Many Cargoes

  In the small front parlour of No. 3, Mermaid Passage, Sunset Bay,Jackson Pepper, ex-pilot, sat in a state of indignant collapse, tenderlyfeeling a cheek on which the print of hasty fingers still lingered.

  The room, which was in excellent order, showed no signs of the tornadowhich had passed through it, and Jackson Pepper, looking vaguely round,was dimly reminded of those tropical hurricanes he had read about whichwould strike only the objects in the path, and leave all othersundisturbed.

  In this instance he had been the object, and the tornado, afterobliterating him, had passed up the small staircase which led from theroom, leaving him listening anxiously to its distant mutterings.

  To his great discomfort the storm showed signs of coming up again, andhe had barely time to effect an appearance of easy unconcern, whichaccorded but ill with the flush afore-mentioned, when a big, red-facedwoman came heavily downstairs and burst into the room.

  "You have made me ill again," she said severely, "and now I hope you aresatisfied with your work. You'll kill me before you have done with me!"

  The ex-pilot shifted on his chair.

  "You're not fit to have a wife," continued Mrs. Pepper, "aggravatingthem and upsetting them! Any other woman would have left you long ago!"

  "We've only been married three months," Pepper reminded her.

  "Don't talk to me!" said his wife; "it seems more like a lifetime!"

  "It seems a long time to ME" said the ex-pilot, plucking up a littlecourage.

  "That's right!" said his wife, striding over to where he sat. "Sayyou're tired of me; say you wish you hadn't married me! You coward! Ah!if my poor first husband was only alive and sitting in that chair nowinstead of you, how happy I would be!"

  "If he likes to come and take it he's welcome!" said Pepper; "it's mychair, and it was my father's before me, but there's no man living Iwould sooner give it to than your first. Ah! he knew what he was aboutwhen the Dolphin went down, he did. I don't blame him, though."

  "What do you mean?" demanded his wife.

  "It's my belief that he didn't go down with her," said Pepper, crossingover to the staircase and standing with his hand on the door.

  "Didn't go down with her?" repeated his wife scornfully. "What became ofhim, then? Where's he been this thirty years?"

  "In hiding!" said Pepper spitefully, and passed hastily upstairs.

  The room above was charged with memories of the late lamented. Hisportrait in oils hung above the mantel-piece, smallerportraits--specimens of the photographer's want of art--were scatteredabout the room, while various personal effects, including a mammoth pairof sea-boots, stood in a corner. On all these articles the eye ofJackson Pepper dwelt with an air of chastened regret.

  "It 'ud be a rum go if he did turn up after all," he said to himselfsoftly, as he sat on the edge of the bed. "I've heard of such things inbooks. I dessay she'd be disappointed if she did see him now. Thirtyyears makes a bit of difference in a man."

  "Jackson!" cried his wife from below, "I'm going out. If you want anydinner you can get it; if not, you can go without it!"

  The front door slammed violently, and Jackson, advancing cautiously tothe window, saw the form of his wife sailing majestically up thepassage. Then he sat down again and resumed his meditations.

  "If it wasn't for leaving all my property I'd go," he said gloomily."There's not a bit of comfort in the place! Nag, nag, nag, from morntill night! Ah, Cap'n Budd, you let me in for a nice thing when you wentdown with that boat of yours. Come back and fill them boots again;they're too big for me."

  He rose suddenly and stood gaping in the centre of the room, as a mad,hazy idea began to form in his brain. His eyes blinked and his face grewwhite with excitement. He pushed open the little lattice window, and satlooking abstractedly up the passage on to the bay beyond. Then he put onhis hat, and, deep in thought, went out.

  He was still thinking deeply as he boarded the train for London nextmorning, and watched Sunset Bay from the window until it disappearedround the curve. So many and various were the changes that flitted overhis face that an old lady, whose seat he had taken, gave up herintention of apprising him of the fact, and indulged instead in a bitterconversation with her daughter, of which the erring Pepper was theunconscious object.

  In the same preoccupied fashion he got on a Bayswater omnibus, andwaited patiently for it to reach Poplar. Strange changes in thelandscape, not to be accounted for by the mere lapse of time, led toexplanations, and the conductor--a humane man, who said he had got anidiot boy at home--personally laid down the lines of his tour. Two hourslater he stood in front of a small house painted in many colours, and,ringing the bell, inquired for Cap'n Crippen.

  In response to his inquiry, a big man, with light blue eyes and a longgrey beard, appeared, and, recognising his visitor with a grunt ofsurprise, drew him heartily into the passage and thrust him into theparlour. He then shook hands with him, and, clapping him on the back,bawled lustily for the small boy who had opened the door.

  "Pot o' stout, bottle o' gin, and two long pipes," said he, as the boycame to the door and eyed the ex-pilot curiously.

  At all these honest preparations for his welcome the heart of Jacksongrew faint within him.

  "Well, I call it good of you to come all this way to see me," said thecaptain, after the boy had disappeared; "but you always waswarm-hearted, Pepper. And how's the missis?"

  "Shocking!" said Pepper, with a groan.

  "Ill?" inquired the captain.

  "Ill-tempered," said Pepper. "In fact, cap'n, I don't mind telling you,she's killing me--slowly killing me!"

  "Pooh!" said Crippen. "Nonsense! You don't know how to manage her!"

  "I thought perhaps you could advise me," said the artful Pepper. "I saidto myself yesterday, 'Pepper, go and see Cap'n Crippen. What he don'tknow about wimmen and their management ain't worth knowing! If there'sanybody can get you out of a hole, it's him. He's got the power, and,what's more, he's got the will!'"

  "What causes the temper?" inquired the captain, with his most judicialair, as he took the liquor from his messenger and carefully filled acouple of glasses.

  "It's natural!" said his friend ruefully. "She calls it having a highspirit herself. And she's so generous. She's got a married niece livingin the place, and when that gal comes round and admires the things--mythings--she gives 'em to her! She gave her a sofa the other day, and,what's more, she made me help the gal to carry it home!"

  "Have you tried being sarcastic?" inquired the captain thoughtfully.

  "I have," said Pepper, with a shiver. "The other day I said, very nasty,'Is there anything else you'd like, my dear?' but she didn't understandit."

  "No?" said the captain.

  "No," said Pepper. "She said I was very kind, and she'd like the clock;and, what's more, she had it too! Red-'aired hussy!"

  The captain poured out some gin and drank it slowly. It was evident hewas thinking deeply, and that he was much affected by his friend'stroubles.

  "There is only one way for me to get clear," said Pepper, as he finisheda thrilling recital of his wrongs, "and that is, to find Cap'n Budd, herfirst."

  "Why, he's dead!" said Crippen, staring hard. "Don't you waste your timelooking for him!"

  "I'm not going to," said Pepper; "but here's his portrait. He was a bigman like you; he had blue eyes and a straight handsome nose, like you.If he'd lived to now he'd be almost your age, and very likely more likeyou than ever. He was a sailor; you've been a sailor."

  The captain stared at him in bewilderment.

  "He had a wonderful way with wimmen," pursued Jackson hastily; "you'vegot a wonderful way with wimmen. More than that, you've got the mostwonderful gift for acting I've ever seen. Ever since the time when youacted in that barn at Bristol I've never seen any actor I can honestlysay I've liked--never! Look how you can imitate cats--better than HenryIrving himself!"

  "I never had much chance, being at sea all my life," said Crippenmodestly.

  "You've got the gift," sa
id Pepper impressively. "It was born in you,and you'll never leave off acting till the day of your death. Youcouldn't if you tried--you know you couldn't!"

  The captain smiled deprecatingly.

  "Now, I want you to do a performance for my benefit," continued Pepper."I want you to act Cap'n Budd, what was lost in the Dolphin thirty yearsago. There's only one man in England I'd trust with the part, and that'syou."

  "Act Cap'n Budd!" gasped the astonished Crippen, putting down his glassand staring at his friend.

  "The part is written here," said the ex-pilot, producing a note-bookfrom his breast pocket and holding it out to his friend. "I've beenkeeping a log day by day of all the things she said about him, in thehopes of catching her tripping, but I never did. There's notes of hisfamily, his ships, and a lot of silly things he used to say, which shethinks funny."

  "I couldn't do it!" said the captain seriously, as he took the book.

  "You could do it if you liked," said Pepper. "Besides, think what aspree it'll be for you. Learn it by heart, then come down and claim her.Her name's Martha."

  "What good 'ud it do you if I did?" inquired the captain. "She'd soonfind out!"

  "You come down to Sunset Bay," said Pepper, emphasising his remarks withhis forefinger; "you claim your wife; you allude carefully to the thingsset down in this book; I give Martha back to you and bless you both.Then"--

  "Then what?" inquired Crippen anxiously.

  "You disappear!" concluded Pepper triumphantly; "and, of course,believing her first husband is alive, she has to leave me. She's a veryparticular woman; and, besides that, I'd take care to let the neighboursknow. I'm happy, you're happy, and, if she's not happy, why, she don'tdeserve to be."

  "I'll think it over," said Crippen, "and write and let you know."

  "Make up your mind now," urged Pepper, reaching over and patting himencouragingly upon the shoulder. "If you promise to do it, the thing'sas good as done. Lord! I think I see you now, coming in at that door andsurprising her. Talk about acting!"

  "Is she what you'd call a good-looking woman?" inquired Crippen.

  "Very handsome!" said Pepper, looking out of the window.

  "I couldn't do it!" said the captain. "It wouldn't be right and fair toher."

  "I don't see that!" said Pepper. "I never ought to have married herwithout being certain her first was dead. It ain't right, Crippen; saywhat you like, it ain't right!"

  "If you put it that way," said the captain hesitatingly.

  "Have some more gin," said the artful pilot.

  The captain had some more, and, what with flattery and gin, combinedwith the pleadings of his friend, began to consider the affair morefavourably. Pepper stuck to his guns, and used them so well that whenthe captain saw him off that evening he was pledged up to the hilt tocome down to Sunset Bay and personate the late Captain Budd on thefollowing Thursday.

  The ex-pilot passed the intervening days in a sort of trance, from whichhe only emerged to take nourishment, or answer the scoldings of hiswife. On the eventful Thursday, however, his mood changed, and he wentabout in such a state of suppressed excitement that he could scarcelykeep still.

  "Lor' bless me!" snapped Mrs. Pepper, as he slowly perambulated theparlour that afternoon. "What ails the man? Can't you keep still forfive minutes?"

  The ex-pilot stopped and eyed her solemnly, but, ere he could reply, hisheart gave a great bound, for, from behind the geraniums which filledthe window, he saw the face of Captain Crippen slowly rise and peercautiously into the room. Before his wife could follow the direction ofher husband's eyes it had disappeared.

  "Somebody looking in at the window," said Pepper, with forced calmness,in reply to his wife's eyebrows.

  "Like their impudence!" said the unconscious woman, resuming herknitting, while her husband waited in vain for the captain to enter.

  He waited some time, and then, half dead with excitement, sat down, andwith shaking fingers lit his pipe. As he looked up the stalwart figureof the captain passed the window. During the next twenty minutes itpassed seven times, and Pepper, coming to the not unnatural conclusionthat his friend intended to pass the afternoon in the same unprofitablefashion, resolved to force his hand.

  "Must be a tramp," he said aloud.

  "Who?" inquired his wife. "Man keeps looking in at the window," saidPepper desperately. "Keeps looking in till he meets my eye, then hedisappears. Looks like an old sea-captain, something."

  "Old sea-captain?" said his wife, putting down her work and turninground. There was a strange hesitating note in her voice. She looked atthe window, and at the same instant the head of the captain againappeared above the geraniums, and, meeting her gaze, hastily vanished.Martha Pepper sat still for a moment, and then, rising in a slow, dazedfashion, crossed to the door and opened it. Mermaid Passage was empty!

  "See anybody?" quavered Pepper.

  His wife shook her head, but in a strangely quiet fashion, and, sittingdown, took up her knitting again.

  For some time the click of the needles and the tick of the clock werethe only sounds audible, and the ex-pilot had just arrived at theconclusion that his friend had abandoned him to his fate, when therecame a low tapping at the door.

  "Come in!" cried Pepper, starting.

  The door opened slowly, and the tall figure of Captain Crippen enteredand stood there eyeing them nervously. A neat little speech he hadprepared failed him at the supreme moment. He leaned against the wall,and in a clumsy, shamefaced fashion lowered his gaze, and stammered outthe one word--"Martha!"

  At that word Mrs. Pepper rose and stood with parted lips, eyeing himwildly.

  "Jem!" she gasped, "Jem!"

  "Martha!" croaked the captain again.

  With a choking cry Mrs. Pepper ran towards him, and, to the hugegratification of her lawful spouse, flung her arms about his neck andkissed him violently.

  "Jem," she cried breathlessly, "is it really you? I can hardly believeit. Where have you been all this long time? Where have you been?"

  "Lots of places," said the captain, who was not prepared to answer aquestion like that offhand; "but wherever I've been"--he held up hishand theatrically--"the image of my dear lost wife has been always infront of me."

  "I knew you at once, Jem," said Mrs. Pepper fondly, smoothing the hairback from his forehead. "Have I altered much?"

  "Not a bit," said Crippen, holding her at arm's length and carefullyregarding her. "You look just the same as the first time I set eyes onyou."

  "Where have you been?" wailed Martha Pepper, putting her head on hisshoulder.

  "When the Dolphin went down from under me, and left me fighting with thewaves for life and Martha, I was cast ashore on a desert island," beganCrippen fluently. "There I remained for nearly three years, when I wasrescued by a barque bound for New South Wales. There I met a man fromPoole who told me you were dead. Having no further interest in the landof my birth, I sailed in Australian waters for many years, and it wasonly lately that I heard how cruelly I had been deceived, and that mylittle flower was still blooming."

  The little flower's head being well down on his shoulder again, thecelebrated actor exchanged glances with the worshipping Pepper.

  "If you'd only come before, Jem," said Mrs. Pepper. "Who was he? Whatwas his name?"

  "Smith," said the cautious captain.

  "If you'd only come before, Jem," said Mrs. Pepper, in a smotheredvoice, "it would have been better. Only three months ago I married thatobject over there."

  The captain attempted a melodramatic start with such success, that,having somewhat underestimated the weight of his fair bride, he nearlylost his balance.

  "It can't be helped, I suppose," he said reproachfully, "but you mighthave waited a little longer, Martha."

  "Well, I'm your wife, anyhow," said Martha, "and I'll take care I neverlose you again. You shall never go out of my sight again till you die.Never."

  "Nonsense, my pet," said the captain, exchanging uneasy glances with theex-pilot. "Nonsense."
r />   "It isn't nonsense, Jem," said the lady, as she drew him on to the sofaand sat with her arms round his neck. "It may be true, all you've toldme, and it may not. For all I know, you may have been married to someother woman; but I've got you now, and I intend to keep you."

  "There, there," said the captain, as soothingly as a strange sinking atthe heart would allow him.

  "As for that other little man, I only married him because he worried meso," said Mrs. Pepper tearfully. "I never loved him, but he used tofollow me about and propose. Was it twelve or thirteen times youproposed to me, Pepper?"

  "I forget," said the ex-pilot shortly.

  "But I never loved him," she continued. "I never loved you a bit, did I,Pepper?"

  "Not a bit," said Pepper warmly. "No man could ever have a harder ormore unfeeling wife than you was. I'll say that for you, willing."

  As he bore this testimony to his wife's fidelity there was a knock atthe door, and, upon his opening it, the rector's daughter, a lady ofuncertain age, entered, and stood regarding with amazement the franticbut ineffectual struggles of Captain Crippen to release himself from aposition as uncomfortable as it was ridiculous.

  "Mrs. Pepper!" said the lady, aghast. "Oh, Mrs. Pepper!"

  "It's all right, Miss Winthrop," said the lady addressed, calmly, as sheforced the captain's flushed face on to her ample shoulder again; "it'smy first husband, Jem Budd."

  "Good gracious!" said Miss Winthrop, starting. "Enoch Arden in theflesh!"

  "Who?" inquired Pepper, with a show of polite interest.

  "Enoch Arden," said Miss Winthrop. "One of our great poets wrote a noblepoem about a sailor who came home and found that his wife had marriedagain; but, in the POEM, the first husband went away without makinghimself known, and died of a broken heart."

  She looked at Captain Crippen as though he hadn't quite come up to herexpectations.

  "And now," said Pepper, speaking with great cheerfulness, "it's methat's got to have the broken heart. Well, well."

  "It's a most interesting case," cried Miss Winthrop; "and, if you waittill I fetch my camera, I'll take your portrait together just as youare."

  "Do," said Mrs. Pepper cordially.

  "I won't have my portrait took," said the captain, with much acerbity.

  "Not if I wish it, dear?" inquired Mrs. Pepper tenderly.

  "Not if you keep a-wishing it all your life," replied the captainsourly, making another attempt to get his head from her shoulder.

  "Don't you think they ought to have their portrait taken now?" askedMiss Winthrop, turning to the ex-pilot.

  "I don't see no 'arm in it," said Pepper thoughtlessly.

  "You hear what Mr. Pepper says," said the lady, turning to the captainagain. "Surely if he doesn't mind, you ought not to."

  "I'll talk to him by-and-bye," said the captain, very grimly.

  "P'raps it would be better if we kept this affair to ourselves for thepresent," said the ex-pilot, taking alarm at his friend's manner.

  "Well, I won't intrude on you any longer," said Miss Winthrop. "Oh! Lookthere! How rude of them!"

  The others turned hastily in time to see several heads vanish from thewindow. Captain Crippen was the first to speak.

  "Jem!" said Mrs. Pepper severely, before he had finished.

  "Captain Budd!" said Miss Winthrop, flushing.

  The incensed captain rose to his feet and paced up and down the room. Helooked at the ex-pilot, and that small schemer shivered.

  "Easy does it, cap'n," he murmured, with a wink which he meant to becomforting.

  "I'm going out a little way," said the captain, after the rector'sdaughter had gone. "Just to cool my head."

  Mrs. Pepper took her bonnet from its peg behind the door, and, surveyingherself in the glass, tied it beneath her chin.

  "Alone," said Crippen nervously. "I want to do a little thinking."

  "Never again, Jem," said Mrs. Pepper firmly. "My place is by your side.If you're ashamed of people looking at you, I'm not. I'm proud of you.Come along. Come and show yourself, and tell them who you are. You shallnever go out of my sight again as long as I live. Never."

  She began to whimper.

  "What's to be done?" inquired Crippen, turning desperately on thebewildered pilot.

  "What's it got to do with him?" demanded Mrs. Pepper sharply.

  "He's got to be considered a little, I s'pose," said the captain,dissembling. "Besides, I think I'd better do like the man in the poetrydid. Let me go away and die of a broken heart. Perhaps it's best."

  Mrs. Pepper looked at him with kindling eyes.

  "Let me go away and die of a broken heart," repeated the captain, withreal feeling. "I'd rather do it. I would indeed."

  Mrs. Pepper, bursting into angry tears, flung her arms round his neckagain, and sobbed on his shoulder. The pilot, obeying the frenziedinjunctions of his friend's eye, drew down the blind.

  "There's quite a crowd outside," he remarked.

  "I don't mind," said his wife amiably. "They'll soon know who he is."

  She stood holding the captain's hand and stroking it, and whenever hisfeelings became too much for her put her head down on his waistcoat. Atsuch times the captain glared fiercely at the ex-pilot, who, being of aweak nature, was unable, despite his anxiety, to give his risiblefaculties that control which the solemnity of the occasion demanded.

  The afternoon wore slowly away. Miss Winthrop, who disliked scandal, hadallowed something of the affair to leak out, and several visitors,including a local reporter, called, but were put off till the morrow, onthe not unnatural plea that the long-separated couple desired a littleprivacy. The three sat silent, the ex-pilot, with wrinkled brows, tryinghard to decipher the lip-language in which the captain addressed himwhenever he had an opportunity, but could only dimly guess its purport,when the captain pressed his huge fist into the service as well.

  Mrs. Pepper rose at length, and went into the back room to prepare tea.As she left the door open, however, and took the captain's hat with her,he built no hopes on her absence, but turned furiously to the ex-pilot.

  "What's to be done?" he inquired in a fierce whisper. "This can't goon."

  "It'll have to," whispered the other.

  "Now, look here," said Crippen menacingly, "I'm going into the kitchento make a clean breast of it. I'm sorry for you, but I've done the bestI can. Come and help me to explain."

  He turned to the kitchen, but the other, with the strength born ofdespair, seized him by the sleeve and held him back.

  "She'll kill me," he whispered breathlessly.

  "I can't help it," said Crippen, shaking him off. "Serve you right."

  "And she'll tell the folks outside, and they'll kill you," continuedPepper.

  The captain sat down again, and confronted him with a face as pale ashis own.

  "The last train leaves at eight," whispered the pilot hurriedly. "It'sdesperate, but it's the only thing you can do. Take her for a stroll upby the fields near the railway station. You can see the train coming infor a mile off nearly. Time yourself carefully, and make a bolt for it.She can't run."

  The entrance of their victim with the tea-tray stopped the conversation;but the captain nodded acceptance behind her back, and then, with aforced gaiety, sat down to tea.

  For the first time since his successful appearance he became loquacious,and spoke so freely of incidents in the life of the man he wasimpersonating that the ex-pilot sat in a perfect fever lest he shouldblunder. The meal finished, he proposed a stroll, and, as theunsuspecting Mrs. Pepper tied on her bonnet, slapped his leg, and winkedconfidently at his fellow-conspirator.

  "I'm not much of a walker," said the innocent Mrs. Pepper, "so you mustgo slowly."

  The captain nodded, and at Pepper's suggestion left by the back way, toavoid the gaze of the curious.

  For some time after their departure Pepper sat smoking, with his anxiousface turned to the clock, until at length, unable to endure the strainany longer, and not without a sportsmanlike idea of be
ing in at thedeath, he made his way to the station, and placed himself behind aconvenient coal-truck.

  He waited impatiently, with his eyes fixed on the road up which heexpected the captain to come. He looked at his watch. Five minutes toeight, and still no captain. The platform began to fill, a porter seizedthe big bell and rang it lustily; in the distance a patch of white smokeshowed. Just as the watcher had given up all hope, the figure of thecaptain came in sight. He was swaying from side to side, holding his hatin his hand, but doggedly racing the train to the station.

  "He'll never do it!" groaned the pilot. Then he held his breath, forthree or four hundred yards behind the captain Mrs. Pepper pounded inpursuit.

  The train rolled into the station; passengers stepped in and out; doorsslammed, and the guard had already placed the whistle in his mouth, whenCaptain Crippen, breathing stentorously, came stumbling blindly on tothe platform, and was hustled into a third class carriage.

  "Close shave that, sir," said the station-master as he closed the door.

  The captain sank back in his seat, fighting for breath, and turning hishead, gave a last triumphant look up the road.

  "All right, sir," said the station-master kindly, as he followed thedirection of the other's eyes and caught sight of Mrs. Pepper. "We'llwait for your lady."

  Jackson Pepper came from behind the coal-truck and watched the train outof sight, wondering in a dull, vague fashion what the conversation waslike. He stood so long that a tender hearted porter, who had heard thenews, made bold to come up and put a friendly hand on his shoulder.

  "You'll never see her again, Mr. Pepper," he said sympathetically.

  The ex-pilot turned and regarded him fixedly, and the last bit of spirithe was ever known to show flashed up in his face as he spoke.

  "You're a blamed idiot!" he said rudely.

  A CASE OF DESERTION