CHAPTER XV.
BACK AT THE BLUE PAVILIONS.
Four weeks afterwards Tristram was put into a boat and taken up toLondon, whence after two days' rest he was removed by easy stageshome to Harwich.
At the gate of Captain Barker's pavilion he passed into the care ofDr. Beckerleg, who put him to bed at once and dared him to get up.As he was borne up the garden-path Sophia peeped through a chink ofthe little blue door; and got not another glimpse of her lover foranother six weeks.
It was a soft and sunny morning in October month when Dr. Beckerleg,having given his patient leave to dress and set foot outside the doorfor the first time, stepped down into the garden to seek the twocaptains and send them upstairs to help the invalid.
As he opened the front-door a searching odour caused him to pause inthe porch and sniff. He traced this odour round to the back of thehouse, and there found Captain Barker, Captain Runacles and NarcissusSwiggs. Between them they had managed to clear the garden of anenormous crop of weeds, of which they were now making a bonfire.Behind the thick and yellowish coils of smoke Dr. Beckerleg couldjust discern the forms of the two captains. By their gestures theyseemed to be engaged in an acrimonious discussion. Narcissus, littleheeding, stolidly poked the bonfire with a charred stake.
"I will not!" said Captain Runacles.
"But I say that you shall!" said Captain Barker.
"The lad is yours, and yours only."
"He is yours also."
"By a cast of dice you won him."
"By law he was given back to you."
"You have brought him up."
"You found him again when I lost him."
"Yes, by means of an art which you taught him."
"Gentlemen, gentlemen," interposed the doctor, advancing, "what isall this fuss?"
"Why," began Captain Barker, "I was proposing that, for the future,we should take equal shares in the superintendence of Tristram'seducation; and he won't listen to it."
"Certainly I won't," Captain Runacles assented stoutly.
The doctor looked from one to the other with a good-humoured smile.
"And why won't you?" he asked, addressing Captain Jemmy.
"Why won't I? Because, as you are aware--for you were present--weonce cast the dice over this boy, and Jack won."
"Did he?"
"You know he did. He flung two sixes. Bless my heart, doctor, you_must_ remember that!"
"I do, perfectly. And you--what did you throw?"
"I--well, I--"
"You threw the dice, and the box with 'em, out of the window: that'swhat you did."
"Very well, then. That settles it. I don't back out of my luck."
"Gentlemen," said Dr. Beckerleg, clearing his throat, "I havesomething to tell you. It is a fact, and I don't pretend to explainit. You know the proverb about doctors and their unbelief. Well, ifI had been inclined--and I am not--to deny a controlling wisdom inthis scheme of things, I should have been startled somewhat whenCaptain Barker flung those two sixes. That apparent chance shouldgive an approval so decided to Captain Barker's adoption of thisorphan child was, to say the least, remarkable: for I thought then,and now I am sure, that no better father could be found for thebabe."
"That's what I say," Captain Runacles put in.
"Do not interrupt me, please. I say no _better_ father could befound. I did not say that none could be found as good. My dearRunacles, you tossed the dice out of the window and flounced off in ahuff. As they had been borrowed, and without their owner's consent,I thought fit to step across the street and pick them up. They werelying not a yard apart in the gutter. You were wrong, captain, innot giving them a look."
"Why?"
"_Simply because, as they lay, two sixes were uppermost._"
The two captains stared at him.
"I give you my word," he said quietly.
"My dear Jack--"
"That settles it, Jemmy."
They took each other's hand.
"But excuse me," said Dr. Beckerleg, "this is not what I came to tellyou. Just now I have given Tristram leave to stroll out into thegarden for an hour and he is waiting for you to dress him."
But here the doctor made a mistake, for when they went upstairs therewas no sign of Tristram. He and his clothes had disappeared.
They ran down to the front-door and looked around. There was no signof him.
Finally Dr. Beckerleg advanced to the little blue door in the hedge,opened it, and poked his head into Captain Runacles' garden. Then heturned softly and, putting a finger to his lip, beckoned to theothers. They advanced on tip-toe and peeped through.
Beside a garden-bed, half a dozen yards away, and with their backs tothe door, knelt Sophia and Tristram. The youth's left arm was aroundthe girl's waist, and the youth's hair mingled with the girl's asunconscious of observation they bent over the mould. It was the samemould in which Sophia, years before, had buried her doll, and nowTristram was helping Sophia to sprinkle it with pepper-cress seed;holding her right hand as she traced this:
Two overlapping hearts, one containing the letter 'S'and the other the letter 'T'.]
The watchers withdrew as softly as they had advanced. But on his wayback to the bonfire Captain Barker darted into the house and emergedagain with an armful of green volumes.
"What's the meaning of this?" asked Dr. Beckerleg.
The little man trotted round and shot his burden right on top of thepile which Narcissus had by this time stirred into a blaze.
"There doesn't seem to be any further use for 'em," he explained,panting and running back to the house.
He fetched another armful, and then another; and as he discharged thelast upon the bonfire, turned and laid a hand upon Captain Runacles'arm.
"Jemmy, old friend, we needn't to have made such a fuss about it,after all."
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