the safety of her son was
menaced. In the presence of Scoble she had manifested a courage and
determination, which were a revelation to Louis. She was disposed to
protect her son by the sacrifice of herself.
Louis called her his guardian-mother; and this was an expression that
greatly pleased his fancy. He looked upon her as an influence greater
and more powerful than all others on the earth combined. He was strong
and energetic in the battle upon which he had just entered through the
influence she exerted over him. He felt that life would be nothing to
him without her. He heard her lock the door after he had kissed her and
retired from the room.
Scoble still sat upon the divan at the stern of the cabin, where the
stout shipmaster had cast him like an unclean bird after he had been
ironed. He could not help realizing that he had been conquered, but he
had not been subdued. Louis hastened to the after end of the cabin as
soon as he had disposed of his mother. The captain of the Maud seemed
to be dazed, confounded, and astonished at the result of the conflict
in which he had been engaged. One so arbitrary and self-sufficient had
some difficulty in believing that he had actually been overcome, and in
his own cabin. But the violence of his wrath had apparently subsided,
and he was silent, looking from one to another of his late assailants.
“What next?” he demanded, as he fixed his gaze upon Louis, evidently
regarding him as the leader and chief engineer of the movement in
progress.
“We are not disposed to make you any more uncomfortable than is
necessary to prevent you from doing any harm to my mother and myself;
and I think we shall be abundantly able to protect ourselves, Captain
Scoble,” replied Louis, taking upon himself the office of spokesman. “I
wish to say for myself that, in spite of all you have done, I bear no
malice towards you. I shall do nothing, and my friends here will not,
to injure you, or even to annoy you, unless it shall be necessary to
protect myself and mother.”
“That is all very fine, you young scapegrace!” exclaimed Scoble,
looking fiercely at the speaker. “We are on the high seas now, and you
are engaged in a mutiny: you have captured the vessel, so far as I am
concerned; and if I wished to get rid of you, as you say I do, I need
only hand you over to the courts, and the penalty of your crime is
death.”
“Not much high seas just here, Captain Scoble,” said Captain Ringgold,
laughing at the threat of the other. “I have been to sea more than you
have, and I know something about this matter. The principal idea is
that four persons have been kidnapped on board of this vessel, and they
are making an effort to save themselves, and to avoid being carried out
of this country to a foreign shore. We will take our chances on the
mutiny question.”
“Captain Ringgold, you are a sensible man; but you plainly do not know
this boy who is leading you about by the nose,” continued Scoble, in
quite a gentle tone for him. “That young thief robbed me of a good many
thousand dollars.”
“Which you obtained by robbing those who trusted you with their money.
But this young gentleman restored all this money to the rightful
owners,” added the Park captain. “You are aware that warrants have
been sworn out for your arrest as soon as you put yourself within
the jurisdiction of the State of New York or New Jersey; and under
these circumstances we don’t shake a particle at the idea of being
charged with mutiny. I am in the same boat with Louis, literally and
figuratively.”
“I suppose the next step will be to hand me over to a constable or
sheriff,” added Scoble; and this thought evidently had a very subduing
effect upon him, for he fixed his gaze upon the cabin floor and was
silent.
“Well, Louis, I don’t think it will amount to anything to talk any
longer over the matter. It is time something more was done,” said
Captain Ringgold.
“I quite agree with you, sir: I have done talking enough with this
man since I came on board of the Maud. He understands the views and
feelings of my mother; and that is the main thing with me. He knows
just where she stands now; and I hope he will cease to pursue a woman
who has no respect or regard whatever for him,” added Louis.
“Maud Farrongate is my wife! You know it as well as I do, Louis; and I
will follow her to the farthest ends of the earth, and compel her to
return to her duty to me! I am not a spring chicken to be frightened
away from my rights, and from my duty to my wife, by a boy who is
trying to be a hawk. You understand me, Louis. Whatever happens to me,
I shall struggle for my rights as long as there is any life, any soul,
left in me!” said Scoble, crowding all the bitterness and malignity of
his nature into his speech.
“That’s enough!” exclaimed Captain Ringgold. “I am enlisted with you,
Louis, for the war; and I will stand by you as long as there is any
life, any soul, left in me. Let us proceed to business, and this fellow
may fume and vapor to his heart’s content while we are engaged in more
telling employment. What next?”
“I propose to lock Captain Scoble into the stateroom on the starboard
side of the cabin,” replied Louis. “I will see that it is in condition
for him.”
The leader of the movement was afraid Felix had not been searching
enough in his examination of the room; for he had brought out but one
revolver, and he was afraid there might be another there. Calling his
crony to accompany him, they went to the mate’s room. Louis decided
that it would be the most prudent way to remove everything in it to the
cabin, and this they did, without finding a dangerous weapon of any
kind.
“Now, Captain Scoble, if you are disposed to make things pleasant, you
will take up your quarters in the room prepared for you without any
useless opposition,” said Captain Ringgold, when Louis reported to him.
“I have been outraged, my”--
“All right, captain; and four persons on board have been outraged
besides yourself; but we have no time to talk about it. If you will be
kind enough to move into the room made ready for you, that will save me
the trouble of putting you there myself,” interposed the shipmaster.
“I will not submit to this treatment! I will not do anything that looks
like submission!” protested Scoble, squirming as much as he could with
his wrists ironed behind him.
“Just as you please, captain,” said Captain Ringgold, seizing him
by the collar of his coat with both hands, and dragging him to the
stateroom as though he had been nothing but a small boy, for he was
powerless in the grasp of his stalwart conqueror.
With no difficulty whatever he thrust him into the room, and closed the
door upon him. Louis was ready with the key of the lock, and promptly
secured him so that he could not escape without breaking the door down.
He seemed to be disposed to do this, and at once began to deliver
violent blows, apparently with the heels of his boots, against the
lower panel of the door.
“That won’t do,” said the stout captain briskly. “He is determined to
be as uncomfortable as possible, and he shall have his own way. Unlock
the door, Louis. Flix, go and find some cord, or rope; I saw some in
the passage to the fore cabin.”
Louis opened the door, and Felix hastened to procure the line required.
Captain Ringgold went into the room, and took the prisoner by the
collar, and shoved him over to a stool in the corner.
“You make more noise than the law allows, Captain Scoble,” said his
resolute captor, looking about the room to arrange his plan for dealing
with the obdurate man.
“I told you I would not submit, and there is no such thing as
submission in me!” howled Scoble.
“So much the worse for you, my man; but I shall keep you quiet in spite
of all you can do.”
“See if you do!” replied the prisoner, still manifesting persistent
defiance of his stout adversary. “You may kill me, but you cannot
subdue me! I am a free-born Briton, and I submit to no man!”
“You are a free-born thief that ought to be behind prison walls, and I
hope to have you there soon,” added the captain, who proceeded with the
help of the boys to bind his ankles together, and then made him fast to
the front of the berth.