It was a summer sea in this lat.i.tude, with a very steady breeze from the westward. The overcoats they wore were hardly necessary, and they had put them on mainly to conceal their changed garments from the crew of the ship, who could only conjecture what the expedition meant.
"You are a younger man than I am, Christophe, and you have slept only a couple of hours to-night," said M. Rubempre, as soon as the Eleuthera was well under way; and the remark was called forth by a long gape on the part of the younger person. "You can turn in and sleep a couple of hours more just as well as not, for there is nothing whatever for you to do. We may have to make a long day of it to-morrow."
"I am accustomed to doing without my sleep at times," replied Christophe, which was his first name, according to the French orthography, and was p.r.o.nounced in two syllables.
"Of course you have, when your duty required you to be on deck; but there is not the least need of doing so now."
The lieutenant complied with the advice of the skipper, and in five minutes more he was sound asleep. The Bahama boat, with a Bahama name, rose and fell on the long rolling seas, which were very gentle in their motion, and made very good progress through the water. The light could be plainly seen in its lofty position, and the detective steered for it over an hour, and then kept it a little on the starboard hand; for the opening in the outer reef through which he intended to pa.s.s was two miles to the westward of the high tower. He had correctly estimated the speed of the boat, for the faint light of the dawn of day began to appear in the east when he was able clearly to discern the outline of the hills on the most southern of the islands.
Although it was still quite dark, the Frenchman continued on his course very confidently. The reefs extended out two miles from the main sh.o.r.e; but the navigator was so familiar with the locality that they did not trouble him. Bearing about north-west from the light was Wreck Hill, one hundred and fifty feet high, which a.s.sisted him in keeping his course.
As he approached the mainland he made out the fort, and steering directly for it, pa.s.sed safely through Hogfish Cut.
When he was within half a mile of this fort, he headed the boat to the north-west. It was still eighteen miles to Hamilton, the capital of the islands; but he had a fair wind, and the boat made about five miles an hour. Christy still slept, and the skipper did not wake him. It was daylight when he was abreast of Wreck Hill, and there was no further difficulty in the navigation. It was half-past eight when he ran up to a pier where he had kept his boat in former days. There were plenty of just such crafts as the Eleuthera, and no attention was paid to her as she pa.s.sed along the Front-street docks. The pier at which he made his landing was in a retired locality. He lowered the sails, and had made everything snug on board before he called his companion.
"Half-past eight, Christophe," said he at the door of the cuddy.
"Half-past eight!" exclaimed Christy, springing out of his berth on the floor. "Where are we now, M. Rubempre?"
"We are in Hamilton harbor; and if you will come out of the cuddy, you will find yourself in the midst of flowers and green trees," replied the skipper with a smile.
"I must have slept six hours," said Christy, rubbing his eyes as he crawled out of the cuddy.
The scenery around him was certainly very beautiful, and he gazed upon it in silence for a few minutes. It seemed to him just as though he had waked in fairyland. He had cruised in the vicinity of the islands, but he had never been very near the sh.o.r.e before. Though he had been in Alabama, and seen the sh.o.r.es of the Gulf States, he had never beheld any region that seemed so lovely to him. He had been on sh.o.r.e at Na.s.sau, but only on the wharves, and had hardly seen the beauties of the island.
"Why didn"t you call me before, M. Rubempre?" asked he, when he had taken in the view from the pier.
"Because I thought your sleep would do you more good than the view of the sh.o.r.e, which you will have plenty of opportunities to see before we leave," replied the detective. "But we must begin our work, for we have no time to lose. I arranged with Captain Chantor to pick us up to-morrow night at about the point where we embarked in the boat. In the mean time he will sail around the islands, though the Chateaugay will not come near enough to be seen from the sh.o.r.e."
"What will you do with the boat while we are absent?"
"Leave it where it is."
While they were talking, an old negro came down the pier, and very politely saluted the strangers. He appeared to come from a small house a short distance from the sh.o.r.e, and pa.s.sed along to a boat which lay near the Eleuthera.
"Is that your boat?" asked the detective, calling him back.
"Yes, sir; I am a fisherman, though I"ve got the rheumatism, and don"t go out much; but I have to go to-day, for we have nothing to eat in the house," replied the negro, whose language was very good.
"What is your name?"
"Joseph, sir."
"Do you speak French?"
"Oh, no, sir!" exclaimed Joseph. "I don"t speak anything but plain English; but I used to work sometimes for a French gentleman that kept a boat at this pier, six or seven years ago."
"What was his came?" asked the detective, who had had a suspicion from the first that he knew the man, though he had changed a great deal as he grew older.
"Mounseer Gillflower," replied Joseph; "and he was very kind to me."
"I am a Frenchman, Joseph; and, if you don"t want to go fishing, I will employ you to take care of my boat, and carry my valise to a hotel,"
continued the detective, as he handed an English sovereign to him, for he had taken care to provide himself with a store of them in New York.
"Thank you, sir; but I can"t change this piece," protested Joseph very sadly.
"I don"t want you to change it; keep the whole of it."
"G.o.d bless you forever and ever, Mounseer!" exclaimed the fisherman.
"I haven"t had a sovereign before since Mounseer Gillflower was here.
I am a very poor man, and I can"t get any work on sh.o.r.e."
Probably, like the rest of his cla.s.s, he was not inclined to work while he had any money. He promised to take good care of the Eleuthera, and he asked no troublesome questions. The detective gave his name, and ordered Christophe, calling him by his name, to bring the valises on sh.o.r.e. Then the Frenchman locked the door of the cuddy, for they left their overcoats there, as they had no use for them.
"To what hotel shall I carry the valises?" asked Joseph.
"To the Atlantic; that will be the most convenient for us. Do you know anything about these vessels in the harbor, Joseph?"
"Not much, Mounseer Roob.u.mp; but they say the two steamers near the island are going to run the blockade into the States; but I don"t know.
They say a Confederate man-of-war came into St. George"s harbor yesterday; but I haven"t seen her, and I don"t know whether it"s true or not."
"What is her name?" asked the detective, who from the beginning had broken up his English, and imparted a strong French accent to it.
"I did not hear any one mention her name, Mounseer. That vessel this side of the island is the mail steamer from New York; she got in yesterday," continued Joseph.
"That is important; if the Dornoch is the Confederate man-of-war that arrived at St. George"s yesterday, this steamer brought letters from Davis to her captain," said the Frenchman to Christy, in French.
"But Davis could not have learned that the Ionian had been captured before the mail steamer left New York," added Christy, in the same language.
"No matter for that, Christophe. I did not resign my place at Davis"s warehouse till the morning we sailed; and I have his letter to the captain of the Dornoch with my other papers on board of the Chateaugay, and I know that was the only letter written to him. As he has no information in regard to the Ionian, he will not wait for her."
"I remember; you showed me the letter."
Joseph listened with a show of wonder on his face to this conversation which he could not understand. The detective directed him to carry the two valises to the hotel named; but Christy interposed in French, and insisted that it would look better for him to carry his own valise, and the point was yielded. The Atlantic Hotel was on Front Street, the harbor being on one side of it. A couple of rooms were a.s.signed to them, one of them quite small, which was taken by Christy, in order to keep up appearances.
M. Rubempre registered his name, putting "and servant" after it, Paris, and spoke even worse English than he had used to Joseph. Breakfast had been ordered, but Christy, being only a servant, had to take his meal at a side table. The detective was not dressed like a gentleman, and the landlord seemed to have some doubts about his ability to pay his bills, though he had baggage. He was not treated with anything like deference, and he saw the difficulty. After breakfast he took a handful of English gold from his pocket, and asked the landlord to change one of the coins for smaller money. Mine host bowed low to him after this exhibition.
"I want to see the American consul," said M. Rubempre, in his own language.
"I will go with you, but I think I will not see him, for he may take it into his head that I am not a Frenchman," added Christy.
"You can come with me, and stay outside."
When they reached the consulate, which was on the same street as the hotel, they found about a dozen sailors in front of the building. They were a very rough and hard-looking set of men. They appeared to be considerably excited about something, and to be bent on violence in some direction; but the strangers could make nothing of the talk they heard, though "the b.l.o.o.d.y spy" was an expression frequently used.
CHAPTER X