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diff --git a/15588.txt b/15588.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7e8e2c6 --- /dev/null +++ b/15588.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7712 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pilot and his Wife, by Jonas Lie + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Pilot and his Wife + +Author: Jonas Lie + +Release Date: April 8, 2005 [EBook #15588] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PILOT AND HIS WIFE *** + + + + +Produced by Clare Boothby, Jim Wiborg and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +THE PILOT AND HIS WIFE + + + +_TRANSLATED FROM THE NORWEGIAN OF_ + +JONAS LIE + +BY + +G.L. TOTTENHAM + + +WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS +EDINBURGH AND LONDON +MDCCCLXXVII + + + + +THE PILOT AND HIS WIFE. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +On the stern, pine-clad southern coast of Norway, off the +picturesquely-situated town of Arendal, stand planted far out into the +sea the white walls of the Great and Little Torungen Lighthouses, each +on its bare rock-island of corresponding name, the lesser of which +seems, as you sail past, to have only just room for the lighthouse and +the attendant's residence by the side. It is a wild and lonely +situation,--the spray, in stormy weather, driving in sheets against the +walls, and eagles and sea-birds not unfrequently dashing themselves to +death against the thick glass panes at night; while in winter all +communication with the land is very often cut off, either by drift or +patchy ice, which is impassable either on foot or by boat. + +These, however, and others of the now numerous lights along that +dangerous coast, are of comparatively recent erection. Many persons now +living can remember the time when for long reaches the only lighting was +the gleam of the white breakers themselves. And the captain who had +passed the Oxoe light off Christiansand might think himself lucky if he +sighted the distant Jomfruland up by Krageroe. + +About a score of years before the lighthouse was placed on Little +Torungen there was, however, already a house there, if it could be +dignified by that name, with its back and one side almost up to the eave +of the roof stuck into a heap of stones, so that it had the appearance +of bending forward to let the storm sweep over it. The low entrance-door +opened to the land, and two small windows looked out upon the sea, and +upon the boat, which was usually drawn up in a cleft above the sea-weed +outside. + +When you entered, or, more properly speaking, descended into it, there +was more room than might have been expected; and it contained sundry +articles of furniture, such as a handsome press and sideboard, which no +one would have dreamt of finding under such a roof. In one corner there +stood an old spinning-wheel covered with dust, and with a smoke-blackened +tuft of wool still hanging from its reel; from which, and from other +small indications, it might be surmised that there had once been a woman +in the house, and that tuft of wool had probably been her last spin. + +There sat now on the bench by the hearth a lonely old man, of a +flint-hard and somewhat gloomy countenance, with a mass of white hair +falling over his ears and neck, who was generally occupied with some +cobbling work, and who from time to time, as he drew out the thread, +would make some remark aloud, as if he thought he still had the partner +of his life for audience. The look askance over his brass spectacles +with which he greeted any casual stranger who might come into the house +had very little welcome in it, and an expression about his sunken mouth +and sharp chin said plainly enough that the other might state his +business at once and be gone. He sought no company; and the only time he +had ever been seen at church was when he came rowing over to Tromoe with +his wife's body in her coffin. When the pastor sprinkled earth upon it, +it was observed that the tears streamed down his cheeks, and it was long +after dark before he quitted the churchyard to return. He had become a +proverb for obstinacy for miles beyond his own residence; and people who +dealt with him for fish in the harbour, if they once began to bargain, +were as likely as not to see him without a word just quietly row away. + +All that was known further about "Old Jacob," as he was called, was that +he had once been a pilot, and that he had had a son who had taken to +drinking, through whose fault it had been eventually that the father had +lost his certificate; and it was thought that on the occasion in +question the father had taken the son's blame upon himself. Since then +he had shunned society, and had retired with his wife to his present +habitation, whither, after their son was drowned, they had brought their +little orphan granddaughter, who now was his sole companion. His only +ostensible means of living were by shoemaking, and by fishing, the +produce of which he generally disposed of to passing ships, and, during +the earlier period of his sojourn there, by shooting occasionally. But +it was understood that he received a small regular contribution from +several of the pilots, certificated or otherwise, of the district, for +keeping a fire alight on his hearth during the dark autumn nights, and +so giving them, by the light from his two windows, something to steer by +when they arrived off the coast after nightfall. Whether the light was +shown for their benefit particularly, or whether it was not rather +intended for the guidance of smuggling vessels standing in under cover +of the night to land their cargoes, it was not their business to +inquire. Its friendly assistance was, at all events, not unacknowledged +by these latter, and very acceptable presents, in the shape of kegs of +spirits, bags of coffee, tobacco, meal, and so forth, would, from time +to time, come rolling into the old man's room, so that upon the whole, +he was well-to-do enough out there upon his rock. + +Of late years he had fallen into feeble health, and found it not so easy +to row the long distance over to land. Even in his best days he had, +owing to an old injury to one of his legs, found some difficulty in +getting down to the boat; and now, therefore, he sat during the greater +part of the day over the hearth, in his woolen jacket and leather +breeches, with his indoor work. Now and then, when his granddaughter--a +child with a thick crop of hair falling about her ears, and a rough dog +constantly at her heels--would burst into the house with all the +freshness of the outside air blowing round her, as it were, and deliver +herself of her intelligence, he might be drawn, perhaps, to the window +to look out over the sea, and afterwards, like a growling bear disturbed +from its lair, even follow her with some difficulty out of the door with +the spyglass. There he would station himself, so as to use her shoulder +as a rest for his shaking hand, and with his never-ceasing directions +and growling going on behind her neck, she would do her best to fix the +glass on the desired object. His crossness would then disappear, little +by little, in their joint speculation as to what ship it could be, or in +whatever remarks it might suggest; and after giving his decision, the +old man would generally hobble in again. + +He was really very proud of his granddaughter's cleverness. She could +distinguish with her naked eye as clearly as he could through the glass. +She never made a mistake about the craft, large or small, that belonged +to that part of the coast, and could, besides, say to a nicety, what +sort of master each had. Her superiority of sight she asserted, too, +with a tyranny to which he made no resistance, although it might have +tried a temper many degrees more patient than his was. + +One day, however, she was at a loss. They made out a crescent on the +flag, and this caused even the old man a moment's astonishment. But he +declared then, for her information, shortly and decisively, that it was +a "barbarian." + +This satisfied her for a moment. But then she asked-- + +"What is a barbarian, grandfather?" + +"It is a Turk." + +"Yes, but a Turk?" + +"Oh! it's--it's--a Mohammedan--" + +"A what!--a Moham--" + +"A Mohammedan--a robber on board ship." + +"On board ship!" + +He was not going to give up his ascendancy in the matter, hard as she +pushed him; so he bethought him of a pack of old tales there-anent, and +went on to explain drily-- + +"They go to the Baltic--to Russia--to salt human flesh." + +"Human flesh!" + +"Yes, and sometimes, too, they seize vessels in the open sea and do +their salting there." + +She fixed a pair of large, terrified eyes on him, which made the old man +continue-- + +"And it is especially for little girls they look. That meat is the +finest, and goes by tons down to the Grand Turk." + +Having played this last trump, he was going in again, but was stopped by +her eager question-- + +"Do they use a glass there on board?" And when he said they did, she +slipped quickly by him through the door, and kept cautiously within as +long as the vessel was to be seen through the window-pane on the +horizon. + +The moods of the two were for once reversed. The old man looked very sly +over his work, whilst she was quiet and cowed. Once only she broke out +angrily-- + +"But why doesn't the king get rid of them? If I was captain of a +man-of-war, I'd--" + +"Yes, Elizabeth, if you were captain of a man-of-war!--what then?" + +The child's conceptions apparently reached no further than such matters +as these as yet. She had seen few human beings as she grew up, and in +recent years, after her grandmother's death, she and her grandfather had +been the only regular inhabitants of the island. Every now and then +there might perhaps come a boat on one errand or another, and a couple +of times she had paid a visit to her maternal aunt on land, at Arendal. +Her grandfather had taught her to read and write, and with what she +found in the Bible and psalm-book, and in 'Exploits of Danish and +Norwegian Naval Heroes,' a book in their possession, she had in a manner +lived pretty much upon the anecdotes which in leisure moments she could +extract from that grandfather, so chary of his speech, about his sailor +life in his youth. + +They had besides, in the little inner room, a small print, without a +frame, of the action near the Heather Islands, in which he had taken +part. It represented the frigate Naiad, with the brigs Samso, Kiel, and +Lolland, in furious conflict with the English ship of the line Dictator, +which lay across the narrow harbour with the brig Calypso, and was +pounding the Naiad to pieces. The names of the ships were printed +underneath. + +On the print there was little to be seen but mast-heads and +cannon-mouths, and a confusion of smoke, but in this had the child lived +whole years of her life; and many a time in fancy had she stood there +and fought the Englishman. Men-of-war and their officers had become the +highest conception of her fancy, and the dearest wish of her heart was +that a man-of-war might some day pass so near to Torungen that she would +be able to see distinctly everything on board. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +After old Jacob had fallen into ill health, lighterman Kristiansen used +to come out oftener to Torungen with provisions and other necessaries; +and his visits now became periodical. + +He was accompanied one autumn by his son Salve, a black-haired, +dark-eyed, handsome lad, with a sharp, clever face, who had worked in +the fishing-boats along the coast from his childhood almost, and had, in +fact, been brought up amongst its sunken rocks and reefs and breakers. +He was something small in stature, perhaps; but what he wanted in +robustness he made up in readiness and activity--qualities which stood +him in good stead in the many quarrels into which his too ready tongue +was wont to bring him. He was eighteen years old at this time; had been +already engaged as an able seaman; and was in great request at the +Sandvigen and Vraangen dances,--a fact of which he was perfectly well +aware. Old Jacob's granddaughter, being a little girl of only fourteen +years of age, was of course altogether beneath his notice, and he didn't +condescend to speak to her. He merely delivered himself of the witticism +that she was like a heron; and with her thick, checked woollen +handkerchief tied with the ends behind her waist, the resemblance was +not so very far-fetched. At any rate, he declared on the way home that +such a specimen of womankind he, for his part, had never come across +before, and that he would give anything to see her dancing in the public +room with her thin arms and legs--it would be like a grasshopper. + +The next time he came, she took out her grandfather's watch in its +silver case and showed it to him, and some conversation passed between +them. His first impression of her was that she was stupid. She asked +questions about every sort of thing, and seemed to think that he must +know everything. And finally, she wanted to know what it was like on +shore among the great folk of Arendal, and particularly how the ladies +behaved. It afforded him much amusement at the time to see with what +simple credulity she took in everything he chose to invent on the +subject; but after he had left he was not sure that he wasn't sorry for +what he had done, and at the same time he made the discovery that the +girl, in her way, was anything but silly. + +His remorse was to be brought home to him presently, for old Jacob had +had duly recounted to him over again all his cock-and-bull stories, and +was in high dudgeon. When he came again the old man was very snappish to +him, and he found it so unpleasant in the house that he made all the +haste he could to get his business done. While he was thus occupied, the +little girl told him all about the Naiad, and the part her grandfather +had taken in the action. Salve, who was ruffled, and thought the old man +had been an ill-mannered old dog, followed the relation from time to +time with a sneering remark, which in her eagerness she didn't notice, +or didn't understand. But when he had finished what he had to do, he +gave vent to his feelings in a way she did understand,--he laughed +incredulously. + +"Old Jacob there on board the Naiad! This is the first time anybody ever +heard of it." + +The individual in question unfortunately came out at the moment to see +the boat off, and turning, to him, red with anger, she cried-- + +"Grandfather! he doesn't believe you were on board the Naiad that time!" + +The old man answered at first as if he didn't deign to enter upon any +controversy on the subject-- + +"Oh, I suppose it's only little girls' prattle again." + +But whether it was wounded vanity, or a sudden access of irritation +against the lad, or that his eye fell upon his granddaughter standing +there, so evidently incensed and resentful, he flared up the next +moment, and thrusting his huge fist under the youngster's nose, burst +out-- + +"If you want to know all about it, you young swabber, I may tell you I +stood on the Naiad's gun-deck with better folk than _you_ are ever +likely to come across"--he stamped his foot here as if he had the deck +under him--"when, with one broadside from the Dictator, the three masts +and bowsprit were shot away, and the main deck came crashing down upon +the lower;"--the last sentence was taken from 'Exploits of Danish and +Norwegian Naval Heroes,' and the old man was as proud of these lines as +he would have been of a medal. + +"When the crash came," he pursued, always in the same posture, and in +the manner of the sacred text, "he who stands here and tells the tale +had but just time to save himself by leaping into the sea through a +gun-port." + +But he threw off then the trammels of the text, and continued _in +propria persona_, violently gesticulating with his fists, and steadily +advancing all the time, while Salve prudently retreated before his +advance down to the boat. + +"We don't deal in lies and fabricate stories out here like you, you +young whipper-snapper of a ship's cub; and if it wasn't for your father, +who has sense enough to rope's-end you himself, I'd lay a stick across +your back till you hadn't a howl left in you." + +With this finale of the longest speech to which he had given vent for +thirty years perhaps, he turned with a short nod to the father, and went +into the house again. + +Elizabeth was miserable that Salve should go away like this, without so +much as deigning to say good-bye to her. And her grandfather was cross +enough himself; for he was afraid that he had done something foolish, +and broken with the lighterman. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +Salve came out to the rock again the next autumn, after a voyage to +Liverpool and Havre. + +At first he was rather shy, although his father and old Jacob Torungen +had in the interval, in spite of that little affair of the previous +year, been on the best of terms. The white bear, however, as he called +him, seemed to have altogether forgotten what had passed; and with the +girl he was very easily reconciled--she had learnt now not to tell +everything to her grandfather. + +Whilst the lighterman and old Jacob enjoyed a heart-warming glass +together in the house, Salve carried the things up to the cellar, +Elizabeth following him up and down every time, and the conversation +meanwhile going round all the points of the compass, so to speak. After +she had asked him about Havre de Grace, where he had been, and about +America, where he had not been,--if his captain's wife was as fine as a +man-of-war captain's; and then if he wouldn't like one day to marry a +fine lady,--she wanted at last to know, from the laughing sailor lad, if +the officers' wives were ever allowed to be with them in war. + +Her face had of late acquired something wonderfully attractive in its +expression--such a seriousness would come over it sometimes, although +she continued as childlike as ever; and such eyes as hers were, at all +events in Salve's experience, not common. At any rate, after this, he +invariably accompanied his father upon these expeditions. + +The last time he was out there he told her about the dances on shore at +Sandvigen, and took care to give her to understand that the girls made +much of him there--but he was tired now of dancing with them. + +She was very curious on this subject, and extracted from him that he had +had two tremendous fights that winter. She looked at him in terror, and +asked rather hesitatingly-- + +"But had they done anything to you?" + +"Oh, no! all dancing entertainments have a little extra dance like that +to wind up with. They merely wanted to dance with the girl I had asked +first." + +"Is it so dangerous, then? What sort of a girl was she?--I mean, what +was her name?" + +"Oh, one was called Marie, and the other was Anne--Herluf Andersen's +daughter. They were pretty girls, I can tell you. Anne had a white +brooch and earrings, and danced more smoothly than ever you saw a cutter +sail. Mate George said the same." + +The upshot of this conversation was, that she found out that the girls +in Arendal, and in the ports generally where he had touched, were all +well dressed; and the next time he returned from Holland, he promised he +would bring with him a pair of morocco-leather shoes with silver buckles +for her. + +With this promise they parted, after she had allowed him--and that there +might be no mistake, twice over--to take the accurate measure of her +foot; and there were roses of joy in her cheeks, as she called after him +to be sure and not forget them. + +The year after Salve came with the shoes. There were silver buckles in +them, and they were very smart; but if they were, they had cost him more +than half a month's pay. + +Elizabeth was more carefully dressed now, and might almost be called +grown up. She hesitated about accepting the shoes, and didn't ask +questions about everything as she used to do. Nor was she so willing to +stand and talk with him alone by the boat--she liked to have him up +within hearing of the others. + +"Don't you see how high the sea is running?" he said, and tried to +persuade her that the boat would be dashed to pieces on the rocks. But +she saw that it wasn't true, and went up with a little toss of her head +alone. He followed her. + +She must have learned all this in Arendal, where in the course of the +autumn she had been confirmed, and where she had lived with her aunt. +But she had grown marvellously handsome in that time--so much so, +indeed, that Salve was almost taken aback when he saw her; and when they +said good-bye, it was no longer in the old laughing tones, but with some +slight embarrassment on his side--he didn't seem to know exactly how +matters lay between them. + +After that she filled his head so completely that he had not a thought +for anything else. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +The old Juno, to which Salve belonged, was lying at that time at +Sandvigen, and was only waiting for a north-east wind to come out. She +was a square-rigged vessel, with a crew of nineteen hands all told, +which had plied for many years in American waters, and off and on in the +North Sea, and was reckoned at the time one of Arendal's largest craft. +Her arrival or departure was quite an event for the town and +neighbourhood; and to have a berth in her was considered among the +sailors of the district a very high honour indeed--the more so that her +master and principal owner, Captain Beck, was a particularly good chief +to serve under, and a lucky one to boot. + +When at last, between ten and eleven o'clock one morning, she weighed +anchor, and before a light north-westerly breeze, with her small sails +set, glided out to sea, the quays were crowded with spectators, the +majority of the crew belonging to the place, and it being generally +known that they were bound on a longer voyage than usual. On board she +had with her still the captain's son, Carl Beck, a smart young naval +officer, with his sister and a small party of their friends, who meant +to land out on the Torungens in the sailing-boat they had in tow. They +wished to remain with her as long as possible, and for the purpose had +made up a party to the islands, where the gentlemen proposed to shoot +some of the sea-fowl, which are to be found out there on the rocks in +swarms at the spring season of the year on their passage north along the +coast. + +It was about four o'clock when they passed Little Torungen; and as there +were swells then bursting in white jets upon the reefs, and a line of +dark fire-fringed clouds about the sunset, which looked like heavy +weather coming up, the pleasure party determined to leave the vessel +here, instead of going on, as they had intended, to the larger of the +two islands. + +As they went over the side Salve Kristiansen was standing out on the +forecastle gazing eagerly over to where the barren mass of rock lay like +a dipping hull in the distance, bathed in the evening sun, and with a +fringe of foam round its base; and he could see old Jacob's +granddaughter standing by the wall of the house with the glass. He had +chosen on purpose a conspicuous place, and stood with his back against +the stay, so heavy of heart and sad at having to go away, that it would +have taken very little to make him burst into tears. It seemed to have +dawned upon him all of a sudden that he was in love. + +To try whether it was upon him that she was directing the glass, or at +the unusual discharging of freight into the sail-boat, he waved his hat, +and his whole face lighted up with joy as he saw her return his signal. +He took off his hat again, and received another wave of the glass in +reply. + +He stood there then straining his eyes abstractedly in the direction of +the rock until it disappeared behind them in the gathering twilight. He +had been inspirited for the whole voyage; and the first thing he should +do when they arrived at Boston would be to buy a dress and a ring; and +when he came home he determined that his first business should be to +make an expedition to the island, and put a certain question to a +certain person whom he knew out there. + +He was roused from his abstraction by the boatswain bawling out his +name, and asking if he was going to sleep there, and whether he wanted +something to wake him up. The order had been given to make all snug for +the night, as the breeze was freshening. + +The watches had been set at noon, and the starboard and larboard watch +told off, as customary on the first day a vessel goes to sea. Salve had +the middle watch; and by that time the sea was running high, and they +were plunging through the darkness under a double-reefed mainsail, the +moon every now and then clearing an open space in the storm--clouds that +were driving like smoke before it, so that he could fitfully distinguish +objects over the deck, even to the look-out man's looming figure out +upon the forecastle. + +Upon the capstan bar sat a sailor in oilskin clothes, who had probably +been on shore the previous night and not closed his eyes, and who was +making great efforts to keep awake. His head, however, would still keep +nodding; and from time to time he stood up and tried to keep himself +warm by exercising his arms. He sang, or more often took up afresh upon +each recovery of consciousness a verse of a half-Swedish ballad about a +"girl so true," that he wished he then had by his side, for the time +without her seemed so long. Now and then the spray of a sea would bring +him more sharply to himself, but it did not last long; and so the ditty, +which was melancholy to the last degree, would begin afresh. + +Salve was far too restless to have any desire to sleep, and as he paced +to and fro by the fore-hatch, lost in his dreams, and listened to the +song, it seemed to him a most touching one. + +The nodding sailor little thought that he was performing before a +deeply-moved audience. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +The party, meanwhile, that had left the ship, were passing the night +with old Jacob on Torungen. They had tried first to beat out to the +larger island, but the sea had risen, darkness had set in, and it had +soon become evident that it was no longer pleasure-sailing for a boat +with ladies in it. They had determined, therefore, rather than go about +for home, and lose the whole sporting expedition, which was to have +lasted for two or three days, to spend the night on Little Torungen and +see what the morning would do for them. + +Great was old Jacob's astonishment, it may readily be supposed, when +there came in the late evening a knocking at the door, and he saw by the +light from the hearth no less than six grand folk come streaming in, +with two ladies amongst them. He shaded his eyes with his hand, and +looked at them in mute amazement. + +As for Elizabeth, if it had been a train of fairies that had suddenly +appeared, they could not have occasioned her more terror and curiosity. +It was getting near bedtime, and she had been sitting half-asleep over +the fire, and perhaps her suddenly awakened excitement lent a more than +usual animation and attraction to a pair of eyes and a face that would +nowhere have passed unnoticed; for Carl Beck, who was at the head of the +party, seemed positively fascinated, and could not take his eyes off +her, until, reddening with confusion, she instinctively stretched out +her hand for her bodice, that lay beside her on the bench. + +"Good evening, Jacob, old boy," cried Carl, in the frank, off-hand +manner that became him so well, going up to the old fellow, and laying +his hand cordially on his shoulder. "I'm afraid we shall be very +troublesome to you, such a large party; but we want you to let us stay +here till morning, till we see if the weather moderates a bit. We +daren't go driving out in the dark to Great Torungen, on account of +these women folk that we have on board,"--and he pointed, jokingly, to +his sister and her friend. + +"I see you have to deal with womankind too, so you know what it is." + +The old man was apparently not insensible to this genial way of dealing +with him. He rose from his seat and made room at the fire, begging that +they would put up with what accommodation he had to offer, and telling +Elizabeth at the same time to go out for more wood. + +While the party gathered round the fire, and made themselves as +comfortable as they could, Carl Beck was outside with the boatmen, +seeing about having the provisions brought up. He came in again with +Elizabeth, also with an armful of wood. Throwing it down, laughing, he +cried-- + +"Now for a 'bowl,' as our friends the Swedes have it. But first, out +with the food." + +There was no scarcity of eatables, which were discussed amid a running +fire of conversation upon every kind of topic; and then came the "bowl," +a composition of various strong and spicy ingredients, of which Carl had +the secret, and which finally was lighted, and ladled into the glasses +whilst the blue flame was burning. + +Carl Beck was the life of the party; and very well he looked as he sat +there astride over the bench, with his glass in his hand, and his +officer's jacket with its anchor-buttons thrown open, and sang first one +and then another of the rollicking drinking-songs that were then in +vogue, the others joining in the chorus. He gave them, then, a cheery +sailor-song, which brought in its train a series of anecdotes from the +recent war. + +Old Jacob, under the influence of the prevailing good-fellowship and the +good cheer, had become uncommonly lively for him, and would even put in +a word now and then. But every attempt to make him tell a story himself +failed. Only when the action at the Heather Islands came up for +discussion for a while did he come out with a bit of a yarn, as he +called it. + +"Yes," he said, putting carefully down the glass that was handed to him, +"it was a great battle, was that. The country lost a fine ship there, +and many a brave lad to boot. But God's curse hangs over the man that +piloted the Englishman in to the Sand Islands--although none here, while +he was alive, knew his name. It was said he soon after made an end of +himself through remorse, like Judas Iscariot. However that may be, at +the mouth of the channel there is a flat sunk rock that a man in his +sea-boots can stand on at low water, and there they see him on moonlight +nights making piteous signs for help, until the water at last comes over +his head, and he disappears. God help the man that'll row out to +him--it's always foul weather when he is to be seen." + +"Have you ever seen him yourself, Jacob?" asked Carl Beck. + +"I'll not say that I have, and I'll not say that I haven't. But I know +that the last time I was off those islands, we had such tremendous +weather that we thought ourselves lucky in making any port at all." + +For a while every one was busied with the thoughts which Jacob's recital +had suggested, and there was a solemn pause, which was broken by Carl +Beck's striking up another song to keep off sleep:-- + + "Before the wind and a flowing sail, + Vessels for every port! + In letters of gold a dear girl's name + On every stern inwrought! + The vessel may sail the world around, + But with her the girls will still be found! + Hurrah! then, boys, for the one of your mind, + That never, oh, never, you'll leave behind." + +He repeated the last couplet with a gay inclination of his glass to the +ladies, who were sitting now tired and huddled together on the bench, +and over their heads to Elizabeth, who was standing in the background, +awake enough for both of them. The light from the fire fell upon his +handsome brown face, with the raven black curly hair, and the dark eyes +that it was said he had inherited from his recently deceased mother, who +was from Brest; and with his flow of animal spirits, that sufficed for +the whole party almost, he certainly was as manly and handsome a lad as +you would wish to meet. + +The wind by this time had gone down considerably; and, as day was +breaking, the whole party were in the boat once more and enjoying a +quiet sleep as they sailed. It was long, though, before Elizabeth could +get out of her thoughts the handsome young officer who had sat there by +the fire. And many a time would she conjure up his form on the bench +again--particularly as he looked when he held up his glass and glanced +over to her while he sang-- + + "Hurrah! then, boys, for the one of your mind, + That never, oh, never, you'll leave behind." + +Subsequently to this, Carl Beck made repeated excursions out to Torungen +to shoot sea-birds, and, by preference, alone in his sailing-boat. But, +whether it was an instinct or not on her side, it happened somehow that +he never had any further conversation with her without the old man being +with them. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +The Juno arrived in due course at Boston, where Salve invested a +considerable portion of his wages in the material for a dress, a couple +of silk handkerchiefs, and two massive rings with his own and +Elizabeth's initials on them. + +From Boston she proceeded to Grimsby with a Canadian cargo; then on a +short trip to Liverpool; then back to Quebec; and some ten or eleven +months after leaving Arendal, they were on a voyage from Memel in the +Baltic to New York, with a cargo of timber, planks, and pipe-staves--the +intention being to call in at the home port, for which she had some +general cargo, to take in provisions. + +During these voyages Salve, as one may say, had completed his +apprenticeship to the sea; and in his blue shirt loosely knotted round +the throat, his leather belt and canvas trousers, he had such a look of +smartness and energy that it required no very great amount of +discernment to perceive in him a sailor from top to toe. He had, sooner +than most, risen superior to the dangers and temptations to which young +sailor lads are exposed during the years of their novitiate, and with a +break-neck recklessness of disposition he combined such a perfectly +cat-like activity, that his superior smartness was recognised even among +his comrades. His bearing, it is true, was rather arrogant, and his +tongue not the most good-natured; but he was generally liked +nevertheless, for he was kind-hearted, if he was only taken on the right +side, and it did not seem to be his sailor-like qualities upon which he +prided himself so much as upon the superior acuteness of his +understanding, which he delighted to display in discussions with the +red-bearded and somewhat consequential sailmaker, who had the reputation +of being a well-read man, and who affected a proportionate importance. + +Up at Memel they had had great difficulties to contend with, owing to +the condition of the ice; and their bad luck seemed to be going to +follow them, for in the Skager Rack they found themselves suddenly +wedged into a field of drift-ice, with the prospect of having to remain +where they were for weeks perhaps. The cold had been unusually severe +that winter in the Baltic, and out over the plain of ice by which they +were surrounded they could see flags of all nations sharing a similar +fate. There was nothing for it but to wait and hope; and if the ice did +not break up soon, short rations would become the order of the day. + +It was wearisome; and to Salve above all, who was feverishly longing to +get home, and whose temperament was little suited for the endurance of +such agonies of Tantalus. He became the very embodiment of restlessness. +A hundred times a-day he went aloft to look out for some prospect of a +change, and to strain his eyes after the streak of land to the north +which was to be made out on clear days from the maintop-gallant +mast-head, and which of course would be the coast of Norway. The dress, +the silk handkerchiefs, the rings, and what he should say to +Elizabeth--whether he should formally request a private interview with +her, or wait till an opportunity offered--were running incessantly in +his head. And particularly what he should say to her seemed now, often +as he had thought it over during the long voyage and settled it to his +satisfaction, to present many points of difficulty. He must go down then +to his seaman's chest and see if the things were still there all right, +and whether the moths might not have got into them; the last inspection, +when he unfolded the stuff in his bunk, being conducted with uncommon +precautions. + +At last there came a prospect of release in the shape of thick weather, +and a southerly gale setting on the Norwegian coast. The ice too had for +a day or two previously begun to show blue patches of water here and +there, and when it was dark that evening they felt themselves free once +more. + +In spite of the salt water and the rain, which he had to wipe off his +face every minute, Salve went to his look-out post forward that night, +and stood there humming to himself, whilst the rest of the crew who were +on duty slopped up and down on the deck-cargo below, in sea-boots and +dripping oilskins, or sheltered themselves, as best they could, under +the lee of the round-house or forecastle. They had been hard at work all +day, making openings in the ice; and now the groaning and whistling +among the blocks and ropes, that were increasing every minute, gave +little promise of rest for the night. + +The captain stood upon the poop in his thick overcoat and drenched fur +cap, with his trumpet under his arm, looking anxiously through the +night-glass from time to time, and his voice sounded unusually stern. +There lay before him in the dark, blustering, winter night a veritable +David's choice. The strong southerly current, aided by the gale, was +fast carrying him in under the Norwegian coast; while on the other hand, +if he tried to beat to windward, he risked coming into collision with +the ice-floes. Added to that, he was not very clear as to his position; +and as the gale increased, he began to pace restlessly backwards and +forwards, addressing, every now and then, a word down to one of the +helmsmen, whose forms could be seen by the gleam from the binnacle. + +"How's her head, Jens?" + +"Sou'-west, sir; she'll lay no higher." + +"H'm! more and more on land!" he muttered, the perspiration coming out +upon his forehead under his fur cap, which, in spite of the rain, he had +to push back to get air. Both life and ship would soon be at stake. + +"What says the look-out-man, mate?" he asked of the latter, who came up +the steps at this moment from taking a turn forward. + +"Black as pitch. If we stuck a lantern out on the flying jib-boom, we +should see that far at any rate. But the lead gives deep water." + +"Does it?" was the rather scornful rejoinder. + +"The blockhead doesn't seem to know yet," growled the captain, as the +other turned away, "that the lead will give you deep water here until +your vessel has her nose upon the cliff." + +There was no chance of a pilot on such a night as this promised to be; +but still, in the hope that the wind might carry the sound in under +land, a few shots were fired from the signal-gun. + +At last there was no longer any choice left. If they were not to end +upon the rocks that night, they must crowd on more sail, and try at all +hazards to haul off the coast. + +The order was accordingly given to shake a reef out, followed by "Haul +in the topsail bow-lines--clap on the topsail halyards, and hoist away!" +and in the darkness might be heard occasionally "halimen-oh!-oh hoi!" as +the sailors worked at the tough and heavy sail, with the cordage all +stiff and swollen with ice and slippery with the rain, the spray driving +in their faces, and the vessel rolling so that sometimes they were +hanging on by the ropes only, when the deck went from under their feet. + +Under the fresh weight of sail the vessel careened over, and shot +foaming forward with new life for a moment. The next, the topsail had +burst away from the bolt-ropes with a report as of a cannon-shot, and +she had fallen away into the trough of the sea. The mainstay-sail sheet +parted at the same time, and a deluge of water carried overboard, with +part of the bulwarks, a large portion of the deck cargo, which consisted +of heavy timber, leaving the remainder tossed about in the wildest +confusion, and much of it standing on end against the railings and +capstan. + +It was some time before she could be brought up in the wind again, and +the old Juno had then to go through a trial such as her joints even in +her younger days had never been equal to. She was like many another +vessel that is a good sailor enough, a little broken-backed from the +weight of the cargo amidships; and as she gave to the strain, the ladder +that stood in the hold began to saw up and down in the coaming forward, +while the water came oozing in through the staring bow timbers, and the +pumps had to be kept continually going. The hatches were all battened +down, and many of the crew had lashed themselves to the lower rigging as +preferable now to the deck. + +"Ready about!--tacks and sheets!" &c.; "luff now, and keep her close to +the wind!"--the same monotonous words of command all through the night +every time they lay over upon a new tack, while at the same time they +would generally ship a heavy sea, and the vessel would shake through all +her frame. + +Day broke and passed in a fog, that left them in much the same +uncertainty as before about their position. For one moment it had +lifted, and they fancied they had seen "Homborgsund's Fald," a high +landmark up the country above Arendal, and from its lowness and dimness +on the horizon, they had been encouraged to hope that they had +appreciably increased their distance from the coast. About noon they +passed an English brig that had been through the same struggle as the +Juno was now engaged upon, whose signals of distress they had already +occasionally heard faintly upon the wind, and which now seemed on the +point of foundering. The crew had climbed into the after-rigging, which +was all that now remained standing, and they made despairing signs for +help; but it was impossible to render any. They had enough to do to keep +themselves afloat. + +The gale showed no signs of moderating, and that night, as Salve +Kristiansen and another were taking their turn at the wheel, there +gleamed suddenly out of the pitchy darkness to leeward of the +fore-rigging the white crest of a tremendous eddy wave, which a moment +after came crashing down upon the deck, carrying clean away the +round-house, binnacle, and long-boat, damaging the wheel, and leaving +many of the drenched and half--suffocated sailors deposited in the most +unexpected places, and only glad to find that they still had the deck +under them. + +"Ugly sea on the lee-bow!" was heard again from forward, and all in that +direction seemed suddenly to have become a mass of white. + +"Ready about!--hard a-lee!" and with a great lurch the old craft went +about once more, the renewed shrieking in every kind of pitch in the +rigging, and the blinding dash of spray, showing to what a hurricane the +gale had risen. + +Salve had been too much occupied with the damaged wheel at first to have +a thought to spare for anything else; but it recurred to him very soon +that when that first dark sea had broken over them so unexpectedly from +leeward, he had seen for a moment the glimmer of two lights on its +crest, and a world of associations was at once aroused in his mind: it +seemed to the lad's romantic fancy that he was keeping an appointment +with Elizabeth Raklev. As he glanced hurriedly back, the two light-dots +again appeared. He had seen them too often before to be mistaken, and he +shouted over his shoulder to the captain, who noticed them now for the +first time, "Those lights behind to leeward are from old Jacob's hearth +on Torungen!" + +"Are you sure of that?" muttered Beck, coming nearer to him at the same +time over the sloping deck with the help of a rope. "If they are, it +will not be long before we are dashed to atoms on the rocks." + +A conversation ensued between them, in which Salve declared that he had +known the water under Torungen from childhood as well as he did his +father's garden; and the upshot was that Beck, pale and hesitating, +determined to go in under land with him as pilot. + +"It is much that is being intrusted this night to two young shoulders," +said he; "and see you think twice, young man, both for your own life's +sake and ours." + +They kept away then, and stood in under land with the least sail they +could carry in the tremendous sea that was now breaking in their wake, +and soon the thunder of the breakers became audible. + +Salve was pale, but perfectly calm, as he stood there with the +speaking-trumpet, after having taken over the command, and with the +captain and mate by his side. But all of a sudden great beads of +perspiration came out on his forehead. There was something curiously +irregular about the light. It had become dim and red, and then seemed to +go out altogether. Had he by any possibility made a mistake? and was he +now sailing the Juno with all on board straight for the rocks? + +The uncertainty lasted for a quarter of an hour, and never in his life +had Salve seen so heavy a countenance as that with which Beck, whose +expression discovered a trace of doubt, looked at him, evidently +hesitating whether he should not take the command again himself. + +But in the mean time the gleam of light shone forth again--whatever +might have been the cause of its obscuration--and that night Salve +Kristiansen brought the Juno safely into Merdoe. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +Out on Little Torungen meanwhile noteworthy events had occurred, which +were now the talk of the town. + +Old Jacob had had a stroke the week before, and had died the same night +the Juno had had her wrestle for life. In the preceding two days of fog +and storm they had heard many signal-guns of distress, and his +granddaughter had during that time kept up the fire alone at night. It +was only as he was drawing his last breath, and she sat by his side and +bent over him, forgetful of aught else, that it was for a while +neglected; and it was this little moment that had caused Salve such a +_mauvais quart d'heure_ on board the Juno. On the following day, in her +despair, she had attempted a perilous journey over the drift ice to +bring people out to her assistance, and had been taken up by a boat and +brought in by it to Arendal. + +The poor girl was far too much occupied with her grief for the loss of +her grandfather to think in the remotest degree of making her story +interesting. But Carl Beck, in his enthusiasm, knew very well how to +give the incident a colouring of romance, and she was very soon exalted +into the heroine of the hour. It was talked of at the Amtmand's--a house +with two handsome daughters, where Lieutenant Beck was a daily +visitor--and it was in everybody's mouth how, all alone out on Torungen +with her dying grandfather, she had been the means of saving the Juno, +and had since risked her life on the ice. Every one could see by a +glance at her that she must have a remarkable character; but as to her +uncommon beauty there prevailed different opinions in feminine circles. +It was, at all events, a pity that she was so forlorn; and the Becks, it +was thought, were now morally bound to look after her. + +For the present she had gone to live with her aunt up in one of the +narrow streets at the back of the town, and there came pouring in, with +and without the owners' names, all sorts of friendly advice, with black +dress materials and ornaments from the young men and shop lads; and a +couple of the bustling ladies of the town even came in person to see her +aunt and talk over the girl's future. When Carl Beck, however, gave out +that he looked upon these presents as slights upon himself, they ceased. +He had only been up there once, and then his eldest sister was with him: +but his manner on that occasion had been most attractive, he had +sympathised with such winning sincerity, and at the same time so +unassumingly, in Elizabeth's grief; and when leaving assured her, with +emotion which he made no attempt to conceal, that they owed it to her +that their father was still alive. + +When he was gone, his sister had proceeded to the real matter of her +visit. She had come to propose to the aunt that Elizabeth should live +with them for the present with the view of qualifying herself for a +housekeeper's place, as she must not be exposed to the necessity of +going out as a common servant-girl. It was her brother, she added, who +had made this plan for Elizabeth's future. + +The offer was a highly desirable one for persons in their position, and +was accepted by the aunt with unmixed satisfaction. Over Elizabeth's +face, however, there passed a momentary cloud. She felt, without knowing +why, a sense of oppression at the prospect of coming into closer contact +with the young lieutenant; but at the same time she would not for a +great deal have refused the offer. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +As for Salve, during the first few days after coming home he was a happy +man. He was in love: he had received from his captain a hundred-daler +note, accompanied by a promise that as soon as he had learnt navigation +he should be third mate on board the Juno; and he heard himself admired +on all sides by his equals and associates. There was so much work to be +done, though, in discharging the cargo and getting the vessel into dock +for repairs--they had managed to get her up as far as Arendal--that it +would be Saturday evening before he could get his so longed-for +home-leave. + +On the day before, as he was sitting on watch in the early morning under +the lee of the bulwark, he accidentally overheard a conversation going +on upon the slip below that set his blood on fire. + +The carpenters had just come to their work, and one of them was telling +the story of old Jacob's death, and of the heroism which his +granddaughter had displayed. + +"They say," he went on, "that Captain Beck is to have him buried on +Monday next, and that he is to provide for the granddaughter--the navy +lieutenant has seen to that." + +The noise and the clinking of the hammers that were now at work made +Salve lose a good deal of the conversation here. + +"There is good reason for that, mind you," was the next observation he +caught, made in a somewhat lower tone, and accompanied by a doubtful +laugh. "It is not for nothing that he has been out so constantly +shooting sea-fowl about Torungen." + +"Would she be a--sea-bird of that feather? Old Jacob, I should have +thought, was not the kind of man--" + +"Well, perhaps not that altogether; but the first thing she did was to +come straight over here; and he has had her already taken into his own +house. I have that from the aunt. The old woman had no suspicion of +anything, but told me quite innocently that now she was to be a sort of +housekeeper with the Becks." + +A slight noise above him here caused the speaker to look up. A deadly +pale young sailor was staring down at him over the ship's side with a +pair of eyes that struck him as resembling those he had once seen in the +head of a mad dog. Their owner turned away at once and crossed the deck. + +"That must have been the lover!" he whispered over to the other, as he +set to work with his adze upon the pencilled plank. Shortly after he +muttered in a tone of compunction-- + +"If I saw that physiognomy aright, some one had better take care of +himself when he gets leave ashore." + +Salve had sprung to his feet in a fury when he heard about young Beck, +but the desire to hear more had kept him spellbound. What further had +been hinted of his relations with Elizabeth, and that the latter had +even taken refuge in his house, seemed all only too probable. He knew +both the men who had been speaking; they were respectable folks, and the +one besides had had the news from the aunt herself. + +There was hard work that day on board, but his hands were as if they had +been benumbed. It was impossible for him to give any assistance, except +in appearance, when any hauling was to be done;--he did everything +mechanically. + +"Are you sick, lad, or longing after your sweetheart?" said the mate to +him in the course of the afternoon. He saw that there was something +wrong with him. + +That last, "after your sweetheart," had a wonderfully rousing influence. +He felt himself all at once relieved of his heavy feeling of exhaustion, +and worked now so hard that the perspiration poured down his face, +joining in the hauling song from time to time with a wild, unnatural +energy: he was afraid to leave himself a moment for thought. When the +day was over, however, he took the anchor watch for a comrade, who was +overjoyed at the unexpected prospect of getting a quiet night in his +hammock, and at escaping from his turn of "ship's dog"--that watch +consisting of one man only, whose business it is to keep the ship from +harbour-thieves. + +He paced up and down the deck alone in the pitchy darkness, that was +only relieved by a lantern or two out in the harbour, and a light here +and there up in the town--sometimes standing for long minutes together, +with his cheek on his hand, leaning on the railing. He could, without +the slightest scruple, murder young Beck--that he felt. + +At two o'clock he crossed over to the boards that were sloped against +the vessel's side, slid down them in the dark to the slip, and from +there made his way ashore. Elizabeth's aunt lived in one of the small +houses above; and he had determined to wake her and have a talk with +her. + +Widow Kirstine was a portly, somewhat worn perhaps, but otherwise +strong-looking, old woman, with a good broad face, and thin grey hair +drawn down behind her ears. She was not unused to being disturbed at +night, one of her occupations being to nurse sick people; but she always +grumbled whenever she was. When she held up the candle she had lit, and +recognised Salve Kristiansen, she thought, from his paleness and general +appearance, that he was drunk. + +"Is that you, Salve?--and a pretty state to be in at this time of +night!" she began, severely, in the doorway, not caring to let him in at +first. "Is that the way you spend your wages?" + +"No, mother, it's not. I've come off my watch; I wanted to have a word +with you about Elizabeth." + +His tone was so strangely low and sorrowful, that the old woman saw that +there must be something unusual the matter; and she opened the door. + +"About Elizabeth, you say?" + +"Yes--where is she stopping now?" + +"Where is she stopping?--why, with the Becks, of course. Is there +anything the matter?" + +"You ought to know that best, mother Kirstine," he said, earnestly. + +She held up the light to his face, and looked at him in vague anxiety, +but could make nothing out of it. + +"If I ought to know it, tell me," she said, almost in a tone of +entreaty. + +"Young Beck, I hear, has been out about Torungen the whole +year--shooting sea-birds--or--do you really think he means to marry +her?" he broke out wildly, and raising his voice. + +It was only now that she caught his full meaning; and setting down the +candlestick hard upon the table, she dropped into the chair by the side +herself. + +"So--that is what they are saying, is it?" she cried at last. Her first +fear was over; but anger had succeeded to it, and she rose now from her +seat with arms akimbo and flashing eyes. She was not a woman to offend +lightly. + +"So they have fastened that lie upon Elizabeth, have they!--it's a shame +for them, so it is! And you, Salve, can soil your lips with it? Let me +just tell you, then, for your pains, that the Becks' house is as +respectable a one as any in Arendal; and it isn't you, and such as you, +that can take its character away. Never fear but Elizabeth shall hear +every word of your precious story--ay, and the captain, and the +lieutenant, and Madam Beck, too; and you'll be hunted from the Juno like +a dripping cur. So you thought that Elizabeth was to be beholden to the +lieutenant for a character--?" + +"Dear mother Kirstine!" Salve cried, interrupting her in the full +torrent of her indignation, "I didn't think about it--I couldn't think. +Only, I heard Anders of the Crag down on the slip this morning say it +all so confidently. + +"Anders of the Crag? So it was from him you heard it?--the pitiful, +wheedling rascal! That is his gratitude, I suppose, for my being with +his wife last week!--I shall know where to find him. But the receiver in +the like is no better than the stealer," she resumed, indignantly; "and +I'd have you know, it was just Beck's own daughter who came here and +offered Elizabeth a respectable place in a respectable house, and it was +to me she talked, my lad," pointing self-consciously with quivering +forefinger at her own bosom; "so Elizabeth has not begged herself in +there at all. You didn't need to desert your watch to bring such tales +here; and Elizabeth shall hear of it--that she shall," she repeated, +excitedly, striking one hand into the other with a loud smack--"she +shall hear what fine faith you have in her." + +"Dear mother Kirstine! I didn't mean any harm," he said, entreatingly, +feeling as if a weight had been taken off his heart--"only please don't +tell Elizabeth." + +"You may depend upon it I will." + +"Mother Kirstine!" he said, in a low voice, and looking down, "I brought +a dress with me for her that I had bought in Boston. And then I heard +all this, and I couldn't contain myself." He said nothing about the +rings. + +"So!" rejoined the old woman after a pause, during which she had +examined him through her half-closed eyes, and in a somewhat milder +tone; "so you brought a dress for her! and at the same time you come +running up here in the middle of the night to tell me that she has +become a common baggage for the lieutenant,"--and her anger rose again. + +"But, Mother Kirstine, I don't believe a word of it." + +"It wasn't to tell me that, I suppose, you came up here in such haste, +my lad." + +"I was only mad to think such a thing could be said of her." + +"Well, be off with you now! Anders of the Crag shall go farther with his +lie--if I go with him before the Foged and the Maritime Court." + +For the matter of that, she might as well have threatened to go with him +to the moon; but Salve understood her to mean by the Maritime Court the +bloodiest course she knew. + +As she opened the door to let him out, she said with a certain +confidential seriousness--"Tell me, Salve! has anything passed between +you and Elizabeth?" + +He seemed uncertain for a moment what reply he should make to this +unexpected invitation of confidence. At length he said-- + +"I don't know, Mother Kirstine, for certain; two years ago, I made her a +present of a pair of shoes." + +"You did!--well, see now and get on board again without any one noticing +you--that's my advice," she replied, without allowing herself to be +brought any further into the matter, and pushed him then rather +unceremoniously out of the door. + +After he had gone she sat for a while with the light in her lap, staring +at it and nodding her head reflectively. + +"He's a good and a handsome lad that Salve," she said at last, aloud. +"But on the whole it will be better to tell Elizabeth, and then she can +be on her guard there in the house;" and having come to this decision +she rose from her seat and prepared to go to bed again. + +Salve, notwithstanding this interview, was far from being at ease next +day, and he felt the courage he had mustered up, to go straight to +Elizabeth with the dress and ring, altogether gone. + +In the evening, when all the crew were given leave from the ship for +three weeks, he went off to his father instead, to see if he could learn +more of the situation through inquiries from him; and on the following +Monday both were present at old Jacob's interment in Tromoe churchyard. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +All these events had come upon Elizabeth with overwhelming suddenness. +It seemed to her like a confused dream. Yet the fact remained that there +she was, dressed in black, an inmate of one of those handsome houses, +the interiors of which she had so often pictured to herself out on +Torungen. + +Captain Beck was married to a second wife, a woman of stern principles, +full of decision and respectability, who had brought him a considerable +fortune, and, under her lynx-eyed rule, had restored that order in +household matters which, during the period her husband was a widower, +had been far too much neglected; and though his power might still be +absolute on board the Juno, it had long since ceased to be so in his own +house. By her grown-up step-children Madam Beck was in the highest +degree respected, though not exactly loved, owing to the various +unaccustomed restraints to which they now found themselves subjected; +and as to Carl, his easy tact, notwithstanding the independent position +which he enjoyed in his home as salaried member of a coast commission, +enabled him to keep on the best of terms with his imperious stepmother. +His duties would detain him about home for another year, to be still +feted by the town, and idolised by his sisters, who were never tired of +speculating upon eligible matches for him. + +From the very first, Elizabeth, who, in her utter ignorance how to +behave, committed one egregious blunder after another, had perceived +with her strong sense that it would require all the cleverness and +patience she possessed to enable her to maintain the situation; and she +began by following Madam Beck about untiringly like a lamb. Many a +painful scene had she to go through during the earlier period of their +connection, and she bore them with a quiet gentleness which Madam Beck +took for modest docility, but which had its real origin in a fixed +determination to succeed. Every now and then, however, she would give it +up as hopeless, and would seat herself disconsolately by the window with +her cheek upon her hand, and gaze wistfully out over the harbour. She +longed so for cold fresh air, and would end by throwing up the window +and stretching herself with her heated face as far out of it as she +possibly could, till Madam Beck would come in, and in a stern voice call +her back. Madam Beck, in her irritation, used to say that it was almost +as if they had taken a wild thing into the house. + +Carl Beck understood very well what she was going through, and would +occasionally throw her an encouraging look; but Elizabeth affected +always not to understand it. On one occasion, however, when she was +corrected in his presence, she hurriedly left the room, and throwing +herself on her bed, lay there and sobbed as if her heart would break. + +She had been trusted one afternoon, shortly after, to bring in the +tea-tray, on which, without thinking what she was doing, she had placed +the chafing-dish with the boiling teakettle. It fell as she was carrying +it in; but although its hot side and the boiling water burnt and scalded +her arm and hand, she carried the tray quite quietly out again without +allowing a muscle of her face to change--she was not going to be +corrected before him again. + +Madam Beck herself bound up her hand in the kitchen, where she stood +white with pain; while Carl, who had been sitting on the sofa, and had +seen how the whole thing happened, forgetting his self-command, had +jumped up in great excitement, and had shown such uncommon sympathy that +his sister Mina, afterwards, when they were alone in the room together, +said, with a look that was more searching than the joking words seemed +to require, "It is not possible you are fond of the girl, Carl?" + +"No fear, Mina," he answered quickly, in the same tone, chucking her +under the chin as he spoke. "There are as handsome girls as her in +Arendal; but you can see as well as I can that she is a girl in a +hundred. That business with the tea-tray is what very few others would +have been capable of; and we mustn't forget that if it had not been for +her--" + +"Oh yes," rejoined Mina, with a toss of her head, a little tired of the +eternal repetition of this stock observation. "She didn't know all the +same that it was papa who was out there." + +It was a game of hypocrisy, thought out with no inconsiderable subtlety, +that the handsome lieutenant was carrying on in this matter: under his +apparently so entirely frank sailor-bearing there was hidden a real +diplomatist. By trumpeting about the town the service which Elizabeth +had rendered them in saving the Juno, he had, one may say, forced his +family to take her up, though to them he made it appear that public +opinion left them no alternative. On the other hand, he was uncommonly +cautious in his attitude towards Elizabeth herself; for he knew he must +win her without attracting the attention of his stepmother and sisters. +He believed he had made a sort of impression upon her; but at the same +time he felt that he had a wild swan to deal with, that might at any +moment spread its wings and fly away--there was such a strong, +independent individuality about her. + +In his home, however, she had become a different creature, scarcely to +be recognised as the same Elizabeth,--so quietly did she go about, +hardly conscious of his presence apparently--and so slavishly did she +follow the directions of the mistress of the house. This new aspect of +her had put him in doubt for a while, but it was not very long before he +satisfied himself that he understood what it meant; and that little +affair with the tea-tray, that was set down to awkwardness by the +others, had quite a different significance for him. He flattered himself +that she subjected herself to all this restraint for his sake; and +whatever the _denouement_ might be, the situation was, at all events, an +interesting one. + +But there was, on the other hand, something in her manner that kept him +at a certain distance, and left him in uncertainty as to what line +exactly he should take. The same had been the case whenever they had +been together out on the island, and had in fact been the principal +cause of his becoming more deeply in love with her every day. He had +once out there encountered a look in her steel-grey eyes which had given +him the impression that the opinion she entertained of him could in a +moment be reversed, and that least of all dare he allow her to feel that +he was appearing in the character of a lover; and it was for this reason +he had scarcely ever talked with her grandfather, and only casually with +herself. The fact was, old Jacob had very well understood that the smart +young navy-lieutenant did not come out there for his sake; and as he +could not very well shut the door in his face, he had very sensibly +warned his granddaughter against him. He explained to her that people of +his class were not in the habit of marrying a common man's child, +although it happened far too often that they might play at love with +them. "Such a lad as Salve Kristiansen, now," he remarked, in +conclusion, "that is the sort of stuff that will not disappoint you;" +and he thought he had played the diplomatist there with some skill. + +"I didn't understand you to mean that exactly, grandfather, that time +you were going to beat him," she said. + +The old man was rather nonplussed for the moment, but he growled out +something about youngsters requiring correction occasionally, and went +on, "He's a god lad, I tell you; and if he came and made up to you, he +should have you without a moment's hesitation; and then I should be easy +in my mind as to what would become of you when I'm gone." + +Elizabeth made no further observation, but a certain expression about +her mouth seemed to denote that she reserved to herself the liberty to +have an opinion of her own in this matter. Salve Kristiansen had been +very dear to her as the only friend and confidant she had ever had; but +since she had seen the lieutenant, it had been he who had exclusively +occupied her thoughts. All that had formed the ideal of her young +enthusiasm had suddenly in his person appeared upon the rock; but +whether it was his uniform, or the bravery of the fleet, or himself, +that was the object of her admiration, she had never asked herself, +until hurt and rendered thoughtful by that warning of her grandfather. +Now, it was unmistakably himself, the handsome, brilliant embodiment of +it all. But at the same time there sprang up in her nature an +unconquerable feeling of pride, in obedience to the dictates of which +she absolutely resigned him, though still retaining her enthusiastic +admiration; and it was this double attitude of mind which her eyes +expressed, and which puzzled her admirer. When she heard afterwards from +her aunt in Arendal that people had been talking about them, she felt it +deeply, and more than ever then had become sensible that there was an +invisible barrier between them. + +Carl's father meanwhile had been trudging daily over to the dry-dock to +see after the Juno, which had had to have her bottom scraped, her gaping +seams caulked, and to undergo a general repair: he was hardly at home to +meals. It was a case of urgency, as the delivery of her cargo at its +destination could not be delayed beyond a certain time. + +About a month after Elizabeth had come into Captain Beck's house the +Juno was ready for sea again; and Carl's sister came into the room +smiling one day then, and said-- + +"Elizabeth, there is a young sailor out in the porch who wants to speak +to you; he has a parcel under his arm. Perhaps it is a present." + +Elizabeth, who was bringing in the tea-things at the time, turned red, +and Carl Beck, who was standing by the window, a little pale. She knew +very well that it was Salve, and for a moment she was almost frightened +at his audacity. She had seen him a couple of times before, and had +allowed him to feel that she was not particularly anxious for his +company, in consequence of what her aunt had told her, and as she went +out to see him now she trembled. + +He looked at her for a moment or two without saying a word. + +"Will you take this dress, Elizabeth?" he said at last, almost harshly. + +"No, that I won't, Salve. Such things as you have been saying about me!" + +"So you won't take it?" he said, slowly and dejectedly. "It is no use +saying anything more, then, I suppose." + +"No, Salve, it is no use saying anything more." + +The desolate expression of his face as he stood and looked at her, while +he asked, "Am I to take it to sea with me, Elizabeth?" went to her +heart, and the tears rushed into her eyes. She shook her head +negatively, but with an almost despairing look, and disappeared into the +house. + +They could see in the sitting-room that she had been crying. But Carl +Beck was a cold-blooded man, and merely lay at the window and looked out +after his rival, to see if he had the parcel under his arm as he went +out of the gate. + +That night Elizabeth lay awake. She had cried in her sleep, and had +dreamed that she had seen Salve standing down at the quay so wretchedly +clothed and so miserable, but too proud to ask assistance of any one, +and that he had given her such a bitterly reproachful look; and she lay +tossing about, unable to get the dream out of her head. Presently there +came the noise of a riotous mob outside, and she got up and went to the +window. The police were taking some one with them down the street. As +they passed, she saw by the light of the street-lamp for a moment that +it was Salve. He was resisting with all his might, pale and infuriated, +with his blue shirt all torn open in the front, and there was an +expression in his face that--at any rate, she slept no more that night. + +There had been a general _melee_, she heard next morning, among the +sailors over in Mother Andersen's, on the other side of the harbour. It +was said that knives had been used, and that Salve Kristiansen had been +the originator of the whole disturbance--without a shadow of protest, +Carl Beck said; and proceeded then to put various interpretations of his +own upon the affair. Elizabeth left the room, and for some days after +was pale and worn-looking, and more than usually reserved, Carl thought, +in her attitude towards himself. + +Captain Beck had paid Salve's fine and procured his release, and the +afternoon before the Juno was to sail his father and younger brother +came on board to say good-bye to him. There was something strange in his +manner that struck them both; it was as if he thought he would never see +them again. He offered his father his hundred-daler note, and when the +latter would not take it, made him promise, at all events, to keep it +for him. The father attributed his unusual manner to distress of mind +and depression on account of his recent adventure with the police; but +as he was going ashore he said, in rather a husky voice-- + +"Remember, Salve, that you have an old father expecting you at home!" + +That evening and a great part of the night Salve passed in the Juno's +maintop, gazing over at Beck's house as long as there was a light in the +attic window. And when that went out it seemed as if something had been +extinguished in himself with it. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +The outer side of Tromoe, which lies off the entrance to Arendal, has +only the ordinary barren stone-grey appearance of the rest of the +islands along the coast; a wooden church, with a little belfry like a +sentry-box and serving as a landmark, which lies drearily down by the +sea, and under which on Sundays a pilot-boat or two may be seen lying-to +while service is going on, is the only feature for the eye to rest upon. +The land side of the island, on the contrary, presents a scene all the +richer and livelier for the contrast. The narrow Tromoe Sound, with its +swarm of small coasters, lighters, pilot-boats, and vessels of larger +build, suns itself there between fertile or wooded slopes and ridges, +over which are scattered in every direction the red cottages of the +sailor population, skippers' houses, and villas; and in every available +spot, in every creek or bay where there is barely room for a vessel, the +white timbers of ships in course of construction come into view. It is +an idyllic dockyard, a very beautiful and very appropriate approach to +Norway's principal seaport town; and whoever steams up it on a still +summer's day must enjoy a surprise that will not easily be effaced from +his recollection. + +At the period of our story, indeed, the picture was far from being so +complete or rich: but even then were becoming manifest the germs of the +bustle and life which now pervade the place. + +On one of the most beautiful points of the Sound peeped into view a +small one-storeyed house with two small-paned attic windows projecting +from its steep tiled roof, and with a pine-wood climbing the hillside +behind, which was the property of Captain Beck; and here, until, as he +proposed to do in a couple of years' time, he retired from the sea and +invested his fortune in the shipbuilding yard which he had in view, his +family generally took up their residence during the summer months. +Hither in the early part of this summer, too, they had repaired. + +It was no life of idleness, though, which they lived out there: Madam +Beck always made work for everybody, and had her own spinning-wheel in +the sitting-room. Her step-son had his occupation on land, and as much +as he could do, as member of the coast commission. But he used generally +to come over on Saturdays in his pretty sail-boat and remain over +Sunday; and on that day, too, some one or other family of their +acquaintance in the town would make them an object for a pleasure party, +and would usually spend the afternoon with them. + +Carl Beck was always in great force on these occasions. His brown face +and frank sailor bearing and good looks would have been sufficient in +themselves to make him a favourite with the ladies. But, in addition to +these claims upon their interest, he had been known to most of the +younger ones among them from his schoolboy days, when he used to come +home on leave as a cadet, and he seemed to enjoy particular confidential +relations with nearly every one of them, or, at all events, to be in +possession of some secret or other which only they two knew. They had +all kinds of jokes and expressions from their younger days which were +unintelligible to the rest; and what is vulgarly called "chaff" formed, +perhaps, the staple of his conversation with them, varied now and then +by a touch of sentiment, which was intended, by chance as it were, to +open up to them for a moment the real deeper nature which they might not +have suspected him of possessing. They used to twit him about his +inclination to stoutness, and he used to joke about it too, and say he +had too good a time of it. + +Among the Becks' most frequent visitors out there was postmaster +Forstberg's family, which included, besides the parents, a hobbledehoy +son and their daughter Marie, a fair-haired girl some eighteen years of +age, of quiet manners, and with an uncommonly clever face. Nobody said +that she was pretty, but nearly every one who knew her had the +impression that she was; and there was a certain indefinable harmony and +grace, not only about her perhaps rather small figure, but about +everything she did. But if she was not considered pretty, it was agreed +on all sides that she had great sense; and among her friends she was +always the one they elected to confide in, whenever they had anything on +their minds. That she never confided anything to them in return had, +curiously enough, never struck them; and for that matter, she was too +correct and proper, they imagined, to have any heart affairs herself. +She was a confidential friend of Carl Beck's sisters, and especially of +Mina, who declared that she put her before all the rest of her +acquaintance, and thought in her own heart that she was exactly the +match for her brother. + +The only one of the young girls in the circle with whom Carl Beck had +had no youthful acquaintance was Marie Forstberg; and it had been some +time before he discovered that the quiet girl was worth talking to. He +used to be secretly annoyed then that the conversation when she was +present should lapse so easily into empty trifling; her mind was so +clear and true, and she had such a beautiful smile for whatever she +approved. Before her, therefore, he always displayed now the broad, +manly side of his character--which he could do with so much grace--and +the coquetry which was at the bottom of this was not without its effect. +She had always made rather a hero of him in her own mind, and he had +created the flattering impression now that the light and flirting manner +which he adopted towards young ladies, and which had rather qualified +her admiration of him, had been due to his not having before found among +them any one that was worthy of a man's serious attention. He had begun +consequently to occupy a much larger share of her thoughts than she +would herself have been willing to acknowledge; and many of the +confidences of which she was the recipient at this time would, if her +friends had had a little more penetration, have been brought last of all +to her. + +Marie Forstberg's attention had very soon been attracted to Elizabeth; +and knowing her history, she tried very often to help her, and put her +in the right way of doing things. At first she found her rather short +and unapproachable, and could get nothing but "yes" or "no" from her; +and there was something almost offensive in the brusque way in which she +would turn with an impatient flush from her mentor when she sometimes +didn't understand what was meant, and would do the thing in her own way. +She wouldn't see at first the various little good turns which the other +did her in her quiet, considerate way; but they were acknowledged at +last with a look that made amends for all her former obtuseness; and in +spite of their different natures and unequal social position, these two +women soon came to feel, if not exactly drawn to one another, mutually +interested in each other. At the same time, as Elizabeth was not blind +to the diplomacy of the house, she had soon perceived that of all the +young ladies who came there, Marie Forstberg was the one who had the +best chance, and who indeed best deserved to be the young lieutenant's +bride; and although she tried to believe that she was merely a resigned +looker-on herself, she seemed to feel every Sunday, when Marie Forstberg +came, that a certain disagreeable impression had grown up in her mind +about her during the week which it took some time to thaw. When it did +thaw, however, which in time it always did, she would feel attracted to +her with redoubled warmth; and though their conversation might be +ostensibly occupied only with such subjects as laying the table or +dishing the dinner, she would contrive to introduce into it anything and +everything concerning the lieutenant which she thought might interest or +recommend him to her friend. Marie Forstberg couldn't help sometimes +fixing her clear blue eyes searchingly upon her, to ascertain if there +was not some object underlying this communicativeness; but Elizabeth +would look so unconscious, as she stood there with her sleeves tucked +up, busy with her work, that she dismissed the idea from her mind. + +In this country life, although without a moment to call her own, +Elizabeth felt freer at all events than she had done in the town; and +she had made such rapid progress under Madam Beck's tuition, that the +latter's supervision was in many things no longer required. One part in +particular, the one which she might have been expected to find the most +difficult of all--that of parlour-maid--she filled to perfection; and +her upright figure and expressive face attracted many an admiring glance +on Sundays, when in her becoming striped chintz dress and white apron, +and with her luxuriant hair turned up in the simplest manner, she +carried the tea or coffee things out to the guests in the summer-house. +She could feel that Carl Beck's eyes were never off her as long as she +was in sight, and she seemed to know that it was she whom his eye +wandered in search of first whenever he came home. In a hundred small +ways he made her conscious of the interest which he felt in her; and +whenever there was a commission to be particularly remembered, he never +gave it to his sisters alone, but to her also. + +His pretty pleasure-boat--a long, light, sharp-built yawl, with a red +stripe along its black side, and two sloping masts--which he had lately +had built, lay often the whole week through moored in the bay under the +house. He was very particular about the boat, and during his absence it +was to Elizabeth's sole care that she was intrusted. There was always +something or other to be looked after; and when he came home he would +generally subject her, in a jokingly harsh tone, to an examination, +which he called holding a summary court-martial. + +Sometimes on Saturdays he would come up the path waving in his hand a +letter covered with post-marks. It would be from his father to his +stepmother; and Madam Beck would generally read it by herself first, and +then it would be read aloud, Elizabeth listening with strained +attention--she was always so afraid that there might be something bad +about Salve. + +One Sunday she remarked that Carl wore in the buttonhole of his uniform +a wild flower which she had thrown away. It might have been the purest +accident; but she knew that he had seen her with it in her hand. The +same day they had wild strawberries at dinner, and there were no +strangers, and he broke out all in a moment, "Yes, I'd sooner ten +thousand times have wild strawberries than garden ones. They have quite +another taste and smell." + +It was a natural remark for any one to make. But she thought he had +looked with peculiar earnestness at her as he made it, and afterwards he +had fixed his eyes upon his plate for a long while without raising them. +She felt that the remark had been meant for her, and altogether that day +there was something about him that made her uneasy--he gazed at her so +often. + +Madame Beck happened to have just then a long list of household +necessaries required from Arendal, and Carl said that if some one would +go with him in the boat the next morning to help him with the parcels, +he would execute her commissions himself. When Madame Beck suggested +Elizabeth he eagerly assented; but the colour rushed into Elizabeth's +cheeks, and with an angry toss of her head, which she didn't make any +attempt to conceal, she left the room. + +As he was standing alone outside some little time after, she came up to +him, and said, looking him straight in the face-- + +"I don't go into Arendal with you, Herr Beck." + +"No?--and why not, Elizabeth?" he asked, with affected indifference, and +trying to meet her look. + +"I don't go," she repeated, her voice trembling with pride and +anger--"that is all I have to say;" and she turned from him, and left +him gazing after her, partly in confusion, and partly in admiration of +the magnificently proud way in which she crossed the turf to the house +again. + +The expedition was given up; and in spite of Carl's _finesse_, it came +out inadvertently that it was on account of Elizabeth having refused to +go alone in the boat with him, which Madam Beck found very commendable +on her part. Indeed she ought to have known herself, she said, that it +was scarcely proper; but at the same time, she was decidedly of opinion +that the more becoming course for Elizabeth would have been to speak to +her mistress first. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +The house in the town was undergoing repairs this year, which kept the +family out in the country until rather late in the autumn. But the +glorious September days prolonged the summer, and they could still sit +out on the steps in the evening and enjoy the beauty and the sentiment +of the season, and the rich variety of the autumn tints reflected on the +still waters of the Sound. + +The members of Carl's commission, with their president, were invited out +there one day, and it was made a great occasion, all the resources of +the house being brought into requisition to do them honour. + +Carl, although the youngest member of the Commission, and really only +included in it to make up the required number, had been fortunate enough +to distinguish himself upon it; and his sisters even thought that there +might be a question of an order for him--that distinction so coveted in +Norway--if they made love sufficiently to the president. Carl professed +to be quite superior to a mere external decoration of the kind, though +longing for it in his heart; and Marie Forstberg, whom he had not taken +into his confidence in the matter, was highly indignant with his sisters +for supposing that it should depend upon the president, and not upon +Carl's own merit, whether he received it or not. Mina, however, had +declared, with a great air of knowledge of the world, that people +couldn't trust to merit alone, and that, besides (and here she had laid +her hand flatteringly on her friend's shoulder), they were not all so +strict and high-principled as Marie Forstberg; and so she paid her court +to the president accordingly. + +In the evening, when the gentlemen were sitting together out in the +wood, and Elizabeth came out to them with a fresh supply of hot water +for their toddy, the said president thought proper to make a joke that +brought the colour to her cheeks. She made no reply, but the water-jug +trembled in her hands as she put it down, and as she did so she gave the +speaker such a look that for a moment he felt cowed. + +"'Sdeath, Beck!" he broke out, "did you see the look she gave me?" + +"She is a proud girl," said Carl, who was highly incensed, but who had +his reasons for restraining himself before his superior. + +"A proud girl indeed!" returned the other, in a tone which implied very +clearly that in his opinion impudent hussy would have been the more +correct description. + +"A good-looking girl, I mean," said Carl, evasively, by way of +correction, and laughed constrainedly. + +Elizabeth had heard what he said. She was hurt, and for the first time +instituted a comparison between him and Salve. If Salve had been in his +place, he would not have got out of it in that way. + +Later on in the evening Carl met her alone, as she was putting things to +rights out on the steps after the departed guests, and he said +half-anxiously-- + +"I hope you didn't mind what that blustering old brute said, Elizabeth. +He is a very good fellow really, and doesn't mean anything by his +nonsense." + +Elizabeth was silent, and tried to avoid answering by going in with what +she had in her hands. + +"Come, I won't stand your being offended, Elizabeth," he broke out +suddenly, firing up in a moment, and trying to catch her by the arm. +"That hand you work with is dearer to me than the hands of all the fine +ladies put together." + +"Herr Beck!" she exclaimed wildly, and with tears in her eyes, "I leave +this house--this very night--if you say a word more." + +She disappeared into the hall, but he followed her. + +"Elizabeth," he whispered, "I mean it in earnest." She tore herself +hastily from him, and went into the kitchen, where his sisters were +talking together over the fire. + +Carl went out for a solitary walk over the island in the glorious +starlight night, and didn't come in till past midnight. + +He had not meant what he said quite so decidedly in earnest; but now +after seeing her standing before him so wondrously beautiful, with tears +in her eyes--now he meant it in real earnest. He was prepared to engage +himself, if necessary, in spite of every consideration. + +The next morning he left in his boat for Arendal, having whispered to +her, however, in passing, before he left, "I mean it in earnest." + +The repetition of these words threw Elizabeth into dire perplexity. She +had lain and thought over them the night before, and had thrust them +from her with indignation, for they could mean nothing else than that he +had brought himself to dare to tell her that he had conceived a passion +for her, and she had quite determined to execute her threat and leave +the house. + +But now, repeated in this tone! + +Did he really mean to ask for her hand and heart--to ask her to be +his--an officer's wife? There lay before her fancy a glittering expanse +of earlier dreams that almost made her giddy; and the whole week she was +absent and pale, thinking anxiously of Sunday, when he was to return. +What would he say then? + +And--what should she answer? + +He didn't come, however, his duties having required him to make another +journey that he had not reckoned upon. + +On the other hand Marie Forstberg did appear, and felt at once that some +change or other must have come over Elizabeth, as she pointedly declined +all assistance from her; and in the look which Marie Forstberg +intercepted by chance, there was something even hard and unfriendly. She +laid her hand once gently upon Elizabeth's shoulder, but it produced, +apparently, absolutely no impression--she might as well have caressed a +piece of wood; and when she returned to the sitting-room again, she +couldn't help asking, "What has happened to Elizabeth?" But the others +had not observed anything unusual. + +Carl Beck, contrary to his custom, came not on the following Saturday, +but before it, in the middle of the week; and he strode with hasty steps +through the rooms when he didn't see Elizabeth. + +He found her at last up-stairs. She was standing gazing out of the +window on the landing, out of which all that was to be seen was the +wooded slope of the hill and the sky above it. She heard his step--she +knew that he was coming up-stairs--and felt a sudden indefinable sense +of apprehension--a sort of panic almost--as if she could have jumped out +of the window. What should she answer? + +When he came and put his arm round her waist, and asked in a low voice, +"Elizabeth, will you be mine?" she felt, for the first time in her life, +on the point of fainting. She hardly knew what she did, but pushed him +involuntarily away from her. + +He seized her hand afresh, and asked, "Elizabeth, will you be my wife?" + +She was very pale, as she answered--"Yes!" + +But when he wanted again to take her by the waist, she sprang suddenly +back, and looked at him with an expression of terror. + +"Elizabeth!" he said, tenderly, and tried again to approach her, "what +is the matter with you? If you only knew how I have longed for this +moment." + +"Not now--no more now!" she pleaded, holding out her hand to him. +"Another time." + +"But you say 'Yes,' Elizabeth--that you are my--?" But he felt that she +wanted him to go now. + +After he had gone, she sat there on a box for a long time in silence, +gazing straight before her. + +So it had actually come to pass! Her heart beat so that she could hear +it herself, and she seemed to feel a dull pain there. Her face, little +by little, acquired a fixed, cold expression: she was thinking that he +was then telling his stepmother of their engagement, and fortifying +himself for her reception of the announcement. + +She expected to be called down. But no summons came; and at last she +decided to go without being called. + +In the sitting-room they were all quietly intent upon their several +occupations. Carl was pretending to read a book; but he threw her a +stolen, tenderly anxious look over the top of it when she entered. + +Supper was brought in, and everything went on as quietly as usual, even +to his customary banter. To Elizabeth it seemed as if there was a mist +over them all; and when Mina once asked if there was anything the matter +with her, she could only answer mechanically, 'No.' The question was +repeated later on, and received the same answer. She brought the supper +things in and took them out, as usual, and it seemed as if she could not +feel the floor under her feet, or what she carried in her hand. + +The evening passed, and they went to bed without anything happening. But +in the partial darkness of the stair-landing, he seized her hand +passionately, and said--"Good-night, my Elizabeth, _my--my_ Elizabeth!" + +She was not in a condition to return the pressure of his hand, and when +he approached his lips to her forehead, she hastily drew herself away. + +"I came out here alone to tell you this, dear, dearest Elizabeth," he +whispered, with passion trembling in his voice, and making an effort to +draw her to him. "I must be on land again to-morrow. Must I go without +one sign that you care for me?" + +She bent her forehead slowly towards him, and he kissed it, and she then +immediately left him. + +"Good-night, my beloved one!" he whispered after her. + +Elizabeth lay for a long while awake. She would have given anything to +have been able to cry, but the tears would not come; and she felt as if +she was freezing internally. When at last she did fall asleep, it was +not of him she dreamt, but of Salve--the whole time of Salve. She saw +him gazing at her with that earnest face--it was so heavy with grief, +and she stood like a criminal before him. He said something that she +could not hear, but she understood that he condemned her, and that he +had thrown the dress overboard. + +She rose early, and tried to occupy her thoughts with other dreams--with +her future as an officer's lady. But it was as if all that had before +seemed to be pure gold was now changed to brass. She felt unhappy and +restless; and it was a long time before she could make up her mind to go +into the sitting-room. + +Carl Beck did not leave that morning. He had perceived that there was +something on Elizabeth's mind. + +During the forenoon, when his sisters were out, and his stepmother was +occupied, he found an opportunity to speak with her alone: she was in a +fever, always waiting for him to have spoken to Madam Beck. + +"Elizabeth," he said, gently smoothing her hair, for she looked +dispirited, and stood with her eyes fixed upon the ground, "I couldn't +leave without having spoken to you again." + +She still kept her eyes upon the ground, but didn't withdraw herself +from his hand. + +"Do you really care for me?--will you be my wife?" + +She was silent. At last she said, a shade paler, and as if with an +effort-- + +"Yes--Herr Beck." + +"Say 'du' to me--say Carl," he pleaded, with much feeling, "and--look at +me." + +She looked at him, but not as he had expected. It was with a fixed, cold +look she said-- + +"Yes, if we are engaged." + +"Are we not then?" + +"When is your stepmother to know it?" she asked, rather dragging the +words out one after the other. + +"Dear Elizabeth! These people at home here must notice nothing for--for +three months, when I shall be--" But he caught an expression now in her +face, and something in the abrupt way in which she drew her hand from +him, that made him keep back what he had originally intended to say, and +he corrected it hastily. + +"Next week, then, I'll write from Arendal and tell my father, and then +let my stepmother know what I have written. Are you offended, +Elizabeth--dear Elizabeth? or shall I do it at once?" he broke out +resolutely, and seized her hand again. + +"No, no--not now! next week--let it not be till next week," she cried, +in sudden apprehension, returning the pressure of his hand at the same +time almost entreatingly--it was the first he had had from her. + +"And then you are mine, Elizabeth?" + +"Yes, then"--she tried to avoid meeting his eye. + +"Farewell, then, Elizabeth! But I shall come back on Saturday. I can't +live for longer without seeing you." + +"Farewell!" she said, in a rather toneless voice. + +He sprang down to the boat that lay waiting for him below; but she +didn't look after him, and went in with bowed head the opposite way. + +Small things often weigh heavily in the world of impressions. Elizabeth +had been overpowered by what seemed to her the magnanimity of his nature +when he had declared that he would elevate her into the position of his +wife; she felt that it was her worth in his eyes which had outweighed +all other considerations. That he should shrink from the inevitable +conflict with his family she had on the other hand never for a moment +imagined. She had no doubt felt herself that it would be painful, but +had stationed herself for the occasion behind his masculine shield. When +he now so unexpectedly began to press for time, at first even proposing +to be away himself when the matter came on in his home, a feeling took +possession of her which in her inward dread she instinctively clutched +at as a drowning wretch at a straw, as it seemed to suggest a +possibility even now of reconsidering her promise. + +She had a hard and heavy time of it during the two days until Carl +returned; and the nights were passed in fever. + +On Saturday evening he came, and the first he greeted was herself: he +seemed almost, as she passed in and out of the room quiet and pale, as +if he didn't wish any longer to conceal the relations now existing +between them. + +He had with him a letter from his father, which was read aloud when the +meal was over. It was dated from a South American port, and mention was +made in it of Salve among others. Off Cape Hatteras they had had stormy +weather, and had their topmast carried away. It remained attached by a +couple of ropes, and with the heavy sea that was running, was swinging +backwards and forwards, as it hung, against the lower rigging, +threatening to destroy it. Salve Kristiansen had come forward in the +emergency and ventured aloft to cut it adrift; and as he sat there the +whole had gone over the side. He fell with it, but had the luck to be +caught in a top-lift as he fell, and so saved his life. "It was pluckily +done," ended the account, "but nevertheless all is not exactly right +about him, and he is not turning out as well as he promised." + +"I never expected very much from him," remarked Carl, with a +contemptuous shrug of his shoulders; "he's a bad lot." + +He didn't see the resentful eyes which Elizabeth fixed upon him for +these words, and she sat for a long while afterwards out in the kitchen +with her hands in her lap, silent and angry, thinking over them. A +resolution was forming in her mind. + +Before they retired to rest, Carl whispered to her-- + +"I have written to my father to-day, and--to-morrow, Elizabeth, is our +betrothal-day!" + +Elizabeth was the last in the room, putting it to rights, and when she +left she took a sheet of paper and writing materials with her. She lay +down on her bed; but about midnight she was sitting up by a light and +disfiguring a sheet of paper with writing. It was to this effect:-- + +"Forgive me that I cannot be your wife, for my heart is given to +another.--Elizabeth Raklev." + +She folded the paper and fastened it with a pin for want of a wafer, and +then quietly opening the door of the room where Madam Beck was sleeping, +placed her lips close to her ear, and whispered her name. Madam Beck +woke up in some alarm when she saw Elizabeth standing before her fully +dressed, and apparently prepared for a journey. + +"Madam Beck," Elizabeth said, quietly, "I am going to confide something +to you, and ask for your advice and assistance. Your step-son has asked +me to be his wife. It was last Sunday--and I said yes; but now I have +changed my mind, and am going back to my aunt, or farther away still, if +you can tell me how; for I am afraid he will follow me." + +Madam Beck stared at her in mute amazement, and at first put on an +incredulous and rather scornful expression; but as she came to feel that +it might all be true, she raised herself involuntarily higher up in the +bed. + +"But--why do you come with this now, particularly in the middle of the +night?" she said, with a suspicious and searching look. + +"Because he has written to his father about it to-day, and means to tell +you and the rest to-morrow." + +"So--he has already written? That was his object, then, in bringing you +into the house here," Madam Beck added, after a pause, with some +bitterness. + +It seemed to strike her then that there was something noble in +Elizabeth's conduct; and looking at her more kindly, she said-- + +"Yes, you are right. It is best for you to go away--to some place where +he will not find it so easy to reach you." + +She lapsed into thought again. Then a brilliant idea occurred to her, +and she got up and put on her clothes. She had a man's clearheadedness, +and her habits of management stood her in good stead on the present +occasion. The Dutch skipper Garvloit, who had married her half-sister, +happened just a day or two before to have been inquiring for a Norwegian +girl, who would be able to help in the house; and here was just the +place for Elizabeth. She had only to go on board his vessel, that lay +over at Arendal ready to sail. + +Madam Beck went into the sitting-room at once, and wrote a letter to +Garvloit, which she gave to Elizabeth, together with a good round sum of +money--wages due, she said; and half-an-hour afterwards Elizabeth was +rowing over alone in the quiet moonlight night to Arendal. + +The smooth sound lay full of shining stars between the deep shadows of +the ridges on either side, with a light from a mast here and there +denoting the presence of vessels under the land. A falling star would +now and then leave a stream of light behind it; and she felt a sense of +joyous exultation that she could only subdue by rowing hard for long +spells. She was like one escaped--relieved from some oppressive burden. +And how she looked forward to seeing Marie Forstberg now! + +She arrived in the town before daybreak, and went straight up to her +aunt's, to whom she announced that Madam Beck wished her to take a place +in Holland with Garvloit, who was on the point of sailing. She showed +her the letter--there was no time to lose. + +The old woman listened to her for a while, and then said abruptly-- + +"There has been some difficulty with the lieutenant, Elizabeth?" + +"Yes, aunt, there has," she replied; "he made love to me." + +"He did--" + +"And first I said as good as yes. But I don't mean to have him--and so I +told Madam Beck." + +"So you wouldn't have him?" was the rejoinder, after an astonished +pause; "and the reason, I suppose, was that you would rather have +Salve?" + +"Yes, aunt," in a low voice. + +"And why in the world didn't you take him, then?" + +The tears came into Elizabeth's eyes. + +"Well--as people make their beds so they must lie," said the old woman, +severely--and betook herself then, without any further observation, to +the preparation of the morning coffee. + +As Elizabeth went down to the quay, to get a boat to take her out to the +merchantman, she looked in at the post-office, where she found Marie +Forstberg already up, and busy in the sitting-room in her morning dress. +She was greatly astonished when Elizabeth told her of her new +destination. + +It was such an advantageous offer, Elizabeth explained--an almost +independent place in the house; and Madam Beck had herself advised her +to take it. + +But though she used all her wit to keep the other off the scent, Marie +Forstberg found a want of connection somewhere, and Elizabeth could see +it in her eyes. She asked no further questions, however; and when they +took leave of each other they embraced, in tears. + +Out at Tromoe the surprise was great when it was found that Elizabeth had +gone. Carl Beck had found her letter under the door, but had never +imagined that she had left, and had gone out with it in violent +agitation of mind and did not come home again till late in the +afternoon. Madam Beck had in the meantime confided the matter to her +daughters, and they would understand, she said, that not a word of it +must be mentioned outside the house. + +Although his eyes sought for her unceasingly, Carl made no express +inquiry after her till the evening, and when he heard that she was gone, +and was perhaps by that time already under sail for Holland, he sat for +awhile as if petrified. Looking scornfully at them then, one after +another, he said-- + +"If I thought that I had any of you to thank for this, I'd--" here he +seized the chair he had been sitting on, dashed it down upon the floor +so that it broke, and sprang up-stairs. + +But her letter was unfortunately clear enough--she loved another, and he +knew, too, who it was. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +It was some months after. The Juno lay ready to sail in the roads of +Monte Video, where she had taken in hides as part of her home cargo. The +remainder, of coffee, she was to load at Rio, and in the meantime she +had filled up with coals for that port. She was lying in tropical +costume, with awnings over the fore and after deck as a protection +against the fierce rays of the sun; and the crew were going about in +correspondingly airy clothing, with open shirts and tucked-up canvas +trousers, brown and shiny with perspiration, and gasping after every +breath. It was the hottest season of the year. The pitch was melting in +the chinks between the planking of the decks, and the tar running down +her sides. + +They had lain thus for a couple of days, hoping to receive before +starting the post, which they had been disappointed in not finding on +their arrival. And what a disappointment this can be, only those who +have been in one of these ships that go on long voyages can understand. +In foreign ports there may be many a wild pleasure to be enjoyed, but +the longing to hear from home is the strongest feeling among sailors +after all. + +The mate had gone ashore to make one last inquiry before they sailed; +and as the jolly-boat came alongside again, it was seen that he had the +precious packet in his hand. He sprang up the accommodation-ladder and +disappeared aft without a word to where the captain was sitting by a +small table with a carafe and glass before him, mopping his bald head in +the heat. + +"You've got them at last, then," he said, as the mate laid the packet on +the table before him, and retired a few paces while he opened it. + +Almost the first letter that caught his eye was one to himself from his +son, and his face brightened. He ran rapidly over the others, making a +comment here and there according as he was acquainted with the +circumstances of the men to whom they were addressed, and gathering them +up in a bundle, handed them over then to the mate, with a cheery "Here +you are, Mr. Johnson--letters for every one, from wives and sweethearts, +and I don't know whom besides." + +The news that the post had come had spread like wildfire over the ship, +and by the time the mate began to call out the addresses by the main +hatch, the whole crew were assembled, with the exception of a straggler +or two who had happened to be aloft, and who were now to be seen +hurrying down the ratlines. + +The only one who neither expected news, nor cared apparently whether he +received a letter or not, was Salve Kristiansen. While the parcel was +being distributed, he remained standing by the wheel, intent apparently +upon watching the movements of the two men who were hoisting up and +making fast the jolly-boat. His lips were compressed; and when he gave +the men a hand now and then, it was not a very willing one, and was +generally accompanied by some bitter or sarcastic remark. His nature +since they last sailed from Arendal seemed to have turned to gall; and +when the captain had casually mentioned in his letter home that he was +not so well satisfied with him, he had had good reason for saying so. +There had been all sorts of unpleasantness between them; and if any +discontent or difference between himself and the crew prevailed, Salve +was sure to be at the bottom of it. He had found a rancid salt-herring, +set up on four legs with a tail, as he was walking on the poop one +evening in the moonlight; and as complaints had been recently made about +the food, a good deal of which had become worse than bad from the +effects of the hot climate, he had at once attributed to Salve this +pointed method of drawing his attention to the subject again. It seemed +almost as if he had some cause for bitterness against himself +personally; and as he had always treated him with marked favour, he was +at a loss to comprehend the reason for it. + +With the exception of the captain, who had retained his seat at the +after-end of the poop, Salve was soon the only human being to be seen on +deck. The whole crew had disappeared, and might have been found poring +over their letters two and two, or singly, in the most out-of-the-way +places, from the main and fore top even to the bowsprit end, where one +had erected a pavilion for himself out of a fold of the hauled-down jib. + +Captain Beck's letter, to judge from his gestures and half-audible +exclamations, was not giving him the pleasure which he had anticipated. +His whole face, up to the top of his head, had become red as a lobster, +and he sat now drumming with one hand on his knee, and casting an +occasional fierce look over at Salve, in the attitude of a man beside +himself with anger. At last he brought the hand in which he held the +letter down upon the table with a force that sent the decanter and glass +flying, and thrusting the fragments aside with his foot, he strode up +and down the deck for a couple of minutes and then came towards Salve as +if he meant to say something; and as the latter could very well perceive +that it was not going to be anything pleasant, his countenance assumed +an expression of defiance accordingly. He changed his mind, though, +before he reached him, and turning short round shouted instead-- + +"Where is the second mate? Where is the whole watch?" and he looked +furiously about him, as if surprised, although he knew very well how +they were occupied, and that it had been decided not to weigh anchor +until later in the day, when they would have the evening breeze. + +"Ay, ay, sir!" was heard from the mate in the long-boat; and he raised +himself and came forward with the letter he had been reading in his +hand. + +"Stand by to man the windlass! Pipe all hands!" ordered the captain, and +roared the command again gratuitously through the trumpet. + +The crew turned out from their several retreats with sour looks. They +had expected to be left alone until after tea-time, when there would +have been a general interchange of news on the forecastle; and now there +came instead a hail of orders from the speaking-trumpet, as if the +captain had all of a sudden become possessed. + +There was already a good deal of discontent prevailing among the crew, +both on account of the bad food which they had to put up with, and on +account of their leave ashore at Monte Video having been, as they +thought, capriciously refused; and it was therefore something more +nearly approaching to a howl than a song that was now heard from the +capstan and from the party who were hoisting the heavy mainsail. The +customary English chorus-- + + "Haul the bowline, + The captain he is growling; + Haul the bowline, + The bowline haul"-- + +was sung with offensive significance; and though, at the last heavy +heave with which the enormous anchor was catted up to the bows, the mate +tried to create a diversion in the feeling by a cheery "Saat +'kjelimen--hal' paa," the concluding words of the song-- + + "Aa hal i--aa--iaa-- + Cheerily, men!"-- + +were delivered in a scornful shout. + +"You'll have a chance of cooling yourselves presently, my lads," said +Salve, coming up at the moment from his own heavy work with the +cross-jack; "when we weather the point, all the lee-sails have to be +set"--and the remark had the effect which he desired of intensifying the +prevailing irritation. + +In spite of the vertical heat, the hail of orders from the captain's +trumpet continued, accompanied by reprimands and fault-finding all +round, until the crew were nearly in a state of mutiny, and it was not +until late in the evening that he showed any signs of exhaustion. + +His temper had not improved next day. He looked as if he had a +determination of blood to the head; and every time he came near Salve, +he glared at him as if it was all he could do to control himself from an +outburst of some kind or another. He knew that Salve had made love to +Elizabeth, and had wished to make her presents since she had come into +his house; and that the same girl was now to be his son's wife--the idea +was absolutely intolerable! + +At last he could contain himself no longer. Salve had just deposited a +coil of rope aft, and the captain, after watching his movements with +evidently suppressed irritation, broke out suddenly, without preface of +any kind-- + +"You, I believe, had some acquaintance with that--that Elizabeth Raklev +I took into my house." + +Salve felt the blood rush to his heart. He seemed to know what was +coming. + +"The post," the captain continued, in a bitterly contemptuous tone, "has +brought me the delightful intelligence that my son has engaged himself +to her." + +"Congratulate you, captain," said Salve. His voice almost failed him, +and he was deadly pale, but his eyes flashed with a wild defiance. + +He went forward, and the captain growled after him to himself, "He can +have that to fret over now instead of the food;" and as the mate was +coming up the cabin stairs at the moment polishing the sextant, he +turned away with a look of grim satisfaction to take the altitude. + +When the Juno last sailed from Arendal she had changed two of her crew. +One of the new hands was a square-built, coarse-featured, +uncouth-looking creature, from the fjord region north of Stavanger, who +called himself Nils Buvaagen, but whose name had been changed by the +others to Uvaagen (not-awake), on account of his evident predisposition +to sleep. He was incredibly _naive_ and communicative, especially on the +subject of his wife and children (of which latter he apparently had his +nest full), and had soon become the butt of the ship. Salve was the only +one who ever took his part, and that only because he saw all the others +against him; and having also been the means of saving his life when he +had been washed overboard one dark night in the English Channel, he had +inspired the simple fellow with a perfectly devoted attachment to him. + +They were up on the mainyard together that evening, where they had been +helping to carry out an order with the mainsail. The rest had gone down +again, but Salve, who felt a longing to be alone, had remained aloft, +and was standing on the foot-rope, with his elbows resting on the yard. +Nils's sympathetic eyes had perceived from his behaviour and whole +appearance that day that there was something unusual the matter with +him; and when he saw that Salve remained behind, he remained too, +observing that it would be pleasant to cool for a while before going to +their hammocks in the close air between decks. + +The sky above them blazed like a cupola "inlaid with patines of bright +gold;" obliquely from the horizon the Southern Cross was rising, and the +evening star shone in the warm night, before the moon had yet risen, +with a silver gleam that threw clear light and shadow upon the deck +below; while the vessel seemed to plough through a sea of +phosphorescence, leaving in her wake a long trail of bluish glittering +light. + +From the forecastle below came wafted up a sentimental sailor's song, +the burden of which was pretty well summed up in the two concluding +lines:-- + + "But never more her name I'll utter till I die, + For rosy though her lips were, her heart it was a lie." + +It sounded melancholy at that hour, and Nils, to judge from the +occasional sighs with which he had accompanied it, was moved. When it +came to an end, Salve turned suddenly to him. + +"You are distressing yourself for another's sweetheart now, Nils. What +would you have done if it had been your own?" + +"My wife!" He had evidently not for the moment taken in the idea, and +looked with all his heavy countenance at Salve. + +"Yes. Wouldn't you have liked to see her sunk to the bottom of the sea?" + +"My Karen to the bottom of the sea! I'd go there myself first." + +"Yes; but if she had been unfaithful to you?" persisted Salve, seeming +to take a fiendish delight in bringing home the idea to the poor fellow. + +"But she is not," was the rejoinder. + +Nils had no genius for the abstract, and no more satisfaction was to be +got out of him. But at the same time he had been shocked, and went down +shortly after without saying a word. + +Salve still remained aloft, the dull consciousness of Elizabeth's +engagement with the captain's son alternating with a more active desire +for revenge upon the captain himself for the manner in which he had +conveyed the information; and the result of his brooding up there upon +the yard was a determination to desert as soon as the Juno arrived at +Rio. He would never go back to Arendal; and he would no longer tread the +same deck with the father of Carl Beck. + +Later on in the night, when the moon had risen, Nils, who had not been +able to sleep in his hammock, came up to Salve again, and drew him aside +behind the round-house, as if for a private conversation. + +"What would I have done? you asked. I'll tell you," he said, after a +short pause, and his honest face seemed to express a vivid realisation +of the whole misery of the situation. "I would have died upon the +doorstep!" + +Salve stood and looked at him for a moment. There came a strange pallor +over his face in the moonlight. + +"Look you," he said, ironically, laying his hand upon the other's +shoulder, "I have never a wife; but all the same, I am dead upon the +doorstep--" Then, in the next breath, and with a sudden change of tone, +he said, "Of course I am only joking, you know," and left him, with a +hard, forced laugh. + +Nils remained where he was, and pondered, not knowing exactly how to +take it. It was possible Salve had only been making fun of him. But +another feeling eventually predominated. It told him that he had had a +glimpse into a despairing soul; and he was profoundly moved. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +They stood slowly away to the north-east along the coast of Brazil. +Every morning, towards the end of the dog-watch, when the sun rose in +its gorgeous majesty from the sea, there came a refreshing breeze off +the land, bringing with it the perfume of a thousand aromatic herbs; +albatrosses and sea-gulls circled round the ship; flying-fish were to be +seen in shoals; and all nature, animate and inanimate, seemed to be +freshened for the time into activity and life. But gradually the breeze +would become warmer and lighter, and then die away altogether, so that +before noon the sails would hang flapping against the mast. They +scarcely made five knots in the watch, and the heat during the greater +part of the day was unbearable--as unbearable almost as the captain's +temper, which showed no signs of improvement, and which vented itself in +a systematic grinding of the crew, who, Captain Beck declared, were +getting into intolerable habits of idleness. + +Strange things occurred on board just at this time, which, taken in +connection with the captain's mood, produced an uncomfortable feeling +that there was some evil influence at work by which both the ship and +the captain were possessed. Groans had been distinctly heard down in the +hold among the coals; and the sailmaker affirmed that on several nights +in succession he had seen a man go from amidships aft along the bulwark +railings, stand still and point with his hand to the compass, and then +disappear in the wake of the ship. Another declared that he had seen the +ship's genius proceed in the same direction and jump overboard--cap and +all he was no higher than a half sea-boot; and when the genius deserts a +ship, it betokens in the sailors' superstitious creed that she is about +to founder. + +The unaccountable sounds in the hold continued, and changed one day when +the hatch was battened down to a kind of wail, which ceased, however, +when, for fear of an explosion of coal-gas, it was taken off again. On +the following day the cook, who had gone down for water, came hurrying +back with a scared face, and declared that he had seen a man sitting +there in a red jacket. + +"It is the ship's genius lamenting the ship," was hesitatingly suggested +by some. But when the cook objected that the creature was at least as +large as Big Anders the boatswain, and proceeded besides to endow him +with sable colouring and claws, the terror reached its height. + +The captain had hitherto replied to these, as he conceived them, fresh +attempts to provoke him, by still further grinding; but when this last +observation of the cook was communicated to him, he broke out +scornfully, pointing at the same time with the bitten mouthpiece of his +old meerschaum pipe at the speaker-- + +"I think there is a sufficiently stupid devil in the hold sticking in +every one of you rascals. Isn't there one of you with courage enough to +go down into the coal-hold? or must I go myself?" + +The first mate proposed to accompany him; but Salve now came forward and +declared that he, for his part, would as soon go down into the hold as +up aloft. "A man won't sweat half as much at that work," he added, with +sarcastic significance. + +He went down accordingly with a light, and after a few moments' search +came upon a miserable, half-famished wretch, who had squeezed himself in +behind the water-butt. He was as black as a negro from the coal-dust, +and declared tremblingly when he came up on deck, that he had deserted +from his regiment in Monte Video, which was an offence punishable by +death, and that he had thought he might remain concealed until the +vessel arrived at Rio; that he had come on board in the dark on the last +evening they lay in the harbour, and had hidden himself under the coals; +and that when they had battened down the hatch he had been nearly +suffocated with coal-gas, and had lain and groaned. Occasionally he had +found an opportunity at night in the dark to climb up into the +jolly-boat astern, and had lain there and breathed fresh air until +nearly sunrise. Once or twice he had been into the caboose and got +something to eat; and sometimes he had stopped by the compass, as it +seemed to him their journey was never coming to an end, and he wanted to +assure himself that the vessel was really steering a northerly course to +Rio, as he had heard from some one in the harbour she intended to do. + +He was a young, slightly-built man, with small quick eyes, about Salve's +height, and apparently a Spaniard or Portuguese, but could make himself +understood in English. + +The captain had some doubts as to the truth of his story, as his rank +appeared to be superior to that of a common soldier; and from his +anxiety not to betray his presence in the ship, even after they had got +out into the open sea, he concluded that he was a political refugee, who +at that time would not be very safe even at Rio. He ordered food to be +given him, and promised that he should make his way ashore as best he +could, but that he was not to expect help from him, as the captain had +no intention of involving himself with the authorities on his account. + +Salve, who, like the generality of sailors, could talk a good deal of +English, gradually attached himself to the Spaniard, and found him an +entertaining and clever fellow. + +Before a light afternoon breeze they glided at last from the sea into +the narrow channel that runs up to Rio de Janeiro--one of the loveliest +in the world, with majestic granite mountains on either side, one of +which was already blazing in the ruddy light of the evening sun, while +the other in shade stood out a deep violet against the clear blue of the +sky above. On the one side, at the foot of the Sugarloaf Mountain, they +had the fortress of Praja; on the other, the Castle of Santa Cruz; and +facing them on the highest point in the harbour, the slender +signal-tower that announces every ship as it appears at the entrance of +the channel. + +So beautiful was the scene that under its softening influence Salve felt +almost inclined to regret his determination to desert. The feeling, +however, lasted no longer than the beauty which produced it. The soft +lights died away upon the hills, and with them the softer feelings which +had crept in upon his heart. Night settled down upon the outer world, +and with it returned the gloomy thoughts that now for many days had made +his mind their home. + +It had occurred to him that the Brazilian would have it in his power to +assist him in effecting his purpose, when they arrived in the harbour, +and he had, therefore, found opportunities of rendering him indebted to +him for many small services. He lent him clothes now to appear among the +other sailors when they were mustered before the authorities, who came +on board immediately after the ship entered the harbour, and it thus +escaped their notice that there was one over the number returned by the +captain as his crew. + +The harbour pilot, however--a consequential Mulatto in a Panama hat and +red feather, and decorated with a badge and staff--was more +sharp-sighted, and soon perceived, from the irritable tone in which the +song at the capstan was sung again as they warped the vessel round to +her anchorage in the Ilha das Cobras basin, that there was discontent +prevailing on board; and it was no doubt owing to a hint from him that +already the same evening there were "runners" waiting about near them on +the quay. + +Captain Beck was out of humour both with himself and with his crew. Down +in a warm climate he was always irritable, and now that he believed his +authority weakened he had become a perfect tyrant. The prospect of +another voyage under his command was more than many of his crew could +face, and preparations were made by many of them to leave the ship as +soon as they should have received whatever portion of pay on account the +captain proposed, as is customary when a vessel is in harbour, to +distribute. Salve, however, did not wait for this, and already, the +second night, he and the Brazilian had disappeared. + +There was a sharp search instituted, with the assistance of the harbour +police, especially in the house of one particular runner who had been +seen talking with the crew. But he gave them such full liberty to search +his house, and showed such a clear conscience in the matter, that the +police had to admit that they were off the scent this time. + +The captain after this intrusted the nightwatches only to those among +the crew upon whom he could place reliance, hauled off from the quay +every evening, and absolutely refused all leave on shore. He had only +received the thanks he deserved, he remarked bitterly, for having helped +that red-jacketed thief, who, by way of return, had taken from him his +best man. Salve's desertion, indeed, irritated him more than he cared to +admit to himself. He had, according to promise, had him taught +navigation by the first mate on the voyage out; and had settled in his +own mind that when he himself retired from the sea Salve should command +the Juno for him. He certainly never would find another of equal +capacity, and at the same time so thoroughly to be depended upon; and +now all his comfortable plans were upset. + +Before leaving the vessel Salve placed his silver watch, on which he had +scratched with the point of his knife, "In remembrance of Salve +Kristiansen," in the waistcoat pocket of Nils, who was snoring loud and +long in his hammock alongside; and then, unobserved by the watch on +deck, the two friends clambered over to the quay in the silent night by +means of the shore rope, and disappeared at once into the darkness of +the neighbouring alleys. The Brazilian appeared to be well acquainted +with the localities, and anxious at the same time; for he avoided the +lighted streets, and often stopped at dark corners to reconnoitre, and +see that the way was clear of the night police. + +After picking their way for an hour among narrow lanes, they came out +into a suburb where the houses began to alternate with garden walls, +over which hung orange-trees diffusing their heavy perfume through the +quiet night. They had to cross an open place to the other suburb, Mata +Poreas, and upon the rising ground to one side of them they saw a +building that looked like a fortress enclosed by a stone wall, which +caused Salve's comrade considerable perturbation. It was the house of +correction, before which there was always a sentry on duty. + +They passed it, however, unchallenged, and after half-an-hour's further +walking, the Brazilian halted at last before a garden wall, in which +there was a small wicket gate. He looked cautiously round him and said +excitedly-- + +"We must climb over here, and then--we are safe." + +He climbed up on Salve's back, and so on to the top of the wall; drew +Salve up beside him, and then sprang down into the little garden and +began to roll about on the grass as if he had taken leave of his senses, +crying, "Salvado! Salvado!" + +He rushed up then to the little villa that lay half overshadowed by +trees, and knocking in a particular manner at the door, called out +"Paolina! Paolina!" + +A female in night-dress, with a young, but rather deep voice, opened the +shutter from within, and put out her head. + +"Federigo!"--she said, tremblingly; and there followed then a rapid +interchange of questions and answers in Spanish which Salve did not +understand. He gathered merely that she was surprised to see a stranger +with him, and that he calmed her apprehensions with the word "amigo," +followed by a short explanation. + +She opened the door, and fell impulsively on Federigo's neck, kissing +him on both cheeks, and sobbing. After the custom of the place, then, +she offered her cheek to Salve, and was a little surprised when he +seemed not to understand her meaning, and nodded merely, as he said, +half in English, half in Spanish, "good evening, senorita." It seemed to +remind her, however, that in her eagerness she had forgotten her +mantilla, and she left them hastily. + +She came back to them again in the sitting-room almost immediately with +bread, wine, fruit, and lights upon a tray; and stationed herself then +in a sympathetic attitude with her arm on her brother's shoulder, while +he, with lively gestures, recounted his adventures. Federigo's story +seemed to be reflected from her face as from a living mirror. At one +point her face became pale with passion; her black eyes flashed, and she +made a sudden movement with her clenched hand in the air, as if she were +giving some one a stab with a dagger. She threw her head back then with +a triumphant, scornful laugh that showed her dazzling white teeth; and +Salve inferred that her brother must have killed some person or other in +Monte Video, probably in self-preservation, and that he was afraid the +police here, in Rio, should have had information of it. + +He sat and gazed at her. She was a lithe, supple-looking woman, at once +graceful and fully developed; a dark beauty of the style peculiar to the +South, with wonderful animation in her face, and dark flashing eyes. At +the same time the play of her features was not pleasing, Salve thought. +It reminded him too much of her brother--it was not feminine; and he was +further repelled by the way in which she repeatedly allowed her eyes to +rest upon him. He didn't know why, but Elizabeth's deep, true northern +face came so vividly before him then, that he felt he could have drawn +it to the life. + +The not very flattering expression which this comparison had caused his +face unconsciously to assume as he looked at her, was caught, +unfortunately, by Paolina, as she was on the point of tendering him her +thanks in her impetuous way for what she heard he had done for her +brother. She stopped short in surprise, and evidently repressed a +vehemently resentful impulse, while a look unpleasant for him came into +her eyes. She went over then and took him by the hand in the same way +she had seen him take her own on his arrival, and spoke coldly enough a +few words which were meant to convey her thanks. She didn't look at him +again, not even when she presently said good-night to him, after having +woke up the old mulatto woman who, with herself and her mother, were the +only other inhabitants of the house, and told her to make up a couple of +mat beds in the adjoining room. Federigo had before that gone in to his +mother, and they could be heard in eager conversation. + +In Salve's mind a new impulse had been unexpectedly given to thoughts +from which the novelty of his situation should have afforded him at +least a temporary relief; and he lay long awake, thinking drearily about +Elizabeth. When he did fall asleep at last, he dreamed that he had come +into a serpent's nest, and that he was engaged in a life and death +conflict with a huge snake, that was thrusting its forked tongue at him +from walls, from roof, from every side; and in the gleam of its +vindictive eyes, he seemed all at once to recognise Paolina. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +With a view to bring himself into harmony with his surroundings, he +appeared next day in his suit of fine blue cloth, which he had brought +with him in his bundle, together with sundry other articles, and what +money he had still remaining from the pay which he had received at Monte +Video. That he looked well in his handsome sailor dress was evident +enough, from the surprised look with which he was greeted by Federigo's +mother, when he was presented to her. She had evidently expected to see +in her son's friend something in the style of the raw Brazilian sailor, +a class of men who down there were generally drawn from the lowest dregs +of the populace. + +She herself was a withered old woman, yellow as parchment, with a mass +of thick grey hair gathered in a single knot at the back of her head. +She wore heavy rings on her fingers, and large earrings; her small +piercing eyes had a look of burnt-out passion; and her countenance wore +in a stronger degree the furtive, ratlike expression which her son's +occasionally displayed. + +As regards her further characteristics, Salve soon perceived that she +was addicted to drink. She used to remain during the greater part of the +day on the shady side of the house, or on the little veranda, with +acachacas and water by her side, and incessantly smoking and rolling +cigarettes; and she was often quite drunk as she mumbled her Ave Maria, +and told her beads on her knees before going to bed in the evening. +Still the other inmates of the house appeared to have great respect for +her; and it was evident that she held the threads of whatever business +they might have on hand. + +The senorita was out all the morning with the old mulatto woman, making +purchases for the house, Federigo said, and informing herself as to what +activity was being shown in their pursuit. When she returned, she +avoided addressing herself directly to Salve; and he observed that she +handed over a quantity of money to her brother, which had the happy +effect of bringing into his countenance a more cheerful look than it had +hitherto worn that morning. + +"What have you done to my sister?" Federigo asked one day, laughing; +"you are not in her good graces. She is dangerous," he said, seriously; +and added then, as if speculating on possibilities, "as long as you are +in this house, at all events, you are safe. But mind, you are warned." + +Federigo soon began to weary of their enforced confinement to the house, +and in spite of his sister's efforts to dissuade him, began to go out in +the evenings, coming home very late, and in a gloomy, irritable +humour--evidently, from the casual remarks he let fall, having lost all +his money at play. + +The second morning of his stay in the house Salve had perceived that +there was a want of money; and having heard the brother and sister +quarrelling one day when both were in a bad humour, he thought it best +to carry out, at the first convenient moment, the determination at which +he had arrived, and handed over to Federigo what money he had, with the +exception of a single silver piastre, saying, "That it was only right he +should pay for his lodging and board." + +The money, though deprecatingly, was still accepted, and in the evening +Federigo was out once more, his sister remaining at home. + +She and Salve, on account of their ignorance of each other's language, +could not hold much conversation together, and Salve was rather glad of +this wall of separation between them, as it left him more at his ease. +She had, however, recently looked more often at him with a sort of +interest, and on several occasions had put questions to him through her +brother. Her range of ideas was apparently not extensive, as her +questions always turned upon the same topic--namely, what the women were +like in his country; so that he soon came to know by heart all the +Spanish terms which related to that subject. + +They were out on the veranda together that evening, and as she went past +his back while he was leaning over in his seat, she drew her hand as if +by accident lightly through his hair. If it had had the electricity of a +cat's, it would have given out a perfect shower of sparks, so enraged +was he at the advance. + +When Federigo came home he flung his hat away angrily on to a chair, and +drank down at a gulp a glass of rum that was standing on the table. He +no longer wore the smart cloak he had on when he went out. + +"I have gambled away all your money!" he cried, in English, to Salve, as +if careless of further reticence, and made some remark then with an +unpleasant laugh to his sister, who had evidently by her expression +perceived at once how matters stood. + +"There's my last piastre for you," said Salve, throwing it over to him. +"Try your luck with it." + +"He is successful in love," said Paolina, tearfully, and with a _naive_ +affectation of superstition--"he is engaged." + +When her brother, who was balancing the piastre on his forefinger, +laughingly translated what she had said, Salve replied snappishly, with +an impatient glance at the senorita-- + +"I am not engaged, and never shall be." + +"Unsuccessful in love!" she broke out, gleefully; "and the last piastre! +To-morrow we shall win a hundred, two hundred, Federigo!" + +It was clearly the conviction of her heart; and she seized a mandolin +and began to dance to her own accompaniment, her eyes resting as she did +so upon Salve with a peculiar expression. + +"Quick, Federigo!--why not this evening?" she cried, breaking off +suddenly with a laugh, and throwing the mandolin from her on to the +sofa. "To-morrow his luck may be gone." + +She seized her brother's hat, crushed it down upon his head, and pushed +him eagerly out of the door, going with him herself to open the wicket. + +She came back then to Salve, and as they sat _tete-a-tete_ in the +lamplit room with doors and windows thrown wide open, the moonlight +gleaming on the dark trees outside, and the night air perfumed with the +scent of flowers, she endeavoured to ingratiate herself with him by +pouring out his rum-and-water and by rolling his cigarettes, an art in +which it appeared from her laughter and gestures that she thought him +awkward. She was in a state of feverish excitement, and kept darting off +to the wicket and back again. + +Salve sat and smoked, and sipped his glass unconcernedly, whilst she +rocked herself backwards and forwards in a rocking-chair, with her head +thrown back, and her eyes steadily fixed upon him. He heard a sigh, and +she said in a low, ingratiating tone-- + +"I am afraid Federigo is unlucky." + +Salve was not so stupid as not to comprehend her meaning. He was quite +aware that she was handsome as she sat there with her hand on her knee, +and her well-formed foot gracefully brought into view; but his feeling +was exclusively one of indignation that such a common Brazilian baggage +should presume to bring herself into comparison with Elizabeth. He flung +away his cigar impatiently, and went down into the garden, without +attempting to conceal his aversion. He hated all women since the one he +had fixed his heart on had disappointed him, and he strode backwards and +forwards now in more than usual indignation against the sex. + +He was still pacing the garden when Federigo came back, heated and +triumphant, with his cloak on his shoulder and a bag under his arm. + +"Nearly three hundred piastres!" he cried, clearing the garden in a +succession of bounds. + +His sister had been asleep on the sofa, and sprang up in ecstasy at the +intelligence; and they proceeded then with childish glee to spread out +the silver on the table, and divide it into three. When Salve absolutely +refused to take more than his one piastre back again, there came +actually a look of humble admiration into the senorita's eyes. She could +not comprehend such an act of self-sacrifice, although she seemed to +vaguely feel that there was something noble about it. After a moment's +consideration she held out her hand and said-- + +"Senor, give me the piastre you have in your hand, and I will give you +another in return for it." + +He did so, and she took it and kissed it repeatedly. + +"I shall play with this one to-morrow evening," she cried joyfully, and +put it into her bosom. + +She carried out her intention, and came home beaming, with a whole +bagful of piastres. + +It seemed that the family lived only by play. The son, it is true, was +in connection with one or other of the political parties of the town, +with the prospect of an appointment as officer in a volunteer corps if +any rising took place; but that did not in the meantime bring in money, +and how they managed to get along when luck went against them it was not +easy to see. + +Salve meanwhile was becoming rather tired of being on land. The +seclusion had suited him well enough at first, until the senorita had +begun to pay him attentions; but now that she evidently remained at home +all day solely on his account, to dress at him, and play off all sorts +of coquetry upon him, he began to find it intolerable; and when the Juno +at last had sailed, he announced one day that he meant to go down to the +harbour and look for employment. + +The senorita turned pale, but soon recovered her self-possession, and +even joked with him about it; and later on her brother persuaded him to +defer his intention for three days, until he had attended a gathering of +Federigo's friends, which was to take place one night down in one of the +suburbs. + +That evening, when her brother had gone out as usual to play, the +senorita sat down in the window of the room where Salve was, and through +which he would have to pass to go into the garden. She had undone her +luxuriant hair, and had put on a languishing look, and every now and +then thrummed absently on her guitar, humming gently to herself as she +fixed her black eyes upon him. Salve saw himself in a manner besieged, +and felt half inclined to brush past her and escape into the garden; but +it would have seemed too deliberately unfriendly. The only sign which +betrayed his consciousness of the situation was the somewhat hasty way +in which he puffed his cigarette. + +"You really mean to leave us?" she said at last sadly, in almost a +beseeching tone. + +"Yes, senorita," was the reply, and evidently it came from the bottom of +his heart; he was angry, and weary of her importunity. + +He had hardly said it before, thrusting her hand into her bosom, she had +sprung to her feet, and a stiletto whizzed past his ear, and stuck +quivering in the wall close to his head. Her supple body was still in +motion, her face was pale, and her eyes were flashing: then with a +sudden transition she threw herself back and laughed. + +"Were you frightened?" she cried. But Salve showed no sign of it. He was +provoked, but cool; and not being the kind of man who would deign to +engage in a conflict with a woman, he left the stiletto sticking in the +wall, though at first he had thought of seizing it. + +"Look here!" she said, suddenly darting over and drawing it out, and +then practising with it, laughing all the while, at various spots on the +walls of the room, which she hit every time to a nicety. + +"You were frightened--confess that you were," she said, teasingly, +sitting down opposite to him, heated with the exercise she had gone +through. She gazed into his face with her cheek resting on her hand and +her elbow on the table. "You were afraid; and now you are angry. The +women in your country don't do such things!" + +Salve turned to her with a look of icy rebuff. "No, senorita," he +replied, curtly, and went down into the garden. + +Thereupon she seized the guitar again, and began strumming an +accompaniment apparently to her thoughts. It was no longer lively music +she played, but something of a menacing strain, in keeping with the look +in her eyes, and she seemed in a manner to hiss the air through her +teeth. + +Later on in the evening she came tripping over to him with a coquettish +smile, and after the custom of the country offered him a cigarette, +which she had begun to smoke herself. When he rather ungallantly +declined it, she exclaimed furiously, stamping her foot-- + +"Senor!" + +But she recovered herself in a moment, and said laughing, with at all +events apparent good-nature, something which meant that she understood +that this might perhaps not be a custom in his country. + +Salve felt much relieved when her brother came home, and told him that +the meeting he was waiting for was to take place on the following +evening. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +It was into a badly-lighted tavern, with two or three rooms leading out +of one another, that his friend then conducted him. Men of the most +various social positions, many with a military look, and in +half-threadbare uniforms, filled the inner rooms; and in the outer one +he had seen upon entering a number of seafaring men, who looked like +Americans, and who nodded to him on the strength of his sailor's dress. +There were several women, more or less well dressed, moving about among +them, and others standing with eager faces over the gambling-table in +the inner room. All were drinking acachacas, and the whole place was +pervaded with a cloud of tobacco-smoke, out of which there came a +deafening clamour of talk. + +Salve had a seat found for him by his friend at a long table, amongst a +number of bronzed, bearded men, with large hats, leather breeches, and +spurs, whose company he by no means cared about. They looked like +mounted bullock-drivers, such as he had seen at Monte Video, or still +more, perhaps, like brigands, or banditti. + +"They belong to Mendez's volunteer corps," whispered Federigo, as he +presented him then to the chief of the party, who sat at the top of the +table--a powerful fellow, with a weather-beaten complexion, heavy black +mustachios, and a pair of small active eyes, which, more than once +afterwards, when Salve was not looking, were turned critically upon him. + +Every now and then they clinked their glasses together to some party +toast; but otherwise they were quiet enough at first. People of the same +calibre sat round other tables in the immediate neighbourhood; and at +another were intermingled well-dressed persons from the town, who were +carrying on a whispered conversation, and who appeared anxious. + +The shouting, and the noise, and the laughter kept increasing. There +were already drunken faces at the table, and in several directions +quarrelling and the sound of blows were beginning to be heard. Federigo, +who seemed to be known to many in the rooms, had mixed with the crowd, +and Salve's neighbours on either side were now playing eagerly with +dice, diving from time to time for small silver pieces into heavy +leathern purses, that seemed to have been destined for sums very +different from what their present meagre contents represented. So many +debased, avaricious countenances as he saw around him he had never +imagined that it would be possible to collect in one spot, and he made +up his mind to have no more to do with them than he could possibly help. +He might congratulate himself, he thought, if he escaped from them with +a whole skin, and he felt in his breast-pocket to see that his knife was +there. + +One of the North Americans who had nodded to him, in virtue of his +sailor's dress, when he entered, came over to him now and asked him to +come and sit with them; but as he rather felt himself under Federigo's +charge, he declined just then. Shortly after, to his surprise, he saw +the senorita standing at the gaming-table, with her head, which was all +he could see, beautifully dressed; and he observed that the eyes of the +keeper of the tavern--a tall, lean Portuguese, with a long, sallow face, +and hardly any hair on his head, who himself presided at the table--were +turned towards her continually with a look of humble, tender concern. +She was playing excitedly, and losing every time. At last she stopped, +in evident irritation, and beckoned him to one side, with a certain +authority, in spite of his having the table to attend to. + +They spoke eagerly together, and Salve caught a rapid glance directed +towards himself by the senorita, which he did not at all like. She was +unnaturally pale; and he saw that she finally gave the other her hand, +which he kissed with an enraptured expression, and she then disappeared +from the room. + +The landlord's face beamed the whole evening afterwards, and he bowed +politely to Federigo as he passed the table. The latter, the next time +he came near Salve, whispered rather scornfully-- + +"I believe my sister has bartered away her soul this evening, and +promised to marry that old money-bag there who keeps the tavern. +Congratulate us, _amigo mio_!" + +Salve observed that the said money-bag conferred now more than once with +the man at the head of his own table, and was apparently making terms +with him; and that the latter also, when he thought he was not observed, +glanced over at himself in a way that was very far from putting him at +his ease. + +The American who had spoken to him before--a tall, athletic-looking man, +with a fair beard round a hard Yankee face, and with a remnant of gold +lace on the sleeve of his jacket--had since been at the gaming-table, +and had been losing one doubloon after another. + +"They don't play fair, my lad!" he cried in English to Salve, to whom he +seemed anxious to make up. + +"I daresay not," was the reply; "it's a vile den." + +"What country do you hail from?" + +"Norway." + +"Ah! Norwegian. Good sailors." + +"Deserted at Rio?" he asked then, with a laugh, as if he expected, as a +matter of course, an answer in the affirmative. + +"Shall I play for you?" he asked presently. + +"No money." + +"Here's a guinea on account of your wages on board the 'Stars and +Stripes,' for Valparaiso and Chinchas!" he cried, with a laugh that was +heard above the surrounding din; and flinging a gold piece on the table, +he lost it. + +He turned, and putting his hand to his mouth, shouted-- + +"One more on account!" and another gold piece shared the fate of the +first. + +"One more on account!" there came again, and with the same result. + +Salve had by this time had about enough of this free-and-easy and +undesired playing on his account. The man's face, moreover, with all its +joviality, by no means attracted him, and he shouted to him in a +sharply-protesting tone-- + +"Play for yourself, Yankee." + +The American seemed not to be able to hear on that side, for he +repeated, coolly nodding to him-- + +"One more on account!" + +Salve's patience was exhausted. He had been sitting all this time +squeezed up in the narrow space between the bench and the wall with +people on both sides of him, preventing his getting out; but now +grasping his neighbour violently by the shoulder, he sprang all at once +across the table and over to the unabashed Yankee, with an irresistible +feeling that, come what might, he would get out into the freedom of the +open air once more. + +Just then there came from the furthest room a cry of "police." The +lights in that room were at once extinguished; and a moment after, those +in the room where Salve was on the point of falling foul of the American +(who, to his great surprise, found him all of a sudden confronting him) +went out also. + +Their hostile relations, however, were almost immediately turned into +friendly ones. For Salve, who had seen the landlord making a rush +towards him, felt himself suddenly, in the midst of the confusion caused +by the darkness, seized by two men and forced towards a door leading in +another direction than that in which he saw the stream was setting, and +which no doubt was the way out. + +"Help, Yankee! there's some villany on here; the small door to the +right!" he shouted, with great presence of mind, and at the same moment +the door was slammed behind him. A handkerchief was tied over his mouth; +he was tripped up and brought heavily to the ground, where his feet and +hands were tied, and he was then shot into a dark side-room, which +seemed to be at the back of a press, that was unlatched to pass him +through. + +"H'm!" said the Yankee coolly, to himself. "I am not going to lose his +pay, if I know it," and he set out accordingly in search of the police, +with whom he had no outstanding account. + +Salve was certain he had heard the senorita's voice whispering in the +outer room; and not long after he heard the latch in the press raised, +and she stood before him with a light. She looked at him mischievously, +and spilt some oil out of the lamp on to his face with a little scornful +laugh. But her expression changed then to that of a tigress burning for +revenge that is compelled to put off the gratification of her fury, and +she darted out again, clapping down the latch behind her. + +Salve lay tightly bound with his hands behind his back. But his cat-like +suppleness enabled him eventually to wriggle his sheath-knife out of his +breast pocket, and he found no great difficulty then in freeing himself +from his bonds. + +He stood now with his knife in his hand and listened. + +Before long he heard the American's voice, with the police, and they +appeared to be searching. He shouted to them; and the next moment he was +released. + +"He is one of our crew--belongs to the Stars and Stripes," said the +American, arresting Salve, who, as long as he got out of this accursed +town now, did not care in what capacity it might be, and offered no +opposition. + +"You have not improved your beauty, my lad," said his rescuer, +derisively, as he held up the light to his face. + +"I should like to have one word with the tavern-keeper before I go," +said Salve. + +"And that is what we have not the slightest inclination for," said the +American--who, it now appeared, was boatswain on board--in a dry tone of +authority. "We are not going larking with the police. Besides, having +once recovered that trifle of wages, I don't mean to risk losing it +again." + +The Yankees made a close ring round their prisoner, and there was +nothing for it but to follow as he was directed. A look, however, at the +boatswain gave him to understand that that question of the wages would +be settled between them when they got on board. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +The Stars and Stripes lay in the roads with the Union flag at her gaff. +She was a long, black, and, at the water-line, well-shaped vessel, with +a crew of thirty-two men; and Salve was so taken with her appearance +that as they came alongside he silently congratulated himself on his +luck in getting a berth in her. They were so obliging, moreover, as to +give him a berth to himself in a separate cabin below. But, to his +intense indignation, no sooner had he entered it than the door was +latched on the outside, and when he tried to kick it open, it was +signified to him that during the short time they had still to be at Rio, +he was to remain in confinement, that they might be sure of him. The +heat was intolerable down there; and to add to that, there was incessant +crying and groaning going on in the hold beside him, as if it were full +of sick people. It was the vilest treatment he had ever been subjected +to. + +The work of taking in the cargo went on uninterruptedly the whole night, +as if they were in a particular hurry to get out of the harbour, and +about noon the anchor was weighed while the contents of the last lighter +were being taken on board. + +When Salve, some hours after, was set at liberty, they were already out +in the open sea off the mouth of the channel. The captain, the three +mates, and several of the inferiors in command, when on deck, wore +gold-laced caps and a kind of uniform, as on a man-of-war, and the +officer of the watch was armed. The crew, on the other hand, were almost +to a man shabby, and they seemed to consist of men of every +nationality--English, Irish, Germans, and Americans, not to mention half +a dozen negroes and mulattoes. As no one took any notice of him, he went +about as he pleased for a while; and presently saw, with a disagreeable +sensation, no less than three corpses carelessly sewed up in sail-cloth +dropped over the side of the ship that was turned from the land, without +the slightest ceremony. The uncomfortable feeling which this incident +had aroused was anything but allayed when he heard presently from a +little pale cabin-boy with whom he had entered into conversation that it +had been successfully concealed from the harbour authorities that there +was yellow fever on board; that there were many more lying sick below; +and that one of those who had just been heaved overboard, had died the +day before in the very berth in which Salve had slept that night. + +In the evening he was called aft to the captain, who was standing with +the boatswain at his elbow. He was a spare, energetic-looking man, of +about forty years of age, with thick black whiskers, marked features, +and rather hollow cheeks, and with carefully dressed, glossy hair. He +was smoking a handsome pipe with a long stem inlaid with +mother-of-pearl, and took a sip from time to time from a cup of black +coffee that was standing on the skylight. + +"What is your name?" he asked, nodding in reply to Salve's salute. + +"Salve." + +"Salve," repeated the captain, with an English pronunciation of the +name; "and Norwegian?" + +"He looks too respectable for the pack he'll have to herd with," he +muttered to the boatswain. + +"Able seaman?" + +"Yes." + +"You have had three guineas on account?" he went on, after a couple of +puffs to keep his pipe alight, as he looked into his ledger; "a month's +wages." + +"No, sir," said Salve, firmly, "I have had nothing on account,"--and he +proceeded then to relate the circumstances under which the supposed +payment had been made. "I have not been regularly engaged till this +moment, if I am so now; but up to this I have been treated like a dog, +and worse." + +The captain took no notice of his last observation, and merely said +shortly and sternly-- + +"The three guineas are owing to him, boatswain Jenkins. His place will +be in the foretop. A steady hand will be wanted among all that rabble +there." + +"Another time you'll perhaps play on your own account, and not on the +sailors'," he observed, turning to the boatswain; but Salve caught the +remark. + +With this the conference came to an end, the boatswain's expression +prophesying that when the opportunity offered Salve should pay for his +triumph. He went about nursing his prominent chin, and twisting his +yellow whiskers, and found a victim for the present in a wretched +Mulatto, who was scouring for the cook. After first correcting him +sharply for nothing, he coolly felled him to the deck with a handspike, +and left him lying there unable to move. + +Salve's blood boiled at the sight; but his indignation gave way +presently to astonishment when he saw the poor fellow get up and go on +indefatigably with his work, after first quietly wiping his own blood +off the saucepan. There was a limit to brutality, he thought, and in his +disgust he almost envied him the blow he had received. + +He provided himself now from the purser with a suit of seaman's clothes +in lieu of the rather damaged cloth ones which he wore; and the +sailmaker gave him out hammock clothes, to be paid for out of his wages. +He proceeded then to hang his hammock from one of the beams between +decks; and while he was doing so observed another man in a canvas suit +like his own, similarly occupied, not far from him. He couldn't be +mistaken--it was Federigo. + +The latter had, as Salve afterwards heard, been taken by the police +during the affair in the tavern. He had seen how Salve had been rescued +by the boatswain of the Stars and Stripes; and having managed to escape +from his captors on the way to the guard-house, he had sought a similar +refuge. + +Salve's indignation at his sister's baseness was still too fresh for +Federigo's reappearance to be in any way agreeable to him, although he +believed him to be innocent of any complicity in that business. At the +same time, the latter's conscience was apparently not entirely clear in +the matter, for there was a certain conscious sense of humiliation in +his expression, combined with something which made Salve feel that he +must be upon his guard. Neither spoke to the other, and it might have +been supposed from their bearing towards one another that they had never +met before. + +It very soon became clear to Salve that he could not have hit upon a +more unfortunate ship. The crew was composed of the dregs of the New +Orleans and Charleston docks--men with every species of vice and +degradation stamped upon their countenances, and amongst whom every +second word was some infamous oath or blasphemy. Blows with handspikes +were of common occurrence, and brutality and violence generally were the +order of the day. There was no court of appeal, and the immunity which +any one individual might enjoy depended entirely upon how far he was +protected by the officers--who, however, in a general way, did not +interfere in the quarrels forward--or had formed a league with others. + +The Americans and the Irish banded together, and being the most +numerous, practised a shameless system of tyranny against any who could +not defend themselves--a miserable sickly Spaniard, who had been forced +to work until he had actually dropped, having recently been more +especially the object of their attentions. Their supremacy, however, was +contested by a party of seven or eight tattered countrymen of the +latter, with one or two Portuguese, who were always ready with their +knives, and who formed a sort of opposition. To this party Federigo had +attached himself. + +Salve stood alone. The Americans and Irish had at first reckoned upon +having him with them, but had gradually turned against him. They had +taken offence at his apparent disinclination to associate with them more +than he could help. He seemed to think himself too good for them; and in +addition to that, the seaman-like qualities which he displayed made them +dislike him out of envy. But their hostility was perhaps mainly due to +the boatswain, who encouraged the idea among the rest of the crew that +he was favoured by the officers. Federigo came out now in an +unexpectedly friendly light; and Salve perceived that it was only owing +to him that all the Portuguese were not against him also. The result was +that the two gradually approached such other again. + +There were of course in such a collection of riff-raff, individual +bullies whose hands were against every man, but who to some extent kept +each other in check. The one most feared of these was a huge, +copper-coloured, scarred Irishman, who seemed periodically to be +possessed by a very demon of violence, and to be actually running over +with bad blood. He had been in irons for some time before the vessel +arrived at Rio, for having one day sworn on deck that he would murder +the captain. It was with this ruffian that Salve had first to measure +himself, the boatswain being the immediate cause. + +One day when the large bell forward had rung for dinner, the boatswain +gave an order which detained Salve for some time after the others had +taken their places at the long table in the round-house, and when he +came in everything was eaten up, and he lost his dinner. The following +day exactly the same thing happened, and he had to content himself with +his breakfast and supper rations for the day. He perfectly understood +the meaning of it. In smartness and activity he was so far beyond +comparison superior to any of the other foretop hands, that the +boatswain had not been able to find any excuse for subjecting him to +punishment: he was going to try and hit him in another way. On his +lonely watch that night Salve decided what he should do if the trick was +practised a third time upon him. It would be better to bring things to a +crisis at once than have his strength gradually exhausted by continued +insufficiency of food. + +The same order being given at the same time next day, he carried it out +as speedily as he could, and hurried on then to the round-house, where +the others were already at their dinner, with a bowl of meat and soup to +every two men. + +He sat down by the side of the Irishman, who he saw had a bowl to +himself. + +"Put the bowl this way," he said, coolly. + +The Irishman merely looked at him contemptuously. He was evidently +astonished at his audacity, but went on eating composedly. + +Salve felt that he must not be beaten. + +"Life for life, Irishman," he cried, springing to his feet, and as the +other also rose, giving him a blow in the face that sent him backwards +on the bench against the wall. + +A fierce conflict now ensued. The Irishman got up like a bleeding ox, +and catching up a marline-spike that was hanging from the beam, gave +Salve a deep wound in the cheek, the scar of which he carried his whole +life through. They drew their knives then; and Salve's coolness and +activity soon gave him the superiority over his furious and unwieldy +opponent. His movements were like those of a steel spring; and pale and +smiling, he delivered every blow with such well-calculated effect, that +the affair ended with the Irishman, bleeding profusely and +half-unconscious, tumbling out of the narrow doorway to save himself. + +There were not a few who were glad enough that the dreaded Irishman +should have been worsted, and it was to this feeling Salve was indebted +for being allowed to fight it out alone with him. He stuck his knife now +into the table by the side of his dish, and, looking round him, asked, +"Is there any one else now who would like to keep me out of my meat?" + +There was no answer. + +"While I am about it," he continued, without noticing the blood that was +running down his face and over his hands, "I'll settle this matter once +for all. I have two days' rations owing to me. Very well. For the next +two days I shall keep one dish to myself. I shall see then what the +Irishman or any one else thinks of it." + +The Irishman was confined to his hammock the whole week with +wound-fever, and Salve had for the first time won the respect of the +crew. He felt at the same time that he had commenced a desperate +struggle, and that if he was to enjoy any sort of security in this +company of ruffians whom he had now set at defiance, he must take the +game into his own hands, and make himself at least as much feared as the +Irishman had been. Accordingly, instead of waiting to be challenged, he +deliberately became the aggressor, and set himself to dispense justice +as he pleased. + +The one who, next to the Irishman, was most dreaded, was a +broad-shouldered mulatto, who carried on a petty system of pillage +against any one that was not supported, unluckily for him, by any party; +and Salve himself had been obliged one evening to put up with having his +hammock taken down, and the mulatto's hung in its place. He had seen him +in several fights, and had observed his peculiar tactics; the result of +his observations being the conviction that the man had not the strength +which he was anxious to make the others think he had. In pursuance of +this policy, he had picked a quarrel with him on the head of that matter +of the hammock, and with a similarly decisive result. The mulatto +rejoiced in the name of Januarius, and Salve accordingly requested him +to remember that there was something still owing to him for the eleven +other months of the year. He was a cur by nature, and never seemed to +have the slightest desire to renew the struggle afterwards, which was +not the case with the Irishman, with whom Salve perceived, directly the +man came on deck again, that a fresh trial of strength was inevitable. + +An opportunity was not long in offering, and Salve seized it at once, so +that the challenge might come from him. The Irishman had taken a fancy +to the boots of the wretched Spaniard who was ill, and was now wearing +them. + +"Irishman," said Salve, as the other passed him, when they were lounging +about after dinner, "that is an awkward pair of boots you have on there. +If you take my advice you'll return them to their owner, or--I shall +have to pull them off you." + +The Irishman glared at him, but turned pale at the last threat; and +Salve's eye seemed to light up at the prospect of carrying it out. The +former made the mistake of preparing to defend himself instead of taking +the aggressive, and in a moment was knocked down and stunned for an +instant by a couple of unexpected blows from Salve, who flew at him like +a tiger-cat. The crew gathered round. The Irishman seized a heavy iron +pump-handle as a weapon, and Salve a handspike; and Salve kept his word. +He pulled the boots off as the other lay senseless on the deck, and took +them down to the Spaniard. + +In point of physical strength, Salve was far from being the equal of +many of these men, who, he knew very well, were now only looking out for +an occasion to get the better of him. His only chance was to take the +initiative on all occasions, and to seem the most reckless and the most +careless of life, and the most eager to fight of them all. He therefore +flew at his man without hesitation on the slightest provocation, and +whenever he threatened took care to keep his word. + +The constant strain upon his energy became at last like a fever in his +blood, and the life he was leading began to show itself in his face. He +had come to be reckoned on board as one of those stubborn, unruly +spirits that are common enough among the dregs of humanity to be met +with in ships' holds in that quarter of the globe, and who usually end +their career at the yard-arm, or by a bullet from the captain's +revolver. In this very ship, before they came into Rio, at the time the +Irishman had been put in irons, the captain had, without any hesitation, +shot down from the yard one of the crew, whom he supposed to be the +ringleader of the mutineers. He looked upon Salve now with increasing +distrust, wondering how he could ever have been so mistaken in a man as +he had been in him. "But put a man to herd with rabble, and it's hard +for him not to become one of them," he said; and, deteriorated though he +was, Salve was still the smartest sailor he had on board. + +The boatswain kept out of his way now as much as possible, for he had +heard that Salve had sworn to tear his entrails out if he gave him any +fresh cause for offence. The latter knew very well, though, that he was +meditating something against him, and was not surprised therefore at +being called aft one day to stand a formal trial before the captain for +the expression which he had used with regard to the boatswain, and which +he did not affect to deny, "as the boatswain," he said, "had wished to +take his life." + +"I mean to leave the ship," he said, "the moment we come to Valparaiso. +I am only engaged so far. But, indeed, I care little what becomes of +me," he ended, gloomily. + +The captain probably had his own notions with regard to the boatswain, +as Salve escaped the severe punishment he had expected, and was only +condemned to solitary confinement for fourteen days on bread-and-water. + +"That will take you down a bit, my lad," said the captain. + +The boatswain, however, made up for the leniency of his superior by a +little ingenuity of his own; and every day, when Salve was enjoying his +meagre fare in his place of confinement, the mulatto, whom he had +triumphed over, by the boatswain's orders, took his dinner of hot meat +and ate it outside the door, close to the hole through which the light +was admitted, that the savoury smell might make its way in and tantalise +him. + +At first, Salve rather enjoyed the repose which his confinement afforded +him; but as his hunger increased he grew irritable, and at dinner-time +one day he approached his face to the opening. + +"Mulatto!" he began; and the other looked up and grinned with his white +teeth, pleased to see some sign at last that his attentions had not been +thrown away--"that's good food you have there." + +"Excellent," replied the other, mischievously, and with an inward +chuckle. + +"It makes me picture to myself your future," Salve continued, placidly, +"how it will be with you when I come out again. You will be like that +lobscouse, my friend. Had that never occurred to you?" + +The mulatto went on eating, but grew absent. His nature, as before +observed, was not a courageous one, and it was obvious that his food at +last began to stick in his throat. + +"It is much the same as if you were sitting there and feeding on +yourself," said Salve, after a longer pause, during which he had watched +the other's lengthening countenance. "That's just what it will be, my +dear friend, unless--" + +"Unless--?" repeated the mulatto, pricking up his ears. + +"Unless you take good care to pass your dinner in here to me every day +from this time. There are only five days more, and I have fasted for +nine, while you have been feeding away, so you are getting off cheaply +enough. If the boatswain sees you passing in food to me, you'll be +punished, so you will have to be cautious, and hold up the plate +yourself before the opening, that he may think you are eating right in +my face." + +These were humiliating terms; and the mulatto made no immediate reply. +He merely sat with his woolly head bent down in a thoughtful attitude. +But the next day he stationed his broad person with the plate in his +hand up in front of the opening, and Salve mercilessly took every morsel +there was on it. + +It was a matter of the last importance to him not to be reduced in +strength, as he knew his life was in his own hands; and that he was +anything but taken down, and was as ready as ever for a fight, he +showed, when he came out, in a sanguinary encounter which he engaged in +gratuitously for Federigo with one of the Americans, and in which it +would otherwise undoubtedly have gone hard with the Brazilian. + +It was not out of any respect for him that Salve took his part. He +looked upon him as false, treacherous, and entirely unprincipled; there +was nothing he did or said that did not seem pervaded with these +characteristics. But he helped him on the strength of that comradeship +which among these reprobates has its inviolable laws; and further than +that, there was something akin to a personal friendship existing between +them. Federigo was decidedly interesting. He could talk more or less on +almost every subject, and he was full of theories which he propounded +during their watches together, and to which Salve eagerly listened. +There was, he said, among other remarks, and in a superior manner, no +such thing as religion, no such being as God. Such ideas were only for +dunderheads, who, moreover, in every country had their own particular +form of belief for the clever people and the priests to turn to their +own purposes. In reference to that, he told many stories of the +impositions practised by the priests in Brazil; and had many agreeable +anecdotes, too, about the beliefs of the wretched little race whose Sun +land they were passing at the time. He pronounced, in a word, for the +right of the strongest, and for piastres, women, and freedom as the +great objects of existence. What other god than Salve, he once asked +ironically, had prevented the Irishman from taking the life of the +miserable Spaniard down there in the hold? or what god other than Fear +prevented the boatswain from felling Salve himself to the deck with a +handspike? Although Salve despised the speaker, his arguments made no +slight impression upon him. What god, he asked himself, would save him, +if he did not take care of himself among all these ruffians who +surrounded him? and had there been any such controlling Power in the +world, he thought with bitterness, a great deal in his life would have +been very different. Conversations of this kind always made him feel +thoroughly bad. + +"What do you suppose," he suddenly asked, one evening as they were +talking together on their watch, "your sister meant to do with me, +Federigo, if I had not escaped?" + +Up to this they had avoided touching upon this tender subject, and +Federigo answered, evasively-- + +"I'm sure I don't know. She takes wild notions sometimes." + +"Yes--but what do you think? I know you had no hand in the matter." + +"H'm! I had rather not say," replied Federigo, obviously relieved, but +with a peculiar smile, as if his fancy was ranging not without enjoyment +through the region of possibilities. "She scalded a monkey once, that +had bitten her, slowly to death with boiling-water. But her ingenuity +was endless." + +Salve felt a shudder run through him, and something in his face told the +other that he had better not indulge his fancy any further; and he +hastened, therefore, to add half in joke and half by way of +consolation-- + +"Poor Antonio Varez will pay for her having been obliged to marry him, +never fear. Yes, she is rich and happy," he concluded with a sigh, as if +he envied her; and the subject dropped. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +They doubled Cape Horn, and came to Valparaiso. But, on the morning they +were to enter the harbour, Salve, to his intense exasperation, was put +under arrest. The captain found him too useful in keeping the crew in +order forward, and therefore took the most effectual means of preventing +him from putting into execution his declared determination to leave the +ship on their arrival at that port. + +After leaving Valparaiso they called at the Chincha Islands, took in a +cargo of guano for China, and shaped their course then eastward across +the calm southern ocean, whose lonely monotony was only broken by the +occasional appearance of one of the larger kind of sea-birds, or by the +distant spouting of a whale. On board, however, the same peace was far +from prevailing. That little nut-shell that crept like a dot across the +limitless expanse of waters was a little floating hell, where every evil +passion raged from morning until night; and it was only by secretly +fomenting discord and divisions among the crew that the officers could +sleep with any sense of security in their berths. As it was, a large +section of them, with the Irishman at their head, had a project on hand +for murdering their officers, and converting the ship into a whaling +vessel. And even Salve, in moments of bitterness and indignation at the +tyranny to which he was subjected by these men, whose lives were at the +mercy of the crew, would sometimes entertain the thought of joining with +the mutineers, who were restrained from carrying out their designs +mainly by the fear which he had inspired, and by the refusal of his +sanction. Many a desperate struggle with himself he went through when +one of his tyrants passed him on deck in the dark, and the temptation to +stick a knife into his back would rise strong within him, and almost +master him. The other's life hung upon a hair, and Salve knew it; but +that hair was stronger than he thought. Elizabeth's face, and the still +unexhausted might of early impressions, made him always shrink from the +thought of having a murder on his conscience, and to that depth he never +fell, deteriorated though his character gradually became, from daily +association with everything that was vile, to that degree that he lost +all power of believing in the existence of good amongst his +fellow-creatures, or in a higher Power. + +We need follow no further this dark period of his life. After a year and +a half on board the Stars and Stripes, and many a wild scene of +turbulence and riot, he brought his connection with her to a close at +last at New Orleans, where the accumulation of his wages was handed over +to him. + +The life on board the other vessels in which he afterwards served did +not differ greatly from that which he had left; but he had become +accustomed to it, and his sensibilities were blunted by long habit. It +was not until some four years had thus passed that he again began to +feel a longing for Europe--he would not acknowledge to himself that it +was Norway exactly that he wanted to see again;--and after looking out +then for some time for a suitable ship for the home voyage, he found +himself at last with his Brazilian friend on board a large barque that +was homeward bound from Curacoa, with tobacco and rum, for Rotterdam and +Nieuwediep. + +Federigo had been his inseparable companion through all the vicissitudes +of his southern life; the secret of his faithful attachment, as Salve +suspected, being that the latter had saved money, which he had turned +into gold pieces and kept in a belt round his waist. He had never, like +Federigo, sought occasions to squander his pay on land in gambling or in +other diversions. He hated women; and in the taverns which were +frequented by sailors he was looked upon as a dangerous customer, to +whom it was prudent to give as wide a berth as possible. Federigo, he +fancied, looked upon him as his reserve cash-box; and when on one +occasion, after they came into port, the Brazilian proposed that they +should desert and put their money into some mines that were very +favourably reported of just then, and share the profits, Salve remarked +with perfect composure that he thought it highly probable that if they +started upon any expedition of the kind, his friend, if he got him alone +some fine night in a lonely place, would quietly stick his knife into +him and make off with the whole. He therefore declined the proposition, +but their relations nevertheless continued as friendly as before. Money +was the only power, Salve reflected with bitterness, and this +satisfaction at least he could now enjoy in life. + +It had become so obvious to him that Federigo's attachment was more to +his money than to himself, that he determined to get rid of his irksome +attentions. Accordingly, when they arrived at Nieuwediep, he made all +his arrangements for leaving the vessel, legally this time, without +saying a word to him of his intention; and Federigo only heard of it at +the last moment when he met him coming up with his hammock clothes. He +turned pale, and tears came into his eyes,--whether from a feeling of +injured friendship, or from disappointment, Salve could not quite make +out. The expression of his face, with his restless small black eyes, +resembled that of a disturbed rat. At last he fell on Salve's neck in +his impetuous way, and broke out-- + +"But at any rate we must have one parting glass together this evening. I +don't know how I shall ever do without you--it is so long now since we +two have chummed together." + +Against his better reason Salve allowed himself to feel a little +softened at the thought; and the remembrance of all the attachment this +scoundrel had shown for him aroused something that almost resembled +emotion. + +"It is no use, my friend," he replied; "what is done can't be undone. +But I'll give you this evening, at all events. You'll find me waiting +for you in the Aurora." + +As usual at this season of the year, there were a great many vessels in +the harbour, and the Aurora tavern was full that evening of seafaring +folk laughing and talking and singing, and renewing, or laying the +foundations of, acquaintanceships over brandy or gin; while in the +little room over the bar, dance music was going on uninterruptedly, and +the boards were creaking under alternate Dutch schottische and English +hornpipe. + +To properly appreciate a genuine sailors' reel or hornpipe, one should +see it danced by men who for a whole year at a time have been battling +with the waves and storms in every corner of the world, and who during +all that time have hardly set eyes upon a female form. They come on +shore bursting with a full masculine longing for the society of the +other sex, with a year's stored-up feeling to let out; and there is a +positive intoxication to them in the mere dance--in the mere holding at +Nieuwediep Anniken or Bibecke, or at Portsmouth Mary Ann, by the waist; +and Mary Ann and Bibecke perfectly understand this, and for the moment +feel themselves persons of no small importance. There is no element of +coarseness in the feeling. The sailor is more given to sentiment proper +than perhaps any other class of men, and generally speaking a more +romantic feeling for woman is cherished on board ship than anywhere else +in the world. If we wish to find in these times quietly romantic +enthusiasm, we must be the companion of the sailor on his lonely watch, +or listen to him as he lies on the forecastle and talks with _naive_ +simplicity about his wife or his sweetheart--how their attachment came +about, and what he means to buy for her when he gets into port. Love on +board ship is a more naturally rich and varying theme than it is in the +peasant's monotonous life; and being in love, by reason of separation +from the object of his love, is a different thing to the sailor, a +something more entirely of the heart and the imagination, which does not +lose its ideal hue in the wear and tear of everyday use. A married +sailor is always an object of quiet respect to his comrades who have not +had means to take the same step themselves; and without exaggeration it +may be said that woman is present in her truest sense in the midst of +the often outwardly rough life on board ship--warm, loving, and +venerated, and surrounded by all the enchantment which distance can +supply. If we are tempted to think otherwise, we have not penetrated to +the simple, childlike nature which underlies the sailor's rough +exterior. + +The exteriors, indeed, in the dancing-room of the Aurora that evening +were rough enough. Through the cloud of steam and tobacco-smoke, men of +the most various physiognomies were to be seen, the majority tanned and +bearded, with their hats on the back of their heads, and short clay +pipes in their mouths, and all in the wildest state of enjoyment, +dripping with perspiration and dancing indefatigably. There were French +and Swedish sailors in their red woollen shirts, Norwegians and Danes in +blue, with white canvas trousers, Yankees and English all in blue; and +as they swung the gracefully dressed Dutch girls with their small white +caps and little capes, and petticoats fastened up to do justice to the +neat shoes and white stockings below, vying with each other who should +dance the best and longest, the foundation of many a friendship or +enmity was laid, to be prosecuted later on in the evening over a bottle +of brandy or in a stand-up fight. + +Salve and Federigo were sitting over their gin in a side-room which +opened into the dancing-room, and was filled with men talking and +drinking, or with couples who came in to rest for a moment. Neither took +part in the dancing. Salve was gloomy and out of tune for pleasure, +although, for Federigo's sake, he made his humour as little apparent as +possible. Federigo looked very disconsolate, and during the early part +of the evening sat and sipped his glass abstractedly. But as the time +wore on he kept filling Salve's glass unconsciously as it were, and +getting apparently more and more drunk himself, until he several times +spilt the contents of his own glass on the floor. He became very +talkative, recalling incident after incident of their life together. "I +shall never forget you," he cried, with open-hearted impulsiveness, +"never!" And as he repeated the word, there was a gleam of suppressed +feeling of some kind or other in his eye. + +Salve's attention was preoccupied at the moment. He had heard two voices +speaking Norwegian by the window at his back, and it made his heart +knock against his ribs--it was so long since he had heard his +mother-tongue. They were two men belonging to timber ships, and one of +them, very red and excited, was singing the praises of one of the girls +in the other room. + +"Ah!" broke in the other, a Tonsberger, "you should have seen handsome +Elizabeth in 'The Star' at Amsterdam. But she wasn't for such as you to +dance with, my lad." + +Salve's interest was awakened at once. He listened with strained +attention for what might come next. + +"And why not?" asked the other, a little on his dignity. + +"Well, in the first place, they don't dance there; and in the next, you +would want to be a skipper at least to pay court in that quarter, mind +you. I saw her in the spring of last year, when we were lying there with +the Galatea; she was talking to the captain, for she's Norwegian--and a +proud one she is, too; with hair like a crown of gold on her head, and +so straight rigged that it makes a man nervous to come alongside her." + +Salve sat rapt in thought, and more absent than was polite to his friend +for the rest of the evening. An idea that it might be Elizabeth had shot +through him, and he could not divest himself of it, although the more he +reflected the more certain he knew he ought to be that she had been +married long ago to young Beck. His mind was in a ferment, and a wild +longing now possessed him to get home to Arendal and find out for +certain how matters actually stood. + +When the time came for breaking up, Federigo was drunk, and Salve was +obliged to accompany his inconsolable friend in the darkness over the +long narrow dam down by the dock, where there was water on both sides, +Federigo clinging to his arm the whole way, and leaning heavily upon it. + +When they had reached the middle of the dam, Salve saw him make a sudden +movement, and almost at the same moment he received a thrust in the +region of the heart, of such force that he staggered two or three steps +backwards. At the same time he heard Federigo say, in a voice trembling +with vindictive passion-- + +"Take that for Paolina, you hound!" + +The object of his cupidity, the belt of money, had saved Salve, who now +felled him to the ground with a blow that sent him rolling over the +embankment into the sea. + +"Help! help!" came up to him from the water. + +"You shall have it," replied Salve, derisively, "for our fine +friendship's sake. Throw up your knife, though, first;" and he made a +noose in his handkerchief then to reach down to him. "You and your owl +of a sister," he muttered as he did so, "have taught me a thing or two. +I should only have had exactly what I deserved if I had been both stuck +and plundered, after being fool enough to put faith for one moment in +you or any one else." + +"Now, up with you!" + +When he saw Federigo's form scrambling up over the edge, he said, +scornfully, "Now then, at last we part. Good-bye, my old and faithful +friend!" + +With that he went his way, and heard the Brazilian screaming and +stamping with rage down on the dam behind him in the dark. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +An opportunity offered almost immediately for taking a passage home with +the Tonsberger before alluded to, and Salve gladly availed himself of +it, calculating upon being taken off by one of the pilot boats off the +coast of Arendal. + +It was with a strange deep feeling that he once more trod the deck of a +home vessel, and as he went about and listened to the people's talk, +felt himself an object for their curiosity. The southern brown of his +face, the foreign cut of his clothes, and his whole exterior, marked him +as coming from a much higher condition of sailor life than any with +which they were acquainted, and he passed for an Englishman or an +American; for he purposely avoided being recognised by them as a +countryman, and had made his agreement with the skipper in English. + +It was certainly a long time since he had been on board a craft so +miserably found in every way as this leaky old galliot was. She had been +bought by auction for a small sum at Faerder; and in shape resembled an +old wooden shoe, in which her skipper venturesomely trudged across to +Holland through the spring and winter storms, calculating that he and +his crew could always lash themselves to something to avoid being washed +overboard; that their timber cargo would keep them afloat; and that as +long as the rigging held they could sail. He carried no +top-gallant-mast, so as not to strain her; her sails were all in holes, +as if they had been riddled with bullets; and where ropes had broken in +the rigging, they had been tied in clumsy knots, instead of being +spliced in proper sailor-like fashion. There was not much to boast of in +the way of navigation either; the captain keeping his log by the simple +method of spitting over the side, or throwing a chip of wood overboard, +and making his calculations according to the pace it drifted past. The +food, too, was on a par with all the rest, and the cook could be heard +beating the dried fish with the back of an axe to make it tender. Salve +seemed to have dropped all at once into home life and ways again. + +The crew were dressed in thick winter clothing, and had the appearance +of navvies rather than of sailors, but they were all fearless, +hardy-looking fellows, as most of the men who risk their lives on these +timber vessels are; and what immediately struck him with a feeling of +pleasure, was the honest expression which every countenance, without +exception, wore. It was long since he had seen a sight of the kind, and +he felt ashamed of himself for going about with his knife ready to hand, +as had been his custom for so many years, and put it away in his chest +the very first day. He took a pleasure in leaving his watch and money +out on the top where they might easily have been taken, and was filled +with surprise and admiration when he found that they were not stirred. + +He had not been able to get out of his head the idea that Elizabeth was +now in Amsterdam, in spite of the almost certain feeling which he had +that she had been long ago married to young Beck. His thoughts kept +returning to, and dwelling upon, this subject, and he began to sound the +skipper as to whether the trade with Holland was a paying one, and to +post himself up generally in all particulars. Their conversation was +carried on in a kind of jumble of English chiefly, and he gathered, at +all events, that it was a lucrative business, and an occupation which +seemed likely to suit him in every way. It was adventurous, and that was +a recommendation; and a way of living at home in which he would be under +nobody's orders but his own, fell in exactly with his nature. He had +more than money enough to purchase some old craft or other, and--in +fact, it was decided; he would be the owner of a timber ship, and ply to +Holland. + +He began now to look out more impatiently than ever for land, and longed +so to catch the first streak of the Norwegian coast above the horizon, +as if it was something he hardly dared hope that he should live to see. +He paced up and down for hours together, anathematising through his +teeth the old tub with her slack sails and rolling motion--they seemed +to be drifting, not sailing; and from the restlessness and impatience he +exhibited, it began to be whispered among the crew that the Englishman +must have a screw loose somewhere. When the dim outline of Lindesnaes +became discernible at last in the far distance, there was not a +palm-clad promontory in all the southern seas that could compare with +it, he thought; and the pleasure he experienced was only dashed by the +apprehension of what he might have to learn about Elizabeth on landing. + +They were hailed shortly after by a pilot boat from Arendal, and he +arrived there after dark the same evening, and went to Madam Gjers's +unpretending lodging-house until the morning. + +The following day was Sunday. And as he listened to the bells ringing, +and watched the townspeople, great and small, going decorously up the +street in their best clothes to church--most of them he recognised, and +among them Elizabeth's old aunt going up by herself, with her psalm-book +and her white folded handkerchief in her hand--an indescribable feeling +came over him, and his eyes filled so that he could hardly see. Here +passing before him were all the gentleness and the purity that he had +once believed in, when his young faith had as yet received no shock, and +when he was as joyous and credulous as the rest; and he could not resist +the temptation of joining the stream, trusting to the alteration in his +appearance to save him from recognition. + +Beside him, almost, there walked a respectable family--he knew well who +they were--with a couple of handsome daughters, in light dresses, who +had grown up since he last saw them, and a younger brother whom he did +not remember. The foreign, black-bearded sailor, with his fine cloth +clothes, and his patent gold watch-chain, seemed to excite their +curiosity; while he on his side was thinking how they would fly from +him, as if a wolf had suddenly appeared in their midst, if they had any +conception of the life that he had been leading for years, half-a-day of +which would have filled them with more horror than they had ever +imagined. They would not understand it if it was described to them, and +the description would be too foul for their ears. As he quietly followed +the stream up the hill, it seemed as if all the sunny houses in his +beautiful native town were crying out against him, and asking whether it +was possible that a man from the Stars and Stripes could be permitted to +go to church as well as other people; and on entering the building he +had to summon up all his self-command--he had a feeling that he was +violating the sanctity of the place. + +He took his seat in the last pew close to the door, and watched the +people passing up the aisle. It was like a dream; they all seemed +creatures of a purer world than his. The organ commenced to play, the +singing was begun, and he leaned his head forward on his hands, +completely overcome, and trying to conceal his sobs. In this position he +remained during the greater part of the service, his past life coming +up, scene by scene, before him. What a gulf he felt there was between +the present condition of his mind and what it had been in the days when +as a boy or lad he had gone to church like the rest. He had been +familiar with more murder and blasphemy than the whole congregation +together could conceive; and the simple faith he had once possessed he +had been robbed of, he feared irrecoverably. His eyes flashed then with +a sudden wildness as he thought who it was that had brought him to this; +and it was with a deep hatred in his heart to one of the two at least, +that he left the church. In a couple who were coming out at the same +time, he recognised Captain Beck and his wife, and the sight added fuel +to the flames. He hastened on; and was hardly to be recognised as the +same man who had gone up the same way so quietly two hours before. + +He had meant to go over at once to Sandvigen to see his father, but he +thought that before going it would be as well to find out for certain +all about Elizabeth; and his landlady seemed as likely a person to be +able to satisfy him as any one. He remembered well that sharp, +bright-eyed little woman, and knew that she was a regular magpie for +chatter, and for repeating the gossip of the town. + +At that time of the day on Sunday there were no other customers in the +house, and while she was busying herself with preparations for his +dinner, he asked casually if Captain Beck's son, the one in the navy, +was married? + +"To be sure he is," she replied, surprised to hear him speak Norwegian. +"He has been married for--let me see--about three years." + +She looked fixedly at him. + +"But who are you?" she asked; and then, as if the thought had suddenly +flashed upon her, she said, "It's never Salve Kristiansen, who--" She +stopped here, and Salve dryly finished the sentence for her-- + +"Who deserted from Beck at Rio?--the same." + +Madam Gjers was agog with curiosity, and whispered, "I'll say +nothing--you may trust me;" and waited eagerly then for further +particulars which she might take the first opportunity of retailing. + +Salve assured her that he knew of old that a secret was always safe with +her, and resumed then absently-- + +"So the lieutenant is married?" + +"This long while," she replied. "The wedding was at the house of the +bride's parents; and they are living now at Frederiksvaern." + +"Elizabeth had no parents," said Salve, rather impatiently. + +"Elizabeth?--oh! you mean the girl the Becks took to live with them. +That is quite another story," she said, significantly. "No, the +lieutenant's wife was Postmaster Forstberg's daughter. The other was +just a passing fancy--the end of it was that she had to go to Holland, +poor thing! It was said she had got a place there." + +"Do you know anything for certain of this?" asked Salve, severely, and +with an earnestness that put the little madam out of countenance, and +made her be careful of her words. + +"It was all done very secretly, that's true," she replied. "But she went +away in the greatest possible hurry, and the affair was well enough +known, more's the pity--known and forgotten now, one may say." + +"What was known?" asked Salve, catching her up, angrily. "Did you see +her, Madam Gjers?" + +"Not I, indeed, nor no one else neither. The Becks were living out at +Tromoe at the time; and there was just very good reason for--" + +"Then neither you nor any one else who wants to take away her character +know a jot more about the business than what you have chosen to invent," +said Salve, fiercely and contemptuously; for although he had slain +Elizabeth himself in his heart, he must still defend her against the +attacks of others. He felt quite sick and faint. + +"I happen to know the rights of the case," he said, with a short laugh, +looking her coldly and sharply in the face, "and--" he sprang up +suddenly here, and striking the table violently with his fist--"and I +don't taste another morsel in such a scandal-mongering house," he cried. +"Do you understand, madam? Be good enough to take what is owing to you +out of that," and flinging down a handful of silver on to the table, he +sprang over it, and proceeded to drag his chest down-stairs himself. + +Madam Gjers exhausted herself in a flood of deprecation, the gist of +which was that she had only said and believed what she had heard from +every creature in the town; but Salve was unappeasable, and slinging his +chest over his back with a rope, he went down with it to the quay, with +the intention of chartering a boat to take him over to his father. For +the present, however, he remained sitting upon the chest, gazing out +abstractedly over the harbour. + +The result of his reflections was that he gave up his idea of plying to +Holland. + +He took a boat to Sandvigen, but while they were on the way, he suddenly +made the boatman change his course, and put in to the slip on the other +side of the harbour. He must talk to Elizabeth's aunt. There was +something in his mind all the time that wouldn't let him altogether +believe the worst. + +When he went in to the old woman, she recognised him at once. + +"How do you do, Salve?" she said, quite calmly. "You have been a long +while away--half a century almost." + +She offered him a chair, but he remained standing, and asked abruptly-- + +"Is it true that Elizabeth--left Beck's like that--and went to Holland?" + +"How do you mean like that?" she asked, sharply, while her face flushed +slightly. + +"As people say," replied Salve, with bitter emphasis. + +"When people say it, a fool like you of course must believe it," she +rejoined, derisively. "I don't understand why you want to come here to +her old aunt for information when it seems you have so many other +confidants about the town. But anyhow, she can tell you something +different from them, my lad; and she wouldn't do it, if it wasn't that +she knew the girl still loved you in spite of all the years you have +been away, gadding about, God knows where, in the world. It's true +enough she left Beck's one night and came here in the morning; but it +was just for your sake, and no one else's, that she might get quit of +the lieutenant. It was Madam Beck herself that got her a place in +Holland, because she didn't want to have her for a daughter-in-law." + +A wild gleam of joy broke over Salve's features for a moment, but they +relapsed almost immediately into gloom. + +"Was she not engaged to Carl Beck, then?" he asked. + +"Yes and no," replied the old woman, cautiously, not wishing to depart a +hair's-breadth from the truth. "She allowed herself to be betrayed into +saying 'yes,' but fled from the house because she didn't want to have +him. She told me, with tears in her eyes, that she repented having said +'no' to you." + +"So that was the way of it," he rejoined sarcastically. "The 'yes' and +'no' meant that the Becks wouldn't have her for a daughter-in-law, and +bundled her out of the house over to Holland; and you want me to believe +it was for my sake she went. God knows," he added, sadly, and shaking +his head slowly, "I would willingly believe it--more willingly than I +can say; but I can't, Mother Kirstine. You are her aunt, and want of +course to--" + +"I'm afraid it is your misfortune, Salve," she broke in severely, "not +to have it in your power to believe thoroughly in any one creature upon +this earth; you'll be always doubting, always listening to folks' talk. +With the thoughts you have now in your mind, you have at any rate no +business any longer inside my door. But there is one thing I'll ask of +you," she said, with a look of mildly impressive earnestness in her +strong, clever face. "I know Elizabeth's nature well, and don't you +attempt to approach her or try to win her as long as you have a trace of +those doubts about her in your heart--it would only bring unhappiness to +both of you." + +He looked dejected; and as he said good-bye to her, offered to take her +hand. But she would not give it to him, and merely added instead-- + +"Remember that it is an old woman who has seen a good deal in the world +who tells you this." + +He went away then; and while he was being rowed across to Sandvigen he +changed his mind again, and determined that his plan of plying to +Holland should be carried out. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +Skipper Garvloit, into whose family Elizabeth had come, occupied one of +the many-storeyed houses, with green window-shutters, narrow +entrance-doors, and polished brass knockers, after the usual Dutch +fashion, in the lively street leading down to the dock in Amsterdam, +with the canal on the other side, with its various bridges, and vessels +and barges of all kinds unlading, running up from it into the heart of +the town. + +Madam Garvloit had four young children, and was not very strong, so that +Elizabeth's robust, healthy nature had been a perfect godsend to her in +the house, and she was content to overlook her occasional shortcomings +of manner or temper in consideration of the assistance which she +rendered in every department of the housekeeping. + +Elizabeth had always had a pretty strong will of her own; and here, +where she virtually had the control of everything, her tendency to +self-assertion had been considerably developed. The force and decision +with which she gave her opinion about everything seemed to Madam +Garvloit sometimes (although she said nothing) rather like a reversing +of their relative positions; and on days when she was in a captious +humour--and those were her days of most feverish activity--she would +even go so far as to set aside her mistress's orders altogether. In a +general way her moods were very uncertain: one day she would be in +tearing spirits, racing up and down the stairs with the children, as if +she had been inhaling the wild air of Torungen again; and another she +would be so pensive and taciturn that they thought she must be pining +after home. + +She had many admirers, both among young and old, her gay moods +attracting the former, and her serious ones the latter. Among the former +were two young gentlemen acquaintances of the house, relatives of +Garvloit--one a smart young clerk from one of the larger counting-houses +in the town, who rather affected the gentleman; and the other a +light-haired, pink-complexioned, skipper's son from Vlieland. They both +came regularly every Sunday, were frantically jealous of one another, +tried to outbid each other whenever an opportunity offered, and were +both fully convinced that they sighed in vain. She was so different, +they felt, from the other specimens of femininity of their acquaintance +to whom their weak attentions had sometimes proved acceptable. There was +something almost imperious in Elizabeth's manner at times that made them +feel quite small beside her; and however careless she might be of the +_convenances_ in her way of speaking to them, they had very soon found +that wherever she chose to draw the line, so far could they go and no +farther. + +Madame Garvloit would take her to task sometimes for the scant courtesy +with which she treated the young clerk. Elizabeth would answer that he +bored her; and Madame Garvloit would insist that a young girl ought to +have tact enough not to make this evident. Elizabeth, however, was not +deficient in tact, but disliked putting a restraint upon her feelings; +and it seemed to her on the whole unreasonable that a person should +pretend that a thing was pleasant when in reality it was wearisome. + +During the second autumn of her service with the Garvloits, the skipper, +on his return from a trip to Norway, brought the intelligence that +Lieutenant Beck was engaged to Postmaster Forstberg's daughter in +Arendal, and he had many messages for Elizabeth from the latter. They +were to be married in the spring. + +Elizabeth was overjoyed to hear it, for the thought had often weighed +heavily on her mind that Carl Beck might be making himself miserable on +her account. She judged so from her own feeling for Salve: and as she +sat alone by her window at bedtime that night, gazing out over the canal +and the shipping in the calm moonlight, the quiet afterglow of a holiday +evening seemed to have shed itself over her thoughts. She knew from her +friend's message that she was ignorant of what had passed between +herself and Carl Beck; and although it was a relief to think that he had +not taken his disappointment more to heart, the smile that played about +her lips for a moment showed at the same time that his love had been +duly appraised. As the shadow, then, of the window-frame in the +moonlight, crept slowly over the wall above her bed, her thoughts glided +off in the direction they loved best to take--over the world and far +away to Salve. + +She sat with her heavy hair falling loose over her well-shaped +shoulders, and her face grew more and more sorrowful in its absent +expression, and would twitch occasionally with pain. The bitter thought +would recur that it was she who was the cause of Salve's going out into +the world and becoming a desperate man. The thought haunted her; and +yet, much as she wished to free herself from it, she found a pleasure in +dwelling on it. She saw him, in fancy, miserable and proud, with his +pale face and keen, clever eyes fixed upon her in hatred, as the cause +of his unhappiness, and then the idea occurred to her to put on sailor's +clothes and go and seek him out in the world. But if she were to find +him, she knew, on the other hand, that for very shame she dared not show +herself before him, having as good as belonged to another; and she would +not for all the world read her hard dismissal in his eye. She laid her +head upon her arms on the window-sill and sobbed convulsively, until at +length she dropped off to sleep where she sat. + +She had been three years in the Garvloits' house when Garvloit had the +misfortune to run his vessel aground out near Amland, where she became a +wreck. He lost with her nearly all he had in the world, and what was +worse, all prospect of livelihood for the future as skipper. + +An uncomfortable feeling prevailed now in the house, and Elizabeth saw +with regret that she would have to leave. Garvloit, who in figure +resembled some thick, short-legged animal of the sea, a seal or walrus +come on land, had become perceptibly reduced in flesh, and went about +all day long in his shirtsleeves, fanning himself with a large silk +pocket-handkerchief. On one particular afternoon it was observed that he +indulged in this exercise with more than his usual vigour and +restlessness; and it was not without cause. He had had an inspiration. +If he could no longer follow his old trade, he would try a new one; he +would set up a house of entertainment for sailors. His house being so +close to the dock, could not be more favourably situated for the +purpose, and they had ample accommodation. On the ground floor they +could have a room for common sailors, and on the floor above they had +one where captains and mates could be served. + +He said nothing about it, however, to any one until the scheme had been +fully matured; and then all of a sudden one day he came into the room +where his wife was, with a bundle of printed placards and a large board +in his hand. + +"Good gracious, Garvloit, what is that?" she cried. + +He turned the board round with an important air, and without saying a +word. Upon it there stood in large gilt letters, "The Star." + +"This is our new means of earning our bread, wife," he said. "Next month +this sign hangs over our door, and these bills are to post on the walls, +and distribute among the ships down in the harbour. Garvloit is not on +his beam-ends yet," he concluded, with self-conscious satisfaction; and +proceeded then to explain how he intended to be landlord himself, and +how Elizabeth was to help him in the management of the whole. + +Madam Garvloit only made one slight objection-- + +"You know that you can't drink ale, my friend." + +Another objection, namely, what they would say at home in Norway when +they heard that her husband had sunk into a mere tavern-keeper, she very +wisely kept to herself. The important point was that they should find a +way of living, and they had at all events the great consolation that now +they would be able to keep Elizabeth. What feeling of pride still +remained she got rid of in telling Elizabeth that at home they knew +nothing of millionaires in wooden shoes such as were to be found in +Holland; and her husband found her much more keen for his project than +he had expected. Being accustomed to place great reliance upon her +stronger understanding, he would not have been happy if she had been +against the plan. + +Thus it came about, then, that in the crowded street by the canal one +Monday morning there appeared over one of the entrance-doors a +sign-board with "The Star," in letters of gold on a blue ground. It was +set up at a fortunate time and in a fortunate place, and almost as soon +as the house was opened, customers from the vessels in the harbour began +to gather in, both into the down-stairs and up-stairs rooms, so that +there was a prospect of a steadily increasing traffic. Garvloit +generally presided himself in the bar behind the counter, at the lower +end of which there stood an array of stone mugs with tin lids; while in +a recess of the wall there stuck out from beside canisters of tobacco, +long and short Dutch clay pipes, a new one filled being handed to every +customer, with whatever drink he ordered. Out of sight under the counter +where the stone mugs stood was the ale-barrel, with its bright tap over +a vessel that caught the drip; and after the same cleanly Dutch fashion, +spittoons filled with sand stood in every corner of the room. The +shelves above were filled in rows with a regular apothecary's shop of +bottles and jars of spirits, and among them a goodly array of +securely-fastened, dark-green flasks of Dutch hollands. + +Elizabeth had as housekeeper quite as much as she could do, and did not +directly busy herself with waiting, unless there was something +particular required to be done for the up-stairs customers. +Occasionally, however, she would come into the bar also, on some errand +or another, or to make sure that nothing was wanted; and the fame of +handsome Elizabeth of "The Star" contributed not a little to bring +custom to the house. + +Such Norwegians as came to Amsterdam with timber--the majority unloaded +their cargoes up at Puermurende or Alkmar--invariably patronised "The +Star." Elizabeth used to talk to them as countrymen of her own; and if +she heard that any of them had been across the Atlantic, she would +quietly, and as if quite casually, ask if perchance they had come across +or had heard anything of a sailor of her acquaintance called Salve +Kristiansen who hailed from Arendal. No one had ever heard of him, and +she had begun to fear that he might be lost to her for ever. + +One forenoon, however, when she had a great deal to do in the house, she +was passing quickly through the room up-stairs, and there sat at one of +the small tables, with an untouched mug of ale before him, a bearded man +in a blue pea-jacket. In her hurry she had set him down as some mate or +captain; but there must have been something about him that attracted her +attention, for she turned again at the door for an instant, and looked +at him before she went out. He was so pale--and he had sent her one +look. + +As she stood outside the door she knew it was Salve, although she had +always pictured him to herself as a common sailor. She stood there +trembling all over, and fumbling with the latch of the door in the +greatest agitation, evidently debating with herself whether she should +dare go in again. She pressed upon the latch, in the certainty that it +would go up before she had actually decided that she would go in; and it +did so. The door opened again of itself, and Elizabeth entered with +downcast eyes, and scarlet in the face, and passed through the room, +making a slight inclination of her head, as if for greeting, as she +passed him. She had reached the opposite door when she heard a quiet +bitter laugh behind her. + +At once she turned, with pride in every feature of her face, and looked +at him. + +"How do you do, Salve Kristiansen?" she said, firmly and quietly. + +"How do you do, Elizabeth?" he replied, rather huskily, getting up and +looking confused. + +"Are you lying here in Amsterdam with some vessel?" + +He sat down again, for there was something in her manner that denied +approach. + +"No; in Puermurende," he replied. "I only came in here to--" + +"You are in the timber line, then, now?" + +"Yes--Elizabeth," he ventured to add, in another tone, which had a whole +volume of meaning in it. But she took her leave of him now in the same +proud manner, and left the room. + +Salve sat for a while with compressed lips, looking down upon the table +before him. When she turned round the first time at the door, something +told him that she would come in again; but he had expected quite a +different kind of scene. A good deal of the tyrant had been developed in +him since they had last met; and when she had come in so quietly and so +humbly, with the acknowledgment of the great wrong she had done him +written upon her face, he felt himself at once, with a certain bitter +and devouring pleasure, upon the judgment-seat. He must first see her +crushed before him; then he would have forgiven her, and loved her with +all the passion of his soul. + +But as she stood there by the door, looking so grand in her pride, and +so pale with repressed mortification, and spoke so calmly, he had felt +that in that moment he had been separated farther from her than ever he +had been in all his wanderings at the other side of the globe. + +He sat there with his mind in a chaotic state of desperation and sorrow, +and of anger with himself. What a grand creature she was! and he--how +pitiful and petty! He set down the mug, which he had been absently +toying with, hard on the table, and went out. + +For a long while he wandered about the quays in a state of gloomy +indecision, stopping every now and then to run his eye over the +shipping, and his expression becoming darker still every time he did so. +From long practice he could tell by the appearance of every vessel what +trade it was engaged in. One was a coffee ship from Java; the next +carried general cargo to all parts of the world; there was another that +brought sugar and rum from the West Indies; and a fourth, that from its +square build and breadth of beam must be a whaler returned from +Spitzbergen. He thought of their long voyages, and of the life without +root or tie that was passed on board them--was he to go back to that +life again? It depended on Elizabeth; and he had not much hope. + +To his impatient nature delay was intolerable; and he had half made up +his mind to have his fate decided at once. In spite of his agitation, +however, he could still think with coolness; and he knew that if he was +to have any chance at all, he must wait until the first unfortunate +impression had had time to pass off. + +It had been a grey, foggy autumn day, but was now clearing, and blue +patches of sky were coming out; and as he crossed the bridge the +afternoon sun shone out, and sent a ray of glittering light against the +window-panes of the street along the canal. Up in Garvloit's house +Elizabeth was standing at the open window--she, too, that day had needed +to be alone with her thoughts. Salve saw her, and stood still for a +moment contemplating her as she leant out over the window ledge. + +"That dear head shall be mine," he burst out then passionately, and +without knowing it, aloud; and the next moment he was at Garvloit's +door. + +Elizabeth heard the door of the room open behind her; and when she saw +Salve unexpectedly standing before her, she sank down for a moment on to +a chair, but got up the next with a scared look, almost as if he was +some hostile apparition. + +"Elizabeth!" he said, gently, "are you going to send me out again into +the world? God only knows how I shall come back if you do." + +She did not answer, but stood looking at him with a rigid expression, +and pale as death; she seemed to have forgotten to breathe, and to be +only waiting for him to say more. + +"Be my wife, Elizabeth," he asked, "and I shall grow up into a good man +again. What a pitiful creature I have been without you, you have already +seen sufficiently this morning." + +"God be my witness, Salve," she answered, the tears bursting into her +eyes with emotion which she tried to control, "you alone have always had +my heart--but I must first know in perfect truth what you think of me." + +"The same as I think of God's angels, Elizabeth," he said from his +heart, and tried to take her hand. + +"Do you know that I--was once very nearly engaged to young Beck?" she +asked, reddening, but with a steady look. "I didn't know my real self +then, but was thinking only of folly and nonsense, until I was obliged +to fly from it all." + +"Your aunt has told me all about it, Elizabeth. Don't let us mention the +subject again." + +"And you haven't a doubt about me in your heart? For that I never will +bear, Salve, like to-day,--I can't bear it, do you understand?" she +said, with a shake in her voice, and looking as it were down into his +very soul. + +"Doubt!" he said; and for that moment, at all events, he was evidently +convinced that she had never given her real heart to any one but +himself. + +A look of inexpressible happiness came into her face; he caught her into +his arms, and they stood as if they never would let go of each other +again, cheek to cheek, not speaking, not thinking even. There was +something convulsive in their embrace, as if they could not believe in +the reality of their happiness, and as if they felt an instinctive dread +that they should lose it again. + +Unobserved by either of them the door had opened, and in the doorway +stood pursy Garvloit, gazing in helpless bewilderment at the scene +before him. At last Elizabeth caught sight of him, and--not with any +confusion, but only eager to communicate her happiness--exclaimed-- + +"It is my lover--" + +"Your lover!" and he fell back a step, as if he did not know what he was +doing. + +"My name is Salve Kristiansen, master of the Apollo," added Salve, +without letting her go, and feeling everything around him infinitely +small at that moment. + +Garvloit turned round and shouted several times from the top of the +stairs, raising his voice at each repetition, "Andrea! Andrea!" to his +wife; and as she did not come immediately, he stumbled as fast as his +corpulence would allow him down the stairs, pausing, however, with a +vacant look upon the last step. + +Madam Garvloit came out with her work in her hand, and asked what the +matter was. + +"The matter is," replied her husband, dismally, "that I am ruined. There +is Elizabeth up there sitting with some skipper, God knows whom, who she +says is her lover." + +"Is it possible?" + +"Go and see for yourself;" and as his wife hurried past him up the +stairs, he added in the same dismal tone--"Who shall we get to look +after the house now? we shall never have another like her;" and he +sighed profoundly. + +When Madam Garvloit appeared at the door, Elizabeth finished her +interrupted explanation. + +"I have known him ever since I was a little girl," she said. + +It was at once evident to her mistress that there must be a romantic +story here; but though brimming over with curiosity, she deferred her +questions until a more convenient season. In the meantime she manifested +the most lively sympathy; and after winning Salve's heart by telling him +what a treasure Elizabeth had been to her, she begged that as long as he +remained in Amsterdam he would come in and out of the house as he +pleased. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +When Madam Garvloit had made some excuse next morning to leave the two +alone together in her sitting-room, Salve took out of his pocket a small +parcel, and opening it deliberately, said, with a certain solemnity-- + +"Five years ago, Elizabeth, when I was in Boston, I bought these rings." +He took them out of the paper, and laid them in her hand. "I have had a +good deal to bear since, but you see I have kept them all along +notwithstanding." + +She threw her arms round his neck, hid her face upon his breast, and he +could feel that she was crying. She tried them on then, both on the same +finger, and holding up the hand to show him, said-- + +"That is the first ring I ever possessed." + +A shadow passed across his face, and it flushed slightly; and she only +then perceived what connection of ideas her remark might have suggested. + +He had three days to spare before he was obliged to be back at +Puermurende on board the old brig of which he was now master, and with +which, patched and leaky though she was, after his sailor's pride had +been overcome, he had grown to be well satisfied enough--more +particularly, perhaps, because she was his own. The happiness of these +days was not marred by a single further incident to remind him of the +past; and it was only on the day that he was to leave that the foul +fiend Distrust was again awakened in his unlucky heart. + +It was a Sunday, and after the morning service there was to be a sort of +popular _fete_ in Amsterdam. At the famous town-hall, where, in +Holland's great days, when De Ruyter's and Van Tromp's guns were +thundering in the sea outside, the great merchant princes used to sit +round the republican council-board, was to be exhibited that day, for +the first time, the new picture of the young Dutch hero, Van Spyck, who +blew up his ship in the war of 1830 against Belgium. + +Salve and Elizabeth joined the stream, and even caught some of the +national enthusiasm prevailing in the crowd that was swaying backwards +and forwards in the courtyard, where a band was playing the stirring +national air, "Wien Neerlands bloed door de aders vloeit." + +At last they found themselves before the canvas. It represented the +young cadet of seventeen years on the gunboat at the supreme moment. + +Elizabeth stood with her hands clasped before her silently engrossed, +while Salve kept her from being pressed upon behind. + +"Look!" she said, turning half round to him, but without taking her eyes +off the picture,--"the Belgian captain is inviting him to surrender. He +has no choice--they are too many for him. But don't you see the thought +he has in his mind?--you can read it in his face. And what a fine +fellow he looks, with his handsome uniform, and his epaulets, and his +short sword!" she said, in a lower tone, with a revival of her old +childish enthusiasm for that kind of show. + +Her last words were like a dagger's thrust to Salve. She still had a +hankering, then, for all this, and he stood behind her pale with +suppressed feeling, while she continued to gaze at the picture and think +aloud to him. + +"Poor, handsome lad! But he never will surrender--one can easily see +that; and so he must go down," she said, in a subdued voice, +involuntarily folding her hands, as if in fancy she went with him; "and +he blows up Belgian and all into the air, Salve," she said, turning to +him with a fine spirited look in her face, and with moistened eyes. + +He made no reply; and supposing that, like herself, he was lost in the +scene before them, she turned again to the picture. But while, after +giving vent to her feelings, she stood there with a smile on her face, +thinking that she knew one who would have been quite as capable as Van +Spyck of such an exploit--the man, namely, who was then standing behind +her--to him the picture had become a hateful thing; and he could have +shot Van Spyck through the heart for his uniform's sake. + +The whole of the way home he was silent and serious, and it was not +until late in the afternoon that he at all recovered his spirits. + +As this was to be his last trip for the year, the following spring was +fixed for their marriage; and when he took his leave, it was with the +gloomy presentiment that he had a dreary winter before him. + +Certainly, for the development of a morbid state of mind, no conditions +could have been more favourable than the enforced inactivity to which, +with many another, he was condemned for the long dark months during +which the ice put a stop to navigation. To his restless, energetic +nature, such prolonged inaction was little suited under any +circumstances, and in his present condition of mind it was little less +than disastrous. + +"If she was only here!" he would sometimes inwardly exclaim, as if +crying out for help against himself and the thoughts which he felt to be +unworthy, but which nevertheless he could not shake off. + +He often thought of writing to her, but was so afraid of saying +something which he might afterwards regret, that he kept putting it off +from time to time, until at last he could restrain himself no longer. + +His letter ran as follows:-- + + +"To much esteemed Miss Elizabeth Raklev-- + +"As concerning the Apollo, she lies in a row of other ships up in Selvig +Sound, and the ice is about a foot thick, and will be late in breaking +up this year, they all prophesy: she is well looked after, and has a +watchman on board, and storage room has been taken for her rigging in +Pettersen's rigging-loft. But as touching her captain, to whom you said +in Amsterdam you had given your full and first heart so firmly that it +couldn't be moved by any might or power in the world whatsoever--he has +thought much and often about this, and would like to hold out and see +you again before all his shore cable is chafed away. It seems as if it +was holding by its last threads, and these half-scraped through. But if +I could see you, it would become so strong again that it could hold +against any stream; and you must forgive me for my weakness when you +think of those five years; but I won't say that it is your fault, +neither make myself out better than I am, for I have confidence in you, +Elizabeth, if I have not the same reliance upon myself, and I can't help +it if I haven't. When you read this letter, Elizabeth, you must remember +the poor sailor who is frozen up here, and not forget it afterwards till +we meet again, which I would give half my life-blood or more for, if it +was any use, as I am consuming away with impatience up here--I have such +a longing to see you again. And now, farewell from my heart, and God +bless you. I will trust you and hope in you till my last hour, come what +may. Farewell, my dearest girl, with fond love from + + "SALVE KRISTIANSEN." + + +This letter cost Elizabeth many a tear. She sat over it in the evenings +before she went to bed, and felt so poignantly that it was she who had +brought him to this--that he could not trust her; for she understood but +too well what lay between the lines. "If I could only be with him," she +thought, and she longed to be able to send him an answer; but she had +never learnt properly how to write or to compose a letter. + +With some difficulty, however, and after several ineffectual attempts, +she managed to put two lines together which she remembered from the +Catechism:-- + + +"To my lover Salve Kristiansen-- + +"You shall put your trust in God, and after Him, in me before all +others, who careth for you in all things, and have faith in me. That is +the truth from your ever-unforgetting + "ELIZABETH RAKLEV. +And in the spring, + "ELIZABETH KRISTIANSEN." + + +She folded the letter, and got one of Garvloit's sons to write the +address; but, that it might be certain to go, she went with it herself +to the post-office. + +Salve received it one day with great surprise. He guessed from whom it +came, and delayed opening it in the fear that it might contain a +breaking off of their engagement occasioned by his own letter: he +remembered that first morning in Amsterdam. What was his joy, then, when +he found what the contents actually were; he seemed to have the thing +now in black-and-white. He put the letter carefully back into his +pocket-book every time after reading it, and for a while was quite +another man. Still, it was high time that the ice should begin to break +up, and that he should find occupation for his thoughts in work; he had +begun to be afraid to be alone with them. + +His first voyage was to Puermurende, and thence to Amsterdam; and they +determined to be married there and then, although he had but four days +to stay while the brig was loading in Puermurende. Out of consideration +for the Garvloits, whom they wished to spare the expense of the wedding +as much as possible, they insisted that they would be married on the day +they were to leave for Puermurende. + +The morning on which the wedding took place, Garvloit's house put forth +all its splendour. Dress suits from former days of better circumstances +were brought out from old boxes for the occasion; and Madam Garvloit +appeared in a green-silk dress of stiff brocade, with a massive brooch, +and a huge gilt comb that shone over her forehead like a piece of a +crown. Garvloit, too, did his best; but his utmost endeavour had only +availed to adapt one article of his grandfather's state dress to his +corpulent person--a gold-laced waistcoat namely, which was much too long +for him, and which appeared to occasion him extreme discomfort in the +region of the buttons. + +A couple of old friends of the family and the children went with the +pair to church, and also the skipper's son from Vlieland, over whose +round soft cheeks there trickled a regretful tear or two as the bride, +with her myrtle wreath and long white veil, was led up to the altar by +Garvloit. Elizabeth wore that day a pair of particularly handsome shoes +with silver buckles, which Salve, with glad surprise, recognised as the +ones he had presented to her many years before. + +There was an entertainment provided by Madam Garvloit when they returned +from church, which was not a very lively affair, the Garvloits not being +in spirits at the prospect of losing Elizabeth, and she, notwithstanding +all her present happiness, being really sorry to go. + +A couple of hours after, they were on their way to Puermurende, and later +on in the mellow evening, were standing together on the deck of the +Apollo, as she was being towed up the wide canal. The bells were ringing +out from Alkmar as they passed--ringing a sweet old chime of other days; +and as they stood together by the ship's side, silently listening to the +changing tones from the tower as they mingled in the air above them, +they pleased themselves with the thought that it was their wedding +chime. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + +In a small house at Tonsberg, at the entrance to the beautiful +Christiana fjord, the first summer of their married life passed without +a cloud upon its sky. The house and all about it, with its flowers in +each window, were a model of neatness and Dutch polish; and with +Elizabeth herself as a centre to it all, it was no wonder that Salve's +crew found him indifferent to all weathers when it was a question of +getting home. + +The charming young skipper's wife, however, during her husband's +frequent absences, had attracted the notice of some of the leading +families of the town, and had come presently to be if not exactly on +intimate terms, at all events on a footing of acquaintanceship with many +of them; and Salve's enjoyment of his home ceased then to be so +perfectly unalloyed. + +When Elizabeth recounted to him the flattering proofs of appreciation +which she received, he listened in silence; and her social successes, +instead of giving him pleasure, had a precisely opposite effect. He +would not for the world have said a word to express his dislike of her +making such acquaintances; and he even, when they went to church +together on Sundays, liked her to be as well-dressed as any of these +fine friends who now seemed to share his wife with him. But if he said +nothing, and was even angry with himself for thinking about the subject, +still he did think about it, and with increasing irritation. He could +not get the idea out of his head that Elizabeth must now be always +contrasting him unfavourably with these people; and as he paced the deck +of his brig alone out at sea, he would picture them to himself as +constantly in his house, and always talking on the subject which he +could least endure--the sacrifice which Elizabeth must have made to +become his wife. + +When their son Gjert was born in the spring following their marriage, he +had been sitting by Elizabeth's bedside unable to tear himself away from +her and the cradle, until a small present arrived from one of her +friends in the town, who with others had often sent to inquire after +her, when he got up and went straight out of the house and paced +backwards and forwards with his hands behind his back outside, as she +could see through the window, thoroughly out of humour, though when he +came in again he was even more affectionate and attentive to her than +before. + +As she never for a moment imagined that he could think her deep love for +him could be in any way affected by the slight surface interest which +her new acquaintances afforded her, she looked upon his jealousy of +them, of which she had had indications often enough before, as a +weakness merely to which he ought to have been superior; and as he said +nothing himself on the subject, she also let it pass without comment on +her side, but determined at the same time that she would see less of +them in future, at all events while he was at home. + +It happened however, unluckily, some weeks afterwards, that she had just +been talking to some of them when he returned from an expedition to +Notteroe to hire a crew for his next voyage to Amsterdam, on which she +was to accompany him. "Herr Jurgensen and his wife," she said, "had just +passed, and she had been talking to them; they were to start for +Frederiksvoern on the following day." + +"And fancy!" she went on with animation, "Fru Jurgensen knows Marie +Forstberg. So I asked her to remember me to her." + +"Marie Forstberg?--who is she?" asked Salve. + +"She who was so kind to me,"--she stopped here, and the colour came and +went in her face as she continued--"it was she who married--Beck's +son--the lieutenant." + +"You ought to have asked Fru Jurgensen to remember me to Beck then at +the same time," he said, cuttingly, and went past her into the house +without looking her in the face. + +Elizabeth followed him, feeling very uncomfortable, and after standing +for a moment in indecision, went over to him, and sitting down on his +knee, put her arm round his neck, saying-- + +"You are not angry with me, are you? I didn't think you would mind, or I +wouldn't have done it." + +"Oh! it's quite immaterial to me, of course, who you send your love to." + +"She was my best friend when I was--in Arendal," Elizabeth said, +avoiding the mention of Beck's name again. + +"I don't doubt you are on the best possible terms with all these +people," Salve said, impatiently, and making a movement as if he would +get up from his seat. + +It was Elizabeth who rose first. + +"Salve!" she exclaimed, and was about to add more, when he pulled her +down to him again, and said in a gentle tone of remorse-- + +"Forgive me, Elizabeth. I didn't mean what I said. But I do so hate +hearing you talk of these people." + +Elizabeth burst into tears, protesting against his want of confidence in +her; and Salve, now thoroughly distressed at the result of his want of +self-control, overwhelmed her with tenderness in his endeavours to +appease her. He succeeded after a while, and the evening was passed in +such sunshine as only succeeds to storm. + +After a quarrel of the kind, however, there must be always something +left behind, and though Salve was doubly affectionate for many days, +afterwards he grew more and more silent, and presently even irritable +and moody, and would not go to church on any of the succeeding Sundays +while he remained at home. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + +Elizabeth carried out her intention of accompanying him to Amsterdam, +where she paid a visit of several days to the Garvloits, and the +pleasure of the trip was only alloyed for her by the change which had +come over Salve's manner, and to which she had now to try and accustom +herself as one does to a less brilliant light after having seen the sun. + +They were on their way home again, sailing before a light breeze, and +under a soft blue sky, out of the busy, shallow Zuyder Zee. Elizabeth +was sitting on deck with little Gjert, blooming as a rose, and asking +animated questions of the pilot, whom they had been compelled to take on +board, about the various flat sandy islands and towns which came in +sight from time to time, Salve occasionally stopping in his walk to +listen. + +By Terschelling the channel from the Zuyder Zee to the North Sea is +marked out like a narrow strait with black and red buoys; and even in +that calm weather there were foaming breakers the whole way close to the +ship on either side. "What must it be like," Elizabeth asked, in a sort +of terror, "in a storm, when the whole sea was driving in?" + +"That is a sight it's better not to see," replied the pilot. + +"But you have to be out, storm or not, pilot?" + +"It is my way of getting a living," he answered, shortly. + +Salve stood and listened, as the conversation took this turn. + +"We have pilots in Norway, too," she said, "who don't mind a wet jacket +either. It is a fine life!" + +The Dutchman merely observed, coldly, in reply-- + +"In two successive years--it is three years ago now--they lost out here +off Amland a total of fifty pilots." + +"Still, it is a fine life!" she said; and Salve resumed his walk. + +A couple of evenings after, the Apollo was pitching out on the +Doggerbank in the moonlight, with a reef in her topsails. Elizabeth had +not yet gone below, and was sitting with her child warmly wrapped up on +her lap, while Salve paced the deck and looked at her from time to time. +A little farther off, near the main-hatch, Nils Buvaagen (whom Salve had +met again at Notteroe, and persuaded to take service with him) and a +couple of the crew who were off duty were engaged in story-telling, the +others lounging about near them to listen. Elizabeth, too, was +listening. + +They had crossed that day a long stretch of dead water, and the +carpenter had several mysterious incidents, of which he declared he had +been an eyewitness, to recount on the head of it. Meeting dead water +like that out in the open sea generally meant that something was going +to happen. + +Nils Buvaagen, like all fjord peasants, had a strong leaning towards +every kind of superstition; and in his many voyages across the North +Sea, he had had more than one experience of the kind in question. He had +sat quite silent so far. + +"H'm!" he remarked now, thoughtfully taking a pull at his pipe. "I dare +be sworn there's many a one out here on the Dogger. Where we are now, I +tell you, is as it might be an old burial-ground." + +With that he retired into himself, and began to pull away vigorously at +his pipe, as if he had unintentionally said more than he exactly liked. +But being pressed to go on, he was obliged to satisfy the curiosity he +had excited, and resumed accordingly in a hushed tone, after cautiously +looking round first. + +"Do you know," he asked, mysteriously, "how all the old fish come by +their deaths?" + +None of his audience were able to give an answer to this unexpected +question. + +"You don't?" he continued; "nor no one else neither. But all the same, +such myriads die every day that, if all was right, the whole surface of +the sea would be covered with their white bellies--we should be sailing +all day long through dead fish. It is a 'mystery,' the same as it is +what becomes of all the old ships in the world." Coming from him, that +word "mystery" had something very weird and uncanny about it. + +"Yes, the Dogger can be ugly enough, and may be so perhaps before we are +clear of it," he concluded, and leant back against the spar behind him +to look up at the clouds. Some scud was driving at the moment across the +full moon. + +"But about the old fish and the old vessels, Nils?" said the carpenter, +recalling him to the subject. + +"Yes, it is here, to the Dogger Bank, that they resort for the most +part, and to one or two other places perhaps in the world besides. That +is the reason that there is always a sort of corpse sand in the water +here, and so many noises and things that one can't explain." + +There was a general start as he said this, and they looked at one +another in silence; for it seemed as if the vessel had suddenly stopped +with a shock in the middle of her course, and the spray from a heavy sea +came pouring down over the deck. + +"She heard it," said the carpenter, involuntarily; "she is an old craft, +and doesn't like going over the churchyard." + +Elizabeth thought that last proposition sounded so uncomfortable that +she got up and went below to bed. + +The sea ran high in the night, and the vessel kept pitching with dull +thuds as if they were in very shoal water, which, however, the lead +showed not to be the case. In the morning the chain-cable of the anchor +was found tossed by the force of the sand-laden seas right over the +deck, and arranged there with a certain regularity. To many of the crew +it seemed clear that other than natural causes must have been at work; +there were evidently "dead hands" upon the bank, and this was a warning. +Nils shook his head and said nothing. + +All the morning they were enveloped in a thick sea fog that surrounded +them like a wall; but towards noon the sun began to appear like a sickly +gleam above them, and by dinner-time they were sailing under a clear +sky, and in a fresh green breezy sea, with sails on every side. + +It was an exhilarating sight, and reminded Elizabeth of the days of her +childhood. She called Salve over to share her enjoyment of it. + +Of all the vessels in sight, the handsomest, without comparison, was the +North Star, a Norwegian corvette, well known along the coast of Norway, +and which had often aroused Elizabeth's enthusiasm in earlier days. She +was crossing their course, and standing under full sail for the Channel. +Elizabeth recognised her at once, and exclaimed decisively-- + +"That is the North Star--isn't she a magnificent ship, Salve! See, they +are taking in the topsails; they look like a flock of birds up there on +the yard among those beautiful big sails. Did you ever see anything so +grand as her shape? and how majestically she ploughs through the sea! +When she has all her canvas spread like that, I could fancy Tordenskjold +himself on board of her in full chase." + +Salve looked straight before him and didn't answer. He knew, what +Elizabeth had not the faintest suspicion of, that Lieutenant Beck was on +board the North Star, as third in command for that year's cruise in the +Mediterranean, whither she was now bound; and a host of unpleasant +associations were raised by Elizabeth's innocent admiration of her. + +"It was the North Star," she continued, "that beat through the straits +of Gibraltar against the current when none of the others could." The +North Star had long ago taken the place of the Naiad as her heroine +ship, and she related the performance with a certain pride. + +"How would you like to be in command of a ship like that, Salve?" she +asked, determined to wake him up and get an answer. + +"It would be a very different thing from having such an old tub as the +Apollo under one--there's no disputing that," he replied bitterly; and +quitted her side abruptly, as if to give orders to the crew. + +Elizabeth remained standing where she was, utterly puzzled. What could +there possibly have been in what she had said to offend him? and +offended he certainly was by the tone of voice in which he was giving +his orders, and the expression of his face as he stood there by the +wheel with his hand in the breast of his pea-jacket--she felt certain it +was clenched there. It was really too unreasonable--the idea of his +being jealous of a ship! This uncertainty about every word she spoke now +was getting absolutely insupportable, and with a toss of her head she +determined that she would stand it no longer, but would speak her mind +to him once for all, whether it should lead to a scene or not. + +No opportunity, however, for carrying out her intention occurred during +the remainder of the afternoon. There appeared to be bad weather coming +up, and many of the sails had to be taken in; and afterwards he paced up +and down by the round-house forward for a couple of hours, purposely, as +she could see, avoiding her. The crew apparently had an impression, too, +that it was as well to keep out of his way, as they left him that side +of the deck to himself, and stood talking in knots about the capstan, +with their oilskin coats and sou'westers on, in anticipation of dirty +weather, and casting anxious glances from time to time at the banks of +cloud that were rolling up darkly from the horizon to leeward, and +sending already a whine through the old rigging above them. They waited +impatiently for the word to take in more sail, as it was obvious that +they must go with storm sails only for the night. + +It was only at the last moment apparently that Salve made up his mind, +for when he suddenly shouted over to them to take in topsails and put a +couple of reefs in the mainsail, the storm was already upon them. He +sprang aft at the same time and seized the trumpet, saying shortly and +harshly to Elizabeth as he passed her hurriedly, and almost without +looking at her-- + +"This is not weather for sitting up on deck, Elizabeth. You had better +take the child below and lie down." + +Elizabeth saw that he was right, and went; but there was a look of +pained surprise in her face as she lingered for a moment and looked +after him. He had never spoken to her like that before. + +The crew had supposed that he would of course keep away and run before +the gale, and not strain the old brig by beating to windward in such a +night as they saw before them; and it was under mute protest, therefore, +that they proceeded to carry out his orders to clap on preventer braces +on the rags of sail which they were carrying. The old blocks creaked and +screamed in the increasing darkness above the rattle of the hail +squalls, and the vessel careened over and went plunging into the head +seas with successive shocks that seemed likely very soon to shake her to +pieces. + +Nils Buvaagen was standing in moody silence, with another, at the wheel, +and he could see by the light from the binnacle, which occasionally fell +upon Salve's face as he walked up and down near them to leeward, that he +was ashy pale. He would have liked to say something, but it didn't seem +advisable. + +"Topsail's flapping!" came from forward, "she'll be taken aback!" + +"She's an old craft, captain--her topmasts'll not bear a great deal," +Nils ventured to observe. + +"I'll show you that I can make the old tub go," muttered Salve between +his teeth, affecting not to have heard what was said. + +"Keep her away, Nils--she must have more way--and so over on a new +tack," was his reply in a peremptory tone. + +"Stand by to 'bout ship!" + +Nils sighed: such sailing was quite indefensible; and there was not one +of the crew who had not the same feeling. + +Through the darkness and the blinding dash of the seas came then at +intervals-- + +"Haul in the boom--hard a-lee--brace forward--brace aft!" and here there +was a longer interval, for one of the ropes on the foremast had +apparently got foul, and there was a difficulty in bracing the yard, the +sail flapping with a dull noise above and making the whole mast tremble. +One of the crew had to mount the old rigging at the risk of his life, +and feel over the unsteady yard in the dark for the rope and disentangle +it, with the white tops of the seas breaking not far under his feet. + +"Sharp up aft--sharp forward!" came then again. "Haul the jib-sheet!" +but no sooner was the jib hauled taut and made fast, than it broke loose +and hung fluttering wildly about the stay until it gradually twisted +itself up into a tangle. + +The sails filled on the new tack; but they were not much better off than +before, the sea breaking over them with such violence that the deck, +from amidships forward, was only passable with the greatest difficulty +and danger. The crew began to think the captain must have taken leave of +his senses; and, in fact, Salve was not himself that night. He was +sailing in this reckless way in a mere fit of temper intensified by the +consciousness of his own unreasonableness. Elizabeth made a mistake, he +told himself by way of justification, if she thought that he on board +his poor brig gave in to any officer in the navy, let him be who he +might. She should see that he, too, was a man who could beat--he +required no North Star under him, he would perform the same feat in a +leaky old barge. + +A couple of times when the cook, who looked after Elizabeth's wants, +came up the cabin stairs, Salve inquired how she was getting on, and +heard each time that she was sitting up not yet undressed. The last time +the good-natured cook had added-- + +"She wants badly to see you, captain--she isn't accustomed to this sort +of thing." + +He made no reply further than a scornful contraction of his features +which was not visible to the other, and resumed his staggering walk to +leeward, between the companion and the wheel. + +Elizabeth meanwhile had been sitting a prey to most distracted thoughts. +When she went below with her child, she had a dull feeling at her heart +that some great sorrow had come or was coming over her, and she had sat +for some time almost without the power to think. He had never treated +her like that before. + +She set about putting the child to bed then in her usual way, as if she +had been a mere machine. For him the rolling berth was only a rocking +cradle, and he was soon sleeping quietly without an idea of danger. She +stood with her arm leaning over the edge of the berth, supporting him, +and gazing on his dimpled face; the lamp that swung to and fro under the +beam, shedding a dim light over the narrow cabin, with its small table, +and pegs full of seamen's clothes, moving solemnly backwards and +forwards on the wall. Between the creaking of the ship's timbers and the +noise of ropes being dragged across the deck, Salve's voice could be +heard in harsh tones of command, and every now and then there would be a +sudden concussion that would make the whole vessel shake, and the floor +would seem to go from under her feet, so that she had to hold on by the +rail of the berth, and keep the child from falling out as best she could +at the same time. Whenever they had had such weather before, Salve had +always come down from time to time to see her. Now--she didn't know what +to think. From what the cook had told her, she gathered that they were +beating with unjustifiable recklessness, and from the tone of Salve's +voice she knew that he was in a savagely defiant mood, and that she, for +some reason or other, was the cause of it. Her expression gradually +changed to one of deeper and deeper anxiety of soul. + +"But what have I done to him?" she exclaimed impetuously, and buried her +face in the bedclothes. + +"What have I done to him?" she repeated. "What can he believe?--what can +he possibly think?" she asked herself, as she stood now like a statue +almost, lost in conjecture, until the thought which she had always tried +to keep away came up before her in full, heavy, unmistakable clearness. + +"He doesn't trust me!" she whispered to herself, in despair. "He has no +faith in me;" and she laid her head--her beautiful head--down upon her +arm, just as her own child might have done, in an inconsolable fit of +crying. But to her no tears would come, and she seemed to see an abyss +of suspicion and distrust before her in which Salve's love for her was +going to disappear. + +She heard no longer the creaking and the noise on deck--no longer cared +about the lurching and the thuds against the head-seas--although she had +often to hold on to the berth with all her strength. All the energy of +her soul was now occupied with this one awful terror which had taken +possession of her. All her defiance was gone. Her only source of courage +now was to do anything or everything to keep his love. She felt ready +for any sacrifice whatever--ready, without a sigh, to bear the burden of +his suspicions all her life through if she might only keep his love. It +was she who had made him distrustful, and it was upon her the punishment +should fall, if she could not by persistent love bring him back to a +healthy condition of mind again. + +Her instinct at once suggested to her how she should begin. He should +see that she on her side had entire confidence in him--confidence as +absolute as the child's there who was sleeping before her. And with a +sickly smile upon her lips, she undressed and laid herself down beside +little Gjert. + +Upon deck Salve had wanted the night-glass, which was down in the cabin. +The look-out man had fancied that he had caught a glimpse for a moment +of a light, in which case, against Salve's calculations, they must be +under Jutland. His pride, however, would not allow him to send any one +else to fetch the glass, and he couldn't make up his mind to go down +himself. At last it became absolutely necessary, and he went hurriedly +down the stair. + +When he opened the cabin door he stood still for a moment in surprise, +and looked about him. He had expected to find Elizabeth sitting up, with +the child on her lap, and looking frightened. In place of that all was +quiet, and the lamp was nearly out. He strode on and took the glass from +the wall; and after a couple of attempts, managed to light a match, in +spite of the damp, and held it to the barometer. He remained then +standing with it in his hand, and listened to hear whether she was +asleep or not. Involuntarily he approached the berth, and looked into +it. + +"Elizabeth," he whispered, softly, as if he was afraid of waking her. + +"Is that you, Salve?" was the reply, in a perfectly calm voice. + +"I thought you would be sitting up with the boy in this gale. She rolls +so; and I--I haven't been down to see you," he said. + +"I knew I had you on deck, Salve," she replied. "The rest we must only +leave to God. You have not had time to come down, poor fellow," she +added, "you have been so busy." + +"Elizabeth!" he exclaimed, with a sudden pang of passionate remorse, and +reached over impetuously into the berth to embrace her with his wet +clothes. + +At that moment a crash was heard, accompanied by a violent trembling of +the ship, and loud cries on deck. Something had evidently given way. + +With the same movement with which he had intended to embrace her, he +lifted her quickly out of the berth, and told her to dress herself and +the child, and come up to the top of the cabin stairs. The words were +hardly out of his mouth when the vessel heeled over, and didn't right +herself again. + +"Fore-topmast gone, captain; rigging hanging!" bawled Nils Buvaagen down +the stair. + +Salve turned to her for a moment with a face full of mute, crushing +self-reproach, and sprang up on deck. + +"Keep her away, if she'll answer her helm!" he shouted to the man at the +wheel. "To the axes, men!" + +The brig lay over on one side, with her brittle rigging at the mercy of +the wind and sea, the waves making a clean breach over her. Salve +himself went up and cut away the topmast, which went over the side to +leeward; and as the first grey light of dawn appeared, and made the +figures of the crew dimly distinguishable, the axes were still being +feverishly plied in strong hands among the stays, backstays, and topmast +rigging. While the work was going on the fearful rolling caused first +the main-topgallant sail to go, and then the topsail, with the yards and +all belonging to it. The forestay snapped, the mainsail split, and the +lower yards and foremast were damaged. And when at last, after desperate +efforts, they had succeeded in freeing the ship from the encumbrance of +the fallen rigging, she lay there more than half a wreck, and scarcely +capable of doing more than run before the wind. + +They had only the boom-mainsail now, and the forecourse, left; and with +these Salve kept her away--it was the only thing now to be done--until +the growing light should show them whether they had sea-room, or the +dreaded Jutland coast before them. The last, with this westerly gale +blowing, would mean pretty nearly for a certainty stranding upon the +sandbanks and the vessel becoming a wreck. + +When it was clear day, they made out Horn's Reef far down to the +south-east; they lay about off Ringkjobing's Fjord, and would require +now to do their utmost to clear the coast. With some difficulty they +succeeded in rigging up a jury-mast, and managed by that means to keep +up a little closer in the wind. But their only chance was that the wind +might go down, or shift a little to the southward, or in the current, +which generally takes a northerly direction here, unless it should set +them in too much under land. + +Salve paced restlessly up and down his dismantled deck, where a great +part of the bulwarks and the round-house forward were stove in, whilst +the crew relieved each other two and two at the pumps. They had +evidently sprung a serious leak, which was the more cause for anxiety +that they were returning in ballast, and had no timber cargo to keep +them afloat. He had confided their situation to Elizabeth. + +"I am afraid we may be obliged to beach her at some convenient spot," he +said, adding, with a slight quiver in his voice, "we shall lose the +brig." + +He laid emphasis upon this, because he didn't wish to tell her the +worst--namely, that this convenient spot was not to be found upon the +whole coast, and that their lives were unmistakably in danger. + +Whatever happened, it seemed sufficient for Elizabeth that he was near +her, and there was a look of quiet trust in her face as she turned +towards him that went to his heart; he could not bear it, and turned +away. + +The brig and its possible loss did not occupy much of Elizabeth's +thoughts. In the midst of their danger she was absolutely glad at heart +at the thought that by her display of implicit confidence she had +succeeded in winning a great victory with Salve. After what she had gone +through that night, this was everything to her. + +There was a fine energetic look of determination in her face, and her +eyes were moist with tears as she bent over the child in her lap and +whispered-- + +"If he cannot trust us, we two must teach him--mustn't we, Gjert?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + +Towards dinner-time Salve and Nils Buvaagen were standing for a moment +together by the ship's side. + +The storm had perceptibly lulled, but the weather was still dull and +hazy, and the sea high. Two or three sea-gulls were circling drearily +between them and the coast, where they could now see a long line of +yellow foaming breakers like a huge wall, rising and falling on the +sandbanks, with here and there a mast-high jet of spray from some reef +outside. Although the wind was on shore they could hear the dull thunder +of the breakers there, and a kind of dim rumbling in the air. The next +three or four hours would obviously decide their fate. + +Neither spoke; each was occupied with his own reflections. Nils was +thinking of his wife and children at home, and Salve of his future. It +was hard to lose the brig; he had worked hard for the money she +represented, and he would have now to begin again on the lowest step of +the ladder--if he escaped with his life, that was to say. + +Less selfish thoughts succeeded then, and he turned to Nils. + +"What I feel most in this business, Nils," he said, earnestly, "is the +thought that you or any of the others may perhaps pay the penalty for my +mad sailing last night, with your lives. The brig is my own affair." + +"Oh, it will be all right, captain, you'll see," replied Nils, +cheeringly. "If we can hang on to the old craft while she bumps over the +banks, we shall manage somehow or other inside I expect." + +"God grant it!" said Salve, and turned away. + +Nils remained standing where he was for a moment, and something like a +spasm passed across his heavy features. He believed their situation to +be desperate, and the vision of his home again rose before him, and +almost choked him. + +"Relieve the pumps!" was heard. It was his turn again, and he gave +himself unweariedly to the work. + +Salve seemed like one conscience-smitten. His face wore an expression of +strained uneasiness, and his look more and more, as the moments passed, +betokened the consciousness that a struggle for life was before them. +Through the glass a knot of people could be seen gathering on the downs +which ran along the coast, with their jagged formations showing out in +tones of dim violet and blue. + +He stood now in the companion with his wife and his child, and sighed +heavily as he looked at them. + +"I would gladly give the brig, and be reduced to my own two hands once +more, to have last night over again, Elizabeth!" he said. + +She pressed his hand with an expression of sympathy, which answered him +better than words; and the next moment he was again the practical man, +showing her how she might tie the child to her breast with a +handkerchief. + +"I can't stay with you any longer now," he said. "I am responsible for +the lives of all on board, and must do my duty by them." + +"Do your duty, Salve," she said. + +"And so," he concluded, as, trying to conceal his emotion, he stroked +her forehead and then the child's, "you must keep a good heart. When the +pinch comes I shall be at your side, and we shall win through it, you'll +see." + +"With God's gracious help!" she answered; "remember that, Salve." + +He strode away then down the deck and called the crew aft to take +counsel with him on the situation. The vessel was rapidly becoming +water-logged. + +"Listen, my lads!" he said; "this is a serious business, as you can all +very clearly see. But if we only have stout hearts we may get out of it +yet, at all events with our lives. We have about three hours still +before we run upon the sandbanks; but by that time it will have begun to +get dark, and it may be difficult for the people on shore to come to our +rescue. We must steer straight in and choose the likeliest place +ourselves; and if you are of the same way of thinking we'll head for the +shore now at once, rather than wait to have the old craft flung over the +banks in the dark like a dead fish." + +The crew were silent, and looked anxiously over towards the land. But +when Nils Buvaagen declared himself a supporter of the captain's plan by +crossing over the deck to him, all the others followed. + +Salve went himself to the wheel, and gave the order to "Ease off the +sheet." + +"Ease it is," was the answer; and that was the last order ever given on +board the Apollo. + +Running now before the wind, they rapidly approached the land. Salve +stood at the wheel, resting his knee from time to time on one of the +spokes, with a concentrated look on his dark keen face, and his eye +searching like a kite's along the coast for the place they were to make +for. A couple of times he took up the glass and directed it towards the +downs, where a group of people were moving about. + +The chalk-white wall of water, rising and falling, grew higher and +higher as they approached it; the noise and the dull roar of the +breakers became more and more deafening, and a feeling of faintness +crept over Elizabeth as she looked towards the land, and began to +realise their danger. + +The suspense was so painfully prolonged, a mist was coming before her +eyes, so that she could scarcely see Salve over at the wheel; and she +tried, in her terror, to keep them fixed upon the child in her arms. The +seething, hissing sound in the air around her kept increasing, and made +her giddy; a confusion of wild sounds, that grew louder and ever louder, +seemed to fill her brain; and before her eyes there was nothing but a +whirl of scudding flakes of white. A mass of sand-laden foaming water +appeared then suddenly to rise before her with a towering crest; she +heard one loud cry of terror from different voices; the brig seemed +lifted high in the air; the mainmast tottered; and a suffocating deluge +of water came crashing down upon her, nearly carrying her with it down +the cabin stairs, where she was clinging. Again and again it came, and +her one thought now was to hold fast. + +When she returned to consciousness again, Salve was by her side. They +were fastened to the same rope, and all the crew had come aft, and +lashed themselves there. The brig lay over on her side upon the inner +bank, with her stern up, and with the mainmast lying over the side. She +kept lifting and striking heavily against the bottom, while heavy seas, +one after another, swept her forward. + +"The rigging to leeward must be cleared away, and we shall get off, +lads!" shouted Salve, through his hollowed hand; and he sprang over with +an axe to do it. Nils Buvaagen came to his assistance, and Elizabeth, in +intense anxiety, watched the two men while they cut away rope after +rope, holding on by the rigging all the time, the sea breaking over +them, so that sometimes they were hardly visible through the drench of +water. After one last stroke, which freed them from the mast, Salve was +by her side again. + +The next moment they were carried over the bank by the yellow churning +surge, and with a succession of jerks and bumps, over to the shoal +inside, where the bow-timbers were stove in--"the best thing that could +have happened to them," Salve said, coolly, "as it would relieve the +vessel of the weight of water in the hold, and they might now be washed +up nearer to the beach." + +At length, after a couple of long and terrible hours, as twilight was +coming on, and the face of the downs was becoming darker in the gloomy +atmosphere, it seemed as if the vessel had finally settled. The waves +now broke less frequently over her, but left a heavy deposit of sand +upon the deck when they did break. It seemed likely that she would go to +pieces, plank by plank, if they remained as they were through the night, +or else perhaps they would be buried in sand. + +On one side of the shoal--on the side where they saw people upon the +beach--ran a channel with a strong current; and they, perceived that +they had been fortunate to some extent in not having been washed right +over into it, as in that case the brig must inevitably have sunk: on the +other side there was navigable water, though with breakers here and +there. Their signals, they knew, had been seen by the people on shore; +but, to their despair, they saw them all at once disappear. + +Salve, upon that, set to work to lash some planks together for a raft; +and the crew followed his example with whatever they could lay their +hands upon that would float. His idea was, to try and get Elizabeth and +the child to land by tying them securely to the raft, and trust to his +own swimming powers and address to reach the shore with the line he was +attaching to it; and the only question then would be, whether he would +be able to haul it to land against the strong back-suck of the receding +waves, that left every time a long stretch of dry sand behind them. +Elizabeth was sitting meanwhile on the cabin-stairs, scarcely in a +condition to comprehend what was passing. + +As Salve was occupied with this work, he suddenly heard a shout of joy +round him. From behind a projection in the downs a group of men had +appeared, carrying a large boat. They stopped at a corner of the beach. +A number of them took their seats in the boat; and as a wave was curling +over to break, the others ran her down, and the back flow carried her +out to sea, the men setting to work at once with all their might at the +oars. + +The plucky fellows evidently knew the water thereabouts; for they +steered in a wide circle up behind a line of shoals, that acted like a +mole in breaking the force of the waves, and bore down then obliquely +upon the wreck, to leeward of which the water was comparatively smooth. + +"Now then, look alive, my hearties!" they shouted, as they hooked on; +and the admonition was scarcely needed. + +Salve carried his almost unconscious wife down to the side, where they +took her and laid her aft in the bottom of the boat; but she sat up with +outstretched arms until her child had been passed to her from hand to +hand, and was safe in them again, and then she watched anxiously for +Salve to come too. He sprang down into the boat the last, and then she +fainted. + +They put off, and stood in now on the crests of the waves straight for +the beach, where a score of men in sea-boots and woollen jackets made a +chain down into the water by holding each other's hands, and drew the +boat ashore. + +They heard congratulations all round; and the man who had held the +tiller exclaimed, as Salve silently grasped his hand-- + +"It was resolutely done, Northman, to steer like that--only that you +did, you'd have passed the night upon the bank." + +The invitation of their rescuers to partake of such hospitality as they +could offer was gladly accepted by the famished party from the wreck; +and they followed the steersman, Ib Mathisen, and his comrades in among +the downs, where the wind was no longer felt. It was some miles to the +fishing village; and they trudged on after it grew dark in silence, +being too exhausted, and too dejected, to talk, their guides only +keeping up a low conversation among themselves. Salve carried the child, +sheltering it from the pricking sand that blew in their faces when they +came out upon the flat downs farther on, and supporting Elizabeth at the +same time. + +At last they saw the lights of a group of cottages. The largest of these +belonged to Ib Mathisen; and into this Salve and his wife were +conducted, while the crew were distributed among the others. + +Ib's wife, a robust-looking woman of fifty or thereabouts, with a bold, +straightforward expression in her tanned countenance, was standing over +by the fire with her sleeves tucked up baking, when they came in. She +examined the incomers steadily for a moment without raising herself from +her stooping position; but at the sight of Elizabeth and the child she +exclaimed in a tone of compassion that was better than any more formal +welcome, "The poor woman and her child have been cast ashore, Ib?" and +set about caring for their wants at once, her grown-up daughter helping +her to draw a bench to the fire for them, and putting a kettle on to +make something warm for them to drink. This was evidently not her first +experience of the kind; and before long they had all put on dry clothes, +and Elizabeth and the child were in a warm bed. As she went about she +put questions in a low voice to her husband; and Salve, who was sitting +with his cheek in his hand staring into the fire, heard her say-- + +"Perhaps he was the owner of the vessel himself?" + +"Yes, she was all the property we possessed," Salve answered, quietly. +"But we are none the less grateful to your husband for rescuing us, and +we have unfortunately very little to thank him with for venturing his +life out on the banks in such weather." + +"So you've been at that game again, Ib," said the wife, turning to her +husband reproachfully, but not seeming altogether sincere in her +reproach. + +Turning to Salve then she said a little curtly, "For the like of that we +take no payment," adding in a milder tone, "We have two sons ourselves +who ply to Norway--there's a bad coast there too." + +Salve was pale and worn out with over-exertion, and after taking a +mouthful of food he lay down to rest. But he could not sleep, and +towards morning he was lying awake listening to the dull booming of the +distant sea. Elizabeth was tossing about feverishly and talking in her +sleep. Her brain was evidently busy with the terrors of the previous +night, and from occasional words it seemed as if he had a share in her +thoughts. He lay and listened, though there was not much to be made out +of her disjointed utterances. She grew more restless, and began to talk +more excitedly-- + +"Never! never!" she said, vehemently; "he shall never hear a word about +the brig," and she went on then in a confidential whisper-- + +"Shall he, Gjert? He shall find us in our berth, or else he will think +we are afraid." + +Salve kissed her forehead tenderly, but with a sigh. There had been a +motive then, after all, at the bottom of that display of confidence +which had occasioned him such pangs of self-reproach. + +A couple of hours after he was on the way down to the sea to look at the +brig. The general aspect of the world about him was in harmony with his +mood. The wind whistled over the dreary sand-hills, whirling the sand in +clouds in among the downs that stretched away like a storm-tossed sea +into the distance, in every variety of desolate and jagged outline. Upon +the melancholy shore a sea-gull or two were circling round some old +black stumps of wreck that protruded from the sand; while beyond lay the +dismal expanse of the western sea, without a sail upon its leaden waste +of waters, so shunned by all. Dreariness, wreck, and desolation were on +every side; and it seemed to Salve that it was only a reflection of his +own life. He had got to be the owner of a brig, and there it lay, what +remained of it, buried in the sand. He had succeeded in making Elizabeth +his own, but had he thereby added anything to the happiness of his life? + +He stood gazing at the remains of his brig, over which the yellow waves +were breaking, in a state of gloomy abstraction, from which he was only +aroused by the approach of Ib Mathisen and a party of his own crew, who +had followed him to the shore to see if possibly they might retrieve +some of their property. He joined them in the search, and with but small +result; three ship chests and the compass being all the reward of an +hour's labour among the timber-ends and bolts and pieces of rigging that +strewed the beach, or made ripples in the sand for a long distance in +either direction. + +They remained that day in the fishing hamlet; and when Salve had made +his declaration before the authorities, and had paid the crew what he +owed them with the greater part of the money he had saved, he and +Elizabeth took passage for Christiansand in a corn ship from Harboere. + +He was very silent on the way, thinking about his future; and the +prospect was not a bright one: he knew that there prevailed but one +opinion among the crew about the loss of the brig, that he had his own +folly only to thank for it; and as this, of course, would get about, his +chance of being employed as a skipper by any shipowner would be very +small. Elizabeth's popularity in Tonsberg might probably be of service +to him, but he would sooner starve than help himself to a situation by +means of it; and in her present circumstances she should not even return +to Tonsberg. + +One only course remained open to him if he was not to begin again from +the very beginning--he would become an uncertificated pilot for the +Arendal district. No one knew the coast there better than he did; he had +always had the idea in his mind, ever since the night when he brought +the Juno into Merdoe; and out there, or in some other spot along the +coast, he reflected gloomily that he could have Elizabeth all to +himself. + +When he announced his decision to Elizabeth, she entered with animation +into the project; and when he went on to add, that she would have to be +content now with being only a common man's wife, she replied, +intrepidly-- + +"If he is only called Salve Kristiansen, I require nothing more." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + +It was so arranged then; and though Elizabeth was rather disappointed to +hear that she was not to see her tidy house at Tonsberg again, she +allowed no indication of the feeling to escape her, and Salve went by +himself to arrange their affairs there. + +When he had sold what property they had, and bought his pilot-boat, they +had still a small sum left with which to begin housekeeping afresh, and +Merdoe was chosen for their future residence. + +From the outside this island looks only like one of the desolate series +which form the outworks of the coast for miles here in either direction, +with many a spot of angry white marking the sunken rocks between. But +the inner side forms the well-known Merdoe harbour of refuge, with its +little hamlet of fishermen's and pilots' houses on the strand; and it +was in one of these, a little red painted house with a small porch in +front and a flagged yard and garden behind, and which presently became +their own, that they eventually settled. + +The coast outside Merdoe is exceptionally dangerous, but the Merdoe pilots +have also the reputation of being exceptionally brave and skilful. They +are also perhaps the widest known. For having no defined district they +take a wide range, and may to-day be lying off Lindesnaes, to-morrow +under the Skaw or the Holmen, and the day after board a ship from +Hamburg right away down at Horn's Reef. It is a common thing to meet one +of them with his Arendal mark, his red stripe and number on the +mainsail, trawling for mackerel far out over the North Sea, and even +down as far as the Dogger Bank, where they get information from foreign +fishing smacks of vessels from the Channel or from English or Dutch +ports. If a skipper wants news from the North Sea or Skager Rack, he +generally keeps a look-out for one of these pilot-boats, and finds a +living shipping list, and the newest too, on board, which costs him, at +the most, supposing he has nothing of interest to impart in return, a +roll of tobacco, a bottle of spirits, or a strand of rope. But it is to +the captain who, on some pitch-dark winter night, when the sea is +running mountains high, has come in beneath bare poles under the +Torungens, and who knows that he is doomed if he cannot get a pilot, +that these Merdoe men are most familiar. When, perhaps, he has given up +all hope, he suddenly hears himself hailed from the darkness; a line is +thrown; and a dripping pilot stands upon the deck. When the sea is too +rough to board a vessel in any other way, they do not think twice about +taking a line round their waist and jumping overboard; and when it is a +point of honour with them to bring in a ship, boat and home and life +weigh but very little in the opposite scale. + +The black-bearded Salve Kristiansen soon came to be the best known in +Arendal of them all. The dauntless look in his keen brown eyes, his +sharp features, and his short, sudden manner and way of speaking, gave +the impression of a character of uncommon energy; and it was said that +not the very wildest weather would deter him from going to sea. He was +known to have more than once stayed alone on board a water-logged vessel +while he sent his comrade on shore for help; and in his little room at +home, with its white-painted windows, and geraniums, and Dutch +cuckoo-clock, there stood above the roll of charts and telescope on the +wall a bracket with more than one silver goblet upon it, which, like the +telescope, were presents in acknowledgment of his services in piloting +vessels into port under circumstances of unusual difficulty and danger. +But, notwithstanding the repute in which he was held, he had never yet +received the medal for saving life, nor had he yet been made a +certificated pilot of the district. + +He was not a man who gathered comrades round him; and as the years +passed, his unapproachability of demeanour, which seemed intended to +convey to people with a certain bitterness that he could do very well +without them, increased. It was said up in the town that he had taken to +drink. For after selling off his mackerel down on the quay, he would +often now sit the whole day in Mother Andersen's parlour with his +brandy-glass before him; and when evening approached, and his head had +had as much as it could carry, it was just as well to keep out of his +way. He did not talk much; and what attraction he found in Mother +Andersen's parlour it was not easy to say. But they knew, at all events, +how to treat him there; and he felt, from the casual questions that +would be addressed to him after he had returned from sea, or from the +way in which a newcomer would salute him, that he was in a sympathetic +atmosphere, and that his name was in repute. It was even something more +than respect, perhaps, which he inspired, for a sailor would think twice +before sitting down beside him, unless it came natural to him to do so +from the way in which they had greeted or spoken to one other. + +It was not, however, any attraction which he found in Mother Andersen's +parlour which made him spend so much of his time there; it was that he +was afraid of his own temper at home. + +When he had first set up on his own account, and had had his appointment +as a duly certificated pilot for the object of his ambition, he had +never made it his habit to stay in Arendal when he returned from sea +instead of going home. But some two or three years after he had settled +out at Merdoe, a couple of incidents had occurred which made a new +starting-point, as it were, in his domestic life. They were the +nomination of Captain Beck, who was now a wealthy man, to the post of +master of the pilots of the district, and who, as such, became his +superior; and the arrival of Carl Beck to live in Arendal and +superintend his father's shipbuilding yard, for which purpose he had +retired from the navy. Since the arrival of the Becks he had become more +and more difficult to get on with; and Elizabeth's secret, self-denying +struggle grew proportionately harder. Whenever she returned from a +shopping expedition to Arendal, or from seeing her aunt, she would be +sure to find him in an irritable humour, which would generally vent +itself in contemptuous remarks upon old Beck's incapacity for the post +he held; and at last, much as she longed to get a glimpse now and then +of something different from the monotony of her daily life out on Merdoe, +she gave up going altogether. + +Her patience and self-suppression had had the effect, as years went on, +of making a tyrant of her husband. When in one of his dark moods now, he +would not tolerate the slightest contradiction from her or from any one +in the house, and all she could do was to be quietly cheerful and +affectionate, and to try her best to avoid falling into any of the traps +which he would lay to catch her, and to make her, by some chance word or +other, or even by a slightly displeased or resigned expression, give his +bad humour an excuse for breaking out. She had to weigh every word she +uttered, and to take the most roundabout methods of avoiding his +sensitiveness, and after all, she would perhaps commit herself when she +least expected it; upon which a scene would immediately ensue, that +would be all the more unpleasant from his never expressing himself +directly. Sometimes Salve was really desperate, and would terrify her +with all kinds of threats, not against her, but against himself--and she +knew he was just the man to carry them out. It had often happened that +for some unlucky word of hers he had gone to sea again an hour after +coming home; and once in such weather that she had not the faintest hope +of ever seeing him return. + +She would sit at home and weep for hours together, striving to repress +the angry feelings of resentment which would rise from time to time when +she thought how little return she received for all she gave; how less +than little her happiness was considered; and how meagre a reward for +all she had to endure were the two or three days perhaps of occasional +happy calm and sunshine in her home, when she seemed to have him with +her as he had been in the first early days of their married life, and +when he would find it as hard to tear himself away from his home again +as she knew he had often found it to return. What a heart he had in +reality! She alone knew that--the others judged him only by his hard and +harsh exterior. And how proud she was of him when she heard the others +talking of the daring things he had done, and saw how they all looked up +to him! But it was not enough. And in the dulness and loneliness of her +life out there on Merdoe, she enjoyed to the full, during these many +weary years, her woman's privilege of suffering for the man she loved. +But it was not to be so always. Brighter days--little as she now +expected them--were still in store for her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + +We may leave for a moment the contemplation of a domestic history +lighted up at present by such few and fitful gleams of sunshine, and +glance at the married life of another pair who have figured in this +story, and who have not been without their influence upon whatever there +may have been of tragic in its development. + +The young Becks, as they were called in contradistinction to the +master's family, were now among the first people in Arendal, and kept +one of the best houses in the town, which they had ample means to do, +for the shipbuilding business brought them in a considerable annual +income. Carl Beck had lost none of his attractiveness as he grew older. +His curling black hair had now an early sprinkling of grey in it, but +was always arranged to the very best effect; and there was, people said, +such a nobleness about him (his cleverness was undisputed) that when he +rose to propose or reply to a toast, there was not a lady at the table +who was not in a flutter of inward admiration. With his social +advantages he could not, of course, fail to be in a position of +considerable influence in the town, which again heightened his welcome +in society. + +But if he was thus made much of, it was not altogether the same with his +wife. The estimate of her which generally prevailed, that she was so +perfectly "correct," was not intended perhaps to be complimentary, but +implied at the same time a recognition of her social power. She was, in +fact, her husband's timepiece, and without her tact he would not have +kept himself as straight as he did in the midst of the gushing welcomes +which he found on all sides. + +In his relations with his wife he was a pink of chivalry, never omitted +the most trifling attention, and was always being complimented on being +a pattern husband. Some few of the intimates of the house seemed to +think, though, that there was something strange in their attitude to one +another--a sort of coolness and reserve about both--and it was whispered +that his wife did not appreciate him as she ought; it seemed as if the +two talked together best when strangers were present. Fru Beck, too, +always looked so uncommonly pale, and was so frigidly calm, that it +might have been supposed she had no feelings at all; and in comparison +with his overflowing warmth of nature she certainly did seem dreadfully +precise and cold. + +When they first came to Frederiksvaern as a young newly-married couple, +her colour had been fresh, and her expression showed that she was still +in love; she was then completely under the spell of his attractive +warmth of manner, and felt safe in the possession of his love. It was +true, a couple of failings, which contrasted strangely with the idea she +had formed of him from his manly bearing, had gradually disclosed +themselves--namely, an extraordinary vanity, and an almost ridiculous +dependence upon the opinion of the world. But so long as his heart was +in the right place, and she could feel that he loved her, these +disappointments were matters of but secondary consideration to her. She +felt that she even loved him all the more for these weaknesses; and she +trusted to the power which she was gaining over him more and more every +day to get them presently corrected. + +The charming Lieutenant Beck became sought after everywhere, and his +success with the ladies resulted in his having very soon established +sentimental relations with nearly every member of the fair circle around +him. He nearly always had a flower in his buttonhole when he came home, +which had been jokingly given to him as a _gage d'amour_ by some one or +other of his admirers; he received presents from all sides; and they, in +fact, laid a sort of embargo upon him as an object of general +admiration. + +There was nothing to say against all this--far from it; but the only +person who felt left out in the cold was his own wife, who seemed to see +this enthusiastic crowd gradually establishing, as it were, a +prescriptive right of way between herself and her husband, and treading +under foot the very flowers that should have grown only for their own +two selves in the intimacy of their home. She became gradually a less +animated, but was still, he thought, an interested listener, when he +came home after being in the society of his lady friends, and recounted +his triumphs. If this was so, she at all events began to be more +particular about her own dress and appearance, and set to work now to +systematically cultivate the social talent which she naturally +possessed. She determined to conquer her rivals, who had the advantage +of her in appearance, but were inferior to her in talent; and she +succeeded. But she became naturally an object for their criticism in +consequence. + +The only one with whom she did not succeed was her husband. His +self-love was far too much taken up with the small flatteries of all +kinds, and the homage of which he was the object, to have any eyes for +the very great compliment indeed which was being paid to him by his wife +in the line which she had adopted. To her he was married, and therefore +of her he was always sure enough. + +It was from that time that she dated the influence which she usually +acquired in the social circles she frequented, and which her husband's +position and circumstances made it easy for her to maintain when they +changed their residence to Arendal. + +But those first years of their married life had not passed without a +serious, and to her completely decisive, _eclaircissement_. It was +occasioned by his relations with the wife of an officer of rank, which +had become really more intimate than her pride could stand, although she +knew very well that on her husband's side it was only a sort of mixture +of vanity and policy that prompted his affectation of devotion. She had +treated the lady with marked coldness at a party where they had met, and +her husband had taken her to task for it when they got home. + +Entirely wrapped up in himself as he was, it had never occurred to him +that his wife could have any cause of complaint against him, and what +she had been going through had been altogether lost upon him. She did +not say much now in reply to his reproaches--she merely stood and looked +at him in a way that made him feel rather uncomfortable, and then +quietly left the room. He could hear her going with slow steps up the +stairs. + +An hour or so after, she came down again into the room with a light in +her hand. Her expression was cold, and she did not look at him as she +set about putting the room to rights for the night as usual. He tried to +pacify her, begged her not to take what he had said so much to heart, +and was going to put his arm affectionately round her waist, but was +stopped on finding himself suddenly confronted by the deadly pale face +and flashing eyes of an infuriated woman. + +The time had come to speak out, and she did speak out; and Lieutenant +Beck heard what he would have been very sorry to repeat to his best +friend. For he felt in his heart that it was nothing but the truth, +however soon he might forget it again. + +She called him a pitiful wretch, who would sell her and everything they +jointly prized to the first comer for a little miserable flattery. He +had distributed himself to that extent among his giddy acquaintance, she +went on, with a movement as if she thrust from her something she utterly +despised, that there was nothing left of him for a woman with a vestige +of truth or honour to pick up. + +When her husband threw himself upon the sofa, and exclaimed in a +sentimental tone that he was a miserable man, she repeated the last word +twice in an inexpressibly contemptuous tone-- + +"A man!--a man!--if you had been a man, you would still have had my +love--at all events a remnant of it; but now, like this light +here,"--and she puffed it out,--"all is extinguished between us." + +With that she left the room. + +Beck sat where he was, overwhelmed and stupefied at this sudden blow +which had fallen upon his domestic happiness, and with a horrible +apprehension that she might have meant what she said in real earnest. + +She sat in the room with her child the whole night, and he knew that he +dared not disturb her. + +Notwithstanding the struggle which it cost his pride, he was almost +humble in his manner towards her for some days after, and warmly and +cordially acknowledged that he had been in the wrong. He even tried to +show her that he was in earnest by assuming for a while an altered +attitude towards the ladies, and actually succeeded so far that she +appeared to have forgotten that anything had occurred between them, and +was just the same in her intercourse with him as before--quietly +friendly that is to say, as she had been of recent years. + +It never came to any real reconciliation on her side. She had seen too +clearly that his nature was only that of a drifting cloud, glowing for +the moment just as it was played upon by popular applause; and he was +too profoundly selfish for any real earnest love to find a root in his +composition, much less to give promise of a common life-growth. With his +feeling and good-nature he would have treated any wife well, even if she +had not made herself so necessary to him as she was; her social talent, +she felt, was her great safety--it made him look up to her; and his vain +nature required that she should be something to be proud of: but she was +forced to acknowledge in her own heart with despair that she had been +blinded by her love for him, that his nature was absolutely deficient in +constancy and truth, and in every quality which she had once persuaded +herself to see in him. She knew the secret about this man, so brilliant +before the eyes of the world--that he was not a man. He lived and moved +before her now like a defaced ideal, to which she was tied--to the end +of her life. The bitterness of disappointment rankled in her mind, and +was all the more poignant that she had to keep it shut up within herself +and had no one to confide in. Her life had become a desert, and at the +very moment when her husband would be making a brilliant little speech +that called forth applause all round the table, she would seem to hear +nothing but a rattle of emptiness. She always protested to her parents, +when they could not understand why she looked so pale, that she was +perfectly happy; and they had no reason to think otherwise, for she +seemed to be well cared for in every respect. The only real interest +which she possessed now in life was her son Frederick; but she brought +him up with the utmost possible strictness, for she fancied she detected +his father's nature over again in him. + +She had always retained her warm interest in Elizabeth, and the messages +which she had received from her from time to time had always given her +pleasure. She had never felt so attracted towards any one since as she +had been to that girl; and now after her great disappointment, +Elizabeth's features, so full of character and expression, were +constantly before her. She had seen her sometimes in Arendal, and +thought she knew the reason why Elizabeth always seemed to avoid meeting +her; for she had found once, by chance, among some old letters in one of +her husband's drawers, the note which Elizabeth had written to him. + +It had been no shock to her. By that time she had come to know his +volatile nature, and had given up all hope of ever being more to him +than another would be. + +On the occasions when she had caught a glimpse of the pilot's wife in +the street, she had looked searchingly into her face to try and satisfy +herself whether she looked happy. But she had not been able to do so; +there seemed to be something on Elizabeth's mind. And taking this +impression in connection with what she heard of the pilot, of his +hardness and uncompanionable temper, she thought that it was clear +enough that Elizabeth too, was unhappy in her married life, and longed +to have a talk with her, to know whether she herself was not the more +unhappy of the two. + +Nor had Fru Beck's uncommon pallor escaped Elizabeth's notice, and she +also longed to have a talk again with her friend of former days; but +Beck's house was for many reasons impossible ground for her. As she was +standing one day with Gjert on the quay, about to start for home, Fru +Beck passed a little way off, leaning on her husband's arm, and looked +back with an expression so sad, and with eyes that seemed to linger so +longingly, as if she had something she wanted to say, or to confide, +that they nodded involuntarily to one another. + +Since then they had never met, for from that time Elizabeth had scarcely +ever been in Arendal. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + +Gjert was now ten years old; and whilst his father was sitting over his +glass in Mother Andersen's parlour, he used generally to amuse himself +out in the harbour with a number of the Arendal boys with whom he had +struck up an acquaintanceship, and who understood very little about +differences of social position. + +The brown-haired, brown-eyed little lad, with his sharp, intelligent +face, was the wildest of them all, and enjoyed a certain consideration +among them at the same time as his father's son--an honour which he +evidently thought it incumbent upon him to maintain by every kind of +break-neck exploit. His proper business, of course, was to look after +his father's boat in his absence; but as it was safely moored, and could +be seen just as well from any of the yards in the harbour, he used +generally to wait in some such conspicuous position till his friends +came streaming down to the quay from school, and throwing their books +down, sailed out in some punt or other to join him. Most of the boys had +been expressly warned by their mothers against the reckless +Kristiansen's son, but cross-trees and mast-heads became thereby only +the more attractive. + +Old Beck's grandson, Frederick, who was going to be a naval cadet, had +fancied one day that he would escape observation from the windows at +home by climbing up to join his friend at the mast-head, on the other +side of the mast; but the slender spar was not sufficient to protect him +from the master-pilot's keen eye, and the latter came himself on board +in full grandfatherly indignation against the skipper for allowing such +pranks to be played on board his craft, thrashed Gjert for being the +cause of his grandson's disobedience, and told him that it was very +clear what he would come to some day--that he came of a bad stock, and +took after it. His own little scion, although a couple of years older +than Gjert, escaped punishment altogether--the other lads, however, +determining among themselves that he should have it the next time they +met. And he would have had it, if Gjert, who should have been the one +more particularly to desire revenge, had not unexpectedly taken his +part. + +It was only as they were sailing the cutter home that the pilot heard +how Beck had thrashed his son, and cast his horoscope. His smurched face +grew white as a sheet. But when Gjert went in to tell him how, all the +same, he had taken Frederick Beck's part, his father looked at him in +surprise, and then muttered something about "telling this to his +mother." + +Elizabeth had seen the boat pass Merdoe for Arendal the day before, and +she was sitting indoors now expecting her husband, having commissioned +their youngest and only other son, Henrik, to keep a look-out, and come +and tell her when he saw his father coming. Henrik, however, had +entirely forgotten her injunctions in the more interesting occupation of +catching shrimps in one of the salt-water pools which a recent high tide +had left among the rocks; and there, in the bright afternoon, over the +blue and gold sea, dotted with sails, was the boat with its stripe and +number already close by, standing straight in for the harbour with a +flowing sheet. + +With all her deep love for her husband, Elizabeth always awaited his +return now with a certain dread; and as she sat there by the window with +her work, in her rather foreign, Dutch style of dress, with the rays of +the evening sun streaming in upon her through the geraniums, she did not +look a happy woman. She was pale, and from time to time leaned her cheek +for a moment on her hand, and closed her eyes with a wearied look, and +then went on again determinedly with her sewing. When she heard his +voice unexpectedly outside the door, she jumped up hurriedly, but +stopped then with a half-frightened look, hesitating whether to go out +and meet him or not. + +While she hesitated the door opened, and her expression changed at once +to one of cheerfulness, and apparently glad surprise. + +"Well, mother, how goes it?" he cried, as he entered, in a light and +cheery tone, which took in a moment a weight off her heart; "and where +is the 'bagman'?"--a pet name he had for his youngest son, when he was +in good humour. + +Gjert's adventure with Beck's grandson had made him a different man +to-day, and had immeasurably lightened for the time his wife's task; but +she was very careful not to let him see that she found him any different +from usual. Still, as she helped him off with his pilot-coat he noticed +that her hand trembled. His attention was diverted, however, at the +moment by the appearance of Henrik in the doorway, looking very +frightened and conscious, and with his trousers still tucked up over his +bare legs, and with the tin cup, in which he had his shrimps, in his +hand. + +Gjert came in now with some of the things for the house which his father +had bought in Arendal, and impressing the doleful-looking "bagman" into +the service, took him down with him to the boat to help him to bring up +the rest. He had only given his mother a hurried kiss, as he had seen at +a glance that all was right this time. When it was otherwise, he always +kept by her, and, in look and manner, gave her all the help he could. He +had seen from his childhood, and comprehended so much of the unhappiness +of her relations with his father, that he had constituted himself her +friend and support, although, at the same time, he was devoted to his +father. When Gjert was in the boat, Elizabeth had a sort of security +that Salve would at all events not be absolutely reckless; and Gjert +always took care that she should have news of them by other pilots or +fishermen from Merdoe, from the different places they put in to. If the +boy was not with his father she would sometimes send him in to Arendal +to look for him. + +This time the pilot made a long stay at home, and during the whole time +not a single domestic jar occurred. For a couple, indeed, who had been +married as long as they had, such unbroken harmony would, under any +circumstances, have been remarkable. Little Henrik had even had his +father as a companion on one of his shrimping expeditions; and much of +Salve's time had since been taken up in rigging a little brig for his +delighted son. + +The only point upon which a harmless little difference occurred was the +question of Gjert's schooling. They were very fairly well-to-do people +for their position, and his mother had one day, as if the idea had +suddenly occurred to her, asked why they should not send him to school +in Arendal; he would be able to lodge with her aunt there, she said. His +father, however, would not hear of it, and dismissed the subject very +shortly by saying that when Gjert was old enough, he intended him to go +to Tergesen's rigging-loft in Vraangen and learn to rig. + +His mother could not, however, so easily dismiss the ambitious scheme +from her mind, and it became, a few days after, the occasion of the most +violent scene which had ever yet put her strength of purpose to the +test, but from which there ensued eventually the very happiest results. + +A man-of-war had lately come up to Arendal from a cadet cruise to the +Mediterranean, and Gjert had been allowed to go over with one of the +other pilots to see her. + +Apart from the sensation which her lofty rig, the shining brass stoppers +protruding from her gunports, her swarm of sailors, and the sound of the +shrill whistle and occasional beat of drum on board, suggestive of +man-of-war discipline, created, curiosity had been further excited by +some rumours which were in circulation about her cruise having been a +flogging cruise; and among Gjert's friends, and indeed among the harbour +people generally, she was so much the object of awe, that whenever the +whistle sounded, it would darkly suggest the thought that another +flogging was going to take place, and any boats that were near at the +moment would sheer off to a more comfortable distance. There was just so +much truth in all this that there was one very hot-tempered officer on +board who was very much hated by the crew, and who had been unfortunate +enough to single out for flogging just the man whom, if he had been +better advised, he would have left alone--the song-maker, namely, of the +ship. The result had been that ever since a mystic refrain, sufficiently +significant, however, had been sung at the capstan, and had found its +way on shore, where it was in the mouth now of every boy about the +harbour. + +Gjert's curiosity about everything connected with the vessel was +unbounded, and Frederick Beck, with whom he had established a close +friendship since that little affair with the other's grandfather, when +Gjert had saved him from punishment, could not tell him half enough. +"Fancy," he thought, "to be able to go about in a uniform all covered +with gold like the officers there on board!" He could think and talk of +nothing else all the time they were sailing home next day. + +The wind had risen to half a gale, and they had three reefs in the +mainsail. His father, who for some days past had been wandering with +increasing frequency up to the flag-staff, or down to the quay, where he +would stand with his hand behind his back alone, and look about him in +an eager, restless way--sure signs that he was getting tired of being on +land--had been up several times to look out for the boy, and was now +sitting in the house, pasting together an old chart, as his son came up +from the quay shouting out the new song at the top of his voice against +the wind. He stopped in the porch to collect his breath to give the last +stanza with effect, and husband and wife as they listened exchanged +glances. + +It was easy to see when he came in that he was bursting with the +consciousness of having all sorts of wonderful things to relate. His +mother had just laid the table for their evening meal, and as he greeted +them in an off-hand sort of way, he drew a chair over to the table at the +same time, that he might be ready to fall to the moment the food was set +down. + +"Well, Gjert," said his mother, after he had sat and looked round him +for a moment or two, evidently expecting to be invited to gratify their +curiosity, "were you on board?" + +"Not myself; but I talked to others who had been. For that matter I saw +everything that was to be seen," he assured them with a self-conscious +nod, reaching over at the same time for a crust of bread--"from the +topmast of the Antonia, a schooner that was lying close alongside. She +barely reached up to the Eagle's bulwarks; she would just about make a +long-boat for her--" + +"If she was a good deal smaller," said his father, drily, completing the +sentence for him, as he went over and placed the chart upon the top of +the small cupboard in the corner. + +Gjert began then, addressing himself to his mother, to support his +assertion by a comparison of the height out of the water of the +schooner's hull and of the corvette's, by assuring her that the vane at +her mast-head had not reached higher than the man-of-war's mainyard, +&c., but he was interrupted by his father-- + +"What song was that you were singing out there?" + +"Oh, it was the one about the flogging cruise." + +"It really was one then?" said the pilot, with a searching look at his +son. He did not easily give credence to gossip of the kind. + +To be addressed by his father in this interested tone was highly +flattering to Gjert's self-love. It was this, in fact, that he had been +eager all the time to tell them about; and he burst out now with the +deepest conviction in his manner-- + +"That it was, father! Some say six, others nine; but that they were all +flogged within an inch of their lives and put in irons down in the +Mediterranean is as certain as--as," he looked about him eagerly here +for something that should be duly emphatic, and when no other more +striking illustration suggested itself, had to wind up finally with this +rather lame one--"as that the cuckoo is standing up there on the clock." + +The intelligence had the effect of bringing his mother to a seat, with +the plate on her lap, while she looked apprehensively from her son to +her husband. There was nothing, however, in the aspect of the latter to +justify her apprehension. + +"Who did you hear this from, Gjert?" she asked. + +"Who did I hear it from? From everybody." + +But bethinking him then that in his incredulous home "everybody" would +be reckoned about as valuable an authority as "nobody," he continued-- + +"From Frederick Beck. He had talked himself with one of the sailors who +was in charge of the officers' gig down by the landing-stairs while his +chief was on shore; and that wasn't all he heard, but a lot of other +queer things besides." Here he looked round him evidently with a +satisfied feeling that he must have convinced them this time at any +rate. + +"He seems to have been a credible kind of a chap, that sailor," observed +his father with a mild irony, which escaped his son, however; while his +mother looked at him in some anxiety lest he should be going to sit +there and make a fool of himself. "Well, and what further did he tell +him?" + +"Oh, lots of things." + +"Let us have them." + +"He said they had had such a hurricane down there, that they came across +a whole town that had been blown away drifting out in the middle of the +sea, with a minister praying in the midst of it;--then, that they had +run so close in to the land in beating up the Straits of Gibraltar, that +they had taken a palm-tree on board on the end of the bowsprit with a +whole family of negroes sitting in it, whom they had afterwards to put +ashore." + +Gjert would have delivered himself of still another curious incident if +he had not been brought up by the laughter of his parents. The "bagman" +too, was laughing, because he saw the others doing so, and received a +crushing look accordingly from Gjert, who drew in his horns at once. + +"Perhaps you don't think it's true?" + +"Do you know what it is to spin a yarn, my boy? That lad down in the gig +has been spinning you a fine one," said his father, as he sat down to +the table. + +Gjert continued to talk all through the meal, and when it was over, +while his mother came in and out of the room, and his father sat over at +the window, partly listening and partly looking out at the weather. He +described everything he had seen with such life and vividness, +particularly all that concerned the officers and the cadets, that his +mother sat down to listen, and his father, when there was a moment's +pause, observed with a quiet laugh-- + +"I daresay you would have liked to have been one of the cadets yourself, +Gjert?" + +"Yes," said his mother, beguiled for a moment by the dazzling thought. +"If he were only to go to school in Arendal no one knows what might +happen. The clerk says that nothing is any trouble to Gjert." + +Something in this observation must have struck discordantly upon her +husband's ear, for he changed colour and replied shortly after, somewhat +sarcastically-- + +"It's my opinion that Gjert is not too good for his father's station, +and that we are not going to make interest with anybody to hoist him up +into the company of his betters, as they call themselves." + +Gjert's previous animation had been very much heightened by the picture +which such a glittering prospect presented to his fancy, and he cried +now, without taking warning by his father's changed tone-- + +"Mother was saying, though, the other day, that if I were to be a cadet +I should cut a better figure in the world than as an ordinary common +sailor." + +It was as if a match had been thrown into a gunpowder-magazine. His +father's hard face flushed up wildly, and he threw over at his wife a +look of inexpressible, cold scorn. Turning savagely away, he said in a +cutting tone, that seemed to go through her-- + +"Do you also despise your father's station, my boy?" + +When Gjert blundered out then in his eagerness-- + +"Frederick Beck is going to be a cadet," it was followed simply by-- + +"Come here, Gjert!"--and he received a blow that sent him staggering +against the table. A second was about to follow, when his father +happened to look up at his wife. She had sprung a couple of steps +forward, as if to take Gjert from him, and was standing now before him +with crimson face and flashing eyes, and with a bearing that made him, +at all events, lower his hand. She then turned away at once, and went +out into the kitchen. + +Salve stood for a moment uncertain how to act. Then he went to the +kitchen door, and announced, shortly and sharply, that he and Gjert were +going to sea that evening--they would want provisions. + +The wind and rain beat wildly against the black window-panes while +Elizabeth was carrying out his orders; but when she presently came in +with the ale-jar and what else they were to take with them, not a trace +of anxiety, or of her former emotion, was to be detected. Her face was +pale, and stony-calm; and there was something almost humble in her +bearing towards her husband. But when, for a moment, she and Gjert were +left alone together in the house, drawing him hastily towards her, she +whispered, in a voice choked with repressed emotion-- + +"Never let your father see that you are afraid, my boy." + +She bade her husband farewell at the door; and there was foul weather +both within and without the pilot as he put to sea that evening. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + +Elizabeth was more agitated even than usual after a scene of this kind. +When he had struck her son, her indignation had almost mastered her; and +it frightened her now to think how near she had been to an explosion. +This time the so-often-repeated excuses which she had accustomed herself +to make for him would not suggest themselves; and as she lay awake in +the stillness of the night, and looked back through the years that were +gone, it seemed as if she was struggling and labouring on for ever +without any prospect of getting nearer to the goal, and that her +patience was wellnigh exhausted. Had she no claim at all to +consideration? or must she be for ever silent like this, till one of +them should at last be laid in Tromoe churchyard? + +These thoughts, having been once roused, would not be repressed again. +They held possession of her during the following day too; and she could +settle down to no work of any kind. She dreaded that Salve might +unexpectedly return, and did not know how she should receive him,--she +no longer felt sure of being able to control herself. Her own house had +all of a sudden become confined and suffocating, as if it were a prison +in which she had sat for years: it seemed as if she could bear this way +of living no longer. + +On one of the following days a neighbour came in with a message from her +aunt. She was ill, and wished Elizabeth to come and see her. + +Leaving word, accordingly, for Salve when he returned, where she was +gone, she took Henrik with her, and set out at once for Arendal. It was +almost a relief to think that she would be away this time when he came +home. + +That old Mother Kirstine should be laid up, was, in its way, an event in +the place. Having been professed sick-nurse for so many years, she was +connected by ties of grateful recollection with a number of families. +Men who were now fathers themselves remembered well her face bending +over them when as children they had tossed about in measles or fever; +and when any more serious illness now occurred in any of their +households, she appeared upon the scene as a matter of course without +waiting to be sent for. And it was a comfort in itself to see that +strong, self-possessed old woman, with her quiet experienced tact and +untiring faculty of keeping awake, moving about the sick-bed, and giving +her directions with a confidence that brooked no contradiction. Her +position, in fact, was such, that when a new doctor arrived he soon +perceived that the first thing he had to do, if he was to have any +reputation in the town, would be to win the confidence of old Mother +Kirstine. + +Young Fru Beck, amongst others, had constantly sent to inquire after +her; and when she heard that Elizabeth was there, she could not resist +the opportunity of going to see her. + +It was one evening before dinner--Mother Kirstine had fallen into a +quiet sleep, and Elizabeth was sitting by her bedside, when she saw Fru +Beck pass the window. Elizabeth knew she would come in, and sat with +beating heart waiting for her knock at the door. + +Fru Beck must have stood a long while in the porch, for some minutes +passed before the latch was stirred. Elizabeth went softly out and +opened the door. + +They stood face to face. Elizabeth's eyes were full of tears, but Fru +Beck's feelings were not at that moment so easily expressed. She +silently pressed Elizabeth's hand, and her manner, and the expression of +her pale face, showed that she was not the less moved of the two at +their meeting again. + +Elizabeth showed her into Mother Kirstine's comfortable little kitchen, +where a saucepan of broth for her sick aunt was simmering over the fire. +She invited her visitor to take a seat. It was so quiet that they could +hear the watch ticking in the next room where her aunt was sleeping. + +Neither spoke for a moment or two. Then Fru Beck asked in a low voice-- + +"How is your aunt, Elizabeth?" + +It was a natural question to ask under the circumstances, but it was +felt by both to be only a preliminary breaking of the ice; she had, +besides, sent a messenger that morning already to make inquiries. + +"Thank you, Fru Beck, she is improving," Elizabeth replied. "She is +asleep now, and that will do her good." + +"It is a long time since we saw each other--nearly eighteen years," said +Fru Beck, and her eyes dwelt upon Elizabeth as if to find what traces +time had left upon her. "But you have kept strong, I see--stronger than +I have." + +"It was that morning I left for Holland," said Elizabeth, seeming to +recall it with a certain pleasure. + +"I have often thought of that time," whispered Fru Beck, more to herself +almost than to the person she was talking to. Her lip trembled slightly, +and Elizabeth read an expression of mute sorrow in her face. She was on +the point of telling Elizabeth that she knew the reason of her going; +but after debating for a moment within herself whether she should or +not, finally let it pass. + +"Ah! if we could only see into the future, Elizabeth!" she exclaimed +with a sigh, and looked sadly at her, as if she thought she had given +expression to a feeling that must be common to them both. + +"It is better as it is, Fru Beck. Many things happen in life that would +not be so easy to bear if we were cast down beforehand." + +"Yes; but one could guard one's self," whispered Fru Beck, with a +certain bitterness and hardness in her voice. + +Elizabeth made no reply, and there was a pause, which seemed to Fru Beck +to have broken the thread of the conversation. She deliberated how she +should take it up again so as to get at what she wanted to say, and +taking Elizabeth's hand with sudden warmth, she said-- + +"If there is anything your aunt wants, you know, I hope, that she has +only to send to me." She would rather have made Elizabeth herself the +object of her interest instead of her aunt, but felt that there was much +in the relations in which they had stood to one another to make that +impossible; but her meaning was just as clear. + +"And for yourself, Elizabeth?" she went on, looking searchingly into her +eyes, with an expression of deep sympathy. "All is not right with you: I +am afraid your marriage has not been a happy one." + +These last words brought a sudden flush into Elizabeth's face, and she +involuntarily withdrew her hand. + +She looked at Fru Beck with an expression of wounded pride, as if it was +a subject she declined to discuss. + +"That is not the case, Fru Beck," she replied. "I am"--she was going to +say "happily," but preferred to say--"not unhappily married." She felt +that that sounded rather weak, and added-- + +"I have never loved, never wished for, any one but him who is now my +husband." + +"I am overjoyed to hear it, Elizabeth, for I had heard otherwise," said +Fru Beck, with some embarrassment--and there was another pause. She felt +from Elizabeth's manner and bearing that she had wounded her +self-esteem; and this last unlucky speech, she was afraid, had made +matters worse. + +There was a movement in the adjoining room, and Elizabeth was glad of an +occasion to break the rather painful silence, and went in to her aunt +for a moment. + +Fru Beck looked after her with a rather surprised, but an unsatisfied, +expression; she must have been mistaken: but still, happy in her home +Elizabeth could scarcely be. And yet, she thought bitterly, what a gulf +there was between them! She, at all events, loved her husband. + +When Elizabeth returned, Fru Beck, with the idea of effacing the +impression she had already produced, and to satisfy, at the same time, +her own longing to open her heart to somebody, said-- + +"You must not be offended at what I said, Elizabeth. I thought that +others might have sorrow too." + +"We all have our burden, and often it is very hard to bear," rejoined +Elizabeth. She understood very well what Fru Beck's words had meant, and +looked at her compassionately; but she avoided answering directly to +what she thought had been blurted out unintentionally, and said-- + +"You have a son. That should be a great happiness, Fru Beck, and much to +live for." + +"To live for!" she exclaimed--"to live for! I will confide to you +something that no one but you now knows. I am dying--dying every day. No +one knows as well as I do myself how much is left of me. It is little, +and it will soon be less." She spoke in a cold, pale kind of ecstasy. +"You are the only creature I have told this to--the only one on this +earth I really care about; hear it and forget it. And now, adieu," she +said; "if we ever meet again in this world, don't let the subject be +mentioned between us." She felt blindly for the door, and opened it. + +"Every cross comes from above, and the worst of all sins is to despair," +said Elizabeth, with an attempt at consolation; she said what most +readily occurred to her at the moment. + +Fru Beck turned at the door, and looked back at her with a white, calm, +joyless face. + +"Elizabeth," she said, "I found this in one of my husband's drawers. I +tell it you, that you may not think that that has been in any way the +cause of my spoilt life." + +She took from her pocket a scrap of paper, yellow with age, and handed +it to her. The door closed behind her then, and she was gone. + +Elizabeth sat still for a long while in sad distress, thinking of her. +Now she understood why Fru Beck was so pale. She had not a wrinkle in +her face--it looked so noble; but oh how cold, how pinched it had +become! Poor, poor woman! her burden was indeed a heavy one. It would +have been difficult to recognise Marie Forstberg again in her. + +"That, then, it is to have married unhappily," she said to herself. She +seemed to have gazed into some terrible abyss. + +Her friend's sorrows continued to occupy her thoughts as she sat by her +aunt's bedside; and when at last her feelings of compassion had calmed +down, another point in their conversation that had been hitherto thrown +into the background came into increasing prominence. It lay in the words +that had so suddenly and grievously wounded her. + +"So, that is what the world says of us," she thought: "that our marriage +has been unhappy." + +She had time and solitude enough, while tending her patient and sitting +up with her, to ponder the matter; and as she thought over her married +life, and contemplated unflinchingly the constant, weary, fruitless +struggle in which it had passed, and in which she had not advanced one +single step, but rather had been going always, always back, more and +more, she asked herself, could she say that there was happiness in a +life like that? And was Salve himself happy? She saw him before her as +he was in his early youth, and as he was now--gloomy, savage, and +suspicious in his home; she thought how she welcomed him always with +disguised dread instead of with a wife's joy, how they had last parted, +and what feelings she had since entertained; and she dwelt long and +bitterly upon the contrast. To think that it should have come to this +between them! She began with dread to reflect, "Perhaps this is what +they mean by an unhappy marriage." It had never occurred to her before +that such a thing could be said of her--of her, who had married the man +whom of all others in the whole world she wished to marry. + +She sat on far into the night with her hands folded on her knee, and +gazing straight before her, the night-light from the glass behind the +bed throwing its faint light over the room. Fru Beck's words, as she +stood there so pale, and told her of her unhappiness, recurred to her +again and again, more distinctly, it seemed, each time. "I am dying +every day. I know best myself how much is left of me. It is very little, +and will soon be less." + +It seemed then all in a moment to flash upon her-- + +"That is just how Salve and I are living. We are wasting away--we are +dying every day beside each other. That is what people do who are +unhappily married." + +She sat for a long while, with her head bent forward, sorrowfully +engrossed with this thought. In all the self-sacrifice she had +practised, because she thought he could not bear to hear the truth, she +saw now nothing but one long corroding lie. It was owing to the want of +confidence in each other, of mutual candour--to their both having +shunned the truth, the only sure ground of happiness, that their life +together had been thus spoilt. She threw back her head with a look of +wild energy in her face, and never had she looked more handsome than +now, as she exclaimed decisively-- + +"But there shall be an end of this! Salve and I shall no longer make a +desert of each other's life!" and she rose from her chair in great +agitation. + +"What are you saying, Elizabeth?" asked her aunt, whom she had +unconsciously awakened. + +"Nothing, dear aunt," she answered, and bent over the invalid with a cup +of broth, which she had been keeping warm over the night-light. + +"You look so--so happy, Elizabeth." + +"It is because you have slept so well, aunt; and if you drink this you +will go to sleep again." + +There was a quiet smile on her lips now, and her whole bearing was +changed. The burden of years was taken off her heart. At last the +chilling, heavy, bewildering fog which had enclosed her whole life, +making every footstep, every thought, every joy uncertain, had lifted, +and she could clearly see her way. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + +Salve had been lucky; he had piloted an English bark into Hesnaes, and +his services had been liberally acknowledged. He had, as usual, looked +forward with dread to coming home again; but when he found his wife not +there, and heard the reason, he had set off at once for Arendal to see +after her. + +She received him out in the passage. + +"Good morning, Salve," she said, shaking hands with him. "I have been +anxious about you, as you may suppose, and have been expecting you. You +mustn't make a noise--come this way," and she showed him into the room +at the side. "Where is Gjert?" + +He looked at her in surprise; this was not her usual way of receiving +him. There was a confidence in her tone, as if she had taken upon +herself to call him to account for his absence. It had hitherto been he +always who had taken the initiative and been in a gracious humour or +not, according as it pleased him. + +"Gjert," he answered, rather shortly, "is at home in the house. So you +have been anxious about me--expected me?" he added, in a peculiar tone, +as if he found something to remark upon in this way of addressing him, +but deferred comment for the present. + +"Why, you know, goodman, that it can't be the same to me if you are lost +out there at sea." + +"How is your aunt?" he asked, abruptly. "Is she seriously ill?" + +"She can see you. Come in with me, but step gently." + +Salve felt that he could not very well refuse, and followed her. He had +always, as far as possible, avoided seeing Mother Kirstine, and had left +his wife to represent him in that quarter. He was afraid of the +penetrating eyes which the old woman turned upon him, and had never +forgotten the warning she had given him not to go near Elizabeth as long +as he harboured a doubt against her in his heart. + +It was with great deference that he now approached her bedside. + +"Oh, it's you, Salve," she said, in a weak voice. "It's not often I have +a sight of you. Elizabeth has been such a blessing to me; and Henrik is +so quiet and good. Where is Gjert? Have you not brought him with you?" +And her eyes wandered in search of the boy. + +"He is at home taking care of the house, aunt. How are you?" + +"Oh, thanks--as you see. I think so often what will become of that boy; +he is so wild, but with such a good nature, poor fellow!" + +"Oh, we shall make something of him, you'll see," said Elizabeth, who +had been standing behind Salve, and now came forward. "But you must not +talk so much." + +Salve's face grew stern; this was the most unfortunate topic which could +have been suggested. And matters were presently made worse by Mother +Kirstine saying, when there was a pause-- + +"You looked so glad last night, Elizabeth! Who was it that was sitting +with you talking yesterday?" + +"It was Fru Beck." + +"The young one?" + +"Yes. But you talk too much, aunt." + +"I am afraid so too," thought Salve; and as he saw Elizabeth, as if +nothing had happened, motioning to him now to come away, he controlled +himself for the moment, and said a little constrainedly-- + +"You will be quite well, aunt, I hope, by the time I come again perhaps +in a few days. Good-bye till then." + +He left the room rather brusquely, and his face was black as thunder. + +Elizabeth read his thoughts, and when they came out into the kitchen she +forestalled him. + +"Listen, Salve," she said; "I must, of course, stay here as long as aunt +is ill." + +"Of course," he replied; "and you have acquaintances here." + +"You mean Fru Beck? Yes, she has been so kind to me, and I am attached +to her--she is unhappily married, poor thing!" + +Salve was astounded. Elizabeth seemed all in a moment to have forgotten +a great deal--to have forgotten that there existed certain +stumbling-blocks between them--was it perhaps because she was in her +aunt's house? He looked coldly at her as if he could not quite +comprehend what had come over her. + +"You will remain, of course, as long as you please," he said, and +prepared to go; but could not help adding with bitterness-- + +"I daresay you find it lonely and dull at home." + +"You are not so far wrong there, Salve," she replied. "I have indeed +found it lonely enough out there for many years now. You are so often +away from home, and then I am left quite alone. It is two years now +since I have been in here to see my aunt." + +"Elizabeth," he burst out, trying hard to restrain himself, "have you +taken leave of your senses?" + +"That is just what I want to avoid, Salve," she said, with freezing +deliberation. + +He stared at her. She could stand and tell him this to his face! + +"So these are your sentiments, then," he observed, scornfully. "I always +suspected it; and now, for what I care, you may please yourself about +coming home, Elizabeth," he continued in a cold, indifferent tone. + +"You ought always to have known what my sentiments were, Salve; that I +was, perhaps, too much attached to you." + +"I shall send you money. You shall not have that as an excuse. So far as +I am concerned, you may enjoy the society of Fru Beck and your fine +friends as long as ever you please." + +"And why should I not be allowed to speak to Fru Beck?" she cried, with +her head thrown back, and with an expression of rising anger. "You don't +mean, I suppose, that there is anything against me that should prevent +my entering her house? But there must be an end to this, Salve--and it +is for the sake of our love I say it; for if matters go on as they have +been going on so long between us," she concluded slowly, and with a +tremor in her voice, "you might live to see the day when it had ceased +to exist. These things are not in our own power, Salve." + +He stood for a moment still, and gazed at her in speechless amazement, +while the flash of his dark keen eyes showed that a devil had been +roused within him, which he had the utmost difficulty in restraining. + +"I will suppose that you have said this in a moment of excitement," he +said, with terrible calmness; "I shall not be angry with you--I shall +forget it; I promise you that. And I think that you have not been quite +yourself to-day--ill--" + +"Don't deceive yourself, Salve. I mean every word--as surely as I love +you." + +"Farewell, Elizabeth; I shall be here again on Wednesday," he said, as +if he only held to his purpose, and did not care to hear any more of +this. He left her then, and shut the door quietly behind him. + +When he had gone, Elizabeth sank rather than sat down upon the bench. +She was frightened at what she had said. A profound dread took +possession of her. She knew his nature so well, and knew that she was +risking everything, that the result might be that he would leave her +altogether, and take to some misguided life far away from home. And yet +it must--it must be dared. And with God's help she would conquer, and +bind him to her closer than ever he had been before. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + +As Salve stood and steered for home, he had as yet only a dull +consciousness of what had occurred; but there was anger in his eye, and +a hard determined look in his face. His pride had received a terrible +shock. She had suddenly fallen upon him with all this on neutral ground; +she had told him plainly that she had been unhappy, and that she felt +she had been living under a tyranny the whole time of their married +life. He smiled bitterly--well, he had been right, it seemed, all along +in feeling that she was not open with him. + +Yes, it was true that they had lived unhappily; but whose fault had it +been? Had she not deceived him when he was young and confiding, and did +not know what doubt was? And since?--he knew but too well what it had +cost her to adapt herself to his humble circumstances. + +He felt that the power which he had had over her for so many years was +gone. It was as if she had all of a sudden set down a barrel of +gunpowder on the floor of his house and threatened to blow it up. Such +threats, however, would have no weight with him. + +When he came to Merdoe he moored the cutter in silence--scarcely looking +at Gjert, who came down to help him--and went in, without speaking, to +the house, where he stood by the window for a while writing on the +window-pane. It was soon quite dark outside; Gjert had lit a candle, and +had sat down by the table. He understood that there was something wrong +again with his mother, but did not dare to ask after her, as he was +longing to do. His father, during the rest of the evening, never stirred +from the corner of the bench which was his son's sleeping-place; it was +made to serve the double purpose of bench and bed. + +When supper-time arrived, Gjert put some food on the table. He felt that +the situation somehow was dangerous, and went on his tiptoes to make as +little noise as possible; but he was the more awkward in consequence, +and made a clatter with the plates. + +This, and the dread of him which his son showed, irritated Salve. He +flared up suddenly, and burst out in a thundering voice-- + +"Don't you ask after your mother, boy?" + +Gjert would have been frightened under ordinary circumstances, but his +anxiety for his mother, for whom his heart bled, gave him courage to +answer boldly-- + +"Yes, father; I have been wanting all the time to ask how mother was. Is +she not coming? Poor mother!" and the boy burst into tears, laid his +head upon his arm, and sobbed. + +"Mother will come back when her aunt over in Arendal is well again," +said the pilot, soothingly. But he soon broke out again. + +"You have nothing to blubber for," he said; "you can go in and see her +if you like t-omorrow morning the first thing. You may go now and sleep +in our bed." + +Gjert obeyed; and his father paced to and fro on the floor afterwards +for a long while in great agitation. + +"That is her game, then, is it?" he exclaimed. "She knew what she was +about, and she knew who it was she was threatening." + +He sat down again on the bench-bed with clasped hands, and eyes fixed on +the ground. Passion was working strongly within him. + +"But she does not put compulsion upon me." + +The candle was expiring in the socket, and he lit another and put it in +its place. It was past midnight. He remained for a little with the +candlestick in his hand, and then took the light in to Gjert. The boy +was lying in his mother's place, and had evidently cried himself to +sleep. + +His father stood for a long while over him. His lips quivered, and his +face became ashy pale. He controlled himself with an effort and went +back to the other room, where he sat down in the same attitude as +before. + +When Gjert came in in the morning, he found his father lying down on the +bench with all his clothes on. He was asleep. It was evident that he had +sat up the whole night. It went to the boy's heart; and he felt sorry +for his father now. + +The latter woke shortly after and looked at him rather confusedly at +first. Then he said, gently-- + +"I promised you yesterday, my boy, that you should go to your mother in +Arendal. I daresay she is wanting to see you." + +"If mother is not ill I had rather stay here with you, father, until you +go in to see her yourself. She has Henrik with her." + +"You would?" said his father, in a rather toneless voice, and looking at +him as if some new idea had been suggested to him by the boy's reply. + +"But I wish you to go, Gjert," he said then, suddenly, in a changed +tone, that admitted of no further question. "Mother took no things with +her. You must take her Sunday gown, and what else you know she will +want, in with you in the trunk there. It may be a long while +before--before aunt is well," he said, and left the house. + +While Gjert packed up the things, his father went down to the strand and +got the row-boat ready himself for him. + +When the boy started he stroked the child's cheek, but said a little +bitterly, "Remember me to your mother now, and say that father is +coming, as he promised, on Wednesday. Be careful, now, how you go. I +have only given you the oars; I don't like to trust you with a sail in +the boat." + +He stood for some time looking after his son as he rowed sturdily away, +and then went up to the look-out, where he began to walk up and down +with his hands behind his back in his usual manner. His restlessness of +mind, however, soon drove him back again to the house, where he remained +alone nearly the whole day. + +The first intensity of his anger had so far worked itself off now, that +he could think clearly; and the chief feeling which possessed him was +one of wonder as to what could have come over her all of a sudden like +this. It could hardly be that scene which they had had when he last went +to sea--it had not been the first of its kind. No--it must be something +else; it must have been something which had occurred in Arendal. She had +spoken of Fru Beck's unhappy married life with a certain significance, +as if it bore upon their own. That was evidently it--she had been +talking to Fru Beck; she must have been put up to it by her old friend. + +"What gratitude I do owe these Becks!" he exclaimed; "it seems as if +every trouble must come from that owl's nest." + +"She has gone and thought all this at home here, concealing it from me +the whole time, submitting, and saying nothing. Now she has found her +opportunity. And over there, in Arendal, she could, of course, count +upon being able to make her own terms against her husband, the unpopular +pilot--could be sure of having every one on her side, from her aunt to +these same Becks." + +Yes; and what was the real history of her connection with the Becks? He +had never had that matter satisfactorily cleared up. + +"She stipulated that I should trust her--wouldn't hear mention of a +doubt. But I have never felt satisfied about that business." + +"I'll not be fooled by you any longer," he cried then, flying into a +sudden passion, and striding up and down the room. "It is she who must +give me an explanation; it is she who has trampled me under foot!" + +He sat down at the table and pursued this train of thought. + +"Elizabeth! Elizabeth! what have you done?" he whispered, presently, +with emotion, and hid his forehead in his hands. + +"Yes, what has she done? Nothing, I firmly believe; and that it is just +you, Salve, who are mad! Ah! if I could only really believe that there +was nothing to quarrel about, after all! And I can believe it, if I have +only been with her for a while," he sighed; and then added with a touch +of self-contempt, "the fact is, I ought never to go away from home. I am +like an anchovy; I don't bear taking out of the jar! + +"She was so like the old Elizabeth as she stood there and told me all +this; it is years since I have seen her like that. There's not her match +to be found the whole world through. + +"She has told me so often that she cares for me, has always cared for +me, ever since the time she was living with her grandfather out on the +rock; and an untruth never came from her lips. I'd stake my life upon +that. + +"For truth--I believe you, Elizabeth, when you stand like that and tell +me so," and he struck the table as if he was making the declaration to +her face. + +"But why should she care for me?" he went on. "Have her thoughts not +been running always on things much beyond what I, a poor pilot, and my +humble cottage can give her? Has she not always been hankering after +something grand?" + +During these days, while this conflict of thought was surging to and fro +within him, he had the appearance of a man distraught; and if he ever +left the house, he could not rest until he had returned to it again. The +prolonged agitation of mind had told upon him, and he was sitting +now--the day before the one when he was to go in to Arendal again--alone +in his house, feeling very low and depressed; it looked so dreary and +empty. + +Over in the window, by the leaf-table, where she generally sat to sew, +stood the polished buffalo-hoof which he had brought long ago as a +curiosity from Monte Video, and had since had made into a weight for +her; and by the wall, under the old print of the Naiad, was the +elephant, carved out of bone, which he had also had from the time when +he was roaming through the world as a sailor before the mast. + +He gazed at these things for a while absently, and then went in to their +bedroom. + +There was the chest of drawers by the wall, on which she always placed +the lacquered glass which hung in the other room, when she arranged her +beautiful hair. How many a conversation they had had together as she +stood there with her back to him; and what a figure she had! often +answering him with merely a change of expression as she looked back at +him over her shoulder. Everything in the room had some such vivid memory +to suggest; and as he sat dismally on the side of their bed, adjoining +which was little Henrik's, his thoughts were occupied with many a +trivial recollection of the kind, which might seem almost childish in a +man of his age and character, and of such a stern, black-bearded +exterior; but he was anything but stern now. + +Presently his eyes ceased to wander. He sat perfectly still. The +conviction had seized him that he could not possibly do without her; and +as he looked slowly about him a great terror seemed to be taking +possession of him. He imagined that she was really gone--that in some +way or another he had really lost her, and that everything in the room +was standing just as she had left it, and as it would stand unmoved, +undusted for ever. + +"I have deserved it," he muttered; and a cold perspiration came out upon +his forehead. "Have I treated her in such a way that I have any right to +expect her to care for me? Is it not just my own folly that is to blame? +She was right--more than right. I have behaved shamefully to her, +suspiciously, and tyrannically--invariably, unceasingly; and now I may +sit here long enough and repent it, to no purpose. She would not be what +she is if she tamely submitted to such treatment." + +He dwelt upon this last thought until the scales seemed to drop from his +eyes, and, acknowledging the truth at last, he broke out with bitter +scorn against himself-- + +"The fact is, in my cursed pride I have never been able to bear the +thought that she might have been better off--that I was not good enough +for her, not fit for her; that is what has been at the bottom of it all: +and as I would not acknowledge that, I have insisted always to myself +that I could not trust her. + +"Do I really believe this?" he asked himself then slowly, and fell into +thought again, his face growing darker and darker every minute. + +"What a good-natured booby, fool, idiot, I am!" he cried, with a +scornful laugh. "No, it is she who has been false and untruthful, she +who must acknowledge it, she who is bound to give me, once for all, full +explanation. Yes, it is she who must bend, and then she may have some +claim to hear from me what I too may have to reproach myself for in my +acts or bearing towards her. That is how it is, and that is how it shall +be!" + +A hard, inexorable look overspread his face as he said this; but for a +moment he appeared almost moved again-- + +"I shall speak kindly to her--be so gentle--forget everything. + +"But bend she shall," he added; and that decision was evidently final. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + + +That evening was passed by Elizabeth in a terrible struggle with +herself. When Gjert had brought her clothes she had turned very pale, +and had felt as if she had undertaken what she would not have strength +to carry through. And now that the decisive moment had nearly come, this +feeling increased almost to despair. + +They had all gone to bed in the house. It was so quiet about her; and a +feeling came over her such as she had experienced that time on the +Apollo, as she sat and waited whilst they approached the sandbanks. +Early next morning the crisis would inevitably come; and it was a +question now of losing more than the brig--of losing all they jointly +possessed on earth! She saw a long, dreary life-strand stretching away +beyond. + +This time it was she who was at the helm, and steering a desperate +course--to save her love. A solemn look came over her face. The prayer +for seamen in danger, which she had so often used when the gusts were +shaking the house out there on Merdoe, and she sat waiting for him in her +solitary home, came into her head now--the prayer that God might save +him from a sudden death. + +A sudden death! + +If he really had been lost on one of those many occasions when he had +parted from her with bitterness and anger in his heart! Would her love +then have been a blessing to him? + +"No, Salve!" she cried; "you shall not have me to thank for such a life +in your last hour!" + +In the night she awoke with a scream. She had dreamt that Salve was +going to leave her for ever, and she cried frantically after him, +"Salve! Salve!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + + +His two sons were waiting for him when the pilot came up to the jetty +next morning. Little Henrik had begun to shout to him gleefully while he +was still some way off; but Gjert was quiet. He had seen enough to feel +that there must be something serious the matter between his parents, and +he was depressed. + +"Good morning, boys!" said their father, kindly; "how is your--aunt?" + +"Better," replied Gjert. + +"She sleeps in the daytime, too," added the "bagman," triumphantly--he +had discovered that this was what was required to make her well again. +He then threw his cap down on the stones with a great sailor air, and +with an eager "hale-hoi--o--ohoi!" began to haul in the shore-rope which +his father had thrown, while Gjert, paying no attention whatever to his +brother's efforts, made it fast to the mooring-ring. + +"That's good lads! Stay here now, both of you, by the boat, and look +after her till I come back," said their father. "See, Gjert, that Henrik +doesn't leave the quay." + +He left them then, and went rapidly up the street. + +Elizabeth was standing by the hearth expecting him; and something of a +Sunday calm seemed to have come over her as she stood there. She heard +him out in the passage; and when he entered, a rapid flush passed over +her fine features, but it disappeared again immediately, and she stared +at him with half-open lips, forgetting to greet him. At the same time, +there was a conscious self-possession in her bearing which did not +escape him. That was the Elizabeth he loved. + +He came to the point at once; and looking her full in the face, began +with great earnestness--"Elizabeth, I have a serious accusation to make +against you. You have not been frank towards me--you have disguised your +real feelings from me for many years, I am afraid during the whole time +we have lived together." + +He spoke gently, and as though he had no desire to press the charge, but +merely waited to hear her make a full acknowledgment before he forgave +her. She stood, however, without raising her eyes from the ground, her +face pale, and her bosom heaving. + +"And yet how I have loved you, Elizabeth!--more dearly than my life," he +added. + +She still remained for a moment silent, and had to summon all her +courage now to speak. At last she said, in a rather strained voice, and +without lifting her eyes-- + +"I hear you say it, Salve. But I have been thinking a good deal lately." + +"You have been thinking, Elizabeth?" he repeated, "what have you been +thinking?" and his expression changed in a moment to the dark, stern one +she knew so well. He had made his advance; further he would not go. + +"Am I right, or am I not?" he asked, sharply. + +"No, Salve, you are not right," she replied, turning to him now with a +look that seemed fired by all she had endured; "you are not right. It is +yourself, and yourself only, you have loved all along; and when you took +me as your wife, you merely took another to help you. There were two +about it then, and even so it was not enough. No! no!" she cried, +striking out her hand with an emphatic gesture in the bitterness of her +feeling--"if you had loved me as I have loved you, we would not be +standing before one another as we are this day!" + +He was taken aback for a moment by this unexpected outburst, but replied +in a cold hard voice, while his eyes never moved from her face, "I thank +you, Elizabeth, for having at last told me your thoughts, though it +comes a little late. You see I was right when I said that you had not +been frank towards me." + +"I have not been frank with you, you say? Yes, that is true," she +rejoined, while her eye met his unflinchingly. "And it is to my honour. +I have submitted to be an object of suspicion in my own house. I have +shut my eyes and persisted in believing that you cared for me, in spite +of the heavier burden which you were every day imposing upon me--in +spite of all that I have had to endure--and it has been much, very much, +Salve,--and I have done all this because I believed it was my duty, and +because I thought you could not bear to hear the truth, and because I +hoped that I might conquer in the end, and make you really love me as I +have all along, and but too well, loved you, Salve. It is true that I +have not been frank with you. And, I repeat, it is to my honour." + +This interpretation of their relations together was not one which he +chose to accept, and he rejoined in the same hard tone as before-- + +"However cleverly you may have tried to conceal it, Elizabeth, it has +always been but too evident to me what you have endured in trying to +accommodate yourself to the humble circumstances of a man like me. I +know as well as you that a common seaman was little suited to be your +husband--I have always known it from the time we were first engaged, +when we stood before Van Spyck's portrait in Amsterdam. That was the +sort of man, I knew very well, whom you ought to have had for a husband. +I saw it again, as I have seen it always, when you made comparisons +between the North Star and my poor brig--" + +"Salve!" she exclaimed, passionately, unable to control herself any +longer--"what rubbish are you talking? Do you not know perfectly well +that if you had been an admiral itself you never would have been greater +in my eyes than you are now, and always have been as a simple pilot? And +pray, whom was I thinking of when I was looking at Van Spyck? why, of +whom but of you?--thinking that the man called Salve Kristiansen, who +stood behind me, was just the one to have done what Van Spyck did. Or +when I was admiring the North Star was I not thinking then too: If you, +Salve, were in command of her, they would see what she could really do +with a proper man on board? What possible interest do you suppose I +could have in the North Star, except in connection with you? Were not +you, poor skipper of the Apollo, worth more, a thousand times more to +me, than a hundred North Stars with all their bravery?" + +When she spoke like this it was impossible not to believe every single +word of what she said, and Salve's expression while she had been +speaking had gradually changed to one of inexpressible happiness. So it +was really he, and he alone, who had been the hero of her life! and he +stretched out his arms to her, as though, like Alcibiades of old, he +would end the discussion by clasping her to his heart and carrying her +straight off with him to his home. But he was arrested by the deep +repelling seriousness with which she continued-- + +"No, Salve!--it is not which that stands between us, however ingeniously +you may have discovered it--it is not that,--it is something else. It is +that you don't trust me in your heart; that is the truth--and that has +been the real source of all these morbid ideas you have formed. + +"And look you," she went on, with wild anguish in her voice, "we shall +never get on together as long as you encourage the faintest suspicion of +such thoughts; we shall never have peace beside our hearth--that peace +that I have been striving for all these years, when I have been +submitting, as I did, to everything--in a way that you know well, Salve, +was very far from natural to me," and as she said this she looked with a +magnificent air at him; "and if you cannot yet understand that--may God +help you--and us!" she ended in despair, and turning half away again to +the fire, stared dejectedly into it. + +He stood before her half-averted form as if he had been paralysed, and +scarcely dared to look up at her, with such truth had all that she had +said come home to him. She had held a mirror up to their life together, +and he saw himself in it so utterly selfish and so small by the side of +all this love. He was profoundly pained and humbled, and was too +naturally truthful to wish not to acknowledge it. + +He went absently to the window and stood there for a moment. + +"Elizabeth," he said then, despondently, turning round, "you still must +know in your heart that you have been everything in this world to me. +But I know where my great fault to you has been, and I'll tell it you +now, fully and freely, even if you must despise me for it. Yes, +Elizabeth, it is true I have never been able to feel absolutely certain +that I had full possession of your heart--though, God be praised, you +have taught me differently to-day--since that time,"--it evidently cost +him a struggle to go on with the humiliating confession--"since that +business between you and the lieutenant. That has been the thorn in my +flesh," he said, gently, as if opening his inmost heart to her, "which I +have not been able to get rid of, in spite of my better reason. And I +don't know but what it may still be there. There lies my weakness--I +tell it you plainly and honestly; but at the same time I can't give you +up, Elizabeth. + +"I have always seen," he continued, "that the proper husband for you +would have been a man who was something in the world--such a one as he, +and not a man of no position like me. In my pride I never could bear the +thought--and it is that that has made me so full of rancour against all +the world, and so suspicious and bad towards you. I have not been strong +enough--not like you--but I can truly say I have struggled with my +weakness, Elizabeth," he said, pale with intensity of feeling, and +laying both his hands on her shoulders, and looking into her face. + +She felt that his arms were trembling, and her eyes filled with +tears--it went to her heart to see him like this. All at once on a +sudden thought she withdrew herself from his hands and went into the +little room adjoining the one they were in, and opened a drawer there. +She came out with the old note in her hand and held it out to him-- + +"That is the letter I wrote to the lieutenant the night I left the +Becks'." + +He looked at her a little wonderingly. + +"Fru Beck gave it to me," she said. "Read it, Salve." + +He looked at the large clumsy writing and spelt out-- + +"Forgive me that I cannot be your wife, for my heart is given to +another.--Elizabeth Raklev." + +He sat down on the bench and read it over again, while she bent over +him, looking now at the writing, and now at his face. + +"What do you find there, Salve?" she asked. "Why could I not be Beck's +wife?" + +"'Because my heart is given to another,'" he answered, slowly, and +looking up at her with moistened eyes. + +"Not yours; it is I who loved another. And who was that other?" + +"God bless you--it was me!" he said, and drew her down upon his knee +into a long, long embrace. + + * * * * * + +The boys had become tired of waiting down at the boat, the "bagman" +especially, since it was clearly past dinner-time; the bell had rung +over at the dry-dock, and the town boys had already passed from school. +His white head and heated face appeared now at the kitchen-door, and +with scarcely a glance over to where his father and mother were sitting +on the bench together looking very happy, he turned at once to the +hearth and became aware of the sad fact that there was positively no +porridge to be seen; there was not even a fire. Coming bodily into the +room, he asked, with tears in his voice-- + +"Have you had dinner? Are Gjert and I not to have any, then?" + +His mother sprang up. "And aunt!" she exclaimed. "I declare it is +half-past one, and no dinner put down!" Henrik was glad to find that the +worst danger was over. + +Mother Kirstine had conjectured that there must be something particular +going on between the pair in the kitchen, and that was the reason she +had not called Elizabeth. When the latter now came in, she looked at her +inquiringly, and asked if anything had happened. + +"The happiest thing of my whole life, aunt," said Elizabeth, coming over +to the bed and embracing her impetuously. She hurried back then to her +business in the kitchen. + +The old woman looked after her, and nodded her head a couple of times +slowly, thoughtfully. "No--so?" + +"He is joking with little Henrik," she said then to herself. "That is +wonderful: I have never heard him laugh before." + +When they went to dinner in the kitchen Salve left them--he was not +hungry--and came in to her. He had a great deal to say, and was a long +while away. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + + +It was an afternoon in the following winter in the pilot's home. His +wife was expecting him, and kept looking uneasily out of the window. He +was to have been home by noon, and it was now beginning to get dark; and +the weather had been stormy the whole of the previous day. + +She gave up sewing, and sat thinking in the twilight, with the light +playing over the floor from the door of the stove, where a little kettle +was boiling, that she might have something warm ready for him at once +when he came. It was too early to light a candle. + +Gjert was at school in Arendal, living at his aunt's; and Henrik was +sitting by the light from the stove, cutting up a piece of wood into +shavings. + +"It is beginning to blow again, Henrik," she said, and put a +handkerchief round her head to look out. + +"It is no use, mother," he pronounced, without stirring, and splitting a +long peg into two against his chest; "it's pitch-dark, isn't it?" So she +gave it up again before she got to the door, but stood and listened; she +thought she had heard a shout outside. + +"He is coming!" she cried, suddenly, and darted out; and when Salve +entered the porch from the sleet squall that had just come up, with his +sou'wester and oilskin coat all dripping, he found himself, all wet as +he was, suddenly encircled in the dark by a pair of loving arms. + +"How long you have been!" she cried, taking from him what he had in his +hands, and preceding him into the house, where she lit a candle. "What +has kept you? I heard that you had taken a galliot up to Arendal +yesterday, and thought you would have been here this morning. It was +dreadful weather yesterday, Salve; so I was a little anxious," she +continued, as she helped him off with his wet oilskin coverings. + +"I have done well, Elizabeth," he said, looking pleased. + +"On the galliot?" + +"Yes, and I had a little matter to arrange in Arendal, which kept me +there till after midday." + +"You saw Gjert, then?" + +"I did." He looked a little impatiently towards the door. + +"And he is well?" + +"He can tell you now, himself," was the reply, as the door at the moment +opened and Gjert entered with a loud "Good evening, mother!" + +She sprang towards him in astonishment, and threw her arms round him. +"And not a dry stitch on the whole boy!" she cried, with motherly +concern. + +"But, Salve dear, what is the meaning of this? How can the boy come away +from school?" + +"When we have changed our clothes and warmed ourselves a little, I'll +tell you, mother," answered the pilot, slily. "He will be at home with +you the whole week." + +Gjert was evidently ready to burst with some news or other, but he had +to restrain himself until his father had taken his seat by the fire that +was crackling brightly on the hearth in the kitchen, and had leisurely +filled his pipe, and taken two or three pulls at it. + +"Now then, Gjert," he said, "you may tell it. I see you can't keep it in +any longer." + +"Well, mother!" he exclaimed, "father says that I shall be an officer in +the navy; and so he has taken me from school and is going with me to +Frederiksvoern next week." + +Henrik's mouth opened slowly, while Elizabeth, who was stirring the +porridge, suspended that operation, and looked in something like alarm +at her husband. + +"What do you mean, Salve?" + +"Wouldn't it be a fine thing, don't you think, to see the boy come home +to you some day in a smart uniform, Elizabeth? You have always had a +turn for that sort of thing," he added, jokingly. "And since you +couldn't go in for it yourself,--as they don't take womenfolk in the +navy--and it was not much in my line either,--why, I thought we could +make the experiment with Gjert." + +"Are you really in earnest, Salve?" she asked, looking at him still in +suspense. + +He nodded in confirmation. + +"Well, if it is your father's wish, may--may God prosper you in it, my +boy!" she said, going over to Gjert and stroking his forehead. + +"So--now you may take your joiner's bench into the room again, Henrik; +you can talk with Gjert in there--that is to say, if he will condescend +now to answer a common man like you--tell him you will be a merchant +captain, and earn as much as two such fellows in uniform. Mother and I +can then enjoy a little peace from you here in the kitchen." + +When they were alone, Elizabeth asked-- + +"But how has it all happened, Salve?" + +"Well, you see, I had taken the idea into my head about Gjert that he +should become something a little better than his father had been, and so +I went up to the Master, to Beck, and asked what I must do to push the +thing. Yes; and I spoke to young Fru Beck too." + +"Salve! did you go to Beck?" + +"Yes, I did--the boy must be pushed; and into the bargain, I half begged +his pardon for the way I used to turn the rough edge of my tongue on +him--and so we were reconciled. He is a fine old fellow in reality, and +I have wronged him. He said he had never forgotten that I had saved the +Juno for him, and that he had intended to put me one day in command of +her. While we were talking, young Fru Beck came in, and when she heard +what we were speaking about, she showed the greatest interest at once. +You were an old friend of hers, she said; and she thought we might get +Gjert into the Institute there free, when he had been up for an +examination in the summer. She knew some of the officials who would be +able to get it done; and if the Master wrote," he continued, a little +consciously, "that I was neither more nor less than a remarkable pilot +who ought to be salaried by the State, the thing would be as good as +done. So the Master wrote the application for me there and then." + +"See that!" cried Elizabeth. + +"Ay, and he wrote a testimonial from himself underneath. I hadn't an +idea that I was such a fine fellow," he laughed. + +"You see," she cried, looking at him proudly, "it comes at last. He +acknowledges it now." + +"Well, if we don't manage the thing that way, Salve Kristiansen will be +able nevertheless to work it out of his own pocket--for worked it shall +be, mind you. It won't be done for nothing; but we have something in the +savings bank, and the rest will come right enough. + +"It will be just as well that I should have something to drive me out of +the house occasionally, for otherwise I should get too fond both of it +and of you, Elizabeth," he said, and drew her towards him. "I must have +a little rain and storm now and again--it's my nature, you know. And the +Master must not be made to have written lies about me." + +His wife looked at him. A glow of deep feeling overspread her handsome +features. + +"How happy we have become, Salve!" she exclaimed. "If it could only have +been like this from the very beginning!" + +"I have thought over that, Elizabeth," he said, seriously. "There has +been One at the helm who is cleverer than I, for there was a deal of bad +stuff to be knocked out of me after I returned from that foreign life. +You, poor woman, were the chief sufferer by it, I am afraid." + +"And it was I, Salve, who was the chief cause of it all," she replied. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pilot and his Wife, by Jonas Lie + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PILOT AND HIS WIFE *** + +***** This file should be named 15588.txt or 15588.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/5/8/15588/ + +Produced by Clare Boothby, Jim Wiborg and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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