CHAPTER ELEVEN.
HOME!
"At last!" exclaimed Robin, bursting into his old home and seizing hismother in his arms.
Robin had just returned home after the laying of the 1866 AtlanticCable, as briefly narrated in the last chapter.
It may be said with some truth that the old home became, during the nextfew days, a private lunatic asylum, for its inmates went mildly mad withjoy.
Chief among the lunatics was uncle Rik, the retired sea-captain. Thatmadman's case, however, was not temporary derangement, like the others'.It was confirmed insanity, somewhat intensified just then by thenephew's return.
"So, young man," he said, one evening at supper, when the familytraveller was dilating to open-eyed-and-mouthed listeners, "you actuallybelieve that these cables are goin' to work?"
"Of course I do, uncle. They are working now, and have been working formany years."
"Well, now, the gullibility o' some people is stupendous!" returned Rik."Don't you know, Robin, that everything a'most works for a time, andthen, sooner or later--usually sooner--the ridiculous thing bursts up?"
"But, uncle, you beg the question in classing submarine cables amongridiculous things. Besides, have not dozens of cables been workingsatisfactorily for many years, without showing signs of bursting up asyet?"
"Pooh! bah! boh!" replied uncle Rik, by which he meant to say thatthough convinced against his will he was of the same opinion still.
At that moment cousin Sam Shipton entered with an eager, excited look.
"It's all settled," he said, taking Robin by the hand.
"What is settled?" asked Mrs Wright, somewhat anxiously.
"Mother, don't be angry," said Robin, laying his hand on his mother'sshoulder, and speaking tenderly, "I meant to have told you the moment Icame in to-day, but uncle Rik with his argumentative spirit drove it andeverything else except cables out of my head--"
"Well, but what is it?" interrupted Madge impatiently; "why do you keepus in suspense?"
"I have some prospect, mother, of being appointed to go with atelegraph-laying party to the East, but Sam is wrong when he says it isall settled. Whatever he may have to tell us, it is by no means settleduntil I have your and father's opinion."
"Well, you horribly good but ungrateful boy," returned Sam, "it is atleast settled as far as I have do with it. I have made application athead-quarters, and they are willing to take you on my recommendation.Moreover, I am myself going."
"You're joking, Sam!" exclaimed Robin, with a flush of joy; "I thoughtyou had neither intention nor desire to go far from home."
"You thought wrong, Robin. I always had desire, and now haveintention--and I go as second in command. So, Miss Mayland," hecontinued, turning to Madge, "I shan't be able to continue thoseelectrical lectures which you were so fond of once, but have latelyseemed to grow tired of."
Madge was at that tender age of budding womanhood when sensitive girlsare apt to misunderstand a jest. She blushed, stammered something, thenforced a laugh, and turned to speak to Robin; but Sam perceived thattears rose to her eyes, and he instantly sank in his own estimation tothe condition of a loathsome reptile.
"Well, now, that is good news," cried Robin, applying himself to theviands on the table with renewed zest. "You cannot have the smallestobjection or anxiety, mother, I should think, when you know I shall beunder so able a guide."
"I have not yet thought it over, Robin."
"And you, father?"
"Go, my boy, and my blessing go with you," said Mr Wright, all butchoking the blessing with a huge oyster.
"Are any labourers to go with us?" asked Robin.
"One or two picked ones."
"Then you must allow me to pick one, Sam. My friend Jim Slagg is atpresent cast adrift with a considerable part of the Great Eastern'screw. He will be delighted to go, I know, and is a first-rate,hard-working, willing, conscientious youth."
"He ought to be proud of having so warm a friend and advocate," saidSam, "but I have no power to choose the men."
"O yes, you have, Sam. If you could get me appointed, you can get himappointed; and you must, for, if you don't, I won't go."
"You are hard on me, Robin, but I'll try."
"But you have not yet told us where it is that they are going to sendyou," said Mrs Wright.
"Ah! that's not fixed," replied Sam; "they are laying down lines inTurkey; and Egypt is talked of, and telegraph to India itself is evenhinted at. All I know is that we shall be sent to the East somewhere."
"Bah! boo! Why does nobody ask for _my_ opinion on the matter?" saiduncle Rik, as he gazed at the company over a goose drumstick, which wasobviously not tender.
"Your opinion, brother," said Mr Wright, "is so valuable, that no doubtyour nephew has been keeping it to the last as a sort of tit-bit--eh,Robin?"
"Well, uncle; come, let us have it," said Robin.
"You don't deserve it," returned Rik, with a wrench at the drumstick,"but you shall have it all the same, free, gratis. Was this bird fed ongutta-percha shavings, sister Nan?"
"Perhaps--or on violin strings, I'm not sure which," replied Mrs Wrightblandly.
"Well," continued the captain, "you youngsters will go off, I see, rightor wrong, and you'll get half-drowned in the sea, roasted in the East,smothered in the desert, eaten alive by cannibals, used-up by theplague, poisoned by serpents, and tee-totally ruined altogether. Thenyou'll come home with the skin of your teeth on--nothing more."
"I sincerely hope it will be summer at the time," said Sam, laughing;"but we are grateful to you for prophesying that we shall return, eventhough in such light clothing."
"That's what'll happen," continued the captain, regarding the otherdrumstick with some hesitation; "you may take the word of an old saltfor it. I've lived in the good old times, lads, and I know that allthese new-fangled notions are goin' to burst up--and _that's_ what'llcome of it."
Whether that was what came of it remains to be seen.