CHAPTER SEVEN.
RUBY IN DIFFICULTIES.
Having thrust his nephew into the cottage, Captain Ogilvy's firstproceeding was to close the outer shutter of the window and fasten itsecurely on the inside. Then he locked, bolted, barred, and chained theouter door, after which he shut the kitchen door, and, in default of anyother mode of securing it, placed against it a heavy table as abarricade.
Having thus secured the premises in front, he proceeded to fortify therear, and, when this was accomplished to his satisfaction, he returnedto the kitchen, sat down opposite the widow, and wiped his shining pate.
"Why, uncle, are we going to stand out a siege that you take so muchpains to lock up?"
Ruby sat down on the floor at his mother's feet as he spoke, and Minniesat down on a low stool beside him.
"Maybe we are, lad," replied the captain; "anyhow, it's always well tobe ready--
"`Ready, boys, ready, We'll fight and we'll conquer again and again.'"
"Come uncle, explain yourself."
"Explain myself, nephy? I can neither explain myself nor anybody else.D'ye know, Ruby, that you're a burglar?"
"Am I, uncle? Well, I confess that that's news."
"Ay, but it's true though, at least the law in Arbroath says so, and ifit catches you, it'll hang you as sure as a gun."
Here Captain Ogilvy explained to his nephew the nature of the crime thatwas committed on the night of his departure, the evidence of his guiltin the finding part of the plate in the garden, coupled with his suddendisappearance, and wound up by saying that he regarded him, Ruby, asbeing in a "reg'lar fix."
"But surely," said Ruby, whose face became gradually graver as the casewas unfolded to him, "surely it must be easy to prove to thesatisfaction of everyone that I had nothing whatever to do with thisaffair?"
"Easy to prove it!" said the captain in an excited tone; "wasn't youseen, just about the hour of the robbery, going stealthily down thestreet, by Big Swankie and Davy Spink, both of whom will swear to it."
"Yes, but _you_ were with me, uncle."
"So I was, and hard enough work I had to convince them that I hadnothin' to do with it myself, but they saw that I couldn't jump a stonewall eight foot high to save my life, much less break into a house, andthey got no further evidence to convict me, so they let me off; butit'll go hard with you, nephy, for Major Stewart described the men, andone o' them was a big strong feller, the description bein' as like youas two peas, only their faces was blackened, and the lantern threw thelight all one way, so he didn't see them well. Then, the things foundin our garden,--and the villains will haul me up as a witness againstyou, for, didn't I find them myself?"
"Very perplexing; what shall I do?" said Ruby.
"Clear out," cried the captain emphatically.
"What! fly like a real criminal, just as I have returned home? Never.What say _you_, Minnie?"
"Stand your trial, Ruby. They cannot--they dare not--condemn theinnocent."
"And you, mother?"
"I'm sure I don't know what to say," replied Mrs Brand, with a look ofdeep anxiety, as she passed her fingers through her son's hair, andkissed his brow. "I have seen the innocent condemned and the guilty gofree more than once in my life."
"Nevertheless, mother, I will give myself up, and take my chance. Tofly would be to give them reason to believe me guilty."
"Give yourself up!" exclaimed the captain, "you'll do nothing of thesort. Come, lad, remember I'm an old man, and an uncle. I've got aplan in my head, which I think will keep you out of harm's way for atime. You see my old chronometer is but a poor one,--the worse of thewear, like its master,--and I've never been able to make out the exacttime that we went aboard the _Termagant_ the night you went away. Now,can you tell me what o'clock it was?"
"I can."
"'Xactly?"
"Yes, exactly, for it happened that I was a little later than Ipromised, and the skipper pointed to his watch, as I came up the side,and jocularly shook his head at me. It was exactly eleven p.m."
"Sure and sartin o' that?" enquired the captain, earnestly.
"Quite, and his watch must have been right, for the town-clock rung thehour at the same time."
"Is that skipper alive?"
"Yes."
"Would he swear to that?"
"I think he would."
"D'ye know where he is?"
"I do. He's on a voyage to the West Indies, and won't be home for twomonths, I believe."
"Humph!" said the captain, with a disappointed look. "However, it can'tbe helped; but I see my way _now_ to get you out o' this fix. You know,I suppose, that they're buildin' a lighthouse on the Bell Rock just now;well, the workmen go off to it for a month at a time, I believe, if notlonger, and don't come ashore, and it's such a dangerous place, andtroublesome to get to, that nobody almost ever goes out to it from thisplace, except those who have to do with it. Now, lad, you'll go down tothe workyard the first thing in the mornin', before daylight, and engageto go off to work at the Bell Rock. You'll keep all snug and quiet, andnobody'll be a bit the wiser. You'll be earnin' good wages, and in themeantime I'll set about gettin' things in trim to put you all square."
"But I see many difficulties ahead," objected Ruby.
"Of course ye do," retorted the captain. "Did ye ever hear or seeanything on this earth that hadn't rocks ahead o' some sort? It's ourbusiness to steer past 'em, lad, not to 'bout ship and steer away. Butstate yer difficulties."
"Well, in the first place, I'm not a stonemason or a carpenter, and Isuppose masons and carpenters are the men most wanted there."
"Not at all, blacksmiths are wanted there," said the captain, "and Iknow that you were trained to that work as a boy."
"True, I can do somewhat with the hammer, but mayhap they won't engageme."
"But they _will_ engage you, lad, for they are hard up for an assistantblacksmith just now, and I happen to be hand-and-glove with some o' thechief men of the yard, who'll be happy to take anyone recommended byme."
"Well, uncle, but suppose I do go off to the rock, what chance have youof making things appear better than they are at present?"
"I'll explain that, lad. In the first place, Major Stewart is agentleman, out-and-out, and will listen to the truth. He swears thatthe robbery took place at one o'clock in the mornin', for he looked athis watch and at the clock of the house, and heard it ring in the town,just as the thieves cleared off over the wall. Now, if I can get yourold skipper to take a run here on his return from the West Indies, he'llswear that you was sailin' out to the North Sea _before twelve_, andthat'll prove that you _couldn't_ have had nothin' to do with it, d'yesee?"
"It sounds well," said Ruby dubiously, "but do you think the lawyerswill see things in the light you do?"
"Hang the lawyers! d'ye think they will shut their eyes to _the truth_?"
"Perhaps they may, in which case they will hang _me_, and so prevent mytaking your advice to hang _them_," said Ruby.
"Well, well, but you agree to my plan?" asked the captain.
"Shall I agree, Minnie? it will separate me from you again for sometime."
"Yet it is necessary," answered Minnie, sadly; "yes, I think you shouldagree to go."
"Very well, then, that's settled," said Ruby, "and now let us drop thesubject, because I have other things to speak of; and if I must startbefore daylight my time with you will be short--"
"Come here a bit, nephy, I want to have a private word with 'ee in mycabin," said the captain, interrupting him, and going into his own room.Ruby rose and followed.
"You haven't any--"
The captain stopped, stroked his bald head, and looked perplexed.
"Well, uncle?"
"Well, nephy, you haven't--in short, have ye got any money about you,lad?"
"Money? yes, a _little_; but why do you ask?"
"Well, the fact is, that your poor mother is hard up just now," said thecaptain earnestly, "an' I've given her the last penny I have o' m
y own;but she's quite--"
Ruby interrupted his uncle at this point with a boisterous laugh. Atthe same time he flung open the door and dragged the old man with gentleviolence back to the kitchen.
"Come here, uncle."
"But, avast! nephy, I haven't told ye all yet."
"Oh! don't bother me with such trifles just now," cried Ruby, thrustinghis uncle into a chair and resuming his own seat at his mother's side;"we'll speak of that at some other time; meanwhile let me talk tomother."
"Minnie, dear," he continued, "who keeps the cash here; you or mother?"
"Well, we keep it between us," said Minnie, smiling; "your mother keepsit in her drawer and gives me the key when I want any, and I keep anaccount of it."
"Ah! well, mother, I have a favour to ask of you before I go."
"Well, _Ruby_?"
"It is that you will take care of my cash for me. I have got a goodishlot of it, and find it rather heavy to carry in my pockets--so, holdyour apron steady and I'll give it to you."
Saying this he began to empty handful after handful of coppers into theold woman's apron; then, remarking that "that was all the browns", hebegan to place handful after handful of shillings and sixpences on thetop of the pile until the copper was hid by silver.
The old lady, as usual when surprised, became speechless; the captainsmiled and Minnie laughed, but when Ruby put his hand into anotherpocket and began to draw forth golden sovereigns, and pour them into hismother's lap, the captain became supremely amazed, the old womanlaughed, and,--so strangely contradictory and unaccountable is humannature,--Minnie began to cry.
Poor girl! the tax upon her strength had been heavier than anyone knew,heavier than she could bear, and the sorrow of knowing, as she had cometo know, that it was all in vain, and that her utmost efforts had failedto "keep the wolf from the door", had almost broken her down. Littlewonder, then, that the sight of sudden and ample relief upset heraltogether.
But her tears, being tears of joy, were soon and easily dried--all themore easily that it was Ruby who undertook to dry them.
Mrs Brand sat up late that night, for there was much to tell and muchto hear. After she had retired to rest the other three continued tohold converse together until grey dawn began to appear through thechinks in the window-shutters. Then the two men rose and went out,while Minnie laid her pretty little head on the pillow beside MrsBrand, and sought, and found, repose.