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CHAPTER VI.
We were ordered to the West Indies. Although Captain Boltrope`s manner toward me was still severe, and even harsh, I understood that my name had been favorably mentioned in the despatches. Reader, were you ever at Jamaica? If so, you remember the negresses, the oranges, Port Royal Tom--the yellow fever. After being two weeks at the station, I was taken sick of the fever. In a month I was delirious. During my paroxysms, I had a wild distempered dream of a stern face bending anxiously over my pillow, a rough hand smoothing my hair, and a kind voice saying:-- "Bess his `ittle heart! Did he have the naughty fever?" This face seemed again changed to the well-known stern features of Captain Boltrope. When I was convalescent, a packet edged in black was put in my hand. It contained the news of my father`s death, and a sealed letter which he had requested to be given to me on his decease. I opened it tremblingly. It read thus:-- "My dear Boy:--I regret to inform you that in all probability you are not my son. Your mother, I am grieved to say, was a highly improper person. Who your father may be, I really cannot say, but perhaps the Honorable Henry Boltrope, Captain R. N., may be able to inform you. Circumstances over which I have no control have deferred this important disclosure. "YOUR STRICKEN PARENT." And so Captain Boltrope was my father. Heavens! Was it a dream? I recalled his stern manner, his observant eye, his ill-concealed uneasiness when in my presence. I longed to embrace him. Staggering to my feet, I rushed in my scanty apparel to the deck, where Captain Boltrope was just then engaged in receiving the Governor`s wife and daughter. The ladies shrieked; the youngest, a beautiful girl, blushed deeply. Heeding them not, I sank at his feet, and, embracing them, cried:-- "My father!" "Chuck him overboard!" roared Captain Boltrope. "Stay," pleaded the soft voice of Clara Maitland, the Governor`s daughter. "Shave his head! he`s a wretched lunatic!" continued Captain Boltrope, while his voice trembled with excitement. "No, let me nurse and take care of him," said the lovely girl, blushing as she spoke. "Mamma, can`t we take him home?" The daughter`s pleading was not without effect. In the mean time I had fainted. When I recovered my senses I found myself in Governor Maitland`s mansion.
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