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diff --git a/19001.txt b/19001.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..33ee2a8 --- /dev/null +++ b/19001.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7638 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of All Aboard, by Fannie E. Newberry + +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: All Aboard + A Story for Girls + +Author: Fannie E. Newberry + +Release Date: August 7, 2006 [EBook #19001] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALL ABOARD *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +ALL ABOARD + + +A STORY FOR GIRLS + + + +BY FANNIE E. NEWBERRY + + +_Author of "The Odd One," "Not for Profit," "Bubbles," "Joyce's +Investments," "Sara a Princess," etc., etc._ + + + + + "Our Faith, a star, shone o'er a rocky height; + The billows rose, and she was quenched in night." + + + + +NEW YORK: + +A. L. BURT COMPANY, PUBLISHERS. + + + + +COPYRIGHT, 1898. + +By A. I. BRADLEY & CO + + + + +IN MEMORY + +OF A HAPPY VISIT, + +LET ME DEDICATE TO YOU, MY COUSINS + +H. S. AND W. FASSETT, + +THIS LITTLE BOOK + +WITH MY AFFECTIONATE REGARDS + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAP. + + I. Debby has a Caller + II. The Leave-taking + III. New Surroundings + IV. Introductions + V. "On the Bay of Biscay, O!" + VI. Portuguese Towns and Heroes + VII. Kite-flying and Gibraltar + VIII. Nightmare and Gossip + IX. A Game of Gromets + X. Mrs. Windemere's Dinner + XI. A Sunday at Sea + XII. The Story of a Wreck + XIII. Algiers and Andy + XIV. Guesswork + XV. Tropical Evenings + XVI. Danger + XVII. Lady Moreham Speaks + XVIII. Last Days Together + XIX. Old Ties and New + XX. In Old Bombay + XXI. Friends Ashore + XXII. In Elephanta's Caves + + + + +"ALL ABOARD!" + + +CHAPTER I. + +DEBBY HAS A CALLER. + +"And they're twins, you say?" + +"Yes'm, two of 'em, and as putty as twin blooms on a stalk, 'm." + +The second speaker was a large, corpulent woman, with a voluminous +white apron tied about her voluminous waist. She stood deferentially +before the prospective roomer who had asked the question, to whom she +was showing the accommodations of her house, with interpolations of a +private nature, on a subject too near her heart, to-day, to be ignored +even with strangers. As she stood nodding her head with an emphasis +that threatened to dislodge the smart cap with purple ribbons, which +she had rather hastily assumed when summoned to the door, the caller +mentally decided that here was a good soul, indeed, but rather +loquacious to be the sole guardian of two girls "putty as twin blooms." + +She, herself, was tall and slender, and wore her rich street costume +with an easy elegance, as if fine clothing were too much a matter of +course to excite her interest. But upon her face were lines which +showed that, at some time, she had looked long and deeply into the +hollow eyes of trouble, possibly despair. Even the smile now curving +her well-turned lips lacked the joyousness of youth, though in years +she seemed well on the sunny side of early middle age. She was +evidently in no hurry this morning, and finding her possible landlady +so ready to talk, bent an attentive ear that was most flattering to the +good creature. + +"I knew," she said, sinking into a rattan chair tied up with blue +ribbons, like an over-dressed baby, "that these rooms had an air which +suggested youth and beauty. I don't wonder your heart is sore to lose +them." + +"Ah, it's broke it is, 'm!" the voice breaking in sympathy, "for I've +looked upon 'em as my own, entirely, and it's nigh to eighteen year, +now. Their mother, just a slip of a girl herself, 'm, had only time +for a long look at her babbies before she begun to sink, and when she +see, herself, 'twas the end, she whispered, 'Debby'--I was right over +her, 'm, leaving the babbies to anybody, for little they were to me +then, beside the dear young mistress--so she says, says she, 'Debby!' +and I says, very soft-like, 'Yes, Miss Helen,'--'cause, mind you, I'd +been her maid afore she was merrit at all, and I allays forgot when I +wasn't thinkin', and give her the old name--and I says, 'Yes, Miss +Helen?' And then she smiles up at me just as bright as on her wellest +days, 'm, and says, 'Call 'em Faith and Hope,' Debby; that's what they +would be to me if--and not rightly onderstandin' of her, I breaks in, +'Faith and Hope? Call _what_ faith and hope?' For, thinkses I, 'she +may be luny with the fever.' But no, she says faint-like, but clear +and sound as a bell, 'Call my babies so. Let their names be Faith and +Hope, and when their poor father comes home, say it was my wish, and he +must not grieve too much, for he will have Faith and Hope always with +him.' And then the poor dear sinks off again and never rightly comes +to, till she's clean gone." + +"And their father was on a voyage, then?" + +"Yes 'm, second mate of the 'International.' He's cap'n now, 'm, with +an interest in the steamship, and they do say they ain't many that's so +dreadfully much finer in the big P. & O. lines--leastwise so I've heerd +tell, 'm, and I guess they ain't no mistake about it, nuther." + +"And you have mothered his babies all these years?" + +"I have, 'm, yes. In course when it come time for their schoolin' I +had to let 'em go. 'Twas then Cap'n Hosmer was going to give up this +house, 'cause 'twa'n't no use a-keepin' it while they was off, but thet +made me put my wits to work, and I planned a plan as I ain't seen fit +to find no fault with to this day. I ups and merries John Gunter, +what's been a-hangin' around a year or more, and I says, 'We'll take +the house off your hands, Cap'n. I've made up a notion to keep +lodgers, and then that'll give my girls a place to come to, and git fed +up, a holidays--don't you see, sir? And at that he laughs and says, +says he--for he's a man what's sound and sweet clear through, like a +hard cabbage, 'm, no rotten nowhere--and he says: 'A good plan, Debby, +and I'll rent your two best rooms for my daughters now, and pay a year +in advance,' and so 'twas done, 'm. And so's went the last five year, +them a-coming and going, jest like the sunshine in Aprile, but now--" + +Again the always husky voice broke, and the white apron was turned into +a handkerchief for the nonce. + +"Now you are going to lose them, you say?" + +"Yes'm. They're to ship with their father for the long cruise--that +is, I s'pose I oughter say they're a-goin with him on the long v'yage +to Ingy." + +"I presume he gets lonely for them too, poor man!" + +"In course he do, 'm--I sees thet plain--and I can't really say a word, +only--hist! I believes it's 'em, now. If that ain't my Miss Hope's +rush through the hall then I'll--" + +An unmistakable breeze and clatter, in which fresh young voices could +be plainly heard, sounded without, and, as both women faced the door, +it was flung somewhat violently open, and a young creature appeared in +its frame who seemed the incarnation of joy and brightness. +Involuntarily the lady murmured "Hope!" for the young girl's great +brown eyes were alight with fun, and her red-brown hair seemed to laugh +sympathetically in every curly lock and tangle, while her parted lips +showed teeth like bits of alabaster polished to splendor. + +She had scarcely entered when there seemed to be two of her, for her +sister, close behind, was so perfect a counterpart that no one, unless +a keen observer, could detect a difference. The stranger was a keen +observer and noticed that, while eyes, teeth, hair, and rich complexion +were identical, also the height and build, the expression was quite +different. Where the first-comer was alert, bird-like, and possibly +inclining to sharpness, the second was more dreamy, peaceful, and slow. +She had called the one "Hope," and saw, with quick pleasure, that she +was right, for as the girl stopped suddenly, abashed at finding a +stranger in the room, Mrs. Gunter said apologetically-- + +"I was jest takin' this lady through, Miss Hope. She thowt as she +might be a-wantin' of these after you an' Miss Faith was a-gone, maybe. +Mrs. Rollston it is." + +Each young girl acknowledged the introduction with a pleasant little +nod, and a murmured, "Happy to meet you, Mrs. Rollston," so precisely +similar in voice and manner that she could not help an amused smile; +yet, even here she could detect that same subtle difference in the +expression. Hope's nod was accompanied by a blithe glance, keen, yet +inviting, Faith's with a softly-inquiring, yet half-indifferent look, +as if some undercurrent of thought were still unstirred. She felt that +Hope appropriated her friendliness as a matter of course, while Faith, +though not repelling it, maintained a fine reserve which might, or +might not, vanish like hoar-frost in the first sun-ray of affection. +She said gently, "Your kind Mrs. Gunter has been telling me something +of your plans. It takes a great deal out of a house when young people +leave it." + +"Dear old Deb! She doesn't realize what a lot of care it will take off +her shoulders, though," cried Hope, quickly. "It will give her hours +and hours for Gyp and the lodgers. You see,"--laughing and dimpling +till Mrs. Rollston longed to kiss her,--"I put the dog first." + +"Which does not hurt my feelings yet, whatever it may do later," +returned that lady in kind. "And when do you sail, may I ask?" + +"To-morrow morning. I'm so glad we're to start by daylight. We're +going to take Debby out, and send her back in the pilot boat, aren't +we, Faith?" + +"You nearly promised, you know, Debby," put in the one addressed, +seeing dissent in her eye. + +"But not quite, honey. I allays feels it's a temptin' of Proverdance +for such a shaped woman as I be to set foot on things what goes +a-rockin' around on the water. I like to feel good solid earth under +them feet!" and she peered quizzically over her round person at her +huge carpet slippers, and shook her head with a chuckle of amusement. +"I've watched them frisky little steam critters 'fore now, and they're +most dujeous like to a babby jest a-larnin' to walk, or a tipsy man +a-tryin' to steer straight when he sees double. No, thankee kindly, +but I guess I'll say good-by ashore, where I can cry it out comfortable +after you're gone." + +"Foolish old Debby!" laughed Hope, while Faith looked with a sweet +regret at her dear old nurse, but did not speak. + +"Do you know," said the stranger, who was about leaving, her business +having been long finished, "I am wondering how it happened that these +names were bestowed just as they are. Can you tell me, Mrs. Gunter? +It would seem as if the babies must have shown their dispositions when +very young--or was it a happy chance?" + +Deborah laughed with unction. It was a story she was fond of telling. +They had just descended the stairs and she opened a door into a +snug-looking sitting-room off the hall as she said-- + +"Well, jest set you down again for a minute, 'm, if you please, and +I'll tell you. I ain't good for much at standin' long--too many pounds +to hold up. Here, 'm, this is the best chair--now I'll tell ye. Fact +is, I was in a real pupplex over them names for a time. First, I was +a-goin' to wait till their fayther got home, but they kept a-growin' so +fast thet it didn't seem right not to have 'em named. I was real +worrited for a spell till, all at once, I found out that they was +named--yes, and I'd done it myself! 'Twas like this: When they'd begin +to be a stir in the crib, and I was right busy, I'd say to my shadder, +'I hope it isn't this one, 'cause she wouldn't keep still a blessed +minute'; or I'd say, 'I've faith to b'lieve it's that one, for she'll +coo and play with her toes till I gets ready.' 'Twas allays jest +so--'I hope,' or 'I've faith,' every time. And soon as it come to me, +why, I jest named the obstreperous one Hope and the quiet one +Faith--don't you see?" + +"I do. It was bright of you, too. It really means that the names came +by nature, so fit like a glove, of course. But I must be off at once. +Thank you for a pleasant morning, Mrs. Gunter! I will bring my husband +around to-morrow for his approval, if he can spare the time. At any +rate, I think I am not too hasty in saying we will take the rooms. We +will, if you please, pay by the week in advance, as he is only here on +business, and our departure may, necessarily, be sudden. Good-morning." + +She departed, followed by the smiles and curtesies of Mrs. Gunter, but +not till the latter had found time to whisper huskily, "Aren't they +sweet girls, 'm, and do you wonder it breaks me in pieces to lose 'm?" +to which she responded heartily, + +"Indeed, I can fully understand your grief. They are delightful, and +singularly alike. If I were to describe each in a word, I should say +Hope is radiant, Faith lovely, and both are charming!" + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE LEAVE-TAKING. + +There were lively times in the Portsea lodging-house, next morning. +The many last small tasks that crowd upon the out-going voyager had +kept even Hope too busy to talk much, and she at length stopped +breathlessly, to cry, as she jammed her dressing-sacque and tooth-brush +into an already over-crowded bag, + +"Dear me! Faith, have you a spot for my hair-brush? It won't fold up +nor crush down, and this crocodile is just gorged. I don't know that I +can ever snap his jaws to in the world!" + +Faith looked and smiled an assent. + +"Toss it over! If your alligator-grip is full I can find room in this +telescope, but I hope it won't break my scent bottle." + +"Oh, alligator--yes, but what's the difference? The creatures look +alike in the pictures, I'm sure. That's a darling! Now, if I can ever +find the eye for this hook--oh, thank you! How calm you are. Why, my +hands fairly shake with nervousness. Now I believe I'm ready." + +"I too," returned Faith, taking up her gloves and smiling at Deborah, +who just then opened the door, displaying eyes swollen with weeping and +cap awry, and who observed sobbingly, + +"The new lady--Mrs. Rollston--is below, and asked if you was gone. I +thowt as likely she was a-wantin' to see you again, if you don't mind, +though she didn't really ask for you. Will you be pleased to come +down?" + +"Yes indeed!" cried Hope. "Where _did_ I put that umbrella? Oh, I +remember! It's tied to the steamer trunk. We may as well take our +luggage all down, as we go so soon." + +"Yes," said Faith, who had already lifted the telescope and a linen +rug-holder, embroidered with her initials, and calmly sailed out, while +Hope buzzed aimlessly about, picking up sundry small belongings, during +which time Debby shouldered her heavier packages and followed. The +girls allowed no dissimilarity in their costumes, to the smallest +detail, but for convenience' sake had selected their traps and luggage +as unlike as possible. When Hope reached the drawing-room Mrs. +Rollston was making to Faith a half-apology for her early visit. + +"I knew, if I could time my call exactly right, I would not bother you. +There is always a breathing-space while waiting for the cab, and--" + +"And you have exactly hit it!" broke in Hope, coming forward to give +her greeting, as Faith turned away. "We are pleased to meet you again." + +"Thank you. I find myself, in my idle time here, waiting upon my +husband's business, taking more interest than is perhaps strictly +allowable in you both. Can you pardon me?" + +"Freely," said Faith, "and we return it. Hope and I had a smart +discussion over you, last night. She says you are an American." + +"Does she?" turning swiftly to the sister. "What makes you think so, +Miss Hope?" + +"Your manner, your dress, and your accent," was the prompt reply though +the girl flushed a little in embarrassment. + +"But how do you young English girls so well understand these points of +difference when--" + +"Oh, but we're not English girls!" cried Hope. + +"That is, not entirely," qualified Faith. "Our mother was English--" + +"But our father's American!" Hope finished the sentence with a +triumphant air, and her visitor laughed. + +"You seem proud of it, too," she said. + +"I am. Faith does not care so much, but I'm very glad it is so. We +went across with father and Debby once, and stayed a year. It was such +a pleasant time! Father's people live in an old town they call +Lynn--such a pretty, shady place, with a drowsy air that wakes into +real life two or three times a day, when the factory people stream +through the streets--for you see they make shoes there." + +"Do they?" asked the lady with a peculiar smile, as if this were not +great news to her. + +"Yes. Uncle Albert's house, where we lived, was almost hidden beneath +great elm trees, and he and Aunt Clarice were so good to us." + +"And we kept bees," put in Faith, looking exactly like her twin in her +sudden animation. "I used to help uncle swarm them myself." + +"And we went down to Boston every few weeks," Hope crowded in again, +"and that was fine. I love Boston. Its narrow, crooked streets make +me think of our own Portsmouth, here, but with a difference. And oh! +the gardens, and the Common, and the Museum--" + +"The cab's at the dure," announced Debby in an abused voice, feeling +that this lively talk was scarce seemly in view of the near separation +to follow. Debby cherished grief, and felt it a Christian duty to make +much of it, perhaps because her sunny nature would of itself throw it +off too lightly. + +At her word all was quickly changed. The two girls forgot the strange +woman to hug the dear old nurse, and finally were escorted by both to +the cab door, Hope crying heartily, Faith showing only misty eyes and +quivering lips, but looking paler than her sister. + +It had been arranged that Captain Hosmer, whose business had kept him +with his steamer overnight, should meet his daughters at the pier, and +the cabman had his directions, so whipped up and was off without delay, +leaving poor Debby almost a senseless heap upon the door-step--an +old-fashioned green door on a retired street in the more ancient part +of the suburb--while Mrs. Rollston, in some dismay, bent over her. + +But before the house disappeared from view Faith's straining eyes saw +the two slowly mounting the steps together and turned in great content +to say, "I'm glad that friendly lady is to be at Debby's. She has just +helped the poor dear up the steps as kindly as possible. Poor Debby! +She will miss us." + +"Yes." Hope's quick tears were already somewhat stayed, and she now +looked brightly out, as they clattered across the bridge into the town +of Portsmouth proper and began to circle swiftly through the narrow +streets. + +"But she will feel better in a day or two. And oh! Faith, I can't help +being glad that we are going, can you? We leave Debby, but we go with +father, and such a fine voyage is enough to make any one happy. Ought +we to feel all sorry?" + +"No, indeed! Why should we? As you say, we are to go with our father. +That alone is a great delight." + +"And, by the way, that lady never told us whether she was American, or +not, did she?" + +"Sure enough! Well, we may never see her again, so what does it +matter? I hope we will, though, for I liked her." + +"And so did I," was Hope's emphatic rejoinder. + +Captain Hosmer opened the cab door for them himself, and gave them the +gaze of wondering approval which he reserved for these fair daughters. +To him their growth, development, and beauty seemed something magical, +incomprehensible. He had left them in the lank, homely, tooth-shedding +period, at the time he placed them in school, and when he returned to +see them graduated, here were two blooming maidens on the very +borderland of charming womanhood. The usual love and pride of a father +was in him a rapture made up of the love given to his very own, and +also of the admiration that a man, little thrown among women, is apt to +feel for those of his fireside. Then, too, these were the relics of a +wife most fondly cherished, and he constantly saw in them traits and +expressions which brought her to mind, and filled his heart with +tenderness. + +They, in turn, fairly adored the tall, brawny man, whose whole bearing +bespoke self-restraint, and the calm exercise of authority, and if his +attitude towards them was both chivalrous and tender, theirs to him was +fondly admiring and respectful. + +"I've been waiting for you ten minutes," he said, flinging his cigar +away. Then he beckoned to a sailor who, cap in hand, stood by, and +giving him a low order, led the girls off at a brisk pace, saying, +"Jack will see to your luggage; I've something to show you before we +leave." + +With one on either arm he walked them rapidly among the bales, boxes, +cordage, wagons, lumber, and people crowding the wharf, then turned +abruptly townwards, entered a short, lane-like street, and finally +stopped at a low, quaint-looking old shop, leaning in a tired manner +against a larger building beyond, thus throwing its doors and windows +into such oblique angles that Hope declared it made her feel dizzy. A +little dark man--doubtless to match the little dark house--bowed with +much suavity in the doorway, as if expecting them, and the captain at +once addressed him. + +"Here we are, Beppo! Bring them along, and be quick about it." But, +though his words were commanding, his eyes twinkled at the man, who, +ducking his black head once more, disappeared within. + +The girls peered into the doorway, from which issued a by-no-means +agreeable odor, and their father asked, laughingly. + +"Shall we go in?" + +"I think not," said Faith, holding her handkerchief to her dainty +little nose, "but what are those queer--why!" She jumped and caught at +her father, for some one had seemed to ask in a gruff voice, right at +her ear, "What d'ye want?" + +Her father laughed outright. + +"Scared you, eh? Look out, Hope!" for the latter had stepped inside. + +She answered merrily. + +"Oh, Faith, come! What you heard was a parrot. And there are a lot of +birds--oh! and cats--such queer ones. Do come and see." + +But at this minute, from some inner apartment Beppo reappeared, a cage +in either hand. In one perched a parrot of gorgeous plumage, in the +other crouched a beautiful Angora cat, large and tawny, its great brush +of a tail curled disconsolately about its ears. + +"What a lovely kitten!" cried Faith, "and so frightened. Poor, poor +Pussy!" + +"And such a saucy parrot!" chimed in Hope. "Isn't it handsome, though?" + +"He talka--oh, mocha he talka," observed Beppo, holding the cages on +high with a prideful air. "An' he pussa ver' fine, yes." + +"Well, girls, which do you like the better?" said the captain. "I know +it's the thing to give presents to out-going travelers, and I want to +do everything shipshape. But flowers are a nuisance the second day +out, and fruit a drug, so I thought a pet was the thing. It's only to +decide which it shall be." + +"Oh, if we can't have both, do let's take the parrot; don't you say so, +Faith?" + +"Why, if you wish it, of course, dear, but"--her gaze rested +lingeringly upon the other cage. + +"But you want the Persian cat, I see, daughter," put in the captain. +"Well, well, let's have both, Beppo. We'll find some place to stow +'em, no doubt. Have you somebody by to carry them to the steamer?" + +"Me go," cried the man, grinning broadly in delight over this trade, +"me vife she stay--me go." + +"But couldn't I carry the poor kitten in my arms, she seems to feel +being a prisoner so?" asked Faith, distressed for the pet she loved +already. + +"He might scratch you," said the captain, but Beppo shook his head. + +"Noa, noa, he gooda; but he getta waya. Dis safa. Betta go cagea." + +"Drat the cage!" shouted a hoarse voice, and Faith nearly fell over +backwards, while Hope danced up and down in merry laughter. + +"It's my parrot! Oh, father, _does_ he swear? What will we do with +him?" + +The captain was silently shaking with merriment, but drew himself +together and turned sternly to the man. "Beppo, you declared that was +a refined, clean-talking bird--now, didn't you? I told you it was for +a young lady." + +The man's face fell and he broke into profuse apologies, which grew +more unintelligible as they increased in vehemence. Out of it all they +managed to gather that this was the parrot's worst expression, and only +lately learned of a "badda carpentiera," who had found difficulty in +fashioning the wooden cage he was making, and had used "badda wodda" in +consequence. Hope could scarcely wait till he had finished to cry, +anxiously, + +"But, father, it isn't a real swear-word, now, is it? And anyhow we +can teach him to do better. Do, _do_ let me have him!" + +Her father gave her a merry glance. + +"They say some women really like to hear a man use strong +expressions--now, it can't be you are like that--or is it that you want +somebody to reform, eh? However, if you can stand it I can--sailors +have to get used to such things. I can't say I've ever found it really +necessary to swear though, as some of them maintain. I can do a +considerable amount of ordering in the worst storm going, and remember +to rule my tongue as well as my crew. In fact, I won't have anything +of the kind aboard, so, my dear, if your bird begins by breaking my +rules, what then?" + +"I shall teach him better. Parrots say what they are taught, and if he +does not hear it, he won't talk it." + +"Well, then, if you'll take him in hand--come on, Beppo, we must be +moving," and the little procession began its march. + +Faith drew a long breath of relief. + +"Well," she remarked, with a dainty lifting of the brows that always +made the captain think of his girl-wife, so long lost to him, "I'm +decidedly grateful that my cat cannot talk. He won't be able to +disgrace us, at least." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +NEW SURROUNDINGS. + +"Oh, Hope, I wish they wouldn't! Doesn't it seem too hard? Those poor +mothers and sisters--" + +"And sweethearts," added Hope under her breath, watching with great +eyes. "I don't mind so much those that make so much noise about it, +like that big woman by the post, but this little group over here; they +do feel awfully, and my heart aches for them." + +The girls were standing on the deck of the "International," watching +the last adieux on shore. A small squad of British soldiery were about +embarking, and the home friends were gathered on the wharf, waiting for +a last glimpse of their beloved boys. The "big woman" Hope mentioned +had made such violent demonstrations, insisting upon following her +red-cheeked son about and weeping on his shoulder, that he had fled +before the laughter of his brothers-in-arms, and hidden in some nook on +board, leaving her to find solace in a vile-looking black pipe, which +she was just lighting with an equanimity that did not suggest an +entirely heart-broken condition. The group mentioned consisting of the +intelligent-looking young officer in charge of the squad, and three +women, who were evidently mother, sister, and friend. + +They visited in low tones till the last minute, but at the final +separation the poor mother turned from her red-coat's embrace, nearly +fainting in her daughter's arms, and the poor fellow, looking back at +the three pale faces, had staggered a little in his own walk, as if +overcome by emotion, as he rallied his men for embarkation. Just as +the gang-plank slid inside upon its rollers, however, something +happened which brought back the ever-ready laughter to the girls' lips. +A young exquisite, with a monocle who had been hovering around one +party, in which were two or three pretty girls whose sly fun at his +expense he was too dense to appreciate, thought it would be a cunning +thing to fling after them the handkerchief he had pretended to drench +with regretful tears; but being very close to the edge of the wharf he +miscalculated his balance, and would have toppled into the water, but +that a burly tar, standing close by, caught him by his waistband and +dragged him back to safety, swearing a round oath at him for his +foolishness. + +The poor little dandy's natty straw hat and monocle were lost, though, +but worse yet was the shout of laughter that arose from ship and shore, +at his expense, mingled with cheers for the big sailor. Crestfallen +enough, he was glad to sink back into the crowd and become +inconspicuous, for once. But no one on the steamer gave him further +attention, for, as they swung out into deep water with that majestic +motion in which a great vessel seems to courtesy to the deep, there was +too much of great interest to look at. + +The girls had thoroughly examined their fine stateroom, which opened +from their father's cabin, a day or so before, and now, having hastily +deposited the cat, parrot, and luggage within in its doors, were +prepared to spend this first hour of their journey in making good use +of their eyes. It happened to be a fine day, clear and mild, with +little air stirring, and even the most tearful of the passengers soon +began to feel the influence of the fine air and lively scenes about +them. + +As they passed Fort Monckton some regimental band was practising a +martial air, which came in softened strains across the water, and it +seemed as if Spithead roadway were fairly alive with craft of every +description, from a gun-ship seeking dry dock for repairs, to a slender +racing wherry, whose one occupant, bareheaded and armed, flung up an +oar in greeting, as the stately "International" steamed by. + +Hope turned almost reluctantly from all this life and movement to watch +the fertile shores of the Isle of Wight, but Faith fell at once under +their spell, and could scarcely be persuaded to talk, so busy were her +eyes noting the rich verdure and picturesqueness of the wooded scene. +As they neared Cowes she pointed to a massive tower, which loomed up +amid the thick verdure, and observed, + +"See, Hope, there's Osborne House, one of our queen's castles, isn't it +beautiful?" + +"Yes," said Hope, "and there's a sloop flying an American flag--see? +Ah! it's saluting--now watch our colors, Faith; isn't that pretty? And +aren't you glad we sail under both? There's a book named 'Under Two +Flags,' and I've wondered what it is about. Our father's steamer sails +under both the American and British, and I'm so proud of both I want to +huzza every time I see them!" + +The breeze was freshening by this, so that they felt the need of more +wraps, and decided to go below for them. As they slowly paced across +the broad deck their eyes roved from group to group, and they began +already to decide which would, and would not, be desirable +acquaintances. In turn, many eyes followed them, and they caught such +expressions as--"Did you ever see such a resemblance? How beautiful +they are, and how exactly alike," and the whisper, "Who are they?" +passed from lip to lip, for, having roamed all over this great ocean +hotel more than once, when "visiting papa," the twins now went about +with an assurance few passengers had yet attained to. + +Besides the sight of two mere girls apparently unattended, is a most +unusual thing abroad, and so our sisters seemed, this morning, for +their father was too busy with his many duties to attend upon them when +he knew they were perfectly at home, here. As they entered their +pretty cabin, for so the English oftenest designate a first-class +stateroom, a pitiful "miew," long drawn out, and at once answered by a +hoarse "Shut up!" greeted their ears. The poor kitten was evidently +suffering, and the naughty parrot scolding her for complaining. + +"It's a wicked shame to keep my fine Angora in that cage!" cried Faith, +with unusual spirit, "And you must teach that rude fellow not to scold +at her." + +Hope smiled good-naturedly. + +"How can I help his talking, dear? But why can't we let kitty out, +now? Shut the door and have her get used to it here, first. How +pretty this room is! Wasn't it lovely of father to fit it up freshly +for us?" + +"Of course it was!" cried a well-known bass voice, and a blue-capped +head appeared at the inner door. "Going to let Puss out, girlies?" +asked the captain. "Wait, I'll assist you." + +He was soon down upon his knees fumbling with the cage, the girls +watching him in eager anticipation; and this seems an excellent +opportunity to describe the pretty apartment. It was about twelve feet +square, and its two narrow white bedsteads were set side by side +beneath the starboard portholes, and safely screwed to the floor, +leaving a narrow space beyond, which gave opportunity to reach the +convenient wardrobe there. In one corner, at the foot of the beds, was +the stationary wash-stand with cleated shelves above, and a cunning +pigeon-hole arrangement for shoes below--"Anything but footless boots +clattering around in a gale!" said Captain Hosmer. In the other corner +was a dear little toilet-stand, built in securely, and fitted below +with triangular drawers, which shut fast with a click, and were opened +with a spring. Its top was beveled out into fanciful squares and +rounds, into which deep trays for toilet articles were secured, and, +above, a mirror of goodly size was also screwed to place. Between +these was the door that led to a narrow corridor leading directly to +the deck in one direction, to one of the saloons in the other. + +Along the wall space, opposite the wardrobe, were light racks for +books, wraps, and knick-knacks, and below a long seat, or lounge, +covered in white dimity, with its flounce reaching to the floor. The +top to this could be raised, and the space beneath made a most handy +place for the bestowal of cloaks and gowns. All the decorating of +walls and panels was in white and pale green, pricked out with gold; +and a small door close beside the bed-heads opened into the captain's +cabin. + +This was a foot or two larger, and of irregular shape, its deck-wall +forming a swell, in which were three broad windows which gave a view of +the sea for a full half-circle of the horizon. It also overlooked the +forward deck, the watchful lookout on the bridge, the busy sailors at +their tasks, and gave glimpses of the steerage at long range. It was +richly paneled in leather, with much gilding, the draperies were of +crimson damask, and the seat which followed the window's swell was +cushioned in crimson plush, all of which gave it a snug, shut-in look. +A large table with a constant litter of maps, charts, sextants, +log-books, pipes, and tobacco jars, occupied the center, and +comfortable chairs were placed around in careless order. There were a +few books in some wall-shelves, a violin case in one corner--which +instrument the captain loved to practise on, though he was no +proficient--and one or two pretty India cabinets of lacquered work, +containing odd specimens, and fine curios from many countries. + +His sleeping apartment, off at one side, which filled in the irregular +triangle left from the rounded end, was a mere closet with a narrow +bunk, "hard as iron," as Faith often disconsolately remarked, and a +folding bath. The captain asked no personal luxuries, yet no father +ever lived who was more lavish in bestowing every refinement of dainty +living upon his daughters. + +The girls liked to speak of his cabin as the "library," and mostly did +so, much to its owner's amusement, who seldom read any book except the +log, or the daily writings of the weather on sea and sky. + +"There!" he said, as he succeeded in loosening the cage door. "Now +come out, Mr. Puss, and make friends. What are you going to name him, +Faith?" + +"What would you, father? It ought to be a Persian name, oughtn't it?" + +"That might do--if you don't get too much of a jaw-breaker, child. +Remember, I'm not learned." + +"The idea! When you can rattle off those Indian names that I cannot +understand at all, Just as if they were everyday Hatties and Kitties +and Pollys." + +He smiled. + +"Oh, of course. I'm used to them. But Persian's another thing, I +suppose. Come, kitty, don't be afraid--whew!" for, in spite of +coaxing, the frightened creature made a dash past him, as he would have +stroked its silky coat, and disappeared under the white valance of the +nearest bed. + +Instantly Faith was on her knees, diving after, but nearly fell over +with laughter when Mr. Parrot called out promptly, in a shocked voice, +"Oh, for shame!" + +Amid the laughter the captain remarked quickly, "I have it! Who was +that Persian poet you were reading about the other night, in Portsea, +Faith? Why not name him that? Don't you remember, he was said to be +rather a shy, retiring man. Now, kitty, here, seems to have the same +disposition." + +Faith was now scrambling out, warm and tumbled, Puss safe in her arms, +but only half yielding to restraint, and, smiling at her father's funny +glance, she answered, gasping a little with her exertions, + +"It was Hafiz, papa. I had thought of Ali Baba, but that always +suggests the forty thieves, you know, and I wouldn't like my pretty +Angora to be accused of stealing even cream--father, do you suppose +he's hungry?" + +"Bless us! Just as likely as not. Wait, I'll send Joey for some milk +at once," touching an electric button just above the seat. "I see Mr. +Parrot has his dinner in his cage. Well, shall it be Hafiz?" + +"I believe that will do," returned Faith slowly, "and what will you +name your bird, Hope?" + +"Oh, I'm not going so far for a name as all that, only to America, and +I shall call him Texas." + +Her father, smiling at her ideas of distance, joined Faith in her +surprised question, "But why?" + +"Why? Because I've always thought, from things I've read about Texas, +that it's a jolly, wide-awake state, but not over-refined, perhaps. It +has always seemed to me they did rather dreadful things there, but in +an off-hand, good-natured sort of way, that made them seem more funny +than really bad. I don't think I can make it quite plain to you, but +that's the way my parrot acts. He is not so wicked as he seems, and I +shall certainly call him Texas." + +At this instant the boy, who had been electrically summoned, appeared. +He was a Japanese, with a good face, now in a broad smile as he +received his orders, and the quick glance by which he took in the +pretty room and its lively occupants was alert and well pleased. He +had waited upon the captain for years, spoke perfect English, and was +the most faithful and good-tempered of lackeys. He soon reappeared +with some rich-looking milk, which poor Hafiz eagerly began to lap, so +soon as Faith had poured some into a saucer, and for the first time a +soft purring sounded from his white-collared throat. + +"There!" said his little mistress, watching him in great satisfaction, +"he really was half starved. Now, don't you see how like our Persian +poet he is, father? You remember Hafiz liked to sing of all +comfortable things--good living, and so on. Here is my Hafiz doing the +same thing." + +"Only his language is not entirely comprehensible," laughed her sister. + +"Could you have understood the real poet any better?" was the arch +response, and Hope had to acknowledge that, for all practical purposes, +the Angora Hafiz was as intelligible as his namesake. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +INTRODUCTIONS. + +When they went back upon deck Faith had the pacified Hafiz in her arms, +and was inclined to sympathize with her sister, who could not carry +Texas about in that manner. But Hope needed no consolation. "Possibly +I cannot, yet," she allowed, "but wait a while. I intend to tame +Texas, and then I shall have him to perch on my wrist like a falcon. +And, just now, I don't know that I care to be hampered by any sort of a +baby," laughing mischievously, for Faith looked quite motherly, with +the kitten wrapped in a fold of her cape. + +They had come above to see the lighthouse and Hurst Castle, at the +opening into the Channel, which seemed to be held out from the mainland +by a long, thin arm of soil. The Channel here narrows to about a mile +in width, and these objects loom up conspicuously to the starboard of +the outbound steamer. As they stood watching from the hurricane deck, +to which they had ascended, and admiring not only the bright scene +before them, but also the splendor and cleanliness of their father's +ship, a boyish voice was heard to exclaim, + +"Well, I've explored as far as they'll let me, and I say she's a dandy! +I believe she'll compare pretty well with the P. & O. liners, after +all, don't you, Bess?" And up through the companionway came a head in +a yachting-cap, followed by a slender boy in gray, with a frank, but +homely visage. + +He gave the girls a keen glance, which they more modestly returned, and +they privately decided, after a second look, that his eyes were fine +and his smile a pleasant one, if he was slightly snub-nosed and +freckled. + +Just behind him came the "Bess" of his question, a rather delicate +young lady in appearance, possibly in her early twenties, the boy being +at least four years younger. She was not pretty, but as her eyes +lighted upon the sisters, she too smiled so pleasantly, they were at +once drawn to her, and returned the wordless greeting with more than +civility. Then Hope broke out, impulsively, + +"We are watching the lighthouse. Doesn't it loom up well? Almost as +if we were going to run into it." + +"True enough," returned "Bess," as both drew nearer, and the boy added, +to Faith, + +"You've got an Angora, haven't you? We left one at home, didn't we, +Bess? He's a splendid fellow, Chimmie Fadden is!" + +"Chimmie Fadden? What a funny name!" laughed the twins in chorus. + +"It's out of a story," he explained, "a Van Bibber story, and really +means Jimmy, you know, but that's the way the boy pronounced it +himself. He acts timid," this in reference to Hafiz, who burrowed +under Faith's arm, resenting his advances. + +"Yes, he doesn't like it on board, at all. It's all too strange, yet. +Father gave him to me just before we started, and he hasn't become used +to anything--not even me." + +"And I've a parrot," put in Hope. "_He_ takes it out in scolding. I +shall not dare have him on deck until he gets over his sulks, and will +talk nice things. So far, he is a bit rude and outspoken for polite +society." + +Their light talk and laughter seemed to break all ice between them, if +there had been any to break, and the young lady asked, + +"Do you go far? I noticed you on the forward deck. It is seldom one +sees two people so exactly alike. Can even your own mother tell you +apart?" + +"Our mother we have never known, she died when we were so little," said +Faith gently, "but Debby, our nurse, always knew, and so does father. +Very few others do, though." + +"Is your father with you?" + +"Oh, yes, indeed!" laughed Hope. "We couldn't very well do without +him--" + +"Oh, I know, I know. He's the _captain_! Isn't he now?" cried the +boy. "I heard the head steward saying something to another officer +about the captain's daughters. Haven't I made a good guess?" + +"You certainly have," said Faith. + +"Then your name is Hosmer," added the boy, triumphantly. "I've been +over nearly the whole steamer, and she's fine! And I know our captain +quite well, and like him first-rate, already." + +"Oh, you do?" laughed his sister. "Well, now you have ferreted out who +these young ladies are, I think we ought to introduce ourselves. This +is my brother, Dwight Vanderhoff, of New York City, America, and I am +his sister Elizabeth, generally shortened to Bess. We are going with +our mother and uncle, Mr. Dwight Lawrence, for whom this youngster is +named, to India, and intend to make an extended tour. We have been on +the Continent and in the British Isles for three or four months, and +haven't lost any of our Yankee enthusiasm and curiosity yet, as you +see." + +"And we're American, too!" cried Hope. + +"And English," added Faith. + +"Why, how is that?" + +The latter explained. + +"Well, if that isn't jolly!" said Dwight. "To be sure, this steamer's +the 'International,' and sails under both flags. I noticed our old +'star-spangled' along with the Union Jack, and wondered. Do you see, +Bess?" + +"Of course I see, and am delighted. I shall consider it a good omen +for our voyage." + +"Especially as she carries Faith and Hope with her," remarked the +latter, with a merry glance at her sister. + +"Certainly," returned Bess obliviously, but Dwight broke in, + +"Wait! You mean something special by that; I see it in your eyes. Let +me guess again. Faith and hope--faith and hope--I once knew a girl +named Faith--say! I'll bet a cooky those are your names. Aren't they, +now?" + +"Right again!" laughed Hope, while he jumped about, clapping his hands +in ecstasy. + +"Hear that, Bess Vanderhoff? Uncle always said I was a regular Yankee +for guessing, and that shows it. But those are stunning names for +twins--" + +"Dwight, Dwight! What an expression to describe those lovely words." + +"Well, it was rather off, Bess. I beg your pardon, Miss Faith and +Miss--but which is which, and how will I know if you tell me? It's a +regular Chinese puzzle, for you are precisely the same until you speak, +and then there's a difference. For you," he pointed towards Hope, +"look somehow--well, jollier, I guess it is." + +"Don't be personal, Dwight," admonished his sister. + +"But it's a personal subject, sis, how can I help it? May I make one +more try at it?" + +"As many as you like," laughed Hope. + +"Well, then, if you're named as you ought to be you are Hope, because +you look it, and she--" + +He was interrupted by a little cry from Faith, who had been watching +the scenery more closely than the others. They followed her gaze and +were silenced a while by the impressive scene, for the Channel was +opening broadly before them, its cold green waves curling into +foam-tipped breakers, while the Needles, those natural turrets of the +deep, rose in stately fashion from the waters, seemingly in their very +path, as if here the bold voyager must needs be challenged before +venturing further. The narrow Solent was passed and a wider roadway +was to be theirs for many a day. But after a little, Dwight's +irrepressible spirits broke out afresh, and he returned to the charge, +evidently determined to be at no loss when addressing these girls, whom +he secretly chose as companions for Bess and himself out of the whole +passenger list. He finished his guess concerning Hope, and once more +proved his right to American citizenship. + +"But why do I look my name?" she asked curiously. + +"Can't tell; you just do, that's all. I'm a guesser, but I can't +explain why, at all. + +"You may know me by my cat--Hafiz the poet, at your service," said her +sister merrily. + +"But when you don't have the cat, Miss Faith? One of you ought to tie +on a pink ribbon somewhere, and one a blue." + +"Yes, and then we'd be like the old woman with her eggs," put in Bess. +"It would be sink or swim--pink or blue--but which? I think I'd rather +learn you by closer observation, and you mustn't mind if I stare a good +deal for a time. + +"Oh, no, people always do stare," said Hope nonchalantly, which was, +indeed, the truth. The sisters had become so used to this attention in +public that they were able to appear unconscious of it always, whether +really so or not. For, being sensible girls, they did not attribute +this at all to their fair, fresh faces, but to the resemblance between +them, enough of a novelty in this world of diversities to be always +observable. + +They were well out into the Channel when summoned to luncheon, and only +waited long enough for a good look back at the beautifully wooded +shores before they went below. The first meal at sea is always an +interesting one. It is a matter of great moment to many in what part +of the saloon they will be assigned a place, and of course the special +honor of sitting at the captain's table is desired by all, though +attained by few. + +As they were descending towards the cabin, to join their father, Faith, +ever thoughtful of others, said in a low voice. + +"Don't you wish we could have the Vanderhoff party at our table, Hope?" + +"True enough. It would be fine! Let's ask father." + +"But you know he leaves all that to Mr. Malcolm, and I don't believe we +ought to meddle." + +Mr. Malcolm was the head steward, and it was an excellent rule of +Captain Hosmer's to interfere as little as possible with the special +prerogatives of his officers, who in turn always tried their best to +please him. Mr. Malcolm knew his duties thoroughly, and did them. + +This the girls knew, hence the disclaimer from thoughtful Faith, + +"Oh dear! It would be so pleasant. And father ought to have a say +about his own table--" + +"But you know he's always consulted, dear, and by this time everything +is planned." + +"Well, we might be consulted, too." + +"Why, Hope! When he has planned everything to make it pleasant for us." + +Hope's pout died out into a shamefaced smile. + +"There, there! Consider it unsaid, Miss Wisdom. Guess I can +appreciate the dear man, myself--and there he is looking for us now." + +Quite over her pet, she ran to meet him, and his tender smile met their +upturned faces. + +"Ah, girlies, I was just coming for you. I'll see you in to the table +and join you presently. Just now I'm busy, but Malcolm and Joey will +look after you. I didn't forget that my little girls were along when +we fixed up the table-list, and you'll see they are not all ponderous +elderly people with titles, this time. Come on!" + +The sisters exchanged glances, and Hope in a spasm of repentance, +murmured, "Oh papa, you're too good to us!" which he only half caught +as Faith just then remarked, + +"But Hafiz--I'll have to--" + +"Here, Jack,"--to a passing attendant,--"take this kitten to my cabin, +and see that the door is shut into the large stateroom, off. Hafiz and +Texas are better apart until time has cemented their friendship," he +added, with a twinkle, turning again to his daughters. "Now hurry!" +and he raced them merrily down the companion-way, and through the after +saloon, to the great apartment set out with table after table, in a +bewildering vista of white linen, glittering silver, and shining +crystal. + +As they stepped to their places Hope nearly gave a hop of pleasure, for +on one side were Bess and Dwight, with a tall lady whom Bess greatly +resembled, and a rather magnificent gentleman, whose whole air bespoke +one used to power, to luxury, and to travel. + +The others consisted of two or three officers, an outgoing Indian +official who wrote Sir before his name, a famous traveler, a minister +from America, and a Russian writer of note. The ladies were fewer, +there being only three besides Mrs. Vanderhoff. One was the wife of +the English baronet, and the other two seemed traveling together, but +in what relation was not apparent. One was past middle life, and +fine-looking, with snowy hair, brilliant eyes, and a polished speech +and manner. The other was, as the sisters rather hastily decided, not +prepossessing in appearance, having a reserved and haughty manner. She +seldom spoke, and was either preoccupied, or indifferent. + +The captain, with a courteous general greeting, introduced his +daughters, then seated them, one on either side of his own place, when, +with a word to Joey, whose manner was eagerly attentive, he hastened +back to his post, leaving them to their own devices. Bess at once +presented them to her mother and uncle, the latter in turn mentioning +the names of the Indian official, Sir Wilbur Lawton, his wife and the +traveler, whose famous cognomen may not be written here. Then he +glanced half inquiringly at the two ladies, who were evidently +strangers to him, when she of the white hair said gracefully, + +"And let me present to all, my friend, Lady Moreham." + +Then, as her companion did not return the favor, she added, "And I am +Mrs. Poinsett." + +The younger people were too well trained to monopolize conversation, +but listened with pleasure to the talk between the gentlemen concerning +hunting of "big game" in India, with which both the traveler and Sir +Wilbur seemed well acquainted, Mr. Lawrence asking intelligent +questions, and the Russian whose name was almost unpronounceable, +putting in a broken sentence, or two, now and then. The ladies mostly +listened, also, but occasionally the two who were companions conversed +in low tones. Lady Lawton, who was extremely fleshy, devoted herself +exclusively to her luncheon. + +The twins, meanwhile, made their observations with the promptitude of +youth. They liked Mrs. Vanderhoff, whose manner was quiet and +sensible, in accord with her dress and appearance, and they also +fancied Mrs. Poinsett, but the one called Lady Moreham they decided was +disagreeable, and too proud of her rank to be sociable. They were glad +she sat at the further end of the table, and Hope remarked, as she bent +forward for the pepper-box. "There's a regular specimen of your +British aristocracy, Faith Hosmer. You must feel proud of it!" + +But Faith only smiled, as she murmured in return, "Judge not!" then, +with her charming smile, answered Mr. Lawrence's question with a "No, +sir, it is our first trip to India. We have often been to Cowes, or +Plymouth, with father, but never far from English shores, except once, +when we spent a year in Massachusetts, at the time he was mate of the +'Glasgow.'" + +"Ah, in what part? Boston, I presume?" + +"Yes, sir, Boston, Lynn, Salem; but we lived at Lynn." + +Here Bess broke in to briefly explain the double nationality claimed by +the girls, and for a rather embarrassing minute the attention of the +table seemed concentrated upon them. Amid the fusillade of question +and comment Hope noticed Lady Moreham's eyes suddenly flash and +soften--she could almost have thought there were tears in them, indeed. +But why? At any rate, she began to think there might be some redeeming +traits, even in this "specimen of British aristocracy." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +"ON THE BAY OF BISCAY, O!" + +The meal was scarcely over, when there was a perceptible change in the +movement of the steamship, for, no longer sheltered by the Isle of +Wight, they soon discovered that what they had always heard of the +broad English Channel is true, and found it one of the roughest sheets +of water known. Faith soon began to look "white around the gills," as +Mr. Malcolm teasingly informed her, and when she said she "thought she +would go and look after Hafiz," Hope rallied and ridiculed her, well +backed by Dwight, who was a born sailor; but Bess evidently sympathized +with her, and began herself to look wan. + +Faith had gone indoors--they were on the forward deck upon which the +captain's cabin, or "library," opened, and Hope had been watching her +zig-zag progress across it, laughing merrily, when, with the suddenness +of a lightning-stroke, everything grew black and began to spin around +her. She looked helplessly at Dwight, whose grinning face was like +that of a whirling dervish, made a little lurch forward, and would have +fallen, but that watchful Mr. Malcolm caught her just in time. He at +once sent a boy for the stewardess, and they soon had the +half-unconscious girl safe inside her own stateroom door, where Faith +looked up drowsily from her little bed to remark, + +"Why, what's the matter? Did she get hurt?" + +"Oh, no, only faint," returned the woman smiling broadly, while she +unfastened Hope's gown and assisted her upon the other bed. "There's +the pair of you." + +"Two fools!" remarked the parrot, with such appropriateness that even +Hope had to join feebly in the woman's jolly laughter, while Faith +plucked up strength to gibe a little in return for her sister's attack +on deck. + +"There, now, all you've got to do is to lie still," said the +stewardess, as she turned away. "Why, you little kitten! Where did +you come from?" for Hafiz, curled down snugly by Faith, had just +attracted her notice. "Is he yours, Miss Faith?" + +"Yes, Martha. Papa gave him to me, and do let papa know, please, how +sick we are, so that he can look in on us when he has time," she added, +for, unaccustomed to illness, she felt they were almost in danger of +their lives, now. + +When, however, a little later, their father peered in with a laughing +face to rally them, and declared in cheery tones that they were "just +getting their sea-legs, and would be good sailors in a day or two," +they took heart, and both soon drowsed off into hazy slumber. But +neither wanted any dinner that night, and did not attempt much exertion +until late the next day. Hope awoke, feeling much brighter, and felt +that the motion was not so distressing as yesterday. She looked across +at Faith, who lay with closed eyes, pale indeed, but peaceful. + +"Are you awake?" she whispered. + +"Yes," returned her sister, opening her eyes only to close them at +once. "I'm awake, but it's the queerest thing. So long as I keep my +eyes closed I'm quite comfortable, but when I open them I feel as if I +were in a high swing just ready to tumble out; and when Texas gets to +pitching around in his cage, and hanging fairly upside down, and +whirling around like a crazy thing, it makes me a great deal worse." + +Hope laughed. + +"Poor Texas! I don't think he's very happy himself. I wonder, are +birds ever seasick, really? I've heard they often mope and die on +shipboard, but is it seasickness?" + +"I'm sure I don't know--but let's not talk about it! What time do you +suppose it is, Hope?" + +"Oh, somewhere along in the afternoon. Somebody says there's no time +at sea--it's all now. Heigh-ho! I've half a mind to get up and +dress--why-y, what's that?" + +Sure enough! Even Faith opened her eyes wide to stare upward, for +there was something sliding through one of the portholes above their +heads, and dropping softly downwards--a small package done up in +crinkly pink paper, and tied neatly about with blue lutestring. + +"It's father!" cried Hope, as she scrambled to her knees to peer out, +but she could see nobody on the narrow guards without. + +Meanwhile Faith grasped the little packet and began to untie it, +forgetting her illness in her eagerness. + +The paper, when opened, disclosed two sea biscuits--the square, thin +kind, like a soda cracker--and upon each was painted a tiny marine view +in water-colors, while beneath was a couplet done in fanciful +lettering. One read, + + "Hope for a season bade the world farewell, + And Freedom shrieked--as Kosciusko fell," + +while the other bore the legend, + + "Our Faith, a star, shone o'er a rocky height; + The billows rose, and she was quenched in night." + + +"How absurd! How funny! Who did it?" they cried in concert, +forgetting all ill feelings as they laughed till the tears came. + +"It never was father," said Hope, when she could get her voice. "The +dear man couldn't repeat a line of poetry to save his life. That one +about Kosciusko used to be in one of our school speakers, don't you +know?" + +"Yes, it's Campbell's." Faith always remembered more accurately than +her sister, while the latter learned more readily. "But who would ever +think of applying it so oddly? The play on our names is bright enough, +but--I'll tell you, I'll tell you! It was that boy--Dwight Vanderhoff. +I just believe it! He is clever, I'm sure, and his uncle could help +him." + +"As likely as not--or Mr. Malcolm--but no, I don't believe he would. +He is full of fun, but dignified too, and he never forgets we are the +captain's daughters. It must be that boy! Martha Jordan says he +hasn't been ill a minute, and that he knows everybody on shipboard, +already, and they all like him." + +The stewardess was fond of the girls, and in her frequent visits had +brought them every bit of news she could pick up, to lighten their +confinement. She appeared while they were conjecturing, and said, + +"Aha! Well, aren't you?" + +"Almost," said Faith, as both began telling the story of their package. + +Martha appeared much interested, but there was a look on her honest +face that seemed to say she was not so densely ignorant of the matter +as she pretended to be, and, while she assisted them into their long, +flannel-lined ulsters and close caps, for a visit to the upper deck, +where she declared the fresh wind would blow their last qualms away, +they tried to learn just what she did know, but without success. +Giving it up, finally, Hope proposed that they wear the sea-biscuit as +ornaments, and see who should look most conscious when they drew near. + +"A good idea! And where is that box of ribbons? Let's find a pink and +blue, if we can." + +"Tell me where you put it and I'll look," said Martha, much amused, +and, when found, she punched a hole through one corner of the pasty +squares, and tied each to a button of the ulsters. Hope's was pink, +and Faith's blue. + +Thus equipped, she started them up the companion-way, and seeing they +were reasonably firm on their feet, went about her business, chuckling +to herself as if greatly enjoying something. As they appeared above, +they received a merry greeting from their father, who sat chatting with +Mr. Lawrence to leeward of a smokestack, which gave a grateful warmth, +as the day was a typical November one, gray and chill. + +Both gentlemen sprang up to offer chairs, and congratulate them upon +their courage in venturing out, and they were barely seated, when up +came Dwight, trying to keep under a most amazing grin that persisted in +stretching his mouth from ear to ear. + +"Well, this is good!" he cried, shaking hands with a nourish. "I knew, +if you'd just make a try at it, you'd be all right. If everybody would +stick it out and stay on deck, as I do, there'd be no such thing as +seasickness." + +"Oh, the conceit of him!" laughed his uncle. "Stick it out, indeed! +Why, you don't know what it means, you healthy young rascal. You have +the stomach of a goat!" + +To divert attention, possibly, Dwight suddenly turned to the girls, and +inspected them with apparent curiosity. + +"You seem to be decorated, this afternoon," he remarked in a +non-committal tone, "and got on your pink and blue ribbons, I declare!" + +His gaze rested on the sea-biscuit, and he lowered his eyelids to hide +the laugh behind them. + +"You didn't know we had decorations on this ship?" asked Hope +teasingly. "Only a few get them. They are for good conduct under +trying conditions. We have been ill, but not disagreeably ill. +There's a difference." + +The gentlemen were looking at the painted squares, now, and her father +said, "What's that nonsense, my dear? What are they, anyhow?" + +"Just something the stormy petrels dropped through our porthole," said +Faith, gravely taking up the tale. "Aren't they pretty?" + +"H'm! Quite so." Mr. Lawrence was also indulging in a long look. +"Did a merman paint them for you? And what sea-king got up that +poetry? It seems well selected, if not entirely original." He glanced +at his nephew quizzically, and added, "I suppose the other name of that +Freedom who shrieked was Dwight, wasn't it? Pretty well, sir, pretty +well! I recognize the work. Your style is original, Mr. Artist +Vanderhoff." + +"And didn't you help him one bit, Mr. Lawrence?" asked Faith. + +"Did not even know of it, Miss Hosmer." + +"Then I call it a mighty smart performance!" cried Hope in a tone of +finality which brought a hearty laugh from the group. + +"Clever enough!" decided the captain, as he spelled out the twisted +lines, and chuckled over them. "You're quite an artist, young man. I +remember, a few years back, I had a whole crew of the long-haired +profession aboard, and a jolly, turbulent set they were. They +decorated the ship from stem to gudgeon in all sorts of unexpected +places, and almost disorganized my Lascars, snatching them off duty to +pose as models. I had to threaten to driven 'em below at the rope's +end, and batten down the hatches, to bring them to reason. But they +made fun for us the whole voyage, and I was sorry to see the last of +them at Gibraltar." + +The steamer was now in the broad Bay of Biscay, which washes the bold +shores of France and Spain, and the water had that compact hue of dark +azure, with occasional greenish lights, that tells of deep soundings. + +As they forged ahead, to the steady drum-beat of the engines, the broad +swirl of water, churned into foam by the great propellers at the stern, +marked their path as far back as the eye could reach. The weather was +fitful, and the sky cleared somewhat toward sunset, but its light was +cold, and threatening clouds hung close upon its edge. The treacherous +weather predicted of the bay might be upon them soon, though as yet it +had been "all plain sailing," as the captain observed. + +"It's either here, or on the Indian seas," he said laughingly. +"Somewhere, we'll have to take it! It is not often we get through +without a little shaking up, somewhere. 'Twould scarcely be possible +in so long a voyage." + +"About how long does it take you?" asked Mr. Lawrence, lazily watching +the line of faint silvery blue, streaking the horizon. + +"Oh, I usually make it inside of thirty days, when our stops aren't too +long," returned the captain. "Of course the P. & O. liners, being +mail-carriers, do it in much less time. But they're built for speed, +and make fewer stops. Then, we tramp steamers always give them the +right of way in harbor--hello!" + +He rose to his feet, his keen eyes looking off to starboard, while at +the same instant came a cry from the lookout, "Sail to starboard, aft!" + +The others, following the captain's gaze, saw something like a faint +smudge growing on the horizon's line against the faintly tinted hue, +and, even as they watched, it deepened to a waving plume. + +"Come!" said he, and they followed him to the bridge, where, giving +each a turn at the glass, they watched the plume until a shape was +attached to it, and it grew into a graceful steamship, its funnels +belching black, and its sails gleaming like shadowy shapes of vapor +till they grew near enough to become defined, and materialized by +nearness. + +"It's one of the liners now--a P. & O!" cried the captain with some +excitement. "Isn't she a lady, though? Watch her gait! She's as +steady and swift as the stars in their courses. You'll see her colors +soon." + +He sang out an order or two, then turned to answer Faith who, with her +eyes fixed on the rapidly nearing steamer, asked dreamily, + +"What does P. & O. stand for, papa?" + +"Why, don't you know? For goodness' sake, child, what an odd question +for a seaman's daughter to ask!" + +"But I surely don't know. I never heard anything but P. & O. and I +never even thought to ask before." + +"Well, it's Peninsular and Oriental, of course--there, see her colors? +Those four triangles in blue, white, yellow, and red, at her masthead. +Watch while we salute her!" + +The beautiful courtesy was given and exchanged, the great steamer +passing at so close range that they could see the clustered groups upon +her immense decks, note the fluttering handkerchiefs, and hear their +cheers, in response to those from the "International," ringing faint, +yet clear, across the watery space between. + +"That's the 'London,'" said the captain dropping his glass after a +long, admiring gaze, "and, by the way, the old 'London,' a fine, +staunch vessel, was wrecked in this very bay years ago." + +They watched the leviathan, with its hundreds of passengers, a long +time, but at length its greater speed carried it from view in the +darkening night, and they were presently reminded, by the signal, that +it was time to dress for dinner. + +The "International" would have seemed odd, in many respects, to one +used only to the trans-Atlantic steamers, for, though entirely +officered by English-speaking whites, its crew consisted largely of +Malays and Lascars, while the waiters were mostly Japanese and +Bengalese, wearing a costume compounded of their native gowns and the +white aprons of European waiters. The maids, under Mrs. Jordan, were +also East Indian women, and they were very picturesque in their saris, +or head coverings, of gay colors, with brilliant teeth gleaming out of +their swarthy faces, and eyes like beads for blackness. Even the boys +who answered bell-calls and polished the brasses and the shoes, were +from Soudan or Bombay, and the stokers down in the engine-room were +Seedees, black as the coals they kept flinging into those yawning red +mouths, which made one think of an opening into the great pit of Hades. + +These Seedees are as near a salamander as a human being can be, +perhaps, and certainly they will endure heat that would soon kill a +white man. Sometimes, in those southern seas, the temperature of the +furnace-room is something unthinkable, yet they endure it; though, as +soon as their relief appears, they will fling their steaming, and +almost naked, bodies into the scuppers, to let the rush of water wash +them into coolness, once more. It was understood that the girls were +not to visit any of the lower regions of the ship, without the company +of some officer, but Mr. Malcolm was very accommodating, so, matronized +by Mrs. Vanderhoff, her party and the twins managed to peep into nearly +every hole and corner before the voyage was over. Even where they did +not care to go Dwight would penetrate, if by crawling or climbing he +could reach the spot. + +Before bedtime the steamer had changed its course to westward, and as +it encountered a stiff head wind its progress was labored and slow. +Most of the passengers early "sought the seclusion that the cabin +grants," as Dwight mockingly observed, but, sheltered in the snug +pilot-house, our girls, with himself and Bess, rode out the "storm," as +Faith called it (though the gray old steersman laughed at the idea), +until a late hour. All day there had been a flock of sea-gulls +following them, and, attracted by the light, they sometimes dashed +against the windows, startling the girls and delighting Dwight. They +will follow a steamer much as a fly does a horse, always keeping at +just about such a distance, though one would think, in their +sky-circling and ocean-dipping, they must lose time occasionally. As +these birds of the sea glide down a billow, then skim lightly up again, +it would seem they must sometimes be caught in the swirl of foam and +borne under, but no! Every time, no matter with what fusilade of spray +the wave breaks, Mr. Seagull rises, lightly triumphant, with not so +much as a silver feather wetted by salt water! + +The night grew very dark, and the sea was turbulent. The late +supper--a fourth meal always served on board the "International"--was +something of a scramble, but our young people enjoyed it, as few of the +older passengers were present, and though an occasional fit of +squeamishness disturbed both twins, while Bess had to disappear +suddenly, Dwight ate calmly on of everything offered, with an +equanimity that tickled Joey, and excited the envy of all. The saloons +looked deserted, and only a few mustered for a short look at the light +on Finisterre. After seeing it, our girls decided bed was a good +place, but Faith thought she had scarcely dropped asleep, though hours +had fled, when something seemed to shake her into consciousness, and +Hope's agitated voice whispered, "Oh, what is that?" + +It was a hoarse, awful, prolonged bellow, as of some giant ox in sore +distress, and when it would stop, occasionally, faint and far would +come another bellow, mellowed by distance, but sounding unspeakably +eerie and frightsome. A bell, too, seemed to be tolling a knell for +something, and there was a constant rush of feet on deck, mingled with +trumpeted orders and the rattle of cordage. Yet the steamer did not +seem to be pitching about at all, as it was when they retired. Could +they be going down, and were those awful noises calls for help? And +where could they be to have answers coming over the waves like that? + +"Oh dear!" sighed Hope. "What can it all mean? Do see if papa is in +his cabin; you're on that side." + +"Of course he isn't!" answered her sister, more calmly. "When there's +danger he's always at his post. And do you suppose, if there was real +danger for us, that he wouldn't come and let us know? I can trust my +father!" + +"Well, so can I," snapped Hope, so disgusted at this superior tone she +half forgot her fright. "But it might be that he couldn't get to us, +Faith Hosmer! He might be washed overboard." + +Something in the idea of her big, cool father being washed off the +decks of this staunch ship somehow amused Faith, who really was not +much alarmed, and she could not help laughing, which gave fresh offense +to her sister, who, breaking into tears, exclaimed, "You're a heartless +girl, and ought to be ashamed!" + +"Why, Hope!" A soft arm stole around her neck and a little figure +"cuddled" close. "You're all wrought up, but really I don't think it's +so bad. See how quiet the ship is. I presume we're caught in a fog, +or something. Just as likely as not we're off the light, yet, and that +is a bell-buoy, or something." + +"Dear! I'd like to call a bell-boy, and ask," giggled Hope, a bit +hysterical. "Hark! there's papa now." + +In an instant the two girls were on their feet peering into the +"library." + +"Oh, papa, what is it?" cried Hope. + +"What's what, my dear?" coming nearer, and showing himself wrapped in +tarpaulins from head to heels. "D'ye mean that old tooter?" laughing +lightly. "Nothing at all, except that we're in a fog and the horn's +got a chill. Now turn in, quick, before you get one, too, and go to +sleep, dearies; your father's watching." + +"Hope," said her sister, after they had lain still a while. "I think +that's a beautiful thought! 'Your father's watching.' It means two +fathers for us, dear, and One of them cannot make a mistake, even in a +fog. Good night and pleasant dreams. I'm going to sleep." + +They kissed and curled down contentedly, sleeping like babies all +night. Father was watching! + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +PORTUGUESE TOWNS AND HEROES. + +The fog had delayed them some hours, but when the girls awoke, late the +next morning, there was not a vestige of it left, save an extra +brilliance in the clear air, while the engines were pounding away in a +brave effort to bring them into Lisbon by the schedule. As noon +approached, and the pale tan of the coast line grew upon them, all was +animation on board, for any landing when voyaging by sea, is an event, +and especially so when the stay is to be of several hours duration. + +Our twins dragged out their flat steamer trunks from under their beds, +and pulled out their prettiest street costumes, glad to discard the +useful ulster for a light jacket and hat. They were told the weather +would be mild on shore, though it was November, and they were delighted +to feel themselves really "dressed up" again, as Hope remarked. + +"Do you know," put in her sister ruminantly, "there's ever so much +difference between being dressed up and well dressed. Now there's Mrs. +Vanderhoff; she never is really dressed up, but I have not yet seen her +when she was not well dressed for the occasion." + +"Faith, if you get to moralizing I shall go distracted! Where _did_ we +put our jeweled hat pins? I've looked and looked, and--oh, there they +are right under my nose. Goodness! is that a rap?--Ah, is it you, Miss +Bess? Come right in. How fine you look in your shore clothes!" + +"Shore clothes? That's good! Country people talk about store clothes +at home, but I never heard of shore clothes, before." + +"Well, it's my invention--an inspiration of the moment. I'll make you +a present of it. Do you know, Faith, we'll have to buy some new +handkerchiefs, or have ours laundered in some way. I never used so +many in my life." + +"You might do as the Carrollton girls, from Chicago, did when they were +abroad, last year," remarked Bess with a laugh. "There were so many of +them that the laundry bills were dreadful, so they concluded to wash +out their own handkerchiefs. Of course they had no way of ironing +them, so, while they were still very wet, they would plaster them up +against the window-panes in the sun, to dry. They said the embroidered +ones would come out beautifully, just as if nicely pressed on the wrong +side. It got so they would look at the window panes the first thing, +when they reached a hotel, or pension, to see if they were large enough +for drying-boards. And when they visited the Tuileries, as they all +stood in silence, gazing at the great fountain, the lovely flowers, and +the lawn of velvet, Minnie suddenly broke out, 'What a beautiful place +to dry our handkerchiefs, girls!'" + +"How ridiculous!" cried Faith. "I hope no such practical thought will +mar the romance of our visit to Lisbon, to-day." + +"Oh, nothing could take your romance away," said Hope. "A little more +practicality wouldn't hurt you. But come, I'm ready. Let's go up and +see the blessed land, even if it is only Portuguese soil." + +Thus talking and laughing they hastened deckwards, and many eyes turned +upon them with pleasure as they appeared, so bright and rosy, and +unconscious of anything but the enjoyment in hand. Even Lady Moreham's +face relaxed, and her eyes followed them with a wistful expression, as +she remarked, _sotto voce_, "How sweetly they look!" + +"Sweet, you mean," hinted Mrs. Poinsett at her elbow, with a +deferential air, yet decided tone. + +The other turned with a quick, impatient sigh, and half-resentful +manner, but in a moment moved closer and said humbly, + +"Thank you for the correction! Do not let my smallest errors escape +you." + +Mrs. Poinsett bent her dignified head. + +"I obey you, my lady, though it is hard for both of us." + +"Yes, everything is hard, but no matter." + +And now all eyes were gazing shorewards, for Lisbon presents a +beautiful appearance when approached from the water, rising, as she +does, in terraces which overlook the noble Tagus, and are in turn +overlooked by the Sierras, ending in the Peak of Lisbon, at its mouth. +Arriving thus, one does not see the filth and squalor, the tumble-down +buildings, unpaved streets, or many poor mean houses tucked in among +the grander ones. Lisbon has sometimes been called "The Sultana of the +West," and the comparison is apt enough, for like many a sultana her +first appearance is conspicuously beautiful, but she will not bear too +close inspection. Her jewels are often mere colored glass, her +embroideries tawdry, and her garments not over clean. + +But in the brilliant sunshine of this glowing noon Portugal's capital +sat throned in majesty, and the passengers were enthusiastic in their +praises. + +"Come!" cried Dwight, appearing like a bombshell in their midst. "Are +you ready, girls? We're going ashore together, and while the captain +runs about on his affairs, uncle and mother are going to trot us around +wherever we want to go. Then, by and by, we're to meet him in the +Place of Commerce, and go for dinner at the Braganza. He and uncle +have fixed it all up. Hip, hooray! Won't it be jolly to be on land +again?" + +But it proved slow work making their way in, for the river's mouth, +which broadens into a noble harbor, was choked with the shipping of +many lands, which had doubtless been detained by the fog of last night. +As the young people leaned over the guard rail, it was great fun to +watch the crowd of clumsy little native boats, laden with fruit and +wine, which were hovering about the steamer, and getting in the way of +everybody, while crying their wares. Many of these boatmen seemed as +dark in complexion as any East Indian on board, and nearly all wore +ear-rings, generally of silver, in the dingy lobes of their ears. They +seemed noisy and quarrelsome, and often shrieked what seemed like +terrible imprecations at each other, shaking their fists and scowling +darkly, only to be laughing carelessly the next minute, as if nothing +mattered. Dwight was about motioning one man to fling him up a bunch +of figs, in exchange for the silver coin in his fingers, when his uncle +called them to the other side of the deck, which was just as well, for +it would have had to be a splendid toss and catch had he secured them. + +Mr. Lawrence wanted to point out the difference between a clumsy coast +lugger just putting out to sea, and a clean little clipper-built +English yacht coming in. He said, + +"It is a difference that you will see in almost everything here. The +Portuguese do not know the meaning of the word thrift, as we understand +it, and if cleanliness is not next to godliness with them, it certainly +is next to royalty, for it never descends to the common people." + +When, at last, they went on shore and left the wharves behind, most of +the bustle died away, and they could see that Mr. Lawrence had only +told the truth, in the easy way in which all business seemed to be +managed. + +But they found much to admire and enjoy in the odd costumes and people +they were constantly meeting; more, as Hope rather contemptuously +remarked, than in the buildings, which were "just like houses anywhere." + +She was right enough, for this is largely true on the seaward side of +Lisbon. Her quaintness, and squalor also, lie further inland, where +the old quarters are to be found. + +"So you don't think Lisbon has many novelties, Miss Hosmer?" laughed +Mr. Lawrence, who thought there was more fun in the young people than +in scenes that were not new to him. "Just wait a bit! We are coming +to something now." + +He led the way into a pleasant enclosure, or placa, as they call it +there, saying carelessly, "Let's cross to the other side." + +They started briskly enough, but in a minute Hope flung out a hand as +if for support. + +"Oh, I can't stand up another minute!" she cried. "It makes me +seasick." + +But Dwight caught her arm and laughingly urged her on, stumbling and +protesting, for this is known as Rolling Motion Square, and is paved in +gray-blue stone to represent billows in motion. So complete is the +effect that those who are still giddy from ocean travel find it a trial +to walk across it. + +"Dwight," called his mother admonishingly, "you will weary the patience +of these young ladies. Come and help your mother a minute, can't you?" + +"Of course I can, mommy, provided Miss Hope will release me, but she is +clinging awfully tight just now!" + +Amid the laughter his uncle sent him forward with a push, and offered +his own arm. + +"Get out, you rascal! We're nearly across, Miss Hosmer, and I'm very +glad of an opportunity to monopolize you for a little. I see you are +not greatly impressed with Portugal; you don't like it so well +as--well, Lynn, for instance?" + +"Now you are laughing at me, but indeed I do not! Do you know, Mr. +Lawrence, I have always wished we girls were Americans in real +earnest--to live there, you understand. I love England, too, but while +I was with Uncle Albert at Lynn, he used to talk to me a great deal +about that grand United States and it seems to me a wonderful land. +Faith was not so strong as I, and used to stay in more--you see, uncle +was not really in the busy part, but well out where it was more like +the country--and she did not go about with him as I did. Once he took +me to Plymouth, and when he showed me that rock with the railing around +it, and told me about those Pilgrim fathers braving the sea and +savages, just to worship God as they thought was right, it seemed to me +as if my whole soul bowed down in reverence! From that minute I was an +American girl--a New England girl--and I have kept true to my father's +country ever since." + +"I think," said Mr. Lawrence, thoughtfully, "that there is something in +the foundation of our New England which gives it an interest beyond +that of almost any region known, and it certainly appeals to any nature +which has an enthusiasm for the heroic and noble. Many countries have +been acquired through bloodshed, by conquest and because of greed and +glory, but a country whose foundations were laid in the rights of +conscience only, whose progenitors took God alone for their Leader, and +his rules and service for their code--who came in peace and poverty, +demanding nothing but the right to live and die true men--ah! no wonder +New England is proud of her forefathers." + +"What Portuguese hero are you lecturing about now, uncle?" called back +Dwight, saucily, but was at once suppressed by his mother. Hope +answered lightly, + +"We have found better heroes than those old Portuguese fighters, we +think; haven't we, Mr. Lawrence?" + +"Yes. Still, there is one man whom I greatly admire, of this nation, +and I think we will visit his statue next. What do you know about Luiz +de Camoes, or, as we write it, Camoens, Dwight?" + +"Gracious! Nothing at all; never heard of him. Was he a fighter?" + +"Hardly. At any rate he did his fighting in a noble way--rather like +heaping coals of fire I should say. He was a writer." + +"Oh, tell us about him, uncle." + +"What! A lecture? But that is not admissible in polite society." + +"Now, don't tease. You know we are all dying to hear about him. +Proceed!" + +"Dying?" put in Mrs. Vanderhoff. "How extravagantly you talk, my son." + +"Well, crazy, then." + +She laughed hopelessly. + +"Go on, pray," she said to her brother. "He simply leaps from the +frying-pan into the fire." + +"De Camoens," he said, "was by no means without faults, but he was +gifted, generous, forgiving, and brave. He was foolish enough to love +a lady too near the throne, and on that account was banished, and +endured many hardships for years. Yet he did not let this dampen his +love of country, and his loyalty to the government. Though an exile, +he wrote a romantic epic extolling the deeds of his countrymen in all +ages, which has become a great classic, and has made both them and +himself immortal. I call that a generous deed! He died poor and +unnoticed, but now his people make an idol of him, and his statue is +one of the sights of Lisbon." + +"Did he live here?" asked Faith. "That is, when he was not in exile?" + +"Yes, this was his home." + +"And his poem was the Lusiad," added Mrs. Vanderhoff. + +"Why, I've heard of that!" cried Dwight. "We had something about it in +our Rhetoric." + +"And here," said Mr. Lawrence, pointing down a street into which they +had turned, "you catch your first glimpse of his statue. Poor fellow! +I wonder if he knows of the tardy recognition, wherever he is now?" + +They stood some time before this monument to an unfortunate genius, +then started on a lively exploration of the streets and shops, which +was perhaps more interesting to the ladies than to their escort. At +any rate it was with something like a sigh of relief that he at length +glanced at his watch, and declared it was time to meet the captain in +the Place of Commerce, close by. + +This is a conspicuous square in Lisbon, and they had already visited +some of its arcaded shops, but without taking special note of its +attractions. Now they had leisure to stroll about and admire the fine +public buildings, and the exquisite flowers and foliage. Quite +suddenly they came upon the captain who was, to the great astonishment +of his daughters, walking leisurely about in company with Lady Moreham +and Mrs. Poinsett. They all stopped to exchange greetings, and finally +wandered over to the open side of the square, where is a fine view of +the Tagus, with its varied shipping and busy shores. As they were +turning to make their way to the hotel for dinner, Faith found herself +beside the English lady, who said in a gentle voice, which seemed oddly +out of place with her reserved, almost haughty, manner, + +"Have you enjoyed the afternoon, my child?" + +"Very much, thank you," said Faith. "There are so many queer-looking +people, and it is diverting to visit all these open booths, and try to +understand their jargon and make them understand ours. I feel in a +dream sometimes." + +"Then you have not traveled largely?" + +"Very little, my lady." + +"I heard you and your sister speak of being in the United States some +time, did I not?" + +"Oh yes, a year. Our father was born there." + +"And you were in Boston?" + +"Yes, many times." + +"Did you ever go to any of the suburbs--Brookline, for instance?" + +"I was there twice. We had friends living there. Isn't it a charming +place? It made me think of some of our prettiest English towns." + +"Oh, it is better--that is, I have heard it spoken of as a little +paradise. Did you go about considerable?" + +Faith glanced at her, surprised by several things. First, there was a +wistful note in her voice which seemed singular when speaking of a town +never visited; second, with all her precise use of language, once in a +while this woman of the highest aristocracy made an odd slip in a +grammatical way. She was a somewhat puzzling compound. Faith answered, + +"A little. We rode up on Corey's Hill, of course, and around by the +reservoir, and out towards Jamaica Pond--but you do not know, perhaps--" + +"Go on, pray! I like to hear it." The woman's manner was almost +breathless with eagerness, and Faith, wondering still more, continued. +"I enjoyed as much as anything just wandering around alone, and looking +at the lovely homes. I never was quite sure when I was in a real +street, or in a private way, till I saw the signs up, and I used to +wonder why these beautiful little lanes were labeled, 'Dangerous,' till +uncle told me it was because they were private property, and the town +would not be responsible for accidents that might happen there. My +friend lived in a park, with several houses set down at random, and +pretty drives through it, and another little girl I visited lived well +up the hill, and when she wanted to come down town in winter she just +tucked herself up on a little sled, and coasted all the way. I thought +that must be great fun!" + +Lady Moreham's eyes were all alight. + +"I love to hear you tell about it!" she said. "Some other time we will +talk some more. Your father is beckoning you to hurry, now, and there +is my friend waiting for me impatiently. But did you ever hear of +Hale's story, The Man Without a Country? Hale is an American writer." + +"I have heard of him, but have not read that story," returned the girl. + +"It is a sad one--a very sad one! Good-by. Thank you for a pleasant +stroll. I will see you again." + +She passed swiftly ahead, to join Mrs. Poinsett, and Faith turned aside +to her own party, but when they joked her on making a conquest of the +titled lady she only smiled dreamily, and saw an eager face, filled +with almost girlish life, begging for childish particulars about a +modest place in far-away New England. + +It was after sunset when, their excellent dinner over, they returned on +board the dear old steamer, which seemed really like home as Joey +smiled a welcome, Mr. Malcolm called a greeting down from the guards, +and two or three of the babies ran from their ayahs' sides, along the +deck, to meet them. Even the Bengali boy grinned, as he cleared away +some paper bags and fruit skins, and a little Mohammedan, who had been +making a perch to which Texas could be chained when on deck, came with +deep salaams to beg that they would step and see if it were +satisfactory. They expressed themselves much pleased, but Faith +pointed to the long chain attached, and said. + +"I don't like that! It makes me think of dungeons and criminals." + +"But we'd lose him without it," urged Hope. + +"I suppose so. I'm glad, though, my pet is a cat, and does not need +chains or cages, I'm going to tell the babies a story in the little +saloon, Hope, if you want me. They like it before they have to go to +bed." + +An hour or so later the girls were resting idly in their own stateroom, +when Faith asked, suddenly. "What do you think of my lady? Do you +like her any better?" + +"You mean Lady Moreham? Yes, I think I do. What was she saying to +you, anyhow, in the placa?" + +"Not much. Simply asking questions. I did the talking." + +"I thought at first she was horrid--proud and cross, you +know,"--continued Hope, who was lolling indolently on the +dimity-covered seat, in a loose gown, "but I'm not so certain of it, +now. There's something about her--I wonder if father ever knew her +before? He seems friendly with her, don't you think?" + +"Oh, he's friendly with everybody; it's his business to be. And, of +course, she is an important personage. But she kept me talking about +Brookline, to-day--you remember the pretty place just out from Boston +don't you?--and it seemed odd she should care about it. And did you +notice, yesterday, whenever we spoke of--" + +"Yes, I did. You can't mention America but she wakes up. Other times +she doesn't even seem to hear. Perhaps she has been there, after all." + +"Possibly. I wonder what she is going out to India for?" + +"Oh, to join her husband, probably. That's what all the ladies go for, +isn't it?" + +A tap at the door and their father's voice. + +"Asleep, girlies?" + +"Oh no, papa," cried Hope, throwing the door open. "We are up yet, and +as wide awake as hawks." + +"All right! Get into your ulsters, and come up to the pilot-house. +There's a fresh breeze springing up from N.N.E. that will send us +spinning on our way, when we can catch it. As soon as we get a good +offing, you'll see as pretty a sight as you need ever expect to--the +old 'International' under full canvas making her eighteen knots an hour +for Gibraltar--lively now!" + +In a moment they were beside him, hastening to the elevated turret, +with its outlook in every direction, and presently the girls were +enchanted to watch the lively rattling of ropes and shrouds, the rapid +unfurling of the great sails, that snapped to place as if clapping +giant hands in joy. When these caught the breeze and braced themselves +to duty, there was a sort of thrill along the good ship, as if she had +responded with one quick heart-beat. Then, fair, still, magnificent, +she glided away, leaving the twinkling lights of city and harbor to +fade out in distance--first those low on the water, then the street +lights on the terraces, and lastly one lone gleam in a distant tower +that, like a friendly eye, still gazed after them when, far out in the +open, they sailed smoothly on, the fires banked, and Steam gracefully +yielding place to his older brother, Wind. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +KITE-FLYING AND GIBRALTAR. + +When they awoke, next morning, the engines were at work again, and +their heavy thud, thud, was mingled with the swash of water, as the +Bengali boys washed down decks, while a rattling of spars and creaking +of cordage showed that sails were being set, or lowered. + +Hope, always wide awake at once, sprang from her little white couch to +find that it was difficult to keep her footing on the sliding plane of +her stateroom floor, but slipping into gown and ulster as quickly as +possible, and bracing herself with extended hands through the narrow +passageway to the deck, she was soon outside, gasping a little in the +fresh wind that met her full in the face and caught her breath away. +For the ship was now headed for the Straits, and steaming almost in the +teeth of the brisk northeaster. + +There was not a hint of land, as far as the eye could see, and the +waters, of a deep, cold blue, were white-capped to the horizon's edge. +She felt dizzy, and most uncertain on her feet, but not six feet +distant was a heap of low camp-chairs, huddled together out of the way +of the still dripping deck planks. If she could reach one and get to +leeward of that capstan--but what should she hold on to meanwhile? + +And, even as she asked herself the question, the goodly steamer, +happening to dip her lowest courtesy to a rude in-coming wave of giant +proportions, shipped its combing crest, that poured through the +latticed guard-rail and swirled across the deck, with a force, that +sent poor Hope a drenched, doubled-up little heap of helplessness, +pounding right into the midst of the chair-stack. + +Before she had time to cry out, however, she was caught up, and her +father's voice, hoarse and frightened, asked quickly, + +"Are you hurt, love?--Are you hurt?" + +As she looked up into his anxious face, pale beneath the sun-bronze, +Hope fully realized how deeply her father loved her, and answered in a +much subdued voice, + +"No, papa--not much. I think I've barked my knees and bumped my head, +but I guess that's all--except the wetting!" shivering a little. + +"Yes, you mustn't take cold. I'll help you right back, and send Martha +to you. You'd better crawl into your little nest again as soon as +you're thoroughly dry, and don't venture outside again until I come and +get you, my storm-bird." + +"Father," she said, as he was about leaving her at the cabin door, "do +you _never_ sleep? I left you up at midnight, and I find you up at +dawn." + +"Sleep? Oh, yes, sometimes. That's the last thing a captain thinks +of, though. If I should sleep too much it might mean an eternal sleep +for my passengers and crew. Now hurry into bed and get warm, chicken. +I'll see that you have some hot chocolate at once." + +It was nearly two hours later, and Hope had quite slept off the effects +of her wetting, when the two girls ventured forth again, but now the +motion was still and even, and the old ship steady as a house floor, +for they were under the lee of Cape Trafalgar, making swift time for +Tarifa and the Straits. + +As the girls sat lazily, after their morning's outlook, in the pleasant +saloon, amid a group of ladies and children, listening to the cheerful +chatter going on about them, and laughing at the antics of the little +tots playing about in charge of their gaily-turbaned Indian ayahs, or +nurses, Dwight came in, all excitement, and cried, + +"Come, girls, we're going to have an exhibition. Loo Wing has made an +elegant kite--regular Chinese one, you know--and we're going to fly it +from the after-deck. Hurry up!" + +They hastily followed his rush around the guards, and after them +trailed all the children old enough to run alone, and many of the +mothers, for anything new is welcome at sea. On the after-deck they +found the captain, Mr. Lawrence, Mr. Malcolm, and other passengers, +assisting the cook's boy, Loo Wing, inputting the last touches to a +singular erection of red, yellow, and purple, made of crinkled paper, +which looked like a hybrid creature, half bird, half dragon. + +Loo Wing had it in hand, and Mr. Lawrence was adjusting its immensely +long tail, while the captain was paying out twine from a stick. + +"Oh, uncle!" called Dwight in an agonized voice, "you know I was to +start it. Loo Wing promised I should." + +"Well, well, who said you weren't? We're only making ready. But be +careful and not let it get tangled in the rigging," was quickly +returned. + +"No, indeed!" cried the boy, trembling with excitement, as he received +from the smiling oriental the gaudy thing, and started for the taffrail +eager to see it off on its aerial journey. + +But he was in too great a hurry, and despite warning cries from Captain +Hosmer, Loo Wing, and the Bengali boy, who was supposed to be polishing +the brass rod of the taffrail, he sent the kite up just in season for a +contrary puff of wind to catch its extended wings, and blow it squarely +into the topmost shrouds and ratlines of the mizzen-mast, where, +entangled in the network of ropes, it fluttered helplessly. + +Poor Dwight was almost beyond speaking in his despair, when the little +Bengali, with a swift, beseeching look at his captain, sprang forward +and ran up the rope-ladder with the lithe, quick motion of a monkey. + +"Oh, don't let him!" cried Faith, but her father only laughed. + +"He's used to it, don't worry!" he said, and thus assured, they watched +the brown lad's dizzy climb until the kite was reached. Here, hanging +on by his toes, apparently, to the cross-bar, he bent over and loosened +the erratic flyer. Then, holding it far out, he looked down for +further orders. + +"Shall he let her go, Master Dwight?" said the captain. "It's your +kite to command. Here's the twine, and hang tight, if he does, for +'twill give you a strong pull." + +"Yes, let her fly!" cried Dwight, excitedly, bracing himself and gazing +upwards. + +The little Indian waited for a favorable instant, then with a prolonged +"Hi-yi!" that drew the attention of all on board, gave it a light toss +to leeward, which sent it off like a bird, indeed. Luckily, it had not +been torn by its temporary delay, and now, caught aft by the wind, it +sailed up and away with a force that fairly dragged Dwight across the +deck until, laughing heartily, the captain eased him by a grasp on the +twine, until he could "get another cinch," as the lad explained, and +pay it out more rapidly. + +It really made a beautiful appearance against the blue sky, with its +gay colors and extended wings, and Loo Wing clapped his hands in +delight, while the passengers cheered lustily. They watched it till it +was a mere speck in the canopy, and Dwight greatly amused the little +ones by sending up "letters," or bits of white paper, on the twine. +But after an hour or two of this fun, the captain sang out, + +"Better tie your bird to the taffrail and take a look for'ards pretty +soon. 'Twill pay for the trouble." + +They acted upon his advice, making a rush for the forward deck, and saw +that it was well worth a longer journey than from end to end of a great +steamer. + +They were nearing the Straits; already Tarifa's white fortress was +smiling in friendly fashion across the narrowing waters, while, on the +other hand, the hazy spurs of Atlas outlined the African coast. And as +they gazed delightedly, with much laughter over the roughening waves, +which made it necessary for them to wedge themselves into convenient +nooks in order to stand upright, they saw great Gibraltar looming up +somber, massive, and gray-blue, with the frown of a giant defying the +universe. + +No wonder the ancients thought these opposite heights, so impregnable, +so sentinel-like, were gates set by the gods to define earth's outer +boundaries, beyond which the most daring mariner must never sail. + +As our friends watched the broad slope of Calpe, lying in the full +sunshine of a brilliant noon, its ledges bristling with bastions and +cannon, above the little town which seems to nestle beneath in +contented safety, Faith turned to her sister with kindling eyes. + +"Now, aren't you proud of our mother, England? Where in all the world +is there such another fortress commanding the entrance to two oceans, +and looking down upon two continents, I'd like to know?" + +Hope looked up in amazement. + +"Well, Faith, I never heard you soar into such eloquence, before. You +have subjugated me! What shall I do? Sing 'God save the Queen,' or +shout 'For England and St. George'? I'm at your service. But then," +she added mischievously, "I don't think it was such a wonderful thing +for its garrison to hold out over three years, as our history tells us +they did, for what could all the warships France and Spain might bring, +ever accomplish against that solid rock?" + +"Ah! but it was a gallant resistance, just the same!" cried Mr. +Lawrence, as he joined them. "There has, perhaps, never been such a +fierce and prolonged bombardment as that, and Europe looked on with +wonder, as every resource of two great nations was brought to bear +against that garrison of seven thousand men, who could not be starved, +nor conquered. It looked black for them, sometimes, but British +endurance and red-hot shot won the day, and the carnage on board those +ill-fated vessels during the last of the fierce engagement was beyond +anything recorded in history. They simply _had_ to give it up!" + +As they now slowly steamed up the beautiful bay it was almost like +sailing over a mill-pond, after the past roughness, for it lay still +beneath the vertical sun, and was thronged with shipping of every +description and nationality. Presently there came a reverberation that +seemed to ricochet from rock and wave, and a little girl cried blankly, + +"Oh dear! Are they firing at us?" + +But an officer called out, + +"No, it's a Russian corvette, saluting. See its dragon flag of black +and yellow? Now--watch!" + +He pointed shorewards just as a puff of white smoke issued from an +innocent-looking clump of trees on the rocky hillside, which preceded +the sound of an answering boom from the iron lips of the fortress. +This was repeated many times, the hoarse cannon barks alternating +between gun-ship and shore, in an awe-inspiring exchange of courtesies. +As the girls grew used to the thunderous sounds they delighted to +speculate from which bastion, or ledge, or flowering bush, would come +that little puff of smoke, to be followed by the lightning and thunder +of man's invention, scarcely less terrible than those of nature's cloud +contests. + +"I'm glad to have seen it," said Faith somewhat tremulously, when the +salvo was over. "It gives one some idea of what it might be if that +fortress were really firing for business. Just think how dreadful!" + +"But do tell me," cried her sister, "how can trees and shrubs grow so +luxuriantly on that rocky soil, and what keeps the houses from blowing +off some of those steep cliffs? Do you know, I never supposed there +were any houses, before. I thought, from the pictures, that the rock +went straight up out of the water, with the fort stuck on top, like a +thimble on a big chocolate caramel. But here's a regular town." + +Mr. Lawrence laughed. + +"It's odd, the ideas we get of places till we see them! To be sure, +the rock is nearly perpendicular to the north and east, but here, as +you see, it makes a long slope to the water's edge, and the cliff is +broken into many elevations. Of course, you'll go ashore and take a +closer look at it all?" + +"Yes, father's going with us. We'll be here quite a while to take on +coal, and he wants us to see the galleries, and the signal-station." + +"And I want to see the tailless monkeys," added Dwight, as he joined +them. "We'll have a procession to brag of, for nearly everybody's +going ashore. Mr. Malcolm's to lead the van with the children, he +says, and Mrs. Campbell is to close up the rear of his section, while +mother follows with ours. They've been laughing about it over there. +Ah, there's Bess beckoning! Be sure and join us, girls." + +"Yes, when father comes. Goody! here he is. We're all ready, papa." + +"So am I, but you'll have to wait till I've attended to my papers--but +it won't take long. Just follow on." + +The passengers were soon streaming shorewards over the long pier, and +sniffing with delight the fresh odor of flowers that filled the air, +which, to Hope, was a continual wonder, for she could not yet accept +the fact of lovely English gardens on this gray old rock. + +A walk through the paved streets, with their home-like dwellings, +stores, churches, and official buildings only increased this wonder, +and her stock of adjectives was soon exhausted. Mr. Malcolm, +naturally, led them first to the market, where business called him, and +here the girls were specially interested in the flowers, some of the +booths being fancifully arranged with a bewildering display. + +The people they met seemed of every complexion and country, from groups +of tourists in the latest fashion to a couple of long-robed Parsees, +with their funny little caps perched above their black polls. Bess +indicated another passer-by, and said in a low tone, "What an old maid +of a man!" and certainly, with his straight gown, and a high comb stuck +up in his back hair which was coiled into a tight knot, the +dark-skinned fellow did strongly suggest a typical spinster. + +Even Hope looked pleased, and Faith's eyes glittered as a small company +of British soldiery, from the barracks, in red coats and white helmets, +and with fresh young faces, came clattering down the street, and +returned the greetings of the gentlemen, and smiles of the ladies, with +their military salute, and a second glance in the direction of their +pretty young countrywomen. + +Some of the party, who were not good climbers, had been accommodated +with donkeys at the hotel, before starting for the galleries, but many +walked, and it was a long and somewhat straggling procession. + +The galleries mentioned are long passageways, cut through the solid +rock, and pierced with portholes at regular intervals, so that the +gun-muzzles, which peer through them, can command town, bay, and +neutral ground. Faith, whose reverence for this old citadel grew every +minute, felt that the clatter of the donkey's heels, the gay calling +back and forth, and the cries of the children ought, in these dim +tunnels, to be hushed into awed silence. But no one else seemed so +impressed, though the men made measurements and discussed the labor and +expense of such enginery, as if it were a great achievement. + +As they emerged she found herself close by Lady Moreham, also walking, +who remarked carelessly, + +"You look solemn, Miss Hosmer." + +"Do I? I think all this strength and power are wonderful, don't you, +my lady?" + +"Yes, and awful! It oppresses me. When England lays her hand on +anything it is a heavy hand. The victim must yield, or die." + +"And yet, surely our people are comfortable and wisely ruled? We are a +happy nation." + +"Perhaps--of course. I was speaking of her in the abstract, merely. +But is it not true that the marked characteristic of all Englishmen is +tyranny? Don't they rule wherever they go? Aren't they always and +everywhere the dominant class--the oppressors? Watch the British +tourist in any far country. Does he ever conform to its customs in the +least? No, he forces them to come to his ways. You will see this in +every port we enter, every hotel we visit. English ideas govern +everything." + +"But why shouldn't they?" asked Faith, feeling as if rather beyond her +depth, but bound to be loyal to her country. "If they have conquered +these people, haven't they the right to make laws for them?" + +"Oh, laws! Yes. But not to strip them of all originality, all +independent thought and manner. They need not change their tastes, +their habits, their traditions--but there! what does a girl like you +know, or care, about all this, to be sure? Your wings have never felt +the cold shears of British superiority, nor your heart been wounded by +the sneers and scorn of her aristocracy." + +She smiled bitterly, and Faith was puzzled to know what she could mean +when she, herself, was a distinguished member of the class she seemed +to take issue with. + +They were separated then, and Faith borne on by the younger ones, but +as she looked out over the bay, with its forest of shipping, and down +at the terraced streets just below, she thought it a strange thing that +so favored a woman should rail at her own country and kinsmen. It +oppressed her loyal little heart, for she had begun to like the titled +lady, and hated to find so grave a flaw in her nature. + +The signal house, perched like an eagle's nest on its rocky spur, +proved intensely interesting, though it was difficult to remember what +all the instruments were for, while the signal flags and their many +combinations were a complete mystery. Perhaps they enjoyed all the +more the visit to the tailless monkeys, that Dwight insisted upon +later, where they did not expect to be learned, but only to look and +laugh to their young hearts' content. + +Dwight was anxious to own one, but his uncle resisted his entreaties, +declaring that monkeys--with, or without tails--would be a drug in the +market long before they returned to New York. + +It was late afternoon when they steamed out of the New Mole, and as +they looked back upon the precipitous eastern face of Gibraltar, and +watched the signal station, which now seemed sitting on a mere +knife-edge of rock, and the roads winding up like paths for birds to +light on, it did not seem as if they could have found them so roomy +when on the spot. In dreamy mood Faith watched the surf, ceaselessly +beating itself against that massive wall, only to fall back bruised and +broken. It saddened her, and she was not surprised, after the first +shock of it, to see that Lady Moreham, standing near by, was gazing +also, with tear-filled eyes. + +As Faith discovered her emotion, the lady, believing herself +unobserved, turned with a gesture that was eloquent of despair, and +Faith heard her murmuring, "It is like my life--oh! pitiless, pitiless." + +Half frightened, the girl slipped behind an intervening barrier, and +stole away. + +"Poor lady!" she thought, almost in tears herself. "I would not have +her know I heard for anything. What can make her so unhappy? She +seems to have no friends, no country. I do not believe it is pride, +either, nor any feeling of rank and exclusiveness that keeps her so +shut in, else why should she be so pleasant to me? It is some great +misery, I'm sure. God help, and pity her!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +NIGHTMARE AND GOSSIP. + +I think it must have been half nightmare, or perhaps too much frozen +pudding at dinner, after the long warm tramp up Gibraltar's steep +sides; at any rate it all happened just as I tell you. Hope retired +somewhat earlier than the rest, leaving Faith in the saloon, where the +passengers were enjoying an impromptu concert given by a Romany man and +his two daughters, who had come on board at Gibraltar to exhibit their +skill with mandolin, tambourine, voice, and guitar. + +It grew a bit monotonous and shrill, after the novelty wore off, and as +Hope had become interested in a book some one had lent her, which told +about the old pirates of Algiers and their traffic in Christian slaves, +she stole away to her stateroom, slipped into a loose gown, and turning +on the electric light at her bedhead, settled down for an enjoyable +evening. + +It proved to be a blood-curdling narrative, filled with the accounts of +helpless crews butchered by pirates and their passengers, men, women, +and children carried off in chains, to be sold as slaves in the wicked +old Algerian city. Yet, though so thrilling, she was very tired, and +in time it was difficult to keep her place and realize just what it was +all about. Half mechanically, at last, she turned off the light and +lay back on her pillow where, in less time than it takes to tell it, +she was sound asleep. Still, however, the pirates of her book mingled +with her dreams, which were so horrible she struggled into +wakefulness--to find herself drenched with perspiration while shivering +with horror. Anxious for companionship to counteract the effect of +these evil visions, she reached out an arm to the other little bed and +whispered, "Faith!" + +With a shock she discovered that the bed was smooth and empty; it had +not been occupied. At the same instant she became aware of whispering +voices just without the porthole above her bed, and a sentence or two +proved they were not English-speaking voices, either, but those of +orientals, of whom, as you know, there were many on shipboard. At +first she could not understand a word, they spoke so low and rapidly, +but presently she heard with clearness the sentence, + +"But ee mus' be kill eef she do care! It can no be help, now." + +Then more whispers, and then again, distinctly, one urging the other to +attend to the matter at once, the quicker the better, "foh eet gotta +be," and a word or two about the "Capitan Sahib," which she could not +catch. + +But, in her abnormal, excited state, she had heard enough. Trembling +from the tragedies of sleep, she thought she had fallen into the +greater ones of reality. These men were going to kill somebody--and +"she" was to feel dreadfully about it. It must be that the "Capitan +Sahib" was to fall a victim to their mutinous designs! + +Almost paralyzed with horror she lay still an instant, incapable of +movement, then there was a rushing back of suspended animation as she +felt that Faith might already have suffered, that her father's life was +now in danger and there was not an instant to lose. Upon her prompt +action might depend his life, and the safety of all on board. + +Casting off her own terror with the resolve of desperation, she sprang +up and sped into the cabin. It was dark and empty. She passed through +it into the little stateroom, and with a whispered, "Papa! Papa!" felt +along the bunk. It too was empty and untumbled. + +Oh, was she too late? + +Still under the mental influence that made her believe hours must have +passed during her dreamings, she felt it must be nearing morning +now--that it was the depth of the night, in those darkest watches when +all evil deeds are done, and she was stiff and cold with terror. She +slipped out upon the deck, lying still and shadowy under its awnings, +sped across it like a shadow herself, and so on and up to the bridge. + +Her father, calmly talking with one of his officers, saw the swift, +silent rush, and the next instant heard an agonized, "O father! +father!" as the poor child threw herself into his arms, Then, clinging +tightly, she broke out again before he could speak. + +"Oh, save sister! Be quick and save her!" + +"Save her? What--where--what ails you, child? What has happened?" + +"And save yourself! Get the men together--the white men--" + +"My child, are you asleep? What is the matter--where have you been? +Why, you are shaking like a leaf!" + +He drew her to one side, and the officer discreetly vanished. Hope +begged again, "Save her, oh, save Faith!" + +"Faith? Aren't you Faith? I thought you were. Is this my dauntless +Hope, then? Why, how strange! Tell me everything." + +"It's those awful Lascars, papa. I've always been afraid of them, they +look so big and black. They're planning to kill somebody--to kill +you--and Faith is gone already." + +"Gone? What nonsense is this? She's in the cabin, likely. You must +have a nightmare, Hope!" + +"But isn't it most morning, papa?" + +"Not anywhere near it--nor midnight either. Faith is somewhere about, +and as for killing--absurd! This isn't one bit like you, child. +Haven't you been dreaming?" + +She told him then of her horrible awakening, and repeated the talk she +had heard below the porthole. + +"Humph!" he said. "You're mistaken in their designs, but they +certainly had no business in that part of the ship. I must see about +that. Come; I'll take you in and hunt up sister." This was said in a +rather loud voice, made stern by his surprise and annoyance. In a +moment it softened. "There, there, don't tremble so, my child; it's +all right, and everybody is safe enough." + +He led her into the cabin, quickly flooded it with electric light, and, +summoning a boy, sent him for Mrs. Jordan, who soon appeared. Briefly +mentioning that his daughter had a slight chill and he would leave her +to look after the child, he started off. Hope was scarcely tucked up +again when her sister came in, looking rather conscious, and blushing a +little. + +"Are you ill, dear?" she cried. "Papa said you had a nightmare and a +chill. He is quite upset, and a little cross." + +"Oh, where have you been?" returned Hope reproachfully. "I was so +frightened when I found you gone." + +"Gone? Why, I haven't been in, yet. You went to bed so early, Hope! +It's only about half-past ten. I've been walking the deck--it's a +lovely night, as soft and warm as can be." + +"With Dwight?" asked Hope languidly, for in Martha Jordan's practised +hands she was growing warm and drowsy again. + +"N-no, not Dwight," answered Faith hesitantly. "I'll tell you about it +soon. Here comes papa." + +She opened the door into his cabin, and gave a cry of horrified +surprise. "Oh, oh! how did it happen?" + +"What?" shrieked Hope, all nerves again. + +"There! Be quiet now," said her father, and entered quickly, carrying +a limp little bundle of fawn and white. + +"Hafiz! It's Hafiz! What has happened? Is he dead?" + +"I'm afraid he is. Your Lascars turned out to be our Mohammedans, Huri +and his brother, two as faithful creatures as I have on board. It +seems Hafiz, for some reason, found himself weary of first-cabin +passage, so made his way into the fo'castle, where a dog belonging to +one of the men took after him, and hurt him badly. Huri found him and +saw he must be finished, but hated to do it, and, with his brother, was +discussing the matter while looking for you girls. Faith, where have +you been this last hour or so?" + +The girl's eyes were flooded with tears for her lost pet, and +involuntarily his face softened as he turned to her. She flushed a +little, but answered at once, "On the upper deck, sir." + +"Ah! that was you then? I saw the couple promenading there. Well, +well, you'd better keep with your sister after this, and look after +your own passengers," with a glance at the dead cat, "instead of mine, +eh? Now, now, Hope, don't cry so!" for, quite worn out by all this +excitement, the girl was sobbing in a somewhat hysterical manner. + +"Yes, that's enough!" cried Martha in her hearty way. "No use crying +over spilled milk, nor dead pets--even when they're Persian cats. +You'll find there are one or two more in the world, I guess. Now just +cuddle down there and keep still, or we'll have to give you a dose of +something to quiet you, and it's bitter stuff to take, I can tell you. +Perhaps, if you'll just curl in beside her, Miss Faith, she'll ease +down sooner." + +The stewardess was right, for when Hope felt her twin's tender arms +about her she soon grew quiet, and as soon as they were alone whispered +with much interest, "But who was with you on deck, Faith?" + +"Well I'll tell you, and it's nothing to make such a fuss over, either. +Do you remember that young officer we saw bidding his mother and sister +good-by at Portsmouth--the ones that were so quiet about it?" + +"Oh, yes; and his sweetheart too." + +"No, that was his cousin, who lives with them. I got acquainted with +him to-night, and he is a real gentleman. We were walking up and down, +and he was telling me about his people, and his service in India. He +is to be a sort of traveling officer to take out recruits, you see. +He's delighted with the appointment, but his father was lost in a +monsoon on the Indian Ocean, a few years ago, and it nearly killed his +mother to let him go--she is sort of superstitious about it. Don't you +remember how she fainted?" + +"Yes, indeed. Poor lady! And he is nice, is he?" + +"Yes and intelligent, but bashful. He said he had often watched us, +and can never tell us apart, but he thinks he'll be able to, after +this." + +"Oh, he does?" giggled Hope. "I'll wager I could fool him any day, if +I tried. Well, you gave me a nice fright while you were having such a +good time," and thereupon she told her tale as you have just heard it, +and so short a step is it from tragedy to comedy, especially in youth, +that they both laughed over it until they fell asleep. + +Meanwhile, on deck, a watchful father saw a young man standing near the +gunwale in idle contemplation of the horizon, and accosted him with a +pleasant word to which the other responded with readiness, though his +manner was somewhat diffident. The two talked some time, the older man +becoming more and more interested in a youth who, with a real manliness +of character, was yet as bashful as a schoolboy. Before the +conversation ended Captain Hosmer was convinced there was not only "no +harm in the fellow," but that he was a young man worth cultivating, +and, as he finally left him, chuckled to himself. + +"Ah! these girls. They require an awful sight of looking after, but +sometimes their instincts are as good as our judgments. Faith is a +little woman with her mother's own purity. How she used to worry for +fear I should grow hard and wicked in my rough life. Ah! my Helen, +wherever you are, to-night, know that I am trying to keep myself +steering straight for the Port that you have reached--and, God helping +me, I will bring the babies safe along, too!" + +He bowed his head on his hands a minute, and the old steersman, +watching him, thought, with affectionate sympathy. + +"The capt'n's tired to-night, and no wonder. Wish he'd turn in and get +a good rest for once, Never saw a man so faithful, bless him! Glad +he's got them nice little girls to make him brace up these +days--sometimes I think as he's getting old too fast." + +The next morning the twins were late in rising only to find it a +summer's day, apparently, so balmy indeed that the deck seemed to be +blossoming out into a flower-bed, as group after group of ladies +appeared in gay lawns and organdies, while all the Mohammedan helpers +were busy stretching double awnings where there had been single ones, +or none at all, and rigging up the punkahs in the saloons. These odd +fans, which England has borrowed, name and all, from her East Indian +colonies, were, on the "International," tricolored (red, white, and +blue) strips of cloth, stretched over light wire frames of a +rectangular shape, which were attached to the ceiling and also, by +means of a long rope, to a black-eyed Bengali boy who sat just outside +the door, on deck, and kept them waving by a slow, constant jerk and +pull, which was so regular that Faith declared the boy slept half the +time, and possibly she was right. The ocean lay peacefully about them, +its color almost an indigo, so deeply blue was it in the shadow of the +vessel, but out a little way silvered by the vertical sun, which shone +with a blinding splendor that made colored eye-glasses a relief to the +dazzled vision. + +It is in such weather that mischief breeds on shipboard, and gossip is +rife. The idle passengers, by this time mostly on speaking terms, +begin to let the common metal of their real make-up show through the +nickel-plating of the first interchange of courtesies. + +There was a group whom our special friends had not yet mingled with +quite freely, though always meeting them in pleasant fashion, but as +everybody clustered sociably on the forward deck, this morning, anxious +to catch the ship's own breeze, if no other, they might naturally +become better acquainted. Of these only a few affect our little +history, therefore need description; first, a mother and two daughters +going out to the husband and father in India. Mrs. Windemere was a +little woman with an habitually scared expression and retiring manner, +but her daughters, both well towards thirty, must have taken after the +father, for they were domineering with her and self-assertive +everywhere. They claimed relationship with some person who bore a +title, and were given to talking a good deal about their aristocratic +relatives, and they dressed conspicuously, demanded constant attention +from any gentlemen present, and were full of news and rumors. + +With them was a young woman of like age, whom they familiarly called +Zaidee, who had spent much time in India, and had caught its languor, +possibly. She was more agreeable in manner and pretended indifference +to all that the "girls," as she called them, were interested in; +dressed quietly, but in excellent taste, and talked in her dreamy, +drawling voice in a way that seemed to interest all who listened, +especially the gentlemen, who were usually grouped around her chair +whenever she appeared on deck. There were plenty of these, from Indian +officials of rank to subalterns and young gentlemen of fortune, either +with or without tutors, but who seemed much more interested in +flirtations than scenery. + +English girls do not, as a rule, assume the airs of womanhood so early +as do many American maidens--to their credit be it said--and neither +Hope nor Faith had ever thought of considering themselves young ladies. +Though nearing eighteen their gowns were still of ankle length and +their hair in simple braids, while, as we have seen, they enjoyed +frolicking with Dwight as if not a day older. Elizabeth Vanderhoff, +too, though two years older, was still a girl at heart, and had not yet +discovered that no company was complete without its young men. + +The officer who had been walking with Faith, last night, was also a +boyish fellow, fair and fresh of face and had been more attracted to +our girls and their frolics than to the older young ladies, with more +social airs and graces. Though Faith had felt somewhat confused, last +night, at her father's raillery, her meeting and talk with the modest +young fellow was innocent enough, in intention, had there been no one +to misconstrue it, but in a carping world we must learn to avoid even +the appearance of evil. + +It happened that the little disturbance caused by Hope's bad dreams had +not been quite unnoted, and was to bring rather disagreeable +consequences, as we shall see. But, this morning, there was no hint of +trouble in the air and, gathered under the deck awnings, the passengers +presented a scene pretty and peaceful enough. + +Faith, industriously inclined, was at work on a piece of embroidery, +Hope had the piratical book in her hand, but was leaning idly back, +watching Mrs. Vanderhoff, who was playing with one of the little tots, +and visiting in desultory fashion with Bess, who was trying a new +stitch in crochet and interposed a count, or two, between syllables. +The Windemere family, all with their work, except Mrs. Campbell, who +never seemed to have anything to do, were at a little distance--the two +young ladies talking to the distinguished traveler previously +mentioned, who seemed a trifle bored, and Mrs. Campbell being talked to +by a couple of government attaches, whose boyish laughter rang out +frequently. + +Presently, the officer of Faith's acquaintance, whose name was +Carnegie, came towards the former group and bashfully bade her a +good-morning which she brightly returned, hastening to present him to +her sister and friends. Soon they were all in animated chat, and the +young attaches in Mrs. Campbell's vicinity began to look that way with +somewhat longing glances. + +At length one of them, with some light excuse, sauntered away from her +side, made a slow tour of the deck, and finally drew near our three +girls; saying in passing. + +"I've been looking for you, Carnegie." + +The other, not having noticed the by-play, turned with a smile, and +replied, + +"Have you? I've been down among my men most of the morning. One of +the poor fellows is ill. Not seasick, you understand, but a fever, I'm +afraid." Then as the schemer came to a stop he said bashfully, "May I +present Mr. Donelson, ladies?" and introductions followed. + +Naturally Mr. Donelson was pleased at his success, and flung a laughing +glance of triumph back at his comrade, who still sat at the lady's +feet, though he, too, was beginning to fidget and look about for a way +of escape. Mrs. Campbell had seen all with eyes that seemed to notice +nothing, and was indignant enough, for she was inordinately vain, and +desired attention even from boys, if no other was forthcoming. To have +any one preferred before her was gall to her foolish pride. Besides +the traveler, whom she was inclined to make a hero of, had seen, too, +and though pretending still to talk to the Misses Laura and Janet +Windemere, his eyes were twinkling with appreciation. + +Mrs. Campbell was not a malicious woman, unless thwarted in her own +plans; then she could be absolutely pitiless, and cared for neither +truth nor justice in carrying out her spiteful revenges. Ridicule was +something she could not endure, and to feel herself slighted made a +fury of her. Yet her outward self-control was perfect. Now, with a +dreamy look in her large blue-gray orbs, she gazed out to seaward, and +remarked as if in a ruminant mood, + +"I think, take them all together, we have a rather stupid set of +passengers, this trip, don't you, Mr. Allyne?" + +"I don't know," returned the attache, "are they? Fact is, I haven't +made much headway with the ladies yet, but the men are jolly enough in +the smoking-room--without being too jolly, you understand." + +"Oh, of course; they are mostly gentlemen, I presume. Indeed I've +scarcely noticed them, myself"--"Ah! Mrs. Campbell!"--"with a few +exceptions of course," giving him an effective glance. "But the girls +are not much to boast of. That Miss Vanderhoff is positively homely." + +"Do you think so? I know she has no special beauty to attract one, but +she looks bright and good-tempered, I'm sure, and I like her voice, +don't you?" + +"Not too well. Those American voices are not to my taste. They +threaten my ear-drums." + +"Do you call hers sharp, though, Mrs. Campbell? It's clear, I know, +and decided, but----" + +She waved the subject aside, as if it were not worth discussing longer, +and asked, + +"What do you think of the twinnies?" + +Her tone, though laughingly contemptuous, was gentleness itself, and +young Allyne looked up, rather puzzled. + +"Why, they seem nice, sweet girls; don't you think so?" + +"One can't always tell by looks," was the ambiguous reply, and then she +began to laugh, as if in great amusement over some recollection. + +Meanwhile the Windemere girls and the traveler had turned and were +listening, as Mrs. Campbell meant they should. + +"What pleases you, Zaidee?" asked Laura, the older, settling her +eyeglasses anew, the better to gaze at her friend. + +"Oh, an amusing incident that occurred last night. I happened to see a +part, and easily drew the rest out of Mr. Frazer by adroit questioning, +for, I assure you, it made me curious." + +Mr. Frazer was the purser, and the one who had stood talking with +Captain Hosmer when Hope ran out to him, the night before. + +"What is it?" asked both girls in a breath, and the traveler added, +with a laugh, + +"Yes, indeed, if any one knows anything funny on shipboard it is a +bounden duty to tell it." + +"Well, I hardly know whether you could call this funny, or +tragic--perhaps serio-comic is the word," returned Mrs. Campbell in her +smooth little drawl, with its expression of amused indifference, which +always stimulated the interest of the listener. "It was exciting, +anyhow. Somewhere well along towards midnight, last evening, a certain +young lady--a mere girl indeed--was promenading the deck with a strange +young man, when her sister, probably knowing the girl's propensities, +rose from her bed, rushed out to her father, who was at his post,"--she +cast an eye upward towards the bridge--"and begged of him to 'save +sister,' upon which, rather sternly, he marched her back to her cabin +and, hunting up the other one, took her from her escort and led her +inside also, where I imagine there was a scene. At any rate the +stewardess was busy in there for some time, and when I asked what had +happened, she said, 'Only hysterics, ma'am; they're common enough.' +But as I happened to know where she was, and what had just happened, I +did not treat the matter so lightly. Of course it was an exaggeration +of the other girl, but it showed that some people who seem very +innocent will bear looking after. Too bad that pretty girls must spoil +everything by being vain and--well, careless! But the two I mention +are very unconventional." + +The Windemeres, mother and daughters, listened with groans of horror, +the attache with a troubled look, and the traveler with a gravity that +was almost stern. Quite unnoted by the absorbed group, another also +heard, for Lady Moreham, seemingly absorbed in a book and hidden by +some projection of the deck, had dropped the volume and was scowling +savagely. She was not taken with these young women, for at first they +had distinctly snubbed her, and later, having learned her title, had so +suddenly changed to fawning and flattery that she was thoroughly +disgusted. + +After an instant the traveler spoke abruptly, + +"Do you say you heard and saw this _yourself_, Mrs. Campbell?" + +"A part of it--yes, sir." How small a part she did not mention. "The +rest was made comprehensible by Mr. Frazer's explanation." + +"I cannot believe that one of the ship's officers would speak ill of +the captain's daughters, madam--and that you refer to them we all +understand." + +"Speak ill? Oh, he did not--and who has, indeed? Ill? What can you +mean? I merely mentioned it as a funny, melodramatic sort of +performance, just like a foolish little girl. Of course there was +nothing really out of the way, only a bit of imprudence--and without a +mother, or chaperone, what can one expect?" + +"You speak of what I was about to mention; they have no mother. That +is enough to make any older woman feel it her motherly duty to guard +and counsel them, I'm sure," was the calm reply. "We all must agree on +that." + +"Yes, indeed!" ventured Mrs. Windemere in her small voice. "Poor young +things." + +"I don't think they seem to need your pity, mother!" cried Janet +sharply, looking across at the merry group, in which were the Hosmer +sisters. "Not in that way, at any rate." + +"And," added Mrs. Campbell with an exaggerated drawl, "we who are not +of an age to look upon them in a motherly light may not appreciate all +those feelings. They amuse me, to be sure, but I had scarcely thought +of adopting them." + +"Nor their father, either?" put in the attache clumsily, hoping to +raise a laugh and dispel the thunder in the air. But he only drew the +lightning upon himself. She gave him one look that silenced him, and, +lifting the fan in her lap, said languidly, + +"How very warm it is! Strange how little the most of us understand the +necessity of fitting our conversation to the weather, if we would be +agreeable. Discussions and personalities, if ever allowable, are only +suited to a zero temperature. Have you noticed the flying-fish, this +morning? How delightful it must be to plunge into that cool water +to-day! I wonder if they fly out into the heat just for the fun of +cooling off afterwards?" + +"Quite a suggestion, Mrs. Campbell!" laughed the traveler. "I believe +I'll try it," and, bowing lightly, with a flash of the eyes that met +her own in quick defiance, he turned away. + +As he passed around the bulkhead screening Lady Moreham, she rose and +said in a low voice, + +"I want to thank you! Many a life has been ruined by base +insinuations. A vain woman's tongue is a merciless weapon. I like the +little sisters, and believe them pure-hearted children. It was wicked!" + +He bowed. + +"I agree with you, my lady. But you see they are monopolizing the +attention to-day, which is a social crime!" and, with a sarcastic +smile, he passed on. + +Meanwhile, undreaming of this "capful of wind" that might become a +tornado, our girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves in a lively, wholly +unsentimental way, pleased with the company and their own happy youth; +and not suspecting that in this same soft, silky atmosphere which +breeds both the exquisite Paradise-bird and the deadly cobra, might be +found, not only friendliness, but also that "envy, malice, and +uncharitableness" which the honest-hearted are least able to guard +against, in their utter lack of comprehension. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +A GAME OF GROMETS. + +"Who wants to pitch gromets?" cried Dwight. (He pronounced it as if +spelled "gruments," as most sea-going men do spell it, we believe, but +let us follow the dictionary!) "Mr. Malcolm's offered a prize for the +one that lands it square in the bucket the most times, and Uncle Dwight +says he'll give a consolation prize to the poor wretch who doesn't hit +it once." + +"What's gromets?" asked young Donelson, springing up. + +"Oh, don't you know?" said Hope. "Father used to play it with us when +we were little--you know what the gromets themselves are, don't you?" + +"Haven't an idea?" + +"Why, rope rings--Dwight, Dwight! Isn't that one sticking out of your +pocket? See how firm and neat it is!" + +"Well, it's just pitching those into a bucket, set a long way off. If +you can make it go into the bucket plump, it counts you 10; lodging +anywhere on the edge or bail is 2, and inside the chalk ring drawn +around the bucket is 1--at least, that's our game." + +"And outside?" + +"Of the ring? Oh, nothing at all; and five throws outside will put out +till next innings. Each side has a certain number of trials, you see." + +"Why, that's something like quoits." + +"Well, so it is--sea quoits." + +"That's easy, I'm sure." + +"Oh is it? Wait till you try it!" + +"You, see there's a special twist"--began Faith, but her sister stopped +her. + +"No, no, don't tell. Let him try it first; it's easy, you know!" and, +laughing mischievously, she ran after Dwight. + +Pretty soon two tawny boys appeared, one with an ordinary fire-bucket, +such as are seen hung everywhere on shipboard, and the other with a +cluster of rope rings hung on one arm. Behind them came Hope, with Mr. +Malcolm and Dwight in tow, the former carrying a small blackboard; all +in great good-humor over something. + +"I am requested to announce," called out the steward in a high +"lecture-hall voice," as Dwight named it, "that all those present who +wish to pitch gromets are invited to join the game. Each side will +select a captain; Huri and Tegeloo, here, will pick up the rings that +go astray; I will chalk up the tally on this blackboard, and after the +game is over the persons showing the biggest and smallest scores shall +be given prizes by the captains of the winning and losing teams. Speak +up for your captains, please!" + +"Why not have the twin sisters?" called out Mr. Lawrence, and at the +same instant a voice proposed, "Mrs. Campbell for one!" + +But this suggestion was drowned in a shout of applause. + +"Yes, yes, let it be the twins--the captain's daughters!" and so it was +decided. + +Blushing and beautiful, the girls stood up opposite each other, and +began calling up their teams. + +"Mrs. Vanderhoff," cried Hope. + +"Lady Moreham," said Faith. + +"Mrs. Poinsett." + +"Mrs. Windemere." + +"Miss Vanderhoff. + +"Miss Windemere." + +"Oh but see--see here!" laughingly protested Mr. Lawrence. "Is this +fair play to us men? I want to join this game somehow, if--" + +"Mr. Lawrence!" shouted Hope archly, showing her pretty teeth and +dimples. + +"Mr. Traveler!" quickly added Faith, only of course she gave the man's +own distinguished name. + +And so they proceeded, while, quite without intention but with no less +offense, Mrs. Campbell and the young attache were not called until the +very last. + +He sprang up eagerly enough, but she barely glanced around. + +"Thanks," she drawled, "but it is too warm to play; don't you think so, +Mr. Allyne?" + +Now, the young fellow did not think so, by any means, but he felt it +would be rude to leave the lady alone, and besides he would make an odd +one on Faith's side. So he sank back into his chair again with a +reluctant, "Much obliged, but I'll look on a while," and the game +proceeded without them. + +It was rather warm work, but luckily a breeze had arisen which somewhat +cooled their flushed cheeks. Presently the captain strolled along and +stood near, to watch the players, laughing silently as he noted the +awkward work they made of it. + +"Why don't you join us, Captain?" cried Mrs. Vanderhoff. "Come, Hope, +call up your father," but Faith returned quickly, + +"No, indeed! Papa can bucket it every time. It wouldn't be fair to +our side at all." + +"No, Captain," called Mr. Lawrence, who could not get the twist of the +wrist that makes the square toss, and was in convulsions over his own +awkwardness, "don't you come and show us up to ignominy by contrast. +Your daughters are proficient enough to prove what their teacher may +be, and I hate to be so outdone." + +"I'm catching on, though, uncle Dwight--don't you see?" cried his +nephew, and amid a shout of laughter Mr. Malcolm released the boy's +gromet from the bucket-bail, remarking, "Catching on's the word, sir!" +as he marked up a large 2 opposite the lad's name. + +It was funny to watch the different ones, and Huri's eyes danced with +enjoyment as he ran after the wilder tosses with swift feet. Timid +Mrs. Windemere would advance to position, look all about in dazed +fashion, gather her skirts closely as if about to breast a hurricane, +then with a long breath would shut her eyes tightly, and surge +forward--when the gromet would either drop ignobly at her feet, or go +madly flying off to right or left, perhaps hitting poor little Tegeloo +on the nose. Mr. Donelson assumed an airy indifference and a careless +toss, and lo! the contrary thing went whirling between his feet, aft. +Lady Moreham actually burst into laughter as, after careful aim in a +judicial manner Mrs. Poinsett set hers spinning--and knocked Captain +Hosmer's cap off, while all were convulsed as she, herself, after slow +and accurate aiming, sent the ring square against poor Texas, chained +to his perch, knocking him down and causing his hoarse and naughty +comment, "You old fool!" in quick return. + +So it went merrily on, the girls, Dwight, and the traveler making +several half-scores, and the rest occasionally tallying. Mrs. +Windemere had never succeeded in getting even the direction, when, +after several throws, she took her position once more, protesting it +was of no use, she did her side more harm than good. + +"And remember, if you fail this time you'll be put out!" shouted Laura, +somewhat cruelly. + +The little lady looked distressed, but Faith leaned over and whispered +quickly, + +"Did you ever make tatting, Mrs. Windemere?" + +"Why, yes, of course I have," surprisedly, wondering what tatting could +have to do with the present game. + +"Make believe you're throwing your shuttle and then let the gromet fly. +Be quick and firm!" she added, pretending to fix a loose pin at the +lady's throat. "Remember!" + +Mrs. Windemere turned towards the goal with a helpless air, but obeyed, +and heard a sort of gasp, then a shout that rent the air. She opened +her eyes and looked around dazedly. Her gromet was in the bucket, and +amid the wild cheering Mr. Malcolm was chalking up a 10 nearly a foot +long. This gave the score to Faith's side and Mrs. Windemere was +declared the prize winner. + +Mr. Allyne could not resist the excitement and hurried up with his +congratulations, while even Mrs. Campbell smiled and grew better +natured as she, too, came forward and with graceful tact, of which she +was a mistress, caught a ribbon from her waist, wound it about one of +the gromets, and setting it lightly upon the victor's head led her to a +chair. + +"Behold our queen!" she shouted merrily, and all joined in the huzzas +that followed, while little Mrs. Windemere, who had never received so +much notice in her whole life, actually had to wipe the springing tears +from her eyes. + +Then Mr. Malcolm appeared with the prize, and what do you suppose it +was? A lively young porker, nestled down in a lidded basket streaming +with gay ribbons! + +Amid shouts of laughter Faith gravely presented the prize, always +referring to it delicately as "our hampered friend," in supposed +reference to the basket, or perhaps, as Mr. Lawrence slyly remarked, +"to the other quarters of the beast." She solemnly informed the winner +that from time immemorial live prisoners had been considered specially +acceptable gifts along the Mediterranean shores, and suggested that, if +she should not know what to do with hers, she might be magnanimous, +make a feast, and call her neighbors in, at which there was great +cheering and clapping. + +"Dear me!" said Mrs. Windemere, taking the piggy-wiggy, who really +behaved quite well, only squealing occasionally by way of emphasis, "I +never made a speech in my life, but I'm ever so much obliged, and I +should be delighted to give you all a feast of roast pig, if our +captain will furnish the cook and the extras." + +"The ship, with all its men and stores, is at your disposal, madam," +said Captain Hosmer, doffing his cap with a low bow. + +"Then," cried the little lady, rising to the occasion, and looking +really pretty with her pink cheeks and brightening eyes, "I invite you +all, victors and vanquished, players and non-combatants, to dine on +roast pig with Captain Hosmer and myself, to-night at seven o'clock." + +"We accept!" came in a tremendous shout from deck-house to bow. + +"And may Heaven have mercy on our digestions!" added Mrs. Campbell, +rolling up her eyes in horror. "Roast pig in this weather!" + +But Laura turned to her younger sister with enthusiasm. + +"Do look at ma! Did you ever see her so bright and jolly? She looks +downright pretty. She can hold her own better than I thought she +could." + +"You are seeing her under altogether new conditions, you know," said +Mrs. Campbell sweetly, as she stepped off with light tread and +non-committal face towards a merrily-laughing group, further on. + +"Now, what did she mean by that?" asked Janet in a puzzled tone. "I do +wish Zaidee wouldn't be so mysterious!" + +"Mysterious?" snapped Laura, who was quicker than her sister. "Why not +wish she needn't be so hateful?" + +Yet she followed the woman, who could always lead in spite of her +peculiar disposition, because of innate charm and tact. + +They found the merriment to be over the fact that Mr. Lawrence had the +smallest score, and must accept his own prize, already in the hands of +Mr. Malcolm. + +"Oh, that's too bad!" he cried, weary from his exertions and merriment. +"Why rub it in so hard? Is it not enough to be beaten by these +youngsters--must I also be made the laughing-stock of passengers and +crew? Ah! 'tis indeed a cruelty to load a falling man!" + +"Well, uncle, if you're going to quote Wolsey, keep on," laughed his +niece mischievously. "'I charge thee fling away ambition!' You see +you have soared too high, my lord." + +"_Et tu Brute_?" He turned upon her quickly. "Well, well, 'complete +my shame.' Where is the prize orator, anyhow?" + +"Here, here!" called Hope, coming rapidly forward from a conference +with Mr. Malcolm; and amidst a sudden hush she said in a gentle, +serious tone, as if reluctantly discharging an imperative duty, + +"The prize we have to offer you needs no explanation. As it is +familiar to you I will only say it appropriately illustrates one word +you have amply understood to-day, and that word is--_whipped_!" + +She held aloft one of those clock-work toys one may pick up in Germany, +or Switzerland--a severe dame in a flapping cap, with a youngster +across her knee whom she vigorously belabors with a neat little bundle +of switches. Mr. Lawrence took it with meek 'Thank you,' and amidst +the laughter, explained, + +"I bought the thing as an object-lesson for a friend at home who, does +not believe in corporal punishment for her spoiled child, and to-day +thought I would divert it to the purpose of a consolation prize for +some of you fellows who couldn't pitch gromets. Like most people who +dig a pit for others I have fallen into it myself! And now--may I give +this to one of the babies? I never want to see it again." + +"I think you may," laughed Hope, and a little curly-pate close by was +made happy with the toy, which seemed destined to manifold uses. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +MRS. WINDEMERE'S DINNER. + +"Well, it is almost time for the Lamb dinner," remarked Mr. Lawrence, +late that afternoon, to the group about him under the awning of the +after-deck, from which they were watching the sunset, some lounging in +the easy steamer-chairs, others in the hammocks which had been +stretched in every available space, and still others, among whom was +Dwight, resting full length on the large Persian rug, which had been +laid in the center of the deck planks. For the heat, and still, easy +motion made every one lazy. + +Upon hearing this remark the boy looked up. + +"Lamb dinner? I thought it was pig this morning. It hasn't changed +into sheep, I hope?" + +"And must I really explain my observation to a lad about entering the +High School?" cried his uncle reproachfully. "I'll warrant Bess +knows--and somebody else, too!" catching the gleam in Hope's eye. + +"Oh, yes, I understand, in a way," returned Bess. "Let's see, Charles +Lamb, the writer, was very fond of roast pig, wasn't he?" + +"Was he, Miss Hope?" + +"Yes, sir, and wrote an essay upon it which has become a classic." + +"Oh, of course! I'd almost forgotten that," put in Bess, hastily. + +"And I'm free to confess I never knew it," added her brother. "Fact +is, I begin to think I didn't learn much in school, anyhow--that is, +much that I've needed since. I've picked up more about geography and +history on this trip than all I ever learned there." + +"No, no, not quite that, my boy! You simply have digested what then +you only swallowed. Don't you know what Channing says--'It is not +enough to cram ourselves with a great load of collections--we must chew +them over again'? The fact is, nothing can ever be quite learned until +it is experienced. I may be taught from a book that water expands in +freezing, but I cannot realize that fact till I, sometime, leave water +in a pitcher and find it broken next morning. Then I know, in a way +never to be forgotten, about this scientific truth. So it is in +geography; we have always taken in certain facts regarding the relative +positions of land and water, mountain and plain, but if we had +attempted to go anywhere, with absolutely no guide but memory, nine out +of ten of us would be lost on the first stage of the journey. You are +now simply assimilating what you learned at school, and making the +facts, which you took on trust then, part and parcel of your actual +experience now. It seems to me one of the best ways to study geography +at home is to travel on paper. That comes nearest the real thing. Map +out a route, buy your tickets (in imagination), take your conveyance, +and on the way see everything possible to be gleaned from those eyes +which have gone before, and left a record of their impressions. Try +and think if you would see in the same way, and what else might be +observed by quick eyes, natural to occur in that part of the globe. If +one has imagination he may almost believe, in time, that he has really +visited the places so studied. + +"I knew a young fellow, once, who lived in an insignificant town in +Vermont, and had never been fifty miles from home, yet who kept up such +journeys for years, and many a time, in talking with him, I, the real +traveler, would learn facts about certain localities where I had been, +from him who never set foot near them. Just to prove him, once, I +said, 'Are you acquainted with Salt Lake City?' 'Pretty well,' he +answered modestly. Having spent a summer or two there, myself, I +thought I would try and trip him up, so said, carelessly, 'When I stood +in front of Brigham Young's Square and looked at that great town on my +left'--but there he interrupted me, quick as a flash, 'You mean looked +down upon the town at your right, don't you? Brigham's Square is on +what is called the North Bench, and standing before it you must +overlook the larger part of the city lying upon your right.' Of course +this was correct, and I had to acknowledge that he really knew as much +about many localities as I, who had visited them. But he was unusual." + +"Well," said Dwight slowly, "what I have to complain of about travelers +is that they don't tell the little things--the details, you know. I +suppose it seems silly to them to say whether they went on board a +steamer in a boat, or across a gangway, or up a flight of steps, or to +describe just how a car looks when they travel by rail, but I used to +wish they would. And when I write my book of travels I'm going to!" + +"I would," said his sister encouragingly. + +"Well, you wait! But say, uncle, there are some books in your library +at home that you used to have when you were a boy, I reckon, for the +pictures look about a century old, but I used to like to read them ever +so much, and since I came abroad I've been finding out how well they +describe the things that happen to a traveler even to-day. For +instance, when you and I went from Cadiz to Ronda by diligence." + +"Oh, you mean the Rollo books--Rollo's Tour in Europe?" laughed Mr. +Lawrence. "How I did pore over those when I was a little boy! Yes, +they do go into details, that's a fact. Somebody's advice to Rollo +always to follow the crowd when bewildered at some great railway +terminus often occurs to me, still, and is acted upon with perfect +success." + +"But don't you think travelers who write for publication sometimes draw +the long bow a bit?" asked Lieutenant Carnegie in his diffident way. + +"Oh, never!" cried a voice from the guardrail, and the Traveler held up +a beseeching hand as he came forward. "Don't take away our reputation +for veracity, I pray you! With the public's confidence lost to us what +could we do? We are all truthful--even to Du Chaillu and Gulliver." + +Every one laughed, and the young man, blushing a little, returned, + +"Well, I was thinking especially of one or two I've read, lately. For +instance, thirty miles a day is quite a tramp for an ordinary man on +good level roads, without luggage; and when a traveler tells me he +makes sixty over hills, or marshes, weighted down with camp supplies, +who wasn't brought up a soldier, either, why, I just begin to compare +it with my own experiences and say--" + +"Here _lies_ a great man, don't you?" put in Dwight. + +"Well, yes, that's about it." + +"Oh, but you must remember that often he can only judge of the distance +made by his feelings," laughed the Traveler. "It seems sixty miles, +anyhow." + +"I don't doubt that," cried Carnegie, showing handsome teeth in a +smile. "I thought there must be some way of getting around it. But if +he had said thirty-five miles I'd have believed him, and thought him a +mighty good tramper into the bargain." + +"Yet many who have never tramped under knapsack, blankets, and +tent-cloth would say, 'That's nothing!' and our poor voyager, who +really had made a record, would be consigned to oblivion. In all art, +even that of writing facts, one must exaggerate a little in order to +make the effect life-size--so to say." + +"That's true enough," said Mrs. Vanderhoff. "It is so easy to sit +still and pass judgment upon those who exert themselves. When I hear a +person criticising a painting, a story, a building, a song who could +not draw a straight line, write a sentence correctly, build a cob-house +on just proportions, nor keep the key through 'Yankee Doodle,' I long +to insist upon his making a practical trial in such things before +daring to make a criticism. Yet it is a fact that artistic people of +every grade and type have to writhe under the criticisms of +ignoramuses, who could not accomplish the piece of work they scathingly +denounce if their lives depended upon it. I pick up a book and fling +it aside with the comment, 'It's not worth reading!' or I look over a +great vessel like this and say, 'How clumsily built!' but what if I +were doomed to write a similar book, to plan a great steamer--just +think of the results! I would never criticise again." + +"It would be a pretty good scheme," laughed Mr. Lawrence. "Make these +bilious critics prove their right to the title by doing the work. I +could really enjoy their agonies on occasion." + +"But would you have no criticisms, then?" asked Mrs. Campbell. "Would +not that mean stagnation in effort? There must be something to spur +one on to better work, mustn't there?" + +"I doubt if unintelligent criticism often does prove an incentive," +said the Traveler. "'Let me be judged by my peers' is a universal +sentiment with the conscientious in any employment." + +"Yes, Rachel," put in Mr. Lawrence, smiling at his sister, "if Captain +Hosmer should criticise the ship we would build we might endure it, but +if--well, Mr. Donelson, for instance, ventured to elevate his nose we +would naturally think he knew nothing about it, and would not even try +to please him." + +"How _could_ he elevate his nose?" asked Mrs. Campbell innocently, in a +whisper that sent the Windemere girls off into giggles, for Mr. +Donelson's nose was not only long but slightly hooked, besides. +Evidently Mrs. Campbell had not quite forgiven the attache for his +desertion of the morning. + +"But if I'm not mistaken we're all competent to judge of a good dinner, +if we couldn't cook one," laughed the young man in return, not having +caught her comment, and he pointed to Tegeloo who, smiling and +important, was bowing before Mrs. Windemere. + +"Dinner is served to madam!" he announced with a flourish and an odd +accent, while, at the same instant, Captain Hosmer gallantly offered +his arm. + +"May I have the pleasure? Our dinner is waiting, I believe, Mrs. +Windemere," and amid much merriment and excitement, the other gentlemen +quickly sought partners and followed. + +By a previous understanding with Mr. Malcolm, Mrs. Windemere and party +were offered the places of the four young people at the captain's +table, and they "went down a peg," as Dwight put it, to another, +entirely filled with the younger portion of the guests. If there was a +little more learning and elegance, perhaps, at the former, there was a +vast amount of fun and nonsense at the latter. Every one in the saloon +was supplied with at least one thin slice from the prize pig which, +roasted whole and holding an ear of corn in its teeth, was gaily +decorated with the flags of England and the United States. It was held +high for inspection before the carving began, and many a joke ran +around, from table to table, upon the fine appearance of his porcine +majesty. + +At some of the tables wine flowed freely, and a few of the young men +soon ordered it at the one where our girls were seated. It is more +commonly used at meals abroad than with middle-class Americans at home, +and nearly all partook. Neither Bess nor Dwight, however, would take +it and, seeing this, Faith and Hope, caring little about it, also +declined, though they had never been taught conscientious scruples +regarding its use. No special comment was made upon this, but when +Chester Carnegie also turned down his glass the young attaches began a +running fire of jests at his expense; Mr. Allyne especially, who soon +showed the influence of his champagne, leading off with some sharply +personal remarks. + +The lieutenant said as little as possible in return, but occasionally a +witty reply would turn the laugh against his opponent, who grew +disagreeable and really quarrelsome, as the wine affected him more and +more. + +Seeing this, Carnegie attempted to ignore the whole matter, and turning +to Faith, who sat next him, began talking in a lowered tone, hoping +Allyne would understand that he was now going too far and so drop the +subject. + +But a man in liquor is an irresponsible being, and Allyne, under the +polish of education and training, possessed the nature of a bully--he +was tyrannical and contentious. Choosing now to assume that Carnegie's +partial turning away and low-voiced conversation were intended to +insult him, he straightened up, and looking fiercely across the table, +with eyes already watery from the heady fumes of the strong wine, +tapped sharply with his glass and said in too loud a tone for the +place, "Carnegie, I was talking to you." + +The lieutenant turned his head a trifle, and bowed coolly. + +"Excuse me till later, please; I am engaged with Miss Hosmer at +present." + +The other laughed out in a disagreeable manner. While alone with Mrs. +Campbell, that afternoon, he had easily extracted the name of the young +man with whom one of the twins (neither knew which one) had been +promenading the deck, the evening before, and now, mingled with his +rising wrath towards him, was the confused memory of the woman's subtle +insinuations. + +When sober, Mr. Allyne was usually a gentleman, but in his cups he +became little short of a ruffian in manner. He laughed significantly. + +"Engaged with, or to?" he asked with insolence. "It had better be to +from reports, I should say!" + +Instantly the lieutenant, pale as death, was on his feet, while Faith, +gasping a little, leaned back in her chair, as white and almost +fainting. Hope and Dwight, round-eyed and not half comprehending, +stared amazedly, while Donelson, realizing that his companion was quite +beside himself, also sprang up and laying a firm hand on Allyne's arm, +turned beseechingly. + +"Don't, Carnegie--for heaven's sake don't make a scene! I'll get him +away. He'll be in the dust for this, to-morrow. Come, Tom, you must +go with me instantly." + +They were attracting attention. Captain Hosmer's eyes were fixed +sternly upon them, for though he had not heard a word he could see that +something was wrong, and Faith's white face startled him. He felt +there was some disturbance which frightened her, but perhaps +fortunately, never dreamed she could be at all concerned in the matter. +The Traveler, however, who held the key to the situation, and had +caught a sentence or two, on his part, looked sternly at Mrs. Campbell +who, suave and unruffled, was monopolizing Mr. Lawrence and evidently +amusing him, too. + +There might have been worse trouble but for young Carnegie's +moderation. The instant Donelson's plea was made he realized that for +Faith's sake, if not Allyne's, he must be cautious, so said only, "I +leave him to you now, Mr. Donelson," and seated himself, while the +attache, partly by force and partly by coaxing, succeeded in dragging +the foolish fellow from the room without further display. + +"What was the matter with that young sprout of an attache?" asked the +captain later in the evening, as he and his daughters met for a quiet +little visit in the library. "Too much champagne?" + +Hope looked quickly at her sister, whose face was turned away, and as +she did not respond, answered lightly, "I believe so. He was +quarrelsome, and Mr. Donelson wanted to get him away before he--before +he made trouble." + +"H'm! With whom was he quarreling?" + +Faith, back in the shadow, was still unresponsive, and Hope thinking +she ought to be the one to answer, let some indignation creep into her +own voice as she said, + +"Oh, that Mr. Carnegie." + +"What, Carnegie? I had taken him for a decent, modest sort of fellow. +But any one who will get into a drunken brawl before ladies--" + +Faith turned quickly. She was quite white. + +"Father, Mr. Carnegie had not been drinking. He did not touch the wine +and--and I'm the only one to blame." She burst into tears and, hiding +her face in both hands, started to run into her own stateroom, but her +father caught her and, with a tender arm about her waist, drew her down +upon his knee. + +"I don't understand you, daughter," he said in a voice of yearning +tenderness, for whenever his children were in trouble, it always seemed +to him that his fair young wife stood at his elbow inciting him to +gentleness. "I don't understand, but I must. Why should two heady +young fools quarrel over my little girl? She is no coquette, I'm sure." + +"Papa," put in Hope, for her sister was sobbing helplessly upon his +shoulder, "Faith is not to blame, and I don't half understand it, +myself, but I'll tell you just what happened--" and she did, much as it +has been repeated here. + +Her father listened with a darkening face. + +"Some cursed gossip!" he muttered as she finished, while Faith managed +to murmur, + +"I didn't mean any harm, papa. I talked to him just as we do to +Dwight, and he told me about his home, and what he is going to do in +India. You might have heard every word, papa!" + +"Of course, of course, I understand. Only, I ought to have warned you; +a steamer is a perfect hot-bed of gossip on a long voyage like this. +But how did that scapegrace get hold of--wait! Hasn't he been with +that little Mrs. Campbell most of the day?" + +"Yes, he has," said Hope. "They wouldn't play gromets with us, you +remember; she said it was too warm." + +"Too warm, indeed! I'd like to consign such mischief-makers to a +hotter place. Well, well, don't worry now. I begin to comprehend it +all." + +"But how should Mrs. Campbell know, papa?" + +"Because she was pacing the deck herself, or sitting in a corner. I +saw her under a smokestack with that Russian--no fit companion either. +Had to leave his own country because of his record. She's a nice one +to talk--but that's the very kind. Now, see here! After this you +girls keep close company, and stay in tow of Mrs. Vanderhoff, or Lady +Moreham, and then you'll be all right. You'll mind now?" + +"Yes we will, father, but tell me something. Did you know Lady Moreham +before this trip? I thought--" He turned a quizzical look upon Hope's +eager face, and laughed a little. + +"Better think more about things that concern yourself, little one, and +not be speculating about my passengers, or you'll get to be another +Mrs. Campbell," and, kissing both girls, he gently seated Faith in his +large chair and hurried out. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +A SUNDAY AT SEA. + +There is something in a Sunday at sea, in calm weather which must +impress the most thoughtless. The clean, well-regulated ship seems to +take on an air of extra self-respect, the men, in fresh attire, go more +quietly about their duties, the well-dressed passengers are less noisy +and demonstrative, even the steerage puts on a slightly brighter look +on Sunday morning, and for the time being the seeming calmness and +content give one a delightful sense of rest. + +Captain Hosmer, like most good sailors, had a deep reverence for his +Maker, and for that religion, "pure and undefiled," which inspiration +teaches. No one living the precarious life of the seaman can well help +an abiding sense of personal dependence upon some Power greater than +the most furious forces of the deep, and when this dependence becomes +childlike and sincere, rather than a mere superstition born of terror, +it gives a man that spirit Christ so lovingly inculcated, in which the +soul rests, secure and still, within the bosom of the Father. + +Though Captain Hosmer had some of the roughnesses born of an +adventurous life, he was at heart a sincere believer, and in joy or +danger turned instinctively to his Maker in gratitude, or supplication. +Though not brought up an Episcopalian, he followed the practice +customary on board British vessels, and held service, reading from the +Prayer-book every Sunday morning. + +To-day, the passengers gathered in the handsome saloon were glad to see +the doors flung wide and the punkahs vigorously waving, for it was very +warm. Scarcely a person was absent; even Mr. Allyne, looking a bit +pale and reserved, sat back in one corner, half screened by his +companion, and near the open doors and windows, clustered the servants +and such part of the crew as were off duty, their dark faces and +turbaned heads forming an artistic contrast to the whiter-skinned race +who sat within. + +At the precise hour named, the captain, exquisitely trim in his dark +uniform, with his kindly, weatherbeaten, but clean-shaven face, took +his place by one of the tables and looking gently around with his keen, +pleasant eyes, began the slow, impressive reading of the special +prayers assigned to the seamen's service. Faith and Hope had never +seen him in this role before, and the former felt her eyes fill, while +the latter suddenly put out a hand and clasped her twin's in a little +ecstasy of admiring appreciation. Neither had even looked towards +young Allyne, nor Chester Carnegie. The latter, grave and attentive, +sat near one of the open doors and followed the service without a +glance about him. It was an hour of gentle solemnity, which affected +even the lightest heart. + +Allyne had wakened wretched, with a headache, only to be told by his +friend of the grave misdemeanors of last night. + +"And," added Donelson, "the captain came to ask me about it later, but +you were asleep, so we let you alone." + +"Heavens! Did I make such a beast of myself, Jack? You certainly +exaggerate." + +"Not a particle. Believe me, it's serious. The little girls were +white as paper, and Carnegie looked like the marble gladiator. I tell +you, you're in a pickle." + +Allyne groaned and turned over in his bunk. + +"Why didn't you stop me in time?" he questioned fiercely, with an oath. + +"Oh, you needn't swear at me, Tom Allyne! I'm not your keeper. When +you know what champagne does for you, why don't you stop yourself in +time?" + +"Why don't I? Because then I don't know enough to stop, idiot! The +first glass goes to my head, I tell you." + +"Then you'd better not touch the first glass," returned Donelson +airily, as he vigorously plied his military brushes to his sleek brown +poll. "It's a misfortune to be so weak in the upper story, Tom." + +"Humph! I'd rather be weak in liquor than when sober," was muttered +from the bunk. + +Donelson turned quickly. + +"See here, young man, if you want to quarrel with your best friend, all +right! I've stood by you so far, and dragged you out of the deepest +danger, but if you get too abusive--good-by! You may shift for +yourself. + +"Well then, shut up and let me think, can't you? I know you're all +right, Jack, but my head aches terribly, and this muss nearly drives me +mad. Why can't you be sympathetic and advise me, instead of harrowing +me up so mercilessly." + +The other laughed. + +"Well, by gracious! I do feel for you, Tom. But what can I do about +it?" + +"Well, go and bring Carnegie here, for the first thing, can't you?" + +"Bring Carnegie to you? I like that! Why, man alive, do you realize +that under that bashful girl-look of his there is a spirit that +wouldn't flinch at anything where honor is concerned? Watch his square +jaw and the set of his lips. Bring him to you! You'll have to go to +Carnegie, and eat some humble-pie into the bargain, Tom." + +"I don't believe it." + +"All right! Perhaps I lie. Just the same, I'll not do any such +errand, even for you, that's certain. I know my man, if you don't. +And, now, I'm going to the barber-shop, and you can have all the time +there is to think it over." + +So the situation rested when the parties concerned met under the same +roof to listen to, possibly in some cases, to join in solemn prayer to +God. It was a few minutes after the service when the two young men +most concerned met face to face in one of the dim and narrow +passageways connecting the saloons. Allyne stopped and Carnegie, after +an instant's hesitation, did likewise. + +"I understand," began the former trying to laugh, "that you and I had a +little falling out, last night." + +"You and I? Not at all," was the prompt answer. "Your quarrel is not +with me; you simply insulted Miss Hosmer who, fortunately, has a father +to protect her. Make your peace with him." + +Allyne flushed darkly. + +"You don't mince your words, sir." + +"I have no reason to--nor is there any reason for our talking the thing +over. It is not my privilege to take it up, as I see plainly now; but +if you are a man you will go straight to Captain Hosmer and apologize." + +"Oh, I will? It's very easy to tell another man to put his head into +the lion's mouth, isn't it? If he does not know the whole, what's the +use of rousing him up? Better let it drop." + +"That's where you'll make a huge mistake. I believe he knows all about +it." + +"Has he told you so?" + +"Certainly not. We haven't discussed the matter. My belief comes from +another source." + +"Oh, Miss--" + +"Don't finish! We'll have no names mentioned, if you please. You have +simply misunderstood the character of one or two people to an almost +inexcusable extent. Settle your quarrel with him, then, if you wish +it, and I'll ignore my part in it entirely. But if you act the cad--" + +"Well, what then?" + +"Then the matter is not ended." + +"Indeed!" began Allyne, with a sneer, but a second look into the +other's face, as he braced himself against the wall, even in the half +darkness, convinced him that it would be better to let the affair drop +for the present, at least, as he could now note well not only the +square jaw to which his friend had referred, but also a flash of the +blue eyes that looked dangerous. + +He turned away abruptly and with a "Very well," hurried onwards. But +as he went slowly out, crossed the forward deck, mounted the +companionway to the upper deck, and continued still upwards to the +bridge, where he could see the captain standing, the glass at his eyes, +his thoughts were busy, and they were not pleasant thoughts, you may be +sure. + +Captain Hosmer seemed too absorbed in something he was examining +through his binocular to notice him, however, and just as Allyne, +somewhat reluctantly, spoke his name, the watch sang out, + +"Sail on the port bow, sir." + +"Is she anchored, or drifting, Ferris?" called back the captain. + +"Drifting, I think, sir. Should judge it's a wreck." + +"We must alter our course and make for her then," he said, turning to +the steersman. Then, with a swift look at Allyne who stood a step +below waiting, + +"Anything particular, sir?" + +"Only a word to explain--" + +"Last night? Well," sternly, "what excuse have you to make?" + +Allyne shrugged his shoulders. + +"I was not myself, sir. Your champagne was too heady." + +"H'm! 'Twas made for men, I reckon. You did not exactly act the part +of one, it seems to me. Her Majesty's officials ought to have at least +the manners of a gentleman." + +"You are hard on me, Captain Hosmer!" + +"A man is apt to be hard where his daughters are lightly treated." + +"I came to apologize. Do you wish me to see the young ladies in +person?" + +"By no means! Keep as far from them as possible is all I ask. They +have their friends." + +He turned quickly to an officer awaiting commands, and paid no further +attention as Allyne moodily withdrew. The young man saw that the men +were about to launch one of the boats, and that some of the crew were +now making ready to raise the dingey to position on the davits, while +others were hastening to take their seats within it. The passengers, +getting wind of some excitement, were hurrying sternwards, and he +pushed along with them, glad to forget his sore feelings for a minute. + +Carnegie, followed by Dwight, pushed past him, alert and eager, and he +saw the twins with a group of ladies, watching with all their eyes. +Even his own chum, Donelson, was chatting at ease with two East Indian +officials, absorbed and forgetful. Tom Allyne felt decidedly left out, +and it was not a pleasant sensation to one who had been accustomed to +considering himself a good fellow and desirable companion. + +He leaned against the bulwark, a lonely figure in the midst of all this +lively bustle, and wished impotently that he could have let well enough +alone--and by well enough he doubtless meant both the champagne and +Mrs. Campbell--thus preserving the pleasant relations of yesterday. A +steamship soon becomes the world itself to its passengers, and the +little events of each day assume an exaggerated importance. To be at +odds with one's fellows on board means a rather desolate position for +the young person fond of society, and this one moodily wished the +miserable voyage over as he blinked in the sunshine, with his back to +the rest. + +The dingey, with its human freight, was smoothly lowered to the water's +edge, and rowed swiftly away, the captain, standing straight and tall +in the stern, turning back to touch his cap with a smile, as the cheers +resounded, but his eyes were upon two young faces who forgot to wave +handkerchiefs, even, so absorbed were they to catch his slightest +glance. The boat looked a slender thing to breast the might of that +great sea, if only half aroused, and though it was far from heavy +to-day an occasional puff of wind sent the waves up in little swirls of +foam, and seemed ready to drown it in spray. As the fires were banked +to stay the ship's course, the swarthy Seedees swarmed out for a breath +of air, and all who could find a glass, among crew or passengers, were +looking towards one spot. They could distinguish the floating hulk +with the naked eye, but only those with powerful lenses could say +positively that there seemed no life about it. After watching the +dingey until it melted into the outlines of the larger hull, they +formed into groups beneath the awnings, to speculate upon this wreck +and to hear yarns of others, each more thrilling than the last, till +the sisters began to fear they should never see their father safe again. + +Allyne, happening to turn from his sullen survey, saw that the +Windemere girls, Mrs. Campbell, and two or three of the men were seated +close by. As he turned, Mrs. Campbell said pleasantly, but with +something of sarcasm in her tone, + +"Aren't you well, Mr. Allyne? This is the first time I've seen you +to-day." + +"Yes, thank you, I'm well except for a headache." + +"Headache? Indeed!" She laughed lightly, and her manner made him wince. + +"You seem to find it amusing," he said resentfully. + +She laughed outright. + +"Why, you're really _cross_! Is that the way a generous dinner affects +you? Now, roast pig never goes to my head at all--does, it Janet?" + +Her mocking angered him in his present mood, but he had learned caution +from last night and, simply bowing, walked off without a reply. Under +his breath, however, he anathematized a woman who could so easily lead +a man into trouble, only to make merry over his discomfiture. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE STORY OF A WRECK. + +The day which had begun in Sabbath stillness, so far as wind and +weather were concerned, was destined to end in a far different manner. +The dingey had scarcely reached the drifting vessel when the wind began +to freshen into a decided blow. Clouds rolled up from the southwest, +and it grew rapidly darker. Many of the passengers retired to their +staterooms, but the twins, consumed with anxiety for their father, +would not leave the deck, and Lady Moreham, Mr. Lawrence, Bessie, and +Dwight remained with them, the other ladies being obliged to retire. + +Presently, as the group watched, talking in subdued tones, amid the +increasing noise of the coming storm, the watch sang out the glad news +of the captain's boat in sight, and the girls, straining their gaze +across the hillocks of gray-black waters beneath the angry sky, could +see the tiny thing approaching. Sometimes it seemed fairly swallowed +in the trough of the sea, again it rose on the crest, only apparently +to topple into oblivion the next instant--yet in spite of wind and wave +making its sure and steady way to the great home ship, and safety. + +At length it was alongside, and, amid ringing cheers, the captain came +aboard, wet to the skin, and waving back the eager girls, whose eyes +were wet with tears of relief. + +"Don't touch me, daughters; I'll give you a chill. And the first thing +necessary is to see to our rescued man. Come to me presently." + +They had just a glimpse of this person as he was carried forward by +four men, but that glimpse was one never to be forgotten. The haggard +face, with the dark skin drawn like a mummy's across the prominent +bones, the lips stiff and blackened, between which the teeth shone +whitely, the eyes sunken and but half closed, gave it a horrible +appearance. + +"Oh!" whispered Faith in distressed tones, "Isn't he already dead?" + +"Not quite," was the response. "We'll bring him around, I reckon, but +it was a close call." + +When all duties were discharged and the captain, in dry clothing, sat +before a substantial supper in his own cabin, Joey was sent for the +girls, who gladly joined him without loss of time. + +"Sit down," he cried gaily, between big mouth-fills. "I know you are +quivering with curiosity--I can see it sticking out all over you. Just +let me fill up this gaping void a little, and then I'll tell you a +story that will make your two eyes like stars start from their spheres, +and all the rest of it. But now I must eat." + +They waited patiently, and presently, leaning comfortably back, with +his third cup of coffee in his hand, he told them what follows: + +"We thought, when we reached the sunken, dismasted hull, that of course +she was abandoned, but concluded to board her, and see if there was +anything of value inside. We made her out to be a tartan, probably +with an Arab, or African, crew and it was evident she had been through +a heavy storm, for her masts were washed clean overboard, and her +bulwarks stove in. We could not distinguish a soul aboard, and if she +had carried boats they were gone, but as we went down into the hatchway +we came upon a sight that I wouldn't care for you to see. It was a +dark 'tween-decks cabin, and the stench, as we descended, was simply +horrible! At my first step I stumbled over something that sent a +shudder through me, and when I lighted a match and looked around the +sight made me crawl. Two poor wretches lay there, both dead, as we +thought, but after giving them a thorough examination I decided there +was a spark left in this poor fellow, at least, and after working over +him a while we were sure of it. The other could not be revived, so we +weighted his feet, and let him slide the plank to his watery grave. +But that wasn't all--however I guess I won't tell any more. It's +downright gruesome, and I've got to go up and take a lookout, for we're +likely to have a wild night." + +"Oh yes, yes, father!" they begged. "Don't leave us cut off short like +this. We want to hear it all." + +"Well, we managed to find a lantern, so that we could go on with our +investigations. Evidently, there had been foul play of some kind, for +the cabin plainly showed signs of a fierce scrimmage. There was blood +on the walls and floor; one or two rusty weapons lay about, and on one +was human hair. I shouldn't have thought to look further, but a cry +from Tower called me into the bit of an after-cabin, fitted up with +bunks, and there lying flat, face downwards and head towards the door, +as if she had fallen while running out, was an Arab woman." + +"And she was dead?" whispered Hope hoarsely. + +"Yes, and in the bunk was her baby, a little thing not many months old. +I tell you, it was pitiful!" + +"Oh!" breathed Faith, "do you suppose it was left to starve?" + +"I'm afraid so. I think the mother heard the fighting and started to +run out, leaving her child safely hidden, when her husband was +attacked, but was felled by a blow on the head. We saw the marks." + +"Horrible!" Hope covered her eyes, and the captain sprang up. + +"I ought not to have told you. It was bad enough to see it myself, +hardened as I am. Now I must go. Do you want one of the women to come +and stay with you?" + +"No," said both, and he hurried out, but at the door was arrested by +Hope. + +"One question more--did you bury them too, papa?" + +"Yes." + +"In the same way?" + +"Yes." + +She drew a long, sighing breath as he disappeared, and turning clasped +Faith close with a sob of overwrought feeling. The sisters could not +talk much over the hideous tale. The night was shutting down wild and +stormy, and the labored motion of the good steamship already showed +that she was meeting heavier seas than they had yet encountered. Yet, +singularly, neither felt seasick, as yet. The intense anxiety until +their father's return, and the deep interest in his narration since, +had driven all physical feeling from their minds. + +But, after a little, Faith said in a hushed voice, "I'm going to bed, +Hope. I couldn't talk to anybody in the saloon, and it's too wild to +be on deck, so I might as well. + +"I'll go too," said Hope, "but let's just take a look out, at least." + +She suddenly turned off the electric switch leaving the cabin in total +darkness, then drew her sister to the broad swell of windows looking +out upon the forward deck. It was bare enough tonight. All the +awnings were closely furled and the chairs stowed away in snug stacks, +while not a figure could be seen where all had been light, warmth and +cheer, a few hours earlier. Only one or two of the incandescent lights +were on, and beyond that feeble glow there seemed a great void of +darkness and storm. The gloom shut in the steamer's world as with a +thick curtain; not a star was visible, but now and then a white swirl +of foam gleamed for a second through the murk, and then, with a +creaking and groaning as if in pain, the good ship lurched, trembled, +and as the wave broke with an indescribable noise, steadied herself +once more, to plunge onward as fast as steam could force her in the +teeth of wind and wave. + +Some days later, when the almost perished man had regained +consciousness and a modicum of strength, the girls were told the rest +of his story, which I will give you here. + +He was first-mate of the "Shiraz," a tartan, which, to be explicit, is +a small coasting vessel peculiar to the Mediterranean Sea, used +principally for conveying stock, and sometimes other merchandise. +This, headed for the Balearics, had shipped a crew at Algiers, the +captain being forced to take what he could pick up in a hurry. He was +a Corsican, and seems to have been a cruel man, though his mate loyally +made the best of him, and insisted he was a good captain. + +But, be that as it might, some failure in rations and water made the +crew surly and ready to break out into open grumbling upon any +pretense, so that, when they encountered a fierce squall, and sprung a +leak, it was almost impossible to keep them at the pumps, until terror +of their own lives forced them to yield to discipline. + +But, though they finally succeeded in stopping the leak, this was not +accomplished until the mainsail had been carried away by the heavy sea, +and other injuries sustained. It was a terrible time for all, and the +crew, exhausted and overworked on insufficient food, were only held to +their tasks by the captain and mates standing over them with loaded +firearms. + +In some unknown way one of them discovered a hogshead of arrack, the +East Indian whisky, and, unseen by the officers, they tapped it and +secretly helped themselves. + +The fiery, stuff changed them from men into demons, and that night they +mutinied. The second mate, who was upon deck, attempted to check their +rush, but was felled with a cutlass and kicked overboard. Next, they +made for the cabin, where the captain and mate were sitting, while the +former's wife and child were asleep in the adjoining apartment. + +There was a sharp, desperate encounter in the small space, in which +they were quickly over-powered. But when the mate was struck senseless +he rolled under the large table, and must have escaped further notice, +for after despatching the captain and his screaming wife, the mutineers +evidently took at once to the boats, and left the dismasted hulk to +founder with its gruesome freight. + +But the storm was over by that time, and it had drifted for two days +and nights, at least, by the mate's reckoning, during which he had lain +unconscious, wondrously preserved from death. + +What was the fate of the seamen thus deserting no one could tell, but +with men insensate from arrack, even should they have escaped immediate +danger from the sea, they could hardly make port safely in a small open +boat. + +It was more than probable that the mate was the only one left of the +ill-fated crew. Captain Hosmer was unable to take the tartan in tow on +account of the storm, but marked its location to report it at Algiers, +that wreckers might be sent to save the cargo and sink the hulk that it +should no longer be a menace and danger to every passing craft. + +"How delightful this is!" murmured Faith early next morning, after +hours of storm-tossed uneasiness and dread. "Did you ever hear such +awful noises as we had all night? I'm almost afraid to look, for fear +everything is broken in here." + +Hope, wide awake in an instant, returned, + +"It is astonishingly still now, isn't it? I wonder what it means. +Even the engines have stopped--don't you hear?" + +"How can I hear stillness?" laughed Faith. "I do perceive that they've +stopped, though. Yes, we must have come safely into port +somewhere--why, I wonder if it is Algiers?" + +Hope rose up on one elbow, in some excitement, then gave a cry. + +"Why, look at the cage--and where is Texas?" and Faith, rising also, +saw that the bottom had dropped out of the parrot's home and lay, with +its contents, but not its inmate, upon the floor amid some broken glass +and crockery. + +"The storm has done it! Where can Texas be? Oh, I hope he is not +killed--" + +"Good-morning!" croaked a voice at their very ears, and there, on the +thick nickel rim surrounding one of the portholes just above their +heads, perched Texas, dignified and imperturbable as ever. + +Both girls broke into laughter, and tried to coax him down, but +unvailingly. He sat in a solemn quiet such as he seldom showed in his +cage, and clung to his slippery place with an air that said, "I have +known trouble and insecurity enough. Now that I have a foothold, poor +as it is, I mean to keep it," and though he returned to their coaxing +civil enough responses, he could not be tempted even to perch upon +Hope's white wrist, which was usually a proud privilege to his birdship. + +"Well," she said, giving it up, "I mean to see what has happened and +where we are at, as those American newspapers put it. We must be safe +somewhere, for they are washing down decks just as usual." + +"I wonder if father slept a wink all night," said Faith. "If he didn't +then he is probably resting now, so we must be careful not to disturb +him." + +"That's true. I'll be like a mouse!" Hope was hurrying into a pink +_robe de chambre_, which the girls best liked to call a pajama, and now +slipped her feet into a pair of little Turkish slippers, all toe and +sole, and opening the communicating door, peered into the library. It +was empty, but her father's tarpaulins, in a heap on the floor, just +outside his stateroom door, showed he was within, so she moved very +softly across to the broad outlook of windows. + +In a minute she went flying back in silent swiftness. "Come, Faith," +she whispered excitedly, "it's the finest thing you ever saw!" + +Soon both pajamaed figures were looking with great eyes at the novel +scene before them. They found themselves anchored in some large harbor +amid a forest of shipping, much of it the oddest they had ever seen. +Instead of the straight, strong masts they were accustomed to, here +were those that shot up so tall and slender they seemed to bend over of +their own weight, like a young sapling. To these rapier-like masts +were fastened sails of quaint square shape and dingy hues, or of sharp +triangular form, which they learned afterwards were the lateen sails +they had read of, but never seen. The prows of these small vessels +were all so oddly curved and shaped, while the figureheads suggested +nightmare fancies of the brain. Off a little way rose a fine walled +city that seemed made all of marble, at first glance. Just now, in +this early light, it was coldly white like a cemetery, but presently +the sun shot his first warm beam over the horizon's edge, and lo! a +transformation. The towering whiteness now blushed into rosy hues, the +black-green of the foliage lightened to a delicate tint, while bits of +gay colors here and there suggested parks and gardens filled with +bloom. The cemetery had become a Palace Beautiful. + +The girls gazed a long time, then, a bit chilled, for the night's gale +had greatly cooled the air, they crept back, to sleep a while longer, +in spite of the well-meant advice of Texas. "Get up, lazyheads!" +austerely flung down from the porthole. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +ALGIERS AND ANDY. + +It was several hours later before they went ashore, the special party +that the girls were in being led by Mr. Lawrence, and consisting of the +four young people. Mrs. Vanderhoff had been quite upset by the storm, +and was not equal to any exertion yet, which was, indeed, the condition +of several of the passengers. + +Even Mr. Lawrence looked pale, and laughingly owned to "being a little +shaky in his gait." But he thought himself equal to a jaunt in the +city, especially such an odd, quaint one as Algiers. + +Captain Hosmer took them ashore in his own gig, but left them on the +quay, for he was full of business. He said they might take their time, +as he did not expect to get up steam again much before night, and +slipped a coin into each of the girl's hands, telling them to use it +"for fun." Then, explaining that by the time they were ready to board +her again the steamer would doubtless be in her slip, and thus easily +reached, he lifted his cap and was off. + +"How strange it all is!" cried Bess, with a slow delighted survey. +"This street we are in might be a part of New York, or of London, so +far as buildings go, but the old Egyptian fashions and people, the open +booths, and the queer old street venders are all mixed through it, +somehow, until it seems as unreal as a dream. + +"Yes," laughed Hope; "it makes me think of a girl dressed in a Paris +gown, but wearing a mishmak, like our ayahs on the ship." + +"It's the new grafted upon the old," observed Mr. Lawrence, "and we are +now coming to what is all old." + +He led the way into a narrow lane-like street, which seemed mostly a +succession of rude steps, leading upwards. + +Here they had to move one side and hug the wall, to make way for a +donkey-train, with heavily laden panniers, which was being goaded along +by dark-skinned boys, who, as Dwight remarked, seemed to wear all their +clothes on their heads, where the heavy turban was coiled by the yard, +while thence to the waist was scarcely any covering. Their black eyes +gleamed good-naturedly, however, and when Mr. Lawrence flung a handful +of small coin among them they scrambled vivaciously, salaamed to him +and to the girls, and showed every white tooth with pleasure at the +"backsheesh." + +"Dear me! It seems to be all climb here," remarked Faith wearily, +after an hour or two of the rough native streets, which divide the old +town and make it like a different place, as compared with the new. + +"Yes, it's climbing, either way you take it," said Dwight. "You can't +even have the fun of sliding down-hill after getting up, for these +steps are so rough you've got to pick your way every instant, or take a +tumble. Now, what is that? Did you ever see anything so queer? Why, +_what_ is it?" + +Even Mr. Lawrence was nonplussed for a moment, but presently broke into +laughter, in which he was quickly joined by the rest, for the queer +figure approaching turned out to be a vender of monkeys, and he had +certainly chosen a most novel device for carrying his lively burden. A +tall branch of considerable size had been freshly cut from an olive +tree, and its leaves still hung, coldly-gray, and only half wilted, +from the twigs. + +Among this foliage were clustered a dozen or more of the little +creatures, each fastened by one leg to prevent escape. This tree-like +branch was carried straight upward, like a flag-staff, by a stalwart +Mohammedan who, with his burnous wrapped about him, in all the dignity +of a Roman senator, stalked steadily ahead, once in a while breaking +into an odd cry that told his wares, but, as Mr. Lawrence suggested, +sounded more like the slogan of a Scottish chieftain going into battle. +Altogether, he was an odd and striking spectacle. + +They stopped the man to parley with him, and in a mixture of French and +Arabic he managed to inform Mr. Lawrence that his monkeys were well +trained and tamed, and that they came from the Vallee des Singes,[1] +not far away. + +"Oh!" breathed Faith in an aside to her sister, as the men were +conferring, "aren't they the cunningest things? And so little! Hope, +I've a great mind to buy one in place of poor Hafiz. Don't you think +it would be fun?" + +"Y-yes, of course. But aren't they dreadfully mischievous?" + +"All the more fun, then! I certainly am going to buy one. Father said +the money he gave us was to be spent for fun, and there's nothing +funnier than a monkey." + +Faith looked and felt like a naughty child. It was seldom she asserted +herself against the known inclinations of others, and when she did she +could be really obstinate. Hope's objections only increased her desire +to purchase. + +"Mr. Lawrence," she cried eagerly, "do ask him the price of this wee +thing on the lowest branch--the one that has such a forsaken look. My +heart aches for him!" + +"But I thought you wanted a funny one, Faith," put in her sister. +"Now, this looks much jollier; see how he jumps about and grimaces." + +But Faith's tender heart was touched by the mournful look of the +smaller creature, and she felt, somehow, that she could better justify +her purchase if compassion helped to sway her, for, though no one +really opposed her, she felt denial in the air, and was quite certain +she might meet it from her father upon her return to the ship with this +new pet. So she went on rapidly, "Yes, I want this one. With good +care and petting he will grow happier, I'm sure. Then he really looks +as if he had a conscience." + +Mr. Lawrence laughed. + +"Be not deceived by that long visage, Miss Hosmer. I have a foreboding +that he will prove a terror. Time will tell." + +Dwight was of course wild to invest, also, but his uncle said, + +"No, my boy! One monkey is a good many. Wait and see how this will +turn out. There's no end to the opportunities for monkey deals in this +part of the world. They are a drug on the market." + +Meanwhile, the stately vender set his tree against a wall and began +gravely untying the wizened little specimen from his branch, then +handed him into the eagerly outstretched hands of Faith with a superb +smile, as if he were some great potentate conferring a priceless boon +upon a beloved subject. Not that he was anything but the poorest +fellah,[2] with scarce a sou to his credit, but this is Oriental +mannerism, and most impressive mannerism it is, too. + +He then raised his finger and addressed a regular harangue to the +creature, who, with tail curled about Faith's wrist, sat gravely upon +his two palms and listened. The tiny beast was so moveless, so +attentive, and so solemn, its master so earnest and impressive that all +looked on wonderingly until, having finished his remarks, the Arab gave +a last shake of his dingy finger monkeywards, salaamed low to the +party, then shouldering his burden stalked on once more, the little +captive looking after him for a minute, and then wrinkling up his mummy +visage to give a weak, babyish cry. + +"Oh, dear! He's going to be homesick," groaned Faith, almost repenting +of her bargain. "See him cry after the man! What shall I do with him?" + +"Let me take him," urged Dwight. "I'll button him up in my jacket and +he'll forget and go to sleep, and then, when he wakes, he'll be all +right." + +"Do you think so? Well, here he is--but tie the string tight to +something, so that you won't lose him, please." + +"Of course--to my buttonhole, here. There Mr. Monkey, you can't +complain of that for a nest--see here! Don't scratch so, you little +varmint! You'll tear my shirt front to smithereens." + +For a time there certainly was danger of such a catastrophe, but by +soothing and petting the tiny thing was at length appeased, and settled +down to slumber, while Dwight, in great content over his odd burden, +trudged along with the rest, wishing more than ever that the little +treasure were his very own. + +They had a delightful stroll of three hours up and down the queer +scrambling streets of the old town, stopping now and then to buy fruit, +or curios, of the merchants in the open booths, sitting cross-legged +and solemn over their long pipes, and seeming so utterly indifferent to +purchasers, until they were in danger of losing them, when they woke to +eager gesticulation and gabble. + +Occasionally, they peered into the doors of the native schools, where +the scholars squatted on shelves about the dim room, and were graduated +as to size, the largest sitting nearest the ceiling. + +"For all the world," whispered Hope, "like a cupboard full of china +pitchers!" + +Next to this, perhaps, would be a group that only needed framing to +make a picture, where two grave men, each wrapped in his burnous, sat +Turk-fashion, playing checkers before a low doorway, while back in the +shadow an indistinct figure, in flowing white drapery, touched the +strings of some instrument which sent out a sound of thin tinkling, +that could scarcely be called music because so tuneless and monotonous. + +In places the streets were so very narrow, dark, and filthy, and the +few figures slid away into the windowless house walls in so ghostlike a +fashion, that the girls hesitated a little before following their guide. + +"I feel a good deal as if I were going through a graveyard," whispered +Bess once, "only it's one where the inmates sometimes walk!" + +"Yes," said Mr. Lawrence, and told her how a French author who has +written well and largely of this odd corner of the earth, called these +steep dark streets, "mysterious staircases leading to silence," which +greatly impressed them all as entirely descriptive of their weirdness. + +Hunger at length drove them back to the fine new town, with its broad, +well-paved streets, gas and electric lights, gay awnings, and beautiful +parks and squares where grew a very luxury of blossoms. They were all +quite ready for rest and dinner, and felt they had found both in the +great dining-room of an elegant hotel, where the only foreign things +were the punkahs and the turbaned waiters, for the tables, glittering +in silver and crystal, the richly frescoed walls, the surrounding +galleries lined with blooming plants, the military band playing there, +and the many uniformed officers among the guests at table, suggested +only French dominion and Parisian luxury and fashion. Indeed, as Mr. +Lawrence explained, Algeria is a French colony, and its fortified walls +are manned and guarded by French soldiers, only. + +The dinner was exquisitely cooked and served, and all were enjoying it +as only youth and good digestion, stimulated by exercise, can, when +something happened--Mr. Monkey awoke. Dwight felt his wriggles, but +hoped he would calm down again after a little, as he had before. The +rest of the party, absorbed in their dinner, had nearly forgotten the +stranger, and Bess, when she saw an uneasy movement or two on her +brother's part, thought he had taken too large and hot a mouthful of +the red curry, and gave him a protesting glance for his greediness. + +The next instant there was a worse convulsion, and just under his +necktie suddenly appeared a tiny apish head. Before any one could do +more than gasp the whole monkey was out of prison, and, with a leap to +Dwight's shoulder, began taking observations; then seeing the food on +his plate made a dive for it. + +Both Dwight and Mr. Lawrence interfered to stop him, but the creature +was brought up short by his bit of rope, fastened to the lad's +buttonhole, and began crying loudly as he hung suspended by one leg for +an instant. + +With a scarlet face Dwight jerked him upright, and tried to slip him +into a pocket; but by this time Mr. Monkey's ire was up, and he scorned +to be thus concealed. People all about were looking and laughing, +while the head-waiter was bearing down upon them with a threatening +eye. Faith, conscience-stricken, and too well aware that she ought to +bear the brunt other new pet's misbehavior, rather than Dwight, looked +on miserably, as red as he, while Hope giggled wildly, and Bess looked +utterly disgusted. + +Dwight made another clutch at the creature, which evaded him and, with +a rapid movement, wound the rope around his neck so tightly that he +choked, and began to turn black in the face. Mr. Lawrence, who, though +mortified by the sensation they were creating, could not restrain his +laughter, now sprang to his nephew's aid, and was about to cut the +strangling cord when another flashing movement unwound it, and left the +lad's windpipe intact. + +Thoroughly angry now, Dwight caught the apish thing, and, boxing its +ears till it howled, stuffed it into his pocket and hurried from the +room, his dinner forgotten in his chagrin. + +"Oh, oh!" moaned Faith, cowering disconsolately over her plate, "what +can I do, Mr. Lawrence? Poor Dwight! It's all my fault. And he was +_so_ hungry. Can't we give it to somebody, or--or wring its neck, if +it must be? It's too bad!" + +"Well, it is a somewhat upsetting episode," he agreed, still shaking +inwardly, "but it may serve one good purpose. Dwight will cease his +teasing to own one of the pesky things, I imagine. And don't worry +over his dinner, Miss Faith. He's eaten enough already to keep him +from starvation, I'm sure, and I'll see that he returns to finish after +the guests have thinned somewhat. Poor boy! He's had monkey enough +for to-day, I'll warrant." + +They soon left the table, for Faith could not eat another mouthful, and +all felt anxious to know how the battle had ended. They at length +found Dwight sitting dejectedly in one of the veranda chairs, his hair +tumbled, coat torn, and necktie awry, and his face as long as his arm. +The monkey, quite as solemn, was tied to a post, and sat pensively +holding its chops in its skinny palms and eyeing its new master with +great disfavor. + +"So you've conquered?" laughed Mr. Lawrence, while Faith began humbly +to beg pardon, but was quickly interrupted. + +"What for?" asked Dwight brusquely. "You couldn't help it because he's +a fool, could you?" + +"No, no, Dwight--not that! Only a monkey," cried Hope, delighting in +the scene. "You and Faith both wanted a funny one, you know, and +you've got it, so what's the use of fretting? I'll tell you--let's +give him to the next beggar that follows us, shall we, Faith? + +"No," said the girl with sudden resolution, "I'll take care of him, +myself." + +She stepped close to the troubled mite and untying the rope, gently +lifted it to her arms, softly stroking it and speaking in a low, cooing +voice. Both touch and glance proved magnetic, and soon it had curled +down in the shelter of her arms and gave no more trouble. + +After Dwight had finished his interrupted repast Mr. Lawrence said +there was one more place, not far distant, that he wanted them +particularly to visit, and all somewhat reluctantly followed him into a +church that, though handsome, looked too thoroughly English to seem +interesting amid old-world quaintness. But they were to find +themselves mistaken. It proved to be, indeed, an English chapel, but +it was still more--a memorial to all English-speaking people who once +suffered martyrdom in this city, when it boasted its thousands of +Christian slaves brought from doomed vessels by the dreaded Corsairs; +also of those who have died more happily, as free men, in later years. + +As they strolled quietly about the interesting building, beneath the +stained-glass windows, reading these various records, which are +inscribed on precious marbles in high colors, that make a dado around +the walls, Hope gave a little cry and eagerly beckoned Dwight, who had +fallen behind. He came at once, and both read with intense +satisfaction a glowing tribute to a certain American consul from our +own United States, who once "rendered eminent services to the British +nation"--so read the inscription--by friendly help to the British +Consul, who was held in chains by the Dey, and his family expelled to +lonely and terrified isolation far in the interior. A grateful nation +had erected the tablet. + +"Good!" whispered Dwight, then as if to relieve their excited feelings, +the two gravely shook hands. + +"What means this ceremony?" asked Mr. Lawrence with amusement, as he +looked on surprisedly, and Dwight, pointing to the mural tablet, +answered with dignity, + +"We were just showing our pride in our two countries, uncle," and in +spite of the disarray caused by his little unpleasantness with the +monkey, Dwight at that moment looked so noble that his uncle could not +help a quick, "Bless you, my boy!" as he laid a hand lovingly upon the +lad's shoulder. + +When on board the "International" once more, our friends separated for +needed rest, and the sisters entered the library, to find their father +busy over a wilderness of papers spread out upon the large table in the +center. But he took leisure to give them a hearty greeting, and cried +merrily, + +"You never can guess what I found for you in Algiers!" + +"Nor you what I found in Algiers," returned Faith quickly, keeping a +firm hold on the little captive, who was now hidden beneath her lace +scarf. + +"You found? Have you been buying me a present, girlie?" laughed her +father with eager interest. + +"Why, n--no, not exactly," stammered Faith, somewhat taken aback, and +growing decidedly warm in her efforts to keep the beast quiet. "Only +I--" + +"What's the matter with your hands? Can't you keep 'em still under +that gauze thing?" asked her father suspiciously, while Hope, expectant +and amused, looked on with dancing eyes. + +"Yes only--oh! Hope, I can't hold him, he scratches so--a-auch!" and +in spite of herself she dropped the spunky mite which, like a streak of +lightning, dashed across the room and up Captain Hosmer's leg, into his +coat pocket. The yard of twine, still attached to him, hung outside, +and the astonished man, seeing only the streak and the string, sprang +up with a shout of dismay. + +"A snake!" he cried. "A _snake_! What are you doing with a snake?" + +Hope, in a paroxysm, fell back upon the window seat, Faith, between +laughter and dismay, tried to explain, and poor little Monsieur Siege, +nearly scared out of his wits, darted from the inhospitable pocket up +the chair-back, then leaped to the top of the window, where, feeling +secure, he hung himself up to the curtain-rod by his tail, and +proceeded to scold, like a perfect virago. + +The captain looked at him, glanced down at his pocket saw the "snake" +had gone, but thumping it once or twice to make sure turned upon Faith, +his face red and puckered, yet with a gleam of fun in his eye that +detracted from the fierceness of his mien. + +"You little greenhorn! Have you been buying a nasty monkey?" he +thundered. + +"Oh, papa! I'm sorry if you're not pleased. I thought, now poor Hafiz +is dead--and Hope has Texas--oh see, see! Ha, ha! I _must_ laugh. +Isn't that the cutest thing you ever saw?" + +For the shriveled witch, taking in the whole scene, had drawn himself +up as nearly like the captain as possible and with one wee fist doubled +up, was thumping his own little hams, an exact imitation of the man's +gesture. In spite of himself, Captain Hosmer burst into laughter, Hope +fairly rolled, and Faith, relieved and delighted, let the merry peals +ring out, till Tegeloo, busy with some duty just outside, shook his +little fat sides, and showed all his ivories in sympathy. + +Faith and her pet had won the day, and when her father broke out, + +"Where did you get such a Handy-Andy?" she cried quickly, + +"There, you've named him, father, you've named him! I have been +wondering what to call him, and that's just the thing. Handy-Andy he +shall be." + +And Handy-Andy he was, but this soon became shortened to Andy alone, +and by that name we will speak of his monkeyship in future. + + + +[1] Vale of Monkeys. + +[2] Egyptian peasant. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +GUESSWORK. + +"But," said the captain, at length, "you haven't guessed yet what I +have for you." + +"Sure enough!" cried Hope, suddenly sitting upright. "Is it a sari for +each, or a fez, or--" + +"Or a pajama?" laughed Faith. + +"No, you are miles away! It's something that is precious, that you can +share equally, and that did not cost me a penny. There! I've given +you pointers enough for the dullest guesser." + +"And only made it harder!" said Hope. + +"Let's see, it's precious, and to be shared, and cost nothing? I +didn't suppose one could even pick up a pebble, in Algiers, without its +costing." + +"Well, this is not a pebble," returned the father. + +"Oh, may we ask questions?" cried Faith. "Like the game of 'Twenty +Questions,' you know?" and, at his nod, she continued excitedly, "Is it +animal, vegetable, or mineral?" + +"Well, one might almost say all three," said their father slowly, "for +its principal ingredient is certainly vegetable, yet with it is a +strong impress of what may be made from a mineral, and neither would be +of the least use, but for the animal, which combines the two, to make +them what they are." + +"Dear! dear! It grows harder and harder," groaned Hope. "Is its +principal element fire, air, earth, or water?" + +"Well, you've rather caught me there," laughed the father. "Let me +see--there may be fire of a certain kind in it, though it's not yet +visible; of course it is permeated with air, like everything else, and, +judging from its appearance, I should think there was considerable +earth about it--" laughing amusedly--"but water? Well, no--it has +crossed water, no doubt, but--" + +"Papa, it's a book!" Hope burst out with conviction. "The paper is +vegetable, the ink mineral, and the fire is--is--well, genius, you +know, and--wait! I'll ask another question; can it be opened and shut?" + +"It can be open--yes. But shut? I hardly see how--" + +"Why, surely, papa, you can shut a book," put in Faith. + +"But it isn't a book," returned the captain blandly, at which both +stared in dumb amazement. + +"Not a _book_? Oh dear!" they sighed in concert. + +Their father laughed outright. + +"Why don't you ask some more questions?" he cried teasingly. + +"Oh, because it seems as if every one mixed us up worse. I was so +_sure_ it was a book," groaned Hope, quite crestfallen. + +"Well then, is it useful or ornamental?" + +"Now, that's a poser!" He ruminated a minute, then said, "It's useful, +certainly, but not just what you'd call ornamental. One wouldn't save +it for an ornament--not this one, anyway, but simply for its contents--" + +"I have it, I have it!" Faith actually jumped up and down. + +"It's a letter! It's a letter from Debby! Now, isn't it? Your +'contents' gave it away. Say I'm right, father--come, now!" + +"Well, you are. You've guessed it, that's certain." + +"Humph!" sneered Hope, distinctly miffed, "who couldn't, after you'd +fairly told it? I knew all the time it was a book, or a letter, or +something." + +"You should have said so sooner, Miss Hindsight," laughed her father. +"But I confess you came pretty close to it, my dear. And here it is. +From Debby, surely, because from Portsmouth, but this elegant modern +writing is never hers in the world. She has evidently engaged some +friend to write that address, and it's a neat one." + +"Father, you said there was earth about it; how can that be?" broke in +Hope, scarcely mollified, as yet. + +He held it up, and pointed to its worn condition, and two or three +black thumb-marks. + +"Isn't there earth for you?" he laughed. "What is earth but soil?" + +"Oh--h!" cried Hope, "is that fair--to play upon words so?" + +"Let's call it square anyhow, sweetheart, and you read it aloud to +sister and me, won't you?" + +Hope could do no less than comply, and the bulky missive was received +by the listeners with as much respectful enjoyment as if it had been a +neat-appearing, well-worded epistle, instead of the rambling, +disjointed, much-soiled, and oddly-expressed letter that it was. The +good woman began and ended every paragraph with lamentations and +longings over her darlings, and the lines between told of her 'good' +and 'bad' lodgers, as she distinctly divided them, her few pleasure +jaunts, and some of the gossip of the neighborhood, only a few words of +which concern this little history. + +"You'll recklict," she wrote, "the leddy what come jest a dey or too +before yoo saled? Well, shees heer yit and I like 'er best ov al. She +ain't to say real lively, yoo no, but shese good compny, and ken talk +good on most enny sub-jick, and she ain't abuv spending a 'our with old +Debby now'n then either. She is thee wun what is riting yure names on +this verry letter--ain't it good ov 'er?" + +"Who is this lodger?" asked the captain. "I don't remember seeing her." + +The girls looked at each other inquiringly. + +"Don't you remember, Hope?" + +"I didn't suppose you'd forget, Faith!" were their simultaneous +remarks, as each began to laugh. + +"No," said Hope then, "I can't remember at all; but I know she was +looking at our rooms just the day before we sailed, and we thought her +very ladylike and pleasant. Don't you know how interested she seemed +in our voyage, and how we thought her an American, then recalled +afterwards that we had not found out whether she was or not?" + +"Yes, it does come back to me," said Faith, and the talk drifted into +other home matters, not essential here. + +The next day was more sultry than any they had yet experienced, and the +decks were filled with loungers. Hope and Bess, however, were deeply +occupied over some new stitch in embroidery, that one was teaching the +other, and Faith, who had been romping with the little ones till warm +and weary, thought, while resting in a deep steamer-chair by herself, +that she would give dear old Debby's letter a second reading. As she +drew it from her pocket for that purpose, and removed the envelope, a +little puff of wind caught the latter from her lap, and sent it lightly +skimming down the deck. Faith, quite unheeding, read on, smiling over +her nurse's peculiar spelling, and the envelope sped along its way +unchecked, an unconscious instrument of fate. As if heaven-directed, +it presently swerved a trifle from its first course, fluttered to and +fro an instant, then neared a woman, who sat listlessly by herself, her +arms resting upon those of her chair and her eyes, dark and sad, +fastened upon the far horizon. There was a tense quiet in her attitude +that seemed to cover something most unlike quietude within. + +A slight noise at her side broke the spell of her gloomy musing and, +glancing down, she saw the bit of stiff paper lying motionless beside +her, and thinking it something she might herself have dropped, reached +idly down and picked it up. + +But at the first glance she was as one electrified. Sitting upright, +pallid and eager, she gazed at the superscription, her face growing +radiant with hope and joy. At length she rose and, turning about, +looked forward along the deck, gay with its groups in light clothing, +its covering awnings, and its little children with their picturesque +Indian ayahs. + +A short way off sat Faith, smiling over her letter, and to her went +Lady Moreham, a soft expression upon her face that made it lovely. + +"My dear," she said, as the girl looked up brightly, "is this yours?" + +Faith glanced at the envelope, which the speaker did not offer to +relinquish. + +"Why, yes. Did I drop it? Oh, it blew away. Thank you for returning +it." + +As she spoke she rose, with instinctive courtesy, and offered her +chair, bringing another from a little distance for herself. Lady +Moreham accepted it with an absent manner, and, sinking into it, said +quickly, with agitation in her tones, + +"I must ask you a question or two, but not out of curiosity, believe +me. Was this address written by some one you know--a friend?" + +Faith smiled. + +"Yes and no, my lady. We have met the one who wrote it--Hope and +I--but neither of us can recall her name;" and thereupon she told +something of her old nurse, and the coming of the new lodger, just +before their departure on this journey. + +Lady Moreham listened with breathless interest, her eyes intent upon +the envelope, which she still held. As Faith touched lightly upon the +appearance of the stranger, she said briefly. + +"Tell me more, please. Describe everything about her. Was she tall, +or short? What colored hair and eyes? What sort of voice?" + +"A flutey voice, like some birds I've listened to," returned the girl +ruminantly, "but with something a bit odd and different in her speech +that made us think her an American, and Hope even spoke of it; but just +then the carriage came to take us to the wharf, and she forgot to +answer." + +"Yes, yes," cried the other eagerly, "and she was tall and slender?" + +"Very, and a fine figure, we thought. She had light brown hair, and +her eyes--" + +"Yes, her eyes--" Lady Moreham was bending forward with bated breath, +and Faith watched her wonderingly as she continued, "When she looked at +you, listening to what you had to say, was there any peculiarity?" + +"Only that they were not of the same size nor color," laughed the girl, +"and she had a way of dropping her head a little, and looking up +sidewise like a bird." + +"True, true!" breathed the lady, "and as you say one eye was brown and +one blue." + +Faith nodded acquiescence, but smiled to herself, knowing she had said +nothing of the kind. + +"But you cannot remember her name?" + +"No, neither of us. We only saw her for a few minutes, once or twice, +you see." + +A little cloud fell over the lady's face, and after a perplexed gaze, +in which her eyes, fixed upon Faith, seemed to look through and beyond +her, she rose abruptly, said in her usual reserved manner, "Thank you +for your information," and walked away. + +Faith, looking after her wonderingly, saw young Allyne standing near, +his eyes turned wistfully upon herself. She flushed a little, and so +did he; then, with an impulsive movement, he made a step forward. + +"Miss Hosmer," he began quickly, "I've wanted to say a word to your +sister for some time, but no opportunity has offered. Perhaps it will +be just as well to say it to you?" + +Faith bowed, not comprehending, and he went on rapidly, as if to hurry +over a disagreeable duty, + +"I feel that I was inexcusable, the other evening, in my reference to +your sister, and I can't understand myself at all. I suppose she +doesn't care what I think of her--good, bad, or indifferent--but I want +you, at least, to know that I do think her one of the sweetest, most +modest, girls I ever saw--too reserved and quiet, indeed, if she has a +flaw!" + +Faith's drooped eyes were dancing. She knew the young man believed +himself to be speaking to Hope, about herself, and that, to be quite +fair, she ought to undeceive him at once. But a spirit of mischief had +taken possession of her and she felt he deserved some punishment. +Besides, it is so rare a chance when one can talk oneself over with a +person who has not learned one's identity! So she answered brusquely, +in Hope's own manner, + +"I couldn't understand it, either, and it will be hard to make my +sister listen. She is a bit inflexible, at times. If you knew her +better you could never have hurt her so. She is not a flirt, by any +means!" + +"I know it!" groaned Allyne, thoroughly shamed and penitent. "I knew +it then, but--I may as well own up--it was the champagne." + +"More shame to you!" declared Faith with unusual decision. "That is no +excuse at all, for if it makes you do and say things to regret later. +Why don't you simply let it alone?" + +He looked at her with a derisive laugh. + +"Why don't I?" he began, then catching her earnest expression, checked +himself. "That's good logic, I suppose," he added. + +"More--it's good sense," she argued. "I love oranges, for instance, +but they make me ill. Do you suppose I go on eating them? That would +be too foolish! Yet men are supposed to have more strength and +self-control than women." + +The attache drew up a chair and dropped into it, not loth to linger, +even to be lectured. + +"I don't think men have more of such strength though," he said. "Their +superiority is physical, not mental." + +"They ought to be ashamed to own it!" cried Faith. "The two should go +together." + +"Well, we are ashamed--_I_ am ashamed!" smiling upon her. "Yet we are +willing to give you girls all the credit you like for your decision of +character, only caring to retain just a little vanity on account of our +own endurance in other ways. And you'll have to own there isn't one of +you who likes a Molly Coddle!" + +"Is it being a Molly Coddle to be strong and true to yourself?" + +"Oh, well, you put it nicely, but just look at the fellows who will sit +by and never join in the wine and the fun--aren't they a rather +feeble-looking set?" + +"Is my father feeble?" asked Faith, turning such a sweetly arch and +tender face upon him that the young man felt his heart thump. + +"Well no--hardly!" he laughed. + +"Yet he knows enough to leave all liquor alone, and believes himself +the stronger for it. And don't you, yourself, feel a bit safer on +board this steamer, to know he can perfectly control himself?" + +Allyne tapped his chair arm and ruminated. + +"_He_ certainly is no Molly Coddle!" he observed, finally, with a vivid +remembrance of the captain's stern visage and curt manner upon a +certain uncomfortable occasion. "I think I never looked at the matter +quite in this light before, Miss Hosmer. Nearly every one I meet takes +wine, and I've been disgusted with myself that I couldn't keep my head +so long as others did when drinking. It never occurred to me to keep +my head by not drinking at all! That's worth considering. Thank you +for a kind word and good thought!" + +"You are welcome!" smiled the girl rising. "And I'll leave you to +digest it while I go and read to Mrs. Blakely." + +"Mrs. Blakely! That old lady with the green goggles?" + +"Yes." + +"What, in goodness' name do you find to admire in her? I thought she +was a cranky old invalid." + +"Well, she is not very young, nor handsome, nor pleasant, and she has +trouble with her eyes--but that's just why I do read to her. Now, nice +strong people with good eyes, and manners--like yourself, for instance, +don't need such attention. You can amuse yourselves;" and with a +laughing glance, and little mocking courtesy, she slipped away. + +He looked after her with admiring eyes. + +"She hit me there!" he owned inwardly. "But even her scorn is +pleasant. Gad! I can congratulate myself that she isn't the one I +insulted. She would never have forgiven me--that's certain! As it is, +this little girl may intercede with her sister and make it easier +there. I'm glad I had the sand to speak out, anyhow!" + +He had been seated some time, lost in thoughts that could not harm him, +when Hope came tripping by, intent on finding Dwight, with whom she had +some scheme on hand, her eyes dancing with fun and expectation. +Allyne, looking up, thought his _vis-a-vis_ of a short time since was +back again, the arch, laughing expression with which she had left him +not yet cold on her face. "I have thought it all out," he said +quickly, "and you are right. I mean to try it, at least." + +Hope stopped, with a cold stare of astonishment. + +"Try it?" she repeated blankly. + +"Yes," his face falling like the barometer before a storm. "Surely, +you have not forgotten! I'll try going without entirely, if you tell +me to. It is best, and you are right. But, if I do, may I not count +upon your friendship to help me? And you surely will make it right +with your sister, also? Though I may value yours the most, I can never +feel right until that is straightened out." + +Hope saw there was something she did not comprehend, but from former +experiences concluded she could pretty accurately conjecture what had +gone before. In some way this bold offender had seen and talked to +Faith, won her soft heart to pardon, and was now suing for her own +forgiveness, with the belief that she and Faith had talked it over, and +only thus could her full friendship be secured. She would lead him on +to fuller confession before committing herself. It would serve him +rightly for his insolence! Because her sister was soft-hearted was no +reason she should be, and when he offended one he must learn that he +offended both. + +"I don't know that I can make it right with her," she said guardedly. +"Why should I try?" + +"Oh, but you seemed so forgiving a moment since," he urged. "You +haven't repented of it so soon, I'm sure." + +"I did, did I?" thought Hope, still more puzzled but bound not to show +it--then aloud, "But girls sometimes change their minds." + +"In a half hour? Then, where is that decision you boast of? No, if +you are weak enough to do that, there is no use in my trying." + +"Trying what?" wondered Hope, and said vaguely, "The two cases are +scarcely similar." + +"Perhaps not, but how could you consistently call me weak to yield to +wine, if you are to be helpful and kind one minute, and scornful the +next? You said you would help me to win over Miss Faith, and I thought +you also tacitly promised me help in another way. Are you going back +on everything, now?" + +"No, indeed!" cried Hope, fully comprehending at last. ("So he talked +Faith over, thinking it was I--and she let him think so--sly puss! I +didn't believe it was in her!") Then aloud, "I will do what I can, of +course, but Faith, though seeming so gentle, has a strain of +obstinacy--" + +"Yes, you hinted at that before." + +("Indeed!" laughed the girl inside, "how well she did it!") + +"But she is so fond of you, and I long to be friends with both." + +"Yes?" interpolated Hope, with an indifferent accent. + +"Yes," strongly; "but if I can't have her friendship, I still plead for +yours. You can help me--you have helped me already." + +"But if she won't listen to me?" queried the girl, keeping her amused +eyes lowered. + +"Then give it up, and I will bear her displeasure; but don't double it +by adding your own." + +"Then, possibly, I had better not say anything--" + +"And keep the matter to ourselves?" eagerly. + +"Why, y-yes, for the present, at least." + +"All right! I'm willing. Only you'll ignore me when she's by, I'm +afraid." + +Hope turned suddenly away, almost unable to control her laughter. + +"I ought to ignore you always," she said, "but--" + +"But you won't, I'm sure! And, in time, even she will see how I have +improved, and relent towards me." + +"Do you think so?" asked Hope in a smothered tone. + +"Indeed I do! She is too sweet and fine a girl to hold resentment, I'm +sure. I'll win her over yet!" + +"Well, you might try," said the naughty girl in a tone of doubtful +assent, "but my sister is not one to be trifled with, and you were wise +to come to me. If you ever do speak to her, I wouldn't advise you to +repeat this conversation--" and, chuckling amusedly, Hope sped on her +way, leaving Allyne in great contentment of mind. He looked after her +with a smile. + +"It was lucky I tackled the right one!" he muttered. "The other is +lovely; I suppose, but I like a little more force and fire. In spite +of their resemblance it's easy enough to tell them apart when one is +really interested. Well, I must keep my promise, now, and behave +myself--that is clear!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +TROPICAL EVENINGS. + +Our voyagers thought they had already known something of torrid heat, but +the next few days was to show that, as yet, they had only begun to +appreciate it; for there is but one hotter zone on earth than this in +which the Red Sea lies, and that contains the Persian Gulf and Senegambia. + +As they steamed into the Suez Canal, upon leaving uninteresting Port +Said, every one was brought to the decks by curiosity and interest. This +world-renowned ditch, which has revolutionized the commerce and travel of +the whole earth, begins with much breadth and promise, but soon narrows +down to a watery roadway, scarcely wider than a city street, where +meeting vessels cannot pass, except as one hugs the siding, and at night +the "International" was obliged to "tie up," as the captain expressed it, +that there need be no danger of collisions. + +Its great propelling screw churned the narrow stream into waves that wore +away the sandy banks on either side, and the cries of the flamingoes, +storks, and pelicans, inhabiting the marshes, were constantly in the ears +of the deck loungers. + +Dwight, perhaps, was the one who wrested the most fun from the situation, +for while the rest soon grew weary of the monotony, and lethargic with +the heat, groaning aloud every time they had to seek the siding in order +to let some great train of laden boats go by, he found fresh enjoyment in +every stop, and in blouse and knickerbockers, with bare feet, paddled +about on the moist banks, making friends with the half-clothed +camel-drivers, whose patient beasts knelt so obediently to be loaded with +the silt deposits taken from the bed of the canal, and collecting items +of interest in regard to this artery of commerce which might have made +even its founder open his eyes. The girls profited by his researches, +and it was, indeed, a common thing for any passenger, when asking +questions about "De Lessep's Ditch," to hear, "Oh, ask Dwight! He knows +it all." + +Both here, and on the Red Sea, into which they entered on the third +morning, the staterooms and cabins, in spite of waving punkahs, were +almost intolerable, and nobody could get up life enough to do more than +lounge feebly on the upper decks in their lightest clothing, reading the +lightest literature. At night, mattresses were laid on deck, and most of +the men slept there, while our twin sisters gladly took to their father's +cabin floor and a folded comforter, with the great windows wide to catch +every breath of air. + +Hemmed in upon these sluggish waters, swept by no wide sea breeze, but +only by an occasional sluggish puff from the sun-dried deserts of the +shore, they realized fully what torrid heat means. This long stretch of +southern travel is perhaps the most wearisome part of the long journey, +yet there were sometimes scenes and sights of the dark hours that almost +compensated. One night, there was a phosphorescent and electrical +display that could never be forgotten. The sultry air was surcharged +with the magic fluid, which made itself evident in most unexpected ways +and places. Points of dull iron about the steamer would suddenly break +into a soft glow, like an astral lamp silently lighted by unseen hands; +certain fabrics crackled fiercely at the touch, and soft waves of light +flitted over exposed surfaces, only half perceived till gone. The slow +moving waves of the sea glowed and sparkled in phosphorescent fire, and +the sky was a constantly changing curtain, upon which were thrown lights +and shadows, rays and wrinkles of every hue. Far above, in the deep +blue-black of the wonderful canopy, blazed the brilliant Southern +constellations--the Cross gleaming in white splendor midway between +horizon and zenith. + +The girls, grouped with others, watched well into the nights, that were +too hot for sleep, and in these still, solemn watches small resentments +were forgotten, and friendships that could not be bounded by an ocean +voyage, grew apace. + +While the younger passengers enjoyed with little care, the older, finding +deeper significance in Nature's wonders, also watched and waited. Before +they had left the Canal, however, Lady Moreham, with Faith's forgotten +envelope in her pocket, sought Captain Hosmer on one of those breathless +evenings when he fretted from inaction, and asked abruptly, + +"Captain, do you remember Clara?" + +"Your sister? Certainly. She was a little girl when we were young folks +together." + +"Yes, but only four years younger, after all, and the dearest child! We +corresponded for years until--my trouble." + +The captain eyed her with an amused smile. + +"It seems a little strange to hear you call it that!" + +"But what else was it? The bitterest trouble!" + +"So it seems--yes. But how did you so completely lose sight of your +family?" + +"I stopped writing. They had no address. There were only Jane and Clara +left, and Jane was absorbed in her own family. I sometimes think Clara +might have understood and helped me; she was different from the rest and +so fond of me." + +"It was a foolish thing to cut yourself off so thoroughly, my friend." + +"You don't need to tell me that--but neither can you ever understand how +my pride was wounded, and how mortifying it was, after all my boasts of +the glories in store for us, to have to confess what I was subjected to, +that I might be fit to live among their high-mightinesses!" + +"It certainly was hard, but was it right to let them think that, perhaps, +you had become too proud to associate with your own family?" + +"Oh, I know, I know, it was a horrid thing to do, and I have been well +punished for it, but I felt, in my resentful shame, that I wanted to fly +from every one who had ever known me. It was so belittling--so +despicable! Some trials make us nobler, and awaken the sympathy of our +friends; other excite only ridicule. Mine were utterly ridiculous and +common to others though bitter to me. But I have suffered through my +pride--oh, how I have suffered!" + +"You were always given to exaggerating things Anna--beg pardon! Lady----" + +"No, no, use the old name--I like it! Aren't you the one friend left me? +I want no titles from you. They are worse than nonsense between such +life-long friends. And what a 'sounding brass' any title of mine must +seem to you, anyhow! But we're wandering from the subject. My sister +Clara wrote a peculiar hand, plain, large, and straight up and down, yet +rather handsome. I've never seen writing just like it--until a few days +ago--and after turning the matter over and over to no purpose, I +concluded to come to you. An envelope addressed to the Misses Hosmer, +and postmarked Portsmouth, England was blown along the deck to my side, +lately, and when I absently picked it up it was, apparently, to see my +sister's writing before me. I asked your daughter Faith who wrote that +address, and she said a lodger of her old nurse's, but could not tell the +name--had forgotten it. But she described my sister, Clara Leroy, as +perfectly as I could. What does it mean? More than that, she said she +and Hope both thought her an American. Is it possible my own Clara may +be hunting me up in England? It seems too good to believe!" + +"It is strange!" assented the captain, with some excitement. "And to +think my girls have forgotten her name--what a pity! But they must +remember it. I'll set their wits at work. Your sister! Why, this is +like a story." + +"It is better than that; it means life and hope to me. Oh, if I am +deceiving myself!" sighed the lady. "That is what has made me hesitate +about speaking to you--I was so afraid it was only my imagination, and I +could not bear to think of disappointment. But the more I study the +writing the surer I am. Every time I look at that envelope I feel surer +and safer! You don't know how it braces me to bear with Duncan's +strangeness." + +"Why 'strangeness'? I thought we had agreed that his letters have simply +been lost, and, if he is in India, he will be as glad to see you as you +him, didn't we?" + +"Oh, if I could be certain of that!" + +"I shouldn't allow myself to think anything else." + +"It is so easy to talk when it is not our own trouble!" + +The captain smiled patiently. + +"Did you keep that envelope?" + +"Yes. Faith didn't seem to notice." + +"That is right. And I'll think it over. We can mail a letter at +Ismailia, but no answer could reach you until we get to Bombay. I +suppose we might wire, but we only stop, there--dear me! I keep +forgetting we have no address except Debby's, and she would go all to +pieces over a telegram. Do you know whether Clara's still single?" + +"No, I don't." + +"Sort of a wild-goose chase, at the best! It will have to be a letter, I +guess." + +"How a small difficulty looms into a fate in a case like this! I must +cling to this clue, though, till convinced it is a false one; I cannot +give it up so lightly." + +"Of course not. And I'll think up something--trust me. Why don't you +write yourself, Anna? Make it a note that would mean something to Clara, +and nothing to others, and I'll send it to Debby, putting in a line +myself. That will be best, and then we need not say anything to the +girls, as you are so anxious to keep it all from them." + +She bent her head in meditation. + +"I was, at first, because I did not know them; now I do not so much care. +They are lovely girls, my friend, and so sensible! There comes Hope +now--I recognize her laugh. Well, help me in this, and you will but +forge another link in the long chain of favors I owe you. Good-night!" + +"None o' that, now! I don't keep a log-book on little kindnesses--just +pass 'em along down the line, say I. And don't you give up the ship, my +lady! That's good sailor-like advice! Good-night to you, and good luck!" + +The proposed plan was carried out, and the double enclosure quietly +mailed at the Arabic town upon Lake Timseh, which looked so fresh and +green to the wearied eyes of our friends, after the dismal marshes and +clayey banks of the canal. But all beauty has its blemishes, and the +other name for this lake suggests the blemish on Ismailia's shores. It +is "Crocodile Pool," and our young people spent their time mainly in +watching a couple of these monster saurians as they stolidly followed the +steamer, through the whole day, eagerly snapping up the refuse of the +caboose in their great ugly-looking jaws. + +Without event, or incident, they steamed through Bab-el-Mandib, by the +lighthouse on Perim, and eastward across the Gulf of Aden. As for the +town of that name, on its northern shore, opinions were divided. Faith +shuddered at its desolation, Hope thought it bold and striking, while Mr. +Lawrence said that, "If Dante had seen it he would have been saved a deal +of trouble, for he could simply have described its rocky wilds for his +Inferno!" All blessed the fresher atmosphere and brisker breezes of the +Indian Ocean, which, if warm, are bearable, and awoke from the lethargy +of a sultriness which was like that of an overheated, airless room, to +life and interest, once more. + +It was nearing night, after a day of intense calm, with the mercury close +upon the century mark, and the passengers, eager for air, crowded the +upper decks. The captain stood long, with glass in hand, scanning the +horizon, and made his dinner a short affair. + +"Do you know," said Faith, glancing up at the twilight sky, "there's a +strange feeling in the atmosphere, to-night? I can't tell what it is, +but, though it is so sultry that I can scarcely breathe, at times a cold +shiver runs down my spine, and I believe it is dread, or fear." + +"Goodness!" said Hope, turning to look at her, "you're not going to have +a fever, are you?" + +"I hope not," said Chester Carnegie, with a laugh, "for I've felt the +same." + +"Sympathetic suggestion possibly," mused Mr. Lawrence, with an absent +air, as he leaned over the guard-rail. + +"Well, I feel oppressed, too," observed Bess, looking moodily seawards. +"I wouldn't wonder if something is brooding over us. A big storm, or--" + +"More sharks," suggested Dwight. + +"I always supposed they were under us--that is, the sea kind," put in Mr. +Allyne, appearing out of the dusk, accompanied by his friend. "Of course +there are land sharks, but--" + +"Not on this ship!" cried Hope promptly. + +"Glad to have my fears relieved," flashing a glance at her. + +"And, if you'll let me, I was going to say storm, or pestilence," +continued Bess in a resigned tone. + +"Well, I stopped worrying over that when my sick man kindly refrained +from developing smallpox, or ship fever," said Carnegie, sinking down +upon a cushion between Bess and Faith. "I was anxious for a day or two, +though, and so was our surgeon." + +"And he is quite well again?" asked Mrs. Vanderhoff. + +"Convalescing, thank you. We consider him entirely out of--Ah! that was +vivid." + +He referred to a flash of lightning that seemed to rend the heavens, +followed by a terrific report that made the girls cower close together. + +"There _is_ going to be a storm," exclaimed Mr. Lawrence, coining close +to the group. "I would not wonder if it is a fierce one, too. There has +been a strangeness in the air for the past half hour, as the girls have +remarked. Shall we go inside?" + +"Oh, not yet," said Mrs. Vanderhoff, "What a delicious little breeze!" + +She turned to catch it full in the face, and gasped as she pointed to the +horizon. At the same instant the lookout sounded a warning, echoed by a +quick command from the bridge, and instantly all was activity on board. +Mr. Malcolm, as he hurried past the group, called out, + +"Run for the saloon! It's a cyclone," and there was an immediate +stampede below, while the Hindu boys ran nimbly about the decks, stowing +away chairs and furling awnings. + +Our girls sought shelter with the rest, in the main saloon, and amid its +brilliant lights and merry company could scarcely believe in that one +swift, southward glance at the strange fast-coming gloom, under which the +waves were beginning to seethe, in the distance. There had been one +appalling cloud driving upwards in their very faces, with pall-black +centers, and edges of cold gray that seemed to curl and writhe like giant +lips, intense with scorn and rage. + +But sound remained to them, if sight was removed. As they heard the +shriek of the fierce, whirling blasts, the rush and hiss of astonished +waves whipped into terrible activity, the creaking of beams and timbers +suddenly strained to their utmost capacity, the flap and rattle of sails +furled with lightning rapidity, and, above all else, the increasing roar, +indescribably awful, that was mingled of electricity set free into wide +spaces and vapor pent into dire cloud-shapes driven by mighty winds, +whose form no man can imagine, whose might only God can guess, they grew +silent and gathered in groups, awestricken and still. + +At this intense moment, when even the men looked pallid in the arc-light, +Dwight suddenly pointed down the saloon, and broke into a hysterical +giggle that seemed almost blasphemous at such a time. The next to catch +it up was Hope, and in an instant the gale of laughter within almost +equalled the gale of wind without. For, running nimbly down the long +room, came a tiny figure. Sometimes it was on two legs and sometimes on +three, the fourth extremity being occupied with a small hand-glass, which +it clutched in its left forepaw. + +On its head, set disreputably awry, was a fine flower-laden bonnet, a +little evening affair, belonging to Mrs. Campbell, and around its neck +trailed a long sash-ribbon of Laura Windemere's. Out from the French +roses of the stylish hat peered the solemn old-man face of Andy, the +monkey, and he was making as fast for his beloved mistress as three feet +could carry him. + +Evidently the little wretch had broken bounds and helped himself from the +neighboring staterooms. Faith, red and confused, made a dive for him, +and caught off the bonnet, but with a shrill cry he clung to the +handglass, and ran up to the top of a cabinet, where he calmly wound the +long ribbon around his swart body, and, after scolding the assembled +company for a moment or so, proceeded to admire himself in the glass, +with all the vanity of a Broadway belle. + +At just this instant the storm burst with awful fury, and the great ship +careened until it was impossible to keep one's footing. Faith, watching +the mischievous monkey, as she stood in the center of the floor, was +taken unaware and flung with violence to one side, where she might have +been cruelly hurt against the hard wall, but for the amazing quickness of +Chester Carnegie, who flung himself between just in time to save her from +the blow. In the instant that he held her thus a blinding glare seemed +to wrap them in white fire, and with it a crashing peal of thunder +stunned them into deafness, then all was utter darkness. + +For a second it seemed to each that earth and sea stood still, and +neither quite knew if life were still left to them, but the next instant +a cry rent the air--a cry frightful enough on land, doubly horrible on +the wide ocean--the cry of "_Fire!_" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +DANGER. + +"Silence!" came in deep tones from the doorway, and before the first +paralysis of the dread alarm had time to become a panic, the captain's +irresistible voice caught their attention. He held a lantern aloft +and, after just one shriek of terror, the women, mostly prostrate on +the floor, turned to listen, while the men braced themselves to conquer +their weakness. + +"Silence!" said the captain, steadying himself between the lintels of +the door, while the great steamer plunged, rolled, and pitched, like a +thing gone mad. "The ship has been struck by lightning, and the lights +put out. We are in the midst of a cloud charged with electricity, and +must stand the darkness for a little. The fire was discovered at once, +and will soon be subdued. If we can stand a few seconds of this we +will be safe. Keep where you are, and hug the floor, It's the safest +place, now." + +Above the roar of the storm his voice sounded calm and steady, the only +familiar thing in this swift upheaval. Poor little Andy, who had been +clinging by tail and claws to his perch, not even dropping the +handglass, seemed to think help had come with the man he had grown very +fond of by this, so he quickly scrambled down and fled to the big +pocket of Captain Hosmer's reefer, a movement almost unnoted by the man +in his preoccupation. For, practised in self-control as he was, our +brave captain knew this was a crucial instant and it needed all his +reserve strength to meet it. + +They were wrapped in dangers, and all the elements, except earth, were +warring against them. The cyclone on the Indian Ocean is a terrible +destroyer, and the best-built vessel stands little chance of escape +when meeting its fury. + +The group within the radius of his lantern's light were obedient, +though, and he had a swift vision of Carnegie gently steadying Faith +into a seat, and another less welcome one of Allyne bracing Hope, who +was on her knees against the wall. + +It was but instantaneous, like every change of that eventful night. +The next, he had handed the lantern to Mr. Malcolm with a word of +suggestion, and was off to other duties. Crash after crash showed how +the good ship was yielding to the tempest's fury; and the wild tramp of +excited feet outside, and above, made the huddled women shudder in face +of the desperate fear that a fire upon the sea always awakens. But it +had to be borne in inaction, for to move about in this furious pitching +and swaying was utterly impossible to the unpractised. + +Only low moans and sobs broke the silence which succeeded to this +tempestuous outburst, till suddenly a shrieking figure came tumbling +into the room and, with hair unbound and garments disarranged, fairly +rolled into their midst. + +"Oh, save me! Save me!" she shrieked wildly. "We're all going to the +bottom! We're all burning up! Save me!" + +It was Mrs. Campbell, the dignified, the indifferent. She had retired +with a headache, only to be awakened by this crashing, and the cry of +fire, and she seemed utterly beside herself with terror. A beautiful +woman by day, when carefully gowned and controlled, she was a veritable +hag just now! It seemed as if terror and dismay let loose her +unbeautiful soul to dominate her well-kept body. She looked older, by +a score of years, and was as unlike her usual elegant self as possible. + +Faith shrank a little. + +"Oh!" she murmured, "Speak to her, Mr. Carnegie--help her--make her +keep still. If we must die, let us go decently, at least." + +Almost involuntarily he grasped her hand in appreciation. + +"Yes," he returned, "but I could do no good with her. She does not +like me. I do not believe we will be lost. I trust in your father, +and in the Father of us all. Besides, the worst is over. It is still +to what it was a moment since." + +"But the fire?" she whispered, with a shiver. + +"That must be conquered!" He spoke with decision. "So far it is only +among some loose shavings in the carpenter's quarters, and they will +soon extinguish it. Do not worry about that." + +Meanwhile, Mr. Lawrence had seized the shrieking woman in time to save +her from a fall, and quickly pressed her back into a nest of pillows on +a wide divan which, being screwed to position, was a safe resting-place. + +"Be silent, madam!" he said authoritatively. "Hysterics will only +hinder matters. The ship is in safe hands, and we can help most by +keeping still right here, and leaving the officers free to work for us +outside." Then, raising his voice, he began in deep tones that +glorious psalm of faith and trust, which has comforted so many in like +distress. + +"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. +Therefore will we not fear though the earth be removed, and though the +mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters +thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the +swelling thereof. There is a river, the streams whereof shall make +glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most +High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall +help her and that right early." + +As the strong, beautiful words fell from the heights of a soul lifted +above fear by faith, the cries ceased, and a hush fell upon all. Then +Carnegie's young voice joined in and Faith's trembled after, until +nearly all were repeating, in slow, reverent voices the words of David. +Even Mrs. Campbell, though cowering and shivering, ceased from louder +lamentations. + +As Hope's voice caught up the Word, Allyne turned and looked into her +white young face, suffering and terrified, yet self-controlled, then +secretly clutching a fold of her gown, as she sat on the floor beside +him in such a position that he could wedge her into a safe corner, he +too joined in the solemn recitation, thinking inside his perturbed soul, + +"If we go down into the deep I will cling to her pure skirts; then if I +cannot save her life, possibly she can save my soul!" + +Evidently, there was need of regenerating grace here; but even his +puerile thought may prove it had already begun. A longing for purity +and salvation, however dully expressed, is a longing for Christ, and +the hitherto self-satisfied existence of this favored young man was +being crossed by contrary streams and currents that had changed its +contented flow, and stirred up deeper soil than had ever, hitherto, +been reached. + +Out of unpromising material--even the dust of the earth--God knew how +to create man "but little lower than the angels." Out of a nature +seemingly given over to selfishness and sensuality he sometimes forges +lofty souls, which can do and dare for righteousness' sake. + +One can scarcely give the details of such an hour as followed that +fierce storm-burst. It was soon discovered that the lightning had +struck in more than one part of the ship, killing one or two animals, +and setting fires in three places. Everything was intensely dry after +the scorching suns of the past week, and the mischief might be great. +But Captain Hosmer governed his crew more through their respect for him +as a man than their fear of him as an officer, and not one, in all this +fright and turmoil, thought of disobeying his voice. Calm and steady +himself, he steadied others; having always put responsibility, without +interference, upon his inferior officers, they now assumed such +responsibility with an intelligent sense of its meaning, and each stood +to his place as firmly as the captain, himself. + +The fire brigade was promptly at work, by detachments, in all three +places, with bucket and hose; the engineers, though lightnings played +fiercely about their ironwork and electrical apparatus, stood manfully +by, knowing they were looking death in the face, but exemplifying +Paul's command, "Quit ye like men; be strong." + +Even the passengers needed only the restraint of voice and gesture. No +threats, nor bars, except for a moment among the steerage people, had +been necessary. The discipline was perfect. + +After a short space, that could not be measured by the clock so intense +and strained had it been, there was a lessening of the enveloping +flashes, instantaneous thunder, and crashing timbers, and, though the +wind was blowing fiercely and the vessel lurching and shivering beneath +their feet, they could feel an appreciable lifting of the tension. The +worst was over. + +But the exciting sounds of the fire fighters did not cease, and the +whisper ran around that, though one of the outbursts had been subdued, +the others were in a lower part of the vessel, one especially being +most difficult to get at, and that the constant sound of chopping, now +audible since the fiercer snapping of masts and spars had ceased, was +caused by cutting away certain portions of the woodwork necessary +before it could be reached by the firemen. If it should take long to +reach it, what would be the result? + +Mr. Carnegie, at this, started up, and seemed about to go outside, when +Faith's soft voice arrested him. + +"Father wished us all to stay here," she said reproachfully. + +He turned back, with a movement full of agonized uncertainty. + +"I know," he murmured, "but--" + +He stood irresolute, with his perplexed face turning from the outer +door to her own up-looking eyes. + +"And if he needs you he certainly will let you know," she added, with +some asperity. + +He smiled, and reseated himself beside her. + +"You are right, as usual, Miss Faith. He certainly knows--" + +"Knows what?" she asked at length, as his sentence remained unfinished. + +"Knows that I am here and ready," he returned, with a smile, but she +noticed that his eyes often sought the door, and his manner was that of +one alert for action. + +The women, who had children asleep in the staterooms, had run to them +with the first alarm, and these, with the ayahs and babies, now began +creeping back into the saloon, longing for fellowship in this trying +hour; while, the first dire shock over, the men of cool thoughtfulness, +like the Traveler, Mr. Lawrence, Carnegie, and a few others, began +making all of them as comfortable as possible, forming them into +compact groups, guarded from the danger of breaking furniture, +woodwork, and glass, by their own watchfulness, as they made a cordon +around them. Many were unable to lift their heads from illness, and +others went from hysterics into fainting fits. + +These required most of the attention of Martha Jordan and her women, +but Dwight, soon rallying from his first fright, and always both nimble +and steady of foot, proved of real assistance, fetching and carrying +equal to Tegeloo, who went through his duties with the calm stoicism of +the Oriental in the face of death. After a little, Faith and Hope also +joined in the "Relief Corps," as he named it, while Bess fought her own +sickness bravely that she might care for her mother, whose heart action +was imperfect. To their great delight the electric lights suddenly +blazed out again, greatly relieving the distress of the situation, for +its horrors had been doubled by darkness. At the same instant the +captain appeared among them and amid a clamor of questions, requests, +and suggestions, held up a hand for silence, and called loudly, + +"Listen, please! You have all behaved so well in this trial that I +want to trust you in full, and ask your further help and forbearance. +The storm is not over, and the fire is not out, but I believe we shall +weather both in safety. In case we cannot extinguish the fires, the +boats are ready to be lowered at a minute's notice, and all can get +safely off. You shall know in time. Meanwhile, get together whatever +you most want to save, and I will send you life-preservers to put on. +Let the men go for the valuables, when possible, and the women all stay +here. It is the safest place for them. There's no occasion for a +panic, and I don't expect any. If our staunch old ship can stand the +strain of these last few minutes so well she isn't going back on us +now, I'll swear!" + +His voice broke a trifle, and he turned to his daughters, who were now +close together, their arms about each other. + +"What shall I send from the cabin to you, girlies?" he whispered. +"Tegeloo shall bring you your treasures here." + +"There's poor Texas, if he isn't killed already," said Hope. + +"And Andy," added Faith, when suddenly out popped the monkey's head +from the reefer pocket, and, looking-glass still in hand, he scrambled +down into Faith's lap. + +"Why--why!" cried the astonished captain, "Was it Andy? I thought +something wriggled once or twice, but concluded 'twas only imagination. +Well, I declare! Whose glass is that?" + +"I don't know, papa. He had on Mrs. Campbell's dress hat, and +somebody's sash, but--" + +A sudden distraction came in the shape of Janet Windemere, who burst +into their midst all excitement, followed by Mrs. Windemere, pallid and +weeping silently, as she wrung her hands in despair. + +"Captain--Captain Hosmer!" cried the former in a rasping voice. "We +have been robbed! We've been getting our things together, and our +money's gone!" + +"Robbed?" muttered the captain dazedly, then with indignation he broke +out, "I don't believe it! My men are all honest, and have been working +like Trojans, to the last man-Jack of them. There's some mistake--you +must have mislaid it." + +"No, we always kept it in mother's dressing-case, but Laura carelessly +left it open and the whole glass is gone. It must have been somebody +that knew, for we never told a soul--" + +"Knew what?" asked the man in a resigned tone. "What has your +looking-glass and your mother's dressing-case got to do with your +money, anyhow? I thought you said that was stolen." + +"Of course. You see, for safety we put our money and letter of credit +inside the back of the hand-mirror, and--" + +He turned and flashed a look from Andy, serenely admiring himself, to +his daughter. + +"Oh, oh!" she cried distressfully, "is this it?" + +She tried to snatch the thing from Andy's hand, but he held on with a +determined clutch and howled, even threatening her with his teeth. It +was the prettiest toy he had seen for many a day! + +"Yes, that's it. You wretched little beast! See! He's spoiled +Laura's ribbon too." + +"See here, sir!" said the captain indignantly, as he boxed the +creature's ears. "You'll have to learn better manners, if you stay +aboard this craft. Thieves aren't allowed." + +Poor Andy, perforce, yielded to higher authority, and crawled under the +soft arm of his mistress, crying like a baby, while the captain handed +the glass to Mrs. Windemere, saying brusquely, + +"Better find a new place for your money now, and secure it about your +person somewhere--you may need it." + +"Oh, Captain, are we going to the bottom?" she moaned. + +"If I thought we were would I tell you to secure your money?" he +answered crisply. Then, turning to his daughters, "I'll send you your +ulsters and life-preservers--and Texas; but let the trinkets go. They +only weight one down, and they look pretty small to-night! You'll take +to the boats if the rest do, and then I'll give you my papers." + +"Why give them to us, papa?" asked Hope, innocently. + +He looked at her with a strange expression, but did not answer. +Instead, he turned to an officer who had entered and, after one glance, +said quickly, + +"Yes, I'm coming. Don't speak!" and hurried after him, but as he +passed Carnegie a look passed between them, and the young officer at +once arose and followed him outside. + +Hope turned to her sister, white to the lips. + +"What did he mean, Faith? Why are we to take those papers?" + +"I don't understand--exactly." + +"But you think--" + +"I think he means to stay by his ship." + +Faith spoke low and tremulously. + +"To the death?" whispered Hope in awe-stricken accents. + +"Yes." + +They gazed into each other's eyes, and drew closer. Hope clutched +Faith's hand, and the complaining monkey gave a last babyish little +cry, and snuggled down in the warmth of their nestling forms, his +sorrows quickly forgotten in slumber. He was safe so long as his +mistress held him. Suddenly a thought came to Faith. She looked down +at the mite, then upwards, and her eyes were like radiant stars in her +pale young face. + +"See!" she said, "he feels safe with me, and does not mind the storm; +father feels safe with his ship; you and I with our father, and all of +us with God. It is a chain of safety. Let's give up worrying and stay +by papa, trusting in Jesus. If it is best to save us, He will do so; +if not, we will go to sleep just this way--together, and in His arms!" + +"Yes," assented Hope softly, pressing lovingly to the side of her twin. +"Yes, all together, and in His arms!" + +So mischievous Andy redeemed his naughtiness by teaching a timely +lesson of peaceful trust. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +LADY MOREHAM SPEAKS. + +Tegeloo brought Texas, with the ulsters, and told how he had found the +bird cowering in its battered cage, which had been tossed headlong into +the middle of the cabin, where it, fortunately, lodged between the +bedsteads, being wedged in so closely as to escape further harm. The +poor parrot looked sick enough, and was so subdued he came at once to +Hope's wrist, with none of his usual feints and caprices, nestling up +to her in a satisfied manner, as he plaintively muttered, "Poor Texas! +Poor little Texas!" in response to her caresses. + +Then, after a little, came a new phrase his mistress had long been +trying to teach him, but which, with the obstinacy of his kind, he +would never repeat. It came very softly now, as he tilted about on her +white wrist, and cocked his head around with a sidelong, upward glance, +"_Dear_ Hope!" + +"Oh, hear!" she cried delighted. "Isn't that sweet of him? Dear +Texas! Hope's pretty Texas! Was he nearly frightened to death in the +storm?" + +She forgot terror and surrounding discomforts for one minute, the next +her heart stood still, as two sailors entered with a quantity of +life-preservers, and amid rising clamor and confusion, the passengers +began their preparations for departure by the boats. The storm's fury +seemed to have spent itself, and the fiercer noises outside were no +longer audible, only that steady chopping--chopping, that no one really +understood. Perhaps this only intensified the heart-broken sobbings of +the women and children, and the occasional groanings of strong men, who +could no longer control their sense of helpless misery. Hope, sprang +to her feet, her nerves giving way at last. "Oh, this is awful!" she +muttered, turning her head wildly to left and right, like a creature +suddenly caged. "I begin to feel the fire, Faith--don't you? It is +stifling me!" + +She was on the point of breaking into a hysterical shriek when a hand +was laid upon her arm, and Lady Moreham said quickly, + +"No, my child! It is only the closeness after a storm; not the fire. +That is far away, and still smothered between walls in the hold. It +may never break out, if they can get at it before it burns through to +the air. They are working manfully, and will do everything to save us, +and your brave father is at their head." + +"Oh, if I could see papa! If I could be sure he is safe! He never +thinks of himself where there is danger." + +She was trembling all over, and Faith, catching her excitement, pressed +closer, wide-eyed and shivering. Lady Moreham saw that, though they +had been brave as mature women, so far, they were breaking down under +the strain, unsupported by any older and stronger relative. The +atmosphere was enervating here, and emotion is contagious. Glancing +quickly around, she formed her resolution, and throwing an arm around +each, said gently, + +"Come! I have often heard you speak of the library. We can go there +and be more quiet, and it will give us a better lookout on the forward +deck. Won't you invite me to go there with you?" + +"But papa--if he should look for us here?" + +"I will send him a message. Ah, here's Mr. Allyne--have you come to +tell us something?" for there was a desperate look in the young man's' +face that startled her. + +"No, only--good-by! They need more help below, and I am going down. +You have these young ladies in charge, Madam?" + +"Yes. And tell their father he will find the three of us in his own +cabin when he needs us." Her eyes, sharp and imperative, questioned +him--"Is there great danger?" But she did not speak. + +He bowed gravely, and said, as if in response to her request. "I will +tell him." Then, as Hope followed the lady, he gently intercepted her. +"Please shake hands once more," he said, and with out a word she laid +her icy palm to his. + +He bowed over it respectfully. + +"God bless you for the good, pure girl you are! Good-by." + +He hurried out and Hope, dazed and dumb, followed the others. They +found the little room, where they had passed so many homelike hours, +sadly demoralized. One of the great windows was shivered to splinters, +and through it projected a heavy spar, now safely wedged from further +harm, and as they gazed out through the other great panes, it was upon +a scene of intense desolation. The deck was quite empty, all the crew +being busy below, but it was one mass of broken timbers, fallen sails, +and all the debris of a half-wrecked vessel. But as the fresh air met +their faces, it braced them to new courage, and each looked curiously +about. + +Above, the sky was already clearing and the ragged-edged clouds were +rolling northwards, leaving clear spaces which rapidly enlarged. The +sea, black and turbulent, still rolled heavily, but with diminishing +motion, and its spray made everything damp about them. Turning on the +lights, Lady Moreham said briskly, "We must have a blanket, or +something, to shut out the storm. Where will I find one?" + +"Right in our room--I'll get it," said Faith, feeling safer and better +already in the home-like place, and soon the open window was well +covered, the chairs wiped out and drawn close together, and Hope sank +into one, Texas still clutching her wrist, with a long sigh of +satisfaction. + +"It _seems_ safer here, anyhow!" she murmured. "If papa could only be +with us!" + +The lady smiled. + +"And I was just thinking how glad I was that he is not here, but that I +could be so certain he was just where he ought to be to insure the +safety of us all. How proud you must be of him, tonight! He is a +true, brave man, and I am proud to call him my friend. Did you know we +were schoolmates together?" + +Hope looked up quickly, interested in spite of herself. + +"That is it, then? I felt sure there was something, but he always +avoided our questions. Was it when you were a young lady." + +"No, a little girl. We lived in the same neighborhood." + +"You did? Why--but papa lived in America, near Boston." + +"So did I." + +"Then you _are_ American!" cried the girl, triumphantly. + +The lady laughed a little. + +"Have you guessed it? Yes, I was born on a small hill farm in +Massachusetts, and when a wee child used to trudge, barefooted, across +our pasture-lot to a little unpainted schoolhouse, on the cross-roads." + +"_You_, Lady Moreham?" breathed Faith in amazement. + +"Ah, yes, it was I," sighed the lady. "So memory tells me, at least, +but I can scarcely believe that the happy, care-free little creature, +who chased butterflies, and gathered the trailing arbutus in Spring, +and waded through the gorgeous October leaves in Fall, was my weary +self." + +"And you really liked being--being--" + +My lady laughed out at Hope's embarrassment in framing her question. + +"Oh! Didn't I like it? I had two sisters and a brother. One sister +was a baby, and when the rest of us had done our 'stints' for the day, +we used to take her out with us in her little four-wheeled wagon father +had made her, and play by the hour--oh, so happily! I used to play at +being queen, I remember, and make crowns out of burdock burs, stuck +together, setting them on very softly over my curls in the coronation +scene, because they pricked me so. But in spite of the hurt I would +persist in wearing them. I sometimes wonder, is all that we do in +childhood but a foreshadowing of what is to follow? My crowns have +always cut me cruelly, but pride has kept me wearing them." + +She drew herself up quickly, as if she had been thinking aloud, and +added, + +"Your grandfather's farm adjoined ours, and your father and I were +playmates, and great friends. We were seldom separated till later, +when I was a strong, rosy-cheeked girl of sixteen and he a strapping +young lad, with a hankering for the sea. Well, we went our ways--he to +sail as cabin-boy in a merchantman, I to journey up to Boston and seek +service with some nice family." + +"Service!" murmured Hope, involuntarily. + +"It sounds queer, doesn't it? Yes, that was what I expected to do, and +I was proud to be able to help at home, for the little farm was not +productive, and the 'lien' on it was heavy. But I did not 'work out,' +after all--in that way--my sister, who was now married and living in +Lynn, found a place for me in the factory there. Like Hannah, I often +was seen sitting at the window binding shoes." + +"Oh! In Lynn. No wonder you were so interested when we talked about +it." + +"You noticed, did you, Brighteyes? Well, there I worked for two years, +and there I--married." + +She stopped as if done with the subject, and the girls, half-forgetful +of their peril, looked at her in blank disappointment. It is a long +step from a dingy shoe-factory in a New England town to a lordly +country-seat in Old England, and both had fondly hoped to have it +bridged while this communicative mood was on. But the lips had closed +sternly, and Lady Moreham, seemingly quite forgetful of her young +auditors, was gazing far away. Faith ventured, at length, to jog her +consciousness. + +"You asked me, once, a good deal about Brookline--were you there too?" + +The lady nodded, then turned and looked at her with a quizzical glance. + +"Ah, child, never be so curious to hear a sad story! Every one has +griefs enough to bear without appropriating other people's. Yes, we +did live in Brookline for several happy years--my husband and I. Our +home was the porter's lodge of one of those fine places you used to +admire. We were both young, hopeful, and strong. He was well +educated, but could not endure clerkly confinement, and thought himself +fortunate to be so well housed and have such healthy work. He was born +in England, and we used to laugh together because, in some vague way, +which we scarcely cared to fully understand, my husband was distantly +related to the nobility. That was the phrase--'related to the +nobility'--how we used to make fun of it, and pretend to trace out the +connection! Once, at Christmas, I presented him with a family tree, +and a peerage-book. The latter was something I had written up myself, +and _such_ nonsense, but it made us fun for many weeks. We could laugh +at anything in those days. Duncan really had no more idea of +inheriting a title and estate at that time than I, a farm-bred girl, +had myself. He was a thorough American, who loved his country, and +because his parents had died and left him alone in the world, he was +all the more helpful and self-reliant. How his eyes used to twinkle +when we sat on our little porch, at evening, as he would say with a +flourish, 'Yes, this is all well enough, Anna, but wait till you see +our ancestral halls across the sea!' and then his laugh would ring out +like the boy he was. But it is the unexpected that always happens. If +we had counted on any such thing--" + +"And after all it came true?" broke in Hope eagerly. + +"Yes, it came true." Lady Moreham's voice sank to a sorrowful strain. +"I shall never forget the day the news came! We had eaten our little +supper--just the two of us, for we had no children,--and Duncan, after +his custom, unfolded his newspaper to read, while I took the dishes +from the table and washed them at the little white sink near by. I +used to hear if there was any news worth the telling, and when he broke +out excitedly, 'Why, Anna, listen to this!' I only turned silently, +expecting to hear of some wonderful new invention, for that was a few +years ago when the marvels of electricity were developing so rapidly, +and Duncan was deeply interested in them. Instead, he read an +advertisement, inserted by a London law firm, where his own name +appeared with the usual promise that he would hear of something to his +advantage, if he would write to their address. + +"I went over to him and sat on the arm of his chair, as we discussed +it, full of wonder and conjectures, and more in earnest over the fun of +it than any possible advantage it might bring--for God knows, we were +happy enough! We only wanted to be let alone." + +She spoke with extreme bitterness, and the girls looked at her, +astonished. It was difficult to believe any one could prefer plain +comfort in a porter's lodge to a title and estates. + +"But you wrote?" questioned Faith, eager to hear the whole. + +"Of course. We were as foolish as all the rest of the world! We +thought happiness and gold and honor the three Graces, instead of +Faith, Hope, and Charity," smiling into the girls' excited faces. + +"And isn't happiness?"--began Hope, but she shook her head. + +"Not worldly happiness--no. It is too brief, too treacherous. If one +learns to depend upon that, one is doomed to perpetual disappointment. +I have long understood that contentment is better than what we call +happiness--much better. Yes, we wrote, laughing together over the +possibility that our ancestral home might be seeking us, but believing +nothing of the kind. How we did joke over our united efforts at +composing it! He was the scholar, but I suggested all sorts of +long-stilted sentences to him, which he modified to suit himself. He +used to think me bright in those days. When it was signed, addressed, +and sealed, we looked into each other's eyes. + +"'I wonder if we'll ever regret this?' said Duncan, serious for the +first time. He was always more grave than I, and used often to curb my +high spirits--who would think it now? + +"'Fiddle-faddle! Regret a pot of money, or a Queen's commission as +Field-marshal?' I asked flippantly. + +"'Yet the pot of money might not make us really better off, and the +Queen's commission might take me away from you,' he said, and stooped +to kiss me. + +"I don't know what came over me, then. A sudden fear seemed to +contract my heart. I caught him about the neck, declaring we could not +be happier than we were. + +"'Throw the letter into the fire, Duncan!' I cried. 'It may separate +us, and I'd rather have you than all the world besides!' He held me +close a minute, then laughed a little. + +"What geese we are! How could anything separate us, if we don't let +it? You know very well any advantage would cease to be one the minute +it came between us. We will send the letter, but we will use our own +judgment about whatever it brings us.' + +"So it was sent, and--what is that? Tegeloo, what is it? are we to +take to the boats, after all? Why are they shouting so?" + +She rose, and the girls after her. Tegeloo, seemingly deprived of +speech, was motioning wildly at the door leading to the saloon. They +dashed past him into the roomful of people cheering, shouting, crying, +praying, and kissing, in a perfect frenzy of relief. + +Some one, with a face far blacker than the Hindu boy's, caught each +girl by the hand. + +"Girlies," cried a well-known voice. "We are safe--the fire is out!" +Then turning quickly, "Friends, let's sing 'Old Hundred,'--hearty now!" + +The words were scarcely out of his mouth, when, as with one impulse, +all broke into the grand old measure. Nobody pitched the tune, nor +started it--it started itself! Mrs. Campbell sang it on her knees, +with streaming eyes and hair, the captain and his daughters sang it +locked in each other's arms, and the Traveler, seeing Lady Moreham left +momently alone, clasped her hand in brotherly fashion, and joined his +fine bass to her uncultivated treble, never thinking of discords. So +may the Redeemed some day sing the Doxology in Heavenly courts, safe +not only from death, but better still, safe from the life we know of +here! + +When the "Amen," had died into silence the captain said, happily, + +"Now, good people, get yourselves to bed as quick as you can. The +storm is over, the fire is out, and though the poor old girl is so +battered up she's lost her beauty, her heart's still in the right +place--her engines are working all right, in spite of the cyclone! Now +hustle, every one of you--breakfast won't be served till ten +o'clock--and Heaven bless and keep us all!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +LAST DAYS TOGETHER. + +There was something indescribably disheartening in the looks of the +dismasted "International" as the twins came forth, refreshed by several +hours of welcome slumber, after the long agony of the past night. The +carpenters were already hard at work cutting away the sad remnants of +the graceful, tapering mizzen-mast, which had been one of the beauties +of the comely steamer, and a considerable space had been cleared for +the passengers over which awnings were stretched; but the approach to +it was somewhat choked and difficult. + +Faith was first to reach the deck, and as she approached, young Allyne +stepped forward from behind a rubbish heap, and said eagerly, + +"I'm glad to see you out, at last! It's a beautiful morning after the +storm. Let me pilot you across these chips to that nice chair." + +"Thank you," was Faith's rather stiff response. But he would not give +her time to be cool and unfriendly. + +"Would you ever believe it could have been so dreadful last night?" he +rattled on. "But you were very brave, Miss Hosmer!" + +"Was I?" asked Faith, almost overpowered by his friendliness. + +"Yes, you and your sister both were, for the matter of that--and by the +way, how is Texas this morning?" + +Faith's eyes began to dance. She mistrusted he had taken her for her +sister again and, following his glance, became sure of it; for Hope was +now approaching, along with Dwight, and the instant Tom Allyne's eyes +fell upon her he felt intuitively that she was the girl he had been +really waiting for, and his quick, annoyed glance proved the fact to +Faith. She did not feel so chagrined over it as she might, had she +greatly cared for his liking, and answered briskly, + +"You mean Andy, don't you? Texas is the parrot, and belongs to Hope. +There she comes now--shall we go to her?" + +Nothing loth, Mr. Allyne followed her lead, and, as he stood talking +with the two, made a closer survey than ever before, resolving that he +would not make this mistake again. Had he ever made it before? The +question, suddenly occurring to his inner consciousness, rather +startled him. He would not mind pouring his thoughts out to Hope, who +was so frank and jolly, but he felt rather afraid of this other girl, +whom he had once offended. Yet, the longer he compared the two, as he +stood opposite in merry conversation, addressing first one, then the +other, the more certain he felt that Hope was not the girl in whom he +had confided a few evenings since. And if not, what a donkey he had +made of himself! + +He tried to remember just what had passed, and grew silent and +uncomfortable as he made the effort. How was it Dwight never mixed the +two? He began to feel that keen, observing eyes were pretty good +things to have. He should certainly cultivate his own, in future! As +this undercurrent of musings reached definite conclusion, he broke out, +boyishly, + +"I'll know you apart after this, or know the reason why!" + +"And how?" asked Dwight. + +"Well, how do you, my boy?" was the quick counter-question. + +Thus caught, the boy flushed and grinned broadly. + +"Oh, I don't have to tell," he objected, with a shake of the head. + +They all naturally began to insist, however, and he at length yielded, +with the outburst, "Well, if it makes anybody mad, I can't help it." + +"Of course not!" laughed Allyne. "Personal remarks are bound to make +somebody mad, but that's just what makes them spicy. Proceed, young +man, proceed!" + +"Well then," slowly, "just watch the two for a minute, and make them +laugh--" Of course, at this, they with the others standing near, did +break into laughter--"there! Can't you see? Hope shows all her teeth, +and a big dimple in the corner of her mouth; Faith smiles just enough +to show a little of hers, and there isn't any dimple. So, when I'm not +sure, I just say something funny, and if the mouth is big and dimpled, +I know it's Hope without any mistake. Now, I knew you'd be mad, but +what on earth ails Faith? _She_ looks madder than you do?" + +It was a fact. Hope had drawn herself up, not half pleased to have the +size of her mouth--which was a sensitive feature--so questioned; but +Faith had turned entirely away with sudden coolness, miffed because she +did not look jolly, and display a dimple like the special one, the +possession of which she had always envied her sister. It was an +exhibition of female weakness entirely unexpected by Tom Allyne, and +for some reason pleased him wonderfully. He turned from one to the +other, full of hypocritical glee, though the face he then bent upon +Dwight was severe in the extreme. + +"See here, sir! Don't you know better than to say such things? Why, +you as much as insinuate that one or the other of these young ladies +has a blemish! Now that--" + +"See here!" broke out poor Dwight, not entirely sure who was most +abusing him, "who set me up to saying what I did, anyhow? I think it's +downright mean for you all to turn on a fellow so! You all promised +not to be mad, and now see you!" + +"You are right," said Faith, turning quickly. "I am ashamed of myself +for minding such a trifle! But I do sometimes get tired of being +reminded that Hope is so much nicer and jollier than I." + +"And I that Faith is so much more refined and ladylike!" added the +other. Then both broke into laughter, Hope's white teeth and deep +dimple showing plainly, and Faith's half-sad sweetness veiling her +merriment to a tamer expression. + +"It would spoil everything if you were either of you one whit +different," cried Allyne, with fervor. "And, Dwight, I want to thank +you for letting me into your little secret. I can never be deceived +again." + +"Are you certain of that?" asked Mr. Carnegie, as he joined the group. +"I wish I could be so sure! But come, let's drop personalities. I've +been sent to ask you to join a reading-club--" + +"A reading-club?" shouted everybody. + +"Yes. It is Mrs. Poinsett's hour to read to Lady Moreham, and she +kindly suggested our joining them. Would you like to?" + +"Lady Moreham? How wonderful!" murmured Allyne, and the sisters +exchanged meaning glances. + +But Dwight looked dubious. + +"I'd rather hear one of Quint's yarns," he remarked, frankly. + +Quint was a good-natured sailor, with a broad saber cut on one cheek +that would have ruined his looks for some, but made him only the more +interesting to Dwight. Besides, he had a capacity for reeling off +yarns, that was irresistible, and even Hope's charms paled before his +rarer attractions. + +The boy now went below to find the man, and the girls started with +Carnegie for the main saloon. After a few steps the latter looked back +over his shoulder, and saw Allyne gazing somewhat moodily after them. + +"Aren't you coming?" he asked pleasantly, turning back. + +"Am I wanted?" was returned quickly. + +"Of course, if you like to go," laughed the young officer, and Allyne +strode forward. + +Their loitering had widened the space between them and the girls, and +suddenly Tom Allyne began, in a low voice, + +"Carnegie, I haven't had an opportunity before, so now I make haste to +say that I thank you for showing me that a fellow need not be of the +namby-pamby kind because he lets the stuff alone. I used to think that +boys with any spirit must drink and carouse, occasionally, but I've +learned better now. I watched you last night." + +The other turned with a rapid movement. + +"Watched me?" + +"Yes, you were cool and brave. When the captain needed volunteers you +worked like a Trojan, and never flinched. And I believe you knew the +special danger too, as well as----" + +"Sh-h!" Carnegie glanced about with an alarmed air. "Did you know +too?" + +"I began to suspect soon after we went to work, and a low word of the +captain to his mate, which I, too, caught, convinced me. You see, we +were packed close in there! It wasn't any too safe." + +Chester Carnegie's eyes were upon him. + +"And you praise me for bravery when you were there and knew it all?" he +said. "I begin to think somebody else is no coward, either, Allyne!" + +He held out his hand, and they clasped silently. Then the latter said, +in a deprecating tone, + +"Personal fear is not my weakness. I wonder, Carnegie, if these +passengers will ever know how close that fire came to your consignment +of ammunition, last night." + +"No, never! How did you suspect my share in the matter?" + +"You were the first to offer your services. You persisted in working +at a spot from which the rest of us had been warned, and the captain +allowed it. I knew there must be method in your madness." + +"You were right; it was a personal duty, and I could not have done +otherwise. But you had no such motive, Allyne, and yet, understanding +the danger, as you evidently did, you stood to your work as close to me +as you could get. I like a brave man!" + +"Well, if it has wiped out old scores, Carnegie--" + +"It has. But come--they are beckoning. I'll tell you something, +however. After it was over, last night, and the captain and I were +congratulating ourselves, he remarked, with a jerk of his thumb toward +your grimy self, 'That young man's head is too cool to be muddled up +with the devil's brew. I'm sorry about that!'" + +The last words were whispered hurriedly, and there was no time to +respond, but Allyne's face shone as the ladies greeted them, with merry +reproaches for their laggardness, and soon all were seated, quietly +listening to Mrs. Poinsett, who was an excellent reader. Faith was not +so good a listener, that morning, however. It was an exquisite day, +after the storm. The air was of a crystal purity and delicious +coolness, the sea, rough enough to attract the gaze, yet not so rough +as to distract the nerves, and the sky's soft blue was occasionally +flecked with small, faint cloudlets, that seemed like distant flocks of +sheep, grazing in heavenly meadows. Only the battered ship beneath +them recalled the fury of last night's stormburst. But as the memory +of those anxious hours swept over her she looked at Lady Moreham, and +wondered that she should so have opened her heart in that time of +waiting, for just now she seemed as stately and unapproachable as ever. + +Then, too, it was so tantalizing that her story should have been broken +off in the middle, and left there. Would they ever hear its close? It +did not seem likely. Moved out of herself by the nearness of death, +the titled dame had reverted to childish days, speaking her thoughts +aloud. Probably nothing would induce her to speak again. + +"However," thought Faith, "father knows and perhaps he'll tell us some +day, when he gets a minute's leisure--that is, if he can be convinced +that she would not care. What an honorable man he is! We would never +have known a lisp from his lips." + +But it was a busy time with the captain. Only a day or so out from +Bombay, now, he was straining every nerve to restore the vessel to +something like her normal condition before they should enter port, and +it seemed to his daughters that they could scarcely get a daily +greeting from him, even, in his intense absorption. But they could +wait, for, once on shore, he would have more leisure, as the steamer +would be laid up for repairs, and the really saddening thought, now, +was that so soon these friends of a month must all separate, to go +their various ways. + +The Vanderhoff party intended soon to start for Poonah, Mr. Carnegie +must take his men to Lucknow, the two attaches were to remain for the +present at the Secretariat, the Windemeres would meet friends at +Magpore, while the Traveler declared vaguely and laughingly that he +would be "off to the jungles," in a day or two. Lady Moreham said +little of her plans. + +"I shall let circumstances govern me," she answered courteously to all +questions, and no one ventured to interrogate her further. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +OLD TIES AND NEW. + +The next two days were glowing, as to weather, and filled with +intensest life. There were trunks to pack, loaned articles to hunt up, +or return, neglected stitches to take, and a vast amount of friendly +visiting to be crowded in. + +On shipboard one fully appreciates the old adage that "Blessings +brighten as they take their flight." Even the tiresome become +interesting when we feel we may never see them again, while the +hobbies, or crankiness of the singular become entirely bearable, when +they are about to be lost sight of forever. As death brings out the +virtues, and veils the defects, of our friends, so does the nearness +of, possibly, eternal separation produce the same effect, on shipboard. +We love those who have become dear to us with an almost clinging +tenderness, and we grow tolerant to affectionateness even of those not +specially agreeable. + +Faith forgot that Dwight had sometimes been rude and Bess contrary; +both girls now thoroughly realized that beneath her coolness and +seeming superiority Lady Moreham carried a crushed and tender heart, +and Hope knew that she should miss even Mrs. Windemere's pathetic, +patient little voice. + +As they finally steamed by the lighthouse, and fixed eager eyes upon +the city of their destination, many of these were dimmed with regret +and sadness. Even Mrs. Campbell, who had been very quiet of late, +looked sober as she leaned against the bulwark, handsomer than ever in +her plain traveling suit of tan, and Carnegie, between Lady Moreham and +Faith, felt his heart fail him as he thought of the lonely, busy life +before him for the next two years. And then? He turned to the girl +with a smile that concealed only partially the quiver of his lips. + +"Do you know, it is just thirty days since I first saw you, and it is +difficult to believe that I have not known you always. I remember, you +and Miss Hope were standing together, on deck, and I thought how +marvelously alike you were, but I have never once mistaken one for the +other--never!" + +She glanced up, half timidly. + +"I remember you said you should know us apart, but when I told Hope, +she thought she could deceive you at any time." + +"Well, she knows better now!" he returned meaningly. + +"Why? Did she ever try it?" + +"Yes, once." He laughed enjoyably. + +"She did. And she never told me!" + +"Certainly not, for she failed entirely. I thought she would want to +keep it to herself, so I never betrayed her." + +"That was nice of you, Mr. Carnegie!" + +"Only commonly decent, it seems to me. And, you see, I have told now." + +"Told what?" asked Hope, approaching, with something very like a scowl +on her bright face. "I do wish, Faith, that you'd look better after +that Andy of yours! I happened to drop my best veil within his reach, +and before I could stop him he had torn it to shreds. Texas doesn't +act that way." + +"You shall have mine," said Faith, promptly. "Poor Andy! I can't help +liking him all the more, because everybody is down on him. My veil is +just like yours, dear, so take it, and I'll go without. I don't care +much for veils, anyhow, and we can be different in so little a thing as +that, I'm sure." + +Hope gave her an odd look. + +"If that was the only thing we are different in!" she said instantly. +"I'll never be so good as you, no matter how hard I try. And it's no +matter about the veil at all! Do you know, it is exactly a month since +we left home? It seems years when I think of Debby and the old +school-days, yet the hours have seemed to fly sometimes, too." + +"That's the odd thing about voyaging," observed the Traveler, as he +joined them. "It sends our past out of our minds with its novelties, +making it seem far away, yet there are few lagging hours, and Time +never stands still." + +"Is that always true?" asked Lady Moreham, turning quickly. "I have +not found it so." + +He looked at her with a kindly smile. It had become subtly understood +among a few that this aristocratic lady had a past, and not a happy +past. + +"I think it as true as any general statement," he responded. "But I +can also understand that insistent memories could never take such a +strong hold of one as during the enforced leisure of long trips by +land, or water. It would be a severe punishment for the remorseful, to +condemn them to a voyage around the Horn in an old-fashioned sailing +vessel. I think they would be ready for confession and hanging by the +time they landed! But there's compensation in every situation, and the +unhappy traveler, while remembering too much, perhaps, will also learn +to readjust himself, and so make the future easier. Reflection is a +good thing only when it lights up the future as well as the past." + +The lady smiled, with more lightness than was her wont, and let a hand +drop gently upon the shoulder of the girl beside her. "With Faith to +guide?" she asked; then, looking at the other sister, "And Hope to +cheer?" Then, more seriously, "It is a good thought, but one that has +only come to me lately." + +A rattle of boyish feet, and Dwight was among them. + +"Most there, aren't we?" he cried with boyish eagerness. Then, growing +sober, "But what's the reason nice things always have a bad side, too? +It's just horrid to have to leave you all! Why, I felt like crying +even to say good-by to Quint, Huri, and Tegeloo." + +"But you're not to start the good-byes up here yet," put in Carnegie, +hurriedly. "We shall not really separate for a day or two, and there's +no use in prolonging the agony." + +He spoke with feeling, and a glance passed between the elders. + +A moment later, as the young people strolled onwards together, at the +call of Bess, to watch the state barge of some native prince as it +sailed slowly by, its dusky crew shouting greetings. Lady Moreham, +looking after them, said, slowly, + +"How lovely youth is when it is lovely!" + +"True, my lady, and there we see it at its best. Those girls are +charming, and it need surprise no one if these fine young fellows seek +them out, and hate to be separated. Carnegie seems of fine grain, and +little Miss Faith is as modest as a violet. She is your favorite, I +imagine?" + +"Oh, I would not say that! I find myself very much attracted to both, +but there is something about Faith--a sympathy and tenderness, +perhaps,--that is soothing when one's heart is sore. Hope is +wonderfully entertaining, and brightens you up, but Faith seems to +understand without telling, and somehow makes you feel happier--more at +peace with yourself. I wish they were both my own!" + +He let his mild gaze rest upon her. + +"Lady Moreham, I am not an inquisitive man, but several times I have +been on the point of asking you a question." He could see that she +shrank, but continued obliviously, "Have you any kinsman by the name of +Duncan Glendower Moreham, from Kent, England?" + +She turned with a gasp, white to the lips. + +"Why?" she whispered with an effort, "Why?" + +"Because," he returned, not looking at her, "I traveled and hunted with +him one whole season, two years ago. I sometimes exchange letters with +him, and have his address now. He seemed to me a restless, wretched +man, trying to drown some mental suffering in physical activity. He +gave no title with his name, and, like the rest of us, lived in the +most absolute simplicity, but I noticed the crest on his linen, and in +some books. I knew him to be an English peer." + +With a visible effort the woman controlled herself. + +"Yes," she said in a voice strange in her own ears, "Yes, I know him. +Would--would you give me his address?" + +He took out a card from his vest pocket, wrote a line or two, and +handed it to her in silence. As she read it her face grew almost +radiant with surprised delight. + +"_Here_?" she murmured. "So near?" + +She seemed incapable of further speech, and, seeing it, the gentleman +said quickly, + +"You will pardon my officiousness. He is here in India, not many miles +out from Bombay, and I shall see him very soon. Am I to mention you? +I might--" he hesitated for the right words--"I could only say the +pleasantest things of you, and the most general, but I am his friend, +whom he claims to like and respect. If I am meddling with what is none +of my business--" + +"No, no, you are all that is helpful and kind! Let me think--no, I +won't think--I have thought too much, and sometimes first impulses are +best. I will trust you fully. You have tact, you know the world. I +feel that you have guessed out a great deal of what it is hard to bring +myself to talk about. But this much I will say--the man you mention +was--no, is--my husband! For the rest, go to my good friend, the +captain; he will tell you all. Good-by, and thank you from my heart!" + +They clasped hands silently--the two strangers whose life-threads had +been permitted to cross, just now, for some divine purpose, then the +woman, stirred to the depths, went to her stateroom, and the man stood +still for a time, looking out to sea. "Life is a wonder," he mused, "a +succession of surprises. When Duncan brought his men to the relief of +a stranger, set upon and nearly overwhelmed by an angry Chinese mob, +that day in Muen Yan's district, he did not imagine what might come of +it to his own advantage. I felt, from the minute I heard Lady +Moreham's name, that I had gotten hold of the other end of Duncan's +mystery, and I have not watched her so closely for nothing, all this +voyage. My misguided friend and his over-proud wife will meet more +happily than they parted, or I am much mistaken. I must wire him the +minute I touch land." + +Just down the deck the girls were laughing merrily, as Hope, teased +into it by her sister, who was curious to know why she had failed in +personating herself, told the story with keen enjoyment of her own +discomfiture. + +"It was away back," she began, "as much as three weeks ago, and Faith +had been real mean and shut herself up with a book. In fact, nobody +seemed real nice and ready for fun, and I couldn't find Dwight to plan +things, so I sat moping on deck when I saw Mr. Carnegie coming along, +looking almost as glum as I, and the thought crossed my mind that we +might mutually cheer each other--and then, like a flash, I determined +to pretend to be Faith. I looked up in a sweet, meek way with a +smile--" + +"Like this--" interpolated Carnegie, with a smirk that sent them all +into convulsions. + +"I couldn't look like that if I tried!" indignantly. "And you mustn't +interrupt." + +"I was only illustrating. Picture stories always take better with +children. But beg pardon! Go on." + +"Humph! Well, he took my bait with alacrity," giving the young man a +defiant look, "so I began to talk to him as soon as he had got settled +in his chair. I asked him whether he preferred Longfellow, or +Tennyson," with a laughing glance at her discomfited sister, who had a +little weakness for displaying her knowledge of poetry. "I didn't dare +go into any of those other fellows, like--oh, Keats, say, or--or--well +any of 'em--but I knew about the 'Building of the Ship,' and there's +lots of guessing about Browning anyhow, so I thought I might steer +clear of snags, if I managed well. Mr. Carnegie seemed ready enough to +talk about them both, but oh! what a dance he did lead me! He called +me Miss Faith, right enough, but when he asked me to repeat again, in +that charming manner I knew so well, those fine lines from Jean Ingelow +that I had given him yesterday, I began to tremble. He seemed +astonished when I asked vaguely--'What lines?' and remarked that he had +never supposed me forgetful before. Then he began talking about Ibsen, +and I gave up. 'Oh! for goodness' sake, stop!' I cried, 'I'm not Faith +at all.' 'I knew it,' he said calmly, 'and thought I could soon make +you own up. Now, aren't you ashamed of yourself?' And I was!" + +"And yet tried the same game on me!" commented Allyne in a low tone, +but with reproachful emphasis. + +She turned a laughing face upon him. + +"Oh, no, that was different. You deceived yourself. Would you have me +go about setting everybody straight?" + +"Not at all. All I ask is that you will set me straight." + +"Indeed!" cried Hope, "but that is asking a good deal." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +IN OLD BOMBAY. + +"I never expected it to look like this," remarked Faith in a +dissatisfied tone, as they entered the carriage for their first +explorations in Bombay, a day or so later. + +She spoke to the air, perhaps, but her father answered the comment. + +"Isn't it fine enough to please you, daughter?" as he took his seat +opposite the two girls in a handsome victoria, that would not have +disgraced the most aristocratic drive in London. + +"Fine enough? It's too fine!" put in Hope with emphasis. "It's as +Englishy as Portsmouth itself, so far. We expected to see coolies, and +palanquins, and bungalows, and cobras, and--" + +"Well, you need not hanker long after the last-named," laughed her +father, "for there is a snake-charmer this minute, and I don't doubt he +has a fine collection about him somewhere." + +"In his boots, perhaps," suggested Faith slily, as they all turned to +gaze at the dark-skinned fellow in dingy white turban and loin-cloth, +who squatted on the sidewalk before one of those high modern buildings +which had excited Faith's comment, a long pipe at his lips and a basket +at his side, from which peeped an ugly flat head with darting tongue. + +"Ugh!" she shuddered, turning another way, "I don't care for your +cobras, Hope, and everybody knows that bungalows aren't to be found in +city streets. But as for the coolies and palanquins, of course--" + +"You have them both!" laughed the captain, pointing down the narrower +street into which they had just entered. + +All laughed with him, while the black bearers trotted by, as suddenly, +from between the curtains of this box-like carriage, out popped a +tennis cap, while a well-known voice shouted a boyish "Hello!" as a +hand was waved in greeting. + +"It's Dwight--Hello! Hello!" Hope shouted back, waving her white +parasol vigorously. "Isn't he the greatest boy?" + +"I wonder if he'll turn up on that bullock cart, too. He seems +omnipresent!" laughed the captain, as they whirled by. "When are they +off for Poonah?" + +"I suppose to-day, but perhaps not till night," returned Faith. + +"Did you ever see anything like that? If you call this Englishy, Hope." + +"No, I don't. Things are beginning to look quite Indiany, since we +left those fine new streets, I confess." + +They were now slowly threading their way among the teeming crowds of a +narrow place where it seemed as if the odd-looking houses upon each +side had emptied all their occupants out before their doors. Men but +half-clothed spread out their wares, or plied their trades, in full +view of all, and children with no clothes at all paddled their bare +black feet in the gutters, or sat cross-legged, rolling marbles over +the paving stones. Presently, Faith pointed with a significant smile, +and as they drove slowly by a teeming doorway, each gazed with +astonished curiosity at the characteristic scene. + +The central figure was a man in the barber's hands, who was just then +calmly lathering his customer's face in the full gaze of all, while +close by a straight, lithe, young Indian woman, with a bright-eyed baby +sitting astride her hips, stopped to sell the two a handful of figs, +from the fruit-tray balanced lightly above the gay cotton sari +confining her dark locks. + +"The men seem to have the best time of it here," remarked the girl in +low tones. "The idea of that poor girl carrying so much about with +her. I should think her baby was enough!" + +"Yes, but that is better than being harnessed up with a donkey," said +her father, bending forward to give the driver some instructions. + +Faith looked at him with an astonished gaze. + +"I never heard you speak of marriage like that before," she said +reproachfully. + +"Marriage?" He looked at her with a dazed expression, then broke into +a hearty laugh. "So you thought my donkey was a husband? A queer +mistake that! No, I meant the real thing--the four-legged donkey--and +I literally mean that poor women are often used with donkeys to do the +same kind of work." + +"Shameful!" cried Hope indignantly. + +"That is by no means the worst that woman has to bear in this country. +I thank God my daughters came to a Christian land. A girl is of little +account here, except to bear burdens, or wait on her lord and master. +And when her husband dies she is to be deeply pitied. Married when but +a small child, she goes into her husband's family to be cared for by +his people, until old enough to be his wife in reality. Sometimes she +is well treated, sometimes not. If he does not happen to fancy her as +she grows older, her lot is little better than that of a slave, and she +is beaten and abused by the other more favored women. But this is +bliss compared with her condition should her husband die. Then, all +her ornaments, which she loves as little children love glittering toys, +are torn off, her head is shaved, she is made to look as hideous as +possible, and cannot take part in any enjoyments or festivities +whatever, but must run away and hide from every man, even her nearest +of kin. But she is not only barred from every pleasure, but from all +affection, as well. Her lord's death is laid at her door, and his +family take every occasion to load her with reproaches, because if she +had not been wicked in some other existence he would not have been lost +to her now. It is not much wonder that the poor things used to be +ready to die with him on the funeral pyre, for when they decided to do +that, they were loaded with jewels and praises, everybody flattered +them and told them that, because of their devotion, not only the +husband, but all his relatives, would have better places in Paradise, +and reign forever. So, intoxicated with all this notice, and delighted +with her splendid attire, the benighted little creature, who never gets +beyond childhood in intellect, felt she would rather have a short life +and a merry one, and so often committed Suttee." + +"And don't they do so now?" asked Hope. + +"No, it is abolished by law--British law. + +"But they burn their dead yet, don't they?" was Faith's question, as +she listened with sympathetic shivers. + +"Yes. Some day, when I get time we will go to the Ganges and see some +of their strange burial ceremonies--that is, if you can stand it, +daughter." + +"Oh yes, but I do think there are some dreadful things in this world, +papa!" + +"True, darling, and there would have been more dreadful, if the blessed +Son of God had not come to teach us better ways. Man, left to himself, +is always a savage. God and good women, both, have helped him to be +better." + +He spoke reverently, touching the visor of his cap involuntarily. When +he thought of good women, memory always recalled the wife he had loved, +and his soul blessed her memory. + +They had now left the new town far behind them, and were slowly passing +between expressionless house walls, with soiled awnings stretched above +the lane-like street. The whole population seemed to live out of +doors, and the cooking, hammering, tailoring, baby-tending, and +lounging, was all done at so close range that the horses could scarcely +keep from stepping on the merchants, and the carriage was in danger of +making a wreck of his stock of goods. The houses, which seemed only to +serve as backgrounds to all this teeming life, were of all colors--red, +green, orange, and blue--and between the queer, many-shaped roof-tops +waved the feathery crowns of date trees, the glossy foliage of the fig, +and the stately fronds of the palm--but these were of scanter growth +just here, though what there were, swarmed with kites, crows, +parakeets, and even squirrels, while dogs "by the million," as Hope +remarked, and cattle, and monkeys, and goats, were on every spot where +babies and larger children had left an inch of room. + +As they penetrated further into the native portion of the city, Captain +Hosmer called the girls' attention to the many shrines, where some one +was always standing with clasped hands and bent head, engaged in +prayers to Parvati, perhaps, or Vishnu--for the image in the shrine +differed--and to the peculiar reverence which every Hindu shows to the +cow, a sacred animal to them. The gentle creature seems actually one +of the family, possibly prized even more than the children, for it +furnishes them with food, drink and fuel and receives in return the +first notice and care. + +"The orthodox Hindu will feed his cow before he does himself," said the +captain. "And as he does so, he will repeat a little invocation, and +when he meets one on the road he will touch her sleek side and then his +own forehead, that so her blessings may be upon his head." + +"And let his daughters be treated worse than dogs," breathed Hope in +deep disgust. + +"Father," said Faith with sudden fervor. "I am ashamed of myself that +I ever begrudged the little bit of missionary money I used to give at +Sunday-school. If I could have realized how much these people need to +be taught better, I would have given four times as much, and weighted +it with prayers. Why, I think it is awful!" + +"And yet this land is far advanced in decency and civilization compared +with many," was the reply. "With the missionary, the trained nurse, +and the railroad, India is in a fair way to become thoroughly +enlightened before a half-century has rolled away. The trouble is that +she clings so to her own cherished ideas of caste, and of worship. +Personally the Hindostanee is a good fellow--gentle, charitable, and a +loyal friend--but he is so priest-ridden, and so filled with +superstitions and notions, that it is almost impossible to get any +sense, far less any Christianity, into his pate. I have a large +respect for those who stay here year by year, braving a climate that is +enough to take all the life out of the strongest, and laboring with +this prejudiced people, just because it is their duty. Folks oughtn't +to begrudge them a few pennies, saved from candy or ribbons, my dear." + +"No," said Faith, leaning back and closing her eyes a moment. "What a +glare it is!" she murmured wearily. "The sun is so hot, and the light +so white and blinding; then the houses are so dreadfully blue and pink, +and the crows and people so black, and the dogs so greedy, and +everything so noisy, it makes my head ache!" + +"It _is_ wearing, daughter, and one can't stand too much of it at +once." He gave another order, and they presently came into a wider +street, that was almost like a viaduct for shelter, as awnings were +stretched above it the whole length. There was scarcely any life here, +and the high stone walls of wealthy homes shut them in, with only an +occasional balcony, or latticed window, to break the monotony of their +blank surfaces. + +"Here live the native families of the highest caste," explained the +captain, "and inside are beautiful courts, with flowers and fountains, +where they lounge and live, as the lower classes do in the streets. +But it is cooler here, if not so lively." + +"Delicious!" murmured Faith enjoyingly, still resting her eyes where +there was little to see. + +They turned from this shaded way into one of the new streets and, as +the carriage suddenly stopped with an exclamation from her father, she +looked up to see Huri, Tegeloo, and a half-dozen other Mohammedans of +the "International," bowing to the ground before them, their white +teeth showing in their fine dark faces, full of joy and devotion. On +Tegeloo's wrist perched Texas, while a little black head popped up from +a fold of Huri's mantle, and both bird and monkey began a noisy +greeting in their own tongues--which meant a vociferous "Hello!" from +the former and a chuckling cry from the latter. Warned by past +experience the girls had left their pets on shipboard, in care of these +faithful servants, who now were evidently giving them an airing. + +"How nice of you, Tegeloo!" cried Hope, stroking the parrot, who +grunted with satisfaction, and informed her many times that he was +still, "Poor Texas, pretty Texas!" nipping her finger gently as he +sidled and snuggled, while Andy leaped to Faith's lap, and was so +determined to stay that he had to be removed by force, soft-hearted +Faith looking back at the crying baby with the expression of a mother +bereft of her child. + +"Andy got swell-head!" laughed Huri, as he stroked him into submission, +"Andy like to ride in big carriage. He no walk!" at which resentful +Andy gave him a sounding slap that promptly ended his comments. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +FRIENDS ASHORE. + +As the Hosmers returned to the hotel, each noted a handsome carriage +before the door, with liveried outriders, and while themselves +alighting young Allyne and his friend, Mr. Donelson, came down the +steps to reach it, but, seeing our party, made haste to intercept them. + +"We've just been to call on you," cried the former, his face radiant at +the fortunate meeting, "and were about departing utterly crestfallen. +Do you notice our style?" with a merry glance at the grand equipage. + +"Notice it! It fills all the horizon," laughed Hope, with reddening +cheeks. "We supposed that the Governor-General, at the very least, had +come to bid us welcome, and inquire after our health. Of course we +could not admit the idea that he had come here for any other purpose." + +"Well, we may not be the Governor-General--who, by the way, might not +feel like a journey from Calcutta just for a friendly call even upon +two charming young ladies," observed Mr. Donelson, "but I haven't a +doubt you'll find us quite as interesting!" + +"And a great deal younger," added Allyne suggestively. + +"Oh! such conceit," cried Faith, as they bubbled over with laughter. + +"And we're much obliged for your valuable information," added Hope, +rather taken aback at her own blunder. + +"About the location of the Residency, or our relative ages?" asked +Allyne. + +"We make no charge for either!" continued Donelson, airily. + +"Better come back inside then, gentlemen," proposed the captain. "It's +a bit warm here." + +But they felt they must get back for dinner, now, though it evidently +cost Allyne something to decline. + +"We will sometime meet again?" he questioned, as he clasped Hope's hand +and looked beseechingly into her eyes. + +"Possibly," she returned, flushing slightly, then with a mischievous +glance, "But are you certain which of us you are speaking to? Have you +learned to distinguish us yet?" + +"I have--perfectly!" was the tart response. "When the rose gives me a +taste of its thorns it is you; Miss Faith is never sarcastic." + +"Indeed!" + +"But,"--quickly--"I like thorns! They give zest to the loveliest rose." + +"Come," admonished her father in a dry tone, "this glare and glitter +will give you a headache. It isn't healthy." + +The girls somewhat slowly followed him in. The young men rode away. +In the heart of one was a deadly fear that, by one hour's foolishness, +he might have forfeited some privileges which had become most precious +in his sight of late. The other broke into his musings with a ruthless +word, + +"The captain does not specially favor us, Tom." + +"I am sure he treated us politely," was returned with some resentment. + +"Yes, too politely. I wouldn't get foolish in that direction, my boy; +it won't work." + +Tom Allyne did not answer, and his face was sober. But presently its +expression lightened. He recalled what Carnegie had said of the +captain's comment, after that dreadful night of fire and flood, and +took courage. + +"I've got to prove myself a man first," he told himself, "and it won't +be an easy thing to do, with my surroundings. Is she worth it?" Then, +as the color flamed into his cheeks, "Heaven help me to be worthy of +her! And remember that you are worth saving, or you wouldn't have been +given this chance, Tom Allyne!" + + +It was late the next afternoon when, trying to keep cool in their shady +balcony in sheer white gowns of India lawn, another guest was +announced, and to the surprise of both Mr. Carnegie entered, with the +Traveler. + +"Why, we thought you had gone on!" said Faith, with a flush, doubtless +produced by the heat, which was great. + +"I expected to," returned Carnegie, as the others exchanged greetings, +the captain appearing in a duck coat and trousers which quite +transformed him, "but found a day's reprieve awaiting me, which has +lengthened out, as my men have had to undergo some formalities of +registration here. I have been too busy to see you sooner, though it +was hard to keep away. I met old Quint on the street to-day, and +really longed to shake hands with him, just because he was from the +'International.' How attached I did get to that dear old steamer!" + +"Yes, these attachments to steamers are really wonderful!" observed the +Traveler with a dry air that sent the captain and Hope off into a peal +of merriment, while the other young people looked very sheepish. But +Carnegie soon rallied. + +"I think they are, myself!" he allowed with frankness. "And I don't +propose to let the attachment die out in my case, either," he added +boldly. "Captain Hosmer, may I write to you and your daughters +occasionally?" + +The captain gave him a keen glance, which presently broadened into a +smile. + +"I shall be happy to hear from you," he said heartily, "but I am not a +very good correspondent, myself. I usually get Faith, here, to answer +my letters. Of course she may not make them so interesting as I +should, but, barring a little too much tendency to long words and +poetical quotations, she does very well. Yes, indeed, let us hear +occasionally, Mr. Carnegie. I shall be interested to learn how you +succeed in your new work." + +Though all were smiling at the captain's raillery, Carnegie turned an +earnest face upon him. + +"I have some idea that I may go back with you. You will have to be +here much longer than you had intended, won't you?" + +"Considerably longer, yes. All right, if you can. The old +'International' will give you a welcome." + +The two callers lingered almost beyond the limits of etiquette, and +when they separated it was with an "Au revoir" from the young officer. + +"I won't say good-by," he declared; "I shall see you again." + +It was a day or so later. The Hosmers had taken the little steam +launch for a trip to the island of Elephanta, containing the famous +caves of the same name. It was a glorious morning, and the short trip +over the dancing, dazzling waves to the pretty islet, with its steep +banks and waving palms, was a delightful one. As they landed, the +captain pointed out the mangrove swamps, and the rich growth of wild +indigo and Karunda bushes, while Hope went wild over the splendid +butterflies, which settled down in showers before them, transforming +the green bushes into great nosegays of purple, crimson, and orange +bloom. Only, these blossoms constantly changed and shifted, with +feathery, fluttering movements and kaleidoscopic changes. + +Birds were many and brilliant, also, and to add to this animal life a +horde of dark-skinned little Hindu boys started up at every turn, +clamoring to sell the party all sorts of odd collections, from jungle +flowers to the gilded wood lice, the name of which condemns them, +though they are really beautiful insects, until death robs them of +their glow, and makes them as repulsive as others of their kin. + +"Haven't I heard that snakes abound here?" asked Faith timorously, as +they ascended the stone steps leading up the hill from the swampland +below. "Don't they kill a good many every year?" + +Her father smiled knowingly, and, as they reached the top, turned to an +English soldier in charge, and said laughingly, "My daughter, here, +imagines you keep snakes on hand--the idea!" + +The other seemed to find some fun in the remark, and grinned broadly. + +"The young ladies need have no fear," he returned politely, as he +touched his white helmet. + +But, as the girls passed on, he detained the Captain with a wink. "I +see you know," he whispered, "but don't be worried. We've just been +the rounds and killed three, and I don't believe any more will trouble +us to-day. Just keep your eyes open, though, for they make the +ninety-sixth this season. We'll soon get it up to the century mark; +but it isn't like it used to be, when four and five hundred made the +yearly score." His tone was positively regretful, though he referred +to the cobra, deadliest of serpents, and the curse of every bright bit +of glade and forest in India. It crawls out from its holes in the +caverns of this island of Elephanta, and, with the miasma just as +deadly that rises from the swamps, makes any residence upon its +lovely-seeming hillsides a constant menace. But where will not people +stay if prompted by self-interest? The dwellers on the sides of +Vesuvius do not lie awake to wait for its eruption, and the dwellers on +Elephanta do not step any more gingerly in their bare feet because at +any moment a sting may end their career. + +If "Death stalketh abroad at noonday," we always imagine he is on his +way to some other fireside; ours is not to be invaded. + +But the captain needed no warning. He had seen to it that the girls +were thickly shod for their tramp, and he himself carried a cane with a +heavy silver top, while his eyes, trained to close observation, seldom +missed seeing what they were looking for. He soon overtook the girls, +and preceded them down the stone steps into the cavern, upon which most +of these poisonous reptiles are encountered in that special vicinity. + +If one _will_ visit a region devoted to a god whose power is +represented by a hooded serpent, he should not complain at meeting the +real thing, occasionally. Elephanta is dedicated to Shiva, the +Destroyer, her attributes being imaged in the person of the cobra. + +"Ugh! How gloomy!" muttered Hope, as they descended into the damp, +cool cavern, keeping close to her father, but letting her roving eyes +take in the mass of carving on every side. + +"What does it all mean, papa?" asked Faith, also drawing closer. + +"It is grand, and horrible!" + +"Dose be gods," replied the native guide, giving her a reproachful +look. "It is one s'rine to deir memory." + +"Dear me! I wouldn't want to remember them," she went on quaintly, not +noticing his look. "I am only afraid I shall, in my dreams. How can +any people believe that supreme power can take such shapes as these?" + +Her father looked thoughtful. + +"Yet, after all, it is not so strange. When I think of the cruel +forces in nature man had to overcome in early days, with his constant +terror of the many he could not in the least understand--like +electricity, or wind, even--and his danger from savage beasts and +deadly reptiles, is it any wonder he got hold of but one idea,--that of +power? It took a Saviour to fully teach him love and salvation. Even +the prophets and priests couldn't make him fully understand. No, I +don't wonder the ancients tried to propitiate all these harmful forces +and begged for their mercy--poor wretches!" + +As he spoke, in a low tone, they were passing slowly around the gloomy +place at the heels of the guide, and shudderingly gazing at the hideous +representations of a barbaric faith which seemed starting out of the +shadows under the upheld torches. At first they could scarcely +separate the crowding figures, so intermingled were they, but +presently, as their eyes became more accustomed to the weird lights and +shades, they could separate them into distinct groups and figures. + +Before one gigantic, but peculiar form, which is the central one in +that cavern, they lingered long, while the guide explained that this +image is an attempt to show how perfectly the highest of their gods, +Brahma, unites both sexes, in character and personality. One side +gives the image of a man, rugged and muscular, the other, that of a +woman, softly molded, and with long braids of hair. + +Into the midst of their still and thoughtful survey broke the noise of +frivolous talk and laughter, and another party were heard at the +opening. They did not at once enter. They seemed far more occupied in +making arrangements for some prospective merry-making than in any study +of these curious relics. The girls could hear talk of champagne-cup +and curry, and suddenly a voice sounded which made them look at each +other. + +"That is Mrs. Campbell," said Hope. "What is she doing here?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +IN ELEPHANTA'S CAVES. + +As she spoke some of the party began to descend. A man's voice, with a +drawling accent, made some remark about its being "a beastly hole," and +another, of a heartier bass tone added, + +"You've hit it, Campbell. It is a 'beastly hole,' and the beasts are +cobras, at your service. They kill a dozen or so a day, here." + +"Heavens!" screamed a woman, "and you expect us to go down to certain +death there? How ungallant!"--and amid such laughter and persiflage +half a dozen men and women descended. + +"But really, are there snakes?" asked Mrs. Campbell's languid tones, +curiously like her husband's, without his coarseness--for this heavy, +beefy, blear-eyed man was undoubtedly the husband whom she had never +cared to mention on shipboard.--"You know I am deathly afraid of them. +I should faint if I saw one." + +Her voice showed real agitation, but her husband laughed uproariously. +Evidently he was under the influence of liquor. The girls, after one +glance at him, shrank back into the shadow, hoping they would not be +recognized by the wife. For the first time in their acquaintance of +the woman, they pitied her. To be that man's daily companion was a +degradation. + +Just as Mrs. Campbell's dainty foot touched the stone floor of the +cavern, the captain saw a gliding motion in the uncertain light, and, +with the readiness of the man used to coping with danger, he sprang +forward and struck at something dark and slender, that might have been +but a crevice in the uneven floor. But it was no crevice. A hissing +sound issued from the silent, creeping thing, and with shrieks of +consternation the women fled back up the stairway, while Mr. Campbell +and the other man leaped to one corner, to get beyond the reach of its +fangs. + +"Stay where you are!" shouted the captain to his daughters. "I'll +never let it get away;" and they could hear the whistle of his labored +breathing, and the loud whacking of his stick, as they cowered behind +the guide, white with terror. + +It was over in a moment, and the reptile, inert and helpless, was +stretched half-way across the entrance room. The captain stood upright +and wiped his forehead. + +"Come, girlies," he said, trying to speak cheerily, "let's get out of +here. We've seen enough, I guess!" + +Nothing loth, they quickly followed him up the steps while the +trembling men and the guide gathered carefully around the now harmless +reptile. Amid the consternation of the ladies above, who had widely +scattered in their terror, the three were about departing unnoticed, +when Mrs. Campbell recognized them and called out, + +"Is that you, Captain Hosmer--and did you kill that horrid snake. I +might have known it! You have a way of being on hand when you are +needed." + +He lifted his cap, and, as the girls hesitated, she came up to them +with a really sweet look on her face. + +"Don't hurry away, girls! You don't know how good it seems to see you +again. I have been almost homesick ever since we landed. You know the +Windemeres have gone on, but I found Mr. Campbell here waiting for me. +We--" + +She was interrupted by a coarse laugh, and her husband appeared, +ascending the steps. Turning to him, she said in a dignified tone, + +"Rufus, these are Captain Hosmer and his daughters, of the +'International.' I want you to meet them, then we will try and +persuade them to eat tiffin with us, provided we can think of eating +after such an adventure!" + +As she spoke he came fully into view, and suddenly flirted out one hand +from behind his coat, paying no heed to her remark. To her horror, she +saw it was the dead snake he was thus playing with, and, knowing him of +old, she turned pale. + +"Rufus!" she cried warningly, backing up a step. + +He gave a tantalizing laugh, and gave the repulsive thing another +flirt, which brought it near her face. With a shriek of dismay she +broke into a run, feeling, as she did so, that she had made a great +mistake. He started after her, every step taking them further from the +group, where she might have had protection from his vicious teasing. + +"Stop!" thundered the captain, seeing the woman's wild face, "Stop, or +you'll do her a mischief," but, laughing so loudly that he could hear +nothing else, the brute kept on. + +Mrs. Campbell, wildly excited, could not keep up this pace long, and as +she faltered, in hopes to dodge and turn back, he drew nearer and gave +the snake a fling. It whizzed about her head, and she gave an awful +shriek of horror as she felt its slimy folds about her neck. It was +too much! Never a strong woman, and morbidly afraid of these cobras, +living or dead, she sank down in a faint, just before her amazed +husband, who nearly stumbled over her inert body. + +"Bless us! If she hasn't fainted," he muttered stupidly, as he bent +over her, too muddled to understand all he had done. + +The captain reached them before he had done more than stupidly gaze at +her, and unceremoniously flinging him one side, said, "Give her air, +you brute! It's lucky for you if you haven't killed her!" + +He laid her back on the grass, flinging the snake far away, and the +excited women gathered around. Just at this instant the launch sounded +its summons for departure, and Captain Hosmer knew, if he would meet an +important engagement at noon, he must not let her sail without him. +Meanwhile, the drunken husband was bridling and threatening, claiming +that the man had insulted him--yes, "actually had the audacity to lay +hands on him, begad!" The captain did not notice him any more than if +he had been a puppy snarling at his heels. + +"We'll have to go," he said to one of the women, who looked more +sensible than the rest. "A little water will revive her, but another +such fright may be the death of her, with her heart giving out like +that. You look after her, and get her home--" He stopped. "Poor +creature! Where on earth is there a home for her?" With a stern +visage he offered an arm to each of his daughters. + +"We'll have to hurry, girlies. We must leave her to her friends. But +mind me! Before I ever let one of you marry a drinking man I'll shut +you up in the hold of the old 'International,' and batten down the +hatches! Do you hear?" + +Neither attempted to answer, but Hope looked sober as he helped them +aboard the launch, which was all steamed up ready for the start. The +first person they saw was the Traveler. + +"Well met!" he cried gaily, as they shook hands with the cordiality of +old friends. "You've been visiting false gods, I see." + +"Yes, and where have you strayed from?" returned the captain, trying to +throw off disagreeable impressions. + +The Traveler mentioned a resort further on, at which the launch also +stopped for passengers, and Hope, rallying a little, remarked, + +"It's odd enough! We supposed almost everybody was going on from +Bombay, and we would be the only ones left, but they all seem to +linger, and appear in the most unexpected places." + +"That's a way we have in Bombay," laughed the gentleman. "But I really +have a good reason--a delay in the preparation of my outfit. I left my +card for you this morning, with my final farewell pencilled upon it, +for I expect to leave before dark. Meanwhile, have you seen Lady +Moreham?" + +"No, not since we landed. She is one who has seemed to drop out of +sight most unaccountably." + +"I did not suppose you had, for she and Mrs. Poinsett left very +hurriedly last night." + +"Indeed! For where?" + +"Delhi, at first. The fact is, she joins her husband there--a friend +of my own, by the way. A telegram from him hastened her going, and one +of my reasons for calling was to give you her adieux, and all sorts of +kind messages. I also left a letter from her to the Misses Hosmer at +your rooms." + +"A letter for us--how charming!" cried Faith, while Hope nodded +vigorously. + +But the captain, with a glance at his daughters, said lightly, + +"And nothing for me?" + +"I think she hoped to see you, Captain, but doubtless her letter +explains everything. Did you know the old Madam is dead?" + +"No! You don't say so. And is that why Lord Duncan--" + +The Traveler shook his head. "I am a good deal in the dark about the +particulars, but I learned something of the drift of affairs from the +husband's own lips. I know he repented deeply of yielding such +implicit obedience to that proud old woman's wishes. But she ruled all +of her kin with a rod of iron. And to such a nature as Lady Moreham's +the constant restraint, the sarcastic comments, and the vigilant +training to which she was subjected, must have been terribly irksome. +I can at least vaguely understand it, and I have her permission to ask +you for her side of the affair." + +"Yes," assented the captain. "Well, well I am glad the embargo is +removed. It was that separation that the old dame insisted upon, which +broke her heart. It was bad enough to be so completely cut off from +all her own family, but when her husband, himself, consented that she +should be banished for a season, to be properly molded and made over by +Mrs. Poinsett, while he traveled in foreign lands, it was the last +hold. She never could grip her anchor to any faith in God or man, for +a time, and I think she hated everybody--at any rate everybody in the +aristocracy." + +"And we thought her proud of her rank!" murmured Faith. "Do you +remember that first day when we called her 'a specimen of British +aristocracy,' Hope?" + +"I remember when _I_ did," was the honest answer. "It was a foolish +thing to say, and I have regretted it ever since." + +"We can never judge with absolute correctness," mused the Traveler, +with his kindly smile. + +"But papa, hasn't she any home relatives left to her--not even a +sister?" asked Faith, and unconsciously her arm stole about the waist +of her beloved twin. + +"I hope she has," was the answer, as the rugged sailor's face turned +fondly towards the two. "I have a notion that her letter will explain +how, all unconsciously, my little girls have been a link between her +and her dear old home." + +"We?" cried both, "how wonderful! How could we? Do tell us!" + +"Let the letter tell," said the captain, and the Traveler remarked in a +reverent tone, as he gazed thoughtfully over the beautiful sheet of +water, + +"We journey side by side, and our lives meet and separate without +apparent thought, or design. It is God who writes the completed story, +and seals the sequel with His own 'AMEN.'" + + + + +THE END. + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of All Aboard, by Fannie E. 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