Part 9

"This way, my good friend," hastily whispered the broker, leading his associate cautiously to a little door at the further extremity of the room, which opened into a smaller apartment, filled with iron safes, papers, and books. "This way, captain--this way," added he; then turning to his clerk, said, "Don't let me be interrupted, Quagga," as the door opened and closed upon the pair: and there they remained in close conference for a full hour, to the great mystification of the principal clerk. When they returned, the features of the captain wore an air of triumph, and the countenance of Boor expressed all the congratulation of successful cunning.

"Every thing shall be managed according to your desire, captain," he remarked.

"Be cautious," said the other.

"Depend upon that," responded his companion. "You had better go out at this side door."

The captain was going out as directed, when he quickly asked, "When shall I see you again?"

"To-morrow night," replied his associate.

"Agreed."

When his visiter had taken his departure, the broker seemed to have forgotten the losses that had affected him so much a short time previous. His unprepossessing countenance appeared lit up with a continual smile of inward satisfaction, as he leaned back upon his chair, occasionally resting his hands upon his capacious stomach, then crossing his arms--then leaning his chin upon his hand as if in deep reflection, uttering such ejaculations as "capital scheme"--"hazardous though"--"daring villain"--"worth the risk," and others of a similar nature--till the wondering Quagga, neither daring to move or to speak, began to imagine that his tyrannical master had lost the use of his senses. At that moment the door opened again, and the same slave made his appearance.

"Ha, Beelzebub!" shouted Master Boor, "what now?"

"Massa Porfry, sar, and young gennleman ob colour wish to peak wi' you," said the youth.

"Admit them," he exclaimed. Then in a lower tone said, "Coloured persons! what can he mean by bringing such vermin here?" However, though considering the introduction of such a person an indignity, the game he had to play induced him for the present to forget his prejudices, and he met his visitors with every appearance of cordiality.

"Welcome to Caffreton, welcome to the sunny shores of Afrik;" he cried as they advanced into the room. "The land of universal liberty.--Quagga, tell those slaves if I hear them chattering again, I'll give them the lash----!"

"Yes, sir!" said Quagga; and immediately delivered the message.

"The land of universal equality.--Quagga, you scoundrel! why don't you get seats for the gentlemen----?"

"Yes, sir!" said Quagga; and instantly did as he was desired.

"And the land of universal freedom of conscience.--Quagga! tell Pipkin, that if he doesn't choose to attend the same church as his master, I'll thrash his soul out of his body."

"Yes, sir," said Quagga; and Pipkin received the brutal command.

Oriel Porphyry seemed in some degree amused by this exemplification of liberty, equality, and freedom of conscience, but he said nothing; and Zabra seemed intently observing the countenances of the clerk and his master.

"I hope your worthy father is well, sir," continued Boor. "Health's a precious commodity--cannot be too highly prized. Quagga! is Nimbo in the warehouse yet?"

"No, sir; doctor says he can't stand," said the clerk.

"Then tell him if he don't come down I'll make him," said his master with ferocious emphasis.

"Yes, sir;" replied the obedient Quagga.

"Your father does a deal of good, sir, with his charities," he resumed. "Ah! charity's a fine thing!--an admirable thing! I do a wonderful deal of good myself that way sometimes. I give the poor all the bad coin that comes into my hands. I do a deal of good I assure you. Your father enjoys a great reputation for integrity in his dealings. Nothing like it, sir;--It is always at a premium. Hope you will tread in your father's footsteps; and if you should have a desire for speculating, I trust the credit I possess will induce you to place confidence in me. I should recommend you to invest largely in the shares of the Madagascar Silk Worm Company, and the Timbuctoo Beet-root Sugar Joint Stock Association. I have some shares at my disposal, which, although they're now very high in the market, to oblige the son of so respectable a man as my correspondent, master Porphyry, I would let you have at a fair price,--say the first at 95-7/8, and the other at 80."

"I am obliged to you," replied Oriel Porphyry; "but I have no desire to speculate in such things at present."

"Very good--very good," said the broker, not at all disconcerted at the failure of his schemes. "Caution is advisable in all mercantile transactions, and I am the last person in the world to suggest any thing to you, which I do not think would turn to your advantage. Perhaps you have bullion to dispose of? If so, I could afford a very handsome per centage, and exchange with you to a considerable amount in notes of one of the most steady banks in the country--that of Mangel Wurzel, Carrots and Co. at Lattakoo."

"I'm much obliged to you; but as my stay in this part of the world must be brief, it would not be advisable to change my bullion into the paper currency of the country;" said Oriel.

"True--true;" remarked master Boor, and a cloud did pass over his gloomy countenance when he found he could not dispose of any of his unprofitable speculations. "You are right. So you do not intend staying here? Fine country. No kings--none of _that_ nonsense. Every man does just as he likes, and cares for nobody.--Quagga! you rascal, I'll have you flayed alive if you don't finish that intricate account with Botherem, Blunder, and Bigfist, in an hour." The frightened clerk began to write away with the speed of a steam-engine. "In no place in the world is the right of opinion so much respected.--Quagga, you scoundrel! I understand you spoke at the Universal Consolidated Democratic Discussion Society, against the measure now before the legislature for the tax on tenpenny nails. How dare you oppose my political sentiments! This is insolence, sir--treason, anarchy, and rebellion! If ever I hear you entertain an opinion different from mine again, I'll have you inclosed within four stone walls and starve you upon a mouthful a day."

Quagga trembled like an aspen, and did not dare lift his eyes from the book.

"Yes, sir, I repeat, this is the only country on the face of the globe, where mankind enjoy a perfect state of civil and religious liberty. What do they think of us, sir, in Columbia? Don't they envy us our noble institutions, ey? Our excellent government--our enlightened people?"

"Why, those who ever do think of the African states--"

"Ever think of them!" cried the old fellow, with emphasis, interrupting the speaker; "they must always think of them. They cannot help drawing comparisons, sir, with their own wretched state; and they must therefore be wonderfully desirous of sharing in the blessings we enjoy."

"I really never heard of such a desire existing in any part of the country;" observed Oriel.

"Ah, sir, they live in a wretched state of despotism, and they dare not express their sentiments;" replied the broker. "There cannot be anything like public virtue amongst them--no political honesty--no notion of true liberty. But how did you make the voyage, sir?"

"Admirably!" exclaimed the merchant's son. "The Albatross is one of the most perfect vessels that was ever launched."

"Nothing like the African shipping, depend upon it--made of free timber, sir?--beat all vessels at sailing, and last for ever. Skilful captain that Compass, sir--known him long; knew his father--highly respectable. You may place the greatest confidence in him, I assure you."

During the preceding sentences Zabra kept his eyes fixed upon the face of the speaker, which he observing, turned his own gaze upon the person so earnestly regarding him; but the piercing look that met his quite disconcerted him. His complexion grew more livid; his look became confused; he frowned and smiled by turns; he shifted his position, and evinced by many other signs that he was anything but at ease under the scrutiny to which he was subjected. At last, unable to endure it any longer, he said, in a tone in which anger seemed struggling with indifference. "Who is that person of colour, sir? it is not usual to bring people of that class in company with free Africans."

"That young gentleman is my most esteemed and intimate friend;" replied Oriel.

"Oh, I beg pardon; but it's not respectable to have such friends in a free and enlightened country like the African States; and the 'young gentleman'," said he, with contemptuous emphasis, "seems to look on me as if he knew me intimately."

"I do know you intimately, sir;" remarked Zabra, bending on the old man a stern and searching look.

"Well, this assurance beats any thing I ever saw. Why, I never met with your coppery countenance before," said the broker, indignantly.

"You spoke the truth _there_," replied Zabra, still continuing to regard him with the same earnestness; and the broker's attempts to conceal his passion and his uneasiness became every moment more unsuccessful.

"He is thus to every one," observed Oriel Porphyry; "and he means no offence. But let us proceed to business. According to your request, my father has sent you a lot of fabrics of the choicest patterns and materials, which I shall give you an order to remove from the docks upon receiving payment in gold. You can examine them if necessary, whenever it is convenient to you, when you will find them exactly of the description you ordered. I am also commissioned to purchase, to any amount, ivory, gold dust, gums, pearls and precious stones, ostrich feathers, amber, and any other article of traffic of approved quality that may suit the Columbian markets, or that may be turned to a profitable account during my voyage. They can be paid for in money or in goods--whichever should be most desirable."

"Good--good," remarked the broker, losing, in his attention to business, all his angry feelings. "Ah! let me see. I think I shall be able to treat with you for a considerable portion of your cargo; and, as a particular friend, I should not advise you to go to any strange brokers; they'll take you in, depend upon it."

"Why, I thought, in this free country, all your transactions were distinguished by a degree of honesty superior to that of other nations;" said Oriel.

"Yes, yes," hastily replied master Boor, considerably puzzled to account for the discrepancy in his statements. "But every man will make a good bargain, if he can."

"Then what offer are you inclined to make for a thousand bales of lace and cambric goods, best quality?"

"Why, you see, master Porphyry, the truth is, the market here is a little overstocked just now with those articles; they are a complete drug."

"I have good reason to believe there is a great demand for them," said Oriel.

"Nothing of the kind, master Porphyry. I wouldn't deceive you for the world. But, although things are so heavy, I don't mind offering twenty thousand dollars for them, either in money or goods."

"That is just half I am commissioned to take;" remarked the young merchant, rising to go away. "And as we shall not be able to do business on those terms, I must seek a more advantageous market."

"Don't be too hasty, sir. Reflect before you determine. The price I offer is a good price; and it is impossible you can get one so high, search Caffreton through and through." Perceiving his visitors were at the door, he added--"Suppose we say five and twenty--a great risk--a hazardous----"

"Good day to you, master Boor!" exclaimed Oriel, bending his head proudly, and departed with his companion through the counting-house. The old man scowled after his visitors, muttering to himself,--"I'll have them at a less price, in spite of you."

About the same time two persons were seen walking cautiously through a narrow unfrequented street in the suburbs of the town, connected with a number of other thoroughfares of a like description, chiefly inhabited by the lowest class of the black population. The tallest of the two, who was a little in advance of his companion, whose short dumpy figure and conceited physiognomy it was impossible to mistake, turned round, and addressed his associate:--

"Come, master Log, show more sail. I'm spiflicated if we shall ever find safe anchorage if you don't. I think I arn't forgotten the landmarks; but, somehow, I've got into a little bit of a mystification about making the proper tacks. This is it! No, it arn't! Ha! Now I see, as clean as a cable. There's the sign o' the Ship, at the corner yonder. We goes right ahead there; then we makes a tack; then we goes ahead again; then we makes another tack; then I knows all the whereabouts. That's right, arnt it, mister?"

"Right--right--very right--decidedly right--absolutely right: indeed, I may say, positively right, mister Scrumpydike," responded the little man, endeavouring to keep pace with his more bulky companion.

"Here comes another Hottentot;" said Scrumpydike, noticing an individual of that race approaching them. "What a lot o' them black craft one meets wi' steerin' about in these here seas; they puts one in mind o' a fleet of colliers, creepin' along shore. But this nigger _is_ black, arnt he, master Log?"

"Black, black,--monstrous black,--very monstrous black--upon my word most diabolically black, mister Scrumpydike;" replied the captain's clerk, puffing and blowing with the exertion he made to prolong his walk.

"I say, won't them bugaboos afloat entertain something of a 'stonishment when we commences the fun. Don't you think some on 'em 'll go mad?" inquired the other.

"Mad, mad,--very mad, very mad, indeed,--pretty considerably wild, stiff, stark, staring mad, mister Scrumpydike," rejoined his companion.

They had now reached one of the narrowest, darkest, and filthiest streets in that quarter of the town; and by the expression of satisfaction that gleamed on the coarse features of Scrumpydike, it was evident that they were near the end of their journey. They proceeded along this street till they came to a court through which they passed, and entered a lane where there were no houses on one side, and very few, and those far apart on the other. Keeping on the side where the houses were, they followed the footpath, till they came to a ruined habitation of the poorest class, little better than a mud kraal. The few windows it possessed were broken and covered with dirt; its door was battered to a fragment; the roof had fallen in, and the walls threatened to tumble. Looking cautiously round to see if any persons were observing them, the sailor removed the door to admit himself and his companion, and then carefully replaced it; afterwards they picked their way over fragments of stone and timber, through a moderate sized chamber, and descended a long flight of steps till they came to a wall.

"Ship ahoy!" shouted Scrumpydike, putting his mouth near the wall.

"What cheer?" was answered in a low voice from within.

"Death and gold!" was the strange reply; immediately after which, bolts were heard quickly drawn, and the wall, or rather a door made to resemble the wall in which it was placed opened, and a stout, active man of a fierce aspect, clad in coarse jacket and trowsers, without shoes or cap, carrying a naked cutlass in his hand, and wearing several large pistols in his belt, became visible by the light of a torch that burned stuck upright in the ground beside him. Without another word Log and Scrumpydike entered. The door was quickly closed, the bolts set, and the man, taking up the torch, preceded them through a long passage or cellar, till they were stopped by the brickwork.

"Ship ahoy!" shouted the man.

"What cheer?" was answered from within.

"Death and gold!" he replied. In an instant another door opened, the man turned back, and the captain's clerk, and his companion were admitted into a long subterranean chamber, in which the many torches that were burning enabled them to distinguish the figures of about twenty men, dressed like sailors, all variously armed, seated round a large table covered with drinking vessels. Immediately Scrumpydike made his appearance, the whole party set up a loud shout of welcome, and in a moment they were all crowding round him, shaking hands, asking questions, and offering him refreshment.

"Ha! let us stow in a cargo o' some sort or other," said the sailor, seating himself before what appeared to be the remains of a roast kid, and proceeding to help himself. "I've had a desperate long cruise here. Come, master Log, bear a hand:" a command the captain's clerk was not slow in executing. "And so you'd given me up, ey? never made a worser recknin; scrunch me if I arnt a got more lives nor a cat. But the best of the joke is," said he taking a hearty draught from a can of liquor which was handed to him, and which example was immediately followed by his companion; "the best o' the joke is--but you'll think I'm gammonin' ye--I knows you will. The joke is--I've been livin' in the most honestest way you ever heard on."

The whole party raised a shout of incredulity, and laughed in derision at such an idea.

"I know'd how it would be--I was afear'd I should lose my precious character," remarked the man gloomily; "but master Log can tell ye as how I ha' been for a matter o' two or three months most abominably honest,--arn't I master Log?"

"Honest--honest," replied the captain's clerk, moving the wine can from his mouth a short distance; "shamefully honest--disgracefully honest--indeed I may say villainously honest, master Scrumpydike." The men stared with astonishment, and many still seemed to doubt his assertion.

"Nobody can lament the unfortnit occurrence more nor I do," said Scrumpydike; "but what's done can't be undone,--so clear the decks o' this lumber--pipe all hands to grog, and I'll tell ye a sort o' summat much more nat'ral and creditable."

The eatables were cleared off into an open pantry at the side, and fresh flasks of liquor and drinking vessels were placed on the table. Some of the men began to smoke from long pipes; others made for themselves mixtures of the different beverages before them; and every one sat himself down laughing and joking with the rest with the evident intention of commencing a carouse. Log having procured a pipe almost as big as himself, and a large jug of a strong potation he had carefully prepared, sat smirking with secret satisfaction at his own comfort. His pig-like eyes twinkled with self-conceit, and his pug nose seemed to curl itself up with delight. Opposite to him, but not less at his ease, sat Scrumpydike. He also had taken care of himself after a similar fashion; and the humorous twist of his ugly countenance became every minute more evident. The set by whom they were surrounded, were remarkable for the daring and somewhat ferocious character of their features, and the great variety of their costumes; and as they sat enveloped in the smoke they were creating, bandying the ready jest, and pushing about the intoxicating liquor, they presented to the eye a band of as determined ruffians as the whole world could have produced.

"Have you all a mind for a job?" at last inquired Scrumpydike.

"Every one on us," replied a stout fellow with a red nose and a fierce squint. "We've been laid up here for a month or more, waiting for a 'portunity to get afloat."

"Well, Billbo! you shall go aboard a prime craft afore another week's out, or I'm less nor nobody."

"Hurra!" exclaimed the men joyfully.

"I can't tell ye the 'ticulars just now," he continued; "but I'll make it all plain sailin' afore you goes. Push the stuff about; a ship at anchor makes no way. Here's to ye, my trumps! wi' lots o' plunder and a wide berth; and may we stick to one another while there's a plank left for us to stand on."

"Hurra!" replied his associates with increased delight! and they all seemed now to abandon themselves to riot and debauchery with additional zest. Briskly were the liquor cans replenished, rapidly was the tobacco consumed;--the laugh became louder, and occasionally an attempt at a ribald song was made by some of the more musical members of the company.

"Well, scrunch me! if this arn't pleasant in the extreme," said the individual addressed as Billbo; who, by the vacuity of his gaze, and the unsteadiness of his body, was evidently far gone towards complete intoxication. "I'm as happy as if I was a cap'ain. I'm happier nor any body. I'm happier nor any body, afloat or ashore."

"You arn't more happier nor me!" shouted a big-headed fellow fiercely, from the other end of the table, as he attempted to get upon his legs.

"I'm happier nor any body," repeated the man with the squint.

"I don't allow nobody to be more happier nor me," cried the other, as he, after repeated efforts, attained the perpendicular.

"I'm happier nor any body," doggedly repeated Billbo.

"Then I'm spiflicated if I don't give you toko, 'cause you arn't no business to be more happier nor me," rejoined his associate, attempting to draw his cutlass.

"Silence, Loggerhead!" shouted Scrumpydike, in a voice of thunder that made the captain's clerk start from his seat with affright. "No squabbling, or you'll get a broadside from one as arn't fond o' trifling."

"He says he's more happier nor me," exclaimed Loggerhead, in a most lachrymose tone of voice.

"I'm happier nor any body," repeated the pertinacious Billbo, his eyes squinting defiance upon his jealous antagonist.

"Silence, Billbo!" shouted Scrumpydike, "or I'll rake ye fore and aft."

"He arn't no right to be more happier nor me," cried Loggerhead, as the tears swelled in his eyes at such an assumption of superior happiness. "I'm very happy!" he added, in a manner the most miserable that can be conceived. "Unkimmon happy. I'm as happy as a fellow can be in this here molloncholy world;" and he began crying like a fretful child.

"I'm happier nor any body," muttered the other, sinking back upon the floor.

"Let's have a song!" cried Scrumpydike.

"A song, a song," echoed as many of his associates as were able to speak.

"A song, master Log," continued Scrumpydike, with the desire of preventing a quarrel among his drunken companions. "Come, my prince o' singing birds! Pipe away till all's blue. You're a reg'lar trump at chaunting a good stave; a right-down warbler; a nightingale's a fool to ye. Arn't it true, now?"

"True, true--very true--undeniably true--most undeniably true--most undeniably true, indeed, mister Scrumpydike," cried the captain's clerk, his gratified vanity visible even through the sleepy expression that now characterised his countenance; and after a few preparatory hems, considerable smirking, and a plentiful affectation of modesty, he sang, in a voice that might have frightened an owl, the following verses:--

"Woman and wine are my delight; Woman and wine! woman and wine! Woman and wine are my delight, From Monday morning till Saturday night; For they cheer the heart and gladden the sight, And make a man feel divine: From woman's glances all fondness flows, And wine rejoices wherever it goes, And both are a cure for all earthly woes,-- Woman and wine! woman and wine!

"I went a courting once on a time, Woman and wine! woman and wine! I went a courting once on a time, And I flattered my deary in prose and in rhyme; And though the stuff was not by any means prime, She vowed it was monstrous fine: But in wine's inspiration my praise had been clad, And whatever I said she could never think bad, For I always 'saw double' the charms that she had: Woman and wine! woman and wine!