ON BOARD THE PRIZE
Soon after dinner the earl and the squire left the hotel for the ship.
They took a street car that ran from Georgetown to the navy yard gate.
There they alighted and entered the yard, passed the officers’ quarters,
passed the workshops and the ship house and went down to the water side.
As they neared it they saw an officer in naval uniform standing with his
back toward them, and his gaze directed toward a boat, rowed by six men,
that was swiftly coming toward the shore.
Mr. Force quickened his steps and laid his hand on the arm of the man,
whom he had recognized as Le.
The latter turned quickly, started joyfully, and held out both hands,
exclaiming:
“Uncle Abel!”
“Le, dear boy!” cried the squire, seizing the youth’s hands and shaking
them cordially.
“You here! What a surprise! How glad I am to see you! I thought you were
in Europe. When did you return? How are my aunt and cousins? And how is
Odalite? And——”
“Softly, Le. Softly, dear lad. One thing at a time. We have just arrived
from Europe, and we are all well. And here is a friend of yours whom you
are forgetting,” said the squire, taking the young man’s arm and leading
him back to where the earl stood.
“Lord Enderby! How glad I am to see you! This is another joyful
surprise. You are looking so well, too. Quite recovered your health, I
hope,” said Le, cordially shaking the hand the earl had given him.
“Quite recovered, thank you,” replied the latter.
“Where are you stopping, Uncle Abel?”
“We are stopping at the old place where we boarded six years ago, when
we first came to Washington. And we have been following you about for
the last twenty-four hours,” replied Mr. Force.
“And to think I have passed that hotel at least a dozen times within a
day without knowing that you were there! What a surprise! And you say
Odalite is quite well?”
“Odalite and all are quite well.”
“I am so glad to hear that! And to know that they are all so near! When
can I see them?”
“As soon as you please. It will depend on yourself. They have been
waiting for twenty-four hours most anxiously to see you.”
“What a surprise! I cannot get over the surprise. There is the boat,
Uncle Abel. Will you and Lord Enderby return with me on board the ship,
and spend a few hours with me in the cabin, where we can talk” Le
inquired, as the boat touched the wharf and the rowers laid on their
oars.
“We came down here for that very purpose,” replied the squire.
“Come, then.”
The three gentlemen walked down to the water’s edge and entered the
boat.
The sailors pushed off, turned and headed for the _Argente_.
It was a pretty view. The sun had just set, and the western sky was
aflame with the crimson afterglow which was reflected in the water. The
full moon was rising like a vast globe of gold above the gray eastern
horizon. In the distance before them was the green and wooded shore of
Maryland. Midway of the river lay the _Argente_ at anchor, reflected
clearly and duplicated distinctly in the water below.
They soon reached the ship and stood upon the deck.
A young midshipman saluted his superior officer.
Le introduced him as Midshipman Franklin, exchanged a few words with
him, and then took his friends down into his own cabin.
This was quite a luxuriously furnished place for the cabin of a
man-of-war, as the pirate ship seemed in a small way to be. An Axminster
carpet was on the floor, and blue satin damask curtains before the
berths; blue satin damask coverings on the chairs and sofas. A
marble-topped round table stood in the center. A marble-topped
sideboard, with silver stands for decanters and glasses, stood at the
end opposite the companion way.
Le drew chairs around the table and invited his friends to be seated.
Then he went to the sideboard and brought forth a bottle of old port
wine, with wineglasses, and a box of choice Havana cigars, with wax
tapers, and putting them on the table, exclaimed, for the fourth time:
“What a surprise! I shall never get over this surprise!”
“You talk of surprises, Le!” said Mr. Force, when they had all had a
glass of wine around, and had lighted their cigars. “You talk of
surprises; but you ought to have grown hardened to them by this time! No
one could ever have had a greater one than you had when you found in the
pirate captain and his mate your old enemy, Angus Anglesea, and your old
friend, Roland Bayard!”
“You may well say that, uncle! But I do believe it was the sight of my
old foe that put the devil in me that day and made me utterly reckless
of my life in that fight.”
“We have all read of your heroism in action, Le, my dear boy, and we are
proud of you,” said the squire.
“It wasn’t heroism, uncle! It was diabolism! If ever the devil got into
mortal man he did into me that day! And it was all at the sight of
Anglesea.”
“No matter, the papers are full of the brilliant action, and you are the
hero of the hour.”
“Of the hour. You are right, uncle! Of the hour! In these days of
heroes—on both sides, mind, uncle—no one man, whatever his deeds, could
expect to hold public attention for a longer time. But, indeed—and there
is no mock modesty in what I say—I have no merit. I was more mad than
brave in that action.”
“Your captain, in his dispatches to the department, puts the case in a
better light. But let that pass for the present. Do you know who the
pirate really is?” demanded the squire.
“No more than that he is Capt. Silver, known to us as Col. Anglesea,”
said Le.
“He is neither entitled to the one name nor the other.”
“Neither Silver nor Anglesea? Who is he, then?” demanded the young
commander, in surprise.
“Enderby, dear fellow! You, who can speak with authority, tell Leonidas
who the man really is.”
The earl, thus entreated, turned to the young officer and told him the
story of Byrne Stukely, as it is already known to our readers.
Le listened with the closest attention, and at the close of the
narrative drew a deep sigh of relief and breathed forth a fervent
thanksgiving.
“And so you see by what Enderby has told you, that the rascal has not
now, nor ever has had, the slightest claim on the hand of Odalite, who
is now, and always has been, perfectly free. There is not even any need
to seek the aid of the law in her case,” said Mr. Force.
“Thank Heaven! Oh! thank Heaven!” again fervently exclaimed Le.
Then, after a pause, he asked:
“Uncle, when can I see Odalite?”
“As soon as you please, my boy!”
“I wish I could see her to-night But to-night duty holds me here.
Franklin, my second in command, has gone on shore for the first time to
see his family, who reside here, and whom he has not seen for three
years. So I cannot get off to-night! But early to-morrow! How early may
I see her to-morrow?”
“Come and breakfast with us at nine to-morrow. That is about as early as
we can manage.”
“I will go!”
“And now, Le, tell us about Roland Bayard. How comes it that he is in
the uniform of the pirate’s mate? How comes it that he is brought here
as a prisoner, instead of as a rescued captive?”
The countenance of the young man fell, all the joyous life died out of
it, and he murmured:
“I had forgotten! In my own selfish joy I had forgotten,’”
“Forgotten? What, Le?”
“I had forgotten Roland’s position. Oh, Uncle Abel! It is a most cruel
one!”
“Tell me one thing,” sternly demanded Mr. Force. “Was he Silver’s mate?”
“I do not know.”
“You do not know, Le? What do you mean by that? Surely you must know!”
“Indeed, I do not, uncle. After the fight was over, and when the two
prisoners were placed under my charge on board this ship, and she was
manned by a part of the crew from the _Eagle_, and I was ordered to take
her home, when we had set sail and were well on our way I went to see
Roland, to ask him some explanation of his presence on board the
blockade runner. He was not known there as Roland Bayard, but as Craven
Cloud. I found him alone, for the two prisoners had been confined
separately. I found him moody to the verge of melancholy madness. I told
him how grieved I was to find him there, and asked him to tell me how it
happened, when he had left Capt. Grandiere, whether he had joined the
navy and had been captured in some action.”
“And what did he reply to all these questions?” inquired Mr. Force,
seeing that Le paused in his narrative.
“Not one satisfactory word! He told me that fate had brought him there,
and that he could tell me no more. And though I plied him with
questions, and appealed to him to answer them in the name of our
lifelong love for one another, he remained obdurate. He assured me that
he could not satisfy me.”
“And he never did?”
“He never did. But one day he told me the reason why his tongue was
tied.”
“And what was that?”
“It was a terrible revelation, uncle—a terrible revelation! But it
accounted for everything that was strange in Roland’s life and conduct,”
replied Le, still shrinking from the utterance of what he had to say.
“Well, well, my boy?” demanded the squire.
“He told me that Capt. Silver was his own father!”
“Good Heaven!” exclaimed the earl.
The squire was silent for a moment, and then said, in the most emphatic
manner:
“I don’t believe it! It is not true!”
“Oh! sir, it was true—too true! He had every proof of its truth!
Therefore, you understand that poor Roland, if he was a prisoner among
the blockade runners and a witness to deeds even more unlawful and more
criminal, could not open his mouth with explanations that might be fatal
to Capt. Silver.”
“The scoundrel is no more Roland’s father than I am! No, not by an
infinite distance, for I have been a father to the boy ever since he was
a baby. And I know that scoundrel is nothing to him! I know the reason
why he told such a falsehood to the young man. It was to get him into
his power and seal his lips! Did Roland, for instance, tell you how he
came to be separated from Capt. Grandiere, and to be on board the
blockade runner, or rather the pirate, as she really was?”
“No, sir. I explained to you that he would tell me nothing but that fate
had brought him there.”
“Of course. Then I will tell you. Capt. Grandiere’s ship, the _Kitty_,
was taken by the pirate _Argente_ about six weeks since only. Her crew
were put into open boats and sent adrift to sink or swim, find land or
perish, as fate might will. Her two officers, Skipper Grandiere and Mate
Bayard, were taken prisoners, and brought on board the _Argente_, while
a part of the pirate crew were sent on board the _Kitty_, to take her,
with her rich cargo, to some port—Heaven knows where! That is how young
Bayard came on board the pirate ship.”
“Is—it—possible!” exclaimed Le, in amazement.
“Yes; and from the time the master and mate of the _Kitty_ were captured
by Silver they were never allowed to meet. Roland, who had been wounded,
was kept below in the cockpit. Silver told Capt. Grandiere that Bayard
had decided to take service with him, and did not wish to see his old
captain for fear of unpleasant words. Silver was near the English coast,
and he sent a boat ashore at night and landed the old skipper on a
remote beach in Cornwall, and left him to find his way to London as best
he might.”
“But how did you find out all this, Uncle Abel?” inquired Le, unable to
get over his amazement.
“Grandiere went up to London on a third-class train, found his
correspondents, told his story, got what money he wanted, and engaged
passage on the _Asia_ from Liverpool to New York. We came over on the
same steamer. That is how we came to know it.”
“Where is Capt. Grandiere now?” inquired Le.
“In Washington, staying at the same hotel with us. You may judge our
surprise, and his triumph, when on reaching New York, three days since,
we learned that the blockade runner _Argente_ had been captured by the
United States man-of-war _Eagle_, and had been sent home as a prize,
under the command of Lieut. Force. We came down to Washington by the
first train—I and my party—to see you and Roland; but Capt. Grandiere
avowedly to prove Silver to be a pirate, and to hang him. Capt.
Grandiere will now also be able to prove that young Roland Bayard was
captured by the pirates at the same time that his ship, the _Kitty_, was
taken, and he, the skipper, taken prisoner. Capt. Grandiere’s evidence
must vindicate Roland Bayard.”
“Oh! if it only could! But, uncle, if Roland will not deny that he was a
voluntary member of the pirate crew?”
“He will deny it, when he knows the pirate lied to him and deceived him,
and has no claim whatever to his forbearance, much less to his duty or
affection,” said Mr. Force.
It was growing late, and Mr. Force arose to go.
“Uncle,” said Le, “why cannot you and the earl stay on board with me
to-night? I can send a man with a note to the hotel to let the ladies
know where you are, and I can make you up most comfortable berths in
this cabin. And to-morrow we can all three go and breakfast with our
friends,” pleaded the young man.
“Le, my lad, I should like it extremely, but I cannot speak for
Enderby,” replied the squire.
“I propose this,” said the earl—“that I return to the hotel to take care
of the ladies, and prepare them for your reception in the morning,
leaving you here, Force, with your nephew.”
The earl’s proposal was accepted by acclamation, and soon after he took
his leave, and was rowed ashore, leaving the uncle and nephew to spend
the night together on the ship.