ON THE WATER, WHERE BUTTONS SEES A LOST IDEA AND GIVES CHASE TO IT,
TOGETHER WITH THE HEART-SICKENING RESULTS THEREOF.
On the following morning Buttons and Dick went a little way out of
town, and down the steep cliff toward the shore.
It was a classic spot. Here was no less a place than the cave of
Polyphemus, where Homer, at least, may have stood, if Ulysses didn't.
And here is the identical stone with which the giant was wont to
block up the entrance to his cavern.
The sea rolled before. Away down to the right was Vesuvius, starting
from which the eye took in the whole wide sweep of the shore, lined
with white cities, with a background of mountains, till the land
terminated in bold promontories.
Opposite was the Isle of Capri.
Myriads of white sails flashed across the sea. One of these arrested
the attention of Buttons, and so absorbed him that he stared fixedly
at it for half an hour without moving.
At length an exclamation burst from him:
"By Jove! It is! It is!"
"What is? What is?"
"The Spaniards!"
"Where?"
"In that boat."
"Ah!" said Dick, coolly, looking at the object pointed out by
Buttons.
It was an English sail-boat, with a small cabin and an immense
sail. In the stern were a gentleman and two ladies. Buttons was
confident that they were the Spaniards.
[Illustration: The Spaniards.]
"Well," said Dick, "what's the use of getting so excited about
it?"
"Why, I'm going back to Naples by water!"
"Are you? Then I'll go too. Shall we leave the others?"
"Certainly not, if they want to come with us."
Upon inquiry they found that the others had a strong objection to
going by sea. Mr. Figgs preferred the ease of the carriage. The
Doctor thought the sea air injurious. The Senator had the honesty
to confess that he was afraid of seasickness. They would not listen
to persuasion, but were all resolutely bent on keeping to the
carriage.
Buttons exhibited a feverish haste in searching after a boat. There
was but little to choose from among a crowd of odd-looking
fishing-boats that crowded the shore. However, they selected the
cleanest from among them, and soon the boat, with her broad sail
spread, was darting over the sea.
The boat of which they went in pursuit was far away over near the
other shore, taking long tacks across the bay. Buttons headed his
boat so as to meet the other on its return tack.
It was a magnificent scene. After exhausting every shore view of
Naples, there is nothing like taking to the water. Every thing
then appears in a new light. The far, winding cities that surround
the shore, the white villages, the purple Apennines, the rocky
isles, the frowning volcano.
This is what makes Naples supreme in beauty. The peculiar combinations
of scenery that are found there make rivalry impossible. For if you
find elsewhere an equally beautiful bay, you will not have so liquid
an atmosphere; if you have a shore with equal beauty of outline, and
equal grace in its long sweep of towering headland and retreating
slope, you will not have so deep a purple on the distant hills. Above
all, nowhere else on earth has Nature placed in the very centre of so
divine a scene the contrasted terrors of the black volcano.
Watching a chase is exciting; but taking part in it is much more so.
Buttons had made the most scientific arrangements. He had calculated
that at a certain point on the opposite shore the other boat would
turn on a new tack, and that if he steered to his boat to a point
about half-way over, he would meet them, without appearing to be in
pursuit. He accordingly felt so elated at the idea that he burst
forth into song.
The other boat at length had passed well over under the shadow of
the land. It did not turn. Further and further over, and still it
did not change its course. Buttons still kept the course which he
had first chosen; but finding that he was getting far out of the way
of the other boat, he was forced to turn the head of his boat
closer to the wind, and sail slowly, watching the others.
There was an island immediately ahead of the other boat. What was his
dismay at seeing it gracefully pass beyond the outer edge of the
island, turn behind it, and vanish. He struck the taffrail furiously
with his clenched hand. However, there was no help for it; so,
changing his course, he steered in a straight line after the other,
to where it had disappeared.
Now that the boat was out of sight Dick did not feel himself called
on to watch. So he went forward into the bow, and made himself a snug
berth, where he laid down; and lighting his pipe, looked dreamily out
through a cloud of smoke upon the charming scene. The tossing of the
boat and the lazy flapping of the sails had a soothing influence. His
nerves owned the lulling power. His eyelids grew heavy and gently
descended.
The wind and waves and islands and sea and sky, all mingled together
in a confused mass, came before his mind. He was sailing on clouds,
and chasing Spanish ladies through the sky. The drifting currents of
the air bore them resistlessly along in wide and never-ending curves
upward in spiral movements towards the zenith; and then off in
ever-increasing speed, with ever-widening gyrations, toward the
sunset, where the clouds grew red, and lazaroni grinned from behind--
A sudden bang of the huge sail struck by the wind, a wild creaking
of the boom, and a smart dash of spray over the bows and into his
face waked him from his slumber. He started up, half blinded, to
look around. Buttons sat gazing over the waters with an expression
of bitter vexation. They had passed the outer point of the island,
and had caught a swift current, a chopping sea, and a brisk breeze.
The other boat was nowhere to be seen. Buttons had already headed back
again.
"I don't see the other boat," said Dick. Buttons without a word
pointed to the left. There she was. She had gone quietly around the
island, and had taken the channel between it and the shore. All the
time that she had been hidden she was steadily increasing the distance
between them.
"There's no help for it," said Dick, "but to keep straight after
them."
Buttons did not reply, but leaned back with a sweet expression of
patience. The two boats kept on in this way for a long time; but
the one in which our friends had embarked was no match at all for
the one they were pursuing. At every new tack this fact became more
painfully evident. The only hope for Buttons was to regain by his
superior nautical skill what he might lose. Those in the other boat
had but little skill in sailing. These as length became aware that
they were followed, and regarded their pursuers with earnest
attention. It did not seem to have any effect.
"They know we are after them at last!" said Dick.
"I wonder if they can recognize us?"
"If they do they have sharp eyes. I'll be hanged if I can recognize
them. I don't see how you can."
"Instinct, Dick--instinct!" said Buttons, with animation.
"What's that flashing in their boat?"
"That?" said Buttons. "It's a spy-glass. I didn't notice it before."
"I've seen it for the last half-hour."
"Then they most recognize us. How strange that they don't slacken a
little! Perhaps we are not in full view. I will sit a little more
out the shade of the sail, so that they can recognize me."
Accordingly Buttons moved out to a more conspicuous place, and Dick
allowed himself to be more visible. Again the flashing brass was seen
in the boat, and they could plainly perceive that it was passed from
one to the other, while each took a long survey.
"They must be able to see us if they have any kind of a glass at all."
"I should think so," said Buttons, dolefully.
"Are you sure they are the Spaniards?"
"Oh! quite."
"Then I must say they might be a little more civil, and not keep
us racing after them forever!"
"Oh, I don't know; I suppose they wouldn't like to sail close up
to us."
"They needn't sail up to us, but they might give us a chance to hail
them."
"I don't think the man they have with them looks like Señor Francia."
"Francia? Is that his name? He certainly looks larger. He is larger."
"Look!"
As Buttons spoke the boat ahead fell rapidly to leeward. The wind had
fallen, and a current which they had struck upon bore them away. In
the effort to escape from the current the boat headed toward Buttons,
and when the wind again arose she continued to sail toward them. As
they came nearer Buttons's face exhibited a strange variety of
expressions.
[Illustration: A Thousand Pardons!]
They met.
In the other boat sat two English ladies and a tall gentleman, who
eyed the two young men fixedly, with a "stony British stare."
"A thousand pardons!" said Buttons, rising and bowing. "I mistook you
for some acquaintances."
Whereupon the others smiled in a friendly way, bowed, and said
something. A few commonplaces were interchanged, and the boats drifted
away out of hearing.