"Though a very indifferent boxer!" added Barnabas.
"Indiff--!" His Lordship let fall the last fragments of his bread and meat, and stared at Barnabas in wide-eyed amazement. "Did you say--indifferent?"
"I did," nodded Barnabas, "he is much too passionate ever to make a good boxer."
"Why, deuce take me! I tell you there isn't a pugilist in England cares to stand up to him with the muffles, or bare knuckles!"
"Probably because there are no pugilists left in England, worth the name," said Barnabas.
"Gad, sir! we are all pugilists nowadays--the Manly Art is all the fashion--and, I think, a very excellent fashion. And permit me to tell you I know what I'm talking of, I have myself boxed with nearly all the best 'milling coves' in London, and am esteemed no novice at the sport. Indeed love of the 'Fancy' was born in me, for my father, sir--though occasionally Roman--was a great patron of the game, and witnessed the great battle between 'Glorious John Barty' and Nathaniel Bell--"
"At Dartford!" added Barnabas.
"And when Bell was knocked down, at the end of the fight--"
"After the ninety-seventh round!" nodded Barnabas.
"My father, sir, was the first to jump into the ring and clasp the Champion's fist--and proud he is to tell of it!"
"Proud!" said Barnabas, staring.
"Proud, sir--yes, why not? so should I have been--so would any man have been. Why let me tell you, sir, at home, in the hall, between the ensign my uncle's ship bore through Trafalgar, and the small sword my grandfather carried at Blenheim, we have the belt John Barty wore that day."
"His belt!" exclaimed Barnabas, "my--John Barty's belt?"
"So you see I should know what I am talking about. Therefore, when you condemn such a justly celebrated man of his hands as my friend Carnaby, I naturally demand to know who you are to pronounce judgment?"
"I am one," answered Barnabas, "who has been taught the science by that very Nathaniel Bell and 'Glorious John' you mention."
"Hey--what?--what?" cried his Lordship.
"I have boxed with them regularly every day," Barnabas continued, "and I have learned that strength of arm, quickness of foot, and a true eye are all unavailing unless they be governed by a calm, unruffled temper, for passion clouds the judgment, and in fighting as in all else, it is judgment that tells in the long run."
"Now, by heaven!" exclaimed his Lordship, jerking his imprisoned legs pettishly, "if I didn't happen to be sitting trussed up here, and we had a couple of pair of muffles, why we might have had a friendly 'go' just to take each other's measures; as it is--"
But at this moment they heard a hoarse bellow, and, looking round, beheld the Bo'sun who, redder of face than ever and pitching and rolling in his course, bore rapidly down on them, and hauling his wind, took off the glazed hat.
"Ha, Jerry!" exclaimed his Lordship, "what now? If you happen to have anything else eatable in that hat of yours, out with it, for I am devilish sharp-set still."
"Why, I have got summat, Master Horatio, but it aren't bread nor yet beef, nor yet again biled 'am, my Lord--it can't be eat nor it can't be drank--and here it be!" and with the words the Bo'sun produced a ponderous iron key.
"Why, my dear old Jerry--my lovely Bo'sun--"
"Captured by his Honor, Master Horatio--carried off by the Cap'n under your own father's very own nose, sir--or as you might say, cut out under the enemy's guns, my Lord!" With which explanation the old sailor unfastened the padlock, raised the upper leg-board, and set the prisoner free.
"Ah!--but it's good to have the use of one's legs again!" exclaimed his Lordship, stretching the members in question, "and that," said he, turning to Barnabas with his whimsical smile, "that is another value of the stocks--one never knows how pleasant and useful a pair of legs can be until one has sat with 'em stretched out helplessly at right angles for an hour or two." Here, the Bo'sun having stowed back the key and resumed his hat, his Lordship reached out and gripped his hand. "So it was Uncle John, was it, Jerry--how very like Uncle John--eh, Jerry?"
"Never was nobody born into this here vale o' sorrer like the Cap'n--no, nor never will be--nohow!" said the Bo'sun with a solemn nod.
"God bless him, eh, Jerry?"
"Amen to that, my Lord."
"You'll let him know I said 'God bless him,' Jerry?"
"I will, my Lord, ay, ay, God bless him it is, Master Horatio!"
"Now as to my Roman--my father, Jerry, tell him--er--"
"Be you still set on squaring away for London, then, sir?"
"As a rock, Jerry, as a rock!"
"Then 't is 'good-by,' you're wishing me?"
"Yes, 'good-by,' Jerry, remember 'God bless Uncle John,' and--er--tell my father that--ah, what the deuce shall you tell him now?--it should be something a little affecting--wholly dutiful, and above all gently dignified--hum! Ah, yes--tell him that whether I win or lose the race, whether I break my unworthy neck or no, I shall never forget that I am the Earl of Bamborough's son. And as for you, Jerry, why, I shall always think of you as the jolly old sea dog who used to stoop down to let me get at his whiskers, they were a trifle blacker in those days. Gad! how I did pull 'em, Jerry, even then I admired your whiskers, didn't I? I swear there isn't such another pair in England. Good-by, Jerry!" Saying which his Lordship turned swiftly upon his heel and walked on a pace or two, while Barnabas paused to wring the old seaman's brown hand; then they went on down the hill together.
And the Bo'sun, sitting upon the empty stocks with his wooden pin sticking straight out before him, sighed as he watched them striding London-wards, the Lord's son, tall, slender, elegant, a gentleman to his finger tips, and the commoner's son, shaped like a young god, despite his homespun, and between them, as it were linking them together, fresh and bright and young as the morning, went the joyous Spirit of Youth.
Now whether the Bo'sun saw aught of this, who shall say, but old eyes see many things. And thus, perhaps, the sigh that escaped the battered old man-o'-war's man's lips was only because of his own vanished youth--his gray head and wooden leg, after all.
CHAPTER X
WHICH DESCRIBES A PERIPATETIC CONVERSATION
"Sir," said his Lordship, after they had gone some way in silence, "you are thoughtful, not to say, devilish grave!"
"And you," retorted Barnabas, "have sighed--three times."
"No, did I though?--why then, to be candid,--I detest saying 'Good-by!'--and I have been devoutly wishing for two pair of muffles, for, sir, I have taken a prodigious liking to you--but--"
"But?" inquired Barnabas.
"Some time since you mentioned the names of two men--champions both--ornaments of the 'Fancy'--great fighters of unblemished reputation."
"You mean my--er--that is, Natty Bell and John Barty."
"Precisely!--you