IN THE CABIN OF THE SKYLARK.
Little Bobtail was not particularly glad to see Captain Chinks when he
boarded the Skylark, at her anchorage on the fishing-grounds. It seemed
as though the captain had taken a great deal of trouble to come down
several miles from the village, probably hiring Prince to put him
alongside the yacht. Yet he could not help thinking that the slight
uneasiness which disturbed him was very absurd. He had permitted himself
to hope that the owner of the Skylark would not claim her, or, at least,
would not claim her till he had the use of her for a season, the longer
the better; but he felt that he had no right to hope any such thing. The
yacht was a beautiful craft, and it was in the very height of the
boating season. All his hopes, however, had been very vague, and were
not founded on any reasonable basis. He had been considering the
remotest of possibilities, rather than the slightest probabilities.
When Captain Chinks came on board, Bobtail felt that he had come to
claim the yacht. According to the general "speech of people," this man
of a doubtful reputation was, more likely than any other person in
Camden, the owner of the twenty cases of brandy. If he claimed the
yacht, he must claim the smuggled goods at the same time. Of course
Bobtail would be expected to keep the secret, and thereby become a party
to the fraud. He was not prepared for this issue. He did not want the
confidence of any smuggler. Whatever his own views of the contraband
trade, he would not break any law of the land himself, however leniently
he was disposed to regard others who neglected to pay duties to the
custom-house. He had always tried to be honest and upright, and he had a
perfect horror of being anything else.
"How's this, Bobtail?" said Captain Chinks, casting his eyes about him,
as if to examine the parts of the yacht. "This is a fine boat!"
"Tip-top, sir," replied the skipper, with proper enthusiasm.
"Some one up in the village said you picked her up adrift. Is that so?"
"That's so, Captain Chinks. I found her drifting out to sea, over near
Blank Island. Does she belong to you, sir?"
"To me?" exclaimed the visitor, with a slight start, which did not
escape the observation of Little Bobtail. "What makes you think she
belongs to me?"
"I didn't say I thought so. I only asked you if she did. Captain
Flipper, of the Islesboro' packet, said you might know something about
her."
"What made him think I knew anything about her?"
"I don't know that he did think so; only he said you came over from
Islesboro' with him this morning," Bobtail explained.
"What has that to do with it?"
"Nothing, that I know of. Captain Flipper said you knew about all the
boats in these parts."
"O, that's the reason he said I might know about her?" added Captain
Chinks, apparently relieved by the explanation.
"Yes, sir, I suppose so. Now, do you know anything about her?" asked
the young skipper, forcing the question home.
"Possibly I have seen her. I don't know."
"Then she don't belong to you?"
"Why do you keep asking me that question, Bobtail? Do you think I own
her?" demanded the captain, rather sharply.
"I don't think anything at all about it. I don't know. I can't tell by
the looks of a man whether he owns this boat or not. I'm looking for her
owner, and so I asked you the question."
"Well, I don't own her," said Captain Chinks, with more earnestness than
Bobtail thought the occasion required; but he could not help suspecting,
from his manner, that Captain Chinks knew something about the Skylark.
"Do you happen to know who does own her?" continued Bobtail.
"No, I don't know anything at all about her."
The Darwinian had left his dinner when Bobtail did, and had come as far
as the companion-way, where he stood listening to the conversation which
took place while the parties stood on deck. Captain Chinks had
discovered Monkey's presence only a moment before, and it was possible
that his decided answers were called forth by the fact that a third
person was near.
"Won't you take a bite with us?" continued Bobtail, when he happened to
remember that he had not finished his dinner.
"No; I had my dinner just before I came from home; but I will go below
with you," replied Captain Chinks, following Bobtail into the cabin.
The skipper and Monkey resumed their places at the table, and finished
the meal. While he was eating, Bobtail related all the particulars of
the finding of the Skylark, so far as the boat was concerned, but
prudently repressed all allusion to the twenty cases of brandy. Captain
Chinks appeared to be nervous and uneasy, though, as he did not own the
boat, and knew nothing at all about her, Bobtail could not see why he
should be so. The dishes were cleared away, washed, and carefully
deposited in the lockers. The cook-room was put in order, the cabin
floor swept, and every article of furniture put in its place. Bobtail
seated himself on the transom, opposite Captain Chinks, and wondered
more than ever why he had taken so much trouble to visit the Skylark
when she lay so far from the town.
"What do you suppose this boat is worth, Bobtail?" asked Captain Chinks,
as he glanced forward and then aft, as if to survey the quality and
capacity of the yacht.
"I'm sure I have no idea," replied the young skipper.
"They asked me twelve hundred dollars for one about this size in Newport
last year," added the captain.
"That's a big price for a boat."
"But it was three hundred dollars less than she cost her owner two years
before. This don't look like an old boat."
"No, she's nearly new. I looked into the run this morning, and the
timbers and plank are as fresh as though she had just been built."
"I reckon she is a year or two old," added the captain. "She isn't worth
less than a thousand dollars, though you may buy such a boat sometimes
for half that money."
"Five hundred dollars is about all any boat of this size is worth down
here."
"By the way, Bobtail, did she have any sort of a cargo in her when you
picked her up?" asked Captain Chinks, in a careless way, as he raised
and lowered the table-leaf in front of him, just as though he was more
intent on ascertaining how the leaf worked than in obtaining an answer
to his question.
This was a very important interrogatory on the part of the visitor,
notwithstanding the indifference with which it had apparently been
propounded; and Bobtail had been expecting it. In spite of all the
captain had said, and in spite of the fact that he had declared he knew
nothing about the Skylark, our hero could not help connecting his
visitor with the contraband cargo; perhaps because the captain was the
only man in Camden who had the reputation of being concerned in this
sort of business.
"This is a pleasure craft, and wasn't built to carry cargo," replied
Bobtail, who had already decided how to meet the question.
"That may be; but such boats do sometimes carry a small cargo. For
instance, you could put many thousand dollars' worth of some kinds of
goods in this cabin," added the captain, still fumbling over the
table-leaf, which seemed to be an inexplicable mystery to him, though it
may be added in defence of a man of his intelligence, and a
boat-builder, too, that he always built keel-boats, while the Skylark
was a centre-board.
"I dare say she could carry a million dollars' worth of gold or
diamonds," added Bobtail, cheerfully, for he felt that his wily visitor
was not getting much ahead of him.
"Yes; but she might carry heavier goods, such as cigars, liquors, silks,
and things of that sort, for it don't take a great lot to be worth a
thousand dollars. Did she have anything of this kind in her when you
picked her up, Bobtail?"
"Why should any one think of carrying cigars and liquors in such a craft
as this?" asked the skipper, laughing.
"That wan't exactly the question. I say, Monkey, won't you go on deck,
and see which way the wind is," added the captain, turning suddenly upon
the Darwinian, who was listening to the conversation with his mouth wide
open, and trying with, all his might to discover what Chinks was driving
at. "I reckon it's hauling more to the southward."
"Sartin; I'll see," replied Monkey, hastening on deck through the
cook-room.
"You don't answer the question, Bobtail," said the captain.
"What makes you think there was any cargo in her?" demanded the skipper.
"I didn't say I thought there was any; I only asked you if there was."
In spite of Little Bobtail's indefinite opinions in regard to the moral
turpitude of smuggling, he had very decided views on the subject of
lying. He believed in telling the truth, though, like most other boys, I
am afraid he did not invariably do so; but he always felt mean and
guilty when he told anything in the shape of a lie. In the present
instance he had made up his mind either to tell the truth or to keep
still, not only because it was wicked to tell a lie, but because, in a
smuggling case in which the government officers might soon have a hand,
it might prove extremely dangerous.
"Well, captain, I didn't say there was any cargo in her," answered
Bobtail, cautiously.
"I know you didn't; but I want you to tell me squarely whether there was
or not."
"Why do you want me to tell you?"
"No matter why. I want you to tell me: that's all."
"The wind's about nor'-west, Captain Chinks," said Monkey, crawling
into the cabin from the cook-room.
"It hasn't changed, then," added the visitor, vexed at the return of the
Darwinian, who seated himself near Bobtail, intent upon hearing the rest
of the conversation.
"No, sir, not a bit; it's been nor'-west all day, and I don't believe
its goin' to change afore night."
"I say, Monkey, I want some fish for breakfast. If you will catch me two
or three, and dress them, I'll make it all right with you."
Monkey did not like to lose any of the conversation about the boat; but
he reluctantly went on deck in the hope of making a trifle by the job.
"I want you to answer my question squarely, Bobtail," continued Captain
Chinks, returning vigorously to the charge, so vigorously that the
skipper was almost confirmed in his suspicion connecting his visitor
with the contraband cargo.
"I don't say there was or was not any cargo in her," replied Bobtail.
"But I want you to say," persisted the captain, sharply and sternly.
"Do you own this yacht, Captain Chinks?"
"I don't say whether I own her or not."
"And I don't say whether there was any cargo in her or not."
"What do you mean, Bobtail?"
"That depends upon what you mean, Captain Chinks."
"I don't understand you, Bobtail," said the visitor, struggling to
suppress his anger.
"That's just my trouble; I don't understand you," laughed the skipper.
"I reckon we don't understand each other at all."
"I asked you a question, Bobtail, and I want an answer," added the
captain, bringing his fist down upon the table-leaf, whose mysterious
mechanism he had by this time fully mastered.
"I asked you a question, Captain Chinks, and _I_ want an answer,"
replied Bobtail.
"I don't want any of your impudence, and I won't take any of it."
"I didn't mean to be impudent, sir."
"But you talk to me just as though I was a boy like yourself. Now,
answer my question."
"I hope you will excuse me, sir, when I say I can't answer it. I mean to
be respectful, sir."
"You can answer it, Bobtail."
"I mean that, for certain reasons, I must decline to answer it."
"You must, eh?"
"Yes, sir."
"I didn't think this of you, Bobtail. This morning I got you out of a
bad scrape. If I hadn't done so, you would have been taken up for
stealing that letter, which contained five hundred dollars. Now, you go
back on me the same day," added the captain, more gently.
"I don't go back on you, sir. If you own this boat, I'll tell you all I
know about her."
"I don't say that I own her."
"I know you don't say so; and for that reason I can't say anything more
about her. You only told the truth about the letter."
"But I might have held my tongue, and I'm sorry now I didn't."
After this speech, Little Bobtail had no doubt that Captain Chinks was a
bad man, and he felt the necessity of extreme caution in dealing with
him.
"I don't see how you could keep still when Squire Gilfilian asked you
the question," added Bobtail, in his simplicity.
"If I had done by you as you are doing by me when I ask you a question,
I should have kept still, as you do."
"But I don't want to get any one into a scrape," pleaded the skipper.
"What do you mean by that? I only ask you to tell the truth, as I did
for you this morning," said the captain, in a coaxing tone.
"Squire Gilfilian owned that letter, and he had a right to ask about it.
If you say you own this boat, I shall feel that I am perfectly safe in
answering your questions."
"Perfectly safe! Then of course there was a cargo in her," added the
visitor.
"I don't say there was. Have you lost a cargo, Captain Chinks?"
The captain mused. To say that he had lost a cargo would be to
acknowledge that he was a smuggler, and he could not trust the secret to
a boy like Little Bobtail, who had the reputation of being an honest and
truthful boy. If called upon to give evidence, the boy would tell the
whole truth. He would rather lose both the cargo and the boat than be
convicted of smuggling.
"If there was no cargo in her, you would say so, Bobtail; so I have no
doubt there was a cargo in her," continued Captain Clunks, after a
silence of a few moments. "I take it for granted there was some sort of
goods in her."
"What makes you think so, sir?"
"I have a notion of my own on that subject. If I'm not greatly mistaken,
I saw this boat down to Bar Harbor. My idea is, that she went out to sea
somewhere, and took a lot of goods from some fishing vessel, and tried
to run them up to Camden, or some other port. I don't say it is so, but
it might be. Very likely some of those custom-house officers got wind of
the affair, and were on the lookout for the boat. Very likely the men in
charge of her abandoned her, and cleared out to save themselves."
"I wonder if they went over to Camden in the Islesboro' packet this
morning," suggested Bobtail, innocently.
"What do you mean, you young villain!" cried Captain Chinks, springing
forward over the table, and seizing the skipper by the throat. "Do you
mean to say I'm one of them?"
"Let me alone!" yelled Bobtail, struggling to shake off the hard gripe
of the visitor.
[Illustration]
Our hero had a hard fist, if it was a small one, and he used it
vigorously upon the head and face of his assailant. He pounded so hard
that the captain, holding him at a disadvantage across the table and
centre-board, was compelled to release his hold.
"I am not to be trifled with," gasped Captain Chinks, panting from his
exertions, and smarting from the heavy blows which Bobtail had inflicted
upon his face.
"Nor I, either!" yelled the skipper, seizing a spare tiller which lay on
the transom. "If you put your finger on me again, I'll break your head!"
"What's the row?" shouted Monkey, rushing down into the cabin, his round
eyes distended to their utmost.
"I don't let anybody take me by the throat," replied Bobtail, shaking
his head, and adjusting his shirt collar at the same time.
"It's all right now, Monkey, go and catch your fish," added Captain
Chinks, mildly, feeling that his wrath had got the better of him, and
induced him to commit an imprudent act.
"It won't be all right if you put your hand on me again," said Bobtail,
still holding the spare tiller in his hand.
"You knew that I came over in the Islesboro' packet this morning."
"I wasn't thinking of you when I spoke," muttered Bobtail, who for the
first time saw the force of the suggestion he had made.
"I was only supposing a case," said the captain.
"What? when you caught me by the throat? I don't want you to suppose any
more cases, then."
"I won't, Bobtail. Perhaps the men had run the boat ashore, and were
looking for a place to hide the goods, when the wind blew her off, and
sent her adrift."
"Perhaps it was so; I don't know," answered the skipper, coldly.
"If she had a cargo in her, what have you done with it?"
"I didn't say she had any cargo, and I'm not going to say anything more
about it till the owner claims the boat. That's the end of it."
Little Bobtail rose from the transom, and walked towards the
companion-way. Captain Chinks looked very savage. He was evidently in a
dilemma, from which he could not extricate himself.
"One minute more, my lad," called the captain. "I may possibly come
across the person who lost this boat."
"If you do, send him to me, and he shall have his boat,
and--and--everything that belongs to her," replied Bobtail, who was
still full of wrath towards his late assailant.
"But, you see, if she had any smuggled goods on board of her--"
"I didn't say she had."
"You won't understand me! I say _if_ she had. Now, perhaps I can make a
trade with the owner for you."
"I don't want you to make any trade for me. Send him to me, and he shall
have his boat. That's all."
"But he will be afraid to expose himself. Now, suppose he should offer
to let you keep the boat, if you would give up the goods, if you found
any goods in her. If I should happen to find him, or to hear of him,
shall I tell him you will make this sort of a trade with him?"
"No! Tell him he can have his boat and everything that belongs to her.
I've learned more about smugglers to-day than I ever knew before, and I
wouldn't touch one with a ten-foot pole; and I wouldn't make a trade
with him to cheat the government. I don't want to talk any more about
it. I've got a sore throat now."
Having thus delivered himself, Bobtail went on deck, and ordered the
crew to help him get up the anchor. In a few minutes the Skylark was
headed towards the town. Captain Chinks remained in the cabin, full of
wrath and disappointment.