by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER XIV.
CAPTAIN SHIVERNOCK'S JOKE.
Donald considered himself shrewd, sharp, and smart, because he hadinduced Laud virtually to own that Captain Shivernock had given him themoney to purchase his silence, but Donald was not half so shrewd, sharp,and smart as he thought he was.
"Mr. Cavendish, it's no use for us to mince this matter," he continued,determined further to draw out his companion, and feeling happy now, hewas very respectful to him.
"Perhaps not, Don John."
"It can do no harm for you and me to talk over this matter. You sawCaptain Shivernock on that Saturday morning--didn't you?"
"Of course, if I say I did, you will not let on about it--will you?"
"Not if I can help it; for the fact is, I am in the same boat withyou."
"Then you saw the captain."
"Of course I did."
"But what was he doing down there, that made him so particular to keepshady about it?"
"I haven't the least idea. It was the morning after Hasbrook was poundedto a jelly in his own house; but I am satisfied that the captain hadnothing to do with it."
"I am not so sure of that," added Laud.
"I am. I went to the captain's house before he returned that day, andboth Sykes and his wife told me he had left home at four o'clock thatmorning, and this was after the pounding was done. Besides, the captainwas over on Long Island when I saw him. If he had done the deed, hewould have got home before daylight, for the wind was fresh and fair.Instead of that, he was over at Turtle Head when I first saw him. TheJuno got aground with him near Seal Harbor, which made him so mad hewould not keep her any longer. He was mad because she wasn't acentre-boarder. I suppose after we parted he went over to theLincolnville or Northport Shore, and hid till after dark in SpruceHarbor, Saturday Cove, or some such place. At any rate, I was at hishouse in the evening, when he came home."
"The old fellow had been up to some trick, you may depend upon it,"added Laud, sagely.
"I came to the conclusion that his desire to keep dark was only a whim,for he is the strangest man that ever walked the earth."
"That's so; but why should he give me such a pile if he hadn't been upto something?"
"And me another pile," added Donald. "We can talk this thing overbetween ourselves, but not a word to any other person."
"Certainly; I understand. I am paid for holding my tongue, and I intendto do so honorably."
"So do I, until I learn that there is something wrong."
"You have told me some things I did not know before, Don John,"suggested Laud.
"You knew that the captain was down by Long Island."
"Yes, but I didn't know he was at Turtle Head; and I am satisfied nowthat he is the man that shook up Hasbrook that night," continued Laud,in meditative mood.
"Are you? Then I will let the whole thing out," exclaimed Donald.
"No, no! don't do that!" protested Laud. "That wouldn't be fair, atall."
"I would not be a party to the concealment of such an outrage."
"You don't understand it. Hasbrook is a regular swindler."
"That is no reason why he should be pounded half to death in the middleof the night."
"He borrowed a thousand dollars of Captain Shivernock a short timebefore the outrage. The captain told him he would lend him the money ifHasbrook would give him a good indorser on the paper. After the captainhad parted with the money, he ascertained that the indorser was notworth a dollar. Hasbrook had told him the name was that of a richfarmer, and of course the captain was mad. He tried to get back hismoney, for he knew Hasbrook never paid anything if he could help it.Here is the motive for the outrage," reasoned Laud.
"Why didn't he prosecute him for swindling? for that's what it was."
"Captain Shivernock says he won't trouble any courts to fight hisbattles for him; he can fight them himself."
"It was wrong to pound any man as Hasbrook was. Why, he wasn't able togo out of the house for a month," added Donald, who was clearly opposedto Lynch law.
Donald was somewhat staggered in his belief by the evidence of hiscompanion, but he determined to inquire further into the matter, andeven hoped now that Hasbrook would call upon him.
"One more question, Laud. Do you know where Captain Shivernock got thebills he paid you, and you paid me?" asked he.
"Of course I don't. How should I know where the captain gets his money?"replied Laud, in rather shaky tones.
"True; I didn't much think you would know."
"What odds does it make where he got the bills?" asked Laud, faintly.
"It makes a heap of odds."
"I don't see why."
"I'll tell you why. I paid three of those bills to Mr. Leach to-nightfor the Maud's suit of sails. One of them was a mended bill."
"Yes, I remember that one, for I noticed it after the captain gave methe money," added Laud.
"Mr. Leach paid that bill to Captain Patterdale."
"To Captain Patterdale!" exclaimed Laud, springing to his feet.
"What odds does it make to you whom he paid it to?" asked Donald,astonished at this sudden demonstration.
"None at all," replied Laud, recovering his self-possession.
"What made you jump so, then?"
"A mosquito bit me," laughed Laud. But it was a graveyard laugh. "Leachpaid the bill to Captain Patterdale--you say?"
"Yes, and Captain Patterdale says there is something wrong about thebill," continued Donald, who was far from satisfied with the explanationof his companion.
"What was the matter? Wasn't the bill good?" inquired Laud.
"Yes, the bill was good; but something was wrong, he didn't tell mewhat."
"That was an odd way to leave it. Why didn't he tell you what waswrong?"
"I don't know. I suppose he knows what he is about, but I don't."
"I should like to know what was wrong about this bill. It has passedthrough my hands, and it may affect my honor in some way," mused Laud.
"You had better have your honor insured, for it will get burned up oneof these days," added Donald, as he rose from his seat, and hauled inhis skiff, which was towing astern.
He stepped into the boat, and tossed Laud's basket to him.
"Here is your basket, Laud," added he. "It was my evidence against you;and next time, when you want to burn a yacht, don't leave it on herdeck."
"You will keep shady--won't you, Don John?" he pleaded.
"That will depend upon what you say and do," answered Donald, as heshoved off, and sculled to the wharf where the Maud lay, to assurehimself that she was in no danger.
He was not quite satisfied to trust her alone all night, and he decidedto sleep in her cabin. He went to the house, and told Barbara he wasafraid some accident might happen to the yacht, and with the lantern andsome bed-clothes, he returned to her. He swept up the half-burnedshavings, and threw them overboard. There was not a vestige of the fireleft, and he swabbed up the water with a sponge. Making his bed on thetransom, he lay down to think over the events of the evening. He wentto sleep after a while, and we will leave him in this obliviouscondition while we follow Laud Cavendish, who, it cannot be denied, wasin a most unhappy frame of mind. He ran the Juno up to her moorings, andafter he had secured her sail, and locked up the cabin door, he went onshore. Undoubtedly he had done an immense amount of heavy thinkingwithin the last two hours, and as he was not overstocked with brains, itwore upon him.
It was nearly ten o'clock in the evening, but late as it was, Laudwalked directly to the house of Captain Shivernock. There was a light inthe strange man's library, or office, and another in the dining-room,where the housekeeper usually sat, which indicated that the family hadnot retired. Laud walked up to the side door, and rang the bell, whichwas promptly answered by Mrs. Sykes.
"Is Captain Shivernock at home?" asked the late visitor.
"He is; but he don't see anybody so late as this," replied thehousekeeper.
"I wish to speak to him on very important b
usiness, and it is absolutelynecessary that I should see him to-night," persisted Laud.
"I will tell him."
Mrs. Sykes did tell him, and the strange man swore he would not see anyone, not even his grandmother, come down from heaven. She reported thisanswer in substance to Laud.
"I wish to see him on a matter in which he is deeply concerned," saidthe troubled visitor. "Tell him, if you please, in regard to theHasbrook affair."
Perhaps Mrs. Sykes knew something about the Hasbrook affair herself, forshe promptly consented to make this second application for the admissionof the stranger, for such he was to her.
She returned in a few moments with an invitation to enter, and so itappeared that there was some power in the "Hasbrook affair." Laud wasconducted to the library,--as the retired shipmaster chose to call theapartment, though there were not a dozen books in it,--where the captainsat in a large rocking-chair, with his feet on the table.
"Who are you?" demanded the strange man; and we are obliged to modifyhis phraseology in order to make it admissible to our pages.
"Mr. Laud Cavendish, at your service," replied he, politely.
"_Mister_ Laud Cavendish!" repeated the captain, with a palpable sneer;"you are the swell that used to drive the grocery wagon."
"I was formerly employed at Miller's store, but I am not there now."
"Well, what do you want here?"
"I wish to see you, sir."
"You do see me--don't you?" growled the eccentric. "What's yourbusiness?"
"On the morning after the Hasbrook outrage, Captain Shivernock, you wereseen at Seal Harbor," said Laud.
"Who says I was?" roared the captain, springing to his feet.
"I beg your pardon sir; but I say so," answered Laud, apparently unmovedby the violence of his auditor. "You were in the boat formerly owned byMr. Ramsay, and you ran over towards the Northport shore."
"Did you see me?"
"I did," replied Laud.
"And you have come to levy black-mail upon me," added the captain, witha withering stare at his visitor.
"Nothing of the sort, sir. I claim to be a gentleman."
"O, you do!"
Captain Shivernock laughed heartily.
"I do, sir. I am not capable of anything derogatory to the character ofa gentleman."
"Bugs and brickbats!" roared the strange man, with another outburst oflaughter. "You are a gentleman! That's good! And you won't do anythingderogatory to the character of a gentleman. That's good, too!"
"I trust I have the instincts of a gentleman," added Laud, smoothingdown his jet mustache.
"I trust you have; but what do you want of me, if you have the instinctsof a gentleman, and don't bleed men with money when you think you havethem on the hip?"
"If you will honor me with your attention a few moments, I will informyou what I want of you."
"Good again!" chuckled the captain. "I will honor you with my attention.You have got cheek enough to fit out a life insurance agency."
"I am not the only one who saw you that Saturday morning," said Laud.
"Who else saw me?"
"Don John."
"How do you know he did?"
"He told mo so."
"The young hypocrite!" exclaimed the strange man, with an oath. "I madeit a rule years ago never to trust a man or a boy who has much to dowith churches and Sunday Schools. The little snivelling puppy! And hehas gone back on me."
"It is only necessary for me to state facts," answered Laud. "You canform your own conclusions, without any help from me."
"Perhaps I can," added Captain Shivernock, who seemed to be in anunusual humor on this occasion, for the pretentious manners of hisvisitor appeared to amuse rather than irritate him.
"Again, sir, Jacob Hasbrook, of Lincolnville, believes you are the manwho pounded him to a jelly that night," continued Laud.
"Does he?" laughed the captain. "Well, that is a good joke; but I wantto say that I respect the man who did it, whoever he is."
"Self-respect is a gentlemanly quality. The man who don't respecthimself will not be respected by others," said Laud, stroking his chin.
"Eh?"
Laud confidently repeated the proposition.
"You respect yourself, and of course you respect the man that poundedHasbrook," he added.
"Do you mean to say I flogged Hasbrook?" demanded the strange man,doubling his fist, and shaking it savagely in Laud's face.
"It isn't for me to say that you did, for you know better than I do; butyou will pardon me if I say that the evidence points in this direction.Hasbrook has been over to Belfast several times to work up his case. Thelast time I saw him he was looking for Don John, who, I am afraid, israther leaky."
In spite of his bluff manners, Laud saw that the captain was not alittle startled by the information just imparted.
"The miserable little psalm-singer," growled the strange man, walkingthe room, muttering to himself. "If he disobeys my orders, I'll thrashhim worse than--Hasbrook was thrashed."
"It is unpleasant to be suspected of a crime, and revolting to theinstincts of a gentleman," added Laud.
"Do you mean to say that I am suspected of a crime, you long-earedpuppy?" yelled the captain.
"I beg your pardon, Captain Shivernock, but it isn't agreeable to agentleman to be called by such opprobrious names," said Laud, risingfrom his chair, and taking his round-top hat from the table. "I amwilling to leave you, but not to be insulted."
Laud looked like the very impersonation of dignity itself, as he walkedtowards the door.
"Stop!" yelled the captain.
"I do not know that any one but Hasbrook suspects you of a crime," Laudexplained.
"I'm glad he does suspect me," added the strange man, more gently."Whoever did that job served him just right, and I envy the man that didit."
"Still, it is unpleasant to be suspected of a crime."
"It wasn't a crime."
"People call it so; but I sympathize with you, for like you I amsuspected of a crime, of which, like yourself, I am innocent."
"Are you, indeed? And what may your crime be, Mr. Cavendish?"
"It is in this connection that I wish to state my particular businesswith you."
"Go on and state it, and don't be all night about it."
"I may add that I also came to warn you against the movements ofHasbrook. I will begin at the beginning."
"Begin, then; and don't go round Cape Horn in doing it," snarled thecaptain.
"I will, sir. Captain Patterdale--"
"Another miserable psalm-singer. Is he in the scrape?"
"He is, sir. He has lost a tin box, which contained nearly fourteenhundred dollars in cash, besides many valuable papers."
"I'm glad of it; and I hope he never will find it," was the kindlyexpression of the eccentric nabob for the Christian nabob. "Was the boxlost or stolen?"
"Stolen, sir."
"So much the better. I hope the thief will never be discovered."
Laud did not say how he happened to know that the tin box had beenstolen, for Captain Patterdale, the deputy sheriff, and Nellie weresupposed to be the only persons who had any knowledge of the fact.
"It appears that in this tin box there was a certain fifty-dollar bill,which had been torn into four parts, and mended by pasting two strips ofpaper upon it, one extending from right to left, and the other from topto bottom, on the back."
"Eh?" interposed the wicked nabob. "Wait a minute."
The captain opened an iron safe in the room, and from a drawer took outa handful of bank bills. From these he selected three, and tossed themon the table.
"Like those?" he inquired, with interest.
"Exactly like them," replied Laud, astonished to find that each was thecounterpart of the one he had paid Donald for the Juno, and had the"white cross of Denmark" upon it.
"Do you know how those bills happened to be in that condition, Mr.Cavendish?" chuckled the captain.
"Of course I do not, sir."<
br />
"I'll tell you, my gay buffer. I have got a weak, soft place somewherein my gizzard; I don't know where; if I did, I'd cut it out. About threemonths ago, just after I brought from Portland one hundred of these newfifty-dollar bills, there was a great cry here for money for somemissionary concern. I read something in the newspaper, at this time,about what some of the missionaries had done for a lot of sailors whohad been cast away on the South Sea Islands. I thought more of thepsalm-singers than ever before, and I was tempted to do something forthem. Well, I actually wrote to some parson here who was howling formoney, and stuck four of those bills between the leaves. I think it isvery likely I should have sent them to the parson, if I hadn't beencalled out of the room. I threw the note, with the bills in it, on thetable, and went out to see a pair of horses a jockey had driven into theyard for me to look at. When I came back and glanced at the note, Ithought what a fool I had been, to think of giving money to thosecanting psalm-singers. I was mad with myself for my folly, and I torethe note into four pieces before I thought that the bills were in it.But Mrs. Sykes mended them as you see. Go on with your yarn, my buffer."
"That bill I paid to Don John for the Juno," continued Laud. "He paid itto Mr. Leach, the sail-maker, who paid it to Captain Patterdale, and hesays it was one of the bills in the tin chest when it was stolen. DonJohn says he had it from me."
"Precisely so; and that is what makes it unpleasant to be suspected of acrime," laughed Captain Shivernock. "But you don't state where you gotthe bill, Mr. Cavendish. Perhaps you don't wish to tell."
"I shall tell the whole story with the greatest pleasure," added Laud."I was sailing one day down by Haddock Ledge, when I saw a man tumbleoverboard from a boat moored where he had been fishing. He was stavingdrunk, and went forward, as I thought, to get up his anchor. The boatrolled in the sea, and over he went. I got him out. The cold watersobered him in a measure, and he was very grateful to me. He went to hiscoat, which he did not wear when he fell, and took from his pocket aroll of bills. He counted off ten fifties, and gave them to me. Feelingsure that I had saved his life, I did not think five hundred dollars wasany too much to pay for it, and I took the money. I don't think he wouldhave given me so much if he hadn't been drunk. I asked him who he was,but he would not tell me, saying he didn't want his friends in Bostonto know he had been over the bay, and in the bay; but he said he hadbeen staying in Belfast a couple of days."
"Good story!" laughed the wicked nabob.
"Every word of it is as true as preaching," protested Laud.
"Just about," added the captain, who hadn't much confidence inpreaching.
"You can see, Captain Shivernock, that I am in an awkward position,"added Laud. "I have no doubt the man I saved was the one who stole thetin box. He paid me with the stolen bills."
"It is awkward, as you say," chuckled the strange man. "I suppose youwouldn't know the fellow you saved if you saw him."
"O, yes, I think I should," exclaimed Laud. "But suppose, when CaptainPatterdale comes to me to inquire where I got the marked bill, I shouldtell him this story. He wouldn't believe a word of it."
"He would be a fool if he did," exclaimed Captain Shivernock, with acoarse grin. "Therefore, my gay buffer, don't tell it to him."
"But I must tell him where I got the bill," pleaded Laud.
"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed the eccentric, shaking his sides as though theywere agitated by a young earthquake. "Tell him I gave you the bill!"
The captain seemed to be intensely amused at the novel idea; and Lauddid not object; on the contrary, he seemed to appreciate the joke. Itwas midnight when he left the house, and went to the Juno to sleep inher cabin. If he had gone home earlier in the evening, he might haveseen Captain Patterdale, who did him the honor to make a late call uponhim.