The biography of Captain Penn Sharp had been quite romantic within the preceding year. In company with his brother he had been a detective in New York during the greater portion of his lifetime. He had been an honest and upright man; but in spite of this fact he had saved a competence for a man of small desires before he was fifty years old. He had never been married till the last year of his life.
He had what he called a "profession," and he had attended to it very closely for twenty years or more. When he "had a case to 'work up,'" he took it to his humble lodging with him, and studied out the problem. There was nothing in his room that could be called a luxury, unless a library of two hundred volumes were classed under that head; and he spent all his leisure time in this apartment, having absolutely no vices. He was a great reader, had never taken a vacation, and saved all his money, which he had prudently invested.
In his younger days he had been to sea, and came home as the mate of a large ship when he was twenty-two. His prospects in the commercial marine were very promising; but his brother, believing he had peculiar talent for the occupation in which he was himself engaged, induced him to go into the business as his partner. He had been a success; but men do not live as he did, depriving himself of rest or recreation, without suffering for it. His health broke down.
Confident that a voyage at sea would build him up, he applied to Captain Ringgold for any place he could offer him. Only the position of quartermaster was available. He was glad to obtain this on board of such a steamer. He had told his story, and the commander needed just such a person. Mrs. Belgrave had married for her second husband a man who had proved to be a robber and a villain. Her son Louis had discovered his character long before she did, and, after fighting a long and severe battle, had driven him away, recovering a large sum of money he had purloined.
Captain Ringgold ascertained in Bermuda that the villain had another wife in England. He promoted his quartermaster to the position of third officer, and set him at work as a detective on the case. The recreant husband had inherited a fortune in Bermuda, had purchased a steam-yacht, and was still struggling to recover the wife who had discarded him, believing the "Missing Million" was behind her.
The deserted English wife had been sent for by her uncle, who had become a large sugar planter in Cuba. Sharp found her; and her relative had died but a short time before, leaving her a large fortune. The wretch who had abandoned her was arrested for his crimes, and sent back to New York, and was soon serving a long sentence at Sing Sing. He had been obliged to leave his steam-yacht, and it had been awarded to his wife.
By the influence of Captain Ringgold, Penn Sharp had been appointed captain of her; and he had sailed for New York, and then for England, in her. The lady was still on the sunny side of forty, and Sharp had married her. After this happy event, they had sailed for the Mediterranean; and the commander and passengers of the Guardian-Mother had met them at Gibraltar. How Captain Penn Sharp happened to be in command of the Blanche was a mystery to Captain Ringgold, though it was possible that the million or more of Mrs. Penn Sharp enabled her to support such a steam-yacht.
It seemed as though Captain Sharp would never release the hand of the commander of the Guardian-Mother, who had not only been a good friend to him in every sense of the word, but he had unintentionally put him in the way of achieving the remarkably good fortune which had now crowned his life.
"I don't know what to make of this, Captain Sharp," said he of the Guardian-Mother. "Are you in command of this fine steamer?"
"Without a ghost of a doubt I am," replied he of the Blanche, with a renewed pressure of the hand.