It was fortunate for Ruby that the skipper of the vessel ordered him to
remain in charge while he went ashore, because he would certainly have
been recognised by numerous friends, and his arrival would speedily have
reached the ears of the officers of justice, who seem to be a class of
men specially gifted with the faculty of never forgetting. It was not
until darkness had begun to settle down on the town that the skipper
returned on board, and gave him leave to go ashore.
Ruby did not return in the little coaster in which he had left his
native place. That vessel had been wrecked not long after he joined
her, but the crew were saved, and Ruby succeeded in obtaining a berth as
second mate of a large ship trading between Hull and the Baltic.
Returning from one of his voyages with a pretty good sum of money in his
pocket, he resolved to visit his mother and give it to her. He
therefore went aboard an Arbroath schooner, and offered to work his
passage as an extra hand. Remembering his former troubles in connexion
with the press-gang, he resolved to conceal his name from the captain
and crew, who chanced to be all strangers to him.
It must not be supposed that Mrs Brand had not heard of Ruby since he
left her. On the contrary, both she and Minnie Gray got letters as
frequently as the postal arrangements of those days would admit of; and
from time to time they received remittances of money, which enabled them
to live in comparative comfort. It happened, however, that the last of
these remittances had been lost, so that Mrs Brand had to depend for
subsistence on Minnie's exertions, and on her brother's liberality. The
brother's power was limited, however, and Minnie had been ailing for
some time past, in consequence of her close application to work, so that
she could not earn as much as usual. Hence it fell out that at this
particular time the widow found herself in greater pecuniary
difficulties than she had ever been in before.
Ruby was somewhat of an original. It is probable that every hero is.
He resolved to surprise his mother by pouring the money he had brought
into her lap, and for this purpose had, while in Hull, converted all his
savings into copper, silver, and gold. Those precious metals he stowed
separately into the pockets of his huge pea-jacket, and, thus heavily
laden, went ashore about dark, as soon as the skipper returned.
At this precise hour it happened that Mrs Brand, Minnie Gray, and
Captain Ogilvy were seated at their supper in the kitchen of the
cottage.