CHAPTER XV.
A STRANGE THING HAPPENS TO ME.
For several days after our hot chase after Priscilla, we saw nothing ofthis ex-emissary. Indeed, we began to be afraid that something hadhappened to her. She was such a regular attendant at thehotel-door-market, that people were talking about missing her black faceand her chattering tongue. But she turned up one morning as gay andskippy as ever, and we saw her leaning against the side of one of thedoor-ways of the court in her favorite easy attitude, with her head onone side and one foot crossed over the other, which made her look like abronze figure such as they put under kerosene lamps. In one hand she hadher big straw hat, and in the other a bunch of rose-buds. The moment shesaw Corny she stepped up to her.
"Wont you buy some rose-buds, missy?" she said. "De puttiest rose-buds Iever brought you yit."
Corny looked at her with a withering glare, but Priscilla didn't withera bit. She was a poor hand at withering.
"Please buy 'em, missy. I kep' 'em fur you. I been a-keepin' 'em all demornin'."
"I don't see how you dare ask me to buy your flowers!" exclaimed Corny."Go away! I never want to see you again. After all you did----"
"Please, missy, buy jist this one bunch. These is the puttiest red-rosebuds in dis whole town. De red roses nearly all gone."
"Nearly all gone," said I. "What do you mean by telling such a fib?"--Iwas going to say "lie," which was nearer the truth (if that isn't abull); but there were several ladies about, and Priscilla herself was agirl. "You know that there are red roses here all the year."
"Please, boss," said Priscilla, rolling her eyes at me like an innocentcalf, "wont you buy dese roses fur missy? They's the puttiest roses Iever brought her yit."
"I guess you've got a calcareous conscience, haven't you?" said Rectus.
Priscilla looked at him, for a moment, as if she thought that he mightwant to buy something of that kind, but as she hadn't it to sell, shetried her flowers on him.
"Please, boss, wont you buy dese roses fur----"
"No," said Rectus, "I wont."
And we all turned and walked away. It was no use to blow her up. Shewouldn't have minded it. But she lost three customers.
I said before that I was the only one in our party who liked fishing,and for that reason I didn't go often, for I don't care about takingtrips of that kind by myself. But one day Mr. Burgan and the otheryellow-legs told me that they were going to fish in Lake Killarney, alovely little lake in the interior of the island, about five miles fromthe town, and that if I liked I might go along. I did like, and I went.
I should have been better pleased if they had gone there in a carriage;but this wouldn't have suited these two fellows, who had riggedthemselves up in their buck-skin boots, and had all the tramping andfishing rigs that they used in the Adirondacks and other sporting placeswhere they told me they had been. It was a long and a warm walk, andtrying to find a good place for fishing, after we got to the lake, madethe work harder yet. We didn't find any good place, and the few fish wecaught didn't pay for the trouble of going there; but we walked all overa big pineapple plantation and had a splendid view from the highest hillon the whole island.
It was pretty late in the afternoon when we reached home, and I made upmy mind that the next time I went so far to fish, in a semi-tropicalcountry, I'd go with a party who wore suits that would do for riding.
Rectus and Corny and Mrs. Chipperton were up in the silk-cotton treewhen I got home, and I went there and sat down. Mrs. Chipperton lent meher fan.
Corny and Rectus were looking over the "permission paper" which theEnglish governor had given us.
"I guess this isn't any more use, now," said Corny, "as we've done allwe can for kings and queens, but Rectus says that if you agree I canhave it for my autograph book. I never had a governor's signature."
"Certainly, you can have it," I said. "And he's a different governorfrom the common run. None of your State governors, but a real Britishgovernor, like those old fellows they set over us in our colony-days."
"Indeed!" said Mrs. Chipperton, smiling. "You must be able to remember along way back."
"Well, you needn't make fun of this governor," said Corny, "for he's areal nice man. We met him to-day, riding in the funniest carriage youever saw in your life. It's like a big baby-carriage for twins, onlyit's pulled by a horse, and has a man in livery to drive it. The top'sstraw, and you get in in the middle, and sit both ways."
"Either way, my dear," said Mrs. Chipperton.
"Yes, either way," continued Corny. "Did you ever see a carriage likethat?"
"I surely never did," said I.
"Well, he was in it, and some ladies, and they stopped and asked Rectusand I how we got along with our queen, and when I told them all aboutit, you ought to have heard them laugh, and the governor, he said, thatPoqua-dilla shouldn't suffer after we went away, even if he had to getall his pepper-pods from her. Now, wasn't that good?"
I admitted that it was, but I thought to myself that a good supper and abed would be better, for I was awfully tired and hungry. But I didn'tsay this.
I slept as sound as a rock that night, and it was pretty broad daylightwhen I woke up. I don't believe that I would have wakened then, but Iwanted to turn over and couldn't, and that is enough to make any fellowwake up.
When I opened my eyes, I found myself in the worst fix I had ever beenin in my life. I couldn't move my arms or my legs, for my arms were tiedfast to my body, at the elbows and wrists, and my feet and my knees weretied together. I was lying flat on my back, but I could turn my headover to where Rectus' bed stood--it was a small one like mine--and hewasn't there. I sung out:
"Rectus!" and gave a big heave, which made the bed rattle. I was scared.
In a second, Rectus was standing by me. He had been sitting by thewindow. He was all dressed.
"Don't shout that way again," he said, in a low voice, "or I'll have totie this handkerchief over your mouth," and he showed me a clean linenhandkerchief all folded up, ready. "I wont put it so that it will stopyour breathing," he said, as coolly as if this sort of thing was nothingunusual. "I'll leave your nose free."
"Let me up, you little rascal!" I cried. "Did you do this?"
At that he deliberately laid the handkerchief over my mouth and fastenedit around my head. He was careful to leave my nose all right, but I wasso mad that I could scarcely breathe. I knew by the way he acted that hehad tied me, and I had never had such a trick played on me before. Butit was no use to be mad. I couldn't do anything, though I tugged andtwisted my very best. He had had a good chance to tie me up well, for Ihad slept so soundly. I was regularly bandaged.
He stood by me for a few minutes, watching to see if I needed any morefixing, but when he made up his mind that I was done up securely, hebrought a chair and sat down by the side of the bed and began to talk tome. I never saw anything like the audacity of the boy.
"You needn't think it was mean to tie you, when you were so tired andsleepy, for I intended to do it this morning, any way, for you alwayssleep sound enough in the mornings to let a fellow tie you up as much ashe pleases. And I suppose you'll say it was mean to tie you, any way,but you know well enough that it's no use for me to argue with you, foryou wouldn't listen. But now you've got to listen, and I wont let you uptill you promise never to call me Rectus again."
"The little rascal!" I thought to myself. I might have made some noisein spite of the handkerchief, but I thought it better not, for I didn'tknow what else he might pile on my mouth.
"It isn't my name, and I'm tired of it," he continued. "I didn't mind itat school, and I didn't mind it when we first started out together, butI've had enough of it now, and I've made up my mind that I'll make youpromise never to call me by that name again."
I vowed to myself that I would call him Rectus until his hair was gray.I'd write letters to him wherever he lived, and direct them: "RectusColbert."
"I WOULDN'T LIKE IT MYSELF."]
"There wasn't any other way to do
it, and so I did it this way," hesaid. "I'm sorry, really, to have to tie you up so, because I wouldn'tlike it myself, and I wouldn't have put that handkerchief over yourmouth if you had agreed to keep quiet, but I don't want anybody comingin here until you've promised."
"Promise!" I thought; "I'll never promise you that while the world rollsround."
"I know you can't say anything with that handkerchief over your mouth;but you don't have to speak. Your toes are loose. When you're ready topromise never to call me Rectus again, just wag your big toe, eitherone."
I stiffened my toes, as if my feet were cast in brass. Rectus moved hischair a little around, so that he could keep an eye on my toes. Then helooked at his watch, and said:
"It's seven o'clock now, and that's an hour from breakfast time. I don'twant to keep you there any longer than I can help. You'd better wag yourtoe now, and be done with it. It's no use to wait."
"Wag?" I thought to myself. "Never!"
"I know what you're thinking," he went on. "You think that if you liethere long enough, you'll be all right, for when the chambermaid comesto do up the room, I must let her in, or else I'll have to say you'resick, and then the Chippertons will come up."
That was exactly what I was thinking.
"But that wont do you any good," said he, "I've thought of all that."
He was a curious boy. How such a thing as this should have come into hismind, I couldn't imagine. He must have read of something of the kind.But to think of his trying it on _me_! I ground my teeth.
He sat and watched me for some time longer. Once or twice he fixed thehandkerchief over my mouth, for he seemed anxious that I should be ascomfortable as possible. He was awfully kind, to be sure!
"It isn't right that anybody should have such a name sticking to themalways," he said. "And if I'd thought you'd have stopped it, I wouldn'thave done this. But I knew you. You would just have laughed and kepton."
The young scoundrel! Why didn't he try me?
"Yesterday, when the governor met us, Corny called me Rectus, and evenhe said that was a curious name, and he didn't remember that I gave itto him, when he wrote that paper for us."
Oh, ho! That was it, was it? Getting proud and meeting governors! Youngprig!
Now Rectus was quiet a little longer, and then he got up.
"I didn't think you'd be so stubborn," he said, "but perhaps you knowyour own business best. I'm not going to keep you there until breakfastis ready, and people want to come in."
Then he went over to the window, and came back directly with a littleblack paint-pot, with a brush in it.
"Now," said he, "if you don't promise, in five minutes, to never call meRectus again, I'm going to paint one-half of your face black. I got thispaint yesterday from the cane-man, on purpose."
Oil-paint! I could smell it.
"Now, you may be sure I'm going to do it," he said.
Oh, I was sure! When he said he'd do a thing, I knew he'd do it. I hadno doubts about that. He was great on sticking to his word.
He had put his watch on the table near by, and was stirring up thepaint.
"You've only three minutes more," he said. "This stuff wont wash off ina hurry, and you'll have to stay up here by yourself, and wont need anytying. It's got stuff mixed with it to make it dry soon, so that youneedn't lie there very long after I've painted you. You mustn't mind ifI put my finger on your mouth when I take off the handkerchief; I'll becareful not to get any in your eyes or on your lips if you hold yourhead still. One minute more. Will you promise?"
What a dreadful minute! He turned and looked at my feet. I gave one bigtwist in my bandages. All held. I wagged my toe.
"Good!" said he. "I didn't want to paint you. But I would have done it,sure as shot, if you hadn't promised. Now I'll untie you. I can trustyou to stick to your word,--I mean your wag," he said, with a grin.
It took him a long time to undo me. The young wretch had actually pinnedlong strips of muslin around me, and he had certainly made a good job ofit, for they didn't hurt me at all, although they held me tight enough.He said, as he was working at me, that he had torn up two old shirts tomake these bandages, and had sewed some of the strips together theafternoon before. He said he had heard of something like this being doneat a school. A pretty school that must have been!
He unfastened my arms first,--that is, as soon as he had taken thehandkerchief off my mouth,--and the moment he had taken the bandage fromaround my ankles, he put for the door. But I was ready. I sprang out ofbed, made one jump over his bed, around which he had to go, and caughthim just at the door.
He forgot that he should have left my ankles for me to untie for myself.
I guess the people in the next rooms must have thought there wassomething of a rumpus in our room when I caught him.
There was considerable coolness between Colbert and me after that. Infact, we didn't speak. I was not at all anxious to keep this thing up,for I was satisfied, and was perfectly willing to call it square; butfor the first time since I had known him, Colbert was angry. I supposeevery fellow, no matter how good-natured he may be, must have some sortof a limit to what he will stand, and Colbert seemed to have drawn hisline at a good thrashing.
It wasn't hard for me to keep my promise to him, for I didn't call himanything; but I should have kept it all the same if we had been on theold terms.
Of course, Corny soon found out that there was something the matterbetween us two, and she set herself to find out what it was.
"What's the matter with you and Rectus?" she asked me the next day. Iwas standing in the carriage-way before the hotel, and she ran out tome.
"You mustn't call him Rectus," said I. "He doesn't like it."
"Well, then, I wont," said she. "But what is it all about? Did youquarrel about calling him that? I hate to see you both going about, andnot speaking to each other."
I had no reason to conceal anything, and so I told her the whole affair,from the very beginning to the end.
"I don't wonder he's mad," said she, "if you thrashed him."
"Well, and oughtn't I to be mad after the way he treated me?" I asked.
"Yes," she said. "It makes me sick just to think of being tied up inthat way,--and the black paint, too! But then you are so much biggerthan he is, that it don't seem right for you to thrash him."
"That's one reason I did it," said I. "I didn't want to fight him as Ishould have fought a fellow of my own size. I wanted to punish him. Doyou think that when a father wants to whip his son he ought to waituntil he grows up as big as he is?"
"No," said Corny, very gravely. "Of course not. But Rectus isn't yourson. What shall I call him? Samuel, or Sam? I don't like either of them,and I wont say Mr. Colbert. I think 'Rectus' is a great deal nicer."
"So do I," I said; "but that's his affair. To be sure, he isn't my son,but he's under my care, and if he wasn't, it would make no difference.I'd thrash any boy alive who played such a trick on me."
"Unless he was bigger than you are," said Corny.
"Well, then I'd get you to help me. You'd do it; wouldn't you, Corny?"
She laughed.
"I guess I couldn't help much, and I suppose you're both right to beangry at each other; but I'm awful sorry if things are going on thisway. It didn't seem like the same place yesterday. Nobody did anythingat all."
"I tell you what it is, Corny," said I. "You're not angry with either ofus; are you?"
"No, indeed," said she, and her face warmed up and her eyes shone.
"That's one comfort," said I, and I gave her a good hand-shake.
It must have looked funny to see a boy and a girl shaking hands there infront of the hotel, and a young darkey took advantage of our good-humor,and, stealing out from a shady corner of the court, sold us seven littlered and black liquorice-seed for fourpence,--the worst swindle that hadbeen worked on us yet.