The Loss of the Royal George Part 8

"That's like him all over," exclaimed Susan. "I should have known it even if I had not expected to see it; and it's just the same as the one I have upstairs, though that is terribly faded."

"Please get it, Mrs Truscott, and we will compare the two," said Jerry.

She quickly brought the little picture we had so carefully preserved; though the colours were almost gone, the lines were sufficiently clear to remove any manner of doubt in our minds that the one was a copy of the other.

"And now, what do you think of this?" producing a portrait of Miss Stafford.

"The very young lady who came to our house," exclaimed Susan. "Owing to the sad circ.u.mstances of her death, her features are more impressed on my mind than those of anyone I ever met, and I am sure those who know Harry would say that he is wonderfully like her."

I agreed with my wife, and Jerry said that he thought so likewise from what he recollected of him; indeed we had not a shadow of doubt on our minds that our dear Harry was the son of Henry Stafford.

"Oh, how I wish he was at home!" cried Susan; "he cannot fail to gain his rights; and then he might marry dear Miss f.a.n.n.y and be so happy.

Ben, I must go and tell her what we have found out about his family, and that she may be sure all will come right. It will do her all the good in the world, for she has been very sadly since her father forbid Harry to come to the house and got him sent off to sea; sometimes I have thought that the poor dear would break her heart."

I asked Jerry what he thought.

"There might be no harm in letting Miss f.a.n.n.y know, but it must depend upon whether she has got discretion or not," said Jerry. "If she is a wise girl she will hold her tongue, and I daresay it will make her happier to hear what you wish to tell her."

Susan at length gained her way, and, promising duly to caution Miss f.a.n.n.y to be prudent, set off.

Jerry and I sat talking over matters till Susan came back.

"I am thankful I went," she said. "I found Miss f.a.n.n.y very ill, and I have hopes that the news I gave her will restore her to health faster than any doctor's stuff."

I told Jerry how I had hunted for the young lady's luggage, and had been unable to find it, though she had told me the name of the inn where she had left it; and I was sure she would not have spoken falsely.

"Is the landlord still alive?" asked Jerry.

"Yes; though well in years," I answered.

"Well, then, we will go along together, and see if we can make anything out of him," said Jerry; and off we set. We went into the bar-room.

Fortunately no one was there, so we asked the landlord to come in and have a quiet gla.s.s with a couple of old salts. He, nothing loath, came at once, for he had been a sailor himself. I never saw anybody like Jerry for leading on to a point he wanted to reach; he soon got talking about the _Royal George_, then he asked the landlord if he remembered the name of the young lady who came to his house the day before the wreck with a little boy.

"No," said the landlord, "I don't remember her name, though I do her and the little boy."

"Then you heard it?" said Jerry.

"Can't say but what I did," answered the landlord.

"Then can you tell me what the gentleman did with her luggage?" he asked, looking the landlord full in the face. "Come, you know he bribed you to stow it away, and say nothing about it if questions were asked."

I never saw anybody look so astonished as the landlord did when Jerry said this.

"How should you know anything about it?" he asked.

"I know a good many things," answered Jerry, with a knowing look.

"Come, mate, tell us what Mr Biddulph Stafford paid you for stowing the things away, and I will promise that it shall be doubled if you can find them."

I did not know at the time that this was all a guess of Jerry's, but he had hit the right nail on the head.

"Is it a bargain?" asked the landlord. "I suppose that Mr Biddulph can't do me any harm?"

"It's a bargain, and I will see that you are not the sufferer," said Jerry. "Come, what did he give you?"

"Ten pounds," answered the landlord.

"You shall have twenty; and that you may be sure of it, I will write out the promise to pay you."

The landlord, thus taken by surprise, agreed; and Jerry, who followed the wise plan of "striking while the iron is hot," made him then and there bring pen and paper, when he wrote out an order on his brother-in-law for twenty pounds. The landlord then begged that we would come upstairs, and, going through a trapdoor in the roof, he let down two small trunks, such as ladies might use for travelling. They were both locked.

"There they are," said the landlord; "and the sooner you take them the better. They have made me uncomfortable ever since they have been in the house; I didn't like to destroy them, and I didn't know where to put them. As it is so long since Mr Biddulph Stafford came here, I don't suppose that he will trouble me again about them."

We waited till dark, and the landlord then getting us a boy to carry one of the trunks, I shouldered the other, and we set off back to my house.

Though Susan was naturally curious to see their contents, we agreed that we would not open them ourselves, but wait till Mrs Stafford could do so, as she was more likely than anyone else to recognise their contents.

We then talked over what was best to be done. I was for telling Captain Leslie, for I was sure that he had still as kind a feeling towards Harry as ever, and that he had acted as he had done to prevent him and his daughter from making what he considered an imprudent match.

Jerry at last came to agree with me, and he consented to write to Mr Pengelley and ask his advice. Mr Pengelley thought as I did, that as an old friend of Harry's the captain might be trusted; indeed, without his a.s.sistance it would have been difficult to get Harry sent home. I lost no time in hastening up to the captain, and told him everything; he was, as I expected he would be, highly delighted.

"He is a n.o.ble young fellow, and I all along thought he was of gentle birth, though he might not have a right to his father's name," he exclaimed. "We will get him home without delay, for of course nothing can be done till he arrives."

He promised to be cautious, so that Mr Biddulph Stafford should not get an inkling of what we were about.

"I will accompany him myself and give him all the support in my power, as the whole matter is as clear to me as noonday, and, whether his uncle acknowledges him or not, he must win his case."

I told him that Jerry hoped he would not say anything to the rest of his family.

"I will be discreet," he answered, "depend upon that."

I had a strong suspicion that the ladies soon knew all about it, though for my part I was sure they would act wisely.

Jerry received a letter from Mr Pengelley, saying that he wished to see him, and to bring the information he had gained. Bidding us, therefore, good-bye, he set off to return home, taking the portraits of the young lady and Harry with him.

After this there seemed nothing to be done but to wait till Harry's return; Captain Leslie had written to request that he might be allowed to come home on urgent family affairs, and there was no doubt but that he would obtain leave to do so, and he would of course guess the object.

I spent a good part of each day with spygla.s.s in hand, looking out for fresh arrivals at Spithead. When either Susan or I went up to the captain's, we were sure to find Miss f.a.n.n.y at the telescope, which stood on a stand in the bay window of the drawing-room, turned in the same direction. At last one day I saw two frigates coming in round Saint Helen's; the leading one had her fore-topmast shot away and her sails and rigging much cut up; the second, which had the English colours flying over the French, was in a far worse condition, her mainmast and mizzen-topmast were gone, and her hull was severely battered. She was evidently a prize to the first.

"I can't help hoping that yonder frigate is the _Vestal_; it's hard to say positively, but she is, as far as I can judge from this distance, wonderfully like her," I exclaimed to Susan. I hurried down to the "hard," and, engaging a boat, put off and got alongside before any of the Portsmouth boats. I soon found that I was right. The first person I saw on stepping on deck was Harry himself; he hurried forward to shake me by the hand.

"Father," he said, "we have had a glorious fight, and the captain has been good enough to speak highly of me; after an hour's fighting, broadside to broadside, we got foul of the enemy, and I had the honour of leading the boarders."

I asked him if he had received Captain Leslie's letter; he had not.

"I am then the first to bring you the good news," I said; and I told him in as few words as I could how Jerry had discovered who his parents were, and that he might before long see one of them. He was naturally eager to go on sh.o.r.e at once, but he could not desert his duty; so, sending the boat back with a message to Susan, I remained on board till the frigate with her prize went into harbour. Reginald was as much rejoiced at his friend's prospects as Harry was himself. As soon as they could get leave they accompanied me over to Ryde.

We landed at the very spot where, about twenty years before, I had stepped on sh.o.r.e with Harry in my arms, all wet and draggled, followed by the sheep which had saved his life. And now he stood by my side, a fine, well-dressed young man, with the thorough cut of a naval officer.

He had had time to get rigged out in a new uniform, and looked handsomer, I thought, than ever. Somebody else would think so, too, I had a notion.

We hurried up to our cottage, where Susan was on the look-out for him.

He took her in his arms and kissed her, just as he would have done before he went to sea.