"You'd better stick to us," said the skipper to Colonel Vereker, who
talked of taking the next Cunard steamer, which was advertised to leave
on the morrow, as the _Star of the North_ was being berthed in our
company's dock on the East River. "I'm only going to stop here long
enough to discharge our cargo and ship a fresh one; which is all ready
and waiting for us; and then, sir, we'll `make tracks,' as our friends
the Yankees say, right away over the `herring-pond' to Liverpool as fast
as steam and sail can carry the old barquey. Better stick to us,
colonel, and see the voyage out."
"All right, Senor Applegarth," replied the colonel, who could not drop
his Spanish phraseology all at once, though otherwise gradually
returning to his and our own native tongue and becoming less of a
foreigner in every way, "I will return with you."
Both were as good as their word, he and little Elsie coming home with
us, and the skipper making the passage from Sandy Hook to the Mersey in
eight days from land to land, the fastest run we had ever yet achieved
across the Atlantic, whether outward or homeward-bound.
But, quick as we were, the _Saint Pierre_ managed to reach Liverpool
before we did, the pilot who boarded us off the Skerries bringing the
news that she had gone up the river a tide ahead of us.
This piece of intelligence was confirmed beyond question by Garry O'Neil
coming off in the company's tug that sheered alongside as we dropped
anchor in the stream later on, midway between the Prince's landing-stage
and the Birkenhead shore, the manager of our line being anxious to
compliment the skipper on his successful rescue of the French ship, the
percentage on whose valuable cargo for bringing her safely to port, and
thus saving all loss to the underwriters, would more than repay any
damage done for the detention of our vessel when engaged on the errand
of mercy and justice that took her off her course.
In addition likewise to the thanks of the company and the underwriters,
the skipper was also presented with a handsome gold chronometer watch by
the committee of Lloyds, besides participating in the amount awarded by
the charterers of the _Saint Pierre_ for the salvage of the ship, though
in this latter apportionment it was only fair to mention that we all
shared, officers and crew alike, I for my part coming into the sudden
possession of such a tidy little sum of ready money that I felt myself a
comparative millionaire.
When talking with Garry, whom it is almost needless to say all hands
were glad to see again, the men cheering him lustily as he crossed the
gangway from the tug, he told us that though otherwise they had had a
fairly pleasant voyage after parting company with us off the Azores, the
Boissons gave him a good deal of trouble.
Madame, he said, worried his life out by "making eyes" at him when he
went below at meal-times, while on deck he was never safe for a moment
from her embarrassing attentions unless, in desperation, as he was often
forced to do, he went aloft to get out of her way.
"Faith, an' sure, that warn't the worst of it nayther," complained Garry
in his humorous way. "Though the vain, silly ould crayture bate
Banagher for flirtin'--an', indade, bates ivviry other of her sex, God
bless 'em, that I've ivver clapt eyes on yet--that quare little Frenchy
chap, her husband, he, the little sparrow, must neades git jallous, an'
makes out it's all my fault, an', belave me, a nice toime I had o' it
altogether. At last I said to him, afther havin' been more than usual
exasperated by him, `If you want to foight me, begorrah, ye can begin as
soon as you loike,' at the same toime showin' him me fists."
"_Ah, non, non, mon Dieu, non_, note yat vay!" sez he, joompin' away
from me whin he caught soight o' me fists. "I was mean ze duel and ze
rapiere."
"Not me, faith," sez I. "If it's duellin' ye want you'll have to go to
another shop, Monsieur Parleyvoo, for it ain't in my line. Allow me to
till ye too, Monsieur Boisson, that if ye dare to hint at sich a thing
ag'in whilst I'm in command of this ship, the ounly satisfaction ye'll
ivver have out of me in the rap-here way will be a rap on the h'id wid
this shtick of moine here, you recollict, joist to thry the stringth of
y'r craynium, begorrah! Faith, that sittled the matther, the little
beggar turnin' as pale as a codfish and goin' below at onst, lookin'
very dejecthed an' crestfallin. He nivver s'id another word afther that
to me as long as he remained aboard, nor did Madame trouble me very much
more wid her attenshions. On the contrary, bedad, from the day this
happened till yestherday, whin she wor set ashore at the landing-stage
yonder, she'd look moighty saur at me if we chanced to mate on deck--
aye, faith, as saur as a babby that's been weaned on butthermilk."
"Why," inquired the skipper, when we had both a good laugh at Garry and
his account of the Boisson episode, "have they left, then, the ship for
good?"
"Faith, yis, sor, bag an' baggage, the blissid pair of 'em, an' moighty
pleased I wor to say the backs of 'em!"
"But how about the trial of those black devils, those pirates, then;
won't they be required as witnesses against the murderers?"
"No, sor," replied Garry. "The polis officers that came aboard whin we
got into dock sid they didn't want monsieur nor madame neither, as they
didn't know a ha'porth of the jambolle, worse luck, they bein' below all
the toime. The magistrates think the two French sailors, who're goin'
on foine by the same token, and the colonel, all of whom were on deck
an' saw everything that went on, would be sufficient witnisses aga'n the
Haytian scoundrels."
"Oh!" said the skipper, "have these men been brought up before the
magistrates?"
"Aye, yestherday afthernoon, sor, an' they've been raymanded, whativer
that may mane--it ought to have been rayprimanded, I'm thinkin', an' a
cat-o'-nine-tails, if they had their desarts--till next Tuesday! The
magisthrates belayvin' the ould _Star of the North_ wid you, cap'en, wid
the colonel aboard, to give ividence ag'st the mutineers, that they
wouldn't be in from New York afore then, not knowin' what the ould
barquey could do in the way of stayming as you an' I do, sor, an' that
she'd arrive, faith, to-day!"
All happened as Garry O'Neil informed us, the Haytians and mutineer
blacks of the _Saint Pierre's_ crew being brought up again before the
magistrates the week following our arrival home, when, after hearing the
additional evidence against them given by Colonel Vereker and the
skipper, the six black and mahogany-coloured rascals were committed for
trial at the next assizes, which we were told would not be held for
another month, on the charge of "piracy and murder on the high seas."
The colonel took advantage of the interval that would necessarily have
to elapse before his presence would again be required in court to escort
Miss Elsie to Paris, and place her under the care of the sisters at the
convent at Neuilly, where, I think I told you before, he said her mother
had been brought up and educated; while the skipper and others of us
belonging to the _Star of the North_, being compelled to remain within
handy reach of the authorities, in case our presence at the trial might
be required, the opportunity was seized to lay the old barquey up in dry
dock and give her a thorough overhaul within and without, though the
engines, as proved by our rapid passage here, were none the worse for
our breakdown in mid-Atlantic, thanks to the skill and exertions of poor
Stoddart and the rest of old Mr Stokes' staff.
Most of us in this way got a short holiday while awaiting the assizes,
which I spent with my mother and sister, taking home with me the money I
had been awarded as my share of the _Saint Pierre's_ salvage, which had
made me fancy myself a temporary Croesus.
Alas, though, the sum, large though it was for a young fellow to find
unexpectedly in his pocket, went but a very short step in satisfying the
rapacious wolf I found at my mother's door when I reached the little
cottage, where she lived with my sister Janet, in one of the suburbs of
Liverpool.
A bubble company, whose directors had all been selected for their
religious bias rather than their business qualifications, burst at one
fell coup, almost in the very hour of my return home, dissipating into
thin air, as the Latin poet has it, all the savings of a lifetime which
my mother had invested in the swindle--the provision left behind by my
father, when he died, for her use, and the subsequent benefit of my
sister and myself. The devout rogue who had "managed" the concern to
his own worldly interest and that of his fellow religionists, carried on
the same, so they said, in a pious and eminently "Christian way," no
doubt, respected alike in the eyes of God and men, according to the
loudly-voiced tenets of the particular sect, to which he and his co-
directors mostly belonged; but he managed, all the same, to carry off to
a remote and friendly land outside the pale of international law, and
where dividends need no longer be paid to clamorous creditors, a
considerable amount of portable property of a valuable nature, amongst
which, probably, was our inheritance, my mother's capital!
Under these circumstances it behoved me to consider how I could best aid
my poor mother and sister, then left suddenly destitute through no fault
of their own.
Fortunately, I had the means ready at hand.
In our constant association on board the _Star of the North_ after his
rescue from the drifting boat, in which he greatly exaggerated the help
I was able to render him, Colonel Vereker was kind enough to notice me
much more than my subordinate position on board would have seemed to
warrant; and in a conversation we had together during the voyage home
from New York, after asking me what my prospects were, he made me an
offer to accompany him back to Venezuela on his return, promising me,
should I accept, a good salary to start with, and a fair chance of
ultimately making my fortune.
Loving the sea and my profession, however, with all a sailor's love,
besides being attached to my old ship and her officers, I felt no
inclination then to give up what I had learnt to look upon as my
legitimate calling, and turn landsman; so, although I had the highest
admiration for the colonel, coupled with more than a liking for his
young daughter, between whom and myself there seemed such a mysterious
sympathy on the evening of my sighting the _Saint Pierre_, when the
captain declared we were some hundreds of miles apart, I reluctantly
and, so it seemed to me, ungraciously, declined his proposal, telling
him I preferred "sticking" to the skipper and the old barquey!
But the colonel very kindly would not take my refusal at first as final;
and, when setting out for Paris to take Elsie to her convent school, she
taking leave of me with many tears and assurances that under any
circumstances she would always remain _mio amiquito_ (my little friend)
pledging herself, too, to be, if allowed at the school, a constant
correspondent if I would write to her sometimes to let her know where I
was. Well, the kind, good-hearted man, taking, as he said, a deep
interest in my welfare for Elsie's sake as well as for my own, assured
me that he would keep his generous offer open until the period arrived
for his ultimate departure for South America, on the termination of the
trial of the Haytian pirates and their mutineer accomplices.
So, recollecting all this, in my hour of need, I naturally turned to the
colonel and told him of my trouble on his return to Liverpool for the
assizes, at which, by the way, the black scoundrels and their allies
were sentenced to five years' penal servitude, the judge regretting his
inability to impose a heavier punishment from the fact of proof being
wanted of the active participation of the prisoners in the atrociously
cruel murder of Cato and the other diabolical work perpetrated on board
the ill-fated ship.
We were all glad when this matter, with the examination and sickening
details that it entailed, was finally settled, and we were at liberty to
go where we liked.
Colonel Vereker more than justified my confidence in him.
"Heavens! my boy, you must and shall be as my son," he said, wringing my
hand in a grip that I knew would be faithful unto death. "Come with me
and I will make a man of you, and a rich one, too, Dick Haldane!"
"But how shall I manage about my mother and sister, sir?" said I
hesitatingly. "How shall I manage about them during my absence?"
"You can make over your salary to them, for you will not want anything
while at Caracas, as you will live with me as my private secretary," he
replied, with another hearty shake of my hand. "The money shall be paid
to your mother regularly by my agent here, so that you need have no
fears on that score as to her support. But I do not want you to decide
such an important change in your life without proper consideration, and
the advice of your friends, my boy. Go and consult Senor Applegarth,
who I know is an old friend of yours as well as being your captain; and
then, if he and your other friends advise your acceptance of my offer,
and your mother and sister are willing to part with you--why then, Dick,
you may consider the matter settled, and you, some day, will be very
thankful you accepted my offer."
The skipper did not hesitate for one moment in giving his opinion,
though, like most of my mess-mates, he was good enough to say how sorry
he would be to part with me, and how he would miss me.
"Go by all means, my lad," said he. "By George! it's a chance that
doesn't come twice in a fellow's lifetime, and you may consider your
fortune as good as made!"
Mr Fosset and Garry O'Neil were equally enthusiastic.
"Faith, now, sor!" observed the latter, with a comical air of assured
deference at my future dignified position, as he imagined it would be,
"I hope ye'll remember ye'r humble ould fri'nd Garry whim ye're
Prisidint of the Venezuelan Raypublic, mid a lot of yaller divvles for
lackeys, an' so many dollars that ye won't know what to do wid 'em.
Begorrah, it's wishin' I am, I stood in ye'r shoes, alannah, an' I
wouldn't care for to call the Pope me ouncle, God bless him!"
Spokeshave, though, sneered at my success in gaining so good a friend as
the colonel; but owing to the accident to the top of his nose, which
being still bandaged, or rather court-plastered up, and not tending to
add to his beauty, he was not able to turn it up and sniff in his former
irritating way that always exasperated me so much.
As for old Masters, his face became the picture of woe when I informed
him I was leaving the ship and the company's service.
"You mark my words, Master Haldane," said he in his most sepulchral
manner, "many a one afore you has throwed up the sea, and what good has
it done 'em? No good! Them that goes to sea oughter stick to the sea,
that's what I says; and if they throws it up, though I hopes you won't,
they allus live to repent it. I be truly sorry you be goin', and ah,
Master Haldane, I sed as how summet 'ud come of our seein' that there
blessed ghost-ship!"
"And so something _has_ happened, bo'sun, and a precious lot too, my
hearty!" said I, jokingly, as I stood on the gangway preparatory to
going over the side. "But never mind that now, old shipmate! Good-bye
to you, men, and thank you all for your kindness to me from the time I
first sailed with you as a youngster."
I really believe I could see a tear in the old bo'sun's eye as he wished
me farewell with the rest of them, the crew manning the rigging to give
me a hearty cheer and "send off" that could be heard across the Mersey.
Thus it was that I took leave of the old barquey, and, my mother's
consent having been obtained before I finally settled with the colonel,
no further arrangements had to be perfected beyond obtaining and
preparing my kit, and a hasty run to the cottage to pay a last visit to
my old mother and sister Janet, and wish them farewell for a few years,
when I looked forward to returning to England and finding them both well
and happy, and in more comfortable and prosperous circumstances.
That same afternoon Colonel Vereker and I started off by train from
Liverpool for Southampton, at which latter port we embarked in the
outward bound West India mail steamer, sailing for Colon, _en route_ to
Venezuela.