You are very kind, sir, very kind, returned Charlie, somewhat embarrassed. I can scarcely claim, however, to have saved your life, though I thankfully admit having had the opportunity to lend a hand. The rocket-men, in reality, did the work, for without their splendid working of the apparatus my swimming off would have been useless.
Mr Crossley frowned while the youth was speaking, and regarded him with some suspicion.
You admit, I suppose, he rejoined sternly, that if you had not swum off, the rocket apparatus would have been equally useless.
By no means, returned Charlie, with that benignant smile that always accompanied his opposition in argument. I do not admit that, because, if I had not done it, assuredly some one else would. In fact a friend of mine was on the point of making the attempt when I pulled him back and prevented him.
And why did you prevent him?
Because he was not so well able to do it as I.
Oh! I see. In other words, you have a pretty high opinion of your own powers.
Possibly I have, returned the youth, somewhat sharply. I lay claim to no exemption from the universal law of vanity which seems to affect the entire human raceespecially the cynical part of it. At the same time, knowing from long experience that I am physically stronger, can swim better, and have greater power of endurance, though not greater courage, than my friend, it would be mere pretence were I to assume that in such matters I was his inferior. You asked me why I prevented him: I gave you the reason exactly and straightforwardly. I now repeat it.
Dont be so ready to fire up, young man, said Crossley, with a deprecating smile. I had no intention of hurting your feelings.
You have not hurt them, sir, returned Charlie, with almost provoking urbanity of manner and sweetness of voice, you have only misunderstood me.
Well, well, let it pass. Tell me, now, can I do anything for you?
Nothing, thank you.
Eh? exclaimed the old gentleman in surprise.
Nothing, thank you, repeated his visitor. I did not save you for the purpose of being rewarded, and I refuse to accept reward for saving you.
For a second or two Mr Crossley regarded his visitor in silence, with a conflicting mixture of frown and smilea sort of acidulated-drop expression on his rugged face. Then he asked
What is the name of this friend whom you prevented from swimming off to us?
Shank Leather.
Is he a very great friend of yours?
Very. We have been playmates from childhood, and school-fellows till now.
What is he?his profession, I mean?
Nothing at present. That is to say, he has, like myself, been trained to no special profession, and the failure of the firm in the counting-house of which we have both served for some months has cast us adrift at the same time.
Would it give you much satisfaction if I were to find good employment for your friend?
Indeed it wouldthe highest possible satisfaction, exclaimed Charlie, with the first symptom of enthusiasm in his tone and look.
What can your friend Shank Leather do? asked the old man brusquely.
Oh! many things. Hes capital at figures, thoroughly understands book-keeping, andand is a hard-working fellow, whatever he puts his hand to.
Is he steady?
Charlie was silent for a few moments.
Well, one cannot be sure, he answered, with some hesitation, what meaning you attach to the word steady. I
Yes, yes, I see, interrupted Crossley, consulting his watch. No time to discuss meanings of words just now. Will you tell your friend to call on me here the day after to-morrow at six oclock? You live in Sealford, I have been told; does he live near you?
Yes, within a few minutes walk.
Well, tell him to be punctual. Punctuality is the soul of business. Hope I wont find your friend as independent as you seem to be! You are quite sure, are you, that I can do nothing for you? I have both money and influence.
The more determined that our hero became to decline all offers of assistance from the man who had misconstrued his motives, the more of urbanity marked his manner, and it was with a smile of ineffable good-nature on his masculine features that he repeated, Nothing, thank youquite sure. You will have done me the greatest possible service when you help my friend. Yetstay. You mentioned money. There is an institution in which I am much interested, and which you might appropriately remember just now.
What is that?
The Lifeboat Institution.
But it was not the Lifeboat Institution that saved me. It was the Rocket apparatus.
True, but it might have been a lifeboat that saved you. The rockets are in charge of the Coast-Guard and need no assistance, whereas the Lifeboat Service depends on voluntary contributions, and the fact that it did not happen to save Mr Crossley from a grave in the sea does not affect its claim to the nations gratitude for the hundreds of lives saved by its boats every year.
Admitted, my young friend, your reasoning is just, said the old gentleman, sitting down at a writing table and taking a cheque-book from a drawer; what shall I put down?
You know your circumstances best, said Charlie, somewhat amused by the question.
Most people in ordinary circumstances, returned the old man slowly as he wrote, contribute a guinea to such charities.
Many people, remarked Charlie, with a feeling of pity rather than contempt, contribute five, or even fifteen.
Ah, indeedyes, well, Mr Brooke, will you condescend to be the bearer of my contribution? Fourteen Saint John Street, Adelphi, is not far from this, and it will save a penny of postage, you know!
Mr Crossley rose and handed the cheque to his visitor, who felt half disposedon the strength of the postage remarkto refuse it and speak his mind somewhat freely on the subject, but, his eye happening to fall on the cheque at the moment, he paused.
You have made a mistake, I think, he said. This is for five hundred pounds.
I make no mistakes, Mr Brooke, returned the old man sternly. You said something about five or fifteen. I could not well manage fifteen hundred just now, for it is bad times in the city at present. Indeed, according to some people, it is always bad times there, and, to say truth, some people are not far wrongat least as regards their own experiences. Now, I must be off to business. Good-bye. Dont forget to impress on your friend the importance of punctuality.
Jacob Crossley held out his hand with an expression of affability which was for him quite marvellous.
Youre a much better man than I thought! exclaimed Charlie, grasping the proffered hand with a fervour that caused the other to wince.
Young sir, returned Crossley, regarding the fingers of his right hand somewhat pitifully, people whose physique is moulded on the pattern of Samson ought to bear in mind that rheumatism is not altogether unknown to elderly men. Your opinion of me was probably erroneous to begin with, and it is certainly false to end with. Let me advise you to remember that the gift of money does not necessarily prove anything except that a man has money to givenay, it does not always prove even that, for many people are notoriously prone to give away money that belongs to somebody else. Five hundred pounds is to some men not of much more importance than five pence is to others. Everything is relative. Good-bye.
While he was speaking Mr Crossley rang the bell and politely opened the dining-room door, so that our hero found himself in the street before he had quite recovered from his astonishment.
Please, sir, said Mrs Bland to her master after Charlie was gone, Capen Stride is awaitin in the library.
Send him here, said Crossley, once more consulting his watch.
Well, Captain Stride, Ive had a talk with him, he said, as an exceedingly broad, heavy, short-legged man entered, with a bald head and a general air of salt water, tar, and whiskers about him. Sit down. Have you made up your mind to take command of the Walrus?
Well, Mr Crossley, since youre so very good, said the sea-captain with a modest look, I had feared that the loss o
Never mind the loss of the brig, Captain. It was no fault of yours that she came to grief. Other ship-owners may do as they please. I shall take the liberty of doing as I please. So, if you are ready, the ship is ready. I have seen Captain Stuart, and I find that he is down with typhoid fever, poor fellow, and wont be fit for duty again for many weeks. The Walrus must sail not later than a week or ten days hence. She cant sail without a captain, and I know of no better man than yourself; so, if you agree to take command, there she is, if not Ill find another man.
Im agreeable, sir, said Captain Stride, with a gratified, meek look on his large bronzed facea look so very different from the leonine glare with which he was wont to regard tempestuous weather or turbulent men. Of course itll come rather sudden on the missus, but wen it blows hard whats a man got to do but make all snug and stand by?
Quite true, Stride, I have no doubt that you are nautically as well as morally correct, so I leave it to you to bring round the mistress, and consider that matter as settled. By the way, I hope that she and your little girl have not suffered from the wetting and rough handling experienced when being rescued.
Not in the least, sir, thankee. In fact I incline to the belief that they are rather more frisky than usual in consekince. Leastwise little Maggie is.
Glad to hear it. Now, about that young fellow.
By which I spose you mean Mr Brooke, sir?
The same. He has just left me, and upon my word, hes about the coolest young fellow I ever met with.
Thats just what I said to the missus, sir, the very night arter we was rescued. The way that young feller come off, Maggie, says I, is most extraornar. No fish that
Yes, yes, Stride, I know, but thats not exactly what I mean: its his being so amazingly independent that
Zactly what I said, sir. Maggie, says I, that young feller seemed to be quite independent of fin or tail, for he came right off in the teeth o wind and tide
Thats not what I mean either, Captain, interrupted the old gentleman, with slight impatience. Its his independent spirit I refer to.
Oh! I ax your pardon, sir.
Well, now, listen, and dont interrupt me. But first let me ask, does he know that I am the owner of the brig that was lost?
Yes; he knows that.
Does he know that I also own the Walrus.
No, Im pretty sure he dont. Leastwise I didnt tell him, an theres nobody else down there as knows anything about you.
So far, good. Now, Stride, I want you to help me. The young goose is so proud, or I know not what, that he wont accept any favours or rewards from me, and I find that he is out of work just now, so Im determined to give him something to do in spite of himself. The present supercargo of the Walrus is a young man who will be pleased to fall in with anything I propose to him. I mean, therefore, to put him in another ship and appoint young Brooke to the Walrus. Fortunately the firm of Withers and Company does not reveal my nameI having been Company originally, though Im the firm now, so that he wont suspect anything, and what I want is, that you should do the engaging of himbeing authorised by Withers and Companyyou understand?
I follow you, sir. But what if he objects?
He wont object. I have privately inquired about him. He is anxious to get employment, and has strong leanings to an adventurous life on the sea. Theres no accounting for taste, Captain!
Right you are, sir, replied the Captain, with an approving nod. Thats what I said only this mornin to my missus. Maggie, says I, salt water hasnt a good taste, as even the stoopidest of mortals knows, but wen a man has had to lick it off his lips at sea for the better part of half a century, its astonishin how he not only gits used to it, but even comes to like the taste of it. Pooh! says she, dont tell me you likes it, for you dont! Its all a dlusion an a snare. I hates both the taste an the smell of it. Maggie, says I, quite solemn-like, that may be so, but youre not me. No, thank goodness! says shewhich you mustnt suppose, sir, meant as she didnt like me, for shes a true-hearted affectionate creeturthough I say it as shouldntbut she meant that shed have had to go to sea reglar if she had been me, an that would have done for her in about six weeks, more or less, for the first time she ever went she was all but turned inside
If youre going citywards, interrupted Mr Crossley, again pulling out his watch, we may as well finish our talk in the street.
As Captain Stride was quite agreeable to this proposal, the two left the house together, and, hailing a hansom, drove off in the direction of the City.
Chapter Four.
Drifting on the Rocks
On the sea-shore, not far from the spot where the brig had been wrecked, Charlie Brooke and Shank Leather walked up and down engaged in earnest conversation soon after the interviews just described.
Very different was the day from that on which the wreck had taken place. It seemed almost beyond possibility that the serene sky above, and the calm, glinting ocean which rippled so softly at their feet, could be connected with the same world in which inky clouds and snowy foam and roaring billows had but a short time before held high revelry.
Well, Charlie, said his friend, after a pause, it was very good of you, old boy, and I hope that Ill do credit to your recommendation. The old man seems a decent sort of chap, though somewhat cross-grained.
He is kind-hearted, Shank; I feel quite sure of that, and hope sincerely that you will get on well with him.
With him! repeated Leather; you dont seem to understand that the situation he is to get for me is not in connection with his own business, whatever that may be. It is in some other City firm, the name of which he has not yet mentioned. I cant myself understand why he is so close!
Perhaps because he has been born with a secretive nature, suggested Charlie.
May be so. However, thats no business of mine, and it doesnt do to be too inquisitive when a man is offering you a situation of two hundred a year. It would be like looking a gift-horse in the mouth. All I care about is that Im to go to London next week and begin workWhy, you dont seem pleased to hear of my good fortune, continued Leather, turning a sharp look on his friend, who was gazing gravely at the sand, in which he was poking holes with his stick.