Shifting Winds - Robert Michael Ballantyne (poetry books to read TXT) 📗

/> "Who is he?" inquired Gaff.

"Stuart of Seaside Villa," said Haco.

"Ha! he _is_ a tough un," observed Gaff, with a significant grin. "I knows him well. He don't much care riskin' fellers' lives, though I never heard of him riskin' his own."

"He'd very near to answer for mine this voyage," said Haco, as well as he could through a mouthful of steak and potato.

"How was that?"

"This is how it was," answered the skipper, bolting the mouthful, "you see the `Coffin's' not in a fit state for sea; she's leaky all over, an' there's a plank under the starboard quarter, just abaft the cabin skylight, that has fairly struck work, caulk it and pitch it how you please, it won't keep out the sea no longer, so when we was about to take in cargo, I wrote to Mr Stuart tellin' him of it, an' advisin' repairs, but he wrote back, sayin' it was very awk'ard at this time to delay that cargo, an' askin' if I couldn't work the pumps as I had used to do, besides hintin' that he thought I must be gettin' timid as I grew old! You may be sure I didn't think twice. Got the cargo aboard; up sail an' away.

"Well, it was blowin' a stiff nor'-wester when we got away, an' we couldn't have beat into port again if our lives depended on it. So I calls the crew aft, an' told 'em how the matter stood. `Now, lads,' says I, `to speak plain English, the sloop is sinkin' so you had as well turn to an' pump for yer lives, an' I'll show ye how.' With that I off coat an' set to work, an' took my turn the whole voyage. But it was touch an' go with us. We nigh sank in the harbour here, an' I had to run her ashore to perwent her goin' down in deep water. They're patchin' up the rotten plank at this minute, an' if old Stuart won't go in for a general overhaul, we'll be ready for sea in a day or two, and you'll have the pleasure o' navigatin' a lot o' wrecked Roosians to London. Now, waiter, ahoy!--"

"Yessir."

"Fetch me a pannikin o' tea, for it's dry work tellin' a anikdot. You see, Gaff, I'm a reg'lar teetotaller--never go the length o' coffee even without a doctor's surtificate. Another cup, Susan?"

"No thank 'ee, father, I couldn't."

"Werry good. Now, Gaff, what's the 'ticklers o' _your_ case. Time about's fair play, you know."

Gaff, feeling a gush of confidence come over him, and having ascertained that, in regard to secrecy, Susan was as "safe as the bank," related the circumstances of the wreck, and his having left Emmie at her grandfather's villa; the relation of all which caused Haco Barepoles to give vent to a series of low grunts and whistles, expressive of great surprise.

"Now," said Gaff in conclusion, "there's a land-shark, (by which I means a lawyer), in London what writes to me that there's somethin' I'll hear of to my advantage if I calls on him."

"Don't go," said Haco, stoutly, as he struck the table with his fist, causing the crockery to rattle again; "take the advice of an old friend, an' _don't go_. If you do, he'll _do_ you."

"Thank'ee, an' I'd foller yer advice, but I happens to know this land-shark. He's an old acquaintance, an' I can trust him."

"Oh, that alters the case--well?"

"Well, but before I go," continued Gaff, "I wants to write a letter to old Stuart to warn him to look arter Emmie; a very partikler letter."

"Ay, how much partikler a one?" inquired Haco.

"A hambigoo-ous one," replied his friend.

"A ham--what?" said Haco interrogatively.

"A ham-big-oo-ous one."

"What sort of a one may that be, mate?"

"Well," said Gaff, knitting his heavy brows, and assuming altogether a learned aspect, "it's a one that you can't make head nor tail of nohow; one as'll read a'rnost as well back'ard as for'ard, an' yet has got a smack o' somethin' mysterious in it, w'ich shows, so to speak, to what pint o' the compass your steerin' for--d'ye see?"

"H'm--rather hazy ahead," answered the skipper with a deeply sagacious look; "a difficult letter to write in my opinion. How d'ye mean to do it?"

"Don't mean to do it at all. Couldn't do it to save my life; but I'll get a clerk to do it for me, a smart young clerk too; _you_ know who I mean."

"Ay, who'll it be? I'll never guess; never guessed a guess in my life."

"You know my darter Tottie?"

"What, blue-eyed Tottie? oh, yer jokin'!"

"Not a bit. That child's a parfec' cooriosity of intelligence. She can write and read most wonderful for her age."

"But she'll never be able to do the ham--what d'ye call it?" suggested Haco.

"Of course not; she's too young for that, but the wife'll do that. You've no notion how powerful hambigoo-ous she is now an' again. We'll manage it amongst us. Tottie can write like a parson, my wife can read, though she can't write, an'll see that it's all c'rect, specially the spellin' an' the makin' of it hambigoo-ous; an' I'll supply the idees, the notions like, an' superintend, so to speak, an' we'll make little Billy stand by wi' the blottin'-paper, just to keep him out o' mischief."

Haco regarded his friend with deepening admiration. The idea of producing a "hambigoo-ous" letter by such an elaborate family combination, in which each should supply his co-labourer's deficiency, was quite new and exceedingly interesting to him. Suddenly his countenance became grave, as it occurred to him that there was no call for such a letter at all, seeing that Kenneth Stuart was sure to do his best to induce his father to take care of the child. On observing this to his friend, the latter shook his head.

"I'm not quite sure o' Mister Kenneth," said he, "it's likely that he'll do the right thing by her, but `like father, like son' is an old proverb. He may be a chip o' the old block."

"That he is not," interrupted Haco warmly. "I know the lad well. He takes after his poor mother, and I'm sartin sure ye may trust him."

"Well, I _must_ trust him," said Gaff, "but I've had no experience of him; so I mean to `make assurance doubly sure,' as the prophet says, if it wasn't the poet--an' that's why I'll write this letter. If it don't do no good, it won't do no harm."

"I'm not so sure o' that," said Haco, shaking his head as they rose to depart, "hows'ever, you know best. Now mind, Susan, not a word o' this to any one."

Susan promised, and in the course of the evening related the whole affair to Daniel Horsey "_in confidence_;" her conscience being apparently relieved by the idea that having told it only in strict confidence she had not broken her word!

Dan made her promise solemnly that she would tell the tale to no one else on earth, either in confidence or otherwise, and thus he checked the stream of gossip as close to its fountain-head as possible.


CHAPTER ELEVEN.


THE WRITING OF THE "HAMBIGOO-OUS" LETTER.

When Stephen Gaff approached his own cottage, he beheld his wife belabouring the Bu'ster with both hands and tongue unmercifully. What special piece of mischief Billy had been doing is not of much consequence. It is enough to state that he suddenly planted the heel of his naked foot somewhat effectively on his mother's little toe, which chanced to be resting on a sharp stone at the moment, burst from her grasp, and rushed down the steep bank to the beach cheering, weeping, and laughing all at once, in a sort of hysterical triumph.

Mrs Gaff shouted at the top of her voice to the cherub to come back and get mauled; but the cherub declined the invitation until he heard his father's voice, when he returned joyously, and took shelter under his wing. Mrs Gaff, who could change at a moment's notice from the extreme of anger to perfect quiescence, contented herself with shaking her fist at the Bu'ster, and then relapsed from the condition of a fury into a quiet, good-looking dame.

This appears to be the normal condition of fisher-folk, who would seem to require to make use of an excessive amount of moral and physical suasion in order suitably to impress their offspring.

"Now, Jess," said Gaff, leading his son by the hand; "let's set to work at once wi' that there letter."

"What's all the hurry, Stephen?"

"I've just seed my old shipmate, Haco Barepoles, an' it's not unlikely he'll be ready for sea day arter to-morrow; so the sooner we turn this little job out o' hands the better. Come, Tottie, you're a good _girl_; I see you've purvided the paper and ink. Get the table cleaned, lass, and you, Billy, come here."

The Bu'ster, who had suddenly willed to have a shy at the household cat with a small crab which he had captured, and which was just then endeavouring vainly to ascend the leg of a chair, for a wonder did not carry out his will, but went at once to his sire.

"Whether would ye like to go play on the beach, lad, or stop here and hold the blottin'-paper while we write a letter?"

Billy elected to hold the blotting-paper and watch proceedings, being curious to know what the letter was to be about.

When all was ready--the table cleared of everything except what pertained to the literary work then in hand--Stephen Gaff sat down at one end of the table; his wife drew her chair to the other end; Tottie, feeling very proud and rather nervous, sat between them, with a new quill in her hand, and a spotless sheet of foolscap before her. The Bu'ster stood by with the blot-sheet, looking eager, as if he rather wished for blots, and was prepared to swab them up without delay.

"Are ye ready, Tot?" asked Gaff.

"Yes, quite," answered the child.

"Then," said Gaff; with the air of a general officer who gives the word for the commencement of a great fight, "begin, an' fire away."

"But what am I to say, daddy?"

"Ah, to be sure, you'd better begin, Tottie," said Gaff, evidently in perplexity; "you'd better begin as they teach you to at the school, where you've larnt to write so butiful."

Here Mrs Gaff advised, rather abruptly, that she had better write, "this comes hoping you're well;" but her husband objected, on the ground that the words were untrue, inasmuch as he did not care a straw whether the person to be written to was well or ill.

"Is't to a man or a 'ooman we're a-writin', daddie?" inquired the youthful scribe.

"It's a gentleman."

"Then we'd better begin `dear sir,' don't you think?"

"But he an't dear to me," said Gaff.

"No more is he to me," observed his wife.

"Make it `sir,' plain `sir' means nothin' in partickler, I b'lieve," said Gaff with animation, "so we'll begin it with plain `sir.' Now, then, fire away, Tottie."

"Very well," said Tottie, dipping her pen in the ink-bottle, which was