Fitz the Filibuster | Page 9

sensation in his throat and lips. Then the skipper and his son
had been so kind and attentive. It was so satisfactory too about getting
that letter off, and then that evening glow rapidly changing into a
velvety gloom with great stars coming out, was so lovely that he felt
that he had never seen anything so exquisite before.
"There, I won't think and worry," he said to himself, and a minute later
he had fallen into a sleep which proved so long and restful, that the sun
had been long up before he unclosed his eyes again to find his younger
attendant once more netting.
"Morning," said the lad cheerily. "You have had a long nap, and no
mistake."
"Why, I haven't been asleep since sunset, have I?"
"You have, and it seems to have done you a lot of good. You can eat a
good breakfast now, can't you?"
"Yes, and get up first and have a good wash. I long for it."
"You can't. I shall have to do that. Here, wait a minute. I will go and
tell the cook to get your breakfast ready, and then come back and put
you all a-taunto."
The lad hurried out of the cabin, leaving Fitz wide-awake now in every
sense of the word, for that last rest had brought back the power of
coherent thought, making him look wonderingly out of the window at
the glorious sea, so different from anything he had been accustomed to
for months and months, and setting him wondering.
"Why, this can't be the Irish Channel," he thought, "and here, when was
it I was taken ill? I seem to have been fast asleep, and only just woke
up. Where was I? Was that a dream? No, I remember now; the
lieutenant and the cutter's crew. That schooner we were sent to board in
the darkness, and--"

Here his young attendant re-entered the cabin with a tin-bowl in one
hand, a bucket of freshly dipped sea-water in the other, and a towel
thrown over his shoulder.
"Here, hullo, midshipman!" he cried cheerily. "My word, you do look
wide-awake! But there's nothing wrong, is there?"
"Yes! No! I don't know," cried Fitz excitedly. "What's the name of this
schooner?"
"Oh, it's all right. It's my father's schooner."
"And you sailed from Liverpool?"
"I haven't come here to answer your questions," said the lad, almost
sulkily.
"That proves it, then. I remember it all now. We boarded you in the
dark, and--and--"
Before the speaker could continue, the cabin-door was thrust open and
the bluff-looking skipper entered.
"Hullo!" he said sternly, "what's the matter here?"
"Your son, sir, won't answer my questions," cried Fitz excitedly.
"Quite right, my lad. I told him not to until you get better, so don't ask."
"I am better," cried the boy, trying to spring up, but sinking back with a
groan.
"There, you see," said the skipper, "you are not. You are far too weak.
Why not take my word for it, my lad, as a bit of a doctor? Now, look
here! You want to know how it is you came on board my craft--wait
patiently a little while, and when I think you are well enough to bear it I
will tell you all."
"But I don't want to be told now," cried the boy passionately--"not that.

I boarded with our men, and I can remember I felt a heavy blow. I must
have been knocked down and stunned. What has become of our
lieutenant, the boat and men?"
"Oh, well, my lad, if the murder must out--"
"Murder!" cried Fitz.
"Murder, no! Nonsense! That's a figure of speech. I mean, if the story
must come out, here it is. I was going peacefully down channel when
your boat boarded us."
"As she had a right to," cried Fitz, "being from one of the Queen's ships
on duty."
"Oh, I am not going to argue that, my lad," said the skipper coolly. "I
was sailing down channel, interfering with nobody, when I was
boarded by a lot of armed men in the dark, and I did what any skipper
would do under the circumstances. The boat's crew meant to capture
my craft and my valuable cargo, so after a scuffle I had them all pitched
overboard to get back to their boat, and gave them the go-by in the
darkness, and I haven't seen anything of them since."
"Oh!" exclaimed Fitz. "Resisting one of Her Majesty's crews! Do you
know, sir, what it means?"
"I know what the other means, my lad--losing my craft and valuable
cargo, and some kind of punishment, I suppose, for what I have done."
"But you have taken me prisoner, then?" cried Fitz.
"Well, not exactly, my lad," said the skipper, smiling. "I shouldn't