ALLEGIANCE TO THE POWERS THAT BE
Captain Scoble was an infant in the hands of a man as powerful as the
shipmaster, and he was soon made fast so that he could not move hand or
foot. It was an uncomfortable position to which he had been reduced,
but he had brought it all upon himself by obduracy. He howled and swore
like a pirate; but nothing more was said to aggravate him, and as soon
as he was securely bound to the front of the berth, the party left him
to become a wiser and more docile man.
“Now, Captain Belgrave, what next?” asked the captain from the Park, as
he looked at Louis with a smile.
“I will leave that to you, sir. I am not a captain, and I could not
handle the schooner to save my life, or even to save my mother’s life,”
replied Louis as he led the way to Mrs. Belgrave’s stateroom.
“So far as the navigation of the vessel is concerned, I will attend to
that; but I look upon you as the leader of the enterprise by which we
are to be restored to our homes at Von Blonk Park. You know that man in
the stateroom better than I do, and I think you ought to say what shall
be done.”
“We will arrange it all between us. But it seems to me that the Maud is
tumbling about in a very wild way,” replied Louis, as he grasped the
handle of his mother’s door to avoid being hurled over to leeward.
“We are going to have a violent north-easter, and one is due about this
time of year. Whatever this schooner may be able to do with a free
wind, she can’t do much close-hauled. But that question will come up
later,” added the captain.
“What is all the noise I heard just now, Louis?” asked Mrs. Belgrave,
opening the door of her room at this moment.
“Scoble is bound hand and foot and locked into the stateroom on the
other side of the cabin,” replied her son. “He can do nothing now, and
you have no more to fear.”
This explanation satisfied the terrified woman, and she retired again.
Captain Ringgold and Felix had seated themselves on a divan, for it
was exceedingly difficult to stand in the cabin. The time had come to
decide what was to be done with the vessel; for she was still in the
hands of the crew, consisting of the mate and two men, besides the
cook. She had hands enough to manage her; but there were still four men
against one stout man and two stout boys.
Whether or not the crew would stand by their captain and fight for
him was an interesting question; and when they were preparing to face
it Bickling, the cook, came into the cabin from the deck. He at once
announced that he had been sent below to ascertain the occasion of the
noise by Mr. Frinks, who said it sounded like blows with an axe upon
one of the doors.
“Which it was a great noise, for I ’eard it myself in the galley,”
added the cook, steadying himself by holding on at the table.
“Perhaps the mate had better come below himself and have the noise
explained to him,” replied Captain Ringgold.
“Which ’e can’t leave the deck, sir, for the vessel is making very bad
weather of it; and Mr. Frinks is wondering where is the captain that ’e
don’t come on deck and attend to the vessel,” said the cook.
“Do you know anything about the affairs of this vessel, cook?” asked
the captain sharply.
“Which I don’t know anything at all about anything, sir.”
“You don’t? How long have you been on board of her?”
“Only two weeks and three days, sir.”
“Didn’t you come over from England in her?”
“No sir, I did not; I was cooking at a ’otel in Baltimore when Captain
Farrongate engaged me. I took the lay because I wanted to go home to
Hengland.”
“Who was the cook that came out in the Maud?”
“Which she ’ad no cook coming out, sir; but one of the seamen did the
cooking.”
“Why do you call him Captain Farrongate when his name is Scoble?”
“The ship’s company all called ’im Captain Scoble till a few days ago,
and then we were all told to call ’im Captain Farrongate, which it is
true we all called ’im after that.”
“Did you know that all the persons who came on board this forenoon were
kidnapped, and that two of us were confined under the lower hatch?”
“Kidnapped! Bless my body, no sir! I never ’eard a word said about any
such thing sir!” protested the cook, with energy enough to be telling
the truth.
“Didn’t any of the hands say anything to you about it? Didn’t they tell
you they had put the hatches on when two of us went into the lower hold
to examine the vessel?”
“Not a word about it, sir; which I mind my business, sir, and I have
nothing to do with the foremast hands except to give them a kid of beef
and a dish of h’ard bread.”
The party wondered if this man was telling the truth. Louis stated that
he had seen but three men leave the Maud at the time she was sunk,
which confirmed a part of the cook’s story, that he had been on board
but about two weeks, and had not come from England in her.
“We have made some changes about the schooner, cook, and we should
like to know how you stand. Captain Scoble has been put in irons, and
is locked up in the starboard stateroom,” added Captain Ringgold, in
an impressive manner. “We were all kidnapped, including the lady in
this stateroom, and Scoble was intending to take her and her son, and
perhaps the rest of us, to England. We have taken possession of the
vessel, and I mean to take her to New York.”
“The captain in irons! Bless my body!” exclaimed the cook, apparently
overwhelmed by the news.
“It is just as I state it, and the noise you heard was made by Captain
Scoble, trying to get out of the room where we have confined him. But
we have bound him hand and foot, and made him fast to the front of the
berth, so that he can do nothing more to help himself. Now, my man, do
you want to fight on Scoble’s side?”
“Bless my body! No, sir! Which I always run away when a fight is coming
on,” protested Bickling.
“If you wish to take part in this conspiracy with Scoble and the mate,
I shall be under the necessity of binding you hand and foot, and making
you fast to a stanchion. You will obey no order given by Scoble or the
mate,” continued the shipmaster, taking from his hip-pocket one of the
revolvers with which Louis had provided him.
“Bless my body! Revolvers!” groaned the cook, as though one had already
been fired at him; for both of the boys imitated the example of the
captain and produced their weapons, though the exhibition was only for
its moral effect. “I see you have the hupper ’ands, sir, and I will
obey your orders in all things.”
“All right, Bickling. Now you will go on deck and tell the mate all
you have learned, and we will be with you in a few minutes,” said the
captain; and the cook made all haste to get out of the reach of the
revolvers.
“I measured that man about right,” said Louis, after Bickling had gone.
“I did not look for any powerful opposition from him.”
“As he says, he minds his own business, and don’t care who is king.
Probably we shall have to serve Mr. Fobbington as we have the captain.”
“His name is Frinks; and I think he is a smarter man than Scoble; but I
am sure we can handle him.”
“I am used to this sort of thing, Louis, for I once had occasion to put
down a mutiny on the north-west coast. Frinks may give us some trouble;
but the seamen will be about such fellows as Bickling. They work for
their wages, and don’t care who is captain of the ship. Now, Louis, we
will go on deck, and when I have seen what the wind and weather are, I
shall know what we had better do in a nautical point of view.”
Louis expected there would be some sort of a brush with Frinks, for
he must be familiar with the whole length and breadth of the plot to
capture Louis and his mother. He could not plead ignorance of the
designs of Scoble, for he had really managed the whole affair. The
stick with which the rebellious passenger had intimidated Scoble lay on
the floor where he had left it, and he picked it up, ready to make use
of it with regret if occasion should require.
It was not an easy thing for the landsmen to mount the companion-stairs,
for the Maud was leaping like a running horse, and the sea was breaking
over her bows at every plunge she made. The two seamen had been driven
to the shelter of the caboose, for there was nothing for them to do.
The scene on the quarter-deck, where the mate still kept the wheel, was
likely to be a stormy one in a double sense.
Bickling had not yet finished his story relating to the condition of
things in the cabin. Frinks was plainly very much interested, and
the situation had evidently been anticipated by him. Louis had told
Captain Ringgold all he knew about Frinks, who was a good deal of a
humorist; but whether or not he was a fighting character was yet to be
ascertained, though in the opinion of the shipmaster it did not make
much difference.
“I salute you, Mr. Frinks,” said the captain, politely addressing the
mate. “You have heard the whole story from the cook, and I suppose
there is nothing more to be said of a descriptive nature.”
“Who the dickens are you, my fine fellow?” demanded Frinks, who knew
nothing at all about the gentleman who addressed him.
“Well, sir, I am Captain Royal Ringgold; and I have been to sea enough
to see that you are handling this craft in a very lubberly fashion;
and I am about to relieve you of the helm, and have the vessel better
managed.”
“Thank you, Captain Royal Ringgold; I shall be under very great
obligations to you for doing so. If you can make this old tub do any
better, I should like to see it done; but I think we shall soon find
that we have two lubbers on board instead of one,” replied the mate as
pleasantly as he had talked to Louis.
“I think we had better attend to one or two preliminaries before we
do anything. You assisted Captain Scoble to kidnap four persons at
this moment on board of the Maud. Is this a true bill?” demanded the
captain, placing himself close beside the mate.
“Yes, sir; as true as the comic almanac,” answered Frinks squarely,
with a smile on his spray-covered face.
“That is honest and candid.”
“Do you suppose if the Prince of Wales should succeed to the throne of
the United Kingdom, it would make any difference to me?”
“Give it up!” laughed the captain.
“He would be the king and I should still be the subject, just as John
Scoble is commander of the Maud and I am the mate. It is all the same
to me who is captain. I am informed by the cook that you have taken
possession of the vessel, and put the captain in irons, locking him up
in my stateroom.”
“The cook informed you correctly.”
“All right. I am not such a fool as Scoble, who has been jawing all day
with my particular friend, Louis Belgrave, whose acquaintance I had the
honor to make at Von Blonk Park. As to kidnapping you, my dear Captain
Ringgold, I had not the least intention of doing anything of the sort.
I would have given ten shillings out of my own pocket to get rid of
you and the other young gentleman, when I saw you at the station. In a
word, Captain Scoble did not want you.”
“At the same time I am glad to be here for Louis’s sake.”
“I dare say. If you are now the captain, I am ready to swear allegiance
to the powers that be.” The mate resigned the wheel to the captain.