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

and allowed Lizzie to peep in, but refused to answer any questions regarding her future intentions.

Meanwhile Emmie and Tottie had flown into each other's arms. The former had often seen my niece, both at the house of Mr Stuart and at my own, as our respective ladies interchanged frequent visits, and Miss Peppy always brought Emmie when she came to see us. Lizzie had taken such a fancy to the orphan that she begged Miss Peppy to allow her to go with her and me sometimes on our visits to the houses of distressed sailors and fishermen. In this way Emmie and Tottie had become acquainted, and they were soon bosom friends, for the gentle, dark-eyed daughter of Mrs Gaff seemed to have been formed by nature as a harmonious counterpart to the volatile, fair-haired orphan. Emmie, I may here remark in passing, had by this time become a recognised inmate of Mr Stuart's house. What his intentions in regard to her were, no one knew. He had at first vowed that the foundling should be cast upon the parish, but when the illness, that attacked the child after the ship-wreck, had passed away, he allowed her to remain without further remark than that she must be kept carefully out of his way. Kenneth, therefore, held to his first intention of not letting his father or any one else know that the poor girl was indeed related to him by the closest tie. Meanwhile he determined that Emmie's education should not be neglected.

Immediately on arriving at my residence, Mrs Gaff was, at her own request, ushered into my study, accompanied by Tottie.

I bade her good-day, and, after a few words of inquiry as to her health, asked if I could be of any service to her.

"No, capting, thank 'ee," she said, fumbling with her bag as if in search of something.

"No news of Stephen or Billy, I suppose?" said I in a sad tone.

"Not yet, capting, but I expect 'em one o' these days, an' I'm a-gettin' things ready for 'em."

"Indeed! what induces you to expect them so confidently?"

"Well, capting, I can't well tell 'ee, but I do, an' in the meantime I've come to thank 'ee for all yer kindness to Tottie an' me when we was in distress. Yer Society, capting, has saved me an' Tottie fro' starvation, an' so I've come for to give ye back the money ye sent me by Mr Stuart, for there's many a poor widder as'll need it more nor I do."

So saying, she placed the money on the table, and I thanked her heartily, adding that I was glad to be able to congratulate her on her recent good fortune.

"Moreover," continued Mrs Gaff, taking a small bag from the large one which hung on her arm, and laying it also on the table, "I feel so thankful to the Almighty, as well as to you, sir, that I've come to give ye a small matter o' goold for the benefit o' the Society ye b'longs to, an' there it be."

"How much is here?" said I, lifting up the bag.

"A hundred pound. Ye needn't count it, capting, for it's all c'rekt, though it _was_ shovelled out to me as if it war no better than coals or sugar. Good-day, capting."

Mrs Gaff, turning hastily round as if to avoid my thanks, or my remonstrances at so poor a woman giving so large a sum, seized Tottie by the wrist and dragged her towards the door.

"Stop, stop, my good woman," said I; "at least let me give you a receipt."

"Please, capting, I doesn't want one. Surely I can trust ye, an' I've had my heart nigh broke with bits o' paper this good day."

"Well, but I am required by the rules of the Society to give a receipt for all sums received."

Mrs Gaff was prevailed on to wait for the receipt, but the instant it was handed to her, she got up, bounced out of the room, and out of the house into the street. I hastened to the window, and saw her and Tottie walking smartly away in the direction of Cove, with their enormous bonnets quivering violently, and their ribbons streaming in the breeze.

Half an hour afterwards, Dan Horsey, who had been sent to me with a note from my friend Stuart, went down into my kitchen, and finding Susan Barepoles there alone, put his arm round her waist.

"Don't," said Susan, struggling unsuccessfully to get free. "What d'ye think Mrs Gaff has bin an' done?"

"Don't know, my jewel, no more nor a pig as has niver seen the light o' day," said Dan.

"She's bin--and gone--and given--" said Susan, with great deliberation, "one--hundred--gold sovereigns--to the Shipwrecked thingumbob Society!"

"How d'ye know that, darlint?" inquired Dan.

"Master told Miss Lizzie, Miss Lizzie told missis, and missis told me."

"You don't say so! Well, I wish I wor the Shipwrecked thing-me-bob Society, I do," said Dan with a sigh; "but I an't, so I'll have to cut my stick, clap spurs to my horse, as the story books say, for Capting Bingley towld me to make haste. But there's wan thing, Susan, as I wouldn't guv for twice the sum."

"An' what may that be?" asked Susan shyly.

"It's _that_," said Dan, imprinting a kiss on Susan's lips, to the dismay of Bounder, who chanced to be in the back scullery and heard the smack.

Cook rushed to the kitchen, but when she reached it Dan was gone, and a few minutes later that worthy was cantering toward Seaside Villa, muttering to himself:

"Tin thousand pound! It's a purty little bit o' cash. I only wish as a brother o' mine, (if I had wan), would leave me half as much, an' I'd buy a coach and six, an' put purty Susan inside and mount the box meself, an' drive her to Africay or Noo Zealand, (not to mintion Ottyheity and Kangaroo), by way of a marriage trip! Hey! Bucephalus, be aisy now. It isn't Master Kenneth that's on yer back just now, so mind what yer about, or it'll be wus for ye, old boy."


CHAPTER NINETEEN.


THE OPEN BOAT ON THE PACIFIC--GAFF AND BILLY IN DREADFUL CIRCUMSTANCES-- A MESSAGE FROM THE SEA, AND A MADMAN'S DEATH.

While these events are taking place in the busy seaport of Wreckumoft, let us return to the little boat which we left floating, a solitary speck, upon the breast of the great Pacific Ocean.

As long as the whale-ship continued visible, the three occupants of the boat sat immovable, gazing intently upon her in deep silence, as if each felt that when she disappeared his last hold upon earth was gone.

Billy was the first to break silence.

"She's gone, father," he whispered.

Both men started, and looked round at the boy.

"Ay, she's gone," observed Gaff with a sigh; "and now we'll have to pull for it, night an' day, as we are able."

He began slowly to get out one of the oars as he spoke.

"It would have been better if they had cut our throats," growled Captain Graddy with a fierce oath.

"You'd have been worse off just now if they had, captain," said Gaff, shaking off his depression of spirits by a strong effort of will. "Come, Cap'n Graddy, you an' I are in the same fix; let's be friends, and do our best to face the worst, like men."

"It makes little matter how we face it," said the captain, "it'll come to the same thing in the long run, if we don't manage to make it a short run by taking strong measures. (He touched the hilt of a knife which he wore at all times in his belt.) However, we may as well pull as not."

He rose and sulkily took an oar, while Gaff took another.

"Now, captain," said Gaff, "you know better than me how far we be fro' land, an' which is the way to pull."

"I should think we're five hundred miles from the nearest land," said Graddy, "in a nor'-east direction, an' there's no islands that I know of between us an' South America, so we may just pull about for exercise till the grub's done, an' then pull till we're dead."

The captain burst into a loud, fierce laugh, as if he thought the last remark uncommonly witty.

Presently he said, "You may as well see how much we've got to eat an' drink before beginnin' our work."

"All right, my hearty!" cried Gaff, rising with alacrity to examine their store of provisions; "here's a small bag o' biscuit as'll last us three days, mayhap, on half allowance, so we'll be able to do with quarter allowance for the first few days, an' then reduce to an eighth, which'll make it spin out a few days longer. By that time we may fall in with a sail, who knows?"

"We're far beyond the track o' ships," said the captain bitterly. "Is there never a drop o' water in the boat?"

"Not a drop," replied Gaff, "I've searched all round, an' only found a empty bottle."

"Ay, meant for to smuggle brandy aboard when they got the chance, the brutes!" said the captain, referring to his recent crew. "Well, it don't matter. We've now the prospect of dyin' o' thirst before we die of starvation. For my part, I prefer to die o' starvation, so ye may put yourself an' your brat on full allowance as long as it lasts."

Poor Billy's horror at the prospect before him was much aggravated by the fierce and brutal manner of Graddy, and he would fain have gone and hid his face in his father's bosom; but he had been placed at the helm while the two were pulling, so he could not forsake his post.

It was a calm evening when they were thus cast adrift on the boundless sea, and as night advanced the calm deepened, so that the ocean became like a sea of ink, in which the glorious host of stars were faithfully mirrored.

Hour after hour the two men pulled at the oars with a slow-measured steady stroke, while Billy sat at the helm, and kept the boat's head in the direction of a certain star which the captain pointed out to him. At length the star became like a moon to Billy's gazing eyes; then it doubled itself, and then it went out altogether as the poor boy fell forward.

"Hallo, Billy! mind your helm!" cried his father.

"I felled asleep, daddy," said the Bu'ster apologetically, as he resumed his place.

"Well, well, boy; lie down and take a sleep. It's too hard on you. Eat a biscuit first though before you lie down, and I'll keep the boat's head right with the oar."

The captain made no remark, but the moon, which had just arisen, shone on his hard features, and showed that they were more fierce and lowering than at the beginning of the night.

Billy gladly availed himself of the permission, and took a biscuit out of the bag. Before he had eaten half of it he fell back in the stern-sheets of the boat, dropt into a sound sleep, and dreamed of home and his mother and Tottie.

Hour after hour the men pulled