Young Captain Jack | Page 3

Jack's head once
more with visions of army life, and as he continued to fish he forgot all
about the unpleasant encounter, although he remembered that repulsive

face well. He was destined to meet the surgeon again, and under most
disagreeable circumstances.
"I wish mother would let me join the army," he thought, after hauling in
another fish. "I am sure our regiments need all the men they can get.
Somehow, we seem to be getting the worst of the fighting lately. I
wonder what would happen if the South should be beaten in this
struggle?"
Ten minutes passed, when a merry whistle was heard on the road 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