"Let me see, it"s about a matter of three or four years since he came there, when his uncle Sir Reginald Castleton died. There was an elder brother, I have heard mother say, Mr Ra.n.a.ld Castleton, who was lost at sea, so Mr Ralph became to be Sir Ralph and got the estate."
"Has Sir Ralph many children?" enquired the gentleman, who appeared much interested in Jacob"s account.
"Yes, sir; besides Mr Harry there is his eldest son Mr Algernon, and their sister Miss Julia, a young lady who, I have heard mother say, is liked by everyone in those parts."
The gentleman asked whether Lady Castleton was alive, and made many other enquiries about Texford, and its neighbourhood.
"If you will give me your name, sir, I will let Lieutenant Castleton know what you have been asking, as he can tell you more about the family than I can."
The gentleman made no reply and for some minutes appeared lost in thought.
"Yes," he said at length, "you may inform him that my name is Hastings-- that having once known some members of his family, on hearing his name, I was curious to learn whether he was related to them, and that I shall be happy to see him at any time he has leisure to look in on me."
Jacob delivered the message, and next day Harry paid Mr Hastings a visit. He found him, as his appearance betokened a man of education and refinement, but his spirits appeared greatly depressed. He received Harry in a friendly way, and soon threw off the formal manners he had at first exhibited.
Harry, though naturally somewhat curious to know more about him, afraid of appearing inquisitive did not venture to question him in the way he might otherwise have done.
"I fear, sir, you feel greatly the misfortune that has happened to us,"
observed Harry, "it must have been a bitter disappointment indeed, when you had every reason to hope that you would, after we had retaken the ship, been able to proceed on your voyage to England."
"My young friend, I am inured to misfortunes and disappointments,"
answered Mr Hastings. "For years past I have been accustomed to them.
I have been deprived of all I held dear in life. I had resolved long ago to return to Europe, soon after the last war with France broke out.
I was on my way to England, when the ship in which I had taken my pa.s.sage, was captured by the French and carried into an island in the Indian Ocean, with which no English seaman was acquainted. Here I with many others was detained a prisoner. Some were liberated, every means being taken to prevent them from becoming acquainted with its position.
I unfortunately was known to have ascertained it from some observation I had been seen taking, and I was therefore detained till the termination of the war. My health gave way and I had given up all hopes of recovery, when I was taken to Batavia. Here I remained till long after the commencement of the present war, but was at length, however, allowed to sail for Bencoolen. I was again detained till the arrival of the _Culloden_, on board which I embarked, and she, as you know, was captured by a French frigate, and it seems to me that my prospect of reaching England is as far off as ever."
Harry endeavoured to cheer the unfortunate man, a.s.suring him that he felt certain Captain Headland would, as soon as he possibly could, come to look for the _Culloden_, and that he would without fail visit their island.
"I wish that I possessed your hopefulness, my young friend," answered Mr Hastings, with a look of melancholy.
Harry after this conversation with Mr Hastings often visited him, and was always received with a warm welcome. Instead of having suffered from the exposure to which he had been subject on the night of the wreck, he, from that day, appeared to gain strength, and was soon able to walk about, and to visit different parts of the little island.
Whatever he might have appeared to the pa.s.sengers he showed no haughtiness when, as was frequently the case, he entered into conversation with the men. He never failed, when he met Jacob, to have a talk with him, and make more enquiries about Texford and Hurlston. At last one day Jacob said:--
"I think, sir, you must know the place."
"You forget, my friend, that you have already told me so much about it, that I might easily describe it as well as if I had been there," was the answer.
By Harry"s judicious arrangement, good discipline was maintained among the community over whom he was called to govern, while he induced them to add to their stock of provisions by fishing and snaring birds, and by collecting eggs among the cliffs, and sh.e.l.l-fish from the rocks.
Fortunately a cask of hooks had been saved from the Dutch ship, as also a box of seeds. The islanders had cultivated a considerable plot of ground which produced vegetables of all sorts, and this was now much increased by the new comers.
Every evening after their return from fishing and bird catching, the men collected round the common fire which had by general consent been lighted in the middle of the village. Here they employed themselves in cooking and eating the fish and birds they had caught. It soon became the general meeting place of the whole community. At first the pa.s.sengers had kept aloof, but by degrees they were induced to come and listen to the seamen"s yarns, and to join in the conversation.
Harry and Mr Hastings sometimes came near to the fire and joined in the conversation, though they more frequently sat at a little distance, listening to what was going forward, and often not a little amused by the remarks of their companions.
They were thus seated when the evening meal having been served out, the men as usual amused each other by narrating their adventures. Jack was appealed to, to give his, for he was supposed to have gone through more than the rest.
"Do you mean, mates, how I got away from the Malays, and was wrecked on this island?" he asked.
"No, no, Jacob has been telling us that you were wrecked long before that time, and had to live among savages ever so long," answered one of the men. "Can"t you begin at the beginning; let us hear all about yourself since you first came to sea."
Jack at first modestly apologised for talking about himself, but in a short time Harry heard him giving an account of his early days when he first found himself on board a ship, knowing no more about the sea than did one of the sheep of the flock he had been wont to attend. He went on exciting the interest of his hearers till he arrived at that part of his history which he had already given to Harry.
"You see, mates, as I wanted to part from the skipper, and the skipper wanted to part from me, I was not sorry to ship on board another craft, little thinking what was about to happen to her. She had a strange name, had that craft, so strange that neither I nor any one else, I should think, could manage to speak it."
Jack then went on to describe how the little boy had been brought on board, how the mate seemed to have especial dislike to the child, and then how the vessel was wrecked.
Mr Hastings who had before been lying down, sat up, and bending forward, listened with the greatest attention to what Jack was saying.
Suddenly he exclaimed in a tone of the deepest interest, rising and coming up to Jack, "Was the name of the craft you sailed in the _Bomanjee Horrmarjee_?"
"That was the name, sir," exclaimed Jack, "and if you are not the gentleman who brought the little boy aboard, you are just like him, though to be sure as a good many years have pa.s.sed since then, that would make the difference."
"I am the person you suppose, and the father of the little boy; and tell me, my friend, was he saved from the wreck? Is he still alive? What has become of him?"
"This is indeed wonderful," exclaimed Harry, who had accompanied Mr Hastings. "I can answer your questions. Your son has long been my most intimate friend, and is now my captain. He commands the _Thisbe_, and I trust before many weeks are over that the earnest desire of his heart will be fulfilled, that he will have the happiness of meeting the father he has so long desired to find. When I discovered Jack Headland, the faithful guardian of his early days, I congratulated myself that the only existing clue, as I supposed, on which my friend could depend for tracing his parents had been found, though I little thought that it would be so rapidly followed up. I can a.s.sure you, sir, that you will have every reason to be proud of your son, for a more n.o.ble and gallant fellow does not exist; and that he is your son I have not the shadow of a doubt."
Mr Hastings, begging Jack to follow, retired to his hut accompanied by Harry, that he might learn from the honest seaman fuller particulars of everything relating to the boy he had brought up.
Jack seemed to rejoice as much as he did, and to be fully convinced that he was right in his conjectures. Jack at length retired, leaving the two gentlemen alone.
"It is, indeed, wonderful, Mr Castleton, that you and my son should thus have been brought together, and I trust that whatever may occur, your friendship will continue as warm as ever."
"There is little doubt about that, sir;" answered Harry, "especially as I hope we shall some day become nearly related, as my friend is engaged to marry my only sister, though my father objects to the match on grounds which I consider very insufficient--his ignorance of his parentage; but now I trust that will no longer be an impediment."
"If my son is really attached to your sister, I have very little doubt when I plead his cause that your father will give his consent," said Mr Hastings, in a tone which somewhat puzzled Harry. "It maybe a satisfaction for you to know that my family is in no way inferior to yours. More I need not say, as I have reasons for not entering into particulars."
As may be supposed, Harry was now doubly anxious for the arrival of Headland, contemplating the joy and satisfaction the discovery of his father would give him, and he longed also to be able to write to Julia to tell her the news which would, he knew, tend so much to banish her anxieties for the future.
Still day after day went by, and no sail appeared to cheer the sight of the shipwrecked party.
CHAPTER FIFTY ONE.
FIRST GREETINGS.
Day after day pa.s.sed by, and Harry and his shipwrecked companions began to despair of escaping from the island. If Jack Headland had lived there so many years without seeing a ship, it was possible that they might have to continue an equal length of time unless they could build a vessel in which to make their escape; but no wood was procurable, nor did they possess tools fit for the purpose.
A gale of almost equal violence to that which wrecked their ship was blowing, when Jacob, who had been on watch at the hill, rushed into the camp with the intelligence that a sail was visible in the offing. Most of the party hurried up to have a look at her. The general opinion was that she had made out the island, and was endeavouring to give it a wide berth.
"I am afraid that is more than she will do," observed Jack. "She is fast driving towards the sh.o.r.e."
"Can she be the _Thisbe_?" exclaimed Jacob.
"I think not," observed Harry, "her canvas has not to my eye the spread of a man-of-war."
As the stranger drew nearer, most of the party agreed that Lieutenant Castleton was right, she was certainly not a man-of-war.