Works of W. W. Jacobs

by Jacobs, W. W.

  “I passed my word,” he said, stiffly.

  Mr. Stobell took his pipe out of his mouth again to offer a little encouragement. “Tredgold has broke his word before now,” he observed; “he’s got quite a name for it.”

  “But you would go out if it were not for that?” inquired Tredgold, turning a deaf ear to this remark.

  “Naturally,” said the captain, smiling; “but, then, you see I did.”

  Mr. Tredgold drummed with his fingers on the arms of his chair, and after a little hesitation asked as a great favour to be permitted to see the map. As an estate agent, he said, he took a professional interest in plans of all kinds.

  Captain Bowers rose, and in the midst of an expectant silence took the map from the bureau, and placing it on the table kept it down with his fist. The others drew near and inspected it.

  “Nobody but Captain Bowers has ever seen the other side,” said Mr. Chalk, impressively.

  “Except my niece,” interposed the captain. “She wanted to see it, and I trust her as I would trust myself. She thinks the same as I do about it.”

  His stubby forefinger travelled slowly round the coast-line until, coming to the extreme south-west corner, it stopped, and a mischievous smile creased his beard.

  “It’s buried here,” he observed. “All you’ve got to do is to find the island and dig in that spot.”

  Mr. Chalk laughed and shook his head as at a choice piece of waggishness.

  “Suppose,” said Mr. Tredgold, slowly— “suppose anybody found it without your connivance, would you take your share?”

  “Let’em find it first,” said the captain.

  “Yes, but would you?” inquired Mr. Chalk.

  Captain Bowers took up the map and returned it to its place in the bureau. “You go and find it,” he said, with a genial smile.

  “You give us permission?” demanded Tredgold.

  “Certainly,” grinned the captain. “I give you permission to go and dig over all the islands in the Pacific; there’s a goodish number of them, and it’s a fairly common shape.”

  “It seems to me it’s nobody’s property,” said Tredgold, slowly. “That is to say, it’s anybody’s that finds it. It isn’t your property, Captain Bowers? You lay no claim to it?”

  “No, no,” said the captain. “It’s nothing to do with me. You go and find it,” he repeated, with enjoyment.

  Mr. Tredgold laughed too, and his eye travelled mechanically towards the bureau. “If we do,” he said, cordially, “you shall have your share.”

  The captain thanked him and, taking up the bottle, refilled their glasses. Then, catching the dull, brooding eye of Mr. Stobell as that plain-spoken man sat in a brown study trying to separate the serious from the jocular, he drank success to their search. He was about to give vent to further pleasantries when he was stopped by the mysterious behaviour of Mr. Chalk, who, first laying a finger on his lip to ensure silence, frowned severely and nodded at the door leading to the kitchen.

  The other three looked in the direction indicated. The door stood half open, and the silhouette of a young woman in a large hat put the upper panels in shadow. The captain rose and, with a vigorous thrust of his foot, closed the door with a bang.

  “Eavesdropping,” said Mr. Chalk, in a tense whisper.

  “There’ll be a rival expedition,” said the captain, falling in with his mood. “I’ve already warned that young woman off once. You’d better start tonight.”

  He leaned back in his chair and surveyed the company pleasantly. Somewhat to Mr. Chalk’s disappointment Mr. Tredgold began to discuss agriculture, and they were still on that theme when they rose to depart some time later. Tredgold and Chalk bade the captain a cordial good-night; but Stobell, a creature of primitive impulses, found it difficult to shake hands with him. On the way home he expressed an ardent desire to tell the captain what men of sense thought of him.

  The captain lit another pipe after they had gone, and for some time sat smoking and thinking over the events of the evening. Then Mr. Tasker’s second infringement of discipline occurred to him, and, stretching out his hand, he rang the bell.

  “Has that young woman gone?” he inquired, cautiously, as Mr. Tasker appeared.

  “Yessir,” was the reply.

  “What about your articles?” demanded the captain, with sudden loudness. “What do you mean by it?”

  Mr. Tasker eyed him forlornly. “It ain’t my fault,” he said, at last. “I don’t want her.”

  “Eh?” said the other, sternly. “Don’t talk nonsense. What do you have her here for, then?”

  “Because I can’t help myself,” said Mr. Tasker, desperately; “that’s why. She’s took a fancy to me, and, that being so, it would take more than you and me to keep ‘er away.”

  “Rubbish,” said his master.

  Mr. Tasker smiled wanly. “That’s my reward for being steady,” he said, with some bitterness; “that’s what comes of having a good name in the place. I get Selina Vickers after me.”

  “You — you must have asked her to come here in the first place,” said the astonished captain.

  “Ask her?” repeated Mr. Tasker, with respectful scorn. “Ask her? She don’t want no asking.”

  “What does she come for, then?” inquired the other.

  “Me,” said Mr. Tasker, brokenly. “I never dreamt o’ such a thing. I was going ‘er way one night — about three weeks ago, it was — and I walked with her as far as her road-Mint Street. Somehow it got put about that we were walking out. A week afterwards she saw me in Harris’s, the grocer’s, and waited outside for me till I come out and walked ‘ome with me. After she came in the other night I found we was keeping company. To-night-tonight she got a ring out o’ me, and now we’re engaged.”

  “What on earth did you give her the ring for if you don’t want her?” inquired the captain, eyeing him with genuine concern.

  “Ah, it seems easy, sir,” said the unfortunate; “but you don’t know Selina. She bought the ring and said I was to pay it off a shilling a week. She took the first shilling to-night.”

  His master sat back and regarded him in amazement.

  “You don’t know Selina, sir,” repeated Mr. Tasker, in reply to this manifestation. “She always gets her own way. Her father ain’t ‘it ‘er mother not since Selina was seventeen. He dursent. The last time Selina went for him tooth and nail; smashed all the plates off the dresser throwing ’em at him, and ended by chasing of him up the road in his shirt-sleeves.”

  The captain grunted.

  “That was two years ago,” continued Mr. Tasker; “and his spirit’s quite broke. He ‘as to give all his money except a shilling a week to his wife, and he’s not allowed to go into pubs. If he does it’s no good, because they won’t serve ‘im. If they do Selina goes in next morning and gives them a piece of ‘er mind. She don’t care who’s there or what she says, and the consequence is Mr. Vickers can’t get served in Binchester for love or money. That’ll show you what she is.”

  “Well, tell her I won’t have her here,” said the captain, rising. “Good-night.”

  “I’ve told her over and over again, sir,” was the reply, “and all she says is she’s not afraid of you, nor six like you.”

  The captain fell back silent, and Mr. Tasker, pausing in a respectful attitude, watched him wistfully. The captain’s brows were bent in thought, and Mr. Tasker, reminding himself that crews had trembled at his nod and that all were silent when he spoke, felt a flutter of hope.

  “Well,” said the captain, sharply, as he turned and caught sight of him, “what are you waiting there for?”

  Mr. Tasker drifted towards the door which led upstairs.

  “I — I thought you were thinking of something we could do to prevent her coming, sir,” he said, slowly. “It’s hard on me, because as a matter of fact — —”

  “Well?” said the captain.

  “I — I’ve ‘ad my eye on another young lady for some time,” concluded Mr. Tasker.
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br />   He was standing on the bottom stair as he spoke, with his hand on the latch. Under the baleful stare with which the indignant captain favoured him, he closed it softly and mounted heavily to bed.

  CHAPTER V

  Mr. Chalk’s expedition to the Southern Seas became a standing joke with the captain, and he waylaid him on several occasions to inquire into the progress he was making, and to give him advice suitable for all known emergencies at sea, together with a few that are unknown. Even Mr. Chalk began to tire of his pleasantries, and, after listening to a surprising account of a Scotch vessel which always sailed backwards when the men whistled on Sundays, signified his displeasure by staying away from Dialstone Lane for some time.

  Deprived of his society the captain consoled himself with that of Edward Tredgold, a young man for whom he was beginning to entertain a strong partiality, and whose observations of Binchester folk, flavoured with a touch of good-natured malice, were a source of never-failing interest.

  “He is very wide-awake,” he said to his niece. “There isn’t much that escapes him.”

  Miss Drewitt, gazing idly out of window, said that she had not noticed it.

  “Very clever at his business, I understand,” said the captain.

  His niece said that he had always appeared to her — when she had happened to give the matter a thought — as a picture of indolence.

  “Ah! that’s only his manner,” replied the other, warmly. “He’s a young man that’s going to get on; he’s going to make his mark. His father’s got money, and he’ll make more of it.”

  Something in the tone of his voice attracted his niece’s attention, and she looked at him sharply as an almost incredible suspicion as to the motive of this conversation flashed on her.

  “I don’t like to see young men too fond of money,” she observed, sedately.

  “I didn’t say that,” said the captain, eagerly. “If anything, he is too open-handed. What I meant was that he isn’t lazy.”

  “He seems to be very fond of coming to see you,” said Prudence, by way of encouragement.

  “Ah!” said the captain, “and — —”

  He stopped abruptly as the girl faced round. “And?” she prompted.

  “And the crow’s-nest,” concluded the captain, somewhat lamely.

  There was no longer room for doubt. Scarce two months ashore and he was trying his hand at matchmaking. Fresh from a world of obedient satellites, and ships responding to the lightest touch of the helm, he was venturing with all the confidence of ignorance upon the most delicate of human undertakings. Miss Drewitt, eyeing him with perfect comprehension and some little severity, sat aghast at his hardihood.

  “He’s very fond of going up there,” said Captain Bowers, somewhat discomfited.

  “Yes, he and Joseph have much in common,” remarked Miss Drewitt, casually. “They’re some what alike, too, I always fancy.”

  “Alike!” exclaimed the astonished captain.

  “Edward Tredgold like Joseph? Why, you must be dreaming.”

  “Perhaps it’s only my fancy,” conceded Miss Drewitt, “but I always think that I can see a likeness.”

  “There isn’t the slightest resemblance in the world,” said the captain. “There isn’t a single feature alike. Besides, haven’t you ever noticed what a stupid expression Joseph has got?”

  “Yes,” said Miss Drewitt.

  The captain scratched his ear and regarded her closely, but Miss Drewitt’s face was statuesque in its repose.

  “There — there’s nothing wrong with your eyes, my dear?” he ventured, anxiously— “short sight or anything of that sort?”

  “I don’t think so,” said his niece, gravely.

  Captain Bowers shifted in his chair and, convinced that such a superficial observer must have overlooked many things, pointed out several admirable qualities in Edward Tredgold which he felt sure must have escaped her notice. The surprise with which Miss Drewitt greeted them all confirmed him in this opinion, and he was glad to think that he had called her attention to them ere it was too late.

  “He’s very popular in Binchester,” he said, impressively. “Chalk told me that he is surprised he has not been married before now, seeing the way that he is run after.”

  “Dear me!” said his niece, with suppressed viciousness.

  The captain smiled. He resolved to stand out for a long engagement when Mr. Tredgold came to him, and to stipulate also that they should not leave Binchester. An admirer in London to whom his niece had once or twice alluded — forgetting to mention that he was only ten — began to fade into what the captain considered proper obscurity.

  Mr. Edward Tredgold reaped some of the benefits of this conversation when he called a day or two afterwards. The captain was out, but, encouraged by Mr. Tasker, who represented that his return might be looked for at any moment, he waited for over an hour, and was on the point of departure when Miss Drewitt entered.

  “I should think that you must be tired of waiting?” she said, when he had explained.

  “I was just going,” said Mr. Tredgold, as he resumed his seat. “If you had been five minutes later you would have found an empty chair. I suppose Captain Bowers won’t be long now?”

  “He might be,” said the girl.

  “I’ll give him a little while longer if I may,” said Mr. Tredgold. “I’m very glad now that I waited — very glad indeed.”

  There was so much meaning in his voice that Miss Drewitt felt compelled to ask the reason.

  “Because I was tired when I came in and the rest has done me good,” explained Mr. Tredgold, with much simplicity. “Do you know that I sometimes think I work too hard?”

  Miss Drewitt raised her eyebrows slightly and said, “Indeed! — I am very glad that you are rested,” she added, after a pause.

  “Thank you,” said Mr. Tredgold, gratefully. “I came to see the captain about a card-table I’ve discovered for him. It’s a Queen Anne, I believe; one of the best things I’ve ever seen. It’s poked away in the back room of a cottage, and I only discovered it by accident.”

  “It’s very kind of you,” said Miss Drewitt, coldly, “but I don’t think that my uncle wants any more furniture; the room is pretty full now.”

  “I was thinking of it for your room,” said Mr. Tredgold.

  “Thank you, but my room is full,” said the girl, sharply.

  “It would go in that odd little recess by the fireplace,” continued the unmoved Mr. Tredgold. “We tried to get a small table for it before you came, but we couldn’t see anything we fancied. I promised the captain I’d keep my eyes open for something.”

  Miss Drewitt looked at him with growing indignation, and wondered whether Mr. Chalk had added her to his list of the victims of Mr. Tredgold’s blandishments.

  “Why not buy it for yourself?” she demanded.

  “No money,” said Mr. Tredgold, shaking his head. “You forget that I lost two pounds to Chalk the other day, owing to your efforts.”

  “Well, I don’t wish for it,” said Miss Drewitt, firmly. “Please don’t say anything to my uncle about it.”

  Mr. Tredgold looked disappointed. “As you please, of course,” he remarked.

  “Old things always seem a little bit musty,” said the girl, softening a little. “I, should think that I saw the ghosts of dead and gone players sitting round the table. I remember reading a story about that once.”

  “Well, what about the other things?” said Mr. Tredgold. “Look at those old chairs, full of ghosts sitting piled up in each other’s laps — there’s no reason why you should only see one sitter at a time. Think of that beautifully-carved four-poster.”

  “My uncle bought that,” said Miss Drewitt, somewhat irrelevantly.

  “Yes, but I got it for him,” said Mr. Tredgold. “You can’t pick up a thing like that at a moment’s notice — I had my eye on it for years; all the time old Brown was bedridden, in fact. I used to go and see him and take him tobacco, and he promised me that I should have
it when he had done with it.”

  “Done with it?” repeated the girl, in a startled voice. “Did — did he get another one, then?”

  Mr. Tredgold, roused from the pleasurable reminiscences of a collector, remembered himself suddenly. “Oh, yes, he got another one,” he said, soothingly.

  “Is — is he bedridden now?” inquired the girl.

  “I haven’t seen him for some time,” said Mr. Tredgold, truthfully. “He gave up smoking and — and then I didn’t go to see him, you know.”

  “He’s dead,” said Miss Drewitt, shivering. “He died in —— Oh, you are horrible!”

  “That carving—” began Mr. Tredgold.

  “Don’t talk about it, please,” said the indignant Miss Drewitt. “I can’t understand why my uncle should have listened to your advice at all; you must have forced it on him. I’m sure he didn’t know how you got it.”

  “Yes, he did,” said the other. “In fact, it was intended for his room at first. He was quite pleased with it.”

  “Why did he alter his mind, then?” inquired the girl.

  Mr. Tredgold looked suddenly at the opposite wall, but his lips quivered and his eyes watered. Miss Drewitt, reading these signs aright, was justly incensed.

  “I don’t believe it,” she cried.

  “He said that you didn’t know and he did,” said Mr. Tredgold, apologetically. “I talk too much. I’d no business to let out about old Brown, but I forgot for the moment — sailors are always prone to childish superstitions.”

  “Are you talking about my uncle?” inquired Miss Drewitt, with ominous calm.

  “They were his own words,” said the other.