CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.
JIM CRADDOCK.
"Ah, le petit bon homme vit encore!" cried Antoine, hearing the voiceand bending over from his seat on the after-thwart, being anxious as tothe condition of the patients to whom Jacques was ministering. "Donnezlui encore d'eau de vie, mon ami!"
Jacques thereupon repeated the dose of brandy to Bob, who closed hiseyes again and leant back, the spirit and the sound of the strangelanguage, with the queer surroundings that had met his gaze on lookinground the fo'c's'le of the lugger, making him believe he was still in adream.
"Where am I?" he presently repeated, rousing up again. "Where am I?"
"In France," replied Jacques in English as good as his own, smiling ashe spoke. "At least, you're aboard a French vessel; and, that's as goodas being in France!"
"But, you are English," replied Bob freely. "You are English, eh?"
"Yes, I'm English," answered the other. "But, you had better not talknow. Wait till after you've taken some nice soup which I've got cookinghere that will put new strength into you, and then we'll tell each otherall about ourselves."
He then left Bob to attend to Dick, whom it took considerably longer tobring round; although by administering a few drops of brandy atintervals, varied by an occasional spoonful every now and then of thesavoury soup from the saucepan on the fire, which was really a regularFrench stew, Dick became ultimately, as Bob already was through the sameregimen, much better--the poor boy now recovering his consciousness andbeing able to speak.
The two invalids were then put to bed comfortably in a couple of bunkson either side of the fo'c's'le; while the lugger, whose name, by theway, was the _Jeanne d'Arc_, reached over towards the English coast, tosee what fishing she could get in those prohibited waters.
Late in the afternoon, Bob and Dick both woke up refreshed; when, eachhad another jorum of the savoury soup, which Bob said subsequently wasthe nicest thing, he believed, he had ever tasted in his life! Theboys, then, feeling quite well, so to speak, went on to tell the kindsailors all about their adventures, Bob, of course, being the principalspokesman.
"Ah!" observed Jacques. "You are living at Portsmouth, then?"
"No, I've only been stopping there for the season," replied Bob. "But,I like it very much!"
"It's my native place, sir. I was born there!" cried Jacques. "Myfather was in the English navy; and my old mother, who is yet alive, hasa house of her own in the town! It's only through my having married aFrench wife that has took me over here along with the Parlyvoos!"
"How strange!" exclaimed Bob. "Why, we went to see only the other day aMrs Craddock, who has a daughter who's very ill, that my aunt Pollygoes to see; and she told us she had a son married to a French girl andhe was living at Saint Malo!"
"Why, that's me!" cried Jacques; although "Jacques" no longer to us."I'm Jim Craddock, and the old lady that you saw is my mother! My word!this is a rum start!"
After the curious coincidence of Bob and Dick being rescued by the sonof "the old egg-woman," as they always called her, between whom andthemselves Rover had in the original instance scraped an acquaintance,nothing would content Jim Craddock but that he must bear up at once forPortsmouth, and restore Bob and Dick to those who bewailed them as lost,as well as return the battered little yacht, which the lugger had in towastern, to her proper owner.
The meeting between Bob and his parents is too sacred a matter to touchupon here; but, it is easy enough to imagine the delight of thosewelcoming one coming back to them as it were from the dead; Dick, too,being received like another son.
As for Nellie, her joy was so great at beholding again her brother Bob,whom she loved so dearly, that she laughed till she cried and thenfainted; while, on her recovery, she laughed and cried again, though shedid not faint a second time!
But, you should only have seen Rover when he saw his young master.
Sarah, "the good Sarah," said that she would never forget "the way inwhich that there dog went on as long as she lived!"
Of course, it can be well understood that there were no ill-feelingsbetween Bob and the retriever anent the desertion of the latter from thecutter on the day of the boys' terribly punished escapade; though, themystery of the dog's swimming ashore so strangely on that memorableoccasion, it may be mentioned here, was never cleared up!
The Captain, it must be said, behaved much more unconcernedly thanRover.
"By Jove! I told you they'd turn up all right!" said he, chuckling awayat such a rate that he could hardly stop to get out the next words. "Ialways told you so, didn't I ma'am--now, didn't I?"
"My gracious goodness, Cap'en Dresser, why you were the first to givethem up!" cried Mrs Gilmour laughing. "Sure, I never did see such aman!"
At this the Captain chuckled still more; and he then told Dick, whomevery one was as glad almost to see amongst them again as they were tosee Bob, that he intended, when he got strong enough, to send him intothe navy so as to prevent him from going to sea again!
After a few days' rest, in order to recuperate from the effects of thestrain on all their nerves, Bob's father said they must all go back totown, their holiday limit being at length reached.
Bob and Nellie, on this intimation, began a round of leave-taking whichwould well-nigh have consumed another long holiday, to have been carriedout in accordance with their intention; for they wanted to say "good-bye!" to all their favourite haunts and many acquaintances of theanimate and inanimate world in turn.
Yes, they must see once more the halcyon spot where they caught thePandalus, that gem of their aquarium; they had to bid adieu to MrsCraddock's cottage, and the old lady herself and daughter; and againinspect the place where the unfortunate _Bembridge Belle_ was wrecked.
They had to give a handshake, too, to their friend Hellyer--and all hisfellow-coastguardsmen; besides having to go over the Captain's yacht,which had been sparred and rigged anew, the little _Zephyr_ looking now"as fresh as paint again" after her eventful vicissitudes adrift in theChannel.
Aye, they paid farewell visits to every one and everything, and thenwanted to begin over again, it was so hard to part with them all!
At last, however, the ordeal was accomplished; and all their goods andchattels and new acquisitions, especially the aquarium and its variousoccupants, that terrible Mesembryanthemum included, being properlypacked up and labelled, behold the party one fine morning at therailway-station on their way to London as soon as the train shouldstart!
Here Rover, despite his frantic howls on escaping his former prison, wassnugly incarcerated in the guard's van; when the others, afterexchanging last words with Mrs Gilmour and the Captain, entered asaloon-carriage which had been reserved for them for the journey, Boband Nell, it may be taken for granted, being the last to get in, loth toleave "aunt Polly" and "that dear old sailor" who had won their hearts,as well as say "good-bye" to Dick, the whilom uninvited guest of theirfirst eventful journey "Down the line," and subsequent faithfulcompanion of Bob in his wonderful adventures by sea and land.
Bob Strong's Holidays Page 28
