Part 22 (1/2)

”Come to think of it, it was five year back,” interrupted the captain.

”All right,” I said. ”Did you at that time mail a letter for Professor Vose from that town?”

Captain Tugg smote his knee suddenly. ”By the e-tar-nal snakes!” he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed. ”Now you remind me.”

”Did you?” I asked, eagerly.

”Only letter I ever knowed him to write. He gave it to me before I started in the Sea Spell. Yes, sir. I mailed it there, for it was among my papers, and I forgot it when we touched at Conception, and again when we put in at Valparaiso.”

”Was that letter addressed to Tom Anderly, at the office of Radnor & Blunt, in New York--a firm of s.h.i.+pping merchants?”

”You win!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Captain Tugg. ”I memorized that address. Have to admit I've always been cur'ous about the Professor. You know him?”

”No, sir,” I said. ”But I believe there's a man here in town who does.

Or, at least knows something about him,” I added, as I remembered how very little Tom Anderly really knew about the man who had been picked up in the fog off Bolderhead Neck.

”I'd like to see that feller,” said Tugg.

”And I'd like mightily to see your Professor,” said I.

Tugg looked at me thoughtfully. ”Got a job?” he asked.

”I'm not sure that I shall wait for the Scarboro,” I replied. ”We come in with our second mate who was hurt by a whale. He's in hospital. I have got about all the whaling I want, I believe.”

”I'll give ye a job aboard the Sea Spell.”

”I'll think of that,” said I, quickly.

”You'll not think long, son,” drawled Captain Tugg, grimly. ”We get away on the morning tide.”

The suggestion startled me. I felt a drawing toward Captain Adoniram Tugg and his schooner. Rather, I had a strong desire to see the man whom he called his partner--the man who had given his name as Carver on the Sally Smith, but was now known to Tugg as ”Professor Vose.” I was in a fret of uncertainty.

CHAPTER XXV

IN WHICH I FOLLOW THE BECKONING FINGER OF A SPECTRE

I shall never forget that evening as I sat beside Captain Adoniram Tugg on Maria Debora's portico. From the street, which was well down toward the water-front, rose all manner of smells and noises; most of them were unpleasant. Sailors in foreign ports have to put up with a lot of discomfort and are thrown among the most objectionable people and endure more hards.h.i.+ps of a different kind than are handed to them aboard s.h.i.+p--and that's saying a good deal!

It was a warm night, too, and there were crowds on the street. A confusion of different dialects came up to me and it was only now and then that I heard an English word spoken. But these impressions came to me quite unconsciously at the time. I had a problem--and a hard one--to solve.

I had really not recovered from the shock I had received at the American consul's. My money and letters were gone. Paul Downes had represented himself as me and had got away with the money with which I had expected to pay my pa.s.sage home. But, of course, I really was not in great straights for means of getting back to Bolderhead.

With the experience I had had upon the whaling bark, and with my physique, I knew very well that I could obtain a berth on either a sailing or a steam vessel bound for the northern ports. I could work my way home after a fas.h.i.+on. Besides, I could sell my sloop for almost enough money to pay for a first-cla.s.s pa.s.sage to Boston on a Bayne Liner.

To tell the truth, I was more troubled by the loss of my letters than I was by the loss of my money. I was anxious about my mother--anxious to know how she had endured the shock of my absence, what her present condition was, and all about affairs at home. Besides, there might have been private information in those letters that I wouldn't want Paul Downes to learn.

My rascally cousin had certainly set out on a career worthy of a pirate!

He had run away from home--and probably because he was afraid of punishment for his crimes--and here in Buenos Ayres, so far from Bolderhead, had begun a new career of wrong-doing.