Part 24 (1/2)
Disko introduced them all in due form The captain of an old-time Chinaman could have done no better, and Mrs Cheyne babbled incoherently She nearly threw herself into Manuel's arms when she understood that he had first found Harvey
”But how shall I leave him dreeft?” said poor Manuel ”What do you yourself if you find hiood boy, and I am ever so pleased he come to be your son”
”And he told me Dan was his partner!” she cried Dan was already sufficiently pink, but he turned a rich crimson when Mrs Cheyne kissed him on both cheeks before the assembly Then they led her forward to show her the fo'c'sle, at which she wept again, and o down to see Harvey's identical bunk, and there she found the nigger cook cleaning up the stove, and he nodded as though she were some one he had expected to meet for years They tried, two at a time, to explain the boat's daily life to her, and she sat by the pawl-post, her gloved hands on the greasy table, laughing with tre eyes
”And who's ever to use the ”We're Here” after this?” said Long Jack to Tom Platt ”I feel it as if she'd made a cathedral av ut all”
”Cathedral!” sneered Tom Platt ”Oh, ef it had bin even the Fish C'mmission boat instid o' this bally-hoo o' blazes Ef we only hed sooes over! She'll have to cliht to be mannin' the yards!”
”Then Harvey was not mad,” said Penn, slowly, to Cheyne
”No, indeed--thank God,” the bigdown tenderly
”It must be terrible to bemore terrible But your child has come back? Let us thank God for that”
”hello!” said Harvey, looking down upon thenly from the wharf
”I wuzup a hand ”I wuz ments Ye needn't rub it in any more”
”'Guess I'll take care o' that,” said Dan, under his breath
”You'll be goin' off naoon't ye?”
”Well, not without the balance of es, 'less you want to have the ”We're Here” attached”
”Thet's so; I'd clean forgot”; and he counted out the re dollars ”You done all you contracted to do, Harve; and you done it 'baout's well as ef you'd been brought up--” Here Disobought hi to end
”Outside of a private car?” suggested Dan, wickedly
”Come on, and I'll show her to you,” said Harvey
Cheyne stayed to talk to Disko, but the others made a procession to the depot, with Mrs Cheyne at the head The French lories of the ”Constance” before them without a word They took them in in equal silence--stamped leather, silver door-handles and rails, cut velvet, plate-glass, nickel, bronze, hammered iron, and the rare woods of the Continent inlaid
”I told you,” said Harvey; ”I told you” This was his crowning revenge, and a most aJack told afterwards in his boarding-house, she waited on them herself Men who are accustoales have curiously neat and finished table-manners; but Mrs Cheyne, who did not know this, was surprised She longed to have Manuel for a butler; so silently and easily did he colassware and dainty silver Toreat days on the Ohio and the n potentates who dined with the officers; and Long Jack, being Irish, supplied the small talk till all were at their ease
In the ”We're Here's” cabin the fathers took stock of each other behind their cigars Cheyne kneell enough when he dealt with a man to whom he could not offer money; equally well he knew that no money could pay for what Disko had done He kept his own counsel and waited for an opening
”I hevn't done anything to your boy or fer your boy excep' -yoke,” said Disko ”He has twice ers”
”By the way,” Cheyne answered casually, ”what d'you calculate to ar and waved it comprehensively round the cabin
”Dan's jest plain boy, an' he don't allow me to do any of his thinkin'
He'll hev this able little packet when I'm laid by He ain't noways anxious to quit the business I know that”
”Mmm! 'Ever been West, Mr Troop?”
”Bin's fer ez Noo York once in a boat I've no use for railroads No h fer the Troops I've been 'most everywhere--in the nat'ral way, o' course”