CHAPTER IV

THE PARTY THAT WENT TO SOUTHFIELD

Mr. Fobbington would still be happy to present the Oxford to his new friend; but confronting the difficulty of spending his income, he sympathized with him, and would not insist upon making the vessel an entirely free gift. They would compromise the matter by making it a sale, a merely nominal sale. Louis must not insist upon paying him too large a price for the craft, and the young millionaire promised not to be very hard upon him in this respect.

“Though it is, of course, a matter of no consequence to me, I should like to ask, out of mere curiosity, at what figure you value the Oxford,” said Louis, after they had compromised the principal difficulty of the situation.

“She cost me in Scotland, where I bought her, thirty-one hundred pounds, or about fifteen thousand dollars; but, as a matter of mere form, I am going to sell her to you for ten thousand,” replied Mr. Fobbington very graciously. “You must really indulge me in taking off five thousand from what she cost me. I think that will be a fair compromise.”

“Perhaps we shall be able to agree after I have seen the vessel,” replied Louis, not ready to commit himself; and the compromise price was double what he thought of paying for such a craft as would suit him.

“I hope we shall agree, Mr. Belgrave; but I solemnly assure you that I shall not permit you to pay me the sum she cost me. No, sir! Rather than do that, I will take the schooner out to sea and sink or burn her!” protested the owner of the Oxford very warmly.

“Very well, my friend; I will not insist upon your taking more than ten thousand dollars for the vessel,” replied the intending yachtsman, beginning to wonder if his companion was as liberal and disinterested as he assumed to be.

“Now, Mr. Belgrave, when will you look at the Oxford? I trust you will make it as soon as possible. I hoped that you would do me the favor to accept the schooner without paying me anything for her; and then I could have taken the train to-night for San Francisco.”

“I am very sorry to delay you even a day; but it was quite impossible for me to lose the opportunity to spend five or ten thousand dollars of my income for a craft that would suit me. You know how it is yourself, and you ought to sympathize with me,” added Louis, much amused. “I should like to have my mother see the vessel, for she is to be the companion of my voyages.”

“Excellent, my young friend! If there is anything in this world that excites my admiration, it is to see a young man attentive to his mother. Mothers don’t grow on every tree; in fact, I don’t remember any fellow who ever had more than one mother. I like to see a fellow devoted to his mother, and it is a trait in your character, Mr. Belgrave,” rattled the owner of the Oxford.

“I think we can go down to Southfield to-morrow; I will call at the hotel, and let you know at what time,” added Louis, rising from his seat.

He took his leave of Mr. Fobbington, and returned to the house of Squire Scarburn, where Mrs. Belgrave was staying during the erection of the new house the trustee was building for her and her son. The unfledged yachtsman could not help thinking of his new acquaintance as he walked to the squire’s, but he was not willing to accept him as a friend till he knew more about him. He had a vessel to sell which had answered his purpose as a yacht, and perhaps it would be equally satisfactory to the young millionaire.

It was about tea-time, and he found his mother and the trustee in the parlor. During the meal he told them about the gentleman who owned the Oxford, and they asked him a great many questions. Mrs. Belgrave was willing to see the vessel, and would go with him at ten the next day to Southfield.

“It seems rather singular to me, my son, that you should want a yacht, when you were brought up away from the salt water,” said Mrs. Belgrave.

“I never should have thought of such a thing, if we had not been out so many times with Mr. Woolridge and his family,” replied Louis.

“Especially his family,” suggested Uncle Moses, with a twinkle of the eyes.

“Or a certain member of his family,” added the lady.

“That’s all nonsense, mother!” exclaimed the young gentleman, with a bright blush on his face.

Mr. Woolridge, the nabob who had invited Louis and his mother to sail in his yacht, had a beautiful daughter of fifteen, who had attracted the attention of the young man. After looking at her as he would have regarded a pretty picture, he had innocently spoken of her with considerable enthusiasm, calling her a sylph. This was before he became a “bloated bondholder,” and his mother had been afraid he would get into entangling relations with a maiden whose rich and aristocratic father would show him the door, and thus break his heart as well as that of the sylph.

“I think you were very polite and attentive to Miss Blanche,” continued Mrs. Belgrave.

“Wasn’t I as polite to Mrs. Woolridge?” demanded Louis, repelling the insinuation with energy.

“If you were not, you ought to have been.”

“And I was, mother; besides you are not consistent. You have consented to the purchase of a vessel for me, so that I can sail on my own hook rather than be dependent upon Mr. Woolridge. Why should I do that if I preferred the society of Miss Blanche?”

“I think the defence has the argument,” added Uncle Moses. “But perhaps Sir Louis will invite the sylph to sail in his yacht. By the way, what is her name?”

“The young lady’s, or the yacht’s?”

“I should expect they would both have the same name, if it did not take an act of Congress to alter a vessel’s name. The young lady can change hers with less difficulty,” twinkled the squire.

“The vessel is called the Oxford now, and one Blanche is enough.”

“One among ten thousand--the girl, and not the vessel.”

“I don’t think I shall change the name of either the young lady or the vessel,” added Louis.

“We shall see the vessel to-morrow, and we will drop both her and the sylph for the present,” interposed Mrs. Belgrave. “Don’t you think it strange we hear nothing more from John Scoble?”

She looked at her son as though she expected him to answer the question. She had an intense dread of the man who had been her husband for two years. Louis had met Scoble face to face a few weeks before, had stunned him with the blow of a stick, and escaped from him; but all this had been concealed from his mother to save her from anxiety and terror.

“I have heard nothing of Scoble lately,” replied the son, meaning since he escaped from him; and he thought the subject had better be changed. “I hope you will go down to Southfield with us, Uncle Moses, and see the Oxford.”

“I should be very glad to go if I could; but I have an engagement,” replied the squire. “Take Captain Ringgold with you if he will go. He knows all about vessels, and I know nothing at all.”

“I will go over to his house and see him about it after supper.”

Nothing more was said about Scoble, to the great relief of the young man. He wondered what had become of the miscreant and his vessel, which he had named the “Maud” after his wife, doubtless to assist in conciliating her, and thus make easy his approach to the missing million. Mr. Woolridge had employed detectives to watch the schooner and her owner; but one night the vessel disappeared, and nothing more had been heard from her. Louis had studied the ship-news for weeks without being any the wiser for it.

The intending yachtsman hastened to the house of Captain Ringgold as soon as he had finished his supper, and found him at home. The worthy shipmaster had retired from the sea at forty with a competency, not much of it acquired, however, in his profession. He promptly consented to go with Louis on his visit to the Oxford, and to assist him with his knowledge and experience. He asked him some questions about the vessel, and turned up his nose literally at the idea of purchasing such a craft as he described.

“You are behind the times, Louis,” said he with emphasis. “You don’t want an old tub like the one you tell me about. You ought to have a steam-yacht.”

“A steam-yacht!” exclaimed Louis, laughing at the idea of such extravagance. “I ought to be a ten-millionaire to be able to do that.”

“You could be reasonable in running a steam-yacht as in anything else. If you are going to keep a yacht, have something first-class.”

“I don’t want a high-flyer, and I am not up to a steam-yacht,” replied Louis, unmoved by the argument.

“I know a first-rate chance for you to get the finest steamer that floats, brand-new, and to be sold at a fair price,” Captain Ringgold proceeded. “Colonel Singfield had her built in the very best manner for his own use. She had made her trial trip, and that is all, when the colonel died.”

“How much would she cost?” asked the embryo yachtsman rather tamely.

“To settle the estate she can be bought, just as she stands, all ready for sea, inside of a hundred thousand dollars, though she cost a good deal more than that.”

“Neither my mother nor Uncle Moses would consent to the purchase of a vessel so expensive as that,” said Louis, shaking his head.

“If I could afford it I would buy her, for I should like to command just such a craft,” added the captain with enthusiasm.

“It is useless for me to think of buying such a vessel. What is her name? I should like to see her; but I am sure she will not be bought for me.”

“She has no name yet. Colonel Singfield wished his daughter to find a name, and then they had not agreed upon it when her father died. You could name her to suit yourself, Louis.”

“I must not even think of such a thing as a steam-yacht. It would be a very expensive plaything,” persisted Louis.

“All right, Louis; I won’t say too much about it. I will go with you to-morrow at the time you say,” added Captain Ringgold, as the visitor took his leave.

Louis went to the hotel and made the arrangement for the trip with Mr. Fobbington. On his return to the squire’s house, he found that Felix McGavonty, who had been a crony of Louis since both of them wore short clothes, also desired to see the Oxford, and Uncle Moses gave his consent.

At the appointed time the party arrived at the station in Southfield, and Mr. Frinks Fobbington was there to receive them. Louis thought he looked very much disconcerted about something, though he could not imagine why he was so.

“I am glad to see you, Louis,” said Frinks, as he took the hand of the young nabob, though he did not gush as he had the day before. “But I did not suppose you were going to bring the whole population of the Park with you.”

The unexpected number of the party seemed to be the cause of the dissatisfaction on the part of the owner of the Oxford, though Louis could not understand why this should annoy him. He introduced his mother and the others.

“This is Captain Ringgold,” said he, in presenting him. “He is an expert in vessels, and I wanted his opinion of the Oxford.”

The party took a carriage and proceeded to a wharf.

[Illustration: “AS HE REACHED THE FOOT OF THE COMPANION-WAY, HE DISCOVERED JOHN SCOBLE.” Page 34.]