Up the River Part 5

"To-morrow morning, about seven o'clock, unless some change is made in the arrangements," I replied, wondering what possible interest he could have in the sailing of the steamer.

"Alick, you and I were always good friends," he continued.

"Not always, though I don't mind that now," I added, not willing that the exact truth should be sacrificed, even by my silence.

"I am getting a little tired of this place, and I want to be out of it.

I know we didn't always agree when we were little children; but I don't believe you think of these things now."

"I have not the least ill-will towards you, Nick."

"I am right glad to hear you say so. The old man never will let up on you, I suppose. But I told him he was a fool, and that he had better let you alone."

Perhaps it was good advice, but I did not believe he ever gave it to his father, though he was capable of any disrespect. I waited to learn what he was driving at, though the fact that he had said he wished he was going with me on the cruise came to my mind in this connection.

"I am tired of the sort of life I am leading," continued Nick.

"I don't blame you," I added, with the utmost sincerity, though I had not supposed he had any soarings above the sphere of a bar-tender.

"What can I do? The old man won't let me do anything else beside tend bar. It is mean business, and I'm bound to get out of it."

I thought Nick's view of the situation was very commendable, though I did not see how he was to break away from his father, if the latter was not willing he should do so.

"The only way I can do it is to run away," added Nick.

"I can't advise you to do that," I replied.

"I am eighteen years old, and I am able to take care of myself. The old man don't give me any wages, and it's hard work for me to get a suit of clothes out of him when I need it. Which would you rather do if you were in my place,--sell whiskey, and very likely become a drunkard yourself, or run away, and become an honest and respectable man?"

It was a hard question, and I declined to answer it, for I was unwilling to be responsible to any degree for anything that Nick Boomsby might do. I knew him too well.

"If you will take me to New Orleans on your steamer, I will work my pa.s.sage, and be everlastingly obliged to you besides," persisted Nick, coming all at once to the point.

"No, Nick, I shall not do anything to provoke your father, or give him just cause to complain of me. So far as your leaving your present business is concerned, you must settle that for yourself," I replied, firmly.

I refused all his entreaties to be allowed to go in the Sylvania. I told him that the relation between his father and myself would not permit me to do anything to a.s.sist him. He seemed to be reconciled to my decision, and was as pleasant as possible. He asked me about the Islander, and I told him all I knew about her. I inquired what had been done about the robbery. Nothing more had been done, but everybody was satisfied that Buckner was the guilty person, and the police were still searching for the missing package. Nick was going on board of the Sylvania next, and I wrote on a card a request to Cobbington to show him over the vessel.

While we were talking the mail arrived. Colonel Shepard rushed to the post-office, and I was talking to him while the mail was in process of sorting and distribution. Nick stood by me all the time, and listened to all that we were saying. At last Colonel Shepard received his letters. He opened one of them with feverish haste.

"All right! I go with you, Captain Alick!" exclaimed the colonel, evidently as much delighted as a child would have been. "I will follow you up the Mississippi. What time do you sail, Captain Alick?"

"At seven; that will bring us to the bar at about the right time," I replied.

"I must send word on board to Captain Blastblow to be ready at that time."

The colonel appeared to be searching his pockets for a piece of paper, and I handed him one of my blank cards. He wrote something on it, and intimated that he wanted to find some one by whom he could send it on board of the Islander.

"I am just going on board of the Sylvania, and I will leave it on board of the Islander as I pa.s.s her," interposed Nick.

Colonel Shepard asked me if I knew the young man, and I told him I did.

He gave him the card, and Nick hastened off in the direction of the boat-club building. I wondered if he was not intending to look for a pa.s.sage to New Orleans in the Islander. It was not impossible, and I determined that my late pa.s.sengers should not be burdened with his company.

I went to the Carlton, and found that my pa.s.sengers had decided not to go on board of the Sylvania till the next morning, and had ordered an early breakfast. There was to be some sort of a social occasion in the parlors that evening, and my father and his friends wished to be present. I went on board of the steamer. On my way I looked in at the window of Captain Boomsby's saloon, and saw that Nick was there peddling out whiskey to thirsty customers. He had not concealed himself on board of the Islander; and I had told Colonel Shepard to be on the lookout in the morning, to a.s.sure himself that he had no more pa.s.sengers than he wanted. I was quite sure I had blocked Nick's wheels, so far as running away in either of the steam-yachts was concerned.

CHAPTER V.

THE STRANGE MOVEMENT OF THE ISLANDER.

Cobbington had engaged the additional waiter. His name was Reel Bend.i.c.k, as he spelled it out to me; and he seemed to be an intelligent and docile man. He was to wait on the table in the fore-cabin, while Tom Sands was to continue in the after-cabin, where he had always been a.s.sisted by the steward, and on great occasions by Washington Gopher, the accomplished cook who had come all the way from Detroit.

With these exceptions our crew remained the same as before.

Since our return from up the St. Johns, everything about the Sylvania had been put in perfect order for sea. Moses Brickland, the engineer, had overhauled the machinery and the boiler, and we had a full supply of coal in the bunkers. I went all over the vessel, and a.s.sured myself that everything was in order.

"I suppose there is no doubt about our leaving in the morning, is there, Captain Alick?" asked Bob Washburn, the mate, as we seated ourselves in the captain's cabin, after we had both been all over the deck and the cabins.

"Of course I don't know anything more about that than you do, but I think there cannot be much doubt of it," I replied. "We shall have no pa.s.sengers but my father, the Tiffanys, and my cousin."

"Does Owen Garningham go with us, Alick?" asked Washburn, with astonishment.

"He told me this afternoon he had no invitation to go in the Islander, and my father said he would have none," I replied.

"Then your father thinks there has been too much spooning on board,"

added Washburn, laughing.

"Probably Colonel Shepard thinks so too, and that may be the reason why he decided to go in the Islander instead of in the Sylvania."

"I should think it would be better to separate Owen and Miss Edith until each shall have a chance to make up his mind."

"Owen seems to be very much attached to Miss Edith, and their being together all the time may result in something very serious. He is a young fellow of twenty, and I doubt if he knows his own mind; he is fascinated by a pretty face."

"There is no doubt of that; and the face is as pretty a one as I ever saw," added Washburn, with emphasis.

"My father says Owen's mother is very rich, and that she is more afraid he will fall into some entangling alliance of this sort, than she is of his becoming a drunkard, or becoming a bad man," I continued, recalling some of the conversations my father had had with me.

"They say Colonel Shepard is rich enough to satisfy even an English nabob," suggested the mate.

"I suppose Owen's mother expects him to marry a d.u.c.h.ess," I replied. "I saw her when I was in England; but she had no love for me, and I have no doubt she wished I had never turned up."

"I should say that Edith Shepard was good enough for any fellow, even if he were an earl or a duke," said Washburn, shrugging his shoulders.

"Luckily it is none of our affair, though my sympathies are all with Owen," I added. "I wonder if Nick Boomsby came on board this afternoon," I continued, willing to change the subject.

I called Cobbington into our room, and was informed that Nick had been on board, and had been treated with distinguished consideration.

"Did he say anything about going with us, Cobbington?" I asked.