CHAPTER XXXVI
A HAPPY REUNION
By skilful management on the part of the commander of the Guardian-Mother, the first cutter, containing the three passengers, was hoisted up to the davits, and the lady was assisted to the deck, where she was warmly welcomed by Captain Ringgold. The mate and the oarsmen assisted Louis and Felix out of the boat, for it was impossible for any of them to stand alone on the deck of the plunging vessel. The young millionaire took the arm of his mother, and conducted her to the _boudoir_, where the nickeled rail nearly surrounding the apartment enabled her to preserve her equilibrium, though with no little difficulty.
The first thing she did was to throw her spare arm around the neck of her son, and draw him to her heart, while she wept tears of joy to find herself once more in his presence. Louis returned the embrace very earnestly, and he could not repress his own tears. For some minutes they remained in each other’s arms, speaking not a word, for no words were equal to the expression of their emotions.
“Sit down, my dear mother,” said Louis at last, as he supported her to the broad sofa, where he seated her, and then bolstered her on one side with the cushions.
“I thank the good Lord that we are together once more, Louis,” she replied, taking the hand not in use in clinging to the rail. “But I am utterly bewildered to find you here, as I was when you came to me on the wreck. I gave myself up for lost before I saw the boats of this steamer coming over the stormy sea.”
“But you are safe now, and I hope all your trials and persecutions are over,” added her son warmly, as he pressed the hand he held.
“But where is that man--Scoble, I mean?” asked the poor woman, with a timid glance at Louis.
“He and his crew will be brought on board of the steamer by the second cutter.”
“This steamer?”
“Certainly; there is no other steamer near us. But you need not see him if you do not wish to do so,” suggested Louis. “I hope he has not ill-treated you, mother;” and the teeth of the young man were firmly set together.
“No, my son; but his presence is intensely disagreeable to me. Felix has saved me from a great deal of annoyance.”
“Flix, my dear fellow, I had almost forgotten you in finding my mother!” exclaimed Louis, as he grasped the hand of his former crony.
“Faix, ye’s moight forget the loikes o’ me at the prisent moment,” replied Felix. “But it’s mighty glad Oi am to see you, Louis, me darlint.”
“I am just as glad to see you, old fellow; and I know you have taken good care of my mother; and I should have known it if she had not said so,” added Louis, as he touched the button of an electric bell, which presently brought Sparks into his presence. “Ask Mrs. Blossom to come to the _boudoir_, Sparks;” and the steward bowed and retired.
“Mrs. Blossom!” exclaimed Mrs. Belgrave. “Is she on board of this steamer? And Captain Ringgold too?”
“Both of them, mother; and the latter is the commander of the steamer.”
Before any explanation could be made of the strange circumstances, as they certainly were to the lady and her companion from the wreck, Mrs. Blossom appeared in the _boudoir_, and gave her old friend and her favorite in the house of Squire Scarburn a cordial greeting.
“Now, mother, Mrs. Blossom will conduct you to your stateroom. You will find all your clothes and toilet articles there; and you must change all your garments, for you must be wet through.”
“All my clothes here!” exclaimed the lady.
“They are, mother, for Captain Ringgold and I came down here on purpose for you. But I must go on deck and see what is to be done with Scoble, for he shall not annoy you here.”
“I was never more astonished in all my life than I am at this moment,” said Mrs. Belgrave, as Mrs. Blossom assisted her down the stairs to the state cabin, where her room was opposite that of her son.
“You need make no explanations, Mrs. Blossom,” added Louis. “Now, Flix, you must have a wet jacket. Sparks, you will take this young gentleman to the stateroom next to mine, which he is to occupy. Fit him out with dry clothing from my valise, and take the best of care of him.”
“Thin it is a gintleman Oi am?” chuckled Felix.
“As you always were, Flix. But Sparks is not a professor of modern languages, and I recommend you to speak English at him.”
“I shall certainly do so, Louis; and Mr. Sparks shall have no occasion to find fault with me. But what is the meaning of all this masquerade? I do not understand it any more than I do the black art,” replied Felix.
“You shall understand it all in due time, my dear fellow. In the mean time, Sparks and Mrs. Blossom will answer no questions; but as soon as the ship’s company of the Maud are disposed of, we will have a meeting here, and talk it all over,” said Louis, as he went out on the deck, while Felix followed Sparks below.
The passengers were bewildered and delighted with the elegance of the cabin; but their exclamations were not reported. The owner found the captain and most of the crew of the ship engaged in getting the second cutter up to the davits. All who came in the boat were drenched with the spray, more especially those from the wrecked schooner. But all of them were sailors, and they made their way to the deck without assistance. The climate of this region, even in mid-winter, is very mild and soft, and no one could suffer on account of his drenched clothing.
“Captain Ringgold!” exclaimed Scoble, as he confronted the commander when he leaped from the cutter. “I am extremely happy to see you, sir.”
“Happier perhaps than I am to see you,” replied the captain bluffly. “I have had the honor to be kidnapped by you, and that is not the way one gentleman treats another.”
“But the force of circumstances compelled”--
“I don’t care a straw for the force of circumstances, for I know all about them; and the force of circumstances only increased the force of your rascality. As a shipwrecked mariner, it was my duty to save you and your ship’s company, and I have done so; but the duty was made pleasant by the fact that the fate of others whom I respect and revere was involved with yours.”
“Then, captain, you would have permitted me to perish on the wreck which has just gone to pieces, if my wife and that pettifogger’s cub had not been with me?” demanded Scoble with a sneer.
“I did not say that, or mean it,” replied the captain with dignity.
“We need not quarrel, Captain Ringgold, for I am indebted to you for saving me and my companions,” continued Scoble, smothering his ill-feeling. “I need not say that I am astonished to find you here in command of a fine steamer; but I suppose you are here in the interest of that unlicked whelp of my wife.”
“I will not tolerate such language on board of my ship!” said the captain sternly, as Louis stepped from the _boudoir_, where he had remained to observe the scene.
“Oh, so you are here too!” ejaculated Scoble, when he saw his former stepson for the first time.
“I am here, John Scoble, and I would have followed you all over the world to redeem my mother from your poison fangs!” responded the young man, indignant at the invective of Scoble.
“You will have a chance to do it yet, perhaps,” replied the late captain of the Maud, now no more. “I wish to be reasonable, Captain Ringgold, and I appeal to your sense of honor and justice. This boy, this young scapegrace, has contrived to rob me of my wife, and has done so by force and violence.”
“If you apply another offensive epithet to that young gentlemen, Captain Scoble, I will lock you up in a stateroom!” interposed the commander, with energy. “Mr. Belgrave must be treated with respect by all on board of this steamer. If you cannot learn to do so, my men will show you to your stateroom.”
“_Mister_ Belgrave seems to be in clover here. A young gentleman is he?” sneered Scoble. “Is this a passenger steamer, one of the line to the Bermudas?”
“No, sir! This is a private steam-yacht, and she is owned by Mr. Louis Belgrave,” added the captain.
“Owned by him!” exclaimed the captain of the Maud.
“You do not seem to have learned the latest news in New York, and especially in Von Blonk Park,” continued the commander with quiet dignity. “You know something about a missing million; and, through the mother of Mr. Belgrave, you intended and expected to obtain possession of it, even at the sacrifice of the young gentleman’s life.”
“You wrong me, Captain Ringgold; I never had any such intention or expectation,” protested Scoble.
“Your conduct can be explained in no other manner. You deceived the lady you call your wife, for you represented yourself as an honest man, of good family, and an honorable gentleman; and you are none of these. The marriage was fraudulent, and in due time will be so declared by the courts.”
“I claim to be an honest and honorable man,” added Scoble rather tamely.
“After stealing sixty or seventy thousand dollars from those who trusted you?” demanded the captain indignantly.
“I had no intention to steal that money; my stepson robbed me of the whole of it, or I should have restored it to the owners.”
“It was restored without your assistance. There are warrants out for your arrest now. But I will not argue this question. I wish only to tell you the news you have not heard, in the hope that it will save Mrs. Belgrave from any further persecution on your part. The missing million, or rather nearly double this amount, was found by Mr. Belgrave himself, and it is all securely invested by his trustee at the present moment; and this steam-yacht was purchased out of his fortune, mainly to recover possession of his mother, and then to make a voyage around the world for the young gentleman’s instruction and amusement.”
“Do you say that the missing million has been found, Captain Ringgold?”
“That is the fact; and it is well known in Von Blonk Park and in New York.”
The expression on the face of Scoble fully revealed the effect upon him of this intelligence. He gazed down upon the deck in silence for a few moments; but he was not willing to receive this declaration, though he could not doubt its truth, as a death-blow to his hopes. His brow began to wrinkle into frowns that betrayed his wrath, and he clinched his fists, as though he had no intention to give up the battle.
“In regard to the missing million, as you call it, I have no interest in it, and it does not concern me. You slander me when you say that I have been struggling to obtain it, either by fair or foul means. Let that rest where it is. My quarrel with--with Louis Belgrave is because he has falsely and wickedly prejudiced his mother, my wife, against me; has caused her to repudiate me. I have been gentle with her from the moment she came on board of the Maud, trying by kindness to win her back. Now hear me, both of you! Maud Belgrave, as she was when we were united, is my wife! I will follow her and her son all over the world, if need be, to reclaim her. I tell you I will have her! If Louis Belgrave comes between her and me, I will strike him down like a dog, as any man in my situation would be fully justified in doing! Louis, beware! Your million shall not save you from the wrath of a wronged husband! I have nothing more to say, except to be shown into the presence of my wife.”
“You cannot go into her presence on board of this steamer!” interposed Louis.
“Bangs, conduct this man and the mate of the schooner to the after cabin,” added Captain Ringgold. “If he or the other makes any trouble, lock them into the two staterooms. Williams will go with you, and both of you will remain on watch in the cabin. If either of them is turbulent, report it to me.”
The two seamen who had proved themselves to be brave fellows in the first cutter obeyed the order, and neither Scoble nor Frinks deemed it prudent to resist it, especially as the captain of the schooner had already been knocked down by Bangs. The two seamen and Kimpton were taken to the forecastle and treated with the utmost kindness by the officers and sailors.
“That is a very obstinate and wicked man, Mr. Belgrave,” said the captain.
“I have no doubt he will make it hot for me if he gets a chance. But I must go down into the cabin to see my mother. I wish you could come with me, captain,” said Louis, when Scoble had disappeared at the gangway of the after cabin.
“It is not prudent to attempt to get into the port of St. George with the weather as it is now, and we may not get in before to-morrow. I have given the order to stand to the eastward and southward,” answered the captain. “This is not a very heavy gale; and, though it is lumpy, we are all right, and I will join you in the cabin in a few minutes.”