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Updated: May 3, 2025
Thus it happened that a second tie between George Jernam and Joyce Harker arose, in the person of the sole surviving relative of the former, and that Joyce had made three visits to the pretty sea-side village in which the childhood of his dead friend and his living patron had been passed, before he and George Jernam met again on English ground.
The cards were brought, and a bowl of punch ordered by the open-handed sailor, who was always ready to invite people to drink at his expense. The men played all-fours; and what generally happens in this sort of company happened now to Captain Jernam. He began by winning, and ended by losing; and his losses were much heavier than his gains.
Jernam only a week ago, and she was quite well; but she is residing down in Devonshire, where she removed with her husband last July; and I made sure you would have received a letter telling you of the change." "What!" roared Joseph Duncombe; "did my daughter go and turn her back upon the comfortable little box her father built for her the place he spent his hard-won earnings upon for her sake?
Valentine Jernam's younger brother, George, had journeyed to and fro on the high seas five years since the murder of the brave and generous- hearted sea-captain. Things had gone well with Captain George Jernam, and in the whole of the trading navy there were few richer men than the owner of the 'Pizarro', 'Stormy Petrel', and 'Albatross'. With these three vessels constantly afloat.
That piece of gold which you now hold in your hand was a farewell token, given by me to him; you may see my initials scratched upon it. I found it in your desk." "And therefore suspected that I was the aider and abettor of thieves and murderers!" exclaimed the captain of the "Vixen." "George Jernam, I am ashamed of you." There was a depth of reproach in the words, common-place though they were.
In his perfect ignorance of his captain's movements, there was only one thing that Joyce Harker could do, and that was to go back to the "Jolly Tar," with a faint hope of finding Valentine Jernam there. It was dusk by the time he got back to Ratcliff Highway, and the flaring gas-lamps were lighted.
The second was his clerk, factotum, and confidant; half-sailor, half-landsman; able to take the helm in dangerous weather, if need were; and able to afford his employer counsel in the most intricate questions of trading and speculation. The name of the captain was Valentine Jernam, that of his factotum Joyce Harker.
There was a miserable pretence of a fire, made with bad coals and damp wood. Sleeping in that wretched atmosphere, in that uncomfortable attitude, it was scarcely strange if Valentine Jernam dreamt a bad dream. He dreamt that he fell asleep at broad day in his cabin on board the 'Pizarro', and that he woke suddenly and found himself in darkness.
The face of the ballad-singer haunted him perpetually; and he spent the best part of the day leaning over the garden-gate and smoking. Mrs. Jernam was not offended by her nephew's conduct. "Ah! my boy," she said, smiling fondly on her handsome kinsman, "it's fortunate Providence made you a sailor, for you'd have been ill-fitted for any but a roving life."
The landlord was standing behind the bar, drawing beer, as Jernam looked out into the street, watching the receding figures of the girl and her two companions. "She's a pretty girl, isn't she?" said the landlord, as Jernam shut the door. "She is, indeed!" cried the sailor. "Who is she? where does she come from? what's her name?"
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