Roger Kyffin's Ward
Page 24
you the best thing to be done."
"I cannot, I dare not tell the colonel," answered Harry. "I thank yousincerely, Gauntlett, but you don't know how he would look on thesethings."
"Well, well, Mr. Tryon, you must act as you think best, if you won'ttake the advice of an old soldier who loves you as if you were his son."
Saying this, Paul walked on ahead, as if to show the way with hislantern, though it is just possible he might have suspected the youngpeople would rather be by themselves for a few minutes, without thebright light of his lantern falling on them.
When Paul got close to the house, he stopped, intending once more tourge his advice on Harry, but when he looked round Mabel was alone.Harry had bade her a hurried farewell and rushed off, unable any longerto trust his feelings, and unwilling to take the advice which hesuspected the old soldier would again proffer.
Paul let Mabel come up with him before entering the house.
"Do you know where he has gone to, Miss Mabel?" he asked. "I am afraidhe has got some wrong notion into his head, and will be doing somethingdesperate when there's no necessity for it. There are often two ways oflooking at the same thing, and in my mind he has been looking the wrongway."
"I think indeed that he has," answered Mabel; "but I tried also to gethim to speak to my uncle. His guardian, Mr. Kyffin, is away in Ireland.I fear they are the only two people who could have persuaded him to actdifferently. He told me that he intended to remain for the night at thecottage of Dame Tuttle. You might find him there to-morrow morning, andperhaps his mind may by that time be calmer."
Mabel found her aunt very anxious about her long absence. The baron hadgone away some little time before she quitted the drawing-room, so thatshe knew that Mabel had not gone out to speak to him. She was sothankful, however, at seeing her back, that she did not press her withquestions, merely observing: "Since that fearful evening, thecommencement of poor Lucy's illness, I have been so nervous, dear, thatI am anxious even when you are more than a few minutes absent from me."
Mabel, however, had no wish to conceal the fact of her having met HarryTryon; for she knew that her aunt would sympathise with her in hersorrow. She felt somewhat relieved when she had told her grief; butthough the two ladies talked the matter over, they could see noimmediate way of extricating Harry from his difficulties. Mabel was forwriting at once to Mr. Kyffin. At length she bethought her of hergodfather, Mr. Thornborough. "He knows Mr. Kyffin, Harry has told me,and he would be able to intercede both with him and Mr. Coppinger."Many other plans were thought of and discussed. The two ladies,however, agreed to wait till the following morning before they settledthe one they would adopt.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
MANNING THE NAVY IN THE OLD TIME.
Often during the night, as Harry lay on Widow Tuttle's spare trucklebed, he repented him of his resolution to start off immediately to sea.
Common sense said, "Wait till you can hear from your kind guardian, orstill better, till you have had an interview with him. Explain thestate of the case clearly to Mr. Coppinger, acknowledging that you weredrunk, and put your name to papers with the contents of which you werenot acquainted. Let him know that Silas Sleech is a consummatehypocrite, and in all probability a thorough rogue. Brave the worst.Surely nothing can be so bad as running away, and leaving your name andcredit and character in the hands of such a fellow as Sleech, who hasacknowledged himself your enemy, and who will, like his master--Satan--if you bravely face him, succumb before you." Then rose up againHarry's desire to go to sea, his dislike of having to acknowledge hisweakness and folly to Mr. Coppinger, and his doubts whether his unclewould believe his statements. Sleep scarcely visited his eyelids. Hewas just dozing off when he heard Tuttle's rough voice exclaiming--
"Turn out there, mate, we'll have some breakfast, and then be off beforethe sun's up. We have a long voyage before us, and only our own legs todepend on." Harry had wished to go to Portsmouth by sea.
"And I'll tell you what would happen if we did," said Jacob. "As soonas we set foot on shore the press-gang would be upon us, and whether weliked it or not would carry us on board their ship to serve his Majesty.I was very nearly caught once; had twenty fellows after me as hard asthey could pelt. Fortunately it was dusk, and I bolted down an alleyand into a court, and up a stair, and right under an old woman's bed,and there I lay while the whole gang hunted about without finding me. Iknow a place or two where we can lie hid till we learn what ships arefitting out, and who are to command them. It's a great thing to get agood captain, Harry. There are several captains I would like to sailwith well enough; but there are not a few whose ships are like hellsafloat, and you may depend on't I'll stand clear of them."
Jacob gave his old mother a hearty kiss, as putting a stick into hisbundle, he threw it over his shoulder.
"Don't take on, dame, now," he said. "I'll be back soon and bring youno end of the rhino. Most of it, to be sure, slipped away from me atthe end of the last cruise before I got home; but I will take bettercare of it this time for your sake, mother."
The old woman shook her head. She had been too long accustomed to findthat Jacob's money had slipped away before he got home to expect much,though he had generally contrived to bring enough for his board while heremained. Harry wrote a note, which he got a boy to carry to CaptainFalwasser, saying that he was going off to sea, and begging him to takecare of his bag till his return. With brisk steps, though Harry's heartwas heavy, the two young men took their way through the forest. Theylooked like two active young seamen any captain would be glad to gethold of. They cautiously approached the village of Hythe, oppositeSouthampton, lest the press-gang might be there on the look-out for men.The coast being clear, they ran across the beautiful estuary of theSouthampton Water in a wherry, and landing on the western side nearItchin, pushed on towards Gosport. Night had closed in before they hadgot to the end of their journey. Harry had seldom taken so long a walk;but his muscles were well knit, and he might have gone still farther.
"We must keep a sharp look-out, mate," said Jacob; "the gangs are sureto be about, and if they were to fall in with us, we might say good-byeto liberty. But come along; there's a house I know of not far off, andwe shall be all right there if we once get inside the door."
Jacob led Harry down several lanes and alleys in which scenes ofdrunkenness and vice met his eye, which, even accustomed to London as hewas, made his heart turn sick.
"And this is the way the defenders of our country spend their time onshore!" he said to himself. "No wonder they are treated like brutes,when they live like beasts without souls."
Harry's reasoning might possibly not have been correct as to what causeproduced the effect. Might he not more justly have reasoned, "If theyare treated like brutes, like brutes they will live?" That question hasbeen solved in later days. Since thought has been taken for seamen theyhave essayed, and not unsuccessfully, to attend to the welfare of theirsouls. In those days little regard was paid to that subject.
They stopped before the door of a low house with not many windowslooking into the street. Such as there were were closed with shutters.
"She's a good old creature," whispered Jacob, "though maybe by this hourshe's a little lushy; but you must not mind that. She knows me and myways, and will treat us well. Her husband is sure to be drunk; but thenhe will be in bed and out of the way, and she's never so bad but whatshe can get supper ready. We may trust Sally Hoggart for that. Youwill see I am right."
Jacob gave two or three knocks on the door, but no one came to it.
"Maybe she's had a drop or two more than usual," observed Jacob. "Shewill wake up in time, only I hope no press-gang will be coming along thestreet before she opens the door. If we see them we must run for it,Harry. You stick by me. I know a place to hide away in."
Jacob repeated his blows on the door. At last a slide was moved in oneof the panels, and a light streamed through it.
"All right, Sally," said Jacob. "You know me, and I
have brought amate. Open the door, and let us in; we have enough to pay for ourboard, so don't be afraid."
The door opened, and the two young men entered, the bolts and bars beinginstantly replaced. The person who came to the door might havepossessed many excellent qualities, but her appearance was not in herfavour. Her figure was stout and shapeless; her dress, wanting greatlyin hooks and eyes and strings, worn and stained, looked ready to slipoff her shoulders. Her hair, already sprinkled with white, escaped indishevelled locks from beneath her mob cap, destitute of all stiffness,and darkened by soot and dust, while her thick lips and watery bloodshoteye showed that she not unfrequently indulged in potations deep andstrong. Jacob, however, on