MR. CHIPPERTON KEEPS PERFECTLY COOL.
It's of no use to deny the fact that Nassau was a pretty dull place,
just about this time. At least Corny and I found it so, and I don't
believe young Mr. Colbert was very happy, for he didn't look it. It's
not to be supposed that our quarrel affected the negroes, or the sky, or
the taste of bananas; but the darkeys didn't amuse me, and my
recollection of those days is that they were cloudy, and that I wasn't a
very good customer down in the market-house by the harbor, where we used
to go and buy little fig-bananas, which they didn't have at the hotel,
but which were mighty good to eat.
Colbert and I still kept up a frigid reserve toward each other. He
thought, I suppose, that I ought to speak first, because I was the
older, and I thought that he ought to speak first because he was the
younger.
One evening, I went up into my room, having absolutely nothing else to
do, and there I found Colbert, writing. I suppose he was writing a
letter, but there was no need of doing this at night, as the mail would
not go out for several days, and there would be plenty of time to write
in the daytime. He hadn't done anything but lounge about for two or
three days. Perhaps he came up here to write because he had nothing else
to do.
There was only one table, and I couldn't write if I had wanted to, so I
opened my trunk and began to put some of my things in order. We had
arranged, before we had fallen out, that we should go home on the next
steamer, and Mr. and Mrs. Chipperton were going too. We had been in
Nassau nearly a month, and had seen about as much as was to be seen--in
an ordinary way. As for me, I couldn't afford to stay any longer, and
that had been the thing that had settled the matter, as far as Colbert
and I were concerned. But now he might choose to stay, and come home by
himself. However, there was no way of my knowing what he thought, and I
supposed that I had no real right to make him come with me. At any rate,
if I had, I didn't intend to exercise it.
While I was looking over the things in my trunk, I came across the box
of dominoes that Corny had given us to remember her by. It seemed like a
long time ago since we had been sitting together on the water-battery at
St. Augustine! In a few minutes I took the box of dominoes in my hand
and went over to Colbert. As I put them on the table he looked up.
"What do you say to a game of dominoes?" I said. "This is the box Corny
gave us. We haven't used it yet."
"Very well," said he, and he pushed away his paper and emptied the
dominoes out on the table. Then he picked up some of them, and looked at
them as if they were made in some new kind of a way that he had never
noticed before; and I picked up some, too, and examined them. Then we
began to play. We did not talk very much, but we played as if it was
necessary to be very careful to make no mistakes. I won the first game,
and I could not help feeling a little sorry, while Colbert looked as if
he felt rather glad. We played until about our ordinary bed-time, and
then I said:
"Well, Colbert, I guess we might as well stop," and he said:
"Very well."
But he didn't get ready to go to bed. He went to the window and looked
out for some time, and then he came back to the table and sat down. He
took his pen and began to print on the lid of the domino-box, which was
of smooth white wood. He could print names and titles of things very
neatly, a good deal better than I could.
When he had finished, he got up and began to get ready for bed, leaving
the box on the table. Pretty soon I went over to look at it, for I must
admit I was rather curious to see what he had put on it. This was the
inscription he had printed on the lid:
"GIVEN TO
WILL AND RECTUS
BY
CORNY.
ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA."
* * * * *
There was a place left for the date, which I suppose he had forgotten. I
made no remark about this inscription, for I did not know exactly what
remark was needed; but the next morning I called him "Rectus," just the
same as ever, for I knew he had printed our names on the box to show me
that he wanted to let me off my promise. I guess the one time I called
him Colbert was enough for him.
When we came down stairs to breakfast, talking to each other like common
people, it was better than most shows to see Corny's face. She was
standing at the front door, not far from the stairs, and it actually
seemed as if a candle had been lighted inside of her. Her face shone.
I know I felt first-rate, and I think Rectus must have felt pretty much
the same, for his tongue rattled away at a rate that wasn't exactly
usual with him. There was no mistaking Corny's feelings.
After breakfast, when we all got together to talk over the plans of the
day,--a thing we hadn't done for what seemed to me about a week,--we
found out--or rather remembered--that there were a lot of things in
Nassau that we hadn't seen yet, and that we wouldn't miss for anything.
We had been wasting time terribly lately, and the weather was now rather
better for going about than it had been since we came to the place.
We agreed to go to Fort Charlotte that morning, and see the subterranean
rooms and passage-ways, and all the underground dreariness of which we
had heard so much. The fort was built about a hundred years ago, and
has no soldiers in it. To go around and look at the old forts in this
part of the world might make a person believe the millennium had come.
They seem just about as good as ever they were, but they're all on a
peace-footing. Rectus said they were played out, but I'd rather take my
chances in Fort Charlotte, during a bombardment, than in some of the
new-style forts that I have seen in the North. It is almost altogether
underground, in the solid calcareous, and what could any fellow want
better than that? The cannon-balls and bombs would have to plow up about
an acre of pretty solid rock, and plow it deep, too, before they would
begin to scratch the roof of the real strongholds of this fort. At
least, that's the way I looked at it.
We made up a party and walked over. It's at the western end of the town,
and about a mile from the hotel. Mr. and Mrs. Chipperton were with us,
and a lady from Chicago, and Mr. Burgan. The other yellow-legs went out
riding with his wife, but I think he wanted to go with us. The fort is
on the top of a hill, and a colored shoemaker is in command. He sits and
cobbles all day, except when visitors come, and then he shows them
around. He lighted a lamp and took us down into the dark, quiet rooms
and cells, that were cut out of the solid rock, down deep into the hill,
and it was almost like being in a coal-mine, only it was a great deal
cleaner and not so deep. But it seemed just as much out of the world. In
some of the rooms there were bats hanging to the ceilings. We didn't
disturb them. One of the rooms was called the governor's room. There
wasn't any governor there, of course, but it had been made by the jolly
old earl who had the place cut out,--and who was governor here at the
time,--as a place where he might retire when he wanted to be private. It
was the most private apartment I ever saw. This earl was the same old
Dunmore we used to study about in our histories. He came over here when
the Revolution threw him out of business in our country. He had some
good ideas about chiselling rock.
This part of the fort was so extremely subterranean and solemn that it
wasn't long before Mrs. Chipperton had enough of it, and we came up. It
was fine to get out into the open air, and see the blue sky and the
bright, sparkling water of the harbor just below us, and the islands
beyond, and still beyond them the blue ocean, with everything so bright
and cheerful in the sunlight. If I had been governor of this place, I
should have had my private room on top of the fort, although, of course,
that wouldn't do so well in times of bombardment.
But the general-in-chief did not let us off yet. He said he'd show us
the most wonderful thing in the whole place, and then he took us
out-of-doors again, and led us to a little shed or enclosed door-way
just outside of the main part of the fort, but inside of the
fortifications, where he had his bench and tools. He moved away the
bench, and then we saw that it stood on a wooden trap-door. He took hold
of a ring, and lifted up this door, and there was a round hole about as
big as the hind wheel of a carriage. It was like a well, and was as
dark as pitch. When we held the lamp over it, however, we could see that
there were winding steps leading down into it. These steps were cut out
of the rock, as was the hole and the pillar around which the steps
wound. It was all one piece. The general took his lamp and went down
ahead, and we all followed, one by one. Those who were most afraid and
went last had the worst of it, for the lamp wasn't a calcium light by
any means, and their end of the line was a good deal in the dark. But we
all got to the bottom of the well at last, and there we found a long,
narrow passage leading under the very foundation or bottom floor of the
whole place, and then it led outside of the fort under the moat, which
was dry now, but which used to be full of water, and so, on and on, in
black darkness, to a place in the side of the hill, or somewhere, where
there had been a lookout. Whether there were any passages opening into
this or not, I don't know, for it was dark in spite of the lamp, and we
all had to walk in single file, so there wasn't much chance for
exploring sidewise. When we got to the end, we were glad enough to turn
around and come back. It was a good thing to see such a place, but there
was a feeling that if the walls should cave in a little, or a big rock
should fall from the top of the passage, we should all be hermetically
canned in very close quarters. When we came out, we gave the shoemaker
commander some money, and came away.
"Isn't it nice," said Corny, "that he isn't a queen, to be taken care
of, and we can just pay him and come away, and not have to think of him
any more?"
We agreed to that, but I said I thought we ought to go and take one more
look at our old queen before we left. Mrs. Chipperton, who was a really
sensible woman when she had a chance, objected to this, because, she
said, it would be better to let the old woman alone now. We couldn't do
anything for her after we left, and it would be better to let her depend
on her own exertions, now that she had got started again on that track.
I didn't think that the word exertion was a very good one in
Poqua-dilla's case, but I didn't argue the matter. I thought that if
some of us dropped around there before we left, and gave her a couple of
shillings, it would not interfere much with her mercantile success in
the future.
I thought this, but Corny spoke it right out--at least, what she said
amounted to pretty much the same thing.
"Well," said her mother, "we might go around there once more, especially
as your father has never seen the queen at all. Mr. Chipperton, would
you like to see the African queen?"
Mr. Chipperton did not answer, and his wife turned around quickly. She
had been walking ahead with the Chicago lady.
"Why, where is he?" she exclaimed. We all stopped and looked about, but
couldn't see him. He wasn't there. We were part way down the hill, but
not far from the fort, and we stopped and looked back, and then Corny
called him. I said that I would run back for him, as he had probably
stopped to talk with the shoemaker. Rectus and I both ran back, and
Corny came with us. The shoemaker had put his bench in its place over
the trap-door, and was again at work. But Mr. Chipperton was not talking
to him.
"I'll tell you what I believe,"--said Corny, gasping.
But it was of no use to wait to hear what she believed. I believed it
myself.
"Hello!" I cried to the shoemaker before I reached him. "Did a gentleman
stay behind here?"
"I didn't see none," said the man, looking up in surprise, as we charged
on him.
"Then," I cried, "he's shut down in that well! Jump up and open the
door!"
The shoemaker did jump up, and we helped him move the bench, and had the
trap-door open in no time. By this, the rest of the party had come back,
and when Mrs. Chipperton saw the well open and no Mr. Chipperton about,
she turned as white as a sheet. We could hardly wait for the man to
light his lamp, and as soon as he started down the winding stairs,
Rectus and I followed him. I called back to Mrs. Chipperton and the
others that they need not come; we would be back in a minute and let
them know. But it was of no use; they all came. We hurried on after the
man with the light, and passed straight ahead through the narrow passage
to the very end of it.
There stood Mr. Chipperton, holding a lighted match, which he had just
struck. He was looking at something on the wall. As we ran in, he
turned and smiled, and was just going to say something, when Corny threw
herself into his arms, and his wife, squeezing by, took him around his
neck so suddenly that his hat flew off and bumped on the floor, like an
empty tin can. He always wore a high silk hat. He made a grab for his
hat, and the match burned his fingers.
"Aouch!" he exclaimed, as he dropped the match. "What's the matter?"
"Oh, my dear!" exclaimed his wife. "How dreadful to leave you here! Shut
up alone in this awful place! But to think we have found you!"
"No trouble about that, I should say," remarked Mr. Chipperton, going
over to the other side of the den after his hat. "You haven't been gone
ten minutes, and it's a pretty straight road back here."
"But how did it happen?" "Why did you stay?" "Weren't you frightened?"
"Did you stay on purpose?" we all asked him at pretty much one and the
same time.
"I did stay on purpose," said he; "but I did not expect to stay but a
minute, and had no idea you would go and leave me. I stopped to see what
in the name of common sense this place was made for. I tried my best to
make some sort of an observation out of this long, narrow loop-hole, but
found I could see nothing of importance whatever, and so I made up my
mind it was money thrown away to cut out such a place as this to so
little purpose. When I had entirely made up my mind, I found, on turning
around, that you had gone, and although I called I received no answer.
"Then I knew I was alone in this place. But I was perfectly composed. No
agitation, no tremor of the nerves. Absolute self-control. The moment I
found myself deserted, I knew exactly what to do. I did precisely the
same thing that I would have done had I been left alone in the Mammoth
Cave, or the Cave of Fingal, or any place of the kind.
"I stood perfectly still!
"If you will always remember to do that," and he looked as well as he
could from one to another of us, "you need never be frightened, no
matter how dark and lonely a cavern you may be left in. Strive to
reflect that you will soon be missed, and that your friends will
naturally come back to the place where they saw you last. Stay there!
Keep that important duty in your mind. Stay just where you are! If you
run about to try and find your way out, you will be lost. You will lose
yourself, and no one can find you.
"Instances are not uncommon where persons have been left behind in the
Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, and who were not found by searching parties
for a day or two, and they were almost invariably discovered in an
insane condition. They rushed wildly about in the dark; got away from
the ordinary paths of tourists; couldn't be found, and went crazy,--a
very natural consequence. Now, nothing of the kind happened to me. I
remained where I was, and here, you see, in less than ten minutes, I am
rescued!"
And he looked around with a smile as pleasant as if he had just invented
a new sewing-machine.
"But were you not frightened,--awe-struck in this dark and horrible
place, alone?" inquired Mrs. Chipperton, holding on to his arm.
"No," said he. "It was not very dark just here. That slit let in a
little light. That is all it is good for, though why light should be
needed here, I cannot tell. And then I lighted matches and examined the
wall. I might find some trace of some sensible intention on the part of
the people who quarried this passage. But I could find nothing. What I
might have found, had I moved about, I cannot say. I had a whole box of
matches in my pocket. But I did not move."
"Well," said Mr. Burgan, "I think you'd better move now. I, for one, am
convinced that this place is of no use to me, and I don't like it."
I think Mr. Burgan was a little out of temper.
We now started on our way out of the passage, Mrs. Chipperton holding
tight to her husband, for fear, I suppose, that he might be inclined to
stop again.
"I didn't think," said she, as she clambered up the dark and twisting
steps, "that I should have this thing to do, so soon again. But no one
can ever tell what strange things may happen to them, at any time."
"When father's along," added Corny.
This was all nuts to the shoemaker, for we gave him more money for his
second trip down the well. I hope this didn't put the idea into his head
of shutting people down below, and making their friends come after them,
and pay extra.
"There are some things about Mr. Chipperton that I like," said Rectus,
as we walked home together.
"Yes," said I, "some things."
"I like the cool way in which he takes bad fixes," continued Rectus, who
had a fancy for doing things that way himself. "Don't you remember that
time he struck on the sand-bank. He just sat there in the rain, waiting
for the tide to rise, and made no fuss at all. And here, he kept just as
cool and comfortable, down in that dungeon. He must have educated his
mind a good deal to be able to do that."
"It may be very well to educate the mind to take things coolly," said I,
"but I'd a great deal rather educate my mind not to get me into such
fixes."
"I suppose that would be better," said Rectus, after thinking a minute.
And now we had but little time to see anything more in Nassau. In two
days the "Tigris" would be due, and we were going away in her. So we
found we should have to bounce around in a pretty lively way, if we
wanted to be able to go home and say we had seen the place.