Part 6 (1/2)
”That is what I meant,” answered Colville ”You understand,” he went on to explain, as if urged thereto by the fixed glance of the clear blue eye--”you understand, it is none of my business I am only here as the Marquis de Gemosac's friend Know him in his own country, where I live most of the time”
Clubbe nodded
”Frencho this July,” he narrated, bluntly, ”by the 'Martha and Mary' brig of this port I was apprentice at the time Frenchman was a boy with fair hair and a wo a boy myself I was perhaps hard on him He ith his--well, his ar from his lips and carefully replaced the outer leaf, which had wrinkled Perhaps he waited to be asked a question Colville glanced at hiht,” the Captain continued, after a short silence, ”and a heavy sea, about -boat yawing about abandoned Soht
Those were queer ti no answer put out a boat and boarded her There was nobody on board but a woman and a child Woman was half mad with fear I have seen many afraid, but never one like that I was only a boyshe was afraid of We couldn't find out the smack's name It had been painted out with a tar-brush, and she was half full of water The skipper took the wo-s about--all sail set They reckoned she would founder in a few minutes But there was one old man on board, the boatswain, who had seenany water at all, because he had been told to look for the leak and couldn't find it He said that the water had been pu her; and it was his belief that she had not been abandonedabout sohted her and putto the claret, and pressed Captain Clubbe by a gesture of the hand to eested, in a conversational way
”By daylight ere ra up channel with three French men-of-war after us,” was Captain Clubbe's comprehensive reply ”As chance had it, the channel squadron hove in sight round the Foreland, and the Frenchmen turned and left us”
Clubbe lass of claret, taken at one draught like beer
”Skipper was a Farlingfordas he lived he was pestered by inquiries fro-smack supposed to have been picked up abandoned at sea
He had picked up no fishi+ng-smack, and he answered no letters about it
He was an old man when it happened, and he died at sea soon after ht here, where nobody could speak French, and, of course, neither of thehtened at first, but he soon picked up spirit They were taken in and cared for by one and another--any who could afford it For Farlingford has always bred seafaring ive and take”
”So ere told yesterday by the rector We had a long talk with hi A clever man, if--”
Dormer Colville did not coh
He had no doubt seen trouble hied and unkempt who have been sore buffeted by the world, but also such as have a clean-washed look al sleekness
”Yes,” said Clubbe, slowly and conclusively ”So you have seen the parson”
”Of course,” Colville remarked, cheerfully, after a pause; for we cannot always be co the unfortunate ”Of course, all this happened before his time, and Monsieur de Gemosac does not want to learn from hearsay, you understand, but at first hand I fancy he would, for instance, like to knohen the woht in front of hi, monumental way and looked at his questioner, who had ienuousness his own brief pause before the word mother Colville smiled pleasantly at him
”I tell you frankly, Captain,” he said, ”it would suit me better if she wasn't the mother”
”I am not here to suit you,” murmured Captain Clubbe, without haste or hesitation
”No Well, let us say for the present that she was the mother We can discuss that another ti here”
Colville made a mental calculation and nodded his head with satisfaction at the end of it He lighted another cigarette
”I a and a clean bond That is what I have been brought up to Confidence for confidence Before we go any further--” He paused and see hio o any further, I think I may take it upon myself to let you into the Marquis's confidence It is about an inheritance, Captain A great inheritance and--well, that young fellow s than a seafaring life, Captain”
”I don't want any marquis to tell me that,” answered Clubbe, with his slow judicial sht him up since the cradle He's been at sea with me in fair weather and foul--and he is not the same as us”
Chapter VII