A Millionaire at Sixteen by Oliver Optic

Louis Belgrave was still seated at the table with Captain Scoble, and the skirmish of words was likely to become a pitched battle.

"You spoke just now as though you had been at sea some time in your life, my boy. It must have been since I left the Park," continued the master of the Maud.

"I have not been on any long cruises, but I have made several trips in the Blanche; and once I went around Long Island," replied Louis.

"The Blanche! I don't think I ever saw her."

"Oh, yes, you have! You remember the day the Maud went to the bottom in New York Bay. She came about just astern of you. You had discovered, with the aid of your spy-glass, that mother and I were on her deck, and you changed your course suddenly. That was the reason why the tug-boat ran into you and stove a hole under the counter of the schooner."

"Oh! That was the way it happened, was it? I did not know how it was before, and I am glad to be informed," replied Scoble, laughing as though it were a capital joke. "I was afraid of you, and I tried to run away?"

"Not exactly afraid of mother and me, but of the warrants in the pockets of Mr. Woolridge and Uncle Moses," added Louis very quietly, as though he did not understand that his remark had a terrible sting in it.

"What Woolridge was that? " asked Scoble, choking down his wrath, for he was bound to keep the peace for the present.

"He is the gentleman who had thirty-five thousand dollars in the little new valise you carried on board of the steamer two years since. It was long ago, and perhaps you have forgotten the circumstance. It was he also who sent a cablegram to London that a certain deserter would arrive at Liverpool in a certain steamer."

The commander of the Maud winced, bit his lips, and twisted about on his stool, but he still maintained his self-possession.

"I think you said you were bound to Southampton, Captain Scoble? " continued Louis.

"Undoubtedly; you shall have the chance to buy your hams."

"I suppose there is an office there from which I can send a cable message to Uncle Moses. I shall be out of funds when I get there, and I shall have to cable him to send me twenty thousand dollars, or so," said the passenger very glibly.

"You speak of twenty thousand dollars as though you had no great respect for such a large sum," chuckled the captain, who was not in possession of the news from the Park for the last two months, and perhaps not for the last two years.

"A mere bagatelle," said Louis, with supreme indifference.

"That is very juicy talk for a young fellow like you, Louis, with an income on which a country curate might starve," returned Scoble, who could make nothing of the magnificent talk of his passenger.

"Oh, Uncle Moses would send me fifty thousand, knowing that mother is with me. Yes; he would send me a hundred thousand if my mother joined me in the request, for she is my legal guardian, you know," continued Louis, who thought from the looks of his companion at the table that the shots he was pouring into him were rather warm, if not red-hot.

"Nonsense, Louis! You are blowing, swelling, and gassing. But you can't make me tipsy on tepid water. That old lobster couldn't raise twenty thousand dollars to save his mustard-seed soul from a single day's perdition. Have another cup of coffee, my boy: it will warm you up and help you to speak the truth."

"No, I thank you, captain. This coffee is not tepid water, and it might make me tipsy; and, judging from its effect upon you, who take it as a steady diet, I don't believe it would help me to tell the truth."

"Very good, Louis! You were always rather smart," replied Scoble, as he moved back from the table, having finished his dinner.