Strange News of Uncle Sol
Captain Cuttle, though no sluggard, did not turn out so early on the morning after he had seen Sol Gills, through the shop-window, writing in the parlour, with the Midshipman upon the counter, and Rob the Grinder making up his bed below it, but that the clocks struck six as he raised himself on his elbow, and took a survey of his little chamber. The Captain's eyes must have done severe duty, if he usually opened them as wide on awaking as he did that morning; and were but roughly rewarded for their vigilance, if he generally rubbed them half as hard. But the occasion was no common one, for Rob the Grinder had certainly never stood in the doorway of Captain Cuttle's room before, and in it he stood then, panting at the Captain, with a flushed and touzled air of Bed about him, that greatly heightened both his colour and expression.
'Holloa!' roared the Captain. 'What's the matter?'
Before Rob could stammer a word in answer, Captain Cuttle turned out, all in a heap, and covered the boy's mouth with his hand.
'Steady, my lad,' said the Captain, 'don't ye speak a word to me as yet!'
The Captain, looking at his visitor in great consternation, gently shouldered him into the next room, after laying this injunction upon him; and disappearing for a few moments, forthwith returned in the blue suit. Holding up his hand in token of the injunction not yet being taken off, Captain Cuttle walked up to the cupboard, and poured himself out a dram; a counterpart of which he handed to the messenger. The Captain then stood himself up in a corner, against the wall, as if to forestall the possibility of being knocked backwards by the communication that was to be made to him; and having swallowed his liquor, with his eyes fixed on the messenger, and his face as pale as his face could be, requested him to 'heave ahead.'
'Do you mean, tell you, Captain?' asked Rob, who had been greatly impressed by these precautions
'Ay!' said the Captain.
'Well, Sir,' said Rob, 'I ain't got much to tell. But look here!'
Rob produced a bundle of keys. The Captain surveyed them, remained in his corner, and surveyed the messenger.
'And look here!' pursued Rob.
The boy produced a sealed packet, which Captain Cuttle stared at as he had stared at the keys.
'When I woke this morning, Captain,' said Rob, 'which was about a quarter after five, I found these on my pillow. The shop-door was unbolted and unlocked, and Mr Gills gone.'
'Gone!' roared the Captain.
'Flowed, Sir,' returned Rob.
The Captain's voice was so tremendous, and he came out of his corner with such way on him, that Rob retreated before him into another corner: holding out the keys and packet, to prevent himself from being run down.
'"For Captain Cuttle," Sir,' cried Rob, 'is on the keys, and on the packet too. Upon my word and honour, Captain Cuttle, I don't know anything more about it. I wish I may die if I do! Here's a sitiwation for a lad that's just got a sitiwation,' cried the unfortunate Grinder, screwing his cuff into his face: 'his master bolted with his place, and him blamed for it!'
These lamentations had reference to Captain Cuttle's gaze, or rather glare, which was full of vague suspicions, threatenings, and denunciations. Taking the proffered packet from his hand, the Captain opened it and read as follows:-
'My dear Ned Cuttle. Enclosed is my will!' The Captain turned it over, with a doubtful look - 'and Testament - Where's the Testament?' said the Captain, instantly impeaching the ill-fated Grinder. 'What have you done with that, my lad?'
'I never see it,' whimpered Rob. 'Don't keep on suspecting an innocent lad, Captain. I never touched the Testament.'
Captain Cuttle shook his head, implying that somebody must be made answerable for it; and gravely proceeded:
'Which don't break open for a year, or until you have decisive intelligence of my dear Walter, who is dear to you, Ned, too, I am sure.' The Captain paused and shook his head in some emotion; then, as a re-establishment of his dignity in this trying position, looked with exceeding sternness at the Grinder. 'If you should never hear of me, or see me more, Ned, remember an old friend as he will remember you to the last - kindly; and at least until the period I have mentioned has expired, keep a home in the old place for Walter. There are no debts, the loan from Dombey's House is paid off and all my keys I send with this. Keep this quiet, and make no inquiry for me; it is useless. So no more, dear Ned, from your true friend, Solomon Gills.' The Captain took a long breath, and then read these words written below: '"The boy Rob, well recommended, as I told you, from Dombey's House. If all else should come to the hammer, take care, Ned, of the little Midshipman."'
To convey to posterity any idea of the manner in which the Captain, after turning this letter over and over, and reading it a score of times, sat down in his chair, and held a court-martial on the subject in his own mind, would require the united genius of all the great men, who, discarding their own untoward days, have determined to go down to posterity, and have never got there. At first the Captain was too much confounded and distressed to think of anything but the letter itself; and even when his thoughts began to glance upon the various attendant facts, they might, perhaps, as well have occupied themselves with their former theme, for any light they reflected on them. In this state of mind, Captain Cuttle having the Grinder before the court, and no one else, found it a great relief to decide, generally, that he was an object of suspicion: which the Captain so clearly expressed in his visage, that Rob remonstrated.
'Oh, don't, Captain!' cried the Grinder. 'I wonder how you can! what have I done to be looked at, like that?'
'My lad,' said Captain Cuttle, 'don't you sing out afore you're hurt. And don't you commit yourself, whatever you do.'
'I haven't been and committed nothing, Captain!' answered Rob.
'Keep her free, then,' said the Captain, impressively, 'and ride easy.
With a deep sense of the responsibility imposed upon him' and the necessity of thoroughly fathoming this mysterious affair as became a man in his relations with the parties, Captain Cuttle resolved to go down and examine the premises, and to keep the Grinder with him. Considering that youth as under arrest at present, the Captain was in some doubt whether it might not be expedient to handcuff him, or tie his ankles together, or attach a weight to his legs; but not being clear as to the legality of such formalities, the Captain decided merely to hold him by the shoulder all the way, and knock him down if he made any objection.
However, he made none, and consequently got to the Instrument-maker's house without being placed under any more stringent restraint. As the shutters were not yet taken down, the Captain's first care was to have the shop opened; and when the daylight was freely admitted, he proceeded, with its aid, to further investigation.
The Captain's first care was to establish himself in a chair in the shop, as President of the solemn tribunal that was sitting within him; and to require Rob to lie down in his bed under the counter, show exactly where he discovered the keys and packet when he awoke, how he found the door when he went to try it, how he started off to Brig Place - cautiously preventing the latter imitation from being carried farther than the threshold - and so on to the end of the chapter. When all this had been done several times, the Captain shook his head and seemed to think the matter had a bad look.
Next, the Captain, with some indistinct idea of finding a body, instituted a strict search over the whole house; groping in the cellars with a lighted candle, thrusting his hook behind doors, bringing his head into violent contact with beams, and covering himself with cobwebs. Mounting up to the old man's bed-room, they found that he had not been in bed on the previous night, but had merely lain down on the coverlet, as was evident from the impression yet remaining there.
'And I think, Captain,' said Rob, looking round the room, 'that when Mr Gills was going in and out so often, these last few days, he was taking little things away, piecemeal, not to attract attention.'
'Ay!' said the Captain, mysteriously. 'Why so, my lad?'
'Why,' returned Rob, looking about, 'I don't see his shaving tackle. Nor his brushes, Captain. Nor no shirts. Nor yet his shoes.'
As each of these articles was mentioned, Captain Cuttle took particular notice of the corresponding department of the Grinder, lest he should appear to have been in recent use, or should prove to be in present possession thereof. But Rob had no occasion to shave, was not brushed, and wore the clothes he had on for a long time past, beyond all possibility of a mistake.
'And what should you say,' said the Captain - 'not committing yourself - about his time of sheering off? Hey?'
'Why, I think, Captain,' returned Rob, 'that he must have gone pretty soon after I began to snore.'
'What o'clock was that?' said the Captain, prepared to be very particular about the exact time.
'How can I tell, Captain!' answered Rob. 'I only know that I'm a heavy sleeper at first, and a light one towards morning; and if Mr Gills had come through the shop near daybreak, though ever so much on tiptoe, I'm pretty sure I should have heard him shut the door at all events.
On mature consideration of this evidence, Captain Cuttle began to think that the Instrument-maker must have vanished of his own accord; to which logical conclusion he was assisted by the letter addressed to himself, which, as being undeniably in the old man's handwriting, would seem, with no great forcing, to bear the construction, that he arranged of his own will to go, and so went. The Captain had next to consider where and why? and as there was no way whatsoever that he saw to the solution of the first difficulty, he confined his meditations to the second.
Remembering the old man's curious manner, and the farewell he had taken of him; unaccountably fervent at the time, but quite intelligible now: a terrible apprehension strengthened on the Captain, that, overpowered by his anxieties and regrets for Walter, he had been driven to commit suicide. Unequal to the wear and tear of daily life, as he had often professed himself to be, and shaken as he no doubt was by the uncertainty and deferred hope he had undergone, it seemed no violently strained misgiving, but only too probable. Free from debt, and with no fear for his personal liberty, or the seizure of his goods, what else but such a state of madness could have hurried him away alone and secretly? As to his carrying some apparel with him, if he had really done so - and they were not even sure of that - he might have done so, the Captain argued, to prevent inquiry, to distract attention from his probable fate, or to ease the very mind that was now revolving all these possibilities. Such, reduced into plain language, and condensed within a small compass, was the final result and substance of Captain Cuttle's deliberations: which took a long time to arrive at this pass, and were, like some more public deliberations, very discursive and disorderly.
Dejected and despondent in the extreme, Captain Cuttle felt it just to release Rob from the arrest in which he had placed him, and to enlarge him, subject to a kind of honourable inspection which he still resolved to exercise; and having hired a man, from Brogley the Broker, to sit in the shop during their absence, the Captain, taking Rob with him, issued forth upon a dismal quest after the mortal remains of Solomon Gills.
Not a station-house, or bone-house, or work-house in the metropolis escaped a visitation from the hard glazed hat. Along the wharves, among the shipping on the bank-side, up the river, down the river, here, there, everywhere, it went gleaming where men were thickest, like the hero's helmet in an epic battle. For a whole week the Captain read of all the found and missing people in all the newspapers and handbills, and went forth on expeditions at all hours of the day to identify Solomon Gills, in poor little ship-boys who had fallen overboard, and in tall foreigners with dark beards who had taken poison - 'to make sure,' Captain Cuttle said, 'that it wam't him.' It is a sure thing that it never was, and that the good Captain had no other satisfaction.
Captain Cuttle at last abandoned these attempts as hopeless, and set himself to consider what was to be done next. After several new perusals of his poor friend's letter, he considered that the maintenance of' a home in the old place for Walter' was the primary duty imposed upon him. Therefore, the Captain's decision was, that he would keep house on the premises of Solomon Gills himself, and would go into the instrument-business, and see what came of it.
But as this step involved the relinquishment of his apartments at Mrs MacStinger's, and he knew that resolute woman would never hear of his deserting them, the Captain took the desperate determination of running away.
'Now, look ye here, my lad,' said the Captain to Rob, when he had matured this notable scheme, 'to-morrow, I shan't be found in this here roadstead till night - not till arter midnight p'rhaps. But you keep watch till you hear me knock, and the moment you do, turn-to, and open the door.'
'Very good, Captain,' said Rob.
'You'll continue to be rated on these here books,' pursued the Captain condescendingly, 'and I don't say but what you may get promotion, if you and me should pull together with a will. But the moment you hear me knock to-morrow night, whatever time it is, turn-to and show yourself smart with the door.'
'I'll be sure to do it, Captain,' replied Rob.
'Because you understand,' resumed the Captain, coming back again to enforce this charge upon his mind, 'there may be, for anything I can say, a chase; and I might be took while I was waiting, if you didn't show yourself smart with the door.'
Rob again assured the Captain that he would be prompt and wakeful; and the Captain having made this prudent arrangement, went home to Mrs MacStinger's for the last time.
The sense the Captain had of its being the last time, and of the awful purpose hidden beneath his blue waistcoat, inspired him with such a mortal dread of Mrs MacStinger, that the sound of that lady's foot downstairs at any time of the day, was sufficient to throw him into a fit of trembling. It fell out, too, that Mrs MacStinger was in a charming temper - mild and placid as a house- lamb; and Captain Cuttle's conscience suffered terrible twinges, when she came up to inquire if she could cook him nothing for his dinner.
'A nice small kidney-pudding now, Cap'en Cuttle,' said his landlady: 'or a sheep's heart. Don't mind my trouble.'
'No thank'ee, Ma'am,' returned the Captain.
'Have a roast fowl,' said Mrs MacStinger, 'with a bit of weal stuffing and some egg sauce. Come, Cap'en Cuttle! Give yourself a little treat!'
'No thank'ee, Ma'am,' returned the Captain very humbly.
'I'm sure you're out of sorts, and want to be stimulated,' said Mrs MacStinger. 'Why not have, for once in a way, a bottle of sherry wine?'
'Well, Ma'am,' rejoined the Captain, 'if you'd be so good as take a glass or two, I think I would try that. Would you do me the favour, Ma'am,' said the Captain, torn to pieces by his conscience, 'to accept a quarter's rent ahead?'
'And why so, Cap'en Cuttle?' retorted Mrs MacStinger - sharply, as the Captain thought.
The Captain was frightened to dead 'If you would Ma'am,' he said with submission, 'it would oblige me. I can't keep my money very well. It pays itself out. I should take it kind if you'd comply.'
'Well, Cap'en Cuttle,' said the unconscious MacStinger, rubbing her hands, 'you can do as you please. It's not for me, with my family, to refuse, no more than it is to ask'
'And would you, Ma'am,' said the Captain, taking down the tin canister in which he kept his cash' from the top shelf of the cupboard, 'be so good as offer eighteen-pence a-piece to the little family all round? If you could make it convenient, Ma'am, to pass the word presently for them children to come for'ard, in a body, I should be glad to see 'em'
These innocent MacStingers were so many daggers to the Captain's breast, when they appeared in a swarm, and tore at him with the confiding trustfulness he so little deserved. The eye of Alexander MacStinger, who had been his favourite, was insupportable to the Captain; the voice of Juliana MacStinger, who was the picture of her mother, made a coward of him.
Captain Cuttle kept up appearances, nevertheless, tolerably well, and for an hour or two was very hardly used and roughly handled by the young MacStingers: who in their childish frolics, did a little damage also to the glazed hat, by sitting in it, two at a time, as in a nest, and drumming on the inside of the crown with their shoes. At length the Captain sorrowfully dismissed them: taking leave of these cherubs with the poignant remorse and grief of a man who was going to execution.
In the silence of night, the Captain packed up his heavier property in a chest, which he locked, intending to leave it there, in all probability for ever, but on the forlorn chance of one day finding a man sufficiently bold and desperate to come and ask for it. Of his lighter necessaries, the Captain made a bundle; and disposed his plate about his person, ready for flight. At the hour of midnight, when Brig Place was buried in slumber, and Mrs MacStinger was lulled in sweet oblivion, with her infants around her, the guilty Captain, stealing down on tiptoe, in the dark, opened the door, closed it softly after him, and took to his heels
Pursued by the image of Mrs MacStinger springing out of bed, and, regardless of costume, following and bringing him back; pursued also by a consciousness of his enormous crime; Captain Cuttle held on at a great pace, and allowed no grass to grow under his feet, between Brig Place and the Instrument-maker's door. It opened when he knocked - for Rob was on the watch - and when it was bolted and locked behind him, Captain Cuttle felt comparatively safe.
'Whew!' cried the Captain, looking round him. 'It's a breather!'
'Nothing the matter, is there, Captain?' cried the gaping Rob.
'No, no!' said Captain Cuttle, after changing colour, and listening to a passing footstep in the street. 'But mind ye, my lad; if any lady, except either of them two as you see t'other day, ever comes and asks for Cap'en Cuttle, be sure to report no person of that name known, nor never heard of here; observe them orders, will you?'
'I'll take care, Captain,' returned Rob.
'You might say - if you liked,' hesitated the Captain, 'that you'd read in the paper that a Cap'en of that name was gone to Australia, emigrating, along with a whole ship's complement of people as had all swore never to come back no more.
Rob nodded his understanding of these instructions; and Captain Cuttle promising to make a man of him, if he obeyed orders, dismissed him, yawning, to his bed under the counter, and went aloft to the chamber of Solomon Gills.
What the Captain suffered next day, whenever a bonnet passed, or how often he darted out of the shop to elude imaginary MacStingers, and sought safety in the attic, cannot be told. But to avoid the fatigues attendant on this means of self-preservation, the Captain curtained the glass door of communication between the shop and parlour, on the inside; fitted a key to it from the bunch that had been sent to him; and cut a small hole of espial in the wall. The advantage of this fortification is obvious. On a bonnet appearing, the Captain instantly slipped into his garrison, locked himself up, and took a secret observation of the enemy. Finding it a false alarm, the Captain instantly slipped out again. And the bonnets in the street were so very numerous, and alarms were so inseparable from their appearance, that the Captain was almost incessantly slipping in and out all day long.
Captain Cuttle found time, however, in the midst of this fatiguing service to inspect the stock; in connexion with which he had the general idea (very laborious to Rob) that too much friction could not be bestowed upon it, and that it could not be made too bright. He also ticketed a few attractive-looking articles at a venture, at prices ranging from ten shillings to fifty pounds, and exposed them in the window to the great astonishment of the public.
After effecting these improvements, Captain Cuttle, surrounded by the instruments, began to feel scientific: and looked up at the stars at night, through the skylight, when he was smoking his pipe in the little back parlour before going to bed, as if he had established a kind of property in them. As a tradesman in the City, too, he began to have an interest in the Lord Mayor, and the Sheriffs, and in Public Companies; and felt bound to read the quotations of the Funds every day, though he was unable to make out, on any principle of navigation, what the figures meant, and could have very well dispensed with the fractions. Florence, the Captain waited on, with his strange news of Uncle Sol, immediately after taking possession of the Midshipman; but she was away from home. So the Captain sat himself down in his altered station of life, with no company but Rob the Grinder; and losing count of time, as men do when great changes come upon them, thought musingly of Walter, and of Solomon Gills, and even of Mrs MacStinger herself, as among the things that had been.
卡特爾船長昨天夜里曾經(jīng)從店鋪窗子里看到所爾·吉爾斯在客廳里寫東西，海軍軍官候補(bǔ)生站在柜臺上，磨工羅布在柜臺下面鋪床鋪；他雖然并不是一個懶人，但是這一天早上他起得不是很早，直到時鐘敲打了六下，他才支著胳膊肘，欠起身來，對他的小房間四處看了看；如果船長平時醒來的時候，眼睛也像這天早上張得這么大，那么它們一定是擔(dān)負(fù)著嚴(yán)重的任務(wù)；如果他平時也像這天早上這么猛烈地揉它們，那么它們的警覺性就得到很差的酬勞了?？墒乾F(xiàn)在的情況是異乎尋常的，因為磨工羅布以前從來沒有在卡特爾船長臥室的門口出現(xiàn)過，然而現(xiàn)在他卻站在那里，氣喘吁吁地望著船長，臉孔通紅，蓬頭散發(fā)，好像剛剛從床上起來似的，這大大地影響了他的臉色和表情。
“喂！”船長大聲喊叫道，“發(fā)生了什么事了？”
羅布張口結(jié)舌，一個字也沒能答出來的時候，卡特爾船長就慌慌張張地下了床，用手捂住孩子的嘴巴。
“別急，我的孩子，”船長說道，“現(xiàn)在一個字也別跟我說！”
船長向他發(fā)出了這條禁令之后，十分驚恐地望著他的來訪者，輕輕地推著他的肩膀，把他推到隔壁的房間里；卡特爾船長不見了一會兒之后，又穿著藍(lán)色的服裝回來。他一邊舉著手表示禁令還沒有解除，一邊走向碗柜給他自己倒了一杯酒，他又把另一杯遞給前來傳送消息的人。然后船長站在一個角落里，背靠著墻，仿佛是要預(yù)防自己可能被即將聽到的消息驚嚇得往后倒下似的；接著，他吞下了酒，眼睛一動不動地盯住傳信人，臉色極度蒼白地請他“收起曳索，使船前進(jìn)吧！”
“船長，您的意思是不是說告訴您？”羅布問道，這些預(yù)防措施給他留下了強(qiáng)烈的印象。
“是的！”船長說道。
“好吧，先生，”羅布說道，“我沒有好多話要說的。不過請看這里！”
羅布取出一串鑰匙。船長仔細(xì)地看了看，繼續(xù)站在角落里，又打量著前來傳遞訊息的人。
“再看這里！”羅布繼續(xù)說道。
孩子取出一個封好的小包裹?？ㄌ貭枏埓笱劬粗透鷦偛艔埓笱劬粗€匙一樣。
“我今天早上醒來的時候，船長，”羅布說道，“那是五點一刻光景，我在枕頭上發(fā)現(xiàn)了這些東西。店鋪的門沒有閂上，也沒有上鎖。吉爾斯先生走了！”
“走了！”船長大聲喊道。
“悄悄地走了，先生，”羅布回答道。
船長的聲音非常可怕，他從角落里直沖沖地向羅布跑來，羅布就退縮到另一個角落里，遞出鑰匙和包包，免得被他撞倒。
“‘給卡特爾船長’，先生，”羅布喊道，“是寫在鑰匙上，也寫在包裹上的。說實話，我敢用榮譽(yù)向您保證，卡特爾船長，我再也不知道別的了。如果我知道的話，我但愿自己就死掉。一個剛剛找到工作的小伙子想不到竟會落到這樣的下場，”不幸的磨工用袖頭擦著臉孔，哭道，“他的主人逃跑了，他卻受到了責(zé)怪！”
這些怨言是由于卡特爾船長的注視，或者正確地說，是由于他瞪著眼睛所引起的，因為在他的眼光中充滿了懷疑、威脅和責(zé)難。船長從他手中取過包裹，打開它，念著以下的字句：
“我親愛的內(nèi)德·卡特爾，這里所附的是我的一般遺囑！”船長用懷疑的眼光把紙翻過來，“和處理財產(chǎn)的遺囑——處理財產(chǎn)的遺囑在哪里？”船長立即責(zé)問倒霉的磨工，“我的孩子，你把它弄到哪里去了？”
“我從來沒有看見它，”羅布啜泣道，“請別懷疑一個清白無辜的孩子，船長。處理財產(chǎn)的遺囑，我從來沒有碰到過！”
卡特爾船長搖搖頭，意味著得有人對這負(fù)責(zé)，又繼續(xù)念道。
“一年之內(nèi)或者在你得到我親愛的沃爾特的確鑿消息之前，請別打開它。我相信，內(nèi)德，沃爾特也是你親愛的人?！贝L停了一下，激動地點點頭，然后，為了在這難堪的時刻維持他的尊嚴(yán)，非常嚴(yán)厲地看著磨工，“如果你再也聽不到我的消息，再也看不到我的話，那么，內(nèi)德，你就記住一位老朋友吧，正像他將會親切地記住你一樣，直到生命的最后時刻；至少在我所說的期限來到之前，請在老地方為沃爾特保留一個家。我已沒有債務(wù)，從董貝公司借來的錢已經(jīng)還清，我所有的鑰匙連同這個包包一并交給你。請不要聲張，也不要打聽我的下落；那樣做是徒勞無益的。好了，沒有別的話要說的了，內(nèi)德，你的忠實的朋友，所羅門·吉爾斯。”船長深深地吸了一口氣，然后再念以下的字句：“羅布這孩子，我跟你說過，董貝公司推薦得不錯。內(nèi)德，如果所有其余的東西都要拿去拍賣的話，那么那個小小的海軍軍官候補(bǔ)生你得好好看管著。”
船長把這封信翻來翻去，念了二十來次之后，坐到椅子里，在心中對這問題進(jìn)行了一場軍事審判；要把船長這時的神態(tài)描述出來，為后世所記憶，是需要一切厭棄不幸的當(dāng)代、決心面向后世、但卻未能如愿以償?shù)膫ゴ筇觳湃宋锏墓餐Σ拍茏龅降摹Ｗ畛?，船長因為過于驚慌失措和傷心苦惱，所以除了想到這封信之外，不能再想到別的事情了；甚至當(dāng)他的思想開始轉(zhuǎn)到各種伴隨發(fā)生的事實時，他在腦子里也許還依舊盤旋著原先的主題，而很少考慮這些伴隨發(fā)生的事實?？ㄌ貭柎L在這樣一種心情下，只有磨工一人在他的法庭上，而沒有其他任何人；當(dāng)他決定把磨工作為懷疑對象來進(jìn)行審判時，心中感到極大的安慰；他把他的這種想法在臉容上表露得清清楚楚，因此羅布就提出了*。
“啊，別這樣，船長！”磨工喊道，“我真不明白，您怎么能這樣！我做了什么事啦，您要這樣看著我？”
“我的孩子，”卡特爾船長說道，“還沒有傷害你什么，你就別吵吵嚷嚷，不論你做了什么，都別忙著表白自己！”
“我沒有做什么，也沒有表白什么，船長！”羅布回答道。
“那就從容自在，”船長給人以深刻印象地說道，“不必緊張。”
卡特爾船長深深感覺到自己所負(fù)的責(zé)任，也有必要把這樁神秘的事情徹底調(diào)查清楚；像他這樣一個與當(dāng)事人有關(guān)系的人本就應(yīng)該這么做的，所以他就決定讓磨工跟他在一起，深入到老人家里去考察一番?？紤]到這個年輕人目前已處于被逮捕狀態(tài)，船長猶豫不決，究竟把他戴上手銬，或者把他的踝骨捆綁起來，或者在他的腿上懸掛一個重物，是不是得當(dāng)；但是船長不明白這樣做在手續(xù)上是否合法，所以決定只是一路上抓住他的肩膀，如果他要有一點反抗，那么就把他*在地。
可是羅布沒有任何反抗，因此對他沒有施加其他嚴(yán)厲的緊急措施，就到達(dá)儀器制造商的家了。由于百葉窗還遮蔽著，船長首先關(guān)心的是讓店鋪開著；當(dāng)陽光充分射進(jìn)來以后，他就著手進(jìn)一步的調(diào)查。
船長第一樁事是在店鋪中的一張椅子里坐下，擔(dān)任他心目中的莊嚴(yán)的法庭庭長，并要求羅布躺在柜臺下面的床鋪上，絲毫不差地指點出他醒來時在什么地方發(fā)現(xiàn)了鑰匙和包包，他怎么發(fā)覺門沒有閂上，他怎么出發(fā)到布里格廣場——船長謹(jǐn)慎地禁止他在重現(xiàn)這最后一幕情景時跑出門檻之外——，等等。當(dāng)所有這一切表演了好幾次之后，船長搖搖頭，似乎覺得這件事情狀況不妙。
接著，船長不很肯定地想到可能找到尸體，就動手對整個住宅進(jìn)行嚴(yán)密的搜查；他把鉤子插在門后，拿著一支點著的蠟燭在地窖中摸索，這時他的頭和梁木猛烈地碰撞，蜘蛛網(wǎng)纏繞住他的身子。他們從地窖中走上來，走進(jìn)老人的臥室時，發(fā)現(xiàn)他昨天夜里沒有上床睡覺，而僅僅在被單上面躺了一下，這從依舊留在那里的印痕中可以明顯地看出。
“我想，船長，”羅布環(huán)視著房間，說道，“最近幾天吉爾斯先生進(jìn)進(jìn)出出十分頻繁，他把小件物品一件一件地拿出去，這樣做是為了避免引起注意?！?BR> “是嗎！”船長神秘地說道，“為什么你這樣想呢，我的孩子？”
“嗯，比方說，”羅布向四下里看著，說道，“我沒有看到他刮胡子的用具，也沒看到他的刷子，船長，還有他的襯衫，他的鞋子，也都沒有看到?！?BR> 這些物品每提到一件，卡特爾船長就把磨工身上裝束的相應(yīng)部分格外注意察看了一下，想看看他是不是最近使用了它們或現(xiàn)在已把它們占為己有；可是羅布用不著刮胡子，頭發(fā)也顯然沒有梳刷過，身上的衣服是他過去長期穿著的，這絲毫也不錯。
“那么，——你別忙著表白自己，——”船長說，“他什么時候開航的，這你怎么說？”
“唔，我想，船長，”羅布回答道，“他一定在我開始打鼾以后很快就走了。”
“那是在幾點鐘？”船長問，他打算查清確切的時間。
“我怎么能回答這個問題呢？船長！”羅布答道，“我只知道，我剛?cè)胨臅r候睡得很深沉，但快到早晨的時候我是容易清醒的；如果吉爾斯先生臨近天亮?xí)r穿過店鋪的話，那么哪怕他是踮著腳尖走路，我也完全能肯定，我無論如何也是能聽到他關(guān)門的?！?BR> 卡特爾船長對這證詞進(jìn)行了冷靜的思考以后，開始想；儀器制造商一定是自己有意隱匿不見了；那封寫給他本人的信也幫助他得出這個合乎邏輯的結(jié)論；那封信既然是老人親筆寫的，那就似乎不必牽強(qiáng)附會就可以解釋：他自己已經(jīng)打定主意要走，所以也就這樣走掉了。船長接著得考慮他走到哪里去和他為什么要走。由于他看不到第一個問題有任何解決的途徑，所以他就只是在第二個問題上思考。
船長回想起老人那稀奇古怪的神態(tài)和跟他告別時的情形——他當(dāng)時熱情得令人莫名其妙，但現(xiàn)在卻是容易理解的了——，這時候他心中加深了一種可怕的憂慮：老人受不了對沃爾特掛念和憂愁的沉重壓力，被驅(qū)使走上自殺的道路。正像他本人經(jīng)常所說的，他適應(yīng)不了日常生活的勞累，情況明暗不定，希望渺茫無期，又無疑使他灰心喪氣，因此這樣的憂慮不僅不是極不自然的，相反地卻是太有可能了。
他已經(jīng)沒有債務(wù)，不用害怕失去個人自由或沒收他的財物，除了這種精神失常的狀態(tài)之外，還有什么別的原因使他孑然一身，急急忙忙地、偷偷摸摸地從家里跑出去呢？至于他如果真的帶走一些物品的話——他們甚至對這一點也還不是很肯定的——，那么，船長判斷，他這樣做可能是為了防止對他進(jìn)行調(diào)查追究，轉(zhuǎn)移對他可能死亡的疑慮或者是為了使那些現(xiàn)在正在反復(fù)琢磨著所有這些可能性的人們放心。如果用明白的語言和簡潔的形式敘述出來的話，那么卡特爾船長思考的最后結(jié)果和主要內(nèi)容就是這樣一些?？ㄌ貭柎L是經(jīng)過很長時間的思考才得到這個結(jié)論的；就像其他一些比較公開的思考一樣，它們是很散漫、很混亂的。
卡特爾船長垂頭喪氣、灰心失望到了極點；他曾經(jīng)使羅布處于被逮捕狀態(tài)，他覺得現(xiàn)在應(yīng)當(dāng)解除他的這種狀態(tài)，并在對他進(jìn)行體面的監(jiān)督（這是他決定仍要進(jìn)行的）之后，把他釋放。船長從經(jīng)紀(jì)人布羅格利那里雇來了一個人在他們外出期間看守店鋪，然后就帶著羅布一道出發(fā)，憂心忡忡地去尋找所羅門·吉爾斯的遺骸。
在這個都城中，沒有一個派出所，沒有一處無名尸體招領(lǐng)處，沒有一個救貧院，那頂上了光的硬帽子不曾前去訪問過。在碼頭上，在岸邊的船的中間，在河流的上游，在河流的下游，這里，那里，每一個地點，它都像史詩描寫的戰(zhàn)役中的英雄的鋼盔一般，在人群稠密的地方閃耀著亮光。船長整個星期念著所有報紙和傳單中找到人和丟失人的消息，一天中的每個小時都走著遠(yuǎn)路，去把那些掉進(jìn)水里的可憐的年輕的見習(xí)船員、那些服毒自殺的、長著黑胡子、身材高大的外國人仔細(xì)辨認(rèn)，究竟是不是所羅門·吉爾斯。“查查確實，”卡特爾船長說，“那不是他?！边@倒是千真萬確，并不是他，善良的船長得不到其他安慰。
卡特爾船長終于放棄了這些毫無希望的嘗試，考慮他下一步該做什么。他把他可憐的朋友的信重新細(xì)讀了幾次之后認(rèn)為，“在老地方為沃爾特保留一個家”，這是托付給他的主要責(zé)任。因此，船長決定移居到所羅門·吉爾斯家中，經(jīng)營儀器生意，看看這樣做有什么結(jié)果。
但是采取這個步驟需要從麥克斯廷杰太太家的房間中搬出來，而他知道那位獨斷專行的女人是決不肯答應(yīng)他把房間退掉的。所以他決定不顧一切，偷偷地逃走。
“我的孩子，現(xiàn)在你聽著，”船長想好這個巧妙的計劃后，對羅布說，“在明天夜間，也許還是半夜之前，在這個錨地將看不到我。但是，請你一直在這里看守著，直到你聽到我敲門，那時候請你立刻跑來把門打開?！?BR> “我一定遵命，船長，”羅布說道。
“你還跟過去一樣在這里記帳，”船長平易近人地繼續(xù)說道，“不用說，如果你和我配合得好，你甚至還可能得到提升。不過，明天夜間，你只要一聽到我敲門，不論那是什么時候，你就得快手快腳地跑來，把門打開。”
“我一定這么做，船長，”羅布回答道。
“因為你知道，”船長解釋道，他又重新回到原來的話題，想讓這個指示牢牢地印刻在羅布的頭腦中，“說不定后面會有人追來。如果你不快手快腳地把門打開，我在門外等待的時候就可能會被逮住。”
羅布重新向船長保證，他將會動作敏捷，清醒機(jī)警。船長作了這番謹(jǐn)慎周到的安排之后，最后一次回到麥克斯廷杰太太的住所。
船長知道，他是最后一次待在那里；在他藍(lán)色的背心下面正隱藏著殘酷無情的決心。這樣一種感覺，使他在心中對麥克斯廷杰太太感到非常害怕；這一天不論在什么時候，只要一聽到這位太太在樓下的腳步聲，都可以使他直打哆嗦。再說，這天又碰巧麥克斯廷杰太太的脾氣又極好，就像小羊羔一般溫厚善良，心平氣和；當(dāng)她上樓來問她能為他準(zhǔn)備點什么晚飯的時候，卡特爾船長的良心受到了可怕的責(zé)備。
“用腰子做個美味的小布丁怎么樣，卡特爾船長？”他的房東太太問道，“要不就來個羊心。我做起來費事些，這您可不用擔(dān)心?！?BR> “不，謝謝您，夫人?！贝L回答道。
“一只烤雞，”麥克斯廷杰太太說道，“雞肚子里再填些小牛肉和來點雞蛋調(diào)味汁。好啦，卡特爾船長！您痛痛快快地吃一頓吧！”
“不，謝謝您，夫人，”船長很低聲下氣地回答道。
“我相信您的心情不好，需要提提神?！丙溈怂雇⒔芴f道，“為什么不偶爾喝一瓶雪利酒①呢？”
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①雪利酒（sherrywine）：西班牙南部地方產(chǎn)的白葡萄酒。
“好吧，夫人，”船長回答道，“如果您肯賞光也喝一、兩杯，我想我可以試一試。您肯不肯給我?guī)蛡€忙，夫人，”船長說道，這時他已被他的良心撕成碎片了，“接受我一個季度的預(yù)付房租？”
“為什么這樣，卡特爾船長？”麥克斯廷杰太太問道，船長覺得她詞鋒尖銳。
船長嚇得要死?！叭绻辖邮艿脑?，夫人，”他恭恭敬敬地說道，“那么你就幫了我的忙。我手頭存不住錢。它們總是嘩嘩地流出去。如果您肯答應(yīng)的話，那么我真會感謝不盡?！?BR> “好吧，卡特爾船長，”蒙在鼓里的麥克斯廷杰太太搓著手說道，“您愛怎么辦就怎么辦吧，我和我的一家人不應(yīng)該拒絕您，就像不應(yīng)該向您提出這個要求一樣?！?BR> “您肯不肯再行個好，夫人，”船長從碗柜最上一層的擱板上取下他存放現(xiàn)金的錫罐，說道，“讓我送給您的孩子們每人十八個便士？如果您肯行個方便，夫人，那就請立刻吩咐這些孩子們一齊都上這里來；我將很高興看到他們。”
當(dāng)這些天真爛熳的小麥克斯廷杰們蜂擁來到的時候，他們像許多短劍一樣刺進(jìn)了船長的胸膛；他們對他那種他受之有愧的無限信任使他的心都要碎了；他所寵愛的亞歷山大·麥克斯廷杰的眼光使他難以忍受；模樣長得活像母親的朱莉安娜·麥克斯廷杰的聲音使他心虧膽怯。
盡管這樣，卡特爾船長把場面支撐得還不錯；他在一、兩個小時內(nèi)受到了小麥克斯廷杰們殘酷的、粗暴的折磨。這些小家伙們在兒戲中把他的上了光的帽子損壞了一點，因為他們兩個一起坐在里面，就像坐在鳥窠里一樣，還用鞋子像打鼓似地踩踏著帽頂?shù)睦锩妗Ｗ詈蟠L傷心地打發(fā)他們回去，就像一個就要被處決死刑的人一樣，懷著深沉的悔恨與悲痛和這些小天使們告別。
船長在寂靜的夜間把比較重的財產(chǎn)裝在一只箱子里，上了鎖，打算把它留下，十之八九就永遠(yuǎn)留在那里了，因為以后要找一個膽大包天的人，能不顧一切地跑來把它取走，這種機(jī)會幾乎是不會有的。船長把比較輕的東西打成一個包裹，并把餐具塞在衣袋里，準(zhǔn)備逃走。午夜，當(dāng)布里格廣場正在酣睡，麥克斯廷杰太太身旁圍躺著嬰兒，正香甜甜地沉沒在迷迷蒙蒙的狀態(tài)之中的時候，犯罪的船長踮著腳尖，在黑暗中偷偷地下了樓，打開門，輕輕地把它關(guān)上，然后拔起腳來就跑。
卡特爾船長仿佛看到麥克斯廷杰太太從床上跳起，不顧穿衣服，就從后面趕來，把他抓回去；她的這個形象一直在緊追著他，他已犯下了彌天大罪的感覺也在緊追著他，所以從布里格廣場到儀器制造商的家門之間，他一直邁開大步，飛快奔跑，腳步踐踏到的地方野草就休想長出來了。他一敲門，門就開了——因為羅布正在值夜——；當(dāng)把門閂上、上了鎖之后，卡特爾船長才覺得自己比較安全了。
“哎呀！”船長向四周看看，喊道，“這真是叫人直喘大氣的激烈運(yùn)動啊！”
“出什么事了沒有，船長？”目瞪口呆的羅布問道。
“沒有，沒有，”卡特爾船長臉色發(fā)白，聽著街道上走過的腳步聲之后說，“不過，我的孩子，你得記?。撼四翘炷憧吹降哪莾晌恍〗阃猓绻惺裁磁伺軄泶蚵牽ㄌ貭柎L的話，你一定要對她說，這里根本不知道有這樣一個人，從來也沒聽說起過他。你要遵照這些命令行事，聽見沒有？”
“我會提防的，船長，”羅布回答道。
“你可以說——如果你愿意的話，”船長遲疑不定地說，“你在報紙上念到一則消息，有一個同姓的船長已經(jīng)移居到澳大利亞去了，同去的還有整船的人，他們?nèi)及l(fā)誓再也不回來了?！?BR> 羅布點點頭，表示明白這些指示；卡特爾船長答應(yīng)如果他遵從這些命令的話，那么他就把他教養(yǎng)成一個有出息的人，然后就把直打呵欠的孩子打發(fā)到柜臺下面去睡覺，他自己則上樓到所羅門·吉爾斯的房間里去。
第二天，每當(dāng)一頂女帽從窗口走過的時候，船長就多么膽戰(zhàn)心驚地害怕，或者他多少次從店鋪中沖出，避開想象中的麥克斯廷杰們，到頂樓中尋求安全，這一切都是不能用筆墨形容的。但是為了避免采取這種自衛(wèi)方式所產(chǎn)生的疲勞，船長就在店鋪通接客廳之間的玻璃門里面掛上簾子，從老人交給他的一串鑰匙中間取出一把套在門上，又在墻上挖了一個用來偵察的小洞。這套防御工事的好處是顯而易見的。船長一看到女帽出現(xiàn)，就立即溜進(jìn)他的堡壘，把自己鎖在里面，然后偷偷地觀察敵人。當(dāng)發(fā)現(xiàn)這是一場虛驚時，船長就立即溜了出來。街上的女帽非常之多，它們每一出現(xiàn)又必定要引起一場驚慌，所以船長幾乎整天都不斷地溜進(jìn)溜出。
不過在這使人疲勞不堪的緊張活動中間，卡特爾船長倒找到時間來檢點存貨。在檢點過程中，他得到一個概念（對羅布來說，這是很累人的），就是：貨品擦得愈久、愈亮就愈好。然后他在幾個外表引人注目的物品上貼上標(biāo)簽，瞎估亂猜地標(biāo)上價格，從十五先令到五十鎊。他把它們陳列在櫥窗中，使公眾大為驚奇。
卡特爾船長完成了這些改進(jìn)后，被包圍在儀器中間，開始覺得自己也跟科學(xué)沾邊了。夜間，當(dāng)他上床睡覺之前，在小后客廳中抽著煙斗的時候，他通過天窗仰望群星，仿佛它們已成為他的財產(chǎn)似的。作為一個在城市里做生意的人，他開始對市長、郡長和同業(yè)公會發(fā)生了興趣；他還覺得每天應(yīng)當(dāng)閱讀有價證券行情表，雖然不能根據(jù)航海的原理看懂這些數(shù)字的意義；對他來說，沒有那些小數(shù)也是完全可以的?？ㄌ貭柎L在占有了海軍軍官候補(bǔ)生之后，就立即帶著所爾舅舅的奇怪消息前去拜訪弗洛倫斯，但是她卻已經(jīng)離開家了。這樣，船長就在他的新的生活崗位上安定下來，除了磨工羅布之外，沒有別的伴侶。他就像生活中發(fā)生了極大變化的人們一樣，記不清日子是怎么過去的；他默默地思念著沃爾特，思念著所羅門·吉爾斯，甚至在回顧往事時，還想到那位麥克斯廷杰太太。
Captain Cuttle, though no sluggard, did not turn out so early on the morning after he had seen Sol Gills, through the shop-window, writing in the parlour, with the Midshipman upon the counter, and Rob the Grinder making up his bed below it, but that the clocks struck six as he raised himself on his elbow, and took a survey of his little chamber. The Captain's eyes must have done severe duty, if he usually opened them as wide on awaking as he did that morning; and were but roughly rewarded for their vigilance, if he generally rubbed them half as hard. But the occasion was no common one, for Rob the Grinder had certainly never stood in the doorway of Captain Cuttle's room before, and in it he stood then, panting at the Captain, with a flushed and touzled air of Bed about him, that greatly heightened both his colour and expression.
'Holloa!' roared the Captain. 'What's the matter?'
Before Rob could stammer a word in answer, Captain Cuttle turned out, all in a heap, and covered the boy's mouth with his hand.
'Steady, my lad,' said the Captain, 'don't ye speak a word to me as yet!'
The Captain, looking at his visitor in great consternation, gently shouldered him into the next room, after laying this injunction upon him; and disappearing for a few moments, forthwith returned in the blue suit. Holding up his hand in token of the injunction not yet being taken off, Captain Cuttle walked up to the cupboard, and poured himself out a dram; a counterpart of which he handed to the messenger. The Captain then stood himself up in a corner, against the wall, as if to forestall the possibility of being knocked backwards by the communication that was to be made to him; and having swallowed his liquor, with his eyes fixed on the messenger, and his face as pale as his face could be, requested him to 'heave ahead.'
'Do you mean, tell you, Captain?' asked Rob, who had been greatly impressed by these precautions
'Ay!' said the Captain.
'Well, Sir,' said Rob, 'I ain't got much to tell. But look here!'
Rob produced a bundle of keys. The Captain surveyed them, remained in his corner, and surveyed the messenger.
'And look here!' pursued Rob.
The boy produced a sealed packet, which Captain Cuttle stared at as he had stared at the keys.
'When I woke this morning, Captain,' said Rob, 'which was about a quarter after five, I found these on my pillow. The shop-door was unbolted and unlocked, and Mr Gills gone.'
'Gone!' roared the Captain.
'Flowed, Sir,' returned Rob.
The Captain's voice was so tremendous, and he came out of his corner with such way on him, that Rob retreated before him into another corner: holding out the keys and packet, to prevent himself from being run down.
'"For Captain Cuttle," Sir,' cried Rob, 'is on the keys, and on the packet too. Upon my word and honour, Captain Cuttle, I don't know anything more about it. I wish I may die if I do! Here's a sitiwation for a lad that's just got a sitiwation,' cried the unfortunate Grinder, screwing his cuff into his face: 'his master bolted with his place, and him blamed for it!'
These lamentations had reference to Captain Cuttle's gaze, or rather glare, which was full of vague suspicions, threatenings, and denunciations. Taking the proffered packet from his hand, the Captain opened it and read as follows:-
'My dear Ned Cuttle. Enclosed is my will!' The Captain turned it over, with a doubtful look - 'and Testament - Where's the Testament?' said the Captain, instantly impeaching the ill-fated Grinder. 'What have you done with that, my lad?'
'I never see it,' whimpered Rob. 'Don't keep on suspecting an innocent lad, Captain. I never touched the Testament.'
Captain Cuttle shook his head, implying that somebody must be made answerable for it; and gravely proceeded:
'Which don't break open for a year, or until you have decisive intelligence of my dear Walter, who is dear to you, Ned, too, I am sure.' The Captain paused and shook his head in some emotion; then, as a re-establishment of his dignity in this trying position, looked with exceeding sternness at the Grinder. 'If you should never hear of me, or see me more, Ned, remember an old friend as he will remember you to the last - kindly; and at least until the period I have mentioned has expired, keep a home in the old place for Walter. There are no debts, the loan from Dombey's House is paid off and all my keys I send with this. Keep this quiet, and make no inquiry for me; it is useless. So no more, dear Ned, from your true friend, Solomon Gills.' The Captain took a long breath, and then read these words written below: '"The boy Rob, well recommended, as I told you, from Dombey's House. If all else should come to the hammer, take care, Ned, of the little Midshipman."'
To convey to posterity any idea of the manner in which the Captain, after turning this letter over and over, and reading it a score of times, sat down in his chair, and held a court-martial on the subject in his own mind, would require the united genius of all the great men, who, discarding their own untoward days, have determined to go down to posterity, and have never got there. At first the Captain was too much confounded and distressed to think of anything but the letter itself; and even when his thoughts began to glance upon the various attendant facts, they might, perhaps, as well have occupied themselves with their former theme, for any light they reflected on them. In this state of mind, Captain Cuttle having the Grinder before the court, and no one else, found it a great relief to decide, generally, that he was an object of suspicion: which the Captain so clearly expressed in his visage, that Rob remonstrated.
'Oh, don't, Captain!' cried the Grinder. 'I wonder how you can! what have I done to be looked at, like that?'
'My lad,' said Captain Cuttle, 'don't you sing out afore you're hurt. And don't you commit yourself, whatever you do.'
'I haven't been and committed nothing, Captain!' answered Rob.
'Keep her free, then,' said the Captain, impressively, 'and ride easy.
With a deep sense of the responsibility imposed upon him' and the necessity of thoroughly fathoming this mysterious affair as became a man in his relations with the parties, Captain Cuttle resolved to go down and examine the premises, and to keep the Grinder with him. Considering that youth as under arrest at present, the Captain was in some doubt whether it might not be expedient to handcuff him, or tie his ankles together, or attach a weight to his legs; but not being clear as to the legality of such formalities, the Captain decided merely to hold him by the shoulder all the way, and knock him down if he made any objection.
However, he made none, and consequently got to the Instrument-maker's house without being placed under any more stringent restraint. As the shutters were not yet taken down, the Captain's first care was to have the shop opened; and when the daylight was freely admitted, he proceeded, with its aid, to further investigation.
The Captain's first care was to establish himself in a chair in the shop, as President of the solemn tribunal that was sitting within him; and to require Rob to lie down in his bed under the counter, show exactly where he discovered the keys and packet when he awoke, how he found the door when he went to try it, how he started off to Brig Place - cautiously preventing the latter imitation from being carried farther than the threshold - and so on to the end of the chapter. When all this had been done several times, the Captain shook his head and seemed to think the matter had a bad look.
Next, the Captain, with some indistinct idea of finding a body, instituted a strict search over the whole house; groping in the cellars with a lighted candle, thrusting his hook behind doors, bringing his head into violent contact with beams, and covering himself with cobwebs. Mounting up to the old man's bed-room, they found that he had not been in bed on the previous night, but had merely lain down on the coverlet, as was evident from the impression yet remaining there.
'And I think, Captain,' said Rob, looking round the room, 'that when Mr Gills was going in and out so often, these last few days, he was taking little things away, piecemeal, not to attract attention.'
'Ay!' said the Captain, mysteriously. 'Why so, my lad?'
'Why,' returned Rob, looking about, 'I don't see his shaving tackle. Nor his brushes, Captain. Nor no shirts. Nor yet his shoes.'
As each of these articles was mentioned, Captain Cuttle took particular notice of the corresponding department of the Grinder, lest he should appear to have been in recent use, or should prove to be in present possession thereof. But Rob had no occasion to shave, was not brushed, and wore the clothes he had on for a long time past, beyond all possibility of a mistake.
'And what should you say,' said the Captain - 'not committing yourself - about his time of sheering off? Hey?'
'Why, I think, Captain,' returned Rob, 'that he must have gone pretty soon after I began to snore.'
'What o'clock was that?' said the Captain, prepared to be very particular about the exact time.
'How can I tell, Captain!' answered Rob. 'I only know that I'm a heavy sleeper at first, and a light one towards morning; and if Mr Gills had come through the shop near daybreak, though ever so much on tiptoe, I'm pretty sure I should have heard him shut the door at all events.
On mature consideration of this evidence, Captain Cuttle began to think that the Instrument-maker must have vanished of his own accord; to which logical conclusion he was assisted by the letter addressed to himself, which, as being undeniably in the old man's handwriting, would seem, with no great forcing, to bear the construction, that he arranged of his own will to go, and so went. The Captain had next to consider where and why? and as there was no way whatsoever that he saw to the solution of the first difficulty, he confined his meditations to the second.
Remembering the old man's curious manner, and the farewell he had taken of him; unaccountably fervent at the time, but quite intelligible now: a terrible apprehension strengthened on the Captain, that, overpowered by his anxieties and regrets for Walter, he had been driven to commit suicide. Unequal to the wear and tear of daily life, as he had often professed himself to be, and shaken as he no doubt was by the uncertainty and deferred hope he had undergone, it seemed no violently strained misgiving, but only too probable. Free from debt, and with no fear for his personal liberty, or the seizure of his goods, what else but such a state of madness could have hurried him away alone and secretly? As to his carrying some apparel with him, if he had really done so - and they were not even sure of that - he might have done so, the Captain argued, to prevent inquiry, to distract attention from his probable fate, or to ease the very mind that was now revolving all these possibilities. Such, reduced into plain language, and condensed within a small compass, was the final result and substance of Captain Cuttle's deliberations: which took a long time to arrive at this pass, and were, like some more public deliberations, very discursive and disorderly.
Dejected and despondent in the extreme, Captain Cuttle felt it just to release Rob from the arrest in which he had placed him, and to enlarge him, subject to a kind of honourable inspection which he still resolved to exercise; and having hired a man, from Brogley the Broker, to sit in the shop during their absence, the Captain, taking Rob with him, issued forth upon a dismal quest after the mortal remains of Solomon Gills.
Not a station-house, or bone-house, or work-house in the metropolis escaped a visitation from the hard glazed hat. Along the wharves, among the shipping on the bank-side, up the river, down the river, here, there, everywhere, it went gleaming where men were thickest, like the hero's helmet in an epic battle. For a whole week the Captain read of all the found and missing people in all the newspapers and handbills, and went forth on expeditions at all hours of the day to identify Solomon Gills, in poor little ship-boys who had fallen overboard, and in tall foreigners with dark beards who had taken poison - 'to make sure,' Captain Cuttle said, 'that it wam't him.' It is a sure thing that it never was, and that the good Captain had no other satisfaction.
Captain Cuttle at last abandoned these attempts as hopeless, and set himself to consider what was to be done next. After several new perusals of his poor friend's letter, he considered that the maintenance of' a home in the old place for Walter' was the primary duty imposed upon him. Therefore, the Captain's decision was, that he would keep house on the premises of Solomon Gills himself, and would go into the instrument-business, and see what came of it.
But as this step involved the relinquishment of his apartments at Mrs MacStinger's, and he knew that resolute woman would never hear of his deserting them, the Captain took the desperate determination of running away.
'Now, look ye here, my lad,' said the Captain to Rob, when he had matured this notable scheme, 'to-morrow, I shan't be found in this here roadstead till night - not till arter midnight p'rhaps. But you keep watch till you hear me knock, and the moment you do, turn-to, and open the door.'
'Very good, Captain,' said Rob.
'You'll continue to be rated on these here books,' pursued the Captain condescendingly, 'and I don't say but what you may get promotion, if you and me should pull together with a will. But the moment you hear me knock to-morrow night, whatever time it is, turn-to and show yourself smart with the door.'
'I'll be sure to do it, Captain,' replied Rob.
'Because you understand,' resumed the Captain, coming back again to enforce this charge upon his mind, 'there may be, for anything I can say, a chase; and I might be took while I was waiting, if you didn't show yourself smart with the door.'
Rob again assured the Captain that he would be prompt and wakeful; and the Captain having made this prudent arrangement, went home to Mrs MacStinger's for the last time.
The sense the Captain had of its being the last time, and of the awful purpose hidden beneath his blue waistcoat, inspired him with such a mortal dread of Mrs MacStinger, that the sound of that lady's foot downstairs at any time of the day, was sufficient to throw him into a fit of trembling. It fell out, too, that Mrs MacStinger was in a charming temper - mild and placid as a house- lamb; and Captain Cuttle's conscience suffered terrible twinges, when she came up to inquire if she could cook him nothing for his dinner.
'A nice small kidney-pudding now, Cap'en Cuttle,' said his landlady: 'or a sheep's heart. Don't mind my trouble.'
'No thank'ee, Ma'am,' returned the Captain.
'Have a roast fowl,' said Mrs MacStinger, 'with a bit of weal stuffing and some egg sauce. Come, Cap'en Cuttle! Give yourself a little treat!'
'No thank'ee, Ma'am,' returned the Captain very humbly.
'I'm sure you're out of sorts, and want to be stimulated,' said Mrs MacStinger. 'Why not have, for once in a way, a bottle of sherry wine?'
'Well, Ma'am,' rejoined the Captain, 'if you'd be so good as take a glass or two, I think I would try that. Would you do me the favour, Ma'am,' said the Captain, torn to pieces by his conscience, 'to accept a quarter's rent ahead?'
'And why so, Cap'en Cuttle?' retorted Mrs MacStinger - sharply, as the Captain thought.
The Captain was frightened to dead 'If you would Ma'am,' he said with submission, 'it would oblige me. I can't keep my money very well. It pays itself out. I should take it kind if you'd comply.'
'Well, Cap'en Cuttle,' said the unconscious MacStinger, rubbing her hands, 'you can do as you please. It's not for me, with my family, to refuse, no more than it is to ask'
'And would you, Ma'am,' said the Captain, taking down the tin canister in which he kept his cash' from the top shelf of the cupboard, 'be so good as offer eighteen-pence a-piece to the little family all round? If you could make it convenient, Ma'am, to pass the word presently for them children to come for'ard, in a body, I should be glad to see 'em'
These innocent MacStingers were so many daggers to the Captain's breast, when they appeared in a swarm, and tore at him with the confiding trustfulness he so little deserved. The eye of Alexander MacStinger, who had been his favourite, was insupportable to the Captain; the voice of Juliana MacStinger, who was the picture of her mother, made a coward of him.
Captain Cuttle kept up appearances, nevertheless, tolerably well, and for an hour or two was very hardly used and roughly handled by the young MacStingers: who in their childish frolics, did a little damage also to the glazed hat, by sitting in it, two at a time, as in a nest, and drumming on the inside of the crown with their shoes. At length the Captain sorrowfully dismissed them: taking leave of these cherubs with the poignant remorse and grief of a man who was going to execution.
In the silence of night, the Captain packed up his heavier property in a chest, which he locked, intending to leave it there, in all probability for ever, but on the forlorn chance of one day finding a man sufficiently bold and desperate to come and ask for it. Of his lighter necessaries, the Captain made a bundle; and disposed his plate about his person, ready for flight. At the hour of midnight, when Brig Place was buried in slumber, and Mrs MacStinger was lulled in sweet oblivion, with her infants around her, the guilty Captain, stealing down on tiptoe, in the dark, opened the door, closed it softly after him, and took to his heels
Pursued by the image of Mrs MacStinger springing out of bed, and, regardless of costume, following and bringing him back; pursued also by a consciousness of his enormous crime; Captain Cuttle held on at a great pace, and allowed no grass to grow under his feet, between Brig Place and the Instrument-maker's door. It opened when he knocked - for Rob was on the watch - and when it was bolted and locked behind him, Captain Cuttle felt comparatively safe.
'Whew!' cried the Captain, looking round him. 'It's a breather!'
'Nothing the matter, is there, Captain?' cried the gaping Rob.
'No, no!' said Captain Cuttle, after changing colour, and listening to a passing footstep in the street. 'But mind ye, my lad; if any lady, except either of them two as you see t'other day, ever comes and asks for Cap'en Cuttle, be sure to report no person of that name known, nor never heard of here; observe them orders, will you?'
'I'll take care, Captain,' returned Rob.
'You might say - if you liked,' hesitated the Captain, 'that you'd read in the paper that a Cap'en of that name was gone to Australia, emigrating, along with a whole ship's complement of people as had all swore never to come back no more.
Rob nodded his understanding of these instructions; and Captain Cuttle promising to make a man of him, if he obeyed orders, dismissed him, yawning, to his bed under the counter, and went aloft to the chamber of Solomon Gills.
What the Captain suffered next day, whenever a bonnet passed, or how often he darted out of the shop to elude imaginary MacStingers, and sought safety in the attic, cannot be told. But to avoid the fatigues attendant on this means of self-preservation, the Captain curtained the glass door of communication between the shop and parlour, on the inside; fitted a key to it from the bunch that had been sent to him; and cut a small hole of espial in the wall. The advantage of this fortification is obvious. On a bonnet appearing, the Captain instantly slipped into his garrison, locked himself up, and took a secret observation of the enemy. Finding it a false alarm, the Captain instantly slipped out again. And the bonnets in the street were so very numerous, and alarms were so inseparable from their appearance, that the Captain was almost incessantly slipping in and out all day long.
Captain Cuttle found time, however, in the midst of this fatiguing service to inspect the stock; in connexion with which he had the general idea (very laborious to Rob) that too much friction could not be bestowed upon it, and that it could not be made too bright. He also ticketed a few attractive-looking articles at a venture, at prices ranging from ten shillings to fifty pounds, and exposed them in the window to the great astonishment of the public.
After effecting these improvements, Captain Cuttle, surrounded by the instruments, began to feel scientific: and looked up at the stars at night, through the skylight, when he was smoking his pipe in the little back parlour before going to bed, as if he had established a kind of property in them. As a tradesman in the City, too, he began to have an interest in the Lord Mayor, and the Sheriffs, and in Public Companies; and felt bound to read the quotations of the Funds every day, though he was unable to make out, on any principle of navigation, what the figures meant, and could have very well dispensed with the fractions. Florence, the Captain waited on, with his strange news of Uncle Sol, immediately after taking possession of the Midshipman; but she was away from home. So the Captain sat himself down in his altered station of life, with no company but Rob the Grinder; and losing count of time, as men do when great changes come upon them, thought musingly of Walter, and of Solomon Gills, and even of Mrs MacStinger herself, as among the things that had been.
卡特爾船長昨天夜里曾經(jīng)從店鋪窗子里看到所爾·吉爾斯在客廳里寫東西，海軍軍官候補(bǔ)生站在柜臺上，磨工羅布在柜臺下面鋪床鋪；他雖然并不是一個懶人，但是這一天早上他起得不是很早，直到時鐘敲打了六下，他才支著胳膊肘，欠起身來，對他的小房間四處看了看；如果船長平時醒來的時候，眼睛也像這天早上張得這么大，那么它們一定是擔(dān)負(fù)著嚴(yán)重的任務(wù)；如果他平時也像這天早上這么猛烈地揉它們，那么它們的警覺性就得到很差的酬勞了?？墒乾F(xiàn)在的情況是異乎尋常的，因為磨工羅布以前從來沒有在卡特爾船長臥室的門口出現(xiàn)過，然而現(xiàn)在他卻站在那里，氣喘吁吁地望著船長，臉孔通紅，蓬頭散發(fā)，好像剛剛從床上起來似的，這大大地影響了他的臉色和表情。
“喂！”船長大聲喊叫道，“發(fā)生了什么事了？”
羅布張口結(jié)舌，一個字也沒能答出來的時候，卡特爾船長就慌慌張張地下了床，用手捂住孩子的嘴巴。
“別急，我的孩子，”船長說道，“現(xiàn)在一個字也別跟我說！”
船長向他發(fā)出了這條禁令之后，十分驚恐地望著他的來訪者，輕輕地推著他的肩膀，把他推到隔壁的房間里；卡特爾船長不見了一會兒之后，又穿著藍(lán)色的服裝回來。他一邊舉著手表示禁令還沒有解除，一邊走向碗柜給他自己倒了一杯酒，他又把另一杯遞給前來傳送消息的人。然后船長站在一個角落里，背靠著墻，仿佛是要預(yù)防自己可能被即將聽到的消息驚嚇得往后倒下似的；接著，他吞下了酒，眼睛一動不動地盯住傳信人，臉色極度蒼白地請他“收起曳索，使船前進(jìn)吧！”
“船長，您的意思是不是說告訴您？”羅布問道，這些預(yù)防措施給他留下了強(qiáng)烈的印象。
“是的！”船長說道。
“好吧，先生，”羅布說道，“我沒有好多話要說的。不過請看這里！”
羅布取出一串鑰匙。船長仔細(xì)地看了看，繼續(xù)站在角落里，又打量著前來傳遞訊息的人。
“再看這里！”羅布繼續(xù)說道。
孩子取出一個封好的小包裹?？ㄌ貭枏埓笱劬粗透鷦偛艔埓笱劬粗€匙一樣。
“我今天早上醒來的時候，船長，”羅布說道，“那是五點一刻光景，我在枕頭上發(fā)現(xiàn)了這些東西。店鋪的門沒有閂上，也沒有上鎖。吉爾斯先生走了！”
“走了！”船長大聲喊道。
“悄悄地走了，先生，”羅布回答道。
船長的聲音非常可怕，他從角落里直沖沖地向羅布跑來，羅布就退縮到另一個角落里，遞出鑰匙和包包，免得被他撞倒。
“‘給卡特爾船長’，先生，”羅布喊道，“是寫在鑰匙上，也寫在包裹上的。說實話，我敢用榮譽(yù)向您保證，卡特爾船長，我再也不知道別的了。如果我知道的話，我但愿自己就死掉。一個剛剛找到工作的小伙子想不到竟會落到這樣的下場，”不幸的磨工用袖頭擦著臉孔，哭道，“他的主人逃跑了，他卻受到了責(zé)怪！”
這些怨言是由于卡特爾船長的注視，或者正確地說，是由于他瞪著眼睛所引起的，因為在他的眼光中充滿了懷疑、威脅和責(zé)難。船長從他手中取過包裹，打開它，念著以下的字句：
“我親愛的內(nèi)德·卡特爾，這里所附的是我的一般遺囑！”船長用懷疑的眼光把紙翻過來，“和處理財產(chǎn)的遺囑——處理財產(chǎn)的遺囑在哪里？”船長立即責(zé)問倒霉的磨工，“我的孩子，你把它弄到哪里去了？”
“我從來沒有看見它，”羅布啜泣道，“請別懷疑一個清白無辜的孩子，船長。處理財產(chǎn)的遺囑，我從來沒有碰到過！”
卡特爾船長搖搖頭，意味著得有人對這負(fù)責(zé)，又繼續(xù)念道。
“一年之內(nèi)或者在你得到我親愛的沃爾特的確鑿消息之前，請別打開它。我相信，內(nèi)德，沃爾特也是你親愛的人?！贝L停了一下，激動地點點頭，然后，為了在這難堪的時刻維持他的尊嚴(yán)，非常嚴(yán)厲地看著磨工，“如果你再也聽不到我的消息，再也看不到我的話，那么，內(nèi)德，你就記住一位老朋友吧，正像他將會親切地記住你一樣，直到生命的最后時刻；至少在我所說的期限來到之前，請在老地方為沃爾特保留一個家。我已沒有債務(wù)，從董貝公司借來的錢已經(jīng)還清，我所有的鑰匙連同這個包包一并交給你。請不要聲張，也不要打聽我的下落；那樣做是徒勞無益的。好了，沒有別的話要說的了，內(nèi)德，你的忠實的朋友，所羅門·吉爾斯。”船長深深地吸了一口氣，然后再念以下的字句：“羅布這孩子，我跟你說過，董貝公司推薦得不錯。內(nèi)德，如果所有其余的東西都要拿去拍賣的話，那么那個小小的海軍軍官候補(bǔ)生你得好好看管著。”
船長把這封信翻來翻去，念了二十來次之后，坐到椅子里，在心中對這問題進(jìn)行了一場軍事審判；要把船長這時的神態(tài)描述出來，為后世所記憶，是需要一切厭棄不幸的當(dāng)代、決心面向后世、但卻未能如愿以償?shù)膫ゴ筇觳湃宋锏墓餐Σ拍茏龅降摹Ｗ畛?，船長因為過于驚慌失措和傷心苦惱，所以除了想到這封信之外，不能再想到別的事情了；甚至當(dāng)他的思想開始轉(zhuǎn)到各種伴隨發(fā)生的事實時，他在腦子里也許還依舊盤旋著原先的主題，而很少考慮這些伴隨發(fā)生的事實?？ㄌ貭柎L在這樣一種心情下，只有磨工一人在他的法庭上，而沒有其他任何人；當(dāng)他決定把磨工作為懷疑對象來進(jìn)行審判時，心中感到極大的安慰；他把他的這種想法在臉容上表露得清清楚楚，因此羅布就提出了*。
“啊，別這樣，船長！”磨工喊道，“我真不明白，您怎么能這樣！我做了什么事啦，您要這樣看著我？”
“我的孩子，”卡特爾船長說道，“還沒有傷害你什么，你就別吵吵嚷嚷，不論你做了什么，都別忙著表白自己！”
“我沒有做什么，也沒有表白什么，船長！”羅布回答道。
“那就從容自在，”船長給人以深刻印象地說道，“不必緊張。”
卡特爾船長深深感覺到自己所負(fù)的責(zé)任，也有必要把這樁神秘的事情徹底調(diào)查清楚；像他這樣一個與當(dāng)事人有關(guān)系的人本就應(yīng)該這么做的，所以他就決定讓磨工跟他在一起，深入到老人家里去考察一番?？紤]到這個年輕人目前已處于被逮捕狀態(tài)，船長猶豫不決，究竟把他戴上手銬，或者把他的踝骨捆綁起來，或者在他的腿上懸掛一個重物，是不是得當(dāng)；但是船長不明白這樣做在手續(xù)上是否合法，所以決定只是一路上抓住他的肩膀，如果他要有一點反抗，那么就把他*在地。
可是羅布沒有任何反抗，因此對他沒有施加其他嚴(yán)厲的緊急措施，就到達(dá)儀器制造商的家了。由于百葉窗還遮蔽著，船長首先關(guān)心的是讓店鋪開著；當(dāng)陽光充分射進(jìn)來以后，他就著手進(jìn)一步的調(diào)查。
船長第一樁事是在店鋪中的一張椅子里坐下，擔(dān)任他心目中的莊嚴(yán)的法庭庭長，并要求羅布躺在柜臺下面的床鋪上，絲毫不差地指點出他醒來時在什么地方發(fā)現(xiàn)了鑰匙和包包，他怎么發(fā)覺門沒有閂上，他怎么出發(fā)到布里格廣場——船長謹(jǐn)慎地禁止他在重現(xiàn)這最后一幕情景時跑出門檻之外——，等等。當(dāng)所有這一切表演了好幾次之后，船長搖搖頭，似乎覺得這件事情狀況不妙。
接著，船長不很肯定地想到可能找到尸體，就動手對整個住宅進(jìn)行嚴(yán)密的搜查；他把鉤子插在門后，拿著一支點著的蠟燭在地窖中摸索，這時他的頭和梁木猛烈地碰撞，蜘蛛網(wǎng)纏繞住他的身子。他們從地窖中走上來，走進(jìn)老人的臥室時，發(fā)現(xiàn)他昨天夜里沒有上床睡覺，而僅僅在被單上面躺了一下，這從依舊留在那里的印痕中可以明顯地看出。
“我想，船長，”羅布環(huán)視著房間，說道，“最近幾天吉爾斯先生進(jìn)進(jìn)出出十分頻繁，他把小件物品一件一件地拿出去，這樣做是為了避免引起注意?！?BR> “是嗎！”船長神秘地說道，“為什么你這樣想呢，我的孩子？”
“嗯，比方說，”羅布向四下里看著，說道，“我沒有看到他刮胡子的用具，也沒看到他的刷子，船長，還有他的襯衫，他的鞋子，也都沒有看到?！?BR> 這些物品每提到一件，卡特爾船長就把磨工身上裝束的相應(yīng)部分格外注意察看了一下，想看看他是不是最近使用了它們或現(xiàn)在已把它們占為己有；可是羅布用不著刮胡子，頭發(fā)也顯然沒有梳刷過，身上的衣服是他過去長期穿著的，這絲毫也不錯。
“那么，——你別忙著表白自己，——”船長說，“他什么時候開航的，這你怎么說？”
“唔，我想，船長，”羅布回答道，“他一定在我開始打鼾以后很快就走了。”
“那是在幾點鐘？”船長問，他打算查清確切的時間。
“我怎么能回答這個問題呢？船長！”羅布答道，“我只知道，我剛?cè)胨臅r候睡得很深沉，但快到早晨的時候我是容易清醒的；如果吉爾斯先生臨近天亮?xí)r穿過店鋪的話，那么哪怕他是踮著腳尖走路，我也完全能肯定，我無論如何也是能聽到他關(guān)門的?！?BR> 卡特爾船長對這證詞進(jìn)行了冷靜的思考以后，開始想；儀器制造商一定是自己有意隱匿不見了；那封寫給他本人的信也幫助他得出這個合乎邏輯的結(jié)論；那封信既然是老人親筆寫的，那就似乎不必牽強(qiáng)附會就可以解釋：他自己已經(jīng)打定主意要走，所以也就這樣走掉了。船長接著得考慮他走到哪里去和他為什么要走。由于他看不到第一個問題有任何解決的途徑，所以他就只是在第二個問題上思考。
船長回想起老人那稀奇古怪的神態(tài)和跟他告別時的情形——他當(dāng)時熱情得令人莫名其妙，但現(xiàn)在卻是容易理解的了——，這時候他心中加深了一種可怕的憂慮：老人受不了對沃爾特掛念和憂愁的沉重壓力，被驅(qū)使走上自殺的道路。正像他本人經(jīng)常所說的，他適應(yīng)不了日常生活的勞累，情況明暗不定，希望渺茫無期，又無疑使他灰心喪氣，因此這樣的憂慮不僅不是極不自然的，相反地卻是太有可能了。
他已經(jīng)沒有債務(wù)，不用害怕失去個人自由或沒收他的財物，除了這種精神失常的狀態(tài)之外，還有什么別的原因使他孑然一身，急急忙忙地、偷偷摸摸地從家里跑出去呢？至于他如果真的帶走一些物品的話——他們甚至對這一點也還不是很肯定的——，那么，船長判斷，他這樣做可能是為了防止對他進(jìn)行調(diào)查追究，轉(zhuǎn)移對他可能死亡的疑慮或者是為了使那些現(xiàn)在正在反復(fù)琢磨著所有這些可能性的人們放心。如果用明白的語言和簡潔的形式敘述出來的話，那么卡特爾船長思考的最后結(jié)果和主要內(nèi)容就是這樣一些?？ㄌ貭柎L是經(jīng)過很長時間的思考才得到這個結(jié)論的；就像其他一些比較公開的思考一樣，它們是很散漫、很混亂的。
卡特爾船長垂頭喪氣、灰心失望到了極點；他曾經(jīng)使羅布處于被逮捕狀態(tài)，他覺得現(xiàn)在應(yīng)當(dāng)解除他的這種狀態(tài)，并在對他進(jìn)行體面的監(jiān)督（這是他決定仍要進(jìn)行的）之后，把他釋放。船長從經(jīng)紀(jì)人布羅格利那里雇來了一個人在他們外出期間看守店鋪，然后就帶著羅布一道出發(fā)，憂心忡忡地去尋找所羅門·吉爾斯的遺骸。
在這個都城中，沒有一個派出所，沒有一處無名尸體招領(lǐng)處，沒有一個救貧院，那頂上了光的硬帽子不曾前去訪問過。在碼頭上，在岸邊的船的中間，在河流的上游，在河流的下游，這里，那里，每一個地點，它都像史詩描寫的戰(zhàn)役中的英雄的鋼盔一般，在人群稠密的地方閃耀著亮光。船長整個星期念著所有報紙和傳單中找到人和丟失人的消息，一天中的每個小時都走著遠(yuǎn)路，去把那些掉進(jìn)水里的可憐的年輕的見習(xí)船員、那些服毒自殺的、長著黑胡子、身材高大的外國人仔細(xì)辨認(rèn)，究竟是不是所羅門·吉爾斯。“查查確實，”卡特爾船長說，“那不是他?！边@倒是千真萬確，并不是他，善良的船長得不到其他安慰。
卡特爾船長終于放棄了這些毫無希望的嘗試，考慮他下一步該做什么。他把他可憐的朋友的信重新細(xì)讀了幾次之后認(rèn)為，“在老地方為沃爾特保留一個家”，這是托付給他的主要責(zé)任。因此，船長決定移居到所羅門·吉爾斯家中，經(jīng)營儀器生意，看看這樣做有什么結(jié)果。
但是采取這個步驟需要從麥克斯廷杰太太家的房間中搬出來，而他知道那位獨斷專行的女人是決不肯答應(yīng)他把房間退掉的。所以他決定不顧一切，偷偷地逃走。
“我的孩子，現(xiàn)在你聽著，”船長想好這個巧妙的計劃后，對羅布說，“在明天夜間，也許還是半夜之前，在這個錨地將看不到我。但是，請你一直在這里看守著，直到你聽到我敲門，那時候請你立刻跑來把門打開?！?BR> “我一定遵命，船長，”羅布說道。
“你還跟過去一樣在這里記帳，”船長平易近人地繼續(xù)說道，“不用說，如果你和我配合得好，你甚至還可能得到提升。不過，明天夜間，你只要一聽到我敲門，不論那是什么時候，你就得快手快腳地跑來，把門打開。”
“我一定這么做，船長，”羅布回答道。
“因為你知道，”船長解釋道，他又重新回到原來的話題，想讓這個指示牢牢地印刻在羅布的頭腦中，“說不定后面會有人追來。如果你不快手快腳地把門打開，我在門外等待的時候就可能會被逮住。”
羅布重新向船長保證，他將會動作敏捷，清醒機(jī)警。船長作了這番謹(jǐn)慎周到的安排之后，最后一次回到麥克斯廷杰太太的住所。
船長知道，他是最后一次待在那里；在他藍(lán)色的背心下面正隱藏著殘酷無情的決心。這樣一種感覺，使他在心中對麥克斯廷杰太太感到非常害怕；這一天不論在什么時候，只要一聽到這位太太在樓下的腳步聲，都可以使他直打哆嗦。再說，這天又碰巧麥克斯廷杰太太的脾氣又極好，就像小羊羔一般溫厚善良，心平氣和；當(dāng)她上樓來問她能為他準(zhǔn)備點什么晚飯的時候，卡特爾船長的良心受到了可怕的責(zé)備。
“用腰子做個美味的小布丁怎么樣，卡特爾船長？”他的房東太太問道，“要不就來個羊心。我做起來費事些，這您可不用擔(dān)心?！?BR> “不，謝謝您，夫人?！贝L回答道。
“一只烤雞，”麥克斯廷杰太太說道，“雞肚子里再填些小牛肉和來點雞蛋調(diào)味汁。好啦，卡特爾船長！您痛痛快快地吃一頓吧！”
“不，謝謝您，夫人，”船長很低聲下氣地回答道。
“我相信您的心情不好，需要提提神?！丙溈怂雇⒔芴f道，“為什么不偶爾喝一瓶雪利酒①呢？”
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①雪利酒（sherrywine）：西班牙南部地方產(chǎn)的白葡萄酒。
“好吧，夫人，”船長回答道，“如果您肯賞光也喝一、兩杯，我想我可以試一試。您肯不肯給我?guī)蛡€忙，夫人，”船長說道，這時他已被他的良心撕成碎片了，“接受我一個季度的預(yù)付房租？”
“為什么這樣，卡特爾船長？”麥克斯廷杰太太問道，船長覺得她詞鋒尖銳。
船長嚇得要死?！叭绻辖邮艿脑?，夫人，”他恭恭敬敬地說道，“那么你就幫了我的忙。我手頭存不住錢。它們總是嘩嘩地流出去。如果您肯答應(yīng)的話，那么我真會感謝不盡?！?BR> “好吧，卡特爾船長，”蒙在鼓里的麥克斯廷杰太太搓著手說道，“您愛怎么辦就怎么辦吧，我和我的一家人不應(yīng)該拒絕您，就像不應(yīng)該向您提出這個要求一樣?！?BR> “您肯不肯再行個好，夫人，”船長從碗柜最上一層的擱板上取下他存放現(xiàn)金的錫罐，說道，“讓我送給您的孩子們每人十八個便士？如果您肯行個方便，夫人，那就請立刻吩咐這些孩子們一齊都上這里來；我將很高興看到他們。”
當(dāng)這些天真爛熳的小麥克斯廷杰們蜂擁來到的時候，他們像許多短劍一樣刺進(jìn)了船長的胸膛；他們對他那種他受之有愧的無限信任使他的心都要碎了；他所寵愛的亞歷山大·麥克斯廷杰的眼光使他難以忍受；模樣長得活像母親的朱莉安娜·麥克斯廷杰的聲音使他心虧膽怯。
盡管這樣，卡特爾船長把場面支撐得還不錯；他在一、兩個小時內(nèi)受到了小麥克斯廷杰們殘酷的、粗暴的折磨。這些小家伙們在兒戲中把他的上了光的帽子損壞了一點，因為他們兩個一起坐在里面，就像坐在鳥窠里一樣，還用鞋子像打鼓似地踩踏著帽頂?shù)睦锩妗Ｗ詈蟠L傷心地打發(fā)他們回去，就像一個就要被處決死刑的人一樣，懷著深沉的悔恨與悲痛和這些小天使們告別。
船長在寂靜的夜間把比較重的財產(chǎn)裝在一只箱子里，上了鎖，打算把它留下，十之八九就永遠(yuǎn)留在那里了，因為以后要找一個膽大包天的人，能不顧一切地跑來把它取走，這種機(jī)會幾乎是不會有的。船長把比較輕的東西打成一個包裹，并把餐具塞在衣袋里，準(zhǔn)備逃走。午夜，當(dāng)布里格廣場正在酣睡，麥克斯廷杰太太身旁圍躺著嬰兒，正香甜甜地沉沒在迷迷蒙蒙的狀態(tài)之中的時候，犯罪的船長踮著腳尖，在黑暗中偷偷地下了樓，打開門，輕輕地把它關(guān)上，然后拔起腳來就跑。
卡特爾船長仿佛看到麥克斯廷杰太太從床上跳起，不顧穿衣服，就從后面趕來，把他抓回去；她的這個形象一直在緊追著他，他已犯下了彌天大罪的感覺也在緊追著他，所以從布里格廣場到儀器制造商的家門之間，他一直邁開大步，飛快奔跑，腳步踐踏到的地方野草就休想長出來了。他一敲門，門就開了——因為羅布正在值夜——；當(dāng)把門閂上、上了鎖之后，卡特爾船長才覺得自己比較安全了。
“哎呀！”船長向四周看看，喊道，“這真是叫人直喘大氣的激烈運(yùn)動啊！”
“出什么事了沒有，船長？”目瞪口呆的羅布問道。
“沒有，沒有，”卡特爾船長臉色發(fā)白，聽著街道上走過的腳步聲之后說，“不過，我的孩子，你得記?。撼四翘炷憧吹降哪莾晌恍〗阃猓绻惺裁磁伺軄泶蚵牽ㄌ貭柎L的話，你一定要對她說，這里根本不知道有這樣一個人，從來也沒聽說起過他。你要遵照這些命令行事，聽見沒有？”
“我會提防的，船長，”羅布回答道。
“你可以說——如果你愿意的話，”船長遲疑不定地說，“你在報紙上念到一則消息，有一個同姓的船長已經(jīng)移居到澳大利亞去了，同去的還有整船的人，他們?nèi)及l(fā)誓再也不回來了?！?BR> 羅布點點頭，表示明白這些指示；卡特爾船長答應(yīng)如果他遵從這些命令的話，那么他就把他教養(yǎng)成一個有出息的人，然后就把直打呵欠的孩子打發(fā)到柜臺下面去睡覺，他自己則上樓到所羅門·吉爾斯的房間里去。
第二天，每當(dāng)一頂女帽從窗口走過的時候，船長就多么膽戰(zhàn)心驚地害怕，或者他多少次從店鋪中沖出，避開想象中的麥克斯廷杰們，到頂樓中尋求安全，這一切都是不能用筆墨形容的。但是為了避免采取這種自衛(wèi)方式所產(chǎn)生的疲勞，船長就在店鋪通接客廳之間的玻璃門里面掛上簾子，從老人交給他的一串鑰匙中間取出一把套在門上，又在墻上挖了一個用來偵察的小洞。這套防御工事的好處是顯而易見的。船長一看到女帽出現(xiàn)，就立即溜進(jìn)他的堡壘，把自己鎖在里面，然后偷偷地觀察敵人。當(dāng)發(fā)現(xiàn)這是一場虛驚時，船長就立即溜了出來。街上的女帽非常之多，它們每一出現(xiàn)又必定要引起一場驚慌，所以船長幾乎整天都不斷地溜進(jìn)溜出。
不過在這使人疲勞不堪的緊張活動中間，卡特爾船長倒找到時間來檢點存貨。在檢點過程中，他得到一個概念（對羅布來說，這是很累人的），就是：貨品擦得愈久、愈亮就愈好。然后他在幾個外表引人注目的物品上貼上標(biāo)簽，瞎估亂猜地標(biāo)上價格，從十五先令到五十鎊。他把它們陳列在櫥窗中，使公眾大為驚奇。
卡特爾船長完成了這些改進(jìn)后，被包圍在儀器中間，開始覺得自己也跟科學(xué)沾邊了。夜間，當(dāng)他上床睡覺之前，在小后客廳中抽著煙斗的時候，他通過天窗仰望群星，仿佛它們已成為他的財產(chǎn)似的。作為一個在城市里做生意的人，他開始對市長、郡長和同業(yè)公會發(fā)生了興趣；他還覺得每天應(yīng)當(dāng)閱讀有價證券行情表，雖然不能根據(jù)航海的原理看懂這些數(shù)字的意義；對他來說，沒有那些小數(shù)也是完全可以的?？ㄌ貭柎L在占有了海軍軍官候補(bǔ)生之后，就立即帶著所爾舅舅的奇怪消息前去拜訪弗洛倫斯，但是她卻已經(jīng)離開家了。這樣，船長就在他的新的生活崗位上安定下來，除了磨工羅布之外，沒有別的伴侶。他就像生活中發(fā)生了極大變化的人們一樣，記不清日子是怎么過去的；他默默地思念著沃爾特，思念著所羅門·吉爾斯，甚至在回顧往事時，還想到那位麥克斯廷杰太太。