Bob Strongs Holidays | Page 6

into the carriage, seemed to become aware as he confronted him that the Captain's `bark was worse than his bite'; for, dropping his snivel and looking his questioner manfully in the face, he at once went on to tell who he was and explain the reasons for his unexpected appearance on the scene--his earnest accents and honest outspokenness testifying to the truth of his statement in the opinion, not only of Bob and Nellie, but of the whilom grumpy old Captain as well.
The lad said that his name was Dick Allsop and that he belonged to Guildford, the last station the train had passed, and the only one at which it had stopped since leaving Waterloo. His father had died some years before, but his mother had lately got married again to a regular brute of a man, who behaved very badly to her and treated Dick, he averred, so cruelly, that he could not stand it any longer. That very morning, Dick stated; he had beaten him so unmercifully that he had suddenly determined to run away to sea; and this was the reason why he wanted to get to Portsmouth.
"But, you might have entered the carriage like a Christian!" interposed the Captain at this point of the lad's story. "The train stopped long enough at Guildford for you to get in through the doorway, like any ordinary passenger, surely?"
"No, sir, I couldn't," answered the other. "I couldn't a-done it."
"But why not?"
"Because, sir," snivelled the lad, "I didn't have no money, sir."
"Humph! you had no money, eh?"
"No, sir; nothing but thrippence-a'penny, which mother gave me afore I started, when she wished me good-bye. She was sorry as how she could give me nothing more; and so I couldn't pay the fare, and had no ticket."
"So, my joker, you got on the train without one at all!" said the Captain, interrupting him. "Do you know that was really cheating the railway company?"
"I knows it, sir," replied Dick Allsop, who had better now be called by his own proper name, looking down as if ashamed of what he had done. "I knows it's wrong; but, sir, I couldn't help it, as there was no other way I seed of getting to Porchmouth."
"But, why didn't you jump into the carriage like a Christian, as I said just now?" observed the Captain. "Eh?"
Dick seemed amused by this question.
"Does yer think, sir, the porters would ha' let me if they'd seed me a- trying it on?" said he, with a radiant grin that lit up his face, quite changing its expression. "Not if they, knowed it!"
"Perhaps not," agreed the Captain, nonplussed by the lad's logic and knowledge of human nature. "No, I don't think they would."
"No, sir; that they wouldn't," exclaimed the runaway triumphantly, as if he knew all about that matter at any rate. "So, sir, I waits down by the side o' the line, where I lays hid, sir, without nobody a-seeing me; and then, jist as the train was started and quite clear o' the station, a-going into the tunnel as ain't fur off, as yer know, sir--?"
"Yes, I know the line, my lad," said Captain Dresser. "I ought to!"
"Well, sir, there I climbs on by the buffers and coupling-chain of the guard's van to the step of the end carriage, and works myself along till I reaches this; when, drawing myself up and looking in through the windy, I thought I would get in here, not seeing nobody but young ma- aster and little missis in the corner--"
"You didn't see me, eh?" questioned the Captain, with one of his quizzical chuckles. "You didn't see me, I'll wager."
"No, sir, or I wouldn't have tried it on," confessed Dick, with the most open candour. "I would a-been afeard like."
"Lucky for you that you did, though," said Captain Dresser, his little black beady eyes blinking away furiously. "If you had got in anywhere and not come across such a good-natured old donkey as myself, you would have had the signal-bell rung to summon the guard, who would have stopped the train and given you in custody at the next station for travelling without a ticket! But what are you going to do now, eh?"
"Please, sir, I dunno," replied Dick, looking puzzled.
"Humph, that's a pretty state of things for an independent young gentleman running away to sea!" said the Captain in a quizzing tone. "Do you know you're not half out of the scrape yet? You have got into the train all right; but, how are you going to get out of it, eh--tell me that, my lad?"
"I dunno, sir," again answered Dick laconically, still seeming unmoved by the critical nature of his position--"I dunno, sir."
"Drat the boy!" exclaimed the Captain impatiently, stamping his foot. "There you are again with your `dunno!' Why, when