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Down South or Yacht Adventure in Florida

CHAPTER XXI. A VISIT TO ORANGE PARK. Cornwood was slow to move, after I directed him to take the wheel. I saw that he was not yet in the pilot-house, when I rang the bell to go ahead. I directed the mate with Ben and Landy to prevent any of the party in the boat from coming on board, and hastened to the pilot-house. But before I reached the door Cornwood was at the wheel. He threw it over, and met the boat with the helm when she began to make headway. I was not quite sure that he did not intend to rebel; but I was ready to send him ashore the instant he did so in word or deed. My suspicions began to gather weight again. He had evidently delayed the steamer until the arrival of the boat containing Captain Boomsby and the husband of the stewardess. I could easily fancy that the pilot was at the bottom of all the proceedings to delay or prevent the departure of the boat. The attachment was to prevent her going at all; the claim for the stewardess was to help along the matter. It seemed to me that some heavy reward had been promised to Cornwood for his services, or he would not endanger the liberal wages he was paid for his services on board of the Sylvania. But I knew nothing about the matter, and it was useless to conjecture what he was driving at. The steamer was headed up the river, and we had actually begun our long-talked-of trip. Cornwood steered the boat as well as usual, but he was moody and silent. If he was ugly and bent on mischief, the worst he could do, as I understood the matter, was to run the steamer aground. This would not be a very serious calamity, and could involve no worse consequences than a loss of time. I was not alarmed at anything he might do while we were sailing up the river. I seated myself at the side of the wheel, and allowed things to take their course, as, in New Jersey, when it rains, they let it rain. But if Cornwood was angry, he cooled off in the course of half an hour, and remarked that it was a delightful day for the start. I was not obstinate on this point, and I agreed with him. "I don't think you treated me quite fairly, Captain Garningham, in the affairs of poor Griff and his wife," said he, when the steamer was off Mulberry Grove. "Didn't treat you fairly!" I exclaimed, astonished at this new phase of the argument. "Do I treat you unfairly because I won't have a man with murder in his heart on board? Do I treat you unfairly because his wife refuses to leave her place?" "I have told you the reason why I am interested in the man; I am under obligations to him," added Cornwood. "I have no objection to your being interested in him to the last day of his life; but I am not sufficiently interested in him to have a man who draws a knife on another in this vessel," I answered. "I am not under obligations to him." "I have done the best I can to serve you, and I thought a friend of mine might be entitled to some consideration," continued Cornwood, with an injured innocence of tone and manner. "Your influence procured for him and his wife places on board; and Griffin might have retained his position, if he had behaved half as well as his wife has." "Poor Griff lay down on the deck to take a nap----" "I don't care to hear that argument over again. I could have passed over the scuffle, if he had not drawn his knife when there was nothing to provoke him," I interposed. "The assistant engineer did not tell the truth when he said he did not lay the weight of his hand on him," protested Cornwood. "I believe he did. I don't believe Griffin was asleep. He lay down with his ear to the skylight of the captain's room in order to hear what passed between me and the mate. This is the second time Griffin was caught in the act of listening. More than this, the assistant engineer was on the watch, by my order, for eavesdroppers, as will appear at the trial," I replied, with energy. "By your orders?" exclaimed Cornwood. "By my orders. Both the engineer and the assistant were asked to do this duty, because Griffin was seen before, skulking where he had no business to be." "The mate assaulted poor Griff the other day," added the pilot. "He caught him listening under the windows of our room, and took him by the collar for it, if that is what you mean by assaulting him." "He had no right to take him by the collar." "I will grant that he had not; but when one is in the midst of eavesdroppers, his indignation may get the better of his judgment," I replied. "That was just the case with poor Griff; but he is a poor man, and not the son of an ex-governor; and he is persecuted to the full penalty of the law for it," growled Cornwood. "I think there is some difference in the cases. Griffin was skulking about, trying to listen to conversation which did not concern him. If he wants to take a nap, he lies down with his ear to an open skylight. Mr. Washburn is charged with the discipline of the vessel; and when your friend attempted to escape from the place where he was caught, the mate took him by the collar. Griffin, or you, as his counsel, might have prosecuted him for the assault, if you had thought proper to do so," I answered. "I am sorry I did not do so, after what has happened since." "I am sorry you did not, for it would have brought to light some things which have not yet been ventilated." "What do you mean by that, captain?" demanded the pilot, looking furtively into my face. "It is not necessary to explain matters that have not yet been brought into the case," I replied coldly. "I think we had better drop the subject, and not allude to it again. As a guide and pilot, I am entirely satisfied with you. Griffin Leeds has been discharged; and he cannot be employed again under any circumstances on this vessel. I won't have a man about who is skulking under windows, listening to what don't concern him, or a man who will draw a knife on another." "The steward wants to know at what hour he shall serve dinner in the cabin to-day?" asked Cobbington, poking his head into the pilot-house at this moment. For some reason not apparent to me, the pilot was so startled at the sound of the new waiter's voice that he let go the wheel, as he was swinging the boat around at a bend of the river. The wheel flew over with force enough to knock a man down if it had hit him. I immediately grasped the spokes, and began to heave it over again. "No harm done; my hand slipped," said the pilot. "Good morning, Mr. Cornwood," added the new waiter, with a broad grin on his face. "I didn't know you were the pilot of this steamer. I hope you are very well." "Very well," answered Cornwood, with an utterly disgusted expression on his face, as he continued to throw the wheel over. "I think the passengers will not dine on board to-day," I replied to the question of the waiter. "But I will let the steward know in season." The forward-cabin steward retired. It was evident that Cornwood had not seen him on board before, and that he was not at all pleased to have him as a fellow-voyager on the river. Cobbington looked as though he had gained twenty pounds in flesh since he came on board on Saturday night. In his new clothes he presented a very neat appearance; and he had done his duty faithfully. He was so familiar with his work, that he required scarcely any instruction. All hands were greatly interested in his accounts of forest life in Florida, and he appeared to be a general favorite. By Monday morning, he was generally called the "sportsman." "Is that man employed on board?" asked Cornwood, soon after Cobbington took his head out of the door. "He is; he takes the place of Griffin Leeds," I replied. "How long has he been on board?" "He came on Saturday night." "He is a good-for-nothing vagabond!" exclaimed the pilot. "He has had a hard time of it in Florida, according to his own account. If he does his duty, that is all I want of him," I added. "Where did you pick him up?" "He hailed Mr. Washburn in the street when I was with him, and we brought him off with us. He was in a starving condition, and Captain Boomsby, at whose house he used to have a room, refused to give him even a supper. I believe he has been in the snake business to some extent," I replied, indifferently. I knew very well that Cornwood wished to know precisely what our relations were with Cobbington; but he was not so simple as to ask any questions about them. I could not prove that Captain Boomsby had placed the moccasin in the closet of the room where he had confined me, for my benefit, but I could prove that the explanation of the presence of the snake there was without any foundation in truth. Griffin Leeds had discovered by listening to the conversation of the mate and myself, that we were investigating the matter, and had a clue to Cobbington. Then Cornwood had sent a note to the saloon-keeper to this effect, and Captain Boomsby had bribed the invalid with a dollar to lie about the matter. While I was reasonably certain in regard to such portions of the chain of the story as I had been compelled to supply, I could not prove all I believed. On the other hand, Cornwood was an exceedingly valuable person to me as guide and pilot, and I was unwilling to dispense with his services until he showed the cloven foot too palpably to be retained. The Sylvania was approaching Orange Park, a place which Colonel Shepard desired to visit. A sign four hundred feet long, and fifteen feet high, the largest in the world, indicates the locality. It can be read a mile off, and the visitor "who runs may read." Cornwood ran the steamer alongside the long pier, and our passengers landed. Mr. Benedict, the enterprising Rhode Islander who owns the vast estate of nine thousand acres, was on the wharf to welcome them. The place had formerly been an immense sugar plantation; but the present owner had cut it up into small farms and town lots, and considerable progress had been made in peopling it with residents from the North. The bluffs were thirty feet high on the river, and the highest elevation was seventy feet, about the highest on the St. Johns. Quite a number of dwelling-houses had been erected, including a hotel, and the place had a store, a school, and a hall for religious services. Several thousand orange-trees had been set out, and were in a thrifty condition. They set out stumps of sour orange-trees, three inches in diameter, and graft into them two shoots, a few inches above the ground. These had grown two or three feet in a single year, and in five or six years they would be in bearing condition. Young trees, five or six feet high, are also set out. If the orange grower is successful, the crop is exceedingly profitable. Lots of from one to twenty acres were sold at from one to thirteen hundred dollars, as they were nearer or farther from the river. A house that would answer the purpose of a settler could be built for one hundred and thirty dollars, and a comfortable cottage for five hundred dollars. We walked up to the hotel, and dined with the proprietor. <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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