Outward Bound Or, Young America Afloat: A Story of Travel and Adventure by Optic (popular e readers .TXT) 📗

the whole thing," added Shuffles, confidently.

"But the fellows are all perfectly satisfied with their {153} condition. They wish to go to Europe, and are pleased with the prospect before them."

"Perhaps they are; and they shall all go to Europe, and travel about without being tied to Lowington's coat-tails. I shall come out of this place to-morrow, and we will work the thing up."

"I'm in for a time with any good fellow; but I don't think we can make this thing go," said Wilton. "Hush! Don't say another word. There comes an officer."

One bell, indicating half past eight in the evening, struck on deck. It was the duty of the master and midshipman on deck, alternately, to pass through the steerage every half hour during the watch, to see that there was no disorder, and that the lights were all secure, so as to avoid any danger from fire. Henry Martyn, the second master, performed this office on the present occasion. He descended the main ladder, and Wilton, who expected the visit when he heard the stroke of the bell, retreated to his mess room, and threw himself into his berth. Harry walked around the steerage, and glanced into the gangways, from which the rooms opened.

"Harry," said Shuffles, in a low tone, as the master was about to return to the deck.

"Did you speak to me?" asked Harry, stepping up to the bars of the cage.

"I did. Will you oblige me by telling the chaplain that I would like to see him?" added the prisoner.

"I will;" and Harry knocked at the door of the professors' cabin.

CHAPTER X.

{154}

MAKING A CHAIN.

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The chaplain was too glad of an opportunity to converse with the prisoner to refuse his request, and he hastened to the brig, hoping to find Shuffles in a better state of mind than when he had visited him before. Mr. Agneau entered the lock-up, and was securing the door behind him, when the prisoner spoke.

"You needn't lock it, sir; I will not attempt to escape," said he. "I sent for you to apologize for my rudeness."

"Indeed! Then I am very glad to see you," replied the delighted chaplain. "I have been sorely grieved at your misconduct, and I would fain have brought you to see the error of your ways."

"I see it now, sir," replied Shuffles, with apparent penitence. "I'm afraid I am a great deal worse than you think I am, sir."

"It is of no consequence what I think, Shuffles, if you are conscious of the wrong you have done," added the worthy chaplain. "You behaved exceedingly well last year, and it almost broke my heart to see you relapsing into your former evil habits."

"I am grateful to you for the interest you have {155} taken in me, and I assure you I have often been encouraged to do well by your kind words," continued the penitent, with due humility. "I have done wrong, and I don't deserve to be forgiven."

"'He that humbleth himself shall be exalted,'" said Mr. Agneau, gratified at the great change which had apparently been wrought in the prisoner. "If you are really sorry for your offence, Mr. Lowington, I doubt not, will pardon you, and restore you to favor again."

"I don't deserve it, sir. Since you left me, I have been thinking of my past life. I dare not tell you how bad I have been."

"You need not tell me. It is not necessary that you should confess your errors to me. There is One who knows them, and if you are sincerely repentant He will pity and forgive you."

"I think I should feel better if I told some one of my misdeeds."

"Perhaps you would; that is for you to judge. I will speak to Mr. Lowington about you to-night. What shall I say to him?"

"I hardly know. I deserve to be punished. I have done wrong, and am willing to suffer for it."

The tender-hearted chaplain thought that Shuffles was in a beautiful state of mind, and he desired to have him released at once, that he might converse with him on great themes under more favorable circumstances; but Shuffles still detained him.

"I'm afraid I have ruined myself on board this ship," continued Shuffles, persisting in his self-humiliation. {156}

"If you manfully acknowledge your fault, you will be freely and generously forgiven."

"Mr. Lowington hates me now, after what I have done."

"O, far from it!" exclaimed the chaplain. "It will be a greater satisfaction to him than to you to forgive you. You are no longer of the opinion that you were unfairly used in the distribution of the offices, I suppose."

"Mr. Agneau, I was beside myself when I resisted the principal. I should not have done it if I had been in my right mind."

"You were very angry."

"I was—I was not myself."

"Anger often makes men crazy."

"You don't understand me, Mr. Agneau."

"Indeed, I do. You mean that you deluded yourself into the belief that you had been wronged, and that you ought not to obey the orders of your officers, and of the principal. The force that was used made you so angry that you did not know what you were about," added the sympathizing chaplain.

"In one word, Mr. Agneau, I had been drinking," said Shuffles, with something like desperation in his manner, as he bent his head, and covered his face with his hands.

"Drinking!" gasped the chaplain, filled with horror at the confession.

"I told you I was worse than you thought I was," moaned Shuffles.

"Is it possible!"

"It is true, sir; I say it with shame." {157}

"Are you in the habit of taking intoxicating drinks?" asked the chaplain, confounded beyond measure at this complication of the difficulty.

"I am not in the habit of it, because I can't get liquor all the time. My father has wine on his table, and I always was allowed to drink one glass."

"Can it be!" ejaculated the chaplain. "A youth of seventeen——"

"I'm eighteen now, sir."

"A youth of eighteen in the habit of taking wine!" groaned Mr. Agneau.

"I drank a great deal more than my father knew of while I was at home."

"I am amazed!"

"I knew you would be, sir; but I have told you the truth now."

"But where did you get your liquor to-day?"

"It was wine, sir."

"Where did you get it?"

"I brought two bottles on board with me when I reported for duty yesterday."

"This is terrible, Shuffles! Do you know what an awful habit you are contracting, my dear young friend?"

"I never thought much about it till to-night. It has got me into such a scrape this time, that I don't believe I shall ever drink any more."

"As you respect yourself, as you hope for peace in this world, and peace in the next, never put the cup to your lips again. 'Wine is a mocker; strong drink is raging; and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.' Did you drink the two bottles?" {158}

"No, sir; only part of one bottle," replied Shuffles, with commendable promptness.

"Where is the rest of it?"

"Under my berth-sack."

"Are you willing I should take possession of it, and hand it to Mr. Lowington?"

"I will agree to anything which you think is right."

"Then I will take the wine and throw it overboard."

"Just as you think best, sir. You will find the two bottles in my berth, No. 43, Gangway D,—the forward one on the starboard side."

"I hope you will never touch the wine-cup again."

"I will not—till next time," added Shuffles, as the chaplain moved towards the door of the brig.

"'Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder,'" continued the chaplain, as he passed out of the lock-up.

Mr. Agneau went to the prisoner's berth, and found the two bottles of wine. They were a sufficient explanation of the remarkable conduct of Shuffles. The youth had "drank wine, and was drunken," otherwise he would not have been guilty of such flagrant disobedience. Though in his own estimation the excuse was worse than the original fault, yet it was an explanation; and if the root of the evil could be removed, the evil itself would cease to exist. The wine could be thrown overboard, and as no more could be obtained during the voyage, the good conduct of the young tippler would be insured, at least till the ship {159} reached Queenstown, which was the port to which she was bound.

With the two bottles in his hands, the chaplain returned to the professors' cabin. Mr. Lowington was on deck. He did not deem it prudent to leave the ship in the hands of the students, at first, without any supervision, and it was arranged that the principal, Mr. Fluxion, and Mr. Peake, the boatswain, should take turns in observing the course and management of the vessel. Mr. Agneau carried the prize he had captured on deck, and informed Mr. Lowington what had just transpired in the brig.

"I knew the boy drank wine when he was at home," replied the principal; "and if he is ruined, his father must blame himself."

"But it is really shocking!" exclaimed the chaplain as he tossed one of the bottles of wine over the rail. "How can a parent permit his son to drink wine, when he knows that more men are killed by intemperance than by war and pestilence? I am amazed!"

"So am I, Mr. Agneau."

"The boy is hardly to blame for his conduct, since he contracted this vicious habit under the eye of his father."

"The discipline of the ship must be preserved."

"Certainly, Mr. Lowington."

"And the boy is just as much to blame for his act of disobedience as though it had been done in his sober senses."

"But you can afford to pardon him, under the circumstances." {160}

"I will do that when he is willing to make a proper acknowledgment of his offence in the presence of the ship's company, before whom the act was committed."

"He is quite ready to do so now."

"If he will say as much as that to me, he shall be released at once."

"He will, sir."

"It is very strange to me that I noticed nothing peculiar in the boy's speech or manner at the time," added the principal. "He certainly did not seem to be intoxicated."

"Probably he had taken just enough to inflame his evil passions, without affecting his manner," suggested the chaplain.

"I did not even discover the odor of wine upon him."

"Perhaps you did not go near enough to him. If you please, Mr. Lowington, we will go down and see him; and you can judge for yourself whether or not it is prudent to release him."

"I will."

"Thank you, sir. I feel a deep interest in the young man, and I hope he may yet be saved."

When Mr. Agneau left the brig, after his second visit, Wilton, who was very anxious to know what Shuffles meant by "making a chain," came out of his mess room. He had been watching the chaplain, and wondering what the prisoner could have to say to him.

"What's up, Shuffles?" asked Wilton, when Mr. Agneau had left the steerage.

"I've been smoothing him down," laughed Shuffles, {161} with an audible chuckle. "I have concluded not to stay in here any longer."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm coming out pretty soon, though it has cost me a bottle and a half of old sherry to get out," laughed Shuffles.

"I don't know what you mean."

"I told the parson that I was drunk when I disobeyed orders, and that I was very sorry for it, and wouldn't get drunk any more."

"Did you tell him that?"

"I did; I assured him I was the worst fellow in the whole world, and ought to be hung, drawn, and quartered for my wickedness; and he swallowed it as a codfish does a clam."

"And you gave him all the wine?"

"No, I didn't; I gave him one full bottle, and what was left in the one from which we drank this afternoon. I have two more."

"We were going to have a good time with that wine."

"I have enough left."

"Where is it?"

"In my locker."

"They may find it."

"No, they won't; I will put it in some other place before inspection day. There is plenty of wine in the medical stores. It was a good joke for the parson to suppose I was drunk."

"Perhaps you were," suggested Wilton.

"I felt good; but I was as sober as I am now." {162}

"The drink I took went into my head, and I felt as though I was going up in a ballon."

"That was because you are not used to the article. It waked me up a little, but I knew what I was about."

"I think you were a confounded fool to do what you did."

"Wilton, I'm not going to live in the steerage—you may take my word for it. I've been an officer too long to come down to that. If we don't succeed in making a chain, I shall quit the concern the first time