CHAPTER V
The End of the Voyage
Rumple found himself immediately popular, because of his prompt andspirited action in doing what he could to save the old lady. But, like agood many other people upon whom greatness descends, he had to pay arather heavy price for his popularity, and when it came to being kissedby the old lady and her daughter every time they appeared on deck, hebegan to ask himself savagely if it were quite worth while to beregarded as a hero of the first class.
Two or three days of kissing and hugging were enough for him, and thenhe took to subterfuge, and whenever the old lady or her very angular butkindly daughter hove in sight, Rumple bolted like a frightened rabbit,taking to any sort of cover which came handy.
The stewards, entering into the joke of the thing, co-operated withgreat heartiness, and for the remainder of the voyage there was no moreelusive person on board than Rumple Plumstead; so the old lady and herdaughter were forced to lavish on the rest of the family the tendernessthey felt solely for the boy, who loathed their indiscreet petting.
"Rupert, where is Rumple?" asked Nealie, coming on deck one afternoon aday or two before they expected to reach Fremantle.
"I haven't an idea. Come to think of it, I have not seen him sincebreakfast. Where can the young rascal have got to?" exclaimed Rupert,starting up in dismay. He had been so engrossed in a book all themorning that he had taken very little notice of what was going on aroundhim. He had certainly had to intervene once in a spirited encounterbetween Don and Billykins, who had taken to what they called wrestling,but which in reality amounted to a lively round of punching each otherblack and blue. Both small boys were considerably upset at being stoppedin this entirely novel diversion, and declared that Rupert was neitherpublic-spirited nor sporting to put a veto upon it; but he was firm, andthreatened to send one of them to bed if they did not desist, and sothey had been forced to find some other occupation.
But where was Rumple?
Enquiry elicited the alarming fact that he had not been seen at lunch,and for a healthy boy, especially one with a Plumstead appetite, to beabsent from a meal meant that something must be very wrong indeed.
An active search through the vessel was at once organized; but when,after half an hour of brisk hunting, no trace of Rumple could be found,Nealie grew seriously alarmed, a horrible dread coming into her heartthat he had in some way tumbled overboard.
She was running along the lower deck in search of one of the officers,to whom she might tell her fear, when she almost tumbled into the armsof the jolly fat purser, who had been so kind to all the children duringthe weeks of voyaging.
"Oh, Mr. Bent, we have lost my brother Rumple; he has not been seensince breakfast, and I am most dreadfully afraid that he must havefallen overboard!" she cried, the sharp distress in her tone showing howkeen was her anxiety.
"Tut, tut, Missy, he could not have done that in broad daylight withoutsomeone seeing him," replied the purser, who always treated Nealie as ifshe were no older than Rumple or Sylvia.
"Are you quite sure?" she asked anxiously.
"Quite! A big ship like this is all eyes in the daytime, you know, andto-day there have been men at work on the railings ever since breakfast,so there is no danger at all that anything of that sort can havehappened. But I wonder where the young rascal can be? I seem to rememberhaving seen him nipping round somewhere this morning. Let me see; whatcould I have been doing?" and the purser screwed up his face until therewas nothing of his eyes visible.
"Oh, please try to think where it was that you saw him, and then we maybe able to find him!" cried Nealie, clasping her hands in entreaty.
"Let me see." The purser opened his eyes and glared about him, as if heexpected to find the record of the morning's doings chalked in bigletters somewhere on the clean deck. "First thing after breakfast therewas that affair of the linen having been miscounted. It is funny howsome folks are born without any sense of number. Then there were thecook's lists to be gone through. I remember seeing the boy then, for helent me a pencil when mine broke. Now, what was I doing after that?"
"Oh, make haste, Mr. Bent! Please make haste to remember!" pleadedNealie, feeling as if she would really have to take hold of thisslow-witted man, and shake the information out of him if he did nothurry up a little.
"I've got it!" ejaculated Mr. Bent, slapping his sides with resoundingwhacks. "The next thing I did was to go down to the cold storage withthe second officer. We must have been there for nearly an hour, for Iknow I was chilled through and through by the time we came up again,and I have not seen your brother since."
"Then I am quite sure that Rumple must be down in the cold-storageplace, and he will be frozen stiff by this time. Oh, fly, Mr. Bent, andlet him out, for think how awful his sufferings must be!" cried Nealie,seizing the purser by the arm to drag him along. She had been down inthe cold storage herself, and shivered at the recollection of the Arcticchill of the place, although she had been hugely interested at seeingthe stacks of frozen provisions which were there to be preserved fordaily use on the voyage.
There was no need to tell Mr. Bent to hurry, as he strode away to hisown particular den to get the keys, and then, with Nealie running closebehind him, made his way down, down, down, until the storeroom corridorwas reached.
The cold-storage rooms were at the far end, and when he thrust the keyinto the lock, Nealie could have screamed with the anguish of her keenapprehension.
Mr. Bent thrust open the door, and then both of them cried out inamazement, for the place was brilliant with electric light, and Rumple,covered from head to foot in hoar frost, as if he had just stepped outof the Arctic regions, was lifting boxes of butter from the shelves,and then lifting them back again, as hard as he could work.
"I'm about tired of this," he managed to drawl out in a would-be casualtone, and then he suddenly collapsed in a limp heap in Nealie's arms.
Quickly they lifted him out into the warmth of the corridor, and thenNealie started chafing his cold hands and face, while Mr. Bent replacedthe butter boxes on the shelves, then, turning off the electric light,came out and locked the door behind him.
"Now I should like to know what monkey trick you were up to when youwent and got yourself locked in a place like that?" he said in an angrytone as he bent over poor Rumple, unwinding a lot of sacking from theboy's shoulders, and slapping him vigorously to quicken circulation.
"Oh, you will hurt him dreadfully if you beat him like that, and I amquite sure that he did not mean to do wrong!" burst out Nealie inred-hot indignation, as she pushed away those vigorously slapping hands,and gathered Rumple's cold, limp figure into a warm embrace.
"Bless you, Missy, I was not doing it to hurt him, only to make hisblood flow quicker, and save him a bit of misery later on. If he hasbeen in mischief, he has had to pay quite dearly enough for it, withoutany more punishment. It is lucky for him that the freezing plant is outof order to-day, and we have only been able to keep the place just downto freezing-point. If it had been as cold as it is sometimes, it mighthave been too late to save him, poor fellow," said Mr. Bent, pushingNealie gently aside, and starting on his slapping with more vigour thanbefore.
"I wasn't in mischief; I only bolted in there because the door was open,and I wanted to get clear of Miss Clarke, who was being shown round thestorerooms by one of the officers," said Rumple feebly. "She always willkiss me, don't you know, and I just can't stand it. I was crouchingbehind a case of things at the farther end, when to my horror the lightwent out, and a minute later, before I could yell, the door slammed. Idid yell then for all that I was worth, but I could not make anyonehear, and it was so long before I could grope my way to the door, for Iwas at the farther end, you see, and I turned silly with funk at thefirst."
"I don't wonder at that, poor darling!" murmured Nealie, lavishingendearments on him, which he accepted all in good part, although he hadbeen so hotly resentful of Miss Clarke's openly expressed affection. Shewas the daughter of the fat old lady, and he disliked the
pair of themso heartily that his one desire was to put as much distance as possiblebetween them and himself at all times and in all places.
"Well, laddie, it is a good thing for you that you were born with yourshare of common sense, for you seem to have gone the right way to workto keep from being frozen," said Mr. Bent, as he rolled the sacking intoa bundle and tossed it into a corner; then, slipping his arm roundRumple, lifted the boy to a standing posture.
But he would have promptly fallen again if they had not supported him oneither side, for his feet were thoroughly chilled, and he was so tiredthat he seemed to have no strength at all.
"I was a long time finding the electric light, but when I did come uponit, and pressed the button, I felt ever so much better," said Rumple, ashis rescuers helped him to climb the stairs. "And I knew that I must notstand still; but there was so little room to walk about that I had tolift cases from the shelves and put them back again. I found that greatpiece of sacking, and when I had wrapped it round my shoulders I felt alittle warmer; but it was more than a little nippy, I can tell you, andit made me think of the January mornings at Beechleigh, when the oldpump used to freeze up and we undertook to thaw it out for Mrs. Puffinbefore breakfast," said Rumple wearily.
At this moment the others, headed by Sylvia, came rushing down uponthem, and Rumple was at once overwhelmed with enquiries andcongratulations. But Nealie was so concerned at his desperate wearinessthat she insisted on his going to bed at once.
"You must have some hot soup, too, and then you will get warm quicklyand go to sleep," she said in the careful, elder-sisterly manner whichalways came uppermost when any of them were in any sort of difficulty.
"I don't want any soup or mucks of that kind, but I should be glad if Icould have a piece of dry bread or some hard biscuits, for I do not mindadmitting that I ate half a pound of butter to keep out the cold, and Ifeel rather greasy inside," said Rumple, puckering his face into agrimace as Rupert hustled him off to their cabin to put him to bed.
"What made you do that?" demanded Rupert sternly, for this partook ofthe nature of thieving, and the juniors had to be reproved for any lapsefrom strict morality.
"The Esquimaux eat blubber to keep out the cold, and as I had noblubber, and did not like to break open one of the lard pails, I justtook the butter. Do you expect that Mr. Bent will mind?" asked Rumpleanxiously. "I have got enough money to pay for it if he gets waxy, butof course I have had no lunch, and, seeing that the shipping companyhave got to keep me, I do not see that it matters much whether I eathalf a pound of butter for my meal or whether I have two goes of meatand three of pudding. Hullo, who is that?"
The exclamation was caused by someone pounding on the door foradmittance, and when Rumple found that the someone was the ship'sdoctor, great was his wrath at the coddling which Nealie had supposed tobe necessary for him. But the doctor roared with laughter when he heardabout the butter, and Rumple was so far mollified by his mirth as to bebeguiled into laughing also, after which he was rolled in blankets andpromptly went to sleep, not rousing again until the following morning,when he appeared to be none the worse for his adventure among the ice.
But someone must have dropped a hint to the indiscreet Miss Clarke andher mother, because from that time onward they left Rumple in peace, sofar as kissing was concerned, although they seemed to be just as fond ofhim as ever.
The seven were all getting just a little bit weary of voyaging when atlength the boat entered the fine harbour of Sydney, and berthed amongthe other vessels at the Circular Quay.
Then, indeed, things became exciting, and although they knew that theirfather had not had the first letter which had been sent to him, therewas still the probability that he had received a later letter from Mr.Runciman, and that he might be among the crowd who were waiting to boardthe liner when she came to her berth, beside the big vessel fromHong-Kong.
They were gathered in a group forward, and were eagerly scanning allthat could be seen of the shore, when one of the stewards came hurryingup to say that a gentleman had come on board for Miss Plumstead, and wasat that moment waiting to see her in the dining saloon.
"Oh, it must be dear Father; I am quite sure of it!" cried Nealie, and,seizing Ducky by the hand, she hurried away down to the big diningsaloon, followed by the other five.
Very different the big room looked to-day from the time when they hadseen it first. Then the tables were spread for a meal, and decoratedwith flowers and fruit; now everything was in confusion, the tables werebare, or heaped with the hand baggage of departing passengers, and therewas an air of desolation over all, such as is seen in a house from whicha family are flitting.
But Nealie had no eyes for details of this sort at such a moment, as sheclattered down the steps, holding Ducky fast by the hand. When shereached the bend, from whence she had a full view of the room, she saw atall, grey-haired man, very sprucely dressed, standing at the end of thethird table.
"Oh, it is Father!" she cried, half-turning her head to let the othersknow; and then, taking the last three steps at a bound, and dropping herhold of Ducky's hand, she rushed with tumultuous haste along the end ofthe room, and flinging herself upon the man, who had turned at herapproach, she cried joyfully: "Oh, my dear, dear father, how glad we areto see you!"
But even as her arms closed around his neck a chill doubt seized her,and the next moment the astonished gentleman had drawn himself away fromher grasp, saying hurriedly:
"My dear young lady, I am not your father."