登陆注册
4612400000046

第46章

"Oh, yes," Cheyne replied. "I should say it probably did him more good than anything else in the world.""I jedged 'twuz necessary, er I wouldn't ha' done it. I don't want you to think we abuse our boys any on this packet.""I don't think you do, Mr. Troop."

Mrs. Cheyne had been looking at the faces-Disko's ivory-yellow, hairless, iron countenance; Uncle Salters's, with its rim of agricultural hair; Penn's bewildered simplicity; Manuel's quiet smile; Long Jack's grin of delight, and Tom Platt's scar. Rough, by her standards, they certainly were; but she had a mother's wits in her eyes, and she rose with out-stretched hands.

"Oh, tell me, which is who?" said she, half sobbing. "I want to thank you and bless you-all of you.""Faith, that pays me a hunder time," said Long Jack.

Disko introduced them all in due form. The captain of an old-time Chinaman could have done no better, and Mrs. Cheyne babbled incoherently. She nearly threw herself into Manuel's arms when she understood that he had first found Harvey.

"But how shall I leave him dreeft?" said poor Manuel. "What do you yourself if you find him so? Eh, wha-at? We are in one good boy, and I am ever so pleased he come to be your son.""And he told me Dan was his partner!" she cried. Dan was already sufficiently pink, but he turned a rich crimson when Mrs. Cheyne kissed him on both cheeks before the assembly. Then they led her forward to show her the foc'sle, at which she wept again, and must needs go down to see Harvey's identical bunk, and there she found the nigger cook cleaning up the stove, and he nodded as though she were some one he had expected to meet for years. They tried, two at a time, to explain the boat's daily life to her, and she sat by the pawl-post, her gloved hands on the greasy table, laughing with trembling lips and crying with dancing eyes.

"And who's ever to use the We're Here after this?" said Long Jack to Tom Platt. "I feel as if she'd made a cathedral av ut all.""Cathedral!" sneered Tom Platt. "Oh, if it had bin even the Fish C'mmission boat instid of this bally-hoo o' blazes. If we only hed some decency an' order an' side-boys when she goes over! She'll have to climb that ladder like a hen, an' we-we ought to be mannin'

the yards!"

"Then Harvey was not mad," said Penn, slowly, to Cheyne.

"No, indeed-thank God," the big millionaire replied, stooping down tenderly.

"It must be terrible to be mad. Except to lose your child, I do not know anything more terrible. But your child has come back? Let us thank God for that.""Hello!" cried Harvey, looking down upon them benignly from the wharf.

"I wuz mistook, Harve. I wuz mistook," said Disko, swiftly, holding up a hand. "I wuz mistook in my jedgments. Ye needn't rub in any more.""Guess I'll take care o' that," said Dan, under his breath.

"You'll be goin' off naow, won't ye?"

"Well, not without the balance of my wages, 'less you want to have the We're Here attached.""Thet's so; I'd clean forgot"; and he counted out the remaining dollars. "You done all you contracted to do, Harve; and you done it 'baout's well as if you'd been brought up-" Here Disko brought himself up. He did not quite see where the sentence was going to end.

"Outside of a private car?" suggested Dan, wickedly.

"Come on, and I'll show her to you," said Harvey.

Cheyne stayed to talk with Disko, but the others made a procession to the depot, with Mrs. Cheyne at the head. The French maid shrieked at the invasion; and Harvey laid the glories of the "Constance" before them without a word. They took them in in equal silence-stamped leather, silver door-handles and rails, cut velvet, plate-glass, nickel, bronze, hammered iron, and the rare woods of the continent inlaid.

"I told you," said Harvey; "I told you." This was his crowning revenge, and a most ample one.

Mrs. Cheyne decreed a meal, and that nothing might be lacking to the tale Long Jack told afterwards in his boarding-house, she waited on them herself. Men who are accustomed to eat at tiny tables in howling gales have curiously neat and finished manners;but Mrs. Cheyne, who did not know this, was surprised. She longed to have Manuel for a butler; so silently and easily did he comport himself among the frail glassware and dainty silver. Tom Platt remembered the great days on the Ohio and the manners of foreign potentates who dined with the officers; and Long Jack, being Irish, supplied the small talk till all were at their ease.

In the We're Here's cabin the fathers took stock of each other behind their cigars. Cheyne knew well enough when he dealt with a man to whom he could not offer money; equally well he knew that no money could pay for what Disko had done. He kept his own counsel and waited for an opening.

"I hevn't done anything to your boy or fer your boy excep' make him work a piece an' learn him how to handle the hog-yoke," said Disko. "He has twice my boy's head for figgers.""By the way," Cheyne answered casually, "what d'you calculate to make of your boy?"Disko removed his cigar and waved it comprehensively round the cabin. "Dan's jest plain boy, an' he don't allow me to do any of his thinkin'. He'll hev this able little packet when I'm laid by. He ain't noways anxious to quit the business. I know that.""Mmm! 'Ever been West, Mr. Troop?"

同类推荐
  • 雪堂集

    雪堂集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 元曲集(上)

    元曲集(上)

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 六十种曲投梭记

    六十种曲投梭记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 番社采风图考

    番社采风图考

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 居官必要为政便览

    居官必要为政便览

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 上神归来,孽徒不好惹

    上神归来,孽徒不好惹

    一语轻诺,一段孽缘,将两个人的命运束缚。世间究竟何为对,何为错?她是天地间最强大的神主,司掌着天地间的秩序,她,冷漠的活着他的身份扑朔迷离,身具仙魔两种血脉存活于世上他是高高在上的仙界第一的溯陌上仙,而她,只是一个被众人所厌弃的凡人一段孽缘将他们束缚师父,你还记得你的茉儿吗?两世的分离让她的心不再温暖高高在上的俯视着天地苍生,冰冷的对待世间的万事万物“不管你是夕瑶茉,还是清茉,你都是我的茉儿,是那个值得我用生命去守护的人。”这场爱恋之中,究竟是谁错了一场命定良缘却成了为世人所不容的孽缘,他们又该如何对待···--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 八荒御兽

    八荒御兽

    八荒之上,一注定庸碌一生的废材,因一本传奇武决获得重生,这本来自大能的炼体之术让他走上强者之路。强悍的肉体,万能的丹药,奇妙的精神,飘渺的剑术,好似无所不能的他,能不能真正放下心中的桎梏,达到真正的八荒称王。
  • 灯下黑(第三册)

    灯下黑(第三册)

    《灯下黑》,又名《中国异闻录》,继《泰国异闻录》畅销10万册后,“悬疑怪才”羊行屮用全新作品《灯下黑》带你深入领略中国民俗的骨髓,那些流传至今的传说,背后有怎样凄美、动人的爱恨绝唱?
  • 龙陵秘藏

    龙陵秘藏

    这是一部悬疑小说。一座诡异的江南荒宅中隐藏着一个尘封百年的历史谜团。九龙宝鼎暗藏惊世宝藏,藏头血诗牵出惊天密谋。各大赫赫有名的江湖组织齐上阵,演绎一段风云激荡的传奇。其中人物之间纠结的爱恨情仇,让作品于诡秘的氛围外多了一份情感观照。
  • 抗志

    抗志

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 武境

    武境

    世人修武,三脉分,月读稀,烈日阳,星辉强,武道磨折多,离愁欢喜修武道,世间再乱,三脉合,武帝出,人物阴险狡诈、性格豪爽。
  • 容斋随笔(精粹)

    容斋随笔(精粹)

    《容斋随笔》是南宋著名学者洪迈穷四十余年之功撰写而成的一部史料笔记。该书与沈括的《梦溪笔谈》、王应麟的《困学纪闻》,并称宋代颇具学术价值的“三大笔记著作”。《容斋随笔》共5集74卷1220则,内容严谨博大,从诗词文翰到典章制度,再到医卜星历,无所不包,堪称有宋以来的百科全书。其考证辨析之确切,议论评价之精当,备受后世学人称道,被后世史学家公认为研究宋代历史的必读之书。后人更将《容斋随笔》中有关诗歌部分,辑为《容斋诗话》。本书分别从原文、注释、译文、评析四大方面进行了全新的解读,内容丰富,方便读者阅读和理解。
  • 灵罗戒

    灵罗戒

    大毅力,走上强者之路!一步一步,踏上最强掌控者!
  • 污点

    污点

    小说作者既是行动者,又是书写者,还是思想者。他一手用枪,一手用笔,集战士与诗人于一身。他把经验的亲历与人性的剖析结合在一起。他的长篇小说充满正义的激情、直观社会的勇气和法的尊严。小说讲述了一个文物失窃案如何历尽千辛终被破获的故事。其中有动人的爱情故事和感人至深的亲情……
  • 爱默生的超验主义思想研究

    爱默生的超验主义思想研究

    本文旨在对爱默生的超验主义做出全面的解读。作为美国文学史上最伟大的思想家,散文作家,诗人,爱默生的超验主义对美国文化影响可谓至深至远。本论文在对爱默生的两个核心观念——超灵和自立进行详细解读后,还尝试从对爱默生的超验主义和孔子的儒家思想进行比较研究的角度来进一步阐释爱默生的超验主义。