Part 4 (1/2)

”I am glad to hear it, for it will save me from looking any further for the man I want just now. If this deaf mute was born and brought up in Cherryfield, he must know something about the place,” added Christy as he touched a bell on his table, to which Dave instantly responded.

”Do you know Mulgrum, Dave?” asked the captain.

”No, sir; never heard of him before,” replied the steward.

”You don't know him! The man who has been cleaning the bra.s.s work on the doors?” exclaimed Christy.

”Oh! Pink, we all call him,” said the steward.

”His name is Pinkney Mulgrum,” Flint explained.

”Yes, sir; I know him, though we never had any long talks together,”

added Dave with a rich smile on his face.

”Go on deck, and tell Mulgrum to come into my cabin,” said Christy.

”If I tell him that, he won't hear me,” suggested Dave.

”Show him this paper,” interposed the first lieutenant, handing him a card on which he had written the order.

Dave left the cabin to deliver the message, and the captain immediately instructed Flint to question the man in regard to the localities and other matters in Cherryfield, suggesting that he should conduct his examination so as not to excite any suspicion. Pink Mulgrum appeared promptly, and was placed at the table where both of the officers could observe his expression. Then Flint began to write on a sheet of paper, and pa.s.sed his first question to the man. It was: ”Don't you remember me?” Mulgrum wrote that he did not. Then the inquisitor asked when he had left Cherryfield to attend the school at Hartford; and the date he gave placed him there at the very time when Flint had been the master of the school for four months. On the question of locality, he could place the church, the schoolhouse and the hotel; and he seemed to have no further knowledge of the town. When asked where his father lived, he described a white house next to the church; but Flint knew that this had been owned and occupied by the minister for many years.

”This man is a humbug,” was the next sentence the first lieutenant wrote, but he pa.s.sed it to the captain. Christy wrote under it: ”Tell him that we are perfectly satisfied with his replies, and thank him for his attendance;” which was done at once, and the captain smiled upon him as though he had conducted himself with distinguished ability.

”Mulgrum has been in Cherryfield; but he could not have remained there more than a day or two,” said Flint, when the door had closed behind the deaf mute.

The captain made a gesture to impose silence upon his companion.

”Mulgrum is all right in every respect,” said he in a loud tone, so that if the subject of the examination had stopped at the keyhole of the door, he would not be made any the wiser for what he heard there.

”He knows Cherryfield as well as he knows the deck of the Bronx, and as you say, Captain Pa.s.sford, he is all right in every respect,” added the first lieutenant in the same loud tone. ”Mulgrum is a well educated man, captain, and you will have a great deal of writing to do: I suggest that you bring him into your cabin, and make him your clerk.”

”That is a capital idea, Mr. Flint, and I shall consider it,” returned the commander, making sure that the man at the door should hear him, if Mulgrum lingered there. ”I have a number of letters sent over from England relating to blockade runners that I wish to have copied for the use of any naval officers with whom I may fall in; and I have not the time to do it myself.”

”Mulgrum writes a very handsome hand, and no one could do the work any better than he.”

Christy thought enough had been said to satisfy the curiosity of Mulgrum if he was still active in seeking information, and both of the officers were silent. The captain had enough to think of to last him a long while. The result of the inquiry into the auditory and vocal powers of the scullion, as Flint called him, had convinced him that the deaf mute was a fraud. He had no doubt that he could both speak and hear as well as the rest of the s.h.i.+p's company. But the puzzling question was in relation to the reason why he pretended to be deaf and dumb. If he was desirous of serving his country in the navy, and especially in the Bronx, it was not necessary to pretend to be deaf and dumb in order to obtain a fighting berth on board of her. It looked like a first cla.s.s mystery to the young commander, but he was satisfied that the presence of Mulgrum meant mischief. He could not determine at once what it was best to do to solve the mystery; but he decided that the most extreme watchfulness was required of him and his first lieutenant. This was all he could do, and he touched his bell again.

”Dave,” said he when the cabin steward presented himself before him, ”go on deck and ask Mr. Lillyworth to report to me the log and the weather.”

”The log and the weather, sir,” replied Dave, as he hastened out of the cabin.

Christy watched him closely as he went out at the door, and he was satisfied that Mulgrum was not in the pa.s.sage, if he had stopped there at all. His present purpose was to disarm all the suspicions of the subject of the mystery, but he would have been glad to know whether or not the man had lingered at the door to hear what was said in regard to him. He was not anxious in regard to the weather, or even the log, and he sent Dave on his errand in order to make sure that Mulgrum was not still doing duty as a listener.

”Wind south south west, log last time fifteen knots and a half,”

reported Dave, as he came in after knocking at the door.

”I can not imagine why that man pretended to be deaf and dumb in order to get a position on board of the Bronx. He is plainly a fraud,” said the captain when Dave had gone back to his work in the state room.