A MESSAGE FROM THE SEA CHAPTER I--THE VILLAGE "And a mighty sing'lar and pretty place it is, as ever I saw in all thedays of my life!" said Captain Jorgan, looking up at it. Captain Jorgan had to look high to look at it, for the village was builtsheer up the face of a steep and lofty cliff. There was no road in it, there was no wheeled vehicle in it, there was not a level yard in it. From the sea-beach to the cliff-top two irregular rows of white houses, placed opposite to one another, and twisting here and there, and thereand here, rose, like the sides of a long succession of stages of crookedladders, and you climbed up the village or climbed down the village bythe staves between, some six feet wide or so, and made of sharp irregularstones. The old pack-saddle, long laid aside in most parts of England asone of the appendages of its infancy, flourished here intact. Strings ofpack-horses and pack-donkeys toiled slowly up the staves of the ladders, bearing fish, and coal, and such other cargo as was unshipping at thepier from the dancing fleet of village boats, and from two or threelittle coasting traders. As the beasts of burden ascended laden, ordescended light, they got so lost at intervals in the floating clouds ofvillage smoke, that they seemed to dive down some of the villagechimneys, and come to the surface again far off, high above others. Notwo houses in the village were alike, in chimney, size, shape, door, window, gable, roof-tree, anything. The sides of the ladders weremusical with water, running clear and bright. The staves were musicalwith the clattering feet of the pack-horses and pack-donkeys, and thevoices of the fishermen urging them up, mingled with the voices of thefishermen's wives and their many children. The pier was musical with thewash of the sea, the creaking of capstans and windlasses, and the airyfluttering of little vanes and sails. The rough, sea-bleached bouldersof which the pier was made, and the whiter boulders of the shore, werebrown with drying nets. The red-brown cliffs, richly wooded to theirextremest verge, had their softened and beautiful forms reflected in thebluest water, under the clear North Devonshire sky of a November daywithout a cloud. The village itself was so steeped in autumnal foliage, from the houses lying on the pier to the topmost round of the topmostladder, that one might have fancied it was out a bird's-nesting, and was(as indeed it was) a wonderful climber. And mentioning birds, the placewas not without some music from them too; for the rook was very busy onthe higher levels, and the gull with his flapping wings was fishing inthe bay, and the lusty little robin was hopping among the great stoneblocks and iron rings of the breakwater, fearless in the faith of hisancestors, and the Children in the Wood. Thus it came to pass that Captain Jorgan, sitting balancing himself onthe pier-wall, struck his leg with his open hand, as some men do whenthey are pleased--and as he always did when he was pleased--and said, -- "A mighty sing'lar and pretty place it is, as ever I saw in all the daysof my life!" Captain Jorgan had not been through the village, but had come down to thepier by a winding side-road, to have a preliminary look at it from thelevel of his own natural element. He had seen many things and places, and had stowed them all away in a shrewd intellect and a vigorous memory. He was an American born, was Captain Jorgan, --a New-Englander, --but hewas a citizen of the world, and a combination of most of the bestqualities of most of its best countries. For Captain Jorgan to sit anywhere in his long-skirted blue coat and bluetrousers, without holding converse with everybody within speakingdistance, was a sheer impossibility. So the captain fell to talking withthe fishermen, and to asking them knowing questions about the fishery, and the tides, and the currents, and the race of water off that pointyonder, and what you kept in your eye, and got into a line with what elsewhen you ran into the little harbour; and other nautical profundities. Among the men who exchanged ideas with the captain was a young fellow, who exactly hit his fancy, --a young fisherman of two or three and twenty, in the rough sea-dress of his craft, with a brown face, dark curlinghair, and bright, modest eyes under his Sou'wester hat, and with a frank, but simple and retiring manner, which the captain found uncommonlytaking. "I'd bet a thousand dollars, " said the captain to himself, "thatyour father was an honest man!" "Might you be married now?" asked the captain, when he had had some talkwith this new acquaintance. "Not yet. " "Going to be?" said the captain. "I hope so. " The captain's keen glance followed the slightest possible turn of thedark eye, and the slightest possible tilt of the Sou'wester hat. Thecaptain then slapped both his legs, and said to himself, -- "Never knew such a good thing in all my life! There's his sweetheartlooking over the wall!" There was a very pretty girl looking over the wall, from a littleplatform of cottage, vine, and fuchsia; and she certainly dig not look asif the presence of this young fisherman in the landscape made it any theless sunny and hopeful for her. Captain Jorgan, having doubled himself up to laugh with that hearty good-nature which is quite exultant in the innocent happiness of other people, had undoubted himself, and was going to start a new subject, when thereappeared coming down the lower ladders of stones, a man whom he hailed as"Tom Pettifer, Ho!" Tom Pettifer, Ho, responded with alacrity, and inspeedy course descended on the pier. "Afraid of a sun-stroke in England in November, Tom, that you wear yourtropical hat, strongly paid outside and paper-lined inside, here?" saidthe captain, eyeing it. "It's as well to be on the safe side, sir, " replied Tom. "Safe side!" repeated the captain, laughing. "You'd guard against a sun-stroke, with that old hat, in an Ice Pack. Wa'al! What have you madeout at the Post-office?" "It _is_ the Post-office, sir. " "What's the Post-office?" said the captain. "The name, sir. The name keeps the Post-office. " "A coincidence!" said the captain. "A lucky bit! Show me where it is. Good-bye, shipmates, for the present! I shall come and have another lookat you, afore I leave, this afternoon. " This was addressed to all there, but especially the young fisherman; soall there acknowledged it, but especially the young fisherman. "_He's_ asailor!" said one to another, as they looked after the captain movingaway. That he was; and so outspeaking was the sailor in him, thatalthough his dress had nothing nautical about it, with the singleexception of its colour, but was a suit of a shore-going shape and form, too long in the sleeves and too short in the legs, and toounaccommodating everywhere, terminating earthward in a pair of Wellingtonboots, and surmounted by a tall, stiff hat, which no mortal could haveworn at sea in any wind under heaven; nevertheless, a glimpse of hissagacious, weather-beaten face, or his strong, brown hand, would haveestablished the captain's calling. Whereas Mr. Pettifer--a man of acertain plump neatness, with a curly whisker, and elaborately nautical ina jacket, and shoes, and all things correspondent--looked no more like aseaman, beside Captain Jorgan, than he looked like a sea-serpent. The two climbed high up the village, --which had the most arbitrary turnsand twists in it, so that the cobbler's house came dead across theladder, and to have held a reasonable course, you must have gone throughhis house, and through him too, as he sat at his work between two littlewindows, --with one eye microscopically on the geological formation ofthat part of Devonshire, and the other telescopically on the opensea, --the two climbed high up the village, and stopped before a quaintlittle house, on which was painted, "MRS. RAYBROCK, DRAPER;" and also"POST-OFFICE. " Before it, ran a rill of murmuring water, and access toit was gained by a little plank-bridge. "Here's the name, " said Captain Jorgan, "sure enough. You can come in ifyou like, Tom. " The captain opened the door, and passed into an odd little shop, aboutsix feet high, with a great variety of beams and bumps in the ceiling, and, besides the principal window giving on the ladder of stones, apurblind little window of a single pane of glass, peeping out of anabutting corner at the sun-lighted ocean, and winking at its brightness. "How do you do, ma'am?" said the captain. "I am very glad to see you. Ihave come a long way to see you. " "_Have_ you, sir? Then I am sure I am very glad to see _you_, though Idon't know you from Adam. " Thus a comely elderly woman, short of stature, plump of form, sparklingand dark of eye, who, perfectly clean and neat herself, stood in themidst of her perfectly clean and neat arrangements, and surveyed CaptainJorgan with smiling curiosity. "Ah! but you are a sailor, sir, " sheadded, almost immediately, and with a slight movement of her hands, thatwas not very unlike wringing them; "then you are heartily welcome. " "Thank'ee, ma'am, " said the captain, "I don't know what it is, I am sure;that brings out the salt in me, but everybody seems to see it on thecrown of my hat and the collar of my coat. Yes, ma'am, I am in that wayof life. " "And the other gentleman, too, " said Mrs. Raybrock. "Well now, ma'am, " said the captain, glancing shrewdly at the othergentleman, "you are that nigh right, that he goes to sea, --if that makeshim a sailor. This is my steward, ma'am, Tom Pettifer; he's been a'mostall trades you could name, in the course of his life, --would have boughtall your chairs and tables once, if you had wished to sell 'em, --but nowhe's my steward. My name's Jorgan, and I'm a ship-owner, and I sail myown and my partners' ships, and have done so this five-and-twenty year. According to custom I am called Captain Jorgan, but I am no more acaptain, bless your heart, than you are. " "Perhaps you'll come into my parlour, sir, and take a chair?" said Mrs. Raybrock. "Ex-actly what I was going to propose myself, ma'am. After you. " Thus replying, and enjoining Tom to give an eye to the shop, CaptainJorgan followed Mrs. Raybrock into the little, low back-room, --decoratedwith divers plants in pots, tea-trays, old china teapots, andpunch-bowls, --which was at once the private sitting-room of the Raybrockfamily and the inner cabinet of the post-office of the village ofSteepways. "Now, ma'am, " said the captain, "it don't signify a cent to you where Iwas born, except--" But here the shadow of some one entering fell uponthe captain's figure, and he broke off to double himself up, slap bothhis legs, and ejaculate, "Never knew such a thing in all my life! Herehe is again! How are you?" These words referred to the young fellow who had so taken CaptainJorgan's fancy down at the pier. To make it all quite complete he camein accompanied by the sweetheart whom the captain had detected lookingover the wall. A prettier sweetheart the sun could not have shone uponthat shining day. As she stood before the captain, with her rosy lipsjust parted in surprise, her brown eyes a little wider open than wasusual from the same cause, and her breathing a little quickened by theascent (and possibly by some mysterious hurry and flurry at the parlourdoor, in which the captain had observed her face to be for a momenttotally eclipsed by the Sou'wester hat), she looked so charming, that thecaptain felt himself under a moral obligation to slap both his legsagain. She was very simply dressed, with no other ornament than anautumnal flower in her bosom. She wore neither hat nor bonnet, butmerely a scarf or kerchief, folded squarely back over the head, to keepthe sun off, --according to a fashion that may be sometimes seen in themore genial parts of England as well as of Italy, and which is probablythe first fashion of head-dress that came into the world when grasses andleaves went out. "In my country, " said the captain, rising to give her his chair, anddexterously sliding it close to another chair on which the youngfisherman must necessarily establish himself, --"in my country we shouldcall Devonshire beauty first-rate!" Whenever a frank manner is offensive, it is because it is strained orfeigned; for there may be quite as much intolerable affectation inplainness as in mincing nicety. All that the captain said and did washonestly according to his nature; and his nature was open nature and goodnature; therefore, when he paid this little compliment, and expressedwith a sparkle or two of his knowing eye, "I see how it is, and nothingcould be better, " he had established a delicate confidence on thatsubject with the family. "I was saying to your worthy mother, " said the captain to the young man, after again introducing himself by name and occupation, --"I was saying toyour mother (and you're very like her) that it didn't signify where I wasborn, except that I was raised on question-asking ground, where thebabies as soon as ever they come into the world, inquire of theirmothers, 'Neow, how old may _you_ be, and wa'at air you a goin' to nameme?'--which is a fact. " Here he slapped his leg. "Such being the case, I may be excused for asking you if your name's Alfred?" "Yes, sir, my name is Alfred, " returned the young man. "I am not a conjurer, " pursued the captain, "and don't think me so, or Ishall right soon undeceive you. Likewise don't think, if you please, though I _do_ come from that country of the babies, that I am askingquestions for question-asking's sake, for I am not. Somebody belongingto you went to sea?" "My elder brother, Hugh, " returned the young man. He said it in analtered and lower voice, and glanced at his mother, who raised her handshurriedly, and put them together across her black gown, and lookedeagerly at the visitor. "No! For God's sake, don't think that!" said the captain, in a solemnway; "I bring no good tidings of him. " There was a silence, and the mother turned her face to the fire and puther hand between it and her eyes. The young fisherman slightly motionedtoward the window, and the captain, looking in that direction, saw ayoung widow, sitting at a neighbouring window across a little garden, engaged in needlework, with a young child sleeping on her bosom. Thesilence continued until the captain asked of Alfred, -- "How long is it since it happened?" "He shipped for his last voyage better than three years ago. " "Ship struck upon some reef or rock, as I take it, " said the captain, "and all hands lost?" "Yes. " "Wa'al!" said the captain, after a shorter silence, "Here I sit who maycome to the same end, like enough. He holds the seas in the hollow ofHis hand. We must all strike somewhere and go down. Our comfort, then, for ourselves and one another is to have done our duty. I'd wager yourbrother did his!" "He did!" answered the young fisherman. "If ever man strove faithfullyon all occasions to do his duty, my brother did. My brother was not aquick man (anything but that), but he was a faithful, true, and just man. We were the sons of only a small tradesman in this county, sir; yet ourfather was as watchful of his good name as if he had been a king. " "A precious sight more so, I hope--bearing in mind the general run ofthat class of crittur, " said the captain. "But I interrupt. " "My brother considered that our father left the good name to us, to keepclear and true. " "Your brother considered right, " said the captain; "and you couldn't takecare of a better legacy. But again I interrupt. " "No; for I have nothing more to say. We know that Hugh lived well forthe good name, and we feel certain that he died well for the good name. And now it has come into my keeping. And that's all. " "Well spoken!" cried the captain. "Well spoken, young man! Concerningthe manner of your brother's death, "--by this time the captain hadreleased the hand he had shaken, and sat with his own broad, brown handsspread out on his knees, and spoke aside, --"concerning the manner of yourbrother's death, it may be that I have some information to give you;though it may not be, for I am far from sure. Can we have a little talkalone?" The young man rose; but not before the captain's quick eye had noticedthat, on the pretty sweetheart's turning to the window to greet the youngwidow with a nod and a wave of the hand, the young widow had held up toher the needlework on which she was engaged, with a patient and pleasantsmile. So the captain said, being on his legs, -- "What might she be making now?" "What is Margaret making, Kitty?" asked the young fisherman, --with one ofhis arms apparently mislaid somewhere. As Kitty only blushed in reply, the captain doubled himself up as far ashe could, standing, and said, with a slap of his leg, -- "In my country we should call it wedding-clothes. Fact! We should, I doassure you. " But it seemed to strike the captain in another light too; for his laughwas not a long one, and he added, in quite a gentle tone, -- "And it's very pretty, my dear, to see her--poor young thing, with herfatherless child upon her bosom--giving up her thoughts to your home andyour happiness. It's very pretty, my dear, and it's very good. May yourmarriage be more prosperous than hers, and be a comfort to her too. Maythe blessed sun see you all happy together, in possession of the goodname, long after I have done ploughing the great salt field that is neversown!" Kitty answered very earnestly, "O! Thank you, sir, with all my heart!"And, in her loving little way, kissed her hand to him, and possibly byimplication to the young fisherman, too, as the latter held the parlour-door open for the captain to pass out. CHAPTER II--THE MONEY "The stairs are very narrow, sir, " said Alfred Raybrock to CaptainJorgan. "Like my cabin-stairs, " returned the captain, "on many a voyage. " "And they are rather inconvenient for the head. " "If my head can't take care of itself by this time, after all theknocking about the world it has had, " replied the captain, asunconcernedly as if he had no connection with it, "it's not worth lookingafter. " Thus they came into the young fisherman's bedroom, which was as perfectlyneat and clean as the shop and parlour below; though it was but a littleplace, with a sliding window, and a phrenological ceiling expressive ofall the peculiarities of the house-roof. Here the captain sat down onthe foot of the bed, and glancing at a dreadful libel on Kitty whichornamented the wall, --the production of some wandering limner, whom thecaptain secretly admired as having studied portraiture from the figure-heads of ships, --motioned to the young man to take the rush-chair on theother side of the small round table. That done, the captain put his handin the deep breast-pocket of his long-skirted blue coat, and took out ofit a strong square case-bottle, --not a large bottle, but such as may beseen in any ordinary ship's medicine-chest. Setting this bottle on thetable without removing his hand from it, Captain Jorgan then spake asfollows:-- "In my last voyage homeward-bound, " said the captain, "and that's thevoyage off of which I now come straight, I encountered such weather offthe Horn as is not very often met with, even there. I have rounded thatstormy Cape pretty often, and I believe I first beat about there in theidentical storms that blew the Devil's horns and tail off, and led to thehorns being worked up into tooth-picks for the plantation overseers in mycountry, who may be seen (if you travel down South, or away West, furenough) picking their teeth with 'em, while the whips, made of the tail, flog hard. In this last voyage, homeward-bound for Liverpool from SouthAmerica, I say to you, my young friend, it blew. Whole measures! Nohalf measures, nor making believe to blow; it blew! Now I warn't blownclean out of the water into the sky, --though I expected to be eventhat, --but I was blown clean out of my course; and when at last it fellcalm, it fell dead calm, and a strong current set one way, day and night, night and day, and I drifted--drifted--drifted--out of all the ordinarytracks and courses of ships, and drifted yet, and yet drifted. Itbehooves a man who takes charge of fellow-critturs' lives, never to restfrom making himself master of his calling. I never did rest, andconsequently I knew pretty well ('specially looking over the side in thedead calm of that strong current) what dangers to expect, and whatprecautions to take against 'em. In short, we were driving head on to anisland. There was no island in the chart, and, therefore, you may say itwas ill-manners in the island to be there; I don't dispute its badbreeding, but there it was. Thanks be to Heaven, I was as ready for theisland as the island was ready for me. I made it out myself from themasthead, and I got enough way upon her in good time to keep her off. Iordered a boat to be lowered and manned, and went in that boat myself toexplore the island. There was a reef outside it, and, floating in acorner of the smooth water within the reef, was a heap of sea-weed, andentangled in that sea-weed was this bottle. " Here the captain took his hand from the bottle for a moment, that theyoung fisherman might direct a wondering glance at it; and then replacedhis band and went on:-- "If ever you come--or even if ever you don't come--to a desert place, useyou your eyes and your spy-glass well; for the smallest thing you see mayprove of use to you; and may have some information or some warning in it. That's the principle on which I came to see this bottle. I picked up thebottle and ran the boat alongside the island, and made fast and wentashore armed, with a part of my boat's crew. We found that every scrapof vegetation on the island (I give it you as my opinion, but scant andscrubby at the best of times) had been consumed by fire. As we weremaking our way, cautiously and toilsomely, over the pulverised embers, one of my people sank into the earth breast-high. He turned pale, and'Haul me out smart, shipmates, ' says he, 'for my feet are among bones. 'We soon got him on his legs again, and then we dug up the spot, and wefound that the man was right, and that his feet had been among bones. More than that, they were human bones; though whether the remains of oneman, or of two or three men, what with calcination and ashes, and whatwith a poor practical knowledge of anatomy, I can't undertake to say. Weexamined the whole island and made out nothing else, save and exceptthat, from its opposite side, I sighted a considerable tract of land, which land I was able to identify, and according to the bearings of which(not to trouble you with my log) I took a fresh departure. When I gotaboard again I opened the bottle, which was oilskin-covered as you see, and glass-stoppered as you see. Inside of it, " pursued the captain, suiting his action to his words, "I found this little crumpled, foldedpaper, just as you see. Outside of it was written, as you see, thesewords: 'Whoever finds this, is solemnly entreated by the dead to conveyit unread to Alfred Raybrock, Steepways, North Devon, England. ' A sacredcharge, " said the captain, concluding his narrative, "and, AlfredRaybrock, there it is!" "This is my poor brother's writing!" "I suppose so, " said Captain Jorgan. "I'll take a look out of thislittle window while you read it. " "Pray no, sir! I should be hurt. My brother couldn't know it would fallinto such hands as yours. " The captain sat down again on the foot of the bed, and the young manopened the folded paper with a trembling hand, and spread it on thetable. The ragged paper, evidently creased and torn both before andafter being written on, was much blotted and stained, and the ink hadfaded and run, and many words were wanting. What the captain and theyoung fisherman made out together, after much re-reading and muchhumouring of the folds of the paper, is given on the next page. The young fisherman had become more and more agitated, as the writing hadbecome clearer to him. He now left it lying before the captain, overwhose shoulder he had been reading it, and dropping into his former seat, leaned forward on the table and laid his face in his hands. "What, man, " urged the captain, "don't give in! Be up and doing _like_ aman!" "It is selfish, I know, --but doing what, doing what?" cried the youngfisherman, in complete despair, and stamping his sea-boot on the ground. "Doing what?" returned the captain. "Something! I'd go down to thelittle breakwater below yonder, and take a wrench at one of thesalt-rusted iron rings there, and either wrench it up by the roots orwrench my teeth out of my head, sooner than I'd do nothing. Nothing!"ejaculated the captain. "Any fool or fainting heart can do _that_, andnothing can come of nothing, --which was pretended to be found out, Ibelieve, by one of them Latin critters, " said the captain with thedeepest disdain; "as if Adam hadn't found it out, afore ever he so muchas named the beasts!" Yet the captain saw, in spite of his bold words, that there was somegreater reason than he yet understood for the young man's distress. Andhe eyed him with a sympathising curiosity. "Come, come!" continued the captain, "Speak out. What is it, boy!" "You have seen how beautiful she is, sir, " said the young man, looking upfor the moment, with a flushed face and rumpled hair. "Did any man ever say she warn't beautiful?" retorted the captain. "Ifso, go and lick him. " The young man laughed fretfully in spite of himself, and said-- "It's not that, it's not that. " "Wa'al, then, what is it?" said the captain in a more soothing tone. The young fisherman mournfully composed himself to tell the captain whatit was, and began: "We were to have been married next Monday week--" "Were to have been!" interrupted Captain Jorgan. "And are to be? Hey?" Young Raybrock shook his head, and traced out with his fore-finger thewords, "_poor father's five hundred pounds_, " in the written paper. "Go along, " said the captain. "Five hundred pounds? Yes?" "That sum of money, " pursued the young fisherman, entering with thegreatest earnestness on his demonstration, while the captain eyed himwith equal earnestness, "was all my late father possessed. When he died, he owed no man more than he left means to pay, but he had been able tolay by only five hundred pounds. " "Five hundred pounds, " repeated the captain. "Yes?" "In his lifetime, years before, he had expressly laid the money aside toleave to my mother, --like to settle upon her, if I make myselfunderstood. " "Yes?" "He had risked it once--my father put down in writing at that time, respecting the money--and was resolved never to risk it again. " "Not a spectator, " said the captain. "My country wouldn't have suitedhim. Yes?" "My mother has never touched the money till now. And now it was to havebeen laid out, this very next week, in buying me a handsome share in ourneighbouring fishery here, to settle me in life with Kitty. " The captain's face fell, and he passed and repassed his sun-browned righthand over his thin hair, in a discomfited manner. "Kitty's father has no more than enough to live on, even in the sparingway in which we live about here. He is a kind of bailiff or steward ofmanor rights here, and they are not much, and it is but a poor littleoffice. He was better off once, and Kitty must never marry to meredrudgery and hard living. " The captain still sat stroking his thin hair, and looking at the youngfisherman. "I am as certain that my father had no knowledge that any one was wrongedas to this money, or that any restitution ought to be made, as I amcertain that the sun now shines. But, after this solemn warning from mybrother's grave in the sea, that the money is Stolen Money, " said YoungRaybrock, forcing himself to the utterance of the words, "can I doubt it?Can I touch it?" "About not doubting, I ain't so sure, " observed the captain; "but aboutnot touching--no--I don't think you can. " "See then, " said Young Raybrock, "why I am so grieved. Think of Kitty. Think what I have got to tell her!" His heart quite failed him again when he had come round to that, and heonce more beat his sea-boot softly on the floor. But not for long; hesoon began again, in a quietly resolute tone. "However! Enough of that! You spoke some brave words to me just now, Captain Jorgan, and they shall not be spoken in vain. I have got to dosomething. What I have got to do, before all other things, is to traceout the meaning of this paper, for the sake of the Good Name that has noone else to put it right. And still for the sake of the Good Name, andmy father's memory, not a word of this writing must be breathed to mymother, or to Kitty, or to any human creature. You agree in this?" "I don't know what they'll think of us below, " said the captain, "but forcertain I can't oppose it. Now, as to tracing. How will you do?" They both, as by consent, bent over the paper again, and again carefullypuzzled out the whole of the writing. "I make out that this would stand, if all the writing was here, 'Inquireamong the old men living there, for'--some one. Most like, you'll go tothis village named here?" said the captain, musing, with his finger onthe name. "Yes! And Mr. Tregarthen is a Cornishman, and--to be sure!--comes fromLanrean. " "Does he?" said the captain quietly. "As I ain't acquainted with him, who may _he_ be?" "Mr. Tregarthen is Kitty's father. " "Ay, ay!" cried the captain. "Now you speak! Tregarthen knows thisvillage of Lanrean, then?" "Beyond all doubt he does. I have often heard him mention it, as beinghis native place. He knows it well. " "Stop half a moment, " said the captain. "We want a name here. You couldask Tregarthen (or if you couldn't I could) what names of old men heremembers in his time in those diggings? Hey?" "I can go straight to his cottage, and ask him now. " "Take me with you, " said the captain, rising in a solid way that had amost comfortable reliability in it, "and just a word more first. I haveknocked about harder than you, and have got along further than you. Ihave had, all my sea-going life long, to keep my wits polished brightwith acid and friction, like the brass cases of the ship's instruments. I'll keep you company on this expedition. Now you don't live by talkingany more than I do. Clench that hand of yours in this hand of mine, andthat's a speech on both sides. " Captain Jorgan took command of the expedition with that hearty shake. Heat once refolded the paper exactly as before, replaced it in the bottle, put the stopper in, put the oilskin over the stopper, confided the wholeto Young Raybrock's keeping, and led the way down-stairs. But it was harder navigation below-stairs than above. The instant theyset foot in the parlour the quick, womanly eye detected that there wassomething wrong. Kitty exclaimed, frightened, as she ran to her lover'sside, "Alfred! What's the matter?" Mrs. Raybrock cried out to thecaptain, "Gracious! what have you done to my son to change him like thisall in a minute?" And the young widow--who was there with her work uponher arm--was at first so agitated that she frightened the little girl sheheld in her hand, who hid her face in her mother's skirts and screamed. The captain, conscious of being held responsible for this domesticchange, contemplated it with quite a guilty expression of countenance, and looked to the young fisherman to come to his rescue. "Kitty, darling, " said Young Raybrock, "Kitty, dearest love, I must goaway to Lanrean, and I don't know where else or how much further, thisvery day. Worse than that--our marriage, Kitty, must be put off, and Idon't know for how long. " Kitty stared at him, in doubt and wonder and in anger, and pushed himfrom her with her hand. "Put off?" cried Mrs. Raybrock. "The marriage put off? And you going toLanrean! Why, in the name of the dear Lord?" "Mother dear, I can't say why; I must not say why. It would bedishonourable and undutiful to say why. " "Dishonourable and undutiful?" returned the dame. "And is there nothingdishonourable or undutiful in the boy's breaking the heart of his ownplighted love, and his mother's heart too, for the sake of the darksecrets and counsels of a wicked stranger? Why did you ever come here?"she apostrophised the innocent captain. "Who wanted you? Where did youcome from? Why couldn't you rest in your own bad place, wherever it is, instead of disturbing the peace of quiet unoffending folk like us?" "And what, " sobbed the poor little Kitty, "have I ever done to you, youhard and cruel captain, that you should come and serve me so?" And then they both began to weep most pitifully, while the captain couldonly look from the one to the other, and lay hold of himself by the coatcollar. "Margaret, " said the poor young fisherman, on his knees at Kitty's feet, while Kitty kept both her hands before her tearful face, to shut out thetraitor from her view, --but kept her fingers wide asunder and looked athim all the time, --"Margaret, you have suffered so much, souncomplainingly, and are always so careful and considerate! Do take mypart, for poor Hugh's sake!" The quiet Margaret was not appealed to in vain. "I will, Alfred, " shereturned, "and I do. I wish this gentleman had never come near us;"whereupon the captain laid hold of himself the tighter; "but I take yourpart for all that. I am sure you have some strong reason and somesufficient reason for what you do, strange as it is, and even for notsaying why you do it, strange as that is. And, Kitty darling, you arebound to think so more than any one, for true love believes everything, and bears everything, and trusts everything. And, mother dear, you arebound to think so too, for you know you have been blest with good sons, whose word was always as good as their oath, and who were brought up inas true a sense of honour as any gentleman in this land. And I am sureyou have no more call, mother, to doubt your living son than to doubtyour dead son; and for the sake of the dear dead, I stand up for the dearliving. " "Wa'al now, " the captain struck in, with enthusiasm, "this I say, Thatwhether your opinions flatter me or not, you are a young woman of sense, and spirit, and feeling; and I'd sooner have you by my side in the hourof danger, than a good half of the men I've ever fallen in with--orfallen out with, ayther. " Margaret did not return the captain's compliment, or appear fully toreciprocate his good opinion, but she applied herself to the consolationof Kitty, and of Kitty's mother-in-law that was to have been next Mondayweek, and soon restored the parlour to a quiet condition. "Kitty, my darling, " said the young fisherman, "I must go to your fatherto entreat him still to trust me in spite of this wretched change andmystery, and to ask him for some directions concerning Lanrean. Will youcome home? Will you come with me, Kitty?" Kitty answered not a word, but rose sobbing, with the end of her simplehead-dress at her eyes. Captain Jorgan followed the lovers out, quitesheepishly, pausing in the shop to give an instruction to Mr. Pettifer. "Here, Tom!" said the captain, in a low voice. "Here's something in yourline. Here's an old lady poorly and low in her spirits. Cheer her up abit, Tom. Cheer 'em all up. " Mr. Pettifer, with a brisk nod of intelligence, immediately assumed hissteward face, and went with his quiet, helpful, steward step into theparlour, where the captain had the great satisfaction of seeing him, through the glass door, take the child in his arms (who offered noobjection), and bend over Mrs. Raybrock, administering soft words ofconsolation. "Though what he finds to say, unless he's telling her that 't'll soon beover, or that most people is so at first, or that it'll do her goodafterward, I cannot imaginate!" was the captain's reflection as hefollowed the lovers. He had not far to follow them, since it was but a short descent down thestony ways to the cottage of Kitty's father. But short as the distancewas, it was long enough to enable the captain to observe that he was fastbecoming the village Ogre; for there was not a woman standing working ather door, or a fisherman coming up or going down, who saw Young Raybrockunhappy and little Kitty in tears, but he or she instantly darted asuspicious and indignant glance at the captain, as the foreigner who mustsomehow be responsible for this unusual spectacle. Consequently, whenthey came into Tregarthen's little garden, --which formed the platformfrom which the captain had seen Kitty peeping over the wall, --the captainbrought to, and stood off and on at the gate, while Kitty hurried to hideher tears in her own room, and Alfred spoke with her father, who wasworking in the garden. He was a rather infirm man, but could scarcely becalled old yet, with an agreeable face and a promising air of making thebest of things. The conversation began on his side with greatcheerfulness and good humour, but soon became distrustful, and soonangry. That was the captain's cue for striking both into theconversation and the garden. "Morning, sir!" said Captain Jorgan. "How do you do?" "The gentleman I am going away with, " said the young fisherman toTregarthen. "O!" returned Kitty's father, surveying the unfortunate captain with alook of extreme disfavour. "I confess that I can't say I am glad to seeyou. " "No, " said the captain, "and, to admit the truth, that seems to be thegeneral opinion in these parts. But don't be hasty; you may think betterof me by-and-by. " "I hope so, " observed Tregarthen. "Wa'al, _I_ hope so, " observed the captain, quite at his ease; "more thanthat, I believe so, --though you don't. Now, Mr. Tregarthen, you don'twant to exchange words of mistrust with me; and if you did, you couldn't, because I wouldn't. You and I are old enough to know better than tojudge against experience from surfaces and appearances; and if youhaven't lived to find out the evil and injustice of such judgments, youare a lucky man. " The other seemed to shrink under this remark, and replied, "Sir, I _have_lived to feel it deeply. " "Wa'al, " said the captain, mollified, "then I've made a good cast withoutknowing it. Now, Tregarthen, there stands the lover of your only child, and here stand I who know his secret. I warrant it a righteous secret, and none of his making, though bound to be of his keeping. I want tohelp him out with it, and tewwards that end we ask you to favour us withthe names of two or three old residents in the village of Lanrean. As Iam taking out my pocket-book and pencil to put the names down, I may aswell observe to you that this, wrote atop of the first page here, is myname and address: 'Silas Jonas Jorgan, Salem, Massachusetts, UnitedStates. ' If ever you take it in your head to run over any morning, Ishall be glad to welcome you. Now, what may be the spelling of thesesaid names?" "There was an elderly man, " said Tregarthen, "named David Polreath. Hemay be dead. " "Wa'al, " said the captain, cheerfully, "if Polreath's dead and buried, and can be made of any service to us, Polreath won't object to ourdigging of him up. Polreath's down, anyhow. " "There was another named Penrewen. I don't know his Christian name. " "Never mind his Chris'en name, " said the captain; "Penrewen, for short. " "There was another named John Tredgear. " "And a pleasant-sounding name, too, " said the captain; "John Tredgear'sbooked. " "I can recall no other except old Parvis. " "One of old Parvis's fam'ly I reckon, " said the captain, "kept adry-goods store in New York city, and realised a handsome competency byburning his house to ashes. Same name, anyhow. David Polreath, Unchris'en Penrewen, John Tredgear, and old Arson Parvis. " "I cannot recall any others at the moment. " "Thank'ee, " said the captain. "And so, Tregarthen, hoping for your goodopinion yet, and likewise for the fair Devonshire Flower's, yourdaughter's, I give you my hand, sir, and wish you good day. " Young Raybrock accompanied him disconsolately; for there was no Kitty atthe window when he looked up, no Kitty in the garden when he shut thegate, no Kitty gazing after them along the stony ways when they begin toclimb back. "Now I tell you what, " said the captain. "Not being at presentcalculated to promote harmony in your family, I won't come in. You goand get your dinner at home, and I'll get mine at the little hotel. Letour hour of meeting be two o'clock, and you'll find me smoking a cigar inthe sun afore the hotel door. Tell Tom Pettifer, my steward, to considerhimself on duty, and to look after your people till we come back; you'llfind he'll have made himself useful to 'em already, and will be quiteacceptable. " All was done as Captain Jorgan directed. Punctually at two o'clock theyoung fisherman appeared with his knapsack at his back; and punctually attwo o'clock the captain jerked away the last feather-end of his cigar. "Let me carry your baggage, Captain Jorgan; I can easily take it withmine. " "Thank'ee, " said the captain. "I'll carry it myself. It's only a comb. " They climbed out of the village, and paused among the trees and fern onthe summit of the hill above, to take breath, and to look down at thebeautiful sea. Suddenly the captain gave his leg a resounding slap, andcried, "Never knew such a right thing in all my life!"--and ran away. The cause of this abrupt retirement on the part of the captain was littleKitty among the trees. The captain went out of sight and waited, andkept out of sight and waited, until it occurred to him to beguile thetime with another cigar. He lighted it, and smoked it out, and still hewas out of sight and waiting. He stole within sight at last, and saw thelovers, with their arms entwined and their bent heads touching, movingslowly among the trees. It was the golden time of the afternoon then, and the captain said to himself, "Golden sun, golden sea, golden sails, golden leaves, golden love, golden youth, --a golden state of thingsaltogether!" Nevertheless the captain found it necessary to hail his young companionbefore going out of sight again. In a few moments more he came up andthey began their journey. "That still young woman with the fatherless child, " said Captain Jorgan, as they fell into step, "didn't throw her words away; but good honestwords are never thrown away. And now that I am conveying you off fromthat tender little thing that loves, and relies, and hopes, I feel justas if I was the snarling crittur in the picters, with the tight legs, thelong nose, and the feather in his cap, the tips of whose moustaches getup nearer to his eyes the wickeder he gets. " The young fisherman knew nothing of Mephistopheles; but he smiled whenthe captain stopped to double himself up and slap his leg, and they wentalong in right goodfellowship. CHAPTER V {1}--THE RESTITUTION Captain Jorgan, up and out betimes, had put the whole village of Lanreanunder an amicable cross-examination, and was returning to the KingArthur's Arms to breakfast, none the wiser for his trouble, when hebeheld the young fisherman advancing to meet him, accompanied by astranger. A glance at this stranger assured the captain that he could beno other than the Seafaring Man; and the captain was about to hail him asa fellow-craftsman, when the two stood still and silent before thecaptain, and the captain stood still, silent, and wondering before them. "Why, what's this?" cried the captain, when at last he broke the silence. "You two are alike. You two are much alike. What's this?" Not a word was answered on the other side, until after the seafaringbrother had got hold of the captain's right hand, and the fishermanbrother had got hold of the captain's left hand; and if ever the captainhad had his fill of hand-shaking, from his birth to that hour, he had itthen. And presently up and spoke the two brothers, one at a time, two ata time, two dozen at a time for the bewilderment into which they plungedthe captain, until he gradually had Hugh Raybrock's deliverance madeclear to him, and also unravelled the fact that the person referred to inthe half-obliterated paper was Tregarthen himself. "Formerly, dear Captain Jorgan, " said Alfred, "of Lanrean, you recollect?Kitty and her father came to live at Steepways after Hugh shipped on hislast voyage. " "Ay, ay!" cried the captain, fetching a breath. "_Now_ you have me intow. Then your brother here don't know his sister-in-law that is to beso much as by name?" "Never saw her; never heard of her!" "Ay, ay, ay!" cried the captain. "Why then we every one go backtogether--paper, writer, and all--and take Tregarthen into the secret wekept from him?" "Surely, " said Alfred, "we can't help it now. We must go through withour duty. " "Not a doubt, " returned the captain. "Give me an arm apiece, and let usset this ship-shape. " So walking up and down in the shrill wind on the wild moor, while theneglected breakfast cooled within, the captain and the brothers settledtheir course of action. It was that they should all proceed by the quickest means they couldsecure to Barnstaple, and there look over the father's books and papersin the lawyer's keeping; as Hugh had proposed to himself to do if ever hereached home. That, enlightened or unenlightened, they should thenreturn to Steepways and go straight to Mr. Tregarthen, and tell him allthey knew, and see what came of it, and act accordingly. Lastly, thatwhen they got there they should enter the village with all precautionsagainst Hugh's being recognised by any chance; and that to the captainshould be consigned the task of preparing his wife and mother for hisrestoration to this life. "For you see, " quoth Captain Jorgan, touching the last head, "it requirescaution any way, great joys being as dangerous as great griefs, if notmore dangerous, as being more uncommon (and therefore less providedagainst) in this round world of ours. And besides, I should like to freemy name with the ladies, and take you home again at your brightest andluckiest; so don't let's throw away a chance of success. " The captain was highly lauded by the brothers for his kind interest andforesight. "And now stop!" said the captain, coming to a standstill, and lookingfrom one brother to the other, with quite a new rigging of wrinkles abouteach eye; "you are of opinion, " to the elder, "that you are ra'atherslow?" "I assure you I am very slow, " said the honest Hugh. "Wa'al, " replied the captain, "I assure you that to the best of my beliefI am ra'ather smart. Now a slow man ain't good at quick business, ishe?" That was clear to both. "You, " said the captain, turning to the younger brother, "are a little inlove; ain't you?" "Not a little, Captain Jorgan. " "Much or little, you're sort preoccupied; ain't you?" It was impossible to be denied. "And a sort preoccupied man ain't good at quick business, is he?" saidthe captain. Equally clear on all sides. "Now, " said the captain, "I ain't in love myself, and I've made many asmart run across the ocean, and I should like to carry on and go aheadwith this affair of yours, and make a run slick through it. Shall I try?Will you hand it over to me?" They were both delighted to do so, and thanked him heartily. "Good, " said the captain, taking out his watch. "This is half-past eighta. M. , Friday morning. I'll jot that down, and we'll compute how manyhours we've been out when we run into your mother's post-office. There!The entry's made, and now we go ahead. " They went ahead so well that before the Barnstaple lawyer's office wasopen next morning, the captain was sitting whistling on the step of thedoor, waiting for the clerk to come down the street with his key and openit. But instead of the clerk there came the master, with whom thecaptain fraternised on the spot to an extent that utterly confounded him. As he personally knew both Hugh and Alfred, there was no difficulty inobtaining immediate access to such of the father's papers as were in hiskeeping. These were chiefly old letters and cash accounts; from whichthe captain, with a shrewdness and despatch that left the lawyer farbehind, established with perfect clearness, by noon, the followingparticulars:-- That one Lawrence Clissold had borrowed of the deceased, at a time whenhe was a thriving young tradesman in the town of Barnstaple, the sum offive hundred pounds. That he had borrowed it on the written statementthat it was to be laid out in furtherance of a speculation which heexpected would raise him to independence; he being, at the time ofwriting that letter, no more than a clerk in the house of DringworthBrothers, America Square, London. That the money was borrowed for astipulated period; but that, when the term was out, the aforesaidspeculation failed, and Clissold was without means of repayment. That, hereupon, he had written to his creditor, in no very persuasive terms, vaguely requesting further time. That the creditor had refused thisconcession, declaring that he could not afford delay. That Clissold thenpaid the debt, accompanying the remittance of the money with an angryletter describing it as having been advanced by a relative to save himfrom ruin. That, in acknowlodging the receipt, Raybrock had cautionedClissold to seek to borrow money of him no more, as he would never sorisk money again. Before the lawyer the captain said never a word in reference to thesediscoveries. But when the papers had been put back in their box, and heand his two companions were well out of the office, his right legsuffered for it, and he said, -- "So far this run's begun with a fair wind and a prosperous; for don't yousee that all this agrees with that dutiful trust in his father maintainedby the slow member of the Raybrock family?" Whether the brothers had seen it before or no, they saw it now. Not thatthe captain gave them much time to contemplate the state of things attheir ease, for he instantly whipped them into a chaise again, and borethem off to Steepways. Although the afternoon was but just beginning todecline when they reached it, and it was broad day-light, still they hadno difficulty, by dint of muffing the returned sailor up, and ascendingthe village rather than descending it, in reaching Tregarthen's cottageunobserved. Kitty was not visible, and they surprised Tregarthen sittingwriting in the small bay-window of his little room. "Sir, " said the captain, instantly shaking hands with him, pen and all, "I'm glad to see you, sir. How do you do, sir? I told you you'd thinkbetter of me by-and-by, and I congratulate you on going to do it. " Here the captain's eye fell on Tom Pettifer Ho, engaged in preparing somecookery at the fire. "That critter, " said the captain, smiting his leg, "is a born steward, and never ought to have been in any other way of life. Stop where youare, Tom, and make yourself useful. Now, Tregarthen, I'm going to try achair. " Accordingly the captain drew one close to him, and went on:-- "This loving member of the Raybrock family you know, sir. This slowmember of the same family you don't know, sir. Wa'al, these two arebrothers, --fact! Hugh's come to life again, and here he stands. Now seehere, my friend! You don't want to be told that he was cast away, butyou do want to be told (for there's a purpose in it) that he was castaway with another man. That man by name was Lawrence Clissold. " At the mention of this name Tregarthen started and changed colour. "What's the matter?" said the captain. "He was a fellow-clerk of mine thirty--five-and-thirty--years ago. " "True, " said the captain, immediately catching at the clew: "DringworthBrothers, America Square, London City. " The other started again, nodded, and said, "That was the house. " "Now, " pursued the captain, "between those two men cast away there arosea mystery concerning the round sum of five hundred pound. " Again Tregarthen started, changing colour. Again the captain said, "What's the matter?" As Tregarthen only answered, "Please to go on, " the captain recounted, very tersely and plainly, the nature of Clissold's wanderings on thebarren island, as he had condensed them in his mind from the seafaringman. Tregarthen became greatly agitated during this recital, and atlength exclaimed, -- "Clissold was the man who ruined me! I have suspected it for many a longyear, and now I know it. " "And how, " said the captain, drawing his chair still closer toTregarthen, and clapping his hand upon his shoulder, --"how may you knowit?" "When we were fellow-clerks, " replied Tregarthen, "in that London house, it was one of my duties to enter daily in a certain book an account ofthe sums received that day by the firm, and afterward paid into thebankers'. One memorable day, --a Wednesday, the black day of mylife, --among the sums I so entered was one of five hundred pounds. " "I begin to make it out, " said the captain. "Yes?" "It was one of Clissold's duties to copy from this entry a memorandum ofthe sums which the clerk employed to go to the bankers' paid in there. Itwas my duty to hand the money to Clissold; it was Clissold's to hand itto the clerk, with that memorandum of his writing. On that Wednesday Ientered a sum of five hundred pounds received. I handed that sum, as Ihanded the other sums in the day's entry, to Clissold. I was absolutelycertain of it at the time; I have been absolutely certain of it eversince. A sum of five hundred pounds was afterward found by the house tohave been that day wanting from the bag, from Clissold's memorandum, andfrom the entries in my book. Clissold, being questioned, stood upon hisperfect clearness in the matter, and emphatically declared that he askedno better than to be tested by 'Tregarthen's book. ' My book wasexamined, and the entry of five hundred pounds was not there. " "How not there, " said the captain, "when you made it yourself?" Tregarthen continued:-- "I was then questioned. Had I made the entry? Certainly I had. Thehouse produced my book, and it was not there. I could not deny my book;I could not deny my writing. I knew there must be forgery by some one;but the writing was wonderfully like mine, and I could impeach no one ifthe house could not. I was required to pay the money back. I did so;and I left the house, almost broken-hearted, rather than remainthere, --even if I could have done so, --with a dark shadow of suspicionalways on me. I returned to my native place, Lanrean, and remainedthere, clerk to a mine, until I was appointed to my little post here. " "I well remember, " said the captain, "that I told you that if you had noexperience of ill judgments on deceiving appearances, you were a luckyman. You went hurt at that, and I see why. I'm sorry. " "Thus it is, " said Tregarthen. "Of my own innocence I have of coursebeen sure; it has been at once my comfort and my trial. Of Clissold Ihave always had suspicions almost amounting to certainty; but they havenever been confirmed until now. For my daughter's sake and for my own Ihave carried this subject in my own heart, as the only secret of my life, and have long believed that it would die with me. " "Wa'al, my good sir, " said the captain cordially, "the present questionis, and will be long, I hope, concerning living, and not dying. Now, here are our two honest friends, the loving Raybrock and the slow. Herethey stand, agreed on one point, on which I'd back 'em round the world, and right across it from north to south, and then again from east towest, and through it, from your deepest Cornish mine to China. It is, that they will never use this same so-often-mentioned sum of money, andthat restitution of it must be made to you. These two, the loving memberand the slow, for the sake of the right and of their father's memory, will have it ready for you to-morrow. Take it, and ease their minds andmine, and end a most unfortunate transaction. " Tregarthen took the captain by the hand, and gave his hand to each of theyoung men, but positively and finally answered No. He said, they trustedto his word, and he was glad of it, and at rest in his mind; but therewas no proof, and the money must remain as it was. All were very earnestover this; and earnestness in men, when they are right and true, is soimpressive, that Mr. Pettifer deserted his cookery and looked on quitemoved. "And so, " said the captain, "so we come--as that lawyer-crittur overyonder where we were this morning might--to mere proof; do we? We musthave it; must we? How? From this Clissold's wanderings, and from whatyou say, it ain't hard to make out that there was a neat forgery of yourwriting committed by the too smart rowdy that was grease and ashes when Imade his acquaintance, and a substitution of a forged leaf in your bookfor a real and torn leaf torn out. Now was that real and true leaf thenand there destroyed? No, --for says he, in his drunken way, he slipped itinto a crack in his own desk, because you came into the office beforethere was time to burn it, and could never get back to it arterwards. Wait a bit. Where is that desk now? Do you consider it likely to be inAmerica Square, London City?" Tregarthen shook his head. "The house has not, for years, transacted business in that place. I haveheard of it, and read of it, as removed, enlarged, every way altered. Things alter so fast in these times. " "You think so, " returned the captain, with compassion; "but you shouldcome over and see _me_ afore you talk about _that_. Wa'al, now. Thisdesk, this paper, --this paper, this desk, " said the captain, ruminatingand walking about, and looking, in his uneasy abstraction, into Mr. Pettifer's hat on a table, among other things. "This desk, thispaper, --this paper, this desk, " the captain continued, musing and roamingabout the room, "I'd give--" However, he gave nothing, but took up his steward's hat instead, andstood looking into it, as if he had just come into church. After that heroamed again, and again said, "This desk, belonging to this house ofDringworth Brothers, America Square, London City--" Mr. Pettifer, still strangely moved, and now more moved than before, cutthe captain off as he backed across the room, and bespake him thus:-- "Captain Jorgan, I have been wishful to engage your attention, but Icouldn't do it. I am unwilling to interrupt Captain Jorgan, but I mustdo it. _I_ knew something about that house. " The captain stood stock-still and looked at him, --with his (Mr. Pettifer's) hat under his arm. "You're aware, " pursued his steward, "that I was once in the brokingbusiness, Captain Jorgan?" "I was aware, " said the captain, "that you had failed in that calling, and in half the businesses going, Tom. " "Not quite so, Captain Jorgan; but I failed in the broking business. Iwas partners with my brother, sir. There was a sale of old officefurniture at Dringworth Brothers' when the house was moved from AmericaSquare, and me and my brother made what we call in the trade a Dealthere, sir. And I'll make bold to say, sir, that the only thing I everhad from my brother, or from any relation, --for my relations have mostlytaken property from me instead of giving me any, --was an old desk webought at that same sale, with a crack in it. My brother wouldn't havegiven me even that, when we broke partnership, if it had been worthanything. " "Where is that desk now?" said the captain. "Well, Captain Jorgan, " replied the steward, "I couldn't say for certainwhere it is now; but when I saw it last, --which was last time we wereoutward bound, --it was at a very nice lady's at Wapping, along with alittle chest of mine which was detained for a small matter of a billowing. " The captain, instead of paying that rapt attention to his steward whichwas rendered by the other three persons present, went to Church again, inrespect of the steward's hat. And a most especially agitated andmemorable face the captain produced from it, after a short pause. "Now, Tom, " said the captain, "I spoke to you, when we first came here, respecting your constitutional weakness on the subject of sun-stroke. " "You did, sir. " "Will my slow friend, " said the captain, "lend me his arm, or I shallsink right back'ards into this blessed steward's cookery? Now, Tom, "pursued the captain, when the required assistance was given, "on youroath as a steward, didn't you take that desk to pieces to make a betterone of it, and put it together fresh, --or something of the kind?" "On my oath I did, sir, " replied the steward. "And by the blessing of Heaven, my friends, one and all, " cried thecaptain, radiant with joy, --"of the Heaven that put it into this TomPettifer's head to take so much care of his head against the brightsun, --he lined his hat with the original leaf in Tregarthen'swriting, --and here it is!" With that the captain, to the utter destruction of Mr. Pettifer'sfavourite hat, produced the book-leaf, very much worn, but still legible, and gave both his legs such tremendous slaps that they were heard far offin the bay, and never accounted for. "A quarter past five p. M. , " said the captain, pulling out his watch, "andthat's thirty-three hours and a quarter in all, and a pritty run!" How they were all overpowered with delight and triumph; how the money wasrestored, then and there, to Tregarthen; how Tregarthen, then and there, gave it all to his daughter; how the captain undertook to go toDringworth Brothers and re-establish the reputation of their forgottenold clerk; how Kitty came in, and was nearly torn to pieces, and themarriage was reappointed, needs not to be told. Nor how she and theyoung fisherman went home to the post-office to prepare the way for thecaptain's coming, by declaring him to be the mightiest of men, who hadmade all their fortunes, --and then dutifully withdrew together, in orderthat he might have the domestic coast entirely to himself. How heavailed himself of it is all that remains to tell. Deeply delighted with his trust, and putting his heart into it, he raisedthe latch of the post-office parlour where Mrs. Raybrock and the youngwidow sat, and said, -- "May I come in?" "Sure you may, Captain Jorgan!" replied the old lady. "And good reasonyou have to be free of the house, though you have not been too well usedin it by some who ought to have known better. I ask your pardon. " "No you don't, ma'am, " said the captain, "for I won't let you. Wa'al, tobe sure!" By this time he had taken a chair on the hearth between them. "Never felt such an evil spirit in the whole course of my life! There! Itell you! I could a'most have cut my own connection. Like the dealer inmy country, away West, who when he had let himself be outdone in abargain, said to himself, 'Now I tell you what! I'll never speak to youagain. ' And he never did, but joined a settlement of oysters, andtranslated the multiplication table into their language, --which is a factthat can be proved. If you doubt it, mention it to any oyster you comeacross, and see if he'll have the face to contradict it. " He took the child from her mother's lap and set it on his knee. "Not a bit afraid of me now, you see. Knows I am fond of small people. Ihave a child, and she's a girl, and I sing to her sometimes. " "What do you sing?" asked Margaret. "Not a long song, my dear. Silas Jorgan Played the organ. That's about all. And sometimes I tell her stories, --stories of sailorssupposed to be lost, and recovered after all hope was abandoned. " Herethe captain musingly went back to his song, -- Silas Jorgan Played the organ; repeating it with his eyes on the fire, as he softly danced the child onhis knee. For he felt that Margaret had stopped working. "Yes, " said the captain, still looking at the fire, "I make up storiesand tell 'em to that child. Stories of shipwreck on desert islands, andlong delay in getting back to civilised lauds. It is to stories the likeof that, mostly, that Silas Jorgan Plays the organ. " There was no light in the room but the light of the fire; for the shadesof night were on the village, and the stars had begun to peep out of thesky one by one, as the houses of the village peeped out from among thefoliage when the night departed. The captain felt that Margaret's eyeswere upon him, and thought it discreetest to keep his own eyes on thefire. "Yes; I make 'em up, " said the captain. "I make up stories of brothersbrought together by the good providence of GOD, --of sons brought back tomothers, husbands brought back to wives, fathers raised from the deep, for little children like herself. " Margaret's touch was on his arm, and he could not choose but look roundnow. Next moment her hand moved imploringly to his breast, and she wason her knees before him, --supporting the mother, who was also kneeling. "What's the matter?" said the captain. "What's the matter? Silas Jorgan Played the-- Their looks and tears were too much for him, and he could not finish thesong, short as it was. "Mistress Margaret, you have borne ill fortune well. Could you bear goodfortune equally well, if it was to come?" "I hope so. I thankfully and humbly and earnestly hope so!" "Wa'al, my dear, " said the captain, "p'rhaps it has come. He's--don't befrightened--shall I say the word--" "Alive?" "Yes!" The thanks they fervently addressed to Heaven were again too much for thecaptain, who openly took out his handkerchief and dried his eyes. "He's no further off, " resumed the captain, "than my country. Indeed, he's no further off than his own native country. To tell you the truth, he's no further off than Falmouth. Indeed, I doubt if he's quite so fur. Indeed, if you was sure you could bear it nicely, and I was to do no morethan whistle for him--" The captain's trust was discharged. A rush came, and they were alltogether again. This was a fine opportunity for Tom Pettifer to appear with a tumbler ofcold water, and he presently appeared with it, and administered it to theladies; at the same time soothing them, and composing their dresses, exactly as if they had been passengers crossing the Channel. The extentto which the captain slapped his legs, when Mr. Pettifer acquittedhimself of this act of stewardship, could have been thoroughlyappreciated by no one but himself; inasmuch as he must have slapped themblack and blue, and they must have smarted tremendously. He couldn't stay for the wedding, having a few appointments to keep atthe irreconcilable distance of about four thousand miles. So nextmorning all the village cheered him up to the level ground above, andthere he shook hands with a complete Census of its population, andinvited the whole, without exception, to come and stay several monthswith him at Salem, Mass. , U. S. And there as he stood on the spot wherehe had seen that little golden picture of love and parting, and fromwhich he could that morning contemplate another golden picture with avista of golden years in it, little Kitty put her arms around his neck, and kissed him on both his bronzed cheeks, and laid her pretty face uponhis storm-beaten breast, in sight of all, --ashamed to have called such anoble captain names. And there the captain waved his hat over his headthree final times; and there he was last seen, going away accompanied byTom Pettifer Ho, and carrying his hands in his pockets. And there, before that ground was softened with the fallen leaves of three moresummers, a rosy little boy took his first unsteady run to a fair youngmother's breast, and the name of that infant fisherman was JorganRaybrock. FOOTNOTES {1} Dicken's didn't write chapters three and four and they are omittedin this edition. The story continues with Captain Jorgan and Alfred atLanrean.