“If you cry anything, I shall put a dirty handkerchief in your mouth. Look here, my chicken; don’t you know that you are making a fool of yourself? You mean to strain your own timbers for nothing. You’ll put this rig on anyhow, and it depends on yourself whether you will do it with or without a broken head.”
Clyde looked at the clothes and then at the brawny boatswain. It was foolish to resist, and he yielded to the force of circumstances. He put on the ship’s uniform, and threw himself into a chair to await the further pleasure of his tyrant.
“Now you look like a respectable young gentleman, my lad,” said Peaks.
“What are you going to do with me?” demanded Clyde, in a surly tone.
“I’m going to keep my eye on you every moment of the time till you are on board of the ship again.”
“I want to see my mother before I go.”
“It can’t be done.”
Clyde relapsed into silence. He had never before been subjected to such unheard-of tyranny. It was useless to resist, and the future looked as dark as the present. Probably his mother was in the hotel, but he was not permitted even to see her. Though the boatswain seemed to have it all his own way, he was not at all satisfied with the situation. Mrs. Blacklock and her daughter had gone to ride, but in the course of an hour or two they would return. The waiters would inform her that Clyde had arrived, and she would insist on seeing him. Though she had fully given up the control of him to the ship, the weakness of the mother might induce her to change her mind. Peaks only desired to discharge the duty with which he had been intrusted. The crew of the second cutter had not yet arrived, and he could not depart with his prisoner before they came. He was perplexed; but being a man of expedients, he decided upon his course in a short time. It was absolutely necessary to seek another hotel, where the dangerous proximity of Mrs. Blacklock might be avoided. The boatswain rang his bell, and sent for the commissionnaire whom he had employed while prosecuting his search for the runaway. When this man came, he ordered a carriage, and paid his bill.
“Now, youngster, we are going to take a ride,” said Peaks to his victim.
“Where are you going?”