Spring Heeled Jack | Page 5

a leather thong.
This done Ned threw the lad, the coop, and himself into the sea, and
beating out bravely managed to get clear of the ship as she went down
head first.
Had he not have done this they must inevitably have been drawn into
the vortex caused by the sinking ship.
Fortunately for both of them Jack had become unconscious, or it is not
likely that he would have deserted his father and mother, even at this
critical juncture.
However, the Hydaspes and all on board, including Sir Sidney and
Lady Dacre, had gone to the bottom of the sea ere Jack recovered
consciousness and found himself on the shore of Kent, with his faithful
companion in adversity bending over him with loving care.
As soon as Jack Dacre was sufficiently recovered, Ned proceeded to
"take his bearings" as he expressed it, and knowing that Jack's ancestral
home was somewhere in the county of Sussex, he suggested that they
should move in a westerly direction until they should find some native
of the soil who could inform them of the locality they were in.
They found upon inquiry that they had been cast ashore at a little

village called Worth, in the neighbourhood of Sandwich, and that the
good ship Hydaspes had fallen a victim to the insatiable voracity of the
Goodwin Sands.
Shipwrecked mariners are always well treated in England, the old
stories of wreckers and their doings notwithstanding, and Jack Dacre
and the trusty Ned Chump had little difficulty in making their way to
Dacre Hall in Sussex, though neither had sixpence in his pocket, so
sudden had their departure from the wrecked ship been.
When Jack arrived at the home of his forefathers he found one Michael
Dacre, who informed our hero that he was his father's first cousin, in
possession.
"Yes, my lad," went on Michael Dacre, in a particularly unpleasant
manner, "Sir Sidney's cousin; and failing his lawful issue I am the heir
to Dacre Hall and the baronetcy."
"Failing his lawful issue!" cried Jack, with all the impetuosity of youth.
"Am I not my father's only son, and therefore heir to the family
honours and estates?"
"Softly, young man--softly," cringed Michael, "I do not want to anger
you. Of course you have the proof with you that your father and mother
were married, and that you are the issue of that union?"
"Proof!" cried Jack, fairly losing his temper. "Do you think one swims
ashore from a doomed ship with his family archives tied round his
waist?"
"There--there, my boy," said the wily Michael, "don't lose your temper;
for you must see that it would have been better for you if you had have
taken the precaution to have brought the papers with you."
"But," said Jack, quite non-plussed by his cousin's coolness, "Ned
Chump, here, knows who I am, and that everything is straight and
above board."

"Yes, yes, my boy," replied Michael; "and pray how long has Mr.
Chump, as I think you call him, known you? Was he present at your
father's marriage? I do not suppose he was present at your birth," and
Michael Dacre concluded his speech with a quiet but diabolical
chuckle.
"I have known him ever since the day we left India--" began the lad.
But Michael interrupted him by saying, in a somewhat harsher tone
than he had used before--
"That is equal to not knowing you at all. I am an acknowledged Dacre,
and until you can prove your right to that name I shall remain in
possession of Dacre Hall; for the honour of my family I could not do
otherwise."
"But what am I? Where am I to go? What am I to do?" stammered Jack.
Meanwhile, Ned Chump looked on with kindling eyes, and a fierce
light in his face that boded ill for Michael Dacre should it come to
blows between them.
Michael caught the look, and felt that perhaps it would be better to
temporise, he therefore said--
"Oh! Dacre Hall is large enough for us all. While I am making the
necessary enquiries in India, you and this common sailor here can
knock about the place. It will, perhaps, be quite as well that I have you
under my eye, so that if you turn out to be an impostor you may be
punished as you deserve."
After a short consultation, Jack and Ned Chump made up their mind
that it would be best to accept the churlish offer.
"After all," said Ned, "you know that you are the rightful heir. And
when the proofs come over from India you will easily be able to claim
your own."

"Yes, Ned, I suppose we had better remain on the spot."
"Of course we had," said Ned. "There is only one thing