“He certainly is a bad egg!” I thought.
But it wasn’t upon Paul Downes that my mind lingered long. My cousin had played me a scurvy trick; but I was not made helpless by it. I could get home after a fashion—if I wanted to. And that was my problem! Did I want to go home?
Until I had talked with this Captain Tugg I thought I had had my fill of adventure and sea-roving. But his story of the man who had been his partner for twelve years—the man who looked and spoke like me—had wheeled my mind square about! Instead of being headed north in my thoughts, I was at once headed south. I wanted to see this Professor Vose!
Yes. Spectre though the man was—will-o’-the-wisp as he seemed—I desired above all else to see and speak with this man whom Tom Anderly called “Carver” and Captain Tugg knew as “Professor Vose.” If my father, Dr. Webb, was alive he would be a man with a mysterious past! I wanted to come face to face with this man whom Tugg said was so much like me.
“Where are you going from here when your Sea Spell sails, Captain Tugg?” I asked the Yankee animal collector.
“Goin’ to make the Straits,” drawled he. “Goin’ right back to headquarters for a bit. Mebbe we’ll keep the old schooner in commission—I’m taking down light cargo for headquarters now. But I leave most of the actual snarin’ and trappin’ of the critters to the Injuns—and to the Professor. I got some black fellers down there that would take a prize in a circus sideshow themselves. One of ’em’s over seven foot tall. And strong as wolves,” declared Captain Tugg.
“If I went with you, what would you give me a month?”
“Sixteen dollars—in silver,” he said, promptly. “I see you’ve got eddication—you’d be handy. I could trust you with the schooner after a v’yge or two. I got a good navigator, Pedro, my mate; but he can’t talk or write English worth a cent.”
“But suppose I shouldn’t want to remain with you?” I suggested.
“You kin come back here, then. Plenty of steamers comin’ through the straits that touch at Buenos Ayres. My headquarters is at the head of navigable water about a hundred miles north of the Straits. An inlet and river makes in there. It’s a wild country, but I’ve made out to live thereabout for nigh onto fifteen year—and the Professor’s stood it for better than twelve. I can put you in the way of makin’ better money in time.”