"You fear"d on him still, Alf?" asked one curiously.
"Fear"d on him?--No, I ain"t fear"d on him!" came a ghastly t.i.tter.
"Got no cause, ave I?"
"He won"t urt you," replied the other, soothingly. "He"s dead all right--ain"t you, Diamond?--You can tweak his nose, see?--and then go ome, and tell the gals what you done. Tweak Black Diamond by the conk!"
"You let him be!" growled Reuben. "Time was you"d ha crawled to him. Now any snotty little toad can make game on him."
Kit looked up at the rising voices.
A fellow had seized Diamond by the nose, plucking back his head.
The dead man"s mouth gaped. Into the cavern of it shone the moon.
"One moment!" cried the boy; and hating himself, he thrust a finger and thumb into the opening, and plucked out the thing which gleamed within.
It was a cut-gla.s.s scent-bottle.
CHAPTER VIII
THE SCENT-BOTTLE
I
They came under the counter of the sloop, the boat towing the lugger, and Black Diamond dead, the moon upon him.
A face, tallowy-nosed and black-whiskered, was leaning over the side.
"Say! was there a tall chap on a blood chestnut aboard?" asked a slushy voice. "Andshomish feller--might be own brother to me. If so, pa.s.s him up the side, there"s a good biy. There"s 1,000 on his head."
Kit went up the side, his heart beating high.
"Anything?" asked the old Commander shortly.
"Yes, sir."
He surrendered his treasure-trove.
"What! this all?" sniffed the old man, fingering the scent-bottle contemptuously--"gal"s fal-lal."
He stumped below.
The boy"s heart was white-hot with indignation.
This then was his thanks!
Somebody tickled him under the arms.
"You"re in the old man"s good books, Sonny," said a hilarious voice.
"Wha d"you think he said when you plumped overboard?"
"I don"t know. What?"
""Nelson might ha done that," says the old man--Bible-truth, he did."
And he shook out loose coils of laughter.
The compliment was so staggering that it humbled the boy.
A minute since he could have stabbed that old man with the stiff knee.
Now he could have kissed him.
"No! did he _really_?" he gasped.
The Gunner clutched the boy with one arm, and tilting his chin, looked down at the uplifted face.
"There _is_ a look o the little man about the kid," he said--"kind o gal-like look--all eyes, and spirit, and long chin. Funny thing!--I"ve always noticed the best biys to fight are them as got most gal about em."
The purser"s steward tripped up.
"Mr. Caryll, sir, Commander Harding desires to see you in his cabin."
"Told you, Sonny," crowed the Gunner. "It"s to give you a certificate for valour, and a drop o brandy on a lump o sugar."
II
A purser"s glim lit the cabin, bare save for a solitary print upon the bulk-head.
Facing it stood the old Commander, broad as a wall, his hands behind him, and the scent-bottle, unstoppered now, in one of them.
Kit recognised the face on the wall at once. It was Nelson"s.
"That you, Mr. Caryll?"
"Yes, sir."
"Can ye read French?"
"A little, sir."
"Then what ye make o this?"