I had written to my mother, giving her a long account of my adventures,
but not saying a word of my having been at Chatham. I made her suppose,
as I did the captain, that I had been carried up to London. My letter
reached her the day after the one announcing my safety, written to her
by Captain Delmar.
She answered me by return of post, thanking Heaven for my preservation,
and stating how great had been her anguish and misery at my supposed
loss. In the latter part of the letter was this paragraph:--
"Strange to say, on the night of the 16th, when I was on my bed in
tears, having but just received the news of your loss, your
grandmother went downstairs, and declares that she saw you or your
ghost in the little back parlour. At all events, I found her
insensible on the floor, so that she must have seen something. She
might have been frightened at nothing; and yet I know not what to
think, for there are circumstances which almost make _me_ believe that
somebody was in the house. I presume you can prove an _alibi_."
That my mother had been suspicious, perhaps more than suspicious, from
the disappearance of the letter, I was convinced. When I replied to
her, I said:--
"My _alibi_ is easily proved by applying to the master and seamen of
the vessel on board of which I was. Old granny must have been
frightened at her own shadow: the idea of my coming to your house, and
having left it without seeing you is rather too absurd; granny must
have invented the story, because she hates me, and thought to make you
do the same."
Whatever my mother may have thought, she did not again mention the
subject. I had, however, a few days afterwards, a letter from my aunt
Milly, in which she laughingly told the same story of granny swearing
that she had seen me or my ghost. "At first we thought it was your
ghost, but since a letter from Captain Delmar to your mother has been
missing, it is now imagined that you have been here, and have taken
possession of it. You will tell me, my dearest Percival, I'm sure, if
you did play this trick to granny, or not; you know you may trust me
with any of your tricks."
But I was not in this instance to be wheedled by my aunt. I wrote in
return, saying how much I was amazed at my grandmother telling such
fibs, and proved to her most satisfactorily that I was in London at the
time they supposed I might have been at Chatham.
That my aunt had been requested by my mother to try to find out the
truth, I was well convinced: but I felt my secret of too much importance
to trust either of them and from that time the subject was never
mentioned; and I believe it was at last surmised that the letter might
have been destroyed accidentally or purposely by the maid-servant, and
that my grandmother had been frightened at nothing at all--an opinion
more supported, as the maid, who had taken advantage of my mother's
retiring to her room, and had been out gossiping, declared that she had
not left the premises three minutes, and not a soul could have come in.
Moreover, it was so unlikely that I could have been in Chatham without
being recognised by somebody.
My grandmother shook her head, and said nothing during all this
canvassing of the question; but my aunt Milly declared that I never
would have been at Chatham without coming to see her. And it was her
opinion that the servant girl had read the letter when left on the
table, and had taken it out to show to her associates; and somebody who
wished to have a hold upon my mother by the possession of the letter had
retained it.
I think my mother came to that opinion at last, and it was the source of
much uneasiness to her. She dared not say a word to Captain Delmar, and
every day expected to have an offer made of returning the letter, upon a
certain sum being paid down. But the offer was never made, as the
letter had been sewed up by Bob Cross in the piece of seal-skin, and was
worn round my neck with a ribbon, with as much care as if it had been a
supposed bit of the wood of the true cross, possessed by some old female
Catholic devotee.
But long before all these discussions were over, H.M. ship Calliope had
been ordered to sail, and was steering down the Channel before a smart
breeze.