“I charge myself with the care of all else. There was indeed a lucky escape, only the last night, as we lay at a light kedge, waiting for the return of him who has been arrested. Profiting by the possession of our skiff, the commander of the Coquette, himself, got within the sweep of my hawse–nay, he was in the act of cutting the very fastenings, when the dangerous design was discovered. ’T would have been a fate unworthy of the Water-Witch, to be cast on shore like a drifting log, and to check her noble career by some such a seizure as that of a stranded waif!”
“You avoided the mischance?”
“My eyes are seldom shut, lord Viscount, when danger is nigh. The skiff was seen in time, and watched; for I knew that one in whom I trusted was abroad.–When the movement grew suspicious, we had our means of frightening this Mr. Ludlow from his enterprise, without recourse to violence.”
“I had not thought him one to be scared from following up a business like this.”
“You judged him rightly–I may say we judged him rightly. But when his boats sought us at our anchorage, the bird had flown.”
“You got the brigantine to sea, in season?” observed Cornbury, not sorry to believe that the vessel was already off the coast.
“I had other business. My agent could not be thus deserted, and there were affairs to finish in the city. Our course lay up the bay.”
“Ha! Master Skimmer, ’t was a bold step, and one that says little for your discretion!”
“Lord Viscount, there is safety in courage,” calmly and perhaps ironically returned the other. “While the Queen’s captain closed all the outlets, my little craft was floating quietly under the hills of Staten. Before the morning watch was set, she passed these wharves; and she now awaits her captain, in the broad basin that lies beyond the bend of yonder head-land.”
“This is a hardiness to be condemned! A failure of wind, a change of tide, or any of the mishaps common to the sea, may throw you on the mercy of the law, and will greatly embarrass all who feel an interest in your safety.”
“So far as this apprehension is connected with my welfare, I thank you much, my lord; but, trust me, many hazards have left me but little to learn in this particular. We shall run the Hell-Gate, and gain the open sea by the Connecticut Sound.”
“Truly, Master Skimmer, one has need of nerves to be your confidant! Faith in a compact constitutes the beauty of social order; without it, there is no security for interests, nor any repose for character. But faith may be implied, as well as expressed; and when men in certain situations place their dependence on others who should have motives for being wary, the first are bound to respect, even to the details of a most scrupulous construction, the conditions of the covenant. Sir, I wash my hands of this transaction, if it be understood that testimony is to be accumulated against us, by thus putting your Water-Witch in danger of trial before the Admiralty.”
“I am sorry that this is your decision,” returned the Skimmer. “What is done, cannot be recalled, though I still hope it may be remedied. My brigantine now lies within a league of this, and ’t would be treachery to deny it. Since it is your opinion, my lord, that our contract is not valid, there is little use in its seal–the broad pieces may still be serviceable, in shielding that youth from harm.”
“You are as literal in constructions, Master Skimmer, as a school-boy’s version of his Virgil. There is an idiom in diplomacy, as well as in language, and one who treats so sensibly should not be ignorant of its phrases. Bless me, Sir; an hypothesis is not a conclusion, any more than a promise is a performance. That which is advanced by way of supposition, is but the ornament of reasoning, while your gold has the more solid character of demonstration. Our bargain is made.”
The unsophisticated mariner regarded the noble casuist a moment, in doubt whether to acquiesce in this conclusion, or not; but ere he had decided on his course, the windows of the room were shaken violently, and then came the heavy roar of a piece of ordnance.
“The morning gun!” exclaimed Cornbury, who started at the explosion, with the sensitiveness of one unworthily employed.–“No! ’tis an hour past the rising of the sun!”
The Skimmer showed no yielding of the nerves, though it was evident, by his attitude of thought and the momentary fixedness of his eye, that he foresaw danger was near. Moving to the window, he looked out on the water, and instantly drew back, like one who wanted no further evidence.
“Our bargain then is made,” he said, hastily approaching the Viscount, whose hand he seized and wrung in spite of the other’s obvious reluctance to allow the familiarity; “our bargain then is made. Deal fairly by the youth, and the deed will be remembered–deal treacherously, and it shall be revenged!”
For one instant longer, the Skimmer held the member of the effeminate Cornbury imprisoned; and then, raising his cap with a courtesy that appeared more in deference to himself than his companion, he turned on his heel, and with a firm but quick step he left the house.
Carnaby, who entered on the instant, found his guest in a state between resentment, surprise, and alarm. But habitual levity soon conquered other feelings; and, finding himself freed from the presence of a man who had treated him with so little ceremony, the ex-governor shook his head, like one accustomed to submit to evils he could not obviate, and assumed the ease and insolent superiority he was accustomed to maintain in the presence of the obsequious grocer.
“This may be a coral or a pearl, or any other precious gem of the ocean, Master Carnaby,” he said, unconscious himself that he was in a manner endeavoring to cleanse his violated hand from the touch it had endured, by the use of his handkerchief, “but it is one on which the salt water hath left its crust. Truly it is to be hoped that I am never again to be blockaded by such a monster, or I may better say, harpooned; for the familiarity of the boatswain is more painful than any inventions of his brethren of the deep can prove to their relative the leviathan. Has the clock told the hour?”
“’Tis not yet six, my lord, and there is abundant leisure for your lordship to return in season to your lordship’s lodgings. Mrs. Carnaby has dared to flatter herself, that your lordship will condescend to honor us so far as to taste a dish of bohea under our humble roof.”
“What is the meaning of that gun, Master Carnaby? It gave the alarm to the smuggler, as if it had been a summons from Execution Dock, or a groan from the ghost of Kidd.”
“I never presumed to think, my lord. I suppose it to be some pleasure of Her Majesty’s officers in the fort; and when that is the case, one is quite certain that all is proper, and very English, my lord.”
“’Fore George, Sir, English or Dutch, it had the quality to frighten this sea-fowl–this curlew–this albatross, from his perch!”
“Upon my duty to your lordship, your lordship has the severest wit of any gentleman in Her Majesty’s kingdom! But all the nobility and gentry are so witty, that it is quite an honor and an edification to hear them! If it is your lordship’s pleasure, I will look out of the window, my lord, and see if there be any thing visible.”
“Do so, Master Carnaby–I confess a little curiosity to know what has given the alarm to my sealion–ha! do I not see the masts of a ship, moving above the roofs of yonder line of stores?”
“Well, your lordship has the quickest eye!–and the happiest way of seeing things, of any nobleman in England! Now I should have stared a quarter of an hour, before I thought of looking over the roofs of those stores, at all; and yet your lordship looks there at the very first glance.”
“Is it a ship or a brig, Master Carnaby–you have the advantage of position, for I would not willingly be seen–speak quickly, dolt;–is it ship, or brig?”
“My lord–’tis a brig–or a ship–really I must ask your lordship, for I know so little of these things–”
“Nay, complaisant Master Carnaby–have an opinion of your own for one moment, if you please –there is smoke curling upward, behind those masts–”
Another rattling of windows, and a second report, removed all doubts on the subject of the firing. At the next instant, the bows of a vessel of war appeared at the opening of a ship-yard, and then came gun after gun in view, until the whole broadside and frowning battery of the Coquette were visible.