CHAPTER XII.
SUGGESTIONS OF ANOTHER CONSPIRACY.
I felt like a beleaguered general who had just opened communicationwith his reinforcements, when I again found myself holding intercourse,even by letter, with my father. It seemed as though a new life hadbegun for me. My father was happy, and so was I. He declared that heshould join me as soon as his business would allow him to leaveEngland; and that when he found me, as he should wherever I wandered,he never would leave me again.
My father alluded at considerable length to "his best and truestfriend," Mr. Tiffany. He had written to him, and desired him to take aninterest in my affairs if he thought I needed any assistance, eitherwith money or counsel. This was a partial explanation of the conduct ofMr. Tiffany; but he was a very strange man because he said nothing tome about his instructions from my father.
Before I had finished reading the rest of my letters, Washburn cameinto the room; but when he saw I was engaged, he began to retire. Iasked him to remain. He was my ever-faithful friend. He had fathomedthe conspiracy against me, and I valued his counsel more than that ofany other person. He had my fullest confidence, though he never soughtto know my business.
I related to him all the incidents of my visit to the city, including afull account of my adventures with the Boomsbys and the other snake. Ineed not say that he was intensely interested.
"That Boomsby ought to be hung!" he exclaimed, as soon as I hadfinished my story.
"Perhaps not," I replied, giving the captain's explanation of thepresence of the snake in the closet.
"I should like to follow that lodger's history, if Captain Boomsby hadany such person in his house, which I do not believe," added the mate."When I go on shore I will try to find out whether or not he had anylodger, and I think I can get at it."
"It is hardly worth the trouble," I replied.
"I think it is. For months we have been satisfied that this villainmeans you harm; but we have never been able to prove anything," saidWashburn, with energy. "It is time to quit fooling with such matters.If he did not mean to sink the Sylvania for your benefit, he nevermeant anything in his life; but he explained it away, and everybodythat knows anything about it, except you and I, believes that theaccident was simply the result of his drunken condition on thatmorning. It is time to prove some of these things."
"I have no objection to having them proved."
"I will spend all the time I have on shore in this business; and Iam--What was that?"
The mate suddenly jumped from his chair, and rushed out of the room bythe new door on the port side. I followed him.
"What are you doing at that window?" demanded Washburn, to a man he hadcollared near the door of the engine-room, for he had pluck enough topick up a water moccasin, if the occasion required.
I could not make out the man in the darkness; and I did not quitecomprehend the reason for his sudden assault on him. All the windows ofour state-room were open, for the evening was warm.
"I wasn't doing anything, Mr. Washburn," pleaded the culprit, in whosevoice I recognized that of Griffin Leeds.
"You were standing under the open window of the captain's room!"continued the mate, releasing his hold on the waiter when he found heoffered no resistance.
"No, sir; I wasn't standing there," replied Griffin, in a meechingtone. "I got asleep on the fo'castle after you went in; and I justwaked up. I was just going below to turn in when you came out and gothold of me. That's the whole of it, sir."
"If I ever catch you under an open window again, I will throw youoverboard. We don't have anything of that kind on board of thissteamer," said the mate, in a very decided tone.
Griffin went below to his quarters under the forecastle, and Washburnfollowed me into the room. I thought he was a little rough on the newwaiter, who had given excellent satisfaction in the forward cabin. Isaid as much as this to the mate.
"The rascal was listening under that window to the talk between you andme," replied Washburn. "If you agree to have that thing done on board,you are the captain, and I have nothing more to say about it."
"If you are satisfied that he was listening to us, you did just right.But I move to amend by substituting his discharge for throwing himoverboard," I replied, laughing. "Do you think the fellow heard what wewere saying?"
"I have no doubt of it: he had been there for some time, for I heard aslight noise at that window soon after I came in; and I am confident hehad been there ever since. I confess that I do not like the fellow verymuch, for I have seen him skulking about the deck with a hang-dog lookwhich I don't admire. I have suspected him of something, though I don'tknow what, since the first day he came on board. While I am in for it,Alick, I might as well add that Cornwood is just such another fellow."
"Cornwood?" I asked, very much surprised, for I had not noticedanything in either the Floridian or the waiter to attract my attention.
"I don't know anything about Cornwood; and I suppose you looked up hisrecord before you engaged him. At any rate, he acts like a snake, in myway of thinking," added the mate, whom none could accuse of covering upanything he believed or thought.
"I did inquire about him in St. Augustine: people thought well of hisknowledge and ability, though they agree that he is a brag and aboaster."
"If there were nothing worse than that about him, I should only laugh.But I think he is a snake."
"What makes you think so?"
"I don't know; I only know that I do think so."
"But you are not a fellow to think ill of anybody without some reasonfor it."
"I have no reason, except his looks and actions," replied the mate. "Imake no charges against him, and I can prove nothing; but Cornwood is afellow that will bear watching."
"That is just what the Hon. Pardon Tiffany took the trouble to tell methis afternoon," I added, relating the particulars of my interview withthat gentleman.
"I am glad there is some one besides myself who has an opinion on thesubject," said Washburn.
"Cornwood was in Captain Boomsby's rumhole when I came down stairsafter the row in the attic," I added, watching the face of my friend tonotice the effect of this announcement.
"That's the best place for him; only this fellow will do a piece oftreachery better than Boomsby can. Cornwood will not get drunk when hehas a heavy job of iniquity on his hands. Boomsby is a wolf: thisfellow is a snake. Cornwood reminds me of a kind of reptile they havein these parts, called the small rattlesnake. He is a little fellow,and you can't hear his rattle; but his bite will kill you as quick asthat of a five-footer. You can't see or hear him, and the first thingyou know you are a dead man. That's Cornwood's style, as I understandhim."
"You are rough on him. What you say of him, and what you have done toGriffin, remind me that the two men seemed to have some connectionbefore we engaged either of them," I continued, thinking of the eventsof that first day in St. Augustine. "Griffin brought off Cornwood in aboat."
"And when you apply to Cornwood for a stewardess, Griffin's wifeappears to take the place. But I am bound to say I believe she is alady," added the mate.
"Then you think we are marching into hot water, do you, Washburn?" Iasked with interest.
"I don't say you are: I don't know that you are: only that we hadbetter keep our eyes wide open, as Mr. Tiffany suggests. But it doeslook to me as though some sort of a storm is brewing."
"But where can the storm possibly come from?"
"From that rumhole in Bay Street which you visited this afternoon. Ihave heard that Boomsby threatened a dozen times to be the destructionof you. He says you have been the plague of his life; that you havecrossed and defeated him so many times that he will be the 'ruination'of you yet. This is out of pure revenge. Besides this, he believes yourfather is dead, and that, if he can get you out of the way, or bringyou into subjection to what he calls his authority, this steamer willcome into his possession. I know he is a fool; but he believes all thisnonsense."
"Then you mean to suggest--without being able
to prove it--thatCornwood is an agent of Captain Boomsby; and that Griffin Leeds is atool of Cornwood, sent on board to watch me, as well as to wait on thefore-cabin table," I added, putting the various hints into words.
"I don't say it means anything; but that is what it means, ifanything," replied Washburn after some hesitation. "Nothing can beproved; and we should not be justified in doing anything on meresuspicion. All we have to do is to keep a close watch on Cornwood andGriffin Leeds."
We agreed to do this, but in such a manner as not to alarm theconspirators, if they were such. I told Washburn then that I hadletters from my father, and gave him both of them to read. While he wasthus engaged, I began a letter to my father.
"The last one is written in good spirits," said the mate, as he laidthe letters on my table. "But isn't it a little strange that you haveno letter of later date than last January from your father? I shouldhave supposed there would have been three or four more letters awaitingyou; I mean those he must have written in January."
"I think there is nothing strange about that," I replied; but my heartsank within me at the very thought of any more doubts anduncertainties. "I wrote him that the Sylvania was bound to the Bahamas;but I had no idea where we should go next, or how long we should remainat any place to which we might go. I said we expected to return toJacksonville in February."
"That explains the matter. You did not show me your letter to him,"replied the mate. "But we are several days into March, and you ought tohear from your father again very soon."
"I shall expect a letter from him every day until I get one. I don'tbelieve anything more can happen to him or me, for we have had our fullshare of mishaps."
The mate was turning in for the night, when Buck Lingley brought me anote from Owen, which had just been sent off by a boatman. My cousinhad arranged for an excursion to Fort George Island, near the mouth ofthe St. Johns River, for the next day at ten, if the weather wasfavorable. He expected about thirty people, and wanted dinner for them.I told Buck to carry the letter to the steward, that he might make hispurchases of provisions early in the morning. It was one o'clock when Iturned in, after finishing a twelve-page letter to my father.