be half the pleasure else.And we would sail to some country, if possible, where Englishmen hadnever been, or never lived before."
"To the countries and islands around the Pole, for example," suggestedMcBain.
"Yes," Ralph said; "from all I have read of the Sea of Ice, it seems tome the most fascinating place in the world."
"Ay," said McBain; "to me it possesses a strange charm; for everythingconnected with the countries and seas beyond the Arctic circle is asdifferent from anything one sees elsewhere as though it belonged to someother planet."
For hours before retiring to rest they talked about Greenland; andMcBain told them of many a wild adventure in which he himself had beenthe principal hero. And among other things he told them of the mammothcaves of Alba Isle, where an untold wealth of ivory lay buried.
For hours _after_ they had retired Allan lay awake, thinking only ofthat buried treasure. Then he slept, and dreamt he had returned fromthe far north a wealthy man--that Arrandoon was re-furnished andre-roofed, that he had regained all the proud acres which his fathershad squandered, and that his dear mother and sister were reinstated inthe rank of life they were born to adorn, and which was the right ofbirth of the chiefs of Glentroom.
Do dreams ever come true? At times.
CHAPTER FOUR.
THE "FLOWER OF ARRANDOON"--OLD AP'S COTTAGE--TRIAL TRIPS AND USEFULLESSONS.
I do not think that, during any period of his former life, AllanMcGregor's foster-father was much happier than he was while engaged,with the help of his boy friends, in getting the cutter they had boughtready for her summer cruise among the Western Islands.
They were not quite unassisted in their labours though; no, for had theynot the advantage of possessing skilled labour? Was not Tom Ap Ewentheir right-hand man; to guide, direct, and counsel them in everydifficulty? And right useful they found him, too.
Thomas was a Welshman, as his name indicates; he had been a boatbuilderall his life. He lived in a little house by the lake-side, and thishouse of his bore in every respect a very strong resemblance to a boatturned upside down. All its furniture and fittings looked as though atone time they had been down to the sea in ships, and very likely theyhad. Tom's bed was a canvas cot which might have been white at onetime, but which was terribly smoke-begrimed now; Tom's cooking apparatuswas a stove, and, saving a sea-chest which served the double purpose ofdais and tool-box, all the seats in his cottage were lockers, while theold lamp that hung from the blackened rafters gave evidence of havingseen better days, having in fact dangled from the cabin deck of sometrusty yacht.
Tom himself was quite in keeping with his little home. A man of smallstature was Tom. I will not call him dapper, because you know thatwould imply neatness and activity, and there was very little of eitherabout Tom. But he had plenty of breadth of beam, and so stiff was he,apparently, that he looked as if he had been made out of an oldbowsprit, and had acted for years in the capacity of figure-head to anold seventy-four. Seen from the front, Tom appeared, on week-days, tobe all apron from his chin to his toes; his hard wiry face wasbestubbled over in half its length with grey hairs, for Tom found thescissors more handy and far less dangerous than a razor; and, jauntilycocked a little on one side of his head, he wore a square paper cap overa reddish-brown wig. Well, if to this you add a pair of short arms, apair of hard horny hands, and place two roguish beads of hazel eyes inunder his bushy eyebrows, you have just as complete a description ofThomas Ap Ewen as I am capable of giving.
This wee wee man generally went by the name of Old Ap. Of course therewere ill-natured people who sometimes, behind Tom's back, added an _e_to the _Ap_; but, honestly speaking, there was not a bit of the apeabout him, except, perhaps, when taking snuff. Granting that hispartiality for snuff was a fault, it was one that you could reasonablystrive to forgive, in consideration of his many other sterlingqualities.
Well, Tom was master of the yard, so to speak, into which the purchasedcutter was hauled to be fitted, and although McBain did not take _all_the advice that was tendered to him, it is but fair to say that hebenefited by a good deal of it.
It would have done the heart of any one, save a churl, good to have seenhow willingly those boys worked; axe, or saw, or hammer, plane orspokeshave, nothing came amiss to them. Allan was undoubtedly the bestartisan; he had been used to such work before; but generally wherethere's a will there's a way, and the very newness of the idea oflabouring like ordinary mechanics lent, as far as Ralph and Rory wereconcerned, a charm to the whole business.
"There is nothing hackneyed about this sort of thing, is there?" Ralphwould say, looking up from planing a deck-spar.
"There is a deal to learn, too," Rory might answer. "Artisans mustn'tbe fools, sure. But how stiff my saw goes!"
"A bit of grease will put that to rights." Ralph's face would beamwhile giving a bit of information like this, or while initiating Roryinto the mysteries of dovetailing, or explaining to him that whendriving a nail he must hit it quietly on the head, and then it would notgo doubling round his finger.
Old Ap and McBain were both of them very learned--or they appeared to beso--in the subject of rigging, nor did their opinions in this matteraltogether coincide. Old Ap's cottage and the yard were quite twomiles--Scotch ones--from the castle, so on the days when they were busyour heroes would not hear of returning to lunch.
"Isn't good bread and cheese, washed down with goat's milk, sufficientfor us?" Ralph might say.
And Rory would reply, "Yes, my boy, indeed, it's food fit for a king."
After luncheon was the time for a little well-earned rest. The youngmen would stroll down towards the lake, by whose banks there was alwayssomething to be seen or done for half-an-hour, if it were only skippingflat stones across its surface; while the two elder ones would enjoy the_dolce far niente_ and their _odium cum dignitate_ seated on a log.
"Well," said old Ap, one day, "I suppose she is to be cutter-rigged,though for my own part I'd prefer a yawl."
"There is no accounting for tastes," replied McBain; "and as to me, Idon't care for two masts where one will do. She won't be over large,you know, when all is said and done."
"Just look you," continued Ap, "how handy a bit of mizen is."
"It is at times, I grant you," replied McBain.
"To be sure," said Ap, "you may sail faster with the cutter rig, butthen you don't want to race, do you, look see?"
"Not positively to race, Mr Ewen," replied McBain, "but there will betimes when it may be necessary to get into harbour or up a loch with allspeed, and if that isn't racing, why it's the very next thing to it."
"Yes, yes," said old Ap, "but still a yawl is easier worked, and asyou'll be a bit short-handed--"
"What!" cried McBain, in some astonishment; "an eight-ton cutter, andfour of us. Call you that short-handed?"
"Yes, yes, I do, look see," answered Ap, taking a big pinch of hisfavourite dust, "because I'd call it only two; surely you wouldn't countupon the Englishmen in a sea-way."
McBain laughed.
"Why," he said, "before a month is over I'll have those two Saxon ladsas clever cuttersmen as ever handled tiller or belayed a halyard. Justwait until we return up the loch after our summer's cruise, and you cancriticise us as much as ever you please."
Now these amateur yacht-builders, if so we may call them, took thegreatest of pains, not only with the decking and rigging of theircutter, but with her painting and ornamentation as well. There were twoor three months before them, because they did not mean to start cruisingbefore May, so they worked away at her with the plodding steadiness offive old beavers. In their little cabin, where it must be confessedthere was not too much head room, there was nevertheless a good deal ofcomfort, and all the painting and gilding was done by Rory's fiveartistic fingers. In fact, he painted her outside and in, and he namedher the _Flower of Arrandoon_, and he painted that too on her stern,with a great many dashes and flourishes, that any one, save himself,would have deemed quite unnecessary.
It was only natural that they should do their best to make their pigmyvessel look as neat and as nice as possible; but they had another objectin view in doing so, for as soon as their summer cruise was over theymeant to sell her. So that what they spent upon her would not really bemoney thrown to the winds, but quite the reverse. Young Ralph knewdozens of young men just as fond of sailing and adventure as he was, andhe thought it would be strange indeed if he himself, assisted by thevoluble Rory, could not manage to give such a glowing account of theircruise, and of all the fun and adventures they were sure to have, aswould make the purchase of the _Flower of Arrandoon_ something to bepositively competed for.
When she was at last
The Cruise of the Snowbird: A Story of Arctic Adventure Page 7
