Bob Strong's Holidays Part 8

These doc.u.ments, it may be mentioned here, slightly antic.i.p.ating matters, Captain Dresser subsequently obtained through the clergyman of d.i.c.k's parish at Guildford, to whom he wrote, and who gave the young runaway the best of characters.

This gentleman stated that the lad was not only honest and truthful, but the steadiest scholar he had in his Sunday school; and he added that the good news which he had been able to tell d.i.c.k's mother after hearing from the Captain, of his having fallen into such friendly hands, had made up in some way for her sorrow at being forced to part with her dear son.

"Well, what shall we do with you now?" said the Captain to d.i.c.k on their leaving the dockyard, where, in addition to going on board the training ship attached to the port, the boys had seen most that was to be seen-- going over the smithery; the building-sheds, in which ponderous leviathans of iron, that would anon plough the deep, were being welded together; the mast and rigging houses; the sail-loft; they had gone over everything in fact! "You see they won't have you yet in the Navy, my lad; so, what is to be done with you, eh?"

"Dunno, sir," answered d.i.c.k, scratching his newly-shorn head reflectively and staring in the face of the old sailor, who had stopped abruptly just outside the dockyard-gates to ask him the question. "I'll leave it to yer for to settle anythink yer likes."

"Humph! I tell you what, we'll wait a bit and then try again for the training ship three months hence, or so; when, perhaps, you'll have better luck," decided the Captain, who it need hardly be told had already made up his mind on the subject. "But, in the meantime, my lad, you shall stop with me and see if you can make yourself of use."

"Oh, sir," said d.i.c.k with tears in his eyes and his voice broken with emotion. "I can never thank yer, sir, for all as ye've done for me!

I'll work day and night, sir, and do anythink as yer tells me!"

"We'll see, my lad," replied the Captain, walking on again, the watermen along the Hard touching their hats to him. "I shall probably take you on board my yacht by and by, when the racing season begins. You will, thus, learn something of your future profession; and be able to pull a rope and box the compa.s.s before the time comes for you to join the training ship."

"O-o-oh!" exclaimed Bob, the vista of delight thus presented being almost too great for words; for the sight of the sea, now that he had seen it and been actually on board a ship, had made him long for a sail, his involuntary dip of the previous night not having any deterrent influence. "Won't that be jolly, d.i.c.k?"

d.i.c.k grinned a sympathetic grin, his own peculiar way of showing how pleased he was.

"I only hopes as how I'll suit the Capting," said he earnestly. "I'll try to--that I will!"

"Suit me, eh?" cried that worthy with a chuckle, and his little black eyes twinkling away. "That will be 'changey for changey, black dog for white monkey,' as the n.i.g.g.e.rs say. You will have to suit me in return for my having _suit-ed_ you, my lad, eh? Ho--ho--ho!"

CHAPTER SIX.

ON THE BEACH.

"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" cried Bob presently, stopping on their way homewards at a nice-looking pastry-cook's shop hard by the dockyard- gates, whose wide green windows framed an appetising display of cakes and buns which appealed strangely to his gastronomic feelings; while a fragrant odour, as of hot mutton-pies, the speciality of the establishment, a renowned one in its way amongst middies and such like small fry who frequented the neighbourhood, oozed out from its hospitably-open door, perfuming lusciously the air around--"I am _so_ hungry!"

"By Jove, my boy, so am I, too, now I think of it," said the Captain, likewise coming to a halt and proceeding to enter the shop, followed by his eager companions. "Let us pipe down to lunch at once. This is a famous place for pies; and you may rely on having mutton in 'em and not puppies!"

The old Captain 'stood treat,' of course, and the boys had such a glorious 'tuck out' that they were behind time when they got back to Mrs Gilmour's house on the south parade.

"Aunt Polly" and Nellie were both ready and waiting for them outside, dressed in walking attire; while Rover was frisking round the ladies, though he darted up to his young master the moment he caught sight of him, forgetting, with all a good dog's magnanimity, the ill-treatment he had received in not being allowed to accompany him to the dockyard.

"Sure, you're very late, Captain dear," began Mrs Gilmour when the old sailor came near, with d.i.c.k following in his wake; but, suddenly noticing the latter's wonderful transformation of appearance, she stopped her laughing reproaches anent the Captain's dilatoriness, exclaiming in admiring tones--"My good gracious! Dear me! Who is this young gentleman?"

Bob was in ecstasies.

"We were sure you wouldn't know him, auntie!" he cried, as little Miss Nellie joined him in a gleesome dance of triumph round the blushing, new-fledged d.i.c.k, and Rover gambolled behind the pair, barking loudly, in sympathetic accord. "We were sure you wouldn't know him!"

"Sure, you're right, me dears, I wouldn't really have recognised him for the same boy at all, at all!" cheerfully agreed Mrs Gilmour, as she turned towards the ex-runaway and scrutinising his altered guise in detail, critically but kindly. "Are ye, really, d.i.c.k, now?"

"Yes, mum, I bees the same b'y, surely," replied d.i.c.k, with a broad grin that spread over his face from ear to ear. "It's the Cap'en, G.o.d bless him, mum, as made me for to look so foine that my own mother wouldn't know me, leastways n.o.body else--thanks be to the Cap'en, mum."

"Pooh, pooh, there's nothing to make a fuss about," interposed the old sailor, anxious to let these personalities be dropped, being very shy of any of his good actions being noticed. "The boy's all right. He has only changed his rig, that's all, the same as you put on a new dress on going out walking, ma'am."

"That's a nice thing to say of an economical person like me, sir!" said Mrs Gilmour, shaking her parasol at him in jocular anger. "One would think I was one of those fine ladies who have a new dress every day in the week, and milliners' bills as long as your old malacca cane."

"Well, well, I apologise, ma'am, for I know better than that, as you are far too sensible a woman to spend all your money on finery," said the Captain, with a low bow. "But where are we going to now, for I see you are dressed for walking?"

"Down to the sea, of course," she replied. "Nell and I went up to Landport this morning, while you and Bob were 'transmogrifying' that boy, as my old father used to say. We paid a visit to the old lady whose eggs were broken yesterday by Master Rover's gambols. You may remember, Captain, I promised her some from my own fowls in place of those she lost. Don't you recollect how anxious the poor creature was about them?"

"Yes, yes, I remember," said the old sailor, his face beaming with good- humour. "You're always kind and thoughtful."

"Whish!" cried Mrs Gilmour playfully. "None of your blarney!"

"Oh, Bob!" exclaimed Nellie, interposing at this juncture, while they still all stood talking together in front of the house, neither Mrs Gilmour nor the 'old commodore' having yet given the signal for sailing, "she has got such a dear little place of her own."

"Who's 'she'--the cat's mother, Nell?"

Nellie laughed.

"I mean the old lady who had the broken eggs."

"Aye," put in the Captain, "and who nearly had broken legs likewise!"

This made Nellie laugh again.

"Oh, you know who I mean very well, Bob," said she, when she had ceased to giggle. "She has got the dearest little cottage, you ever saw. It is fitted up just like the cabin of a ship inside; her husband, who was a ship's carpenter, having done it all. Why, the walls are covered with Chinese pictures and sh.e.l.ls and curios which he picked up in all sorts of outlandish places, bringing them home after his various voyages. Oh, Bob, you never saw such funny things."

"Didn't the woman say something of having an invalid daughter?" inquired the Captain. "I think I heard her speak of one yesterday at the station."

"Yes, poor thing," said Mrs Gilmour. "She's got spinal complaint, and we saw her lying on the sofa in the queer little parlour crammed with curiosities that Nell took such a fancy to. She seems a very nice girl, so happy and contented although in such a helpless state! Her old mother, whom I know you thought fussy and selfish, is quite devoted to her."

"Humph!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the Captain, taking no notice of Mrs Gilmour's allusions to his original impression of the stout personage with whom Rover had, so to speak, entangled them into an acquaintance. "Perhaps some of that old port wine of mine would do the girl good, eh, ma'am?"

"Not a doubt of it, she looks so pale and delicate," replied Mrs Gilmour. "But there will be plenty of time to think about that to- morrow. Let us go on now to the beach, or it will be too late for us to do so before dinner."

"Come on then, I'm yours obediently," said the Captain with his usual chirpy chuckle. "By Jove, though, I think I've had pretty nearly walking enough for one day for an old fellow turned sixty."

This time they steered clear of the castle, the exciting memories of the previous evening being too vivid in Mrs Gilmour's mind to allow the boys to go near the treacherous footing of the rampart again.

Instead of going thither, they turned their footsteps rather to the eastern portion of the sh.o.r.e; where a shelving, shingly beach sloped gradually down to the water, and thus no danger to be feared of Master Bob or any one else plunging in suddenly without warning, as happened unfortunately before.

Here, everything was new to the young people; the wet pebbles glistening like jewels after a last polish from the receding tide; the ma.s.ses of many-hued seaweed; the quaint sh.e.l.ls; and the rippling waves, laughing in the sunshine, and sportively throwing up in their joyous play little b.a.l.l.s of foam or spindrift, which the buoyant south-westerly breeze, equally inclined for fun and frolic, tossed about here and there high in the air, until they were lost to sight in the distance beyond the esplanade.

One or two silver-grey gulls, with white waistcoats on, as if going to some nautical dinner-party, were hovering above and occasionally making dashes down in their swooping curvilinear flight to pick up stray t.i.t- bits from the tideway, to a.s.suage their hunger until the grander repast to which they were invited was ready; while a whole colony of their kindred, the black, brown, and dusky-coloured gulls, not so fortunate in being asked out to the festive banquet, were anon floating about in groups on the water close insh.o.r.e, anon suddenly taking wing and flying off, only to settle down again on the surface further out.

Even more impressive, however, than all these evidences of moving life around, there was the sea, that touched their feet almost, and yet stretched out in its illimitable expanse away and away--to where?

It was Nellie to whom these thoughts occurred; as for Bob, he was engaged in chasing little green crabs as they scuttled over the shingle, busily collecting as many as he could get hold of in a little pond he had scooped in the sand.

This pond would now be filled as some venturesome wavelet broke over its brink; and then be drained as the tide fell back, leaving the poor little crabs left high and dry ash.o.r.e to repeat their scrambling attempts at escape, only to tumble over on top of each other as they tried to climb the precipitous sides of Bob's reservoir.

"Isn't it jolly!" cried that young gentleman, looking up at the Captain, who, leaning on his stick, stood near, watching his futile endeavours to restrain the vivacious, side-walking, unwieldy little animals that seemed gifted with such indomitable energy, and equal perseverance to that of Bruce's spider. "Isn't it jolly, sir?"

"Not very jolly for the crabs, though," observed the old sailor smiling.