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Birch, in "The Spy," Long Tom Coffin and Boltrope in "The Pilot," the squatter in "The Prairie," Cap in "The Pathfinder," and several others there are, any one of which would be enough of itself to furnish a respectable reputation to many a novelist who fancies himself far superior to Cooper as a delineator of character.
No part of the preceding scene had been unobserved by Boltrope, whose small, hard eyes were observed by the young men to twinkle, when they returned into the state apartment; and they approached their wounded comrade to apologize for the seeming neglect that their conduct had displayed.
"Well, we must hope to get some more to-morrow from the wreck," said Mr Meldrum. "The ship cannot last much longer; but, recollect, we can't get any ashore till she breaks up." "Aye, aye, sir, I knows that," replied Ben. "Still, I hopes it won't all drift away to sea when she do go to pieces." "We'll try to prevent that, Boltrope," said the other.
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. 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.
But the news of the sudden and serious illness of Captain Boltrope put off the duel. I hastened to his bedside, but too late, an hour previous he had given up the ghost. I resolved to return to England. I made known the secret of my birth, and exhibited my adopted father's letter to Lady Maitland, who at once suggested my marriage with her daughter, before I returned to claim the property.
I apologise for interfering; but I have seen and been through a good many cyclones in the China seas, when I was in command of a gunboat there, and I advise you to do as I've said." "Trust his honour, Capting, sir," chimed in Ben Boltrope, for once forgetting his sense of discipline, and speaking to his superior officer without leave; "I've sarved with Commander Meldrum, and knows what he is."
An opportunity now offers to put this plan in execution, and I have collected you, in order to consult on the means." A profound silence succeeded this unexpected communication of the object of their cruise. After a short pause, their captain added, addressing himself to the sailing-master: "What course would you advise me to pursue, Mr. Boltrope?"
Peter Simple, and even Jack Easy himself, whose traits are more personal than nautical, are less vivid to memory. Cooper also, who caricatures rather than reproduces life, seeks here his fittest subjects Boltrope and Trysail warrant masters, superior in grade indeed to the others, but closely identified with them on board ship, and essentially of the same class.
The bodies of Boltrope, of one or two of her inferior officers, and of several common men who had died of their wounds in the night, were, with the usual formalities, committed to the deep; when the yards of the ship were again braced by the wind, and she glided along the trackless waste, leaving no memorial, in the midst of the ever-rolling waters, to mark the place of their sepulture.
An official letter, with the Admiralty seal, informed me that I was expected to join H. M. ship Belcher, Captain Boltrope, at Portsmouth, without delay. In a few days I presented myself to a tall, stern-visaged man, who was slowly pacing the leeward side of the quarter-deck. As I touched my hat he eyed me sternly: "So ho! Another young suckling. The service is going to the devil.
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