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diff --git a/21453.txt b/21453.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..54ee14f --- /dev/null +++ b/21453.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6526 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Captain Mugford, by W.H.G. Kingston + +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: Captain Mugford + Our Salt and Fresh Water Tutors + +Author: W.H.G. Kingston + +Illustrator: Holloway + +Release Date: May 15, 2007 [EBook #21453] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPTAIN MUGFORD *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + +Captain Mugford, or Our Salt and Fresh Water Tutors, by W.H.G. Kingston. + +________________________________________________________________________ + +This is not a long book, but it is an absolutely delightful one. The +Tregellins had owned a large old house on a headland in Cornwall. They +had not lived there for some time, and had left it in the care of Clump +and his wife Juno, West Indians, while the family lived in Bristol. +Tregellin senior decides that he will install some of his young +relatives there, in the care of the Clumps and two tutors, one of which, +Mr Clare, has to deal with their academic needs, and the other, Captain +Mugford, is to teach them watermanship. The date is early in the +nineteenth century. + +There is also a brave and virtuous dog, Ugly. The boys' sailing, +swimming and rowing improve, and they rise to various challenges. +Eventually they all set off for a longer sailing and fishing expedition. + But it all goes pear-shaped, as the weather turns very nasty, and they +are marooned on a reef some way out to sea. Clare is not on this +expedition, but they need a way to alert him to where they are. It is +Ugly that saves the day. + +They had been using an old wrecked brig, high ashore in the bay, as a +classroom, but unknown to them some smugglers have been using it as a +base as well. Open war breaks out, and things get nasty. Read the book +to find out what happens in the end. + +________________________________________________________________________ + +CAPTAIN MUGFORD, OR OUR SALT AND FRESH WATER TUTORS, BY W.H.G. KINGSTON. + + + +CHAPTER ONE. + +INTRODUCTORY. + +We belong to a Cornish family of the greatest respectability and high +antiquity--so say the county records, in which we have every reason to +place the most unbounded confidence. The Tregellins have possessed the +same estate for I do not know exactly how long; only I suppose it must +have been some time after Noah disembarked from the ark, and, at all +events, for a very long time. The estate of which I speak was in a wild +part of the country, and not at that time very productive; but I believe +that my father would not have parted with it for ten times its market +value. It contained between four and five hundred acres of hill and +dale, and rock and copse, and wood; its chief feature a lofty cape, +which ran out for a considerable distance into the sea. On one side it +was exposed to the almost unbroken sweep of the Atlantic Ocean; on the +other it was washed by the tranquil waters of a deep bay, which formed a +safe and picturesque harbour for numerous small craft which frequently +took shelter there from press of weather when running up channel. + +That headland, where the happiest half-year of all my boyhood's days was +passed, is now dotted with several pleasant summer residences; its acres +are marked off by fences and walls, and variegated with the diverse +crops of well-tilled fields, and on its bay-side are occasional small +wharves for pleasure-boats. Fifty years ago it was very different, and, +(though, perhaps, I may be an old fogey and have that grey-hair fashion +of thinking, with an expressive shrug, "Ah, things are not as they were +when I was a boy!") I must say, far more beautiful to my eyes than it is +now. You have seen a bold, handsome-bearded, athletic sailor-fellow, +with a manner combining the sunniness of calms, the dash of storms, and +the romance of many strange lands about him. Now, if our admired hero +should abandon his adventurous profession, and settle down quietly into +the civilised career of an innkeeper, or village constable, or shopman, +or sedate church clerk, and we chanced to meet him years after his "life +on the ocean wave," it would probably be to find a sober-faced +gentleman, with forehead a little bald, with somewhat of a paunch, with +sturdy legs and gaiters, perhaps with a stiff stock and dignified white +collar--altogether a very respectable, useful citizen. But the eye and +the heart could not find in our excellent acquaintance the fascination +which so charmed us in our _friend_ the brave sailor. So with our cape: +fifty years ago, in all its natural wildness; in the beauty of its +lonely beaches strewn with pieces of shivered waterlogged spars and +great rusty remnants of ship-knees and keels; in the melancholy of those +strips of short brown heath on the seaside, disappearing in the white +sand; in the frowning outlines of the determined rocks that like +fortresses defied their enemy the ocean; in the roll of crisp pasturage +that in unbroken swells covered the long backbone of the cape; in the +few giant old trees, and, more than all, in its character of freedom, +loneliness, and isolation, there was a savage charm and dignity that the +thrift and cultivation, the usefulness and comfort of civilisation's +beauty can never equal. + +My first sight of the old cape was when I was about nine years of age. +My father took me with him in a chaise from Bristol--two days' journey +in those times; and I do not think now that my year's tour of Europe, +fifteen years after, was half as full of incident and delight as that my +first expedition of a few hours. I can recall how the man at the +toll-gate hobbled to us on his crutch; how my father chatted with him +for a few moments; how, as we drove off, the man straightened himself on +his crutch and touched the brim of his hat with the back of his hand. +How well I remember the amazement with which I then heard my father say, +"Robert, that man lost his leg while fighting under the great Duke in +the Peninsula." I thrust my head far out of the chaise to look well at +my first live hero. That sight was romance enough for an hour. Then +the first glimpse of the top of the high cape, and my father's telling +me that where I saw the haze beyond was the ocean, were sources of +further reverie and mystery, dispelled, however, very suddenly when +directly afterwards a wheel came off the chaise and pitched me into the +road, with my father's small valise on my stomach. I remember the walk +to the nearest house, which happened to be an inn, and how my father +took off a large tumbler of ale, and gave me some biscuits and a glass +of water. It occurred to me, I recollect, whether, when I became a man, +I should be able to drink a full glass of ale and not be a drunkard, and +whether my son would take biscuits and water and I not be conscious that +he wanted to taste the ale. A thousand things more I remember--mere +trifles in reality, but abounding in great interest to me on my first +journey, which really then seemed of as much importance as Captain +Cook's voyage around the world or Mungo Park's travels in Africa. It +was a delightful day, the most interesting chapter in my life up to that +time--brimful of novelty, thought, and excitement--but I shall not write +its events in detail. What I have already mentioned will do as a +sample. Late in the afternoon--it was the afternoon of a September day, +the first fine one after a three days' storm--we reached the cape, just +as the short sombre twilight of an autumn day settled down on land and +sea. As the horse trudged laboriously along through the heavy piece of +sand connecting the cape and the mainland, I was almost terrified by the +great sound of waves, whose spray tossed up in vast spouts from every +rocky head before us. The rush of waters, the rumbling of great stones +receding with the current, the booming as of ships' broadsides--all +these united to awe a little boy making his first acquaintance with the +ocean. + +When we drove up to the house, which was the only habitation on the +point, not a light was to be seen, and the dark stone walls were blacker +than the night that had settled down so quickly on the land. My father +said there was no use to knock, for that old Juno lived in the back part +of the house and was too deaf to hear us. So he led the horse round, +and we went to the back windows. Through them we saw our old black +castellan nodding, pipe in mouth, over the fireplace. She had not heard +the noise of our wheels, and it required a vigorous pounding on the +heavy back-door before old Juno, in much trembling, opened it to us. + +"Oh my, Massa Tregellins, is dat you dis dark night! And Clump, de ole +nigger, gone to willage. Lor, massa, how you did frighten me--and, oh +my! thar's young Massa Bob!" + +Juno had often come up to Bristol to see us, and felt an engrossing +interest in all of the family. She now led me into the house, and went +as briskly to work as her rheumatic old limbs would allow, to make a +good fire--piling on logs, blowing with the bellows, and talking all the +while with the volubility of a kind old soul of fully sixty years of +age. My father had gone to tie up the horse under the shed until Clump +should return and take care of him. Clump was Juno's husband, and her +senior by many years. The exact age of negroes is always of unreliable +tradition. The two had charge of the house, and were, indeed, rulers of +the entire cape. Clump cultivated vegetables sufficient for his wife +and himself, and was also a skilful fisherman. His duties were to look +after the copses and fences and gates, and to tend the numerous sheep +that found a living on the cape; in which tasks Juno helped him, besides +keeping the old house free from ghosts and desolation--indeed, a model +of neatness and coziness. + +I must now pause for a minute and describe how it happened that the two +old negroes were living on that out-of-the-way farm in Cornwall. My +father had been a West Indian proprietor, and had resided out in the +West Indies for many years. It was in the days when Wilberforce and +true and noble philanthropists who fought the battle of emancipation +with him first began to promulgate their doctrines. My father, like +most other proprietors, was at first very indignant at hearing of +proceedings which were considered to interfere with their rights and +privileges, and he was their strenuous opponent. To enable himself +still more effectually to oppose the emancipists, he sent for all the +works which appeared on the subject of emancipation, that he might +refute them, as he believed himself fully able to do. He read and read +on, and got more and more puzzled how to contradict the statements which +he saw put forth, till at length, his mind being an honest and clear +one, he came completely round to the opinion of the emancipists. He now +conscientiously asked himself how, with his new opinions, he could +remain a slaveholder. The property was only partly his, and he acted as +manager for the rest of the proprietors. They, not seeing matters in +the light in which he had been brought to view them, would not consent +to free the slaves and, as they believed, not unnaturally, ruin the +property as he desired. Then he proposed having the negroes educated +and prepared for that state of freedom which, he assured his partners, +he was certain they would some day ere long obtain. They replied that +slaves were unfit for education, that the attempt would only set them up +to think something of themselves, and certainly spoil them, and +therefore neither to this proposition would they agree. They were +resolved that as the slaves were theirs by right of law--whatever God +might have to say in the matter--slaves they should remain. At length +my father determined, after praying earnestly for guidance, to have +nothing personally to do with the unclean thing. Had he been able to +improve the condition of the slaves, the case would have been different; +but all the attempts he made were counteracted by his partners and by +the surrounding proprietors, who looked upon him in the light of a +dangerous lunatic. He therefore offered to give up his share in the +property, provided he might be allowed to emancipate some of the slaves. +To this even they would not consent, as they were afraid he might +select the most able-bodied, and thus deprive the ground of some of its +best cultivators. He did his best for the poor blacks, but the law was +on the side of his partners, and, to do them justice, they, blinded by +their interests and the contempt in which they held the negro race, +considered they were right, and that he was wrong. All they would do +was to allow him to select ten negroes from among a certain number whom +they pointed out, and they agreed to pay him over a sum of money for his +share of the land. To this proposal he was compelled to agree, and as +West India property was at that time considered of great value, he +received a very handsome sum, yet it must be owned not half what he +might properly have claimed. With this he returned to England, and, as +he was a man who could not bear to be idle, he commenced business as a +general merchant at Bristol. Shortly after that he married, and my +brothers and sisters and I in due course came into the world. Among the +negroes he set free were Clump and his sable partner Juno, and so +attached were they to him that they entreated that he would take them +with him to England. Clump was, properly speaking, a free man; for +having in his younger days, after he had married Juno, gone a short trip +to sea, he was wrecked, and after meeting many adventures, finally +pressed on board a man-of-war. He saw a good deal of service, (about +which he was very fond of talking, by the by), and at last obtaining his +discharge, or rather taking it, I suspect, with French leave--ever +mindful of his beloved Juno, he returned voluntarily to a state of +slavery, that he might enjoy life with her. The navy in those days was +not what it now is, and he had not been in the enjoyment of any large +amount of freedom. He had, indeed, being a good-natured, simple-hearted +fellow, been sadly put upon both in the merchant service and navy. It +was always, he used to say, "Clump, you don't want to go on shore, you +stay and take care of the ship;" or, "Clump, you stay in the boat while +we just take a run along the quay for five minutes;" or, "Clump, leave +is no use to you, just let me have it instead of you;" or, "Clump, rum +is a bad thing for niggers. I'll drink your grog to-day, and if you +just tip me a wink I'll take half of it to-morrow, and let you have the +rest, or Bill Noakes'll have the whole of it, and you'll get none." +Clump and Juno being intelligent, trustworthy people, my father, as I +have said, put them in charge of the farm on the cape, which they in a +short time learned to manage with great judgment. Two other negroes he +took into his service at Bristol. One of them became his butler, and it +would have been difficult to find his equal in that capacity. + +Now a lesson may be learned from this history. My father did what he +considered right, and prospered; his partners, neglecting to enlighten +themselves as they might have done, persisted in holding their black +fellow-creatures in abject slavery, refusing one of the great rights of +man--a sound education. Emancipation was carried, and they received a +large compensation, and rejoiced, spending their money extravagantly; +but the half-savage negroes whom they had neglected to educate refused +to work. Their estates were left uncultivated for want of labourers, +and they were ruined. My father, managing his mercantile affairs +wisely, was a prosperous man. + +His business on this visit was to see an adjoining property which had +once belonged to the family, and which, being in the market, he hoped to +repurchase. + +The house had been built as long back as 1540-1550. It was of stone-- +the rough stone, as it had been taken from the beaches and cliffs, of +different shades and kinds. Above the ground floor was only an attic +storey; and the main part of the ground floor consisted of four large +low rooms, panelled in wood, and with ceiling of dark, heavy beams. +Adjoining the rear of these, my grandfather had built a comparatively +modern kitchen; but every fireplace in the old house preserved the +generous cheerful style of ample spread and fire-dogs. From the great +door of the main floor a narrow stairway, like cabin steps, led up, with +quaintly carved banisters, to five real old-fashioned bedrooms, rising +above to the ridge of the steep-sloping roof and its uncovered but +whitewashed rafters. The windows were at least five feet above the +floor, and had the many small panes we sometimes yet see in very old +houses. No doubt it was a house of pretension in its day. When I was a +boy it remained a precious ark of family legends and associations. How +splendid it is to possess a house nearly three hundred years old. +To-day nothing could induce me to exchange the walls of that dear old +house for the handsomest residence in Belgravia. A house can be built +in a few months; but to make a home--that is beyond the craft and +quickness of masons, carpenters, and architects. + +Alone on that bold, sea-beaten cape, so sturdy, dark, and time-worn, it +looked out always with shrewd, steady little window-eyes on the great +troubled ocean, across which it had watched the Pilgrim Fathers sailing +away towards the new home they sought in the Western world, and many a +rich argosy in days of yore go forth, never to return. It might have +seen, too, the proud Spanish Armada gliding up channel for the purpose +of establishing Popery and the Inquisition in Protestant England, to +meet from the hands of a merciful Providence utter discomfiture and +destruction. With satisfaction and becoming dignity, too, it seemed on +fresh sunny mornings to gaze at the hundreds of sails dotting the sea, +and bound for all parts of the globe, recalling, perhaps with some +mournfulness, the days of its youth and the many other varied scenes of +interest which it had witnessed on those same tossing billows from its +lofty height. + +All through our supper, which was laid in the largest of the first floor +rooms, did Juno stand by, repeating the refrain-- + +"Oh dat nigger, dat Clump,--why he no come? And here's Massa er waitten +and er waitten; but Clump, ole mon, he get berry slow--berry, berry +slow. Now Massa Bob, vy you laff at ole Juno so?--hi! hi!" + +However, Clump came at last; and when he beheld us, great and comical +was his surprise. He dropped his basket to the floor, and, with +battered hat in hand and both hands on his knees, stood for a moment and +stared at us, and then his mouth stretched wide with joy and his sides +shook with delight, while the tears trickled down from the wrinkled eyes +to the laughing ivory. + +"Tank de Lord! tank de Lord! Clump lib to see his ole Massa agin; and +dat young gemmen,--vy, lem'me see! vy, sure as I'm dat nigger Clump, ef +dat ain't--Massa Drake?--no,--Massa Walter?--no,--vy Juno, ole woman! +dat are Massa Bob!" He took my hands and shook and squeezed them, +saying over and over again, "Massa Bob am cum ter see de ole cradle. +Oh! hi hi!" + + + +CHAPTER TWO. + +THE DREAM CONFIRMED BY REALITY. + +Three years elapsed before I saw the cape again. Indeed the remembrance +of that visit there, of a few days only, began to assume indistinctness +as a dream, and sometimes as I thought of it, recalling the events of +the journey there and back in the chaise, the wild scenery and the +strange sound of the surf, the old dark house and the devoted black +servants--sometimes, I say, as I thought of all these, as I loved to do +when I settled myself in bed for the night, or when in summer I lay on +my back in the grass looking up at the flying clouds, I would have to +stop and fix my attention sharp, to be sure whether it ever had been a +reality, or whether it might not be, after all, only a dream. I think +my father was afraid of the fascination of the cape for us boys--afraid +its charms, if we once partook of them freely, might distract our +attention from the order and duties of school life. To be sure, we +always went to the country with our parents for a month or six weeks, +and enjoyed it exceedingly, laying up a stock of trout, squirrel, and +badger stories to last us through the winter. But there was no other +country, we imagined, like the cape; and as our father and mother never +lived there, and rarely spent even a single night on the whole property, +they thought it best, I suppose, that we should not run wild there and +get a relish for what all boys seem to have, in some degree, by nature. +I mean the spirit of adventure, and love of the sea. + +However, the good time came at last, or a reliable promise of it first, +just fifty years ago this very February. We older boys--Walter, sixteen +years of age, Drake, fourteen, and I, Robert, twelve--were attending +school at Bristol, and were, as usual too in the winter evenings, at +work over our lessons at the library table, when, on one +never-to-be-forgotten evening, our father, who was sitting in an easy +chair by the fire, suddenly asked, "Boys, how would you like to pass +next summer on the cape?" Ah! didn't we three give a terrific chorus of +assent? "Jolly! magnificent! splendid!" we cried, while Walter just +quietly vaulted over half a dozen chairs, two or three at a time, +backwards and forwards, till he had expended some of the animal vivacity +stored up in abundance within him. Drake, as usual when extremely +pleased, tried to accomplish the rubbing of his stomach and the patting +of his head both at the same time; and I climbed into the chair with my +father, and patted his cheeks and thanked him with a fierce shake of the +hands. + +"Bob, boy, you are the only one of my youngsters who has been at the old +place, and you must have painted it as a wonderful corner of the earth, +that Walter and Drake should testify their pleasure in such eccentric +ways.--And look here, Walter: when you wish to turn acrobat again, let +it not be in this library or over those chairs; choose some piece of +green grass out of doors.--Well, boys, _perhaps_ you can pass the summer +at the cape. I do not promise it, but shall try to arrange it so if +your mother is willing; but under the unfailing condition that you make +good progress in your studies until that time." + +"Shall we all be there together, father, and for the whole summer, and +without any school? How delightful!" + +"Not too fast, Drake. Without school? What an idea! Why, in six +months you would be as wild and ignorant as the sheep there. No; you +shall have a strict tutor, who will keep you in harness, and help Walter +to prepare for going up next year to Cambridge. But only you three will +be there. I have some business in London, and I shall take your mother +and Aggie and Charley with me." + +During those February evenings there were many more conversations on the +same subject, full of interest to us boys, and finally it was fully +decided by our father and mother that we should go in May, and stay +there until autumn; that a certain Mr Clare should be our tutor, and +that Clump and Juno should be our housekeepers and victuallers. + +Never did a springtime appear longer and more wearisome. We counted +every day, and were disgusted with March for having thirty-one of them. +What greatly increased our impatience and the splendour of our +anticipation was that, some time in March, our father told us that a +brig had been cast away in a curious manner on the shore of the cape, +and that he had purchased the wreck as it lay, well preserved and firmly +held in the rocks above ordinary high-tide. He proposed, at some future +time, to make use of it as a sort of storehouse, or perhaps dwelling for +labourers. A shipwreck! a real wreck! and on our cape! stranded on the +very shore of our Robinson Crusoe-like paradise! Just imagine our +excitement. + +The particulars of the wreck were as follows:--A brig of 300 tons +burden, on a voyage from South America to the Thames, having lost her +reckoning in consequence of several days' heavy gale and thick weather, +suddenly made the light on the Lizard, and as quickly lost it again in +the fog which surrounded her. The captain, mistaking the light he had +seen for some other well-known beacon, set his course accordingly. That +was near nine o'clock in the evening. The wind and tide helped him on +the course steered, and a little after midnight the misguided brig +struck on a rock three-quarters of a mile south-west of our point of +land. The wind had then increased to a gale, and was gathering new +strength with every moment. In less than an hour the thumping and +grating of the vessel's keel ceased, and then the captain knew that the +rising tide had set him off the rock; but, alas! his good brig was +leaking badly, and the fierce wind was driving her--whither the captain +knew not; and in five minutes more, by the force of the wind and suction +of the shore current, she was thrown high up on a rocky projection of +our cape. One sailor was washed overboard by the breakers as she passed +through them, and was dashed to death, probably in an instant, by the +fierce waves. The next day, when the storm had abated, the body was +found far above where the brig lay fastened immovably in the vice-like +fissure of enormous rocks. Twenty sovereigns, which perhaps the poor +fellow had saved to bring home to his old mother, were found in a belt +around his waist. + +The damaged cargo was removed, and the wreck sold at auction, my father +being the purchaser. + +There was an old church situated on the summit of a neighbouring point +of land, and to its now seldom used churchyard the body of the poor +sailor was conveyed. His grave was one of the first points of interest +to us when our visit to the cape commenced; and many a time that season +did I sit and watch the brown headstone topping the bleakest part of the +sea-bluff, and as the great voice of the sea, dashing and foaming on the +stony beach beneath, sang in its eternal melancholy grandeur, I fancied +long, long histories of what might have been that sailor's life; and I +wondered sadly if the poor mother knew where her son's grave was, and +whether she would ever come to look at it. On the stone was written:-- + + HARRY BREESE + LIES HERE, NEAR WHERE A CRUEL SHIPWRECK CAST HIM, + MARCH 23RD, 1814: + AGED 24 YEARS, 2 MONTHS, AND 17 DAYS. + REST IN PEACE, POOR BODY; + THY SHIPMATE, SOUL, HAS GONE ALOFT, + WHERE THY DEAR CAPTAIN, JESUS, IS. + +By the 7th May everything was prepared for our departure. On the next +morning early we were to start in the stage-coach, and, what had lately +added to our brilliant anticipations, Harry and Alfred Higginson, two of +our most intimate friends, were to go with us--to be with us all the +summer, join our studies and our fun. But we were to separate from our +father and mother, and from our dear sister Aggie and the little +Charley--from all those dear ones from whom we had never been parted for +a day and night before. We were to leave for half a year. All this, +covered at first by the hopes and fancies we had built, and by the noise +and activity of preparation, appeared then, when everything was packed, +and we, the evening before the journey, drew our chairs about the +tea-table. The prospect of such a magnificent time as we expected to +have on the cape lost some of its brilliancy. Indeed, I positively +regretted that we were to go. We boys were as hushed as frightened +mice. + +After tea, Drake and I got very close to our mother on the sofa, but +Walter lounged nervously about, trying to appear, I think, as if such an +affair--a parting for six months--were nothing to such a big fellow as +he. Aggie came and held my hand. When our father had taken his usual +seat, he and our mother commenced to give us careful instructions how we +were to regulate our time and conduct during our separation from them; +we were directed about our lessons, clothes, language, and play; to be +kind and patient with Clump and Juno; and very particular were our +orders about the new tutor, Mr Clare, to whom we had been formally +introduced a few days before, and we were required to promise solemnly +that we would obey him implicitly in every respect. Besides which our +father delighted us very much by the information that he had engaged an +old seaman, Mugford by name, once boatswain of an Indiaman, who had +taken up his abode at the fishing town across the bay from our cape, to +be with us often through the summer in our out-of-school hours; that he +would be, as it were, our skipper--perhaps reside with us--and that he +was to have full command in all our water amusements; he would teach us +to swim, to row, and to sail. That last subject cheered us up a bit, +and when I saw Walter, who was still walking up and down the room, going +through a pantomimic swim, striking out his arms in big circles, right +and left, I commenced to smile, and Drake to laugh outright. So our +conference ended in good spirits. And then we all kneeled in family +prayer, and that evening before the parting, as we kneeled and heard my +father's earnest words, I realised fully, perhaps for the first time, +how, more than parents or friends, God was our Father; how, though we +were going away from home and its securities, yet God was to be with us, +stronger and kinder than any on earth, to guard and care for us. + +During the few days we had known Mr Clare, he had been with us +constantly, but we had not decided whether to like him or not. He +seemed pleasant, and was easy enough, both in his manners and +conversation, but yet he had a calm and decided way that was rather +provoking; as if to say, "I have read you through and through, boys, and +can govern you as easily as possible." Now we had no idea of resisting +him; we intended to behave well, and therefore his manner rather nettled +us. However, there was not much to object to. His appearance was +certainly all right--a large, bright, manly face and hearty smile, and a +strong, agile figure. We five boys had talked him over, and at the last +balloting our votes were a tie, for Walter declined to express an +opinion yet whether Mr Clare was a "screw" or a "good fellow." Harry +Higginson and Drake voted "screw," whilst Alfred and I said "good +fellow." + +We must pass over the "goodbyes" of the next morning. Let us imagine +there were no wet eyes and sinking hearts. However it may have been, +the big rumbling old stage-coach containing Mr Clare and five boys, and +loaded well with trunks and boxes, rattled from our house in --- Street +at about six o'clock on that eighth morning in May, fifty years ago. +Our hearts cheered up with the growth of the sun. By ten o'clock we +were very talkative; by one, very hungry. The contents of a basket, +well-stored by our mother, and put in just as we were starting, settled +that complaint. The afternoon was tedious, and we were not sorry when +the coach dropped us at the quiet little country inn where we were to +sleep. I need not describe the journey of the next day. We were too +eager to get to its termination to care much for the beautiful scenery +through which we passed. As the evening drew on the weather became +chilly. Ah! we were approaching the sea. By nine at night innumerable +stars were twinkling over a dusky point of land which seemed to have +waded out as far as possible into the indefinable expanse mirroring +unsteadily a host of lights. A strong, damp, briny breath came up to +us, and a vast murmur as if thousands of unseen, mysterious, deep-voiced +spirits were chanting some wonderful religious service. "Whoa!" with a +heavy lurch the yellow post-chaise, in which we had performed the second +day's journey, came to a stand. We had arrived before the old stone ark +that was to be our home for half a year. + + + +CHAPTER THREE. + +INTRODUCTION TO OUR SALT TUTOR AND THE WRECK. + +It was on Wednesday night that we became the guests of Clump and Juno, +and commenced our cape life. The next morning at breakfast--and what a +breakfast! eggs and bacon, lard cakes, clotted cream, honey preserves, +and as much fresh milk as we wanted--Mr Clare told us that we need not +commence our studies until the next week; that we could have the +remainder of this week as holidays in which to make a thorough +acquaintance with our new world. + +Our first wishes were to see the wreck and old Mr Mugford, whom we +agreed to dub Captain Mugford; and so, immediately after breakfast, we +started out with Mr Clare to find those items of principal interest. +When we had got beyond a hillock and an immense boulder of +pudding-stone, which stood up to shut out the beach view from the west +side of the house, we saw the wreck, only about half a mile off, and +hurried down to it. Mr Clare joined in the race and beat us, although +Walter pushed him pretty hard. + +The brig sat high up on the rocky cliff, where only the fullest tides +reached it. The deck careened at a small angle, and the stern projected +several feet beyond the rocks hanging over the sea. The bow pointed +toward the house. The brig's foremast only was standing, to the head of +which old Mugford used to hoist, on all grand occasions, or on such as +he chose to consider grand, a Union Jack or a red ensign, which had been +saved from the wreck. The bowsprit was but little injured, and the +cordage of that and of the foremast was there, and the shrouds--all of +which had been replaced by old Mugford, who, having made the wreck his +residence by my father's wishes, restored to it some of the grace and +order the good brig possessed before misfortune overtook her, and now it +looked fit for either a sailor or a landsman--a curious mongrel, half +ship, half house. By the stump of the mainmast there stood a stove-pipe +projecting from the deck. + +When near the brig, which we always afterwards called by the name she +had sailed under--_Clear the Track_--we hailed "Brig ahoy!" In a moment +the head and shoulders of the Captain appeared above the +companion-hatch, and his sonorous voice answered heartily, "Ah! ahoy, my +hearties: this is the good brig _Clear the Track_; come aboard." He +cast over the side a rope-ladder, such as is in common use on board +ships, and we climbed to the quarterdeck, over the stern-board of which, +and covering the companion-hatch, there had been built a roof, or open +cabin, making that part of the brig answer the same purposes as the +porch of a house. There were benches along the sides, a spyglass +hanging overhead in beckets, and a binnacle close by where the wheel had +once stood. + +The Captain, as we will henceforth call him, however, just then fixed +our attention more than the strangely fitted--up wreck. He was short, +only about five feet four in height, with very heavy, broad, straight +shoulders, immense chest, long arms, very narrow, compact hips, and +short, sturdy legs, much bowed. His features were large, straight, and +determined, and with something of the bulldog in them, yet stamped with +kindness, intelligence, and humour--a face that might be a terror to an +enemy, as it was a surety to a friend. It was well bronzed by many a +storm and tropical sun, and a dark beard grew on it, as the wild moss on +the sea-rocks, in a luxuriant, disorderly manner. His hair was very +thick, black, and glossy, only here and there flecked with the grey of +age, and hung in curls that almost made his rough and powerful head even +handsome. Walter said that night that he was sure Samson and Neptune +were relatives, for without doubt the Captain was descended from both of +them. With the jawbone of an ass he might put to flight a thousand +Philistines, and with a trident drive a four-in-hand of porpoises. + +We told that to the Captain afterwards, when we got to know him well, +and it tickled him greatly. He declared it was the finest compliment he +had ever received, and took Walter high in his favour from that moment. + +Our new friend never wore either collar or vest. When not "on duty," as +he expressed it, he went about in his shirt-sleeves. His breeches were +of the ample sailor-cut, and hung from suspenders as intricate as a +ship's rigging. His shirts were spotlessly white, and of very fine +linen. A short black pipe was always in his mouth, or sticking its clay +stem from a waist-band pocket. + +Such, my dear boys, was Captain Mugford, whom we fellows dubbed "our +salt tute," in contradistinction to Mr Clare, who was afterwards known +as "our fresh tutor." + +As Mr Clare came over the brig's side, he said, with a bow, "Captain +Mugford, I believe. These boys are to be both your crew and my +scholars. I am their tutor, Richard Clare." + +"I am happy to see you, Mr Clare. Give me your hand, sir. I hope our +different commands will not clash." + +As the skipper shook hands, he looked Mr Clare all over at a glance, +and smiled as if pleased with the inspection. + +"Come here, boys; if I'm not out in my calculation, these boys will do +to sail any craft on land or water! Well, my hearties, we are often to +be shipmates, so let's be friends to start with. I don't know your +different names, boys, only that three of you are sons of my old and +respected friend and owner--that's good enough--and you all look as if +you hated lies and kept above-board." + +"These," said Mr Clare, laying his hands on Harry's and Alfred's +shoulders, "are Higginsons!" + +"Higginsons? Fancy I knew your father, young gentlemen--an honest man, +and a kind man, and a true man, and a brave man, if he was John +Higginson; and brother of David Higginson, under whom I once served, and +a better sailor never stepped. As he died unmarried, I take you to be +John Higginson's sons. And if all you boys act as honest as you look, +you need not care for shipwrecks of any kind--love or money, lands or +goods, by land or by water." + +Well, we thought the Captain a brick. So he was. So he proved. + +We passed all the morning on the wreck. Each one of its details was a +new delight. The Captain talked about the brig as if she were a human +being in misfortune. An old invalid, he said--a veteran old salt laid +up in a sailor's snug harbour; laid up and pensioned for the remainder +of life, where it was able to overlook, by the side and in the very +spray of its well-loved brine, the billows it had often gloried in. + +We went below to the Captain's cabin and stateroom. There everything +bore the marks of a sea habitation, and when hearing the dash of the +waves on the shore and listening to the Captain's talk, I could not help +fancying myself on a voyage. Not a nook or hole of that vessel but we +explored, and numberless questions had each one of us to ask. Mr Clare +seemed as much pleased and interested as we were. When at play, indeed, +he was as heartily a boy as any of us. + +Great was our astonishment--Mr Clare, however, was prepared for it-- +upon going between decks, where the cargo had once been stored, to find +ourselves in a _schoolroom_--a long, low schoolroom. Thick glass +windows, only about eighteen inches square, had been set in on each +side, and protected with dead-lights to fasten tight in case a heavy +surf should dash up so high, and the entire hold--where on many and many +long voyages there had been stored, in darkness, spices, coffee, sugar, +and perhaps gold and jewels--was now transformed to a schoolroom. + +There was a long table and there were globes and maps, shelves of books, +and a blackboard. That schoolroom had, I am sure, none of the dulness +and repulsiveness of other schoolrooms to us. No; it rather seemed a +delightful place--an Arabian Nights' sort of study, with a romantic +salty influence pervading it to comfort us at our tasks. We could take +hold there of geography and history. Mathematics in a vessel's hold, +what was it but a foreshadowing of navigation? We felt no hostility to +Latin and Greek, for we were but reading of foreign lands and strange +people across the ocean in old times, the occurrences of which were but +storm-cast hulks like our old brig. + +So low was our roof, the deck, that the crown of Walter's cap touched +it, and Mr Clare had to bend his neck when he moved about. The square, +dwarf windows looked out on nothing but jagged rocks and rolling blue +waves. + +Away forward and aft our schoolroom was dark, and the distance between +decks so narrowed that we could only explore those extremes of the hold +by going on hands and knees--with the chance, too, of starting some big +rat, an old grey navigator, perhaps, who, believing firmly in "Don't +give up the ship!" could not get over his surprise at seeing his once +rolling and well-stored residence now stationary, and furnishing no +better victuals than book-leaves, chalk, and sometimes the crumbs of a +boy's lunch. I imagined the crew of old rats assembling beneath the +globes at night, when a moon streamed through the small windows; and the +captain, a surly grey fellow, with long whiskers and brown, broken +grinders, taking his place on a Greek lexicon, and then the speeches of +inquiry and indignation shrilly uttered in the mass meeting. "Long +tails!"--would commence some orator with a fierce squeak--"long tails, +long tails, I say! what in the name of all that's marine does this mean? +Cheese and spices! how things are changed. Will this craft never sail, +and our parents waiting for us in the New World over the sea! Where is +our `life on the ocean wave'? where is, I say, where `a home in the +rolling deep'? Can it be that our young are no longer to be nourished +on sago, rice, or maize? Alas! if it has come to that, I myself will +gnaw the beard from the old curmudgeon who thinks he sleeps here safely. +Is the degradation of effeminate land rats, cheese-eaters, wharf +robbers, stable vermin, to come upon us? Fates forbid it! Soon, +perhaps, some fierce tabby may come to make our once brave hearts +tremble. Then, then,"--but I imagined the eloquence broken off there +and giving place to a furious scamper, as perhaps old Captain Mugford, +arrayed in a long nightshirt and red bandanna nightcap, would fling open +his stateroom door and send a boot-jack flying amid the noisy, noxious +animals. + +To think that our schoolhouse was on such a wild seashore--in a wrecked +vessel, the same craft in which poor Harry Breese, who rested in the +churchyard near by, had voyaged and been lost from--to have the smell of +tar, and be surrounded by a thousand other sailor-like associations. +What a glorious school-house, that old wreck by the ocean! What boy +ever had a finer one! + +The afternoon of that first day of novelty on the cape I remember with +minute distinctness. We strolled about the beaches and climbed the +rocks, everything being marvellous and delightful to us. In the evening +Captain Mugford came in, and Mr Clare and he talked whilst we boys +listened. After the Captain had gone, Mr Clare read the evening +prayers to us, and that grand Psalm, the one hundred and seventh. The +words reached us with the noise of the waves they sang of:-- + + _They that go down to the sea in ships_, + _that do business in great waters_. + _These see the works of the Lord_, + _and His wonders in the deep_. + _For He commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind_, + _which lifteth up the waves thereof_. + _They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths_: + _their soul is melted because of trouble_. + _They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man_, + _and are at their wit's end_. + _Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble_, + _and He bringeth them out of their distresses_. + _He maketh the storm a calm_, + _so that the waves thereof are still_. + + + +CHAPTER FOUR. + +CAPTAIN MUGFORD'S SATURDAY LESSON. + +With a new week commenced our studies--order in tasks and play taking +the place of the licence and excitement of the first days of novelty. + +By Mr Clare's rule we reached our school-house in the wreck every +morning at eight--that is, every morning except Saturday and Sunday. +The brig's bell was our summons. Captain Mugford struck it as +punctually as if the good order and safety of a large crew were +dependent on his correctness. Our school-hours continued until +half-after one. The remainder of each day was our own, only subject to +the general directions of Mr Clare and the instructions of Captain +Mugford in boating. Of course that was no task--rather the very best +sport we had. Mr Clare grew fast in our good opinions. He was strict; +but boys do not dislike strictness when it is mated with justice and +guided by a firm and amiable disposition, as it was with our tutor. + +We soon got to see that Mr Clare, in his way, was as much of a _man_ as +Captain Mugford, and that the Captain respected him highly. The Captain +always liked to have an evening smoke with our tutor, and the boating +excursions were much jollier when Mr Clare made one of the party, as he +often did. He was our master in school, but only wished to be our +companion in play. In every athletic exercise he excelled, and I dare +say that was one great reason of the powerful influence he soon gained +with us--for boldness, strength, and agility are strong recommendations +to boyish admiration. About two weeks after the commencement of our +cape life, as we were going to bed one night, "our fresh tute" became +the subject of discussion; and our first opinions were changed by a +vote, in which all but Drake joined, that Mr Clare was a regular brick. +Drake had a prejudice against tutors that required more than two weeks +to break up. He allowed that Mr Clare seemed a very respectable sort +of fellow, but then he said-- + +"I can't join in all the praise you boys give him; now my idea of a +`regular brick' is our `salt tute.' He's the sort of man for me. If +Captain Mugford _only_ knew Latin and Greek!" + +Mr Clare was from the north of England. His parents being poor, he had +obtained his education under difficulties, and did not enter college +until he was twenty-three years of age. His parents had emigrated when +he was a child to Canada, where he had seen a good deal of wild life +among the Indians. For some cause his father returned--to take +possession of a small property, I believe--and brought him with him. +After the common country schooling he could pick up in winter, he began +to prepare himself for college in the hours he was off work on his +father's farm, or had to take from sleep. So he had a life of some +difficulty and adventure; and now, in his own hours, he was studying to +become a clergyman. Notwithstanding such a boyhood of labour, his +manners were good and agreeable, and no one would ever have guessed that +his training until he went to college had been little above that of a +farm servant. + +It was some time before we made acquaintance with the sailing-boat which +had been provided by our father, for the first weeks of our new life +were stormy and cold. What whetted our desire for a sail was that +Captain Mugford would not even show us the boat. We would tease him, +and guess at every mast we saw in the bay; but the Captain only laughed, +and put us off with such remarks as "Keep your powder dry, my young +hearties!" "Avast heaving! the skipper is dumb." + +However, one fine morning the Captain steered into our breakfast-room +before all the fresh brown bread and clotted cream and eggs and bacon +had been quite stowed away. "At it, ain't you, boys, with forecastle +appetites? Pitch in, old fellows; make the butter fly!" He had wished +Mr Clare a good morning, sat down on a corner of a side-table, wiped +his forehead with a great red silk handkerchief, and got his elbows well +akimbo, before he directed the remark to us. There he sat shaking with +a pleasant little interior rumble of laughter at our earnestness in the +meal, and expressing his appreciation every few moments with, "Well! +that's jolly!" which remark each time portended another series of +sub-waistcoat convulsions. He got through laughing as we finished +breakfast, and then each of us went up for a shake of his hand. + +"Your cargoes are in. When do you sail?" + +"O Captain! can we sail to-day?" we all cried, for the joke and his +unusually radiant face signified something better to come. + +"I have a fancy that way, if Mr Clare says yes. That's my business +here this fine Saturday. Yes, Mr Clare? Thank you! the youngsters are +mad for a trip under canvas. You will go with us, sir, I hope? Thank +you again!--Scamper, boys, for your caps! Ha! ha! ha!--With your +permission, Mr Clare, I will fill my pipe.--Juno! Juno! Ah! there you +are. Do, like a good old woman, get me a coal out of your wood-fire-- +just such a red, round piece of oak as Clump always chooses." + +Presently Juno trudged smiling back, with a hot coal held in the tongs. + +"Here, massa! here, Capting, is de berry heart of de fire!" and laying +it carefully in the bowl of his pipe--"dat, sar, will keep yer terbacker +gwine all day." + +"Thank you, marm Juno! We shall try and bring you home some fish for +dinner. A ninety-pound halibut, eh?" + +The Captain having performed that operation so very necessary to his +comfort, we all sallied forth for the long-anticipated sail. + +The cape was about three-quarters of a mile wide where our house stood-- +it being on high ground, about halfway between the ocean and bay-side. +The ground fell gradually in wavelike hillocks in both directions, and +its chief growth was a short fine grass on which the sheep throve well. +Here and there we saw them in little companies of eight or ten, but +before we could get within fifty yards they scampered off in a fright, +so unaccustomed were they to strangers. + +Soon we descried a boat with pennant flying at moorings just off the bay +shore before us. That, the Captain told us, was our "school-ship." + +"And now come, boys," said he, "let us see which one of you will be the +best hand on watch when we sail a frigate together--let us see which one +can first read the boat's name; it is on the pennant." + +At that distance we were all baffled. + +"Well, try ten yards nearer; there, halt. Now try." + +We all strained our eyes. I thought it read, _Wave_. + +"No, Robert, it is not _Wave_.--Come, boys, sharpen your eyes on the +sides of your noses, and try again." + +"I can read it," shouted Harry Higginson, throwing up his hat. +"_Youth_! _Youth_!--that's it." + +"Yes, that's it. Hurrah for you, Master Harry! I promote you on the +spot captain of the maintop." + +We hurried down to a white sand-beach on which lay a punt. In that the +Captain pulled us, three at a time, out to the _Youth_. When well under +sail and standing out for more open water, our good skipper at the +tiller, having filled his pipe, rolled up his sleeves, and tautened the +sheet a bit, said-- + +"Boys, this craft is yours, but I am Commodore until each and all of you +have learned to sail her as well as I can. May you prove quick to +learn, and I quick to teach. But as I'm an old seadog, my pipe is out +already. Give us a light, shipmate?"--I was trying with flint and steel +to strike a few sparks into our old tinder-box--"there!--puff--puff-- +puff--that will do. I must talk less and smoke more." + +As the jolly Captain got up a storm of smoke, slapped me a stinger on +the knee, and winked at the pennant, Mr Clare jumped up, and swinging +his hat, cried-- + +"Boys, let's give cheers, three rousing cheers, for our brave boat, the +_Youth_, and her good master, Captain Mugford!" + +And didn't we give them!!! + + + +CHAPTER FIVE. + +BATH BAY LESSON--THE MIDNIGHT COUNCIL. + +June came before we had made acquaintance with all the corners of our +little new world. Every day it grew in interest to us, and, with the +increasing fine weather, was the most beautiful spot on earth in our +eyes. Once a week one of us was allowed to go over to the town with +Clump, in his rowboat, and get letters from the post-office. That +opportunity was always improved to purchase stores of groceries and +other requisites. Each one's turn to be commissary only came once in +five weeks. + +Clump enjoyed those trips as much as we did. He would have meat or +other things to get for the table, but would always reach the boat first +in returning, and when he saw his "young master?"--as he called each of +us boys--coming down the wharf loaded with a week's supply of various +things, the old darky would commence to grin and slap his sharp knees, +the slaps growing quicker and the grin breaking into "yha! yha! yhi!" as +we drew near enough to show him our different purchases. + +There was always a new pipe or a paper of tobacco for Clump, which he +would lay on the seat beside him, and then put out the oars and pull +with long, slow sweeps for our neck, each swing accompanied by a grunt, +which, however, did not break the conversation he carried on, chiefly +telling us stories of my father when he came as a boy, which often +lasted till we reached our destination. Many a frolic and adventure +would he thus relate with great gusto, and he had generally, too, some +remembrance of my grandfather to repeat. + +About the twentieth of June, the water was warm enough to allow us to +bathe, and then began that exercise, the most useful and most wholesome, +and perhaps among the most manly that a boy can practise. + +Walter and both the Higginsons could swim. Drake and I were beginners. +Captain Mugford was our teacher. He chose a little bay within, as it +were, the large bay on the neck end of our cape. Bath Bay, as we named +it, was about two hundred and fifty yards long, and sixty to seventy +yards wide. Its shores were rocks, except at its bow end, where a soft +beach sloped gradually for forty feet from the shore. About fifteen +feet beyond our depth the Captain had anchored a stationary staging, +which was merely an old flatboat caulked and floored over. It had steps +and ropes from its sides, and was intended as the first object to reach +and rest on when we had learned to swim a dozen or more strokes. +Farther on, halfway the length of Bath Bay, was a large flat rock, which +stood at high-tide two feet above water. Its sides were almost +perpendicular, and were made accessible in the same way as "Youngster's +Wharf." By that name those who could already swim called our staging +near the beach. Leander's Rock, for we had a name for everything, had a +depth of nearly thirty feet, and a finer place for diving cannot be +imagined. Bath Bay was shut in by its wall-like sides and a bluff +behind the sand-beach from all the severe winds, but after a storm out +at sea we would get an even swell that was very pleasant to float on. + +Our time for bathing was between the close of school at half-after one +and our dinner-hour, three. All through the season, until early in +October, we never lost a bath unless rain was falling heavily, so +greatly did we enjoy it under the Captain's care. He would not have +bathing-houses for us, as he said that the sun-bath after a swim was +almost as good as the salt water itself. The Captain was always near +the swimmers, in his punt, that in case of accident his assistance might +be immediate. + +Boys, if you have ever read Benjamin Franklin's directions to those +learning to swim, you will understand the methods our Captain pursued to +teach us. In his boat he was always dressed in bathing-clothes, and +would often jump out to show us by example how to swim under water, how +to float, how to dive, etcetera. I can assure you we enjoyed that sport +as much as any we had, and before many weeks had passed we could all +swim a few strokes. By the close of the season, I, the youngest pupil, +could swim out to Leander's Rock, dive from it twenty feet deep, and +swim ashore again easily. But more about Bath Bay, and our adventures +there, hereafter. + +After our baths and Juno's nice dinners we usually went to sail, and in +a few weeks the Captain let some of us take the helm, he sitting by to +instruct us, and to remedy, if need be, any mistake of the young sailor +who happened to be our skipper at the time. Sometimes, instead of +sailing, we would row in an excellent boat which we had for that +purpose, and, four of us being at the oars, try how quick time we could +make from point to point of the shore. With such practice, we made +rapid improvements and by the middle of July could row a mile in twelve +minutes; a month before we could only do that in twenty minutes. +Sometimes Mr Clare and the captain took oars in our boat; at other +times they rowed against us in the Captain's punt. That was glorious +fun, and how we fellows did strive to beat our tutors, and often came +very near it too--so near that we determined, if there was any merit in +TRY, to do it yet. + +One night--it was about the 2nd of June, if my memory serves me--when we +had gone up to our rooms for bed, and got undressed, Walter, who had +been very quiet ever since our row in the afternoon when our tutors +contended with and beat us as usual, called us to order, that we might +organise, he said, as a regular boat club. We answered, "Good!" +"Good!" and each boy, putting a pillow on his footboard, took a +senatorial seat--each boy arrayed in the flowing cotton nightgown. When +silence ensued, Walter addressed us in his energetic, determined way, +but lowered his voice that not a whisper of our deliberations might +reach the ears of Mr Clare, who was only separated from us by a +partition. + +"Fellows, we _must_ beat our tutes--we _must_ beat them, that is what I +say. Let's get our boat in good order immediately--let's call her the +_Pupil_--let's row every day, but not alongside of our adversary--no, +no!--but where we can't be seen, and for two hard hours each day. And I +move we have a coxswain, and that Bob be the boy--he is small, quick, +and cool. Let's challenge our tutes to-morrow for a race." + +"Agreed--agreed! hurrah!" we all shouted. + +"For a race, I say, on, let me see, the anniversary of the glorious +battle of Waterloo." + +"Grand! splendid! hurrah!" were our interruptions again, and Drake +expressed his delight by taking the pillow from beneath him, and +slinging it with tremendous speed at Alf Higginson's head, who in +consequence fell off his perch like a dead squirrel from a pine-tree. +Alf fell heavily on his side, and we roared with laughter; but he was up +in a moment, and rushed at Drake with a bolster. Walter, our dignified +chairman, swooped down from his perch in a second, and catching the +incensed Alfred by the extremity of his flying robe, slung him under a +bed. + +"Order! Order, boys!" he cried. "Pretty fellows you are to hold a +meeting. You, Drake! pitch any more pillows, and we'll slide you out of +the window. There, stop your racket! Mr Clare is up. Before he comes +hurry up and say, all together, `We will beat.'" + +"We will beat," was responded as fiercely as if life was at stake, and, +as Mr Clare opened the door to ascertain what was the disturbance, five +innocent boys were under blankets and apparently sleeping the deepest +slumber. Drake had even reached a regular bass snore. The moonlight +streaming in the room, and which showed us a smile breaking irresistibly +on Mr Clare's face, was not more placid than we. The door had hardly +closed behind Mr Clare before Harry Higginson had sprung from his bed, +and, almost on the space our tutor had stood a half second before, was +enacting a ridiculous and vigorous pantomime of kicking our "fresh tute" +from the room. As quickly the door opened again, and before Harry could +get a single limb in order, Mr Clare had him by the arm. But the whole +affair was too humorous for even Mr Clare's dignity. He could only say +"So you are the noisy one, Henry Higginson. You can get in bed now as +quickly as you got out of it, and to-morrow, when the afternoon's study +is done, recite to me fifty lines of Virgil--from the twentieth to the +seventieth line of the first book." + +With that, Mr Clare went from the room, and Harry, with a low, long, +whistled "phew," sought his bed disconsolately. + +The next day after lessons I, as coxswain, by Walter's order, handed +copies of the following note to Captain Mugford and Mr Clare:-- + + "Cape ---, June 3, 1816. + + "Messrs. Mugford and Clare, + + "The oarsmen of the galley _Pupil_ would hereby challenge the + gentlemen of the boat _Tutor_ to a race on the eighteenth of June, in + Bath Bay waters. The course to be from Youngster's Wharf around + Leander's Rock, and return. Stakes to be--the championship of Bath + Bay. The oarsmen of the _Pupil_ would respectfully propose three p.m. + as the hour for the race, and the firing of a gun the signal for the + start. The oldest inhabitant, Clump, offers his services as umpire, + referee, judge, and signalman. + + "All which is submitted for the acceptance and concurrence of the + gentlemen of the _Tutor_. + + "(Signed) Walter Tregellin, Henry C. Higginson, Drake Quincy + Tregellin, Alfred Higginson, _Oarsmen_, + + "Robert Tregellin, _Coxswain_." + +Mr Clare, when he read it, smiled and said he would see about it, and +then turned to Henry and asked him if he had learned those fifty lines +yet. + +Captain Mugford was presented with his copy as he entered the house for +dinner. "Hu-um!" he said, as he took the note in the hand with his hat, +and wiped his red, wet forehead with an immense silk handkerchief +printed with the maritime flags of all nations. "A note! Who writes me +notes? Some of your nonsense, boys, eh?" So he hitched up his trousers +and sat down on the doorstep, placing the red handkerchief in his hat +beside him. "Let's see!" + +"Good! good! that's very good. The middies have got their courage up. +The idea of such a stiff old seadog racing with you youngsters!" + +"But you will though, won't you, Captain, and make Mr Clare, too?" said +Harry. + +"Perhaps, boys, if Mr Clare will join, and then we will make you smart. +And I tell you what, young gentlemen, if you beat I'll give you a +splendid Malay race-boat that I have had stored in my ship-loft these +three years." + +"Hurrah! Captain, we shall win the boat!" we all cried. + +"Ha! ha! what boys for warm weather! You talk as brave as a west wind. +But I smell Juno's cooking; let's go in and talk it over with Mr Clare +and a warm dish of stew." + +It was all settled to our satisfaction before dinner was over. Mr +Clare enjoyed the thing as much as the Captain, and declared they would +have to practise together once a week. As for us, we never missed our +two hours' pull every afternoon, rain or shine, blow high or blow low, +until the all-important day proposed for the race. + + + +CHAPTER SIX. + +DISSENSIONS IN CAMP. + +For every afternoon of those beautiful June and July days we rowed for +two hours, from five to seven. Our studies were not relaxed in the +morning, and our hours for swimming were regularly enjoyed, but the +absorbing topic of thought and conversation was the approaching +boat-race. Twice on Saturday afternoons we had seen Captain Mugford and +Mr Clare pulling in their boat. They did not condescend to practise +oftener, but we noticed that they worked in earnest when they did row. +With the confidence of youth we feared not, feeling sanguine that we +must beat them. + +There was a vein of discord, however, in our little colony. Alfred +Higginson and my brother Drake, who only differed by a few months in +age, in other respects differed greatly, and had never been able, since +our first acquaintance, to get along together. Alfred Higginson was of +a nervous, sensitive disposition, quick in temper, and easily provoked. +His tastes were fastidious. He was an excellent scholar, (much better +than my brother Drake), and very fond of reading. He entered fully into +all our sports, but preferred fishing, sailing, and swimming to our +rougher harder amusements. He drew excellently, landscape and marine +views and figures. He was a healthy, active boy, and could beat us all +in running. I have said his was a quick temper, but it was a forgiving +one. If he laughed not as loud and often as many of us, he caused us to +laugh oftener than any, for he had a quick dry humour and witty tongue. +When it came to chaffing, he was always conqueror. + +My brother Drake was entirely unlike Alfred Higginson. He was a hardy, +rough, jolly boy, overflowing with fun and animal life, what is called a +"regular boy." Never quiet--laughing, singing, whistling all the time, +heels over head in everything, pitching into his studies as +irrepressibly as into his games, but with more success in the latter, +though he was a fair student; better in his mathematics and other +English studies than in the languages. The only reading he cared for +was that of travel and adventure, voyages of whalemen and discoveries, +histories of pirates, Indian scenes, hunting stories, war histories, +Walter Scott's novels, "Gulliver's Travels," and the unequalled +"Robinson Crusoe." Everything he could find about the Crusaders he +revelled in, and even went at Latin with a rush when, Caesar and Nepos +being put aside, the dramatic narrative of Virgil opened to him, and the +adventures of the Trojan heroes became his daily lesson. But that he +had to feed his interest, crumb by crumb, painfully gathered by +dictionary and grammar, made him chafe. He enjoyed it, though, with all +of us, when, after each day's recitation--after we boys had marred and +blurred the elegance and spirit of Virgil's eloquence with all sorts of +laboured, limping translations, that made Mr Clare fairly writhe in his +chair--our tutor would drop a word of commendation for Walter's better +rendering of the poem, and then read the lesson himself, and go over in +advance the one for the next day. Then the ribs and decks of our +schoolroom in the wrecked brig melted away as the scenes of the Aeneid +surrounded us. The dash of the waves we heard was on the Trojan shore, +or the coast of Latium, as we wandered with storm-tossed Aeneas. Or we +walked the splendid court of Dido, or were contending in battle with the +warlike Turnus for our settlement in Latium. Turnus and the fierce +Mezentius were Drake's favourites. He never liked Aeneas, who was +always Alfred Higginson's hero. Those readings were often disturbed by +Drake's exclamations. His overflowing, outspoken disposition could not +be restrained when his interest was powerfully enlisted; and as Mr +Clare read, in his clear, impassioned manner, some exciting passage, +Drake would shout out an exclamation of encouragement or satisfaction +with a favourite warrior, and bring down his fist on the desk, as +another favourite was discomfited or came to grief. I remember very +well how often Drake was reproved for such unseasonable enthusiasm, +which always caused an after sarcasm or witticism from Alfred Higginson; +and I distinctly recall how, notwithstanding the formality of +school-hours, when we came to the single combat between Aeneas and +Turnus, and the death of the latter, Drake flung his book from the +table, and shouted out in an angry voice, "I'll bet anything Virgil +tells fibs!" + +Those readings were treats to all of us. Drake having told Captain +Mugford of them, and discussed the incidents that vexed him with the +Captain, got him so interested that he asked Mr Clare to allow him to +come in at the close of our recitations. Of course that favour was +readily granted, and after that time the Captain always made one of the +auditors. He used to laugh and shake over Drake's excitement, and yet +entered into it himself, and I have seen salt drops running down his +cheeks and Mr Clare's, as the latter rendered in a voice slightly +trembling some of the pathetic passages in which Virgil is so +exquisitely beautiful. + +I am glad to write of those lessons in the old brig's carcass, for they +are remembered so pleasantly. Moreover, it came naturally in drawing my +dear brother Drake's character, and the effect of those heroical +classics influenced, in a manner very quixotic, the crisis of the +continued quarrel between Drake and Alfred Higginson, to which we are +coming. The great dissimilarity in the characters of the two was a +reason for their want of sympathy and agreement, one with the other, but +the causes of the open warfare which existed between them were the +faults of each--the irritability, slight conceit, and stinging tongue of +Alfred Higginson; the teasing practices, want of toleration for the +feelings and peculiarities of others, and a certain recklessness of +Drake's. And yet they were both noble boys, with nothing false or +ungenerous or underhanded about either of them. + +Ever since we had come to the cape, their skirmishes of words and +disagreement had been continual, and several more tangible collisions, +where blows had been exchanged between them, were nipped in the bud by +Walter and the others of us, and once by the Captain, who, wrought up by +their quarrelsomeness, separated them pretty fiercely, and, holding each +at arm's length, told them that, if there was any fighting to be done +among his crew, he must have a hand in it. Then he laughed one of his +bars of rollicking "ha-has," and dropped the boys with the injunction +that if they had another "mill," he should certainly let their fathers +know. "Now, boys, try if you cannot get along better, and when you have +a quarrel again, bring it to Mr Clare or to me, and we will settle it +better than your blows and frowns can do." + +You remember how Drake knocked Alfred from the footboard of his bed on +the occasion of our night meeting to get up the boat-race. That was a +good example of Drake's reckless rudeness, proceeding merely from his +boisterous disposition, but somehow those outbreaks were always directed +to Alfred, just as the rough points of Alfred's disposition were sure to +be turned to Drake. That fall had hurt Alfred, and from the date of the +commencement of our boat-practice, the war between the two had waxed +hotter and hotter. The contest seemed only to amuse Harry Higginson, +but Walter--our mentor, my conscientious, tender-hearted brother, who +led us all in games as well as in lessons--worried over it, and each day +he exhorted the two to govern their tempers, and, with great tact and +decision, whenever he saw a storm brewing, managed to throw oil upon the +waters. However, his influence did not heal up the difference, and in +about a fortnight, a few days before the intended race, there occurred +during our afternoon boat-practice a little row between the two +antagonists, which proved a final skirmish before the severe but +ludicrous battle which crowned the civil war. + +We were rowing in Bath Bay as usual, Walter pulling the stroke oar, and +Harry Higginson the bow, whilst Drake and Alfred held the intermediate +positions, Drake sitting behind Alfred--that is, nearer the bow. I had +my place at the tiller. + +Alfred Higginson had made a very ridiculous blunder in a French +translation that morning. Such a thing was unusual for him, and was +such a comical one that it set the others of the class in a roar of +laughter. Drake was so extravagantly affected by Alf's blunder that Mr +Clare had to stop his laughter, which was half genuine and half +pretence, by ordering him out of the room. Even then we heard him +ha-ha-ing outside. Poor Alfred was terribly mortified, and did not +recover his composure even when the school-hours were over, and the +first greeting he received, on emerging from the house, was from Drake, +who immediately mimicked Alfred's mistake, and performed a variety of +antics supposed to proceed from convulsions of mirth. On the way to the +boat, Drake continued to tease Alfred. Walter reproved him continually, +and even took hold of him once to compel him to stop; but he was in one +of his most boisterous moods, and was so very funny that he kept every +one but Alfred in shouts of laughter. But Alfred lashed him with the +bitterest satire, and, as they say, sometimes "made him laugh on the +other side of his mouth," until by the time we had reached the bay Drake +had subsided into silence, and the tight closing of his lips, and quick +walk, proved that Alfred's sharp wit was more fatal than Drake's broad +fun. Both of the boys rowed sullenly, and we all felt that a storm was +brewing. In the final round, when we made the course at our best and +timed the performance, so as to notice what improvement we were making, +Alfred caught a crab with his oar, in consequence of which the head of +Drake's oar hit him sharply in the back. The mortification of a miss +stroke is enough to anger a boatman, but coming as it did after the +morning's blunder in class, and made, too, a pain of the flesh by +Drake's blow, it was too much for Alfred's temper, and as Drake +increased the irritation by calling him an "awkward lout," and then +mimicking the blunder of translation with the accompaniment of a shout +of laughter, Alfred turned quickly, and hit his opponent a stinging blow +in the face. + +In a moment the two boys grappled each other, and in a shorter period +than it takes my pen to write it, the boat was upset, and we were all in +the water. The combatants still clung to one another, and disappeared +together. The adage, however, that "discretion is the better part of +valour," enforced by such a deep, cold plunge, bore proof; for the irate +youths came to the surface apart, and we all struck out for the rocks, +distant about eighty yards. We climbed like half-drowned rats up the +shore, where the fight was not resumed. Its very strange continuation +was postponed until the Saturday after the boat-race, which must be +reserved for another chapter. We, however, read then, in the faces of +the discomfited antagonists, as plainly as you read here-- + +"To be continued." + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN. + +BEFORE THE BOAT-RACE--CLUMP'S STORY. + +The _day_ before the eighteenth was a Monday. In consideration of +beginning a week's study to have it broken off again on Tuesday, and +because of the many preparations there were to make for the great day, +Mr Clare gave us the two holidays. We had our swim and boat-practice +on Monday morning, and then set to work to make arrangements for the +next day, every one taking a part with real zest. First the boat was +carefully hauled up on the shore, and turned over on a way of joists we +had prepared for her. The bottom was then carefully washed, and, after +that, thoroughly rubbed with the sand-paper--about an hour's work, at +which we all had a hand. Having got the sides and keel beautifully +smooth in that way, Clump brought a kettle of pure grease, which was +placed over a little fire of driftwood, and when the grease had become +liquid, Walter, with a large fine paint-brush, anointed the entire +boat's bottom in a most painstaking manner. We boys stood by, entering +into the operation, which was supposed to prove wonderfully efficacious +in increasing our boat's speed, with great interest, and Clump bent over +the kettle, stirring the oil, and puffing at the short stern of his pipe +eagerly. + +Grouped with such absorbing concern about the body of the boat, Walter +moving slowly from stem to stern, and stern to stem, laying on the magic +oil, (unctuous of victory to our noses), with steady sweeps, and the +bent figure of black old Clump beside the caldron, from which rose a +curling smoke, we must have made a tableau of heathen offering +sacrifice, or some other savage mystery. + +The all-important job was at length completed, and we left our ark of +many hopes to rest until the exciting hour of the morrow. + +Clump was a sharer in our great expectations. His heart was set upon +our success. He had to fill his pipe again before we left the boat, and +pulled at it nervously and wrinkled his black skin into countless +puckers as he walked beside us, thinking of the vast interests at stake +and listening to our excited conversation. As we left him to go over to +the town for a small cannon we had borrowed to fire the signals, he +touched Walter on the sleeve, and said in the most slow and earnest +manner, as he drew the pipe from his mouth and knocked its ashes on the +ground-- + +"An I'se to be judge an' udder ting you'se talk of, Massa Walter, eh? +An I'se to fire de gun, eh? W-a-all, I'se an ole nigger, an my heart +ees shree-veled up like, I s'pose, but my gorry, young massas, ef you +don't beat, old Clump will jist loaden up do musket again an'--an'--an' +_but_ 'is 'ed agin de rock! Yah, fur sure!" + +Having delivered himself of that tragical decision in a manner mixed of +sadness and frenzy, he hobbled off, amidst our laughter and assurances +that we should never allow him to injure the rock in that way, to +consult with Juno, and probably load his pipe again. + +No noble lord, with his thousands of pounds wagered on the Derby or +Saint Leger, or perhaps, rather, I should say on some of the crack +yachts of the day, was ever half so excited as was this good old darky +about our boat-race. + +Under the escort of Walter, Harry, Alfred, and Drake, the cannon arrived +in the afternoon, and, by their united efforts and the assistance of the +Captain, was mounted before sundown on a heavy piece of timber in the +_Clear the Track's_ bow. + +By night the flags, ammunition, and many other necessaries for the +morrow's undertaking were in order and readiness for service. + +After the day's work, and filled with anticipations of the eventful +morrow, we felt no desire for our usual outdoor games that evening, but +found seats on the great boulder beside our house, where Mr Clare was +resting, and the Captain was enjoying his smoke. Old Clump, too, having +finished his tea and swept out Juno's kitchen, loitered toward us with +his comforter--the pipe--and edged up respectfully within hearing of our +conversation. So we boys leaned on our elbows, looking out at the dimly +defined water, sometimes lighted in streaks by gleams of phosphorescence +where shoals of fish were jumping; or, stretched on our backs, we +watched the shooting-stars hurrying with speed quick as thought from one +part of the immeasurable blue to another; while our tutors talked +earnestly of former times, and we heard the shrill calls of gulls and +other sea birds, the occasional tender bleating of the lambs in the +distant sheepfold, and the soft regular splash of a summer sea on the +rocks, until the delicate young crescent had dozed slowly down to its +bed in the ocean,--and we, profiting by example, sought slumber in the +old dreamful attic. + +Harry Higginson was the first one up in the morning. He shook us to our +senses, and whispered to get out of the house quietly, that we might +call our tutors with the cannon's voice. That was an acceptable +proposition, and we were soon stealing down the creaking stairs, shoes +in hand. Having put those on, seated by the door-stone, we started on a +run for the _Clear the Track_. It was just light, the soft dawn of a +warm summer's day--not yet half-past four. Walter said he would bet old +Sol had already fired a gun in honour of the glorious battle won that +day by England and her Allies, but so far off we could not hear it. + +We got on board the wreck as carefully as we had quitted the house, and +I, being delegated to descend to the Captain's cabin and steal one of +the flannel powder cartridges, was soon creeping by the snoring Captain +with my booty secured. It took but a moment to ram home the charge and +pack it over with pockets full of wadding; and then Harry, our gunner, +touched it off. As the old brig shook with the report, Alfred jumped to +the bell, and the way that clanged was splendid. + +"Boys," said Drake, who was shaking with the fun, "can't you see old +topgallant sail down below springing up in his berth with a lurch and +cracking his head against the beams, and our dignified fresh tute +jerking those long, thin legs out of bed, and wondering what's about to +happen this fine morning, and old Clump and Juno groaning out `O de +Lord!' and knocking their black pates together as they both try to get +out of bed at the same instant. How jolly!" + +An immense red bandanna handkerchief at that moment popped above the +companionway--then a hearty, weather-marked face we well knew--then a +portion of an ample East Indian nightshirt, which threw up a pair of +arms and fired off a couple of boarding-pistols. The discharge was +followed by a stentorian "Three cheers for the great and glorious battle +won this day!--hip! hip! hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" in which we fellows +joined with a yell. + +"Ah! you young rascals have got before me this morning, but this +afternoon it will be my turn--mine and Mr Clare's, you roystering +middies!" and the Captain popped down again to finish his toilet. + +We were soon joined by the Captain, and a little while after by Mr +Clare, who was in the best of spirits, complimented us on our display of +zeal and patriotism, and touched off the old gun once himself--"for +practice," he said. + +"But," continued the jolly old Captain, having taken Mr Clare's arm, +"suppose we visit Ethiopia and see if a hot breakfast is not waiting for +us there. These boys would rather stay here and load this cannon." + +"No sir, no sir!" replied Harry, "we must load our own personal guns, +for we mean to make our _report_ this afternoon." + +Laughing over that threat to our tutors, we went with them to breakfast, +which we found ready as soon as our morning prayers were read. Clump +brought in the dishes--Clump in uniform--and I never saw a funnier +figure in my life. The coat was once my grandfather's--a colonel of +West India Militia, I believe. Now my grandfather had been a rather +short man, but very broad and stout, particularly round the stomach. +Old Clump was tall and thin as a spectre, so the epaulettes fell over +his shoulders, the waist flapped loosely eight inches above his +trousers, and the short swallow-tails did not sufficiently cover the +spot which the venerable darky usually placed on the chair to hide a +patch, the bigness of a frying-pan and of a different material from the +breeches themselves, that Juno's affectionate care had strengthened her +liege lord's garments with--which garments, far more pastoral than +military, and forced by suspenders as near the coat as Clump's anatomy +otherwise would allow, failed by three inches of woollen stocking to +meet his shoes. When you think how comical the excellent, old, +white-woolled darky appeared, remember, too, that he was perfectly +unconscious, until our laughter startled him, that he was not becomingly +attired. + +As our irrepressible appreciation of the fun was shouted out, Clump did +not realise at first that he was its cause, but when he did all the +pride and alacrity died from his face in an instant. In a bewildered, +palsied way he put down the dish he carried, and, heaving a sad sigh, +drew himself up until the rheumatic spine must have twinged, and, fixing +his eyes on some point far above our head, stood in motionless dignity. + +Even Mr Clare had laughed, but, recovering equanimity immediately that +he saw how deeply Clump was wounded, he said: + +"Boys, stop that laughing." He might have addressed his reproof to the +Captain, too, for he was in paroxysms, and had his face buried in the +countless flags of that great red silk bandanna of his. "Is it so very +funny to see Clump doing honour to a day once so big with the fate of +England and the world? Had the Allies been beaten at Waterloo, what +might not have become of our beloved country? Instead of Napoleon being +an exile in Saint Helena, he might have carried out his darling project +of invading and humbling England to the dust. Though he cares no more +for the Pope of Rome than does the Sultan of Turkey or the Shah of +Persia, he would probably have established Popery with all its horrors +and impositions, for the sake of more completely bringing our country +into subjection to his will; and, once established, it would have been a +hard matter to throw off its iron shackles. Boys, you do not +sufficiently value your privileges as Englishmen and Protestants--or +rather, I should say, as inhabitants of this free and favoured island of +Great Britain. We are free to read our Bibles; we are free to worship +God as we think fit; we are free to go and come as we list; we have a +good constitution and good laws; we may think freely, speak freely, and +act freely." + +"Yes, Massa Clare; you may tell de young gemmen dey may laff freely +too," broke in Clump. "I laff freely, I know, when I first set foot on +de English land. I no longer slave, I free man, and so dey may laff as +much as dey likes at ole Clump, perwided dey laffs wid him. I know one +ting, dey would not have laff if dey had been in deir grandfather's coat +when dis hole was made right through it into his arm." Clump held up +his right arm and showed the bullet-hole in the coat, and what he +declared to be the stain of blood still on it; and he then continued in +a triumphant strain-- + +"Dis ole man Clump was 'is body-sarvant: but Clump was not ole den, and +he follow his massa to de war--dat was long, long before dose young +gemmen was born--afore dey was tinked of--and Massa Tregellin deir fader +was young gemmen like dose, but more politer. We was sent wid de seamen +to take de island of Martinique; and so we landed and looked bery +fierce, and de Frenchmen thought we had come to eat dem; so dey say, no +use fighting; and so, after firing a great many shot at us; but doing no +harm, dey say when we land, `We give in, we no fight more.' So we take +de island, and no one hurt except one man scratch anoder's nose wid his +bagonet, and make blood come. When de generals and de admirals see we +done so well, dey say we go and take anoder island; so we all sets sail +for to take Guadeloupe. Some of de ships got in one day, some anoder, +and anchored in Grozier Bay. Ah, de enemy thought we come to eat him +up, but dis time he stop. Dere was de frigate _Winchelsea_, of which +Lord Garlies was de cap'en. He tun in, and bring his guns to bear on de +shore, and under deir cover de soldiers and de bluejackets landed. Dere +was a high hill, wid de fort full of French soldiers on de top of it. +`Dere, my brave fellow, we have to go up dere,' said de Kunnel. De +seamen was commanded by Cap'en Robert Faulkner. He bery brave man. I +could just tall you how many brave tings he did; how he lash de bowsprit +of de enemy to his own mainmast, and neber let her go till he took her, +and den was shot through de heart in de hour of victory. Well, de +gen'ral say to us--`Now, boys, we don't want firing, but just let de +enemy feel de cold steel. Dey don't like dat. Soldiers, use bagonets. +Bluejackets, use your pikes and cutlashes.' `Ay, ay, sir,' we shout; +and den up de hill we go--up! up! De faster we go de better for us, for +de French bullets come down peppering pretty sharp. We just near de +top, and de enemy begin to look bery blue, when I see de Kunnel's right +arm drop--he was only a cap'en den--his sword fell from his hand, but he +seize it wid de oder hand, and wave it above his head, shouting, `On, +boys, on.' We reach de fort: de Frenchmen fire wid de guns, and poke at +us wid de pikes, and swear at us wid deir mouds, and grapeshot and +musket-balls come rattling down about our heads; but dat no stop us; and +on we went till we got into de fort, and trou de gates, and den de +Frenchmen, who had fought bery well, but could fight no more, rushed +away. Just den I see de Kunnel look bery pale, just like one nigger +when he frightened, and he goed round and round, and would hab fallen, +but Clump caught him in de arms, and den Clump put him on de ground, and +shouted for de doctor, and ran and got some water, and de doctors came +and splashed water in de Kunnel's face, and he oped his eyes, and he +say, `Tank you, Clump.' Yes, de Kunnel, dis ole nigger's massa, tank +him on de field of battle. When de dear Massa got better, he one day +take de coat and say to me, `Here, Clump, you and I went up dat hill, +and it's a mercy we eber came down again. It's my belief if you hadn't +got de water dat day to throw in my face, I should never have come round +again; and so, Clump, here, take dis coat, I'll gub tur you to r'member +dis fite.' And now dese gemmen laff at deir gran'pa's coat! but black +Clump, ole nigger, _lub_ it! Yaas, he'll lub it till he's 'posited in +de bowels ob de arth." + +The remembrance of my grandfather and that proud day for Clump, the +keenness with which he had felt our rudeness, and the excitement of +recital were, all together, too much for our good old castellan. The +erectness of his figure gave way as he concluded, the enthusiasm in his +features faded into dejection, and, as he turned from the table to leave +the room, I saw a big drop, that had trickled down his wrinkled face, +fall on his extended hand. + +The cruelty of boys is an idiosyncrasy in their otherwise generous +character. Of course there are mean boys, hard-hearted boys, cowardly +boys; but Boyhood is more generous, open, tender-hearted, daring, than +Manhood, yet its cruelty stands out a distinguishing trait. An old +French teacher, loving children, wanting in dignity, broken in English, +irritable in disposition; a sensitive young stranger, fresh from home, +charming in innocence, sad with thoughts of a dear mother; a poor, +frightened kitten, are all objects for boys' cruelty to gloat over. + +And so, too, on the oddities of that dear old Clump, that excellent, +noble-hearted old black man, who loved us with surpassing pride and +tenderness, we delighted to prey on as vultures on a carcass, and yet, I +am sure, we were neither vicious nor hard-hearted, but simply and +entirely--Boys. + +All this time, since our Saturday afternoon, when the fight overset our +boat, Alfred Higginson and Drake had not spoken to one another. This +eighteenth of June, even, Drake did not wake Alfred, but left others of +us to do so. Thrown together so intimately every minute of the day, and +so often on the point of speaking--often almost necessitated to do so by +circumstances, and frequently through forgetfulness--their unfortunate +difficulty and enmity stole the freshness from their sports, and acted +as a check and damper on the spirits of all our little company. +However, the _finale_ was not far-distant, but it was postponed until +after the boat-race. + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT. + +THE REGATTA--THE DUEL. + +By agreement we rested through the middle of the day, and, in place of +our usual hearty dinner, took an early lunch. It was irksome, though, +to be quiet when so excited, and when, too, a multitude of pastimes were +suggested to our senses by the loveliness of that June day. + +Mr Clare and Captain Mugford had gone to fish in the Race off the +extreme point. + +When half-past one o'clock came, Harry, who seemed the most impatient, +proposed that we should go down to Bath Bay then, and wait there until +three, the hour of the race. That we agreed to, but left directions +with Clump to hurry our tutors up as soon as they returned, and have +them ready for the race. + +We had time to launch our boat carefully, and take a nice swim, before +we descried our tutors, followed by Clump with a long musket, descending +the knoll toward us. So we hastened our dressing, and, when they +reached the beach, were ready to receive them in our extemporised +costume of blue shirts and white trousers. Captain Mugford was already +in a perspiration from his walk, and, what we boys also noticed with +delight, seemed somewhat blown. However, he was jolly, and, flourishing +the ever active handkerchief, proposed to Mr Clare that they should row +round Leander's Rock, and _let the boys follow them_! "But at a +respectful distance, remember, boys!" We laughed scornfully at his +chaff. Harry touched his cap like a middy, and promised for our boat +that it should keep at a _very_ "respectful distance." + +It took but a short time to complete preparations. Our tutors threw off +hats, coats, and vests, and tied handkerchiefs about their heads. Then +they lifted their boat into the water, and stood smiling at the +excitement we could not help betraying. Clump was on his way to +Youngster's Wharf, where, at the proper moment, he was to give the +signal for starting by firing the musket. A flag waved from Leander's +Rock; another was flying over our heads. The clear water of the bay +soused in impatient little ripples against the boats we stood ready to +enter, as if to say, "Well, why don't you come on?" and then, purling a +few feet farther, skipped over the spar which was to be our goal. Clump +had reached Youngster's Wharf. Seeing that, we entered our boats, +seated ourselves carefully, balancing the oars ready to spring, and +waited the signal. I alone could see Clump; the oarsmen had their backs +to him. The long gun was brought up to his shoulder, and his eyes fixed +on us. I saw his finger twitch, and as the hammer fell, my body gave +way to help the start. The oarsmen, with their eyes on mine, acted in +sympathy, and every oar touched the water; but the old flintlock had +only snapped. How our adversaries laughed! The old man sprang about on +the rock like a wounded baboon. He was indignant at the failure. Again +we were in order. Again I saw the musket brought up. Bang! We were +off, and were opposite Youngster's Wharf before the smoke had cleared +from above Clump's head. The boats were side by side then. +Notwithstanding the eagerness with which I swayed forward with every +pull of the oars, and the frenzy that filled me, as in a moment more I +saw our tutors' boat drawing slightly ahead, I had to laugh at the +antics of Clump, who was rushing from side to side of his floating +staging, dancing up and down like a rheumatic lunatic, tossing his arms +wildly about his uncovered head, his face a kaleidoscope of grimaces, +while he shouted to each one of us by name, in encouragement, in +entreaty, in fear: "Oh, Massa Drake! pull, pull!" "Massa Walter! Massa +Walter! dus you let 'em beat!" "Day'se gwine ahead! Oh dear! oh dear! +oh dear!" + +His voice was lost in another moment. We were nearly half across the +bay, and our tutors' boat a full length ahead. I saw that my crew were +too excited to do their best, so I called to them: "Boys, steady now! +Keep cool, cool. Only think of what your arms are doing." + +"There, that's better already! We're gaining! Hurrah! Stick to it!" + +"Come, boys," called Mr Clare. "Come, we can't wait for you longer!" + +I believe that lent five pounds of extra strength to every arm in my +boat. + +We were nearing Leander's Rock. Ay! and we were steadily gaining on our +tutors. + +They, too, saw that, but could do no better. Having a steersman, gave +our boat an advantage of rounding the Rock closely. + +We gained distance. In five minutes we were thirty or forty feet ahead. + +But then, terrible to see, our adversaries made a spurt, and were coming +up again, hand over hand. + +They gained, _gained_, gained, until their stern was opposite Harry's +oar-blade. I was almost wild with excitement. I called upon the boys, +with every entreaty I could think of, to pull harder; urging on Alfred, +who was evidently the weakest oar, and whose strength seemed waning. + +But our tutors could not pull harder. They had done their best. Could +we but keep our speed. + +So we went, without widening or lessening the distance between us, for a +hundred yards. But was it possible for us to hold out? How I prayed we +might! We neared Clump again. The comic sight cheered me. Truly, if +hopping about and entreaties could help us, what aid must that old +nigger give us. I almost expected to see him soar off to us, he looked +so like a crow taking flight. + +"Fellows! keep a morsel of extra strength to use when we pass Clump, +then just let us put forth our utmost breath and strength for those +forty yards. But don't let our tutes gain. Look! look!" + +But they were coming up--only by inches, to be sure, but coming. + +We rushed past Youngster's Wharf. Clump stretched out his body as if to +pull us on. + +Hurrah! hurrah! Their bow is a foot beyond our stern. + +"Hi! hi! hi! Yah! yah! Hurrah! hurrah! My young--" + +Splash!!! + +Clump had pitched in sure enough, head first. But there was no stop to +our engines. Our tutors were four feet behind; but they were working +with a last hope and mad effort. + +"One more, boys!" + +Cr-u-a-nk! we touched the spar, slid over its roundness as it sunk +beneath our keel, and were on the soft beach--Victors! + +We were crazy with joy, and completely used up. The boys jumped from +the boat and threw themselves, laughing hysterically, on the sand. + +Our tutors only said, in tones of mingled chagrin and exhaustion, "Boys, +we are beaten, well and fairly;" and they pushed off again to pick up +Clump. + +I do not know any successes or honours of after-life sweeter or more +satisfying than that boat victory. + +Until bedtime, we remained just tired and happy enough to sit quietly +and talk over the events of the afternoon. + +In resuming study for the few days before Saturday, we had in +anticipation for that time a fishing party on the rocks, for bass, which +were beginning to bite sharply, and for which our bait was lobster and +the crabs that were found under the small rocks at low tide. + +In talking over the project together, Drake said he would not go this +time, but would wait to see our luck. Alfred Higginson expressed +neither assent nor dissent with the general arrangement, and of course +we supposed he was to be of our party, until Saturday came and we were +ready to start, poles, bait and basket in hand, when he was not to be +found. We wondered at his disappearance, but had no time to hunt him +up. Drake was there to see us off. The Captain and Mr Clare, who were +going with us, told Drake they thought that boat-race had proved too +much for him. He laughed, but was not as ready at an answer as usual. +Indeed, he appeared rather low-spirited. However, we started on our +excursion without a suspicion of the affair which prevented both fellows +from joining it. It afterwards appeared that Drake had addressed the +following note to Alfred Higginson on the day before the boat-race:-- + + "Cape ---, June 17, 1816. + + "Alfred Higginson, + + "Our quarrels have gone nearly far enough, disturbing the peace of our + entire company, and increasing the irritation between us. Let us + conclude the dissension in a thorough and honourable way that may + satisfy both and prove a final contest. After that I will agree to + strive not to give offence to you, and also to bear silently whatever + conceit and insults may escape you. Perhaps we may become friends. + But we cannot remain as we are. The blow you struck the other day + _must_ be answered for. _I ask satisfaction_, and the incompleteness + and vulgarity of a pugilistic encounter will not suit me. I propose, + therefore, as we cannot resort to the regular duel of pistols, (for + reasons so good and evident that I need not name them), that after the + example of the ancients, whose history we are now daily reading, we + have our combat. Arms of their fashion our ingenuity can supply, not + of the same materials, I know, but of wood, which should prove + effective enough for our purposes. I propose Saturday as the time, + when those who might otherwise disturb our meeting are absent: and I + propose the hold of the wreck as a suitable spot. Your sense of + honour will, of course, keep this affair secret, and I ask a speedy + reply. + + "Drake Tregellin." + +Only a warm, fierce, reckless-natured boy of fourteen could have hit +upon such an absurdly quixotic way of deciding a quarrel. Indian +combats between Red Indians in the Far West, the deeds of Sir Kenneth, +Saladin, and Coeur de Lion in his favourite "Talisman," and the entire +character of Drake's reading, had joined with and gathered romance from +his late study of Virgil to misdirect an innate chivalry. + +Alfred Higginson's reply was also characteristic:-- + + "Drake Tregellin, + + "I have received your _cartel_. In my humble opinion nothing could be + more stupid and silly than the resort you propose. I suppose you + think your proposition very _grand_ and _chivalric_. It endangers the + continuance of our stay on the cape; it rebels against the rule we are + under here; and it would make our parents unhappy. Its spirit of + selfishness and indifference to everything but your own impulse is the + same which causes and continues our quarrelling. But I shall be a + fool with you this time. I have not the courage to balk your desire. + I agree to the contest, if you agree to keep the peace after that. I + suppose javelins and shields of wood are to be our weapons. What + nonsense! But I shall be at hand, Saturday, at the brig, when the + others have gone fishing. + + "Alfred Higginson." + +About an hour after we had got settled on Bass Rocks, and just as we +commenced catching fish, and I had a mighty fellow slashing my line +about and trying to snap the pole, we heard the voice of some one +calling to us in distress, and, turning, saw Juno hurrying towards us as +fast as her old limbs and breathless state would allow. She was +chattering all the while, but it was impossible for us to understand the +cause of her mission until she had come up to us and had taken a +moment's rest. Then, the tears springing from her eyes and terror in +her voice, she exclaimed: "De yun' gem'men--Massa Drake, Massa Alf'fed, +dey is fiteten and tarr'en one udder to pieces. Dey is down dare in de +ole ship and fire'en sticks and poke-en guns; an' oh Lord, I fear dey is +all dead now!" Her excitement could no longer be contained, but broke +forth in cries and ejaculations: "Oh! oh! oh! marssaful Hebbens! Oh de +Lord, please top de yun' gem'men! Massa Clare, Massa Capting, ar'n't +yous gwine? Ar'n't yous gwine afore dey is done dead? Dat dis ole +woman mus' see such tings!" + +We also gleaned from her, that, hearing a noise at the wreck, as she was +passing near by, she had scrambled on board the vessel and there seen +the two boys engaged in a severe fight; that she had hurried off for +Clump, but could not find him; and that then she had run to where she +knew we were; but we had to hasten her broken narrative to get at the +whole matter, and then we all started for the wreck as fast as we could +run, fearful that a tragedy was to meet our sight--that we might be too +late to prevent it. + +What a sight met our eyes as we hurried down the stairs to the brig's +schoolroom! + +Chairs, desks, and tables had been pushed back against the sides to make +room for the duel, and there, in the so-formed arena, the atmosphere of +which was thick with disturbed dust, lay in common confusion a split +shield, two swords, a padded glove, a splintered lance, and a torn cap. +The weapons--the shield in particular--reflected skill upon Clump or +whatever carpenter had fashioned them. In some charge of one of the +combatants, the round table, although intended to be in a place of +safety, had been overturned, adding a globe, a streaming inkstand, and +sundry books to the medley on the floor. + +But our astonishment culminated when we saw Drake leaning back in Mr +Clare's big chair in the farther end of the hold, his head bleeding, a +sleeve torn off, and an expression of comically blended fatigue and +dignified indifference in his face, while near the opposite side of the +schoolroom, and on one side of the stairway we had descended, was Alfred +Higginson lying on the floor, his head supported on an arm, his +countenance the picture of pain and mortification. + +Evidently the battle was over. The parties spoke not a word; and the +first exclamation that came from us was Harry's: "Hillo! A real duel, +and no one killed." + +Our good Captain, his face full of tenderness and anxiety, hurried to +Alf and lifted him up, but as he was so much hurt as to be only able to +hobble a few steps, Captain Mugford lifted him in his arms and carried +him on deck. + +"What is all this, my poor fellow?" asked the Captain, as he got him on +a bench there. + +"Rather a long story, Captain, but no one to blame but Drake and me. He +ain't much hurt, is he?" + +"That is what I want to ask you, Alf. Where is your pain?" + +"There, sir, in my side. It is only stiff and bruised, but don't touch +it hard, please. There! where your hand is. And I believe my hand is +somewhat cut." + +As it proved on examination by the doctor from the village, whom I +brought over an hour afterwards, one of Alf's ribs was broken and the +palm of his left hand badly gashed. + +Whilst the Captain and Harry Higginson had attended to Alfred, Mr Clare +and Walter took care of Drake. He was very laconic in his replies to +their questions, and made light of the injury; but he was faint from the +wound in the head, and his sleeveless arm was so stiff as to be useless +to him then. + +Juno, who had found Clump, joined us before we reached the house with +our wounded comrades; but at the sight of Drake's bleeding head and +Alfred carried in the Captain's arms, Juno's ejaculations recommenced, +and Clump followed, only wringing his hands in mute despair. + +Of the particulars of the fight we never knew further than I have +related. Both of the principals in the affair hated to have it alluded +to, and we spared their feelings. + +When we had got them comfortably settled in their rooms, Mr Clare +called the remainder of us aside and enjoined upon us that we should not +question Drake and Alfred, nor mention the matter in their presence; and +that in the meantime he would decide with Captain Mugford what steps to +take when the boys had recovered. + +In another week Drake was as well as ever, but hardly as noisy and +reckless as of old. Alfred remained an invalid for some time longer. + +When both were perfectly recovered, Mr Clare called us all together in +the brig's schoolroom one afternoon, and then addressed us, particularly +the two combatants, in a manner that I can never forget--it was so +sensible, so manly, so solemn. He pointed out the faults of each, which +had fed the long quarrel and finally serious conclusion. He painted the +wickedness of that duel, (for it could be called nothing else), and all +such affairs, which in former times were ignorantly considered necessary +and honourable. He told us in what he thought true manliness, courage, +and _chivalry_ consisted. Then, in a simple, touching way, he suggested +higher thoughts--our duty to our Father in heaven as brothers of one +common family, and more than all of the example which our blessed Lord +and Master set us while He was on earth--to forgive injuries--to +overlook insults; and he spoke of charity as forbearance, and conquest +as governing ourselves; and then begged us to join him in earnest +entreaty to the Holy Spirit for the strength to practise that charity +and make those conquests, to the Source whence such virtues came, and to +the Ear which was never deaf to supplication. How simple and noble was +that whole address! And I cannot forbear testimony to the fruitfulness +of a Christian practice such as that of our then tutor, dear Mr Clare. +Even thoughtless boys could not sneer at the constant manly practice of +his life. We had to see that it gave the loftiest aims even to the +smallest acts of his everyday life--that where he spoke one word he +acted fifty in that service which ennobles the commonest deed. So that +religion, which youth often regards as something whining and +hypocritical, something only for the old and sick, we boys _began_ to +look up to as something which, if we could only _partly_ understand, +was, at the least, truly beautiful and noble. + +The lesson and bearing of Mr Clare on that occasion was enforced by the +fact that as he concluded, Captain Mugford, rubbing the back of a rough +hand on his cheek for some reason, got up and crossed the room to Mr +Clare, whose hand he took in both his, and said-- + +"Mr Clare, I am but a rough, wicked old sailor, but the words you have +spoken to these boys have touched an older boy than they, and I thank +you--I thank you!" + +The parents of both Drake and Alfred were duly informed, by both Mr +Clare and the boys themselves, of the affair. + +From that time Drake and Alfred were changed boys. The old dominant +faults I have told of had now to _fight_ for sway and were generally +mastered, whilst the conduct of one to the other grew generous and +considerate, and the two boys became and ever afterward remained close +friends. + + + +CHAPTER NINE. + +BIG FISHING--A STRANGE DISSECTION. + +The dog-days and the sultriness of August extended some of their +influence even in our fresh kingdom by the sea. The only exercise that +tempted us was swimming, and that, by Captain Mugford's permission, we +now enjoyed twice each day--before breakfast and after tea. What else +is so delightful and health-giving? The header from the brown rock from +whose sides wave the cool, green tresses of the sea! off, with a whoop, +and hands above your head, as the sun pats tricklingly your back! off, +with a spring, down head first through the deliciously cool, clear, +bracing water, that effervesces about you in bubbles of sport. Then, as +the long delicate tendrils beneath swing like sirens' arms to welcome +you, to arch the back and, leaving the alluring depths, rise through the +dark water with the ease of an eagle on his wings until your head pops +into the upper world of noise and sunlight again. The long, sharp, +regular strokes now, every muscle stretching elastically and the whole +frame electric with vigour and freshness--oh, how delicious! + +Reeking with wet, we climb the rock, picking a spot where limpets are +not, and sit in that glorious sunlight, each atom of which seems to melt +into the blood. Clasping our hands about our knees, we can watch the +glory of the sun climbing higher and higher above the ocean, and, if we +choose, fancy ourselves big grapes ripening on "Lusitanian summers," +until we are dry--which is too soon--and then with what overflowing +spirits and ravenous appetites we go, like hunters, to the house! + +"Come, Marm Juno, send in the eggs and bacon. We're as hungry as +bears!" + +"He! he! he! How you yun' gemmen do go on. Seems as ef you'se nebber +git nuffen ter eat at hum. 'Spects you'll git fat down 'ere! He! he!" + +But our studies did not slacken because of the warm weather. Copying +Mr Clare, we all worked with a will. There was not a laggard amongst +us, I believe. There was a disposition to please one who had so grown +in our affection and respect as even to have outstripped our dear old +salt tute. He understood our youthful difficulties, sympathised with +our interests, and, not limiting his duties to hearing us recite, taught +us _how to study_. + +As August waned the fishing improved, and with the little fiddler or +soldier crab we caught fish of three and four pounds instead of those of +one and two pounds that had a month ago employed us. And then the +striped bass, the _Labrus lineatus_, the king of saltwater game fish-- +what splendid sport they furnished! + +These last we caught, some of us with the pole and reel, some with the +hand-line. But it was active work to throw out about sixty yards of +line and then troll it quickly back through the eddies off the rocks, +where the bass fed and sported. The Captain was great at this; +despising the pole and waving the bait round and round his head, he +would throw it full a hundred yards to sea. + +I tell you it was exciting to hook a five or six pounder and have him +make off with a lurch. Pay out then, quick, quick, just keeping a +"feel" of the fellow's mouth, and as he slacks his speed, tauten your +line, and pull in with all your strength. Slower now, as he begins to +haul back. Now look out; he is off again with a mightier spring and +greater speed than before. Pay out, quick and steady. So, again and +again, his strength getting less and less, until you can tow him up to +the rock, and your companion put the gaff in his ruddy gills. + +Many a noble fish escaped; many a line and hook snapped in the warfare. +Sometimes a much larger fish would take hold, and two of us would have +to pull on the line stretched like wire. During the season we took a +seven-pounder, one of eight, and one of ten pounds, and Captain Mugford, +alone on the rocks, one stormy morning, when we boys were in school, +captured a royal fellow of twelve pounds, and brought it for our +admiring gaze as we went to dinner. Mr Clare promised to beat that, +but he never did. + +One Saturday afternoon, about the last of August, just after a somewhat +heavy gale, which had been blowing for a couple of days, we all repaired +to Bass Rocks, though the sky was drizzling yet, and the spray of the +waves dashed at every blow clear over our stand. + +It was apparently a splendid time for our friends, the labrus, but we +did not get a bite. We persevered, however, fresh baiting the hooks, +and throwing out again and again, with not a fin to flash after them +through the curdled waters. + +Harry Higginson, having been very unlucky before this, losing several +strong lines, had provided himself this time with one which, he said, +could hold a hundred-pounder--the line consisting of two thick flaxen +lines plaited together. He had it rigged on his pole. Grown careless +from the ill-luck we had met, he at length let his bait sink to the +bottom, about thirty yards from the rocks, and got talking with the +Captain, who had given up fishing, and, with his sou'wester pulled about +his ears, was taking a comfortable pipe in a crevice of the biggest +rock. + +Suddenly I heard a reel go clork--cle-erk cleerk! and saw Harry's pole +fall from his hands to the rock. He seized it in a second, but as he +stopped the revolving of the reel, the pole bent, and he pulled back on +it--Snap! It was gone in the middle of the second joint. Of course the +line remained, and that he commenced pulling in, bestowing the while +some pretty hard expressions on his bad luck, for it really seemed as if +the once-hooked fish had gone off in safety. About ten yards of the +line came in slack, and then it stopped. + +"Fast to a rock! What luck!" cried Harry, and then he commenced to +jerk. + +As he turned to look at us, with an expression of sarcastic +indifference, I saw the line straightening out again in a steady, slow +way, as if it was attached to an invisible canal-boat. + +"Hold fast," I cried; "look! you have got something. What can it be?" +saying which, Harry commenced to pull, but in vain--the prey went ahead. + +Captain Mugford had taken the pipe from his mouth as his attention was +fastened by the strange manoeuvres of Harry's game. Things having come +to such a bewildering pass, he put up his pipe and, shaking the folds of +the sou'wester from about his head, sprung forward and took hold of the +line with Harry, but it still ran out through their hands. + +"Seventeen seventy-six! what a whopper," exclaimed the Captain. "We +must let go another anchor--eh, Harry?" + +"Indeed! yes," replied Harry. "Look! he is stopping, and seems to be +shaking the hook as a cat would a mouse. What can it be?" + +Now the unknown took a tack towards us, and the line was gathered in and +kept tight, and, as he began to go about on another course, his enemies +took advantage of his momentary sluggishness to haul with considerable +effect on the line. That brought the rascal right under the rocks. We +could not see him; only the commotion of the water. Being brought up +with such a short turn maddened the fellow, and perhaps he began to +realise what was giving him such a jaw-ache. At any rate, just then he +showed his speed to the whole length of the line, rushing off like a +locomotive, and cutting his enemies fingers to the bones. They held on, +however, and were able to bring him to as his charge slackened. + +Of course the others of us hauled in our lines and watched with +eagerness the combat so exciting. We proffered advice of all kinds to +the two fishers, which they did not heed but devised schemes as the +moment required, and certainly they managed with great skill. You would +have thought the Captain was on deck in a hurricane, or repelling the +boarders of a Malay pirate. The pipe was jammed up to its bowl in the +side of his mouth, and all he said came in jerks through his teeth. + +We were perfectly in the dark as to what the fish might be--whether an +immense cod or halibut, or a princely bass. + +The fight went on for half an hour without any decided result. But +after that the struggles of the fish occupied a smaller space, never +taking more than half the line out now. He was nearer the surface too, +and the quick slaps of a tremendous tail lashed the sea. + +"Mr Clare," called out Captain Mugford, "won't you twist two of the +boys' lines together and bend them on that gaff? By the way, there is a +hatchet with us, is there not? Good! Have that and the gaff ready. We +are tiring the animal, whatever it is--a shark, I suspect." + +Whilst we were carrying out the Captain's orders, Harry cried, "See, +see! there is the whole length of him. Yes, a shark. What a grand +beast!" + +They were tiring him--worrying the strength and fierceness out of him. +Every turn was bringing him nearer the rock. Every dash of his was +weaker. But it must have been fully an hour from the first rush he made +before he was brought exhausted alongside of the rocks, and the Captain +cried, "Put in the gaff, Mr Clare--hard deep!" + +Well was it that a strong line had been made fast to the gaff, for as +its big hook struck him behind the gills, he uttered a sound like the +moan of a child, and flapped off, the gaff remaining in him, into deep +water. + +With the two lines and his exhausted state, it was comparatively easy to +bring him to the rocks again, and then with blows of the hatchet we had +soon murdered him. Even then it was a job of some moment to get the +body safely up the slimy and uneven rocks. + +At length our prey was well secured, and we stood about him in triumph. +It was a shark, measuring five feet and three inches in length, and he +must certainly have weighed nearly a hundred pounds. + +From the study Mr Clare made of the subject, we found that the name by +which the shark is technically known is _Squalidae_, which includes a +large family fitly designated, as your Latin dictionary will prove when +you find the adjective _squalidus_--"filthy, slovenly, loathsome." It +is a family of many species, there being some thirty or forty cousins; +and the different forms of the teeth, snout, mouth, lips, and tail-fins, +the existence or absence of eyelids, spiracles, (those are the apertures +by which the water taken in for respiration is thrown out again), the +situation of the different fins, etcetera, distinguish the different +divisions of the common family. The cousin who, wandering about that +stormy Saturday, had frightened away the bass, and finally astonished +himself by swallowing a fish-hook when he only thought to suck a dainty +bit of his family's favourite delicacy, was known as the _Zygaena_--so +Mr Clare introduced him to us when his sharkship had grown so +exceedingly diffident as not to be able to say one word for himself--a +genus distinguished by having the sides of the head greatly prolonged in +a horizontal direction, from which circumstance they are commonly known +as the hammer-headed sharks. + +His teeth were in three rows, the points of the teeth being directed +towards the corners of the mouth. The two back rows were bent down, and +only intended, Mr Clare told us, to replace the foremost when injured. +These horrible teeth were notched like a saw. + +I think the face, if so you might call it, of that piratical fish wore +the most fearfully cruel and rapacious expression I had ever seen. That +_Zygaena_ family of the _Squalidae_, (I think they sound more horribly +devilish when called by their classical titles), is one dangerous to +man, and it is very rare that a man-eating or man-biting shark is ever +found on the English coast. + +I proposed to cut him open, and so we did. Among the half-digested +food, most of which was fish, I found something that at first looked +like a leather strap. I seized it and pulled it out. Surely there was +a buckle. I washed and laid it out on the rock, while we all gathered +about in great excitement to make out what our dead enemy had been +preying on. There was no longer a doubt that it was a dog-collar--the +collar of a medium-sized dog, perhaps a spaniel or terrier. There was a +plate on it, which, with a little rubbing, we made to read, "David +Atherton, Newcastle." How very strange! Had the little fellow been +washed overboard from some vessel? or had he swum off some neighbouring +beach to bring a stick for his master? + +We could never discover any antecedents of any kind whatever to that +mysterious sequel to "The Romance of the Poor Young Dog." Was there a +fond master mourning for him in Newcastle, England, or in Newcastle, +Pennsylvania? Alas, poor dog! thou wert hastily snatched from this +world--the ocean thy grave and a shark's belly thy coffin. Thy collar +hangs, as I write this, over my study table, and many a time has my old +Ponto sniffed at that relic of a fellow-dog, and his eyes grown moist as +I repeated to him my surmises of the sad fate of David Atherton's +companion. + +Mr Clare told us a good deal about sharks. Of the many varieties, the +most hideous is the Wolf-fish, (_Anarrhicas lupus_). Though much +smaller than the white shark, he is a very formidable creature. He has +six rows of grinders in each jaw, excellently adapted for bruising the +crabs, lobsters, scallops, and large whelks, which the voracious animal +grinds to pieces, and swallows along with the shells. When caught, it +fastens with indiscriminate rage upon anything within its reach, fights +desperately, even when out of the water, and inflicts severe wounds if +not avoided cautiously. Schonfeld relates this wolf-fish will seize on +an anchor and leave the marks of its teeth in it, and Steller mentions +one on the coast of Kamschatka, which he saw lay hold of a cutlass, with +which a man was attempting to kill it, and break it to bits as if it had +been made of glass. This monster is, from its great size, one of the +most formidable denizens of the ocean; in the British waters it attains +the length of six or seven feet, and is said to be much larger in the +more Northern seas. It usually frequents the deep parts of the sea, but +comes among the marine plants of the coast in spring, to deposit its +spawn. It swims rather slowly, and glides along with somewhat of the +motion of an eel. + +The white shark is far more dreadful, from its gigantic size and +strength; its jaws are also furnished with from three to six rows of +strong, flat, triangular, sharp-pointed, and finely serrated teeth, +which it can raise or depress at will. + +This brute grows to a length of thirty feet, and its strength may be +imagined from the fact that a young shark, only six feet long, has been +known to break a man's leg by a stroke of its tail. Therefore, when +sailors have caught a shark at sea, with a baited hook, the first thing +they do when it is drawn upon deck is to chop off its tail, to prevent +the mischief to be dreaded from its immense strength. + +Hughes, the author of the "Natural History of Barbadoes," relates an +anecdote which gives a good idea of the nature of this monster: "In the +reign of Queen Anne a merchant ship from England arrived at Barbadoes; +some of the crew, ignorant of the danger of doing so, were bathing in +the sea, when a large shark suddenly appeared swimming directly towards +them. All hurried on board, and escaped, except one unfortunate fellow, +who was bit in two by the shark. A comrade and friend of the man, +seeing the severed body of his companion, vowed instant revenge. The +voracious shark was seen swimming about in search of the rest of his +prey, when the brave lad leaped into the water. He carried in his hand +a long, sharp-pointed knife, and the fierce monster pushed furiously +towards him. Already he had turned over, and opened his huge, deadly +jaws, when the youth, diving cleverly, seized the shark somewhere near +the fins with his left hand, and stabbed him several times in the belly. +The creature, mad with pain and streaming with blood, attempted vainly +to escape. The crews of the ships near saw that the fight was over, but +knew not which was slain, till, as the shark became exhausted, he rose +nearer the shore, and the gallant assailant still continuing his +efforts, was able, with assistance, to drag him on shore. There he +ripped open the stomach of the shark and took from it the half of his +friend's body, which he then buried together with the trunk half." + +The negroes are admirable swimmers and divers, and they sometimes attack +and vanquish the terrible shark, but great skill is necessary. + +When Sir Brooke Watson, as a youth, was in the West Indies, he was once +swimming near a ship when he saw a shark making towards him. He cried +out in terror for help, and caught a rope thrown to him; but even as the +men were drawing him up the side of the vessel, the monster darted +after, and took off his leg at a single snap. + +Fortunately for sea-bathers on our shores, the white shark and the +monstrous hammer-headed _zygaena_ seldom appear in the colder latitudes, +though both have occasionally been seen on the British coasts. + +The northern ocean has its peculiar sharks, but some are good-natured, +like the huge basking shark, (_S maximus_), and feed on seaweeds and +medusae and the rest, such as the _picked_ dog-fish, (_Galeus +acanthius_), are, although fierce, of too small a size to be dangerous +to man. + +But the dog-fish and others, such as the blue shark, are very +troublesome and injurious to the fisherman; though they do not venture +to attack him, for they hover about his boat and cut the hooks from his +lines. Indeed, this sometimes leads to their own destruction; and when +their teeth do not deliver them from their difficulty, the blue sharks, +which hover about the coast of Cornwall during the pilchard season, roll +their bodies round so as to twine the line about them in its whole +length, and often in such a way that Mr Yarrell has known a fisherman +give up as hopeless the attempt to unroll it. + +This shark is very dangerous to the pilchard drift-net, and very often +will pass along the whole length of net, cutting out, as if with shears, +the fish and the net which holds them, and swallowing both together. + + + +CHAPTER TEN. + +UGLY--PLOVER, SNIPE, AND RABBIT SHOOTING--A CRUISE PROPOSED. + +Recounting that last event reminds me of a well-beloved character in our +cape days--one, too, that was destined to play an important part in our +little drama. + +Ugly was his name; Trusty Greatheart it should have been. + +Ugly was a clipped-eared, setter-tailed, short-legged, long-haired, +black-nosed, bright-eyed little mongrel. In limiting his ancestry to no +particular aristocratic family, he could prove some of the blood of +many. There were evident traces of the water-spaniel, the Skye terrier, +and that most beautiful of all the hound family--the beagle. + +I do not know what education Ugly may have had in his earlier days, but +I believe it to have been limited, though his acquirements were great. +I believe him to have been a canine genius. He was as ready on the +water as on the land. His feats of diving and swimming were remarkable; +and a better rabbit-dog and more sagacious, courageous watchdog never +lived. As to the languages, I will acknowledge he could speak none; but +he understood English perfectly, and never failed to construe rightly +any of Mr Clare's Latin addresses--much better than ever Walter could +do. Indeed, Mr Clare's commands to and conversations with Ugly were +always in Latin. + +Of his rare sagacity and unbounded affection there are proofs to be +furnished further on in this narrative. + +Harry Higginson and Walter had guns, and they alone of our number were +allowed to use them. That exclusion never caused me any regrets, nor do +I think it troubled Alfred Higginson, but it was a constant pain to +Drake. He loved a gun, and his most golden dream of manhood's happiness +was the possession of a good fowling-piece. The prohibition of our +parents, however, was so stringent in this particular that poor Drake +never sighted along the bright barrels nor even touched the well-oiled +stocks but once while we were at the cape. + +There they stood, always ready, in a corner of our attic--where Drake, +Alf, and I could not touch them, but ready at any time for the pleasure +of Walter and Harry. + +Walter was an accomplished shot, and Harry was not a bad one. Harry had +not had the training of Walter, whom my father had taught--not +commencing with stationary objects, but with targets thrown in the air, +and small, slow-winged birds as they flitted near the ground. My father +had at first made him practise for a long time without caps, powder, or +shot, merely in quickly bringing the stock close to the shoulder, and +getting the eye directly behind the breech. When proficiency in that +had become a mechanical habit, the gun was loaded, and then commenced +the practice of shooting at moving objects. As the art of bringing the +gun properly to the cheek had been so thoroughly mastered as to require +no effort nor attention, Walter could, when an object was thrown up, +direct all his care to bringing the muzzle of the piece--the sight-- +directly on that object. My father's reason for teaching him first to +shoot at flying marks was to prevent the habit of dwelling long on an +aim--that habit of following or _poking_ at the bird which ruins good +shooting, and prevents the possibility of becoming a good snap shot. +And so, afterwards, Drake and I were taught; and boys who are learning +to shoot will find, that by remembering and practising the method I have +described, instead of commencing by taking long, deliberate aims at +stationary objects, they will get ahead surprisingly fast, far +outstripping those who learn by the latter way. + +In our rambles about the cape, Ugly soon displayed his talent for +rabbit-hunting. He would smell where Bunny had been wandering and +follow the track until he started Miss Long-ears from her covert, and +then the fun began--the rabbit leaping off in frightened haste, running +for life, winding and dodging about over the swells of the sparse grass +hillocks, while Ugly, mad with excitement, spread his long, low body +down to the chase. How the little fellow would put in his nose close to +the ground, staunch on the trail as the best-blooded hound, and making +the air ring with his sharp but musical bark! I tell you that was fun! +Ugly always stuck to his game until he had run it to its burrow. He had +not the speed to overtake it. + +The summer is not the proper season for rabbit-shooting; so Walter, who +was never to be tempted by the best chance of killing game even a day +out of season, would not permit either Harry or himself to shoot at the +objects of Ugly's furious energy until it was legitimate. That conduct +of Walter and Harry was beyond Ugly's comprehension. I have often seen +him try to understand it. The chase having ended as usual in a safe +burrow, I have noticed Ugly--who, after a very short experience, had +learned not to waste his time in vain digging--turn toward us with a +waddling, disconsolate trot, and having approached a few rods, stop and +sit down to revolve the puzzle over in his mind. He would look where +the rabbit had housed himself, then drop his head, cock up an ear, and +cast an inquiring glance toward us, as much as to say: "Why, _do_ tell +Ugly why you did not shoot that old lap-ears? Ah!" That operation he +would repeat several times before rejoining us, and when he had come up +he would cock his head first one side and then the other, and look into +our faces with most beseeching questioning in those great, keen, brown +eyes of his. Then he would hang behind on our way home, evidently +greatly distressed at his ignorance. + +Never mind, good Ugly! I believe you were fully rewarded for weeks of +bewilderment when the time did come for knocking over bunnies. + +One afternoon, in returning from one of those rambles, we met our salt +tute hurrying towards us in a great state of haste and perspiration. +When near enough for his hoarse bass voice to reach us, he hailed-- + +"Well, there you are, boys, at last! I have been hunting for you all +over the cape for the last hour. Ah! Ugly, boy, are you glad to see +the old Captain trudging over the rabbit-ground? Eh? shaggy boy! And +you have been running the bunnies till you are blown, and your masters +would not shoot--eh? Well, no matter; the Captain shall bring his +marline-spike along some day, and help you bag them. But, my +affectionate pup, do you take a turn in that tail, or you'll wag it off +some windy day." + +So Ugly sat down--a long, red, wet tongue hanging from the side of his +mouth--and whipped the grass between the Captain's boots with that +restless tail until we came up. + +"Why, Captain Mugford," said Walter, "I did not know you ever wanted +_us_." + +"No? Well, I do though, just now. You see, boys, as to-morrow will be +Saturday, with every prospect of fair weather and a good breeze, I +thought we might go on a cruise--start early, get our meals on board, +run off to the fishing-grounds, and make a voyage of general +exploration. And to do this we must get our traps aboard this evening, +and see that everything is in order on board the _Youth_." + +"Good! nothing could suit us better, Captain. I'll run to the house +with the guns," said Harry, "and we can all go at once off to the +_Youth_." + +"Mr Clare," continued Captain Mugford, "can't go with us, he says, but +must walk over to Q---town and spend the day. That's a pity, for I +calculated on having a capital time all together, on a voyage like this +one we propose." + +"Well, we boys," said Walter, "will ask him this evening to put off his +visit. Perhaps he may change his mind." + +When Harry returned we went down to our cutter, all in great spirits on +account of the fun proposed for the next day. + +Getting on board, we mopped and swabbed her out well, overhauled the +ropes and sails, and hauled down the pennant to take home with us for +Juno to mend where it had frayed out on the point. That work being +completed, we went to the house for such provisions as we should want on +our excursion. Juno put up a large supply for one day--ground coffee, +eggs, biscuit, cold mutton, a cold turkey, and several currant and apple +pies, besides butter, salt, etcetera--and Clump conveyed it down to the +_Youth_ for us on a wheelbarrow. + +The provisions were carefully stowed in the forepeak, and everything +being arranged, we appointed Ugly to act as a guard over our craft +during the night. + +Harry briefly explained it to him. "Look here, Ugly, you are to stay +here to-night and look after the things. Of course you are not to come +ashore or leave duty for a minute. We shall be down early in the +morning. Be ready to receive us with proper ceremonies, for we are off +on a cruise, old boatswain, to-morrow. Look, Ugly; I put your supper in +this stern locker. Do you see?" + +Ugly was at first rather disappointed at the prospect of being separated +from us for the night, but as Harry's harangue proceeded and he began to +comprehend the honour of the duty required aboard ship, he bristled up +and grew as stiff and important as his inches would allow. He turned +his nose to watch where the supper was placed, and then walked forward +and took a seat on the bow assuming a comical air of "captaincy;" so +pantomimic was it that Captain Mugford laughed aloud, and said: "Well +done, Ugly; where, my fine fellow, did you learn quarterdeck airs?" + +"Good-night, Captain Ugly," we cried, as we pushed for the shore in the +punt. "Good-night, boy; can't you say something, Captain Gruff?" + +At which address Ugly rose up and, putting his forefeet on the larboard +gunwale, barked three loud, clear notes, and we gave three laughing +cheers as he returned to his post by the bowsprit. + +Before going to bed that night, I went out in the kitchen to put a pair +of my shoes to dry, and found Clump and Juno, as usual in the evenings, +smoking and dozing over the fire. + +Wondering at the amount of comfort these old folk seemed to find in +tobacco, I asked Clump why he smoked so much. + +"Fur constellation, Massa Bob--fur constellation; dat's ol," he +answered. + +"Oh, that is it, Clump--consolation, eh? Well, I must get a pipe some +time and try it," I said. + +"No, Massa Bob," joined in Juno, who was knocking out the ashes from her +pipe on the head of the fire-dog--"no, Massa Bob you'se munno 'moke. +'Spects, ef you'se do, you find de way tur constollaton, dat ole Clump +talk of, cum tru much tribble-laison--he! he! he!" + +I had to laugh at the old woman's wit. As for Clump, he rubbed his +shins and "yaw-ha'd" over his wife's speech for five minutes. + +As I was going off to bed, Juno called me back in a hesitating way, and +said in a low, frightened voice: "Massa Bob, sum-how dis ole woman ees +'feared 'bout ter'morrow. You'se gwine sure?" + +"Of course, Juno," I replied. "And what are you afraid of? I would not +stay at home for ten pounds." + +"Dis chile's sorry--sorry," she continued, "but de Lor' ees my strong +'an my sheel." She was speaking very slowly, and had bent over the fire +to rake the ashes together. She went on muttering some more of the +Bible texts she always called on in any perplexity, until a new idea +flashed to her from some uncovered ember, and she turned quickly, +laughing in a low, shrill way, "He! he! he! woy'se ole Juno afeer'd? +He! he! he! 'spects it on'y debbil dat has tole lies to dis poor ole +nigger when she's 'sleep." + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN. + +A MEMORABLE CRUISE COMMENCES. + +We had nearly reached our cutter before the sun lifted its yellowish, +red sphere, with just such an expression as a jolly, fat, old alderman +accustomed to good cheer might present, on raising his head from the +folds of a comfortable night's pillow. + +It looked about in a dim, bewildered way at first, as if trying to wake +up and make out what was the matter--that dark, vast, heaving, rolling +sea, the rocks and capes touched with light, and a great land behind +them yet dark and undefined; all so quiet too; and the soft, pink mist +that rolled away in smoke-like clouds--rolled away over the billowy +surface of the ocean toward the land, and, frightened, perhaps, by that +red apparition on the eastern horizon, faded from sight, or rose for +shelter to the sky above. + +It was bravely up now; had mastered the situation, dispelled the night. +The great honest face took a king's expression, and breathing bounty, +warmth, and courage, blessed the scene it looked upon. + +Then how the birds sang out, how sea and land grew beautiful and full of +voice, how the clouds dressed their ranks and marched on their way. And +the irrepressible exclamation came from all our boy lips at once, "How +glorious!" + +Ugly saluted us in a most vociferous manner, continuing his welcome from +the time we left the shore to the moment we reached the yacht. +"Behold," said Harry, "our rear-admiral waving his ta--I beg his +honour's pardon--flag." + +Yes--old Ugly kept his tail going in utmost delight, whilst he ran from +one end to the other of the gunwale, assuring us that all was safe. + +Sure enough, everything was in good order, but the supper had not been +eaten. It had been pulled out of the after-cabin and inspected--that +was all. Now Ugly's supper consisted of two things he could never be +induced to eat--ham and cold potatoes; and Harry, from mischief--he +knew, however, that the dog had had a hearty dinner--prepared those +things purposely, supposing that Ugly's daintiness would fail in a +twelve hours fast. But no; there the edibles were untouched. + +"Come here, sir," said Harry to Ugly; "now why have you not eaten this +nice meal, eh?" + +Ugly's answer was merely to turn his head one side and look out at the +sea, as if very much interested in something he saw--so much so as not +to be able to attend to what Harry asked him. + +"You dainty rascal, come along and eat this meal; it is good enough for +any dog." And Harry put the despised victuals on another part of the +deck, and, quite unintentionally, within a foot of the port scuppers. +"Here, Ugly, eat it, sir, every bit of it." + +Ugly's sensitive little spirit could not brook such a public +mortification; but he was obedient in part. He approached the pieces +slowly--in a dignified, contemptuous way--as he would have gone up to a +cat, and, putting his nose to them, gave a push--away they flew into the +sea. + +Shouts of laughter greeted the act--Harry's the loudest--and he +completed his attempt at discipline by calling to Ugly, "Come here, thou +pluckiest and smartest of dogs. If you won't eat sailors' rations, come +feast at the officers' mess on the luxuries of the fleet. How will that +do, eh, old fellow?" cutting him off, as he spoke, a fat slice of +mutton. "Another? well there! Bread and butter? Well, there is as +much as you can eat;" and Ugly stowed it all away, triumph beaming in +his eyes and wagging from his tail. + +"Come, boys, now," said the Captain, "let's get under way. Cast loose +the sails, Alfred and Bob. Drake, stand by to hoist the mainsail. +Walter, take the helm. I want you to act as sailing-master this +morning. Drake and I will get up the anchor. Is the mainsail ready for +hoisting?" + +"Aye, aye, sir," replied Drake. + +"Then up with it. There--good!" + +"Are your halliards all clear there, boys?" + +"Aye, aye, sir," came from Alf and Bob. + +"Hoist the jib, my hearties," cried the Captain, as the anchor came up. +"Keep her head for the old church tower, Walter. There--steady, +steady." + +The Captain and Drake now secured the anchor, and the next order given +was-- + +"Now, Alf, another pull on your main halliards. Get them well up. All +right? Make fast." + +The Captain lifted his hat and wiped with the bandanna his red forehead. +Then he shook out a reef in his suspenders, and threw back his coat. +"By golly! my hearties, we are snug now, ship and cargo; and what an air +to breathe! I only wish this was a good ship of twelve hundred tons or +so, Captain Mugford the skipper, and we were all bound for Calcutta +together this splendid morning." + +"Don't I--don't I," came from each of us in response. + +"Now, my mates," called the Captain again, "we'll go about presently, +when we get abreast of that tanned-sailed fishing-boat there off the +port bow, and then, Walter, you can head her right out of the harbour. +Let her go south-east-by-east, and we'll about fetch in ten miles as +nice a bank for cod and halibut as there is off the coast. It is a +small spot to get on nicely, and difficult to drop on often in just the +right place; but it's no riddle to me, and if this breeze freshens a +bit, as I think it will with the young flood, you can get out your lines +in about one hour. So now let's have breakfast--the little +rear-admiral, you know, had his long ago." + +Yes--and the consequential Ugly was occupying a comfortable seat right +under the jib, and only turned his head the least bit when he heard the +Captain's mention of him. + +"Keep her full now, Walter, ready to go about. Let go the jib-sheet, +Bob; and now, down with your helm, Walter!" + +The mainsail flapped twice. By that time the foresail had filled on the +other tack. The cutter went about like a dancer on her heel, and we +were off on the other tack, standing out of the harbour for the open sea +ahead. + +Then, the breakfast having been got out of the cuddy in the meanwhile, +and arranged for our onset by Drake, we seized cups, knives and forks, +and were soon very busy. + +What a glorious thing to remember and marvel at, and wish back again, is +a boy's appetite. And if any good old fellow is reading, who is not +ashamed to recall those best of days--boyhood days--who is not ashamed +to recall them, aye, with pride and smiles, let him think now of the +suppers after Saturday tramps, of the Christmas and Michaelmas dinners, +and of meals like that I am describing, when, after two hours in the +early morning air, bowling along in our cutter, the sea-breeze swelling +out our lungs as it did the sails, with merry hearts and perfect +digestions, we found real fun--true animal happiness--in good bread and +butter, a leg of cold mutton, and a cup of coffee. And to see the best +of good skippers--as our dear old salt tute was--let himself down in a +right angle after that on the deck, his back against the weather-side of +the mast, and, heaving a sigh of vast internal satisfaction, draw out +his pipe slowly, as if it was a ceremony too precious to be hurried, +and, having put it just right in his lips and lighted it, puff the first +long sweet wreaths of smoke; ah! that was a picture of creature +happiness. + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE. + +GOOD SPORT--AN EXCITING SAIL--CAST AWAY. + +The absence of Mr Clare was the only drawback to our pleasure that +morning. He had told us the evening before that he should probably +return from his visit the same day, getting home about the time we +expected to be back--about sundown, which at that date in September was +at twenty minutes after six. He said, however, that possibly he might +remain in Q---town until after Sunday morning service. + +When Captain Mugford had completed his smoke, by which time we had a +fine steady breeze from the south-east, he rose from his luxurious +position and took Walter's place at the helm, saying-- + +"Not a permanent removal, Walter, but only until I can put the cutter +just where I want her for fish. Fifteen minutes more will do that; so +you had better go forward to Drake and get the anchor all ready to let +go. You other boys can stand by the sails." + +The Captain noted carefully the changing colour of the water as we drew +over some bank, and he took bearings, too, from points on the land we +had left nearly ten miles astern. In a few minutes he luffed a bit and +sang out-- + +"Down with your foresail! Get in the jib." + +The bowsprit pointed right in the wind's eye, and the boom hung fore and +aft, the sail empty, as the cutter lost her headway. + +"Is that anchor ready?" + +"Aye, aye, sir!" replied Walter and Drake. + +"Let go! About five fathoms, is it?" called the Captain. + +"About that!" the boys answered. + +"That's just what we want. Make fast! Now stow the mainsail, so that +it won't be in the way of your lines, and fish. There, that will do! +Now, all to the lines! Who'll have the first fish?" + +In a minute Drake hauled that up--a cod--and the fun commenced. Cod and +bass, and now and then a halibut, as fast as we could bait and pull! +There was soon a lively flopping in our craft, and now and then a +dog-fish would take hold, much to our annoyance, for generally he broke +the hook or line, or else, if we got him in, made such a furious lashing +about our legs that we had to finish him with a hatchet. + +We lay at anchor there until we had had fishing enough. About two +o'clock we stopped, having caught, as near as the Captain could +estimate, between one and two hundred pounds of cod, a dog-fish, and +eleven sea-bass--not the striped bass, such as we took off the rocks +with a troll line in rough water: that was the _Labrax lineatus_; but +the sea-bass, the _Centropristes nigricans_, superior in title, but +inferior in every other way to the striped bass. + +It was a job to pitch the fish together and out of the way, and then +clean the blood, slime, and wet from our deck and get ready for making +sail; but after some work it was done, and our lines stowed away. + +"Now, boys," said the Captain, "we will have dinner, and get under way +again. As the wind has hauled around to the east, we will take our +course for the north. I want to show you that shore, it is so bold and +wild. With such a stiff wind I reckon we can run up ten miles nearly, +and then turn about and get home _easily_ before dark. I say, boys, +won't Mr Clare wish he had had a hand in catching that haul?" + +Having finished the cold dinner with such an appetite as pleasure, +exercise, and sea air give, we made sail and stood to the northward. +The breeze was so fresh before long that the Captain told us to take a +reef in our mainsail. Walter held the helm, and in little more than an +hour we were sailing near the grand rugged shore that Captain Mugford +had wished us to see. Here and there, in little coves defended by rocky +sides, were the cottages of fishermen, and then great headlands of +cavernous stone dashed by the waves. Again the shore fell to a lower +level, and pines and other trees clustered together to defy the storms, +and give pleasure to the eye. Farther on, the roughness of the coast +vanished for a few hundred yards to make place for a yellow sandy beach +where was stretched a long seine. Opposite that piece of strand, and +close by our cutter's course stood a small stony island, bearing a +single invalid old pine, from whose topmost branch a great bald eagle +rose and hovered over our craft. Then the shore grew again like an +impregnable fortification, and made out to a sharp cape, on the point of +which stood a lonely, snow-white lighthouse. + +"There, boys, we must go about now," said the Captain, as we neared the +cape. "But see how the wind has fallen. If it holds on in this way we +shan't have enough to take us home before night. Let's see what o'clock +it is. That lighthouse is seventeen miles from the point of our own +cape." + +The Captain fumbled away at his waist-band--encircling a rotundity like +that described of Saint Nicholas--and pulled out his immense gold +turnip. + +"Columbus' compass! Twenty minutes to five! Come, Walter, haul in the +mainsheet, and come up to the wind. Are you ready to go about? Well, +down with the helm then. I'll tend the jib. Those boys are so busy +examining the fish that we will not interrupt them." + +"No, sir," I said, "we are ready for anything." + +"Oh no, Bob," replied the Captain, "go on with your studies. There is +nothing to do just now. Walter, you may steer by the shore. But I +don't like this slackening of the breeze, and it is drawing more to the +south-west; we shall have it right ahead soon. The sun looks ugly, too. +That murky red face foretells a row of some kind." + +"I hope that we shall get the _Youth_ safe at her moorings before night +comes, or a storm either--shall we not?" asked Harry. + +"We'll hope so," answered Captain Mugford, who pulled out his pipe and +filled it hard, continuing, "Who'll hand me out a light from the cuddy?" +I went in and struck one, and brought him a match, blazing famously. +"Thank, you," he said. "Drake--just," (puff puff)--"just shake--oh! +there goes that light!" I quickly brought him another--"just shake +out--that--that--" (puff, puff). He had it all right now, the smoke +coming in vast volumes; so he replaced his hat and removed the pipe from +his teeth for a moment to complete the order-- + +"Drake, just shake that reef out of the mainsail." + +"All right, sir!" said Drake. I helped him; but in half an hour the +wind, as the Captain had foretold, was ahead, and not strong enough to +fill the sails. + +Fifteen or sixteen miles we were from home, with every indication that a +heavy squall was to follow the calm settling down upon us. The dancing +white caps of the morning had died away in a quiet, sullen sea, which +only a land-swell moved. The sun had gone down to within a half-hour's +distance of the horizon, shining on the distant western cliffs, whose +variety, boldness, and ruggedness were magnified in outline and +intensified in colouring by the heavy, yellowish-red glare which fell on +them, and the sun's rays shot out in long forks, piercing the dark blue +of the sea at all points in the western semicircle of our view. The +atmosphere had grown warm--very warm for a September afternoon. + +We boys felt something portentous in the scene. The Captain grew +uncomfortable, too, no longer laughing heartily or joining in our talk. +He kept his eyes on the sky, and smoked pipe after pipe. + +Even Ugly ceased napping beside Walter, and, uttering a whining yawn, as +if sleepy but uneasy, walked forward to the idle foresail, and stood +there with extended nose to smell out, if he could, what was wrong. + +So we lay for nearly an hour, our only movement being with the outgoing +tide, the sails flapping with the slow swell of the sea. But when the +sun had disappeared the wind commenced to come, first in little puffs, +now from one quarter and then from another. The gale would be on us in +a moment. + +The Captain took the helm then, and ordered us to stand by and be ready +to tend the sails. + +"Look out, too, for the swinging of that boom," he said, "and make Ugly +get out of the way and lie down somewhere." + +Ugly, hearing that speech, did not wait for further commands, but stowed +himself away at the foot of the mast. + +Now the wind came in heavier puffs, and then in squalls from the east. + +"I hope it will settle there," spoke out the Captain. "It is coming +heavier, but I hope steady." + +He kept his eyes on all parts of the now lowering sky, and presently +added-- + +"Take two reefs in the mainsail and shift the jib! Get the storm-jib +up. Now hook on. Run it out. Hoist away." + +That was done, no easy matter for novices in a heavy sea, and we flew +away before the increasing gale. Fortunately the night was not very +dark, there being a quarter moon to throw its light through the rifts of +clouds. + +How fast the sea got up! The wind grew heavier every moment. The mast +of our little cutter creaked with each plunge, and the plunges were hard +and quick. The scene was truly alarming, and we felt the danger of our +situation. To be sure, we were comparatively safe if the gale should +grow no worse; but it was increasing every moment in a manner that +threatened in another hour to be too much for us. There was danger, +too, that something might be carried away, or that, in the frothy sea +and uncertain light, we might strike some of the sunken rocks that now +and then stood off from shore like sentries. But the _Youth_ leapt +furiously onward from one mad wave to another, our good Captain steering +with a strong hand. + +The black, broken clouds rolled close to the sea, which seemed striving +madly to swallow them; but on they flew with the screams of the wind. +The thin moonlight, streaming unsteadily through the troops of clouds +across the riven waves, had a ghastly effect--sometimes obscuring, +sometimes exaggerating the terrors surrounding us. The shore, a mile to +leeward, was to our sight only a bristling, indefinite terror; for +there, where loomed the land we longed for, was the greatest peril--the +line of fierce breakers that shouted their threats in terrible chorus. + +I suppose we boys were all much terrified. I _quailed_ with dread, for +it was my first experience of a storm on the water, and its time and +appearance were so imposing. + +One would never have suspected from Captain Mugford's manner that we +were in any danger. His face was as calm and his hand as steady as if +we were having the pleasantest sail imaginable; only the violence with +which he smoked, ramming fingers full of tobacco into his pipe every few +minutes, betokened any unusual excitement, but we knew how absorbed he +was in his charge by his silence. + +We were speechless, too, holding on fast to the backstays or gunwale to +keep our places in the desperate leaps and lurches the gallant little +craft was making. Ugly was soon thrown from his station, and, finding +he could not keep legs or position anywhere unaided, went and ensconced +himself between our skipper's legs. + +Harder, heavier blew the wind, and wilder grew the sea, so that it +seemed sometimes as if we must go over, and the bowsprit now buried +itself in every billow. Then the Captain said to us in a calm, steady +voice-- + +"Boys, you must get another reef in the mainsail and lower the foresail. +Now, be careful and steady about it. There is no hurry. Bob, you come +here; the others can manage that work. You sit aft out of the way." + +I did as directed; and the orders were speedily carried out without +accident. + +Boatswain's Half-Acre Reef, a low rock that stood out at sea, about +three and a half miles south-east-by-east from our cape, now came in +sight ahead of us to the windward. In the spectral light, and beaten on +by the waves, it looked like some sea monster moving in the water. As +we were going we should probably pass close to its lee side in about ten +minutes, but the wind blew a tempest, and the sea increased so in a few +minutes that our peril was terrible. For two hours we had battled-- +though evidently the storm was soon to be the conqueror. + +Several seas came aboard in angry haste, and the punt, which had been in +tow all day, broke loose and was carried away. Another sea, stronger +than its fellows, suddenly struck us a tremendous blow. The cutter +heeled over, so that the water boiled above the lee gunwale. The +assaulting sea, too, broke up and over the weather-side, and drenched us +all in its cataract. To increase our terror, a cry came from Alfred, +who had been tossed from his hold and nearly cast overboard, but he +caught the backstay as our yet unconquered boat rose from the blow like +some brave but wounded animal. The water was several inches deep about +our feet, and the good _Youth_ had lost half its buoyancy. + +Then came the Captain's voice again, steady and strong, but full of +feeling-- + +"We'll get through it yet, lads, God protecting us," he sung out. "But +all hands must try and do their duty. You know Nelson's last general +order--`England expects that every man this day will do his duty.' That +same motto carried out has saved many a stout ship and rich cargo, and +the neglect of it has lost many more. Now, there's work for all of you. +Walter, do you rig the pump, and Bob, do you help him, and the rest of +you set to and bale. Be smart, now. There are two skids and a bucket, +or use your hats. Anyhow, the boat must be cleared." + +He spoke deliberately, not to alarm us, but at the same time we all saw +that there was no time to be lost. Walter and I now got the pump to +work, while the rest set to and baled away with might and main. I also +joined them, using my hat as the Captain advised, for Walter could +easily work the pump by himself. Still, in spite of the excellent +steering of the old skipper, the seas came tumbling in over the bows and +sides also so rapidly that it was hard work for us to keep the boat +clear. Besides this, (notwithstanding her name, being an old boat), she +strained so much that the seams opened and made her leak fearfully. It +soon, indeed, became a question--and a very serious one--whether the +boat could be kept afloat till we should reach our own harbour. We were +now laying well up for the cape, though we were making what sailors call +"very bad weather of it;" but, should the wind shift a little, and come +more ahead, we might have a dead beat of several hours before us. We +saw the skipper looking out anxiously at the reef I have described. A +considerable portion, even at the highest tides, was several feet above +water, and easily accessible. As the rock also afforded a shelter to +numerous seafowl, which built their nests in its crevices, it would +afford some security to a few human beings. Still, during a gale such +as was now blowing, the sea washed tumultuously round the rock, and +rendered the landing--even on the lee side--not only difficult but +dangerous. I, for one, did not at all like the condition of the boat; +still, as the skipper had hitherto said nothing, I did not like to +propose that we should try to land on the reef. The old man was silent +for some time; he again scanned the reef, and then he turned his eyes to +the distant shore. + +"Boys," he said at last, "I wish you not to be alarmed. The boat may +very possibly keep above water till we reach the cape, if you can bale +out the seas as fast as they wash in; but I am bound to tell you that +there is a risk of our being swamped if we were to meet such a sea as I +have seen, under like circumstances, come rolling in. There lies +Boatswain's Reef--in five minutes we may be safe upon it--but much +depends on your coolness and courage. The most difficult and dangerous +movement will be the leaping on shore. Do you, Walter, make a rope fast +round the bits; unreeve the fore halliards, they will suit best, and are +new and strong. That will do; secure them well, and coil the rope +carefully, so that it may run out free of everything. Now stand with +the rope in your hand, and as I bring the boat up to the rock, do you +leap out, and spring up to the upper part, where you will find a jagged +point or more to which to make it fast. The rest of you, when the boat +touches the rock, be ready to spring on shore; but remember, don't +spring till I tell you. I'll call each of you by name, and the first on +shore must stand by to help the others. There, I can't say more, except +one word--be steady, and cool, and trust in God." + +Walter did as directed, and we all stood watching the skipper's eye, +that we might obey him directly he gave the word. It is a most +important thing to have confidence in a commander. It is the great +secret of England's success in most instances. Although there may be +many shortcomings, both her soldiers and sailors know that, in nine +cases out of ten, they will be well and bravely led, and the officers +know also that they will be thoroughly supported by the men. If they go +ahead, there will never be a want of men to follow them, even to the +cannon's mouth. + +On we dashed, amid the boiling, foaming seas. We had to continue +pumping and baling as energetically as before. Had we ceased, but for +half a minute, it seemed as if the boat would to a certainty go down, +even before we could reach the rock. Captain Mugford did not address us +again, but kept his eyes watching, now the heavy seas which came rolling +up on the weather bow, and now the black rock towards which we were +standing. All the time we kept carefully edging away, till we were +under the lee of the reef--of that part, however, over which the sea +broke with great force. Still, the water was smoother than it had been +for some time. We stood on, continuing to bale. + +Suddenly the Captain cried out, "Now, lads, to your feet, and be ready +to spring on shore when I give the word." We all jumped up. Walter +stepped forward and took the rope in his hand, as he had been directed. +The Captain luffed up, and ran the boat alongside the rock; but there +was still great way on her, and a tremendous crashing sound showed us +that she had struck the rock below water. Walter sprang on shore, Drake +and Harry followed, and as he leapt to the top of the rock, followed to +help him make fast the rope round one of its roughest projections. Ugly +sprang at the same time, and the rest of us went next--not a moment too +soon. I was the last of the boys. The Captain came close behind me. +He was securing another rope round the mast, and, with the end of it in +his hand, he leapt on to the rock. As he left the deck, the boat seemed +to glide from under him. "Haul, boys! haul! all together," he shouted. +Our united efforts, aided by the surging water, got the fast sinking +boat on to a rock. There the boat lay, little better than a wreck; but +we were safe. We now saw how anxious our good skipper had been, for, +taking off his hat, and looking up to heaven, he exclaimed, with a +fervour I did not expect, "Thank God for His great mercy--they are all +safe." + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN. + +NIGHT ON THE REEF--OUR SALT TUTE'S SERMON. + +Our "salt tute" had gone through many a storm at sea; had once escaped, +the only soul saved out of fifty-three, from a foundered bark, and +endured five days' suffering, without bread or water, on a raft. But, +as I heard him tell Mr Clare afterwards, he had never undergone an +experience more painful than those two or three hours of gale in our +little cutter. It was his affection for us boys; the reflection that he +had proposed the pleasure sail, and the terrible sense of +responsibility: those together had tried the old man's heart, head, and +nerves, as they had never been tried before. + +Among the exciting events of that night, one circumstance impressed me +with astonishment, though it was but small matter perhaps for a boy to +have noticed at such a time. It was that the Captain several times +expressed himself in terms of piety, and even ejaculated that prayer +when our safety was secured. We had sometimes heard him swear before +that, and had always noticed, in contrast to Mr Clare, his indifference +to any religious service or subject; indeed, the only emotion we had +ever seen him display with regard to such matters was on the occasion of +Mr Clare's address after the combat between Drake and Alfred. + +It was eight o'clock when we landed on our little rocky island of +deliverance. Boatswain's Reef was, as its name described, only half an +acre in extent--a jagged, stony reef, raised but a few yards at its +highest point above high-tide mark. + +Very cold, somewhat anxious, and much exhausted, we found in a few +moments the only shelter it afforded--a level place of sand and sea +grass, about six yards square, defended on the south-west by a miniature +cliff. There a lot of seaweed had accumulated, and the driftings of +many gales collected. Several barrel staves, a large worm-eaten ship's +knee, part of a vessel's stern, with all but the letters "Conq" +obliterated, (the name had probably been _Conqueror_, conquered now, as +Alfred observed, by old ocean); and many pieces and splinters of spar. +The Captain made the discovery with us, and immediately suggested that +we should shelter ourselves there and light a fire. + +"Thanks, boys, to the necessities of my pipe, I always have a tinder-box +in my pockets. Perhaps there are some not wet. Here, hunt for them; +I'll throw off my pea-jacket, for I must go to work and try to save +something from the poor _Youth_--our grub at least. I want you to stay +where you are, out of the storm, and to get a good fire going. It may +possibly show them on the cape that we are safe." + +"O Captain!" exclaimed Walter, "do let me help you. I don't want to sit +here and do nothing but build a fire whilst you are at work and perhaps +in danger." + +"Come along, then, as you are the biggest and strongest--come along," +replied the Captain, and away they hurried to where our good old boat +was groaning on the beach and pounding against rocks with every beat of +the sea. + +She had been driven up too far to get off easily, but with a big hole in +her bows it seemed probable that she would go to pieces before morning. + +The sky was black everywhere. The roar of wind and waves was +tremendous. The spray dashed in sheets, at every blow of the sea, over +our spot of defence, so that it was difficult to start a fire. We were +successful, though, and its light showed the figures of the Captain and +Walter, by the stranded boat, climbing on board through the froth of the +surf; pitched up and down as she tossed and bumped; getting down the +tattered sail and hauling it ashore; jumping on the beach again with +coils of rope; saving all that could be saved. And then, the tide +having risen high, both together left her for the last time, bearing, at +much risk, the anchor with them, which they fastened in a cleft of the +rocks, that when our dear old boat--the home of many and many a fine +time--did break up, something might be left of her. + +We could not hear their voices, but saw the gestures for us to come and +help, and in a few minutes we were all engaged carrying the rescued +remnants up to our safe place. + +Ugly helped. First he dragged a coil of rope and laid it beside the +cliff; then he got hold of a loaf of bread which had dropped from among +the other provisions, and carried that with some trouble but much pride. + +In the storm and darkness, only fitfully broken by the firelight, we ate +our supper under what shelter the low cliff afforded. Our boyish +spirits were much subdued and awed by the peril we had passed through +and the sombre scene about us. + +The meal being finished, we made some preparations for the night, +fastening the sail, by the weight of large stones laid on one edge of +it, to the top of the rock, and then bringing its other edge, the boom +side, to the ground and steadying it there with pegs. In that way we +constructed a kind of tent, in which we piled a bedding and covering of +dry seaweed. + +The Captain stood by the fire, smoking his pipe and watching our +arrangements. When they were completed, and we boys, gratified with our +success, began to declare our situation "rather jolly," he interrupted +us somewhat abruptly in this way:-- + +"You chaps always say your prayers before you sleep, I dare say. If so, +you'll not forget them to-night--will you?" + +"No, sir," we answered. + +"Young shipmates, you remember how Mr Clare talked to you one day in +the _Clear the Track_--eh? Well, then, for the first time in nigh forty +years--think of that, nigh _forty_ years--I said my prayers, the only +ones I ever said, that my--mo--ther taught me; and somehow they came so +clear to me that I felt like as if my--mo--ther was kneeling beside me. +I ran away to sea, like the young fool that I was, when I was eleven +years old. It was going on four years before I came back to my old +home. I had forgotten my prayers. I tried hard to remember them, too, +_then_, and some of the Scripture stories and lessons my--mo--ther used +to teach me; for she was--gone." + +His voice did not tremble, but he spoke very slowly, as if he wanted to +speak out to us, and yet wished to do it without betraying the deep +feeling that the events of the evening had intensified. Each time +before he spoke the words "my mother," he took the pipe from his mouth +and hesitated a moment, as if to steady himself. Somehow the old +Captain's voice was softer, I thought, than I had ever heard it before-- +it may have been fatigue and the noises of the storm that made it sound +so. His face, too, looked to me as if it had lost its hard lines and +roughness--perhaps the firelight caused that to seem so. And those +bold, sharp eyes of his were as gentle as my little sister Aggie's. He +continued:-- + +"Hard times a youngster often has at sea, not in all ships, but in many, +I tell you, and bad companions on every side. No gentle looks or kind +words, but knocks and oaths. No time to read, and all that; hardly a +chance to think. Well, I was a bad one, and worse when I went back +again, and had my--mo--ther no longer to love me, and no one anywhere in +the world to care a button for Rowly," (his Christian name was Roland). +"I was a pretty reckless, hearty, devil-me-care fellow, I tell you. I +could rough it and fight my way with the strongest, and never thought +further ahead than the moment I was living in. So, for thirty years and +more I knocked about the world, coming scot-free through a thousand +dangers. Yes, and I got ahead all the time and prospered, thinking +mighty well of myself, my _good luck_, clear head, and tough arm. I +never thought of God. I don't know but that I had almost forgotten that +there was a God; at any rate, if I thought of Him, it was with doubt and +indifference. Yet, boys, in all that time, `He cared for me, upheld me, +_blessed me_.'" + +His words grew hurried and thick, his head was turned so I could not see +his face, and the old black pipe had fallen from his fingers to the +ground. Ugly walked around and snuffed at it in amazement. But the +Captain went on:-- + +"Now I feel it all--_how_ I _feel_ it--since I heard Mr Clare that day. +Nearly forty years deaf, but I hear God's voice within me _now_, louder +and louder every day; and what has He done for us to-day? How He has +spoken! Ah! boys, you'll never be the old sinner I have been. +`Remember _thy_ Creator in the days of thy youth.' Part of the only +hymn I can remember, of my mother's, has come again and again to my ear +to-night--that-- + + "`God moves in a mysterious way, + His wonders to perform; + He plants His footsteps in the sea, + And rides upon the storm.' + +"I forget the rest, except-- + + "`Trust Him for His grace: + Behind a frowning Providence + He hides a smiling face.' + +"Boys! turn in now. I am on watch, and shall keep the fire going. Turn +in, I tell you." + +With those last words to finish his talk and order us to bed, his voice +regained its sailor-like strength and roughness, but it melted again as +he added-- + +"My dear old boys, we shall all pray to-night, eh? and from wiser and +better hearts. _Thank God_!" + +The last things I was conscious of that night were the whistling of the +wind and the roaring of the waves, and the snapping and fizzing of the +red embers, thus telling their stories to the storm of the brave ships +of which they once formed parts. + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN. + +UGLY VOLUNTEERS--OUR FRESH TUTE TO THE RESCUE! + + "Poor old Robinson Crusoe! poor old Robinson Crusoe! + They made him a coat of an old nanny-goat: + I wonder how they could do so! + With a ring a ting tang, and a ring a ting tang, + Poor old Robinson Crusoe." _Mother Goose_. + +The storm broke before morning, and a clear fresh September day opened +on us castaways. There was no exertion of ours that could get us home, +for our little cutter was a complete wreck, and we had but one of the +many requisites for constructing a boat or raft--it consisted of the few +planks and timbers of the wreck of the boat which still held together or +had been washed upon the beach, and which, if we were not rescued before +another morning, must be employed in feeding our fire. All the +provisions we had taken with us on our day's voyage were consumed, +except one loaf of bread and two pies, but a sufficient supply of the +fish had been brought from the cutter to feed us for several meals. Of +water--the greatest necessity--there was not a drop on Boatswain's +Half-Acre. During the morning, the want of that became a pain, and +before night any one of us would have given all he possessed for a +single glass of cold water. Captain Mugford told us that now, for the +fourth time in his life, he knew the suffering of thirst. + +We must wait to be discovered, to be rescued, and before that we _might +die_ of thirst, for our island was only a low rock, and vessels going up +and down channel kept generally too far from the reef to allow us to be +seen by them on board. We could see our cape, and even the old house, +but had no way of making signals, except by the fire at night. + +Beautiful as was the day, it was one only of pain and anxiety to us. Of +the few sails we saw, not one came within three miles of us. Where +could Mr Clare be all this time? + +The sea fell so fast that by two o'clock in the afternoon it was smooth +as a lake. Harry Higginson and I sat looking at it on a point of the +reef, with Ugly by our side. Ugly's tongue hung dry from his mouth, and +he panted for a drop of water, but he was pained, too, I am sure, +because of our silence and dejection. Watching our faces, as if +wondering what he could do for us, he at length walked down to the +waterline and looked across to the cape with a long whine. Then he ran +back and put his paws on Harry's knee, as if he would have him say +something. So Harry patted his head and said, "Yes, old boy, I wish we +could get there." + +He sprang down again and commenced to bark, pointing his nose towards +the cape. + +I called to him, "Don't be a fool, Ugly; your little bark can't reach +them." + +He cried and ran back to Harry, but in a second more, barking like fury, +he ran to the water and swam off in the direction of our home. + +We called to him again and again, entreating and commanding his return; +but he paid no attention to us, and swam on. We were filled with sorrow +and alarm, for surely little Ugly could not swim that distance--over +three miles. We called to the Captain and the boys, and in a few +minutes we were all standing watching the progress of brave Ugly. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +What was going on at the cape all this time? + +Mr Clare did not return on Saturday, and as night set in without our +appearance, Clump and Juno got anxious. Having, however, great +confidence in the Captain's care and skill, they were not so much +alarmed as they might have been, supposing that he, seeing the +approaching gale, had made some harbour, and that there we should stay +until the weather changed. For some reason, both Clump and Juno +supposed we had gone to the westward. That shore was broken by several +bays and small rivers, and eleven miles westward was the fishing-village +of ---. Nevertheless, the good old people were somewhat alarmed, and +sat up all night over their kitchen fire. + +By ten o'clock of the next day their fears had grown too troublesome to +allow further inaction. Clump pulled over in his punt to the village, +across the bay. There he got some sailors to take a boat and go down +the south coast to look for us, and gathering all the advice and +surmises he could, (which were not consoling), from seafaring men he +knew, returned to the cape. + +When Juno heard Clump's report, her distress was very great. As she +groaned, and wiped her wet, shrivelled eyes with a duster, she said-- + +"Lor' o' Marsy! Clump, ef harm's cum ter dem chiles ob Massa +Tregellin--den--den--you berry me--berry dis ole 'ooman deep." + +"Now, toff your mout, June--toff your mout! Wen I'se done berry you, ou +yer 'spects gwine 'posit Clump en de bowels ob de arth, ay? He jist +stay here and _tink_."--He did not mean _think_, but another word +commencing with that unpronounceable _s_--"You'se fool, ole 'ooman; when +you'se begin mittrut de Lor', ay?" + +Clump was so frightened himself that he had to talk pretty strong to his +spouse. + +Mr Clare, after morning service in the church at Q---town, where he had +gone to hear a college friend preach, took advantage of the lovely +autumn day to walk home, which was about ten miles. He made his way +slowly, enjoying every foot of the road, little contemplating the shock +he was to receive at his journey's end. + +He heard Clump and Juno's report without a word, only growing paler and +paler. Then he sat down and covered his face, and, after a moment of +silence, asked the negroes certain questions as to the course they +supposed us to have taken, as to the storm on the cape, etcetera, +etcetera. + +He started off after that on a hard run for Bath Bay, where he jumped +into a boat, and, pulling out into the greater bay, rowed with all his +strength over to the village; but his inquiries there could gain no +information, so he hired a small schooner-rigged boat and its owner to +go out with him and hunt us up, or find some trace of our fate. + +Mr Clare could not be still whilst the boatman, who had to go up to his +home first, was getting ready, but ordered him to make all haste and +call for him off the cape, and then he jumped into his own boat again +and recrossed to the cape. But the boatman took a long time in coming, +Mr Clare walking up and down the cape in the meanwhile, a prey to the +gloomiest apprehensions. It was nearly five o'clock before Mr Clare +saw his boat drawing near. At the same moment he heard a scampering +through the short, dry grass behind him, and the wheezing of some animal +breathing thick and quick. Turning, he saw, greatly to his surprise, +Ugly coming towards him as fast as he could run. Poor little Ugly was +dripping with water, and completely blown and tired out--so tired that, +when he had reached Mr Clare's feet, he could only lie down there and +pant. Mr Clare knew there was some important reason for Ugly's +appearing in that manner, and though he did not suspect the exact state +of the case, yet he lifted him in his arms and got on board the boat, +which had now hauled in close to the rocks. + +"Which way will're go, sir?" asked the grey, gruff boatman. + +"Keep down south of the cape, near in shore. Clump says they went +west," answered Mr Clare. + +Poor Ugly had somewhat recovered by being wrapped up in Mr Clare's warm +coat, and when he had put his nose into a pail of water that was on +board, he kept it there until the bucket was empty, much to the surprise +of both Mr Clare and Phil Grayson, the old boatman. Further +strengthened and refreshed by something to eat, Ugly jumped up on the +bow to see where they were going. + +He showed evident signs of disapprobation when he saw the boat steering +west; running to the stern, he there stretched his nose out to the east, +and barked furiously. Mr Clare, thinking from the negroes' assertions +that he must be on the right track, could not understand Ugly's +uneasiness. How he had reached the cape, although it was evident he had +been in the water somewhere, Mr Clare did not know, nor could he guess, +of course, whence he had come. He only hoped that Ugly had left us in +safety, and had come in some way to get assistance. It was nearly dark, +and the wind had gone down with the sun. Soon the boat lay becalmed. +Ugly showed an unmistakable disposition to jump overboard, which, +however, was partly quieted when he saw Mr Clare and old Phil use the +oars; but when they persevered on the westerly course, Ugly, with an +angry bark, sprang overboard and swam in an opposite direction. That +movement proved to Mr Clare that they were going wrong, so the boat was +turned and pulled in Ugly's wake until he was overhauled and taken on +board. He shook himself, wagged his tail frantically, and kissed the +hands of both Phil and Mr Clare. It was but slow progress with the +oars against the ebb-tide. In about an hour, however, the first whiffs +of the night-breeze came to fill the sails, and the oars were put in. +They had rounded the cape, and old Phil asked again-- + +"Whar ne-e-ow, Capting--in shore, you think, or straight ahead?" + +"Near the shore, I should think, just br--" but Mr Clare's reply was +interrupted by Ugly's barking. + +Skipper Phil put the boat's head to the north-east, to get nearer in +shore as Mr Clare had said, and--splash! Ugly was overboard again and +making for the east. + +"You see, Phil," said Mr Clare, "you must get sailing-orders from Ugly, +not me; and, Phil, I begin to be much encouraged by that dog's actions. +He does not hesitate, but seems to have something important to do, and +to feel confidence in his ability to do it." + +"That's so, Capting," answered Phil, as, having got the boat about, he +belayed the sheets and put the other hand to the helm; "he's a clever +animal, he is. It seems to me that ar dog understands talk like a +Christian. Did you take notice h-e-ow he was overboard as quick as you +spoke, afore I started a shut? But whar are we going?--that's what I +want to know." + +"Phil," interrupted Mr Clare, "what light is that flaring up away ahead +there on your lee bow?" + +"By God, I see! the sails hid that--they did," Phil grumbled, and bent +down to see beneath the sails. He chuckled some time before he +answered, and his chuckle grew to a laugh. "Ha! ha! ha!--that ar light +is on Boatswain's Reef, just as sure as my name is Phil Grayson. Mr +Clare--hurrah!--your boys are safe." + +Ugly, who had been lifted on board before that, joined his rejoicing +bark to the skipper's merriment, and from the reef came a distant +hallooing. + +The flames at the reef grew brighter and higher. The sparks flashed and +flew up to the dark sky. The shouting increased to yells. The rescuers +on the schooner answered; and as for Ugly, the hero of our deliverance, +he was almost frantic with delight. + +The first words that were distinguishable from the reef were-- + +"Is that you, Mr Clare? Have you any water on board?" + +"Yes!" was responded. + +"Oh! do hurry, then--we can't stand this any longer!" cried out Harry. + +In two hours more as happy a boatload as ever floated was springing +before a fresh breeze toward the cape. Long before we touched shore our +glad halloos had reached the old house, and lifted a heavy weight from +the hearts of Clump and Juno. + +They met us on the rocks, and each one of us had to undergo an embrace +from their sable excellencies, ay, excellencies indeed, in devotion and +uprightness such as this world seldom sees surpassed. Even Captain +Mugford did not escape the ardour of the welcome; and whilst they hugged +us the dear old negroes were crying like children, from joy. + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN. + +EVENINGS ON THE WRECK, WITH A STORY FROM THE CAPTAIN. + +The favourite season of girls is, I think, Spring; and of boys, Autumn. +One is the time of dreams, flowers, and emotions; the other, the period +of hopes, courage, and accomplishment. + +October, the fulness of Autumn, with its cool, clear, bracing air; with +its gathered crops, rustling leaves, and golden light: October, when +days of furious storm are succeeded by weeks of hazy sunshine and +muffled quiet; when the fish are fat but greedy; when quacking seafowl +and game of every kind tempt the lovers of good sport-- + +Ah! that is the time for boys. + +We fellows gulped it up as the hounds do their meat when distributed to +them, for by the end of October we should finish our six months at the +cape. + +This dashed our cup of happiness with regret, as the falling leaves and +low winds moaning of winter touch October with a tint of sadness. But +in one case, as in the other, the spice of regret was just what gave +zest to the enjoyment of our pleasure. + +The days being so short, it got to be our habit to improve every one of +our daylight hours, out of school, in the many sports which invited us, +and to do our studying in the evenings. So every night, as soon as +supper was finished, we repaired with Mr Clare to the schoolroom in the +old brig. There would be a wood-fire crackling in the stove, and two +shaded, bright lamps hanging over the tables. + +We took up our studies, and Mr Clare sat by, ready to answer questions +or give explanations. When not busied with us he smoked and chatted +with Captain Mugford, or read the papers and magazines. Ugly had his +place on a mat where he could hear and see all that was going on. + +Generally, during some portion of the evening, the Captain spread out +his great red bandanna on his knees, and took a loud-snoring nap. Every +movement of our salt tute's was interpreted by some corresponding signal +of the bandanna handkerchief. When perplexed, he wiped his forehead +with it; when amused, it blew a merry peal on his nose; in moments of +excitement or delight, it was snapped by his side; when sleepy, he +spread it on his lap; and once, I remember, he suddenly stowed it away-- +when much enraged by an impudent fellow who was shooting on our cape--in +the stomach of his breeches instead of in the usual hind-pocket of his +coat. The intruder seemed to understand the warlike signal, for he +immediately stopped his insolence and made off. In fact, the Captain's +red bandanna was like the Spanish woman's fan--a language in itself. + +One evening we all finished our lessons early and drew our stools about +the stove. Our salt tute was snoring bass and Ugly treble, so we did +not disturb their dreams, but talked in low voices to Mr Clare, until, +whether intentionally or irresistibly I know not, Drake gave a +tremendous sneeze, so loud and shrill that Ugly sprang to his legs with +a loud bark, and the Captain's head bounced from his chest and struck +the back of his chair with a bang. + +"Bless my heart!" said the Captain, clutching the handkerchief from his +knees, and commencing to wipe his head with it. "Bless my soul, I +rather think that I must have been napping. There you are, all laughing +around the fire, whilst I have been dreaming of--well, never mind--days +gone by--you may depend on that; but, Ugly, what were your dreams about, +eh?" + +"We should like to hear, though, something about those days gone by, +Captain," said Mr Clare, suspecting that the worthy old seaman was in +the vein for story-telling. "It is a long time since you have spun us a +yarn, and the boys have been much wishing for one." + +"Ay, that we have, Captain," we all sang out together; "we should like +to hear something about those days gone by which you were dreaming of +just now. We are sure from your countenance that there is something +interesting; come, tell us all about it." + +"You'll be disappointed, then. It's curious, and that is all I can say +in its favour," answered the skipper; "I was thinking, or dreaming +rather, of a circumstance which I haven't thought of for many a year +that I can remember, which occurred during my first voyage. However, +I'll undertake to tell it you if, when I've done, Mr Clare will spin +you one of his yarns. He can spin one better than I can. Come, make +him promise, and I will begin. If not, I'll shut up my mouth." + +On this, of course, we all turned on our fresh water tutor and attacked +him. "Come; Mr Clare, do promise us to give us one of your stories. +Something about your life in America; you saw a good many curious things +out there in the backwoods, which we should like to hear. Do promise +us, now." Thus appealed to, Mr Clare gave the desired promise; and on +this the skipper, blowing his nose with his red bandanna, which he +afterwards placed across his knees, began what I will call:-- + + THE CASTAWAYS. + A TALE OF THE CARIBBEAN SEA. + +"Land, ho! Land, ho!" was shouted one morning, soon after daybreak, +from the mast-head. I was on my first voyage to the West Indies, in the +good ship _Banana_. + +"Where away?" asked the captain, whom the sound called out of his berth +on deck. + +"A little on the starboard bow," was the answer. + +The ship was kept away towards the point indicated, while the captain, +with his glass slung on his back, went aloft. The passengers, of whom I +forgot to say we had several, and all the crew, were on the lookout, +wondering what land it could be. We found, after the captain came below +and had consulted his chart, that it was a little rock or key to the +southward of Barbadoes. + +"We'll get a nearer look at them, in case any poor fellows may have been +cast away there. I have known the survivors of a ship's company remain +on them for weeks together, and in some instances they have died of +starvation before relief has reached them." + +As we approached the rock all the glasses on board were directed towards +it, to ascertain if there were signs of human beings there. The spot +looked silent and deserted. + +"If there are any poor fellows there, how eagerly they will watch our +approach--how anxious they will be lest we should sail away without +looking for them," I said to myself. + +While these thoughts were passing through my mind, I heard the first +mate say that he could make out something white on the shore, which he +took for a tent or a boat's sail. As we drew nearer it became evident +that there was a tent, but no human being was stirring that we could +see. Nearer still a boat was observed, drawn up on the rocks. On +further inspection she was discovered to be a complete wreck. +Melancholy indeed was the spectacle which told so clearly its own +story--how the shipwrecked mariners had been cast on the island in their +boat--how they had gone on waiting for relief, and how at length famine +had carried them off, one by one, till none remained. Still our captain +was not a man to quit the spot after so cursory an inspection. The +ship, having got under the lee of the land, was hove to, and a boat was +lowered. Charley, another midshipman, or apprentice rather, and I +formed part of her crew, while Mr Merton, our first officer, went in +charge of her, accompanied by some of the passengers. + +It was a long, low, coral-formed island, with a white beach--a very +untempting spot for a habitation in that burning climate. When we +landed, Mr Merton told us to accompany him, leaving two other men in +the boat. We followed close after him, with the boat's stretchers in +our hands, proceeding along the beach, for the tent we had seen was some +little distance from where we had landed. We had got within a hundred +yards of it, when suddenly part of it was thrown back, and out there +rushed towards us two figures, whose frantic and threatening gestures +made us start back with no little surprise, if not with some slight +degree of apprehension. They were both tall, gaunt men, their hair was +long and matted, their eyes were starting out of their heads, and their +cheeks were hollow and shrivelled. They looked more like skeletons +covered with parchment than human beings. Their clothes were in rags, +and their large straw hats were in tatters, and, to increase their +strange appearance, they had covered themselves with long streamers of +dried seaweed, strings of shells, and wreaths of the feathers of wild +birds. Each of them flourished in his hand a piece of timber--a rib, +apparently, of a boat. + +"Who are you, who dare to come and invade our territory?" exclaimed one, +advancing before the other. "Away--away--away! We are monarchs and +rulers here. This land is ours, won by our trusty swords and +battle-axes. Away, I say! or meet the consequences of your temerity." + +I was at first puzzled to know who the people could be, but our mate at +once comprehended the true state of the case, and with great tact +endeavoured to calm the strangers instead of irritating them, as many +would have done. + +"Don't be afraid that we are come to interfere with you, or to trespass +on your territories, most mighty sovereigns, as you undoubtedly are," he +answered, stopping short and holding up his hands. "Just hear what I +have to say. Lower your weapons, and let us hoist a flag of truce." + +"Granted, granted. Spoke like a sensible man, most worthy ambassadors," +exclaimed the person who had hitherto not said anything. And both, +lowering their clubs, stood still, gazing inquiringly at us. I had +never before seen the effect of a few calm words, and a steady, +determined look, in tranquillising the fury of madmen. Such were, +undoubtedly, these unfortunate occupants of the island. + +"Listen, then," continued Mr Merton. I had never before heard him say +so much at a time. "You see yonder ship: she is bound on a far-distant +trip, and on her way she called here on the chance of finding any one in +distress who might need aid. Should no one require it, she will at once +take her departure. Can you tell me if any people are residing on your +island who may wish to leave it? At all events, you yourselves may have +letters to send home. If you will at once get them ready, I will gladly +be the bearer." + +The two unfortunate maniacs looked at each other with a bewildered look. +The idea of writing home, and not going themselves, seemed to strike +them forcibly. + +"Home!" cried one, in a deep, hollow voice. "Home! where is that?" + +"Old England, I conclude," answered our mate. "You have many friends +there who would be glad to see you--father, mother, sisters, wife and +children; or perhaps one who has long, long been expecting you, and +mourned for you, and wondered and wondered, till the heart grew sick, +that you did not come--yet even now faithful, and believing against +hope, fondly expects your return." + +Mr Merton had been skilfully watching the effect of his remarks. They +were most successful. He had touched a chord which had long ceased to +vibrate. Again the two madmen looked inquiringly into each other's +faces. + +"Is it possible?" said one, touching his forehead. "Has all this been +an hallucination?" + +"Norton, I do not longer doubt it," answered the other. "We have +conjured up many wild fancies, but the sight of that ship and the sound +of a countryman's voice have dispelled them. We are ready to go with +you, friend." + +The person who had last spoken seemed at the first to be less mad than +his companion. + +"I am glad of your decision, gentlemen, and the sooner we get on board +the better. But tell me, did you come here alone? Have you no +companions?" + +"Companions! Yes, we had. We frightened them away. They fled from +us." + +"Where are they now?" asked the mate. + +"On the other side of the island," answered the least mad of the +strangers. "They dare not approach us. Perhaps you may find them. +They will gladly go away. While you search for them we will prepare for +our departure." + +"Very well, gentlemen, we will return for you," answered Mr Merton, in +his usual calm tone. It had a wonderful effect in soothing the +irritation of the madmen. + +We took our way in the direction they pointed across the island. After +walking and climbing some way over the uneven ground, we came in sight +of a hut built of driftwood and pieces of wreck, almost hid from view in +the sheltered nook of the rock. No one was moving about it. Its +appearance was very sad and desolate. + +"Perhaps the unfortunate people are all dead," remarked Charley to me. +"I think, from what those two strange men down there said, they have not +seen them for a long time." + +We went on, apprehending the worst. As we got nearer, we hallooed to +warn anybody who might be there of our coming, so as not to take them by +surprise. Again we hallooed, and directly afterwards we saw the head of +a man appear at an opening in the hut which served as a window, while he +thrust out of it the muzzle of a musket. + +"Hillo, mate! don't fire. We come as friends," shouted Mr Merton. + +The musket was speedily withdrawn, and a man appeared at the door of the +hut, followed closely by another. There they both stood, closely +regarding us with looks of wonder. As they saw us they called to some +one inside, and two more men appeared at the door of the hut, stretching +out their hands towards us. Their clothes were in rags and tatters, and +they had a very wretched, starved appearance. + +"Are you come to take us from this?" inquired the man we had at first +seen, in a hollow, cavernous voice. + +"I hope so, if you wish to go," answered the mate. + +"Go! yes, yes, at once--at once!" shouted the poor wretches, in the same +hollow tones. "We thought at first you were two madmen who are living +on the opposite side of the island." + +Mr Merton told them that they need be no longer afraid of the madmen, +and that as he had no time to remain, they must accompany him at once to +the boat. + +The first speaker, who said that he was the mate of the vessel to which +the rest belonged, replied that he was afraid none of them would be able +to walk across the island, as they had scarcely any strength remaining, +and that he believed a few days more would have finished their miseries. + +While Mr Merton and the mate were speaking, the rest beckoned us to +come into the hut. Heaps of empty shells and bones of fish showed what +had been for long their principal food. Some dried seaweed had served +as their beds, and a tin saucepan appeared to have been their only +cooking utensil, while a cask contained a very small supply of water. + +From their appearance, I do not think that they could have existed many +days longer. The only weapon they had was the musket which had been +presented at our approach, but the mate confessed that they had not a +grain of gunpowder, but that he thought by showing it he might frighten +away the madmen, for whom he mistook us. They had, consequently, been +unable to shoot any of the birds which frequented the rock, though they +had collected some eggs, which had proved a valuable change in their +diet. As time pressed, Mr Merton urged them to prepare for their +departure. Having collected a few trifling articles, relics of their +long imprisonment, they declared themselves ready to make the attempt to +move. Charley and I helped along the mate, who was the strongest, while +Mr Merton and the two seamen who had accompanied us assisted the other +three. Even as it was, so weak were they, that without the utmost aid +we could afford them they could not have crossed the island. They had +frequently to sit down, and almost cried like children with the pain and +fatigue they suffered. + +Poor fellows! we had not stopped to ask any questions as to the +particulars of their disaster, but as we went along the mate gave us +some of the details. From the way he spoke, I saw that, though a very +quiet, well-disposed young man, he was not one formed to command his +fellow-men. He told us that his name was Jabez Brand. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +"I was second mate of the _North Star_, a large brig, bound from +Honduras to London. We had a crew of fifteen hands, all told. Several +gentlemen also took their passage in the cabin. Among them were two +brothers, Messrs. Raymonds, fine, tall, handsome men. They had made +their fortunes out in the West Indies, and were returning home, as they +thought and said, to enjoy their wealth. How their money had been made +I do not know, but it was said they were in no ways particular. Be that +as it may, they had very pleasant manners, and were very open and free +in their talk. One thing I remarked, that they seemed to think that +they were going to be very great people with all their wealth, when they +got home. Some of the other gentlemen, it seemed to me, fought rather +shy of them, perhaps because, as it was said, they had supplied slave +vessels with stores, or had had shares in them, which is not unlikely. +The _North Star_ was an old vessel, though, to look at her, you would +not have supposed it, for she had been painted up and fitted out so as +to look as good as new. She was not the first ship I have seen sent to +sea which ought to have been sold for firewood. In our run out we had +only had fine weather, so she was in no way tried. On this our return +trip, we had not long left port when a heavy squall came suddenly off +the land and carried away our mainmast, and, the wind continuing from +the same quarter, we were unable to return. We had managed to rig a +jury-mast and to continue our voyage, when another gale sprung up, and +blowing with redoubled fury, the ship began to labour very much in the +heavy sea which quickly got up. Still, for a couple of days after this +gale began, there did not seem to be much cause for apprehension, though +the ship was making more water than usual. However, on the evening of +the third day, finding the pumps not sucking as they ought to have done, +I went down into the hold, and then, to my dismay, I found that the +water was already over the ground tier of casks. I went on deck, and +quietly told the captain. He turned pale, for he knew too well what +sort of a craft we were aboard. However, he did not show any further +signs of alarm, but told the first mate to call all hands to man the +pumps, while he sent me below to tell the passengers that they would be +required to lend a hand. We had been driven about, now in one +direction, now in another, but were some way to the northward of the +equator. The wind was at this time, however, blowing strong from the +north-east, and to let both our pumps work we were obliged to put the +ship right before it. + +"All hands worked with a will, for we knew that our lives depended on +our exertions. Even the Messrs. Raymonds set to; but while others were +calm and collected, they were excited and evidently alarmed. I thought +to myself what good will all their wealth be to them if the ship goes +down? More than once I went below with a lantern to see if we were +keeping the water under, but I saw too plainly that, in spite of all we +were doing, it was gaining on us. We searched about to try and find out +where the leak was, but we might as well have tried to stop the holes in +a sieve. At midnight the water had risen halfway to the second tier of +casks. Still all hands worked on, hoping that by sunrise a sail might +appear to take us off. I saw too plainly that the ship was sinking, but +it was very important to have light, that we might see how best to +launch the boats. Day seemed very, very long in coming. The captain +tried to cheer the people, but he must have known as well as any on +board that perhaps none of us might live to see the sun rise over the +waters. + +"All that night we laboured without a moment's rest. Dawn came, and I +went to the mast-head to learn if a sail was in sight. I scarcely +expected to see one, yet I hoped against hope. Not a speck could I +discover on the clearly-defined circle of the horizon. The old ship was +now fast settling down, and the sea was making a complete breach over +her. To enable the water to run off the decks and to allow us to launch +the boats, we cut away the stanchions and bulwarks between the fore and +main rigging. Such food and water as could be got at was then handed up +on deck, ready to be placed in the boats. The crew did not wait the +captain's orders to lower them. He seemed unwilling to abandon the ship +till the last moment. There was a dinghy stowed in the longboat. While +the men were getting it out a sea broke on board, and, dashing it +against the spars, drove in the starboard bilge, and at the same time +washed two of the poor fellows overboard. We then got the stores into +the longboat. A warp was next passed over the port bow of the ship +outside the fore-rigging, and then inboard again through the gangway, +and secured to the bow of the boat, sufficient slack being left to allow +her to go astern. However, just as we were launching the boat a sea +struck her, and stove in two planks of the port bilge. I now thought +that it was all up with us, for though there was the jollyboat, she +could not carry half the number on board; still it was possible that we +might get the planks back to their places and stop the leak; so, in +spite of the accident to her, we managed by great exertions to launch +her, and I, with some of the crew and passengers, jumped into her with +buckets and began to bail her out. Happily, the carpenter was one of +the party. Some blankets had been thrown into the boat, which he +immediately thrust over the leak and stood on them, while he got ready a +plank and some nails which he had brought with him. While he and I were +working away the boat was shipping many seas, in consequence of the +weight of the warp ahead; I sang out that we must have it shifted, and +after a light rope had been hove to us and made fast, it was let go. +Meantime the quarterboat was lowered and several men got into her, but +their painter was too short, and before they had got their oars into her +she broke adrift and dropped astern. The men in her lifted up their +hands for help; the captain, who was still on deck, hove them an oar, +and we hove another, but they missed both of them, and before long a sea +struck the boat and turned her over. It was very sad, for we could give +her no help. We, meantime, in the longboat, were not in a very much +better condition, for we were shipping a great deal of water. The +captain now ordered us to haul up the boat, that the people might get +into her; but while we were so doing, the roughness of the sea causing a +sudden jerk on the rope, it parted, and we dropped astern. Cries of +despair rose from many of those on board when they saw what had +occurred. We instantly got out our oars and endeavoured to pull up to +the ship, but the quantity of water in her made all our efforts +unavailing. To prevent the boat going down we were obliged to turn to +and bail. Away we drifted, every moment, increasing our distance from +the ship, and lessening our hope of being able to return. There stood +our late companions on the poop of the sinking ship, some waving to us, +some shouting and imploring us to return. Summoned by the captain, we +saw that they then were endeavouring to form a raft. The thought that +the lives of all on board depended mainly on our exertions stimulated us +once more to attempt to pull up to them. We got out the oars, and while +the landsmen bailed we pulled away till the stout ash-sticks almost +broke. By shouts and gestures I encouraged the people; every muscle was +stretched to the utmost--no one spared himself--but our strength could +not contend with the fearful gale blowing in our teeth. The seas broke +over us, and almost swamped the boat; still, if we could but hold our +own, a lull might come before the ship went down. But vain were all our +hopes; even while our eyes were fixed on the brig, her stern for an +instant lifted up on a foam-crested sea, and then her bow, plunging +downwards, never rose again. Most of those who remained on board were +engulfed with the wreck, but a few, springing overboard before she sank, +struck out towards us. It would, indeed, have required a strong swimmer +to contend with that sea. One after another the heads of those who +still floated disappeared beneath the foaming waves, till not one +remained; the other boats also had disappeared, and we were left alone +on the waste of waters. The instant the brig went down a cry arose from +some in our boat, so piercing, so full of despair, that I thought that +some relations or dear friends of one of those who had escaped had been +lost in her; but on looking again I discovered that it had proceeded +from the two brothers I have spoken of. They had lost what they had set +their hearts on--what they valued more than relations and friends--their +long-hoarded wealth. There they sat, the picture of blank despair. I +knew that it would never do to let the people's minds rest on what had +occurred, so I cheered them up as best I could, and told them that I +thought we should very likely be able to reach some port or other in +four or five days. On examining our stores, I found that with economy +they might hold out for nearly two weeks, and before that time I hoped +we might reach some civilised place. I was more concerned with the +state of our boat. She was originally not a strong one, and, what with +the injury she received when launched from the sinking ship, and the +battering she had since got, she had become very leaky. The crew, +severely taxed as their strength had been, behaved very well, but two of +our passengers gave signs of becoming very troublesome. I did not +suspect at the time that their minds were going. At first they were +very much cast down, but then one of them roused up and began to talk +very wildly, and at last the other took up the same strain, and off they +went together. They insisted on taking command, and having twice as +much food served out to them as others got. At one time they wanted the +boat to be steered to the northward, declaring that we should have no +difficulty in reaching England. I had to hide the compass from them, +and at last they were pacified under the belief that we were going +there. Each morning when they woke up they asked how much nearer they +were to our native land. There were three other passengers--an old man, +a lad, and an invalid gentleman. Consumption had already brought him +near the grave, still he lasted longer than the other two. The young +boy died first; fear had told on his strength; then the old man died. I +could not tell exactly where we were. We were always on the lookout for +land, or a sail to pick us up. One morning at daybreak the man who had +taken my place at the helm roused us up with the cry of `Land! land +ahead!' + +"`Old England--old England!' shouted the madmen, springing up and waving +their hands. + +"`My native land--my own loved home!' cried the invalid, sitting up as +he awoke and gazing long and anxiously at the rock which rose out of the +blue water before us. + +"Drawing a deep sigh when he discovered his mistake, he sank back into +his place. Soon afterwards, finding that he did not stir, I was about +to raise him up. There was no need for my so doing. He had gone to +that long home whence there is no return. Those who loved him on earth +would see him no more. Some of the people were in a very weak and sad +condition. They had been sick on board--scarcely fit for duty. I knew +what the land was--the rock we are now on; but, barren as it is, I +thought it would be better to recruit our strength on shore than to +attempt to continue our course to the mainland in our present condition. +I therefore steered for it, and was looking out for a secure spot where +I might beach the boat, when the madmen, growing impatient, seized the +tiller and ran her on shore, where she now lies. We were nearly +swamped, and everything in the boat was wetted. She also was so much +injured that she was totally unfit again to launch, and we had no means +of repairing her. However, we set to work to make things as comfortable +as we could, and the first thing I did was to erect a tent to shelter +the sick men from the rays of the sun. Poor fellows, they did not long +require it. Three of them very soon died. We had now only six +survivors of those who had escaped from the foundering ship. We were +all getting weaker and weaker, except the madmen, who seemed to be +endowed with supernatural strength. One day I, with the three seamen +who remained, went out to collect shellfish and birds' eggs. I carried +the only musket we had saved, having dried some gunpowder which I had in +a flask. We had come back with a supply; but as we approached the tent +we saw the two madmen standing in front of it, flourishing pieces of +wood and swearing that we should not enter it, and that they were the +kings of the country. Some of our people wanted me to shoot them, but +that, of course, I would not on any account do. I could not even say +that our lives were threatened. I stopped and tried to reason with the +poor men. At last they consented to give us up a saucepan and some of +the provisions, and we, glad to be rid of their company, resolved to go +to the other side of the island, and to build ourselves a hut from the +driftwood which we had seen there in abundance. This we did, but we all +have been growing weaker and weaker ever since, and had you not come to +our rescue I do not think we should have held out much longer." + +The mate finished his account--on which, from what he afterwards told +me, I have somewhat enlarged--just as we got up to the tent. The +unhappy madmen stood in front of it waiting for us. Though excited in +their looks and wild in their conversation, they seemed perfectly +prepared to accompany us. They looked with eyes askant at the mate and +his three companions, but said nothing to them. + +"Well, gentlemen, are you ready to proceed?" exclaimed Mr Brand as we +got up to them. + +"Certainly, noble mariners--certainly," answered one of them. "But +stay, we have some freight to accompany us." + +And, going into the tent, they dragged out a sea-chest, which appeared +to be very heavy. The mate looked surprised, and when they were not +looking he whispered to me that he did not believe that the chest +contained anything of value. He, however, had not an opportunity of +speaking to Mr Merton, who told them that as soon as he had seen the +people into the boat he would come back and help them along with their +chest. This reply satisfied them, and they sat themselves down +composedly on the chest while we helped the other poor men into the +boat. As soon as this was done, two of our crew were sent back to bring +along the chest. Though strong men, they had no little difficulty in +lifting it; but whether or not it was full of gold, no one could have +watched over it more jealously than did the two madmen. It was very +remarkable how completely they seemed inspired by the same spirit, and +any phantasy which might enter the head of one was instantly adopted by +the other. + +"There's enough gold there to buy the Indies!" cried Ben Brown, a +seaman, as he handed in the chest. "Take care we don't let it +overboard, mates, or the gentlemen won't forgive us in a hurry." + +"It is more than your lives are worth if you do so!" cried the madmen. +"Be careful--be careful, now." + +The boat was loaded, and we pulled away for the ship. Our captain +seemed somewhat astonished at the extraordinary appearance of the people +we brought on board. The mate and other men of the lost vessel were +carefully handed up. They were not heavier than children, but the +Messrs. Raymonds would not leave the boat till they saw their chest +hoisted up in safety. Their first care on reaching the deck was about +it, and, going aft to the captain, they begged he would be very careful +where it was stowed. + +"Stay! Before these gentlemen lose sight of it let it be opened, that +there may be no mistake about its contents," said Mr Merton. + +"What, and expose all our hoarded wealth to the eyes of the avaricious +crew!" they cried out vehemently. "We shall be robbed and murdered for +the sake of it, and this chest will be sent where many others have +gone--to the bottom of the sea." + +"You are perfectly safe on board this ship, I trust, gentlemen," +remarked our captain. "Is the chest secured with a key?" + +"Whether or not, with our consent never shall it be opened!" exclaimed +one of the brothers. + +"Then remember I can in no way be answerable for what is found in it +when it is opened," observed the captain. + +What new idea came into the heads of the two brothers I do not know, but +they instantly agreed that the chest should be opened. + +"Call the carpenter," said our captain, who wanted to bring the matter +to a conclusion, and who probably by this time had begun to suspect the +sad condition of the two gentlemen. + +Mr Pincott, the carpenter, and one of his mates came aft, and made +short work in opening the mysterious chest. Those who claimed it as +their property started back with looks of dismay. It was full to the +brim of stones and sand and shells. Again and again they looked at it; +they rubbed their eyes and brows; they clutched it frantically and +examined it with intense eagerness; they plunged their hands deep down +among the rubbish; it was long before they appeared able to convince +themselves of the reality; over and over again they went through the +same action. At last one of them, the most sane of the two, drew +himself up, and, pointing to the chest, said in a deep, mournful voice-- + +"Captain, we have been the victims of a strange hallucination, it seems. +We have not lost sight of that chest since we filled it. We thought +that we had stored it with gold and precious stones. I know how it was. +Hunger, anxiety, hardships, had turned our brains. We had lost all-- +all for which we had been so long toiling. We conjured up this phantasy +as our consolation. Is it not so, Jacob?" + +The other brother thus addressed shook his head and looked incredulous. +Once more he applied himself to the examination of the chest. At last +he got up, and looked long and fixedly at the other, as if to read the +thoughts passing through his head. + +"You are right, brother Simon," he said, after some time, in a deep, +low, mournful voice; "it's dross--dross--all dross. What is it worse +than what we have been working for? That's gone--all gone--let this go +too--down--down to the bottom of the sea." + +Again influenced by the same impulse, they dragged the chest to the side +of the vessel, and with hurried gestures threw the contents with their +hands over into the sea. It appeared as if they were trying which could +heave overboard the greatest quantity in the shortest time. When they +had emptied it, they lifted up the chest, and before any one could +prevent them that also was cast into the sea. + +"There perish all memorial of our folly!" exclaimed the one who was +called Simon. "We shall have to begin the world anew. Captain, where +do you propose landing us? The sooner we begin the work the better." + +The captain told them that must depend on circumstances, but it was +finally arranged that they were to be put on shore at Barbadoes, where, +after a long conversation together, they expressed a wish to be landed. +The scene was a very strange one; the rapid changes of ideas, the +quickly succeeding impulses, and the extraordinary understanding between +the two. We found, however, that they were twins, and had always lived +together, so that they seemed to have but one mind in common. + +I never met an officer who took so much interest in the apprentices-- +indeed, in all the men under him. He took occasion to speak to me and +Charley of what had occurred. + +"How utterly incapable of affording satisfaction is wealth unless +honestly obtained and righteously employed!" he remarked. "We have also +before us an example of the little reliance which can be placed on +wealth. These two poor men have lost theirs and their minds at the same +time. Their senses have been mercifully restored to them. It remains +to be seen by what means they will attempt to regain their fortunes." + +I cannot say that Mr Merton's remarks made any very deep impression on +me or Charley at the time, though I trust they produced their fruit in +after years. Every kindness was shown the two poor men on board, and, +as far as I could judge, they appeared to have become perfectly sane. +The same kindness was also shown the mate and the other rescued seamen +of the lost brig. We landed the mate and seamen, as well as the two +brothers, at Bridge Town, in the island of Barbadoes, but from that day +to this I have never heard a word about them. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Harry Higginson, some time before the Captain's yarn concluded, got up +from his seat and went to the side of our cabin schoolroom and stood +there, looking through a dead-light which was open to ventilate the +room. He had remembered that it was about the time of the moon's +rising, and went to watch it come up. As our salt tute finished, Harry +turned from his lookout, and, catching my eye, beckoned me to join him, +and so I did. Coming beside him, Harry pointed and whispered--for the +spell of the story still lingered over us, and no one seemed willing to +break it roughly-- + +"What do you make of that, Bob?" + +The big mellow moon was right before us, and, as one would say, about +the height of a house, above the eastern horizon. Its light silvered a +path on the sea to us--a path that was bounded on one side by the bold, +dark rocks of the southern shore of the cape, and whose limit to our +right was as undefined as the undulating waters it was lost in. Across +the stretch of moonlight, and a half-mile from the wreck, I saw a lugger +heading for a point that made the southern side of a snug little cove +which afterwards got the name of "Smuggler's Cove." It was the sight of +that boat at such a time coming towards the shore of our rough cape that +caused Harry's question to me. + +"Singular--very singular," I answered; "we must watch that craft." + +Mr Clare called to us, "Boys, what are you whispering about over +there?" + +We wanted to keep watch quietly by ourselves, on the discovery which +promised some interest, so we did not answer, and Walter at that moment +called on Mr Clare for his story. + +"Well," said Mr Clare, "I promised a story as the only way of getting +Captain Mugford's. I bought a great deal cheaply, and must pay now. In +common honesty, therefore, I am bound to commence my story. I am afraid +that I cannot make it as interesting as Captain Mugford's, inasmuch as +his was about the sea, while mine relates to the land. However, I will +begin." + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN. + +MR. CLARE'S STORY. + +The year before I left Canada, in the fall, as the autumn is called +there, I started with a number of other young men in our neighbourhood, +the county town of C---, to go about seventy-five miles up the Ottawa, +what is called lumbering. The winter work is cutting down the trees and +getting them to the riverbank ready for the spring thaw, when they are +gathered in rafts and floated down to a seaport. We went provided for +six months' severe life in the snowbound forests. Almost every man, +too, took his gun or rifle. The journey to the site of our winter's +encampment was made on foot; our clothes, provision, stoves, and cooking +utensils being loaded on an ox-cart that accompanied us, the oxen being +necessary to haul the timber to the river, as our work extended back. + +After a week's journey, we came to the spot selected for our winter's +work, on a bend of the river, ten miles above where the M--- joins the +Ottawa. Of course it is an utterly wild region there, never trodden +except by hunters, and away beyond the usual search of lumbermen. I do +not know why my uncle, the lumber-boss of our expedition, went sixty +miles beyond ordinary timber-cuttings. Perhaps it was to procure, on a +special order, a remarkably fine choice of oak and pine, and that that +spot had been marked by him in some hunting trip or Indian survey as +producing the finest timber in the colony. It was grandly beautiful +there, where a valley, running at a right angle to the river's course, +spread out at the bank to a semicircle, containing a hundred acres and +more of most magnificent trees--a vast forest city, inhabited by immense +patriarchs, grey-bearded with moss. Their dignity and stateliness and +venerable air were most impressive; and when they sang to the strong +wind, chanting like the Druids of old, even I, who had so long lived in +a country of forests, was filled with awe. And we, pigmies of twenty +and thirty years, had invaded this sanctuary to slay its lords, who +counted age by centuries, and had lived and reigned here before our +forefathers first trode the continent. The quietude and hazy light of +Indian summer floated through the aisles and arches of the solemn forest +city as we first saw it--a leaf falling lazily now and then across the +slanting beams of the setting sun--a startled caribou, on the discovery +of our approach, hurrying from his favourite haunt with lofty strides. +All else in the picture before us was silent and motionless. Our +winter's home! Those lofty coverts to be levelled to a bare, +stump-marked plane! The old vikings of the primeval forests, to be +fashioned by the axe, to battle with the fury of the ocean, and +reverberate with reports of hostile broadsides--to bear the flag of +their country in peace and commerce, too, to far-distant lands--all as +triumphantly as they had for ages wrestled only with the winds! + +You laugh, Drake; and you are right, for I doubt if many of us thought +then in that strain. No, there is not much sentiment among lumbermen, +and as we regarded those mighty oaks and pines, it was principally with +speculative calculation as to how many solid feet of prime timber "that +'ar thicket would yield." + +The first task was that of building log-houses--two for our twenty +hands. In each was an immense chimney-piece, a cooking-stove, and a bed +stretching the width of the house on the floor, with a mattress of +hemlock boughs. The rifles and shotguns hanging over the wide +fireplace, and a long pine table and rustic benches, completed the +furniture of our houses. The oxen and a company of hounds and mongrels +had their quarters in a low log barn between the houses. Our supplies +of fresh meat for the winter depended upon the good use of the firearms, +and each week some one man of our number was detailed as hunter. + +That winter of 1824 proved the coldest ever remembered in America, but +the long mild autumn gave no threats of the season that was to succeed +it. Before the first snow--which was, I remember, on November 20--our +little forest colony was comfortably established, and a score of big +trees laid stretched in the leaves. + +In our company were many fine, intelligent young men--all taught +somewhat, some tolerably well educated. None had been to college. I +little thought at that time of becoming a scholar and a clergyman. They +were frank, generous, honourable fellows--honest and brave, but +perfectly ungodly and reckless of Heaven's displeasure or the life +hereafter. After the day's labour, the evening was dissipated in +card-playing, swearing, and hard drinking. Many a scene of riot and +orgies did those log-walls witness. Such is generally the life in a +lumber-camp: hard, wholesome labour in the day, loud revelling at night. +The rough, adventurous life, with no home charm or female influence to +refine or restrain, is probably the principal reason of such low +practice of life in the lumberman's camp. + +The worst character in our company--and he happened to be in the same +house with me--was a man of twenty-eight years of age, the son of a +French father and American mother, and whose mother's grandfather had +been an Indian warrior of some renown in the early history of our +province. In him were united the savageness of the red man, the gaiety +of the Frenchman, and the shrewdness of the Yankee. He was a large, +handsome, and immensely muscular man, with dark complexion, small +straight features, quick black eyes, and long raven-coloured beard and +hair that hung down to his shoulders. Utterly wicked and unprincipled +as he was, his merriment, off-hand and daring, lent him a certain +fascination and popularity among us. He was very witty, his laugh was +rich and constant, he sang well, and played in a dashing way the violin. +Every night he found some one to gamble with him. Every night he drank +a pint of whisky, and kept the cabin in an uproar. + +I greatly disliked this Guyon Vidocq; because he exerted a most baneful +influence in our company, all of whom except the boss were younger than +himself. + +The best man of our number was John Bar, and a fine Christian, +cheerful-hearted fellow he was. Although differing so widely from Guyon +Vidocq, he, without any effort to do so, and indeed unconsciously, +disputed the palm of popularity with him. He was an active, powerful +man too, and though terribly pockmarked, had a most agreeable +countenance. He could troll a pleasant stave, and loved, when off +hunting or at work with his axe sometimes, to sing one of our +C--- Sunday hymns, and whenever there was a respectable party in the +evening, instead of the usual rioting set, he would willingly give them +"The Fireside at home," "Merrily row, the Boat row," or any of the good +old-fashioned songs, pure and inspiriting. Not another of us was so +cheerful and industrious as John Bar. Drinking, gambling, or swearing, +he was never guilty of, and when the evening orgies commenced he +generally spoke to me, and we went off together to visit at the other +cabin, or, if they were as bad there, find a warm corner with our +blankets in the log barn, and there chat away the hours until our +companions had calmed down and turned into their bunks. John Bar was +not a meddler, nor what is contemptuously called, in such reckless +societies as ours was, "a preacher;" but as he was loyal to his country, +and loyal to his parents, he was far more loyal to his God. It would +madden any _man_ to hear his mother's name profanely used; it made John +Bar's heart sick--yes, and I have seen him tremble with rage--when the +name of his Saviour was taken as an oath. Sometimes then, and at other +times when the wickedness in camp was rampant, he would break out in +words of fire--words of fire that soon mingled with, and at last wholly +changed to, words of love and entreaty. The others never resented these +attacks, these living sermons that his overpowering sense of duty and +outraged feeling made him speak. They felt the power of his influence, +and acknowledged his goodness, for it was full of charity. Even Guyon +Vidocq resented not John Bar's corrections. He laughed, uttered another +oath, and took himself away. But, alone, his face grew dark and angry, +for he feared the power of John's goodness, and _hated_ him. + +My turn as hunter did not come until December 18, and my companion from +the other house was an old acquaintance of mine in C---. We had been +schoolmates and near neighbours when boys, but since that he had been +away at sea. He was a quiet, amiable young man, and one of the +steadiest in our camp. + +Sometimes such an expedition kept the hunters away for the entire week, +and sometimes they would get separated. In either case the night's +shelter was a rough one, and dependent for safety and comfort upon the +man's ingenuity and hardihood. But where two could keep together, both +the labour and danger of those night camps in the snow were lessened. +As game was killed, it was stowed away in what hunters call a _cache_-- +that is, a hole for hiding and securing what we wished from the +depredations of wolves and other wild animals; and then the ox-cart, +when it was practicable--but generally, in winter, a sled drawn by +hand--was sent out to bring in the game. My companion, Maine Mallory, +and I started together up the frozen river; we agreed to keep together, +if possible, and for that reason I carried a rifle and he a +double-barrelled shotgun of large bore for throwing buckshot. We were +dressed as warmly as our exercise would allow, and had, strapped on our +backs, blankets and snow-shoes. Besides which, each one's wallet held +five pounds of bread, pepper and salt, powder, shot, and bullets, and +pipe and tobacco, not forgetting the most important of all, flint and +steel. We proposed to follow up a branch of the Ottawa to a lake +south-east of Mount K---, and there hunt with a party of very friendly +Indians, who had a most comfortable camp in a spot near the lake. They +were collecting winter skins to send down by us in the spring for sale +in Montreal. Our first day's journey was about twenty miles on the hard +frozen river, covered with a crust of snow so stiff as to render +snow-shoes unnecessary; but it was hard work, for the weather was +bitterly cold. We shot--that is, Maine Mallory did--a couple of +partridges and a rabbit for our suppers, and halted early in a hemlock +wood, where there was a northerly shelter of rocks; indeed, a crevice in +the rocks was almost a cave for us, a cave where we gathered quantities +of hemlock for bedding, and built at its entrance a huge fire, which, by +night--when we had cut wood enough to last until morning, and had cooked +and eaten our game--had made a deep hot bed of ashes. It was so cold, +though, that we feared to sleep much; each took a turn at napping whilst +the other fed the fire. The wood was as quiet as the grave; not a +breath of wind; no night-bird nor prowling animal; nothing but the fine +crackling of the cold. When I watched, I almost _wished_ to see a wolf +or bear--something to come in on the ghostly, silvered circle that the +firelight illumined; something to start my congealing blood with a roar +or spring. In the morning we took to the river course again, and went +on, but resolved to try as hard as we could to reach the Indians' camp +before another night. It was twenty-seven miles, we calculated, but we +did it; and about nine o'clock heard the yelping of the Indian dogs that +sounded our approach while we were yet half a mile from the camp. We +knew the five Indians there; two came out to learn who drew near. Worn +out and benumbed with cold, we gladly gave ourselves into their hands to +be warmed and fed. They were well provided against severe cold, and +soon made us comfortable; but we were too wearied the next day to do any +hunting. + +The Indians said the weather was growing colder every day, and the +head-man, a middle-aged chief, called Ollabearqui, or Trick the Bear, +told with an ominous grunt, that when the cold "grow bigger and bigger +and the winds stay asleep, then Ollabearqui is afraid." + +On the second morning of our stay among the Indians four of us went out +after moose. Two, Mallory and an Indian, were to go around a mountain +to the eastward, and Ollabearqui and I were to follow a valley which +would bring us to the foot of the same mountain on the farther side, +where we agreed to meet the others. A large, gaunt, savage-faced hound +followed my Indian companion. He and I had each a rifle. We went +quickly and silently through the white-clothed forests for about four +miles. At length, where the small fall of the valley stream was held in +great ice-shackles by the severe cold, and only a little pool of six +inches diameter kept alive just beneath the icicles, we came out of the +woods to a rocky, bushy foot and projection of the bare, stone-marked +mountain. We had advanced to follow its base a short distance when my +Indian companion, who had grown more careful and earnest lately, turned +suddenly one side to a stiffly frozen covert of low bushes. The dog, +before this most dull and dejected in his walk at his master's heels, +now sprang ahead and into the bushes. In a moment he came out again +with his nose close to the snow, and as he emerged raised his head and +gave one short, fierce howl. Ollabearqui spoke to him in the Indian +tongue, and the dog renewed his search, going back again to the little +spring. The Indian at the same time pointed to the ground for me to see +a track, but no mark of any kind was visible to my eye--not a scratch or +impression on the hard snow-crust. Now the dog left the trees again and +led us up the steep, rough side of the mountain--a most difficult path +to climb, frozen as it was. One hundred and fifty feet or more up, the +dog stopped before a mass of wildly piled rocks, and there barked loudly +and angrily. We reached the spot, Ollabearqui some minutes before me, +and discovered the narrow mouth of a cavern, at which the hound was +furiously digging. The Indian cocked his rifle, saying, "Panther! Look +out!" In a few moments the dog had made the hole big enough to admit +his head and fore paws, and he attempted to crawl in, but at the same +moment we heard a rumbling growl, like an infuriated cat's, but twenty +times as strong, and the dog came out with a deep gash on the side of +his head, cutting the mouth back a couple of inches. Again his master +ordered him in. This time he entered entirely, and then we listened to +the furious noises of the two beasts, in a desperate struggle evidently. +In ten minutes the commotion ceased, but the hound did not return. I +peered into the cavern, but could see nothing. As I rose to my feet +after the attempt, I saw Ollabearqui, who had jumped to a point somewhat +above the cavern's entrance, with his rifle at his shoulder. I looked +where it pointed, and saw a tremendous panther-cat springing up the +mountain-side--it had probably crawled out from some other opening of +the cave. At the same moment I heard a report, and saw the beast roll +forward on its breast, but as quick as a flash it rose again and dashed +at the shooter. It was all done in a second, but I could see +Ollabearqui trying to draw his knife. The panther struck him, and he +lost his footing and rolled backwards from the ledge on which he stood; +the panther saved itself from the fall, but bounded back, from the mere +force of the spring, I suppose, to the other side of the rock. The +savage beast was not more than twelve yards from me, but seemed to be +unconscious of my presence. Stunned by the heavy fall, Ollabearqui did +not rise, and I saw the panther crawl around the ledge to spring on his +prostrate foe. I brought up my rifle, and took deliberate aim at the +animal's shoulder. I fired. The panther made one tremendous leap, and +fell with a dying yell on Ollabearqui's breast. I ran up, and, as I +supposed, found the Indian only bruised and stunned by his tumble. As I +removed the dead beast from his body, Ollabearqui grunted and uttered a +laconic "Good!" He then rose somewhat lamely, and he and I set about +digging at the cave. Soon we managed to pull out the dog, which was +dead, and then, pushing the panther's corpse into the cavern, we stopped +up both ends with heavy stones and went on, descending to a track +through the forest again. + +The luck was all mine that day, for when we had nearly reached the point +where we were to meet our fellow-hunters, we heard, at a long distance +beyond, a noise that the Maine hunter knows well--a dull, clacking +noise, like the regular blows in a blacksmith's shop ever so far away. +It was the trot of a moose. When at a slow pace they always strike +their hoofs together in that way, as a horse overreaches. We drew +behind some large trees, and, after ten minutes of anxious waiting, +discerned a very large bull moose coming on a waddling trot towards us. +He had probably been started by our companions, for he had his ears +pointed back, and turned his neck every few minutes as if to catch some +sound behind. He passed near Ollabearqui first, at about eighty yards. +There was only a click! Ollabearqui's rifle had snapped. The moose, +alarmed by the noise, increased his pace greatly, but came directly +towards me, so that when I pulled trigger he was not farther off than +twenty-five feet. He fell dead, a bullet right through his heart. My +companion was not envious because of my good fortune. He scolded the +erring rifle in his own language, and then said to me, "Good! good! You +white-man very big shoot--ugh!" We joined Mallory and the other Indian +soon after. They had only killed a fox. Together we made two +sled-drags of the thickest, heaviest hemlock boughs, and loading the +game--the panther-cat and fox on one sled, and the moose on the other-- +pulled them to the Indian camp. + +The weather was too bitterly cold for hunting. Even the wild animals +seemed not to go about any more than their wants required. So Mallory +and I decided to buy some more meat from the Indians, and get them to go +with us back to our lumbering station and help to carry the game on +hand-sleds, which we could do with comparative ease on the river. The +bargain was made, and Ollabearqui and two other Indians started with us +the next morning, that we might reach our camp on the twenty-fourth, or +on Christmas morning. No doubt the hope of getting whisky from our men +induced the Indians to assent so readily to the proposition. The sled +enabled us to take plenty of heavy furs and blankets for protection +against the intense cold. Mallory and I also made a gallon of strong +coffee before leaving the Indian camp; that we were able to heat three +or four times a day, and would prove the greatest ally against the cold. + +We made a long march the first day--nearly thirty miles--but suffered +greatly from the unusually severe weather; and if our red friends had +not taken us to an Indian mound to pass the night--which we used as a +hut, packing all our furs against its stone sides and keeping up an +immense fire in the centre, the smoke escaping where we removed a stone +on the top--and had we not had the coffee to heat and drink continually, +I really believe we should all have been frozen to death that terrible +night. As it was, I remember it as the most painful and comfortless +night I ever passed. + +The morning came, and we could stir about; but the sun seemed to give no +warmth, and a light wind was blowing to make the cold more searching. +For some reason I could not explain to myself, I felt strangely anxious +to get home. In the fitful naps I had caught during the night I had +suffered from most painful dreams; but all I could remember of them were +the faces of Guyon Vidocq and John Bar, and no sight of the camp or of +the other men, only heaps of cinders where the log-houses stood. As +soon as we had had our breakfast I urged my companions to get under way +quickly. To my astonishment the Indians answered, "Us no go--us go +back--so cold, ugh!--pipe of the Great Spirit gone out--us go back!" To +our questionings and urgings they only grunted, shook their heads, and +answered as before. So all Mallory and I could do was to let the +fellows take their way. We packed the game in the stone mound, and +piled stones and brushwood against its entrance and smoke-hole; and then +with our guns, and the jug of what was left of the coffee on a sling +between us, we started on our way. + +That day's journey is a distressing remembrance. Despite the cold, we +advanced briskly enough until noon. Then the wind grew stronger, whilst +we got weak from the exposure. The cold increased. A numbness of mind +and body was creeping over us, and our limbs were heavy to move. At +about three we stopped, and in what shelter we could find, built a great +fire; and heating the coffee as hot as we could swallow it, drank nearly +all that remained, and ate a dinner. That strengthened and warmed us up +enough to help us along until sunset. We were then only four or five +miles from camp; but had not the wind gone down with the sun, we must +have perished before reaching home, for from that time our sufferings +increased, and both of us grew drowsy. Several times Mallory's halting +steps stopped entirely, and he would have gone into the fatal sleep +which precedes death from freezing, had I not shaken him and pushed and +urged him. To me it was like walking in a sleep. + +I dragged along almost unconsciously, and yet knowing enough to keep the +river track and move my legs. The fact that Mallory was nearer death +than I--which was shown by his constant attempts to lie down--kept me +up. The sense of responsibility aroused my mind. I would implore him +to try to walk for a little while longer, and then push him along again. +About eight o'clock I got a fire going again, and made Mallory drink, +the last drop. I told him we were not more than half a mile from the +cabins--that he must rouse up now, and strive with me to reach our +friends. "Was he willing to die," I asked, "just as we were on the +threshold of safety?" The coffee helped him a little, but I had had +none, so in that last struggle he was as strong as I. That half-mile +was only accomplished after an hour's walking, and in every minute of +that hour I felt that I could not make another effort. + +At length we staggered to the door of Maine Mallory's cabin, and were +_saved_! John Bar, who was in there, a refugee from the Christmas Eve +frolic in our own cabin, rubbed my limbs, and poured cup after cup of +strong coffee down my throat, and, when I was sufficiently recovered, +gave me a good supper. The same was done for Mallory. But even in the +cabin, with two immense fires and warm clothing, it was difficult to +keep warm. The water in the drinking pail, four feet from the stove, +was one mass of ice. Outside, that terrible night, the thermometer in +Montreal, I heard afterwards, fell to 23 degrees below zero. With us +there was no thermometer to mark the temperature, but it must have been +lower. + +Half of the gang of my log-house, including John Bar, were spending the +evening where I had sought shelter, too wearied to go a hundred yards +farther to my own quarters. The other five, one of whom was Guyon +Vidocq, were having a regular drinking and gambling bout in the other +cabin. We heard their yells from time to time. At about eleven o'clock +John Bar left us to seek his bed. I doubted if he would find his bed +very agreeable amid such an orgy as was reported to be going on under +the other roof; so I, thoroughly enjoying the bright fire and new life +after the exposure of the last few days, lingered a while longer, though +utterly wearied, and answered the questions about our hunt. Maine +Mallory had turned into bed long ago. But when my watch showed it was +twelve, I got up to seek a night's sleep. + +As I stepped into the intensely cold air, I was actually startled by the +solemnity and beauty of the scene; for the moon had risen since my +return to camp, and flooded the winter scene in the most glorious +radiance. The gigantic trees were magnified in the pure, clear light, +and their dark shadows stretched far on the glistening snow. Here and +there were the fallen timbers mounded over by drifts. Beyond, the white +mountains faded away to the pale sky. Not a sound, not a murmur of +wind, not a voice to break the awful stillness. + +With great thankfulness for my deliverance from the stark death that had +been so near me all day, I looked up to heaven and remembered the +blessed birth eighteen centuries ago when Jesus Christ came to the earth +as a little babe. + +Turning my steps to the other log-house, I wondered to see no light, and +was surprised, too, that the riot there had ceased by midnight. As I +walked the hundred yards, the song of the heavenly hosts of old sounded +in my heart: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will +toward men!" + +Drawing near the cabin, I was amazed to see the door stretched wide +open, and no light within. Instantly a dark foreboding fell upon me, +and I remembered the fearful visions of the night before. What could it +be that I was to encounter? I ran to the open door, and entered. No +fire! only those few dull ashes. What did it mean? "Boys," I cried, +"boys, where are you?" No reply. "Boys! Langdon! Vidocq! Bar!" and +there came from near me a stifled answer, as if the speaker was but half +awake. Trembling violently, I struck a match, and beheld John Bar, +lying almost at my feet in a bundle of furs, and a pool of blood by him, +and four other figures in everyday garments, without any other covering, +stretched in different attitudes on the floor--sleeping, I thought. +Yes, they were sleeping, but in death. Where they had fallen in drunken +stupor the ice-breath of Death had stiffened them for his own. + +"Is that you, Clare? Thank God! I am bleeding and freezing to death." + +"Who harmed you, Bar? Tell me first--Vidocq? I thought so. In a +second we'll help you." + +Quicker than I can write it, I had run to the other cabin, aroused the +inmates, and we had all reached the fatal cabin. + +Some of us carefully removed Bar to the second house, whilst others +chafed the bodies on the floor and poured warm drinks into their mouths +to revive the spark of life, if it yet lingered. But they were frozen +to death. The log-cabin in which my companions and I had lived for +three months was now the lumberman's dead-house. There the four bodies +were to rest until they could be moved to their graves. The next +morning Guyon Vidocq's body was laid beside those of his companions. He +had been found stretched dead on the riverbank. + +Such was our Christmas. + +It appeared that when John Bar had gone to his cabin he found four of +the inmates lying drunk on the floor, the fires expiring, and Guyon +Vidocq in a delirium of intoxication pulling everything to pieces-- +table, benches, etcetera--to pile them in the corner, and, then, as he +said, light a real Christmas bonfire. John Bar immediately saw the +danger that the poor creatures on the floor were in, and whilst he tried +to get fires going in the stove and chimney-place as quickly as +possible, he also exerted his influence to soothe Guyon Vidocq and make +him cease his crazy work. But the presence of Bar seemed to madden +Vidocq immediately. From the time the former entered the house, Vidocq +cursed him with every vile oath his drunken lips could frame, and, when +Bar attempted remonstrance and command, the infuriated maniac suddenly +caught up a table knife, and plunged it in his opponent's side. Then +with a yell Vidocq rushed from the house, leaving the door thrown back +for the deadly cold to enter and complete his work. John Bar said that +he fell when the knife struck him; that he had strength to crawl to a +pile of furs and blankets; that he even tried to cover his companions, +but could not; that he called for help as long as he had voice; and +that, when I entered, an hour after the assault, he had lost all +consciousness. The bleeding had ceased, but the sleep of the frozen was +falling on him. + +Those events of Christmas Day broke up the lumber-camp. + +John Bar was not dangerously wounded, and when we were able to carry him +on a sled to the nearest settlement he quickly recovered. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +"And now, boys, you have had your stories, so let's off to bed. Captain +Mugford, Ugly has gone to sleep over mine. He prefers sea narratives." + +But Ugly heard his name, and broke off in the middle of a snore to come +and put his paws apologetically on Mr Clare's knee. + +The sail Harry and I had watched disappeared behind the point of rocks +soon after Mr Clare commenced his story, and while waiting anxiously +for her reappearance we listened with much interest to Mr Clare; and as +he was finishing she came out again and stood to the south-west. +Determined to investigate the mystery ourselves, we said nothing to the +others. By the time we reached the deck to take our way homeward the +little sail was hardly distinguishable. As no one noticed it, Harry and +I went to bed, partners in a secret full of romance to us. + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. + +AN EXCITING DISCOVERY--THE COVE WINS A NAME. + +The next morning, at breakfast, Walter proposed that he and Harry +Higginson should, after school, go down to the neck and shoot ducks, for +Clump had reported that he had seen several flying over the cape. Our +salt tute was at the table, and Harry, in reply, turned to him and +said-- + +"Captain, won't you take my gun this afternoon and go with Walter in my +place? Bob and I have a little secret service to attend to, which can't +be postponed; so will you shoot the ducks for me?" + +"No, Harry," the Captain replied, "I shall not think of shooting here, +where we have the hunter of the Ottawa--the companion of Ollabearqui, +the slayer of moose and panther-cats--ha! ha! Eh, Mr Clare?" + +"Well, Captain Mugford, I will accept your kind offer, as I should like +very much to have a few hours' shooting with Walter. I shall try it; +but a fowling-piece and birds on the wing are different things from a +rifle and running game as large as those I used to practise on, and I +imagine that Walter will not commend me as the Indian did," was Mr +Clare's answer. + +After the morning lessons and dinner were over, Harry and I stole off +together to make an investigation of last night's mystery. We took our +way to the cove, which was soon to win a name. Although but +three-quarters of a mile from our house, that part of the cape about the +cove was the roughest and most inaccessible quarter in our possessions. +I do not know that any of us ever climbed down to the water there +before. The attractions in every other direction of fishing, bathing, +shooting, and boating were so numerous that we had not carried our +explorations in that direction. You may possibly remember there are +places, sometimes within little more than a stone's-throw of your house, +with which you never think of making acquaintance. Just such a place +was the cove. It did not invite us particularly. It was not on the +route of any of our pleasure expeditions, and, as I have said, there +were points of interest in every other direction. But just above the +cove was a high knob-shaped piece of grass and shrubs, dotted with many +slabs of sharp stones that stood up like tombstones, and made the knoll +look so much like a grave yard that we used to call it "our cemetery." +There the sheep liked to feed just before night. It was a favourite +spot, where they often came for their evening bite. + +We crossed that, and commenced a scramble down a jagged, rocky declivity +almost perpendicular. It reminded us of the cliffs in the islands of +Orkney and Shetland, pictures of which, with the men suspended by ropes +getting eggs from the nests that fill the crevices, have interested +every boy in his geography book. With bruised hands and knees, and +rather tattered trousers, we reached a ledge just above the high-tide +mark. The cove was a perfect harbour. A boat there would be defended +from every gale but a south-wester, and partly from that, whilst it +would also be completely hidden unless from a boat right off the +entrance of the cove, or unless some one peered over the dangerous cliff +above; and what would one think of looking for in there? But we found +enough to excite our astonishment. First there were a strand of rope +and an oar on the narrow ledge, which we followed a couple of yards, and +then saw an opening between two immense strata of stone. We looked in, +and a ray of light that came through the fissure at the other extremity +showed us a number of kegs, several bales of goods, sails, numerous +coils of rope, and various other articles. We climbed in, and found +also a rusty flintlock musket, standing between two barrels. If not as +much frightened, we were as much astonished as Robinson Crusoe, when he +discovered in the sand the print of a human foot. + +As hastily as the difficulties would allow, we climbed up the rocks, and +hurried towards the house, talking eagerly with each other while we ran +as to what those kegs and bales might contain. Had they been hidden +there by smugglers, or by whom? Were they now our property? What was +to be the result? + +Out of breath we reached the house, to find for our audience only +Captain Mugford. He was reading in the sitting-room, and put down his +book to hear our exciting revelation. When we had told him all, he +asked us not to go to the cove again, until Mr Clare and he had had +time to act on the information we had given, and told us to caution the +other boys in the same way if we met them before he did. "And now," +said he, "I will go out and meet Mr Clare and Walter--down on the neck, +are they not? I have no doubt that the cave is the storehouse of +smugglers." + +"Smugglers!" we exclaimed. + +"Yes," he answered, pulling on the pea-jacket that always came off in +the house, and stowing his pipe in the breast-pocket. "Yes, smugglers, +good-for-nothing scoundrels! who enjoy the good laws of the country, and +all the advantages which a settled Government and established +institutions give them, and yet play all sorts of tricks to avoid paying +the required taxes to support that Government; while they do their best +to prevent honest, straightforward-dealing traders from gaining a +livelihood. Then, see to what an expense they put the country to keep +up an army of coastguard men and a fleet of revenue vessels. There's +the _Hind_ sloop of war, with a crew of a hundred and twenty men, and +some fifty cutters, large and small, with crews of from fifteen to forty +men, on this south coast alone. If it wasn't for these idle rascals of +smugglers, these men might be manning England's fleets, or navigating +her merchantmen to bring back to her shores the wealth which makes her +great and powerful. People talk of the Government paying for all this. +Silly dolts that they are! It is not the Government pays; it is they +who pay out of their own pockets; and when they encourage smugglers, +which they too often do, they are just increasing the amount of their +own taxes; and if they don't feel the increase much themselves, they are +cheating their neighbours, though they have the impudence to call +themselves honest men. I have no patience with those who encourage +smugglers, and would transport every smuggler who is caught to Botany +Bay, and still think the fate too good for him." + +Having thus delivered himself, our worthy nautical instructor strode out +to meet our fresh tute. + +We took the news to Clump and Juno, who received it in mingled terror +and amazement; and then we ran to find Drake and Alf, and pour it out to +them. + +Well, we had frequently heard about the doings of smugglers, but to have +them burrowing on our cape, and be in a plot for their overthrow, were +better than volumes of "Flying Dutchmen," "Pirates of the Gulf," +"Gulliver's Travels," "Roderick Randoms," or even possibly of "Robinson +Crusoes," and all other such made-up stories. Here they were fresh; we +had watched their boat the night before; we had just come from their +cave; and there was plenty ahead to imagine. + +"Hurrah for our cape!" said Harry; "was there ever a jollier place for +fun?" + +Those days were palmy times for smugglers. High duties, in order to +raise a revenue for carrying on the wars in which England had been +engaged, had been placed on nearly all foreign articles. Wines, +spirits, tobacco, silks, laces, ribbons, and indeed a vast number of +other manufactures, were taxed more than cent per cent on their value, +and some, if I recollect rightly, two or three hundred per cent. In +fact, the high duties acted as an encouragement to smugglers, foreigners +as well as Englishmen, and the whole coast swarmed with their luggers +and other craft. Sometimes large armed cutters were employed, and their +bold crews did not hesitate to defend themselves if attacked by revenue +vessels, and sometimes came off the victors. The most disgraceful +circumstance connected with these transactions was, that there were +large mercantile houses in London who in some instances actually +employed the smugglers, and in others gave them direct encouragement by +receiving the silks and ribbons and laces, and other goods of that +description, and disposing of them openly as if they had paid duty. +Here, were men of wealth, and intelligence, and education, for the lust +of gain inducing their fellow-men to commit a serious crime. They had +relays of fleet horses, with light carts and wagons, running regularly +to the coast, in which the smuggled goods were conveyed up to London. +They bribed, when they could, the revenue men, and they had spies in +every direction to give notice of the approach of those whom they could +not bribe. They had lookout men on the watch for the approach of an +expected smuggling vessel, and spots-men to select he best place on +which she could run her cargo. They had also large parties on the +beach, frequently strongly armed, to assist in landing the goods and to +carry them up to the carts, or to the caves and other hiding-places, +where they were stored when the carts were not in readiness. Every +stratagem and other device was employed to draw the revenue men and +military away from the spot where it was proposed to run a cargo. +Sometimes a few goods, or bales of rubbish to look like goods, were +landed in a particular spot, and allowed to fall into the hands of the +coast guard, while the real cargo was being landed some miles away and +rapidly conveyed up to London. When hard-pressed by a revenue vessel, +if of a force too great to render fighting hopeless, the smuggling craft +would throw the whole of her cargo overboard, so that when overtaken +nothing contraband might be found in her. When the smugglers' cargo +consisted of spirits, under such circumstances the casks, heavily +weighted, were frequently, when in sight of land, dropped overboard, the +landmarks on the shore being carefully taken. Thus the smuggler could +return, when not watched, and regain her cargo. Sometimes the keen-eyed +revenue officers had observed her proceedings when letting go the kegs, +and on her return they could no longer be found. Sometimes the +hard-pressed smuggler had not time to sink her cargo, and the kegs, +still floating, were made prizes of by the cutter. At other times they +were captured when on the point of being landed, or when actually +landed, and it was on these occasions that the fiercest battles took +place between the smugglers, aided by their numerous coadjutors on +shore, and the revenue officers. If the lives of any of the revenue +officers were lost during these encounters, the smugglers who were seen +to have fired, when captured, were hung, while the less criminal in the +eye of the law were transported, or imprisoned, or sent to serve on +board men-of-war. It is scarcely too much to say that a large portion +of the coast population of England was engaged in this illicit traffic. +It bred also a great amount of ill-feeling between them and the coast +guard, whom they endeavoured to mislead, annoy, and injure by every +means in their power. Our worthy salt tutor had friends among the +revenue officers, with whom he sided strongly; indeed, his natural good +sense and right feeling would have prevented him from supporting a class +of men who were so clearly acting against the laws of the country and +all rules of right and justice. + +Our tutors that evening held a consultation on board the brig, and +decided that it was their duty to go over the next morning to inform the +commander of the coast guard of the discovery Harry and I had made, and +to let him take the steps which he might consider necessary. We two, of +course, for the time became perfect heroes of romance, and could talk of +nothing else during the evening but of smugglers and smuggling +adventures. Captain Mugford possessed a large amount of lore on that +subject, some of which he produced, much to our edification. He gave us +an account of the fight between the _Peggy_ smuggling lugger and the +_Bramble_ King's cutter. Three men were killed and five wounded on +board the revenue cruiser, and a still greater number of smugglers lost +their lives, though the lugger escaped on that occasion. She was, +however, afterwards fallen in with by the very same cutter, when the +smugglers showed fight at first; but so fiercely were they attacked by +the brave commander of the cutter, that, their consciences making +cowards of them, they yielded after a short struggle. It would have +been difficult to convict the crew then on board of the murder of the +cutter's people on the previous occasion, had not one of their number +turned king's evidence. The captain and mate and two other men were +accordingly hung, and the rest transported; but this summary mode of +proceeding in no way put a stop to smuggling. The profits were too +large, the temptations too great, to allow even the risk of being hung +or transported to interfere with the traffic. + +One story led to another, and at length our skipper came out with one +which was voted, by general acclamation, to be superior to all the +others. I cannot pretend to give it in old Mugford's language, so I +present it in my own, keeping, however, closely to the facts he +narrated. He called his tale: + +"JAN JOHNSON, THE SMUGGLER." + +Some forty years ago, ay, more than that, I belonged for a few months to +a revenue cruiser, on board which I volunteered, soon after my return +from my second voyage, I think it was, or about that time. The cutter +was stationed off this coast, and a hard life we had of it, for in those +days the smuggling craft were large armed vessels, full of desperate +men, who, when they could not outsail, more than once beat off the +cruisers of the king. Among the most daring of his class was a fellow +called Jan Johnson, though from having at different times many other +names, it was difficult from them to determine to what nation he +belonged; indeed, it was suspected that he was an Englishman born on +this very coast, with every inch of which he was intimately acquainted. + +He seemed to take absolute delight in setting at defiance all laws of +God and man, and, among many other acts of atrocity, he was strongly +suspected of the murder of a revenue officer. The officer had, it +appears, been the means of taking a valuable cargo of goods belonging to +Johnson, who some time after encountered him, when in discharge of his +duty, near this place. It is supposed that the smuggler had attacked +the unfortunate man, and, being by far the more powerful of the two, had +grappled with him, and, plunging a long knife into his bosom, had thrown +him over the cliffs. The next morning the body was discovered above +high-water mark, with a knife known to belong to Johnson close to it, +and on the top of the cliffs were seen the impressions of men's feet, as +if engaged in a fierce struggle. A handkerchief, similar to one the +smuggler had been observed to wear, was found in the dead man's grasp, +and at a late hour of the night he had been met without one round his +throat. A reward was therefore offered for his apprehension, but +notwithstanding the sharp lookout we kept for his craft at sea, and the +vigilance of the revenue people on shore, he had hitherto escaped +capture. + +He commanded at this time a large lugger, called the _Polly_, a +fast-sailing boat, which could almost eat into the wind's eye, and when +going free nothing could hope to come up with her; so that our only +chance of capturing her was to jam her in with the shore, or to find +ourselves near her in a calm, when we might get alongside her in our +boats. + +So daring was the smuggler that, though he well knew his life was at +stake, he still continued to carry on his free trade with the coast, +where he had many friends; yet, notwithstanding that his vessel was +constantly seen, she was never approached except by those he trusted. + +It was towards the end of October--I remember the time well--the days +were growing shorter, and the night-watches darker and colder, when, +after cruising up and down a week or so at sea, in hopes of falling in +with a prize, it came on to blow very hard from the south-west. Our +skipper was not a man to be frightened by a capful of wind, so, setting +our storm sails, we stood off shore and faced the gale like men; for, do +ye see, it is just such weather as this was that the smugglers choose to +run across the channel, when they think no one will be on the lookout +for them. Towards evening, however, it came on to blow harder than +ever, so that at last we were obliged to up with the helm, and run for +shelter into harbour; but just as we were keeping away, a sea struck the +cutter, carried away our stern boat, and stove in one of our quarter +boats. In this squall the wind seemed to have worn itself out, for +before we made the land it suddenly fell, and by daylight a dead calm +came on, followed by a dense fog. Our soundings told us that we were +within a short distance of the coast, so that our eyes were busily +employed in trying to get, through the mist, a sight of it, or of any +strange sail which might be in the neighbourhood. At last, for an +instant the fog lifted towards the north, like when the curtain of a +theatre is drawn up, exposing close in with the land the white sails of +a lugger, on which, as she rose and fell on the heavy swell remaining +after the storm of the previous night, were now glancing the bright +beams of the morning sun, exposing her thus more clearly to our view. + +Before we could bring our glasses to bear, the fog again closed in, but +every eye was turned in that direction to get another sight of her; we, +doubtless, from our position, and the greater thickness of the mist +round us, remaining hid from her view. + +"What think you, Davis? which way shall we have the breeze when it does +come?" asked our skipper of the old quartermaster, who was the oracle on +such occasions. + +"Why, sir, I should say, off the land; it looks clearer there away than +it is out here." + +As the old man delivered himself of this opinion, he turned his one open +eye towards the point he indicated: for, though he had two orbs, and +they were piercers, he never used more than one at a time--we youngsters +used to suppose, to give each alternately a rest. + +As he spoke, the fog once more opened a little. + +"And, what do you say to yonder craft?" continued the skipper. + +The old man's right eye surveyed her intently before he answered-- + +"I thought I knowed her, sir. As sure as we're alive she's the _Polly_, +with Jan Johnson on board." + +How he arrived at the latter conclusion we did not stop to consider. +The words had an electric effect on board. + +"You are right, Davis--you are right!" exclaimed our commander; then, in +a tone of vexation, "And we have only one boat to chase her. If there +comes a breeze, that fellow will sneak alongshore, and get out of our +way. He calculated on being able to do so when he remained there, and +no doubt has information that the revenue boats belonging to the station +are sent off in other directions." + +Every glass was now turned towards the direction where the smuggler was +seen; for you must remember the mist quickly again hid her from us. Our +skipper walked over to where the carpenter was employed in putting the +boat to rights; but soon saw that there was a good day's work or more +before she could be made to swim. + +"It will never do to let that fellow--escape us!" he exclaimed briskly. +"Mr Robertson," addressing his senior officer, a passed midshipman--an +oldster in every sense of the word I then thought him,--"pipe the gig's +crew away, with two extra hands, and let them all be fully armed. Do +you take charge of the ship; and if a breeze gets up, press every stitch +of canvas on her, and stand after the lugger. That fellow may give us +some work; and I intend to go myself." + +Having given these orders, he dived into his cabin, and quickly +reappeared, with his cocked hat on and his sword by his side. + +I belonged to the gig. + +The boat was, as you may suppose, quickly ready. The order was given to +shove off, and away we pulled, with hearty strokes, in the direction of +the lugger. The fog for some time favoured our approach towards the +spot where we guessed she was to be found, for we could no more see her +than the people on board could us. Never, when roasting in the tropics +under a burning sun, have I wished more earnestly for a breeze than we +now did that the calm would continue till we could get alongside the +long-looked-for craft. Not a word was spoken above a whisper, though we +knew that the splash of our oars in the water would soon betray our +approach to the sharpened ears of the smugglers, even before they could +see us. We redoubled, therefore, our efforts to get alongside, when a +light air coming off the land much thinned the intervening mist, showing +us the _Polly_, with her largest canvas spread to catch the breeze, and +now, as she loomed through the fog, appearing twice her real size, while +her people clearly made us out. In a moment her sails were trimmed, her +long sweeps were run out, and she was moving through the water, though +not near so fast as we were pulling. + +"Give way, my boys, give way," shouted our skipper, all necessity for +silence being now removed. "Give way, and the lugger is ours." + +With a hearty cheer the men bent to their oars and sent the boat flying +through the calm blue water, casting aside the light sparkling foam +which bubbled and hissed round her bows, as the story books about +seagoing affairs say, such as you youngsters are so fond of reading. +Well, the breeze freshened, however, before long, and we found that, +though still decreasing our distance from the lugger, we were not +gaining on her as fast as when she first made us out. We had, however, +got within about a quarter of a mile of her, when we saw a man jump on +the taffrail, and wave his hat at us as if in derision. Even at that +distance, some of our people declared they recognised him as Jan +Johnson, whom all of us knew well enough by sight. The next instant a +skiff was launched from her decks, into which he jumped, and pulled as +hard as he could towards the shore, to which he was already nearer than +we were to him. + +Here was a dilemma for our skipper. If we followed the outlaw, his +lugger would very likely get away; and if we made chase after her, he +would certainly escape, and she, probably, even if we came up with her, +would not be condemned. The thought of the murdered man decided our +commander, and in a moment the boat's head was turned towards the shore +in chase of the skiff. Away we went, as fast as six ash oars in stout +hands could send us through the water, while Johnson, still undaunted, +continued his course; yet, in spite of his audacity, he well knew that +it was with him a matter of life and death. It was indeed astonishing, +when putting forth all his vast strength, how fast he sent along his +light skiff; indeed, we gained but slightly on him in our six-oared +galley, and we soon saw that he would reach the shore before we could +overtake him. + +"Give way, my lads, give way," shouted our skipper, though the men were +straining every nerve to the utmost. "Give way, and we shall soon be up +with him." + +Talk of the excitement of a stag-hunt! it is tame in comparison with the +interest men take in the chase of a fellow-creature. There is something +of the nature of the bloodhound, I suspect, in our composition which +delights in the pursuit of such noble game. A few minutes more decided +the point, a cry of vexation escaping us as his boat touched the shore, +and, coolly drawing her up on the strand, he was seen to make towards +the woods. + +"Shall I bring him down, sir?" asked the seaman who sat in the +sternsheets with a musket, marine fashion, between his knees. + +"No, no," was the answer. "We must take the fellow alive; he cannot +escape us, if we put our best feet foremost." + +Just as our boat's keel grated on the sand, Johnson disappeared among +the rocks and trees, and we could hear a shout of derisive laughter +ringing through the wood. + +"After him, my boys, after him," shouted our skipper, as we all leaped +on shore. "A five-pound note to the man who first gets hold of him." + +And, except a youth who was left in charge of the boat, away we all +went, helter-skelter, in the direction the outlaw had taken. He made, +it appeared, straight inland, for we could hear his shouts ahead of us +as we rushed on, hallooing to each other from among the trees. Not one +of the party seemed inclined to get before the other--not so much that +one was unwilling to deprive the other of the promised reward, but I +suspect that no one was anxious to encounter Johnson singlehanded, well +armed as of course he was, and desperate as we knew him to be. Our +commander, being a stout man and short-winded, was soon left far behind, +though, as he hurried on, puffing and blowing with the exertion he was +using, his voice, as long as we could hear him, encouraged us in the +pursuit. We had thus made good half a mile or more, when coming +suddenly to the confines of the wood, or copse it might rather be +called, a wide extent of open ground appeared before us, but not a trace +of the fugitive could be perceived. Some of the foremost ran on to a +spot of high ground near at hand, whence they could see in every +direction, but not a figure was moving in the landscape. In the +meantime our skipper came up, and ordered us to turn back and beat about +the wood. + +We had been thus fruitlessly engaged for some time, when we were +recalled to the shore by a shout from one of our people, and, hastening +down to the beach, we beheld, to our dismay, our own boat floating some +way out in the bay, while Johnson, in his skiff, was pulling towards his +lugger, now creeping alongshore out of the reach of the cutter, which +still lay becalmed in the offing. What was most extraordinary, the lad +who had been left in charge of the boat was nowhere to be seen, and, as +far as we could make out, he was neither in her nor in Johnson's skiff. +You may just picture to yourself our rage and disappointment; indeed, I +thought, what from his exertions and excitement, our commander would +have been beside himself with vexation. After we had stood for a +moment, looking with blank astonishment at each other, he ordered us, in +a sharp voice, some to run one way, some another, along the shore, in +search of a boat by which we might get on board our galley, for she was +too far off for anyone to attempt to swim to her. At last, some way on, +we discovered, hauled up on the beach, a heavy fishing-boat, which with +some work we managed to launch, and, by means of the bottom boards and a +few pieces of plank we found in her, to paddle towards our gig. In our +course, we picked up two of our oars which had been thrown overboard, +and we were thus able to reach her sooner than we could otherwise have +done. What could have become of our young shipmate? we asked each +other; but not a conjecture could be offered. Johnson could not have +carried him off; he would not have ventured to have injured him, and the +lad was not likely to have deserted his post. At last we got alongside +the gig, and on looking into her we saw Jim Bolton, our young shipmate, +stretched along the thwarts, to which he was lashed. At first we +thought he was dead; but a second glance showed us that a gag, made out +of a thole-pin and a lump of oakum, had been put into his mouth. On +being released it was some time before he could speak. He then told us +that he was sitting quietly in the boat, when suddenly a man sprang on +him with a force which knocked him over, and before he could collect his +senses he found himself lashed to the thwarts with a lump in his mouth +which prevented him crying out, and the boat moving away from the shore, +and that was all he knew about the matter. + +As Jim Bolton was very much hurt, we placed him in the fishing-boat with +a midshipman who volunteered to look after him, and anchored her to +await our return, while we with hearty goodwill pulled away in full +chase of the smuggler. By this time, however, a fresh breeze had come +off the land, which filled the sails of the lugger just as Johnson +sprang from his boat upon her deck, and before a breath of air had +reached the cutter he had run her far out of sight, winding his way +among those reefs yonder. Seeing there was no chance of overtaking him +in the gig, we pulled on board, and as soon as the uncertain air put the +vessel through the water, we made chase in the direction we calculated +the _Polly_ would take. For some time we cruised up and down over the +ground where we thought we might fall in with her, but could see nothing +of her, and we then returned to take out the midshipman and Jim, and to +restore the boat to the fisherman. + +We, with several other cruisers, were employed for some weeks in looking +out for Johnson, but neither he nor the _Polly_ was ever again heard of +on this coast. + +Ten years passed away, and I belonged to a brig in the West Indies, that +clime of yellow fevers and sugar-canes. In those days the slave-trade +flourished, for, as we had not become philanthropists, we did not +interfere with those whose consciences did not prevent them from +bartering for gold their own souls and the blood of their +fellow-creatures. There was, however, a particular craft we were +ordered to look after which had made herself amenable to the laws, +having gone somewhat out of the usual line of trade, by committing +several very atrocious acts of piracy. She was commanded, it was said, +by an Englishman, a villain of no ordinary cast, who never intentionally +left alive any of those he plundered to tell the tale of their wrongs. +He sailed his vessel, a schooner carrying twelve guns, under Spanish +colours, though of course he hoisted, on occasion, those of any other +nation to suit his purpose. We all knew both him and his schooner, for +before her real character was suspected, we had for some days laid +alongside her at the Havanna, and were in consequence selected by the +admiral to look out for her. We had been so employed for several weeks, +when, one day towards noon, we made out a sail to the southward, towards +which we ran down with a light northerly wind. As we neared her, which +we rapidly did, we saw that she was a lofty ship--a merchantman +evidently--and that she was not only not moving through the waters, but +that her braces were loose, and her yards swinging about in every +direction. Not a soul was looking over her bulwarks when we came within +hail, but the men in the tops sang out that they could see several +people lying about the decks either asleep or dead. We ran almost +alongside, when I was ordered to board her with one of the gigs. Never +shall I forget the scene which met my sight as I stepped on her decks; +they were a complete shambles: a dozen or more men lay about in the +after part of the ship, the blood yet oozing from deep gashes on their +heads and shoulders, not one of them alive; while on the steps of the +companion-ladder were two women, young and fair they appeared to have +been, clasped in each other's arms, and both dead. + +On descending below, we discovered an old lady and a venerable, old +gentleman on the deck of the state cabin with the marks of pistol +bullets in their foreheads, while at the door of an inner cabin lay a +black servant with his head completely twisted round. + +I will not mention all the sights of horror we encountered; the +murderers seemed to have exerted their ingenuity in disfiguring their +victims. There were several other dead people below, and at last, +searching round the ship, we found stowed away in the forehold a seaman, +who, though desperately wounded, still breathed. When brought on deck +and a few drops of spirits were poured down his throat, he after some +time came to himself, then told us that they had in the morning been +attacked by a pirate, who, after they had made a desperate resistance, +had carried them by boarding, when every soul in the ship was cut down +or thrown into the sea except himself; that he, having fallen down the +hatchway just before the pirates rushed on board, had stowed himself +away amongst the cargo, and there after some time had fainted from loss +of blood. While he lay there, he could hear the shrieks of his +shipmates and the shouts and execrations of their butchers, he +expecting, every instant, to share the fate of the rest. At last all +was silent, the pirates made an ineffectual attempt to scuttle the ship, +but were hurried off, probably, by seeing a sail which they mistook for +us, or for some other cruiser. + +Scarcely had the unfortunate fellow given this account, when the man at +the mast-head of the brig hailed that there was a sail on the lee bow, +and we were ordered forthwith to return on board. We all hoped that +this might prove the pirate, for we were anxious to punish the +miscreants. Taking, therefore, the wounded man with us--for being, +thanks to the yellow fever, already short of hands, we were compelled to +abandon the ship--we made sail in chase. For some time we carried a +fresh breeze with us, while the stranger, which we soon made out to be a +large topsail schooner, lay almost becalmed; but before we got her +within range of our guns the wind also filled her sails, and away she +went before it with every stitch of canvas they could pack on her. We +also used every means of increasing our rate of sailing; but though our +brig was reckoned a remarkably fast vessel, we found that, since we had +both the same breeze, we had not in any way decreased our distance from +her. + +It was, however, a satisfaction to find that she did not outsail us +before the wind, though there was every probability that, should she +haul her wind, she would be able to do so; we therefore kept directly in +her wake, to be ready to run down on her, on whichever tack she might +haul up. At last, as the breeze freshened, we gained somewhat on her, +when she hoisted Spanish colours: she had hitherto shown none, but this +did not prevent us from trying the range of our bow-chasers on her, to +bring her to. Several guns were fired without effect; at last a shot +struck her main boom and severely wounded it. I never saw a better aim. +After this, finding we lost ground by firing, we did not for another +hour throw a single shot, nor had the schooner as yet returned our +compliment, though she showed no inclination to heave to. + +Away we bowled along before the breeze, throwing aside the now +white-crested waves from our bows as we tore through the water. Every +brace was stretched to the utmost, our spars bent and cracked, but not a +sheet was slackened, though our captain kept his glance anxiously aloft +to see how long he might let them bear the pressure. Again we +overhauled her, and got her within range of our long guns, when a shot, +directed more by chance, as the sea was running high, or, it might be +said, a just Providence weary of the miscreants, than by skill, killed +the man at the wheel, and lodged in the mainmast. Before another man +could run to the helm the vessel yawed to port; the boom, already +wounded, jibbed over and parted amidships, rendering the huge mainsail +of no use, and creating much confusion on board. There was now no fear +of her being able to haul her wind for some time, and coming up, hand +over hand, with her, we ranged alongside. + +If we had before any doubts of her real character, we had now none, for +the Spanish ensign being hauled down, a black flag was hoisted at each +mast-head, and the accursed pirate was confessed. The outlaws, +doubtless knowing that victory or death alone awaited them, showed their +dark symbols in the hopes of intimidating our men, and made up their +minds to fight it out to the last. At the same moment they let fly +their whole broadside, which, though it did some damage, served to warm +up the blood of our people, and made them return it with a hearty good +will. + +For half an hour or more, as we ran on, we thus continued exchanging +broadsides, considerably thinning their crowded decks; but as some of +our spars were wounded, our captain, fearing lest any being carried +away, the enemy might escape, determined without delay to lay him on +board, and to try the mettle of true men against their ruffian crew of +desperadoes. + +After receiving her broadside and pouring in ours, we put our helm to +port, for she was, you must know, on our starboard side, when, running +our bow anchor into her fore chains, our grappling irons were thrown, +and we had her fast. With a loud cheer, our boarders sprang to the +forecastle, and on to the rigging of the enemy. + +Never shall I forget, if I was to live as long again as I have done, +which is not very likely, the set of ferocious countenances which met +our sight as we rushed on board. It was fearful work we were about, but +our blood was up, and there was no quarter asked or given on either +side. We did not stop to think. The pirates knew that there was no +pardon for them, and seemed determined to sell their lives dearly. Our +onset was too furious to be withstood, and in a minute we had cleared a +small space on the schooner's decks abaft the foremast, but beyond that +every foot was desperately disputed. + +We had gained some ground forward, when, from the after part of the +vessel, a determined band, led by the captain, pressed us hard. Twice +we were driven back almost to our own ship, many of our men losing the +number of their mess, but, finally, determined courage got the better of +desperation. Inch by inch we drove the pirates aft--the chief of them, +to do him justice, keeping always in the front rank, and I believe he +killed, with his own hand, more of our people than did all his crew +together, though he himself did not receive a scratch. During all this +time the marines kept up a hot fire, pikes and pistols were used through +the ports, and such guns as could be brought to bear were fired from +each of the ships. I have seen plenty of hard fighting, and let me tell +you, my boys, though it is very fine reading about, it is very dreadful +in reality; yet never in my life have I gone through hotter work, on a +small scale, than I did that day--the vessels, too, all the time rolling +and pitching tremendously, and tearing away each other's rigging; +indeed, it is surprising we did not both founder on the spot. + +Well, we at last managed to clear the fore part of the schooner, by +cutting down some and driving others of the pirates overboard, but fifty +fellows still held the after part of the deck, uttering fearful oaths +and execrations--they continued fighting on--when the deck lifted; +fearful shrieks arose, a loud, dull sound was heard, and many of the +pirates were hurled into the air, their mangled remains falling among +us. For an instant every hand seemed paralysed, and we looked round to +see what would happen next; but the explosion had been only partial, and +during the confusion the remainder of the band making a rush forward, we +again set to at the bloody work, and drove them back. A second attempt +to fire the magazine was made, and failed. We were, by this time, +secure of victory, though the remnant of the pirates refused to yield. + +Their captain, whom I have spoken of, I now saw leap into the main +rigging, when, waving his bloody sword above his head, he hurled it with +the fiercest imprecations among us, severely wounding one of our people, +and then, with a look of despair not to be forgotten, he plunged into +the raging ocean, where a troop of sharks were ready to devour him. At +that moment it struck me that I had seen his features in times long +passed, and I found afterwards I was right. + +When their leader was lost, the rest of the pirates submitted, and we +had barely time to remove them, and to cut ourselves clear of the +schooner, when, with the dying and dead on board, she went down; and on +the spot where she had been, the hungry sharks were seen tearing their +bodies in pieces, while the sea was tinged around with a ruddy hue. We +afterwards fell in with the ship the pirates had attacked, for which we +got a good round sum as salvage money, besides other substantial marks +of the gratitude of the merchants in the West Indies, for having +destroyed one of the greatest pests their trade had for a long time +known. + +The pirates were hung at Port Royal, in Jamaica, and the evening before +their execution, one of them, for reasons I will some day tell you, +desired to see me. I visited him in his cell, and from him I learned +that the chief of their band, whose dreadful death I had witnessed, the +man who had led them into crime and ruin, was, as I suspected, Jan +Johnson, the smuggler. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +The next morning Mr Clare and Captain Mugford went over to ---, where +they found Commander Treenail, to whom they gave all the information +they possessed about the smugglers' cave. He heard this account with +surprise, for he did not suppose it possible that any spot of ground had +remained in that neighbourhood unvisited by his people. However, he was +a man of action; and immediately that he comprehended the facts of the +case, he signalled from his residence to a cutter which lay off in the +bay to get under way, and to wait for him to come on board. "You will +accompany me, gentlemen," he said to our tutors; "and as soon as we can +get the lads on board who discovered the cave to show us its entrance, +we will lose no time in routing out these smuggling vagabonds." + +The old lieutenant commanding the cutter was waiting with his gig for +Captain Treenail at the quay, and they, with our tutors, were quickly on +board the _Scout_. + +How proud Harry and I felt when the _Scout's_ gig pulled up to the +wreck, and we were summoned to show the way to the smugglers' cave. We +jumped with alacrity into the gig, feeling as if we had the whole weight +and responsibility on our shoulders of leading some important +expedition. Captain Treenail received us very kindly, and +cross-questioned us minutely as to the whereabouts of the cave and the +various articles we had found within it. The cutter, when rounding the +cape, had kept some distance from the little bay near which the cave +lay, so that, even had smugglers been on the watch near it, they would +probably not have been alarmed; the captain had hopes, therefore, that +not only their goods but they themselves would be taken. To make the +matter more sure, it was arranged that one party, led by Walter, who +knew the cape as if he had been born on it, should go by land, +accompanied by Mr Clare; while our salt tutor, with the rest of us, was +to go in the cutter. Five seamen, with a petty officer, formed the land +party, all well armed. They were to proceed cautiously across the +downs, watching the movements of the cutter, and keeping themselves as +much as possible under cover, so as not to be seen by any smugglers who +might be on the lookout. As soon as the boat which took them on shore +returned, the cutter's foresail was let draw, and with a fresh breeze +she stood out of our cove. Our hearts beat quick as we glided rapidly +on towards the scene of our proposed exploit. We might possibly soon be +engaged in a scene of real fighting. There might be ten or perhaps even +fifty smugglers concealed in the cave, with large stores of silks, and +tobacco, and spirits; and if so, it was not likely that they would give +in without striking some hard blows for their liberty. The breeze +freshened, and our speed increased, though, as the wind was off the +land, the water was smooth. Every inch of canvas the cutter could carry +was clapped on her, that we might have the better chance of taking the +smugglers by surprise. She heeled over to the breeze till her lee +gunwale was under water, while we stood holding on to the weather +rigging, and looking out for the entrance to the little cove. We neared +it at last. Our hearts beat quicker than ever as we luffed up round a +point which formed one of the sides of the little cove. Sail was +rapidly shortened, the foresail hauled down, the jib-sheet let fly, and +in half a minute we were at anchor. The next instant the crew, already +fully armed and prepared, flew to the falls, and two boats were lowered, +into which they and we, with Captain Treenail, the commander, and one of +the mates of the cutter, and our own salt tutor, immediately jumped. +Literally, before a minute had elapsed, two boats were pulling as fast +as boats could pull for the shore. Harry and I now felt ourselves of +more consequence than we had ever been in our lives before. We were +expected to show the way to the cavern, and therefore, as soon as the +boats touched the shore, we leaped out, and, pointing to the spot where +the mouth of the cavern was to be found, ran towards it along the beach +at full speed, followed by the officers and men, who might have had +better sea legs, but certainly had not such good shore legs as we +possessed. We were some little way ahead of the rest, and our object +must have been very evident to any persons acquainted with the existence +of the cavern. Just then the report of a firearm was heard, and a +bullet whistled by us close to our ears. It did not stop us though, but +made us dart on still more rapidly; and as we did so we saw a man +climbing up the cliff above the cavern. Had any of the men with muskets +been with us, they might have shot him. He turned round for an instant, +and shook his fist at us; but before our companions came up he had +disappeared. It took some time before the seamen who volunteered to go +managed to climb up the slippery rock to the mouth of the cavern. When +once two or three had gained a footing, they let down ropes, by which +the rest easily got up. The forlorn hope, as the first party might be +called, then dashed into the cavern, expecting, perhaps, to meet with a +hot fire of musketry. Not a sound, however, was heard; no one appeared; +on they boldly went. The smugglers might have had still more deadly +intentions, and, it was possible, had prepared a mine to blow up anyone +venturing into their cave. They were capable, according to our salt +tutor's notion, of any atrocity. Still the forlorn hope went on without +meeting with any impediment. More seamen entered, led by Captain +Treenail, and others followed, till we were all inside; and torches +being lit, the cavern was thoroughly examined. Not a human being was +discovered, but the cave contained a far larger amount of bales of +silks, and ribbons, and tobacco, and kegs of spirits, than we had +supposed. It was, indeed, a far larger seizure than the coast guard on +that station had ever before made. They were proportionably delighted, +though they would have liked still more to have caught a dozen or two of +smugglers, though not quite so valuable a prize as they would have been +during the height of the war, when they would have been sent off to man +our ships, and to fight the naval battles of old England. + +When we found that no one was inside we told Captain Treenail of the man +we had seen climbing up the cliff. He instantly ordered some of the +most active young men of the cutter's crew to go in chase; but after +hunting about for some time, they could find no possible way of getting +up, and therefore had to abandon the attempt. The next thing was to +convey the captured goods to the cutter. This occupied some time, as +there were literally several boatloads of goods, to the value, I fancy, +of a couple of thousand pounds. It must have been vexatious in the +extreme, to any of the smugglers witnessing our proceedings, to see +their property thus carried off before their eyes. It must have made +them vow vengeance against those who captured it, and against us +especially, who, they must have suspected, had given the information +respecting the cave. + +Among the articles found in the cavern was a rusty old musket. The old +lieutenant, Mr Mophead, commanding the cutter, was a curiosity. I +should like to describe him. He was very fat and very short, and very +red-faced, which is not surprising, considering the hot suns which had +shone on that face of his, and the vast amount of strong liquor which he +had poured down his throat. Just as the last boatload had been got on +board, Walter and his party appeared, not having seen any smugglers. +Mr Mophead politely invited him on board. As soon as the boats were +hoisted up, and the cutter was once more under way, standing from +harbour, Mr Mophead took the musket in his hand, and, approaching +Walter, said, with great form, "Mr Walter Tregellin, with Captain +Treenail's leave--and I am sure that he will give me leave--I beg to +present to you this weapon, that you may hand it to your respected +father. He may like to possess it, to remind him how the cutter +_Scout_, Lieutenant Mophead commander, was the means of relieving his +property of a nest of smugglers, who would very soon, in my opinion, +have taken possession of it." + +Walter took the musket respectfully, though he could not help smiling; +and our salt tutor blew his nose steadily for ten minutes. The same old +musket my father afterwards gave to Harry and me, the discoverers of the +smugglers' cave; and Harry relinquished all his rights in it to me. + +It hangs now in my study, not far from the dog-collar--another memento +of those good old times. We got back to our own cove in a very short +time, and we landing, the cutter returned, with her valuable cargo, to +her usual port. Clump, who had remained to take care of the house, +informed us that he had been watching the downs above the cave, and that +he had seen several men pass across the downs, and, running quickly, go +towards the boat harbour often mentioned. They then jumped into a boat +and pulled across the harbour to the village, where they disappeared. +Such was the termination of the adventure for that day; but the romance, +unfortunately for us, had not come to an end. + + + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. + +OCTOBER SPORT--A BLACK JOKE. + +Only two weeks more! Letters had come from our parents to us and to our +tutors, saying that we must return to Bristol on November the first. + +Our great amusement at this time was shooting, as boating had become +somewhat cold work. Now and then we knocked down a few straggling wild +fowl, which at that early season had incautiously approached our cape, +not aware of the sportsmen residing on it. Our tutors entered +enthusiastically into the sport, borrowing guns from the town across the +bay, and joining Walter and Harry every afternoon. We other fellows +were also allowed to be there to take charge of Ugly, who entered into +the sport as warmly as any of us. We generally stayed on the neck until +near sunset, and just as the rabbits were out for their supper, started +for home. That was Ugly's half-hour of sport, in which he was always +sure to bring two or three rabbits round to the guns. Mr Clare could +not shoot as well as Walter, or even Harry, at flying game, but he was +first-rate at rabbits; let them jump as fast and high as they might, +with Ugly only ten feet behind, and if our fresh tute pulled on them; +they were sure to fall. With the Captain things went differently, much +to our amusement; for our salt tute cared not how much we laughed at his +failures, which all his shots were. He brought up his gun as if it were +a harpoon, and always gave it a jerk, to help it shoot farther, when he +pulled the trigger. The butt was seldom at his shoulder; and as he +insisted upon putting immense loads in his gun, the results were +sometimes disastrous to him and ridiculous to us. He often sprang back +after a shot, as if he had been kicked by a horse, or wrung his hands, +which had borne the recoil. His misses and misfortunes, however, never +made him angry or dejected. After each failure, out came the red +bandanna to wipe his brow, and as a shout of laughter greeted the +performance, he would say calmly, with only a gleam of a smile, "So, +boys, you think I missed, eh? Well, _perhaps_ I did." + +Clump and Juno having been much alarmed and excited by the discovery of +the smugglers, we boys determined to profit by their disquieted state of +mind, and hatched a scheme to afford some fun. We watched an +opportunity to put it in execution. The time came one evening when our +tutors did not return with us to the house after the afternoon's +shooting, but went to the _Clear the Track_, to chat and settle some +other matters until tea-time at seven. + +Delighted with the arrangement, we boys ran to the house, and, getting +up into our attic, began to make preparations for the trick we had +concocted. There was nothing very original in our plan, I must own, nor +was it, I confess, a very grand or noble thing to try and frighten a +couple of poor ignorant negroes, for such was the object just then of +our plans and preparations. Clump and Juno had a wholesome dread of +smugglers and of the acts of vengeance of which they were supposed to be +capable. We therefore arranged to dress up so as to make ourselves look +as formidable as possible, and then to appear suddenly before the old +couple. For this purpose we brought up from the wreck all the boat +cloaks, greatcoats, and pieces of canvas which we could find, and +sou'westers and tarpaulin hats, not forgetting some pistols and rusty +swords. Besides these we laid in a store of pasteboard, and brown and +coloured paper, and some laths, and string, and paint, and corks, and +tow. With this abundant supply of materials we set to work to fabricate +a variety of garments, such as we supposed smugglers would wear; at all +events, such as were worn on the stage. We made a sufficient number of +false noses to supply each of our faces, and long curling moustaches, +which made those who wore them look very fierce. Some had wigs with +wonderfully long shaggy hair, and others beards of prodigious growth. +The greatcoats and cloaks served for most of the party, with belts round +their waists stuck full of daggers made of wood, and a real pistol or +two. Then we manufactured out of the canvas some high boots of huge +proportions; the upper part capable of containing the whole of a man's +personal luggage, and a day's supply of provender into the bargain. +Nothing could exceed, either, the wild and ferocious appearance of our +hats. Two of us wore black feathers in them, and two others were +adorned with death's heads and cross bones: indeed, it must be confessed +that we represented much more a band of pirates of two or three +centuries back than a party of such smugglers as it was probable could +be found on the British coast. Besides the real swords we possessed, we +manufactured some hangers out of wood, which we hung by sashes at our +sides. In fact, our disguises were complete in every respect, and so +fierce did we all appear, that I truly believe, had one of us met +another in any gloomy, half-lighted place, both heroes would have run +away. Walter took an active part in all the arrangements, and being the +tallest and well stuffed out, looked every inch of him a bold smuggler. +It is wonderful what burnt cork and rouge and dark locks will effect in +turning a mild, gentle-looking person into a fierce leader of outlaws. +It was arranged that Drake and I should go down first before dressing +up, to prepare the way for the rest of the actors, then he was first to +step out, and I was to follow, and get ready. All being at length +prepared, we descended to the kitchen, and strolled in there in a tired +way, as if we were just in the humour to listen to the old blackies' +talk and receive their petting. Clump, sitting bent over the fire to +get light for his work, was cutting some tholes for the boat with his +knife. "Hi," he said, as he saw us enter, "dat's good fur sore eyes." + +And Juno, taking the pipe from her mouth, greeted us with a long whiff +of smoke, and-- + +"I'se glad you'se cum--getten dark an glum 'ere, only ole Clump an me. +What do yun Massas shoot?" Drake held up a couple of rabbits and three +wild fowl. "Oh! de gorry--all dem!--well, dis chile nebber sees de +like; an you'se gwine ter gib dem ter Clump agin--'spects so, all you'se +don't want. De ole niggers be rich dis winter." + +Clump, when he had got us seats, dusting the kitchen chairs with his +long coat-tails, resumed his task, and as Juno's garrulousness ran on, +he shook his head and chuckled, and muttered and grinned, just as if he +were behind the scenes and prompting her to amuse us. He always had +that funny way of grimacing and conversing with himself gaily, whilst +Juno indulged in her talkative fits. He admired his old partner hugely. +Once, when travelling with my father, he heard at an Assize some great +lawyer make a speech, and said, when the orator had concluded-- + +"De'clar, Massa, dat's fine; dis nigger nebber hear anyone speak like +dat afore, 'cept--'cept Juno." + +By-and-by, as Juno's talk ran sluggishly, and the pipe required much +picking and blowing, Clump got up to put by his work and light a lamp. +But that we forbid, saying the firelight was so much pleasanter. + +"Dat's so," said Juno, who had got her solace in good order again, and +was all ready to start off on a new stream of jabber. "Dat's so--Clump +not ole nuff ter know dat fire-lite more good dan lam-lite. Hi! hi! he +only chile yit." + +Drake interrupted there, to turn the conversation into another channel, +by saying that we should leave the old house soon to go back to Bristol, +and Clump asked, having taken a seat on the wood-box directly under the +trap-door, "An you'se glad--glad? 'Spects de ole house git cole an dull +to yous now; 'spects de yun Massas want git home?" + +"Well, no, Clump," answered Drake; "I don't want to go away--that is, we +would not want to go if--if--if we had not been somewhat frightened this +evening." + +Juno, because of her deafness, did not plainly hear what Drake had said, +but she judged it in part from his manner and the assumed look of terror +that he cast over his shoulder. So she bent forward anxiously, and +asked him in a voice full of concern-- + +"Wat's dat, Massa Drake--wat's dat you say?" Drake drew nearer to her +and repeated what he had said. "My hebbens, Massa Drake, wat did scar +you?" + +"Well, you see, Aunt Juno," replied Drake, looking cautiously about him +again in the darkness of the room--"Bob and I were coming round at the +back of the house, when we heard, or thought we heard, whispering, and +on drawing nearer, we heard some fearful threats uttered; I cannot say +what they were, they were so dreadful." + +"Oh! don't talk so, Massa Drake, if dere was anybody, dey must be de +smugglers, and dey will come to cut all our troats," exclaimed Juno, +looking cautiously round over her shoulder. + +I cannot say that even then, thoughtless as I was, I liked what Drake +had said, because he had told a positive falsehood, and it was no excuse +to declare that it was said in joke. Drake continued, his voice growing +more and more tremulous every instant, as if with terror--"That's not +all. As we crept away undiscovered, we heard the tramp of many feet +coming up from the shore, and we shouldn't be surprised if at this very +moment the house was surrounded by smugglers, come to carry us all off +to foreign lands, to make slaves of us." + +"Or to make soup of us," I cried out, wringing my hands. "Oh dear, oh +dear, oh dear!" + +"What has become of Walter and the rest, it is impossible to say," added +Drake. "Too probably they have been already spirited away by the +smugglers. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!" he exclaimed, and, jumping up, +ran out as if to look for them. + +Juno and Clump were, it seemed, very much alarmed, both rolling their +large eyes round and round till they grew bigger and bigger. Certain +noises outside increased the terror of the two poor souls, but I knew +that they indicated impatience on the part of my companions. +Accordingly, exclaiming that I would bear it no longer, I too jumped up, +and ran after Drake. As neither of us returned, it was but natural that +Juno and Clump should have supposed that we had been carried off by the +smugglers. There the two poor souls sat, shivering and trembling with +alarm, not daring to go out, for fear of finding their worst +anticipations realised. At last, Clump--who was really a brave fellow +at heart, though just then overtaken by a nervous fit--got up, and, +taking his old gun from over the mantelpiece, prepared to load it. +Several pair of sharp eyes had been watching proceedings from outside. +Now was the moment for action. Led by Walter, in we rushed, and then +advanced with threatening gestures towards the old couple. We were +afraid of uttering any sound, lest the well-known tones of our voices +should have betrayed us. Juno was at first the most alarmed. She did +not scream or shriek, however, but, falling on her knees, appeared as if +she was thus resolved to meet her death. Poor old Clump meantime stood +gazing at us with an almost idiotic stare, till Walter, advancing, gave +him a slap on the back, sufficient, it must be owned, to rouse him up. +At first, the blow adding to his overwhelming terror, he rolled over, a +mere bundle of blackness, into the wood-box, nothing being visible to us +but two long quivering feet and five black fingers. But in a moment +after, with his still unloaded gun in his hand, he sprang up like a +madman, jumped over the table, and, not trying to open the door, burst +through the window, smashing half a dozen panes of glass. + +Who should open the door just then and come in, as Clump demolished the +window and went out, but Captain Mugford! Having left Mr Clare +enjoying a nap on a sofa in the brig, he had come up to the house, and, +hearing the frightful noises in the kitchen, rushed in there. So much +was he prepared by the yells that escaped for some tragic scene of +scalding or other accident, that it required two or three minutes before +he could take in the meaning of the commotion. But when he recognised +in the fierce smugglers a party of his young friends, and when he beheld +Juno's situation, and the shattered frame through which Clump had +struggled, he took the joke, and broke into the most elephantine +convulsions of laughter that I ever heard or witnessed. For half a +minute, at least, he shook and shook internally, and then exploded. An +explosion was no sooner finished than the internal spasm recommenced, +and so he went on until I really feared he might injure himself. After +five minutes of such attack, he managed to draw out his bandanna and +cover his face with it, and then, whilst we watched his figure shaking +and quivering, we heard, like groans, from beneath the handkerchief, "Oh +ur-rh-ha--ar--uh! Bless me!" When he took down his handkerchief and +happened to see Juno rising from her knees, he swelled up again like a +balloon, and then eased off gradually in splutterings and moans as a +dying porpoise. After which, he went and pacified Juno, and tried to +explain to her what a wicked trick we had been guilty of, and that the +band of smugglers, after all, were only the boys she knew so well, and +he proceeded to disrobe us, one by one, so that the old woman might +comprehend the joke. And so she did, but she sat motionless for a time, +until some portion of her usual composure returned; and then she got up +with many a sigh and mutterings of "Ki! ki! tink dat's wicked--frite ole +Juno so--oh Lor!" but before tea was served, I heard her chuckling +slyly, and turning towards us again and again as she poured the hot milk +on the toast she was dishing up. We meantime were employed in peeling, +and by degrees got restored to our usual appearance, and we then hurried +up to our rooms to wash off the rouge and the marks of burnt cork with +which our faces were covered. But the Captain sat down and shook +quietly for a long while, the tears rolling down his face, and his +fingers opening and closing convulsively on the handkerchief. And when +tea was quite ready, he went off to hunt up Clump. + +Mr Clare came in soon after, but we had, by that time, got the better +of the fun, and removed all traces of the commotion. When the Captain +joined us at the table, he had another laughing spasm before he could +say or eat anything; but for the remainder of the evening he controlled +himself pretty well, only breaking out about half a dozen times, and +blowing his nose until it was very red and swollen. However, Mr Clare +never heard of the way the poor negroes had been frightened by a +practical joke, a thing he particularly disliked and had often spoken +against. + + + +CHAPTER NINETEEN. + +LAST DAYS ON THE CAPE--A TERRIBLE NIGHT. + +And now, the time of our stay on the cape was drawing to a close. Only +three days more remained, and they were to be occupied in collecting our +books, packing trunks, and all the unpleasant little duties that become +so tedious and dispiriting when, like a drop curtain, they announce the +end of the play. + +Perhaps if the days of our cape life had been prolonged, we should have +regretted the detention from home, and yearned for our dear parents, +looking on the cape, that had already lost some of its attractions, as +soon to become a dreary point beaten by winter winds and seas and +drifted across by the snow. But because we _must_ go, therefore it was +hard to go. What cannot be done, cannot be had, cannot be reached--that +is just what the boy wants. As we could not yet actually realise the +desolateness and barrenness of winter there, but only remember the +delights and beauties of summer and autumn, we lost cheerfulness over +the boxes and trunks, and sighed because of the brick walls, narrow +streets, and toilsome school-work that were soon to bound our lives. + +On a Wednesday we had been for our last afternoon's shooting on the +moor. Our tutors had walked round to return their guns to the lenders +over in the town. We strolled to the house through the fast fading +afternoon light, talking of the memorable events in our half-year just +closing. + +"Now, I think," said Drake, "that our boat-race was the best fun of +all." + +"I don't," Alf answered, "though we had a good time then, I know; but +what is there to compare with the cruise and shipwreck?--the excitement +lasted so long and came out all right." + +"Yes, it came out all right, but there was only a tight squeak that it +did not go all wrong. I tell you what, fellows, I was horribly +frightened that night, before we struck on Boatswain's Reef," said +Harry. + +Each of us but Walter added, "So was I." + +"Walter, now you were frightened, too. Own now!" continued Harry. + +"No, I was not, really!" answered Walter. "Somehow I never feel afraid +on the water; and I think it must be because I was born at sea, you +know, when our father and mother were returning from the West Indies. +Now if I had been behind a pair of runaway horses, instead of aboard a +good boat, I might have got shaky, I daresay." + +"Well, my opinion is," said I, "that just the best time of all was +finding the smugglers' cave; but I am afraid that, after we are gone, +they may come down hard on Clump and Juno, and when we have--" + +Walter interrupted me with "Nonsense, those fellows will know enough to +keep hid or give the cape a wide berth after this. But talking about +the good times we have had, I have enjoyed our shooting best of all, and +so has Ugly, I'll bet--haven't you, Ugly?" + +To which our bright little dog answered as well as he could by barking +an assent, and jumping before us to wag his tail energetically. + +"Hallo!" Harry exclaimed, stopping, as he spoke, to look off to sea; +"there's a rakish-looking lugger--don't you see?--just there, to the +south-east, near Bass Rocks. I wonder what she is after." + +"After?" answered Drake, "why, probably running down to Penzance." + +"I don't know about that," said Harry, who continued to watch the vessel +with much interest; "it looks to me as if she were running close in, to +anchor." + +"Well, let her anchor if she likes. There's nothing strange in that, +when there's not wind enough to fly a feather;" and after a few moments +more, in which we resumed our way to the house, Drake continued-- + +"Haven't our tutors proved splendid fellows? I think the Captain is the +finest old chap that I ever came across; and when Mr Clare is a +clergyman I should like to go to his church--shouldn't feel a bit like +going to sleep then." + +To which we all gave a cordial assent, and, having reached the house, +turned in there with the prospect of having some fun with Clump and Juno +before our tutors should return. I stood at the door a few minutes. +Sure enough Harry was right. Though it was too dark now to distinguish +anything more than a hundred yards away, I heard the running out of a +cable and then the lowering of the sails. "An odd place to anchor for +the night," thought I, and so did Ugly, who was beside me, for he gave a +low, uneasy howl. + +Juno was laying the plates for tea, as I went in. After teasing her for +awhile I joined the other boys. Soon Juno came out to the kitchen, and +when she commenced to fry the hasty-pudding, we induced Clump to tell us +some of his sea adventures, in the middle of which Ugly set up a furious +barking, and a moment afterwards there came a heavy rap at the front +door. It was the first time there had been a knock at a door of our old +house since we had been in it. + +Clump, leaving his story unfinished, took a candle, and Drake and I +followed him into the dining-room, which he had to cross to get to the +front door. But by the time we had entered the dining-room a stranger +had walked into the hall, and had also proceeded to open the door +opposite us. Ugly, who was greatly incensed, jumped forward and took +hold of a leg of the stranger's trousers. + +Our visitor was a small, rough, ugly man, with a terrible squint in his +eyes and a voice as unpleasant as his face. He had no collar, only a +handkerchief about his neck, and wore a large, shaggy flushing jacket. +His first act was to kick Ugly halfway across the room, with the +salutation: "Take that, you damned cur, for your manners, damn you!" + +Ugly made at him again fiercer than ever, but I caught him in time and +held him. + +"Wat will you 'ab, sir?" asked Clump in a dignified voice. + +"What will I have, ay? I'll have that cur's life if he comes at me +agin, and I want to know, old nigger, if,"--here the rough customer spit +some tobacco-juice on the floor--"I want to know if you kin 'commodate +four or five gents for the night, ay?" + +All of Clump's spirit was aroused, and he stammered as he replied-- + +"No, mon; n-o-o-o! We dussen keeps no ho-o-o--hotel 'ere, we dussen. +You'se find tabben ober end de town. Dis am Massa Tre-gel--Tre-gel-- +Massa Tregellin's privet mansion." + +"Ho! ho!" answered the man, slapping his hat down on his head and +spitting again. "_Massa_ Tregellin's house, is it? Look here, boys, +you just tell your dad, when you see him, that he has got a foolish, +consequential nigger and a mean, tumbledown affair of a hut, if it can't +'commodate some poor sailors. Howsumever, I'll go back to my lugger, +and bad luck to your _mansion_! Old nig, look 'er here--perhaps we'll +see each other again." He looked slowly all round the room, and went +out, slamming the doors after him. + +Fifteen minutes afterwards our tutors came in, and when they heard of +our visitor Captain Mugford waxed wroth. + +"I wish I had been here," he exclaimed; "if I wouldn't have put that +scoundrel off soundings in about half a splice! The impudent fellow, to +attempt to lord it in that style in a gentleman's house. What do you +think of it, Mr Clare, eh?" + +"Oh, not much, Captain Mugford. The man was probably tipsy, and was of +course a bully, or he would never have talked so before boys and a poor +old negro. I am glad neither Walter nor Harry was in the room." + +"So am I, sir," said Walter; "we were in the kitchen and came in when we +heard the loud talking, just as the man slammed the doors in going out. +We could have done nothing more than order him out." + +After tea we boys went into the kitchen again, leaving our tutors +playing at chess, which Mr Clare was trying to teach Captain Mugford. +That kitchen was a favourite resort of ours in the evenings, and Clump +and Juno liked to have us there. There was a famous fire--three or four +fresh logs singing over a red mass of coal; plenty of ashes; and a +whistled tune with a jet of smoke right from the heart of each stick. +The brass fire-dogs were extra bright, reflecting the blaze on all +sides. Some chestnuts and potatoes were roasting in the ashes, and +Clump had provided some cider to treat us to, this last night of ours on +the cape. So we pulled our chairs close around the fire, Clump sitting +at one end, almost inside the chimney-place, smoking his pipe, and Juno +at the other end, also almost inside the chimney-place, and smoking, +too, her pipe. Hi! How they grinned, and chatted, and smoked. After +awhile, when we had had a full hour of real fun, quizzing the old folks, +telling stories, eating chestnuts and potatoes, drinking cider, and +listening to stories of the West Indies, Walter and Harry got up to +clean their guns. + +"Wen you'se cum 'ere nudder time, 'spect dese ole black folks be gwine +'way--be gwine 'crost de ribber Jordan?"--exclaimed Juno, with a long +sigh. + +"Now, don't talk in that way," said Harry; "why, marm Juno, you and +Clump will live to dance at my wedding; see if you don't; and now, Juno, +just give us a kettle of hot water, will you, to rinse out these +gun-barrels with." + +When the guns were washed, dried, and rubbed off with oil, I said to +Clump, "Have you got any bullets or buckshot?" + +"Don't know, Massa Bob--'spects so, en my ole tool-box." + +"Why," asked Drake, "what are you going to do, Bob, with bullets and +buckshot?" + +Clump was down on his knees in the closet, overhauling the tool-box he +had spoken of. + +"Well, Drake, I'll tell you if Clump finds the articles," I answered. + +"Have you got any, Clump?" + +"Yah, Massa, 'ere's a han'ful." + +"These bullets and buckshot," I continued, "are for Walter and Harry to +load their guns with; for, just as sure as that fellow came here this +afternoon, just so sure, I believe, he will be back here before morning +with more like him." + +"What stuff," sang out Walter, laughing; "what puts that in your head, +Bob?" + +"I don't know exactly what, Walter, but I suspect it, and I have not +liked to say anything about it before, because I was afraid of being +laughed at. But the more I think of it, the more certain I am that the +man who was here to-night is one of the band of smugglers who owned the +goods taken through our means by the revenue men. There are others with +him, and, mark my word, they have not come back for nothing. Now do, +fellows, load your guns. We needn't say anything and get laughed at, +for the Captain will surely laugh if we tell him my suspicions. You can +take your guns upstairs, and then, if anything does happen before +morning, you'll be all ready." + +"Well, Walter," said Harry, "suppose we do--it's good fun at any rate to +make believe that robbers, and outlaws, and smugglers, and all other +sorts of odd visitors are coming--and--I cannot help owning that what +Bob says sounds probable. So here go two bullets for this barrel, and +nine buckshot for the other. Come, Walt, load up! Don't you shake in +your boots already? ugh!" + +"It is curious that we should have pretended to be smugglers if +smugglers really do come. Probably that makes Bob fancy they will come; +still, I wish that we had not frightened the old people so," said +Walter, loading his gun; and a few minutes later Mr Clare opened the +kitchen door and called us in to evening prayers. As they always did, +Clump and Juno assembled with us in the dining-room. + +There was something very impressive in those few moments before the +chapter for reading was found. There was the sound of the turning over +of the Bible leaves, and that of a light, pattering autumn rain without, +(it had commenced after dark), besides the comfortable crackling of the +wood-fire, and the occasional snapping of the fresh logs. The old, +devoted, pious negroes; the rugged, benevolent Captain, with an +expression of thought and reverent waiting in his face; and we boys, so +full of youth and spirits, sat thinking--soberly, and perhaps solemnly-- +how neither sickness nor harm had come near us; what blessings of +pleasure, health, and strength had waited on us all during half a year; +how those dear ones separated from us had been preserved from suffering +and calamity, and were hoping to meet us before another week had +commenced; how the common ties and associations that had united us so +happily and so long were soon to be sundered. Those and many other-- +some graver, some lighter--thoughts, in those few seconds, occupied our +minds, whilst Mr Clare turned over the leaves beneath the table lamp, +and then his clear, strong voice slowly and feelingly uttered the words: +"I will say of the Lord, _He is_ my refuge and my fortress: my God; in +Him will I trust. Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the +fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with His +feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust: His truth _shall_ be +_thy_ shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by +night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that +walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday... +Because thou hast made the Lord which is my refuge, even the Most High, +thy habitation... For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to +keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest +thou dash thy foot against a stone... He shall call upon Me, and I will +answer him. I will be with him in trouble: I will deliver him and +honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and show him My +salvation." + +And when the prayers had ended, we separated quietly for our beds, the +Captain going off as usual to the brig. + +I turned the key in the hall-door as he went out--the first time such a +thing had been done during our stay on the cape. Ugly coiled himself up +on the horsehair sofa in the dining-room, and in half an hour more, I +suppose, every soul in the old house was asleep. + +I dreamed that a lot of rabbits were in a hole together and making a +humming noise, which, I believed, was a whispering they were having +together, and I wanted to hear what they said, but that Ugly made such a +barking I could not. I woke up, and, sure enough, Ugly was very noisy +in the room below, barking regularly and harshly. No one else in the +house seemed to be disturbed. There was a placid snoring in the attic, +a pattering of rain on the roof, and a splashing of water, as it ran off +steadily in a stream to the ground. But in a minute or two, between +Ugly's barks I thought I heard something which recalled what I had been +dreaming of, the rabbits whispering in their burrow. I listened. Yes, +some persons outside the house were talking together in low voices. I +crawled to a window and looked out. There was an indistinct group of +three or four persons standing by the rock, twenty yards from the house. +Their talk was only a murmur of different voices in discussion, +sometimes louder, sometimes fainter; but as I watched, one of the group +struck a light, and I saw in the flash four or five or more figures, and +the face of the man who had entered the house in the evening, who was +now holding a lantern to be lighted, and was also looking up at the +house. It was a dark lantern, I suppose, for the light was shut up in +some way after that. I shook each of the boys and told them to look out +of the window, and then I ran into Mr Clare's room and woke him. When +he saw that some sort of robbery or attack was to be made on the house, +he exclaimed, "I hope they do not know that the Captain is alone in the +brig," and ran downstairs to bolt all the doors and windows as securely +as they could be fastened, and awaken Clump and Juno, who slept in a +little room off the kitchen. Not a lamp was lighted in the house, but +the smugglers had heard the noises made, and now, talking and swearing +aloud, approached the door and turned the handle. Being bolted within, +they could not open it. + +"Hullo! hullo! I say, you Tregellin fellows, wake up!"--it was the +voice we had heard before--"wake up and let us in?"--it sounded as if he +turned to his companions then, and laughed and muttered +something--"here's some decent sailor-boys as wants a drop and a bite, +so wake up quick, boys and niggers!--let us in, I say, or we'll break +open the doors, and break your bones into the bargain." + +At the conclusion of the speech, they all beat on the door and house +with fists and sticks, and laughed loudly at their leader's joke. Mr +Clare now went down the narrow, creaking stairs again to the big door +they were pounding against so fiercely, and from behind its defence +answered the summons. + +"Men: this is a private house, and you must go away. You will get +nothing here, and we are armed." + +"Hurrah!" they answered without. I shall omit the terrible oaths with +which they loaded every breath they spoke. "Who are you, big voice?" + +"No matter," called out Mr Clare, "who I am. I suspect who you are, +and we do not intend to let you get in here--that is all." + +"That's a lie--we'll be in in ten minutes and make your bass a squeak. +If you don't open this 'ere door in a jiffy--we'll make grease-pots of +you along with them niggers. Look what we'll do with your castle--just +what we have been doing with the old hulk down there on the rocks." + +As he spoke, the darkness in the house withdrew to the holes and +corners, and flashes of red and white light shot into every window and +played on the walls, reflected from the midnight sky that had suddenly +kindled to a blaze. The outlaws had set the old wreck on fire--our dear +old school-house. + +Could the Captain be there, sleeping yet? or had they killed him? + +Ah! that doubt about Captain Mugford's safety magnified the danger of +our own situation to our imaginations. If those outlaws could burn, in +madness, such a harmless thing as the castaway brig, and could conquer +such a powerful man as our salt tute, what might they not do here to us? + +The hour--the yelling and swearing and banging at the doors--the lurid +glare flashing from the sky to show us each other's fear-stamped +countenances--those united to bewilder and appal us boys at least. + +Juno, too, was upstairs in our room, sitting on a low chair, perfectly +silent, but overcome by dread. But Clump, who now showed the courage he +really possessed, was active with Mr Clare downstairs, strengthening +every window and door. He was not afraid. His old spirit was aroused, +and, in the defence of his dear master's children, he was anxious to +prove his courage and fidelity. + +"Harry," Mr Clare called up the stairs, "bring me your gun. I shall +want that down here. You say it is all loaded and ready, eh? Well, +bring it down. Walter, you keep yours upstairs, and all you boys remain +there until it is necessary to come down; and now, Walter, don't fire +unless there is absolute necessity. The rascals can't burn this house +unless they light the roof, and they can't stay here all night to do +that, for the light of the _Clear the Track_ will bring over some of the +townspeople. Poor Mugford! poor Mugford! Bob, you climb up to that +little window in the south gable-end, and see if you can detect any +movement about the wreck." + +Harry handed him the gun, and I climbed to the lookout, relinquishing +Ugly, whom I had been holding, to Juno's care. He had been ordered not +to bark, so now he only panted fiercely and listened intently. + +The smugglers, after vain attempts at the front door--they could have +smashed in the windows, shutters, latches, glass, and all, but their +small size and height from the ground made them most dangerous to enter +by when there were defenders within went round to the back of the house, +and presently I heard a great ripping and banging of boards there, and +Mr Clare's voice call quickly-- + +"If one inch of you enter there, I will fire--understand that." + +Then we heard a shot, but knew by the report that it was not Harry's +gun, and Drake called down the stairs, "Clump, who fired?" + +"De smugglers, Massa; one den shoot tru de winder at Massa Clare, but +tank de Lor, the scoundrel miss." + +Just then I saw--and how the blood coursed with one cold sweep from my +heart and back again--amid the hot flames of the burning wreck, Captain +Mugford's figure. He sprang from the deck to the rocks and was rushing +towards the house. I turned and called the good news, but found that +Juno and I were alone. The others, too much excited and interested in +the contest to remain longer prisoners in the attic, had got on the +stairway, and when I looked down on them Walter was on the bottom step +with his gun cocked. + +Now many steps and the yelled-out blasphemy of the smugglers came round +the house again to the front. Though, as we knew afterwards, two +remained to keep Mr Clare occupied there, whilst the three others were +to try the windows again. + +Captain Mugford must be near. Oh! that he could get here safely. Ugly +jumped by me, and, uttering a savage bark, sprang downstairs and past +Walter. He had escaped from Juno's charge. As he flew about the rooms +downstairs, a whole sash and shutter in the south-east room were driven +in by a blow of an immense beam, and in another second half the body of +a smuggler was above the window-sill. But with a tremendous leap Ugly +reached him and pinned him by the throat. They tumbled back together. +Then we heard a new voice--Captain Mugford's! + +"You cowards, you hang-dogs, you scum of the sea, you dark-hearted +blackguards--take that! Aye, villains!--and that!" + +Two pistol shots were heard. Harry jumped to open the door for Captain +Mugford. Walter stood ready beside him with the gun. I ran with Drake +to the open window, to see if harm had come to our dear salt tute, and +Alfred had hurried in to where Mr Clare was alone guarding the +back-door and broken windows, for he had sent Clump, not knowing of our +being downstairs and of the Captain's coming, to fight where we were. +Clump had a short iron bar in his hands. I saw the man whom Ugly had +gripped fallen on his knees and cutting our gallant little dog from his +neck with a knife. One outlaw was stretched on the ground. Another was +struggling with the Captain. He was a large, powerful fellow, and +seemed to be getting the better of our now much-exhausted tutor. As I +looked, the prostrate man rose, and both he and the one whom poor Ugly-- +now dead on the grass--had attacked came to help crush the Captain. +Then the front door was flung open. Walter fired, and the man who had +killed our brave dog dropped the knife he held, and, clasping his left +shoulder with his right hand, screamed out a terrible oath, and, yelling +with pain, ran from the struggle. At the same moment--all these events, +from the time Captain Mugford arrived until the door was opened to admit +him, not occupying probably three minutes--the Captain fell beneath his +adversary, whose fingers clutched his throat, and the infuriated outlaw +seemed determined to finish him. Walter could not fire again without +shooting the very one for whose safety alone he would fire. But Clump +jumped out with his iron bar and struck the assailant on the head. The +Captain was released just as I saw the other miscreant level a pistol at +Clump. I called, "Oh, Clump, Clump, take care!" With the sound of my +voice came the sharp, fatal crack of the pistol, and Clump fell +back--_dead_! + +Two minutes more and all the smugglers were in full flight. The old, +grey-headed, faithful, true-hearted Clump was dead, and Juno stretched +unconscious on her husband's body. Ugly, all hacked to pieces, lay in a +pool of blood, yet gasping. Captain Mugford, wounded, bruised, and +exhausted, sat on the doorstep. Mr Clare was leaning over Clump with a +hand on the pulseless heart. The burning wreck yet lighted the heavens, +and the horrid scene at the very doorstep of our home of such a happy +half-year. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY. + +A RETROSPECT AND FAREWELL. + +It is fifty years ago and some months since that rainy, bloody, +flame-lit October night. And now this cold, wintery, blustering +midnight, I--the Bob Tregellin of my story--sit writing this concluding +chapter. + +There is a coal-fire glowing hot in the grate. There are shelves and +shelves of books; easy-chairs sprawling their indolent figures here and +there; a curled-up bunch of fur purring in one; an old black setter-dog +dreaming--as I can see by the whine in his quick breathing and the +kicking of his outstretched legs--on a bearskin rug before the fire; and +a circle of bright light from a well-shaded lamp falls about my table. +Yes--but I shall get up now for a minute and take down the old musket +and dog-collar, the sight of which always vividly recalls those happiest +months of my life--Fifty Years Ago. + +As I replace them the storm without comes in a heavier, fiercer gust. I +hear it rush in a whirl up the street. I see it almost lift the heavy +curtains over the window, as if it would come in and rest itself. I +hear it whistling through all the cracks and keyholes of the house-- +whistling dismally. Its voices, and the rumbling of a hack in some +neighbouring street, remind me of storms I have heard, lying comfortably +in my snug attic bed in the old house on the cape--the wind and the +waves dashing up the rocky shore. + +That strong whiff disturbed pussy's and "the Captain's" (so I have +called my old setter friend) nap, for puss stands up on her morocco bed +and arches her back like a horseshoe, and then springs, with a +jolted-out "mew-r-r-r," right on my table, and proceeds to walk over +this manuscript, carrying her tail up as if she wanted to light it by +the gas and beg me then to touch it to my pipe and stop scribbling. So +I shall presently. And the Captain strolls up to lay his cold nose on +my knee, slowly wag his silky tail, and look kindly into my face with +those soft, big eyes, as if he would say, "Come, master, don't be +low-spirited." + +You are right, old fellow! I was somewhat sad about leaving the +pleasant companionship I have held through my pen with brothers and +friends of the old time, and a goodly number of those who are young now, +while I am so no longer, except in memory and heart. Youth has come +back with these pages, and perhaps you are tired with me, but I--I shall +never tire of the _young_--the glorious companionship of the pure, +merry, brave hearts that look undaunted and without suspicion on the +great road stretching far into the Future, and fading only to reappear +in mirages of splendour in a brilliant sky. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +There! I have smoked my pipe: and now, Miss Puss, stretch yourself in +the chair again, and you, Captain, resume that dream by the fire. I +have got a few more lines to write before my invisible friends leave me. + +From that autumn night, 1830, to this winter night of 1872, no clue has +ever been discovered to the murderers of faithful old Clump. About +Christmas time of the same year Juno closed her earthly eyes in the old +Cape House--to open them again, I fervently believe, in heaven. + +Mr Clare lives--a venerable clergyman in one of our great cities--his +head and heart yet labouring earnestly in the Great Cause he serves. + +Captain Mugford sleeps in the home of his adoption--the ocean. Five +years after our six months together he sailed from Bristol as boatswain +of a splendid ship for the Pacific. A fortnight after, he was spoken by +a homeward-bound brig, and that was the last ever heard of honest Roland +Mugford, or the ship he sailed in. I hope seas, winds, and +undercurrents, however rough they may have been, left undisturbed the +red bandanna and the short black pipe. And we feel sure that the +mother's prayers were answered, and that the boy who ran away from her +in his youth came back to her,--whither her memory was a beacon light-- +the Eternal Harbour, unstirred by storms. + +Walter is a man of eminence--a diplomatist--and Harry a merchant, a +cheerful, generous-hearted man, whose name is the synonym of honour, and +whose hands "to do good, and to distribute, forget not." + +Drake, who entered the army after travelling in every strange and dim +corner of the globe--frozen up in the Arctic Seas, perspiring in the +interior of Africa, exploring among the western wilds of the Rocky +Mountains, and doing other things adventurous in every out-of-the-way +part--finally went with all his honest, hot zeal to India, where, +fighting his country's battles, he spent many years of his life, and +came back a general and one-legged man. Now he _stumps_ about in this +same library, but manages to take me travelling thousands of never-weary +miles; and many and many a time do we walk, and shoot, and swim, and +race, and fight over and over again that happy time at the cape. + +Poor Alfred--the best of all of us--died before his thirtieth year, +nursed by a few devoted Africans, at his missionary station in the +southern Atlantic. + +And I, whom the general calls "Vieux Moustache," have finished an old +Boy's Story of "Our Salt and Fresh Water Tutors." + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Captain Mugford, by W.H.G. 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