The Ocean Cat's Paw: The Story of a Strange Cruise

  CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.

  THE COUNT CAN'T FIND WORDS.

  That afternoon, after what had proved to be a very friendly, pleasantbreakfast, through which nothing could have been more courteous andhospitable than the conduct of the Count and his son towards those withwhom they had become so strangely intimate, the skipper hurried the endof the meal by suggesting that he should once more sound the well.

  They went on deck at once, to find both pumps were being keptenergetically going, the half-dozen men from the schooner taking theirturns in the heartiest way, a general fraternisation having taken place,while on seeing the result of the skipper's examination, the delight ofthe Count and his son seemed unbounded.

  "There you are, then, sir," said the skipper, in answer to a look fromthe doctor, "and now we will leave you to it."

  "And I suppose," said Uncle Paul, "that you will have no hesitation,sir, in following Captain Chubb's advice?"

  "And making for the mouth of some river," said the Count, glancing athis son, "to get the brig ashore, so as to repair her?"

  "Exactly," said Uncle Paul. "You must see that there is nothing elsethat you can do."

  "Nothing else that I can do," said the Count slowly, and Rodd gave him awondering glance, for the skipper's remarks about the brig's owner beingout of his mind came to his memory. "You intend to cruise about here,then, Dr Robson?"

  "Here or anywhere," was the reply. "Probably here until I seem to haveexhausted the natural history specimens that I can collect."

  "Yes," said the Count, gazing fixedly at his son, "until you haveexhausted the natural history specimens that you can collect."

  He spoke in a curious dreamy way as if he were thinking hard, while Roddcoloured a little as he saw that the young Frenchman was gazing at himfixedly, for once more he could not help thinking of the skipper'swords.

  "Do you know of a place that would be likely, doctor?" said the Count."I mean a river that we could sail up into shallow water, if we were sofortunate as to reach one without sinking first."

  "Not I," said the doctor, "but my captain here has cruised along thiscoast in by-gone days, and he tells me that it would be easy enough tofind inlet after inlet, and deltas with streams, running up through themuddy mangrove swamps."

  "But then we might never reach the shore," said the Count slowly--"notwith the brig--in spite of your kindly, I may say brotherly aid."

  Rodd felt that the Count's son was still gazing at him searchingly, buthe did not turn his head, for the doctor began speaking at once.

  "Really, my dear sir," he said almost curtly, "national dislike seems toexist to a great extent amongst your countrymen. Do you really think weEnglish should be such barbarians as to sail away and leave a crippledship to its fate?"

  "No, no, no, doctor!" cried the Count warmly. "But how could I be sograsping as to ask you, full of your scientific pursuits as you are, tostand by us till we can reach the shore in safety?"

  "You would not ask it, sir," said the doctor warmly. "There would be noneed. Of course my schooner will stand by you, ready to give you helpuntil your brig is once more fit for sea."

  "Forgive me, doctor!" cried the Count eagerly.

  "There is nothing to forgive, sir," replied the doctor, "only I think Imay say that saving in times of war there is no such thing asnationality amongst those who go to sea. My experience is that they arealways brethren in times of distress."

  The Count held out his hand, which was warmly grasped, while the youngFrench ex-prisoner looked at Rodd with eyes that seemed to speakvolumes.

  At this moment the skipper gave a grunt of satisfaction and broke in.

  "There's plenty of choice, gentlemen," he said. "I'd venture to say Icould find you the mouths of a dozen sluggish rivers up which you couldgo with the tide as far as you liked, and then moor our vessels to theforest trees, easily finding places close in shore where the tide as itwent out would leave the brig here softly in the mud ready for careeningover in a cradle where she wouldn't strain or open a single seam; andthe doctor here being willing, I'll promise to take the job in hand andmake the brig's bottom as sound as ever it was, even if we have to stripoff a little copper from along the top streak, where it isn't so muchwanted, so as to put new plates where the damaged ones have been."

  "I shall be only too glad, Count," said the doctor; "and now I think wewill get back to the schooner, and Captain Chubb here will shape hiscourse somewhere to the south-east, till within the next few days wenear the coast, when he will select a suitable place for his purpose."

  "I cannot find words," said the Count, in a husky voice.

  "Don't try," said the doctor.

  "No, but--er,"--continued the Count, in rather a hesitating tone, "youdo mean to keep cruising about here--and farther south or west?"

  "Don't you give that another thought," said the doctor frankly. "Theschooner is my own, and almost any portion of the ocean or the shoreoffers attractions to me and my nephew. We can find interest anywhere.I only hope that you will not find our society dull."

  The Count made a gesture, and then, after a word or two to the skipper,the latter gave his men orders, and they took their places in the boat.

  It was then that the Count's son, who had been very silent for sometime, looking at Rodd as if longing to speak, suddenly turned andwhispered something to his father, who replied with a comprehensivegesture, and the lad immediately approached the doctor.

  "It will be hours yet, sir, before it is dark, and I have so much Ishould like to say to your nephew. Can he not stay till evening, andthen our boat shall bring him to your vessel? You will not," hecontinued playfully, turning to Rodd, "be afraid of going down?"

  "My nephew is at liberty to do as he pleases," replied the doctorfrankly. "What do you say, Rodd?"

  "Oh, I want to stay, uncle. I should like to hear all about theescape."

  A few minutes later the two lads were leaning together over the railwatching the departing boat, and chatting together as if they were oldschoolfellows who had met again after a long separation, Rodd delightedwith his companion, and disposed to feel disappointed in himself lestthe refined, polished young officer--one, evidently, of the _hautenoblesse_--should look down upon him as a rough, rather boorish youngEnglishman.

  Somehow that evening, with its rapid change from glowing sunset light topurple violet darkness, seemed wonderfully quick in coming, and as thebrig's well-manned boat grazed against the schooner's stern and Roddturned in climbing up the side to hang by his left hand and extend hisright, the feeling of inferiority melted away in the young Frenchman'swarm grasp, as the latter said--

  "I suppose we shall be sailing very slowly till we reach the shore, andI want to see more of you. I shall come and fetch you first thing inthe morning. Don't say anything; you must come. _Au revoir_!"

  The brig's boat pushed off as soon as Rodd had swung himself on deck,and as it glided away into the soft darkness with the regularly handledoars dipping up from the surface of the sea what seemed to be like somuch lambent liquid gold, suggesting to Rodd as he gazed after his newfriend that the stars might have been melting all day in the torrid sun,and that this was their pale golden light floating upon the sea, a handwas laid upon his shoulder.