Home > Authors Index > George Manville Fenn > Devon Boys: A Tale of the North Shore > This page
Devon Boys: A Tale of the North Shore, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
||
Chapter 26. Forearmed As Well As Forewarned |
||
| < Previous |
Table of content |
Next > |
|
________________________________________________
_ CHAPTER TWENTY SIX. FOREARMED AS WELL AS FOREWARNED "Who is it?" said my father. "Bigley Uggleston," I replied, feeling very awkward. "Oh, come in, my lad," said my father quietly; and as I held the door back for him to enter, it suddenly struck me what a frank, handsome-looking fellow he had grown. I felt more awkward still, for it seemed to me that I was going to listen to some very unpleasant remarks about our companionship being broken off; but to my surprise my father said quietly: "Come after Sep?" "Yes, sir. I thought if he was not busy--" "Well, but he is," said my father smiling. "He was about to unpack that box for me--I was just going to set him the task." Bigley drew back, but my father said good-humouredly: "Why don't you stop and help him?" "May I, sir? I should like to." "Go on, then, my lads. Take the lid off carefully, Sep. There is a screw-driver in that cupboard." I went eagerly to the cupboard and opened it, to give quite a start, for there, hanging upon nails at the back, were the pistols and sword I had remembered were absent from home. I found the screw-driver in a sort of tool-chest, and as Bigley and I took it in turns to draw the screws, my father cleared the table. "Be careful," he said. "You can lay the things out here. I shall soon be back." He left us together, and, all eagerness now, I worked away at the screws, which were very tight, and there were four on each side of the lid, and others in the clamps, which had to be removed before the lid could be raised. "I am glad I came, Sep," said Bigley. "I was wondering why you hadn't been down to me." "Were you?" I said, feeling very uncomfortable. "Yes. What's in the box?" "I don't know," I said. "I thought it was blocks of metal, packed to send away." I hesitated before I said metal. I was going to say silver; but I felt, after my father's words, as if I ought to be cautious. "I believe I know what's inside," said my companion. "Well, what?" I cried, as I tugged at another screw which refused to go round. "New tools for the mine." "Why, of course!" I exclaimed. "Here: you go on. I can't manage this screw. How stupid of me not to think of it!" "There he goes!" said Bigley, giving the screw a good wrench. "How many more are there? I see: these two." He attacked them one after the other, talking the while. "I wonder you don't know what's in the box," he said. "I thought your father told you everything--so different to mine, who never says anything to me." "He does say a great deal to me, but he didn't tell me about the box." "There, then!" cried Bigley, taking out the last screw and seating himself suddenly upon the chest. "We've only got to lift the lid and there we are. Who has first peep?" "Oh, I don't care," I said laughing. "You can." "Here goes, then!" cried Bigley. "Take care of the screws." I swept them into a heap and placed them on the table as Bigley threw open the lid, which worked upon two great hinges, and then removing some coarse paper he drew back. "You'd better unpack," he said. "Don't make a litter with the shavings." For as the paper was removed the box seemed to be full of very fine brown shavings mixed with fine saw-dust. I swept the shavings away and felt my hands touch a row of long parcels, carefully wrapped in a peculiar-looking paper; and as I took them out, and shook them free of the saw-dust, handing them one by one to Bigley to place upon the table, my heart began to beat, and the blood flushed into my cheeks. "Why, they're not mining tools!" cried Bigley excitedly. "Whatever are you going to do? They're swords." "Yes," I said huskily; "they're swords--cutlasses." "Why, you knew all the time!" cried Bigley. "No; I did not," I said. "I had no idea." "But how comical!" he cried. "What are you going to do with them?" I did not answer, for all my thoughts of half an hour before seemed to have rushed back, and I felt that I had been wondering why my father had not done that which he really had; and, though Bigley evidently could not realise the object of the weapons being there, it certainly seemed to me that my father felt that there was danger in the air, and that he meant to be prepared. "What are you thinking about?" cried my companion. "Why don't you speak?" "I was thinking about the cutlasses," I said. "Well, it is a surprise!" cried Bigley. "Oh, I know. Your father's an old sea captain, and they say the French are coming. He's going to arm some men as volunteers." All this time I was handing out the wrapped-up weapons, as we supposed them to be--as we felt they must be--and Bigley was arranging them upon the table side by side. "That's the end of those," I said, and Bigley counted them. Twelve. "Twelve swords," he said. "I say, Sep, let's ask him to make us volunteers too." But I was unpacking the next things, and felt in no wise surprised by their weight and shape, to which the brown paper lent itself pretty clearly. "Pistols!" cried Bigley, as I handed the first. "Oh, I say, Sep, do you think there'll be any uniforms too?" "No," I said, "not in a box like this. Here, catch hold!" I handed the first pistol to him, and he laid it beneath the swords. "I know how many there ought to be!" he cried--"twenty-four. A brace of pistols and a cutlass for every man. Here, pitch them and I'll catch." There was nothing to prevent my handing them to him; but, boy-like, it seemed pleasant thus to turn work into play, and I began to pitch one by one the little heavy packages as I drew them out of the chest. Bigley nearly let one fall, but he saved it, and laughingly placed it in the row he was making, till, counting the while, he exclaimed-- "Twenty-three! Is that next one the last?" "Yes," I said, as I pitched it to him and it was placed in the range upon the table. "You were right." "Is there anything else?" "Oh, yes," I said; "the box isn't half empty." I dived down and brought out next a long sword, more carefully wrapped, and in superior paper to those which had been previously taken out. Then followed a squarish case or box in paper, and for a few moments we were undecided as to what it might be, concluding that it must be a pistol-case with a brace of superior weapons inside. Still the chest was far from empty, and on continuing the unpacking I found that I was handing out short carbines, such as artillerymen or horse-soldiers would use. "Twelve!" cried Bigley, who was growing more and more excited. "What next?" The next thing was a small square box wrapped in something soft, and occupying the bottom corner of the chest, while the rest of the space was occupied by small boxes that were not wrapped in paper, but fastened down with copper nails, and on each was painted the big figures--250. I handed out eight of these little boxes, and they, being pretty heavy, were placed close beside the wall of the office. "That's all," I said, and, concluding that it was the proper thing to do, we replaced the shavings and saw-dust in the chest, shut down the lid, put the loose screws in a piece of paper, and tied them to one of the clamps before pushing the chest aside and making all tidy. This done, we hovered, as it were, about the table with longing eyes and itching fingers, ending by looking at each other. "I say," said Bigley; "didn't your father say that we were to unpack the box?" "Yes, and we've done it," I replied rather sulkily. "Well, oughtn't we to take the things out of the paper, and lay the paper all neatly and save the string?" "Think so?" I said longingly. Bigley hesitated, took up a packet, turned it over, balanced it in his hand, laid it down again, and rearranged several of the others without speaking, but he heaved a deep sigh. "Think we ought to unpack them further?" I said. "No," said Bigley unwillingly. "I don't think it would be right. Do you?" "No," I said with a sigh; "but I should like to have a look." We two lads went on hovering about the table, peering at first one packet and then at another, feeling them up and down, and quite convincing ourselves that certain ones were a little more ornamental than others. There was no doubt about it, we felt. They were swords, pistols, and carbines. "Here, I know," I exclaimed. "Know what, Sep?" "The boxes, 250." "Well, what about 'em?" "Cartridges," I said. "Two hundred and fifty in each." "So they are," cried Bigley with his eyes dilating; and, however much we may have been disappointed over the silver mine, the counting-house now seemed to be a perfect treasure cave, such an armoury had it become. "I say, they won't go off, will they?" cried Bigley. "Pshaw! Not they. I say, wouldn't old Bob like to be here now?" "Ah, wouldn't he?" said Bigley. "Why, it's like being in a real robbers' cave." "No," I said; "not robbers'," and I recalled the thoughts I had indulged in earlier in the day. "No; of course not," said Bigley thoughtfully; "it isn't like a robbers' cave. I say, don't it look as if there were going to be a fight?" I nodded, and wondered whether there would be. "Should you like to be in it if there was?" I said in a curious doubting manner. Bigley rubbed one ear, and picked up a sword. "I don't know," he said. "Sometimes I think I should; but sometimes I feel as if it would be very horrid to give a fellow a chop with a thing like this, just as if he was so much meat. I would, though, if he was going to hurt my father," he cried with his eyes flashing. "I'd cut his arm right off. Wouldn't you?" "Dunno," I said, and I began wondering whether there would ever be any occasion to use these weapons, and I could not help a shrinking sensation of dread coming over me, for I seemed to see the horror as well as the glory of shooting down human beings, and more than ever it occurred to me that if trouble did come, my old school-fellow might be on one side and I on the other. "I say," said Bigley suddenly; "we've only undone one box, oughtn't we to undo the other?" "What, that?" I said, looking at a shorter smaller box on end in the corner behind the door. "Yes." "Father didn't say I was to." "But that looks as if it came from the same place." "Why, Big," I cried eagerly, "that must have the uniforms in it." "Hurray! Yes," he cried. "Wonder whether they're scarlet?" "No," I said. "They're sure to be blue, like the sailors'." "Oh! I don't know about that," he cried. "Marines wear scarlet. I daresay they're red." "Should you open the box if you were me?" "Well, no," said Bigley; "perhaps not. He didn't tell us to. But oh, how I should like to take the paper off one of these pistols!" "So should I," was my reply, with a longing look at the array of quaint-looking parcels; "but we mustn't do that, though I do feel as if I could do it up again just as neatly." "No; don't try," cried Bigley. "Let 'em be. We can think what's inside. I shouldn't wonder if some of them are mounted with brass, and have lions' heads on the butts." "Yes, and the swords too--brass lions' heads, holding the guards in their mouths." "Why, we haven't seen any belts." "No; they would be with the uniforms. I say, I wonder whether the cutlasses are very sharp?" "And whether they are bright blue half-way up the blade; you said your father's sword was." "Yes," I replied; "and inlaid with gold. It was given to him when he left his ship." "Here, come out!" cried Bigley, laying hold of my hand. "Come out? What for?" I said. "Because it's the best way. I always run off when I see anything very tempting that I want to touch, and ought not to." "Get out!" I cried. "I do, Sep, honour bright, and I feel now as if I should be obliged to undo some of those papers, and try the pistols, and pull the swords out of the sheaths. Let's go out." I laughed, for I felt very much in the same way, only it seemed to be so cowardly to go, and Bigley came to the same way of thinking, the result being that we kept on picking up the different packages and feasting our imaginations by means of touch, till suddenly the door opened, and my father came in. _ |
||