In the Eastern Seas Part 2

Having put down the address, the captain and Walter at once set off to find it. They were not long in getting there. A woman opened the door.

"Mr Heathfield is not in town; he seldom is at this time," was the answer. "He may come up for a day, or he may not; but letters addressed here will find him."

"But can you tell me where he is?" asked Walter. "I am a relation of his."

"As to that, he may be at Newmarket, or some other races. You know he is a sporting gentleman, and is likely to be in one place one day and in another place another. But he sends for his letters, and, as I have told you, if you like to write, one will find him."

This was not very satisfactory information.

"I am afraid he is not likely to do much for the poor children," thought Captain Davenport. "However, there is nothing like trying."

He then bethought him that he would inquire the address of their uncle, whose heart might relent when he heard of the death of his brother. "If not, I will write to Lord Heatherly himself," said the captain.

The n.o.bleman's address was easily found, and after some trouble the captain ascertained that of Walter's uncle, and with this information he returned home.

"You must have patience, my boy," he said. "If you are not tired of staying with us, we are not tired of you."

On reaching home, the captain wrote the three letters. Several days pa.s.sed by, and no answer came. At length two appeared by the same post.

One was from the orphans' uncle, stating that he had children of his own, and that he had long ceased to have any communication with his brother. He must therefore decline interfering in the matter. The other contained the words:--"Lord Heatherly presents his compliments to Mr Davenport, and not having been personally acquainted with the late Mr Heathfield for many years, must decline in any way interfering with regard to any children he may have left."

"Oh dear me!" said Mrs Davenport, when she saw the letters. "If the poor young orphans are treated in this way by their nearest relative and by the head of their family, I am afraid we can expect very little from the only other relation we have heard of."

"Well, my dear wife," said the captain, "if n.o.body else looks after them, G.o.d intends that we shall. We must not decline the charge he has given us, but do the best we can for them."

The following day a private cab was seen pa.s.sing along the street with a sporting-looking tiger behind. The gentleman driving stopped once or twice, then turning round, brought up at Captain Davenport's door. Down jumped the tiger, and out sprang the gentleman. Walter and Emily were in the parlour.

"Why, that is cousin Tom!" exclaimed Walter, and he ran out to open the front door.

Cousin Tom came in, and shook hands with Walter and Emily, and was soon talking away to Mrs Davenport as if he had known her all his life.

"I am very much obliged to you and to your worthy husband for all you have done for these young people," he said. "And my poor cousin Harry, I little thought he was so soon to be cut off. However, we must not talk about those sort of things. Why, Walter, you are almost a man now.

We must see what we can do for you. Your uncle Bob will not help you; I have heard all about that. We will not talk about him; and as for Heatherly, there is no help to be got from him. I am going out of town to-night, or I would have had you, Walter, come and dine with me and talk matters over. However, if your friends will look after you for a day or two longer, I hope we may settle something. I have an idea that my aunt, Lady Di Pierpoint, will take charge of Emily. I must insist upon her doing so. She mixes a good deal in the world, rouges, and is rather addicted to scandal, it is true; but I say, Emily, you must not follow her example, and you will get on very well with her. Look after her lapdogs, feed her parrots, write her notes for her, and all that sort of thing. Well, I think we may consider that settled.--And now, my good madam, I must wish you and the young people good-bye. I hope to be back in a few days with Lady Di's answer. And as to Walter, I have no doubt about him. In the meantime, I will just beg you to take these two notes, which you will have the kindness to expend as you think best in getting a proper outfit for the young people--as I have no doubt they lost everything when the s.h.i.+p went down; and I should wish, if you will allow me, to repay you for the expense to which you have been put."

"Thank you, sir," said Mrs Davenport. "We desire no repayment; but I will gladly expend the money to the advantage of my young friends as you desire."

"Well, well, do as you like!" exclaimed Mr Tom. "I am very much obliged to you in every way. And now, good-bye, Emily; good-bye, Walter; and I wish you farewell, madam. Present my compliments to your kind husband. I should have liked to have made his acquaintance. I hope to do so another time. I am deeply indebted to him, for I had a great regard for poor Harry. Though he might not have been very wise-- none of us are; and his wife, she was an angel. Good-bye, good-bye!"

Thus rattling on, Mr Tom Heathfield ran out at the door, and jumped into his cab; the tiger skipped up behind, and off he drove.

Day after day pa.s.sed by, and no news came of Mr Tom Heathfield. The packet he had left behind contained a couple of ten-pound notes, with a few words written on the paper surrounding them:--"It is all I have got; but if Constellation wins, I will send another hundred."

Captain Davenport was now again busily engaged in preparing his s.h.i.+p for another voyage. She required but few repairs, so she was likely to be soon ready. He had resolved to take his wife and daughter with him; and Grace was _very_ full of the thoughts of accompanying her father. Mrs Davenport had made two or three voyages; but Grace had not been at sea since she was a very little girl.

"I wish I was going too," said Emily; "how delightful it would be!"

"I am sure I wish that I was going!" exclaimed Walter. "I have often thought I should like to be a sailor; and though I once should only have wished to go into the royal navy, I should now like to go anywhere with Captain Davenport."

Week after week pa.s.sed by. The _Bussorah Merchant_ was ready for sea.

A cabin had been fitted up for Mrs Davenport, and another for Grace.

No news came from Mr Tom Heathfield. Captain Davenport wrote: he considered it his duty to do so. The day before he sailed, his letter came back in an enclosure, stating that Mr Tom Heathfield had broken his neck riding a steeple-chase, and that though he had wished to leave his property to his young cousin, as all would be swallowed up in paying his debts, there would be none forthcoming. Walter and Emily felt very sorry when they heard the sad end of their poor cousin, though Emily confessed to Grace she was very glad that she had not to go and live with Lady Di Pierpoint.

"Well, my young friends," said Captain Davenport, "I have no one with whom I can leave you, and I certainly will not desert you. If, therefore, Emily would like to come and be Grace's companion, we shall be very glad of her company; and, Walter, if you wish to come to sea and learn to be a sailor, I will undertake to instruct you as if you were my own son."

Walter was truly glad to accept the kind captain's offer; indeed, it would be difficult to say what else he could do.

"When we return to England," said Captain Davenport, "we will make more inquiries about your relations, and if they still persist in refusing to acknowledge you, you will, at all events, have learned a profession, and be independent of them. After all, you will be far better off than had you been brought up in idleness, and dependent on those who might care very little for your true interests and welfare."

CHAPTER THREE.

WALTER HEATHFIELD'S JOURNAL.

The _Bussorah Merchant_ was now ready for sea. Mr Thudic.u.mb was first mate, as he had been on the previous voyage; d.i.c.k Tarbox was boatswain; young Oliver Farwell was cabin-boy. Merlin, too, who indeed never left the s.h.i.+p, was on board, and welcomed my sister and me, whom he recognised the moment we appeared with signs of the greatest satisfaction. The s.h.i.+p was bound out to the coast of China and j.a.pan, with a prospect of visiting several other interesting places before she returned home. I was delighted with the thoughts of all I should see, and was very glad to find on board several books descriptive of those regions. The s.h.i.+p came to an anchor at Gravesend, where several pa.s.sengers joined her. Among them was a gentleman with very broad shoulders, a broad forehead, and light curling hair covered by a very broad-brimmed white hat. His eyes were blue and remarkably keen; he had a nose somewhat turned up; and a firm mouth, with a pleasing smile, showing a set of strong white teeth. He brought with him a number of cases and boxes; among them gun-cases, and fis.h.i.+ng-rods, and cases which looked as if they enclosed instruments, with numerous other articles not usually carried by travellers. His business-like, quiet manner showed that he was well accustomed to move about the world. Who he could be I could not tell. Soon after he came on board he called Oliver Farwell to help him arrange his cabin; but as Oliver had other duties to attend to, I offered my services.

"Yes, my lad, I shall be very much obliged to you," said the gentleman.

"I should have liked to have got these things on board before the s.h.i.+p left the docks; but there was no time for that; and it is important that they should be secured before we get into a tumbling sea, from which they may receive damage."

I observed that Mr Nicholas Hooker was painted on all the cases, and of course concluded that such was the name of the gentleman. He had a number of screws with which he fastened some of the articles to the bulkheads, and lashed others in a seamanlike fas.h.i.+on. There were charts and telescopes; indeed, from the various articles he had with him, I fancied that perhaps the gentleman was a naval officer. Still, as I did not see R.N. at the end of his name, I thought again that he could not be so.

At length Mr Hooker, having unpacked his books, various instruments, and other articles, begged that the cases might be stowed away below.

His directions were promptly obeyed, and having surveyed his cabin, he seemed satisfied that all was in perfect order.

"Now, young gentleman," he said, with a pleasant smile which won my confidence, "I daresay you would like to know what all these things are for. Some are for taking the lat.i.tude and longitude, ascertaining the exact position of places on the earth's surface. Others are for measuring the height of mountains, some the temperature of the air and water, and so on. Then I have cases for creatures which move in the water or fly in the air, which walk or crawl on the earth or burrow beneath it; and I have the means of shooting them or trapping them.

Those I can, I hope to preserve alive; and if not, to be able to exhibit to my scientific friends, when I return home, the forms of some perfect, the skins of others, and the skeletons of others. And now, having told you thus much, I must leave you to guess what I profess myself to be.

One thing I can tell you, I know very, very little compared to what there is to be known. I hope to gain more knowledge but I am very well aware that, gain all I can, I can but add a very small portion to what is already known, and a still smaller compared to what is to be ascertained. Here comes the captain. We are old friends, and that induced me to select this s.h.i.+p for my voyage. Are you his son?"

"No, sir," I answered; "but he is a very kind friend of mine; and were it not for him, I know not what would have become of me and my sister."

The _Bussorah Merchant_ had a fine pa.s.sage down Channel, and taking her departure from the Land's End, stood across the Bay of Biscay. Four days afterwards the captain told us that we were in the lat.i.tude of Cape Finisterre, but no land was to be seen. Another eight days, with the wind abeam, carried us into the neighbourhood of the island of Madeira.

"Would not it be as well to have a look at it, sir," I said, "and then we shall better know where we are."

The captain smiled. "That is not at all necessary," he answered. "By the observations we are able to take with the perfect instruments we possess, we are able at all times to ascertain our exact position on the ocean; and we might thus sail round either Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope to New South Wales without once sighting land till we were about to enter Port Jackson."

"It is very wonderful," I said. "What puzzles me is how you can find the longitude. I know you get the lat.i.tude by seeing how high the sun is above the horizon at noon, and then with the aid of the nautical almanac you can easily work out the calculation."

"With the aid of the chronometer we can as easily ascertain the longitude, though the calculation is a little longer," answered Captain Davenport. "I can explain it to you more easily. The chronometer shows us the exact time at Greenwich. We know by our nautical almanac that, at a certain hour on a certain day, the sun will have attained at Greenwich a certain alt.i.tude. When on that day and that hour we find that the sun is so many minutes behind hand in attaining that alt.i.tude, we know we must be a certain distance further to the west, as, the world turning from west to east, the more westerly a place is the longer it will be before the sun appears there. If, on the contrary, we find the sun has gained a fixed alt.i.tude some time before it would have gained that alt.i.tude at Greenwich, we know that we must be to the east of Greenwich, or have met the sun sooner than the people at Greenwich have done. Thus, the further we sail east day after day, the sooner we see the sun; while the further we sail west, the longer the time which pa.s.ses before he s.h.i.+nes upon us."

"I think I have an idea about it now, sir," I exclaimed; "and I should be very much obliged if you will show me how to take an observation and to make use of the books, as well as to work out the calculations. Why, may I ask, do you cry Stop, sir, to the second officer or to Mr Thudic.u.mb, who are watching the chronometer while you are taking an observation?"

"That they may mark the exact moment shown on the chronometer, while I mark the sun's elevation as shown on the index of the s.e.xtant."

"But then you take observations at night sometimes, sir, looking at the moon or the stars?"

"We do that to discover the distance which one star appears from another at a certain hour, or their elevation above the horizon. The object is the same as that for which we take an observation of the sun, though the calculation is rather more intricate."

After this I set to work, and whenever the captain and his mates took an observation, I took one also, although I was, I must own, at first very far from correct. Sometimes my observation was imperfect; at other times I made mistakes in the calculation.