Part 11 (1/2)

When the dangerous navigation was past, Mr Jones took Billy Towler apart, and, sitting down near the weather gangway, entered into a private and confidential talk with that sprightly youngster.

”Billy, my boy,” he said, with a leer that was meant to be at once amiable and patronising, ”you and I suit each other very well, don't we?”

Billy, who had been uncommonly well treated by his new master, thrust his hands into the waistband of his trousers, and, putting his head meditatively on one side, said in a low voice--

”H'm--well, yes, you suit me pretty well.”

The respectable fish-curer chuckled, and patted his protege on the back.

After which he proceeded to discuss, or rather to detail, some matters which, had he been less affected by the contents of Square-Tom, he might have hesitated to touch upon.

”Yes” he said, ”you'll do very well, Billy. You're a good boy and a sharp one, which, you see, is exactly what I need. There are a lot o'

small matters that I want you to do for me, and that couldn't be very well done by anybody else; 'cause, d'ye see, there ain't many lads o'

your age who unite so many good qualities.”

”Very true,” remarked Billy, gravely nodding his head--which, by the way, was now decorated with a small straw hat and blue ribbon, as was his little body with a blue Guernsey s.h.i.+rt, and his small legs with white duck trousers of approved sailor cut.

”Now, among other things,” resumed Morley, ”I want you to learn some lessons.”

Billy shook his head with much decision.

”That won't go down, Mister Jones. I don't mean for to larn no more lessons. I've 'ad more than enough o' that. Fact is I consider myself edicated raither 'igher than usual. Can't I read and write, and do a bit o' cypherin'? Moreover, I knows that the world goes round the sun, w'ich is contrairy to the notions o' the haincients, wot wos rediklous enough to suppose that the sun went round the world. And don't I know that the earth is like a orange, flattened at the poles? though I don't b'lieve there _is_ no poles, an' don't care a b.u.t.ton if there was.

That's enough o' jogrify for my money; w'en I wants more I'll ax for it.”

”But it ain't that sort o' lesson I mean, Billy,” said Mr Jones, who was somewhat amused at the indignant tone in which all this was said.

”The lesson I want you to learn is this: I want you to git off by heart what you and I are doin', an' going to do, so that if you should ever come to be questioned about it at different times by different people, you might always give 'em the same intelligent answer,--d'ye understand?”

”Whew!” whistled the boy, opening his eyes and showing his teeth; ”beaks an' maginstrates, eh?”

”Just so. And remember, my boy, that you and I have been doin' one or two things together of late that makes it best for both of us to be very affectionate to, and careful about, each other. D'ye understand that?”

Billy Towler pursed his little red lips as he nodded his small head and winked one of his large blue eyes. A slight deepening of the red on his cheeks told eloquently enough that he _did_ understand that.

The tempter had gone a long way in his course by that time. So many of the folds of the thin net had been thrown over the little thoughtless victim, that, light-hearted and defiant though he was by nature, he had begun to experience a sense of restraint which was quite new to him.

”Now, Billy,” continued Jones, ”let me tell you that our prospects are pretty bright just now. I have effected an insurance on my sloop and cargo for 300 pounds, which means that I've been to a certain great city that you and I know of, and paid into a company--we shall call it the Submarine Insurance Company--a small sum for a bit of paper, which they call a policy, by which they bind themselves to pay me 300 pounds if I should lose my s.h.i.+p and cargo. You see, my lad, the risks of the sea are very great, and there's no knowing what may happen between this and the coast of France, to which we are bound after touching at Ramsgate.

D'ye understand?”

Billy shook his head, and with an air of perplexity said that he ”wasn't quite up to that dodge--didn't exactly see through it.”

”Supposin',” said he, ”you does lose the sloop an' cargo, why, wot then?--the sloop an' cargo cost somethin', I dessay?”

”Ah, Billy, you're a smart boy--a knowing young rascal,” replied Mr Jones, nodding approval; ”of course they cost something, but therein lies the advantage. The whole affair, sloop an' cargo, ain't worth more than a few pounds; so, if I throw it all away, it will be only losing a few pounds for the sake of gaining three hundred. What think you of that, lad?”

”I think the Submarine Insurance Company must be oncommon green to be took in so easy,” replied the youngster with a knowing smile.

”They ain't exactly green either, boy, but they know that if they made much fuss and bother about insuring they would soon lose their customers, so they often run the risk of a knowin' fellow like me, and take the loss rather than scare people away. You know, if a grocer was in the habit of carefully weighing and testing with acid every sovereign he got before he would sell a trifle over the counter,--if he called every note in question, and sent up to the bank to see whether it wasn't a forgery, why, his honest customers wouldn't be able to stand it.

They'd give him up. So he just gives the sovereign a ring and the note a glance an' takes his chance. So it is in some respects with insurance companies. They look at the man and the papers, see that all's right, as well as they can, and hope for the best. That's how it is.”