Chapter XXXIII: Which Finishes the Story

When Chap’s boat dashed into that of the countess, it struck the latter craft on one side, near the stern, crashing into her as if she had been an earthen pot. The water would have instantly rushed in had not this broken side been lifted in the air by the violence of the shock, turning the countess and her woman into the water as neatly as if they had been slipped out of a ladle.

One of the oarsmen also went overboard, but the other one sprang to his feet at the moment of collision, and jumped on Chap’s boat.

The two negroes who had been rowing Chap looked around, utterly dazed by the shock, while our hero, as pale as a sheet, sat speechless in the stern. He could scarcely believe that this dreadful thing had happened; but in an instant his face flushed, and he was on his feet.

About a yard from him, the face and arms of the countess appeared above the water. Chap’s first impulse was to jump in after her; but, instead of doing that, he threw himself down flat in the boat, and stretching himself out from its side like an opening telescope, he seized the lady just as she was going down again. He was leaning so far out of the boat, that not only did he have no power to hold her up, but his head and shoulders went down also, their weight assisting her to sink. He would have gone entirely out of the boat if he had not hooked his toes into the boards at the bottom.

It is probable, however, that both he and the countess would have been drowned, for a boy might as well have his whole body under water as to have his head there, had not the man who had jumped from the other boat perceived the danger, and, slipping by the astonished oarsmen, who were looking behind them in the vain attempt to make out what had happened, seized Chap by the legs, and drew him in, bringing also the countess to the surface. The other men now sprang to the rescue, and the lady was lifted into the boat.

The moment she found herself in the air, she gave a great gasp and sank upon a seat, breathing hard and fast.

“All right?” anxiously cried Chap, his face and hair dripping with water.

The lady nodded and went on with her panting. She had been taught by her husband that if she ever fell into the water, the important thing to do was to hold her breath, and this she had done during the very short time she had been beneath the surface. But if she had not entirely forgotten to do anything else, she might have had a more comfortable time. The spot where she fell in was not over four feet deep, and if she had stood upon the bottom, her head would have been above the water; but her whole soul was possessed with the one idea of holding her breath, and she never thought of such a thing as trying to stand on her feet.

The negro woman and the man who had fallen overboard had speedily found a foothold, and had stood up, and, with dripping heads and faces, were now wading toward Chap’s boat.

Into this they were helped, for the other boat had filled with water, and sunk.

The two valises of the countess were fished up from the bottom by one of the men, and deposited in the boat. The floating oars of the sunken boat were picked up, and the negroes proceeded to row Chap’s heavily-laden craft toward the Giles.

All the condemnation of aristocratic institutions which Chap intended hurling at the head of the countess was entirely forgotten. He felt that her misfortunes had sufficiently established the fact that even the highest rank and the proudest lineage must sometimes give way before the rapid advance of republican vengeance.

As for the countess, she said never a word. She was entirely occupied in getting back her breath, and in trying, with the help of her woman, to put her hat and hair into decent order.

On board of the Humphrey Giles, there had been a great deal of excitement and anxiety.

When the boat containing the shouting Chap and his frantic oarsmen rushed out of the reeds, and sprang like a wild beast on the other boat, the people on board the Giles, who witnessed the occurrence, gave a cry of horror.

The captain ordered a boat to be lowered to go to the rescue, but before it could be got ready, all the capsized people were in Chap’s boat, and it was being rowed toward the steamboat.

Helen, with great delight, recognized her brother, but Mr. Berkeley was much troubled. Where was his boy--his Phil? and where was young Poole?

The Humphrey Giles was detained much longer than her captain expected she would be. Everybody on board wanted to know all about what had happened, but no one except Chap seemed able to tell anything, and he was so busily engaged hugging and kissing a girl in a straw hat, that he paid no attention to the questions of anybody.

Mr. Berkeley, however, presently succeeded in getting the information that the two other boys were safe at Sanford. Then Chap’s two oarsmen had to be paid, which took every cent he had, and then one of the men who had rowed the countess said his captain would want to be paid for the boat that was smashed.

This matter was soon settled by Mr. Berkeley agreeing to make compensation when they should get back to Jacksonville, and then, after a message had been delivered from the captain of the Winkyminky to the captain of the Humphrey Giles, requesting the latter to telegraph to the city the condition of the disabled steamboat, the Winkyminky’s men rowed away in their boat, and the Giles proceeded on her way.

Chap’s story was a long one, and had many eager listeners, but he did not begin it until he had fully satisfied himself how Helen and Mr. Berkeley happened to be there.

“I feel like another man,” said Mr. Berkeley, when all had been told, “now that I know where Phil and Phœnix are.”

“It would be just our luck,” said Chap, “if those fellows should take some other boat and pass us, and go on to Jacksonville.”

“You need not try to frighten me that way,” said Mr. Berkeley. “No boat has passed us yet, and I have made arrangements with our captain to stop and hail any boat we may meet, night or day, until we reach Sanford. So I don’t think we shall miss them that way.”

“My gracious, Chap!” exclaimed Helen, when she had sufficiently recovered from her excitement to notice something more than the face of her dear brother; “do you wear knickerbockers? And what kind of stockings have you got on?”

“Why,” said Chap, looking down below his rolled-up trousers, “those are not stockings. That is St. John’s River mud. You see I’ve been wading, and, as for my shoes and stockings, I left them over on the bank, where I have been getting water. I don’t cut a very handsome figure, do I?”

Mr. Berkeley and Helen gazed at the long-legged boy, who had lost his hat, and whose wet hair was sticking out in all directions, and they burst into a laugh, in which Chap unhesitatingly joined.

“I expect the people must have wondered,” said Helen, “when they saw me kiss such an awful-looking boy, but I was glad enough to get the chance.”

“We could all see that,” said Mr. Berkeley; “and now I’ll take him down below, and see what can be done for him.”

When Chap returned on deck, washed, combed, and dressed in a complete suit, which had been loaned him by the purser, he was a well-dressed and very gentlemanly-looking person. He did not see the countess that day, as she did not come out from her state-room, but both he and Mr. Berkeley made inquiries about her, and ascertained that she had sustained no injury. But early the next morning, just before the boat reached Sanford, Chap saw the countess on the deck. He went up to her, but she looked at him coldly, and made no sign of recognition; but when he spoke she opened her eyes.

“Are you the boy,” she exclaimed, “who stopped this steamboat for me?”

“And who afterward upset you in the river,” said Chap. “Yes; all of me that isn’t purser of this boat is that boy.”

“But how did you come to run into us that way?” she asked.

Chap then explained how he thought he had been deserted by her, and how, in his anxiety to overtake her, the accident had occurred.

“Well,” said she, when she had asserted that she had no idea of treating him in that dreadful way, “you gave me a bad wetting and a great fright, but you also helped and amused me very much, and, on the whole, I am glad I met you.”

And she cordially shook hands with him.

“And now,” said Chap, as he rejoined Helen, “I’m done with the aristocracy. It will do very well in certain quarters, but republican institutions for me.”

Phil and Phœnix were on the pier when the Humphrey Giles arrived at Sanford. They had received a telegram from John Robinson the day before, sent from a point below on the river, telling them to wait at Sanford for the Giles. They had wondered at the message, and would have waited anyway, as there had been no chance for them to leave. But when Chap, handsomely dressed, appeared on the gang-plank, conducting Helen and Mr. Berkeley, Phil and Phœnix could not have been more astonished had they seen an alligator stand up on its tail and sing “The Last Rose of Summer.”

“What grates on me,” said Phil, laughing, as they sat on the porch of Mr. Berkeley’s friend, the magistrate, “is to see Chap dressed up in that fine fashion, while Phœnix and I are going about in these old flannel clothes.”

“You forget,” said Chap, sitting up as straight as possible in his chair; “that I am your captain, and, therefore, ought to be better dressed. There is nothing that makes fellows knuckle down to rank and dignity like appropriate costume.”

“Well,” said Phœnix, “as we haven’t knuckled down much so far, I suppose we might as well do it until the purser makes you take off his clothes.”

“And when we get to Jacksonville,” said Mr. Berkeley; “I will have you all refitted.”

That afternoon, when the Humphrey Giles started northward, or down the St. John’s River to Jacksonville, our friends were on board of her.

After some persuasion from Mr. Berkeley the worthy magistrate consented to let Chap go, and depend upon the testimony of Adam for the conviction of the two young men who had committed the assault.

That individual had sold his little bears to a man who was going North, and, having a good job of work, he did not wish to leave Sanford. He came down to the pier to see his former companions depart, and bade them a hearty good-by.

“It is a great pity, boys,” said Helen, when they were all in the hotel at Jacksonville, getting ready to start homeward,--“it is a great pity that you brought nothing with you from your Indian River trip, not a shell, nor a sea-bean, nor even any of that beautiful Spanish moss which hangs from the trees.”

“Helen,” cried Chap, “what are you talking about? Don’t you know that rolling stones gather no moss?”

And, majestically waving his hand, he walked away.

The homeward trip, though marked by no exciting incidents, was a delightful one for all the party; and the mail from Boontown, which carried to the colonel in Titusville a cheque for the amount due him by the Rolling Stones, also carried a full account of this journey in a letter from Helen to Mary Brown, the girl who could not remember ever having seen another girl.

THE END.

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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:

Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.

Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.

Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.