A Message From the Sea by Charles Dickens (if you liked this book txt) đ
- Author: Charles Dickens
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âAnd so,â said the captain, âso we comeâas that lawyer-crittur over yonder where we were this morning mightâto mere proof; do we? We must have it; must we? How? From this Clissoldâs wanderings, and from what you say, it ainât hard to make out that there was a neat forgery of your writing committed by the too smart rowdy that was grease and ashes when I made his acquaintance, and a substitution of a forged leaf in your book for a real and torn leaf torn out. Now was that real and true leaf then and there destroyed? No,âfor says he, in his drunken way, he slipped it into a crack in his own desk, because you came into the office before there was time to burn it, and could never get back to it arterwards. Wait a bit. Where is that desk now? Do you consider it likely to be in America Square, London City?â
Tregarthen shook his head.
âThe house has not, for years, transacted business in that place. I have heard of it, and read of it, as removed, enlarged, every way altered. Things alter so fast in these times.â
âYou think so,â returned the captain, with compassion; âbut you should come over and see me afore you talk about that. Waâal, now. This desk, this paper,âthis paper, this desk,â said the captain, ruminating and walking about, and looking, in his uneasy abstraction, into Mr. Pettiferâs hat on a table, among other things. âThis desk, this paper,âthis paper, this desk,â the captain continued, musing and roaming about the room, âIâd giveââ
However, he gave nothing, but took up his stewardâs hat instead, and stood looking into it, as if he had just come into church. After that he roamed again, and again said, âThis desk, belonging to this house of Dringworth Brothers, America Square, London Cityââ
Mr. Pettifer, still strangely moved, and now more moved than before, cut the captain off as he backed across the room, and bespake him thus:-
âCaptain Jorgan, I have been wishful to engage your attention, but I couldnât do it. I am unwilling to interrupt Captain Jorgan, but I must do it. I knew something about that house.â
The captain stood stock-still and looked at him,âwith his (Mr. Pettiferâs) hat under his arm.
âYouâre aware,â pursued his steward, âthat I was once in the broking business, Captain Jorgan?â
âI was aware,â said the captain, âthat you had failed in that calling, and in half the businesses going, Tom.â
âNot quite so, Captain Jorgan; but I failed in the broking business. I was partners with my brother, sir. There was a sale of old office furniture at Dringworth Brothersâ when the house was moved from America Square, and me and my brother made what we call in the trade a Deal there, sir. And Iâll make bold to say, sir, that the only thing I ever had from my brother, or from any relation,âfor my relations have mostly taken property from me instead of giving me any,âwas an old desk we bought at that same sale, with a crack in it. My brother wouldnât have given me even that, when we broke partnership, if it had been worth anything.â
âWhere is that desk now?â said the captain.
âWell, Captain Jorgan,â replied the steward, âI couldnât say for certain where it is now; but when I saw it last,âwhich was last time we were outward bound,âit was at a very nice ladyâs at Wapping, along with a little chest of mine which was detained for a small matter of a bill owing.â
The captain, instead of paying that rapt attention to his steward which was rendered by the other three persons present, went to Church again, in respect of the stewardâs hat. And a most especially agitated and memorable face the captain produced from it, after a short pause.
âNow, Tom,â said the captain, âI spoke to you, when we first came here, respecting your constitutional weakness on the subject of sunstroke.â
âYou did, sir.â
âWill my slow friend,â said the captain, âlend me his arm, or I shall sink right backâards into this blessed stewardâs cookery? Now, Tom,â pursued the captain, when the required assistance was given, âon your oath as a steward, didnât you take that desk to pieces to make a better one of it, and put it together fresh,âor something of the kind?â
âOn my oath I did, sir,â replied the steward.
âAnd by the blessing of Heaven, my friends, one and all,â cried the captain, radiant with joy,ââof the Heaven that put it into this Tom Pettiferâs head to take so much care of his head against the bright sun,âhe lined his hat with the original leaf in Tregarthenâs writing,âand here it is!â
With that the captain, to the utter destruction of Mr. Pettiferâs favourite hat, produced the book-leaf, very much worn, but still legible, and gave both his legs such tremendous slaps that they were heard far off in the bay, and never accounted for.
âA quarter past five p.m.,â said the captain, pulling out his watch, âand thatâs thirty-three hours and a quarter in all, and a pritty run!â
How they were all overpowered with delight and triumph; how the money was restored, then and there, to Tregarthen; how Tregarthen, then and there, gave it all to his daughter; how the captain undertook to go to Dringworth Brothers and re-establish the reputation of their forgotten old clerk; how Kitty came in, and was nearly torn to pieces, and the marriage was reappointed, needs not to be told. Nor how she and the young fisherman went home to the post-office to prepare the way for the captainâs coming, by declaring him to be the mightiest of men, who had made all their fortunes,âand then dutifully withdrew together, in order that he might have the domestic coast entirely to himself. How he availed himself of it is all that remains to tell.
Deeply delighted with his trust, and putting his heart into it, he raised the latch of the post-office parlour where Mrs. Raybrock and the young widow sat, and said, -
âMay I come in?â
âSure you may, Captain Jorgan!â replied the old lady. âAnd good reason you have to be free of the house, though you have not been too well used in it by some who ought to have known better. I ask your pardon.â
âNo you donât, maâam,â said the captain, âfor I wonât let you. Waâal, to be sure!â
By this time he had taken a chair on the hearth between them.
âNever felt such an evil spirit in the whole course of my life! There! I tell you! I could aâmost have cut my own connection. Like the dealer in my country, away West, who when he had let himself be outdone in a bargain, said to himself, âNow I tell you what! Iâll never speak to you again.â And he never did, but joined a settlement of oysters, and translated the multiplication table into their language,âwhich is a fact that can be proved. If you doubt it, mention it to any oyster you come across, and see if heâll have the face to contradict it.â
He took the child from her motherâs lap and set it on his knee.
âNot a bit afraid of me now, you see. Knows I am fond of small people. I have a child, and sheâs a girl, and I sing to her sometimes.â
âWhat do you sing?â asked Margaret.
âNot a long song, my dear.
Silas Jorgan Played the organ.
Thatâs about all. And sometimes I tell her stories,âstories of sailors supposed to be lost, and recovered after all hope was abandoned.â Here the captain musingly went back to his song, -
Silas Jorgan Played the organ;
repeating it with his eyes on the fire, as he softly danced the child on his knee. For he felt that Margaret had stopped working.
âYes,â said the captain, still looking at the fire, âI make up stories and tell âem to that child. Stories of shipwreck on desert islands, and long delay in getting back to civilised lauds. It is to stories the like of that, mostly, that
Silas Jorgan Plays the organ.â
There was no light in the room but the light of the fire; for the shades of night were on the village, and the stars had begun to peep out of the sky one by one, as the houses of the village peeped out from among the foliage when the night departed. The captain felt that Margaretâs eyes were upon him, and thought it discreetest to keep his own eyes on the fire.
âYes; I make âem up,â said the captain. âI make up stories of brothers brought together by the good providence of GOD,âof sons brought back to mothers, husbands brought back to wives, fathers raised from the deep, for little children like herself.â
Margaretâs touch was on his arm, and he could not choose but look round now. Next moment her hand moved imploringly to his breast, and she was on her knees before him,âsupporting the mother, who was also kneeling.
âWhatâs the matter?â said the captain. âWhatâs the matter?
Silas Jorgan Played the -
Their looks and tears were too much for him, and he could not finish the song, short as it was.
âMistress Margaret, you have borne ill fortune well. Could you bear good fortune equally well, if it was to come?â
âI hope so. I thankfully and humbly and earnestly hope so!â
âWaâal, my dear,â said the captain, âpârhaps it has come. Heâsâ donât be frightenedâshall I say the wordââ
âAlive?â
âYes!â
The thanks they fervently addressed to Heaven were again too much for the captain, who openly took out his handkerchief and dried his eyes.
âHeâs no further off,â resumed the captain, âthan my country. Indeed, heâs no further off than his own native country. To tell you the truth, heâs no further off than Falmouth. Indeed, I doubt if heâs quite so fur. Indeed, if you was sure you could bear it nicely, and I was to do no more than whistle for himââ
The captainâs trust was discharged. A rush came, and they were all together again.
This was a fine opportunity for Tom Pettifer to appear with a tumbler of cold water, and he presently appeared with it, and administered it to the ladies; at the same time soothing them, and composing their dresses, exactly as if they had been passengers crossing the Channel. The extent to which the captain slapped his legs, when Mr. Pettifer acquitted himself of this act of stewardship, could have been thoroughly appreciated by no one but himself; inasmuch as he must have slapped them black and blue, and they must have smarted tremendously.
He couldnât stay for the wedding, having a few appointments to keep at the irreconcilable distance of about four thousand miles. So next morning all the village cheered him up to the level ground above, and there he shook hands with a complete Census of its population, and invited the whole, without exception, to come and stay several months with him at Salem, Mass., U.S. And there as he stood on the spot where he had seen that little golden picture of love and parting, and from which he could that morning contemplate another golden picture with a vista of golden years in it,
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