CHAPTER XVI

ALLEGIANCE TO THE POWERS THAT BE

Captain Scoble was an infant in the hands of a man as powerful as the shipmaster, and he was soon made fast so that he could not move hand or foot. It was an uncomfortable position to which he had been reduced, but he had brought it all upon himself by obduracy. He howled and swore like a pirate; but nothing more was said to aggravate him, and as soon as he was securely bound to the front of the berth, the party left him to become a wiser and more docile man.

“Now, Captain Belgrave, what next?” asked the captain from the Park, as he looked at Louis with a smile.

“I will leave that to you, sir. I am not a captain, and I could not handle the schooner to save my life, or even to save my mother’s life,” replied Louis as he led the way to Mrs. Belgrave’s stateroom.

“So far as the navigation of the vessel is concerned, I will attend to that; but I look upon you as the leader of the enterprise by which we are to be restored to our homes at Von Blonk Park. You know that man in the stateroom better than I do, and I think you ought to say what shall be done.”

“We will arrange it all between us. But it seems to me that the Maud is tumbling about in a very wild way,” replied Louis, as he grasped the handle of his mother’s door to avoid being hurled over to leeward.

“We are going to have a violent north-easter, and one is due about this time of year. Whatever this schooner may be able to do with a free wind, she can’t do much close-hauled. But that question will come up later,” added the captain.

“What is all the noise I heard just now, Louis?” asked Mrs. Belgrave, opening the door of her room at this moment.

“Scoble is bound hand and foot and locked into the stateroom on the other side of the cabin,” replied her son. “He can do nothing now, and you have no more to fear.”

This explanation satisfied the terrified woman, and she retired again. Captain Ringgold and Felix had seated themselves on a divan, for it was exceedingly difficult to stand in the cabin. The time had come to decide what was to be done with the vessel; for she was still in the hands of the crew, consisting of the mate and two men, besides the cook. She had hands enough to manage her; but there were still four men against one stout man and two stout boys.

Whether or not the crew would stand by their captain and fight for him was an interesting question; and when they were preparing to face it Bickling, the cook, came into the cabin from the deck. He at once announced that he had been sent below to ascertain the occasion of the noise by Mr. Frinks, who said it sounded like blows with an axe upon one of the doors.

“Which it was a great noise, for I ’eard it myself in the galley,” added the cook, steadying himself by holding on at the table.

“Perhaps the mate had better come below himself and have the noise explained to him,” replied Captain Ringgold.

“Which ’e can’t leave the deck, sir, for the vessel is making very bad weather of it; and Mr. Frinks is wondering where is the captain that ’e don’t come on deck and attend to the vessel,” said the cook.

“Do you know anything about the affairs of this vessel, cook?” asked the captain sharply.

“Which I don’t know anything at all about anything, sir.”

“You don’t? How long have you been on board of her?”

“Only two weeks and three days, sir.”

“Didn’t you come over from England in her?”

“No sir, I did not; I was cooking at a ’otel in Baltimore when Captain Farrongate engaged me. I took the lay because I wanted to go home to Hengland.”

“Who was the cook that came out in the Maud?”

“Which she ’ad no cook coming out, sir; but one of the seamen did the cooking.”

“Why do you call him Captain Farrongate when his name is Scoble?”

“The ship’s company all called ’im Captain Scoble till a few days ago, and then we were all told to call ’im Captain Farrongate, which it is true we all called ’im after that.”

“Did you know that all the persons who came on board this forenoon were kidnapped, and that two of us were confined under the lower hatch?”

“Kidnapped! Bless my body, no sir! I never ’eard a word said about any such thing sir!” protested the cook, with energy enough to be telling the truth.

“Didn’t any of the hands say anything to you about it? Didn’t they tell you they had put the hatches on when two of us went into the lower hold to examine the vessel?”

“Not a word about it, sir; which I mind my business, sir, and I have nothing to do with the foremast hands except to give them a kid of beef and a dish of h’ard bread.”

The party wondered if this man was telling the truth. Louis stated that he had seen but three men leave the Maud at the time she was sunk, which confirmed a part of the cook’s story, that he had been on board but about two weeks, and had not come from England in her.

“We have made some changes about the schooner, cook, and we should like to know how you stand. Captain Scoble has been put in irons, and is locked up in the starboard stateroom,” added Captain Ringgold, in an impressive manner. “We were all kidnapped, including the lady in this stateroom, and Scoble was intending to take her and her son, and perhaps the rest of us, to England. We have taken possession of the vessel, and I mean to take her to New York.”

“The captain in irons! Bless my body!” exclaimed the cook, apparently overwhelmed by the news.

“It is just as I state it, and the noise you heard was made by Captain Scoble, trying to get out of the room where we have confined him. But we have bound him hand and foot, and made him fast to the front of the berth, so that he can do nothing more to help himself. Now, my man, do you want to fight on Scoble’s side?”

“Bless my body! No, sir! Which I always run away when a fight is coming on,” protested Bickling.

“If you wish to take part in this conspiracy with Scoble and the mate, I shall be under the necessity of binding you hand and foot, and making you fast to a stanchion. You will obey no order given by Scoble or the mate,” continued the shipmaster, taking from his hip-pocket one of the revolvers with which Louis had provided him.

“Bless my body! Revolvers!” groaned the cook, as though one had already been fired at him; for both of the boys imitated the example of the captain and produced their weapons, though the exhibition was only for its moral effect. “I see you have the hupper ’ands, sir, and I will obey your orders in all things.”

“All right, Bickling. Now you will go on deck and tell the mate all you have learned, and we will be with you in a few minutes,” said the captain; and the cook made all haste to get out of the reach of the revolvers.

“I measured that man about right,” said Louis, after Bickling had gone. “I did not look for any powerful opposition from him.”

“As he says, he minds his own business, and don’t care who is king. Probably we shall have to serve Mr. Fobbington as we have the captain.”

“His name is Frinks; and I think he is a smarter man than Scoble; but I am sure we can handle him.”

“I am used to this sort of thing, Louis, for I once had occasion to put down a mutiny on the north-west coast. Frinks may give us some trouble; but the seamen will be about such fellows as Bickling. They work for their wages, and don’t care who is captain of the ship. Now, Louis, we will go on deck, and when I have seen what the wind and weather are, I shall know what we had better do in a nautical point of view.”

Louis expected there would be some sort of a brush with Frinks, for he must be familiar with the whole length and breadth of the plot to capture Louis and his mother. He could not plead ignorance of the designs of Scoble, for he had really managed the whole affair. The stick with which the rebellious passenger had intimidated Scoble lay on the floor where he had left it, and he picked it up, ready to make use of it with regret if occasion should require.

It was not an easy thing for the landsmen to mount the companion-stairs, for the Maud was leaping like a running horse, and the sea was breaking over her bows at every plunge she made. The two seamen had been driven to the shelter of the caboose, for there was nothing for them to do. The scene on the quarter-deck, where the mate still kept the wheel, was likely to be a stormy one in a double sense.

Bickling had not yet finished his story relating to the condition of things in the cabin. Frinks was plainly very much interested, and the situation had evidently been anticipated by him. Louis had told Captain Ringgold all he knew about Frinks, who was a good deal of a humorist; but whether or not he was a fighting character was yet to be ascertained, though in the opinion of the shipmaster it did not make much difference.

“I salute you, Mr. Frinks,” said the captain, politely addressing the mate. “You have heard the whole story from the cook, and I suppose there is nothing more to be said of a descriptive nature.”

“Who the dickens are you, my fine fellow?” demanded Frinks, who knew nothing at all about the gentleman who addressed him.

“Well, sir, I am Captain Royal Ringgold; and I have been to sea enough to see that you are handling this craft in a very lubberly fashion; and I am about to relieve you of the helm, and have the vessel better managed.”

“Thank you, Captain Royal Ringgold; I shall be under very great obligations to you for doing so. If you can make this old tub do any better, I should like to see it done; but I think we shall soon find that we have two lubbers on board instead of one,” replied the mate as pleasantly as he had talked to Louis.

“I think we had better attend to one or two preliminaries before we do anything. You assisted Captain Scoble to kidnap four persons at this moment on board of the Maud. Is this a true bill?” demanded the captain, placing himself close beside the mate.

“Yes, sir; as true as the comic almanac,” answered Frinks squarely, with a smile on his spray-covered face.

“That is honest and candid.”

“Do you suppose if the Prince of Wales should succeed to the throne of the United Kingdom, it would make any difference to me?”

“Give it up!” laughed the captain.

“He would be the king and I should still be the subject, just as John Scoble is commander of the Maud and I am the mate. It is all the same to me who is captain. I am informed by the cook that you have taken possession of the vessel, and put the captain in irons, locking him up in my stateroom.”

“The cook informed you correctly.”

“All right. I am not such a fool as Scoble, who has been jawing all day with my particular friend, Louis Belgrave, whose acquaintance I had the honor to make at Von Blonk Park. As to kidnapping you, my dear Captain Ringgold, I had not the least intention of doing anything of the sort. I would have given ten shillings out of my own pocket to get rid of you and the other young gentleman, when I saw you at the station. In a word, Captain Scoble did not want you.”

“At the same time I am glad to be here for Louis’s sake.”

“I dare say. If you are now the captain, I am ready to swear allegiance to the powers that be.” The mate resigned the wheel to the captain.