CHAPTER XXV.

BOUND TO A SICKLY CLIMATE.

Capt. Crogick was a good deal more vexed at the appearance of these unwelcome passengers than he cared to express. He had treated them well; but he wished they were at the bottom of the sea, or anywhere except on board of the “Housatonic,” which was to receive the cashier of the Walnut National Bank the next day. He wondered if the boys were not sent as spies, to ascertain what was going on on board of the ship; but, when he figured up his dates, he was satisfied that they were genuine runaways, as well as the cashier.

It seemed very strange that these boys should come on board of his ship just at this time when he was managing the escape of his brother-in-law. He at once made up his mind to send the young fugitives back to New York in the “Moonlight.” But Capt. Bendig might convey his passengers to the ship before he knew the situation; and, if Lon saw Mr. Wallgood, the whole scheme would be exposed, especially his own agency in the affair, which was sure to make trouble with his owners.

Lon and Matt were permitted to sleep in peace for that night, and in the morning they were invited to the captain’s table to breakfast. It had been arranged beforehand, that Lon should do the talking; but the cabin-steward was present most of the time, and nothing was said during the meal about the presence of the two boys on board. As soon as the table was cleared away, and they were alone in the cabin, Capt. Crogick opened the subject.

“Where do you think of going to, Alonzo?” he asked.

“Matt and I wanted to take a little voyage,” replied Lon, with a cheerful smile, as though he was engaged in a perfectly legitimate business. “We don’t care much where we go to.”

“Would you like to go to the coast of Africa, where men die off like sheep with malarial fever?” asked the captain, with a stern expression.

“No: we don’t care about going to any such place as that,” answered Lon, his jaw dropping at the question, which seemed to indicate that the “Housatonic” was bound to such a region as the shipmaster described. “We don’t want to go to any such place as that. Is your ship going to the coast of Africa?”

“We shall certainly go to the coast of Africa,” replied the captain; but he meant that part of the coast of Africa which borders the Strait of Gibraltar. “But your way of going to sea is not quite regular. As it stands now, you are stowaways.”

“But we will pay our passage,” added Lon.

“Then you have plenty of money?”

“We have some money.”

“Of course your father knows what you are about, Alonzo?” continued the captain.

“I can’t say he does.”

“Then you are runaways, are you?”

“I suppose that is what you would call us,” said Lon, trying to laugh, though the captain was very sober and dignified; but it was only because he was troubled about his expected passengers, who might meet the president’s son in spite of his efforts to prevent such a meeting.

“Your father would never forgive me if I took you on a voyage without his knowledge and consent.”

“He will never know it. We will not tell him what ship we went in; will we, Matt?”

“To be sure we will not,” answered the Swikes, who was ready to indorse all that his companion said.

“I think he would find it out, even if I were mean enough to do such a thing as to leave him to worry for months about you. No, my lads: I don’t like the idea of taking you to the coast of Africa, where you would be almost certain to have the fever, and almost as certain to die with it.”

“I don’t want to go to any such place,” protested Matt. “I would rather go to prison than to die with such a disease. Can’t you send us back, captain?”

“I may be able to do so: I will see. I may come across some in-bound vessel that will take you back to New York, if you pay your fare,” replied the master of the “Housatonic,” pleased with the turn affairs had taken.

“I’m sure I don’t want to go to any place where there is sickness,” added Lon. “But we will pay our fare back if you will put us into another vessel.”

“Have you money enough to pay your way back to Midhampton? because, if you have not, I will lend you some.”

“I think we have enough, though I don’t know how much it will be,” added Lon.

“But you were going to pay your passage to the coast of Africa and back; and of course you have enough to carry you to New York,” said the captain, who wished to know something about the finances of the runaways.

“I did not suppose the fare to the place where you are going would be more than forty or fifty dollars,” replied Lon.

“Exactly so: then you must have at least a hundred dollars apiece; and that will more than take you back to New York.”

“We haven’t quite a hundred apiece,” added Lon, giving all the information Capt. Crogick wished to obtain.

“You are quite flush for a couple of boys,” said the shipmaster with a smile. “As your father didn’t know you were coming, Alonzo, I suppose he did not give you this money.”

Lon bit his lip; and now for the first time he understood what the captain was driving at. He wanted to know where he got his money.

“My father didn’t give it to me; and I did not steal it. It was some money I have been saving up for years, for I always had plenty of money to spend,” replied Lon.

“It takes a good while for a boy to save up a hundred dollars.”

“I say I have been saving it for years, and for just this thing. You told me you ran away from home when you were a boy, and went to sea; and now you are the captain of a ship. Who knows but that I may be the captain of a ship?”

“I know you will not. I didn’t run away from a good home such as you have; and I did not crawl in at the cabin window, as you are trying to do. I suppose this other boy saved up his money in the same way,” continued the captain, turning to Matt.

“Yes, sir, every cent of it,” protested Matt, who was willing to swear to any thing that Lon said.

“I don’t know that I ever saw this boy before,” added Capt. Crogick, fixing his gaze upon Matt; “but, when you tell me he is the son of Obed Swikes, I know his father never gave him much money to spend.”

“But I made most of it myself,” added Matt, who realized the full force of the master’s argument; for it was easier to squeeze milk out of a paving-stone than to get any money out of his father to spend for fun and frolic. “I used to pick berries, and sell them. I used to do jobs for folks about town.”

“The story is rather thin for both of you. I don’t believe it,” added Capt. Crogick bluntly.

“It’s as true as preaching,” said Matt.

“As true as some preaching, I have no doubt.”

“Do you think I would lie about it?” demanded Lon, beginning to mount the high horse he sometimes rode.

“I rather think you would lie about it when you got into a tight place, as you are now.”

“We have told the truth; and it don’t make any difference to me whether you believe me or not,” replied Lon, when he found it was no use to attempt to bluff the captain of the “Housatonic.”

“Be that as it may, I shall not meddle with the matter: I have no time to attend to it, even if I were disposed to do so. When I get a chance, I shall send you back to New York; and you can settle it with your fathers,” added the captain, as he rose from his stool, and went out upon deck.

“He smokes the whole thing,” said Lon, as soon as they were alone.

“I know he does; but what was the use of telling him how much money we had?” demanded Matt, who was sure his companion had been guilty of very bad generalship.

“I didn’t mean to do it; but it will make no difference now, for he is going off on a long voyage, and he may die of the fever he talks about.”

“Our fun is spoiled for this time,” added Matt, who seemed to deplore this as much as being found out.

“No, it isn’t. We shall return to New York in a day or two. We shall have a first-rate sail in this ship; and, when we get back, we can take a steamer for some place where no one will know us, and have a good time there. We are not licked out yet. Come, let’s go on deck, and see the fun.”

They left the cabin; and for a time they enjoyed the movements of the big vessel, which was rolling along under easy sail, for the captain was on the lookout for the yacht which was to bring off his passengers. But they soon wearied of this monotonous life, and wished for something more active. It was as dull as any thing could be; and they made up their minds that they could not have stood it for a voyage of four or five weeks. They saw a great many vessels far to the south of them, bound to the westward; and they wondered that Capt. Crogick did not run down to one of them, and send them back, as he said he should do. They were all ready to return before it was noon; and in the afternoon they were anxious to do so.

Towards night, they saw the “Moonlight” astern of the ship, and noticed that the captain frequently examined her with his glass. Then they made out the revenue-cutter, and they saw the captain looking at her a great deal. Lon thought the shipmaster was very anxious about something; for he would hardly speak a civil word to him, when he asked him a question. At sunset, when the calm came on, the captain was more gruff than ever; and he seemed to be very nervous. After dark the cutter ran alongside of her; and her captain wanted to know what the ship was doing so near the island. Her papers were examined; but they were found to be all right. The officer apologized for boarding the “Housatonic;” and the cutter left her.

Early in the evening Lon and Matt turned in, for the want of something better to do. The ship did not move, and every thing was as still as death. The boys slept very well, better than the captain,--so well that at daylight they could sleep no more, though they remained in their berths.