A Message From the Sea....................................................................................................................................1

Charles Dickens.......................................................................................................................................1

CHAPTER ITHE VILLAGE..............................................................................................................1

CHAPTER IITHE MONEY ................................................................................................................6

CHAPTER V {1}THE RESTITUTION...........................................................................................13

"And a mighty sing'lar and pretty place it is, as ever I saw in all the days of my life!" said Captain Jorgan,

Captain Jorgan had to look high to look at it, for the village was built sheer up the face of a steep and lofty

cliff. There was no road in it, there was no wheeled vehicle in it, there was not a level yard in it. From the

seabeach to the clifftop two irregular rows of white houses, placed opposite to one another, and twisting

here and there, and there and here, rose, like the sides of a long succession of stages of crooked ladders, and

you climbed up the village or climbed down the village by the staves between, some six feet wide or so, and

made of sharp irregular stones. The old pack saddle, long laid aside in most parts of England as one of the

appendages of its infancy, flourished here intact. Strings of pack horses and packdonkeys toiled slowly up

the staves of the ladders, bearing fish, and coal, and such other cargo as was unshipping at the pier from the

dancing fleet of village boats, and from two or three little coasting traders. As the beasts of burden ascended

laden, or descended light, they got so lost at intervals in the floating clouds of village smoke, that they

seemed to dive down some of the village chimneys, and come to the surface again far off, high above others.

No two houses in the village were alike, in chimney, size, shape, door, window, gable, rooftree, anything.

The sides of the ladders were musical with water, running clear and bright. The staves were musical with the

clattering feet of the packhorses and packdonkeys, and the voices of the fishermen urging them up,

mingled with the voices of the fishermen's wives and their many children. The pier was musical with the

wash of the sea, the creaking of capstans and windlasses, and the airy fluttering of little vanes and sails. The

rough, seableached boulders of which the pier was made, and the whiter boulders of the shore, were brown

with drying nets. The redbrown cliffs, richly wooded to their extremest verge, had their softened and

beautiful forms reflected in the bluest water, under the clear North Devonshire sky of a November day

without a cloud. The village itself was so steeped in autumnal foliage, from the houses lying on the pier to the

topmost round of the topmost ladder, that one might have fancied it was out a bird's nesting, and was (as

indeed it was) a wonderful climber. And mentioning birds, the place was not without some music from them

too; for the rook was very busy on the higher levels, and the gull with his flapping wings was fishing in the

bay, and the lusty little robin was hopping among the great stone blocks and iron rings of the breakwater,

Thus it came to pass that Captain Jorgan, sitting balancing himself on the pierwall, struck his leg with his

open hand, as some men do when they are pleasedand as he always did when he was pleasedand said,

"A mighty sing'lar and pretty place it is, as ever I saw in all the days of my life!"

Captain Jorgan had not been through the village, but had come down to the pier by a winding sideroad, to

have a preliminary look at it from the level of his own natural element. He had seen many things and places,

and had stowed them all away in a shrewd intellect and a vigorous memory. He was an American born, was

Captain Jorgan,a NewEnglander,but he was a citizen of the world, and a combination of most of the

For Captain Jorgan to sit anywhere in his longskirted blue coat and blue trousers, without holding converse

with everybody within speaking distance, was a sheer impossibility. So the captain fell to talking with the

fishermen, and to asking them knowing questions about the fishery, and the tides, and the currents, and the

race of water off that point yonder, and what you kept in your eye, and got into a line with what else when

you ran into the little harbour; and other nautical profundities. Among the men who exchanged ideas with the

captain was a young fellow, who exactly hit his fancy,a young fisherman of two or three and twenty, in the

rough seadress of his craft, with a brown face, dark curling hair, and bright, modest eyes under his

Sou'wester hat, and with a frank, but simple and retiring manner, which the captain found uncommonly

taking. "I'd bet a thousand dollars," said the captain to himself, "that your father was an honest man!"

"Might you be married now?" asked the captain, when he had had some talk with this new acquaintance.

The captain's keen glance followed the slightest possible turn of the dark eye, and the slightest possible tilt of

the Sou'wester hat. The captain then slapped both his legs, and said to himself,

"Never knew such a good thing in all my life! There's his sweetheart looking over the wall!"

There was a very pretty girl looking over the wall, from a little platform of cottage, vine, and fuchsia; and she

certainly dig not look as if the presence of this young fisherman in the landscape made it any the less sunny

Captain Jorgan, having doubled himself up to laugh with that hearty goodnature which is quite exultant in

the innocent happiness of other people, had undoubted himself, and was going to start a new subject, when

there appeared coming down the lower ladders of stones, a man whom he hailed as "Tom Pettifer, Ho!" Tom

Pettifer, Ho, responded with alacrity, and in speedy course descended on the pier.

"Afraid of a sunstroke in England in November, Tom, that you wear your tropical hat, strongly paid outside

"Safe side!" repeated the captain, laughing. "You'd guard against a sunstroke, with that old hat, in an Ice

"A coincidence!" said the captain. "A lucky bit! Show me where it is. Goodbye, shipmates, for the present! I

This was addressed to all there, but especially the young fisherman; so all there acknowledged it, but

especially the young fisherman. "He's a sailor!" said one to another, as they looked after the captain moving

away. That he was; and so outspeaking was the sailor in him, that although his dress had nothing nautical

about it, with the single exception of its colour, but was a suit of a shoregoing shape and form, too long in

the sleeves and too short in the legs, and too unaccommodating everywhere, terminating earthward in a pair

of Wellington boots, and surmounted by a tall, stiff hat, which no mortal could have worn at sea in any wind

under heaven; nevertheless, a glimpse of his sagacious, weatherbeaten face, or his strong, brown hand,

would have established the captain's calling. Whereas Mr. Pettifera man of a certain plump neatness, with

a curly whisker, and elaborately nautical in a jacket, and shoes, and all things correspondentlooked no

The two climbed high up the village,which had the most arbitrary turns and twists in it, so that the

cobbler's house came dead across the ladder, and to have held a reasonable course, you must have gone

through his house, and through him too, as he sat at his work between two little windows,with one eye

microscopically on the geological formation of that part of Devonshire, and the other telescopically on the

open sea,the two climbed high up the village, and stopped before a quaint little house, on which was

painted, "MRS. RAYBROCK, DRAPER;" and also "POSTOFFICE." Before it, ran a rill of murmuring

"Here's the name," said Captain Jorgan, "sure enough. You can come in if you like, Tom."

The captain opened the door, and passed into an odd little shop, about six feet high, with a great variety of

beams and bumps in the ceiling, and, besides the principal window giving on the ladder of stones, a purblind

little window of a single pane of glass, peeping out of an abutting corner at the sunlighted ocean, and

"How do you do, ma'am?" said the captain. "I am very glad to see you. I have come a long way to see you."

"Have you, sir? Then I am sure I am very glad to see you, though I don't know you from Adam."

Thus a comely elderly woman, short of stature, plump of form, sparkling and dark of eye, who, perfectly

clean and neat herself, stood in the midst of her perfectly clean and neat arrangements, and surveyed Captain

Jorgan with smiling curiosity. "Ah! but you are a sailor, sir," she added, almost immediately, and with a slight

movement of her hands, that was not very unlike wringing them; "then you are heartily welcome."

"Thank'ee, ma'am," said the captain, "I don't know what it is, I am sure; that brings out the salt in me, but

everybody seems to see it on the crown of my hat and the collar of my coat. Yes, ma'am, I am in that way of

"Well now, ma'am," said the captain, glancing shrewdly at the other gentleman, "you are that nigh right, that

he goes to sea,if that makes him a sailor. This is my steward, ma'am, Tom Pettifer; he's been a'most all

trades you could name, in the course of his life, would have bought all your chairs and tables once, if you

had wished to sell 'em,but now he's my steward. My name's Jorgan, and I'm a shipowner, and I sail my

own and my partners' ships, and have done so this fiveandtwenty year. According to custom I am called

"Perhaps you'll come into my parlour, sir, and take a chair?" said Mrs. Raybrock.

Thus replying, and enjoining Tom to give an eye to the shop, Captain Jorgan followed Mrs. Raybrock into

the little, low backroom, decorated with divers plants in pots, teatrays, old china teapots, and

punchbowls,which was at once the private sittingroom of the Raybrock family and the inner cabinet of

"Now, ma'am," said the captain, "it don't signify a cent to you where I was born, except" But here the

shadow of some one entering fell upon the captain's figure, and he broke off to double himself up, slap both

his legs, and ejaculate, "Never knew such a thing in all my life! Here he is again! How are you?"

These words referred to the young fellow who had so taken Captain Jorgan's fancy down at the pier. To make

it all quite complete he came in accompanied by the sweetheart whom the captain had detected looking over

the wall. A prettier sweetheart the sun could not have shone upon that shining day. As she stood before the

captain, with her rosy lips just parted in surprise, her brown eyes a little wider open than was usual from the

same cause, and her breathing a little quickened by the ascent (and possibly by some mysterious hurry and

flurry at the parlour door, in which the captain had observed her face to be for a moment totally eclipsed by

the Sou'wester hat), she looked so charming, that the captain felt himself under a moral obligation to slap

both his legs again. She was very simply dressed, with no other ornament than an autumnal flower in her

bosom. She wore neither hat nor bonnet, but merely a scarf or kerchief, folded squarely back over the head, to

keep the sun off, according to a fashion that may be sometimes seen in the more genial parts of England as

well as of Italy, and which is probably the first fashion of headdress that came into the world when grasses

"In my country," said the captain, rising to give her his chair, and dexterously sliding it close to another chair

on which the young fisherman must necessarily establish himself,"in my country we should call

Whenever a frank manner is offensive, it is because it is strained or feigned; for there may be quite as much

intolerable affectation in plainness as in mincing nicety. All that the captain said and did was honestly

according to his nature; and his nature was open nature and good nature; therefore, when he paid this little

compliment, and expressed with a sparkle or two of his knowing eye, "I see how it is, and nothing could be

better," he had established a delicate confidence on that subject with the family.

"I was saying to your worthy mother," said the captain to the young man, after again introducing himself by

name and occupation,"I was saying to your mother (and you're very like her) that it didn't signify where I

was born, except that I was raised on question asking ground, where the babies as soon as ever they come

into the world, inquire of their mothers, 'Neow, how old may you be, and wa'at air you a goin' to name

me?'which is a fact." Here he slapped his leg. "Such being the case, I may be excused for asking you if

"I am not a conjurer," pursued the captain, "and don't think me so, or I shall right soon undeceive you.

Likewise don't think, if you please, though I do come from that country of the babies, that I am asking

questions for questionasking's sake, for I am not. Somebody belonging to you went to sea?"

"My elder brother, Hugh," returned the young man. He said it in an altered and lower voice, and glanced at

his mother, who raised her hands hurriedly, and put them together across her black gown, and looked eagerly

"No! For God's sake, don't think that!" said the captain, in a solemn way; "I bring no good tidings of him."

There was a silence, and the mother turned her face to the fire and put her hand between it and her eyes. The

young fisherman slightly motioned toward the window, and the captain, looking in that direction, saw a

young widow, sitting at a neighbouring window across a little garden, engaged in needlework, with a young

child sleeping on her bosom. The silence continued until the captain asked of Alfred,

"Ship struck upon some reef or rock, as I take it," said the captain, "and all hands lost?"

"Wa'al!" said the captain, after a shorter silence, "Here I sit who may come to the same end, like enough. He

holds the seas in the hollow of His hand. We must all strike somewhere and go down. Our comfort, then, for

ourselves and one another is to have done our duty. I'd wager your brother did his!"

"He did!" answered the young fisherman. "If ever man strove faithfully on all occasions to do his duty, my

brother did. My brother was not a quick man (anything but that), but he was a faithful, true, and just man. We

were the sons of only a small tradesman in this county, sir; yet our father was as watchful of his good name as

"A precious sight more so, I hopebearing in mind the general run of that class of crittur," said the captain.

"My brother considered that our father left the good name to us, to keep clear and true."

"Your brother considered right," said the captain; "and you couldn't take care of a better legacy. But again I

"No; for I have nothing more to say. We know that Hugh lived well for the good name, and we feel certain

that he died well for the good name. And now it has come into my keeping. And that's all."

"Well spoken!" cried the captain. "Well spoken, young man! Concerning the manner of your brother's

death,"by this time the captain had released the hand he had shaken, and sat with his own broad, brown

hands spread out on his knees, and spoke aside, "concerning the manner of your brother's death, it may be

that I have some information to give you; though it may not be, for I am far from sure. Can we have a little

The young man rose; but not before the captain's quick eye had noticed that, on the pretty sweetheart's

turning to the window to greet the young widow with a nod and a wave of the hand, the young widow had

held up to her the needlework on which she was engaged, with a patient and pleasant smile. So the captain

"What is Margaret making, Kitty?" asked the young fisherman,with one of his arms apparently mislaid

As Kitty only blushed in reply, the captain doubled himself up as far as he could, standing, and said, with a

"In my country we should call it weddingclothes. Fact! We should, I do assure you."

But it seemed to strike the captain in another light too; for his laugh was not a long one, and he added, in

"And it's very pretty, my dear, to see herpoor young thing, with her fatherless child upon her

bosomgiving up her thoughts to your home and your happiness. It's very pretty, my dear, and it's very

good. May your marriage be more prosperous than hers, and be a comfort to her too. May the blessed sun see

you all happy together, in possession of the good name, long after I have done ploughing the great salt field

Kitty answered very earnestly, "O! Thank you, sir, with all my heart!" And, in her loving little way, kissed

her hand to him, and possibly by implication to the young fisherman, too, as the latter held the parlourdoor

"If my head can't take care of itself by this time, after all the knocking about the world it has had," replied the

captain, as unconcernedly as if he had no connection with it, "it's not worth looking after."

Thus they came into the young fisherman's bedroom, which was as perfectly neat and clean as the shop and

parlour below; though it was but a little place, with a sliding window, and a phrenological ceiling expressive

of all the peculiarities of the houseroof. Here the captain sat down on the foot of the bed, and glancing at a

dreadful libel on Kitty which ornamented the wall,the production of some wandering limner, whom the

captain secretly admired as having studied portraiture from the figureheads of ships,motioned to the

young man to take the rushchair on the other side of the small round table. That done, the captain put his

hand in the deep breastpocket of his longskirted blue coat, and took out of it a strong square

casebottle,not a large bottle, but such as may be seen in any ordinary ship's medicinechest. Setting this

bottle on the table without removing his hand from it, Captain Jorgan then spake as follows:

"In my last voyage homewardbound," said the captain, "and that's the voyage off of which I now come

straight, I encountered such weather off the Horn as is not very often met with, even there. I have rounded

that stormy Cape pretty often, and I believe I first beat about there in the identical storms that blew the

Devil's horns and tail off, and led to the horns being worked up into toothpicks for the plantation overseers

in my country, who may be seen (if you travel down South, or away West, fur enough) picking their teeth

with 'em, while the whips, made of the tail, flog hard. In this last voyage, homewardbound for Liverpool

from South America, I say to you, my young friend, it blew. Whole measures! No half measures, nor making

believe to blow; it blew! Now I warn't blown clean out of the water into the sky,though I expected to be

even that,but I was blown clean out of my course; and when at last it fell calm, it fell dead calm, and a

strong current set one way, day and night, night and day, and I drifteddrifteddriftedout of all the

ordinary tracks and courses of ships, and drifted yet, and yet drifted. It behooves a man who takes charge of

fellowcritturs' lives, never to rest from making himself master of his calling. I never did rest, and

consequently I knew pretty well ('specially looking over the side in the dead calm of that strong current) what

dangers to expect, and what precautions to take against 'em. In short, we were driving head on to an island.

There was no island in the chart, and, therefore, you may say it was illmanners in the island to be there; I

don't dispute its bad breeding, but there it was. Thanks be to Heaven, I was as ready for the island as the

island was ready for me. I made it out myself from the masthead, and I got enough way upon her in good

time to keep her off. I ordered a boat to be lowered and manned, and went in that boat myself to explore the

island. There was a reef outside it, and, floating in a corner of the smooth water within the reef, was a heap of

Here the captain took his hand from the bottle for a moment, that the young fisherman might direct a

"If ever you comeor even if ever you don't cometo a desert place, use you your eyes and your spyglass

well; for the smallest thing you see may prove of use to you; and may have some information or some

warning in it. That's the principle on which I came to see this bottle. I picked up the bottle and ran the boat

alongside the island, and made fast and went ashore armed, with a part of my boat's crew. We found that

every scrap of vegetation on the island (I give it you as my opinion, but scant and scrubby at the best of

times) had been consumed by fire. As we were making our way, cautiously and toilsomely, over the

pulverised embers, one of my people sank into the earth breasthigh. He turned pale, and 'Haul me out smart,

shipmates,' says he, 'for my feet are among bones.' We soon got him on his legs again, and then we dug up

the spot, and we found that the man was right, and that his feet had been among bones. More than that, they

were human bones; though whether the remains of one man, or of two or three men, what with calcination

and ashes, and what with a poor practical knowledge of anatomy, I can't undertake to say. We examined the

whole island and made out nothing else, save and except that, from its opposite side, I sighted a considerable

tract of land, which land I was able to identify, and according to the bearings of which (not to trouble you

with my log) I took a fresh departure. When I got aboard again I opened the bottle, which was

oilskincovered as you see, and glass stoppered as you see. Inside of it," pursued the captain, suiting his

action to his words, "I found this little crumpled, folded paper, just as you see. Outside of it was written, as

you see, these words: 'Whoever finds this, is solemnly entreated by the dead to convey it unread to Alfred

Raybrock, Steepways, North Devon, England.' A sacred charge," said the captain, concluding his narrative,

"I suppose so," said Captain Jorgan. "I'll take a look out of this little window while you read it."

"Pray no, sir! I should be hurt. My brother couldn't know it would fall into such hands as yours."

The captain sat down again on the foot of the bed, and the young man opened the folded paper with a

trembling hand, and spread it on the table. The ragged paper, evidently creased and torn both before and after

being written on, was much blotted and stained, and the ink had faded and run, and many words were

wanting. What the captain and the young fisherman made out together, after much rereading and much

The young fisherman had become more and more agitated, as the writing had become clearer to him. He now

left it lying before the captain, over whose shoulder he had been reading it, and dropping into his former seat,

"It is selfish, I know,but doing what, doing what?" cried the young fisherman, in complete despair, and

"Doing what?" returned the captain. "Something! I'd go down to the little breakwater below yonder, and take

a wrench at one of the saltrusted iron rings there, and either wrench it up by the roots or wrench my teeth

out of my head, sooner than I'd do nothing. Nothing!" ejaculated the captain. "Any fool or fainting heart can

do that, and nothing can come of nothing,which was pretended to be found out, I believe, by one of them

Latin critters," said the captain with the deepest disdain; "as if Adam hadn't found it out, afore ever he so

Yet the captain saw, in spite of his bold words, that there was some greater reason than he yet understood for

"You have seen how beautiful she is, sir," said the young man, looking up for the moment, with a flushed

"Did any man ever say she warn't beautiful?" retorted the captain. "If so, go and lick him."

The young fisherman mournfully composed himself to tell the captain what it was, and began: "We were to

Young Raybrock shook his head, and traced out with his forefinger the words, "poor father's five hundred

"That sum of money," pursued the young fisherman, entering with the greatest earnestness on his

demonstration, while the captain eyed him with equal earnestness, "was all my late father possessed. When

he died, he owed no man more than he left means to pay, but he had been able to lay by only five hundred

"In his lifetime, years before, he had expressly laid the money aside to leave to my mother,like to settle

"He had risked it oncemy father put down in writing at that time, respecting the moneyand was resolved

"Not a spectator," said the captain. "My country wouldn't have suited him. Yes?"

"My mother has never touched the money till now. And now it was to have been laid out, this very next

week, in buying me a handsome share in our neighbouring fishery here, to settle me in life with Kitty."

The captain's face fell, and he passed and repassed his sunbrowned right hand over his thin hair, in a

"Kitty's father has no more than enough to live on, even in the sparing way in which we live about here. He is

a kind of bailiff or steward of manor rights here, and they are not much, and it is but a poor little office. He

was better off once, and Kitty must never marry to mere drudgery and hard living."

The captain still sat stroking his thin hair, and looking at the young fisherman.

"I am as certain that my father had no knowledge that any one was wronged as to this money, or that any

restitution ought to be made, as I am certain that the sun now shines. But, after this solemn warning from my

brother's grave in the sea, that the money is Stolen Money," said Young Raybrock, forcing himself to the

"About not doubting, I ain't so sure," observed the captain; "but about not touchingnoI don't think you

"See then," said Young Raybrock, "why I am so grieved. Think of Kitty. Think what I have got to tell her!"

His heart quite failed him again when he had come round to that, and he once more beat his seaboot softly

on the floor. But not for long; he soon began again, in a quietly resolute tone.

"However! Enough of that! You spoke some brave words to me just now, Captain Jorgan, and they shall not

be spoken in vain. I have got to do something. What I have got to do, before all other things, is to trace out

the meaning of this paper, for the sake of the Good Name that has no one else to put it right. And still for the

sake of the Good Name, and my father's memory, not a word of this writing must be breathed to my mother,

"I don't know what they'll think of us below," said the captain, "but for certain I can't oppose it. Now, as to

They both, as by consent, bent over the paper again, and again carefully puzzled out the whole of the writing.

"I make out that this would stand, if all the writing was here, 'Inquire among the old men living there,

for'some one. Most like, you'll go to this village named here?" said the captain, musing, with his finger on

"Does he?" said the captain quietly. "As I ain't acquainted with him, who may he be?"

"Ay, ay!" cried the captain. "Now you speak! Tregarthen knows this village of Lanrean, then?"

"Beyond all doubt he does. I have often heard him mention it, as being his native place. He knows it well."

"Stop half a moment," said the captain. "We want a name here. You could ask Tregarthen (or if you couldn't I

"Take me with you," said the captain, rising in a solid way that had a most comfortable reliability in it, "and

just a word more first. I have knocked about harder than you, and have got along further than you. I have had,

all my seagoing life long, to keep my wits polished bright with acid and friction, like the brass cases of the

ship's instruments. I'll keep you company on this expedition. Now you don't live by talking any more than I

do. Clench that hand of yours in this hand of mine, and that's a speech on both sides."

Captain Jorgan took command of the expedition with that hearty shake. He at once refolded the paper exactly

as before, replaced it in the bottle, put the stopper in, put the oilskin over the stopper, confided the whole to

But it was harder navigation belowstairs than above. The instant they set foot in the parlour the quick,

womanly eye detected that there was something wrong. Kitty exclaimed, frightened, as she ran to her lover's

side, "Alfred! What's the matter?" Mrs. Raybrock cried out to the captain, "Gracious! what have you done to

my son to change him like this all in a minute?" And the young widowwho was there with her work upon

her armwas at first so agitated that she frightened the little girl she held in her hand, who hid her face in

her mother's skirts and screamed. The captain, conscious of being held responsible for this domestic change,

contemplated it with quite a guilty expression of countenance, and looked to the young fisherman to come to

"Kitty, darling," said Young Raybrock, "Kitty, dearest love, I must go away to Lanrean, and I don't know

where else or how much further, this very day. Worse than thatour marriage, Kitty, must be put off, and I

Kitty stared at him, in doubt and wonder and in anger, and pushed him from her with her hand.

"Put off?" cried Mrs. Raybrock. "The marriage put off? And you going to Lanrean! Why, in the name of the

"Mother dear, I can't say why; I must not say why. It would be dishonourable and undutiful to say why."

"Dishonourable and undutiful?" returned the dame. "And is there nothing dishonourable or undutiful in the

boy's breaking the heart of his own plighted love, and his mother's heart too, for the sake of the dark secrets

and counsels of a wicked stranger? Why did you ever come here?" she apostrophised the innocent captain.

"Who wanted you? Where did you come from? Why couldn't you rest in your own bad place, wherever it is,

"And what," sobbed the poor little Kitty, "have I ever done to you, you hard and cruel captain, that you

And then they both began to weep most pitifully, while the captain could only look from the one to the other,

"Margaret," said the poor young fisherman, on his knees at Kitty's feet, while Kitty kept both her hands

before her tearful face, to shut out the traitor from her view,but kept her fingers wide asunder and looked

at him all the time,"Margaret, you have suffered so much, so uncomplainingly, and are always so careful

The quiet Margaret was not appealed to in vain. "I will, Alfred," she returned, "and I do. I wish this

gentleman had never come near us;" whereupon the captain laid hold of himself the tighter; "but I take your

part for all that. I am sure you have some strong reason and some sufficient reason for what you do, strange

as it is, and even for not saying why you do it, strange as that is. And, Kitty darling, you are bound to think so

more than any one, for true love believes everything, and bears everything, and trusts everything. And,

mother dear, you are bound to think so too, for you know you have been blest with good sons, whose word

was always as good as their oath, and who were brought up in as true a sense of honour as any gentleman in

this land. And I am sure you have no more call, mother, to doubt your living son than to doubt your dead son;

"Wa'al now," the captain struck in, with enthusiasm, "this I say, That whether your opinions flatter me or not,

you are a young woman of sense, and spirit, and feeling; and I'd sooner have you by my side in the hour of

danger, than a good half of the men I've ever fallen in withor fallen out with, ayther."

Margaret did not return the captain's compliment, or appear fully to reciprocate his good opinion, but she

applied herself to the consolation of Kitty, and of Kitty's motherinlaw that was to have been next Monday

"Kitty, my darling," said the young fisherman, "I must go to your father to entreat him still to trust me in spite

of this wretched change and mystery, and to ask him for some directions concerning Lanrean. Will you come

Kitty answered not a word, but rose sobbing, with the end of her simple headdress at her eyes. Captain

Jorgan followed the lovers out, quite sheepishly, pausing in the shop to give an instruction to Mr. Pettifer.

"Here, Tom!" said the captain, in a low voice. "Here's something in your line. Here's an old lady poorly and

Mr. Pettifer, with a brisk nod of intelligence, immediately assumed his steward face, and went with his quiet,

helpful, steward step into the parlour, where the captain had the great satisfaction of seeing him, through the

glass door, take the child in his arms (who offered no objection), and bend over Mrs. Raybrock, administering

"Though what he finds to say, unless he's telling her that 't'll soon be over, or that most people is so at first, or

that it'll do her good afterward, I cannot imaginate!" was the captain's reflection as he followed the lovers.

He had not far to follow them, since it was but a short descent down the stony ways to the cottage of Kitty's

father. But short as the distance was, it was long enough to enable the captain to observe that he was fast

becoming the village Ogre; for there was not a woman standing working at her door, or a fisherman coming

up or going down, who saw Young Raybrock unhappy and little Kitty in tears, but he or she instantly darted a

suspicious and indignant glance at the captain, as the foreigner who must somehow be responsible for this

unusual spectacle. Consequently, when they came into Tregarthen's little garden,which formed the

platform from which the captain had seen Kitty peeping over the wall,the captain brought to, and stood off

and on at the gate, while Kitty hurried to hide her tears in her own room, and Alfred spoke with her father,

who was working in the garden. He was a rather infirm man, but could scarcely be called old yet, with an

agreeable face and a promising air of making the best of things. The conversation began on his side with

great cheerfulness and good humour, but soon became distrustful, and soon angry. That was the captain's cue

"O!" returned Kitty's father, surveying the unfortunate captain with a look of extreme disfavour. "I confess

"No," said the captain, "and, to admit the truth, that seems to be the general opinion in these parts. But don't

"Wa'al, I hope so," observed the captain, quite at his ease; "more than that, I believe so,though you don't.

Now, Mr. Tregarthen, you don't want to exchange words of mistrust with me; and if you did, you couldn't,

because I wouldn't. You and I are old enough to know better than to judge against experience from surfaces

and appearances; and if you haven't lived to find out the evil and injustice of such judgments, you are a lucky

The other seemed to shrink under this remark, and replied, "Sir, I have lived to feel it deeply."

"Wa'al," said the captain, mollified, "then I've made a good cast without knowing it. Now, Tregarthen, there

stands the lover of your only child, and here stand I who know his secret. I warrant it a righteous secret, and

none of his making, though bound to be of his keeping. I want to help him out with it, and tewwards that end

we ask you to favour us with the names of two or three old residents in the village of Lanrean. As I am taking

out my pocketbook and pencil to put the names down, I may as well observe to you that this, wrote atop of

the first page here, is my name and address: 'Silas Jonas Jorgan, Salem, Massachusetts, United States.' If ever

you take it in your head to run over any morning, I shall be glad to welcome you. Now, what may be the

"There was an elderly man," said Tregarthen, "named David Polreath. He may be dead."

"Wa'al," said the captain, cheerfully, "if Polreath's dead and buried, and can be made of any service to us,

"One of old Parvis's fam'ly I reckon," said the captain, "kept a drygoods store in New York city, and

realised a handsome competency by burning his house to ashes. Same name, anyhow. David Polreath,

"Thank'ee," said the captain. "And so, Tregarthen, hoping for your good opinion yet, and likewise for the fair

Devonshire Flower's, your daughter's, I give you my hand, sir, and wish you good day."

Young Raybrock accompanied him disconsolately; for there was no Kitty at the window when he looked up,

no Kitty in the garden when he shut the gate, no Kitty gazing after them along the stony ways when they

"Now I tell you what," said the captain. "Not being at present calculated to promote harmony in your family,

I won't come in. You go and get your dinner at home, and I'll get mine at the little hotel. Let our hour of

meeting be two o'clock, and you'll find me smoking a cigar in the sun afore the hotel door. Tell Tom Pettifer,

my steward, to consider himself on duty, and to look after your people till we come back; you'll find he'll

All was done as Captain Jorgan directed. Punctually at two o'clock the young fisherman appeared with his

knapsack at his back; and punctually at two o'clock the captain jerked away the last feather end of his cigar.

They climbed out of the village, and paused among the trees and fern on the summit of the hill above, to take

breath, and to look down at the beautiful sea. Suddenly the captain gave his leg a resounding slap, and cried,

The cause of this abrupt retirement on the part of the captain was little Kitty among the trees. The captain

went out of sight and waited, and kept out of sight and waited, until it occurred to him to beguile the time

with another cigar. He lighted it, and smoked it out, and still he was out of sight and waiting. He stole within

sight at last, and saw the lovers, with their arms entwined and their bent heads touching, moving slowly

among the trees. It was the golden time of the afternoon then, and the captain said to himself, "Golden sun,

golden sea, golden sails, golden leaves, golden love, golden youth,a golden state of things altogether!"

Nevertheless the captain found it necessary to hail his young companion before going out of sight again. In a

"That still young woman with the fatherless child," said Captain Jorgan, as they fell into step, "didn't throw

her words away; but good honest words are never thrown away. And now that I am conveying you off from

that tender little thing that loves, and relies, and hopes, I feel just as if I was the snarling crittur in the picters,

with the tight legs, the long nose, and the feather in his cap, the tips of whose moustaches get up nearer to his

The young fisherman knew nothing of Mephistopheles; but he smiled when the captain stopped to double

Captain Jorgan, up and out betimes, had put the whole village of Lanrean under an amicable

crossexamination, and was returning to the King Arthur's Arms to breakfast, none the wiser for his trouble,

when he beheld the young fisherman advancing to meet him, accompanied by a stranger. A glance at this

stranger assured the captain that he could be no other than the Seafaring Man; and the captain was about to

hail him as a fellowcraftsman, when the two stood still and silent before the captain, and the captain stood

"Why, what's this?" cried the captain, when at last he broke the silence. "You two are alike. You two are

Not a word was answered on the other side, until after the sea faring brother had got hold of the captain's

right hand, and the fisherman brother had got hold of the captain's left hand; and if ever the captain had had

his fill of handshaking, from his birth to that hour, he had it then. And presently up and spoke the two

brothers, one at a time, two at a time, two dozen at a time for the bewilderment into which they plunged the

captain, until he gradually had Hugh Raybrock's deliverance made clear to him, and also unravelled the fact

that the person referred to in the half obliterated paper was Tregarthen himself.

"Formerly, dear Captain Jorgan," said Alfred, "of Lanrean, you recollect? Kitty and her father came to live at

"Ay, ay!" cried the captain, fetching a breath. "Now you have me in tow. Then your brother here don't know

"Ay, ay, ay!" cried the captain. "Why then we every one go back togetherpaper, writer, and alland take

"Surely," said Alfred, "we can't help it now. We must go through with our duty."

"Not a doubt," returned the captain. "Give me an arm apiece, and let us set this shipshape."

So walking up and down in the shrill wind on the wild moor, while the neglected breakfast cooled within, the

It was that they should all proceed by the quickest means they could secure to Barnstaple, and there look over

the father's books and papers in the lawyer's keeping; as Hugh had proposed to himself to do if ever he

reached home. That, enlightened or unenlightened, they should then return to Steepways and go straight to

Mr. Tregarthen, and tell him all they knew, and see what came of it, and act accordingly. Lastly, that when

they got there they should enter the village with all precautions against Hugh's being recognised by any

chance; and that to the captain should be consigned the task of preparing his wife and mother for his

"For you see," quoth Captain Jorgan, touching the last head, "it requires caution any way, great joys being as

dangerous as great griefs, if not more dangerous, as being more uncommon (and therefore less provided

against) in this round world of ours. And besides, I should like to free my name with the ladies, and take you

home again at your brightest and luckiest; so don't let's throw away a chance of success."

The captain was highly lauded by the brothers for his kind interest and foresight.

"And now stop!" said the captain, coming to a standstill, and looking from one brother to the other, with quite

a new rigging of wrinkles about each eye; "you are of opinion," to the elder, "that you are ra'ather slow?"

"Wa'al," replied the captain, "I assure you that to the best of my belief I am ra'ather smart. Now a slow man

"You," said the captain, turning to the younger brother, "are a little in love; ain't you?"

"And a sort preoccupied man ain't good at quick business, is he?" said the captain.

"Now," said the captain, "I ain't in love myself, and I've made many a smart run across the ocean, and I

should like to carry on and go ahead with this affair of yours, and make a run slick through it. Shall I try?

"Good," said the captain, taking out his watch. "This is halfpast eight a.m., Friday morning. I'll jot that

down, and we'll compute how many hours we've been out when we run into your mother's post office.

They went ahead so well that before the Barnstaple lawyer's office was open next morning, the captain was

sitting whistling on the step of the door, waiting for the clerk to come down the street with his key and open

it. But instead of the clerk there came the master, with whom the captain fraternised on the spot to an extent

As he personally knew both Hugh and Alfred, there was no difficulty in obtaining immediate access to such

of the father's papers as were in his keeping. These were chiefly old letters and cash accounts; from which the

captain, with a shrewdness and despatch that left the lawyer far behind, established with perfect clearness, by

That one Lawrence Clissold had borrowed of the deceased, at a time when he was a thriving young tradesman

in the town of Barnstaple, the sum of five hundred pounds. That he had borrowed it on the written statement

that it was to be laid out in furtherance of a speculation which he expected would raise him to independence;

he being, at the time of writing that letter, no more than a clerk in the house of Dringworth Brothers, America

Square, London. That the money was borrowed for a stipulated period; but that, when the term was out, the

aforesaid speculation failed, and Clissold was without means of repayment. That, hereupon, he had written to

his creditor, in no very persuasive terms, vaguely requesting further time. That the creditor had refused this

concession, declaring that he could not afford delay. That Clissold then paid the debt, accompanying the

remittance of the money with an angry letter describing it as having been advanced by a relative to save him

from ruin. That, in acknowlodging the receipt, Raybrock had cautioned Clissold to seek to borrow money of

Before the lawyer the captain said never a word in reference to these discoveries. But when the papers had

been put back in their box, and he and his two companions were well out of the office, his right leg suffered

"So far this run's begun with a fair wind and a prosperous; for don't you see that all this agrees with that

dutiful trust in his father maintained by the slow member of the Raybrock family?"

Whether the brothers had seen it before or no, they saw it now. Not that the captain gave them much time to

contemplate the state of things at their ease, for he instantly whipped them into a chaise again, and bore them

off to Steepways. Although the afternoon was but just beginning to decline when they reached it, and it was

broad daylight, still they had no difficulty, by dint of muffing the returned sailor up, and ascending the

village rather than descending it, in reaching Tregarthen's cottage unobserved. Kitty was not visible, and they

"Sir," said the captain, instantly shaking hands with him, pen and all, "I'm glad to see you, sir. How do you

do, sir? I told you you'd think better of me byandby, and I congratulate you on going to do it."

Here the captain's eye fell on Tom Pettifer Ho, engaged in preparing some cookery at the fire.

"That critter," said the captain, smiting his leg, "is a born steward, and never ought to have been in any other

way of life. Stop where you are, Tom, and make yourself useful. Now, Tregarthen, I'm going to try a chair."

"This loving member of the Raybrock family you know, sir. This slow member of the same family you don't

know, sir. Wa'al, these two are brothers,fact! Hugh's come to life again, and here he stands. Now see here,

my friend! You don't want to be told that he was cast away, but you do want to be told (for there's a purpose

in it) that he was cast away with another man. That man by name was Lawrence Clissold."

At the mention of this name Tregarthen started and changed colour. "What's the matter?" said the captain.

"True," said the captain, immediately catching at the clew: "Dringworth Brothers, America Square, London

"Now," pursued the captain, "between those two men cast away there arose a mystery concerning the round

Again Tregarthen started, changing colour. Again the captain said, "What's the matter?"

As Tregarthen only answered, "Please to go on," the captain recounted, very tersely and plainly, the nature of

Clissold's wanderings on the barren island, as he had condensed them in his mind from the seafaring man.

Tregarthen became greatly agitated during this recital, and at length exclaimed,

"Clissold was the man who ruined me! I have suspected it for many a long year, and now I know it."

"And how," said the captain, drawing his chair still closer to Tregarthen, and clapping his hand upon his

"When we were fellowclerks," replied Tregarthen, "in that London house, it was one of my duties to enter

daily in a certain book an account of the sums received that day by the firm, and afterward paid into the

bankers'. One memorable day,a Wednesday, the black day of my life,among the sums I so entered was

"It was one of Clissold's duties to copy from this entry a memorandum of the sums which the clerk employed

to go to the bankers' paid in there. It was my duty to hand the money to Clissold; it was Clissold's to hand it

to the clerk, with that memorandum of his writing. On that Wednesday I entered a sum of five hundred

pounds received. I handed that sum, as I handed the other sums in the day's entry, to Clissold. I was

absolutely certain of it at the time; I have been absolutely certain of it ever since. A sum of five hundred

pounds was afterward found by the house to have been that day wanting from the bag, from Clissold's

memorandum, and from the entries in my book. Clissold, being questioned, stood upon his perfect clearness

in the matter, and emphatically declared that he asked no better than to be tested by 'Tregarthen's book.' My

"I was then questioned. Had I made the entry? Certainly I had. The house produced my book, and it was not

there. I could not deny my book; I could not deny my writing. I knew there must be forgery by some one; but

the writing was wonderfully like mine, and I could impeach no one if the house could not. I was required to

pay the money back. I did so; and I left the house, almost brokenhearted, rather than remain there,even if

I could have done so,with a dark shadow of suspicion always on me. I returned to my native place,

Lanrean, and remained there, clerk to a mine, until I was appointed to my little post here."

"I well remember," said the captain, "that I told you that if you had no experience of ill judgments on

deceiving appearances, you were a lucky man. You went hurt at that, and I see why. I'm sorry."

"Thus it is," said Tregarthen. "Of my own innocence I have of course been sure; it has been at once my

comfort and my trial. Of Clissold I have always had suspicions almost amounting to certainty; but they have

never been confirmed until now. For my daughter's sake and for my own I have carried this subject in my

own heart, as the only secret of my life, and have long believed that it would die with me."

"Wa'al, my good sir," said the captain cordially, "the present question is, and will be long, I hope, concerning

living, and not dying. Now, here are our two honest friends, the loving Raybrock and the slow. Here they

stand, agreed on one point, on which I'd back 'em round the world, and right across it from north to south, and

then again from east to west, and through it, from your deepest Cornish mine to China. It is, that they will

never use this same sooftenmentioned sum of money, and that restitution of it must be made to you. These

two, the loving member and the slow, for the sake of the right and of their father's memory, will have it ready

for you tomorrow. Take it, and ease their minds and mine, and end a most unfortunate transaction."

Tregarthen took the captain by the hand, and gave his hand to each of the young men, but positively and

finally answered No. He said, they trusted to his word, and he was glad of it, and at rest in his mind; but there

was no proof, and the money must remain as it was. All were very earnest over this; and earnestness in men,

when they are right and true, is so impressive, that Mr. Pettifer deserted his cookery and looked on quite

"And so," said the captain, "so we comeas that lawyercrittur over yonder where we were this morning

mightto mere proof; do we? We must have it; must we? How? From this Clissold's wanderings, and from

what you say, it ain't hard to make out that there was a neat forgery of your writing committed by the too

smart rowdy that was grease and ashes when I made his acquaintance, and a substitution of a forged leaf in

your book for a real and torn leaf torn out. Now was that real and true leaf then and there destroyed?

No,for says he, in his drunken way, he slipped it into a crack in his own desk, because you came into the

office before there was time to burn it, and could never get back to it arterwards. Wait a bit. Where is that

"The house has not, for years, transacted business in that place. I have heard of it, and read of it, as removed,

"You think so," returned the captain, with compassion; "but you should come over and see me afore you talk

about that. Wa'al, now. This desk, this paper,this paper, this desk," said the captain, ruminating and

walking about, and looking, in his uneasy abstraction, into Mr. Pettifer's hat on a table, among other things.

"This desk, this paper,this paper, this desk," the captain continued, musing and roaming about the room,

However, he gave nothing, but took up his steward's hat instead, and stood looking into it, as if he had just

come into church. After that he roamed again, and again said, "This desk, belonging to this house of

Mr. Pettifer, still strangely moved, and now more moved than before, cut the captain off as he backed across

"Captain Jorgan, I have been wishful to engage your attention, but I couldn't do it. I am unwilling to interrupt

The captain stood stockstill and looked at him,with his (Mr. Pettifer's) hat under his arm.

"You're aware," pursued his steward, "that I was once in the broking business, Captain Jorgan?"

"I was aware," said the captain, "that you had failed in that calling, and in half the businesses going, Tom."

"Not quite so, Captain Jorgan; but I failed in the broking business. I was partners with my brother, sir. There

was a sale of old office furniture at Dringworth Brothers' when the house was moved from America Square,

and me and my brother made what we call in the trade a Deal there, sir. And I'll make bold to say, sir, that the

only thing I ever had from my brother, or from any relation,for my relations have mostly taken property

from me instead of giving me any,was an old desk we bought at that same sale, with a crack in it. My

brother wouldn't have given me even that, when we broke partnership, if it had been worth anything."

"Well, Captain Jorgan," replied the steward, "I couldn't say for certain where it is now; but when I saw it

last,which was last time we were outward bound,it was at a very nice lady's at Wapping, along with a

The captain, instead of paying that rapt attention to his steward which was rendered by the other three persons

present, went to Church again, in respect of the steward's hat. And a most especially agitated and memorable

"Now, Tom," said the captain, "I spoke to you, when we first came here, respecting your constitutional

"Will my slow friend," said the captain, "lend me his arm, or I shall sink right back'ards into this blessed

steward's cookery? Now, Tom," pursued the captain, when the required assistance was given, "on your oath

as a steward, didn't you take that desk to pieces to make a better one of it, and put it together fresh,or

"And by the blessing of Heaven, my friends, one and all," cried the captain, radiant with joy,"of the

Heaven that put it into this Tom Pettifer's head to take so much care of his head against the bright sun,he

With that the captain, to the utter destruction of Mr. Pettifer's favourite hat, produced the bookleaf, very

much worn, but still legible, and gave both his legs such tremendous slaps that they were heard far off in the

"A quarter past five p.m.," said the captain, pulling out his watch, "and that's thirtythree hours and a quarter

How they were all overpowered with delight and triumph; how the money was restored, then and there, to

Tregarthen; how Tregarthen, then and there, gave it all to his daughter; how the captain undertook to go to

Dringworth Brothers and reestablish the reputation of their forgotten old clerk; how Kitty came in, and was

nearly torn to pieces, and the marriage was reappointed, needs not to be told. Nor how she and the young

fisherman went home to the postoffice to prepare the way for the captain's coming, by declaring him to be

the mightiest of men, who had made all their fortunes,and then dutifully withdrew together, in order that

he might have the domestic coast entirely to himself. How he availed himself of it is all that remains to tell.

Deeply delighted with his trust, and putting his heart into it, he raised the latch of the postoffice parlour

"Sure you may, Captain Jorgan!" replied the old lady. "And good reason you have to be free of the house,

though you have not been too well used in it by some who ought to have known better. I ask your pardon."

"No you don't, ma'am," said the captain, "for I won't let you. Wa'al, to be sure!"

"Never felt such an evil spirit in the whole course of my life! There! I tell you! I could a'most have cut my

own connection. Like the dealer in my country, away West, who when he had let himself be outdone in a

bargain, said to himself, 'Now I tell you what! I'll never speak to you again.' And he never did, but joined a

settlement of oysters, and translated the multiplication table into their language,which is a fact that can be

proved. If you doubt it, mention it to any oyster you come across, and see if he'll have the face to contradict

"Not a bit afraid of me now, you see. Knows I am fond of small people. I have a child, and she's a girl, and I

That's about all. And sometimes I tell her stories,stories of sailors supposed to be lost, and recovered after

repeating it with his eyes on the fire, as he softly danced the child on his knee. For he felt that Margaret had

"Yes," said the captain, still looking at the fire, "I make up stories and tell 'em to that child. Stories of

shipwreck on desert islands, and long delay in getting back to civilised lauds. It is to stories the like of that,

There was no light in the room but the light of the fire; for the shades of night were on the village, and the

stars had begun to peep out of the sky one by one, as the houses of the village peeped out from among the

foliage when the night departed. The captain felt that Margaret's eyes were upon him, and thought it

"Yes; I make 'em up," said the captain. "I make up stories of brothers brought together by the good

providence of GOD,of sons brought back to mothers, husbands brought back to wives, fathers raised from

Margaret's touch was on his arm, and he could not choose but look round now. Next moment her hand moved

imploringly to his breast, and she was on her knees before him,supporting the mother, who was also

Their looks and tears were too much for him, and he could not finish the song, short as it was.

"Mistress Margaret, you have borne ill fortune well. Could you bear good fortune equally well, if it was to

"Wa'al, my dear," said the captain, "p'rhaps it has come. He's don't be frightenedshall I say the word"

The thanks they fervently addressed to Heaven were again too much for the captain, who openly took out his

"He's no further off," resumed the captain, "than my country. Indeed, he's no further off than his own native

country. To tell you the truth, he's no further off than Falmouth. Indeed, I doubt if he's quite so fur. Indeed, if

you was sure you could bear it nicely, and I was to do no more than whistle for him"

The captain's trust was discharged. A rush came, and they were all together again.

This was a fine opportunity for Tom Pettifer to appear with a tumbler of cold water, and he presently

appeared with it, and administered it to the ladies; at the same time soothing them, and composing their

dresses, exactly as if they had been passengers crossing the Channel. The extent to which the captain slapped

his legs, when Mr. Pettifer acquitted himself of this act of stewardship, could have been thoroughly

appreciated by no one but himself; inasmuch as he must have slapped them black and blue, and they must

He couldn't stay for the wedding, having a few appointments to keep at the irreconcilable distance of about

four thousand miles. So next morning all the village cheered him up to the level ground above, and there he

shook hands with a complete Census of its population, and invited the whole, without exception, to come and

stay several months with him at Salem, Mass., U.S. And there as he stood on the spot where he had seen that

little golden picture of love and parting, and from which he could that morning contemplate another golden

picture with a vista of golden years in it, little Kitty put her arms around his neck, and kissed him on both his

bronzed cheeks, and laid her pretty face upon his stormbeaten breast, in sight of all,ashamed to have

called such a noble captain names. And there the captain waved his hat over his head three final times; and

there he was last seen, going away accompanied by Tom Pettifer Ho, and carrying his hands in his pockets.

And there, before that ground was softened with the fallen leaves of three more summers, a rosy little boy

took his first unsteady run to a fair young mother's breast, and the name of that infant fisherman was Jorgan

{1} Dicken's didn't write chapters three and four and they are omitted in this edition. The story continues with