Down South Part 20

I was not a little surprised to hear her make this answer, for I supposed she would follow the fortunes of her husband, whatever they were. I knew nothing in regard to their marital relations, whether they were pleasant or otherwise, though I had never seen anything to lead me to suppose they were unpleasant.

"I want you to come with me; you are my wife and you must come!" said Griffin, angrily. "I forbid your going in this steamer."

"You can forbid all day if you like; I'm going in the steamer!"

answered Chloe, very decidedly. "I don't go with you any more, if I can help it."

"You are my wife, and you can't help it," retorted the husband.

"I haven't got anything more to say about it. I won't go with you; and that's the whole of it," said the stewardess, retreating to the cabin.

Griffin Leeds swore like a pirate, and declared he would be the death of his wife if she didn't come with him. He called upon the officer to arrest Chloe, and compel her to go on sh.o.r.e with him.

"Give me a proper warrant, and I will arrest her," replied the officer, laughing.

"I am her husband; and I tell you to take her out of that steamer,"

cried Griffin, foaming with wrath.

"I don't know that you are her husband; and if I did, I would not meddle with her," replied the officer, who seemed to enjoy the situation. "Our business is finished on board of this craft:" and he returned to the boat.

"This seems to be rather a hard case," interposed Cornwood. "I don't think we have any right to separate man and wife."

"The woman is a free citizen of Florida," added the officer; "and she can go where she pleases without any restraint."

"So far as the legal question is concerned, I suppose the woman cannot be put under any restraint," said Cornwood; "but the idea of carrying off the woman against the protest of her husband, is not, morally, the right thing to do. I think you had better discharge the woman, and then you will be free from the possibility of blame."

"I don't propose to meddle with the matter in any way," I replied promptly. "I don't know but you have a wife. If she should come here and protest against my carrying you off up the river, I don't think I should pay any attention to her."

"That's another question," replied Cornwood, smartly.

"I don't think it is: what is sauce for goose is sauce for gander. You will take the wheel, Mr. Cornwood. Forward, there! Heave up the anchor."

As soon as the anchor was atrip, I rang the bell to go ahead.

CHAPTER XXI.

A VISIT TO ORANGE PARK.

Cornwood was slow to move, after I directed him to take the wheel. I saw that he was not yet in the pilot-house, when I rang the bell to go ahead. I directed the mate with Ben and Landy to prevent any of the party in the boat from coming on board, and hastened to the pilot-house. But before I reached the door Cornwood was at the wheel.

He threw it over, and met the boat with the helm when she began to make headway. I was not quite sure that he did not intend to rebel; but I was ready to send him ash.o.r.e the instant he did so in word or deed. My suspicions began to gather weight again. He had evidently delayed the steamer until the arrival of the boat containing Captain Boomsby and the husband of the stewardess.

I could easily fancy that the pilot was at the bottom of all the proceedings to delay or prevent the departure of the boat. The attachment was to prevent her going at all; the claim for the stewardess was to help along the matter. It seemed to me that some heavy reward had been promised to Cornwood for his services, or he would not endanger the liberal wages he was paid for his services on board of the Sylvania. But I knew nothing about the matter, and it was useless to conjecture what he was driving at.

The steamer was headed up the river, and we had actually begun our long-talked-of trip. Cornwood steered the boat as well as usual, but he was moody and silent. If he was ugly and bent on mischief, the worst he could do, as I understood the matter, was to run the steamer aground.

This would not be a very serious calamity, and could involve no worse consequences than a loss of time. I was not alarmed at anything he might do while we were sailing up the river. I seated myself at the side of the wheel, and allowed things to take their course, as, in New Jersey, when it rains, they let it rain. But if Cornwood was angry, he cooled off in the course of half an hour, and remarked that it was a delightful day for the start. I was not obstinate on this point, and I agreed with him.

"I don't think you treated me quite fairly, Captain Garningham, in the affairs of poor Griff and his wife," said he, when the steamer was off Mulberry Grove.

"Didn't treat you fairly!" I exclaimed, astonished at this new phase of the argument. "Do I treat you unfairly because I won't have a man with murder in his heart on board? Do I treat you unfairly because his wife refuses to leave her place?"

"I have told you the reason why I am interested in the man; I am under obligations to him," added Cornwood.

"I have no objection to your being interested in him to the last day of his life; but I am not sufficiently interested in him to have a man who draws a knife on another in this vessel," I answered. "I am not under obligations to him."

"I have done the best I can to serve you, and I thought a friend of mine might be ent.i.tled to some consideration," continued Cornwood, with an injured innocence of tone and manner.

"Your influence procured for him and his wife places on board; and Griffin might have retained his position, if he had behaved half as well as his wife has."

"Poor Griff lay down on the deck to take a nap----"

"I don't care to hear that argument over again. I could have pa.s.sed over the scuffle, if he had not drawn his knife when there was nothing to provoke him," I interposed.

"The a.s.sistant engineer did not tell the truth when he said he did not lay the weight of his hand on him," protested Cornwood.

"I believe he did. I don't believe Griffin was asleep. He lay down with his ear to the skylight of the captain's room in order to hear what pa.s.sed between me and the mate. This is the second time Griffin was caught in the act of listening. More than this, the a.s.sistant engineer was on the watch, by my order, for eavesdroppers, as will appear at the trial," I replied, with energy.

"By your orders?" exclaimed Cornwood.

"By my orders. Both the engineer and the a.s.sistant were asked to do this duty, because Griffin was seen before, skulking where he had no business to be."

"The mate a.s.saulted poor Griff the other day," added the pilot.

"He caught him listening under the windows of our room, and took him by the collar for it, if that is what you mean by a.s.saulting him."

"He had no right to take him by the collar."

"I will grant that he had not; but when one is in the midst of eavesdroppers, his indignation may get the better of his judgment," I replied.

"That was just the case with poor Griff; but he is a poor man, and not the son of an ex-governor; and he is persecuted to the full penalty of the law for it," growled Cornwood.

"I think there is some difference in the cases. Griffin was skulking about, trying to listen to conversation which did not concern him. If he wants to take a nap, he lies down with his ear to an open skylight.

Mr. Washburn is charged with the discipline of the vessel; and when your friend attempted to escape from the place where he was caught, the mate took him by the collar. Griffin, or you, as his counsel, might have prosecuted him for the a.s.sault, if you had thought proper to do so," I answered.

"I am sorry I did not do so, after what has happened since."

"I am sorry you did not, for it would have brought to light some things which have not yet been ventilated."

"What do you mean by that, captain?" demanded the pilot, looking furtively into my face.

"It is not necessary to explain matters that have not yet been brought into the case," I replied coldly. "I think we had better drop the subject, and not allude to it again. As a guide and pilot, I am entirely satisfied with you. Griffin Leeds has been discharged; and he cannot be employed again under any circ.u.mstances on this vessel. I won't have a man about who is skulking under windows, listening to what don't concern him, or a man who will draw a knife on another."

"The steward wants to know at what hour he shall serve dinner in the cabin to-day?" asked Cobbington, poking his head into the pilot-house at this moment.

For some reason not apparent to me, the pilot was so startled at the sound of the new waiter's voice that he let go the wheel, as he was swinging the boat around at a bend of the river. The wheel flew over with force enough to knock a man down if it had hit him. I immediately grasped the spokes, and began to heave it over again.