Young Captain Jack | Page 3

and another boy appeared, of about Jack's age.
"Hullo, Darcy!" cried Jack. "Come to help me fish?"
"I didn't know you were fishing," answered Darcy Gilbert, a youth who lived on the plantation next to Jack. "Are you having good luck?"
"First-rate. I was getting ready to go home, but now you have come I'll stay a while longer."
"Do, Jack; I hate to fish alone. But I say, Jack----" And then Darcy broke off short.
"What were you going to say?"
"Oh, nothing!"
There was a minute of silence, during which Darcy baited his hook and threw it in.
"You look as if you had something on your mind. Darcy," went on Jack, after his friend had brought in a fine haul apparently without appreciating the sport. "Did you meet a Confederate surgeon on the road?"
"No, I came across the plantation. What of him?"
"He came this way, and we got into a regular row because I wouldn't clear right out and give him the whole of the bridge."
"He didn't hit you, did he?"
"Not much! If he had I would have pitched into him, I can tell you, big as he was!" And Jack's eyes flashed in a way that proved he meant what he said.
"No, I didn't meet him, but I met St. John Ruthven, your cousin. Jack, do you know that that young man is a regular bully, even if he is a dandy?"
"Yes, I know it, Darcy."
"And he is down on you."
"I know that too. But why he dislikes me I don't know, excepting that I don't like to see him paying his addresses to my sister Marion. Marion is too good for such a man."
"Is he paying his addresses to her?"
"Well, he is with her every chance he can get."
"Does Marion like him?"
"Oh! I reckon she does in a way. He is always so nice to her--much nicer than he has ever been to me."
"Has he ever spoken to you about yourself?" went on Darcy Gilbert, with a peculiar look at Jack.
"Oh, yes! often."
"I mean about--well, about your past?" went on Darcy, with some confusion.
"My past, Darcy? What is wrong about my past?"
"Nothing, I hope. But I didn't like what St. John Ruthven said about you."
"But what did he say?"
"I don't know as I ought to tell you. I didn't believe him."
"But I want to know what he did say?" demanded Jack, throwing down his fishing pole and coming up close to his friend.
"Well, if you must know, Jack, he said you were a nobody, that you didn't belong to the Ruthven family at all, and that you would have to go away some day," was the answer, which filled Jack with consternation.
CHAPTER II.
DARCY GILBERT'S STORY.
"He said I didn't belong to the Ruthven family?" said Jack slowly, when he felt able to speak.
"He did, and I told him I didn't believe him."
"But--but--I don't understand you, Darcy. Am I not Jack Ruthven, the son of the late Colonel Martin Ruthven?"
"He says not."
"What! Does he mean to say that my mother isn't my mother at all?" ejaculated Jack, with wide-open eyes.
"That's it exactly, and he added that Marion wasn't your sister."
"I'll--I'll punch his head for that!" was the quick return.
"I felt like doing that, too, Jack, even though he is so much older than either of us. I told him he was a mean fellow and that I wouldn't believe him under oath."
"But how did it all come about?"
"Oh, it started at the boathouse back of Old Ben's place. He wanted to bully me, and I told him I wouldn't let him lord it over me any more than you let him bully you. That got him started, for it seems he was sore over the fact that you took Marion out for a boatride one afternoon when he wanted her to go along with him on horseback. One word brought on another, and at last he said he reckoned you would have to clear out some day--that you were only a low upstart anyway, with no real claim on the Ruthvens."
"He said that, did he?" Jack drew a long breath and set his teeth hard. "Did he try to prove his words?"
"I didn't give him a chance. I was so upset I merely told him I didn't believe him, and came away."
"And where did he go?"
"He started off toward town."
"When he comes back I'm going to find out the truth of this matter."
"I don't believe his story, Jack, and I wouldn't worry myself about it."
"But supposing it were true, Darcy--that I was a--a--nobody, as he says?"
"I should think just as much of you," answered the other lad quickly.
"Thank you for that."
"St. John always talks too much--don't mind him."
"But I shall. If he tells the truth I want to know it--and, if not, I shall take steps to make him take back the stories he is