Captains Courageous | Page 7

and all that, of course! but I want you to understand that
the sooner you take me back to New York the better it'll pay you."
"Meanin'--haow?" Troop raised one shaggy eyebrow over a
suspiciously mild blue eye.
"Dollars and cents," said Harvey, delighted to think that he was making
an impression. "Cold dollars and cents." He thrust a hand into a pocket,
and threw out his stomach a little, which was his way of being grand.
"You've done the best day's work you ever did in your life when you
pulled me in. I'm all the son Harvey Cheyne has."
"He's bin favoured," said Disko, dryly.
"And if you don't know who Harvey Cheyne is, you don't know
much--that's all. Now turn her around and let's hurry."
Harvey had a notion that the greater part of America was filled with
people discussing and envying his father's dollars.
"Mebbe I do, an' mebbe I don't. Take a reef in your stummick, young
feller. It's full o' my vittles."
Harvey heard a chuckle from Dan, who was pretending to be busy by
the stump-foremast, and blood rushed to his face. "We'll pay for that
too," he said. "When do you suppose we shall get to New York?"
"I don't use Noo York any. Ner Boston. We may see Eastern Point
about September; an' your pa--I'm real sorry I hain't heerd tell of
him--may give me ten dollars efter all your talk. Then o' course he
mayn't."

"Ten dollars! Why, see here, I--" Harvey dived into his pocket for the
wad of bills. All he brought up was a soggy packet of cigarettes.
"Not lawful currency; an' bad for the lungs. Heave 'em overboard,
young feller, and try agin."
"It's been stolen!" cried Harvey, hotly.
"You'll hev to wait till you see your pa to reward me, then?"
"A hundred and thirty-four dollars--all stolen," said Harvey, hunting
wildly through his pockets. "Give them back."
A curious change flitted across old Troop's hard face. "What might you
have been doin' at your time o' life with one hundred an' thirty-four
dollars, young feller?"
"It was part of my pocket-money--for a month." This Harvey thought
would be a knock-down blow, and it was--indirectly.
"Oh! One hundred and thirty-four dollars is only part of his
pocket-money--for one month only! You don't remember hittin'
anything when you fell over, do you? Crack agin a stanchion, le's say.
Old man Hasken o' the East Wind"--Troop seemed to be talking to
himself--"he tripped on a hatch an' butted the mainmast with his
head--hardish. 'Baout three weeks afterwards, old man Hasken he
would hev it that the "East Wind" was a commerce-destroyin'
man-o'-war, an' so he declared war on Sable Island because it was
Bridish, an' the shoals run aout too far. They sewed him up in a bed-bag,
his head an' feet appearin', fer the rest o' the trip, an' now he's to home
in Essex playin' with little rag dolls."
Harvey choked with rage, but Troop went on consolingly: "We're sorry
fer you. We're very sorry fer you--an' so young. We won't say no more
abaout the money, I guess."
"'Course you won't. You stole it."

"Suit yourself. We stole it ef it's any comfort to you. Naow, abaout
goin' back. Allowin' we could do it, which we can't, you ain't in no fit
state to go back to your home, an' we've jest come on to the Banks,
workin' fer our bread. We don't see the ha'af of a hundred dollars a
month, let alone pocket-money; an' with good luck we'll be ashore
again somewheres abaout the first weeks o' September."
"But--but it's May now, and I can't stay here doin' nothing just because
you want to fish. I can't, I tell you!"
"Right an' jest; jest an' right. No one asks you to do nothin'. There's a
heap as you can do, for Otto he went overboard on Le Have. I mistrust
he lost his grip in a gale we f'und there. Anyways, he never come back
to deny it. You've turned up, plain, plumb providential for all
concerned. I mistrust, though, there's ruther few things you kin do.
Ain't thet so?"
"I can make it lively for you and your crowd when we get ashore," said
Harvey, with a vicious nod, murmuring vague threats about "piracy," at
which Troop almost--not quite--smiled.
"Excep' talk. I'd forgot that. You ain't asked to talk more'n you've a
mind to aboard the 'We're Here'. Keep your eyes open, an' help Dan to
do ez he's bid, an' sechlike, an' I'll give you--you ain't wuth it, but I'll
give--ten an' a ha'af a month; say thirty-five at the end o' the trip. A
little work will ease up your head, and you kin tell us all abaout your
dad an' your