CHAPTER XVIII. A SKIPPER.
Luttrell had just made up his mind that he would inform the American visitor he would receive him, when Harry entered, leading the stranger by the hand. "That"s papa," said the boy, and retired.
"I hope I see you in very good health, Sir," said Mr. Dodge, advancing boldly, and shaking Luttrell"s hand in a hearty, vigorous manner.
"You live in a pretty lonesome spot here, and as the man said to the whip-snake in the spout, "You ain"t easy to get at.""
"Perhaps that was one of the reasons that led me to choose it, Sir,"
said Luttrell, stiffly, "and had you got my note, you"d have seen that I never intended you should incur the inconvenience of coming to it."
"Well, Sir, it warn"t pleasant; I"ll tell no lie, it warn"t pleasant!
I"m a seafearin" man, Sir, and I"ve been one all my life; but such a harbour to get out of, and such a port to get into, and such a craft to do it in, I never seed in all my born days."
"You compel me to repeat my regrets, Sir. I am, indeed, sincerely sorry for your fruitless journey."
"Well, it warn"t all time lost--we picked up that crew, and that lad of yours. He"s a fine "buoy," Sir; I know "buoys" well, and I say it again, he"ll be a smart man."
Luttrell bowed a cold and haughty acknowledgment.
"He ain"t a bit like you, not a bit; there"s no pride, no stand off about _him_; he"s a raal frank, straight-ahead one. I seed it before he was well aboard. It was all I could do to keep him from swimming after his cap--a darned old sealskin thing it was--but he said it was his best one, and he"d not get another in a hurry."
"His frankness deserved all your praise, Sir, it went to the extent of exposing his father"s poverty."
"And if it did--what o" that? You ain"t ashamed of it, are you? Look at me, Sir; I have a matter of seventy thousand dollars in the Tennessee Bank, and a trifle more in Ohio scrip, and I own every timber in the barque _Prettyman Quincey Squashy_ four hundred and odd tons, a clipper to sail, and a whale for freight, and I ain"t proud, nor no ways blown up to burstin" for that!"
"I am delighted to know of your prosperity, Sir, for your sake," said Luttrell, coldly.
"Mind," said the other, who accepted the words in their most flattering sense, "I didn"t say it was all got with my hands in my "pants-"
pockets. I had a darn"d deal of smart work for it. I was up among the Injians for four years, I was over the Rocky Mountains trappin", I was a cook aboard a South Sea whaler, and"--here he winked one eye, and gave Luttrell a good-humoured poke with his finger--"and I did a little in Ebony off the Samsoo River, you understand; unwholesome work it was, with the barac.o.o.ns always flooded, and the alligators flopping through the mud, and stirring up foul air and fever. Ugh!" he cried, with a wry face, "you"d see an ugly sort of a blotch on your cheek at night, and before the same hour next evening the ground sharks would be a fitin"
over you. You haven"t got anything to drink, have you?"
"I can, unfortunately, offer you nothing but our mountain whisky; it is home-made, however, and not bad."
While Luttrell took a bottle and some gla.s.ses from a small cupboard in the wall, Mr. Dodge employed himself in a leisurely examination of the chamber and its furniture. "May I never!" exclaimed he, "if it ain"t a droll sort of crib. Why, Stranger, I"d not live here three months without making something better to sit on, and handier to eat off, than these. Just you give me a hatchet, and a hammer, and a handful of nails, to-morrow morning early, and see if I won"t."
"I am afraid my furniture deserves all the ill you can say of it," said Luttrell, with a faint smile.
"That ain"t a chair--it"s not like a chair."
"I will not defend it, certainly."
"And yet it shows why you Britishers never can, by any possibility, be a great people--no, Sir, never."
"I am really curious to hear that explanation."
"Well, Sir," said he, tossing off a fresh tumbler of undiluted whisky, "you"re a goin" to hear it--but "don"t be impatient," as the bush squirrel said to the young mouse, "I"ve got your mother in my mouth, but I"ll eat you presently." Here"s how it is. When you was makin"
that chair, you had in your mind some old-fashioned, ramshackle, nine-cornered machine you had seen of your father"s, or your grandfather"s, and nothin" would persuade you but to imitate that. It was wisdom of your ancestors--but we never had no ancestors. We didn"t begin the world with fifty cranks in our head about how some helpless old critter ten centuries back would ha" tried to do this, or to mend that. There"s the difference between us, Sir; and mind my words, when we"ve got a ten-inch gun that"ll send a shot from Long Island to the Battery Point, you Britishers will be a going back to bows and arrows, and a paintin"your bodies blue, like your ancestors."
[Ill.u.s.tration: 162]
"The picture is not flattering," said Luttrell, gravely. "And now, Sir, let us talk of something more nearly interesting to us. I am informed by my correspondent that you have seen the catalogue of my small collection, and desire to examine the objects themselves."
"If that"s a home brew, Stranger, it does you more credit than the chair," said Mr. Dodge, smacking his lips after his third tumbler of whisky.
"I am proud to have anything worth offering you, Sir."
"If you"ve a barrel or two; of that spirit to dispose of, we"ll deal, Sir, that"s a fact;" and Mr. Dodge emptied the bottle into his gla.s.s.
"I"m not certain whether my resources extend so far, but if they do, the whisky is much at your service, and I will feel honoured if you accept it."
"Now for the gimcracks--let"s see "em," said Mr. Dodge, as though eager to show how promptly he could respond to a graceful or generous action.
"Some of the gimcracks are here before you," said Luttrell, making a rather awkward attempt to smile, as he repeated the word. "This curiously misshapen attempt at a figure is, I have every reason to believe, an image of the idol "Crom," the object of worship to the Irish in the days of Paganism. You see he holds in his hand a sort of weapon like a fork."
"It ain"t a brand, and it ain"t a fork! The Choctaws have idols that beat that critter hollow, and they stick eyes in them of a red stone that sparkles when there"s light on it. What"s this?"
"An ancient Irish spear, or javelin."
"It"s a whale harpoon, and a rare bad one to boot; the spike ain"t well fastened, and no lead on the b.u.t.t-end. Here"s a bowie-knife, ain"t it?"
"It"s the sword of an Irish chieftain, and was found in the tomb of Thady O"Shaughlen, Prince of the Kiel, and the lands of Maroon; the inscription that you see here----"
"I see nothing but scratches, made belike with an old nail or a dinner-fork--they ain"t letters."
"This inscription signifies "I am.""
"Well, I"m blessed if I believe them"s old--they"re rubbish, Stranger, jist rubbish--and as for the big dish----"
"It is a shield--a more perfect specimen is not extant. It was the battle-shield of Brian Ogh-na-Tiernach; he was killed in the great battle of Gongal-a-Murrah, which some historians have confounded with the battle of Claddahmore."
Perfectly insensible to the sneers, or the not less offensive ridicule expressed by the American, Luttrell went on displaying object after object with all the zeal of one who gloried in his pursuit, and delighted in his success as an antiquarian. He drew forth rare sc.r.a.ps of ma.n.u.script, some worn and tattered fragments discoloured by age, and to all seeming undecipherable; he read out names of kings and saints, valiant chieftains, and holy martyrs, whom he mentioned with a voice tremulous with veneration; and he showed signet-rings and amulets they had worn, as a priest might have displayed the most sacred relics.
"Look here, Stranger," said the Yankee, as he threw himself into the old chair, and stretched out his legs to the fullest extent, "there"s a museum in my native town of Halkanopolis, and I want to make "em a present; it"s to be somethin" n.o.body ever seed the like of afore, nor ever will again. I du think this gatherin" here is pretty nigh that ticket! And now, I say, what will you take for the whole bilin" as it stands?"
"You have not seen one-tenth of the collection as yet!" cried Luttrell, whose zeal as an antiquarian was far greater than his eagerness as a vendor. "There"s the great book of the Three Curses."
"We can do the swearin" and cursin" pretty well without a book where I come from," said the Yankee, with a grin.
"Diarmid"s Token, as it is called. This curious gem, with its setting of pure gold, was formerly believed to be a protection against witchcraft."
"In my country, Britisher, it"s the witches would want the amulet! We"re a pretty hard set down there, and can take care of ourselves without any help from charms. Come, now--let"s deal; what"s the whole figure, in one word?"
"You are unjust to both of us," said Luttrell. "You neither know what I want to sell, or yourself to buy. Let me go on and show you some curious relics of a later period; they may have more interest for you, perhaps."
"Not a hickory shaving"s difference, whether you showed me a trowel that helped to build Babel, or a snuff-box of Queen Bess. If you want to please me, talk of dollars, Stranger, hard dollars."
Luttrell"s face flushed with a pa.s.sing anger; this reducing him to the position of a tradesman, first displaying and then pricing his wares, sorely tried a temper that was never proof against much pressure. The purpose-like cold face of the American, however, showed him that the man meant no covert impertinence by his demand; but was simply desirous of finishing a bargain as speedily as might be.
"I am sorry, Sir," said he, at length, "that you will not let me lay before you even the few objects that I prize the most; however, as you give me no choice in the matter, and as circ.u.mstances render me anxious to part with my collection, I obey you. I estimated the whole at three hundred pounds. My agent informed me that, in London, two hundred was deemed the value, and I never got a higher offer than a hundred and fifty, which I refused, but which I will now take, if offered me."