CHAPTER XXXVII

JOHN SCOBLE’S ANTECEDENTS

When Louis went into the cabin, he found his mother, Mrs. Blossom, and Felix seated on a divan which surrounded the mainmast. Mrs. Belgrave extended her hand and drew her son to a place by her side, embracing him again as she had when she first saw him. Her first question was in regard to Scoble, and she was informed that he was on board of the steamer.

“Sparks,” called the owner; and when the steward appeared, he inquired if the door leading from the main to the after cabin had a lock and key.

“There is a lock, but there is no key in the door, sir,” replied the steward.

“But I have the key to the lock, Mr. Belgrave,” interposed the chief steward, who happened to be within hearing.

“Will you please to lock that door, and keep it locked all the time, Mr. Sage?” added Louis.

“What is that for, my son?” asked Mrs. Belgrave, scenting some danger she could not discern.

“John Scoble and Frinks are in the after cabin, into which that door opens; but they are confined to their staterooms, with two seamen on guard over them. You are in no danger whatever, my dear mother,” replied Louis, pressing the hand, he held to reassure her.

“I am not afraid, Louis; I am not as timid as I used to be. But everything here astonishes me, my son. You order these people about as though you were perfectly at home here,” continued Mrs. Belgrave.

“I am perfectly at home here, and I wish you to be as much at home on board of this steamer as I am,” replied the owner with a cheerful smile; and for the first time in a week the millionaire at sixteen felt perfectly happy, for he had his mother with him on board of the magnificent steam-yacht.

“He ought to be entirely at home, Mrs. Belgrave, for your son is the sole owner of the steamer,” interposed Captain Ringgold, who came into the cabin in season to hear the last remarks.

“Louis the owner of the steamer!” exclaimed Mrs. Belgrave. “How can that be possible?”

“When the mate of the Maud played us that trick, and thus got rid of us, he had won the fight for which he crossed the Atlantic, and had you in his possession,” the captain explained. “I need not try to tell you how terribly alarmed Louis was when he realized that Scoble had sailed away with you on board of his vessel. Mr. Woolridge’s yacht, the Blanche, happened to be at the port where we landed, and Captain Alcorn kindly got under way to assist us in finding you. We cruised all night, but accomplished nothing.”

“I was not aware that you or Louis had done anything to find me,” added Mrs. Belgrave.

“You did not suppose that I could keep quiet while that man was carrying you off, did you, mother?” asked her son.

“I did not suppose you could do anything.”

Louis related all the incidents of the trip on the Phantom, the burning of this steamer, and the escape of Kimptom to the Maud, which had made her way out of the inlet while he was unable to lift a finger to prevent her departure. Captain Ringgold gave the history of the steam-yacht, and explained the theory which induced him to urge upon Uncle Moses the purchase of the vessel.

“But the one thing in my mind was to chase the Maud all over the world if necessary, to get you away from Scoble,” said Louis.

“I suppose you have noticed the name of this steamer, Mrs. Belgrave?” added the commander.

“I have neither seen nor heard it,” she replied.

“The Guardian-Mother; and I need hardly add that she is named after you, madam.”

“I could not call her the Maud after that schooner had had the name;” and Louis explained in what manner he had fallen upon the rather singular name. “You have always been my guardian-mother, and I have always looked up to you as such.”

The motion of the steamer was too violent to permit the lady to look over the vessel. The captain had to go on deck, and for another hour Louis talked about the name, and what it meant to him. Then he rehearsed the theory of the commander that the steamer was to be used in promoting his education.

“I suppose Scoble’s plans are broken up by the loss of his vessel; but he has doubtless saved all the money he had on board of the schooner.”

“He told me that he had a brother in the Bermudas who was very rich, but who had recently been in ill health,” said Mrs. Belgrave. “Now you have told him that the missing million has been recovered, he will no longer have any reason for pursuing me.”

“I am not so sure of that, guardian-mother. The money has come into my possession in accordance with my father’s will; but suppose I should have the measles, be swallowed by a big shark, or be accidentally drowned by falling overboard, to whom would my fortune, including the Guardian-Mother, fall to, as provided by the will?”

“You suggest something horrible, Louis,” said his mother with a shudder.

“Scoble has two men in his employ at this moment, Brinks and Kimpton, who would not scruple to commit any crime; and for three years I have believed that Scoble was about as bad as a man could be. Frinks is a rascal, and Kimpton burned the Phantom to enable the Maud to get out of that inlet.”

“You frighten me, Louis.”

“But we must look these things square in the face.”

“Where are these men now, my son?”

“Scoble and Frinks are in the after cabin under guard, and the other men went forward. I suppose Kimpton is one of them, though I have not looked them over.”

At Louis’s request Mrs. Belgrave and Felix McGavonty related the incidents of the voyage of the Maud, till the time she was wrecked. As she had stated before, Scoble had treated her with great kindness and consideration as a rule, for his object was to win her back to him. In the morning she had permitted him to take the money from her room to pay Frinks.

The “fiddles” had to be put on the tables for lunch, and when it was ready the captain was called. It was hard work for the party to keep in their seats, and harder still to prevent the dishes from dancing hornpipes. The captain predicted a change of wind before night which would bring better weather. But the sea was rough all the rest of the day, and everybody retired early.

The next morning, as the commander had predicted, the wind came from the west, and it had knocked down the sea. When Louis went on deck he found the Guardian-Mother approaching the cluster of islands that form the Bermudas. A pilot was coming off, and he was soon in charge of the steamer. When breakfast was ready the vessel was at anchor off St. George, as Captain Ringgold had decided not to go to the anchorage at Hamilton, for it was necessary to consider the situation very carefully before a decision in regard to the future could be reached. Louis had recovered his mother. The battle had been fought and won for her.

“You are safe, Mrs. Belgrave; but the chess-board, with all the men on it, is still spread out before us; and in advance of making any move, it is necessary to ascertain what complications beset us,” said the commander as he rose from the table.

“What possible trouble can we have now?” asked Louis, more from curiosity than from fear.

“We are now in a foreign port. If Scoble should claim his wife, and resort to legal measures to obtain her, he could give us a great deal of trouble,” replied the captain. “I am not a lawyer, and I don’t know what he might do. Of course you all wish to see these beautiful islands; but this is not the right season to visit them.”

“Then I am in favor of going back to New York, and coming again at a more suitable time,” replied Louis. “We have had no chance to enjoy this magnificent steam-yacht, and I should rather be sailing in her than wandering about on shore, even in the beautiful regions we can see from the deck.”

“We will leave that an open question for the present. I will go on deck now, and attend to the landing of the shipwrecked party,” added the commander as he ascended the grand staircase, followed by the owner.

The second cutter had already been lowered into the water, and the gangway had been rigged on the quarter. Scoble, Frinks, and the three men forward were sent for. The captain and mate of the Maud were escorted to the deck by Bangs and Williams.

“I intend to land you and your men at the nearest shore, Captain Scoble,” said the commander.

“Do you intend to land my wife with me, Captain Ringgold?” demanded the late captain of the Maud.

“I do not.”

“Then I shall soon be on English soil, and I will ascertain whether or not a man’s wife can be taken from him by force,” growled Scoble.

“That is simply absurd; no force whatever has been used. If Mrs. Belgrave wishes to land here with you, no one will prevent her from doing so; but she absolutely refuses even to see you, much more to go with you. You propose to resort to legal measures?”

“Certainly I do. I have been hunted and hounded by that boy, who has prejudiced his mother against me, and I shall pursue him to the ends of the earth!” stormed Scoble, with fury in his looks as well as in his tones.

Defeated and overwhelmed in his purpose, the late captain of the Maud went over the side, carrying with him the heavy package he had brought from the wreck, which probably contained all his money and other valuables. He was followed by all his men. Kimpton was still lame in his wounded arm, and he had kept out of sight as much as possible since he came on board of the Guardian-Mother. He acted as though he feared that vengeance might be in store for him for his treachery at “Dolphin Bay;” but Louis did not even speak to him.

The second cutter had gone but a short distance before it was hailed by a boat from the shore, with a man in uniform in the stern sheets. He was a Custom-House official, and having satisfied himself that the cutter contained no merchandise, he permitted it to proceed to the shore. The official then came on board of the steamer, where he was received by Captain Ringgold, who explained that no goods or passengers would be landed from the present anchorage, as the ship had come in principally to land the wrecked party he had seen in the cutter. The official declared that he was obliged to remain on board as long as the steamer was at the islands.

“I shall be very happy to have your company, Mr.----”

“Stockling is my name, captain,” prompted the official.

“Captain Ringgold is mine. I hope you will make yourself at home on board,” added the commander, as he offered his cigar-case to the officer.

The captain directed Sparks to bring a couple of arm-chairs on deck, and had them placed where all that happened on board could be observed. Then he went to the galley, where he found Bickling at his usual duties.

“Cook, I think you told me that Captain Scoble had a brother in the Bermudas.”

“Which it is true I did; and his brother’s name which it is ’Enery Scoble, and he kept an ’otel in St. George’s.”

“Henry Scoble, is it?”

“Which it is, sir.”

The commander returned to the shady side of the quarter-deck where he had seated Stockling, and took the other arm-chair placed there. He was very polite to his official guest, who praised the cigar he was smoking. The captain told him about the shipwreck of the Maud, and talked about St. George’s, the port where the officer resided.

“Do you know a gentleman in St. George’s by the name of Henry Scoble?” asked Captain Ringgold.

“I did know him, sir, for my chum, George Hastings, and I had lodgings at his hotel for a few months; but he is no longer in the land of the living,” replied Stockling.

“Then he is dead?”

“Died only about a month ago. He kept a hotel in St. George’s, but that was not his chief business,” answered the official.

“What was his chief business?”

“It would be hard to tell in full; but he was a dealer in spirits and wines, and was a smuggler and a speculator, as well as a wrecker.”

“Then he made money?” suggested the captain.

“Loads of money; and his estate is valued at over a hundred thousand pounds, which he gave by his will to his only brother, taking out five thousand pounds for his only sister. But his brother is a bad man, worse even than Henry; and everybody here is sorry that the money goes to him.”

“Why do you say that he is a bad man?”

“In the first place because he abused his wife, and then abandoned her to take care of herself.”

“Indeed!” exclaimed the captain, but very quietly.

“Then he enlisted in the army and deserted. He was in the States; but suddenly his letters stopped coming two years ago, and for a year and more Henry has been trying to find out what had become of him.”

“You say that John Scoble abandoned his wife in England. Are you sure of your facts in this matter, Mr. Stockling?”

“Am I sure of them? Isn’t my chum, George Hastings, the own cousin of Mrs. John Scoble? He told me all about it; and we went to Henry’s hotel in order to induce him to do something for the deserted wife.”

“Is John Scoble’s wife still living?”

“She was living six months ago at Nassau, where she went out as the nurse of a family; but about four months ago George had an answer to a letter of inquiry about her, informing him that she had left the island, and no one knew where she had gone.”

“What was the lady’s maiden name?” asked the captain indifferently.

“Ruth Hastings. Scoble thought she was rich; but when he found that she had only five hundred pounds he abused her, and then abandoned her.”

“That’s the whole story, is it?”

“That’s the whole of it. Henry Scoble was a widower. He would not help the wife, or do anything to bring his brother to a sense of duty,” said the official in conclusion.

Mr. Stockling lunched in the cabin with the party, and was treated as well as the governor of the island would have been. Captain Ringgold decided not to say a word about the important information he had obtained to Louis or his mother. If the facts were as stated, the marriage of Mrs. Belgrave was doubly invalid from the beginning. But it was necessary to prove the facts, and the commander felt that he needed the services of Squire Scarburn. Mrs. Belgrave was alarmed at the idea of legal proceedings in a foreign land, and she insisted upon sailing for New York at once, in which she was warmly seconded by her son.

The pilot had been retained on board; a boat came off for Stockling at a signal, and in the middle of the afternoon the Guardian-Mother went to sea. The principal object of the voyage had been fully accomplished, and perhaps something more, though the commander did not feel full confidence in the statements made to him. The steamer made a quick and smooth passage, and Louis and his mother were supremely happy, quite as much so as though they had been in the new house. Louis was hugged by Uncle Moses when he went into the office, and Mrs. Belgrave and Mrs. Blossom were warmly welcomed.

As soon as an opportunity presented, Captain Ringgold privately stated the important information he had obtained in Bermuda to Uncle Moses. The squire was astounded at the revelation, for it seemed to solve the problem that vexed him and the mother of his ward. Was the information reliable?

“The first thing to be done is to make a thorough investigation of the statements,” said he, looking very serious for him.

“Where?” asked the captain.

“In Bermuda first, then in Nassau, and wherever the facts we learn may take us, if it should be around the world,” said the squire with enthusiasm.

“Louis insists that you go with us, Squire Scarburn, on our next cruise,” added Captain Ringgold, who proceeded to relate all that had been said on this subject, both by the owner and his mother.

“Something has been said before about my going with you, and there was nothing I should have liked better. Now I have a good excuse for doing so. Since you went away, I have agreed to take a partner, an old friend, who is an honest man and a sound lawyer. It will take me a month at least to complete my arrangements; but I will go then,” replied the squire, who appeared to be as delighted as a child at the prospect of such a voyage.

It was all arranged, and about the first of December the Guardian-Mother sailed for Bermuda a second time, fitted out for a long cruise, which might extend around the world. Louis Belgrave was still “A Millionaire at Sixteen.” The cruise of the Guardian-Mother had been successfully finished in the restoration of the mother of the young millionaire; but those who are inclined to attend him still farther, will renew their acquaintance with him in “A YOUNG KNIGHT-ERRANT; or, Cruising in the West Indies.”

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:

Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.

Perceived typographical errors have been corrected.

Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.

Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.