At Sunwich Port | Page 5

with strong disfavour.
"You leave my sister alone," said the other, giving him a light tap on
the shoulder. "There's your coward's blow."
Master Hardy made a ceremonious return. "There's yours," he said.
"Let's go behind the church."
His foe assented, and they proceeded in grave silence to a piece of
grass screened by trees, which stood between the church and the beach.
Here they removed their coats and rolled up their shirt-sleeves. Things
look different out of doors, and to Miss Nugent the arms of both
gentlemen seemed somewhat stick-like in their proportions.
The preliminaries were awful, both combatants prancing round each

other with their faces just peering above their bent right arms, while
their trusty lefts dealt vicious blows at the air. Miss Nugent turned pale
and caught her breath at each blow, then she suddenly reddened with
wrath as James Philip Hardy, having paid his tribute to science, began
to hammer John Augustus Nugent about the face in a most painful and
workmanlike fashion.
She hid her face for a moment, and when she looked again Jack was on
the ground, and Master Hardy just rising from his prostrate body. Then
Jack rose slowly and, crossing over to her, borrowed her handkerchief
and applied it with great tenderness to his nose.
"Does it hurt, Jack?" she inquired, anxiously. "No," growled her
brother.
He threw down the handkerchief and turned to his opponent again;
Miss Nugent, who was careful about her property, stooped to recover it,
and immediately found herself involved in a twisting tangle of legs,
from which she escaped by a miracle to see Master Hardy cuddling her
brother round the neck with one hand and punching him as hard and as
fast as he could with the other. The unfairness of it maddened her, and
the next moment Master Hardy's head was drawn forcibly backwards
by the hair. The pain was so excruciating that he released his victim at
once, and Miss Nugent, emitting a series of terrified yelps, dashed off
in the direction of home, her hair bobbing up and down on her
shoulders, and her small black legs in an ecstasy of motion.
Master Hardy, with no very well-defined ideas of what he was going to
do if he caught her, started in pursuit. His scalp was still smarting and
his eyes watering with the pain as he pounded behind her. Panting
wildly she heard him coming closer and closer, and she was just about
to give up when, to her joy, she saw her father coming towards them.
Master Hardy, intent on his quarry, saw him just in time, and, swerving
into the road, passed in safety as Miss Nugent flung herself with some
violence at her father's waistcoat and, clinging to him convulsively,
fought for breath. It was some time before she could furnish the
astonished captain with full details, and she was pleased to find that his

indignation led him to ignore the hair-grabbing episode, on which, to
do her justice, she touched but lightly.
That evening, for the first time in his life, Captain Nugent, after some
deliberation, called upon his late mate. The old servant who, since Mrs.
Hardy's death the year before, had looked after the house, was out, and
Hardy, unaware of the honour intended him, was scandalized by the
manner in which his son received the visitor. The door opened, there
was an involuntary grunt from Master Hardy, and the next moment he
sped along the narrow passage and darted upstairs. His father, after
waiting in vain for his return, went to the door himself.
"Good evening, cap'n," he said, in surprise.
Nugent responded gruffly, and followed him into the sitting-room. To
an invitation to sit, he responded more gruffly still that he preferred to
stand. He then demanded instant and sufficient punishment of Master
Hardy for frightening his daughter.
Even as he spoke he noticed with strong disfavour the change which
had taken place in his late first officer. The change which takes place
when a man is promoted from that rank to that of master is subtle, but
unmistakable--sometimes, as in the present instance, more
unmistakable than subtle. Captain Hardy coiled his long, sinewy form
in an arm-chair and, eyeing him calmly, lit his pipe before replying.
[Illustration: "Captain Hardy lit his pipe before replying."]
"Boys will fight," he said, briefly.
"I'm speaking of his running after my daughter," said Nugent, sternly.
Hardy's eyes twinkled. "Young dog," he said, genially; "at his age,
too."
Captain Nugent's face was suffused with wrath at the pleasantry, and he
regarded him with a fixed stare. On board the Conqueror there was a
witchery in that glance more potent than the spoken word, but in his

own parlour the new captain met it calmly.
"I didn't come here to listen