CHAPTER VII.
TOMMY MAKES A STRANGE VOYAGE.
After pacing the room in a state of agitation for some minutes, Mr. Smithers enjoined Tommy not to say a word of what had happened to anybody, and ordered him to go out and play, which the boy was very willing to do.
At length he took his wife's hand in his.
"My dear," he said, "on consideration, I do not blame you in this affair. When you married me you believed your first husband dead?"
"I did, indeed," she said, sobbing.
"You were weak and foolish to give him money, and still more silly to let him have control of Tommy, whose simpleness came in well for once, however."
"It broke my heart to part with him; but what could I do?"
"In future leave this fellow to me, or we shall have trouble. Will you do so?"
"I shall be only too glad."
"That settles all. You are forgiven, and if Thompson dares to enter my door again I shall give him to the police."
"But if he claims me and Tommy?"
"You can refuse to accompany him. The law will protect you," replied Smithers.
"Oh! my dear, dear husband," exclaimed Mrs. Smithers, smiling gratefully through her tears, "you are the best of men."
"And with all your faults you are good enough for me," replied Smithers.
Then peace was restored between them.
Meanwhile Tommy sought his friend, Charley Barker, who was standing near an express wagon in the yard.
"Here's fun," exclaimed Charley. "Father's got a body which is to go to England, and I'm to go with the expressman and see it on board the steamer. Have you ever been on board a liner?"
"Never."
"Wouldn't you like to go?"
"I'll bet yer!" replied Tommy.
"That settles it. We've got to hurry up, as the steamer sails this afternoon. It's theUmbria, of the Cunard line, and their docks are in Jersey City," said Charley.
Tommy, boylike, was delighted at the chance of a little amusement of a novel nature, and waited with impatience for the appearance of the undertaker and the expressman,who at length came down the stairs with a handsome, polished, elm coffin.
It contained the body of an Englishman, whose friends were desirous of having it sent to the old country, so that he might rest with his forefathers.
"Hurry with this to theUmbria, Charley," said the undertaker. "Are you going along, Tommy Smithers?"
"Yes, sir, if I may."
"All right—up she goes."
The coffin was put in the wagon, and the boys got up behind, while the driver said "Git up" to his team, and "rattled his bones over the stones" to the Cunard docks.
When the steamer was reached, the steam was up, and, as usual on such occasions, the greatest confusion prevailed.
The body was hoisted on deck, and the boys were permitted on board to see it safely stowed away; but once on the ship, they took advantage of the confusion to wander through the ship, being hugely pleased with all they saw.
Suddenly a bell rang.
"Ship off!" cried Charley. "Make haste—this way; we shan't get ashore if we don't look sharp."
Friends were taking leave of friends, and passengers were rushing about in all directions.
In the crowd Tommy was separated from Charley Barker,and, as might have been expected, from him, he took the wrong turning and got lost in the saloon.
While he was trying to find his way out the gang-plank was drawn up, the cable slipped, and the huge ship began steaming down the bay.
He had started on a voyage to England without intending it, and could not help himself.
When he did reach the deck Jersey City was only visible in the distance, and theUmbriawas gradually leaving the Battery behind.
The tears came to his eyes, and he exclaimed, "Charley! Charley!" But his call met with no response.
The great ship steamed past Staten Island and into the upper bay without anyone taking any notice of Tommy.
He had spoken to several people, but they, full of their own affairs, had pushed him rudely on one side, as if a small boy was too insignificant to pay attention to. There was no hope of his getting on shore now, for the only place where they might have landed him was Quarantine, and that was out of sight.
The tears trickled down his face still, and a strange fear that the captain might beat or imprison him took possession of his mind.
He had heard of people being put in irons and confined in some dark place for a trifling offense.
Suppose they asked him for his passage ticket, what could he say?
It was not likely that the captain would take him a journey of three thousand miles for nothing.
He had no money, his knowledge of the sea and of seamanship was so meager that he did not think he could work at anything.
Then, again, if they did not throw him overboard, which he regarded as a possible contingency, what would he do at Liverpool without a friend or a cent in the world?
The more he thought over the situation the more grave did it appear.
He was standing nearly amidships on the side of the rope which divides the steerage and the saloon passengers.
It was no use to look imploringly at people who passed him; he was nobody's child, as it were.
The huge ship seemed like a town to him, it was so vast, and held such a number of people.
After a while the crowd on deck decreased, as the land receded from view, for everyone wished to put his state-room in order, and get ready for dinner.
They neared the Hook, Coney Island was on the left, and the Highlands of Navesink, vested in a blue mist, were lying gracefully on the right.
A slight swell began to be perceptible in the motion ofthe vessel, which showed that there was a stiff breeze and a rising swell in the Atlantic.
A bell rang. The deck was soon deserted by the few who had remained up to the last minute to enjoy the breeze and get an appetite for dinner.
A lad about sixteen came up to Tommy and exclaimed:
"Now, then, captain, you'd best be going below to get your grub."
"Thank you," replied Tommy, rubbing his eyes. "I'm not hungry, only miserable."
"How's that?"
The lad was fair-haired, blue-eyed and good-natured, if his face could be trusted, and he stared curiously at Tommy.
"Are you saloon or steerage?" he asked; "because, if you're steerage, you'll get bounced if you come this side of that rope."
"I don't know what I am, and that's a fact."
"Come, don't guy me! Where do you belong? You must know who you came aboard with."
"So I do."
"Who was it?"
"I came with the corpse," replied Tommy, with the utmost seriousness.
The fair-haired lad laughed.
"They call me Wild Charley!" he exclaimed, "and what my other name is don't matter to anybody, since I left home without asking permission to go; but in all my experience, I never traveled with a corpse."
"I'll tell you how it was," said Tommy, eagerly. "I live in Jersey City, next door to Barker, the undertaker, and his boy and me was sent to this steamer with a coffined body to go to England. We landed the stiff and went to look around the ship, and——"
Wild Charley laughed.
"I see now," he interrupted, "you weren't quick enough in getting on shore, and so you've started on a voyage without having previously declared your intentions."
"Exactly."
Wild Charley whistled.
"Indeed, what I say is true," Tommy continued, hoping to make a favorable impression upon the first friend he had met.
"I believe you," was the answer, "and I am trying to think how I can help you. My position on board of this ship is that of steward's assistant. If I said you were a friend of mine whom I had engaged to assist, you could share my bunk, do what work you could, and no one would trouble about the bit of food you eat, so long as you kept quiet and made yourself generally useful."
Tommy's eyes filled with tears again. This time they were tears of gratitude.
Seizing Wild Charley's hand, he pressed it cordially, saying:
"Oh, please do this for me. I will be so thankful."
"What's your name?"
"Tommy Smithers. They call me Soft Tommy sometimes, because I get things kinder mixed up now and then."
"I should guess you were soft when you let the ship slip from her moorings and take you across to the other side. Why, what on earth are you to do when you reach Liverpool?"
"Work my passage back, I suppose."
"Not so easily done as said," answered Charley. "You don't meet with a good-natured fellow like me every day."
"Will you do what you can for me?"
"Yes. Come below. Dinner is just being served, and it is my busy time. I'll say a few words to the purser and chief steward, which will fix things, and all you'll have to do will be to take the word from me and do as you are told," answered Wild Charley.
They descended the hatchway, and Tommy found a job in washing up plates and cleaning knives and forks.
After tea he went on deck.
The sea was calm, and he did not experience any sensation of seasickness.
For a while he looked over the ship's side into the starlit night. All at once a steamer was discovered going west.
The captain was on the bridge with the second officer.
"We'll signal that steamer," he exclaimed. "Send below for the usual lights."
"Ay, ay, sir," replied the mate.
He left the bridge, and, seeing Tommy, said:
"Are you one of the ship's boys?"
"Yes, sir," replied Tommy, touching his cap.
"Go to the quartermaster, and ask him for the ordinary signals."
"The what, sir?"
"Quartermaster, you fool! and hurry up!" shouted the officer.
Tommy did not understand who the quartermaster was, but he was afraid to ask any more questions, and dived below.
The first person he met was the doctor.
"Please, sir," began Tommy.
"Well, what is it, my lad?"
"Where is there a quarter, master?"
"I've no quarter to give you, and am surprised at yourimpertinence in asking for it," the doctor answered, passing on.
Tommy was somewhat surprised at this abrupt answer, and stood still, wondering where he could go and what he could do next, when, fortunately, he met Wild Charley.
"Say," he exclaimed, "where will I find the quartermaster?"
"That's his room," replied Wild Charley, pointing to the right. "What do you want with him?"
"I'm sent for signals."
"Do you know what they are?"
"Of course I do. Don't take me for a fool," answered Tommy, looking up with considerable pride.
"All right, my son. When you want to turn in, come down to the bunk I showed you. Yours is the same as mine."
"I'll be there," replied Tommy.
He knocked at the quartermaster's door, and was told to enter.
"What is it, boy," asked the officer, without looking up from some accounts which he was attentively studying.
"Captain's sent for usual signals, sir."
"Take them out of that locker."
There were two lockers, and, unfortunately, Tommymistook the direction in which the quartermaster waved his hand.
The consequence was that he took up two signals which he should have left alone.
"Got 'em?" queried the quartermaster.
"Yes, sir," answered Tommy, hauling off the two lights.
"Get along, then."