IN WHICH I AT LAST SET MY FACE HOMEWARD WITH DETERMINATION
When I came up from the captain's room I stepped out on deck face to
face with my cousin, Paul Downes. He tried to sneak past me, but I
seized him by the shoulder and jammed him up against the side of the
house.
"You lemme go, Clint Webb!" he whined. "I don't want nothing to do with
you--now, I tell you!"
"I bet you don't want anything to do with me," I replied, eyeing him
with some curiosity.
Paul looked as though he had had a hard time of it. He was dressed in
the roughest sort of clothing, he had a bruised face (I fear Ben Gibson
had punished him for disrespect, for Paul was just the sort of a fellow
to try and take advantage of the second mate's youth) and altogether he
was a most disreputable and hang-dog looking creature.
"I'd never come aboard this old tub if I'd known what whaling was like,"
whined Paul. "And now I want you to get this captain to let me off.
You're going home, they tell me."
"I hope to get away about as soon as we arrive as Punta Arenas," I
declared.
"Then I want you to get me away from this place, too. You'll have money
enough to pay both our fares home----"
"Well, I never heard of such cheek!" I interrupted.
"Now, you do as I say. Father will pay you back. I'll make him," said
Paul, as though he thought the whole thing was cut and dried.
"Why, you shipped for the voyage, didn't you?"
"Ye-es. They said something like that. But I didn't mean it," said my
cousin.
"You'll find that sea captains expect a man to abide by the ship's
papers. I don't know as Captain Rogers loves you much, but maybe he'll
want to keep you just the same."
"He ain't trying to hold you," snarled Paul.
"I never signed on," I replied. "I haven't been a real member of the
crew at all. But you were very glad for Captain Rogers to take you out
of the clutches of that crimp at Buenos Ayres. You won't get away from
the Scarboro so easy."
"I ain't going to stay," he declared, bitterly. "I don't like it. I want
to go home."
"The voyage will maybe teach you something, Paul," I said, and I must
confess I enjoyed his discomfiture.
"You better help me out o' here," he threatened. "You can do it."
"If I could help you, I wouldn't," I declared, with some heat. "Think
I've forgotten what you did to me at the consul's office?"
He grinned a little; but he was angry, too. "You better help me to a
passage home," he growled.
"Not much!"
"You'll wish you had," he declared. "I'll write your mother and tell her
just how you've treated me. I've had a hard time----"
And he actually acted and spoke as though he considered himself
ill-used! I never in my life saw such a fellow. Always blaming somebody
else for the troubles he brought upon himself. I was soon tired of
listening to him.
"Come! stow all that!" I advised him. "You're a member of the Scarboro's
crew, and you joined of your own free will. The only reason I see for my
trying to get you away from here is to have you arrested and punished
for getting hold of my money at Buenos Ayres. I could put you in bad for
that. You be thankful you are away down here on the Scarboro, instead of
at Buenos Ayres."
"So you won't help me get away?" he snarled.
"No, sir!"
"All right. You wait. You'll be sorry."
"Now, don't threaten me any more," I returned. "I hope this voyage will
do you some good. I think you'll learn something before the Scarboro
reaches New Bedford again. We'll hope so, anyway."
He only snarled at me as I passed on. I had just as little to do with
him as possible while I remained aboard the bark. We were at Punta
Arenas in a few hours, and the very next morning the bark was warped in
beside the tramp steamer and the oil in the whaler's tanks was being
pumped aboard the steamship. The men were given short shore leave; but
Captain Rogers put Paul Downes in the care of Bill Rudd, the carpenter,
and made him responsible for him.
"I ain't got my money's worth out o' that greenhorn yet," declared the
skipper. "He ain't earned yet what I had to pay for his board bill in
Buenos Ayres. Don't you let him get away, Rudd."
I knew that my cousin would come to no harm with Captain Rogers. The
cruise might be the means of making some sort of a man of him, at least.
So I put Paul and his affairs right out of my mind.
There was a steamer touching at Buenos Ayres due through the straits in
a couple of days, and I prepared to board her. Once in the big Argentine
seaport I would take passage on a Bayne Liner for Boston. I was eager
for the homeward journey now, although I felt that I never should be
tired of the salt water. But, as Lawyer Hounsditch advised, I put Duty
ahead of Inclination.
I bade my friends aboard the Scarboro good-bye and went ashore, spending
the night before I was to sail for the north in a decent house near the
landing. I knew my mother would be glad to see me and I had no fear but
that, once beside her, I should find means of keeping Mr. Chester Downes
at a distance. I had no reason to doubt the future, or what it might
hold in store for me. That it did not prove wholly uneventful the reader
may discover for himself in the second volume of this series, entitled:
"The Frozen Ship; or, Clint Webb Among the Sealers."
I was not thinking of either romance or adventure, however, when I began
my homeward voyage. I expected it to be quite uneventful, and was only
anxious to walk into Darringford House, surprise my little mother, and
take her once again in my arms!