At Sunwich Port | Page 3

you with 'im to-day,"
remarked Ann, carelessly.
"It was," said Mr. Wilks, pausing with the glass at his lips and eyeing
her sternly. "Eighteen years I've bin with 'im--ever since 'e 'ad a ship. 'E
took a fancy to me the fust time 'e set eyes on me."
"Were you better-looking then, Sam?" inquired Miss Nugent, shuffling
closer to him on the table and regarding him affectionately.
"Much as I am now, Miss," replied Mr. Wilks, setting down his glass
and regarding Ann's giggles with a cold eye.
Miss Nugent sighed. "I love you, Sam," she said, simply. "Will you
have some more beer?"
Mr. Wilks declined gracefully. "Eighteen years I've bin with the cap'n,"
he remarked, softly; "through calms and storms, fair weather and foul,
Samson Wilks 'as been by 'is side, always ready in a quiet and 'umble
way to do 'is best for 'im, and now--now that 'e is on his beam-ends and
lost 'is ship, Samson Wilks'll sit down and starve ashore till he gets
another."
At these touching words Miss Nugent was undisguisedly affected, and
wiping her bright eyes with her pinafore, gave her small, well-shaped
nose a slight touch en passant with the same useful garment, and
squeezed his arm affectionately.
"It's a lively look-out for me if father is going to be at home for long,"
remarked Master Nugent. Who'll get his ship, Sam?"
"Shouldn't wonder if the fust officer, Mr. Hardy, got it," replied the
steward. "He was going dead-slow in the fog afore he sent down to
rouse your father, and as soon as your father came on deck 'e went at

'arfspeed. Mr. Hardy was commended, and your father's certifikit was
suspended for six months."
Master Nugent whistled thoughtfully, and quitting the kitchen
proceeded upstairs to his room, and first washing himself with unusual
care for a boy of thirteen, put on a clean collar and brushed his hair. He
was not going to provide a suspended master-mariner with any obvious
reasons for fault-finding. While he was thus occupied the sitting-room
bell rang, and Ann, answering it, left Mr. Wilks in the kitchen listening
with some trepidation to the conversation.
"Is that steward of mine still in the kitchen?" demanded the captain,
gruffly.
"Yessir," said Ann.
"What's he doing?"
Mr. Wilks's ears quivered anxiously, and he eyed with unwonted
disfavour the evidences of his late debauch.
"Sitting down, sir," replied Ann.
"Give him a glass of ale and send him off," commanded the captain;
"and if that was Miss Kate I heard talking, send her in to me."
Ann took the message back to the kitchen and, with the air of a martyr
engaged upon an unpleasant task, drew Mr. Wilks another glass of ale
and stood over him with well-affected wonder while he drank it. Miss
Nugent walked into the sitting-room, and listening in a perfunctory
fashion to a shipmaster's platitude on kitchen-company, took a seat on
his knee and kissed his ear.
CHAPTER II
The downfall of Captain Nugent was for some time a welcome subject
of conversation in marine circles at Sunwich. At The Goblets, a
rambling old inn with paved courtyard and wooden galleries, which

almost backed on to the churchyard, brother-captains attributed it to an
error of judgment; at the Two Schooners on the quay the profanest of
sailormen readily attributed it to an all-seeing Providence with a dislike
of over-bearing ship-masters.
[Illustration: "A welcome subject of conversation in marine circles."]
The captain's cup was filled to the brim by the promotion of his first
officer to the command of the Conqueror. It was by far the largest craft
which sailed from the port of Sunwich, and its master held a
corresponding dignity amongst the captains of lesser vessels. Their
allegiance was now transferred to Captain Hardy, and the master of a
brig which was in the last stages of senile decay, meeting Nugent in
The Goblets, actually showed him by means of two lucifer matches
how the collision might have been avoided.
A touching feature in the business, and a source of much gratification
to Mr. Wilks by the sentimental applause evoked by it, was his
renunciation of the post of steward on the ss. Conqueror. Sunwich
buzzed with the tidings that after eighteen years' service with Captain
Nugent he preferred starvation ashore to serving under another master.
Although comfortable in pocket and known to be living with his
mother, who kept a small general shop, he was regarded as a man on
the brink of starvation. Pints were thrust upon him, and the tale of his
nobility increased with much narration. It was considered that the
whole race of stewards had acquired fresh lustre from his action.
His only unfavourable critic was the erring captain himself. He sent a
peremptory summons to Mr. Wilks to