CHAPTER TWELVE.
THE CONVERSION OF JULIUS.
When I went down to breakfast, Anthea and Lizette were already in thedining-room. The former had quite recovered her composure, although hereyelids were still a trifle red and swollen, while her small,beautifully-shaped ear was crimson from the force of the blow which ithad received. I have already mentioned that this young lady's attitudetoward me had completely changed from the moment when I saved herbrother's life; her frosty and almost insolent aloofness had entirelydisappeared, giving place to a frank and cordial friendliness ofdisposition rivalling that of her mother, which I admit was mightilyagreeable to me. In short, I believed her to be intensely grateful forwhat I had done on that occasion, and perfectly willing that I shouldknow it. So now I was not at all surprised when, upon my entrance, shecame forward and, laying her hand upon my arm, said:
"Oh! Mr Leigh, I cannot tell you how dreadfully sorry I am for whathas happened. Momma is frightfully angry with you for what she ispleased to term your violent and cowardly behaviour to Julius--they areher words, please remember, not mine: but I think, indeed I am almostcertain, that upon reflection she will recognise that no man could standby and permit to pass, unreproved, such an outrage as that wretched boyinflicted upon me. The fact is--I can see it for myself now--we haveall combined together to spoil Julius, with the result that he hasbecome a thoroughly selfish, conceited, unfeeling, unmanageable boy; andit is high time that somebody should intervene. But that somebody mustnot be you, Mr Leigh; you have no right to interfere, you know, and Iam sure that Momma would never tolerate anything of the kind from you.
"At the same time I feel impelled to say,"--and here her eyes sparkledand an amused smile lighted up her face--"that I believe yourinterference has done Julius good. You frightened him, and I think hewill feel that henceforth he will have to behave a little morecircumspectly while you are around. But I want you, please, to promiseme that you will not interfere with him again. I will take up thematter. I will talk very seriously to Momma and see if I cannot openher eyes to the very serious wrong and injury that we are all doing tothe boy by petting and pampering him, and humouring his every whim,however outrageous it may be. So you will give me your promise to bevery patient with him, won't you? I know that he has been atrociouslyrude and provocative to you, but--"
"Please say no more," I interrupted. "I think I may safely promise youthat no rudeness or provocation on his part, levelled at me personally,shall be allowed to move me in the slightest degree. But if ever theyoung monkey again dares to lift his hand against you in my presence,I'll--I'll--"
"Yes, yes, I know; you needn't say it," she interrupted in turn, andonce more her eyes sparkled with merriment; "it will be something tooawful for words. Well, I'll tell Julius what you say, and perhaps theinformation may have a good effect upon him. And now let us tobreakfast, for I see Lizette is in a perfect terror lest the coffeeshould be allowed to go cold."
We sat down to breakfast opposite each other and chatted more merrilyand intimately together than we had ever done before. But when the mealwas over we put merriment aside, for there was the approaching junk tobe thought of and provided for. When we rose from the table I requestedAnthea to procure from her mother the keys of the magazine and bringthem to me, as I proposed to make every possible provision for thedefence of the wreck, should such unhappily prove to be necessary. Andwhile she went to her mother for the required keys, I made my way up onto the poop and took another look at the junk.
There she was, close-hauled on the port tack, and evidently working upfor the reef. But she was a slow tub, and the breeze was still so lightthat her sails barely remained "asleep" as she heaved and rolledponderously upon the long, low, Pacific swell. I plainly saw that Ishould have ample time for such preparations as it would be possible tomake for her reception.
I flung a look round the horizon and searched the sky for weather signs.The sky was clear as a bell, of a deep, rich, ultramarine tint in thezenith; shading off by imperceptible gradations to a soft, warmcolourlessness at the horizon. There was not the slightest hint of hazeor cloud in the whole of the visible vault, and the breeze was a merewarm breathing, with nothing to indicate that it might possibly freshen.Would that it would fall calm before the junk could enter the lagoon!In that case we should be able to judge of her friendliness or otherwiseby the number of boats which she would dispatch to us. I went to theflag locker, drew forth our Club ensign, and ran it up, reversed, to thehead of the ensign staff--which, for a wonder, had escaped the generaldestruction--in the hope that this would evoke some sort of responsefrom the crew of the junk, to serve in some measure as a guide to me. Ihad just belayed the halyards when Anthea came to me with the keys.
She glanced from me to the flag and back again, questioningly, and Iexplained.
"I see," she said. "Very well; here are the keys, but I do hope it willnot be necessary to fight. I remember the Malacca Straits affair, whenwe had the entire crew to help us in defending the ship. Do you thinkthat, situated as we now are, we should have any chance?"
"I don't see why not," I replied. "Although we are a wreck we can stillshow a rather formidable set of teeth,"--waving my hand toward themain-deck guns--"to say nothing of the two Maxims, upon which I shallprincipally pin my faith. The only thing that we must guard against isletting the rascals get too close before plainly declaring theirintentions. But that should not be difficult."
"Supposing they are enemies, and should beat us, what do you think ourfate would be?" demanded the girl, coming close to me and laying herhand upon my arm in the earnestness of her questioning.
I drew in my breath sharply at the mere suggestion. "They must not beallowed to beat us," I exclaimed harshly. "Such a possibility will notbear thinking of."
"Ah! I understand. So you think it might be as bad as that," returnedmy companion; and I saw the colour ebb from her cheeks and lips, leavingthem white as marble, while her fingers closed like a vice upon my arm."But if you should be hurt," she continued, "what would happen then?"
"It _mustn't_ happen," I exclaimed; "it mustn't! I must takeprecautions of some sort to provide against such a possibility."
"Of course," she eagerly agreed. "But, supposing that in spite of yourprecautions you should be hurt--or killed,"--she shiveredviolently--"what then?"
"I will tell you," I said, seizing both her hands in mine and crushingthem, I fear, in the passion of horror which her persistence conjuredup. "I will give you, your mother, and the stewardesses a revolvereach, and if by evil chance that junk should prove to be an enemy, andshould get the upper hand of us, you must shoot yourselves, rather thanfall alive into the hands of the Chinamen! Of course you need not takesuch a desperate step until the very last moment, when it has becomeevident that escape is impossible; but when that moment arrives--do youthink you will have the courage to do as I say?"
"Yes," she whispered hoarsely. "I shall--and I will. But--oh! Walter,I hope, I pray, that we may none of us be driven to that frightfulalternative. Now I must leave you, for I want to have a goodheart-to-heart talk with Momma. But I shall see you again before--before--"
"Yes, yes," I said hurriedly, for I saw that the poor girl was becominga trifle overwrought, and I had an uncomfortable feeling that heremotion carried something of a contagious character with it. It wasnecessary to get away from emotionalism and down to the commonplaces oflife once more, so I nodded smilingly at Anthea and ran briskly below,jingling the keys in my hand as I went.
I had said that I should pin my faith principally to the Maxims, if itcame to a fight, and so I fully meant to do; at the same time, I by nomeans overlooked the fact that a four-inch shell or two might prove veryconvincing arguments, under certain conditions. I therefore began mypreparations by conveying eight shells and a corresponding number ofcartridges up on deck and loading them into the eight main-deck gunsthat still remained to us, after carefully sponging out the latter.Next, I gave my attention to
the Maxims, preparing them for action withmeticulous care, overhauling, cleaning, and oiling the mechanism ofthem, satisfying myself that they were in perfect working order, placinga belt of cartridges in position in each, and taking care to have anabundant supply of relays in hand. While doing all these things I keptone eye pretty constantly upon the junk, in the hope that she wouldrespond to the display of our ensign by hoisting some sort of signalwhich I might interpret as that of a friend coming to our rescue inanswer to our appeals for help. But she showed no bunting beyond asmall whiff at her mainmast head, which meant nothing.
Having prepared our artillery, I next turned my attention to the subjectof magazine rifles, a dozen of which I brought up on deck. These Iloaded and laid handy on the poop, near the Maxims, with a box ofcartridges, although I doubted whether, after all our other weapons hadplayed their part, there would be much opportunity to use them. FinallyI produced and loaded six revolvers, two of which I thrust into the beltof a cutlass girded round my waist, while the other four I designed forthe use of the women in the last dreadful resort. The boy I did notgreatly trouble about, feeling pretty certain that he would look afterhimself.
I had finished all my preparations, and was sitting on the poop rail,intently scanning the slowly approaching junk through the ship'stelescope, and taking due note of such details and particulars as werethus brought within my ken, when the slight rustle of feminine garmentsat my side caused me to lower the glass. Mrs Vansittart was standingat my elbow. She was still very pale, and her eyelids were swollen andred with recent weeping, but she smiled wanly as she offered me herhand.
"Walter," she said, and there was a tremor in her voice as she spoke,while the blood surged up into her cheeks for a moment--"I want toapologise. I am afraid--"
"No, certainly not, dear lady!" I cried, seizing her hand; "you mustnot dream of such a thing. On the contrary, it is for me to apologiseto you for my sudden and violent ebullition of temper; and I do, mostheartily. I cannot imagine what it was that possessed me just then,but--"
Her smile broadened and brightened a little as she raised her left handto silence me.
"You must let me speak, Walter--let me say what I want to say," sheresumed. "Anthea has been talking to me, and she said things that haveopened my eyes to what I fear I must call my own folly. She has made mesee that I have been altogether wrong in my attitude toward Julius. Shehas shown me that in the blindness and intensity of my affection forhim--he is my only son, you know, Walter--I have indulged him andallowed him to have his own way in everything to such an extent that,unless we are all very careful, he will be utterly spoiled, ruined, andrendered totally unfit to go out into the world and take a worthy placethere when the time comes for him to do so. There have been occasionsbefore to-day when I have been troubled by suspicions that something wasgoing wrong with the dear boy, that I was not doing my duty toward himas a wise mother should, but it was not until within the last half-hourthat my eyes have been completely opened; and now I intend to adopt anentirely different attitude toward him. But the trouble is that I don'tknow how to set about it. How were you brought up, Walter?"
I could not avoid smiling at the naivete of this question, yet I couldalso sympathise with the questioner.
"Well," said I, "naturally I loved my parents, and they as naturallyloved me, but they never allowed their affection to blind them to thelittle childish faults and failings which, like all other children, Isuppose, I soon developed; and they diligently devoted themselves to thetask of checking these, so that in addition to loving my parents I wassoon taught to honour and obey them. Then, when I was five years old, Iwas sent to school, where, mixing with other boys, any especial conceitof myself that I might have had was quickly nipped in the bud. Atschool, in addition to a fair, useful education, I was taught toreverence and respect my seniors and superiors, to be obedient, tosubmit to discipline, to be honest and truthful, to despise selfishnessand viciousness, to fear God and honour the king. That, in brief, wasthe way of my bringing up, Mrs Vansittart. And although many of thethings that I learned had to be hammered into me with a cane wielded bya willing and vigorous arm, I can truthfully assert that I am not a whitthe worse, but rather the better for it to-day."
My companion regarded me smilingly for some moments. Then she said:
"So that is the story of how you came to be what you are! Well, Walter,I am compelled to admit that your parents were wiser than Mr Vansittartand I have been. But I am going to alter my methods now, and I can onlypray that it may not be too late. You and I must talk further upon thismatter later on. I think that perhaps you may be able to help me. Now,what about that junk? You were looking at her through the glass when Icame up: have you been able to discover anything that would afford us aclue to her character?"
"Not very much," I replied; "but I am bound to confess that what I haveseen is not altogether reassuring. For instance, she has not respondedto the display of our ensign; and I believe that she would have done soin one form or another if she were coming to our rescue, in answer toour appeals for assistance. Then, although I cannot see her decks verywell because of her high bulwarks, she appears to be carrying a goodmany men--too many, I think, for an honest craft of her size. I noticealso that she has a gun--an eighteen-pound smooth-bore, I judge, fromits appearance--mounted on her forecastle, while if you will look at herthrough the glass, you will see three ports in her port bulwarks throughwhich protrude the muzzles of other cannon. These look liketwelve-pounders; and I have not the slightest doubt that there are threemore of the same kind grinning through her starboard bulwark."
"Yes," replied Mrs Vansittart, peering through the telescope which Ihad handed to her. "I see the guns you mention, and I can catch throughthe portholes glimpses of a number of men moving about the deck. As yousay, there appears to be a good many of them; but do you really regardthat as a sinister sign? Would not any vessel trading in these waterscarry a good strong crew, and guns for self-defence?"
"No doubt she would," I agreed; "and we can only hope that yonder junkis such a craft. We shall know for certain in about two hours from now;in any case I am quite ready for her."
Mrs Vansittart looked round at my preparations and smiled.
"Yes," she assented, "your preparations certainly appear to bereasonably complete. You have done what you could, Walter, haven't you?Well, I am going below, for the sun is terribly hot, and I must not geta headache just now, if I can possibly avoid it. Of course we shall allcome and help you, if there is any fighting to be done."
"Indeed," I exclaimed, "I beg that none of you will dream of doinganything of the kind! You would only be a source of anxiety andembarrassment to me. I would rather not have even Julius; for I couldnot trust him. He is not amenable to discipline, and it is quite on thecards that at a critical moment he might take it into his head to do thewrong thing, with disastrous consequences to us all."
"Very well, we shall see," was the smiling reply as my lady skipperdisappeared down the companion way.
Again I took up the telescope to resume my study of the junk, which Icontinued to do for the next half-hour or more. Then Master Julius madehis appearance on deck. He came straight up to me, and as I looked athim, expecting some fresh unpleasantness, I detected a new expression inhis eyes and on his features. The look of sullenness and discontent haddisappeared, and he actually smiled as, looking me square in the eye, heheld out his hand and exclaimed:
"Say, Mr Leigh, let's be friends, shall we?"
"Sure, old chap!" I replied, adopting an Americanism with which I hadbecome quite familiar, as I grasped his outstretched hand; "the verybest of friends, if you like. Why shouldn't we be? I am perfectlywilling, if you are."
"Then it's a deal," he answered, seating himself at my side on the pooprail. "Say!" he continued, "do you think we're going to have to fightthat junk?"
"It is impossible to say, as yet," I replied. "I hope not; but if itshould be necessary, do you want to take a hand
?"
"Bet your life I do!" exclaimed the boy. "That's what I've come up totalk about. Momma says that you won't let me help because I'm notamenable to discipline, and you're afraid that I won't do as I'm told.If I promise you, on my word of honour as a gentleman, that I'll doexactly as you tell me, will you let me come in?"
"Certainly I will, and be delighted to have your help," I replied.
"Then it's a deal," repeated the lad, again offering his hand.
I must confess that I was both puzzled and astounded at the sudden andamazing change that had come over the boy; but the secret soon came out.It appeared that both his mother and his sister had been talking to himas it seemed he had never before been talked to in his life. They hadtold him a number of home truths in language that it seemed there was nopossibility of misunderstanding; and they had done all this soconvincingly that the dormant spirit of good that was in him had beeneffectually awakened. The withering scorn with which his sister hadcommented upon his behaviour in general and the offensive andcontemptible traits of character that he had flaunted so flagrantly inall our faces had scorched and shrivelled his boyish soul; the pictureof himself as others saw him was so repulsive that he had beenoverwhelmed with shame and--better still--repentance, and, if he was tobe believed, had caused him to determine upon an altogether new line ofaction for the future.
Scorn, contempt, contumely, dislike, are disagreeable things to swallow,and now that his mother and sister had drawn aside the veil and allowedhim to get a glimpse of their real opinion of him, it was rather morethan he could bear. His pride and self-respect had been grievouslyhurt; he did not like to be despised and detested, so he was going nowto make everybody respect and admire him. I had no very great faith inthis conversion, I must confess--it seemed altogether too sudden to begenuine; but I was not going to say or do anything that might neutraliseany good that might have been done. I listened with interest to allthat the boy had to say, and replied encouragingly and sympathetically;and so the time passed until Lizette appeared to summon us to luncheon,when the junk was still some two miles in the offing, and working invery slowly. There was no sign of any intention to hoist out boats, orattempt to communicate with us in any way, so I knew that I should havesufficient time to snatch a mouthful of food before the moment foraction should arrive, and I descended to the dining-room with an easymind.