Chapter III: “my Pride Warred Against My Better Feelings”

“Well, gentlemen, Ingomar being merely my stage name because I played in that piece more than in any other, I ought at the very offset to tell you my baptismal one. That was Hans, and my father being an Armstrong, I very naturally adopted his surname. Hans Armstrong, then; and here you have me clad in skins, of which rig-out I am beginning to be slightly ashamed.”

“Pardon me,” said Captain Brace, “you tell us that you belonged to Chicago. Do you happen to have any personal acquaintance with the Dutch-American millionaire Armstrong?”

“I have known that gentleman, sir, since I was eighteen inches long. He wasn’t much of a millionaire then. I do myself the honour of believing that it was I who brought all the good luck to that well-known family; and although when I was a child Mrs. A. occasionally showed her extreme affection by spanking me, I loved and love her very much. If alive, young gentlemen, she is my mother; if dead, she is a saint in heaven. They have just one other child, a girl, my dear sister Marie, years younger than myself, and she will fall heir some day, I suppose, to all my father’s millions.”

“But you yourself, Hans?”

“Well, sir, I--I suppose I am a fool, sir, or, more probably, a born idiot. I am likewise the prodigal son. For the last six months and over I have not certainly been eating husks with the swine. It would be wrong and cowardly in me to allude to my friends the Yak-Yaks as swine; but I have been living, as I have already told you, in a somewhat unrefined way.

“The Armstrongs, I think I have heard my father say, first went to Britain and settled there, then across the sea to America, and fought against you during the War of Independence. But that has nothing whatever to do with me. My parents have been very, very good to me, and my education has been quite up to the Boston standard. Only when I reached the advanced age of seventeen--I am now two and twenty--I began to grow reckless. Civilization was not good enough for me. It was too much in the same groove. I determined therefore to shake the dust of Chicago off my shoes--there _is_ a good deal of dust in Chicago--and find my way into regions remote, where, if the people were not rich, they were at least honest. My sister’s wild entreaties, my mother’s tears, prevailed not against my headstrong self.

“My adventures among the Rocky Mountains and forests of the Far West would fill a book. I thought seriously of living in the wilds for life, and marrying the daughter of a chief.

“He was ugly enough to have stopped a clock, but a splendid warrior, and his braves were all that braves should be. Cheena, the daughter, was but a child of twelve. But she interested and amused me, and perhaps captivated me with her beauty and her innocent ways. One of these innocent ways was to play with snakes. She even taught me to boldly touch and handle the rattler.

“No wild beast would harm Cheena, and she went fearlessly into the dens of even grizzly bears, and played with their puppies as if they had been dolls.

“I lived in the wilds with this wandering tribe for nearly three happy years. Cheena knew English, and I taught her more. Shakespeare was my constant companion. Better perhaps had it been my Bible. But Cheena and I played many a scene together in glades of the beautiful forest.

“I must hurry over all this, though.

“Well, one day, with three men and two tame wolves, I went away on a big shoot. When we returned, I found that a warlike tribe had attacked the chief’s camp, and that he and his braves had been defeated and scattered.

“I never saw him again, nor poor Cheena, though I wandered about in search of them for three long, dreary months.

“Then one day I returned to my father’s house. It was late at night, but I climbed up into my own old bedroom, just as I used to do when a lad.

“Nothing was changed. Everything had been kept sacred as a temple.

“I went quietly to bed, and when next morning I coolly rang for water and old Roberts entered, he shook with fear so that he would have fallen had I not supported him.

“‘Is--it--you, Master Hans?’ he quavered, ‘and not a dead--go--go--ghost?’

“‘Is that like the hand of a dead go--go--ghost, Roberts?’ I said, grasping his arm with my forest-hardened fingers.

“‘Oh--no--no,’ he almost shrieked. ‘Lor, sir, how you’ve growed! Your mother and Sissie will be skeered, I guess, when they sees you.’

“‘And they are all well?’

“‘That’s so, Master Hans; and the old man too.’

“‘Well, some hot water, Roberts. I’ll wash and come downstairs to breakfast.’

“I was down before anybody, and sitting quietly in a rocker, smoking one of dad’s best Havanas, when Sissie and mother entered.

“You may judge what followed, boys.”

“But,” pleaded Charlie, “you’re not making the story half long enough.”

“I settled down now, sir, to the hardest work ever I had in my life.”

“And that was?”

“Doing nothing. But I couldn’t keep it up. It was ruining my fine constitution.

“I was always fond of the stage, and took Marie to see _Ingomar_ one evening.

“She was delighted. I was not. _Ingomar_ was not written by Shakespeare, I believe, but it was a pet play of mine, and I knew I could act the part better.

“But somehow I went back several nights running. Then, as my good or my bad fortune would have it, one evening the excited manager rushed before the screen to announce that, to his grief and chagrin, the principal actor had been taken suddenly ill, and that the play could not be put on. Yes, of course, he added, the gate-money would be refunded.

“After this, some impulse seized me. I stood boldly up in the box, and shouted with arm extended--

“‘Stay, I know the part, and if the manager will but give me a chance, I will try my best.’

“Every eye was turned towards my box, while Sissie shrank behind the curtain. I am told, sir, that I am not bad looking, and my figure is fairly good.

“There was a wild ‘Hooray!’ now, at all events, and that evening found me before the footlights.

“I played with heart and soul. I had the people with me, and felt I had; and when at the end of the first act I was called before the curtain, I received an ovation that would have satisfied a far better actor than I.

“Hardly thinking about the disgrace my people would imagine I was bringing on them, I accepted the manager’s terms to play for three weeks.

“I told them that night what I had done. Mother was silent, Sissie looked frightened; and when next morning we all met at breakfast, I could see that both had been crying.

“Scarcely a word was said, but that forenoon my father asked me into his sanctum.

“‘Boy, boy,’ he began, ‘why this madness? Do you wish to bring my grey hairs down with sorrow to the grave?’

“I sat quietly down that our eyes might be more on a level, for I am very tall.

“‘Dear father,’ I said, ‘I am foolish enough to think that I shall be an honour to you as an actor.’

“‘Honour! Actor!’ he cried.

“‘It is a noble profession,’ I said quietly; ‘and when you come to listen to my interpretation of _Hamlet_, you will believe that God has gifted your son with genius. There will be no sorrow then, dear daddy.

“‘Besides,’ I added mischievously, ‘you haven’t got a single solitary grey hair in head or whiskers.’

“Some people are hard to convince. My father is one of them.

“‘I will cut you off with a dollar,’ he thundered, ‘if you do not give up this disgraceful fad. If you do I will take you into partnership.’

“Then I told him grandiosely that the resolution I had taken was fixed, immutable; but that rather than bring disgrace upon him, I would change my name as soon as this engagement was over, and go into a far country to act where no one would know me.

“‘I began life,’ he said, as he sunk back in his chair, ‘with fourpence in my pocket.’

“‘And I, daddy,’ I replied, ‘am beginning life without a penny, but possessed of one of the dearest old fathers that ever a young man was gifted with.’

“He was softened.

“‘Boy,’ he said, after a pause, ‘I am wealthy, but your sister must be my heir. If you must go--then go. I will place a trifle at your disposal in my bank at New York. You will have that to fall back upon, when your fad and folly leave you. Good-bye. I may never see you more.’

“He started from his chair and marched straight out of the room.

“Here, boys, ends the second act of the prodigal son.

“Just two months after this I found that my father’s words were coming true. I had attempted _Hamlet_, but was playing to very poor houses.

“When I came home one evening and found a very humble dinner waiting for me, I became very sad indeed.

“But worse was to follow, for in a week’s time my engagement at the theatre was over, and I was politely told I was not good business, and could not be retained.

“I went quietly and, I thought, calmly away; but happening to enter a club that evening where my presence had always been welcome before, I found only coldness. When a rival actor taunted me as to my success, I completely lost control of myself. I flew at the fellow, picked him up, armchair and all, and threw him to the other side of the room.

“I heard no more of the matter, but in a week’s time I found myself alone in my dingy lodgings without a copper in my pocket.

“I was alone with my pride. I might beg, but never again, I told myself, would I darken my father’s door.

“It was two days after this when, while strolling along near to the docks, I was met by a French seafaring man. He looked at me and I at him.

“‘Do you want work?’ he asked.

“‘That I do. I’ll do anything.’

“‘Well, you look a likely sportsman. I’m off in a day or two on a curious kind of cruise to the very far north.’

“‘I’ll go with you,’ I answered, ‘if the wages are not starvation.’

“‘Come with me now,’ he said. ‘We will soon settle matters.’

“He had a boat, and we were both rowed off to a strange-looking but strong and sturdy brig.

“Every man on board except this same Humpty Dumpty was French. What cared I? Surely I could hold my own in a fight against a score of little sailors.

“‘You are not a sailor,’ said my new friend, when we were together in his little cabin.

“‘No,’ I said; ‘but I can shoot, and wield an axe, and I can fish.’

“‘You’re my man. But I must explain. We are engaged by a celebrated firm of chemists to go to Greenland waters and fish for sharks. The oil of the livers is not only finer and richer but more abundant than that of the cod, and it is considered an infallible cure for consumption.

“‘You’ll have to rough it,’ he added. “‘Thank God to have the chance.’

“And the bargain was speedily made, and the articles signed.

“I was to join in two days’ time.

“That night it suddenly occurred to me to visit my father’s bank here. I still had his letter, and by its aid could identify myself.

“I must confess that I went to that bank in bitterness of spirit against my poor daddy. But I felt sure that the trifle he had deposited to my credit, would be but the traditional dollar with which prodigal sons are often cut off. I meant to bore a hole in it, and wear it round my neck.

“I had no sooner made myself known than the manager, to my great surprise, shook me by the hand.

“‘Come into my room,’ he said. ‘Your father has sent me your photograph, so that there is no need for identification. And the cheque is a handsome one.’

“‘I hope, sir,’ I said, ‘you will not tantalize me. I expect nothing from my father except one dollar.’

“‘The cash standing to your credit,’ he said, ‘is two millions sterling.’

“I answered scarcely a word. I was too dazed to speak. This, then, was the dollar with which my father had cut me off.

“I arose from my chair, and, hardly taking time to shake hands with this business-like banker, I walked straight out, and away home to my dingy, dismal lodgings.

“I wanted to think, and to be alone.

“‘My poor father!’ These were the first words I said to myself. And at this moment I would have given a good deal to be sitting once more in our old-fashioned parlour, with mother and sister near me, and my father studying the markets as he sat in his chair.

“But evil thoughts began to take the place of good, and my pride warred against my better feelings.

“These two millions were a million times more than I deserved, though it would leave him but little poorer. This was true, but nevertheless I felt that I was cut off.

“‘Here is thy portion, boy,’ he seemed to have said. ‘Get thee away into a far country, and come not near us again.’

“I was banished. I would keep to my engagement with the French shark-hunter strictly and to the letter. My millions might lie there. I would not draw a cheque even for a dollar. I was proud, and my pride bred bitterness of heart.

“I wrote at least half a dozen letters to Sissie and mother, read them over, and tore them up as soon as penned. For somehow that bitterness of heart breathed all through each one of them.

“Then, when calmer, I wrote one simple, loving letter, bidding all good-bye. And it ended thus: ‘When I am worthy to be my good old father’s son I will return.’”

* * * * *

“Ah, gentlemen,” he continued, after a pause of silence that no one cared to break, “my long banishment to this dreary country, though self-inflicted, has done me good and changed my mind. Before, I could see men but as trees walking, _now_ I can read all my father’s motives. Like all our forbears, he is proud, but he is true, and--well, I must confess I love him. There!

“My adventures since I left home are too numerous to tell you. Our ship was wrecked, and Dumpty and I alone were saved. Then I joined a band of wandering Eskimos--the Yak-Yaks. I did not care what became of me. I felt I was running away from myself, from my evil, prideful nature, and so here I am, a changed and, I trust, a better man.

“One thing, however, I have determined upon. I will not return to my father’s house, until I have done something which shall show him that I possess some of the sand and grit in me, which has descended to us from the old fighting Armstrongs.

“But, I say,” he added comically, “you will get me that serge suit, won’t you? And you will let me and Humpty Dumpty join your ship, and let me have my hair cut, and--well, and just share your adventures, won’t you?”

“By all means,” replied Captain Mayne Brace.

“One minute before you finally decide,” said Ingomar. “For all you know, I may be a mere adventurer or a madman. But see, I have some business-like method in my madness.”

He pulled from an inside pouch a bundle of papers.

“I have kept these, Captain Brace. I place them before you, and, unless you promise me you will glance over them, I shall return to-morrow to my igloo among the Yak-Yaks, and trouble you no more.”

“I will take them to my cabin, young sir, though I think there is no need to. I can read honesty in your eyes.”

Ingomar’s manner changed now at once. He was brimful of happiness apparently, and addressed himself more to the boys than the others.

“I say, lads,” he cried, “won’t we have a day of it to-morrow, if your good captain will permit you to cross the mountains with me?”

“Oh, we shall enjoy it!” cried Charlie.

“Won’t we just,” said Walt.

“I’ve never driven dogs, but I think I could if I tried.”

“Hurrah!”

And the evening passed very happily away.