The Floating Light of the Goodwin Sands, Robert Michael Ballantyne [ebook pc reader txt] 📗

_was_ a tremendous experience to begin with," said Mr Durant, laughing; "and so it made you a doctor?"

"It helped. When my father came home I presented him with the tooth, and from that day to this I have been hard at work; but I feel a little seedy just now from over-study, so I have resolved to try to get a berth as surgeon on board a ship bound for India, Australia, China, or South America, and, as you are a shipowner and old friend, I thought it just possible you might be not only willing but able to help me to what I want."

"And you thought right, Stanney, my boy," said the old gentleman heartily; "I have a ship going to sail for India in a few weeks, and we have not yet appointed a surgeon. You shall have that berth if it suits you."

At this point they were interrupted by the entrance of a servant maid with the announcement that there was a man in the lobby who wished to see Mr Durant.

"I'll be back shortly," said the old gentleman to Stanley as he rose; "go to the drawing-room, girls, and give Mr Hall some music. You'll find that my Katie sings and plays very sweetly, although she won't let me say so. Fanny joins her with a fine contralto, I believe, and Queeker, too, he sings--a--a what is it, Queeker?--a bass or a baritone--eh?"

Without waiting for a reply, Mr Durant left the room, and found Morley Jones standing in the lobby, hat in hand.

The old gentleman's expression changed instantly, and he said with much severity--

"Well, Mr Jones, what do _you_ want?"

Morley begged the favour of a private interview for a few minutes. After a moment's hesitation, Mr Durant led him into his study.

"Another loan, I suppose?" said the old gentleman, as he lit the gas.

"I had expected to have called to pay the last loan, sir," replied Mr Jones somewhat boldly, "but one can't force the market. I have my sloop down here loaded with herrings, and if I chose to sell at a loss, could pay my debt to you twice over; but surely it can scarcely be expected of me to do that. I hear there is a rise in France just now, and mean to run over there with them. I shall be sure to dispose of 'em to advantage. On my return, I'll pay your loan with interest."

Morley Jones paused, and Mr Durant looked at him attentively for a few seconds.

"Is this all you came to tell me?"

"Why, no sir, not exactly," replied Jones, a little disconcerted by the stern manner of the old gentleman. "The sloop is not quite filled up, she could stow a few more casks, but I have been cleaned out, and unless I can get the loan of forty or fifty pounds--"

"Ha! I thought so. Are you aware, Mr Jones, that your character for honesty has of late been called in question?"

"I am aware that I have got enemies," replied the fish-merchant coldly. "If their false reports are to be believed to my disadvantage, of course I cannot expect--"

"It is not my belief in their reports," replied Mr Durant, "that creates suspicion in me, but I couple these reports with the fact that you have again and again deceived me in regard to the repayment of the loans which you have already received at various times from me."

"I can't help ill-luck, sir," said Morley with a downcast look. "If men's friends always deserted them at the same time with fortune there would be an end of all trade."

"Mr Jones," said the other decidedly, "I tell you plainly that you are presumptuous when you count me one of your _friends_. Your deceased brother, having been an old and faithful servant of mine, was considered by me a friend, and it is out of regard to his memory alone that I have assisted _you_. Even now, I will lend you the sum you ask, but be assured it is the last you shall ever get from me. I distrust you, sir, and I tell you so--flatly."

While he was speaking the old gentleman had opened a desk. He now sat down and wrote out a cheque, which he handed to his visitor, who received it with a grim smile and a curt acknowledgment, and instantly took his leave.

Mr Durant smoothed the frown from his brow, and returned to the drawing-room, where Katie's sweet voice instantly charmed away the memory of the evil spirit that had just left him.

The table was covered with beautiful pencil sketches and chalk-heads and water-colour drawings in various stages of progression--all of which were the production of the same fair, busy, and talented little hand that copied the accounts for the Board of Trade, for love instead of money, without a blot, and without defrauding of dot or stroke a single _i_ or _t_!

Queeker was gazing at one of the sketches with an aspect so haggard and savage that Mr Durant could not refrain from remarking it.

"Why, Queeker, you seem to be displeased with that drawing, eh? What's wrong with it?"

"Oh, ah!" exclaimed the youth, starting, and becoming very red in the face--"no, not with the drawing, it is beautiful--_most_ beautiful, but I--in--fact I was thinking, sir, that thought sometimes leads us into regions of gloom in which--where--one can't see one's way, and _ignes fatui_ mislead or--or--"

"Very true, Queeker," interrupted the old gentleman, good-humouredly; "thought is a wonderful quality of the mind--transports us in a moment from the Indies to the poles; fastens with equal facility on the substantial and the impalpable; gropes among the vague generalities of the abstract, and wriggles with ease through the thick obscurities of the concrete--eh, Queeker? Come, give us a song, like a good fellow."

"I never sing--I _cannot_ sing, sir," said the youth, hurriedly.

"No! why, I thought Katie said you were attending the singing-class."

The fat cousin was observed here to put her handkerchief to her mouth and bend convulsively over a drawing.

Queeker explained that he had just begun to attend, but had not yet attained sufficient confidence to sing in public. Then, starting up he suddenly pulled out his watch, exclaimed that he was quite ashamed of having remained so late, shook hands nervously all round, and, rushing from the house, left Stanley Hall in possession of the field!

Now, the poor youth's state of mind is not easily accounted for. Stanley, being a close observer, had at an early part of the evening detected the cause of Queeker's jealousy, and, being a kindly fellow, sought, by devoting himself to Fanny Hennings, to relieve his young friend; but, strange to say, Queeker was _not_ relieved! This fact was a matter of profound astonishment even to Queeker himself, who went home that night in a state of mind which cannot be adequately described, sat down before his desk, and, with his head buried in his hands, thought intensely.

"Can it be," he murmured in a sepulchral voice, looking up with an expression of horror, "that I love them _both_? Impossible. Horrible! Perish the thought--yes." Seizing a pen:--


"Perish the thought
Which never ought
To be,
Let not the thing."


"Thing--wing--bing--ping--jing--ring--ling--ting--cling--dear me! what a lot of words with little or no meaning there are in the English language!--what _will_ rhyme with--ah! I have it--sting--"


"Let not the thing
Reveal its sting
To me!"


Having penned these lines, Queeker heaved a deep sigh--cast one long lingering gaze on the moon, and went to bed.


CHAPTER EIGHT.


THE SLOOP NORA--MR. JONES BECOMES COMMUNICATIVE, AND BILLY TOWLER, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HIS LIFE, THOUGHTFUL.

A dead calm, with a soft, golden, half-transparent mist, had settled down on Old Father Thames, when, early one morning, the sloop Nora floated rather than sailed towards the mouth of that celebrated river, bent, in the absence of wind, on creeping out to sea with the tide.

Jim Welton stood at the helm, which, in the circumstances, required only attention from one of his legs, so that his hands rested idly in his coat pockets. Morley Jones stood beside him.

"So you managed the insurance, did you?" said Jim in a careless way, as though he put the question more for the sake of saying something than for any interest he had in the matter.

Mr Jones, whose eyes and manner betrayed the fact that even at that early hour he had made application to the demon-spirit which led him captive at its will, looked suspiciously at his questioner, and replied--

"Well, yes, I've managed it."

"For how much?" inquired Jim.

"For 300 pounds."

Jim looked surprised. "D'ye think the herring are worth that?" he asked.

"No, they ain't, but there's some general cargo besides as'll make it up to that, includin' the value o' the sloop, which I've put down at 100 pounds. Moreover, Jim, I have named you as the skipper. They required his name, d'ye see, and as I'm not exactly a seafarin' man myself, an' wanted to appear only as the owner, I named you."

"But that was wrong," said Jim, "for I'm _not_ the master."

"Yes, you are," replied Morley, with a laugh. "I make you master now. So, pray, Captain Welton, attend to your duty, and be civil to your employer. There's a breeze coming that will send you foul o' the Maplin light if you don't look out."

"What's the name o' the passenger that came aboard at Gravesend, and what makes him take a fancy to such a craft as this?" inquired Jim.

"I can answer these questions for myself," said the passenger referred to, who happened at that moment to come on deck. "My name is Stanley Hall, and I have taken a fancy to the Nora chiefly because she somewhat resembles in size and rig a yacht which belonged to my father, and in which I have had many a pleasant cruise. I am fond of the sea, and prefer going to Ramsgate in this way rather than by rail. I suppose you will approve my preference of the sea?" he added, with a smile.

"I do, indeed," responded Jim. "The sea is my native element. I could swim in it as soon a'most as I could walk, and I believe that--one way or other, in or on it--I have had more to do with it than with the land."

"You are a good swimmer, then, I doubt not?" said Stanley.

"Pretty fair," replied Jim, modestly.

"Pretty fair!" echoed Morley Jones, "why, he's the best swimmer, I'll be bound, in Norfolk--ay, if he were brought to the test I do b'lieve he'd turn out to be the best in the kingdom."

On the strength of this subject the two young men struck up an acquaintance, which, before they had been long together, ripened into what might almost be styled a friendship. They had many sympathies in common. Both were athletic; both were mentally as well as physically active, and, although Stanley Hall had the inestimable advantage of a liberal education, Jim Welton possessed a naturally powerful intellect, with a capacity for turning every scrap of knowledge to good use.