When I went down to breakfast, Anthea and Lizette were already in the
dining-room. The former had quite recovered her composure, although her
eyelids were still a trifle red and swollen, while her small,
beautifully-shaped ear was crimson from the force of the blow which it
had received. I have already mentioned that this young lady's attitude
toward me had completely changed from the moment when I saved her
brother's life; her frosty and almost insolent aloofness had entirely
disappeared, giving place to a frank and cordial friendliness of
disposition rivalling that of her mother, which I admit was mightily
agreeable to me. In short, I believed her to be intensely grateful for
what I had done on that occasion, and perfectly willing that I should
know it. So now I was not at all surprised when, upon my entrance, she
came forward and, laying her hand upon my arm, said:
"Oh! Mr Leigh, I cannot tell you how dreadfully sorry I am for what
has happened. Momma is frightfully angry with you for what she is
pleased to term your violent and cowardly behaviour to Julius--they are
her words, please remember, not mine: but I think, indeed I am almost
certain, that upon reflection she will recognise that no man could stand
by and permit to pass, unreproved, such an outrage as that wretched boy
inflicted upon me. The fact is--I can see it for myself now--we have
all combined together to spoil Julius, with the result that he has
become a thoroughly selfish, conceited, unfeeling, unmanageable boy; and
it is high time that somebody should intervene. But that somebody must
not be you, Mr Leigh; you have no right to interfere, you know, and I
am sure that Momma would never tolerate anything of the kind from you.
"At the same time I feel impelled to say,"--and here her eyes sparkled
and an amused smile lighted up her face--"that I believe your
interference has done Julius good. You frightened him, and I think he
will feel that henceforth he will have to behave a little more
circumspectly while you are around. But I want you, please, to promise
me that you will not interfere with him again. I will take up the
matter. I will talk very seriously to Momma and see if I cannot open
her eyes to the very serious wrong and injury that we are all doing to
the boy by petting and pampering him, and humouring his every whim,
however outrageous it may be. So you will give me your promise to be
very patient with him, won't you? I know that he has been atrociously
rude and provocative to you, but--"
"Please say no more," I interrupted. "I think I may safely promise you
that no rudeness or provocation on his part, levelled at me personally,
shall be allowed to move me in the slightest degree. But if ever the
young monkey again dares to lift his hand against you in my presence,
I'll--I'll--"
"Yes, yes, I know; you needn't say it," she interrupted in turn, and
once more her eyes sparkled with merriment; "it will be something too
awful for words. Well, I'll tell Julius what you say, and perhaps the
information may have a good effect upon him. And now let us to
breakfast, for I see Lizette is in a perfect terror lest the coffee
should be allowed to go cold."
We sat down to breakfast opposite each other and chatted more merrily
and intimately together than we had ever done before. But when the meal
was over we put merriment aside, for there was the approaching junk to
be thought of and provided for. When we rose from the table I requested
Anthea to procure from her mother the keys of the magazine and bring
them to me, as I proposed to make every possible provision for the
defence of the wreck, should such unhappily prove to be necessary. And
while she went to her mother for the required keys, I made my way up on
to the poop and took another look at the junk.
There she was, close-hauled on the port tack, and evidently working up
for the reef. But she was a slow tub, and the breeze was still so light
that her sails barely remained "asleep" as she heaved and rolled
ponderously upon the long, low, Pacific swell. I plainly saw that I
should have ample time for such preparations as it would be possible to
make for her reception.
I flung a look round the horizon and searched the sky for weather signs.
The sky was clear as a bell, of a deep, rich, ultramarine tint in the
zenith; shading off by imperceptible gradations to a soft, warm
colourlessness at the horizon. There was not the slightest hint of haze
or cloud in the whole of the visible vault, and the breeze was a mere
warm breathing, with nothing to indicate that it might possibly freshen.
Would that it would fall calm before the junk could enter the lagoon!
In that case we should be able to judge of her friendliness or otherwise
by the number of boats which she would dispatch to us. I went to the
flag locker, drew forth our Club ensign, and ran it up, reversed, to the
head of the ensign staff--which, for a wonder, had escaped the general
destruction--in the hope that this would evoke some sort of response
from the crew of the junk, to serve in some measure as a guide to me. I
had just belayed the halyards when Anthea came to me with the keys.
She glanced from me to the flag and back again, questioningly, and I
explained.
"I see," she said. "Very well; here are the keys, but I do hope it will
not be necessary to fight. I remember the Malacca Straits affair, when
we had the entire crew to help us in defending the ship. Do you think
that, situated as we now are, we should have any chance?"
"I don't see why not," I replied. "Although we are a wreck we can still
show a rather formidable set of teeth,"--waving my hand toward the
main-deck guns--"to say nothing of the two Maxims, upon which I shall
principally pin my faith. The only thing that we must guard against is
letting the rascals get too close before plainly declaring their
intentions. But that should not be difficult."
"Supposing they are enemies, and should beat us, what do you think our
fate would be?" demanded the girl, coming close to me and laying her
hand upon my arm in the earnestness of her questioning.
I drew in my breath sharply at the mere suggestion. "They must not be
allowed to beat us," I exclaimed harshly. "Such a possibility will not
bear thinking of."
"Ah! I understand. So you think it might be as bad as that," returned
my companion; and I saw the colour ebb from her cheeks and lips, leaving
them white as marble, while her fingers closed like a vice upon my arm.
"But if you should be hurt," she continued, "what would happen then?"
"It _mustn't_ happen," I exclaimed; "it mustn't! I must take
precautions of some sort to provide against such a possibility."
"Of course," she eagerly agreed. "But, supposing that in spite of your
precautions you should be hurt--or killed,"--she shivered
violently--"what then?"
"I will tell you," I said, seizing both her hands in mine and crushing
them, I fear, in the passion of horror which her persistence conjured
up. "I will give you, your mother, and the stewardesses a revolver
each, and if by evil chance that junk should prove to be an enemy, and
should get the upper hand of us, you must shoot yourselves, rather than
fall alive into the hands of the Chinamen! Of course you need not take
such a desperate step until the very last moment, when it has become
evident that escape is impossible; but when that moment arrives--do you
think you will have the courage to do as I say?"
"Yes," she whispered hoarsely. "I shall--and I will. But--oh! Walter,
I hope, I pray, that we may none of us be driven to that frightful
alternative. Now I must leave you, for I want to have a good
heart-to-heart talk with Momma. But I shall see you again before--
before--"
"Yes, yes," I said hurriedly, for I saw that the poor girl was becoming
a trifle overwrought, and I had an uncomfortable feeling that her
emotion carried something of a contagious character with it. It was
necessary to get away from emotionalism and down to the commonplaces of
life once more, so I nodded smilingly at Anthea and ran briskly below,
jingling the keys in my hand as I went.
I had said that I should pin my faith principally to the Maxims, if it
came to a fight, and so I fully meant to do; at the same time, I by no
means overlooked the fact that a four-inch shell or two might prove very
convincing arguments, under certain conditions. I therefore began my
preparations by conveying eight shells and a corresponding number of
cartridges up on deck and loading them into the eight main-deck guns
that still remained to us, after carefully sponging out the latter.
Next, I gave my attention to the Maxims, preparing them for action with
meticulous care, overhauling, cleaning, and oiling the mechanism of
them, satisfying myself that they were in perfect working order, placing
a belt of cartridges in position in each, and taking care to have an
abundant supply of relays in hand. While doing all these things I kept
one eye pretty constantly upon the junk, in the hope that she would
respond to the display of our ensign by hoisting some sort of signal
which I might interpret as that of a friend coming to our rescue in
answer to our appeals for help. But she showed no bunting beyond a
small whiff at her mainmast head, which meant nothing.
Having prepared our artillery, I next turned my attention to the subject
of magazine rifles, a dozen of which I brought up on deck. These I
loaded and laid handy on the poop, near the Maxims, with a box of
cartridges, although I doubted whether, after all our other weapons had
played their part, there would be much opportunity to use them. Finally
I produced and loaded six revolvers, two of which I thrust into the belt
of a cutlass girded round my waist, while the other four I designed for
the use of the women in the last dreadful resort. The boy I did not
greatly trouble about, feeling pretty certain that he would look after
himself.
I had finished all my preparations, and was sitting on the poop rail,
intently scanning the slowly approaching junk through the ship's
telescope, and taking due note of such details and particulars as were
thus brought within my ken, when the slight rustle of feminine garments
at my side caused me to lower the glass. Mrs Vansittart was standing
at my elbow. She was still very pale, and her eyelids were swollen and
red with recent weeping, but she smiled wanly as she offered me her
hand.
"Walter," she said, and there was a tremor in her voice as she spoke,
while the blood surged up into her cheeks for a moment--"I want to
apologise. I am afraid--"
"No, certainly not, dear lady!" I cried, seizing her hand; "you must
not dream of such a thing. On the contrary, it is for me to apologise
to you for my sudden and violent ebullition of temper; and I do, most
heartily. I cannot imagine what it was that possessed me just then,
but--"
Her smile broadened and brightened a little as she raised her left hand
to silence me.
"You must let me speak, Walter--let me say what I want to say," she
resumed. "Anthea has been talking to me, and she said things that have
opened my eyes to what I fear I must call my own folly. She has made me
see that I have been altogether wrong in my attitude toward Julius. She
has shown me that in the blindness and intensity of my affection for
him--he is my only son, you know, Walter--I have indulged him and
allowed him to have his own way in everything to such an extent that,
unless we are all very careful, he will be utterly spoiled, ruined, and
rendered totally unfit to go out into the world and take a worthy place
there when the time comes for him to do so. There have been occasions
before to-day when I have been troubled by suspicions that something was
going wrong with the dear boy, that I was not doing my duty toward him
as a wise mother should, but it was not until within the last half-hour
that my eyes have been completely opened; and now I intend to adopt an
entirely different attitude toward him. But the trouble is that I don't
know how to set about it. How were you brought up, Walter?"
I could not avoid smiling at the naivete of this question, yet I could
also sympathise with the questioner.
"Well," said I, "naturally I loved my parents, and they as naturally
loved me, but they never allowed their affection to blind them to the
little childish faults and failings which, like all other children, I
suppose, I soon developed; and they diligently devoted themselves to the
task of checking these, so that in addition to loving my parents I was
soon taught to honour and obey them. Then, when I was five years old, I
was sent to school, where, mixing with other boys, any especial conceit
of myself that I might have had was quickly nipped in the bud. At
school, in addition to a fair, useful education, I was taught to
reverence and respect my seniors and superiors, to be obedient, to
submit to discipline, to be honest and truthful, to despise selfishness
and viciousness, to fear God and honour the king. That, in brief, was
the way of my bringing up, Mrs Vansittart. And although many of the
things that I learned had to be hammered into me with a cane wielded by
a willing and vigorous arm, I can truthfully assert that I am not a whit
the worse, but rather the better for it to-day."
My companion regarded me smilingly for some moments. Then she said:
"So that is the story of how you came to be what you are! Well, Walter,
I am compelled to admit that your parents were wiser than Mr Vansittart
and I have been. But I am going to alter my methods now, and I can only
pray that it may not be too late. You and I must talk further upon this
matter later on. I think that perhaps you may be able to help me. Now,
what about that junk? You were looking at her through the glass when I
came up: have you been able to discover anything that would afford us a
clue to her character?"
"Not very much," I replied; "but I am bound to confess that what I have
seen is not altogether reassuring. For instance, she has not responded
to the display of our ensign; and I believe that she would have done so
in one form or another if she were coming to our rescue, in answer to
our appeals for assistance. Then, although I cannot see her decks very
well because of her high bulwarks, she appears to be carrying a good
many men--too many, I think, for an honest craft of her size. I notice
also that she has a gun--an eighteen-pound smooth-bore, I judge, from
its appearance--mounted on her forecastle, while if you will look at her
through the glass, you will see three ports in her port bulwarks through
which protrude the muzzles of other cannon. These look like
twelve-pounders; and I have not the slightest doubt that there are three
more of the same kind grinning through her starboard bulwark."
"Yes," replied Mrs Vansittart, peering through the telescope which I
had handed to her. "I see the guns you mention, and I can catch through
the portholes glimpses of a number of men moving about the deck. As you
say, there appears to be a good many of them; but do you really regard
that as a sinister sign? Would not any vessel trading in these waters
carry a good strong crew, and guns for self-defence?"
"No doubt she would," I agreed; "and we can only hope that yonder junk
is such a craft. We shall know for certain in about two hours from now;
in any case I am quite ready for her."
Mrs Vansittart looked round at my preparations and smiled.
"Yes," she assented, "your preparations certainly appear to be
reasonably complete. You have done what you could, Walter, haven't you?
Well, I am going below, for the sun is terribly hot, and I must not get
a headache just now, if I can possibly avoid it. Of course we shall all
come and help you, if there is any fighting to be done."
"Indeed," I exclaimed, "I beg that none of you will dream of doing
anything of the kind! You would only be a source of anxiety and
embarrassment to me. I would rather not have even Julius; for I could
not trust him. He is not amenable to discipline, and it is quite on the
cards that at a critical moment he might take it into his head to do the
wrong thing, with disastrous consequences to us all."
"Very well, we shall see," was the smiling reply as my lady skipper
disappeared down the companion way.
Again I took up the telescope to resume my study of the junk, which I
continued to do for the next half-hour or more. Then Master Julius made
his appearance on deck. He came straight up to me, and as I looked at
him, expecting some fresh unpleasantness, I detected a new expression in
his eyes and on his features. The look of sullenness and discontent had
disappeared, and he actually smiled as, looking me square in the eye, he
held out his hand and exclaimed:
"Say, Mr Leigh, let's be friends, shall we?"
"Sure, old chap!" I replied, adopting an Americanism with which I had
become quite familiar, as I grasped his outstretched hand; "the very
best of friends, if you like. Why shouldn't we be? I am perfectly
willing, if you are."
"Then it's a deal," he answered, seating himself at my side on the poop
rail. "Say!" he continued, "do you think we're going to have to fight
that junk?"
"It is impossible to say, as yet," I replied. "I hope not; but if it
should be necessary, do you want to take a hand?"
"Bet your life I do!" exclaimed the boy. "That's what I've come up to
talk about. Momma says that you won't let me help because I'm not
amenable to discipline, and you're afraid that I won't do as I'm told.
If I promise you, on my word of honour as a gentleman, that I'll do
exactly as you tell me, will you let me come in?"
"Certainly I will, and be delighted to have your help," I replied.
"Then it's a deal," repeated the lad, again offering his hand.
I must confess that I was both puzzled and astounded at the sudden and
amazing change that had come over the boy; but the secret soon came out.
It appeared that both his mother and his sister had been talking to him
as it seemed he had never before been talked to in his life. They had
told him a number of home truths in language that it seemed there was no
possibility of misunderstanding; and they had done all this so
convincingly that the dormant spirit of good that was in him had been
effectually awakened. The withering scorn with which his sister had
commented upon his behaviour in general and the offensive and
contemptible traits of character that he had flaunted so flagrantly in
all our faces had scorched and shrivelled his boyish soul; the picture
of himself as others saw him was so repulsive that he had been
overwhelmed with shame and--better still--repentance, and, if he was to
be believed, had caused him to determine upon an altogether new line of
action for the future.
Scorn, contempt, contumely, dislike, are disagreeable things to swallow,
and now that his mother and sister had drawn aside the veil and allowed
him to get a glimpse of their real opinion of him, it was rather more
than he could bear. His pride and self-respect had been grievously
hurt; he did not like to be despised and detested, so he was going now
to make everybody respect and admire him. I had no very great faith in
this conversion, I must confess--it seemed altogether too sudden to be
genuine; but I was not going to say or do anything that might neutralise
any good that might have been done. I listened with interest to all
that the boy had to say, and replied encouragingly and sympathetically;
and so the time passed until Lizette appeared to summon us to luncheon,
when the junk was still some two miles in the offing, and working in
very slowly. There was no sign of any intention to hoist out boats, or
attempt to communicate with us in any way, so I knew that I should have
sufficient time to snatch a mouthful of food before the moment for
action should arrive, and I descended to the dining-room with an easy
mind.