Treasure Hunt Tales: The Star of the South & Captain Antifer. Жюль Верн

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ hear him, to receive one of the grips of his hand, of which he was not sparing. Figure a sturdy man of medium height and thickish neck. Here is his description in detail—a woollen cap; hair bristling like the quills of a porcupine; face tanned, cooked and re-cooked by sea water, and bronzed by the sun of southern latitudes; beard like a lichen on the rocks, with the grey hairs bristling all round it; bright eyes, veritable carbuncles beneath the arched eyebrows, with the pupils black as jet and gleaming like a cat’s; nose big at the end, and long enough to carry the spectacles, and with two wrinkles at the base near the eyes; teeth complete, sound and healthy, clicking with the convulsions of the jaw, particularly as their owner always had a pebble in his mouth; ears hairy, tip erect, lobe pendent, one of them with a copper ring, on which an anchor was engraved; body rather thin, set on nervous legs firm enough on their strong supports, and straddling at the most appropriate angle for dealing with the rolling and pitching of a ship at sea. Evidently a man of unusual strength, due to the muscles massed together like the rods in a Roman lictor’s bundle; a man, drinking well and eating well, who would have a clean bill of health for many a long day. But of what irritability, nervousness and impetuosity was the individual capable who forty-six years before had been entered in the parish register under the name of Pierre Servan Malo Antifer!

      And this evening, he stormed and raved, and the house shook, so that you would think that there was beating round its foundations one of those equinoctial tides which rise for fifty feet and cover half the town with spray.

      Nanon, the widow of La Goât, forty-eight years of age, was the sister of this noisy sailor. Her husband, a clerk in Le Baillifs, had died young, leaving her a daughter, Enogate, who had been brought up by Uncle Antifer, who fulfilled his functions as a guardian with conscientiousness and discipline. Nanon was a worthy woman, loving her brother, trembling before him, and bending when he stormed. Enogate, charming with her golden hair, her blue eyes, her fresh carnation colour, her intelligent face, her natural grace, more resolute than her mother, and sometimes standing up to her terrible guardian, who adored her and did his best to make her the happiest of the girls of Saint Malo, as she was one of the prettiest. But perhaps his idea of happiness was not quite the same as that of his niece and ward.

      The two women appeared at the door of his room, the one with her long knitting-needles, the other with the flatiron she had just taken from the front of the fire.

      “What is the matter?” asked Nanon.

      “Only my latitude; my confounded latitude!” answered Captain Antifer; and he gave himself a knock on the head which would have cracked any other crown than that which Nature had fortunately given him.

      “Uncle,” said Enogate, “the latitude that troubles you is no reason for you putting your room into disorder.”

      And she picked up the atlas, while Nanon gathered together the pieces of shell that had been scattered about as if it had gone off like a bomb.

      “Did you break that?”

      “Yes, I did, and if anyone else had done it, he would have had a bad quarter of an hour—”

      “Why did you throw it down?”

      “Because my hand itched.”

      “This shell was a present from our brother,” said Nanon, “and you are to blame—”

      “Well? If you were to keep on repeating until tomorrow that I am to blame, will that put it back again?”

      “What will my cousin Juhel say?” asked Enogate.

      “He will say nothing, and he had better say nothing!” replied Antifer, regretting that he had only got the two women before him, on whom he could not reasonably gratify his anger.

      “And by-the-bye,” he added, “where is Juhel?”

      “You know, uncle, that he has gone to Nantes,” replied Enogate.

      “Nantes! that is something new! What is he going to do at Nantes?”

      “Uncle, you yourself sent him there—you know, his examination for his certificate as long-voyage captain—”

      “Long-voyage captain—long-voyage captain!” growled Antifer; “why could not he be content to be a coasting-captain like me?”

      “Brother,” said Nanon, timidly, “he only took your advice—you wished—”

      “Well—because I wished it—that is a fine reason! And if I had not wished it, would he not have gone all the same! Besides, he will fail.”

      “No, uncle.”

      “But he will! and if he does I will give him a reception—a regular whirlwind!”

      You see there was no way of reasoning with this man. On the one hand he did not want Juhel to go up for the examination, and on the other, if he failed, the said pupil would catch it, as would “those asses of examiners, those pedlars in hydrography.”

      But Enogate had evidently a presentiment that the young man would not be rejected, first of all because he was her cousin, then because he was an intelligent, studious young man, and then because he loved her and she loved him, and they were engaged to be married. And can you imagine three better reasons than those?

      We may add that Juhel was a nephew of Captain Antifer, who had acted as guardian to him until he became of age. He had been left an orphan at an early age by the death of his mother, who had died at his birth, and by the death of his father, a naval lieutenant, whose death took place a few years afterwards. We need not be astonished that it was written above that he should be a sailor. That he would obtain his captain’s certificate Enogate did not doubt, nor did his uncle, for that matter, although he was too bad-tempered to say so.

      And this was of all the more importance to the girl as her marriage was to take place when he passed his examination. The two young people really loved each other, and would probably be happy for the rest of their lives. Nanon was delighted to see the day coming of this wedding, which was approved of by all the family. What obstacle could there be if the all-powerful head gave his consent—or rather, refrained from giving it until Juhel had won his captaincy? Juhel had served a complete apprenticeship to his trade, first on vessels belonging to Le Baillifs, then in government vessels, and then as mate for three years in the mercantile marine. He knew his trade in practice and theory. And Captain Antifer was really proud of his nephew. But perhaps he had dreamt of a richer alliance for him, because he was a lad of real merit; perhaps he had even wished for a better husband for his niece, than whom there was no better-looking girl in the whole district. And if a million had fallen into his hands—and he was as happy with his five thousand pounds in the funds—it is not impossible that he would have lost his head and indulged in some such senseless dream.

      Enogate and Nanon soon introduced a little order into the room of this terrible man, if not into his brain. Antifer strode about rubbing his eyes, in which the lightning still lurked—a sign that the storm was not yet over and a flash might come at any minute. And when he looked at his barometer hung on the wall, his anger awoke again because the scrupulous and faithful instrument remained at fine weather.

      “And so Juhel has not come back?” he asked, turning towards Enogate.

      “No, uncle.”

      “And it is ten o’clock!”

      “No, uncle.”

      “You will see he will СКАЧАТЬ