Boon Island - Kenneth Roberts [143]
At the look on Neal's face he turned suddenly toward Captain Dean and me. "Well, what about it?"
"If I had such an offer," Captain Dean said, "I'd say Boon Island was worth it."
"What about you, Whitworth?" the colonel demanded.
"His father would have beenprobably ismighty grateful," I said.
"Then that's all right," Colonel Pepperrell said comfortably. "We'll see a lot of each other before the two of you are healed up and ready to take one of my ships to Barbados."
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Captain Dean drew a deep breath. ''I'd feared something like this," he said.
"Feared!" Colonel Pepperrell protested.
"Yes, feared," Captain Dean said. "Feared that I might not be able to take advantage of such an offer. There's something you don't know"
"You probably mean Langman," the colonel said. "Well, John Wentworth and I know all about Langman. He's jealous because you're getting all the attentionbecause everybody's stopped going to see him and his two cronies. As soon as he began telling everyone that you purposely ran the Nottingham ashore on Boon Island, Portsmouth had a bellyful of Langman. My God, Dean, this is a sea-faring town! Do you think anybody over the age of three and a half would believe that anyoneanyone at allwould, for the sake of any amount of insurance, run a vessel on Boon Island in a northeaster? And in the dead of winter? Pish! Portsmouth doesn't want people like Langman and his fellow conspirators around. They've been in the Motley house, but the Motleys have ordered them out."
"Colonel," I said, "we know people like yourselves and these wonderful friends we've made in Portsmouth wouldn't believe Langman; but people in England aren't like that. Those around the docks believe anything they hear about people of property or position. They're too ignorant to investigateto find out the truth. They have no judgment. From the first Langman has hated Captain Dean, and we've never known why. Perhaps it's because bad men always hate good men, and rejoice in their downfall.
"At all events, if Langman has started telling his lies
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though he gave the captain his word of honor that he wouldn'tthen he'll keep right on. He'll tell them in England, unless he's bought off. He might even have them printed. Then there's no escaping the fact that the captain will have to tell his own story, with two witnesses. Even then there'll be so many to believe Langman's lies that Jasper Dean's home and even his life may be in danger from mobs. In all likelihood Langman will drag my father into it, for my father handled Captain Dean's insurance. We're mighty grateful to you, Colonel, but I'm afraid this means that Captain Dean and Henry Dean and I must go back to England."
Colonel Pepperrell glowered at us, his eyes belying the thin line of his lips. "I never go back on my word," he said. "There'll always be room for the Deans and Miles Whit-worth in the Pepperrell fleetand when your feet are healed, we want all of you at Kittery Point, so you can see Neal Butler in the surroundings I hope he'll always call his home."
Our worst fears were justified when, a month later, Colonel Pepperrell notified us that Langman, Mellen and White were to appear before his friend Samuel Penhallow, a justice of the peace, to take oath that Captain Dean had deliberately run the Nottingham ashore and that Captain Dean had in addition treated Langman in a barbarous and inhumane manner.
The colonel went with us to Justice Penhallow's residence on the following day to hear Langman, Mellen and White swear to the truth of a tale that put anything in the fairy tales of Edmund Spenser to shame. Justice Penhallow looked up at Langman before writing his signature. He
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