CHAPTER XXIII.

IMMENSE RICHES.

Wade had a full view of the cabin for the first time when the cashier called him into this apartment. It was very elegantly fitted up; and he wondered if the beautiful vessel belonged to Capt. Bendig. Pollish afterwards told him that she was the property of a wealthy gentleman, and that Capt. Bendig was only the sailing-master. The owner had gone into the country for a few weeks, and the skipper was making a dollar on his own account by the present excursion. He was to receive five hundred dollars for the use of the vessel and for his own services; and each of the men on board was to have one hundred dollars for his work and his secrecy, especially for the latter.

“What is your name, my boy?” asked Mr. Wallgood, when Wade presented himself in the cabin.

“Wade Brooks,” replied the stowaway; and he felt sure the cashier had never even heard the name.

“I suppose you live in New York.”

“I lived there yesterday.”

“Where do you live to-day?”

“I live here.”

“But where is your home?”

“I haven’t any home. My father and mother are both dead.”

“What are you doing in this vessel?”

Wade told him how he happened to be in the yacht. All he wanted was to get back to New York.

“What are you going to do in New York?” asked Mr. Wallgood.

“I want to get something to do, so that I can earn my own living.”

“Have you any money to pay your board till you get work?”

“Not a cent: I had some money, but it was stolen from me,” replied Wade, giving the details of his experience.

“You would like some money, wouldn’t you?”

“I should; but I don’t want it bad enough to steal it,” replied Wade; and perhaps he did not mean to cast any reflections on the past conduct of the cashier.

“Perhaps you heard something that was said in the cabin early this morning?” continued the defaulter, beginning to approach the subject that worried him.

“Perhaps I did,” replied Wade cautiously.

“What did you hear?”

“I didn’t hear much; and perhaps I was too stupid to understand it,” added Wade, with a chuckle. “But the captain of the vessel has promised me a licking, and I mean to hold my tongue.”

The cashier plied him closely with questions; but Wade had made up his mind to answer none of them, and he did not.

“I suppose you know the captain is going to put us on board of a ship?” persisted the defaulter.

“I don’t know any thing about what he is going to do, except that he means to give me a licking,” replied the stowaway blankly.

“I think he is stupid, as the captain said,” added Mrs. Crogick, in a low tone, though Wade heard what she said.

“At least you know that we are a party who started in the night from New York; and you will see that we are all put on board of a ship.”

“I know what you say about it.”

“For reasons which I will not explain, for you would not understand them, we don’t wish to have it known that we have left New York as we did. Do you think you could keep the secret?” asked Mr. Wallgood; and by this time he was somewhat excited.

“I know I could if I tried, and if I got fair play; but, after I have had a licking, I don’t feel like holding my tongue,” replied Wade, deeming it best to get an anchor out to windward.

“I pay all the men on this vessel a hundred dollars to hold their tongues. I will pay you the same, if you will keep the secret.”

“One hundred dollars!” exclaimed Wade, who had heard of such a sum of money, but he did not realize that he could ever possess such an amount.

“That is just what I will give you, if you will never in your life say what has happened on board of this vessel,” added Mr. Wallgood.

“Shall I have the money to keep?” asked the incredulous boy; and he had already begun to think of buying a farm in his native town, and astonishing the natives with his wealth.

“You shall have the money all for your own; and I will make sure before I leave the vessel that the captain will not flog you,” continued the defaulter.

“I will keep the secret to the end of time, if I am allowed to keep the money,” said Wade; and he would not have said it if he had thought that the sum he was to be paid had been stolen from the Walnut National Bank.

The cashier handed him a roll of bills; and Wade proceeded at once to count them. It contained the amount mentioned, and he put it into his pocket. He had hardly done so before the captain came down into the cabin.

“What are you doing in here, you young rascal?” demanded the skipper angrily. “You think you must have a place in the cabin, do you?”

“I called him in, Capt. Bendig,” interposed Mr. Wallgood. “It is not his fault that he is here. I have made the same bargain with him that was made with each of the crew. I have paid him the money.”

“You have not given that scalawag a hundred dollars, have you?” exclaimed the captain.

“I have; and I feel safer now than I did before. I hope you will not attempt to flog him; for really I don’t think he meant to do any thing wrong.”

“He had no business in the yacht; and he won’t tell me how he got on board of the vessel. He deserves a flogging to teach him better than to take up his quarters in a gentleman’s yacht.”

Wade retreated to the state-room, feeling that the cashier could settle this question better when he was absent than when he was present. The door was open, and he could hear all that was said. In the end Capt. Bendig promised not to flog him, after a good deal of pleading on the part of the defaulter; and this was all Wade cared to hear, though he could not help listening to something more as long as he staid in the state-room.

“That infernal revenue-cutter is coming up this way; and we shall have to wait till night before we put you on board of the ‘Housatonic,’” said the captain, as soon as the flogging-question was settled.

“A few hours will make no difference. She can have no motive for overhauling the yacht,” replied the cashier.

“None at all. The bank people could not have known that any thing was wrong about the establishment before nine or ten o’clock this morning; and the cutter was not in port last night,” added the captain.

The party in the cabin seemed to think they were still safe; and they expressed no fears of the result of the expedition. While Wade sat in the captain’s state-room, Pollish came in to see him. He closed the cabin-door, and evidently had something to say.

“See here, lad, I have a place for you; but it is all my situation is worth for the captain to find out that I put you into it,” said Pollish in a whisper.

“I never will tell him, if he pulls my bones apart for it,” replied Wade. “You can trust me as long as you live. But I heard the captain tell the folks in the cabin that he wouldn’t flog me.”

“Don’t you believe him,” said Pollish earnestly. “He will do any thing he likes, in spite of his promises. Keep out of sight till the yacht gets back to New York.”

“I will take any place you say,” added Wade.

“In the forecastle you will find a place under the lower berth, as far forward as you can go, on the starboard side.”

“I am very much obliged to you, Mr. Pollish; and, when I can do any thing for you, I shall be very glad to do it,” replied Wade.

“But the captain may find you there, though I don’t think he will,” added the steward.

“If he finds me, I won’t say a word that will do you any harm. But I think I needn’t go into the place till these people in the cabin are gone; for the captain promised Mr. Wallgood that I should not be touched.”

“There is the place, and you can go into it when you are ready. I think you had better go and look at it while all the hands are on deck. You must not let any of the sailors know you are in the place, for they may blow on you.”

“I will not;” and Wade went into the forecastle to look at his future hiding-place.

It was very close quarters for a boy of his size; and, like the space under the captain’s berth, it was filled with old clothes. Wade raked them out, and then prepared the den for his reception when it should be necessary to use it. He put most of the garments in another place; but he left enough to form a barricade in front of the aperture, that would conceal him from the captain and others who might be looking for him.

We do not like to cast reflections upon the good judgment of Wade and the steward; but the hiding-place was not well chosen. As Capt. Bendig had found him under one berth, he would be very likely to look under all the berths in the yacht when he wanted to find the stowaway. But Wade did not believe he should have any occasion to use the place, for the captain had promised not to flog him; and he did not believe he could do any thing with him except to carry him back to New York. He would be very glad to go there; for the liberality of the cashier had made him rich, and he could live a year at least on the vast sum of money in his possession. He did not care whether school kept, or not.

He was no longer afraid of the captain, as long as the cabin party remained on board; for he was confident that the cashier would protect him for his own safety, if for no other reason. He had wanted to go on deck, and now he went. He had a place of retreat in case of trouble, and all he had to do was to crawl into it. It was nearly sunset when he went up the cabin steps. He saw the ship at least two miles ahead, for she had been under all sail from the time she had made out the yacht; and it is probable that she had seen the revenue-cutter, or she would have shortened sail, and waited for the “Moonlight” to come up.

At sunset the wind all died out, while the “Housatonic” was still two miles distant. The cutter was a mile from either vessel. Nothing could be done; and the ship and the yacht lay where they were all night.