CHAPTER XIX.

AN EARLY BREAKFAST FOR TWO.

Suddenly the flow of conversation in the cabin ceased, and Wade Brooks heard a heavy step on the stairs that led down from the deck. The talk appeared to be interrupted by the coming of the owner of the heavy boots, as though he was not in the confidence of those in the cabin.

“We are all right now, Mr. Wallgood,” said a man with a voice as heavy as the sound of the boots.

“Wallgood,” thought the wanderer. “That is the name of a family in Midhampton; and a man of that name is the cashier of the Walnut National Bank.”

“I wish it were all right, Capt. Bendig,” said one of the ladies, with a heavy sob.

“Oh! it is all right, Mrs. Wallgood,” added Capt. Bendig, with as much gentleness as a rough man like him could assume. “I shall put you on board of Capt. Crogick’s ship to-day, or at least by to-morrow. I don’t know exactly where to find him: but he will be on the lookout for me, as well as I for him; and it will be only a few hours, more or less. I shall run along the south coast of Long Island till we make out the ship. I may overhaul him before we get to Fire Island, and I may not till we reach Montauk. But I must have something to eat; for I lost my supper in this business last night.”

“Just my case,” said Wade to himself; and he wished he might be asked to share the captain’s early meal.

“Here, Pollish, where are you?” called the captain.

“Here, sir,” replied the person called for; and he appeared to come by the door which led from the pantry to the cabin, which was between the latter and the kitchen.

“Where is Beafbon?” asked Capt. Bendig.

“I guess he was on a spree last night, for he was pretty full when he came on board at twelve o’clock; and he turned in at once,” answered Pollish, who was the cabin-steward.

“Call him, and tell him to get me a beefsteak as soon as he can, with a cup of hot coffee,” added Capt. Bendig. “Have it on the shelf in my state-room; and tell him if he is more than thirty minutes about it, I will discharge him as soon as we get back to New York.”

This was decided enough to show the character of the man; and Wade did not much like the idea of dealing with him, as he felt that he must before the cruise was finished; and it appeared now that it might last two or three days. Wade had slept full eight hours when he woke, and he was wide awake now. In a few minutes he heard a rattling of the stove in the kitchen, which was separated from the state-room only by a thin bulkhead. Capt. Bendig returned to the deck as soon as he had ordered his breakfast. Wade could tell about every thing that was done on board by the sounds that came to him.

“Does that man know about this miserable business?” asked Mrs. Wallgood, when he had heard the retreating steps of the captain.

“I suppose he does, though I did not tell him,” replied a man whom Wade took to be the husband of the lady.

“I know he does,” added the other female; and Wade had yet to learn who she was, though the information soon came to him. “He has managed the whole of this business: he has brought us all to New York, and will put us all on board of my husband’s vessel.”

She was the wife of Capt. Crogick, then; and Wade knew that she was the sister of Mrs. Wallgood, the cashier’s wife. There was something about the Walnut National Bank that was wrong; and Capt. Trustleton was the president of the bank.

“Are you not afraid that this man will betray you?” asked Mrs. Wallgood.

“No, I am not: he is a strong friend of Capt. Crogick; and he told me I might trust the life of myself and my wife in his keeping,” answered Mr. Wallgood.

“I almost wish he might betray you,” said Mrs. Wallgood, after a pause.

“Why do you wish that, my dear?” asked the husband, in trembling tones.

“Because I think the crime is a good deal worse than being found out,” replied the lady, with considerable spirit. “If I had known what all this was for, I would not have come with you.”

“Would you desert me?” demanded the wretched man.

“You have robbed the bank of a hundred thousand dollars; you have forfeited your bonds, and disgraced yourself and your wife. I feel that I no longer owe you any thing.”

“Do not be so hard upon him, Julia,” pleaded Mrs. Crogick.

“Your husband led him into the crime,” snapped the wife of the cashier.

“Neither of them intended to do any wrong. When the captain was in trouble, your husband helped him. Do not blame him for this,” continued the shipmaster’s wife.

“It was not the fault of either of us. Capt. Trustleton drove me to the wall, by shutting me out from the use of the money of the bank, when I was willing to pay as good interest as any other man,” argued the cashier.

But Wade did not understand much of the talk,--only that Mr. Wallgood had taken one hundred thousand dollars from the Walnut National Bank in Midhampton, and he and his wife were running away to escape the consequences of his crime. The lady did not like the situation, and would not have come if she had understood the matter. Wade thought she was right, and did not think a woman was bound to stick to a husband after he had stolen one hundred thousand dollars; but then, Wade was not a judge of such matters, and his opinion was not worth much.

“I can’t get over it!” exclaimed this lady, after silence had prevailed in the cabin for some little time. “I came to New York, as I supposed, on a pleasure-excursion, at a moment’s notice; and now it seems as though this time was chosen because Capt. Trustleton was absent, looking up his runaway boy. Then it took three hours to tell this miserable story, and to persuade me that I ought to leave my native land, perhaps forever, with my husband, who is a defaulter to his bank for a hundred thousand dollars!”

Mrs. Wallgood groaned in bitterness of spirit when she had rehearsed her case; and certainly it was a heavy penalty to be driven from her home and friends by the crime of her husband.

“If you wish to desert me in my misfortune, you can do so, Julia,” groaned the cashier. “You can return to New York in this yacht.”

“Where is Capt. Crogick’s ship going to?” asked Mrs. Wallgood, as though this had something to do with the question.

“She is bound to Leghorn; and we can be as happy in Italy as at home for a few years, till this trouble blows over,” said Mrs. Crogick.

“And what are we to live on when we get there?” asked the indignant lady.

“We have money enough to live comfortably in Italy,” replied the cashier.

“Then you feathered the nest before you went away,” sneered the lady. “I thought this flight was because you could not pay your debts to the bank.”

“Such was the case; but a few thousands more or less will make no difference to the bank, my dear.”

But the conversation was interrupted by the appearance of the captain of the yacht, before whom the members of the party were not inclined to talk. While the conversation was in progress, Pollish had dropped a kind of table, which turned up against the bulkhead in the state-room, and had placed some dishes and a plate of soft bread, with some other articles, upon it. If Wade could not see the beefsteak when it was placed on the table, he could smell it; and the odor gave him an intense longing for a taste of it. He had eaten nothing but the bit of cracker and cheese in the bar-room of the hotel since his breakfast at an early hour the day before.

Wade was in no condition to inhale the odors of a beefsteak without coveting a taste of it. He envied the burly captain when he sat down on a stool at the table. The gimballed lamp was burning in the room, and Wade had a chance to see the awful man with whom by and by, without much doubt, he had a battle to fight; but the skipper seemed to be in a hurry, and Wade thought he gobbled up his food like a pig, from the sounds which came to him from the great chops of the man. He was hardly more than five minutes at the table, and he rattled the dishes with so much vigor that Wade thought he would smash half of them.

When he went out of the state-room, he closed the door leading into the cabin. Wade saw that the opposite one, leading into a kind of room from which opened the doors into the forecastle and the kitchen, was also closed. The circumstances tempted him. His empty stomach goaded him to action. He was so hungry that he did not stop long to consider the perils of the situation; but, disengaging himself from the pile of old garments which had concealed him from those who entered the state-room, he crawled out, and made a dive at the table. He was glad to see that the captain had been accredited with a bigger appetite than he possessed, for there was still at least a pound of steak on the plate. Wade grabbed the piece, for he could not stop to cut it, even if he had felt unequal to the task of eating the whole of it. With the steak in one hand, and two thick slices of bread in the other, he retreated to his lair; and, from the way he tore and devoured the beef and bread, his hiding-place was not very different from the den of any other wild beast.

He had no more than finished the hearty meal which the food he had taken furnished, before the captain of the yacht put in his second appearance. Wade could see the big boots he wore, from his den. He stood in the middle of the small apartment; and as he did not do any thing, or even move, Wade concluded that he was thinking about something. He wondered if he missed the pound of beef and the slices of bread, and if these were the subject of his present reflections.

“What time is it now, Capt. Bendig?” asked Mrs. Crogick.

“About half-past four, marm: it is broad daylight now, and we shall have a fine day for your excursion.”

“And where are we now?”

“We have passed through the Narrows, and I have just headed her to the eastward. We have a strong breeze; and, if it holds, we can make Montauk Point by five o’clock this afternoon.”

The lady seemed to be satisfied, and the captain called for the steward.