Part 16 (1/2)
”Young man,” replied Tugwell, with just indignation, ”a hofficer should be above such words. But I forgive 'e, and hope the Lord will do the same, with allowance for youth and ill-convenience. I might 'a knowed no better, at your age and training.”
”But what were you paid for, just answer me that, unless it was to pull the Blonde off the sand-bank? And how can you pretend that you have done an honest thing by pulling her further upon the bank?”
”I won't ask 'e, sir, to beg my pardon for saying what never man said to me, without reading the words of the contraction;” Zeb pulled out a paper from his hat, and spread it, and laid a stone at every corner; ”this contraction was signed by yourself and Squire Darling, for and on behalf of the kingdom; and the words are for us to give our services, to pull, haul, tow, warp, or otherwise as directed, release, relieve, set free, and rescue the aforesaid s.h.i.+p, or bark, or vessel, craft, or--”
”Please not to read all that,” cried Scuddy, ”or a gale of wind may come before you are half-way through. It was Admiral Darling's lawyer, Mr.
Furkettle, who prepared it, to prevent any chance of misunderstanding.”
”Provided always,” continued Tugwell, slowly, ”and the meaning, condition, purport, object, sense, and intention of this agreement is, that the aforesaid Zebedee Tugwell shall submit in everything to the orders, commands, instructions, counsel, directions, injunctions, authority, or discretion, whether in writing or otherwise, of the aforesaid--”
”I would not interrupt you if I could help it”--Scudamore had a large stock of patience (enhanced by laborious practice at Stonnington), but who might abide, when time was precious, to see Zebedee feeling his way with his fingers along the bottom and to the end of every word, and then stopping to congratulate himself at the conquest of every one over two syllables? ”But excuse me for saying that I know all these conditions; and the tide will be lost, if we stop here.”
”Very good, sir; then you see how it standeth. Who hath broken them?
Not us! We was paid for to haul; and haul we did, according to superior orders. She grounded from the south, with the tide making upp'ard, somewhere about three-quarter flow; and the Squire, and you, and all the rest of 'e, without no knowledge of the Pig whatsomever, fastens all your pulley-haulies by the starn, and says, 'now pull!' And pull we did, to the tune of sixteen guineas a day for the good of Springhaven.”
”And you knew all the time that it was wrong! Well, I never came across such people. But surely some one of you would have had the honesty--I beg pardon, I mean the good-will--to tell us. I can scarcely imagine some forty men and boys preserving such a secret for nine whole days, hauling for their lives in the wrong direction, and never even by a wink or smile--”
”Springhaven is like that,” said Master Tugwell, proudly; ”we does a thing one and all together, even if us reasons consarning it. And over and above that, sir, there is but two men in Springhaven as understands the White Pig, barring my own self. The young 'uns might 'a smelt a rat, but they knew better than to say so. Where the Blunder grounded--and she hath airned her name, for the good of the dwellers in this village--is the chine of the Pig; and he hath a double back, with the outer side higher than the inner one. She came through a narrow nick in his outer back, and then plumped, stem on, upon the inner one. You may haul at her forever by the starn, and there she'll 'bide, or lay up again on the other back. But bring her weight forrard, and tackle her by the head, and off she comes, the very next fair tide; for she hath berthed herself over the biggest of it, and there bain't but a basketful under her forefoot.”
”Then, Master Tugwell, let us lose no time, but have at her at once, and be done with it.” Scudamore jumped up, to give action to his words; but Tugwell sate aground still, as firmly as the Blonde.
”Begging of your pardon, sir, I would invite of you not to be in no sart of hurry hasting forwardly. Us must come off gradual, after holding on so long there, and better to have Squire Darling round the corner first, sir. Not that he knoweth much about it, but 'a might make believe to do so. And when 'a hath seen us pull wrong ways, a hundred and twenty guineas' worth, a' might grudge us the reward for pulling right ways.
I've a-knowed 'un get into that state of mind, although it was his own tenants.”
The lieutenant was at length compelled to laugh, though for many reasons loth to do so. But the quiet contempt for the Admiral's skill, and the brief hint about his character, touched his sense of the ludicrous more softly than the explanation of his own mishaps. Then the Captain of Springhaven smiled almost imperceptibly; for he was a serious man, and his smiles were accustomed to be interior.
”I did hear tell,” he said, stroking his beard, for fear of having discomposed it, ”that the Squire were under compulsion to go a bit westward again to-morrow. And when he cometh back he would be glad to find us had managed the job without him. No fear of the weather breaking up afore Friday, and her can't take no harm for a tide or two. If you thinks well, sir, let us heave at her to-day, as afore, by superior orders. Then it come into your mind to try t'other end a bit, and you s.h.i.+ft all the guns and heavy lumber forrard to give weight to the bows and lift the starn, and off her will glide at the first tug to-morrow, so sure as my name is Zebedee. But mind one thing, sir, that you keep her, when you've got her. She hath too many furriner natives aboard of her, to be any way to my liking.”
”Oh, there need be no doubt about them,” replied Blyth; ”we treat them like ourselves, and they are all upon their honour, which no Frenchman ever thinks of breaking. But my men will be tired of waiting for me. I shall leave you to your plans, Tugwell.”
”Ah, I know the natur' of they young men,” Captain Zebedee mused, as he sate in his hollow, till Scudamore's boat was far away; ”they be full of scruples for themselves and faith in other fellows. He'll never tell Squire, nor no one else here, what I laid him under, and the laugh would go again' him, if he did. We shall get to-day's money, I reckon, as well as double pay to-morrow, and airn it. Well, it might 'a been better, and it might be wuss.”
About two miles westward of the brook, some rocks marked the end of the fine Springhaven sands and the beginning of a far more rugged beach, the s.h.i.+ngles and flint shelves of Pebbleridge. Here the chalk of the Suss.e.x backbone (which has been plumped over and sleeked by the flesh of the valley) juts forth, like the scrags of a skeleton, and crumbles in low but rugged cliffs into the flat domain of sea. Here the landing is bad, and the anchorage worse, for a slippery shale rejects the fluke, and the water is usually kept in a fidget between the orders of the west wind and scurry of the tide.
This very quiet morning, with the wind off sh.o.r.e, and scarcely enough of it to comb the sea, four smart-looking Frenchmen, with red caps on their heads, were barely holding way upon the light gig of the Blonde, while their Captain was keeping an appointment with a stranger, not far from the weed-strewn line of waves. In a deep rocky channel where a land-spring rose (which was still-born except at low water), and laver and dilsk and claw-coral showed that the sea had more dominion there than the sky, two men stood facing each other; and their words, though belonging to the most polite of tongues, were not so courteous as might be. Each man stood with his back to a rock--not touching it, however, because it was too wet--one was as cold and as firm as the rock, the other like the sea, tumultuous. The pa.s.sionate man was Captain Desportes, and the cold one Caryl Carne.
”Then you wish me to conclude, monsieur,” Carne spoke as one offering repentance, ”that you will not do your duty to your country, in the subject set before you? I pray you to deliberate, because your position hangs upon it.”
”Never! Never! Once more, Captain, with all thanks for your consideration, I refuse. My duty to my own honour has first place. After that my duty to my country. Speak of it no more, sir; it quite is to insult me.”
”No, Captain Desportes, it is nothing of that kind, or I should not be here to propose it. Your parole is given only as long as your s.h.i.+p continues upon the sand. The moment she floats, you are liberated.
Then is the time for a n.o.ble stroke of fortune. Is it not so, my dear friend?”
”No, sir. This affair is impossible. My honour has been pledged, not until the s.h.i.+p is floating, but until I am myself set free in France. I am sorry not to see things as you see them for me; but the question is for my own consideration.”
Captain Desportes had resented, as an honest man must do, especially when more advanced in years, the other's calm settlement, without invitation, of matters which concerned his own conscience. And as most mankind--if at all perceptive--like or dislike one another at a glance, Desportes, being very quick and warm of nature, had felt at first sight a strong repulsion from the cold and arrogant man who faced him. His age was at least twice that of Carne, he had seen much service in the better days of France, and had risen slowly by his own skill and valour; he knew that his future in the service depended upon his decision in this matter, and he had a large family to maintain. But his honour was pledged, and he held fast by it.
”There is one consideration,” Carne replied, with rancour slowly kindling in his great black eyes, ”which precedes all others, even that of honour, in the mind of a trusted officer. It is not that of patriotism--which has not its usual weight with monsieur--but it is that of obedience, discipline, loyalty, faith, towards those who have placed faith in him. Captain Desportes, as commander of a s.h.i.+p, is entrusted with property; and that confidence is the first debt upon his honour.”