The Captain's Bunk Part 4

Then the sea and sky were blurred, and a vision took their place--a vision of a sweet, fading face; hands outstretched in pleading; and a loved voice, long since dumb, rang in her ears: 'You will promise, Theo, to be a little mother to the boys, and help them over the rough places in life's journey, as I should have tried to do? G.o.d will help you, dear. He will ever be ready with His aid!'

How vividly it all came back to the girl, that dark time in her young life when the dear, tender mother was called from out their midst.

When all things, in heaven and earth alike, were shrouded in the pitiless gloom which hid the face of her Heavenly Father from the despairing daughter. What a chill, empty, rudderless home it was for the terror-struck children, with no one to look to for guidance!

Father was away at the far ends of the world on his good ship, and mother--ah, farther off still was the mother, who had slipped out of the little home. Theo remembered, with a pang, the clinging hands of the desolate boys and the baby, Queenie, which had stirred her out of her own stupor of sorrow. It was borne in upon her, then, that she must step into the dead mother's empty place; and, frail, weak girl though she was, she had done her brave best to fill it ever since. She knew well, none better, that G.o.d had indeed helped her daily in her efforts. .h.i.therto. Lifting her tear-stained face, Theo told herself that He would do so still, for 'His mercies never fail.' With a silent little prayer for strength and patience, she left Queenie in the tea-house while she went indoors to confront the rebels as courageously as she could.

CHAPTER VII

MUTINY AT THE BUNK

'Boys!' Theo's clear treble voice rang through the din that was shaking the very pictures on the walls of the Bunk dining-room.

'Why, it's Theo, I declare!' shouted Geoff, the first to hear his sister. 'We're in a state of mutiny, Theo! Isn't it fun?' He shrieked in his glee.

'We've turned on old Price, and completely routed him off the decks, and we've seized the ship. We're in sole command of the Bunk--hooray!'

Alick, his face flushed with triumph, his eyes dancing with wicked mischief, executed a hornpipe in the middle of the dining-table in furious style and making a hideous clatter, shouting the while--

'Will ye hear of Captain Kidd, And the deeds of which he did, All upon the Spanish main, Where so many men were slain?'

'Won't you get down, boys dear, and tell me quietly what has maddened you so this morning?' Theo, who had been standing transfixed, spoke at last, looking calmly at her excited brothers, and her voice, so evenly modulated and gentle, had an instantaneous effect. The dreadful din and noisy dancing abruptly ceased, while the rebels regarded her with much the same sullen stare as one encounters from a drove of Highland cattle when molested.

'Where's Price? Have you seen him?' suspiciously asked Geoff. 'Has he been reporting us?'

'He'd better not try on that game, I tell you, the coward that he is!'

growled Alick.

'I don't know about Mr. Price being the coward,' pointedly said Theo.

'It isn't usually the fashion among brave men for two to set on one, is it, boys dear?' she added tranquilly.

Geoff gasped. Then his mouth, opening to sharply retort, shut with a click. He knew that his sister, though only a girl, was perfectly right. It had been an unfair, uneven conflict. Theo put her finger on the blot with remarkable accuracy for a girl; two to one must always be unfair, and a rush of shame tingled over him.

Not so Alick. He would not allow himself to be convinced.

'I'd like to know what right has Price to grind us down?' he muttered, gloomily frowning at Theo. 'He's an oppressor, that's what he is! But I'll soon let him see; I'll pitch into him, if he dares to show his white face here again, I tell you! Down with tyrants!'

'He isn't likely to show his face here,' said Theo, loftily regarding the inflamed countenance of her brother. 'That is,' she continued, 'not unless he receives an ample apology from each of you for this morning's work.'

'Apology!' shouted--almost yelled--Alick. 'Never! Don't you believe it, Miss Theo! You think you can do most things, but you won't bend us to that!' Rub-a-dub on the dining-table hammered the furious boy's toes and heels, as he broke out into another hornpipe.

'Won't you come down, dears?' again pleaded Theo as gently as before.

'Come to the tea-house, and tell me exactly what the trouble was from the very beginning,' she said persuasively.

'Oh, we'll tell you!' eagerly a.s.sented the boys, with one voice; and scrambling down from the table, each slipped an arm through Theo's, and walked away with her, both talking at once, excitedly endeavouring to make the best of their case in her eyes. They were genuinely fond of their elder sister; princ.i.p.ally, it may have been, because she never scolded or flouted them, however badly they behaved. Theo's way was different. It was by gentle means she sought to lead, not drive, her rebellious, hot-headed young brothers back to the path of duty from which they were so constantly straying.

'What did you want, did you say?' she asked, bewildered by the two angry voices full of complaint on either side of her.

'You be quiet, Geoff, and let me tell her, said Alick, in a domineering tone. 'I'm the eldest!' That being a fact, Geoff could not well contradict it, and Alick triumphantly went on, 'You see, Theo, this is how it all began. We asked Price, civilly enough, this morning to allow us a whole day off on Wednesday next, instead of the usual half-holiday. And I'll tell you why we were so anxious for a whole day. You know Jerry Blunt?'

Theo nodded. Everybody had heard of the wanderer's return to Northbourne.

'Of course you do. Well, but perhaps you didn't know that he has set up as a bird-trainer, because he can't do any work since he lost his right arm, and he is bound to make a living somehow. Jerry told Ned Dempster that he was going to Brattlesby Woods all day Wednesday to seek for young bullfinches, and he also said that we might go with him, if we cared to, and help search the nests. Wouldn't that have been splendid? Now, wouldn't it?'

Theo nodded again--emphatically. She thoroughly sympathised with all the boys' pleasures and pursuits, even when she could not join them.

'But that cantankerous old Price refused us flat. He said we'd been far too idle, me especially, to yield us one single hour extra; and he hammered away about his responsibilities as he has the cheek to call _us_. Now, I ask you, wasn't that enough to make a fellow just mad?

Wouldn't you have done exactly as we did yourself, Theo?' Alick gave his sister's arm an impatient shake.

'Well, no. I don't think I should have danced so madly on the table to the horrible music of the fire-irons. And I _do_ know I should not have insulted a gentleman. Another thing'--Theo skilfully reserved her best shot for the last--'I also am quite sure I shouldn't have set on him when he was single-handed and I had a partner, as I said before.'

Geoff slid his hand quickly out of Theo's arm; her shot had gone home, and his face took on a look of hot shame. Alick, on the other hand, only frowned the more deeply.

'Let us sit down and talk it all over reasonably,' went on Theo.

'Queenie dear, it is one o'clock; you may take your lesson-book, and make yourself and your doll-people tidy for dinner.' Queenie obediently trotted off to the house, and the speaker continued.

'What's all this about Jerry Blunt, boys? I thought he was a sailor?

What in the world has a sailor to do with training bullfinches, I want to know?'

'Why,' glibly began Alick, his face clearing, for the subject was one specially dear to him, 'you know Jerry was away on that expedition to find the North Pole--the one that went so far north. They got to the Franz Josef Land, the very farthest anybody has ever yet penetrated.

But they failed that time, and Jerry got a frost-bite all through his own carelessness--he admits that. His right hand and arm above the elbow had to be taken off. Oh, you needn't shudder, Theo; a man can't both venture and go scot-free. When the expedition came back they gave Jerry the sack--turned him off, you know. So he has come back to Northbourne to settle with his old mother, and of course he is anxious to turn an honest penny for a living. It seems he knows a rare lot about training young bullfinches to pipe real tunes. He learned the trick from a cunning old Frenchman's yarns--a man who was on the expedition.'

'Yes, and just fancy, Theo!' cut in Geoff excitedly, and forgetting all his recent twinges of compunction. 'Jerry trains the bullfinches with a queer little musical instrument, a bird organ it is called. The notes are as like their own as they can possibly be, Jerry says so. He is going to show us the one he has got of his own. Old Frenchy, who taught him how to train, gave him one for himself.'

'What's Jerry Blunt's object in training the birds? How can it be a living for him?' asked Theo wonderingly. For the moment she, too, had forgotten the disagreeable events of the morning in the novelty of the subject.

'Why, he will sell them, of course--sell them to a chap in London who sells them again. They fetch a good price, I can tell you. And oh, Theo, listen, _we_ are going to have a trained finch, Alick and I.

We're going to save up, and Jerry has promised to keep a young bird to train for us. We shall pay him, you know.' Geoff in his elation jumped up and down on the seat.

'Yes, we are!' said Alick; adding wrathfully, 'and wasn't it a mean, low trick of Price to refuse us leave to go with Jerry?' He was quite ready to blaze up again, volcanic-wise, in another fury.

'Well, boys,' Theo spoke quietly and simply, but there was that in her face and voice that forced both other brothers to listen, 'you know, each of you, that father is too busy to look after you; so Mr. Price is set over you, and he is on honour--being a gentleman, you understand--not to take advantage of father's preoccupation to give you such holidays as you have no right to have. Already they say your work is far too light, and I know Mr. Vesey has again and again urged father to send you both to a public school. When the book is done, and sent to the publishers, father means to see about it seriously. You've called Mr. Price a great many bad names to-day, but you can't call him dishonourable; that's one point in his favour, and it's but fair that we should allow him what we can. It would have been so easy for him to grant this favour----'

'Humph!' interrupted Alick, as if to say, 'Oh, you're coming round to our view, are you? I thought you would!'

'Quite easy!' repeated the young girl gravely. 'And there's another thing: if it would have been such a pleasure to you, think what it would have been to Mr. Price to get rid of such tiresome plagues as yourselves for a whole day!'

In a flash Alick remembered the recent words of old Binks to the same effect. For the second time the novel idea of how irksome he and Geoff must be to their much-tried tutor presented itself, to the resentful boy's secret astonishment.

'I am sure,' Theo began again, and still more gravely, 'you boys must remember that the Bible tells us to respect those appointed to be rulers over us.'

'Don't preach!' Alick rudely cut her short; but Geoff bit his lip. He was already bitterly ashamed of his morning's exploit, and tender, serious words from Theo never failed to touch him to the heart.

Left to himself, Geoff was undoubtedly one of those who, amid good surroundings, would have kept on the straight path easily enough. So could many. But human nature is, for the most part, made up of Alicks as well as Geoffs--of boys who wilfully choose to do wrong and to stray from duty. Like the genuine wheat and the tares, all must grow together side by side--in the meantime.

'I didn't intend to preach, Alick,' rejoined Theo gently. 'I only want to ask you boys to show that you also are gentlemen, in the true sense of the word, by frankly begging Mr. Price's pardon, when he comes to-morrow, for your rude outbreak of this morning. It is the least you can do, to make amends for an almost unpardonable insult.'

There was a silence. The waves below dashed and broke on the rocks, and the hoa.r.s.e voices from a belated, heavy-laden fishing-boat stole across the water in shouts to the women, who had been anxiously awaiting them for some hours on the sh.o.r.e.