The COURAGEOUS EXPLOITS OF DOCTOR SYN - Thorndike Russell - Страница 43
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cheerfully pay such scotts as are imposed upon you by the Lords of the Level. And lastly, bear in mind that I
christened you at the Dymchurch font with His Majesty’s own name, and so you must obey his Government, as well
as that of the Marsh.”
“And have naught to do with the wicked smugglers, eh, Vicar,” laughingly added the Captain, as he raised his
glass to the cooper.
The Doctor shook his head. “I do not think that our young friend here will do aught to hinder the Revenue
officers in their duty, eh, George? But I must be off, and at once. Recharge your glasses and carry them into the
study where you can discuss your business undisturbed.”
“Aye, it’s good sherry,” said the Captain. “So fill up, Master Cooper, and let us accept the Vicar’s hospitality.
You will not take another glass yourself, Parson?”
“Good heavens, no,” he replied, as though horrified at the idea. “I have a service to read, and who knows? There
might be something of a congregation after all, and I assure you that some of our parochial ladies can be very
quizzical.”
As the laughing Vicar let himself out of the front door he had the satisfaction to seeing the Captain signing to
George Lee to follow him into the study. Now he would soon know the Captain’s business with the young cooper.
There happened to be no one about in the churchyard, and he know that the study windows had no view of it, so
he ran across to the church, which he found empty, and pulled the bell rope three or four times, in order to give the
Captain reminder that the Sexton was in the church. He then proceeded to the pulpit and began the service by
himself, though shortly after he had started Lady Cobtree tiptoed in and supported him by reading the responses.
Meanwhile Mipps sat hunched up in the alcove. He heard the Captain come in with George Lee and close the
door, and much to his relief heard also the noise of them both sitting in the Doctor’s chairs.
“I am glad you took my warning seriously,” began the Captain. “It shows you to be a young man of sense. You
have now passed your apprenticeship, and have begun to take your place amongst your fellow-craftsmen. Well, I
assure you that I have no wish to interrupt your career, though should you disobey my orders I shall not hesitate to
have you pressed for naval service. You are a likely lad, and cooperage is a valuable asset on any ship. There
would be no marrying with a Dymchurch lass then, for many a long year, and all the time you would be haunted
with the thought that in your very prolonged absence the girl might have married another. So kindly answer my
questions truthfully, and whatever I say keep strictly to yourself.”
“I have every wish to be of service to the Government, sir,” replied George Lee, is a voice which disgusted the
listening Mipps because of its timidity. In truth the young cooper felt strangely nervous now that Doctor Syn had
gone. He went on speaking slowly and humbly. “You heard our good Doctor Syn advise me so to do always, and I
have tried to follow his advice. When I have succeeded in doing so only good has come of it, I assure you, sir.”
The Captain grunted his approval to this sentiment, and continued: “Well, to begin with, perhaps you have been
wondering why I watched you the other day at your work in the coopers’ shop. It was chance that I happened to
pick on you. I was determined to pick on whoever seemed most to wish to stick to his work in Hythe. A few
questions about you, and I knew that you were happy and in love, and I recognized that you were the youngster who
fitted in best with my plan. That has been, perhaps, an ill-chance for you. But my reason for going to the coopers’
shop in the first place was not chance. I went there because I had had it brought to my notice that the Sexton of
Dymchurch had visited the shop several times recently.
“Now, between ourselves, as all this conversation must be, please, I had kept a weather eye on him for some
time, and he struck me as being a little man who could not keep that long, sharp nose of his out of any business. So,
thought I, why should he not have poked it into this smuggling business? The moment I suspected him I set one of
my men to watch him, and so checked up upon his goings and comings.”
“Amongst other things I learnt that he had entered the coopers’ shop several times, and I wondered whether he
was carrying orders from the Scarecrow. No sooner had this idea occurred to me than I determined to pay a
personal visit to the brewery, vowing that I would select an ally there to work for me: someone whom I could
persuade to discover for me the purpose of the Sexton’s visits. You were my selection. And now all you have to do
is to tell me just what you know.”
“Nothing, sir,” replied George Lee timidly.
“That is very unfortunate,” said the Captain slowly, adding the significant words, “for you.”
“I wish to get no one into trouble, sir,” faltered the cooper. “And least of all Mr. Mipps, who has always been
good to me. It would be a dreadful thing to feel that one had sent an innocent man to the ordeal of a trial, and all
that sort of torture, just because one may have thought things.”
“Ah, and so you have ‘thought things’, eh? Rapped out the Captain with great emphasis upon the repetition. “I
should like to know exactly what things you have thought, in order to save me from doing such a ‘dreadful thing’ as
punishing you, an innocent lad, because I must take all possible steps to put down the enemies of the Crown. Now,
come along. Be sensible, and speak up.”
“Well, I think, sir,” stammered the unfortunate cooper, “that it is permissible for my masters to make casks to an
order without asking the purchaser for what purpose those casks are needed. That would surely be, sir, an
inquisitive sort of trading?”
“You are prevaricating, my young friend,” said the Captain gravely. “My business is to stamp out smuggling.
Others have failed to do so. I am going to succeed. And with that end in view, I shall not hesitate to be, and to
make others, inquisitive to a degree. It is only by the inquisitiveness of every good citizen concerned that my object
can be obtained. If I had my will not a barrel should be sold by firms like yours, unless that barrel had a clear port
of call, as it were. I am confident that if the Scarecrow has placed an order with your firm, through the medium of
Mipps, that your firm will know what Mipps wants them for.
“Now just to show you that once I have made up my mind to a thing, nobody will swerve me from attaining it,
I’ll tell you how I found the means to interview your head cooper. I ordered my Bos’n to spring a leak in one of our
water-casks, and then told him to carry it to your shop for mending. This gave me the excuse for visiting your
people. I called in to inquire if they could hurry with the job and what price my Bos’n had agreed on, saying I had
to watch the leakages of money as sharply as leaky water-casks.
“I then expressed a lively interest in the mystery of cooperage, a craft that runs close along the art of ships-andboat-building, which I have studied since I first took to the sea. Many a seafaring man sees no romance in the
history of ships. To me a ship or boat is a romantic creation, and I have interested myself in each part of every craft
I have sailed. And all the accessories of a vessel, too, such as ropes, casks, barrels and kegs. Sails, too. There’s
little I cannot tell about canvas. The carrying of cooper upon every ship under my command made me wish to learn
something of his trade, so that I could judge of his work and any difficulties that might arise. And that there were
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