A millionaire at sixteen

At this stage of the discussion, Louis happened to step out of the stateroom to which he had retired on the appearance of Scoble, for he did not wish to provoke a quarrel with him at present. But if the vessel was in danger, as the mate intimated, he wanted to know something more of the situation. It would have been better, so far as preserving the peace was concerned, if he had kept out of sight.

“Go on deck, Mr. Frinks, and put a reef in the mainsail!” stormed the captain; and his wrath seemed to be freshly rekindled at the sight of Louis.

“It can’t be done without more hands. If you don’t care what becomes of your schooner, I am sure I don’t,” replied Frinks, who did not seem to be a model sailor, for he had not learned the duty of passive obedience.

“Here is a stout boy; take him on deck with you!” said Scoble, concentrating a look of hatred upon Louis. “He shall work his passage. Take him on deck with you! He’s of no use below.”

“He is a lubber, and good for nothing,” answered the mate, glancing at the victim. “I expect every minute to hear the mast snap off; but I shall wait till you get ready to go on deck, Captain Scoble.”

“What do you mean by calling me Captain Scoble?” demanded the commander; and it was clear that Frinks had forgotten his instructions in the excitement, and that Scoble had not noticed it till he realized that Louis was present to hear the name.

“I stand corrected, though Farrongate is not your name, all the same,” added the mate in sulky tones.

“We will not quarrel, Mr. Frinks,” said the captain, doubtless seeing that he was tipping his own fat into the fire. “I will go on deck with you, and we will reef both the fore and the mainsails.”

“All right, Captain Farrongate,” added Frinks, who had carried his point, and went on deck.

“Come, Louis, you must do your share of the work in handling the vessel, and I shall soon make a sailor of you,” said Captain Scoble, in a more pliable tone than he had used to him before.

“No, I thank you, Captain Scoble; I prefer not to be a sailor on board of this schooner,” replied Louis firmly, but in a gentle tone.

“At your old tricks, are you?” demanded the captain, scowling maliciously at the passenger.

“I must decline to do anything to assist you and your crew in carrying off my mother,” answered the brave young man.

“I don’t intend to argue the point with you any more than with the mate,” said Scoble, who had been beaten in the discussion with Frinks.

“I have no desire to argue the point, and shall not insist upon doing so,” replied Louis, moving away from the stateroom door, for he was afraid his mother would be disturbed.

“I am the master of the vessel, and all on board of her obey my orders,” retorted Scoble, following the boy farther aft, as though he intended to enforce his command.

“I have nothing to say,” added the passenger, not desiring to irritate his tyrant if he could avoid doing so, though that was an almost hopeless task.

“I have something to say, you young rascal!”

“Say it if you wish; I do not object.”

“I ordered you to go on deck.”

“I am aware that you did; but I did not go.”

“For cool impudence, you beat all the boys I ever knew!” exclaimed Scoble, who seemed to be a little bewildered for the moment.

“Do you think my impudence will compare with yours? You ask me to assist in carrying off my own mother,” added Louis, as quietly as though he had been in the squire’s parlor.

At that moment the Maud gave a lee lurch, and the passenger could hear the water pouring in over the bulwarks. Captain Scoble did not stay to bandy any more compliments with his opponent, but rushed on deck, though even Louis did not apprehend any serious danger. Mrs. Belgrave was not alarmed; and her son went part way up the steps to see what was the matter. The sea looked more angry than when he had last seen it; but he had been out in a rougher time on board the Blanche.

“Put on the hatches, Stowin!” shouted the captain as soon as he reached the deck and saw that the water was pouring down the hatchway into the steerage. “Why didn’t you have the hatches put on before this time, Mr. Frinks?”

Louis did not hear the reply, if there was any, but retreated to the cabin. His mother was not disturbed by any fears, and he answered all her questions.

“It was a lucky sea that made them close the hatches, mother; and now I am going to see if I can find Captain Ringgold and Felix,” said Louis, anxious to do something for their release.

“Be very careful, my son, won’t you?” pleaded Mrs. Belgrave.

“Certainly, I will; I am always careful.”

“Don’t provoke Scoble if you can possibly avoid it.”

“I have tried not to irritate him, though my blood is boiling every time I set eyes on him. But I have been firm and decided; for he is one of those men who would be ten times worse than they are if you did not keep a stiff upper lip and give them as good as they send. Now keep quiet, mother, and don’t be alarmed at anything,” said Louis, as he left the room and closed the door behind him.

The Maud had been fitted up as a passenger vessel, and her cabin was spacious enough to accommodate at least twenty persons. There was nothing new to be learned in this part of the schooner, and Louis went into the pantry from which Scoble had come out when the mate made the disturbance in the cabin.

In the pantry he discovered a couple of lanterns hanging on a beam overhead. He took down one of them and lighted it with a match from the tin safe. He expected to explore some dark places in his search for his friends, and he was prepared for the emergency. He thought it must be dark between-decks since the hatches had been put on.

He opened the door leading forwards, for the captain had not locked it when he came out, and stepped into a passageway, which was as dark as Egypt ahead of him. He closed the door through which he had passed, and finding the key in the lock, he turned it. By the light of his lantern he found a door on his left, which he opened. Then he found himself in what he took to be the second cabin. There was a skylight in the deck overhead, and he left his lantern in the passage. The apartment was full of tobacco smoke, and he readily concluded that this was where the captain had passed his time before he came into the cabin. He remained there but a few minutes.

Proceeding towards the forward part of the vessel, he found that his light was a necessity, and it soon enabled him to make out the lower hatchway, which he had seen before from the main deck. His first inquiry was into the strength of the padlock that held the hatch-bar in place. It was large and heavy, and the task of breaking it looked like a formidable job.

He had no tools of any kind; but there was a stove in the second cabin, and he had seen a heavy poker lying by the side of it. It was but the work of a moment to procure this implement. He thrust the small end of it under the hasp, and then applied all his strength to it. Salt water is not good for iron ware, and the fixtures were rusty. A few vigorous twists with the poker drew out the staple that held the hasp, and the lock was removed. The operator made short work with the iron bar; and in less time than it takes to tell about it, he had removed one of the hatches.

At the same moment Captain Ringgold appeared at the opening with Felix, for they had heard the noise made in getting to them. Louis could hear a heavy pounding and rattling on deck, with the voice of Scoble rising above it, and he concluded that the captain was attending to the reefing himself of the mainsail. He was therefore so far aft that he was not likely to hear anything at the main hatch.

“Arrah, Louis, me darlint, is it you?” asked Felix. “What are ye givin’ us?”

“I’m giving you your liberty,” replied Louis in a low tone. “Don’t speak out too loud.”

“It’s a good thing ye’re givin’ us. I had nearly broke me bachk in thinkin’ they moight have kilt ye, me darlint.”

“Not yet, Flix; and I shall not be the first one to drop, if it comes to that,” replied Louis cheerfully. “I hope you have not suffered much, Captain Ringgold.”

“Suffered? Oh, no, I have not suffered at all; for I found a pile of old bagging, or something of that sort, and I have been asleep most of the time for the want of something better to do,” replied the retired shipmaster in a pleasant voice, evidently taking his cue from his companions. “But I should very much like to know what all this means.”

“I think you had better come out of the hold before we have any more talk,” answered Louis, as he extended his hand to assist the captain.

“Thank you; I don’t need any assistance,” added the shipmaster, as he mounted to the lower deck by the aid of the notched stanchion which supported the forward deck-beam, Felix following him in the same manner.

“Now come with me, and we shall soon be in a place of safety,” said Louis, as he led his friends aft, feeling that their captivity could not last much longer.

“Faix, the darkness is broighter than the loight down here,” said Felix, as they groped their way through the gloomy passage; for their leader had put out the lantern, fearful that it might be seen through the skylight in the steerage.

“You shall have more light in a minute; and don’t let the darkness dazzle your eyes, Felix,” added Louis.

The conductor soon reached the door of the second cabin, which he had decided to make the headquarters of the party for the present. He threw it wide open, and the light from the apartment pervaded the dark gangway. Leading the way into the steerage, he closed the door as soon as his companions had both entered.

“I think we shall be comfortable here for a while,” said Louis, as he seated himself on one of the benches under the berths that surrounded the apartment. “Sit down, Captain Ringgold, and make yourself at home if you can.”

“Faix, a man that was raised in a bog couldn’t ask for onything better nor this,” added Felix, as he took a seat by the side of Louis, while the captain was on the other side of him.

“It seems to be getting a little rough out from the shore,” said Captain Ringgold, as the Maud made a heavy roll. “If I had known that you intended to take a sail in this craft, I should have told you that it looked as though a north-easter was coming up.”

“I had no intention of taking a sail, captain; and I have to confess that I have been made the victim of a trick,” added Louis.

“But how much of a trip do your friends intend to make of it?”

“My enemies on deck would express it better; and the word is especially applicable to the captain.”

“Who is the captain of the Oxford?”

“The schooner is not the Oxford, but the Maud; and her captain is John Scoble, whom you will better recognize by his assumed name of Wade Farrongate,” Louis explained.

“Farrongate!” exclaimed Captain Ringgold. “Then I begin to get an idea why Felix and myself were shut up under the hatches.”

“This was a trick to get my mother and myself on board of the Maud. Fobbington is a fraud; and we are bound to England.”

This was startling information to Captain Ringgold and Felix.