CAPTAIN TOBY READY—DOCTOR-AT-LARGE.
As Jack entered the cabin he was greeted by a succession of shrill
shrieks and whoops.
“Ahoy, my hearty! Never say die! Don’t give up the ship! Kra-a-a-a!”
“That is good advice, Methusaleh,” laughed the boy, addressing himself
to a disreputable-looking parrot that stood balancing itself on a perch
in a cage that hung in one corner of this queer abode.
The ports which the cabin had originally boasted had been enlarged and
formed into windows, through which the light streamed cheerfully. Red
cotton curtains hung at these casements and gave a dash of color to the
dark wooden walls of the place. In the center was a swinging table and
some rickety chairs; at one end was a sea-stove, a relic of the
schooner’s sea-going days, and at the opposite end of the cabin, at the
stern portion of it, was a bulkhead and a door.
From beyond this door came the clinking of glasses and the sound of
pounding. It was Captain Toby hard at work in his sanctum compounding
his medicines. Jack turned into another door alongside the stove, on the
other side of which there was a similar portal.
These doors led into the cabins respectively of Jack and his uncle.
Jack’s cabin was a neat little combination workshop and sleeping place.
On a shelf opposite his bunk was his wireless set, with the wires
leading down to it from the aerials above. Another shelf held his stock
of books, mostly of a scientific character, dealing with his favorite
pursuit. The rest of the space in the not very large cabin was occupied
by a work bench, cluttered with tools and stray bits of apparatus.
Jack had no wish to worry his uncle with an account of the happenings of
the afternoon, so, before seeking him, he slipped out of his wet clothes
and donned the overalls in which he usually worked. There was another
reason for this, too, for the suit in which he had dived to the rescue
of little Marjorie Jukes was the only one he boasted.
Having hung up his garments carefully, so that they would dry as free
from wrinkles as possible, Jack left the cabin and made for his uncle’s
sanctum in the stern.
“Well, Jack, my hearty, what luck?” inquired the old man as the boy
entered.
Jack shook his head.
“The same old story, Uncle Toby. What are you busy at?”
“An order for the ‘Golden Embrocation and Universal Remedy for Man and
Beast’ for Cap’n Styles of the _Sea Witch_,” rejoined his uncle in his
deep voice, hoarse from many years of shouting orders above gales and
storms. “If you really want to go to sea, Jack, I’ll get you a berth
with Cap’n Styles. The _Sea Witch_ is a fine old Yankee ship; not one of
your smoke-eating tea-kettles.”
“But she has no wireless?” questioned Jack, gazing about him at the
compartment, which was stocked with the tools of the captain’s trade:
herbs in bundles, bottles, pestles and mortars and so forth. A strong
aromatic odor filled the air, and the captain hummed cheerily as he
poured a yellow, evil-smelling liquid from a big retort into half a
dozen bottles, destined to cure the ills of Captain Styles.
“Wireless! Of course not, my hearty. What does a fine sailing ship want
with a wireless? Take my word for it, Jack, wireless is only a
newfangled idee, and it won’t last. Give a sailor sea-room and a good
ship and all that fol-de-rol is only in his way.”
“And yet I saw the news of another rescue at sea by means of the
wireless when I was looking at a newspaper bulletin-board to-day,”
rejoined the lad. “The crew of a burning tramp steamer was rescued by a
liner that had been summoned to their aid by the apparatus. If it hadn’t
been for wireless, that ship might have burned up with all hands, and no
one ever have known her fate.”
His uncle grunted in the manner of one unconvinced.
“Well, I ain’t saying that wireless mayn’t be all right for one of them
floating wash-boilers, but for Yankee sailors, good rigging and canvas
and a stout, sweet hull is good enough to go to sea with.”
As he went on with his work, he began rumbling in a gruff, throaty bass:
“Come, all you young fellers what foller the sea!
Yo ho, blow the man down;
And pay good attention and listen to me,
Oh, give me some time to blow the man down.”
“That’s the music, Jack,” said he. “I wish you’d go inter sails instead
of steam, and follow the examples of your dad and your uncle, yes, and
of your granddaddy, Noah Ready, afore ’em.”
Jack made no rejoinder, but set about straightening up the litter in the
place. The contention between them was an old one, and always ended in
the same way. His uncle knew many seafaring men of the old school who
would gladly have given Jack a berth on their craft. But they were all
in command of “wind-jammers,” and the boy’s heart was set on the
wireless room of a liner, or at any rate a job on some wireless-equipped
vessel.
Meantime the captain went on compounding and mixing and pouring,
rumbling away at his old sea songs. He was an odd-looking character, as
odd in his way as his chosen place of residence.
Years of service on the salt-water had tanned his wrinkled skin almost
to a mahogany color. Under his chin was a fringe of white whiskers, and
his round head—covered with a bristly white thatch—was set low between a
pair of gigantic shoulders. He was dressed in a fantastic miscellany of
water-side slops which flapped where they should have been tight, and
wrinkled where they should have been loose. Add to this an expression of
whimsical kindness, a wooden leg and a wide, rough scar,—the memento of
a battle with savages in the South Seas,—and you have a portrait of
Captain Toby Ready.
Presently the captain drew out a huge silver watch.
“Two bells. Time to stand by for supper, lad,” he said. “That stuff’ll
have to go to Cap’n Styles to-morrow. There’s plenty of time; he don’t
sail for goin’ on a week yet. Slip your cable, like a good lad, and set
a course for the bakery. We’re short of bread.”
“And I’m short of the money to get it,” said Jack.
The captain thrust a hairy paw into his pocket and drew out an immense
purse. He extracted a coin from it and handed it to the boy.
“An’ how much, lad, is a penny saved?” he inquired, peering at Jack from
under his bushy white brows.
“A penny earned,” laughed Jack.
“Co’-rect,” chuckled the captain, grinning at Jack’s quick reply to the
almost invariable formula, “an’ if Captain Toby Ready had thought o’
that when he was young, he wouldn’t be here on the craft _Wenus_ making
medicines fer sea-cap’ns with a tummy ache.
“I’ve got an apple pie in the oven, Jack,” said he, as the boy left the
“drug-store,” as he and his uncle called it, “so cut along and hurry
back.”
“Aye, aye, sir!” cried the boy, bounding up the cabin stairs with
alacrity.
Apple pies were not common on board the _Venus_, nor was Jack too old to
appreciate his uncle’s announcement.
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