A millionaire at sixteen

Captain Scoble had made noise enough during the struggle on the divan to be heard in the stateroom where Mrs. Belgrave was passing her time in fear and anxiety. It was not for herself that she worried and trembled; but she was in constant dread that Louis would be overpowered and seriously injured in the conflict she was now assured was in progress.

“O Louis! Louis!” she screamed as she came out of her room in time to see the conclusion of the conflict, and hastened as rapidly as the uneasy motion of the vessel would permit to the scene of action.

“Don’t be alarmed, mother,” returned the son, as he ran to her support. “It is all over now, and you have nothing to fear.”

“What is all over? What have you been doing?” asked the lady, hardly able to speak in the violence of her emotion.

“You can see that Scoble is in irons, and it is not possible for him to harm you or me just now,” replied Louis.

“In irons? What does that mean?”

“He has a pair of handcuffs, which he brought out for me, on his wrists.”

“But what are you going to do with him, my son?” asked the lady, who seemed to be hardly less terrified now than before.

“I don’t know yet, mother: we have not decided what to do, though of course we shall get back to the Park as soon as possible. We have disposed of Scoble for the present, and we shall soon ascertain what we shall do next. What makes you tremble so, mother? You have nothing to alarm you now.”

“I am afraid you will get hurt, Louis.”

“But you need not be afraid, for there are three of us, and Captain Ringgold is a match for any two of the men on board of the Maud. Flix and I are not ciphers, and we can manage the matter very well, I assure you. I have no idea of being conveyed to England, or of permitting you to be conveyed there. I hope and expect you will be at the Park some time this evening. Now be a good mother, and go into your stateroom again, and keep very quiet there.”

“But what are you going to do, my son?” demanded Mrs. Belgrave, still filled with terror and anxiety.

“I don’t know yet. We have fought the battle in the cabin, and won the victory, and that practically settles the whole matter. Scoble can do none of us any harm now.”

“But he and his men may be armed with pistols; and I am confident he would shoot you if you resisted him.”

“You forget, mother, that I took his revolvers from his room, and I have given them to Captain Ringgold, who has them in his pockets at this moment. Our party are all armed, though I hope we shall not be compelled to use our weapons. Now come to your room, and as soon as we have decided what to do, I will see you and tell you all about it,” said Louis, as he took the arm of Mrs. Belgrave and conducted her to her room. “Now lock the door, and lie down in your berth. Make yourself as comfortable as you can, for this state of things cannot last much longer.”

She went into the stateroom, though she was plainly very reluctant to do so. Nervous and timid as she was, she would have thrown herself physically into any affray in which the safety of her son was menaced. In the presence of Scoble she had manifested a courage and determination, which were a revelation to Louis. She was disposed to protect her son by the sacrifice of herself.

Louis called her his guardian-mother; and this was an expression that greatly pleased his fancy. He looked upon her as an influence greater and more powerful than all others on the earth combined. He was strong and energetic in the battle upon which he had just entered through the influence she exerted over him. He felt that life would be nothing to him without her. He heard her lock the door after he had kissed her and retired from the room.

Scoble still sat upon the divan at the stern of the cabin, where the stout shipmaster had cast him like an unclean bird after he had been ironed. He could not help realizing that he had been conquered, but he had not been subdued. Louis hastened to the after end of the cabin as soon as he had disposed of his mother. The captain of the Maud seemed to be dazed, confounded, and astonished at the result of the conflict in which he had been engaged. One so arbitrary and self-sufficient had some difficulty in believing that he had actually been overcome, and in his own cabin. But the violence of his wrath had apparently subsided, and he was silent, looking from one to another of his late assailants.

“What next?” he demanded, as he fixed his gaze upon Louis, evidently regarding him as the leader and chief engineer of the movement in progress.

“We are not disposed to make you any more uncomfortable than is necessary to prevent you from doing any harm to my mother and myself; and I think we shall be abundantly able to protect ourselves, Captain Scoble,” replied Louis, taking upon himself the office of spokesman. “I wish to say for myself that, in spite of all you have done, I bear no malice towards you. I shall do nothing, and my friends here will not, to injure you, or even to annoy you, unless it shall be necessary to protect myself and mother.”

“That is all very fine, you young scapegrace!” exclaimed Scoble, looking fiercely at the speaker. “We are on the high seas now, and you are engaged in a mutiny: you have captured the vessel, so far as I am concerned; and if I wished to get rid of you, as you say I do, I need only hand you over to the courts, and the penalty of your crime is death.”

“Not much high seas just here, Captain Scoble,” said Captain Ringgold, laughing at the threat of the other. “I have been to sea more than you have, and I know something about this matter. The principal idea is that four persons have been kidnapped on board of this vessel, and they are making an effort to save themselves, and to avoid being carried out of this country to a foreign shore. We will take our chances on the mutiny question.”

“Captain Ringgold, you are a sensible man; but you plainly do not know this boy who is leading you about by the nose,” continued Scoble, in quite a gentle tone for him. “That young thief robbed me of a good many thousand dollars.”

“Which you obtained by robbing those who trusted you with their money. But this young gentleman restored all this money to the rightful owners,” added the Park captain. “You are aware that warrants have been sworn out for your arrest as soon as you put yourself within the jurisdiction of the State of New York or New Jersey; and under these circumstances we don’t shake a particle at the idea of being charged with mutiny. I am in the same boat with Louis, literally and figuratively.”

“I suppose the next step will be to hand me over to a constable or sheriff,” added Scoble; and this thought evidently had a very subduing effect upon him, for he fixed his gaze upon the cabin floor and was silent.

“Well, Louis, I don’t think it will amount to anything to talk any longer over the matter. It is time something more was done,” said Captain Ringgold.

“I quite agree with you, sir: I have done talking enough with this man since I came on board of the Maud. He understands the views and feelings of my mother; and that is the main thing with me. He knows just where she stands now; and I hope he will cease to pursue a woman who has no respect or regard whatever for him,” added Louis.

“Maud Farrongate is my wife! You know it as well as I do, Louis; and I will follow her to the farthest ends of the earth, and compel her to return to her duty to me! I am not a spring chicken to be frightened away from my rights, and from my duty to my wife, by a boy who is trying to be a hawk. You understand me, Louis. Whatever happens to me, I shall struggle for my rights as long as there is any life, any soul, left in me!” said Scoble, crowding all the bitterness and malignity of his nature into his speech.

“That’s enough!” exclaimed Captain Ringgold. “I am enlisted with you, Louis, for the war; and I will stand by you as long as there is any life, any soul, left in me. Let us proceed to business, and this fellow may fume and vapor to his heart’s content while we are engaged in more telling employment. What next?”

“I propose to lock Captain Scoble into the stateroom on the starboard side of the cabin,” replied Louis. “I will see that it is in condition for him.”

The leader of the movement was afraid Felix had not been searching enough in his examination of the room; for he had brought out but one revolver, and he was afraid there might be another there. Calling his crony to accompany him, they went to the mate’s room. Louis decided that it would be the most prudent way to remove everything in it to the cabin, and this they did, without finding a dangerous weapon of any kind.

“Now, Captain Scoble, if you are disposed to make things pleasant, you will take up your quarters in the room prepared for you without any useless opposition,” said Captain Ringgold, when Louis reported to him.

“I have been outraged, my”—

“All right, captain; and four persons on board have been outraged besides yourself; but we have no time to talk about it. If you will be kind enough to move into the room made ready for you, that will save me the trouble of putting you there myself,” interposed the shipmaster.

“I will not submit to this treatment! I will not do anything that looks like submission!” protested Scoble, squirming as much as he could with his wrists ironed behind him.

“Just as you please, captain,” said Captain Ringgold, seizing him by the collar of his coat with both hands, and dragging him to the stateroom as though he had been nothing but a small boy, for he was powerless in the grasp of his stalwart conqueror.

With no difficulty whatever he thrust him into the room, and closed the door upon him. Louis was ready with the key of the lock, and promptly secured him so that he could not escape without breaking the door down. He seemed to be disposed to do this, and at once began to deliver violent blows, apparently with the heels of his boots, against the lower panel of the door.

“That won’t do,” said the stout captain briskly. “He is determined to be as uncomfortable as possible, and he shall have his own way. Unlock the door, Louis. Flix, go and find some cord, or rope; I saw some in the passage to the fore cabin.”

Louis opened the door, and Felix hastened to procure the line required. Captain Ringgold went into the room, and took the prisoner by the collar, and shoved him over to a stool in the corner.

“You make more noise than the law allows, Captain Scoble,” said his resolute captor, looking about the room to arrange his plan for dealing with the obdurate man.

“I told you I would not submit, and there is no such thing as submission in me!” howled Scoble.

“So much the worse for you, my man; but I shall keep you quiet in spite of all you can do.”

“See if you do!” replied the prisoner, still manifesting persistent defiance of his stout adversary. “You may kill me, but you cannot subdue me! I am a free-born Briton, and I submit to no man!”

“You are a free-born thief that ought to be behind prison walls, and I hope to have you there soon,” added the captain, who proceeded with the help of the boys to bind his ankles together, and then made him fast to the front of the berth.