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Jack at Sea, a novel by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 4. A Ready-Made Man |
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_ CHAPTER FOUR. A READY-MADE MAN "What's the meaning of this?" cried Sir John angrily, as he stood staring in astonishment at his son's anger-distorted, flushed face, then at the footman, and back at his son. "I--I--this fellow--this man--Edward was insolent, and--and--I--father-- I--ordered him--to leave the room--and--and he would not go." "Oh, I beg pardon, Master Jack, sir," said Edward reproachfully. "I said I'd go, and I was going." "Silence, sir!" cried Sir John, frowning. "Now, Jack, he would not go?" "I was angry, father--and--and--" "And you threw this book at him, and broke the pane of glass?" "Yes, father," said the boy, who was now scarlet, as he stood trembling with excitement and mortification. "Humph!" ejaculated Sir John, crossing to raise the very short skirt of his brown velveteen Norfolk jacket, and stand with his hands behind him in front of the fire. "Pick up that book, Edward." "Yes, Sir John." "And tell one of the housemaids to come and sweep up the pieces." "Yes, Sir John," said the man, moving toward the door. "Stop! What does that signal to Mr Jack mean?" "Well, Sir John, I--" "Wait a minute. Now, Jack, in what way was Edward insolent to you?" "Only laughed, Sir John." "Be silent, sir! Now, Jack!" "He irritated me, father," said the lad hastily. "He came to worry me with an absurd request, and--and when I ridiculed it, he burst out laughing in a rude, insolent way." "Beg pardon, Sir John," said the man respectfully.--"Not insolent, Master Jack." "Say Mr Jack." "Certn'y, Sir John. _Mister_ Jack actually made a joke,--it wasn't a good one, Sir John, but it seemed so rum for him to make a joke, and then get in a passion, that I bust out larfin, Sir John, and I couldn't help it really." Sir John looked wonderingly at his son for an explanation. "It was only a bit of petulant nonsense, father," stammered the lad. "I'm very sorry." "And pray what was the request Edward made?" "Well, father, it was about this dreadful business." "What dreadful business?" Jack was silent for a few moments, but his father's stern eyes were fixed upon him, and he stammered out-- "This going abroad." "Oh!--Well?" "He came to beg me to ask you to take him with you." "With _us_," said Sir John. "Ye-es, father, if we went." "There is no _if_ about it, Jack," said Sir John quietly; "we are going. Humph! and you wanted to go, Edward?" "Yes, sir, please, Sir John," cried the man earnestly. "I'd give anything to go." Sir John looked at the man searchingly. "Humph!" he said at last. "Well, I suppose it would sound attractive to a young man of your age." "Attractive ain't the word for it, Sir John," cried the man. Sir John smiled. "Some people differ in their opinions, my lad," he said, with a meaning glance at his son. "Yes, Sir John, meaning Master--Mister Jack; but he don't half understand what it means yet." "You are quite right, Edward. In his delicate state he does not quite grasp what it means." "Oh, father," cried the lad reproachfully; "don't speak like that. Once more, indeed I am not ill." "Humph!" said Sir John, smiling, "not ill? What do you think, Edward?" "No, Sir John, not ill, cert'nly," said the man. "There, father!" cried Jack excitedly, and with a grateful look at their servant, but it faded out directly. "He ain't no more ill than I am, Sir John, if I may make so bold. It's only that he wants stirring up. He reads and reads over the fire till he can't hardly see for the headache, and it's what I told him just now, he's all mopey like for want of change." "Humph! You told him that?" said Sir John sharply. "Yes, Sir John," faltered the man. "I know it was not my place, and I beg pardon. It slipped out quite promiskus like. I know now I oughtn't. It made Master--Mister Jack angry, and he chucked the book at me. Not as I minded the act, for I was glad to see he'd got so much spirit in him." "And so you would like to go with us?" "Oh yes, Sir John," cried the man, flushing with excitement. "But you wouldn't want me to go in livery, of course?" "No," said Sir John quietly. "I should not want you to go in livery. I cannot consent to take you at all." "Oh, sir!" cried the man appealingly. "I am not sorry to hear you make the application, for it shows me that you are satisfied with your position as my servant. But the man I should select to take with us must be a strong active fellow." "That's me, Sir John. I haven't been neither sick nor sorry all the five years I've been with you, 'cept that time when I cut my hand with the broken decanter." "An outdoor servant," continued Sir John, rather sternly, passing over his man's interruption--"a man with something of the gamekeeper about him--a man who can tramp through woods, carry rifles and guns, and clean them; use a fishing-net or line; row, chop wood and make a fire; set up a tent or a hut of boughs; cook, and very likely skin birds and beasts. In short, make himself generally useful." "And valet you and Mr Jack, Sir John," interposed the man. "Certainly not, Edward; we shall leave all those civilised luxuries behind. You see I want a thorough outdoor servant, not such a man as you." "Beg pardon, Sir John," cried the man promptly; "but it's me you do want, I'm just the sort you said." "You?" said Sir John, smiling rather contemptuously. "Yes, Sir John. I was meant for an outdoor man, only one can't get to be what one likes, and so I had to take to indoor." Sir John shook his head. "You are a very excellent servant, Edward," he said, "and I shall have great pleasure in giving you a very strong recommendation for cleanliness and thorough attention to your duties. I cannot recall ever having to find fault with you." "Never did, Sir John, I will say that; and do you think I'm going to leave such a master as you and Mr Jack here, though he does chuck big books at me!" he said with a grin. "Not me." "I thank you for all this, Edward, but--" "Don't, don't say no, Sir John--in a hurry," cried the man imploringly. "You only know what I can do from what you've seen; and you know that having a willing heart and 'and 's half-way to doing anything." "Yes," said his master with a smile; "I know too that you're a very handy person." "Hope so, Sir John; but I'm obliged to stick up for myself, as there's no one here to do it for me. There ain't nothing you want done that I can't do. Father was a gamekeeper and bailiff and woodman, and when I was a boy I used to help him, cutting hop-poles with a bill-hook, felling trees with an axe, and I've helped him to make faggots, hurdles, and stacks, and tents, and thatched. I've helped him many a time use the drag and the cast-net, fishing. I can set night lines, and I had a gun to use for shooting rabbits and varmint, and I learned to skin and stuff 'em. We've got cases and cases at home. I used to wash out the master's guns, and dry and oil them; and as for lighting fires and cooking, why, I beg your pardon for laughing, Sir John, but my mother was ill for years before she died, and I always did all the cooking. Then I've had a turn at gardening and stable work; and as for the water, I can row, punt, or sail any small boat. I don't say as I could tackle a ship, but if there was no one else to do it, I'd have a try; and--beg pardon, Sir John, there's the front-door bell." "Go and answer it," said Sir John quietly. "And if you would think it over, Sir John--" "Go and answer the bell." The man darted out, and Sir John turned to his son to gaze at him for a time. "You're a pretty good scholar for your age, Jack," he said; "but I wish you possessed some of Edward's accomplishments." "Oh, father!" cried the boy hastily. "But you have more strength in your arm than I thought for. That is plate glass." "Doctor Instow," said Edward; and the doctor entered like a breeze. "Morning!" he cried boisterously. "Don't go, Edward," said Sir John; and the man stayed by the door, looking white with excitement. "I was obliged to run in," said the doctor. "Well, Jack. Why, hulloa! You've got a bit more colour in your cheeks this morning, and your eyes are brighter. Come, that's good. You're beginning to take then to the idea?" "No," said Jack firmly. "Stop a moment, doctor," cried Sir John. "Here is some one of a different opinion. This foolish fellow has been laying before us his petition." "Who? Edward?" "Yes; he wants to go." "Well," said the doctor; "we shall want a good smart handy man." Edward's cheeks began to colour again. "Yes; but what do you think? We want a strong fellow, not a fireside servant." "Quite right, but--Here, take off your coat, my man." Edward's livery coat seemed to fly off, and displayed his white arms with the shirt-sleeves rolled right above the elbows, spotted a little with rouge from plate-cleaning. "Hum! ha!" said the doctor, taking one arm and doubling it up so that the biceps rose in a big lump. "Hard.--Stand still." He laid one hand upon the man's chest and thumped it in different places; laid his ear to it and pressed it close. "Now breathe.--Again.--Now harder.--Hold your breath." Then he rose and twisted the man round, and listened at his back between the shoulder-blades before making him open his mouth, and ended by looking into his eyes, while the father and son watched him. "Ha! that will do," said the doctor dryly. "Sleep well, I suppose?" "Oh yes, sir." "And you can eat and drink well?" The man's face expanded in a broad smile. "Goes without saying. There, put on your coat." Edward began to put it on. "Sound as a bell," said the doctor. "Strong as a horse." "Yes, but we want something besides a healthy man." "Of course: a good handy, willing fellow, who would not want to come home as soon as he had to rough it and do everything." "There ain't anything I wouldn't do, gentlemen," cried Edward. "If you take me, Sir John, I'll serve you faithful, and you shan't repent it. May I tell the doctor, Sir John, what I can do?" "There is no need. He boasts, Instow." "Beg pardon, Sir John, it ain't boasting, it's honest truth." "Yes, Edward, I believe you feel that it is. Well, Instow, he says he has been accustomed to outdoor life with his father from boyhood. His father was a gamekeeper and woodman. That he can shoot, fish, clean guns, manage nets, ride, sail boats, punt and row. Do everything, including building huts and cooking." "Don't want any cooking. I shall do that myself." "In addition, he can skin birds and beasts." "Ha!" ejaculated the doctor. "Well, if we engage a stranger, we don't know how he'll turn out, and it would be very awkward to have a man who would turn tail at the first bit of discomfort. Look here, sir, it will be a rough life." "If you only knew, doctor, how hungry I am for a bit of rough outdoor time, you'd put in a word for me," cried the man excitedly. "And suppose we get in a hot corner, and have to fight for our lives against black fellows?" There was a grim look in the man's face at once--a regular British bull-dog aspect, as he tightened his lips, and made wrinkles at the corners, as if putting his mouth in a parenthesis, and then he began to tuck up his cuffs and double his fists. "That will do, Edward," said the doctor quietly. "We know him, Meadows, for a steady, straightforward fellow, sound in wind and limb, who has never given me a job since he tried to cut his hand off with a bit of glass. What he don't know he'd soon learn; and I should say that we are not likely to get a more suitable fellow if we tried for six months." Edward's face was a study, as he glanced at Jack, and then turned to gaze imploringly at his master as if he were a judge about to utter words upon which his life depended. "That will do, Edward, you may leave the room." A look of despair came across the man's face, as in true servant fashion he turned to obey orders, and went straight to the door. "Stop," said Sir John. "That way of obeying orders has quite convinced me that you will be our man. You shall see about your outfit at once." "And go, Sir John?" faltered the man, as if he could not believe his luck. "Yes." "Hoo--" He was going to add "ray!" but he recollected himself, and went quickly and promptly out of the room. "The very fellow, Meadows," said the doctor. "Yes," said Sir John. "He'll do." "Then one knot is solved," cried the doctor. "I had come in to consult you upon that very point." "A man?" "Yes; and here he is ready-made and proved." "Not yet." "Oh," said the doctor, "I'll answer for that." _ |
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