CAPTAIN NOBLE.
Now, until we had closed the Spanish coast, that is to say, during the
following four days, nothing happened of such moment as deserves your
attention. The men kept themselves as much as possible out of sight of
Miss Noble, and every fellow whose turn it was to stand at the helm
invariably arrived so concealed about the face that I would often
find it difficult to give him his right name. The sailors' dread of
being observed by Miss Noble grew speedily into a real inconvenience;
it came, indeed, very near to hindering me, in the daytime when the
lady was on deck, from navigating the schooner; and to end it I took
occasion, when we sat below at some meal or other, to tell her of what
the men were afraid; with the result, that until the fellows left us
her visits to the deck were very few, and chiefly in the dusk.
It was four days from the date of the transshipment of Don Lazarillo
and the cook that by my computation we arrived within ten leagues of
the coast of Spain, the port of Cadiz bearing about east-by-south. It
was a sunny morning, with a pleasant breeze. We hove the schooner to,
for I did not think proper to approach the land nearer than thirty
miles. Here and there was a gleam of white canvas upon the horizon;
and I thought to myself, reflecting in the interests of the men, their
departure must not be witnessed, nor must anything be near enough to
fall in with them and to have the schooner in sight also; therefore I
hove La Casandra to at a distance of about ten leagues from the port of
Cadiz, nothing being visible but one or two sail, hull down.
Everything was in readiness. You will believe that the boat, owing
to the men's anxiety to get away, had been long before this morning
provisioned and equipped. She was launched through the gangway just as
she had been launched off the Cumberland coast on that silent, tragic
night; then, while she lay alongside, the seamen, in obedience to my
command, went to work to reduce sail upon the schooner, so that there
would be little left for me and Tom to do should it come on to blow
before we could procure help. While this was doing Miss Noble remained
in the cabin. Everything being ready, Butler stepped up to me with his
hand extended. I grasped and shook it.
"Good-by, sir, and we all hope, I'm sure, that you'll have a safe and
happy run home."
"Good-by, Butler--good-by, my lads. You have behaved very well. I thank
you for the willingness with which you have done your work under me.
See that the yarn you have in your heads you all stick to, so that
you'll be able to speak as with one tongue when you get ashore."
"Trust us, sir," said Scott.
"I hope the lady thoroughly understands," said Trapp, "how it happened
that we five Englishmen was led into a job which ne'er a man of us
would have touched, no, not for five times the money received, had the
true meaning of it been explained?"
"She does. And now you had better be off."
They entered the boat, stepped the mast, and I gave Butler the course
to steer by the little box compass that had been placed in the
stern-sheets. They then hoisted the sail, and as the boat slid away
from the shadow of the schooner's side, they all stood up and loudly
cheered me. I halloed a cheer back to them with a flourish of my cap,
then stepped aft, and, putting the helm over, brought the schooner
with her head to west-north-west.
"Come and lay hold of the tiller, Tom." The negro boy arrived. "Miss
Noble," said I, putting my head into the companion-way, "the men have
left the schooner."
She at once came on deck, and stood looking in silence at the cutter as
she swept swiftly eastward under the white square of her lug.
"We are lonely indeed, now," she presently exclaimed, bringing her eyes
from the boat to cast them round the horizon.
"Yes," said I, "but we are going home," and I pointed to the compass.
But she was right, for all that. Lonely the schooner looked with her
deserted decks and small canvas, and lonely I felt, not so much at the
beginning as later on, when the rolling hours brought the night along,
without heaving anything into view that we could turn to account. Miss
Noble earnestly wished to help; she assured me she could steer; she
was sprung, she said, from a naval stock, and she told me that salt
water had run in the veins of several generations on her father's
side, and that she was to be trusted at the helm. And, indeed, I found
that she steered perfectly well; she held the yacht's head steady to
her course; and as half the art of steering lies in that, the most
experienced man could not have done more.
Her taking the helm enabled the boy to cook for us, and it gave me an
opportunity to obtain sights, to attend to the sails, and the like.
Yet, when day broke next morning, I well remember heartily praying that
I should not have to pass, single-handed, such another night as we had
managed to scrape through. I was on deck all night long. I obliged Miss
Noble to go below and take some rest, and Tom slept at my feet while
I grasped the tiller, ready to relieve me when I was exhausted with
standing. Happily it was a fine night; a warm wind blew out of the
west, and the stars shone purely with a few shadows of clouds sailing
down the eastern slope.
It was shortly after eight o'clock, while I stood near the tiller
drinking a cup of chocolate which Tom had brought me out of the galley,
where he had lighted a fire, that, happening to look astern, I spied
a sail. Nothing else was in sight, and I had but to look once to know
that she was overtaking us. This, indeed, must have been practicable
to the clumsiest wagon afloat; for the canvas the schooner was under,
merry as was the breeze that whipped the sea into snow and fire under
the risen sun, was scarcely sufficient to drive her along at four miles
in the hour.
When I had drunk my chocolate I bade Tom prepare some breakfast for
Miss Noble, who was, or had been, resting on a sofa in the cabin. When
the girl had finished her meal she came on deck. And now the overtaking
vessel had risen to her hull, and in the telescope which I pointed at
her was proving herself a large ship, with a black and white band and
a red gleam of copper under the checkered side as she leaned from the
breeze.
"I wish she may not be an English frigate," said I to Miss Noble.
"Why?" she asked.
"Because," said I, "she is sure to prove too inquisitive to be
convenient. She'll be sending a lieutenant on board; he will see you;
he will ask questions; he will demand the schooner's papers; he will
not be satisfied, and will return to his ship for instructions; and we
want to get home comfortably, Miss Noble."
"I understand you," she answered. "But an English frigate! What
security, what safety is there in the very sound of the words!"
I waited a little while, and then, again leveling the glass at the
vessel, I clearly perceived that she was not an English frigate, but a
large merchantman, resembling a man-of-war in many details, saving
the row of grinning artillery, the white line of hammocks, the heavy
tops, and a peculiar cut of canvas that could never be mistaken by a
nautical eye in those days of tacks and sheets. Apparently she was
a troop ship out of the Mediterranean; there were many red spots of
uniform upon her forecastle past the yawn and curves of the white and
swelling jibs. And, indeed, she had need to be a hired transport, for
nothing of her rig would have any business in the Mediterranean and
nothing homeward bound from the Indies or the Australias was likely
to be met with so far to the eastward as was the longitude of the
waters we were in. I hoisted the Spanish ensign, and left it flying at
half-mast.
"Now, Miss Noble," said I, "what story shall I tell those people,
should they heave to and send a boat, as I hope and believe they will?"
She gazed at me inquiringly.
"If I give them the whole truth," said I, "it will run like wildfire
throughout the ship. The vessel will probably arrive before we do;
there are crowds of people on board to talk; the news of the outrage
done you and yours will be circulated, printed; it will become
everybody's gossip. Now, would Captain Noble wish this? Would my lady,
your mother, desire this?"
"No, they would not," she answered, after a pause. "You are kind and
wise to ask the question. The thought did not occur to me when I wished
that yonder vessel might prove an English frigate."
"Then I must invent a story," said I.
"But did not you say," she asked, "that when we arrived at an English
port you would be obliged to hand the schooner over to the authorities
of the port, to whom you would relate the truth, as it would be
impossible and most unwise to attempt to deceive them? Those were your
words, Mr. Portlack."
"Yes, I remember; those were my words. Well, Miss Noble?"
"Well," said she, "don't you see that, since you must tell the truth
when you arrive in England, this wretched story will have to be made
public in any case?"
"No," said I, "there is a difference. Yonder is a ship full of soldiers
and sailors, and others--gossips all, no doubt. To give them the
truth--and to give it to the captain or the mate is to give it to
them all--is tantamount to publishing your story throughout England,
whether you will or not; but to communicate with the receiver of wrecks
is another matter. There is official reserve to depend upon. Your
father, too, will not be wanting in influence. To me, Miss Noble, it is
all one. I desire to be influenced by your wishes."
"My wish certainly is," said she in her calm, emphatic way of speaking,
"that as little as possible of what has befallen me should be known."
"Then," said I, "I will ask you to step into the cabin and keep in your
own berth out of sight until the visit I hope to receive is ended."
She went below forthwith.
Half an hour later the large full-rigged hired transport Talavera had
ranged alongside La Casandra, easily within earshot. She was crowded
with troops; numbers of military officers in undress uniform surveyed
us from the poop. A tall man in a frock coat and a cap with a naval
peak stood upon a hen-coop, and hailed to know what was the matter.
"My men have deserted," I cried back; "there are but this negro boy
and myself to carry the schooner to an English port. Can you lend me a
couple of hands?"
"I will send a boat," he exclaimed, very easily perceiving that it was
impossible for me to board him.
A boat in charge of a mottled-faced, jolly-looking, round-shouldered
man, about thirty years of age, swept alongside, and the jolly-looking
man came on board.
"Are you the master?" said he.
"Yes," said I.
"Short of men, hey?" said he. "So I should suppose, if _he's_ your
crew," bursting into a laugh as he indicated the negro boy with a
motion of his chin. "How come you to be at sea with no more crew than
one little nigger?"
"My crew," said I, "were composed of five English sailors. They were
shipped at Cadiz. Yesterday they took the boat, and sailed away to the
coast of Spain in her, saying _they_ weren't going to England. Can you
lend me a couple of hands?"
"What's the name of this craft?" said he, looking up at the Spanish
ensign.
"La Casandra."
"From Cadiz, d'ye say?--to where?"
"To Penzance," said I, naming the first port that entered my head.
"Who's the owner?"
"Don Lazarillo de Tormes."
He asked several further questions of a like sort, and seemed perfectly
satisfied with my answers. I invited him to step below and drink a
glass of wine, but he declined, saying that his ship was in too great a
hurry to get home to allow him to stop and take a friendly glass on the
road.
He had not long returned to the Talavera when the boat, in charge of a
midshipman, came alongside the schooner again, and a couple of young
sailors, each with a sailor's bag upon his shoulder, climbed over the
side. The midshipman, looking up, called out to me: "They're a couple
of Dutchmen, but the captain guesses they'll serve your turn." I told
him to give my hearty thanks to the captain for his kindness. He then
went back to his ship, which immediately swung her yards, and in a
little while a wide space of water separated the two vessels.
"Dutchman" is a generic word employed by sailors to designate Germans,
Swedes, Danes, and others of the northern nationalities. These two
Dutchmen proved to be, the one a young Swede, who spoke English very
imperfectly, and the other a young Dane, whose knowledge of English was
almost wholly restricted to the names of ropes and sails; both of them
smart, respectful young fellows, without curiosity, accepting their
sudden change of life with the proverbial indifference of the sailor.
I had intended, for the convenience of Miss Noble, to carry the
schooner to Whitehaven; but before we gained the parallel of Land's
End it came on to blow heavily from the north and west--so heavily,
and with such an ugly, menacing look of continuance in the wide, dark,
greenish scowl of the sky, that I thought proper to shift my helm
for the English Channel. _There_ we encountered terrible weather.
I hoped to make some near port, but, owing to the thickness and to
the gale that had veered due west, I could do nothing but keep the
schooner running until we were off the South Foreland. The weather then
moderating, I steered for Ramsgate harbor, and the schooner was safely
moored alongside the wall of the East Pier in six days to the hour from
the date of our receiving the two seamen from the Talavera.
You will suppose that Miss Noble long before this had written a
letter--nay, had written four letters--to her father ready for
instantly posting on her arrival anywhere. It seems that he had four
addresses--his house in Cumberland, his house in town, and two clubs,
one in London and one in the north--and she was determined that her
letters should not be delayed through his absence from one address or
another. These letters were immediately posted, but communication in
those days was not as it is now, and if it happened that her father
was in Cumberland, then, let him post it and coach it as he would, it
must occupy him hard upon four days--and perhaps five days--to reach
Ramsgate.
Certain Custom House officers came on board and rummaged the schooner
for contraband cargo. They stared hard at the cabin furniture, and
moved and groped here and there with eyes full of suspicion. I told
Miss Noble that my immediate business now lay at the Custom House, and
I begged to know what her plans were, that I might help her to further
them.
"I will go to a hotel," she answered, "and there wait for my father. As
you are going into the town, will you engage a sitting-room and bedroom
for me at the best hotel in the place? And I will also ask you to order
a trunk-maker to send a portmanteau down to this schooner, otherwise
I shall not know how to pack my ball-dress and jewelry. This dress,"
said she, looking down at the robe in which she was attired, and which
had formed a portion of the apparel that Don Christoval had laid in for
her, "I shall continue to wear until my father brings me the dresses I
have written for."
"I will do what you ask," said I, and, leaving her on board, I climbed
the ladder affixed to the pier wall, and bent my steps in the direction
of the Custom House.
The receiver was a little, eager-looking man, afflicted with several
nervous disorders. He could neither sit nor stand for any length of
time; he blinked hideously, and he also stuttered. My tale took the
form of a deposition, and I omitted no single point of it, save the
assassination of Don Christoval.
"This," said the little receiver, stammering and blinking--"this," he
exclaimed, when I had come to an end, "is a very extraordinary story,
sir."
"It is," said I.
"Captain Noble is a well-known gentleman," said he. "I was for a short
time on duty at Whitehaven, and heard much of him."
"His daughter has written to him," said I, "and he will doubtless be
here as fast as he can travel. And what about the schooner?"
"I must wait for instructions," he answered; "your deposition will be
sent to head-quarters."
"Have I not a lien upon her?"
"For what?" said he.
"For services rendered."
"Seems the other way about, don't it?" said he, with his stammer. "The
services appear to have been rendered by her to you."
"There are two men and a boy who want their wages," said I.
"Who is the owner, d'ye say?" exclaimed the little man.
"Don Lazarillo de Tormes."
"Well, he will be communicated with."
"No, he won't, though," said I. "We shall never hear anything more of
Don Lazarillo de Tormes. What! do you think that the man would dare
come forward and claim his schooner on top of an outrage which would
earn him transportation for life, could they get hold of him in this
country?"
"If he doesn't come forward," said the little receiver, blinking at me,
"and if the schooner remains unclaimed for any length of time, why,
then she will be sold; and there'll be your opportunity for asserting
your rights."
I walked into the town, leaving the little receiver putting on his hat
to view the wonderful schooner, with a hope, too, of catching a sight
of Miss Noble. I obtained the required accommodation for the lady at
the Albion Hotel; then, observing a shop in which some trunks were
displayed, I told the shopkeeper to send one of them, or a portmanteau
if he had such a thing, down to the schooner La Casandra. Entering
the street again, I walked a little way, and, finding myself in the
market-place, stopped to consider. I did not possess a farthing of
money in my pocket, and it would take me some time to draw my little
savings out of that London bank in which they were deposited; but money
for immediate needs I must have, and, addressing a porter in a white
apron, who stood in the market-place smoking a pipe, I asked him to
direct me to a pawnbroker. He pointed with his pipe up the street, and
proceeding in that direction I presently observed the familiar sign of
the three balls. I entered, and put down the gold chain and watch that
had belonged to Don Christoval, and for it I received twenty sovereigns
and a ticket.
I then returned to the schooner, where I found Miss Noble in the cabin
reasoning with the trunk-maker, who had arrived, bearing with him two
or three samples of the desired goods.
"He will not trust me, Mr. Portlack! and yet it is true--and too
absurd--that I can make him nothing but promises of payment."
"Pray, how much do you want?" said I.
"Fourteen shillings," she answered, and she added tranquilly, with a
slight smile, "To think that I should want fourteen shillings!"
I put down a sovereign; the man gave me change, shouldered the
remaining boxes, and went away.
Having escorted Miss Noble to her hotel, I again returned to the
schooner, which I intended should be my home until after the arrival of
Captain Noble. The two sailors asked me what they should do. I advised
them to ship aboard a collier and make their way to London, where they
would easily find some one to advise them as to what proceedings they
should take in respect of reward for the assistance they had rendered
me in carrying the schooner home. Next day they found a collier wanting
men, and, giving them a sovereign, I bade them farewell. I never heard
of them again.
Meanwhile, I kept the negro boy on board the schooner.
We had arrived at Ramsgate on a Wednesday morning. On the afternoon of
the following Tuesday I was pacing the deck of the schooner as she lay
moored against the pier wall. The harbor master had not long left me.
An hour we had spent together, I in talking and he in listening; for
the receiver, with whom he was intimate, had dropped many hints of my
story to him over a glass of whisky and water one night, and he told me
he could not rest until he had heard my version of the extraordinary
romance. It was a brilliant afternoon; a fresh breeze from the west
swept into the harbor between the pier-heads, and the water danced in
light. A few smacks, bowed down by their weight of red canvas, were
endeavoring to beat out to sea. A number of wherries straining at their
painters frolicked in the flashful tumble, past which was the slope
of beach with galleys and small boats high and dry, and many forms of
lounging boatmen. On the milk-white heights of chalk the windows of
the houses glanced in silver fires, which came and went in a sort of
breathing way as they blazed out and were then extinguished by the
violet shadows of masses of swollen cloud majestically rolling under
the sun.
I was gazing with pleasure at this animated 'longshore picture, full of
color and splendor and movement, when I observed a gentleman rapidly
coming along the pier, which happened to be almost deserted. There
was something of a deep-sea roll in his gait, and though he clutched a
stick in one hand, the other hung down at his side in a manner that is
peculiar to people who have long used the sea. I seemed to guess who he
was, and watched him approaching while I knocked the ashes out of my
pipe. He came to the edge of the wall, and, looking down, shouted out
in a hoarse voice:
"Is this schooner the Casandra?"
"Yes, sir," I answered.
He put his hand on the ladder and descended. He had a clean-shaven
face, the color of which at this moment was a fiery red, but then
he had been walking fast. His eyes were large, and remarkable for
an expression of eager expectation, as though he had been all his
life waiting to receive some important communication. His hat was a
broad-brimmed beaver; he was buttoned up in a stout bottle-green coat,
and he was booted after the fashion of country gentlemen of that age.
"My name is Noble--Captain Noble," said he. "Are you Mr. Portlack?"
"I am," said I.
"Give me your hand," he exclaimed. He grasped and squeezed my fingers
almost bloodless, letting go my hand with a vehement jerk as though he
threw it from him. "I thank you for bringing my daughter home, sir. Her
mother thanks you for your attention to her child. You have acted the
part of a gentleman, of a sailor, of a man of honor. I thank you again,
and yet again." Then, glancing along the decks of the vessel, he added,
"So _this_ is the blasted schooner, hey?"
"I trust Miss Noble has told you," said I, "how it happens that I was
on board this vessel on the night of her abduction?"
"Yes," he answered, still continuing to examine the vessel curiously,
now looking aloft, now forward, now aft, as though he could not take
too complete a view of the craft. "Yes, she told me. The scoundrels!
Thank God! I shot one of 'em. I would have shot 'em all, but the
ruffians stood over me and my son with naked cutlasses and loaded
pistols."
"I hope they did not burn the house down?"
"No, we extinguished the fire. Fifteen hundred pounds' worth of
damage--that's all!" He made a cut through the air with his stick,
exclaiming: "The rogues! the villains! They took me unaware. So many of
them, too! How many were there?"
"Two Spaniards," said I, "the master of this schooner, and four
seamen. You were attacked by seven."
"Seven!" he cried. "Seven against two! for as to my coachman and
footman--what do you think? They drove away--by heavens! they lashed
the horses and bolted! I should like to go below; I should like to
examine this blackguard craft. A fine, stout vessel all the same. A
pirate in her day, no doubt."
We descended into the cabin, which he at once made the round of,
peering at the pictures, staring at the looking-glasses, examining
the chairs, as though he were in a museum and every object was
extraordinarily curious.
"And pray, how is Miss Noble, sir?" said I. "I have not seen her since
Tuesday."
"Very well; wonderfully well," he answered.
"How do you find her in looks after her terrible experience?"
"Why, neither her mother nor I see any change. She is a shade paler
than she commonly is. But the girl has the heart of a lioness."
"So she has, sir."
"Now," said he, "Mr. Portlack, tell me about those two cursed
Spaniards. I want to get at them."
He flung his stick upon the table and threw himself into an arm-chair.
"What did your daughter tell you about those two men?" said I.
"Why, she was insensible, she says, for the greater part of the time,
and you informed her that, on the day of her recovery, you transshipped
the two miscreants at their request. What vessel received them?" and
here he pulled out a pocket-book and a pencil-case, with the intention
of taking notes.
"Your daughter told you that she was insensible, sir, and that she
continued insensible for many days?"
"Yes," said he, flourishing his pencil with an irritable gesture,
clearly annoyed at my not answering _his_ question.
"That," said I, "is all that she would be able to tell you."
My manner caused him to view me steadfastly, and the odd expression of
expectation in his eyes grew more defined.
"When your daughter awoke from her first swoon, Captain Noble, she
awoke--mad."
"What do you mean by mad?" he said.
"She was a maniac," said I. "And I wish that were all."
"Out with it--out with it _all_, then, man, for God's sake!" he
exclaimed.
"Only one Spaniard, along with the Spanish steward, left the schooner.
The body of the other Spaniard we dropped overboard."
He put his note-book on the table and tightly folded his arms on his
breast. I believe, though I could not be sure, that he then guessed
what I was about to tell him.
"I knew that your daughter was mad," said I. "Don Christoval introduced
me into her cabin, hoping, I know not what, from my visit. It was not
long after, that, being in the quarters which I then occupied yonder,"
said I, pointing, "I heard a terrible cry, and opening that door there
I witnessed Don Christoval in the act of falling and expiring, stabbed
to the heart by your daughter, who stood just within her cabin--that
one there--grasping a large knife she had managed to get possession of."
He fell back in his chair, and remained for some moments looking at
me as though he could not understand my meaning; then a sort of groan
escaped him, and he got up and began to march about the cabin.
"These are dreadful tidings for a father's ears," he exclaimed,
stopping abreast of me. Then his mood changed with almost electric
swiftness, and, hitting the table a heavy blow with his fist, he roared
out: "By --, but it served the ruffian right! It was _my_ spirit
working in her, mad as she might be. That's how I would have served
him, and the rest of them, one and all--the atrocious villains!"
"Of course you know," said I, "that your daughter is utterly ignorant
of having slain that Spaniard--ignorant of that, and ignorant that she
was out of her mind: though some dark fancy seemed to haunt her for a
while, until, by a falsehood, which I detest, I dispelled it."
"What did you tell her?"
"She asked me if she had been mad, and I said 'No'!"
"Mr. Portlack," he cried, grasping me by the hand, "you have the
delicacy of a gentleman. The more I know of you the more I honor
you.... And she stabbed him to the heart? Oh, now, to think of it! Her
mother must not be told--there must not be a whisper; she is all nerves
and imagination. Who knows of this beside yourself?"
"The five seamen," said I; "the five of a crew of Englishmen, who, when
they found that they had been tricked by the Spaniards, resolved to
leave the schooner. They sailed away in a boat for Cadiz when we were
off that port. They know all about the assassination; but, take my word
for it, they'll never let you hear of them on this side of the grave."
He began to pace the cabin afresh.
"There is another," said I, "who possesses the secret, to call it so."
"You mean yourself?"
"No; a lad--a negro boy. He is now in the schooner. I am troubled
to know what to do with him. I have made him believe that he and I
will both be hanged if he opens his lips. Yet, he may talk by and by,
Captain Noble. He is a mere lad."
"What is to be done?" said he, frowning. "Tough as I am, it would
break my heart if this were to be known. Conceive the effect of the
intelligence upon my daughter. Great Heaven! if you could but tell me
it was a dream of yours! Upon _your_ secrecy, Mr. Portlack, I know we
can all depend. Your behavior throughout is warrant enough for me. How
to thank you--But about this boy? Let me see him, will you?"
I at once went on deck and called down into the forecastle, where the
lad lay asleep in a bunk. I told him to clean himself and come to me
in the cabin, and I then returned to Captain Noble.
"There is only this lad to deal with," said I. "Believe me when I
assure you that you will never hear more of those five seamen, nor of
Don Lazarillo and the steward. Captain Dopping, the master of this
schooner, you yourself shot dead. As for me--But for myself I will say
no more than this: I hold that your daughter was barbarously used.
The men who stole her, and who drove her mad by stealing her, were
scoundrels whom I would have shot down as I would shoot down a brace
of mad mongrels, sooner than have suffered them, as foreigners, to
lay violent hands upon a countrywoman of mine, and upon so good and
sweet a young lady as your daughter. My one desire throughout has been
to make all the amends in my power. I was innocently betrayed into
this villainous business, and I trust, Captain Noble, that the theory
of reparation I have endeavored to work out establishes me in your
mind as a man in whose keeping the tragic secret of this adventure is
absolutely safe."
He endeavored to speak, but his voice failed him. He took my hand in
both his, and in silence looked at me with his eyes dim with tears.
"And now about the boy," said I. "It occurs to me that you might have
influence to procure him some situation on board a man-of-war, going
abroad or at present abroad."
He was about to answer, when the lad's legs showed in the companion-way
and down he came. Captain Noble stared at him, and he stared at the
Captain.
"A likely lad, Mr. Portlack. Does he speak English?"
"Do you speak English, Tom?" said I.
"Nuffin but English, de Lord be praised!" he answered, grinning.
Captain Noble mused as he eyed him. "You have behaved very honestly,"
said he, "and I shall want to do you a kindness. Come to the hotel
where I am stopping to-morrow morning at ten o'clock, and you and I
will have a chat."
"I'll be dere, sah."
"It will give me time to think," said Captain Noble in an aside to
me. "And come you and dine with us this evening, Mr. Portlack, will
you?" I glanced down at my clothes. "Never mind about your dress," he
continued. "We shall expect you at half-past six o'clock."
He stayed for another quarter of an hour, and then left the schooner.
Never had anything before, and I may say never has anything since,
proved so memorable to me as that dinner with Captain and Lady Ida
Noble and Miss Noble at the Albion Hotel, Ramsgate. The reason why
it was memorable you shall hear in a minute. I found Lady Ida Noble
very different from the individual I had supposed her to be, on the
representations of Don Christoval. I expected to meet a tall, haughty,
and forbidding lady, of an ice-like coldness of demeanor; instead,
I found her an impulsive little woman, in a high degree nervous and
emotional, possessed of a ready capacity of tears, resembling her
daughter in face and figure in a sort of miniature way--for Miss Noble
stood half a head taller than her mother--and a refined lady in all she
said and did. She overwhelmed me with thanks, and seemed unable to make
enough of me.
Miss Noble looked very well indeed; there was color in her cheek and
fire in her soft dark eyes, and a quiet vivacity of good health in her
bearing and movements. Indeed, her swift recovery, or rather, let me
say, her emergence into health from the horrible disease of insanity
and from her long death-like condition of catalepsy, impressed me then,
as it impresses me still, as the most startling and extraordinary of
all the incidents of our startling and extraordinary voyage.
When the ladies had left us, Captain Noble put a cigar-case upon the
table, and said:
"I have been thinking about that negro boy. I have a relative in the
West Indies, and I will send the lad out to him, if he is willing to
go. I will tell my relative the story of my daughter's abduction,
explain that I want the matter kept secret, and bid him have an eye to
the lad."
"He is a good boy," said I, "and deserves a comfortable berth."
"He shall have it," said Captain Noble, "and I will put money in his
pocket, too. I'll talk with him in the morning."
He then questioned me about Don Lazarillo, but I could tell him
nothing. The very name, indeed, I said, might be assumed, though I
thought this improbable, seeing that the other had sailed under true
colors. In talking of these Spaniards he, by design or accident,
informed me that his daughter was heiress to a considerable property.
I can not be sure of the amount he named, but I have a recollection
of his saying that on her mother's death she would inherit a fortune
of between sixty thousand and eighty thousand pounds. One subject
leading to another, he inquired as to the payment of the sailors of
La Casandra. I answered that Don Lazarillo, being terrified by the
seamen's threats, had entered his dead friend's berth and produced a
bag of gold which exactly sufficed to discharge the claims of the men.
"And what did the rogues offer you, Mr. Portlack?" said he.
"Fifty guineas, sir."
"Did you get it?"
I smiled, and answered that, instead of money, Don Lazarillo had given
me Don Christoval's watch and chain and diamond ring.
"Have you the things upon you?" said he.
"I have the ring," said I, pulling it out of my waistcoat pocket. "The
watch and chain I pawned for twenty pounds, being without money, save
a trifle in a savings bank in London. What this ring is worth I'm sure
I can't imagine," said I, looking at it. "I hope it will yield me an
outfit. I as good as lost everything I possessed when the Ocean Ranger
sailed away in chase of the Yankee, leaving me adrift."
He extended his hand for the ring, and appeared to examine it. "Have
you the pawn-ticket for the watch and chain?" he asked. I gave it to
him. "I should like to possess that watch and chain," said he, "and I
should like also to possess this ring. I'll buy them from you."
I bowed, scarcely as yet seeing my way. He pulled out his pocket-book
and extracted a check already filled in.
"You will do me the favor," said he, "to accept this as a gift, and I
will do you the favor to accept this pawn-ticket and ring as a gift."
The check was for five hundred guineas.
This noble check is the reason for my calling that dinner at the Albion
Hotel, Ramsgate, a memorable one. It laid the foundations of the little
fortune which I now possess, but which without that check I should
never have possessed, so hopelessly unprofitable is the vocation of
the mariner. But I did even better than that out of the ill-fated Don
Christoval and his friend, for, nobody appearing to claim the schooner,
she was sold after a considerable lapse of time; and when I returned
from a voyage in which I had gone as chief officer, I was agreeably
surprised at being informed, by the solicitor whom I had requested to
watch my interests during my absence, that the claim he had made on my
behalf as virtually the salvor of the schooner had been admitted, and
that I was the richer by a proportion of the proceeds amounting to a
hundred and ninety pounds.
Whether because of the influence possessed by Captain Noble, or
because the authorities (whoever _they_ might be) decided not to
take proceedings against me as the only discoverable member of the
gang who had forced Miss Noble from her home, certain it is that I
never heard anything more of the matter. I took care that my address
should be known, and carefully informed the receiver at Ramsgate, and
Captain Noble also, that I was willing while ashore at any moment to
come forward and state what I knew; but, as I have before said, I was
never communicated with. The whole story lay as dead in the minds of
those few who knew of it as though the events I have related had never
occurred.
Five years had expired since the date of my having safely restored Miss
Noble to her parents.
I was now commanding a large Australian passenger ship, and among those
who sailed to Melbourne with me was a gentleman named Fairfield. He
was a solicitor in practice at Carlisle. One day, in conversing with
him, by the merest accident I happened to pronounce the name of Captain
Noble. He asked me if I knew him. I answered warily that I had heard
of him. He grew garrulous--an unusual weakness in a lawyer--and, in the
course of a long quarter-deck yarn, told me that Miss Noble had been
for two years out of her mind, tended as a lunatic by nurses in her
father's house, but for nearly two years now she had been perfectly
well, and some six months ago had married Sir Ralph A----, Bart.,
a widower, whose estate lay within five miles of her father's. He
said that there was some mystery about the lady's past. She had been
abducted and ill-used. He never could get at the truth himself, and
would like to learn it. He understood that she went out of her mind
because of some horrible haunting fancy of having committed a murder.
That was all he could tell me, and from that day to this I have never
been able to hear of either her or her people.
THE END.
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Transcriber's Notes:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
Punctuation inaccuracies were silently corrected.
The following changes have been made:
Page 76: her stem-head, and flashed it _was changed to_
her stemhead, and flashed it
Page 160: she stood motiontionless gazing _was changed to_
she stood motionlessly gazing
Page 198: wrong that has deen done her _was changed to_
wrong that has been done her
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End of Project Gutenberg's The Tragedy of Ida Noble, by William Clark Russell