"I"m _so_ sorry," said May; "I don"t know what Shank will do without you."
At that moment a loud knocking was heard at the door. May rose to open it, and Mrs Leather looked anxiously at her son.
A savage undertoned growl and an unsteady step told all too plainly that the head of the house had returned home.
With sudden interest in worsted fabrics, which he was far from feeling, Charlie Brooke turned his back to the door, and, leaning forward, took up an end of the work with which the knitter was busy.
"That"s an extremely pretty pattern, Mrs Leather. Does it take you long to make things of the kind?"
"Not long; I--I make a good many of them."
She said this with hesitation, and with her eyes fixed on the doorway, through the opening of which her husband thrust a s.h.a.ggy dishevelled head, with dissipation stamped on a countenance which had evidently been handsome once.
But Charlie saw neither the husband"s head nor the poor wife"s gaze, for he was still bending over the worsted-work in mild admiration.
Under the impression that he had not been observed, Mr Leather suddenly withdrew his head, and was heard to stumble up-stairs under the guidance of May. Then the bang of a door, followed by a shaking of the slimly-built house, suggested the idea that the poor man had flung himself on his bed.
"Shank Leather," said Charlie Brooke, that same night as they strolled on the sea-sh.o.r.e, "you gave expression to some sentiments to-day which I highly approved of. One of them was `Speak out your mind, and fear nothing!" I mean to do so now, and expect that you will not be hurt by my following your advice."
"Well!" exclaimed Shank, with a dubious glance, for he disliked the seriousness of his friend"s tone.
"Your father--" began Charlie.
"Please don"t speak about _him_," interrupted the other. "I know all that you can say. His case is hopeless, and I can"t bear to speak about it."
"Well, I won"t speak about him, though I cannot agree with you that his case is hopeless. But it is yourself that I wish to speak about. You and I are soon to separate; it must be for a good long while--it may be for ever. Now I must speak out my mind before I go. My old playmate, school-fellow, and chum, you have begun to walk in your poor father"s footsteps, and you may be sure that if you don"t turn round all your hopes will be blasted--at least for this life--perhaps also for that which is to come. Now don"t be angry or hurt, Shank. Remember that you not only encouraged me, but advised me to speak out my mind."
"Yes, but I did not advise you to form a false, uncharitable judgment of your chum," returned Leather, with a dash of bitterness in his tone. "I admit that I"m fond of a social gla.s.s, and that I sometimes, though rarely, take a little--a very little--more than, perhaps, is necessary.
But that is very different from being a drunkard, which you appear to a.s.sume that I am."
"Nay, Shank, I don"t a.s.sume that. What I said was that you are _beginning_ to walk in your dear father"s footsteps. No man ever yet became a drunkard without _beginning_. And I feel certain that no man ever, when beginning, had the most distant intention or expectation of becoming a drunkard. Your danger, dear old fellow, lies in your _not seeing_ the danger. You admit that you like a social gla.s.s. Shank, I candidly make the same admission--I like it,--but after seeing your father, and hearing your defence, the danger has been so deeply impressed on _me_, that from this hour I resolve, G.o.d helping me, never more to taste a social gla.s.s."
"Well, Charlie, you know yourself best," returned his friend airily, "and if you think yourself in so great danger, of course your resolve is a very prudent one; but for myself, I admit that I see no danger, and I don"t feel any particular weakness of will in regard to temptation."
"Ah, Shank, you remind me of an eccentric old lady I have heard of who was talking with a friend about the difficulties of life. `My dear,"
said the friend, `I do find it such a _difficult_ thing to resist temptation--don"t you?" `No," replied the eccentric old lady, `I don"t, for I _never_ resist temptation, I always give way to it!""
"I can"t quite make out how your anecdote applies to me, Charlie."
"Don"t you see? You feel no weakness of will in regard to temptation because you never give your will an opportunity of resisting it. You always give way to it. You see, I am speaking out my mind freely--as you have advised!"
"Yes, and you take the whole of my advice, and fear nothing, else you would not risk a quarrel by doing so. But really, my boy, it"s of no use your troubling your head on that subject, for I feel quite safe, and I don"t mean to give in, so there"s an end on"t."
Our hero persevered notwithstanding, and for some time longer sought to convince or move his friend both by earnest appeal and light pleasantry, but to all appearance without success, although he reduced him to silence. He left him at last, and went home meditating on the truth of the proverb that "a man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still."
CHAPTER FIVE.
ALL THINGS TO ALL MEN.
Under the influence of favouring breezes and bright skies the _Walrus_ swept gaily over the ocean at the beginning of her voyage, with "stuns"ls slow and aloft, royals and sky-sc.r.a.pers," according to Captain Stride. At least, if these were not the exact words he used, they express pretty well what he meant, namely, a "cloud of canvas."
But this felicitous state of things did not last. The tropics were reached, where calms prevailed with roasting heat. The Southern Atlantic was gained, and gales were met with. The celebrated Cape was doubled, and the gales, if we may say so, were trebled. The Indian Ocean was crossed, and the China Seas were entered, where typhoons blew some of the sails to ribbons, and snapped off the topmasts like pipe-stems. Then she sailed into the great Pacific, and for a time the _Walrus_ sported pleasantly among the coral islands.
During all this time, and amid all these changes, Charlie Brooke, true to his character, was the busiest and most active man on board. Not that his own special duties gave him much to do, for, until the vessel should reach port, these were rather light; but our hero--as Stride expressed it--"must always be doing." If he had not work to do he made it--chiefly in the way of a.s.sisting other people. Indeed there was scarcely a man or boy on board who did not have the burden of his toil, whatever it was, lightened in consequence of young Brooke"s tendency to put his powerful shoulder voluntarily to the wheel. He took the daily observations with the captain, and worked out the ship"s course during the previous twenty-four hours. He handled the adze and saw with the carpenter, learned to knot and splice, and to sew canvas with the bo"s"n"s mate, commented learnedly and interestingly on the preparation of food with the cook, and spun yarns with the men on the forecastle, or listened to the long-winded stories of the captain and officers in the cabin. He was a splendid listener, being much more anxious to ascertain exactly the opinions of his friends and mates than to advance his own.
Of course it followed that Charlie was a favourite.
With his insatiable desire to acquire information of every kind, he had naturally, when at home, learned a little rough-and-tumble surgery, with a slight smattering of medicine. It was not much, but it proved to be useful as far as it went, and his "little knowledge" was not "dangerous," because he modestly refused to go a single step beyond it in the way of practice, unless, indeed, he was urgently pressed to do so by his patients. In virtue of his attainments, real and supposed, he came to be recognised as the doctor of the ship, for the _Walrus_ carried no medical man.
"Look here, Brooke," said the only pa.s.senger on board--a youth of somewhat delicate const.i.tution, who was making the voyage for the sake of his health,--"I"ve got horrible toothache. D"you think you can do anything for me?"
"Let"s have a look at it," said Charlie, with kindly interest, though he felt half inclined to smile at the intensely lugubrious expression of the youth"s face.
"Why, Raywood, that is indeed a bad tooth; nothing that I know of will improve it. There"s a cavern in it big and black enough to call to remembrance the Black Hole of Calcutta! A red-hot wire might destroy the nerve, but I never saw one used, and should not like to try it."
"Horrible!" exclaimed Raywood. "I"ve been mad with pain all the morning, and can"t afford to be driven madder. Perhaps, somewhere or other in the ship there may be a--a--thingumy."
"A whatumy?" inquired the other.
"A key, or--or--pincers," groaned Raywood, "for extracting--oh! man, couldn"t you pull it out?"
"Easily," said Charlie, with a smile. "I"ve got a pair of forceps-- always carry them in case of need, but never use them unless the patient is very bad, and _must_ have it out."
Poor Raywood protested, with another groan, that his was a case in point, and it _must_ come out; so Charlie sought for and found his forceps.
"It won"t take long, I suppose?" said the patient rather nervously, as he opened his mouth.
"Oh no. Only a moment or--"
A fearful yell, followed by a gasp, announced to the whole ship"s company that a crisis of some sort had been pa.s.sed by some one, and the expert though amateur dentist congratulated his patient on his deliverance from the enemy.
Only three of the ship"s company, however, had witnessed the operation.
One was d.i.c.k Darvall, the seaman who chanced to be steering at the time, and who could see through the open skylight what was being enacted in the cabin. Another was the captain, who stood beside him. The third was the cabin-boy, Will Ward, who chanced to be cleaning some bra.s.ses about the skylight at the time, and was transfixed by what we may style delightfully horrible sensations. These three watched the proceedings with profound interest, some sympathy, and not a little amus.e.m.e.nt.
"Mind your helm, Darvall," said the Captain, stifling a laugh as the yell referred to burst on his ears.
"Ay, ay, sir," responded the seaman, bringing his mind back to his duty, as he bestowed a wink on the bra.s.s-polishing cabin-boy.
"He"s up to everything," said Darvall in a low voice, referring to our hero.
"From pitch-and-toss to manslaughter," responded the boy, with a broad grin.
"I do believe, Mr Brooke, that you can turn your hand to anything,"
said Captain Stride, as Charlie came on deck a few minutes later. "Did you ever study doctoring or surgery?"
"Not regularly," answered Charlie; "but occasionally I"ve had the chance of visiting hospitals and dissecting-rooms, besides hearing lectures on anatomy, and I have taken advantage of my opportunities. Besides, I"m fond of mechanics; and tooth-drawing is somewhat mechanical. Of course I make no pretension to a knowledge of regular dentistry, which involves, I believe, a scientific and prolonged education."