Up The Baltic Part 34

"I don't mean to say that you swallowed your own head; but you found it just where you didn't expect to find it. Isn't that so?"

"We are going to talk the matter over with Ole by and by."

"Do it now. I know all about it. You and Ole arranged the first part of our journey, including the day's fis.h.i.+ng we had at Apalsto; and Ole and I arranged the last part of it. It is an even thing now, and if you won't complain of the last part, I won't say a word about the first."

"I don't understand it."

"Don't you! Well, you gave Ole a sovereign to arrange things for you in the beginning, and I gave him five species to arrange them for me afterwards. You can't complain of a fellow, who sells himself at all, for making as much money as he can. Ole only did that."

"He sold us out," growled Sanford.

"Of course he did; if you buy a man, you mustn't grumble when he does a second time what you encouraged him to do in the first instance. But you were going to take us off to the Rjukanfos, fifty or sixty miles out of our way, without our knowledge or consent. I smelt a mice, and turned the tables," laughed the cas.h.i.+er.

"Yes, and you cheated me," interposed Clyde.

"I had nothing whatever to do with you," answered Burchmore, mildly.

"You led me here when I wanted to go another way."

"You went where you pleased, so far as I was concerned. I never invited you to come with me, or even consented to your doing so."

"Did you say the place we came to yesterday was Kongsberg?"

"I did, and so it was. But I think it was Sanford who first proclaimed the fact, and I cheerfully a.s.sented to its correctness," chuckled Burchmore.

"But you deceived me, and I'll have it out with you," continued Clyde.

"Just as you please about that; but you had better let that black eye bleach out before you begin again."

"I can whip you!" bl.u.s.tered Clyde. "I'll meet you anywhere."

"No, I thank you. If we meet for any such purpose as you suggest, it will be by accident."

"See here, Great Britain; you needn't make another row," said Sanford.

"I'm going to whip this fellow for what he has done, and for calling me a bully."

"You are a bully," added Sanford.

"That's so," exclaimed Stockwell.

"Now you can lick the whole of us, if you insist upon it," continued the c.o.xswain.

"Perhaps I will," retorted Clyde, shaking his head fiercely. "You have got me into a pretty sc.r.a.pe."

"You are in the same boat as the rest of us."

"The squadron isn't here," shouted Wilde; for the steamer had by this time arrived within sight of the harbor.

"Can the s.h.i.+p have sailed?" asked Sanford, after the party had satisfied themselves that not one of the vessels of the little fleet was there.

"I suppose she has," replied Burchmore. "To-day is Friday, and she didn't intend to lie here all summer."

"Good!" exclaimed Clyde. "That makes everything all right for me. I'm satisfied now."

Indeed, he was so delighted with the discovery that the s.h.i.+p had sailed, as to be even willing to forego the pleasure of thras.h.i.+ng his companions. The steamer went up to the wharf, and the party landed.

Sanford and his friends appeared to be willing to take a reasonable view of the situation, and to accept it without grumbling, satisfied that they had been beaten with their own weapons. They were not sorry that the squadron had departed, for this circ.u.mstance gave them a new respite from the discipline of the s.h.i.+p, and enabled them to prolong "the trip without running away."

"What are you going to do now?" asked Clyde, as they landed.

"We shall follow the s.h.i.+p, and try to join her," replied Sanford.

"That's what we've been trying to do ever since we left Christiansand--isn't it, Burchmore?"

"Certainly it is," replied the cas.h.i.+er; "though we were detained one day at Apalsto, and narrowly escaped being carried by accident to the Rjukanfos."

"Are you going to blow upon us, Burch?" demanded Stockwell, warmly.

"Am I? Did you ever know me to do such a thing?" added Burchmore, earnestly.

"No! no!" replied the whole party.

"I don't think it was just the thing to cheat some of us as you did; but I believe we are about even on that now."

"Of course we all want to get back to the s.h.i.+p as soon as possible,"

added Sanford, rubbing his chin, significantly.

"Certainly. She has gone to Gottenburg, and all we have to do is to follow her," said Churchill.

"But if you want to go there by the way of the Cape of Good Hope, Sanford, it will be better to have the matter understood so in the beginning," added Burchmore. "I, for one, don't like to be bamboozled."

"I won't try it on again," said Sanford.

"All right, then; if you do, you may fetch up at Cape Horn."

"Where shall we go now?" asked Sanford.

"To the Victoria Hotel. It is the best in the place," replied Clyde.

"That's the very reason why we don't want to go there. We are not made of money, and we may run out before we are able, with our utmost exertions, to reach the s.h.i.+p," added the cas.h.i.+er.

"But my mother is there," continued Clyde.

"Go to your mother, Great Britain, if you like. We shall stay at some cheap hotel," added Sanford.

Clyde protested in vain against this arrangement, and the Americans, with the aid of Ole, found a small hotel, suited to their views of economy. The Briton went with them; but when they were installed in their new quarters, he left them to find his mother, at the Victoria.

After dinner, the c.o.xswain and his party wandered all over the city.

At the Castle of Agerhaus, they saw an English steamer receiving freight. They ascertained that she was bound to Gottenburg, and would sail at seven o'clock that evening. They immediately decided, as they had seen enough of Christiania, to take pa.s.sage in her. The arrangement was speedily made, and they went on board, without troubling themselves to inform Clyde of what they intended to do. When the sun went down that evening the party were far down the fjord.

Sanford had ascertained that the s.h.i.+p sailed early on Thursday morning, and the steamer on which they had taken pa.s.sage could not arrive at Gottenburg till nearly noon on Sat.u.r.day. It was understood that the squadron would remain but a short time at this port, and it was possible that it would have departed for Copenhagen before the steamer arrived. He hoped this would prove to be the case; but he studied a plan by which the excursion of the party could be prolonged, if the hope should not be realized. He did not wish to return to the s.h.i.+p, because he thought it was pleasanter to travel without the restraints of discipline. Perhaps most of his party sympathized with him, and thought they could have a better time by themselves. Sanford desired to inform Clyde of the intention of the party to leave in the English steamer, and to take him along with them; but his companions overruled him unanimously, for they were too glad to get rid of an impudent, overbearing, and conceited puppy, as he had proved himself to be. The c.o.xswain had no better opinion of him than his friends; but as Clyde was a runaway, according to his own confession, it might smooth their own way, in returning to their duty, if they could deliver him up to the princ.i.p.al. He was even willing to resort to strategy to accomplish this end; but Clyde was so disagreeable that he was saved from this trap.