Whether Captain Stride executed his commission well or not we cannot
tell, and whether the meeting of Mrs Brooke with her long-lost son came
to near killing or not we will not tell. Enough to know that they met,
and that the Captain--with that delicacy of feeling so noticeable in
seafaring men--went outside the cottage door and smoked his pipe while
the meeting was in progress. After having given sufficient time, as he
said, "for the first o' the squall to blow over," he summarily snubbed
his pipe, put it into his vest pocket, and re-entered.
"Now, missus, you'll excuse me, ma'am, for cuttin' in atween you, but
this business o' the Leathers is pressin', an' if we are to hold a
confabulation wi' the family about it, why--"
"Ah, to be sure, Captain Stride is right," said Mrs Brooke, turning to
her stalwart son, who was seated on the sofa beside her. "This is a
very, _very_ sad business about poor Shank. You had better go to them,
Charlie. I will follow you in a short time."
"Mr Crossley is with them at this moment. I forgot to say so, mother."
"Is he? I'm _very_ glad of that," returned the widow. "He has been a
true friend to us all. Go, Charlie. But stay. I see May coming. The
dear child always comes to me when there is anything good or sorrowful
to tell. But she comes from the wrong direction. Perhaps she does not
yet know of Mr Crossley's arrival."
"May! Can it be?" exclaimed Charlie in an undertone of surprise as he
observed, through the window, the girl who approached.
And well might he be surprised, for this, although the same May, was
very different from the girl he left behind him. The angles of girlhood
had given place to the rounded lines of young womanhood. The rich curly
brown hair, which used to whirl wildly in the sea-breezes, was gathered
up in a luxuriant mass behind her graceful head, and from the forehead
it was drawn back in two wavy bands, in defiance of fashion, which at
that time was beginning to introduce the detestable modern fringe.
Perhaps we are not quite un-biassed in our judgment of the said fringe,
far it is intimately associated in our mind with the savages of North
America, whose dirty red faces, in years past, were wont to glower at us
from beneath just such a fringe, long before it was adopted by the fair
dames of England!
In other respects, however, May was little changed, except that the
slightest curl of sadness about her eyebrows made her face more
attractive than ever, as she nodded pleasantly to the Captain, who had
hastened to the door to meet her.
"So glad to see you, Captain Stride," she said, shaking hands with
unfeminine heartiness. "Have you been to see mother? I have just been
having a walk before--"
She stopped as if transfixed, for at that moment she caught sight of
Charlie and his mother through the open door.
Poor May flushed to the roots of her hair; then she turned deadly pale,
and would have fallen had not the gallant Captain caught her in his
arms. But by a powerful effort of will she recovered herself in time to
avoid a scene.
"The sight of you reminded me so strongly of our dear Shank!" she
stammered, when Charlie, hastening forward, grasped both her hands and
shook them warmly. "Besides--some of us thought you were dead."
"No wonder you thought of Shank," returned Charlie, "for he and I used
to be so constantly together. But don't be cast down, May. We'll get
Shank out of his troubles yet."
"Yes, and you know he has Ritson with him," said Mrs Brooke; "and he,
although not quite as steady as we could wish, will be sure to care for
such an old friend in his sickness. But you'd better go, Charlie, and
see Mrs Leather. They will be sure to want you and Captain Stride.
May will remain here with me. Sit down beside me, dear, I want to have
a chat with you."
"Perhaps, ma'am, if I make so bold," interposed the Captain, "Mr
Crossley may want to have Miss May also at the council of war."
"Mr Crossley! is _he_ with my mother?" asked the girl eagerly.
"Yes, Miss May, he is."
"Then I _must_ be there. Excuse me, dear Mrs Brooke."
And without more ado May ran out of the house. She was followed soon
after by Charlie and the Captain, and Mrs Brooke was left alone,
expressing her thankfulness and joy of heart in a few silent tears over
her knitting.
There was a wonderful similarity in many respects between Mrs Brooke
and her friend Mrs Leather. They both knitted--continuously and
persistently. This was a convenient if not a powerful bond, for it
enabled them to sit for hours together--busy, yet free to talk. They
were both invalids--a sympathetic bond of considerable strength. They
held the same religious views--an indispensable bond where two people
have to be much together, and are in earnest. They were both poor--a
natural bond which draws people of a certain kind very close together,
physically as well as spiritually--and both, up to this time at least,
had long-absent and semi-lost sons. Even in the matter of daughters
they might be said, in a sense, to be almost equal, for May, loving
each, was a daughter to both. Lastly, in this matter of similarity, the
two ladies were good--good as gold, according to Captain Stride, and he
ought to have been an authority, for he frequently visited them and knew
all their affairs. Fortunately for both ladies, Mrs Brooke was by far
the stronger-minded--hence they never quarrelled!
In Mrs Leather's parlour a solemn conclave was seated round the parlour
table. They were very earnest, for the case under consideration was
urgent, as well as very pitiful. Poor Mrs Leather's face was wet with
tears, and the pretty brown eyes of May were not dry. They had had a
long talk over the letter from Ritson, which was brief and to the point
but meagre as to details.
"I rather like the letter, considering who wrote it," observed Mr
Crossley, laying it down after a fourth perusal. "You see he makes no
whining or discontented reference to the hardness of their luck, which
young scapegraces are so fond of doing; nor does he make effusive
professions of regret or repentance, which hypocrites are so prone to
do. I think it bears the stamp of being genuine on the face of it. At
least it appears to be straightforward."
"I'm so glad you think so, Mr Crossley," said Mrs Leather; "for Mr
Ritson is such a pleasant young man--and so good-looking, too!"
The old gentleman and the Captain both burst into a laugh at this.
"I'm afraid," said the former, "that good looks are no guarantee for
good behaviour. However, I have made up my mind to send him a small sum
of money--not to Shank, Mrs Leather, so you need not begin to thank me.
I shall send it to Ritson."
"Well, thank you all the same," interposed the lady, taking up her
knitting and resuming operations below the table, gazing placidly all
the while at her friends like some consummate conjuror, "for Ralph will
be sure to look after Shank."
"The only thing that puzzles me is, how are we to get it sent to such an
out-o'-the-way place--Traitor's Trap! It's a bad name, and the stupid
fellow makes no mention of any known town near to it, though he gives
the post-office. If I only knew its exact whereabouts I might get some
one to take the money to him, for I have agents in many parts of
America."
After prolonged discussion of the subject, Mr Crossley returned to town
to make inquiries, and the Captain went to take his favourite walk by
the sea-shore, where he was wont, when paying a visit to Sealford, to
drive the Leathers' little dog half-mad with delight by throwing stones
into the sea for Scraggy to go in for--which he always did, though he
never fetched them out.
In the course of that day Charlie Brooke left his mother to take a
stroll, and naturally turned in the direction of the sea. When half-way
through the lane with the high banks on either side he encountered May.
"What a pleasant pretty girl she has become!" was his thought as she
drew near.
"Nobler and handsomer than ever!" was hers as he approached.
The thoughts of both sent a flush to the face of each, but the colour
scarcely showed through the bronzed skin of the man.
"Why, what a woman you have grown, May!" said Charlie, grasping her
hand, and attempting to resume the old familiar terms--with, however,
imperfect success.
"Isn't that natural?" asked May, with a glance and a little laugh.
That glance and that little laugh, insignificant in themselves, tore a
veil from the eyes of Charlie Brooke. He had always been fond of May
Leather, after a fashion. _Now_ it suddenly rushed upon him that he was
fond of her after another fashion! He was a quick thinker and just
reasoner. A poor man without a profession and no prospects has no right
to try to gain the affections of a girl. He became grave instantly.
"May," he said, "will you turn back to the shore with me for a little?
I want to have a talk about Shank. I want you to tell me all you know
about him. Don't conceal anything. I feel as if I had a right to claim
your confidence, for, as you know well, he and I have been like brothers
since we were little boys."
May had turned at once, and the tears filled her eyes as she told the
sad story. It was long, and the poor girl was graphic in detail. We
can give but the outline here.
Shank had gone off with Ritson not long after the sailing of the
_Walrus_. On reaching America, and hearing of the failure of the
company that worked the gold mine, and of old Ritson's death, they knew
not which way to turn. It was a tremendous blow, and seemed to have
rendered them reckless, for they soon took to gambling. At first they
remained in New York, and letters came home pretty regularly, in which
Shank always expressed hopes of getting more respectable work. He did
not conceal their mode of gaining a livelihood, but defended it on the
ground that "a man must live!"
For a time the letters were cheerful. The young men were "lucky." Then
came a change of luck, and a consequent change in the letters, which
came less frequently. At last there arrived one from Shank, both the
style and penmanship of which told that he had not forsaken the great
curse of his life--strong drink. It told of disaster, and of going off
to the "Rockies" with a party of "discoverers," though what they were to
discover was not mentioned.
"From that date till now," said May in conclusion, "we have heard
nothing about them till this letter came from Mr Ritson, telling of
dear Shank being so ill, and asking for money."
"I wish any one were with Shank rather than that man," said Charlie
sternly; "I have no confidence in him whatever, and I knew him well as a
boy."
"Nevertheless, I think we may trust him. Indeed I feel sure he won't
desert his wounded comrade," returned May, with a blush.
The youth did not observe the blush. His thoughts were otherwise
engaged, and his eyes were at the moment fixed on a far-off part of the
shore, where Captain Stride could be seen urging on the joyful Scraggy
to his fruitless labours.
"I wish I could feel as confident of him as you do, May. However,
misfortune as well as experience may have made him a wiser, perhaps a
better, man. But what troubles me most is the uncertainty of the money
that Mr Crossley is going to send ever reaching its destination."
"Oh! if we only knew some one in New York who would take it to them,"
said May, looking piteously at the horizon, as if she were
apostrophising some one on the other side of the Atlantic.
"Why, you talk as if New York and Traitor's Trap were within a few miles
of each other," said Charlie, smiling gently. "They are hundreds of
miles apart."
"Well, I suppose they are. But I feel so anxious about Shank when I
think of the dear boy lying ill, perhaps dying, in a lonely place far
far away from us all, and no one but Mr Ritson to care for him! If I
were only a man I would go to him myself."
She broke down at this point, and put her handkerchief to her face.
"Don't cry, May," began the youth in sore perplexity, for he knew not
how to comfort the poor girl in the circumstances, but fortunately
Captain Stride caught sight of them at the moment, and gave them a
stentorian hail.
"Hi! halloo! back your to-o-o-ps'ls. I'll overhaul ye in a jiffy."
How long a nautical jiffy may be we know not, but, in a remarkably brief
space of time, considering the shortness and thickness of his sea-legs,
the Captain was alongside, blowing, as he said, "like a grampus."
That night Charlie Brooke sat with his mother in her parlour. They were
alone--their friends having considerately left them to themselves on
this their first night.
They had been talking earnestly about past and present, for the son had
much to learn about old friends and comrades, and the mother had much to
tell.
"And now, mother," said Charlie, at the end of a brief pause, "what
about the future?"
"Surely, my boy, it is time enough to talk about that to-morrow, or next
day. You are not obliged to think of the future before you have spent
even one night in your old room."
"Not absolutely obliged, mother. Nevertheless, I should like to speak
about it. Poor Shank is heavy on my mind, and when I heard all about
him to-day from May, I--. She's wonderfully improved, that girl,
mother. Grown quite pretty?"
"Indeed she is--and as good as she's pretty," returned Mrs Brooke, with
a furtive glance at her son.
"She broke down when talking about Shank to-day, and I declare she
looked quite beautiful! Evidently Shank's condition weighs heavily on
her mind."
"Can you wonder, Charlie?"
"Of course not. It's natural, and I quite sympathised with her when she
exclaimed, `If I were only a man I would go to him myself.'"
"That's natural too, my son. I have no doubt she would, poor dear girl,
if she were only a man."
"Do you know, mother, I've not been able to get that speech out of my
head all this afternoon. `If I were a man--if I were a man,' keeps
ringing in my ears like the chorus of an old song, and then--"
"Well, Charlie, what then?" asked Mrs Brooke, with a puzzled glance.
"Why, then, somehow the chorus has changed in my brain and it runs--`I
_am_ a man! I _am_ a man!'"
"Well?" asked the mother, with an anxious look.
"Well--that being so, I have made up my mind that _I_ will go out to
Traitor's Trap and carry the money to Shank, and look after him myself.
That is, if you will let me."
"O Charlie! how can you talk of it?" said Mrs Brooke, with a distressed
look. "I have scarcely had time to realise the fact that you have come
home, and to thank God for it, when you begin to talk of leaving me
again--perhaps for years, as before."
"Nay, mother mine, you jump to conclusions too hastily. What I propose
is not to go off again on a long voyage, but to take a run of a few days
in a first-class steamer across what the Americans call the big
fish-pond; then go across country comfortably by rail; after that hire a
horse and have a gallop somewhere or other; find out Shank and bring him
home. The whole thing might be done in a few weeks; and no chance,
almost, of being wrecked."
"I don't know, Charlie," returned Mrs Brooke, in a sad tone, as she
laid her hand on her son's arm and stroked it. "As you put it, the
thing sounds all very easy, and no doubt it would be a grand, a noble
thing to rescue Shank--but--but, why talk of it to-night, my dear boy?
It is late. Go to bed, Charlie, and we will talk it over in the
morning."
"How pleasantly familiar that `Go to bed, Charlie,' sounds," said the
son, laughing, as he rose up.
"You did not always think it pleasant," returned the good lady, with a
sad smile.
"That's true, but I think it uncommonly pleasant _now_. Good-night,
mother."
"Good-night, my son, and God bless you."