DEAR FATHER: Mr. Chipperton has told me about your
          suing him. If he really has set his house over on
          four inches of your lot, I wish you would let it
          stand there. I don't care much for him, but he has
          a nice wife and a pleasant girl, and if you go on
          suing him the whole lot of them will leave here
          to-morrow, and they're about the only people I
          know, except Gordon. If you want to, you can take
          a foot off any one of my three lots, and that
          ought to make it all right.

                     Your affectionate son, SAMUEL COLBERT.

"Have you three lots?" I asked, a good deal surprised, for I didn't know
that Rectus was a property-owner.

"Yes," said he; "my grandmother left them to me."

"Are they right next to your father's lot, which Chipperton cut into?"

"No, they're nowhere near it," said Rectus.

I burst out laughing.

"That letter wont do any good," I said.

"You'll see," said Rectus, and he went off to mail it.

I don't know what kind of a business man Mr. Chipperton was, but when
Rectus told him that he had written a letter to his father which would
make the thing all right, he was perfectly satisfied; and the next day
we all went out in a sail-boat to the coral-reef, and had a splendid
time, and the "Tigress" went off without any Chippertons. I think Mr.
Chipperton put the whole thing down as the result of his lecture to
Rectus up in the silk-cotton tree.




CHAPTER XV.

A STRANGE THING HAPPENS TO ME.


For several days after our hot chase after Priscilla, we saw nothing of
this ex-emissary. Indeed, we began to be afraid that something had
happened to her. She was such a regular attendant at the
hotel-door-market, that people were talking about missing her black face
and her chattering tongue. But she turned up one morning as gay and
skippy as ever, and we saw her leaning against the side of one of the
door-ways of the court in her favorite easy attitude, with her head on
one side and one foot crossed over the other, which made her look like a
bronze figure such as they put under kerosene lamps. In one hand she had
her big straw hat, and in the other a bunch of rose-buds. The moment she
saw Corny she stepped up to her.

"Wont you buy some rose-buds, missy?" she said. "De puttiest rose-buds I
ever brought you yit."

Corny looked at her with a withering glare, but Priscilla didn't wither
a bit. She was a poor hand at withering.

"Please buy 'em, missy. I kep' 'em fur you. I been a-keepin' 'em all de
mornin'."

"I don't see how you dare ask me to buy your flowers!" exclaimed Corny.
"Go away! I never want to see you again. After all you did----"

"Please, missy, buy jist this one bunch. These is the puttiest red-rose
buds in dis whole town. De red roses nearly all gone."

"Nearly all gone," said I. "What do you mean by telling such a fib?"--I
was going to say "lie," which was nearer the truth (if that isn't a
bull); but there were several ladies about, and Priscilla herself was a
girl. "You know that there are red roses here all the year."

"Please, boss," said Priscilla, rolling her eyes at me like an innocent
calf, "wont you buy dese roses fur missy? They's the puttiest roses I
ever brought her yit."

"I guess you've got a calcareous conscience, haven't you?" said Rectus.

Priscilla looked at him, for a moment, as if she thought that he might
want to buy something of that kind, but as she hadn't it to sell, she
tried her flowers on him.

"Please, boss, wont you buy dese roses fur----"

"No," said Rectus, "I wont."

And we all turned and walked away. It was no use to blow her up. She
wouldn't have minded it. But she lost three customers.

I said before that I was the only one in our party who liked fishing,
and for that reason I didn't go often, for I don't care about taking
trips of that kind by myself. But one day Mr. Burgan and the other
yellow-legs told me that they were going to fish in Lake Killarney, a
lovely little lake in the interior of the island, about five miles from
the town, and that if I liked I might go along. I did like, and I went.

I should have been better pleased if they had gone there in a carriage;
but this wouldn't have suited these two fellows, who had rigged
themselves up in their buck-skin boots, and had all the tramping and
fishing rigs that they used in the Adirondacks and other sporting places
where they told me they had been. It was a long and a warm walk, and
trying to find a good place for fishing, after we got to the lake, made
the work harder yet. We didn't find any good place, and the few fish we
caught didn't pay for the trouble of going there; but we walked all over
a big pineapple plantation and had a splendid view from the highest hill
on the whole island.

It was pretty late in the afternoon when we reached home, and I made up
my mind that the next time I went so far to fish, in a semi-tropical
country, I'd go with a party who wore suits that would do for riding.

Rectus and Corny and Mrs. Chipperton were up in the silk-cotton tree
when I got home, and I went there and sat down. Mrs. Chipperton lent me
her fan.

Corny and Rectus were looking over the "permission paper" which the
English governor had given us.

"I guess this isn't any more use, now," said Corny, "as we've done all
we can for kings and queens, but Rectus says that if you agree I can
have it for my autograph book. I never had a governor's signature."

"Certainly, you can have it," I said. "And he's a different governor
from the common run. None of your State governors, but a real British
governor, like those old fellows they set over us in our colony-days."

"Indeed!" said Mrs. Chipperton, smiling. "You must be able to remember a
long way back."

"Well, you needn't make fun of this governor," said Corny, "for he's a
real nice man. We met him to-day, riding in the funniest carriage you
ever saw in your life. It's like a big baby-carriage for twins, only
it's pulled by a horse, and has a man in livery to drive it. The top's
straw, and you get in in the middle, and sit both ways."

"Either way, my dear," said Mrs. Chipperton.

"Yes, either way," continued Corny. "Did you ever see a carriage like
that?"

"I surely never did," said I.

"Well, he was in it, and some ladies, and they stopped and asked Rectus
and I how we got along with our queen, and when I told them all about
it, you ought to have heard them laugh, and the governor, he said, that
Poqua-dilla shouldn't suffer after we went away, even if he had to get
all his pepper-pods from her. Now, wasn't that good?"

I admitted that it was, but I thought to myself that a good supper and a
bed would be better, for I was awfully tired and hungry. But I didn't
say this.

I slept as sound as a rock that night, and it was pretty broad daylight
when I woke up. I don't believe that I would have wakened then, but I
wanted to turn over and couldn't, and that is enough to make any fellow
wake up.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself in the worst fix I had ever been
in in my life. I couldn't move my arms or my legs, for my arms were tied
fast to my body, at the elbows and wrists, and my feet and my knees were
tied together. I was lying flat on my back, but I could turn my head
over to where Rectus' bed stood--it was a small one like mine--and he
wasn't there. I sung out:

"Rectus!" and gave a big heave, which made the bed rattle. I was scared.

In a second, Rectus was standing by me. He had been sitting by the
window. He was all dressed.

"Don't shout that way again," he said, in a low voice, "or I'll have to
tie this handkerchief over your mouth," and he showed me a clean linen
handkerchief all folded up, ready. "I wont put it so that it will stop
your breathing," he said, as coolly as if this sort of thing was nothing
unusual. "I'll leave your nose free."

"Let me up, you little rascal!" I cried. "Did you do this?"

At that he deliberately laid the handkerchief over my mouth and fastened
it around my head. He was careful to leave my nose all right, but I was
so mad that I could scarcely breathe. I knew by the way he acted that he
had tied me, and I had never had such a trick played on me before. But
it was no use to be mad. I couldn't do anything, though I tugged and
twisted my very best. He had had a good chance to tie me up well, for I
had slept so soundly. I was regularly bandaged.

He stood by me for a few minutes, watching to see if I needed any more
fixing, but when he made up his mind that I was done up securely, he
brought a chair and sat down by the side of the bed and began to talk to
me. I never saw anything like the audacity of the boy.

"You needn't think it was mean to tie you, when you were so tired and
sleepy, for I intended to do it this morning, any way, for you always
sleep sound enough in the mornings to let a fellow tie you up as much as
he pleases. And I suppose you'll say it was mean to tie you, any way,
but you know well enough that it's no use for me to argue with you, for
you wouldn't listen. But now you've got to listen, and I wont let you up
till you promise never to call me Rectus again."

"The little rascal!" I thought to myself. I might have made some noise
in spite of the handkerchief, but I thought it better not, for I didn't
know what else he might pile on my mouth.

"It isn't my name, and I'm tired of it," he continued. "I didn't mind it
at school, and I didn't mind it when we first started out together, but
I've had enough of it now, and I've made up my mind that I'll make you
promise never to call me by that name again."

I vowed to myself that I would call him Rectus until his hair was gray.
I'd write letters to him wherever he lived, and direct them: "Rectus
Colbert."

[Illustration: "I WOULDN'T LIKE IT MYSELF."]

"There wasn't any other way to do it, and so I did it this way," he
said. "I'm sorry, really, to have to tie you up so, because I wouldn't
like it myself, and I wouldn't have put that handkerchief over your
mouth if you had agreed to keep quiet, but I don't want anybody coming
in here until you've promised."

"Promise!" I thought; "I'll never promise you that while the world rolls
round."

"I know you can't say anything with that handkerchief over your mouth;
but you don't have to speak. Your toes are loose. When you're ready to
promise never to call me Rectus again, just wag your big toe, either
one."

I stiffened my toes, as if my feet were cast in brass. Rectus moved his
chair a little around, so that he could keep an eye on my toes. Then he
looked at his watch, and said:

"It's seven o'clock now, and that's an hour from breakfast time. I don't
want to keep you there any longer than I can help. You'd better wag your
toe now, and be done with it. It's no use to wait."

"Wag?" I thought to myself. "Never!"

"I know what you're thinking," he went on. "You think that if you lie
there long enough, you'll be all right, for when the chambermaid comes
to do up the room, I must let her in, or else I'll have to say you're
sick, and then the Chippertons will come up."

That was exactly what I was thinking.

"But that wont do you any good," said he, "I've thought of all that."

He was a curious boy. How such a thing as this should have come into his
mind, I couldn't imagine. He must have read of something of the kind.
But to think of his trying it on _me_! I ground my teeth.

He sat and watched me for some time longer. Once or twice he fixed the
handkerchief over my mouth, for he seemed anxious that I should be as
comfortable as possible. He was awfully kind, to be sure!

"It isn't right that anybody should have such a name sticking to them
always," he said. "And if I'd thought you'd have stopped it, I wouldn't
have done this. But I knew you. You would just have laughed and kept
on."

The young scoundrel! Why didn't he try me?

"Yesterday, when the governor met us, Corny called me Rectus, and even
he said that was a curious name, and he didn't remember that I gave it
to him, when he wrote that paper for us."

Oh, ho! That was it, was it? Getting proud and meeting governors! Young
prig!

Now Rectus was quiet a little longer, and then he got up.

"I didn't think you'd be so stubborn," he said, "but perhaps you know
your own business best. I'm not going to keep you there until breakfast
is ready, and people want to come in."

Then he went over to the window, and came back directly with a little
black paint-pot, with a brush in it.

"Now," said he, "if you don't promise, in five minutes, to never call me
Rectus again, I'm going to paint one-half of your face black. I got this
paint yesterday from the cane-man, on purpose."

Oil-paint! I could smell it.

"Now, you may be sure I'm going to do it," he said.

Oh, I was sure! When he said he'd do a thing, I knew he'd do it. I had
no doubts about that. He was great on sticking to his word.

He had put his watch on the table near by, and was stirring up the
paint.

"You've only three minutes more," he said. "This stuff wont wash off in
a hurry, and you'll have to stay up here by yourself, and wont need any
tying. It's got stuff mixed with it to make it dry soon, so that you
needn't lie there very long after I've painted you. You mustn't mind if
I put my finger on your mouth when I take off the handkerchief; I'll be
careful not to get any in your eyes or on your lips if you hold your
head still. One minute more. Will you promise?"

What a dreadful minute! He turned and looked at my feet. I gave one big
twist in my bandages. All held. I wagged my toe.

"Good!" said he. "I didn't want to paint you. But I would have done it,
sure as shot, if you hadn't promised. Now I'll untie you. I can trust
you to stick to your word,--I mean your wag," he said, with a grin.

It took him a long time to undo me. The young wretch had actually pinned
long strips of muslin around me, and he had certainly made a good job of
it, for they didn't hurt me at all, although they held me tight enough.
He said, as he was working at me, that he had torn up two old shirts to
make these bandages, and had sewed some of the strips together the
afternoon before. He said he had heard of something like this being done
at a school. A pretty school that must have been!

He unfastened my arms first,--that is, as soon as he had taken the
handkerchief off my mouth,--and the moment he had taken the bandage from
around my ankles, he put for the door. But I was ready. I sprang out of
bed, made one jump over his bed, around which he had to go, and caught
him just at the door.

He forgot that he should have left my ankles for me to untie for myself.

I guess the people in the next rooms must have thought there was
something of a rumpus in our room when I caught him.

There was considerable coolness between Colbert and me after that. In
fact, we didn't speak. I was not at all anxious to keep this thing up,
for I was satisfied, and was perfectly willing to call it square; but
for the first time since I had known him, Colbert was angry. I suppose
every fellow, no matter how good-natured he may be, must have some sort
of a limit to what he will stand, and Colbert seemed to have drawn his
line at a good thrashing.

It wasn't hard for me to keep my promise to him, for I didn't call him
anything; but I should have kept it all the same if we had been on the
old terms.

Of course, Corny soon found out that there was something the matter
between us two, and she set herself to find out what it was.

"What's the matter with you and Rectus?" she asked me the next day. I
was standing in the carriage-way before the hotel, and she ran out to
me.

"You mustn't call him Rectus," said I. "He doesn't like it."

"Well, then, I wont," said she. "But what is it all about? Did you
quarrel about calling him that? I hate to see you both going about, and
not speaking to each other."

I had no reason to conceal anything, and so I told her the whole affair,
from the very beginning to the end.

"I don't wonder he's mad," said she, "if you thrashed him."

"Well, and oughtn't I to be mad after the way he treated me?" I asked.

"Yes," she said. "It makes me sick just to think of being tied up in
that way,--and the black paint, too! But then you are so much bigger
than he is, that it don't seem right for you to thrash him."

"That's one reason I did it," said I. "I didn't want to fight him as I
should have fought a fellow of my own size. I wanted to punish him. Do
you think that when a father wants to whip his son he ought to wait
until he grows up as big as he is?"

"No," said Corny, very gravely. "Of course not. But Rectus isn't your
son. What shall I call him? Samuel, or Sam? I don't like either of them,
and I wont say Mr. Colbert. I think 'Rectus' is a great deal nicer."

"So do I," I said; "but that's his affair. To be sure, he isn't my son,
but he's under my care, and if he wasn't, it would make no difference.
I'd thrash any boy alive who played such a trick on me."

"Unless he was bigger than you are," said Corny.

"Well, then I'd get you to help me. You'd do it; wouldn't you, Corny?"

She laughed.

"I guess I couldn't help much, and I suppose you're both right to be
angry at each other; but I'm awful sorry if things are going on this
way. It didn't seem like the same place yesterday. Nobody did anything
at all."

"I tell you what it is, Corny," said I. "You're not angry with either of
us; are you?"

"No, indeed," said she, and her face warmed up and her eyes shone.

"That's one comfort," said I, and I gave her a good hand-shake.

It must have looked funny to see a boy and a girl shaking hands there in
front of the hotel, and a young darkey took advantage of our good-humor,
and, stealing out from a shady corner of the court, sold us seven little
red and black liquorice-seed for fourpence,--the worst swindle that had
been worked on us yet.




CHAPTER XVI.

MR. CHIPPERTON KEEPS PERFECTLY COOL.


It's of no use to deny the fact that Nassau was a pretty dull place,
just about this time. At least Corny and I found it so, and I don't
believe young Mr. Colbert was very happy, for he didn't look it. It's
not to be supposed that our quarrel affected the negroes, or the sky, or
the taste of bananas; but the darkeys didn't amuse me, and my
recollection of those days is that they were cloudy, and that I wasn't a
very good customer down in the market-house by the harbor, where we used
to go and buy little fig-bananas, which they didn't have at the hotel,
but which were mighty good to eat.

Colbert and I still kept up a frigid reserve toward each other. He
thought, I suppose, that I ought to speak first, because I was the
older, and I thought that he ought to speak first because he was the
younger.

One evening, I went up into my room, having absolutely nothing else to
do, and there I found Colbert, writing. I suppose he was writing a
letter, but there was no need of doing this at night, as the mail would
not go out for several days, and there would be plenty of time to write
in the daytime. He hadn't done anything but lounge about for two or
three days. Perhaps he came up here to write because he had nothing else
to do.

There was only one table, and I couldn't write if I had wanted to, so I
opened my trunk and began to put some of my things in order. We had
arranged, before we had fallen out, that we should go home on the next
steamer, and Mr. and Mrs. Chipperton were going too. We had been in
Nassau nearly a month, and had seen about as much as was to be seen--in
an ordinary way. As for me, I couldn't afford to stay any longer, and
that had been the thing that had settled the matter, as far as Colbert
and I were concerned. But now he might choose to stay, and come home by
himself. However, there was no way of my knowing what he thought, and I
supposed that I had no real right to make him come with me. At any rate,
if I had, I didn't intend to exercise it.

While I was looking over the things in my trunk, I came across the box
of dominoes that Corny had given us to remember her by. It seemed like a
long time ago since we had been sitting together on the water-battery at
St. Augustine! In a few minutes I took the box of dominoes in my hand
and went over to Colbert. As I put them on the table he looked up.

"What do you say to a game of dominoes?" I said. "This is the box Corny
gave us. We haven't used it yet."

"Very well," said he, and he pushed away his paper and emptied the
dominoes out on the table. Then he picked up some of them, and looked at
them as if they were made in some new kind of a way that he had never
noticed before; and I picked up some, too, and examined them. Then we
began to play. We did not talk very much, but we played as if it was
necessary to be very careful to make no mistakes. I won the first game,
and I could not help feeling a little sorry, while Colbert looked as if
he felt rather glad. We played until about our ordinary bed-time, and
then I said:

"Well, Colbert, I guess we might as well stop," and he said:

"Very well."

But he didn't get ready to go to bed. He went to the window and looked
out for some time, and then he came back to the table and sat down. He
took his pen and began to print on the lid of the domino-box, which was
of smooth white wood. He could print names and titles of things very
neatly, a good deal better than I could.

When he had finished, he got up and began to get ready for bed, leaving
the box on the table. Pretty soon I went over to look at it, for I must
admit I was rather curious to see what he had put on it. This was the
inscription he had printed on the lid:

                "GIVEN TO
              WILL AND RECTUS
                    BY
                  CORNY.
          ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA."

       *       *       *       *       *

There was a place left for the date, which I suppose he had forgotten. I
made no remark about this inscription, for I did not know exactly what
remark was needed; but the next morning I called him "Rectus," just the
same as ever, for I knew he had printed our names on the box to show me
that he wanted to let me off my promise. I guess the one time I called
him Colbert was enough for him.

When we came down stairs to breakfast, talking to each other like common
people, it was better than most shows to see Corny's face. She was
standing at the front door, not far from the stairs, and it actually
seemed as if a candle had been lighted inside of her. Her face shone.

I know I felt first-rate, and I think Rectus must have felt pretty much
the same, for his tongue rattled away at a rate that wasn't exactly
usual with him. There was no mistaking Corny's feelings.

After breakfast, when we all got together to talk over the plans of the
day,--a thing we hadn't done for what seemed to me about a week,--we
found out--or rather remembered--that there were a lot of things in
Nassau that we hadn't seen yet, and that we wouldn't miss for anything.
We had been wasting time terribly lately, and the weather was now rather
better for going about than it had been since we came to the place.

We agreed to go to Fort Charlotte that morning, and see the subterranean
rooms and passage-ways, and all the underground dreariness of which we
had heard so much. The fort was built about a hundred years ago, and
has no soldiers in it. To go around and look at the old forts in this
part of the world might make a person believe the millennium had come.
They seem just about as good as ever they were, but they're all on a
peace-footing. Rectus said they were played out, but I'd rather take my
chances in Fort Charlotte, during a bombardment, than in some of the
new-style forts that I have seen in the North. It is almost altogether
underground, in the solid calcareous, and what could any fellow want
better than that? The cannon-balls and bombs would have to plow up about
an acre of pretty solid rock, and plow it deep, too, before they would
begin to scratch the roof of the real strongholds of this fort. At
least, that's the way I looked at it.

We made up a party and walked over. It's at the western end of the town,
and about a mile from the hotel. Mr. and Mrs. Chipperton were with us,
and a lady from Chicago, and Mr. Burgan. The other yellow-legs went out
riding with his wife, but I think he wanted to go with us. The fort is
on the top of a hill, and a colored shoemaker is in command. He sits and
cobbles all day, except when visitors come, and then he shows them
around. He lighted a lamp and took us down into the dark, quiet rooms
and cells, that were cut out of the solid rock, down deep into the hill,
and it was almost like being in a coal-mine, only it was a great deal
cleaner and not so deep. But it seemed just as much out of the world. In
some of the rooms there were bats hanging to the ceilings. We didn't
disturb them. One of the rooms was called the governor's room. There
wasn't any governor there, of course, but it had been made by the jolly
old earl who had the place cut out,--and who was governor here at the
time,--as a place where he might retire when he wanted to be private. It
was the most private apartment I ever saw. This earl was the same old
Dunmore we used to study about in our histories. He came over here when
the Revolution threw him out of business in our country. He had some
good ideas about chiselling rock.

This part of the fort was so extremely subterranean and solemn that it
wasn't long before Mrs. Chipperton had enough of it, and we came up. It
was fine to get out into the open air, and see the blue sky and the
bright, sparkling water of the harbor just below us, and the islands
beyond, and still beyond them the blue ocean, with everything so bright
and cheerful in the sunlight. If I had been governor of this place, I
should have had my private room on top of the fort, although, of course,
that wouldn't do so well in times of bombardment.

But the general-in-chief did not let us off yet. He said he'd show us
the most wonderful thing in the whole place, and then he took us
out-of-doors again, and led us to a little shed or enclosed door-way
just outside of the main part of the fort, but inside of the
fortifications, where he had his bench and tools. He moved away the
bench, and then we saw that it stood on a wooden trap-door. He took hold
of a ring, and lifted up this door, and there was a round hole about as
big as the hind wheel of a carriage. It was like a well, and was as
dark as pitch. When we held the lamp over it, however, we could see that
there were winding steps leading down into it. These steps were cut out
of the rock, as was the hole and the pillar around which the steps
wound. It was all one piece. The general took his lamp and went down
ahead, and we all followed, one by one. Those who were most afraid and
went last had the worst of it, for the lamp wasn't a calcium light by
any means, and their end of the line was a good deal in the dark. But we
all got to the bottom of the well at last, and there we found a long,
narrow passage leading under the very foundation or bottom floor of the
whole place, and then it led outside of the fort under the moat, which
was dry now, but which used to be full of water, and so, on and on, in
black darkness, to a place in the side of the hill, or somewhere, where
there had been a lookout. Whether there were any passages opening into
this or not, I don't know, for it was dark in spite of the lamp, and we
all had to walk in single file, so there wasn't much chance for
exploring sidewise. When we got to the end, we were glad enough to turn
around and come back. It was a good thing to see such a place, but there
was a feeling that if the walls should cave in a little, or a big rock
should fall from the top of the passage, we should all be hermetically
canned in very close quarters. When we came out, we gave the shoemaker
commander some money, and came away.

"Isn't it nice," said Corny, "that he isn't a queen, to be taken care
of, and we can just pay him and come away, and not have to think of him
any more?"

We agreed to that, but I said I thought we ought to go and take one more
look at our old queen before we left. Mrs. Chipperton, who was a really
sensible woman when she had a chance, objected to this, because, she
said, it would be better to let the old woman alone now. We couldn't do
anything for her after we left, and it would be better to let her depend
on her own exertions, now that she had got started again on that track.
I didn't think that the word exertion was a very good one in
Poqua-dilla's case, but I didn't argue the matter. I thought that if
some of us dropped around there before we left, and gave her a couple of
shillings, it would not interfere much with her mercantile success in
the future.

I thought this, but Corny spoke it right out--at least, what she said
amounted to pretty much the same thing.

"Well," said her mother, "we might go around there once more, especially
as your father has never seen the queen at all. Mr. Chipperton, would
you like to see the African queen?"

Mr. Chipperton did not answer, and his wife turned around quickly. She
had been walking ahead with the Chicago lady.

"Why, where is he?" she exclaimed. We all stopped and looked about, but
couldn't see him. He wasn't there. We were part way down the hill, but
not far from the fort, and we stopped and looked back, and then Corny
called him. I said that I would run back for him, as he had probably
stopped to talk with the shoemaker. Rectus and I both ran back, and
Corny came with us. The shoemaker had put his bench in its place over
the trap-door, and was again at work. But Mr. Chipperton was not talking
to him.

"I'll tell you what I believe,"--said Corny, gasping.

But it was of no use to wait to hear what she believed. I believed it
myself.

"Hello!" I cried to the shoemaker before I reached him. "Did a gentleman
stay behind here?"

"I didn't see none," said the man, looking up in surprise, as we charged
on him.

"Then," I cried, "he's shut down in that well! Jump up and open the
door!"

The shoemaker did jump up, and we helped him move the bench, and had the
trap-door open in no time. By this, the rest of the party had come back,
and when Mrs. Chipperton saw the well open and no Mr. Chipperton about,
she turned as white as a sheet. We could hardly wait for the man to
light his lamp, and as soon as he started down the winding stairs,
Rectus and I followed him. I called back to Mrs. Chipperton and the
others that they need not come; we would be back in a minute and let
them know. But it was of no use; they all came. We hurried on after the
man with the light, and passed straight ahead through the narrow passage
to the very end of it.

There stood Mr. Chipperton, holding a lighted match, which he had just
struck. He was looking at something on the wall. As we ran in, he
turned and smiled, and was just going to say something, when Corny threw
herself into his arms, and his wife, squeezing by, took him around his
neck so suddenly that his hat flew off and bumped on the floor, like an
empty tin can. He always wore a high silk hat. He made a grab for his
hat, and the match burned his fingers.

"Aouch!" he exclaimed, as he dropped the match. "What's the matter?"

"Oh, my dear!" exclaimed his wife. "How dreadful to leave you here! Shut
up alone in this awful place! But to think we have found you!"

"No trouble about that, I should say," remarked Mr. Chipperton, going
over to the other side of the den after his hat. "You haven't been gone
ten minutes, and it's a pretty straight road back here."

"But how did it happen?" "Why did you stay?" "Weren't you frightened?"
"Did you stay on purpose?" we all asked him at pretty much one and the
same time.

"I did stay on purpose," said he; "but I did not expect to stay but a
minute, and had no idea you would go and leave me. I stopped to see what
in the name of common sense this place was made for. I tried my best to
make some sort of an observation out of this long, narrow loop-hole, but
found I could see nothing of importance whatever, and so I made up my
mind it was money thrown away to cut out such a place as this to so
little purpose. When I had entirely made up my mind, I found, on turning
around, that you had gone, and although I called I received no answer.

"Then I knew I was alone in this place. But I was perfectly composed. No
agitation, no tremor of the nerves. Absolute self-control. The moment I
found myself deserted, I knew exactly what to do. I did precisely the
same thing that I would have done had I been left alone in the Mammoth
Cave, or the Cave of Fingal, or any place of the kind.

"I stood perfectly still!

"If you will always remember to do that," and he looked as well as he
could from one to another of us, "you need never be frightened, no
matter how dark and lonely a cavern you may be left in. Strive to
reflect that you will soon be missed, and that your friends will
naturally come back to the place where they saw you last. Stay there!
Keep that important duty in your mind. Stay just where you are! If you
run about to try and find your way out, you will be lost. You will lose
yourself, and no one can find you.

"Instances are not uncommon where persons have been left behind in the
Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, and who were not found by searching parties
for a day or two, and they were almost invariably discovered in an
insane condition. They rushed wildly about in the dark; got away from
the ordinary paths of tourists; couldn't be found, and went crazy,--a
very natural consequence. Now, nothing of the kind happened to me. I
remained where I was, and here, you see, in less than ten minutes, I am
rescued!"

And he looked around with a smile as pleasant as if he had just invented
a new sewing-machine.

"But were you not frightened,--awe-struck in this dark and horrible
place, alone?" inquired Mrs. Chipperton, holding on to his arm.

"No," said he. "It was not very dark just here. That slit let in a
little light. That is all it is good for, though why light should be
needed here, I cannot tell. And then I lighted matches and examined the
wall. I might find some trace of some sensible intention on the part of
the people who quarried this passage. But I could find nothing. What I
might have found, had I moved about, I cannot say. I had a whole box of
matches in my pocket. But I did not move."

"Well," said Mr. Burgan, "I think you'd better move now. I, for one, am
convinced that this place is of no use to me, and I don't like it."

I think Mr. Burgan was a little out of temper.

We now started on our way out of the passage, Mrs. Chipperton holding
tight to her husband, for fear, I suppose, that he might be inclined to
stop again.

"I didn't think," said she, as she clambered up the dark and twisting
steps, "that I should have this thing to do, so soon again. But no one
can ever tell what strange things may happen to them, at any time."

"When father's along," added Corny.

This was all nuts to the shoemaker, for we gave him more money for his
second trip down the well. I hope this didn't put the idea into his head
of shutting people down below, and making their friends come after them,
and pay extra.

"There are some things about Mr. Chipperton that I like," said Rectus,
as we walked home together.

"Yes," said I, "some things."

"I like the cool way in which he takes bad fixes," continued Rectus, who
had a fancy for doing things that way himself. "Don't you remember that
time he struck on the sand-bank. He just sat there in the rain, waiting
for the tide to rise, and made no fuss at all. And here, he kept just as
cool and comfortable, down in that dungeon. He must have educated his
mind a good deal to be able to do that."

"It may be very well to educate the mind to take things coolly," said I,
"but I'd a great deal rather educate my mind not to get me into such
fixes."

"I suppose that would be better," said Rectus, after thinking a minute.

And now we had but little time to see anything more in Nassau. In two
days the "Tigris" would be due, and we were going away in her. So we
found we should have to bounce around in a pretty lively way, if we
wanted to be able to go home and say we had seen the place.




CHAPTER XVII.

WHAT BOY HAS DONE, BOY MAY DO.


There was one place that I wished, particularly, to visit before I left,
and that was what the people in Nassau called the Coral-reef. There were
lots of coral-reefs all about the islands, but this one was easily
visited, and for this reason, I suppose, was chosen as a representative
of its class. I had been there before, and had seen all the wonders of
the reef through a water-glass,--which is a wooden box, with a pane of
glass at one end and open at the other. You hold the glass end of this
box just under the water, and put your face to the open end, and then
you can see down under the water, exactly as if you were looking through
the air. And on this coral-reef, where the water was not more than
twelve or fourteen feet deep, there were lots of beautiful things to
see. It was like a submarine garden. There was coral in every form and
shape, and of different colors; there were sea-feathers, which stood up
like waving purple trees, most of them a foot or two high, but some a
good deal higher; there were sea-fans, purple and yellow, that spread
themselves up from the curious bits of coral-rock on the bottom, and
there were ever so many other things that grew like bushes and vines,
and of all sorts of colors. Among all these you could see the fishes
swimming about, as if they were in a great aquarium. Some of these
fishes were very large, with handsome black bands across their backs,
but the prettiest were some little fellows, no bigger than sardines,
that swam in among the branches of the sea-feathers and fans. They were
colored bright blue, and yellow and red; some of them with two or three
colors apiece. Rectus called them "humming-fishes." They did remind me
of humming-birds, although they didn't hum.

When I came here before, I was with a party of ladies and gentlemen. We
went in a large sail-boat, and took several divers with us, to go down
and bring up to us the curious things that we would select, as we looked
through the water-glass. There wasn't anything peculiar about these
divers. They wore linen breeches for diving dresses, and were the same
kind of fellows as those who dived for pennies at the town.

Now, what I wanted to do, was to go to the coral-reef and dive down and
get something for myself. It would be worth while to take home a sea-fan
or something of that kind, and say you brought it up from the bottom of
the sea yourself. Any one could get things that the divers had brought
up. To be sure, the sea wasn't very deep here, but it had a bottom, all
the same. I was not so good a swimmer as these darkeys, who ducked and
dived as if they had been born in the water, but I could swim better
than most fellows, and was particularly good at diving. So I determined,
if I could get a chance, to go down after some of those things on the
coral-reef.

I couldn't try this, before, because there were too many people along,
but Rectus, who thought the idea was splendid, although he didn't intend
to dive himself, agreed to hire a sail-boat with me, and go off to the
reef, with only the darkey captain.

We started as early as we could get off, on the morning after we had
been at Fort Charlotte. The captain of the yacht--they give themselves
and their sail-boats big titles here--was a tall colored man, named
Chris, and he took two big darkey boys with him, although we told him we
didn't want any divers. But I suppose he thought we might change our
minds. I didn't tell him _I_ was going to dive. He might not have been
willing to go in that case.

We had a nice sail up the harbor, between the large island upon which
the town stands, and the smaller ones that separate the harbor from the
ocean. After sailing about five miles, we turned out to sea between two
islands, and pretty soon were anchored over the reef.

"Now, then, boss," said Captain Chris, "don't ye want these here boys to
do some divin' for ye?"

"I told you I wouldn't want them," said I. "I'm going to dive, myself."

"_You_ dive, boss!" cried all three of the darkeys at once, and the two
boys began to laugh.

"Ye can't do that, boss," said the captain. "Ef ye aint used to this
here kind o' divin', ye can't do nothin' at all, under this water. Ye
better let the boys go for ye."

"No," said I, "I'm going myself," and I began to take off my clothes.

The colored fellows didn't like it much, for it seemed like taking their
business away from them; but they couldn't help it, and so they just sat
and waited to see how things would turn out.

"You'd better take a look through the glass, before you dive," said
Rectus, "and choose what you're going to get."

"I'm not going to be particular," I replied. "I shall get whatever I
can."

"The tide's pretty strong," said the captain. "You've got to calkelate
fur that."

I was obliged for this information, which was generous on his part,
considering the circumstances, and I dived from the bow, as far out as I
could jump. Down I went, but I didn't reach the bottom, at all. My legs
grazed against some branches and things, but the tide had me back to the
boat in no time, and I came up near the stern, which I seized, and got
on board.

Both the colored boys were grinning, and the captain said:

"Ye can't dive that-a-way, boss. You'll never git to the bottom, at all,
that-a-way. You must go right down, ef you go at all."

I knew that, but I must admit I didn't care much to go all the way down
when I made the first dive. Just as I jumped, I thought of the hard
sharp things at the bottom, and I guess I was a little too careful not
to dive into them.

But now I made a second dive, and I went down beautifully. I made a grab
at the first thing my hand touched. It was a purple knob of coral. But
it stuck tight to its mother-rock, and I was ready to go up before it
was ready to come loose, and so I went up without it.

"'T aint easy to git them things," said the captain, and the two boys
said:

"No indeed, boss, ye cahn't git them things dat-a-way."

I didn't say anything, but in a few minutes I made another dive. I
determined to look around a little, this time, and seize something that
I could break off or pull up. I found that I couldn't stay under water,
like the darkeys could. That required practice, and perhaps more fishy
lungs.

Down I went, and I came right down on a small sea-fan, which I grabbed
instantly. That ought to give way easily. But as I seized it, I brought
down my right foot into the middle of a big round sponge. I started, as
if I had had an electric shock. The thing seemed colder and wetter than
the water; it was slimy and sticky and horrid. I did not see what it
was, and it felt as if some great sucker-fish, with a cold woolly mouth,
was trying to swallow my foot. I let go of everything, and came right
up, and drew myself, puffing and blowing, on board the boat.

How Captain Chris laughed! He had been watching me through the
water-glass, and saw what had scared me.

"Why, boss!" said he, "sponges don't eat people! That was nice and sof'
to tread on. A sight better than cuttin' yer foot on a piece o' coral."

That was all very well, but I'm sure Captain Chris jumped the first time
he ever put his bare foot into a sponge under water.

"I s'pose ye're goin' to gib it up now, boss," said the captain.

"No, I'm not," I answered. "I haven't brought up anything yet. I'm going
down again."

"You'd better not," said Rectus. "Three times is all that anybody ever
tries to do anything. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
One, two, three. You're not expected to try four times. And, besides,
you're tired."

"I'll be rested in a minute," said I, "and then I'll try once more. I'm
all right. You needn't worry."

But Rectus did worry. I must have looked frightened when I came up, and
I believe he had caught the scare. Boys will do that. The captain tried
to keep me from going in again, but I knew it was all nonsense to be
frightened. I was going to bring up something from the bottom, if it was
only a pebble.

So, after resting a little while, and getting my breath again, down I
went. I was in for anything now, and the moment I reached the bottom, I
swept my arm around and seized the first thing I touched. It was a
pretty big thing, for it was a sea-feather over five feet high,--a
regular tree. I gave a jerk at it, but it held fast. I wished, most
earnestly, that I had taken hold of something smaller, but I didn't like
to let go. I might get nothing else. I gave another jerk, but it was of
no use. I felt that I couldn't hold my breath much longer, and must go
up. I clutched the stem of the thing with both hands; I braced my feet
against the bottom; I gave a tremendous tug and push, and up I came to
the top, sea-feather and all!

With both my hands full I couldn't do much swimming, and the tide
carried me astern of the boat before I knew it.

Rectus was the first to shout to me.

"Drop it, and strike out!" he yelled; but I didn't drop it. I took it in
one hand and swam with the other. But the tide was strong, and I didn't
make any headway. Indeed, I floated further away from the boat.

Directly, I heard a splash, and in a moment afterward, it seemed, the
two darkey divers were swimming up to me.

"Drop dat," said one of them, "an' we'll take ye in."

"No, I wont," I spluttered, still striking out with my legs and one arm.
"Take hold of this, and we can all go in together."

I thought that if one of them would help me with the sea-feather, which
seemed awfully heavy, two of us could certainly swim to the boat with
four legs and two arms between us.

But neither of them would do it. They wanted me to drop my prize, and
then they'd take hold of me and take me in. We were disputing and
puffing, and floating further and further away, when up came Captain
Chris, swimming like a shark. He had jerked off his clothes and jumped
in, when he saw what was going on. He just put one hand under my right
arm, in which I held the sea-feather, and then we struck out together
for the boat. It was like getting a tow from a tug-boat. We were
alongside in no time. Captain Chris was the strongest and best swimmer I
ever saw.

[Illustration: "WE STRUCK OUT TOGETHER FOR THE BOAT."]

Rectus was leaning over, ready to help, and he caught me by the arm as I
reached up for the side of the boat.

"No," said I, "take this," and he seized the sea-feather and pulled it
in. Then the captain gave me a hoist, and I clambered on board.

The captain had some towels under the little forward deck, and I gave
myself a good rub down and dressed. Then I went to look at my prize. No
wonder it was heavy. It had a young rock, a foot long, fast to its root.

"You sp'iled one o' de puttiest things in that garden down there," said
the captain. "I allus anchored near that tall feather, and all de
vis'tors used to talk about it. I didn't think you'd bring it up when I
seed you grab it. But you must 'a' give a powerful heave to come up with
all that stone."

"I don't think you ought to have tried to do that," said Rectus, who
looked as if he hadn't enjoyed himself. "I didn't know you were so
obstinate."

"Well," said I, "the truth of the matter is that I am a fool, sometimes,
and I might as well admit it. But now let's see what we've got on this
stone."

There was a lot of curious things on the piece of rock which had come up
with the sea-feather. There were small shells, of different shapes and
colors, with the living creatures inside of them, and there were mosses,
and sea-weed, and little sponges, and small sea-plants, tipped with red
and yellow, and more things of the kind than I can remember. It was the
handsomest and most interesting piece of coral-rock that I had seen yet.

As for the big purple sea-feather, it was a whopper, but too big for me
to do anything with it. When we got home, Rectus showed it around to
the Chippertons, and some of the people at the hotel, and told them that
I dived down and brought it up, myself, but I couldn't take it away with
me, for it was much too long to go in my trunk. So I gave it next day to
Captain Chris, to sell, if he chose, but I believe he took it back and
planted it again in the submarine garden, so that his passengers could
see how tall a sea-feather could grow, when it tried. I chipped off a
piece of the rock, however, to carry home as a memento. I was told that
the things growing on it--I picked off all the shells--would make the
clothes in my trunk smell badly, but I thought I'd risk it.

"After all," said Rectus, that night, "what was the good of it? That
little piece of stone don't amount to anything, and you might have been
drowned."

"I don't think I could have been drowned," said I, "for I should have
dropped the old thing, and floated, if I had felt myself giving out. But
the good of it was this: It showed me what a disagreeable sort of place
a sea-garden is, when you go down into it to pick things."

"Which you wont do again, in a hurry, I reckon," said Rectus.

"You're right there, my boy," I answered.

The next day, the Chippertons and ourselves took a two-horse barouche,
and rode to the "caves," some six or seven miles from the town. We had a
long walk through the pineapple fields before we came to the biggest
cave, and found it wasn't very much of a cave, after all, though there
was a sort of a room, on one side, which looked like a church, with
altar, pillars and arches. There was a little hole, on one side of this
room, about three feet wide, which led, our negro guide said, to a great
cave, which ran along about a mile, until it reached the sea. There was
no knowing what skeletons, and treasures, and old half-decayed boxes of
coins, hidden by pirates, and swords with jewels in the handles, and
loose jewels, and silver plate, and other things we might have found in
that cave, if we had only had a lantern or some candles to light us
while we were wandering about in it. But we had no candles or lantern,
and so did not become a pirate's heirs. It was Corny who was most
anxious to go in. She had read about Blackbeard, and the other pirates
who used to live on this island, and she felt sure that some of their
treasures were to be found in that cave. If she had thought of it, she
would have brought a candle.