American boys afloat : $b or, Cruising in the OrientOptic, Oliver
General
American boys afloat : $b or, Cruising in the Orient
Optic, Oliver
Voyages and travels -- Juvenile fiction
"We cannot go now; but we should like to engage the Salihé for this
evening at six o'clock," said Louis, at the close of the conference.
"Me and the hengineer is engaged this evening," replied the skipper.
"We 'ave to go to a meeting of our society, and I must be there, for
I'm the chairman;" and the latter clause seemed to be the idea he
particularly wished to convey to his auditors.
"Very well, Mr. Chairman; but will you let the Salihé without the
captain or engineer?" inquired Louis.
"Sergeant Files told me as 'ow the Guardian-Mother was owned by a young
gentleman in his teens as was sailing in 'er. With all due respect,
which is the gentleman as owns 'er?" inquired Chickworth, touching his
tarpaulin at random to the big four, as Captain Ringgold sometimes
facetiously called them, evidently borrowing the term from a western
railroad folder.
With one accord Felix, Morris, and Scott pointed at Louis, as though
they were rehearsing a Scriptural tableau of what Nathan said unto
David: "Thou art the man!"
"Which his name it is Mr. Belgrave," added Chickworth, taking off
his tarpaulin and bowing low to the young gentleman indicated by his
companions, for he had more respect for millions than for birth and
attainments.
"My name is Louis Belgrave, at your service, Mr. Commander of the
Salihé," replied the young millionaire, laughing heartily at the
pantomime of his friends and the obsequiousness of the skipper.
"I knowed it was you, sir, from the gentility which it is marked on
your honor's face, and shows itself in every motion you make," gushed
Mr. Chickworth. "My name which it is Giles Chickworth."
"Mr. Chairman, I move that you use no more blarney; and I should say
you had kissed the Blarney stone if you were an Irishman."
"The motion is not seconded, and I can't put it to the 'ouse," said the
skipper.
"Put it to yourself and not to the house, and I shall be satisfied.
Now, Mr. Giles Chickworth, let us talk business. Will you let the
steam-yacht without captain or engineer?"
"Which I will do with the greatest pleasure in the world to a gentleman
with millions in his trousers' pocket; for if you wreck or injure the
beauty of a craft, you will pay for 'er like the Christian you are."
"Certainly, I will; but we do not intend to wreck or injure her," added
Louis, as he proceeded to arrange the terms more definitely.
Everything was satisfactorily adjusted, and Chickworth promised
to have the Salihé at the gangway of the ship at six o'clock. The
Guardian-Mother had arrived at Gibraltar about noon on the day that the
boys discovered the little steam-yacht. The Viking had come a couple
of hours sooner. Captain W. Penn Sharp, her commander, had formerly
been the third officer of the steamer, and his wife had been intimately
connected with the affairs of the Belgrave family.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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