"What can ye do?"
"We can read, and write, and count," said I, taking the words out of
Jack's mouth; for I felt that his brusque manner of replying was not
calculated to commend us to the captain.
"Oh, you can read, and write, and count, can ye?" repeated the captain,
with deep sarcasm. "If ye had said ye could feed, and fight, and shout,
it would have bin more to the purpose."
"Perhaps we can do a little of that sort of thing, too," suggested Jack,
with a broad grin.
"Hah?" ejaculated the captain. "Wot else can ye do?"
"Oh, anything," said Jack.
"I gin'rally find," observed the captain, "that w'en a boy says he can
do anything, he very soon proves that he can do nothing."
"Well, I don't mean that exactly," rejoined Jack; "I mean we can _try_
anything."
"Ha! that's more to the pint. Where did ye come from?"
We looked at each other. "That," said I, "is a matter of no importance
to any one but ourselves. We have run away from home, and we want to go
to sea as fast as possible. If you are willing to take us, we are
willing to go. What say you?"
"Run away! ho! ho!--run away!" said the captain, chuckling; "you are
just the lads I want. Nothing like runaway boys for me. I wouldn't
give a pinch of snuff for your good boys that do wot they're bid.
Commend me to the high-spirited fellers that runs away, and that folk
are so wicked as to call bad boys. That's the sort o' stuff that suits
_our_ service."
I did not by any means relish the manner and tone, in which all this was
said: so I asked him what particular service he belonged to.
"You'll know that time enough," he replied, laughing; "but after all,
why shouldn't I tell ye? there's nothing to conceal. We're a
discovery-ship; we're goin' to look for Sir John Franklin's expedition,
and after we've found it we're going to try the North Pole, and then go
right through the Nor'-west passage, down by Behring's Straits, across
the Pacific, touchin' at the Cannibal Islands in passin', and so on to
China. Havin' revictualled there, we'll bear away for Japan,
Haustralia, Cape o' Good Hope, and the West Indies, and come tearin'
across the Atlantic with the Gulf-stream to England! Will that suit
ye?"
It may seem strange, and the reader will hardly believe me when I say,
that, transparently absurd though this statement was, nevertheless I
believed every word of it--and so did Jack. I saw that by his glowing
eye and heightened colour.
"And when do you sail?" I inquired joyfully.
"In half an hour; so get aboard, boys, and don't give so much tongue.
I've other matters to mind just now. Come, be off!"
We retreated precipitately to the door.
"What's her name?" inquired Jack, looking back.
"`The Ring-tailed Smasher,'" cried the captain, fiercely.
"The what?"
"`The Ring-tailed Smasher,'" roared the captain, seizing the poker.
We vanished. In five minutes we were on board the ship. To this hour I
have no remembrance of how we got on board. My brain swam with intense
excitement. I felt as if I were flying, not walking, as I ran about the
deck and clambered up the rigging.
Shortly after, the captain came aboard. The rope that attached the
vessel to the quay was cast off, the sails flew out as if by magic, and
the shore began to fall rapidly astern.
It was now, for the first time, that a full sense of what I had done
came over me. I leaned over the stern of the ship, and gazed at my
native shore as it grew fainter in the distance, until the familiar
hills became a mere line of blue on the horizon, and were finally
blotted from my view by the blinding tears that sprang suddenly to my
eyes. Oh! the agony of that moment I shall never forget. The words
that Jack had quoted to me the night before--"Honour thy father and thy
mother"--seemed to be stamped in letters of fire within my brain. I
felt keenly that, in a moment of passionate self-will, I had done that
which would cause me the deepest sorrow all my life.
In that dark hour I forgot all my romantic notions of travel in foreign
lands; I cared not a straw for hunting, or fighting, or wild adventures.
I would have cheerfully given worlds, had I possessed them, to be
permitted to undo the past--to hasten to my dear father's feet, and
implore forgiveness of the evil that I had done. But regret was now
unavailing. The land soon sank below the horizon, and, ere many hours
had passed, our ship was scudding before a stiff breeze and leaping
wildly over the waves of the Atlantic Ocean.