IMMENSE RICHES.
Wade had a full view of the cabin for the first time when the cashier
called him into this apartment. It was very elegantly fitted up; and
he wondered if the beautiful vessel belonged to Capt. Bendig. Pollish
afterwards told him that she was the property of a wealthy gentleman,
and that Capt. Bendig was only the sailing-master. The owner had gone
into the country for a few weeks, and the skipper was making a dollar
on his own account by the present excursion. He was to receive five
hundred dollars for the use of the vessel and for his own services; and
each of the men on board was to have one hundred dollars for his work
and his secrecy, especially for the latter.
“What is your name, my boy?” asked Mr. Wallgood, when Wade presented
himself in the cabin.
“Wade Brooks,” replied the stowaway; and he felt sure the cashier had
never even heard the name.
“I suppose you live in New York.”
“I lived there yesterday.”
“Where do you live to-day?”
“I live here.”
“But where is your home?”
“I haven’t any home. My father and mother are both dead.”
“What are you doing in this vessel?”
Wade told him how he happened to be in the yacht. All he wanted was to
get back to New York.
“What are you going to do in New York?” asked Mr. Wallgood.
“I want to get something to do, so that I can earn my own living.”
“Have you any money to pay your board till you get work?”
“Not a cent: I had some money, but it was stolen from me,” replied
Wade, giving the details of his experience.
“You would like some money, wouldn’t you?”
“I should; but I don’t want it bad enough to steal it,” replied Wade;
and perhaps he did not mean to cast any reflections on the past conduct
of the cashier.
“Perhaps you heard something that was said in the cabin early this
morning?” continued the defaulter, beginning to approach the subject
that worried him.
“Perhaps I did,” replied Wade cautiously.
“What did you hear?”
“I didn’t hear much; and perhaps I was too stupid to understand it,”
added Wade, with a chuckle. “But the captain of the vessel has promised
me a licking, and I mean to hold my tongue.”
The cashier plied him closely with questions; but Wade had made up his
mind to answer none of them, and he did not.
“I suppose you know the captain is going to put us on board of a ship?”
persisted the defaulter.
“I don’t know any thing about what he is going to do, except that he
means to give me a licking,” replied the stowaway blankly.
“I think he is stupid, as the captain said,” added Mrs. Crogick, in a
low tone, though Wade heard what she said.
“At least you know that we are a party who started in the night from
New York; and you will see that we are all put on board of a ship.”
“I know what you say about it.”
“For reasons which I will not explain, for you would not understand
them, we don’t wish to have it known that we have left New York as we
did. Do you think you could keep the secret?” asked Mr. Wallgood; and
by this time he was somewhat excited.
“I know I could if I tried, and if I got fair play; but, after I have
had a licking, I don’t feel like holding my tongue,” replied Wade,
deeming it best to get an anchor out to windward.
“I pay all the men on this vessel a hundred dollars to hold their
tongues. I will pay you the same, if you will keep the secret.”
“One hundred dollars!” exclaimed Wade, who had heard of such a sum
of money, but he did not realize that he could ever possess such an
amount.
“That is just what I will give you, if you will never in your life say
what has happened on board of this vessel,” added Mr. Wallgood.
“Shall I have the money to keep?” asked the incredulous boy; and he
had already begun to think of buying a farm in his native town, and
astonishing the natives with his wealth.
“You shall have the money all for your own; and I will make sure before
I leave the vessel that the captain will not flog you,” continued the
defaulter.
“I will keep the secret to the end of time, if I am allowed to keep the
money,” said Wade; and he would not have said it if he had thought that
the sum he was to be paid had been stolen from the Walnut National Bank.
The cashier handed him a roll of bills; and Wade proceeded at once to
count them. It contained the amount mentioned, and he put it into his
pocket. He had hardly done so before the captain came down into the
cabin.
“What are you doing in here, you young rascal?” demanded the skipper
angrily. “You think you must have a place in the cabin, do you?”
“I called him in, Capt. Bendig,” interposed Mr. Wallgood. “It is not
his fault that he is here. I have made the same bargain with him that
was made with each of the crew. I have paid him the money.”
“You have not given that scalawag a hundred dollars, have you?”
exclaimed the captain.
“I have; and I feel safer now than I did before. I hope you will not
attempt to flog him; for really I don’t think he meant to do any thing
wrong.”
“He had no business in the yacht; and he won’t tell me how he got on
board of the vessel. He deserves a flogging to teach him better than to
take up his quarters in a gentleman’s yacht.”
Wade retreated to the state-room, feeling that the cashier could settle
this question better when he was absent than when he was present. The
door was open, and he could hear all that was said. In the end Capt.
Bendig promised not to flog him, after a good deal of pleading on the
part of the defaulter; and this was all Wade cared to hear, though he
could not help listening to something more as long as he staid in the
state-room.
“That infernal revenue-cutter is coming up this way; and we shall have
to wait till night before we put you on board of the ‘Housatonic,’”
said the captain, as soon as the flogging-question was settled.
“A few hours will make no difference. She can have no motive for
overhauling the yacht,” replied the cashier.
“None at all. The bank people could not have known that any thing was
wrong about the establishment before nine or ten o’clock this morning;
and the cutter was not in port last night,” added the captain.
The party in the cabin seemed to think they were still safe; and they
expressed no fears of the result of the expedition. While Wade sat in
the captain’s state-room, Pollish came in to see him. He closed the
cabin-door, and evidently had something to say.
“See here, lad, I have a place for you; but it is all my situation is
worth for the captain to find out that I put you into it,” said Pollish
in a whisper.
“I never will tell him, if he pulls my bones apart for it,” replied
Wade. “You can trust me as long as you live. But I heard the captain
tell the folks in the cabin that he wouldn’t flog me.”
“Don’t you believe him,” said Pollish earnestly. “He will do any thing
he likes, in spite of his promises. Keep out of sight till the yacht
gets back to New York.”
“I will take any place you say,” added Wade.
“In the forecastle you will find a place under the lower berth, as far
forward as you can go, on the starboard side.”
“I am very much obliged to you, Mr. Pollish; and, when I can do any
thing for you, I shall be very glad to do it,” replied Wade.
“But the captain may find you there, though I don’t think he will,”
added the steward.
“If he finds me, I won’t say a word that will do you any harm. But
I think I needn’t go into the place till these people in the cabin
are gone; for the captain promised Mr. Wallgood that I should not be
touched.”
“There is the place, and you can go into it when you are ready. I think
you had better go and look at it while all the hands are on deck. You
must not let any of the sailors know you are in the place, for they
may blow on you.”
“I will not;” and Wade went into the forecastle to look at his future
hiding-place.
It was very close quarters for a boy of his size; and, like the space
under the captain’s berth, it was filled with old clothes. Wade raked
them out, and then prepared the den for his reception when it should be
necessary to use it. He put most of the garments in another place; but
he left enough to form a barricade in front of the aperture, that would
conceal him from the captain and others who might be looking for him.
We do not like to cast reflections upon the good judgment of Wade and
the steward; but the hiding-place was not well chosen. As Capt. Bendig
had found him under one berth, he would be very likely to look under
all the berths in the yacht when he wanted to find the stowaway. But
Wade did not believe he should have any occasion to use the place, for
the captain had promised not to flog him; and he did not believe he
could do any thing with him except to carry him back to New York. He
would be very glad to go there; for the liberality of the cashier had
made him rich, and he could live a year at least on the vast sum of
money in his possession. He did not care whether school kept, or not.
He was no longer afraid of the captain, as long as the cabin party
remained on board; for he was confident that the cashier would protect
him for his own safety, if for no other reason. He had wanted to go on
deck, and now he went. He had a place of retreat in case of trouble,
and all he had to do was to crawl into it. It was nearly sunset when he
went up the cabin steps. He saw the ship at least two miles ahead, for
she had been under all sail from the time she had made out the yacht;
and it is probable that she had seen the revenue-cutter, or she would
have shortened sail, and waited for the “Moonlight” to come up.
At sunset the wind all died out, while the “Housatonic” was still two
miles distant. The cutter was a mile from either vessel. Nothing could
be done; and the ship and the yacht lay where they were all night.