AN EARLY BREAKFAST FOR TWO.
Suddenly the flow of conversation in the cabin ceased, and Wade Brooks
heard a heavy step on the stairs that led down from the deck. The talk
appeared to be interrupted by the coming of the owner of the heavy
boots, as though he was not in the confidence of those in the cabin.
“We are all right now, Mr. Wallgood,” said a man with a voice as heavy
as the sound of the boots.
“Wallgood,” thought the wanderer. “That is the name of a family in
Midhampton; and a man of that name is the cashier of the Walnut
National Bank.”
“I wish it were all right, Capt. Bendig,” said one of the ladies, with
a heavy sob.
“Oh! it is all right, Mrs. Wallgood,” added Capt. Bendig, with as much
gentleness as a rough man like him could assume. “I shall put you on
board of Capt. Crogick’s ship to-day, or at least by to-morrow. I don’t
know exactly where to find him: but he will be on the lookout for me,
as well as I for him; and it will be only a few hours, more or less. I
shall run along the south coast of Long Island till we make out the
ship. I may overhaul him before we get to Fire Island, and I may not
till we reach Montauk. But I must have something to eat; for I lost my
supper in this business last night.”
“Just my case,” said Wade to himself; and he wished he might be asked
to share the captain’s early meal.
“Here, Pollish, where are you?” called the captain.
“Here, sir,” replied the person called for; and he appeared to come by
the door which led from the pantry to the cabin, which was between the
latter and the kitchen.
“Where is Beafbon?” asked Capt. Bendig.
“I guess he was on a spree last night, for he was pretty full when he
came on board at twelve o’clock; and he turned in at once,” answered
Pollish, who was the cabin-steward.
“Call him, and tell him to get me a beefsteak as soon as he can, with
a cup of hot coffee,” added Capt. Bendig. “Have it on the shelf in my
state-room; and tell him if he is more than thirty minutes about it, I
will discharge him as soon as we get back to New York.”
This was decided enough to show the character of the man; and Wade did
not much like the idea of dealing with him, as he felt that he must
before the cruise was finished; and it appeared now that it might last
two or three days. Wade had slept full eight hours when he woke, and he
was wide awake now. In a few minutes he heard a rattling of the stove
in the kitchen, which was separated from the state-room only by a thin
bulkhead. Capt. Bendig returned to the deck as soon as he had ordered
his breakfast. Wade could tell about every thing that was done on board
by the sounds that came to him.
“Does that man know about this miserable business?” asked Mrs.
Wallgood, when he had heard the retreating steps of the captain.
“I suppose he does, though I did not tell him,” replied a man whom Wade
took to be the husband of the lady.
“I know he does,” added the other female; and Wade had yet to learn who
she was, though the information soon came to him. “He has managed the
whole of this business: he has brought us all to New York, and will put
us all on board of my husband’s vessel.”
She was the wife of Capt. Crogick, then; and Wade knew that she was the
sister of Mrs. Wallgood, the cashier’s wife. There was something about
the Walnut National Bank that was wrong; and Capt. Trustleton was the
president of the bank.
“Are you not afraid that this man will betray you?” asked Mrs. Wallgood.
“No, I am not: he is a strong friend of Capt. Crogick; and he told me
I might trust the life of myself and my wife in his keeping,” answered
Mr. Wallgood.
“I almost wish he might betray you,” said Mrs. Wallgood, after a pause.
“Why do you wish that, my dear?” asked the husband, in trembling tones.
“Because I think the crime is a good deal worse than being found out,”
replied the lady, with considerable spirit. “If I had known what all
this was for, I would not have come with you.”
“Would you desert me?” demanded the wretched man.
“You have robbed the bank of a hundred thousand dollars; you have
forfeited your bonds, and disgraced yourself and your wife. I feel that
I no longer owe you any thing.”
“Do not be so hard upon him, Julia,” pleaded Mrs. Crogick.
“Your husband led him into the crime,” snapped the wife of the cashier.
“Neither of them intended to do any wrong. When the captain was in
trouble, your husband helped him. Do not blame him for this,” continued
the shipmaster’s wife.
“It was not the fault of either of us. Capt. Trustleton drove me to the
wall, by shutting me out from the use of the money of the bank, when
I was willing to pay as good interest as any other man,” argued the
cashier.
But Wade did not understand much of the talk,--only that Mr. Wallgood
had taken one hundred thousand dollars from the Walnut National Bank
in Midhampton, and he and his wife were running away to escape the
consequences of his crime. The lady did not like the situation, and
would not have come if she had understood the matter. Wade thought she
was right, and did not think a woman was bound to stick to a husband
after he had stolen one hundred thousand dollars; but then, Wade was
not a judge of such matters, and his opinion was not worth much.
“I can’t get over it!” exclaimed this lady, after silence had prevailed
in the cabin for some little time. “I came to New York, as I supposed,
on a pleasure-excursion, at a moment’s notice; and now it seems as
though this time was chosen because Capt. Trustleton was absent,
looking up his runaway boy. Then it took three hours to tell this
miserable story, and to persuade me that I ought to leave my native
land, perhaps forever, with my husband, who is a defaulter to his bank
for a hundred thousand dollars!”
Mrs. Wallgood groaned in bitterness of spirit when she had rehearsed
her case; and certainly it was a heavy penalty to be driven from her
home and friends by the crime of her husband.
“If you wish to desert me in my misfortune, you can do so, Julia,”
groaned the cashier. “You can return to New York in this yacht.”
“Where is Capt. Crogick’s ship going to?” asked Mrs. Wallgood, as
though this had something to do with the question.
“She is bound to Leghorn; and we can be as happy in Italy as at home
for a few years, till this trouble blows over,” said Mrs. Crogick.
“And what are we to live on when we get there?” asked the indignant
lady.
“We have money enough to live comfortably in Italy,” replied the
cashier.
“Then you feathered the nest before you went away,” sneered the lady.
“I thought this flight was because you could not pay your debts to the
bank.”
“Such was the case; but a few thousands more or less will make no
difference to the bank, my dear.”
But the conversation was interrupted by the appearance of the captain
of the yacht, before whom the members of the party were not inclined
to talk. While the conversation was in progress, Pollish had dropped a
kind of table, which turned up against the bulkhead in the state-room,
and had placed some dishes and a plate of soft bread, with some other
articles, upon it. If Wade could not see the beefsteak when it was
placed on the table, he could smell it; and the odor gave him an
intense longing for a taste of it. He had eaten nothing but the bit of
cracker and cheese in the bar-room of the hotel since his breakfast at
an early hour the day before.
Wade was in no condition to inhale the odors of a beefsteak without
coveting a taste of it. He envied the burly captain when he sat down
on a stool at the table. The gimballed lamp was burning in the room,
and Wade had a chance to see the awful man with whom by and by, without
much doubt, he had a battle to fight; but the skipper seemed to be in
a hurry, and Wade thought he gobbled up his food like a pig, from the
sounds which came to him from the great chops of the man. He was hardly
more than five minutes at the table, and he rattled the dishes with so
much vigor that Wade thought he would smash half of them.
When he went out of the state-room, he closed the door leading into the
cabin. Wade saw that the opposite one, leading into a kind of room from
which opened the doors into the forecastle and the kitchen, was also
closed. The circumstances tempted him. His empty stomach goaded him
to action. He was so hungry that he did not stop long to consider the
perils of the situation; but, disengaging himself from the pile of old
garments which had concealed him from those who entered the state-room,
he crawled out, and made a dive at the table. He was glad to see
that the captain had been accredited with a bigger appetite than he
possessed, for there was still at least a pound of steak on the plate.
Wade grabbed the piece, for he could not stop to cut it, even if he had
felt unequal to the task of eating the whole of it. With the steak in
one hand, and two thick slices of bread in the other, he retreated to
his lair; and, from the way he tore and devoured the beef and bread,
his hiding-place was not very different from the den of any other wild
beast.
He had no more than finished the hearty meal which the food he had
taken furnished, before the captain of the yacht put in his second
appearance. Wade could see the big boots he wore, from his den. He
stood in the middle of the small apartment; and as he did not do
any thing, or even move, Wade concluded that he was thinking about
something. He wondered if he missed the pound of beef and the slices of
bread, and if these were the subject of his present reflections.
“What time is it now, Capt. Bendig?” asked Mrs. Crogick.
“About half-past four, marm: it is broad daylight now, and we shall
have a fine day for your excursion.”
“And where are we now?”
“We have passed through the Narrows, and I have just headed her to
the eastward. We have a strong breeze; and, if it holds, we can make
Montauk Point by five o’clock this afternoon.”
The lady seemed to be satisfied, and the captain called for the
steward.