CHAPTER XVI.
MR. CHIPPERTON KEEPS PERFECTLY COOL.
It's of no use to deny the fact that Nassau was a pretty dull place,just about this time. At least Corny and I found it so, and I don'tbelieve young Mr. Colbert was very happy, for he didn't look it. It'snot to be supposed that our quarrel affected the negroes, or the sky, orthe taste of bananas; but the darkeys didn't amuse me, and myrecollection of those days is that they were cloudy, and that I wasn't avery good customer down in the market-house by the harbor, where we usedto go and buy little fig-bananas, which they didn't have at the hotel,but which were mighty good to eat.
Colbert and I still kept up a frigid reserve toward each other. Hethought, I suppose, that I ought to speak first, because I was theolder, and I thought that he ought to speak first because he was theyounger.
One evening, I went up into my room, having absolutely nothing else todo, and there I found Colbert, writing. I suppose he was writing aletter, but there was no need of doing this at night, as the mail wouldnot go out for several days, and there would be plenty of time to writein the daytime. He hadn't done anything but lounge about for two orthree days. Perhaps he came up here to write because he had nothing elseto do.
There was only one table, and I couldn't write if I had wanted to, so Iopened my trunk and began to put some of my things in order. We hadarranged, before we had fallen out, that we should go home on the nextsteamer, and Mr. and Mrs. Chipperton were going too. We had been inNassau nearly a month, and had seen about as much as was to be seen--inan ordinary way. As for me, I couldn't afford to stay any longer, andthat had been the thing that had settled the matter, as far as Colbertand I were concerned. But now he might choose to stay, and come home byhimself. However, there was no way of my knowing what he thought, and Isupposed that I had no real right to make him come with me. At any rate,if I had, I didn't intend to exercise it.
While I was looking over the things in my trunk, I came across the boxof dominoes that Corny had given us to remember her by. It seemed like along time ago since we had been sitting together on the water-battery atSt. Augustine! In a few minutes I took the box of dominoes in my handand went over to Colbert. As I put them on the table he looked up.
"What do you say to a game of dominoes?" I said. "This is the box Cornygave us. We haven't used it yet."
"Very well," said he, and he pushed away his paper and emptied thedominoes out on the table. Then he picked up some of them, and looked atthem as if they were made in some new kind of a way that he had nevernoticed before; and I picked up some, too, and examined them. Then webegan to play. We did not talk very much, but we played as if it wasnecessary to be very careful to make no mistakes. I won the first game,and I could not help feeling a little sorry, while Colbert looked as ifhe felt rather glad. We played until about our ordinary bed-time, andthen I said:
"Well, Colbert, I guess we might as well stop," and he said:
"Very well."
But he didn't get ready to go to bed. He went to the window and lookedout for some time, and then he came back to the table and sat down. Hetook his pen and began to print on the lid of the domino-box, which wasof smooth white wood. He could print names and titles of things veryneatly, a good deal better than I could.
When he had finished, he got up and began to get ready for bed, leavingthe box on the table. Pretty soon I went over to look at it, for I mustadmit I was rather curious to see what he had put on it. This was theinscription he had printed on the lid:
"GIVEN TO WILL AND RECTUS BY CORNY. ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA."
* * * * *
There was a place left for the date, which I suppose he had forgotten. Imade no remark about this inscription, for I did not know exactly whatremark was needed; but the next morning I called him "Rectus," just thesame as ever, for I knew he had printed our names on the box to show methat he wanted to let me off my promise. I guess the one time I calledhim Colbert was enough for him.
When we came down stairs to breakfast, talking to each other like commonpeople, it was better than most shows to see Corny's face. She wasstanding at the front door, not far from the stairs, and it actuallyseemed as if a candle had been lighted inside of her. Her face shone.
I know I felt first-rate, and I think Rectus must have felt pretty muchthe same, for his tongue rattled away at a rate that wasn't exactlyusual with him. There was no mistaking Corny's feelings.
After breakfast, when we all got together to talk over the plans of theday,--a thing we hadn't done for what seemed to me about a week,--wefound out--or rather remembered--that there were a lot of things inNassau that we hadn't seen yet, and that we wouldn't miss for anything.We had been wasting time terribly lately, and the weather was now ratherbetter for going about than it had been since we came to the place.
We agreed to go to Fort Charlotte that morning, and see the subterraneanrooms and passage-ways, and all the underground dreariness of which wehad heard so much. The fort was built about a hundred years ago, andhas no soldiers in it. To go around and look at the old forts in thispart of the world might make a person believe the millennium had come.They seem just about as good as ever they were, but they're all on apeace-footing. Rectus said they were played out, but I'd rather take mychances in Fort Charlotte, during a bombardment, than in some of thenew-style forts that I have seen in the North. It is almost altogetherunderground, in the solid calcareous, and what could any fellow wantbetter than that? The cannon-balls and bombs would have to plow up aboutan acre of pretty solid rock, and plow it deep, too, before they wouldbegin to scratch the roof of the real strongholds of this fort. Atleast, that's the way I looked at it.
We made up a party and walked over. It's at the western end of the town,and about a mile from the hotel. Mr. and Mrs. Chipperton were with us,and a lady from Chicago, and Mr. Burgan. The other yellow-legs went outriding with his wife, but I think he wanted to go with us. The fort ison the top of a hill, and a colored shoemaker is in command. He sits andcobbles all day, except when visitors come, and then he shows themaround. He lighted a lamp and took us down into the dark, quiet roomsand cells, that were cut out of the solid rock, down deep into the hill,and it was almost like being in a coal-mine, only it was a great dealcleaner and not so deep. But it seemed just as much out of the world. Insome of the rooms there were bats hanging to the ceilings. We didn'tdisturb them. One of the rooms was called the governor's room. Therewasn't any governor there, of course, but it had been made by the jollyold earl who had the place cut out,--and who was governor here at thetime,--as a place where he might retire when he wanted to be private. Itwas the most private apartment I ever saw. This earl was the same oldDunmore we used to study about in our histories. He came over here whenthe Revolution threw him out of business in our country. He had somegood ideas about chiselling rock.
This part of the fort was so extremely subterranean and solemn that itwasn't long before Mrs. Chipperton had enough of it, and we came up. Itwas fine to get out into the open air, and see the blue sky and thebright, sparkling water of the harbor just below us, and the islandsbeyond, and still beyond them the blue ocean, with everything so brightand cheerful in the sunlight. If I had been governor of this place, Ishould have had my private room on top of the fort, although, of course,that wouldn't do so well in times of bombardment.
But the general-in-chief did not let us off yet. He said he'd show usthe most wonderful thing in the whole place, and then he took usout-of-doors again, and led us to a little shed or enclosed door-wayjust outside of the main part of the fort, but inside of thefortifications, where he had his bench and tools. He moved away thebench, and then we saw that it stood on a wooden trap-door. He took holdof a ring, and lifted up this door, and there was a round hole about asbig as the hind wheel of a carriage. It was like a well, and was asdark as pitch. When we held the lamp over it, however, we could see thatthere were winding steps leading down into it. These s
teps were cut outof the rock, as was the hole and the pillar around which the stepswound. It was all one piece. The general took his lamp and went downahead, and we all followed, one by one. Those who were most afraid andwent last had the worst of it, for the lamp wasn't a calcium light byany means, and their end of the line was a good deal in the dark. But weall got to the bottom of the well at last, and there we found a long,narrow passage leading under the very foundation or bottom floor of thewhole place, and then it led outside of the fort under the moat, whichwas dry now, but which used to be full of water, and so, on and on, inblack darkness, to a place in the side of the hill, or somewhere, wherethere had been a lookout. Whether there were any passages opening intothis or not, I don't know, for it was dark in spite of the lamp, and weall had to walk in single file, so there wasn't much chance forexploring sidewise. When we got to the end, we were glad enough to turnaround and come back. It was a good thing to see such a place, but therewas a feeling that if the walls should cave in a little, or a big rockshould fall from the top of the passage, we should all be hermeticallycanned in very close quarters. When we came out, we gave the shoemakercommander some money, and came away.
"Isn't it nice," said Corny, "that he isn't a queen, to be taken careof, and we can just pay him and come away, and not have to think of himany more?"
We agreed to that, but I said I thought we ought to go and take one morelook at our old queen before we left. Mrs. Chipperton, who was a reallysensible woman when she had a chance, objected to this, because, shesaid, it would be better to let the old woman alone now. We couldn't doanything for her after we left, and it would be better to let her dependon her own exertions, now that she had got started again on that track.I didn't think that the word exertion was a very good one inPoqua-dilla's case, but I didn't argue the matter. I thought that ifsome of us dropped around there before we left, and gave her a couple ofshillings, it would not interfere much with her mercantile success inthe future.
I thought this, but Corny spoke it right out--at least, what she saidamounted to pretty much the same thing.
"Well," said her mother, "we might go around there once more, especiallyas your father has never seen the queen at all. Mr. Chipperton, wouldyou like to see the African queen?"
Mr. Chipperton did not answer, and his wife turned around quickly. Shehad been walking ahead with the Chicago lady.
"Why, where is he?" she exclaimed. We all stopped and looked about, butcouldn't see him. He wasn't there. We were part way down the hill, butnot far from the fort, and we stopped and looked back, and then Cornycalled him. I said that I would run back for him, as he had probablystopped to talk with the shoemaker. Rectus and I both ran back, andCorny came with us. The shoemaker had put his bench in its place overthe trap-door, and was again at work. But Mr. Chipperton was not talkingto him.
"I'll tell you what I believe,"--said Corny, gasping.
But it was of no use to wait to hear what she believed. I believed itmyself.
"Hello!" I cried to the shoemaker before I reached him. "Did a gentlemanstay behind here?"
"I didn't see none," said the man, looking up in surprise, as we chargedon him.
"Then," I cried, "he's shut down in that well! Jump up and open thedoor!"
The shoemaker did jump up, and we helped him move the bench, and had thetrap-door open in no time. By this, the rest of the party had come back,and when Mrs. Chipperton saw the well open and no Mr. Chipperton about,she turned as white as a sheet. We could hardly wait for the man tolight his lamp, and as soon as he started down the winding stairs,Rectus and I followed him. I called back to Mrs. Chipperton and theothers that they need not come; we would be back in a minute and letthem know. But it was of no use; they all came. We hurried on after theman with the light, and passed straight ahead through the narrow passageto the very end of it.
There stood Mr. Chipperton, holding a lighted match, which he had juststruck. He was looking at something on the wall. As we ran in, heturned and smiled, and was just going to say something, when Corny threwherself into his arms, and his wife, squeezing by, took him around hisneck so suddenly that his hat flew off and bumped on the floor, like anempty tin can. He always wore a high silk hat. He made a grab for hishat, and the match burned his fingers.
"Aouch!" he exclaimed, as he dropped the match. "What's the matter?"
"Oh, my dear!" exclaimed his wife. "How dreadful to leave you here! Shutup alone in this awful place! But to think we have found you!"
"No trouble about that, I should say," remarked Mr. Chipperton, goingover to the other side of the den after his hat. "You haven't been goneten minutes, and it's a pretty straight road back here."
"But how did it happen?" "Why did you stay?" "Weren't you frightened?""Did you stay on purpose?" we all asked him at pretty much one and thesame time.
"I did stay on purpose," said he; "but I did not expect to stay but aminute, and had no idea you would go and leave me. I stopped to see whatin the name of common sense this place was made for. I tried my best tomake some sort of an observation out of this long, narrow loop-hole, butfound I could see nothing of importance whatever, and so I made up mymind it was money thrown away to cut out such a place as this to solittle purpose. When I had entirely made up my mind, I found, on turningaround, that you had gone, and although I called I received no answer.
"Then I knew I was alone in this place. But I was perfectly composed. Noagitation, no tremor of the nerves. Absolute self-control. The moment Ifound myself deserted, I knew exactly what to do. I did precisely thesame thing that I would have done had I been left alone in the MammothCave, or the Cave of Fingal, or any place of the kind.
"I stood perfectly still!
"If you will always remember to do that," and he looked as well as hecould from one to another of us, "you need never be frightened, nomatter how dark and lonely a cavern you may be left in. Strive toreflect that you will soon be missed, and that your friends willnaturally come back to the place where they saw you last. Stay there!Keep that important duty in your mind. Stay just where you are! If yourun about to try and find your way out, you will be lost. You will loseyourself, and no one can find you.
"Instances are not uncommon where persons have been left behind in theMammoth Cave of Kentucky, and who were not found by searching partiesfor a day or two, and they were almost invariably discovered in aninsane condition. They rushed wildly about in the dark; got away fromthe ordinary paths of tourists; couldn't be found, and went crazy,--avery natural consequence. Now, nothing of the kind happened to me. Iremained where I was, and here, you see, in less than ten minutes, I amrescued!"
And he looked around with a smile as pleasant as if he had just inventeda new sewing-machine.
"But were you not frightened,--awe-struck in this dark and horribleplace, alone?" inquired Mrs. Chipperton, holding on to his arm.
"No," said he. "It was not very dark just here. That slit let in alittle light. That is all it is good for, though why light should beneeded here, I cannot tell. And then I lighted matches and examined thewall. I might find some trace of some sensible intention on the part ofthe people who quarried this passage. But I could find nothing. What Imight have found, had I moved about, I cannot say. I had a whole box ofmatches in my pocket. But I did not move."
"Well," said Mr. Burgan, "I think you'd better move now. I, for one, amconvinced that this place is of no use to me, and I don't like it."
I think Mr. Burgan was a little out of temper.
We now started on our way out of the passage, Mrs. Chipperton holdingtight to her husband, for fear, I suppose, that he might be inclined tostop again.
"I didn't think," said she, as she clambered up the dark and twistingsteps, "that I should have this thing to do, so soon again. But no onecan ever tell what strange things may happen to them, at any time."
"When father's along," added Corny.
This was all nuts to the shoemaker, for we gave him more money for hissecond trip down the well. I hope this didn't put the i
dea into his headof shutting people down below, and making their friends come after them,and pay extra.
"There are some things about Mr. Chipperton that I like," said Rectus,as we walked home together.
"Yes," said I, "some things."
"I like the cool way in which he takes bad fixes," continued Rectus, whohad a fancy for doing things that way himself. "Don't you remember thattime he struck on the sand-bank. He just sat there in the rain, waitingfor the tide to rise, and made no fuss at all. And here, he kept just ascool and comfortable, down in that dungeon. He must have educated hismind a good deal to be able to do that."
"It may be very well to educate the mind to take things coolly," said I,"but I'd a great deal rather educate my mind not to get me into suchfixes."
"I suppose that would be better," said Rectus, after thinking a minute.
And now we had but little time to see anything more in Nassau. In twodays the "Tigris" would be due, and we were going away in her. So wefound we should have to bounce around in a pretty lively way, if wewanted to be able to go home and say we had seen the place.