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index 2ca8040..1b66e2d 100644
--- a/44498-8.txt
+++ b/44498-0.txt
@@ -1,41 +1,4 @@
-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wreck of the Grosvenor, Volume 2 of 3, by
-William Clark Russell
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-Title: The Wreck of the Grosvenor, Volume 2 of 3
-       An account of the mutiny of the crew and the loss of the
-       ship when trying to make the Bermudas
-
-Author: William Clark Russell
-
-Release Date: December 24, 2013 [EBook #44498]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WRECK OF THE GROSVENOR ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Charlie Howard and the Online Distributed
-Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
-produced from images generously made available by The
-Internet Archive)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44498 ***
 
 THE WRECK OF THE "GROSVENOR."
 
@@ -266,7 +229,7 @@ the others an easy conquest.
 However, to my unspeakable disappointment, my search proved fruitless;
 all that I found in the lockers were clothes belonging to Captain
 Coxon, a quantity of papers, old charts, and log-books, some parcels of
-cigars, and a bag containing about £30 in silver.
+cigars, and a bag containing about £30 in silver.
 
 Whilst engaged in these explorations, a knock fell on the door, and on
 my replying, the girl came in. I bowed and asked her to be seated, and
@@ -666,7 +629,7 @@ I stood in need of was not likely to come from such as she, or indeed
 from any vessel short of an inquisitive Government ship. Moreover, the
 part I was playing was too difficult to permit me to allow any impulse
 to inspire. The smallest distrust that I should occasion might cost me
-my life. My _rôle_ then surely was to seem one with the men, heart and
+my life. My _rôle_ then surely was to seem one with the men, heart and
 soul.
 
 "Let her go off a point," I exclaimed to the man steering. "They'll not
@@ -1705,8 +1668,8 @@ reasonable, I walked to the binnacle.
 
 I returned and said--
 
-"In nine days hence we must contrive to be in longitude 62° and
-latitude 33°;--somewhere about it. If we can average 180 miles every
+"In nine days hence we must contrive to be in longitude 62° and
+latitude 33°;--somewhere about it. If we can average 180 miles every
 day we shall do it."
 
 "What do you make the distance from where we are now to the Gulf?"
@@ -2024,16 +1987,16 @@ days, in which nothing occurred striking enough for my recollection to
 retain.
 
 This brought us to Sunday; and on that day at noon we were, as nearly
-as I can recall, in 37° north latitude and 50° west longitude.
+as I can recall, in 37° north latitude and 50° west longitude.
 
-In round numbers Bermuda lies in latitude 32° and longitude 65°. This
+In round numbers Bermuda lies in latitude 32° and longitude 65°. This
 is close enough for my purpose. We had consequently some distance yet
 to run before we should _heave to off the coast of Florida_. But we had
 for five days carried a strong following wind with us, and were now
 (heading west by south half south) driving eight or nine knots an hour
 under a fresh wind forward of the port beam.
 
-I own I was very glad to be able to keep well to the norrard of 30°;
+I own I was very glad to be able to keep well to the norrard of 30°;
 for had the north-east trade winds got hold of the ship, I should not
 have been able to accommodate the distances run to my scheme so well as
 I now could with shifting winds blowing sometimes moderate gales.
@@ -3060,7 +3023,7 @@ watching would prevent me from making two and two five.
 
 I unrolled the chart upon the table, and drew a line down a rule from
 the highly imaginary point to which I had brought the ship at noon on
-the preceding day, to latitude 29°, longitude 74° 30'. "Here is our
+the preceding day, to latitude 29°, longitude 74° 30'. "Here is our
 position at the present moment," I said, pointing to the mark on the
 chart.
 
@@ -5193,362 +5156,4 @@ understand." perhaps should be after "of them?"
 End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wreck of the Grosvenor, Volume 2
 of 3, by William Clark Russell
 
-*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WRECK OF THE GROSVENOR ***
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+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44498 ***
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+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" />
     <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" />
     <title>
       The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Wreck of the "Grosvenor", by William Clark Russell.
@@ -117,48 +117,7 @@ span.locked {white-space:nowrap;}
     </style>
   </head>
 <body>
-
-
-<pre>
-
-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wreck of the Grosvenor, Volume 2 of 3, by
-William Clark Russell
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-Title: The Wreck of the Grosvenor, Volume 2 of 3
-       An account of the mutiny of the crew and the loss of the
-              ship when trying to make the Bermudas
-
-Author: William Clark Russell
-
-Release Date: December 24, 2013 [EBook #44498]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WRECK OF THE GROSVENOR ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Charlie Howard and the Online Distributed
-Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
-produced from images generously made available by The
-Internet Archive)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-</pre>
-
+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44498 ***</div>
 
 <div class="transnote">
 <p class="center"><span class="hideb">Cover and </span>Table of Contents created by Transcriber and placed in the Public Domain.</p>
@@ -500,7 +459,7 @@ my search proved fruitless; all that I
 found in the lockers were clothes belonging
 to Captain Coxon, a quantity of papers, old
 charts, and log-books, some parcels of
-cigars, and a bag containing about £30 in
+cigars, and a bag containing about £30 in
 silver.</p>
 
 <p>Whilst engaged in these explorations, a
@@ -1092,7 +1051,7 @@ an inquisitive Government ship. Moreover,
 the part I was playing was too difficult to
 permit me to allow any impulse to inspire.
 The smallest distrust that I should occasion
-might cost me my life. My <i>rôle</i> then surely
+might cost me my life. My <i>rôle</i> then surely
 was to seem one with the men, heart and
 soul.</p>
 
@@ -2583,7 +2542,7 @@ I walked to the binnacle.</p>
 <p>I returned and <span class="locked">said&mdash;</span></p>
 
 <p>"In nine days hence we must contrive to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">97</a></span>
-be in longitude 62° and latitude 33°;&mdash;somewhere
+be in longitude 62° and latitude 33°;&mdash;somewhere
 about it. If we can average 180
 miles every day we shall do it."</p>
 
@@ -3031,11 +2990,11 @@ recollection to retain.</p>
 
 <p>This brought us to Sunday; and on that
 day at noon we were, as nearly as I can
-recall, in 37° north latitude and 50° west
+recall, in 37° north latitude and 50° west
 longitude.</p>
 
 <p>In round numbers Bermuda lies in latitude
-32° and longitude 65°. This is close enough
+32° and longitude 65°. This is close enough
 for my purpose. We had consequently
 some distance yet to run before we should
 <i>heave to off the coast of Florida</i>. But we
@@ -3046,7 +3005,7 @@ knots an hour under a fresh wind forward of
 the port beam.</p>
 
 <p>I own I was very glad to be able to keep
-well to the norrard of 30°; for had the
+well to the norrard of 30°; for had the
 north-east trade winds got hold of the ship,
 I should not have been able to accommodate
 the distances run to my scheme so well as
@@ -4545,7 +4504,7 @@ put down my pencil; "where are we?"</p>
 drew a line down a rule from the highly
 imaginary point to which I had brought the
 ship at noon on the preceding day, to
-latitude 29°, longitude 74° 30'. "Here is
+latitude 29°, longitude 74° 30'. "Here is
 our position at the present moment," I said,
 pointing to the mark on the chart.</p>
 
@@ -7588,384 +7547,6 @@ edition of this book.</p>
 understand." perhaps should be after "of them?"</p>
 </div>
 
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-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wreck of the Grosvenor, Volume 2
-of 3, by William Clark Russell
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wreck of the Grosvenor, Volume 2 of 3, by
-William Clark Russell
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-Title: The Wreck of the Grosvenor, Volume 2 of 3
-       An account of the mutiny of the crew and the loss of the
-       ship when trying to make the Bermudas
-
-Author: William Clark Russell
-
-Release Date: December 24, 2013 [EBook #44498]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ASCII
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WRECK OF THE GROSVENOR ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Charlie Howard and the Online Distributed
-Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
-produced from images generously made available by The
-Internet Archive)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-THE WRECK OF THE "GROSVENOR."
-
-
-
-
-                                  THE
-                       WRECK OF THE "GROSVENOR:"
-
-                             AN ACCOUNT OF
-                    _THE MUTINY OF THE CREW AND THE
-                           LOSS OF THE SHIP_
-                   WHEN TRYING TO MAKE THE BERMUDAS.
-
-                          _IN THREE VOLUMES._
-                                VOL. II.
-
-                                LONDON:
-               SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE & RIVINGTON,
-                  CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET.
-                                 1877.
-
-                        (_All rights reserved._)
-
-
-
-
-                                LONDON:
-                  PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS,
-                   STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
-
-
-
-
-THE WRECK OF THE "GROSVENOR."
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I.
-
-
-As the men had been up all night, I recommended the carpenter to go to
-them and tell them that the watches would not be altered, and that the
-watch whose spell it was below should turn in.
-
-Some, it appeared, asked that rum should be served out to them; but
-the carpenter answered that none should be given them until breakfast
-time, and that if they got talking too much about the drink, he'd run
-a bradawl into the casks and let the contents drain out; for if the
-men fell to drinking, the ship was sure to get into a mess, in which
-case they might be boarded by the crew of another vessel and carried to
-England, where nothing less than hanging or transportation awaited them.
-
-This substantial advice from the lips of the man who had been foremost
-in planning the mutiny produced a good effect, and the fellows who had
-asked for spirits were at once clamorously assailed by their mates;
-so that, in their temper, had the carpenter proposed to fling the rum
-casks overboard, most of the hands would have consented and the thing
-being done.
-
-All this I was told by the boatswain, who had left the poop with the
-carpenter, but returned before him. I took this opportunity of being
-alone with the man to ask him some questions relative to the mutiny,
-and particularly inquired if he could tell me what was that intention
-which the man named "Bill" had asked the carpenter to communicate
-to me, but which he had refused to explain. The boatswain, who was
-at bottom a very honest man, declared that he had no notion of the
-intention the carpenter was concealing, but promised to try and worm
-the secret out of Johnson or others who were in it, and impart it to me.
-
-He now informed me that he had come into the mutiny because he saw the
-men were resolved, and also because they thought he took the captain's
-part, which was a belief full of peril to him. He said that he could
-not foresee how this trouble would end; for though the idea of the men
-to quit the ship and make for the shore in open boats was feasible,
-yet they would run very heavy risks of capture any way; for if they
-came across a ship while in the boats they could not refuse to allow
-themselves to be taken on board, where, some of the mutineers being
-very gross and ignorant men, the truth would certainly leak out; whilst
-as to escaping on shore, it was fifty to one if the answers they made
-to inquiries would not differ so widely one from another as to betray
-them.
-
-But at this point our conversation was interrupted by the carpenter
-coming aft to ask me to keep watch whilst he and the boatswain turned
-in, as he for one was "dead beat," and would not be of any service
-until he had rested.
-
-It was now broad daylight, the east filled with the silver splendours
-of the rising sun. I descried a sail to windward, on the starboard
-tack, heading eastward. I made her out through the glass to be a small
-topsail schooner, but as we were going free with a fresh breeze we soon
-sank her hull.
-
-The sight of this vessel, however, set me thinking on my own position.
-What would be thought and how should I be dealt with when (supposing I
-should ever reach land) I should come to tell the story of this mutiny?
-But this was a secondary consideration. My real anxiety was to foresee
-how the men would act when I had brought them to the place they wished
-to arrive at. Would they give such a witness against their murderous
-dealings as I was, a chance to save my life?--I, whose plain testimony
-could set justice on the hunt for every one of them. I could not place
-confidence in their assurances. The oaths of such ruffians as many of
-them undoubtedly were, were worthless. They would murder me without an
-instant's scruple if by so doing they could improve their own chances
-of escape; and I was fully persuaded that I should have shared the
-fate of Coxon and Duckling in spite of the sympathy I had shown them,
-and their declaration that they did not want my life, had they not
-foreseen that they would stand in need of some competent person to
-navigate the ship for them, and that I was more likely to come into
-their projects than either of the men they had murdered.
-
-My agitation was greater than I like to admit; and I turned over in my
-mind all sorts of ideas for my escape, but never forgetting the two
-helpless persons whose lives I considered wholly dependent on my own
-preservation.
-
-At one moment I thought of taking the boatswain into my confidence,
-stealthily storing provisions in one of the quarter-boats, and watching
-an opportunity to sneak off with him and our passengers under cover of
-night.
-
-Then I thought of getting him to sound the minds of the crew, to judge
-if there were any who might assist us should we rise upon the more
-desperate of the mutineers.
-
-Another notion was to pretend to mistake the ship's whereabouts, and
-run her into some port.
-
-But such stratagems as these, easily invented, were in reality
-impracticable.
-
-To let the men see that I stood to my work, I never quitted the deck
-until six o'clock. The morning was then very beautiful, with a rich and
-warm aroma in the glorious southerly breeze, and the water as blue as
-the heavens.
-
-On arousing the carpenter in the cabin formerly occupied by me (I found
-him in the bunk on my mattress with his boots on, and a pipe belonging
-to me in his hand), I told him that the ship could now carry all plain
-sail, and advised him to make it. He got out of the bunk in a pretty
-good temper, and went along the cuddy; but as he was about to mount
-the companion-ladder I called to know if he would see the steward, and
-speak to him about serving out the cuddy stores, as I preferred that
-he should give the man instructions, since they would best represent
-the wishes of the crew. But the truth was, I wanted to pack all the
-responsibility that I could upon him, so as to make myself as little
-answerable as possible to the men.
-
-"Yes, yes. Fetch him out. Where is he?" he replied, turning round.
-
-"Steward!" I called.
-
-After a pause the door of the captain's cabin opened, and the figure of
-the steward stepped forth. Such a woebegone object, with bloodless face
-and haggard expression, and red eyes and quivering mouth, hands hanging
-like an idiot's, his hair matted, his knees knocking together as he
-walked, I never wish to see again.
-
-"Now, young feller," said the carpenter (the steward, by the way, was
-about forty years old), "what do you think ought to be done to you,
-hey? Is hangin' too mild, or is drownin' more to your fancy? or would
-you like to be di-sected by the cook, who is reckoned a neat hand at
-carvin'?"
-
-The steward turned his bloodshot eyes upon me, and his white lips moved.
-
-"Mr. Stevens is only joking," I exclaimed, feeling that I would give a
-year's pay to strike the ruffian to the earth for his brutal playing
-with the miserable creature's terror. "He wants to talk to you about
-the cuddy provisions."
-
-The carpenter stared at him grimly, out of a mean tyranny and relish
-of his fears; and the poor creature said, "Yes, sir?" lifting his eyes
-humbly to the carpenter's face, and folding his hands in an involuntary
-attitude of supplication.
-
-"You'll understand, young feller," said the carpenter, thrusting his
-hands into his pockets and leaning against the mizzen-mast, "that we're
-all equals aboard this here wessel now. No one's above t'other, barring
-yourself, who's just nowheeres at all, owin' to your keeping in tow of
-the skipper when he was pisoning us with the stores which you, d----
-yer! took joy in sarving out! Now, you understand this: you're to turn
-to and sarve out the cuddy stores to the men at the proper time, and
-three tots o' grog every day to each man. Mr. Ryle 'll tell you how
-long our passage 'll last, and you're to make a calkilation of the live
-stock so as each watch gits a share of the pigs an' poultry. But you,"
-he continued, squirting some tobacco juice from his mouth, "aren't
-to touch no other provisions but the stores which the crew's been
-eatin' of: mind that! If we catch you tastin' so much as half a cuddy
-biscuit, by the living thunder! we'll run you up to the fore-yard-arm!"
-
-He shook his fist in the steward's face, and addressing me, said--
-
-"That's all to be said, ain't it?"
-
-"That's all," I replied; and the steward went cringing and reeling
-towards the pantry, whilst the carpenter mounted the companion-ladder.
-
-I entered the cabin, which, to save confusion, I will continue to call
-the captain's cabin, and seated myself in a chair screwed down to the
-deck before a wide table. This cabin was comfortably furnished with
-hanging bookshelves, a fine map of the world, a few coloured prints of
-ships, a handsome cot, and mahogany lockers cushioned on top to serve
-for seats.
-
-Among some writing materials, a case of mathematical instruments, a
-boat's compass, and a variety of other matters which covered the
-table, I observed an American five-chambered revolver, which, on
-examining, I found was loaded. I at once put this weapon in my pocket,
-and after searching awhile, discovered a box of cartridges, which I
-also pocketed.
-
-This I considered a very lucky find, as I never knew the moment when
-I might stand in need of such a weapon; and whether I should have
-occasion to use it or not, it was certainly better in my possession
-than in the hands of the men.
-
-I now left my chair to examine the lockers, in the hopes of finding
-other firearms; and I cannot express the eagerness with which I
-prosecuted the search, because I considered that, should the boatswain
-succeed in winning even one man over from the crew, three resolute men,
-each armed with a revolver or firearm of any kind, might, by carefully
-waiting their opportunity, kill or wound enough of the crew to render
-the others an easy conquest.
-
-However, to my unspeakable disappointment, my search proved fruitless;
-all that I found in the lockers were clothes belonging to Captain
-Coxon, a quantity of papers, old charts, and log-books, some parcels of
-cigars, and a bag containing about L30 in silver.
-
-Whilst engaged in these explorations, a knock fell on the door, and on
-my replying, the girl came in. I bowed and asked her to be seated, and
-inquired how her father did.
-
-"He is still very weak," she answered; "but he is not worse this
-morning. I heard your voice just now, and watched you enter this cabin.
-I hope you will let me speak to you. I have so much to say."
-
-"Indeed," I replied, "I have been waiting impatiently for this
-opportunity. Will you first tell me your name?"
-
-"Mary Robertson. My father is a Liverpool merchant, Mr. Royle, and the
-ship in which we were wrecked was his own vessel. Oh!" she exclaimed,
-pressing her hands to her face, "we were many hours expecting every
-moment to die. I cannot believe that we are saved! and sometimes I
-cannot believe that what has happened is real! I think I was going
-mad when I saw your ship. I thought the boat was a phantom, and that
-it would vanish suddenly. It was horrible to be imprisoned with the
-dead body and that mad sailor! The sailor went mad on the first day,
-and soon afterwards the passenger--for he was a passenger who lay dead
-on the deck--sat up in his bed and uttered a dreadful cry, and fell
-forward dead. The mad sailor pointed to him and howled! and neither
-papa nor I could get out of the house, for the water washed against it
-and would have swept us overboard."
-
-She told me all this with her hands to her face, and her fair hair
-flowing over her shoulders, and made a sweet and pathetic picture in
-this attitude.
-
-Suddenly she looked up with a smile of wonderful sweetness, and,
-seizing my hand, cried--
-
-"What do we not owe you for your noble efforts? How good and brave you
-are!"
-
-"You praise me too warmly, Miss Robertson. God knows there was nothing
-noble in my efforts, nor any daring in them. Had I really risked my
-life to save you, I should still have barely done my duty. How were you
-treated yesterday? Well, I hope."
-
-"Oh yes. The captain told the steward to give us what we wanted. I
-think the wine he sent us saved papa's life. He was sinking, but
-rallied after he had drunk a little of it. I am in a sad plight," she
-exclaimed, while a faint tinge of red came into her cheeks. "I have not
-even a piece of ribband to tie up my hair with."
-
-She took her beautiful hair in her hands, and smiled.
-
-"Is there nothing in this cabin that will be of use to you?" I said.
-"Here is a hair-brush--and it looks a pretty good one. I don't know
-whether we shall be able to muster a bit of ribband among us, but I
-just now came across a roll of serge, and if you can do anything with
-that and a needle and thread, which I'll easily get for you, I'll see
-that they are put in your cabin. Here are enough clothes to rig out
-your father, at all events, until his own are made ship-shape. But how
-am I to help _you_? That has been on my mind."
-
-"I can use the serge if I may have it," she replied, in the prettiest
-way imaginable.
-
-"Here it is," I said, hauling it out of the locker; "and I'll get
-needles and thread for you presently. No sailor goes to sea without a
-housewife, and you shall have mine. And if you will wait a moment I
-think I can find something else that may be useful."
-
-Saying which I hurried to my old cabin, unlocked my chest, and took out
-a new pair of carpet slippers.
-
-"A piece of bunting or serge fitted into these will make them sit on
-your feet," I exclaimed, handing them to her. "And I have other ideas,
-Miss Robertson, all which I hope will help to make you a little more
-comfortable by-and-by. Leave a sailor alone to find out ways and means."
-
-She took the slippers with a graceful little smile, and put them
-alongside the roll of serge; and then, with a grave face, and in an
-earnest voice, she asked me to tell her what the men meant to do with
-the ship now that they had seized her.
-
-I freely told her as much as I knew, but expressed no fears as to
-my own, and hers, and her father's safety. Indeed, I took the most
-cheerful view I could of our situation.
-
-"My notion," said I, "is that when the time comes for the men to leave
-the ship they will not allow us to go with them. They will oblige us
-to remain in her, which is the best thing that could happen; for I am
-sure that the boatswain will stay, and with his and the steward's help
-there is nothing to prevent us taking the ship into the nearest port,
-or lying to until we sight a vessel, and then signalling for help."
-
-I fancy she was about to express her doubts of this result, but
-exclaimed instead--
-
-"No matter what comes, Mr. Royle, we shall feel safe with you." And
-then, suddenly rising, she asked me to come and see her father.
-
-I followed her at once into the cabin.
-
-The old man lay in an upper bunk, with a blanket over him. He looked
-like a dead man, with his white face rendered yet more death-like in
-appearance by the dishevelled white hair upon his head, and the long
-white beard. He was lying perfectly still, with his eyes closed, his
-thin hands folded outside the blanket.
-
-I thought he slept, and motioned to his daughter; but she stooped and
-whispered, "Papa, here is Mr. Royle;" whereupon he opened his eyes
-and looked at me. The sense of my presence appeared to be very slowly
-conveyed to his mind, and then he extended his hand. I took it, and saw
-with emotion that tears streamed from his eyes.
-
-"Sir," he exclaimed, in a weak faltering voice, "I can only say, God
-bless you!"
-
-I answered cheerfully, "Pray say no more, Mr. Robertson. I want to see
-you recover your strength. Thank God, your daughter has survived her
-horrible trials, and will soon quite recover from the effects of them.
-What now can I do for you? Have you slept?"
-
-"Yes, yes, I have slept; a little, I thank you. Sir, I have witnessed
-shocking scenes."
-
-I whispered to Miss Robertson--
-
-"Let me prescribe some medicine that will do you both good. What you
-both require is support. I will be with you in a minute."
-
-So saying, I quitted the cabin and entered the pantry. There I found
-the steward sitting on the plate chest, with his hands to his temples.
-
-"Now then, my lad," said I; "rouse up. You are not dead yet. Have you
-any brandy here?"
-
-He pointed in a mechanical way to a shelf, where were several bottles.
-I found what I wanted, and gave him a dose to put heart into him, and
-asked him for some eggs. Four or five, the gathering of yesterday from
-the kindly hens under the long-boat, lay in the drawer, which he pulled
-open. I proceeded to mix two tumblers of eggs and brandy, which I
-carried to the next cabin.
-
-"This is my physic, Miss Robertson," I exclaimed, putting one of the
-tumblers into her hand; "oblige me by drinking it; and you, sir,"
-I continued, addressing the old gentleman, "will not wait for her
-example."
-
-They both, to my great satisfaction, swallowed the contents of the
-glasses, the effect of which, after some moments, upon Mr. Robertson
-was decidedly beneficial, for he thanked me for my kindness in a much
-stronger voice, and even made shift to prop himself up on his elbow.
-
-"It is the best tonic in the world," said I, taking Miss Robertson's
-glass, "and I am very much obliged to you for your obedience."
-
-The look she gave me was more eloquent than any verbal reply; at
-least, I found it so. Her face was so womanly and beautiful, so full
-of pathos in its pallor, with something so brave and open in its whole
-expression, that it was delightful to me to watch it.
-
-"Now," said I to the old gentleman, "allow me to leave you for a
-little. I want to see what the _Grosvenor_ can furnish in the shape of
-linen and drapery. Isn't that what they call it ashore? We have found
-some serge, and needles and thread are easily got; and I'll set what
-wits the unfortunate steward has left in him to work to discover how
-Miss Robertson may be made comfortable until we put you both ashore."
-
-"Do not leave us!" cried the old man. "Your society does me good, sir.
-It puts life into me. I want to tell you who we are, and about our
-shipwreck, and where we were going. The _Cecilia_ was my own vessel. I
-am a merchant, doing most of my trade with the Cape--the Cape of Good
-Hope. I took my daughter--my only child, sir--to Cape Town, last year,
-for a change of scene and air; and I should have stopped another year,
-but Mary got tired and wanted to get home, and--and--well, as I was
-telling you, Mr--Mr.----"
-
-"Royle," said Miss Robertson.
-
-"Mr. Royle, as I was telling you, Mary got tired; and as the _Cecilia_
-was loading at Cape Town--she was a snug sound ship--yes, indeed; and
-we went on board, we and a gentleman named--named----"
-
-"Jameson," his daughter suggested.
-
-"Ay, poor Jameson--poor, poor fellow!"
-
-He hid his face, and was silent, I should say, a whole minute,
-neither Miss Robertson nor myself speaking. Presently, looking up, he
-continued--
-
-"It came on to blow very heavily, most suddenly, a dreadful gale. It
-caught the ship in a calm, and she was unprepared, and it snapped all
-three masts away. Oh, God, what a night of horror! The men went mad,
-and cried that the ship was going stern down, and crowded into the
-boats. One went whirling away into the darkness, and one was capsized;
-and then the captain said the ship was sinking, and my daughter and
-I ran out of the cabin on to the deck. Well, sir," continued the old
-man, swallowing convulsive sobs as he spoke, "the ship's side had
-been pierced, the captain said, by one of the yards; and she was
-slowly settling, and the water came over the deck, and we got into the
-house where you found us, for shelter. I put my head to the window and
-called the captain to come, and as he was coming the water hurled him
-overboard; and there were only myself and my poor girl and Mr. Jameson
-and--and--tell him the rest!" he suddenly cried, hiding his eyes and
-stretching out his hand.
-
-"Another time, Miss Robertson," I exclaimed, seeing the look of horror
-that had come into her face during her father's recital of the story.
-"Tell me where you live in England, and let us fancy ourselves in the
-dear old country, which, so it please God, we shall all reach safely in
-a little time."
-
-But they were both too overcome to answer me. The old man kept his
-face concealed, and the girl drew long sobbing breaths with dry eyes.
-
-However, she plucked up presently, and answered that they lived just
-out of Liverpool, but that her father had also an estate at Leamington,
-near Warwick, where her mother died, and where she spent most of her
-time, as she did not like Liverpool.
-
-"Tell me, sir," cried Mr. Robertson, "did you bring the body of poor
-Jameson with you? I forget."
-
-"If that was Mr. Jameson whose body lay in the deck-house," I replied,
-"I left him on the wreck. There was his coffin, Mr. Robertson, and I
-dared not wait to bring off a dead man when living creatures stood in
-peril of their lives."
-
-"To be sure, sir!" exclaimed the old gentleman. "You were very right.
-You acted with great nobleness, and are most kind to us now--most
-kind, Mary, is he not? Let me see?" knitting his brows. "You are not
-captain of this ship? I think, my dear, you said that this gentleman
-was the mate? Who is the captain, sir?"
-
-His daughter put her finger to her mouth, which puzzled me until
-I considered that she either did not want him to know that the
-captain was murdered, or, supposing he knew of the murder, that the
-circumstance should not be revived in his memory, which was just now
-very feeble.
-
-He did not wait for his question to be answered, but asked me where the
-ship was bound to?
-
-"New Orleans," I answered, with a glance at his daughter.
-
-"New Orleans!" he exclaimed. "Let me think--that is beyond the West
-Indies." And with great eagerness he said, "Will you put into one of
-the West India Islands? I am known at Kingston; I have shipped largely
-to a firm there, Messieurs Raymondi and Company. Why, my dear, we shall
-be very well received, and we shall be able to purchase fresh clothes,"
-he continued, holding up his arm and looking at it with a melancholy
-smile, "and go home in one of the fine mail packets. Ha! ha! ha! how
-things come about!"
-
-He lay back upon his pillow with this short mirthless laugh, and
-remained silent. I do not say that his mind was unhinged, but his
-intellect was unquestionably impaired by the horrors he had witnessed
-and the sufferings he had endured. But then he was an old man--nearer
-seventy than sixty, I took him to be; whilst his daughter, whom a
-little rest had put upon the high road to recovery, did not appear to
-be above twenty years old.
-
-As the time was passing rapidly, I determined to seize the opportunity
-of the carpenter being on deck to do what I could to make these
-sufferers comfortable. I therefore left them and sang out to the
-steward, who came with terrified promptitude, casting the while
-and almost at every step, fearful glances in the direction of the
-main-deck, where some of the hands were visible.
-
-I gave him the captain's hair-brush to wash, and covered a tray with
-the various toilet conveniences with which the ill-fated skipper had
-provided himself. These I dispatched by the steward to Miss Robertson,
-and I then made the man prepare a tray with a substantial breakfast,
-consisting of cold fowl, fine white biscuit, ham, preserved fruit, and
-some tea, which I boiled in the pantry by means of a spirit-lamp that
-belonged to me.
-
-I took an immense pleasure in supplying these new friends' wants, and
-almost forgot the perilous situation I was in, in the agreeable labour
-of devising means to comfort the girl, whose life and her father's,
-thanks to God, I had been instrumental in preserving.
-
-I made a thorough overhaul of Coxon's effects, holding myself fully
-privileged to use them for the benefit of poor Mr. Robertson, and sent
-to his cabin a good suit of clothes, some clean linen, and a warm
-overcoat.
-
-The steward obeyed me humbly and officiously. He considered his life
-still in great danger, and that he must fall a sacrifice to the fury
-of the crew if he quitted the cuddy. However, I found him very useful,
-for he furnished me with some very good hints, and, among other things,
-he, to my great delight, informed me that he had in the steerage a box
-of woman's underclothing, which had been made by his wife's hand for
-a sister living in Valparaiso, to whom he was taking out the box as a
-gift, and that I was very welcome to the contents.
-
-I requested him at once to descend with me and get the box out; but
-this job took us over twenty minutes, for the box was right aft, and
-we had to clear away upwards of five hundred bird-cages, and a mass of
-light wooden packages of toys and dolls to come at it. We succeeded at
-last in hauling it into the cuddy, and he fetched the key and raised
-the lid; but burst into tears when he saw a letter from his wife,
-addressed to his sister, lying on top of the linen.
-
-I told him to put the letter in his pocket, and to be sure that his
-sister would be liberally compensated, if all went well with us, for
-this appropriation of her property.
-
-"I am not thinking of the clothes, sir," whined the poor fellow, "but
-of my wife and child, who I may never see again."
-
-"Nonsense," I exclaimed; "try to understand that a man is never dead
-until the breath is out of his body. You are as well off as I am, and
-those poor people in the cabin there. What we have to do now is to
-help each other, and put a bold face on our troubles. The worst hasn't
-arrived yet, and it won't do to go mad with anticipating it. Wait till
-it comes, and if there's a road out of it, I'll take it, trust me. Cock
-this box under your arm, and take it to Miss Robertson."
-
-I had now done everything that was possible, and to my perfect
-satisfaction; for besides having furnished the old gentleman with a
-complete change of clothes, I had supplied his daughter with what I
-knew she would appreciate as a great luxury--a quantity of warm, dry
-underclothing.
-
-It may strike the reader as ludicrous to find me descending into such
-trivialities, and perhaps I smiled myself when I thought over the
-business that had kept me employed since six o'clock. But shipwreck is
-a terrible leveller, and cold and hunger and misery know but little
-dignity. How would it seem to Miss Robertson, the daughter of a man
-obviously opulent, to find herself destitute of clothing, and accepting
-with gratitude such rude articles of dress as one poor workwoman would
-make for another of her condition? She, with the memory in her of
-abundant wardrobes, of costly silks, and furs, and jewellery, of rich
-attire, and the plentiful apparel of an heiress! But the sea pays but
-little attention to such claims, and would as lief strip a monarch as a
-poor sailor, and set him afloat naked to struggle awhile and drown.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II.
-
-
-At seven bells, that is, half an hour before eight, I heard the
-carpenter's voice shouting down the companion for the steward. I
-instantly opened the cabin door to tell the man to go at once, as I
-believed that Stevens merely called to give him orders about the men's
-breakfast.
-
-This proved to be the case, as I presently learnt on going on deck,
-whither I repaired (although it was my watch below) in order to see
-what the carpenter was about.
-
-I found him lying upon one of the skylights, with a signal-flag under
-his head, smoking a pipe, whilst three or four of the men sat round
-him smoking also. All plain sail had been made, as I had directed, and
-the ship heading west-south-west under a glorious sky, and all around a
-brilliantly clear horizon and an azure sea.
-
-Away on our lee quarter was a large steamer steering south,
-brig-rigged, bound, I took it, to the west coast of Africa. The men
-about the carpenter made a movement when they saw me, as though they
-would leave the poop, but one of them made some remark in a low voice,
-which kept them all still. The carpenter, seeing me watching the
-steamer, called out--
-
-"She wouldn't take long to catch us, would she? I hope there's no man
-on board this wessel as 'ud like to see her alongside, or would do
-anything to bring her near. I wouldn't like to be the man as 'ud do
-it--would you, Joe?"
-
-"Well, I'd rather ha' made my vill fust than forgot it, if so it were
-that I was that man," responded the fellow questioned.
-
-"We're glad you've come up," continued the carpenter, addressing me,
-though without shifting his posture, "for blowed if I know what to do
-if she _should_ get askin' us any questions. What 'll _you_ do, Mr.
-Royle?"
-
-"Let her signal us first," I replied, quite alive to the sinister
-suggestiveness of these questions.
-
-"Put the helm up and go astern of her--that's what my advice is," said
-one of the men.
-
-"You'll provoke suspicion if you do that," I exclaimed. "However, you
-can act as you please."
-
-"Mr. Royle's quite right," said the man addressed as Joe. "Why can't
-you leave him alone? He knows more about it than us, mates."
-
-"She's going twelve knots," I said, "and will cross our bows soon
-enough. Let her signal, we're not bound to answer."
-
-The men, in spite of themselves, watched her anxiously, and so did
-others on the forecastle, such cowards does conscience make of men.
-As for myself, I gazed at her with bitter indifference. The help that
-I stood in need of was not likely to come from such as she, or indeed
-from any vessel short of an inquisitive Government ship. Moreover, the
-part I was playing was too difficult to permit me to allow any impulse
-to inspire. The smallest distrust that I should occasion might cost me
-my life. My _role_ then surely was to seem one with the men, heart and
-soul.
-
-"Let her go off a point," I exclaimed to the man steering. "They'll not
-notice that, and she'll be across us the sooner for it."
-
-We were slipping through the water quickly, and by the time she was on
-our weather bow the steamer was near enough to enable us to see the
-awning stretched over her after-deck, and a crowd of persons watching
-us. She was a great ocean steamer, and went magnificently through the
-water. In a few minutes she was dead on end, dwindling the people
-watching us, but leaving such a long wake astern of her that we went
-over it.
-
-What would I have given to be on board of her!
-
-"Let her come to again!" I sang out.
-
-The carpenter now got off the skylight.
-
-"I've told the steward to turn to and get the men's breakfast,"
-said he. "Ourn's to be ready by eight; and I reckon I'll show that
-snivelling cockney what it is to be hungry. You don't call this a
-mutiny, do yer, Mr. Royle? Why, the men are like lambs."
-
-"Yes, so they are," I answered. "All the same, I shall be glad to feel
-dry land under me. The law always hangs the skipper of a mutiny, you
-know; and I'm skipper by your appointment. So the sooner we all get out
-of this mess the better, eh, Mr. Stevens?"
-
-"That's right enough," said he; "and we look to you to get us out of
-it."
-
-"I'll do what you ask me--I won't do more," I answered.
-
-"We don't want more. Enough's what we want. You'll let us see your
-reckonings every day--not because we doubt you--but it'll ease the
-minds of the men to know that we aren't like to foul the Bermudas."
-
-"The Bermudas are well to the nor'rard of our course," I answered
-promptly.
-
-"All right, Mr. Royle, we look to you," he said, with a face on him and
-in a tone that meant a good deal more than met the ear. "Now, mates,"
-addressing the others, "cut for'ard and get your breakfasts, my lads.
-It's eight bells. Mr. Royle, I'll go below and call the boatswain; and
-shall him and me have our breakfast and you arterwards, or you fust?
-Say the word. I'm agreeable vichever way it goes."
-
-"I'll stop on deck till you've done," I replied, wishing to have the
-table to myself.
-
-Down he went, and I advanced to the poop-rail and leaned over it to
-watch the men come aft to receive their share of the cuddy stores.
-
-I will do them the justice to say they were quiet enough. Whether the
-perception that they no longer recognized any superiors would not
-presently prevail; whether quarrels, deeds of violence, and all the
-consequences which generally attend the rebellion of ignorant men
-would not follow, was another matter. They were decent enough in their
-behaviour now; congregating on the main-deck and entering the cuddy
-one by one to receive the stores which the steward was serving out.
-
-These stores, so far as I could judge by the contents of the tin dishes
-which the men took forward, consisted of butter, white biscuit, a
-rasher of ham to each man, and tea or cocoa; excellent fare for men
-who had been starved on rotten provisions. I also found that every man
-had been served with a glass of rum. They did not seem to begrudge
-the privilege assumed by the carpenter and boatswain of occupying the
-cuddy and eating at the table there. The impression conveyed to me on
-the whole by their aspect and demeanour was that of men subdued and
-to a certain extent alarmed by the position in which they had placed
-themselves. But for the carpenter, I believe that I at that time and
-working upon their then state of mind, could have won them over to
-submission and made them willing to bring the ship into port and face
-an inquiry into the circumstances of the revolt. But though I believe
-this _now_, I conceived the attempt too full of peril to undertake,
-seeing that my failure must not only jeopardize my own, but the lives
-of poor old Mr. Robertson and his daughter, in the safety of whom I
-was so concerned, that I do not say that my profound anxiety did not
-paralyse the energy with which I should have attempted my own rescue
-had I been alone.
-
-How the men treated the steward I could not tell; but I noticed that
-Master Cook was very quiet in his manner. This was a sure sign of the
-efficacy of the fright he had received, and it pleased me greatly, as I
-had feared he would prove a dangerous and bloodthirsty mutineer and a
-terrible influence in the councils of the men.
-
-The carpenter was the first to come on deck. I had seen him (through
-the skylight) eating like a cormorant, his arms squared, his brown
-tattooed hand busy with his mouth, making atonement for his long fast
-in the forecastle. He kept his cap on, but the boatswain had better
-manners, and looked, as he faced his mate, a quite superior and
-different order of man altogether.
-
-I went below as soon as Stevens appeared, and the boatswain had the
-grace to rise, as though he would leave the table, when he saw me. I
-begged him to keep his seat, and, calling to the steward, asked to know
-how the men had treated him.
-
-"Pretty middling, sir, thank you, sir," he replied, with a trifle more
-spirit in his manner. "They're not brutal, sir. The cook never spoke,
-sir. Mr. Stevens is rather unkind, but I daresay it's only a way he
-has."
-
-The boatswain laughed, and asked him if he had breakfasted.
-
-"No, sir--not yet. I can wait, sir."
-
-"There's plenty to eat and drink," said the boatswain, pointing to the
-table.
-
-"Yes, sir, plenty," responded the steward, who, looking on the
-boatswain as one of the ringleaders, was as much afraid of him as of
-the carpenter.
-
-"Well, then," continued the boatswain, "why don't you tuck in? Mr.
-Royle won't mind. Sit there, or take what you want into the pantry."
-
-The steward turned pale, remembering the threats that had been used
-towards him if he touched the cuddy stores, and looked upon the
-boatswain's civility as a trick to get him hanged.
-
-"Thank you, sir," he stammered; "I've no happetite. I'd rather not eat
-anything at present, sir. I'll take a ship's biscuit shortly, sir, with
-your leave."
-
-Saying which, and with a ghastly face, he shuffled into the pantry, no
-doubt to escape from what he would consider highly murderous attentions.
-
-"Rum customer, that steward, Mr. Royle," said the boatswain, rubbing
-his mouth on the back of his hand.
-
-"So should I be had I undergone his sensations," I replied.
-
-"Well, I don't know about that. You see there ain't nothing regular
-about a steward. He isn't a sailor and he isn't a landsman; and when
-you come to them kind o' mongrels, you can't expect much sperrit. It
-isn't fair to expect it. It's like fallin' foul of a marmozeet, because
-he isn't as big as a monkey. What about them passengers o' yours, sir?
-They've not been sarved with breakfast since I've been here?"
-
-"I have seen to them," I answered. "What has Stevens been talking
-about?" As I said this I cast my eyes on the open skylight to see that
-our friend was not within hearing.
-
-He shook his head, and after a short pause exclaimed--
-
-"He's a bad 'un! he's a bad 'un! he's an out-and-outer!"
-
-"Do you know which of them struck the captain down?"
-
-"He did," he answered at once.
-
-"I could have sworn it by the way in which he excused the murderer."
-
-"Stevens," continued the boatswain, "is at the bottom of all this
-here business--him and the cook. I suppose he didn't want the cook
-for a chum, and so knocked him over when he was going to operate
-on Duckling's body. But Duckling was a bad 'un too, and so was the
-skipper. They've got to thank theirselves for what they got. The crew
-never would ha' turned had they been properly fed."
-
-"I believe that," I said. "But I'll tell you what's troubling me,
-boatswain. The carpenter has some design behind all this, which he is
-concealing. Does he really mean that I should navigate the ship to
-within fifty miles of New Orleans?"
-
-"Yes, sir, he do," answered the boatswain, regarding me stedfastly.
-
-"And he means then to heave the ship to, lower away the boats, and make
-for one of the mouths of the Mississippi, or land upon some part of the
-coast, and represent himself and his companions as castaway sailors?"
-
-"Quite right," said the boatswain, watching me fixedly.
-
-"If that is really his intention," I proceeded, "I cannot believe that
-he will allow me to land with the others. He distrusts me. He is as
-suspicious as all murderers are."
-
-The boatswain continued eyeing me intently, as a man might who strives
-to form a resolution from the expression in another's face.
-
-"He means to scuttle the ship," he said, in a low voice.
-
-"Ah!" I exclaimed, starting. "I should have foreseen this."
-
-"He means to scuttle her just before he puts off in the boats," he
-added in a whisper.
-
-I watched him anxiously, for I saw that he had more to tell me. He
-looked up at both skylights, then towards the cuddy door, then towards
-the companion ladder, bent over to me, and said--
-
-"Mr. Royle, he don't mean to let you leave this vessel."
-
-"He means to scuttle her, leaving me on board?"
-
-He nodded.
-
-"Did he tell you this?"
-
-He nodded again.
-
-"When?"
-
-"Just now."
-
-"And them?" I exclaimed, pointing towards the cabin in which were Mr.
-Robertson and his daughter.
-
-"They'll be left too," he replied.
-
-I took a deep breath, and closed the knife and fork on my plate.
-
-"Now then, mate!" bawled the carpenter's voice, down the companion;
-"how long are you goin' to be?"
-
-"Coming," answered the boatswain.
-
-A thought had flashed upon me.
-
-"There must be others in this ship whom Stevens distrusts as well
-as me," I whispered. "Who are they? Give me but two other men and
-yourself, and I'll engage that the ship will be ours! See! if these
-men whom he distrusts could be told that, at the last moment, they will
-be left to sink in a scuttled ship, they would come over on my side to
-save their lives. How are they to be got at?"
-
-He shook his head without speaking, and left the table; but turned to
-say, "Don't be in a hurry. I've got two hours afore me, and I'll turn
-it over." He then went on deck.
-
-I remained at the cuddy table, buried in thought. The boatswain's
-communication had utterly taken me by surprise. That Stevens, after
-the promise he had made me that there should be no more bloodshed,
-after the sympathy I had shown the men from the beginning, should be
-base enough to determine upon murdering me and the inoffensive persons
-we had rescued, at the moment when we might think our escape from our
-heavy misfortunes certain, was so shocking that the thought of it made
-me feel as one stunned. An emotion of deep despair was bred in me, and
-then this, in its turn, begot a wild fit of fury. I could scarcely
-restrain myself from rushing on deck and shooting the ruffian as he
-stood there.
-
-To escape from my own insanity, I ran into the captain's cabin, and
-locked the door, and plunged into deep and bitter reflection.
-
-It was idle for me to think of resistance in my then condition. Upon
-whom could I count? The boatswain? I could not be sure that he would
-aid me single-handed, nor hope that he would try to save my life at the
-risk of his own. The steward? Such a feeble-hearted creature would only
-hamper me, would be of less use even than old Mr. Robertson. Many among
-the crew, if not all of them indeed, must obviously be acquainted with
-Stevens' murderous intentions, and would make a strong and desperate
-gang to oppose me; and though I should discover the men who were not
-in the carpenter's confidence, how could I depend on them at the last
-moment?
-
-The feeling of helplessness induced in me by these considerations was
-profound and annihilating. I witnessed the whole murderous process as
-though it were happening: the ship hove to, the boats shoving away,
-one, perhaps, remaining to watch the vessel sink, that they might be in
-no doubt of our having perished. All this would happen in the dark too,
-for the departure of the men from the ship would only be safe at night,
-that no passing vessel might espy them.
-
-An idea that will sound barbarous, though I should not have hesitated
-to carry it out could I have seen my way to it, occurred to me. This
-was to watch an opportunity when the carpenter was alone, to hurl him
-overboard. But here, again, the chances against me were fifty to one.
-To destroy the villain without risk of detection, without the act being
-witnessed, without suspicion attaching to me on his being missed, would
-imply such a host of favouring conditions as the kindliest fortune
-could scarcely assemble together.
-
-What then was to be done?
-
-I had already pointed out the course the ship was to steer, and could
-not alter it. But though I should plausibly alter her course a point
-or two, what could follow? The moment land was sighted, let it be what
-coast it would, they would know I had deceived them; or, giving me the
-credit of having mistaken my reckonings, they would heave the ship
-to themselves, and then would come the dastardly crime. I dared not
-signal any passing vessel. Let my imagination devise what it would,
-it could invent nothing that my judgment would adopt; since, being
-single-handed in this ship, no effort I could make to save the lives of
-the persons it was my determination to stand by, but must end in our
-destruction.
-
-By such confessions I show myself no hero; but then I do not want
-to be thought one. I was, and am, a plain man, placed in one of the
-most formidable situations that any one could find himself in. In the
-darkness and horror of that time I saw no means of escape, and so I
-admit my blindness. A few strokes of the pen would easily show me other
-than I was, but then I should not be telling the truth, and should
-be falsely taking glory to myself, instead of truly showing it to be
-God's, by whose mercy I am alive to tell the story.
-
-My clothes and other things belonging to me being in the cabin now
-occupied by Stevens, I opened the door and desired the steward to bring
-them to me. My voice was heard by Miss Robertson, who came round the
-table to where I stood, and thanked me for my kindness to her and her
-father.
-
-She had made good use of the few conveniences I had been able to send
-her. Her hair was brushed, and most prettily looped over the comb, and
-she wore a collar that became her mightily, which she had found in the
-steward's box. She looked a sweet and true English girl; her deathlike
-pallor gradually yielding to a healthy white with a tinge of colour on
-the cheeks.
-
-"Papa seems better," she said, "and is constantly asking for you; but I
-told him," (with the prettiest smile,) "that you require rest as well
-as others, and that you have plenty to occupy you."
-
-Then looking earnestly at me for some moments, while her face grew
-wonderfully grave, she exclaimed--
-
-"What is wrong, Mr. Royle? What makes you look so anxious and worried?"
-
-"There is plenty to trouble me," I answered, not carelessly, but not
-putting too much significance into my tone, for at that moment I
-did not think I ought to tell her the truth. "You know the men have
-mutinied, and that my position is a difficult one. I have to be careful
-how I act, both for my sake and yours."
-
-"Yes, I know that," she said, keeping her clear and thoughtful eyes on
-me. "But then you said you did not fear that the men would be violent
-again, and that they would leave us on board this ship when we were
-near New Orleans."
-
-I watched her face some time without speaking, asking myself if
-I should take her into my confidence, if I ought to impart the
-diabolical scheme of Stevens, as told me by the boatswain. Certainly
-I should have put her off without telling her the truth had not the
-courageous expression in her eyes, her firm and beautiful mouth, her
-resolute voice and manner, told me she would know how to bear it.
-
-"I will not conceal that I have heard something just now which has
-affected me very much," I said to her. "Will you step into my cabin? We
-can talk there without being seen," I added, having observed Stevens
-walk along the main-deck, and expecting that he would return in a few
-moments to his cabin, it being his watch below.
-
-She followed me in silence, and I closed the door.
-
-"I will tell you in a few words," I at once began, "what I heard just
-now. I told the boatswain that I questioned whether the men would let
-me land with them for fear of the evidence I could give. He replied
-that he had gathered from the carpenter, while at breakfast, that the
-men intended to scuttle the ship when they quitted her, and to leave us
-on board."
-
-"To drown?"
-
-"That is their idea."
-
-She pursed up her mouth tightly, and pressed her hand to her forehead.
-That was all. Whatever emotion my statement inspired was hidden. She
-said in a low voice--
-
-"They are fiends! I did not think them so cruel--my poor father!"
-
-"This is what I am told they mean to do; and I know Stevens to be a
-ruffian, and that he will carry out his project if he can. I have spent
-some time alone here, in trying to think how we can save ourselves; as
-yet I see no remedy. But wait," I said; "it will take us three weeks,
-sailing well every day, to reach the Gulf of Mexico. I have this time
-before me; and in that time not only something must, but something
-shall be done."
-
-She did not answer.
-
-"I will hazard nothing. I will venture no risks; what I resolve to do
-must be effectual," I went on, "because my life is dearer to me now
-than it was three days ago, for your and your father's sake. You must
-be saved from these ruffians, but no risk must attend your deliverance.
-That is why I see no escape before us as _yet_; but it will come--it
-will come! Despair is very fruitful in expedients, and I am not beaten
-because I find myself flung like a dog in a hole!"
-
-She looked up at this, and said, "What is to be done?"
-
-"I must think."
-
-"I will think, too. We need not tell papa?" she added, toning her voice
-to a question, with an appealing look in her eyes.
-
-"No, certainly not. Remember, we are not supposed to question the men's
-honest intentions towards us. We must appear utterly ignorant."
-
-"Are they armed?" she inquired.
-
-"No."
-
-She cast her eyes round the cabin and said, "Have you no guns?"
-
-"Nothing but a pistol. But though we had twenty guns we have no hands
-to use them. So far as I know as yet, there is no man who would stand
-with me--not even the boatswain, unless he were sure we should conquer
-the ruffians."
-
-"Could I not use a pistol? Ah, I remember, you have only one."
-
-She sank her chin on her hand and looked downwards, lost in thought.
-
-"Why would you not steer the ship for some near port?" she asked
-presently.
-
-"I could not alter the course without being challenged. Remember that
-my policy is not to excite suspicion of my honesty."
-
-"If a gale would rise like that which wrecked the _Cecilia_, it might
-drive us near the land, where we could get help."
-
-"No, we shall have to depend upon ourselves. I do not want to pin my
-faith on chance."
-
-I began to pace to and fro, torn by the blind and useless labours of my
-mind.
-
-Just then a step sounded along the cuddy. The cabin door was pushed
-open roughly, and Stevens walked in. He stared at Miss Robertson, and
-cried--
-
-"Sorry to interrupt. Didn't know you was here, mam, I'm sure. I
-thought," addressing me, "I should find you turned in. I've come to
-have a look at that chart o' yours. How long d'ye make it to New
-Orleans?"
-
-"About three weeks."
-
-"Well, there's live stock enough for three weeks, any ways. I've just
-told the cook to stick one of them porkers. All hands has a fancy for
-roast pork to-day. Sarvant, miss. You was pretty nigh drownded, I
-think."
-
-"My father and I owe our lives to the noble fellows in this ship. They
-must be brave and good men to risk their lives to save ours," she
-answered, with a smile of touching sweetness, looking frankly into the
-face of the miscreant who stood, cap on head, before her.
-
-"Lor' bless yer!" he exclaimed; "there wasn't no risk. I'd ha' swum the
-distance in such a sea for five shilling."
-
-She shook her head with another smile (I judged the effort this piece
-of acting cost her), as she said--
-
-"I know that English sailors always undervalue their good deeds. But
-happily my father is a rich man, and when you land us he will take care
-that no man on board this ship shall complain of his gratitude."
-
-"Oh, he's rich!" exclaimed the carpenter, as though struck with a new
-idea.
-
-"Very rich."
-
-"How rich might he be, mam?"
-
-"Well, he owned the ship that you saved us from--cargo and ship."
-
-She could not have offered a better illustration of her father's wealth
-to the man, for he would appreciate the value of a vessel of that size.
-
-"And what do you think he'll give the men--them as saved him, I
-suppose?"
-
-"Oh, he won't make any difference. He is indebted to you all, for I
-have heard that the captain would not have stopped for us had he not
-been obliged to do so by the crew."
-
-"That's true enough," rejoined the carpenter with an oath, looking at
-me.
-
-"Perfectly true," I made haste to say.
-
-"My father would not certainly offer less than one hundred pounds to
-each man," she said quite simply.
-
-He pulled off his cap at this and twirled it and let it drop; picked it
-up so slowly that I thought he would never bend his body sufficiently
-to enable him to recover it; looked at her sideways as he put it on his
-head again, and then said to me with offensive abruptness--
-
-"Come, master, let's have a look at that blooming chart."
-
-I opened the door to let Miss Robertson pass out, exchanging one glance
-with her as she left, and addressed myself to the carpenter.
-
-He pored over the chart with his dirty forefinger upon it.
-
-"Whereabouts are we now?" he inquired.
-
-I pointed to the spot as near as I could judge from yesterday's
-reckonings.
-
-"What's this here line?" he asked.
-
-"That's the longitude."
-
-He ran his eye to the bottom of the chart and exclaimed--
-
-"Thirty. Is that it?"
-
-"Call it thirty."
-
-"But what do _you_ call it?"
-
-"Thirty, I tell you--thirty degrees west longitude."
-
-"And this here line's the latitude, I suppose?"
-
-"Yes."
-
-"That's forty."
-
-"Call it forty-four."
-
-"Will that make it right?"
-
-"Pretty nearly."
-
-"What are all these here dots and streaks?" said he, after squinting
-with his nose close to the chart. "Blowed if ever I could read them
-small words."
-
-"They are the Azores."
-
-"Oh, we're to the norrards o' them, aren't we?" he inquired sharply.
-
-"You can see for yourself," I answered, putting my finger on the chart.
-
-"Where's this blessed Gulf of Mexico?" he inquired, after casting his
-eyes all over the chart.
-
-"There."
-
-He ran his dirty thumbnail in a line to the the Gulf, and asked me what
-that blot was.
-
-"Bermuda."
-
-"You'll keep south o' that, will yer?"
-
-"If I can, certainly."
-
-"It's a man-o'-war station, I've heerd."
-
-"I believe it is."
-
-"All right," he said, and looking at the boat's compass on the table,
-asked if it were true.
-
-I told him it was; whereupon he set it on the chart and compared its
-indications with the line he had run down the chart, and was going
-away, when I said--
-
-"What do you think of the young lady's idea? I should like to earn a
-hundred pounds."
-
-"So should I," he answered gruffly, pausing.
-
-"It would pretty well pay me for what I have had to put up with from
-Coxon."
-
-He gave me an indescribable look, full of fierceness, suspicion, and
-cunning.
-
-"I dessay it would, if you got it," he said, and walked out, banging
-the door after him.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III.
-
-
-I had been greatly struck by the firmness with which Miss Robertson
-had received the ghastly bit of information I gave her, and not more
-by this than by her gentle and genial manner towards the carpenter,
-wherein she had shown herself perfectly well qualified to act with me
-in this critical, dangerous time. She had only just been rescued from
-one trial frightful enough in character to have driven one, at least,
-of the male sufferers mad; and now fate had plunged her into a worse
-situation, and yet she could confront the terrors of it calmly, and
-deliberate collectedly upon the danger.
-
-Such a character as this was, I thought, of the true type of heroine,
-with nothing in it that was strained; calm in emergency, and with a
-fruitful mind scattering hope around it--even though no more than
-hope--as the teeming flower sheds its perfume. I had especially noticed
-the quickness with which she had conceived and expressed that idea
-about her father rewarding the men; it inspirited me, in spite of the
-reception Stevens had given it. One hundred pounds a man was a promise
-that might move them into a very different train of thought from what
-Stevens had induced and was sustaining.
-
-Having heard the carpenter enter his cabin, I determined to step on
-deck and take the boatswain's sense on this new idea. But before
-quitting the cuddy, I knocked lightly on Miss Robertson's cabin door.
-
-She opened it instantly.
-
-"Will you come on deck?" I asked her.
-
-"Yes, if I can be of use there."
-
-"The air will refresh you after your confinement to this cabin, and
-will do your father good."
-
-"He is sleeping now," she answered, opening the door fully, that I
-might see the old man.
-
-"Let him sleep," said I; "that will do him more good. But you will
-come?"
-
-"Yes, with pleasure."
-
-"You have nothing to fear from the men," I said, wishing to reassure
-her. "They are willing to acknowledge the authority of the persons they
-have put over them--the bo'sun, Stevens, and myself."
-
-"I should not mind if they spoke to me," she exclaimed. "I should know
-what to say to them, unless they were brutal."
-
-She suddenly added, putting her hand to her head, and almost laughing--
-
-"I have no hat."
-
-"I have a straw hat you shall have," I said, and brought it.
-
-She put it on her head, and it sat very well on the pile of yellow hair
-that lay heaped over her comb.
-
-"How strange," she said, speaking in the whisper in which our
-conversation had been carried on, "to find oneself destitute,--without
-even the commonest necessaries! When the captain of the _Cecilia_ said
-we were sinking, papa ran with me out of the cabin. We did not think of
-putting on our hats, nor of saving anything but our lives."
-
-She turned to look at her father, closed the door tenderly, and
-accompanied me on deck.
-
-The morning was now advanced. The day was still very bright; and
-the wonderful blue of the heavens lost nothing of its richness from
-contrast with the stately and swelling clouds--pearl-coloured where
-they faced the sun, and with here and there a rainbow on their skirts,
-and centres of creamy white--which sailed solemnly over it.
-
-The breeze had freshened, but the swell had greatly subsided, and the
-sea was almost smooth, with brilliant little waves chasing it. The ship
-was stretching finely along the water, all sail set and every sail
-drawing.
-
-On our lee beam was the canvas of a big ship, her hull invisible; and
-astern of her I could just make out the faint tracing of the smoke of a
-steamer upon the sky. The sun shone warm, but not too warm; the strong
-breeze was sweet and soft; the ship's motion steady, and her aspect a
-glorious picture of white and rounded canvas, taut rigging delicately
-interlaced, and gleaming decks and glittering brass-work. The blue
-water sang a racing chorus at the bows, and the echo died upon the
-broad and bubbling wake astern.
-
-I ran my eye forwards upon the men on the forecastle. Most of the crew
-were congregated there, lounging, squatting, smoking--no man doing any
-work. I wondered, not at this, but that they should be so orderly and
-keep their place. They might have come aft had they pleased, swarmed
-into the cuddy, occupied the cabins; for the ship was theirs. Since
-they acted with so much decency, could they not be won over from their
-leader's atrocious project? If I went among them, holding this girl,
-now at my side, by the hand, and pleaded for her life, if not for my
-own, would they not spare her? would not some among them be moved by
-her beauty and her helplessness?
-
-Nothing should seem more rational than such conjectures, always
-providing that I ceased to remember these men were criminals, that
-their one idea now was to elude the law, and that I who should plead,
-and those for whom I pleaded, could by a word, when set on shore,
-procure the conviction of the whole gang, charge them with their
-crimes, prove their identity, and secure their punishment. Would not
-Stevens keep them in mind of this? Knowing what they knew, knowing what
-they meditated, I say that in the very orderliness of their behaviour,
-I witnessed something more sinister than I should have found in violent
-conduct. I alone could carry them to where they wished to go. I must be
-conciliated, pleased, obeyed, and my fears tranquillized. If I failed
-them, their doom was inevitable; shipwreck or capture was certain. All
-this was plain to me as the fingers on my hand; and during the brief
-time I stood watching them, I found myself repeating again and again
-the hopeless question, "What can I do?"
-
-Miss Robertson seated herself on one of the skylights, that nearest the
-break of the poop. The boatswain glanced at her respectfully, and the
-men forward stared, and some of them laughed, but none of the remarks
-they indulged in were audible.
-
-Fish was at the wheel. I went to the binnacle, and said--
-
-"That's our course. Let this wind hold, and we'll soon be clear of this
-mess."
-
-"Three weeks about, I gives us," answered the man.
-
-"And long enough, too," said I.
-
-He spat the quid in his mouth overboard, and dried his lips on his
-cuff. As he did not seem disposed to talk, I left him and joined the
-boatswain, and at my request he came and stood with me near Miss
-Robertson.
-
-"I have told this lady what you repeated to me at breakfast," I said,
-in a low voice. "She is full of courage, and I have asked her to come
-on deck that we may talk before her."
-
-"If she's as brave as she's pretty, I reckon not many 'll carry stouter
-hearts in 'em than her," he said, addressing her full, with an air of
-respectful gallantry that was very taking.
-
-She looked down with a smile.
-
-"Boatswain," said I, "every hour is precious to us, for at any moment
-Stevens may change the ship's course for a closer shore than the
-American; and though we should hold on for the Gulf, it may take us all
-our time to hit on a scheme to save ourselves and work it out. I have
-come to tell you an idea suggested by this lady, Miss Robertson. Her
-father is a rich man, owner of the vessel he was wrecked in----"
-
-"Robertson and Co., of Liverpool, ship-brokers?" he interrupted,
-addressing her.
-
-"Yes," she replied.
-
-"Why, I sailed in one o' that firm's wessels as bo'sun's mate, three
-year ago, the _Albany_ she was called, and a werry comfortable ship she
-was, well found and properly commanded."
-
-"Indeed!" she exclaimed, brightening up and looking at him eagerly.
-And then, reflecting a little, she said--"The _Albany_--that ship was
-commanded by Captain Tribett."
-
-"Quite right, miss, Tribett was the name. And the first mate's name
-was Green, and the second's Gull, and the third--ah! he were Captain
-Tribett's son,--same name of course. Well, blow me if this ain't wot
-the Italians calls a cohincidence."
-
-He was as pleased as she, and stood grinning on her.
-
-"Mr. Royle," she exclaimed, raising her fine eyes to mine, "surely
-there must be others like the boatswain in this ship. They cannot all
-be after the pattern of that horrible carpenter!"
-
-"We ought to be able to find that out, bos'un," I said.
-
-"Look here, miss," he answered, with a glance first at the men forward
-and then at Fish at the wheel, "the circumstances of this here affair
-is just this: the crew have been very badly treated, fed with rotten
-stores, and starved and abused by the skipper and chief mate until they
-went mad. I don't think myself that they meant to kill the captain and
-Mr. Duckling; but it happened, and no man barrin' Stevens was guiltier
-than his mate, and that's where it is. The carpenter knocked the
-skipper down, and others kicked him when he was down, not knowing he
-was dead; and four or five set on Mr. Duckling, and so you see it's
-a sin as they all share alike in. If one man had killed the skipper,
-and another man had killed the chief mate, why then so be, miss, the
-others might be got to turn upon 'em to save their own necks. But here
-it's all hands as did the job. And the only man who kept away, though
-I pretended to be one with 'em hearty enough, was me; and wot's the
-consequince. Stevens don't trust me; and I'm sartin in my own mind that
-he don't mean to let me into the boats when the time comes, any more
-than you."
-
-So saying, he deliberately walked aft, looked at the compass, then at
-the sails, and patrolled the poop for several minutes, for the very
-obvious reason that the men should not take notice of our talking long
-and close together.
-
-Presently he rejoined us, standing a little distance away, and in a
-careless attitude.
-
-"Bo'sun," said I, addressing him with my eyes on the deck, so that from
-a distance I would not appear to be speaking, "Miss Robertson told
-Stevens that her father would handsomely reward every man on board this
-ship on her arrival in port. He asked her what her father would give,
-and she said a hundred pounds to each man. If this were repeated to the
-crew, what effect would it produce?"
-
-"They wouldn't believe it."
-
-"My father would give each man a promise in writing," she exclaimed.
-
-"They wouldn't trust him," said the boatswain, without reflecting.
-"They'd think it a roose to bring 'em together to give 'em into
-custody. If I was one of them that's what I should think, and you may
-be sure I'm right."
-
-"But he would give them written orders on his bankers; they could not
-think it a ruse," she said eagerly, evidently enamoured of her own
-idea, since she saw that I entertained it.
-
-"Sailors don't no nothing about banks and the likes of that, miss.
-There are thirteen men in the ship's company, counting the cook and
-the steward. Call 'em twelve. If your father had a bag of sovereigns
-on board this wessel, and counted out a hundred to each man, then
-they'd believe him. But I'd not believe _them_. They'd take the money
-and scuttle the ship all the same. Don't make no mistake. They're fond
-o' their wagabone lives, and the carpenter's given 'em such a talkin'
-to, that they're precious keen on gettin' away and cuttin' off all
-evidence. It 'ud take more than a hundred pound each man to make 'em
-willing to risk their lives."
-
-He walked away once more and stood lounging aft, chatting with Fish.
-
-"I am afraid the bo'sun is right," said I. "Having lived among them and
-heard their conversation, he would know their characters too well to be
-deceived in the consequences of your scheme."
-
-"But papa would pay them, Mr. Royle. He would give them any pledge they
-might choose to name, that they would run no risk. The money could be
-sent to them--they need not appear--they need not be seen."
-
-"We know they would run no risks; but could we get them to believe us?"
-
-"At least let us try."
-
-"No--forgive me--we must not try. We must have nothing more to say. You
-have spoken to Stevens; let _him_ talk among the men. If the reward
-tempt them, be sure they will concert measures among themselves to land
-you. But I beg you to have no faith in this project. They are villains,
-who will betray you in the end. The boatswain's arguments respecting
-them are perfectly just--so just that he has inspired me with a new
-kind of faith in him. He owns that his own life is in jeopardy, and I
-believe he will hit upon some expedient to save us. See how he watches
-us! He will join us presently. I, too, have a scheme dawning in my
-head, but too imperfect to discuss as yet. Courage!" I said, animated
-by her beauty and the deep, speaking expression of her blue eyes: "the
-bo'sun's confession of his own danger makes me feel stronger by a man.
-I have greater confidence in him than I had. If I could but muster a
-few firearms--for even the steward might be made a man of, fighting
-for his life with a revolver in his hand--there is nothing I would not
-dare. But twelve to two!--what is our chance? It must not be thought
-of, with you and your father depending for your lives on ours."
-
-"No," she answered firmly. "There must be other and better ways. I will
-think as well as you."
-
-The boatswain came sauntering towards us. He flung a coil of rope over
-a belaying-pin, looked over the ship's side, approached us nearer, and
-pulled out a pipe and asked me for a light. I had one in my pocket and
-gave it to him. This was his excuse to speak.
-
-"It isn't so suspicious lookin' to talk now as it would be at night
-or in the cuddy--and in the cuddy there's no telling whose ears are
-about," he said. "I'll give you my scheme, thought on since breakfast,
-and listen close, for I durstn't talk much; after this we must belay,
-or the men 'll be set jawing. When we come to the Gulf of Mexico,
-you'll let me know how long it'll be afore we're fifty mile off the
-Mississippi. I helped to stow the cargo in this vessel, and she's
-choke full, and there's only one place as they'll be able to get at to
-scuttle her, and that's right forrards of the fore hatch. I'll let that
-out to Stevens bit by bit, in an ordinary way, and he'll remember it.
-The night afore we heave to--you'll tell me when--I'll fall overboard
-and get drowned. That'll happen in your watch. We'll get one o' them
-packin' cases full o' tin-tack up out o' the steerage and stow it away
-in one of the quarter-boats, and you'll let that drop overboard, d'ye
-see? which 'll sound like a man's body, and sink right away, and then
-you'll roar out that the boatswain's fallen overboard. Let 'em do
-what they like. I shall be stowed away forrard, down in the forepeak
-somewheers, and the man as comes there to bore a hole, _I'll choke_.
-Leave the rest to me. If Stevens he sings out to know if it's done,
-I'll say 'Yes,' and tell him to lower away the boats, and hold on for
-me. He'll take my voice for the fellow as is scuttling the ship. Now,"
-he added vehemently, "I'll lay any man fifty pound agin ten shillings,
-that Stevens don't wait for the man he sends below. He'll get into the
-boat and shove off and lay by. You'll give me the signal, and I'll
-come up sharp, an' if there's a breath o' air we'll have the mainyards
-round somehow; and if the boats get in our road we'll run 'em down; and
-if there's no wind, and they try to board us--let 'em look out! for
-there'll be more blood-letting among 'em than ever they saw before, by
-God!"
-
-He motioned with his hand that we should leave the poop, and walked
-away.
-
-Miss Robertson looked at me and I at her for some moments in silence.
-
-"Will it do, Mr. Royle?" she asked, in a low voice.
-
-"Yes," I said.
-
-"You think we shall be saved by this stratagem?"
-
-I reflected before answering, and then said, "I do."
-
-She went down the companion-ladder, and when we were in the cuddy, she
-took my hand in both of hers, and pressed it tightly to her heart, then
-hurried into her cabin.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV.
-
-
-The more I considered the boatswain's proposal, the better I liked
-it. All that day I turned it over and over in my mind. And, what was
-useful to me, I could sleep when I lay down in my watches below, which
-was a luxury I had feared, after the boatswain's disclosure at the
-breakfast-table, would be denied me.
-
-I did not wish Miss Robertson to sit at the cuddy table at meal hours,
-and when dinner-time came I took care that as good a meal should be
-taken to her and her father as the ship could furnish.
-
-When Stevens joined me at the table, he sang out to the steward to
-"tell the old gent an' his darter that dinner vos a vaitin'!" Whereupon
-I explained that the old gentleman was too ill to leave his bunk.
-
-"Well, then, let the gal come," said he.
-
-"She can't leave her father," I replied.
-
-"Perhaps it ain't that so much as because I ain't genteel enough for
-her. It's the vest end o' London as won't have nothen to do with
-Wapping. The tobaccy in my breath's too strong for her."
-
-"Nothing of the kind. The old man is ill, and she must watch him. As to
-your manners, I dare say she is better pleased with them than you ought
-to be told. It is not every ship's carpenter that could talk and look
-like a skipper, and keep men under as you do."
-
-"You're right there!" he exclaimed, with a broad grin. "Come, sarve us
-out a dollop o' that pork, will yer? Roast pork's never too fresh for
-me."
-
-And he fell like an animal to the meat, and forgot, as I wished, all
-about Miss Robertson.
-
-In the first watch, from eight in the evening until midnight, which was
-the boatswain's, I went and sat for an hour with the old gentleman and
-his daughter. Not a word was said about the peril we were in; he was
-quite ignorant of it, and, being better and stronger, was eager in his
-questions about the ship's progress.
-
-I took notice that he appeared to forget all about the mutiny, and
-conversed as if I were captain. Nor did he show any strong recollection
-of the loss of his ship and the circumstances attending it. Indeed,
-it seemed that as he grew better his memory grew worse. _That_ was
-the faculty injured by his sufferings, and when I listened to his
-questions, which took no cognizance of things of the past, though
-as recent as yesterday, I thought his memory would presently quit
-him wholly, for he was an old man, with a mind too feeble to hold on
-tightly.
-
-I left them at half-past nine, and went on deck. I tried to see who was
-at the wheel, but could not make the man out. I think it was one of the
-Dutchmen. Better this man than Fish, Johnson, or some of the others,
-whose names I forget, who were thick with the carpenter, and before
-whom it would not be wise to talk with any suggestion of mystery with
-the boatswain.
-
-However, there was not much chance of my being noticed, for the night
-was gloomy, and all about the decks quite dark. The ship was under
-topsails and main top-gallant sail; the wind was east-south-east,
-blowing freshly, with long seas. There was no appearance of foul
-weather, and the glass stood steady; but an under-sky of level cloud
-lay stretched across the stars; and looking abroad over the ship's
-side, nothing was distinguishable but the foam of the waves breaking as
-they ran.
-
-As I emerged from the companion, the boatswain hailed the forecastle,
-and told the man there to keep a good look-out. I had not had an
-opportunity of speaking to him since the morning. I touched him on the
-arm, and he turned and stared to see who I was.
-
-"Ah, Mr. Royle," said he.
-
-"Let's get under the lee of that quarter-boat," said I. "We can hear
-each other there. Who's at the wheel?"
-
-"Dutch Joe."
-
-"Come to the binnacle first, and I'll talk to you about the ship's
-course, and then we'll get under the quarter-boat, and he'll think I am
-giving you sailing directions."
-
-We did this, and I gave the boatswain some instructions in the hearing
-of the Dutchman; and to appear very much in earnest, the boatswain and
-I hove the log whilst Dutch Joe turned the glass, which he could easily
-attend to, holding a spoke with one hand, for the ship was steering
-herself.
-
-We then walked to the quarter-boat and stood under the lee of it.
-
-"Bo'sun," said I, "the more I think of your scheme, the better I like
-it. Whatever may happen, your being in the hold will prevent any man
-from scuttling the ship."
-
-"Yes, so it will; I'll take care of that. One blow must do the job--he
-mustn't cry out. The pianofortes are amidships on nearly two foot of
-dunnage; all forrard the cases run large, and it's there they'll find
-space."
-
-"My intention is not to wait until we come to the Gulf in order to
-carry this out," said I; "I'll clap on sixty, eighty, a hundred miles,
-just as I see my way, to every day's run, so as to bring the Gulf of
-Mexico close alongside the Bermuda Islands. Do you understand, bo'sun?"
-
-"Yes, I understand. There's no use in waitin'. You're quite right to
-get it over. The sooner the better, says I."
-
-"We shall average a run of 300 miles every twenty-four hours, and I'll
-slip in an extra degree whenever I can. Who's to know?"
-
-"Ne'er a man on this wessel, sir," he answered. "There's not above two
-as can spell words in a book."
-
-"So I should think. Of course I shall have to prick off the chart
-according to the wind. A breeze like this may well give us three
-hundred miles. If it fall calm I can make her drift sixty miles
-west-sou'-west, and clap on another eighty for steerage way. I shall
-have double reckonings--one for the crew, one for myself. You, as chief
-mate, will know it's all right."
-
-"Leave that to me," he answered, with a short laugh. "They've found out
-by this time that the ship's a clipper, and I'll let 'em understand
-that there never was a better navigator than you. It 'll be for you and
-me to keep as much canvas on her as she'll carry in our watches, for
-the sake of appearance; and if I was you, sir, I'd trim the log-line
-afresh."
-
-"A good idea," said I. "I'll give her a double dose. Twelve knots shall
-be nothing in a moderate breeze."
-
-We both laughed at this; and then, to make my presence on deck appear
-reasonable, I walked to the binnacle.
-
-I returned and said--
-
-"In nine days hence we must contrive to be in longitude 62 deg. and
-latitude 33 deg.;--somewhere about it. If we can average 180 miles every
-day we shall do it."
-
-"What do you make the distance from where we are now to the Gulf?"
-
-"In broad numbers, three thousand miles."
-
-"No more?"
-
-"Averaging two hundred miles a day we should be abreast of New Orleans
-in a fortnight. I said three weeks, but I shall correct myself to
-Stevens to-morrow, after I have taken observations. I'll show him a
-jump on the chart that will astonish him. I'll punish the scoundrels
-yet. I'll give them the direct course to Bermuda when they're in the
-boats, and if our plot only succeeds and the wind serves, one of us two
-will be ashore on the island before them, to let the governor know whom
-he is to expect."
-
-"That may be done, too," answered the boatswain; "but it'll have to be
-a dark night to get away from 'em without their seeing of us."
-
-"They'll choose a dark night for their own sakes. Boatswain, give us
-your hand. Your cleverness has in my opinion as good as saved us. I
-felt a dead man this morning, but I never was more alive, thanks to
-you, than I am now."
-
-I grasped his hand, and went below, positively in better spirits that I
-had enjoyed since I first put my foot upon this ill-fated ship.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The first thing I did next morning was to mark off the log-line
-afresh, having smuggled the reel below during my watch. I shortened
-the distances between the knots considerably, so that a greater number
-should pass over the stern whilst the sand was running than would be
-reeled off if the line were true.
-
-At eight bells, when the boatswain went on deck, I asked him to
-take the log with him; and following him presently, just as Stevens
-was about to leave the poop, I looked around me, as if studying the
-weather, and exclaimed--
-
-"Bos'un, you must keep the log going, please. Heave it every hour,
-never less. I may have to depend upon dead-reckoning to-day, Mr.
-Stevens;" and I pointed to the sky, which was as thick as it had been
-all night.
-
-"Shall I heave it now?" inquired the boatswain.
-
-"Did you heave it in your watch, Mr. Stevens?" said I.
-
-"No," he replied. "What are we doin' now? This has been her pace all
-along--ha'n't touched a brace or given an order since I came on deck."
-
-He had come on deck to relieve me at four.
-
-"Let's heave the log," I exclaimed; "I shall be better satisfied."
-
-I gave the glass to Stevens, and whilst arranging the log-ship, I
-looked over the side, and said--
-
-"By Jove, she's walking and no mistake."
-
-"I allow that we're doing ten," said the man at the wheel.
-
-"I give her thirteen good," said I.
-
-"Call it fifteen, and you'll not be far out," observed the boatswain.
-
-The carpenter cocked his evil eye at the water, but hazarded no
-conjecture.
-
-"She _can_ sail--if she can't do nothen else," was all he said.
-
-I flung the log-ship overboard.
-
-"Turn!" I cried out.
-
-I saw the knots fibbing out like a string of beads. The reel roared in
-the boatswain's hands, and when Stevens called "Stop!" I caught the
-line and allowed it to jam me against the rail, as though the weight of
-it, dragged through the water at the phenomenal speed at which we were
-supposed to be going, would haul me overboard.
-
-"What's that knot there, Mr. Stevens?" I called out. "Bear a hand! the
-line is cutting my fingers in halves!"
-
-He put down the sand-glass and laid hold of the line where the knot
-was, and began to count.
-
-"Fifteen!" he roared.
-
-"Well, I'm jiggered!" exclaimed the man steering.
-
-I looked at Stevens triumphantly, as though I should say, "What do you
-think of that?"
-
-"I told you you wur wrong, Mr. Royle," said the boatswain. "It's all
-fifteen. By jingo! it ain't sailing, it's engine drivin'!"
-
-The true speed of the _Grosvenor_ was about nine and a half
-knots--certainly not more; and whether the carpenter should believe the
-report of the log or not, was nothing to me.
-
-"Log it fifteen on the slate, bo'sun, and keep the log going every
-hour," I said, and went below again.
-
-I saw, as was now my regular custom at every meal, that the steward
-took a good breakfast to the Robertsons' cabin, and then sat down with
-Stevens to the morning repast.
-
-I took this opportunity of suggesting that if the wind held, and the
-vessel maintained her present rate of speed, we might hope to be in the
-Gulf of Mexico in a fortnight.
-
-"How do you make that out? It was three weeks yesterday."
-
-"And it might have been a month," I answered. "But a few days of this
-kind of sailing, let me tell you, Mr. Stevens, make a great difference
-in one's calculations."
-
-"How fur off is the Gulf of Mexico?" he asked.
-
-"About a couple of thousand miles."
-
-"Oh, a couple of thousand miles. Well, an' what reckoning do you get
-out o' that?"
-
-"Suppose you put the ship's pace down at thirteen knots an hour?"
-
-"I thought you made it fifteen?" he exclaimed, looking at me
-suspiciously.
-
-"Yes, but I don't suppose we shall keep that up. For the sake of
-argument I call it thirteen?"
-
-"Well?" cramming his mouth as he spoke.
-
-"In twenty-four hours we shall have run a distance of three hundred and
-twelve miles."
-
-He nodded.
-
-"Therefore, if we have the luck to keep up this pace of two knots
-less than we are now actually doing, for fifteen days, we shall have
-accomplished--let me see."
-
-I drew out a pencil, and commenced a calculation on the back of an old
-envelope.
-
-"Three hundred and twelve multiplied by fifteen. Five times naught
-are naught; three naughts and two are ten; add two thousand; we shall
-have accomplished a distance of four thousand six hundred and eighty
-miles--that is two thousand six hundred and eighty miles further than
-we want to go."
-
-He was puzzled (and well he might be) by my fluent figures, but would
-not appear so.
-
-"I understand," said he.
-
-"Stop a bit," I exclaimed; "I want to show you something."
-
-I entered the captain's cabin, procured a chart of the North and South
-Atlantic, including the eastern American coast, and spread it upon the
-table.
-
-"The two thousand miles I have given you," said I, "would bring you
-right off the Mississippi. See here."
-
-He rose and stooped over the chart.
-
-"The short cut to the Gulf," I continued, pointing with my pencil,
-"is through the Florida Channel, clean through the Bahamas, where the
-navigation is very ugly."
-
-"I see."
-
-"I wouldn't trust myself there without a pilot on any consideration,
-and, of course," said I, looking at him, "we don't want a pilot."
-
-"I should rayther think we don't," he answered, scowling at the chart.
-
-"So," I went on, "to keep clear of ships and boats, which are sure
-to board us if we get among these islands, I should steer round
-the Caribees, do you see?--well away from them, and up through the
-Caribbean Sea, into the Gulf. Do you follow me?"
-
-"Yes, yes--I see."
-
-"Now, Mr. Stevens," said I very gravely, "I want to do my duty to the
-crew, and put them and myself in the way of getting ashore and clear
-off from all bad consequences."
-
-The scoundrel tried to meet my eyes, but could not; and he listened to
-me, gazing the while on the chart.
-
-"But I don't think I should succeed if I got among those islands
-blocking up the entrance of the Gulf; and as to the Gulf itself, you
-may take your oath it's full of ships, some of which will pick you up
-before you reach the shore, whilst others are pretty certain to come
-across the vessel you have abandoned, and then--look out!"
-
-He swallowed some coffee hastily, stared at the chart, and said in a
-surly voice, "What are you drivin' at?"
-
-"Instead of our abandoning the ship in the Gulf of Mexico," I said, "my
-opinion is that, in order to assure our safety, and lessen the chance
-of detection, we ought to abandon her clear of these islands, to the
-norrard of them, off this coast here--Florida," pointing to the chart.
-
-"You think so?" he said, doubtfully, after a long pause.
-
-"I am certain of it. We ought to land upon some uninhabited part of the
-coast, travel along it northwards, until we reach a town, and there
-represent ourselves as shipwrecked sailors. Ask your mates if I am not
-right."
-
-"Perhaps you are," he replied, still very dubious, though not speaking
-distrustfully.
-
-"If you select the coast of Florida, clear of all these islands, and
-away from the track of ships, I'll undertake, with good winds, to put
-the ship off it in nine or ten days. But I'll not answer for our safety
-if you oblige me to navigate her into the Gulf of Mexico."
-
-He continued looking at the chart for some moments, and I saw by the
-movements of his lips that he was trying to spell the names of the
-places written on the Florida coast outline, though he would not ask me
-to help him.
-
-At last he said--
-
-"It's Fish and two others as chose New Orleans. _I_ have no fancy for
-them half-an'-half places. What _I_ wanted was to get away into the
-Gulf of Guinea, and coast along down to Congo, or that way. I know that
-coast, but I never was in Amerikey, and," he added, fetching the chart
-a blow with his fist, "curse me if I like the notion of going there."
-
-"It won't do to be shifting about," said I, frightened that he would go
-and get the crew to agree with him to run down to the African coast,
-which would seriously prolong the journey, and end, for all I could
-tell, in defeating my scheme; "we shall be running short of water and
-eatable stores, and then we shall be in a fix. Make up your mind, Mr.
-Stevens, to the Florida coast; you can't do better. We shall fetch it
-in a few days, and once ashore, we can disperse in parties, and each
-party can tell their own yarn if they are asked questions."
-
-"Well, I'll talk to Fish and the others about it," he growled, going
-back to his seat. "I think you're right about them West Indie Islands.
-We must keep clear o' them. Perhaps some of 'em forrards may know what
-this here Florida is like. I was never ashore there."
-
-He fell to his breakfast again, and finding him silent, and
-considering that enough had been said for the present, I left him.
-
-I did not know how well I had argued the matter until that night, when
-he came to me on the poop, at half-past eight, and told me that the men
-were all agreed that it would be too dangerous to abandon the ship off
-New Orleans, and that they preferred the notion of leaving her off the
-Florida coast.
-
-I asked him if I was to consider this point definitely settled, and on
-his answering in the affirmative, I sang out to the man at the wheel to
-keep her away a couple of points, and ordered some of the watch to haul
-in a bit on the weather braces, explaining to Stevens that his decision
-would bring our course a trifle more westerly.
-
-I then told him that, with a good wind, I would give the ship eight or
-nine days to do the run in, and recommended him to let the crew know
-this, as they must now turn to and arrange, not only how they should
-leave the ship--in what condition, whether with their clothes and
-effects, as if they had had time to save them, or quite destitute, as
-though they had taken to the boats in a hurry--but also make up their
-minds as to the character of the story they should relate when they got
-ashore.
-
-He answered that all this was settled, as, of course, I was very well
-aware; but then my reason for talking to him in this strain was to
-convince him that I had no suspicion of the diabolical project he was
-meditating against my life.
-
-You will, perhaps, find it hard to believe that he and the others
-should be so ignorant of navigation as to be duped by my false
-reckonings and misstatements of distances. But I can aver from
-experience that merchant-seamen are, as a rule, as ignorant and
-thick-headed a body of men as any in this world--and scarcely a
-handful in every thousand with even a small acquaintance with the
-theoretical part of their calling. More than a knowledge of practical
-seamanship is not required from them; and how many are proficient even
-in this branch? Of every ship's company more than half always seem to
-be learning their business; furling badly, reefing badly, splicing,
-scraping, painting, cleaning badly; turning to lazily; slow up aloft,
-negligent, with an immense capacity of skulking.
-
-I am persuaded that had I not shown Stevens the chart, I could have
-satisfied him that a southerly course would have fetched the coast
-of America. The mistake I made was in being too candid and honest
-with them in the beginning. But then I had no plan formed. I dared
-not be tricky without plausibility, and without some definite end to
-achieve. Now that I had got a good scheme in my head, I progressed with
-it rapidly, and I felt so confident of the issue, in the boatswain's
-pluck and my own energy, that my situation no longer greatly excited my
-apprehensions, and all that I desired was that the hour might speedily
-arrive when the boats with their cargo of rascals and cowards should
-put off and leave the ship.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V.
-
-
-Having no other log-book than my memory to refer to, I pass over six
-days, in which nothing occurred striking enough for my recollection to
-retain.
-
-This brought us to Sunday; and on that day at noon we were, as nearly
-as I can recall, in 37 deg. north latitude and 50 deg. west longitude.
-
-In round numbers Bermuda lies in latitude 32 deg. and longitude 65 deg.. This
-is close enough for my purpose. We had consequently some distance yet
-to run before we should _heave to off the coast of Florida_. But we had
-for five days carried a strong following wind with us, and were now
-(heading west by south half south) driving eight or nine knots an hour
-under a fresh wind forward of the port beam.
-
-I own I was very glad to be able to keep well to the norrard of 30 deg.;
-for had the north-east trade winds got hold of the ship, I should not
-have been able to accommodate the distances run to my scheme so well as
-I now could with shifting winds blowing sometimes moderate gales.
-
-The crew continued to behave with moderation. The carpenter, indeed,
-grew more coarse and offensive in manner as the sense of his importance
-and of his influence over the men grew upon him; and there were times
-when Johnson and Fish put themselves rather disagreeably forward; but I
-must confess I had not looked for so much decency of behaviour as was
-shown by the rest of the men in a crew who were absolute masters of the
-vessel.
-
-But all the same, I was not to be deceived by their apparent
-tractableness and quiet exterior. I knew but too well the malignant
-purpose that underlay this reposeful conduct, and never addressed
-them but felt that I was accosting murderers, who, when the moment
-should arrive, would watch their victims miserably drown, with horrid
-satisfaction at the success of their cruel remedy to remove all chance
-of their apprehension.
-
-On this Sunday, old Mr. Robertson came on deck for the first time,
-accompanied by his daughter, who had not before been on the poop in the
-daytime.
-
-It was my watch on deck; had it been the carpenter's, I should have
-advised them to keep below.
-
-What I had feared had now come to pass. Mr. Robertson's memory was
-gone. He could recall nothing; but what was more pitiful to see,
-though it was all for the best so far as he was concerned, he made no
-effort to recollect. Nothing was suggestive; nothing, that ever I could
-detect, put his mind in labour. His daughter spoke to me about this
-melancholy extinction of his memory, but not with any bitterness of
-sorrow.
-
-"It is better," she said, "that he should not remember the horrors of
-that shipwreck, nor understand our present dreadful position."
-
-It was indeed the sense of our position that took her mind away from
-too active a contemplation of her father's intellectual enfeeblement.
-There was never a more devoted daughter, more tender, gentle,
-unremitting in her foresight of his wants; and yet, in spite of
-herself, the feeling of her helplessness would at times overpower her;
-that strong and beautiful instinct in women which makes them turn for
-safety and comfort to the strength of men whom they can trust, would
-master her. I knew, I felt through signs touching to me as love, how
-she looked to me out of her loneliness, out of the deeper loneliness
-created in her by her father's decay, and wondered that I, a rough
-sailor, little capable of expressing all the tenderness and concern
-and strong resolutions that filled my heart, should have the power to
-inspirit and pacify her most restless moods. In view of the death that
-might await us--for hope and strive as we might, we could pronounce
-nothing certain--it was exquisite flattery to me, breeding in me,
-indeed, thoughts which I hardly noted then, though they were there to
-make an epoch in my life, to feel her trust, to witness the comfort my
-presence gave her, to receive her gentle whispers that she had no fear
-now; that I was her friend; that she knew me as though our friendship
-was of old, old standing!
-
-I say, God bless her for her faith in me! I look back and know that I
-did my best. She gave me courage, heart, and cunning; and so I owed my
-life to her, for it was these things that saved it.
-
-She exactly knew the plans concerted by the boatswain and myself, and
-was eager to help us; but I could find no part for her.
-
-However, this Sunday afternoon, whilst I stood near her, talking in a
-low voice, her father sitting in a chair that I had brought from the
-cuddy, full in the sun, whose light seemed to put new life into him--I
-said to her with a smile--
-
-"If to-night is dark enough, the boatswain must be drowned."
-
-"Yes," she answered, "I know. It will not be too soon, you think?"
-
-"No. I shall not be easy until I get him stowed away in the hold."
-
-"You will see," she exclaimed, "that the poor fellow takes plenty to
-eat and drink with him?"
-
-"A good deal more than he wants is already there," I answered. "For the
-last three days he has been dropping odds and ends of food down the
-fore hatch. Let the worst come to the worst, he had smuggled in enough,
-he tells me, to last him for a fortnight. Besides, the water-casks are
-there."
-
-"And how will he manage to sleep?"
-
-"Oh, he'll coil up and snug himself away anyhow. Sailors are never
-pushed for a bedstead: anything and everything serves. The only part
-of the job that will be rather difficult is the drowning him. I don't
-know anything that will make a louder splash and sink quickly too, than
-a box of nails. The trouble is to heave it overboard without the man
-at the wheel seeing me do it; and I must contrive to let him think that
-the boatswain is aft, before I raise the splash, because if this matter
-is not ship-shape and carried out cleverly, the man, whoever he may be
-that takes the wheel, will be set thinking and then get on to talking.
-Now, not the shadow of a suspicion must attend this."
-
-"May I tell you how I think the man who is steering can be deceived?"
-
-"By all means."
-
-She fixed her eyes on the sea and said--
-
-"I must ask some questions first. When you come on deck, will it be the
-boatswain's or the carpenter's turn to go downstairs?"
-
-"The carpenter's. He must be turned in before I move."
-
-"And will the same man be at the wheel who steered the ship during the
-carpenter's watch?"
-
-"No. He will be relieved by a man out of the port watch."
-
-"Now I understand. What I think is that the man who comes to take the
-other one's place at the wheel ought to see the boatswain as he passes
-along the deck. The boatswain should stand talking with you in full
-sight of this man, that is, near the wheel, if the night is dark, so
-that he can hear his voice, if he cannot distinguish his face; and when
-all is quiet in the fore part of the ship, then you and he should walk
-away and stand yonder," pointing, as she spoke, to the creak of the
-poop.
-
-I listened to her with interest and curiosity.
-
-"Some one must then creep up and stand beside you, and the boatswain
-must instantly slip away and hide himself. The case of nails ought
-to be ready in one of those boats; you and the person who takes the
-boatswain's place must then go to the boat, and one of you, under
-pretence of examining her, must get the box of nails out on to the
-rails ready to be pushed over-boards. Then the new-comer must crouch
-among the shadows and glide away off the poop, and when he is gone you
-must push the box over into the sea and cry out."
-
-"The plot is perfect," I exclaimed, struck not more by its ingenuity
-than the rapidity with which it had been conceived. "There is only one
-drawback--who will replace the bo'sun? I dare not trust the steward."
-
-"You will trust me?" she said.
-
-I could not help laughing, as I exclaimed, "You do not look like the
-bo'sun."
-
-"Oh, that is easily done," she replied, slightly blushing, and yet
-looking at me bravely. "If he will lend me a suit of his clothes, I
-will put them on."
-
-To spare her the slightest feeling of embarrassment, I said--
-
-"Very well, Miss Robertson. It will be a little masquerading, that
-is all. I will give you a small sou'wester that will hide your
-hair--though even that precaution should be unnecessary, for if the
-night is not dark, the adventure must be deferred."
-
-"It is settled!" she exclaimed, with her eyes shining. "Come! I knew I
-should be able to help. You will arrange with the boatswain, and let me
-know the hour you fix upon, and what signal you will give me to steal
-up on deck and place myself near you."
-
-"You are the bravest girl in the world! you are fit to command a ship!"
-I exclaimed.
-
-She smiled as she answered, "A true sailor's compliment, Mr. Royle."
-Then with a sudden sigh and a wonderful change of expression, making
-her beauty a sweet and graceful symbol of the ever-changing sea, she
-cried, looking at her father--
-
-"May God protect us and send us safely home! I dare not think too much.
-I hope without thinking. Oh, Mr. Royle, how shall you feel when we are
-starting for dear England? This time will drive me mad to remember!"
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI.
-
-
-I shall never forget the deep anxiety with which I awaited the coming
-on of the night, my feverish restlessness, the exultation with which I
-contemplated my scheme, the miserable anguish with which I foreboded
-its failure.
-
-It was like tossing a coin--the cry involving life or death!
-
-If Stevens detected the stratagem, my life was not worth a rushlight,
-and the thoughts of Mary Robertson falling a victim to the rage of the
-crew was more than my mind could be got to bear upon.
-
-Stevens came on deck at four o'clock in the afternoon, and that
-I might converse with the boatswain without fear of incurring the
-carpenter's suspicion, I brought a chart from the captain's cabin and
-spread it on the cuddy table, right under the after skylight, and
-whilst the boatswain and I hung over it, pretending to be engaged in
-calculations, we completed our arrangements.
-
-He was struck with the boldness of Miss Robertson's idea, and said he
-would as soon trust her to take part in the plot as any stout-hearted
-man. He grinned at the notion of her wearing his clothes, and told me
-he'd make up a bundle of his Sunday rig, and leave it out for me to put
-into her cabin.
-
-"She'll know how to shorten what's too lengthy," said he; "and you'd
-better tell her to take long steps ven she walks, for vimmen's legs
-travels twice as quick as a man's, and that's how I alvays knows vich
-sex is hacting before me in the theaytre, though, to be sure, some
-o' them do dress right up to the hammer, and vould deceive their own
-mothers."
-
-"Are the hatches off forrard?"
-
-"You leave that to me, Mr. Royle. That'll be all right."
-
-"What weapon have you got?"
-
-"Only a bar of iron the size of my leg," he answered, grimly. "I
-shouldn't like to drop it on my foot by accident."
-
-We brought our hurried conversation to a close by perceiving the
-carpenter staring at us stedfastly through the skylight; and whispering
-that everything now depended upon the night being dark, I repaired with
-my chart to the cabin I occupied.
-
-I noticed at this time that the lid of one of the lockers stood a
-trifle open, sustained by the things inside it, which had evidently
-been tumbled and not put square again.
-
-This, on inspecting the locker, I found to be the case; and remembering
-that here was the bag of silver I had come across while searching for
-clothes for old Mr. Robertson, I thrust my hand down to find it. It was
-gone. "So, Mr. Stevens," thought I, "this is some of your doing, is it?
-A thief as well as a murderer! You grow accomplished." Well, if he had
-the silver in his pocket when he quitted the ship, it would only drown
-him the sooner, should he find himself overboard. There was comfort in
-that reflection, any way; and I should have been perfectly willing that
-the silver had been gold, could the rogue's death have been hastened by
-the transmutation.
-
-A little before six o'clock, at which hour I was to relieve the
-boatswain in order to take charge of the ship through the second
-dog-watch, Stevens being in his cabin and all quiet in the after part
-of the vessel, I went quietly down the ladder that conducted to
-the steerage, this ladder being situated some dozen feet abaft the
-mizzen-mast.
-
-All along the starboard side of the ship in this part of her were
-stowed upwards of seven hundred boxes of tin-tacks, each box about
-twice the breadth and length of this book in your hand, and weighing
-pretty heavy. There was nothing else that I could think of that would
-so well answer the purpose of making a splash alongside, as one of
-these boxes, and which combined the same weight in so handy and
-portable a bulk. Anything in wood must float; anything in iron might
-be missed. All these things had to be carefully considered, for, easy
-as the job of dropping a weight overboard to counterfeit the sound
-of a human body fallen into the water may seem, yet in my case the
-difficulty of accomplishing it successfully, and without the chance
-of subsequent detection, was immense, and demanded great prudence and
-foresight.
-
-I conveyed one of these boxes to my cabin, and when four bells were
-struck (the hands kept the relief bells going for their own sakes, I
-giving them the time each day at noon), I smuggled it up in a topcoat,
-and stepped with an easy air on to the poop. The man who had been
-steering was in the act of surrendering the spokes to another hand, and
-I took advantage of one of them cutting off a piece of tobacco for the
-other, which kept them both occupied, to put my coat and the box inside
-it in the stern sheets of the port quarter-boat, as though it were my
-coat only which I had deposited there out of the road, handy to slip on
-should I require it.
-
-The boatswain observed my action without appearing to notice it; and as
-he passed me on the way to the cuddy, he said that his clothes would
-be ready by eight bells for the lady, and that I should find them in a
-bundle near the door.
-
-He would not stay to say more; for I believe that the carpenter had
-found something suspicious in our hanging together over the chart, and
-had spoken to this effect to his chums among the men; and it therefore
-behoved the boatswain and me to keep as clear of each other as possible.
-
-One stroke of fortune, however, I saw was to befall us. The night,
-unless a very sudden change took place, would be dark.
-
-The sky was thick, with an even and unbroken ground of cloud which had
-a pinkish tint down in the western horizon, where the sun was declining
-behind it. The sea was rough, and looked muddy. The wind held steady,
-but blew very fresh, and had drawn a trifle further to the southwards,
-so that the vessel was a point off her course. The motion of the ship
-was very uncomfortable, the pitching sharp and irregular, and she
-rolled as quickly as a vessel of one hundred tons would.
-
-As the shadows gathered upon the sea, the spectacle of the
-leaden-coloured sky and waves was indescribably melancholy. Some
-half-dozen Mother Carey's chickens followed in our wake, and I watched
-their grey breasts skimming the surface of the waves until they grew
-indistinguishable on the running foam. The look of the weather was
-doubtful enough to have justified me in furling the main top-gallant
-sail and even single reefing the two topsails; but though this canvas
-did not actually help the ship's progress, as she was close to the
-wind, and it pressed her over and gave her much leeway, yet I thought
-it best to let it stand, as it suggested an idea of speed to the men
-(which I took care the log should confirm), and I should require to
-make a long reckoning on the chart next day to prove to Stevens that we
-were fast nearing the coast of Florida.
-
-At eight o'clock I called Stevens, and saw him well upon deck before I
-ventured to enter the boatswain's berth. I then softly opened the door,
-and heard the honest fellow snoring like a trooper in his bunk; but
-the parcel of clothes lay ready, and I at once took them, and knocked
-lightly on Miss Robertson's door.
-
-She immediately appeared, and I handed her the clothes and also my
-sou'wester, which I had taken from my cabin after quitting the deck.
-
-"What is to be the signal?" she asked.
-
-"Three blows of my heel over your cabin. There is a spare cabin next
-door for you to use, as your father ought not to see you."
-
-"I will contrive that he does not see me," she answered. "He fell
-asleep just now when I was talking to him. I had better not leave him,
-for if he should wake up and call for me, I should not like to show
-myself in these clothes for fear of frightening him; whereas if I stop
-here I can dress myself by degrees and can answer him without letting
-him see me."
-
-"There is plenty of time," I said. "The bo'sun relieves the carpenter
-at midnight. I will join the bo'sun when the carpenter has left the
-deck. Here is my watch--you have no means of knowing the time without
-quitting your cabin."
-
-"Is the night dark?"
-
-"Very dark. Nothing could be better. Have no fear," I said, handing her
-my watch; "we shall get the bo'sun safely stowed below, and with him a
-crow-bar. The carpenter will find it rather harder than he imagines to
-scuttle the ship. He--I mean the bo'sun--is sound asleep, and snoring
-like a field-marshal on the eve of glory. His trumpeting is wonderfully
-consoling, for no man could snore like that who forbodes a dismal
-ending of life."
-
-I took her hand, receiving as I did so a brave smile from her hopeful,
-pretty face, and left her.
-
-Without much idea of sleeping, I lay down under a blanket, but fell
-asleep immediately, and slept as soundly, if not as noisily, as the
-boatswain, until eleven o'clock.
-
-The vessel's motion was now easier; she did not strain, and was more on
-an even keel, which either meant that the wind had fallen or that it
-had drawn aft.
-
-I looked through the porthole, to see if I could make anything of the
-night, but it was pitch dark. I lighted a pipe to keep me awake,
-and lay down again to think over our plot, and find, if I could, any
-weakness in it, but felt more than ever satisfied with our plans. The
-only doubtful point was whether the fellow who went down to scuttle
-the ship would not get into the forepeak; but if the boatswain could
-contrive to knock a hole in the bulkhead, he would have the man,
-whether he got down through the forecastle or the fore-hatch; and this
-I did not question he would manage, for he was very well acquainted
-with the ship's hold and the disposition of the cargo.
-
-I found myself laughing once when I thought of the fright the scoundrel
-(whoever it might be) would receive from the boatswain--he would think
-he had met the devil or a ghost; but I did not suppose the boatswain
-would give him much time to be afraid, if he could only bring that
-crow-bar, as big as his leg, to bear.
-
-The sounds of eight bells being struck, set my heart beating rather
-quickly, and almost immediately I heard Stevens' heavy step coming down
-the companion-ladder.
-
-I lay quiet, thinking he might look in, as it would better suit
-my purpose to let him think me asleep. He went and roused out the
-boatswain, and after a little the boatswain went on deck.
-
-But Stevens did not immediately turn in. I cautiously abstracted the
-key, and looked through the keyhole, and observed him bring out a
-bottle of rum and a tumbler from the pantry, and help himself to a
-stiff glass. He swallowed the fiery draught with his back turned upon
-the main-deck, that the men, if any were about, should not see him; and
-drying his lips by running his sleeve, the whole length of his arm,
-over them, he replaced the bottle and glass, and went to his cabin.
-
-This was now my time. There was nothing to fear from his finding me
-on deck should he take it into his head to come up, since it was
-reasonable that I, acting as skipper, should at any and all hours be
-watching the weather, and noting the ship's course, more particularly
-now, when we were supposed to be drawing near land.
-
-Still, I left my cabin quietly, as I did not want him to hear me, and
-sneaked up through the companion on tiptoe.
-
-The night was not so pitch dark as I might have expected from the
-appearance of it through the port-hole; but it was quite dark enough to
-answer my purpose. For instance, it was as much as I could do to follow
-the outline of the mainmast, and the man at the wheel and the wheel
-itself, viewed from a short distance, were lumped into a blotch, though
-there was a halo of light all around the binnacle.
-
-The lamp that was alight in the cuddy hung just abaft the foremost
-skylight, and I saw that it would be necessary to cover the glass. So I
-stepped up to the boatswain, who stood near the mizzen-mast.
-
-"Are you all ready, bo'sun?"
-
-"All ready."
-
-"Not afraid of the rats?" I said, with a laugh.
-
-"No, nor wuss than rats," he replied. "Has the lady got my clothes on
-yet? I _should_ like to see her."
-
-"She'll come when we are ready. That light shining on the skylight must
-be concealed. I don't want to put the lamp out, and am afraid to draw
-the curtains for fear the rings should rattle. There's a tarpaulin in
-the starboard quarter-boat, take and throw it over the skylight whilst
-I go aft and talk to the fellow steering. Who is he?"
-
-"Jim Cornish."
-
-He found the tarpaulin, and concealed the light, whilst I spoke to the
-man at the wheel about the ship's course, the look of the weather, and
-so on.
-
-"Now," said I, rejoining the boatswain, "come and take two or three
-turns along the poop, that Cornish may see us together."
-
-We paced to and fro, stopping every time we reached the wheel to look
-at the compass.
-
-When we were at the fore end of the poop I halted.
-
-"Walk aft," I said, "and post yourself right in the way of Cornish,
-that he shan't be able to see along the weather side of the poop."
-
-I followed him until I had come to the part of the deck that was right
-over Miss Robertson's cabin, and there struck three smart blows with
-the heel of my boot, at the same time flapping my hands against my
-breast so as to make Cornish believe that I was warming myself.
-
-I walked to the break of the poop and waited.
-
-In less time than I could count twenty a figure came out of the cuddy
-and mounted the poop ladder, and stood by my side. Looking close into
-the face I could see that it was rather too white to be a sailor's,
-that was all. The figure was a man's, most perfectly so.
-
-"Admirable!" I whispered, grasping her hand.
-
-I posted her close against the screened skylight, that her figure might
-be on a level with the mizzen-mast viewed from the wheel, and called to
-the boatswain.
-
-The tone of my voice gave him his cue. He came forward just as a man
-would to receive an order.
-
-"She is here," I said, turning him by the arm to where Miss Robertson
-stood motionless. "For God's sake get forward at once! Lose no time!"
-
-He went up to her and said--
-
-"I'm sorry I can't see you properly, miss. If this wur daylight I
-reckon you'd make a handsome sailor, just fit for the gals to go
-dreamin' an' ravin' about."
-
-With which, and waving his hand, the plucky fellow slipped off the poop
-like a shadow, and I watched him glide along the main-deck until he
-vanished.
-
-"Now," whispered I to my companion, "the tragedy begins. We must walk
-up and down that the man steering may see us. Keep on the left side of
-the deck; it is higher than where I shall walk, and will make you look
-taller."
-
-I posted her properly, and we began to measure the deck.
-
-Anxious as I was, I could still find time to admire the courage of this
-girl. At no sacrifice of modesty--no, not even to the awakening of an
-instant's mirth in me--was her noble and beautiful bravery illustrated.
-Her pluck was so grand an expression of her English character, that no
-emotion but that of profound admiration of her moral qualities could
-have been inspired in the mind of any man who beheld her.
-
-I took care not to go further than the mizzen-rigging, so that Cornish
-should distinguish nothing but our figures; and after we had paraded
-the deck awhile I asked her to stand near the quarter-boat in which I
-had placed the box.
-
-I then got on to the rail and fished out the box smartly, and stood it
-on the rail.
-
-"Keep your hand upon it," said I, "that it may not roll overboard."
-
-With which I walked right up to Cornish.
-
-"Does she steer steady?"
-
-"True as a hair."
-
-"I left my coat this afternoon in one of the quarter-boats. Have you
-seen it?"
-
-"No."
-
-"Perhaps it's in the starboard-boat."
-
-I pretended to search, and then drawing close to Miss Robertson, said
-quickly--
-
-"Creep away now. Keep close to the rail and crouch low. Get to your
-cabin and change your dress. Roll the clothes you are wearing in a
-bundle and hide them for the present."
-
-She glided away on her little feet, stooping her head to a level with
-the rail.
-
-All was quiet forward--the main-deck deserted. I waited some seconds,
-standing with my hand on the box, and then I shoved it right overboard.
-It fell just as I had expected, with a thumping splash.
-
-Instantly I roared out, "Man overboard! Down with your helm! The
-bo'sun's gone!" and to complete the imposture I bounded aft, cut away a
-life-buoy, and flung it far into the darkness astern.
-
-Cornish obeyed me literally; put the helm right down, and in a few
-moments the sails were shaking wildly.
-
-"Steady!" I shouted. "Aft here and man the port main-braces! Bear a
-hand! the bo'sun's overboard!"
-
-My excitement made my voice resonant as a trumpet, and the men in both
-watches came scampering along the deck. The shaking of the canvas, the
-racing of feet, my own and the cries of the crew, produced, as you may
-credit, a fine uproar. Of course I had foreseen that there would be no
-danger in bringing the ship aback. The wind though fresh was certainly
-not strong enough to jeopardize the spars; moreover, the sea had
-moderated.
-
-Up rushed the carpenter in a very short time, rather the worse, I
-thought, for the dose he had swallowed.
-
-"What's the matter! What the devil is all this?" he bellowed, lurching
-from side to side as the ship rolled, for we were now broadside on.
-
-"The bo'sun has fallen overboard!" I shouted in his ear; and I had need
-to shout, for the din of the canvas was deafening.
-
-"Do you say the bo'sun?" he bawled.
-
-"Yes. What shall we do? is it too dark to pick him up?"
-
-"Of course it is!" he cried, hoarse as a raven. "What do you want to
-do? He's drownded by this time! Who's to find him? Give 'em the proper
-orders, Mr. Royle!" and he vociferated to the men--"Do you want the
-masts to carry away? Do you want to be overhauled by the fust wessel as
-comes this road, and hanged, every mother's son of you, because the
-bo'sun's fallen overboard?"
-
-I stood to leeward gazing at the water and uttering exclamations to
-show my concern and distress at the loss of the boatswain.
-
-Stevens dragged me by the arm.
-
-"Give 'em the proper orders, I tell ye, Mr. Royle!" he cried. "I say
-that the bo'sun's drownded, and that no stopping the wessel will save
-him. Sing out to the men, for the Lord's sake! Let her fill again, or
-we're damned!"
-
-"Very well," I replied with a great air of reluctance, and I advanced
-to the poop-rail and delivered the necessary orders. By dint of
-flattening in the jib-sheets and checking the main-braces, and brailing
-up the spanker and rousing the foreyards well forward, I got the ship
-to pay off. The carpenter worked like a madman, bawling all the while
-that if the ship was dismasted all hands would certainly be hanged; and
-he so animated the men by his cries and entreaties, that more work was
-done by them in one quarter of an hour than they would have put into
-treble that time on any other occasion.
-
-It was now one o'clock, so it had not taken us an hour to drown the
-boatswain, put the ship in irons, and get her clear again.
-
-Stevens came off the main-deck on to the poop, greatly relieved in his
-mind now that the sails were full and the yards trimmed, and asked me
-how it happened that the boatswain fell overboard.
-
-I replied, very gravely, that I had come on deck at eight bells, being
-anxious to see what way the ship was making and how she was heading;
-that remembering I had left an overcoat in one of the quarter-boats, I
-looked, but could not find it; that I spoke to the boatswain, who told
-me that he had seen the coat in the stern sheets of the quarter-boat
-that afternoon, and got on to the poop-rail to search the boat; that
-I had turned my head for a moment when I heard a groan, which was
-immediately followed by a loud splash alongside, and I perceived that
-the boatswain had vanished.
-
-"So," continued I, "I pitched a life-buoy astern and sang out to put
-the helm down; and I must say, Mr. Stevens, that I think we could have
-saved the poor fellow had we tried. But you are really the skipper of
-this ship, and since you objected I did not argue."
-
-"There's no use sayin' we _could_ ha' saved him," rejoined Stevens,
-gruffly. "I say we couldn't. Who's to see him in the dark? We should
-have had to burn a flare for the boat to find us, and what with our
-driftin' and their lumpin' about, missing their road, and doing no
-airthly good, we should ha' ended in losin' the boat."
-
-He did not notice the tarpaulin spread over the skylight, though I had
-an explanation of its being there had he inquired the meaning of it.
-
-He hung about the deck for a whole hour, though I had offered to take
-the boatswain's watch, and go turn and turn about with him (Stevens),
-and he had a long yarn with the man at the wheel, which I contrived
-to drop in upon after awhile, and found Cornish explaining exactly
-how the boatswain fell overboard, and corroborating my story in every
-particular.
-
-Thus laborious as my stratagem had been, it was, as this circumstance
-alone proved, in no sense too laboured; for had not Cornish seen, with
-his own eyes, the boatswain and myself standing near the boat just
-before I gave the alarm, he would in all probability have represented
-the affair in such a way to Stevens as to set him doubting my story,
-and perhaps putting the men on to search the ship, to see if the
-boatswain _was_ overboard.
-
-He went below at two o'clock.
-
-The sea fell calm, and the wind shifted round to the nor'ard and
-westward, and was blowing a steady pleasant breeze at six bells. The
-stars came out and the horizon cleared, and looking to leeward I beheld
-at a distance of about four miles the outline of a large ship, which,
-when I brought the binocular glasses to bear on her, I found under full
-sail.
-
-She was steering a course seemingly parallel with our own, and as I
-watched her my brains went to work to conceive in what possible way I
-could utilize her presence.
-
-At all events, the first thing I had to do was to make sail, or she
-would run away from us; so I at once called up the watch.
-
-Whilst the men were at work the dawn broke, and by the clearer light
-I perceived that the vessel was making a more westerly course than
-we, and was drawing closer to us at every foot of water we severally
-measured. She was a noble-looking merchantman, like a frigate with her
-painted ports, with double topsail and top-gallant yards, and with
-skysails set, so that her sails were a wonderful volume and tower of
-canvas.
-
-The sight of her filled me with emotions I cannot express. As to
-signalling her, I knew that the moment the men saw me handling the
-signal-halliards they would crowd aft and ask me what I meant to do.
-I might indeed hail her if I could sheer the _Grosvenor_ close enough
-alongside for my voice to carry; but if they failed to hear me or
-refused to help, what would be my position? So surely as I raised my
-voice to declare our situation, so surely would the crew drag me down
-and murder me out of hand.
-
-Presently Fish and Johnson came along the main-deck, and while Fish
-entered the cuddy Johnson came up to me.
-
-"Hadn't you better put the ship about?" he said. "You're running us
-rather close. The men don't like it."
-
-Seeing that no chance would be given me to make my peril known to the
-stranger, I formed my resolution rapidly. I called out to the men--
-
-"Johnson wants to 'bout ship. Yonder vessel can see that we are
-making a free wind, and she'll either think we're mad or that there's
-something wrong with us if we 'bout ship with a beam wind. Now just
-tell me what I am to do."
-
-"Haul us away from that ship--that's all we want," answered one of them.
-
-At this moment the carpenter came running up the poop ladder, with
-nothing on but his shirt and a pair of breeches.
-
-"Hallo!" he called out fiercely; "what are you about? Do you want to
-put us alongside!"
-
-And he bawled out fiercely--"Port your helm! run right away under her
-stern!"
-
-"If you do that," I exclaimed, very anxious now to show how
-well-intentioned I was, "you will excite her suspicions. Steady!" I
-cried, seeing the ship drawing rapidly ahead; "bring her to again a
-point off her course."
-
-Stevens scowled at me, but did not speak.
-
-The crew clustered up the poop ladder to stare at the ship, and I
-caught some of them casting such threatening looks at me, that I wanted
-no better hint of the kind of mercy I should receive if I played them
-any tricks.
-
-"Mr. Stevens," said I, "leave me to manage, and I'll do you no wrong.
-That ship is making more way than we are, and we shall have her dead on
-end presently. Then I'll show you what to do."
-
-As I spoke, the vessel which we had brought well on the port-bow
-hoisted English colours. The old ensign soared gracefully, and stood
-out at the gaff-end.
-
-"We must answer her," I exclaimed to the carpenter. "You had better
-bend on the ensign and run it up."
-
-I suppose he knew that there could be no mischievous meaning in the
-display of this flag, for he obeyed me, though leisurely.
-
-The ship, when she saw that we answered her, hauled her ensign down,
-and after awhile, during which she sensibly increased the distance
-between us, and had drawn very nearly stern on, hoisted her number.
-
-"Run up the answering pennant," I exclaimed; "it will look civil any
-way, and it means nothing."
-
-I pointed out the signal to the carpenter, who hoisted it; but I could
-see by his face that he meant to obey no more orders of this kind.
-
-"Steady as she goes!" cried I, to the fellow steering. "A hand let go
-the weather mizzen-braces and haul in some of you to leeward."
-
-This manoeuvre laid the sails on the mizzen-mast aback; they at once
-impeded our way, nor, being now right ahead of us, could the people on
-board the ship see what we had done. The result was the vessel drew
-away rapidly, I taking care to luff as she got to windward, so as to
-keep our flying jib-boom in a direct line with her stern.
-
-To judge by the way the men glanced at me and spoke to one another,
-they evidently appreciated this stratagem: and Stevens condescended to
-say, "That's one for her."
-
-"Better than going about," I answered drily.
-
-"They've hauled down them signals," he said, blinking the point I
-raised by my remark.
-
-"Yes. She doesn't mean to stop to ask any questions."
-
-The end of this was that in about twenty minutes the ship was three or
-four miles ahead of us; so not choosing to lose any more time, I swung
-the mizzen-yards, and got the _Grosvenor_ upon her course again.
-
-Stevens went below to put on his coat and cap and boots in order to
-relieve me, for it was now four o'clock. The dawn had broken with
-every promise of a fine day, and where the sun rose the sky resembled
-frost-work, layer upon layer of high delicate clouds, ranged like scale
-armour, all glittering with silver brightness and whitening the sea,
-over which they hung with a pale, pearly light.
-
-I was thoroughly exhausted, not so much from the want of rest as from
-the excitement I had gone through. Still, I had a part to play before
-I turned in; so I stuck my knuckles in my eyes to rub them open, and
-waited for Stevens, who presently came on deck, having first stopped on
-the main-deck to grumble to his crony Fish over his not having had a
-quarter of an hour's sleep since midnight.
-
-"I'm growed sick o' the sight o' this poop," he growled to me. "Sick o'
-the sight o' the whole wessel. Fust part o' the woyage I was starved
-for food. Now, with the skipper overboard, I'm starved for sleep. How
-long are we going to take to reach Florida? Sink me if I shouldn't ha'
-woted for some nearer coast had I known this woyage wur going to last
-to the day o' judgment."
-
-"If it don't fall calm," I answered, "I may safely promise to put you
-off the coast of Florida on Friday afternoon."
-
-He thrust his hands into his breeches' pockets, and stared aft.
-
-"I am very much troubled about the loss of the bo'sun," said I.
-
-"Are you?" he responded, ironically.
-
-"He was a civil man and a good sailor."
-
-"Yes; I dessay he was. But he's no use now."
-
-"He deserved that we should have made an effort to save him."
-
-"Well, you said that before, and I said no; and I suppose I know wot I
-mean when I says no."
-
-"But won't the crew think me a heartless rascal for not sending a boat
-to the poor devil?" I demanded, pretending to lose my temper.
-
-"The bo'sun was none so popular--don't make no mistake; he wasn't one
-of----Hell seize me! where are you drivin' to, Mr. Royle? Can't you
-let a drownded man alone?" he cried, with an outburst of passion. But
-immediately he softened his voice, and with a look of indescribable
-cunning, said, "Some of the hands didn't like him, of course; and some
-did, and they'll be sorry. I am one of them as did, and would ha' saved
-him if I hadn't feared the masts, and reckoned there'd be no use in the
-boat gropin' about in the dark for a drownin' man."
-
-"No doubt of that," I replied, in a most open manner. "You know the
-course, Mr. Stevens? You might set the fore-topmast stun'-sail
-presently, for we shall have a fine day."
-
-And with a civil nod I left him, more than ever satisfied that my
-stratagem was a complete success.
-
-I bent my ear to Miss Robertson's cabin as I passed, to hear if she
-were stirring; all was still; so I passed on to my berth, and turned in
-just as I was, and slept soundly till eight o'clock.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII.
-
-
-I only saw Miss Robertson for a few minutes at breakfast-time.
-
-The steward as usual carried their breakfast on a tray to the door, and
-in taking it in she saw me and came forward.
-
-"Is it all well?" she asked, quickly and eagerly.
-
-"All well," I replied.
-
-"He is in the hold," she whispered, "and no one knows?"
-
-"He is in the hold, and the crew believe to a man that he is overboard."
-
-"It is a good beginning," she exclaimed, with a faint smile playing
-over her pale face.
-
-"Thanks to your great courage! You performed your part admirably."
-
-"There is that hateful carpenter watching us through the skylight,"
-she whispered, without raising her eyes. "Tell me one thing before I
-go--when will the ship reach the part she is to stop at?"
-
-"I shall endeavour to make it Friday afternoon."
-
-"The day after to-morrow!"
-
-She clasped her hands suddenly and exclaimed with a little sob in her
-voice, "Oh, let us pray that God will be merciful and protect us!"
-
-I had no thoughts for myself as I watched her enter her cabin. The
-situation was, indeed, a dreadful one for so sweet and helpless a woman
-to be placed in. I, a rough, sturdy fellow, used to the dangers of the
-sea, was scared at our position when I contemplated it. Truly might I
-say that our lives hung by a hair, and that whether we were to live or
-perish dismally would depend upon the courage and promptness with which
-the boatswain and I should act at the last moment.
-
-It was worse for me that I did not know the exact plans of the
-mutineers.
-
-I was aware that their intention was to scuttle the ship and leave her,
-with us on board, to sink. But _how_ they would do this, I did not
-know. I mean, I could not foresee whether they would scuttle the ship
-whilst all the crew remained on board, stopping until they knew that
-the vessel was actually sinking before taking to the boats, or whether
-they would get into the boat, leaving one man in the hold to scuttle
-the ship, and lying by to take him off when his work should have been
-performed.
-
-Either was likely; but one would make our preservation comparatively
-easy; the other would make it almost impossible.
-
-When I went on deck all hands were at breakfast. The carpenter quitted
-the poop the moment I showed myself, and I was left alone, none of the
-crew visible but the steersman.
-
-The breeze was slashing, a splendid sailing wind; the fore-topmast
-stun'-sail set, every sail round and hard as a drum skin, and the water
-smooth; the ship bowled along like a yacht in a racing match. Nothing
-was in sight all round the horizon.
-
-I made sure that the carpenter would go to bed as soon as he had
-done breakfast; but instead, about twenty minutes after he had left
-the poop, I saw him walk along the main-deck, and disappear in the
-forecastle.
-
-After an interval of some ten minutes he reappeared, followed by
-Johnson, the cook, and a couple of hands. They got upon the port side
-of the long-boat, and presently I heard the fluttering and screaming of
-hens.
-
-I crossed the poop to see what was the matter, and found all four men
-wringing the necks of the poultry. In a short time about sixteen hens,
-all that remained, lay dead in a heap near the coop. The cook and
-Johnson gathered them up, and carried them into the galley.
-
-Soon after they returned, and clambered on to the top of the long-boat,
-the cover of which they pitched off, and fell, each with a knife in his
-hand, upon the pigs. The noise now was hideous. The pigs squealed like
-human beings, but both men probably knew their work, for the screeching
-did not last above five minutes.
-
-The cook, with his face, arms, and breeches all bloody, flung the
-carcases among the men, who had gathered around to witness the sport,
-and a deal of ugly play followed. They tossed the slaughtered pigs
-at each other, and men and pigs fell down with tremendous thuds, and
-soon there was not a man who did not look as though he had been rolled
-for an hour in the gutter of a shambles. Their hoarse laughter, their
-horrible oaths, their rage not more shocking than their mirth, the
-live men rolling over the dead pigs, their faces and clothes ghastly
-with blood--all this was a scene which made one abhor oneself for
-laughing at it, though it was impossible to help laughing sometimes.
-But occasionally my mirth would be checked by a sudden spasm of terror,
-when I caught sight of a fellow with an infuriate face, monstrous with
-its crimson colouring, rush with his knife at another, and be struck
-down like a ninepin by a dead pig hurled full at his head, before he
-could deliver his blow.
-
-The saturnalia came to an end, and the men cursing, growling,
-groaning, and laughing--some reeling half stunned, and all panting for
-breath--surged into the forecastle to clean themselves, while the cook
-and Johnson carried the pigs into the galley.
-
-I did not quite understand what this scene heralded, but had not long
-to wait before it was explained.
-
-In twos and threes after much delay, the men emerged and began to wash
-the decks down. Two got into the long-boat and began to clean her out.
-Then the carpenter came aft with Johnson, and I heard him swearing at
-the steward. After a bit, Johnson came forth, rolling a cask of cuddy
-bread along the deck; after him went the steward, bearing a lime-juice
-jar, filled of course with rum.
-
-These things were stowed near the foremast. Then all three came aft
-again (the carpenter superintending the work), and more provisions were
-taken forward; and when enough was collected, the whole was snugged and
-covered with a tarpaulin, ready, as I now understood, to be shipped
-into the long-boat when she should have been swung over the ship's side.
-
-These preparations brought the reality of the position of myself and
-companions most completely home to me; yet I perfectly preserved my
-composure, and appeared to take the greatest interest in all that was
-going forward.
-
-The carpenter came on the poop presently, and went to the starboard
-quarter-boat and inspected it. He then crossed to the other boat. After
-which he walked up to me.
-
-"How many hands," he asked, "do you think the long-boat 'ud carry,
-comfortable?"
-
-I measured her with my eye before answering.
-
-"About twenty," I replied.
-
-"One on top o' t'other, like cattle!" he growled. "Why, mate, there
-wouldn't be standin' room."
-
-"Do you mean to put off from the ship in her?"
-
-"In her and one of them others," he replied, meaning the quarter-boats.
-
-"If you want my opinion, I should say that all hands ought to get into
-the long-boat. She has heaps of beam, and will carry us all well.
-Besides, she can sail. It will look better, too, to be found in her,
-should we be picked up before landing; because you can make out that
-both quarter-boats were carried away."
-
-"We're all resolved," he answered doggedly. "We mean to put off in the
-long-boat and one o' them quarter-boats. The quarter-boat can tow the
-long-boat if it's calm. Why I ax'd you how many the long-boat 'ud carry
-was because we don't want to overload the quarter-boat. We can use her
-as a tender for stores and water, do you see, so that if we get to a
-barren place we shan't starve."
-
-"I understand."
-
-"Them two boats 'll be enough, anyways."
-
-"I should say so. They'd carry thirty persons between them," I answered.
-
-To satisfy himself he went and took another look at the boats, and
-afterwards called Johnson up to him.
-
-They talked together for some time, occasionally glancing at me, and
-Johnson then went away; but in a few minutes he returned with a mallet
-and chisel. Both men now got into the port quarter-boat and proceeded,
-to my rage and mortification, to rip a portion of the planking out
-of her. In this way they knocked several planks away and threw them
-overboard, and Johnson then got out of her and went to the other boat,
-and fell to examining her closely to see that all was right; for they
-evidently had made up their minds to use her, she being the larger of
-the two.
-
-The carpenter came and stood close to me, watching Johnson. I dare
-say he expected I would ask him why he had injured the boat; but I
-hardly dared trust myself to speak to him, so great was my passion and
-abhorrence of the wretch whose motive in rendering this boat useless
-was, of course, that we should not be able to save ourselves by her
-when we found the ship sinking.
-
-When Johnson had done, some men came aft, and they went to work to
-provision the remaining quarter-boat, passing bags of bread, tins of
-preserved meat, kegs of water, and stores of that description, from
-hand to hand, until the boat held about a quarter as much again as she
-was fit to carry.
-
-In the mean time, others were busy in the long-boat, getting her fit
-for sailing with a spare top-gallant stun'-sail boom and top-gallant
-stun'-sail, looking to the oars and thole-pins and so forth.
-
-The morning passed rapidly, the crew as busy as bees, smoking to a man,
-and bandying coarse jokes with one another, and uttering loud laughs as
-they worked.
-
-The carpenter never once addressed me. He ran about the decks,
-squirting tobacco-juice everywhere, superintending the work that
-was going forward, and manifesting great excitement, with not a few
-displays of bad temper.
-
-A little before noon, when I made ready to take the sun's altitude, the
-men at work about the long-boat suspended their occupation to watch
-me, and Stevens drew aft, and came snuffling about my heels.
-
-When I sang out eight bells, and went below to work out my
-observations, he followed me into the cabin, and stood looking on. The
-ignorance of his distrust was almost ludicrous; I believe he thought
-I should work out a false reckoning if he were not by, but that his
-watching would prevent me from making two and two five.
-
-"Now, Mr. Royle," said he, seeing me put down my pencil; "where are we?"
-
-I unrolled the chart upon the table, and drew a line down a rule from
-the highly imaginary point to which I had brought the ship at noon on
-the preceding day, to latitude 29 deg., longitude 74 deg. 30'. "Here is our
-position at the present moment," I said, pointing to the mark on the
-chart.
-
-"This here is Floridy, ain't it?" he demanded, outlining the coast
-with his dirty thumb.
-
-"That is Florida."
-
-"Well, I calls it Floridy for short."
-
-"Floridy then. I know what you mean."
-
-"And you give us till the day arter tomorrow to do this bit o' distance
-in?"
-
-"It doesn't look much on the chart. There's not much room for miles to
-show in on a square of paper like this."
-
-"Well, we shall be all ready to lower away the boats when you give us
-the word," said he.
-
-"Perhaps you'll sit down for five minutes, Mr. Stevens, and inform me
-exactly of your arrangements," I exclaimed; "for it is difficult for me
-to do my share in this job unless I accurately know what yours is to
-be."
-
-He looked at me askant, his villainous eyes right in the corners of
-their sockets; but sat down nevertheless, and tilted his cap over his
-forehead in order to scratch the back of his head.
-
-"I thought you knew what our plans was?" he remarked.
-
-"Why, I've got a kind of general notion of them, but I should like to
-understand them more clearly."
-
-"Well, I thought they was clear--clear as mud in a wineglass.
-Leastways, they're clear to all hands."
-
-"For instance, why did you knock a hole in the quarter-boat this
-morning?"
-
-"I didn't think you'd want that explained," he answered promptly.
-
-"But you see I do, Mr. Stevens."
-
-"Well, we only want two boats, and it 'ud be a silly look-out to leave
-the third one sound and tight to drift about with the _Grosvenor's_
-name writ inside o' her."
-
-"Why?"
-
-"Because I says it would."
-
-"How could she drift about if she were up at the davits?"
-
-"How do I know?" he answered morosely. "I'm lookin' at things as may
-happen. It ain't for me to explain of them."
-
-"Very well," said I, master enough of the ruffian's meaning to require
-no further information on this point.
-
-"Anything more, Mr. Royle?"
-
-"Yes. The next matter is this: you gave me to understand that we should
-heave the ship to at night?"
-
-"Sartinly. As soon as ever it comes on dusk, so as we shall have all
-night before us to get well away."
-
-"Do you mean to leave her with her canvas standing?"
-
-"Just as she is when she's hove to."
-
-"Some ship may sight her, and finding her abandoned, send a crew on
-board to work her to the nearest port."
-
-I thought this might tempt him to admit that she was to be scuttled,
-which confession need not necessarily have involved the information
-that I and the others were to be left on board.
-
-But the fellow was too cunning to hint at such a thing.
-
-"Let them as finds her keep her," he said, getting up. "That's their
-consarn. Any more questions, Mr. Royle?"
-
-"Are we to take our clothes with us?"
-
-He grinned in the oddest manner.
-
-"No. Them as has wallyables may shove 'em into their pockets; but no
-kits 'll be allowed in the boats. We're a poor lot o' shipwrecked
-sailors--marineers as the newspapers calls us--come away from a ship
-that was settlin' under our legs afore we had the arts to leave her. We
-jest had time to wittol the boats and stand for the shore. We depend
-upon Christian kindness for 'elp; and if we falls foul o' a missionary,
-leave me alone to make him vurship our piety. The skipper he fell mad
-and jumped overboard. The chief mate he lost his life by springin' into
-vun o' the boats and missin' of it; and the second mate he manfully
-stuck to the ship for the love he bore her owners, and we pree-sume,
-went down with her."
-
-"Oh!" I exclaimed, forcing a laugh; "then I am not to admit that I am
-the second mate, when questioned?"
-
-He stared at me as if he were drunk, and cried, "_You!_" then burst
-into a laugh, and hit me a slap on the back.
-
-"Ah!" he exclaimed. "I forgot. Of course you'll not be second mate when
-you get ashore."
-
-"What then?"
-
-"Why, a passenger--a parson--the ship's doctor. We'll tell you wot to
-say as we go along. Come, get us off this bloomin' coast, will you, as
-soon as you can," pointing to the chart. "All hands is growin' delikit
-with care and consarn: as Joe Sampson used to sing--
-
-    'Vith care an' consarn
-    Ve're a vastin' avay.'
-
-And our nerviss systems is that wrought up with fear of our necks, that
-blowed if we shan't want two months o' strong physicking and prime
-livin' at the werry least, to make men of us agin arter we're landed."
-
-And with a leering grin and an ugly nod he quitted the cabin.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII.
-
-
-I made up my mind as Stevens left me to bring this terrible time to an
-end on Friday afternoon, come what might. Let it fall a calm, let it
-blow a gale, on Friday afternoon I would tell the carpenter that the
-ship was off the coast of Florida, forty or fifty miles distant.
-
-If, by the boatswain's ruse, I could keep the ship afloat and carry her
-to Bermuda, it would matter little whether we hove her to one hundred
-or even two hundred miles distant from the island. The suspense I
-endured, the horror of our situation, was more than I could bear. I
-believed that my health and strength would give way if I protracted
-the ship's journey to the spot where the men would leave her, even for
-twenty-four hours longer than Friday.
-
-The task before me then was to prepare for the final struggle, to
-thoroughly mature my plans, to utilize the control I still had over
-the ship to the utmost advantage, and to put into shape all plausible
-objections and hints I could think upon, which would be helpful to me
-if adopted by the crew.
-
-What I most felt was the want of firearms. The revolver I carried was
-indeed five-chambered, and there was much good fortune in my having
-been the first to get hold of it. But could I have armed the boatswain
-or even the steward with another pistol, I should have been much easier
-in my mind when I contemplated the chances of a struggle between us and
-the crew.
-
-However, there is no evil that is not attended by some kind of
-compensation, and I found this out; for taking it into my head that
-there might be a pistol among Duckling's effects, though I was pretty
-sure that the weapon he had threatened me with was the one in my
-possession, I entered his cabin with the intention to begin a search,
-but had no sooner opened the lid of his chest than I perceived that I
-had been forestalled, for the clothes were tossed anyway, the pockets
-turned inside out, and articles taken out of wrappers, as I should
-judge from the paper coverings that lay among the clothes.
-
-So now I could only hope that Duckling had _not_ had a pistol, since
-whoever had rifled his box must have met with it. And that Stevens was
-the thief in this as in the case of the silver I had no doubt at all.
-
-There being now only two of us to keep watch, Stevens and I did not
-meet at dinner. I took his place whilst he dined, and he then relieved
-me.
-
-The steward told me they were having a fine feast in the forecastle;
-that upwards of ten of the fowls which had been strangled in the
-morning had been put to bake for the men's dinner; that in addition to
-this they had cooked three legs of pork, and were drinking freely from
-a jar of rum which the carpenter had ordered him to take forward.
-
-I could pretty well judge that they were enjoying themselves, by the
-loud choruses they were singing.
-
-Believing they would end in becoming drunk, I knocked on Miss
-Robertson's door, to tell her on no account to show herself on deck.
-She gave me her hand the moment she saw me, and gently brought me into
-the cabin and made me sit down, though I had not meant to stay.
-
-The old gentleman stood with his back to the door, looking through the
-port-hole. Though he heard my voice, he did not turn, and only looked
-round when his daughter pulled him by the arm.
-
-"How do you do, sir?" he exclaimed, making me a most courtly bow. "I
-hope you are well? You find us, sir," with a stately wave of the hand,
-"in wretched accommodation; but all this will be mended presently. The
-great lesson of life is patience."
-
-And he made me another bow, meanwhile looking hard at me and
-contracting his brows.
-
-I was more affected by this painful change--this visible and rapid
-decay, not of his memory only, but of his mind--than I know how to
-describe. The mournful, helpless look his daughter gave him, the
-tearless melancholy in her eyes, as she bent them on me, hit me hard.
-
-I did not know how to answer him, and could only fix my eyes on the
-deck.
-
-"This prospect," he continued, pointing to the port-hole, "is
-exceedingly monotonous. I have been watching it I should say a full
-half-hour--about that time, my dear, should you not think?--and find
-no change in it whatever. I witness always the same unbroken line of
-water, slightly darker, I observe, than the sky which bends to meet
-it. That unbroken line has a curious effect upon me. It seems to press
-like a substantial ligature or binding upon my forehead; positively,"
-he exclaimed, with a smile almost as sweet as his child's, "as though I
-had a cord tied round my head."
-
-He swept his hand over his forehead, as though he could remove the
-sensation of tightness by the gesture. It was pitiful to witness such a
-venerable and dignified old gentleman stricken thus in his mind by the
-sufferings and miserable horrors of shipwreck.
-
-"I think, sir," I said, addressing him with all the respectfulness I
-could infuse into my voice, "that the uneasiness of which you complain
-would leave you if you would lie down. The eye gets strained by staring
-through a port-hole, and that eternal horizon yonder really grows a
-kind of craze in one's head, if watched too long."
-
-"You are quite right, sir," he replied, making me another bow; and,
-addressing his daughter, "This gentleman sympathizes with the peculiar
-inspirations of what I may call monotonous nature."
-
-He looked at her with extraordinary and painful earnestness. Evidently,
-some recollection had leaped into his mind and quitted him immediately,
-leaving him bewildered by it.
-
-He then said, in a most plaintive voice--
-
-"I will lie down. Your shoulder, my love."
-
-He stretched out his old trembling hand. I got up to help him, but he
-withdrew from me with an air of offended pride, and reared his figure
-to its full height.
-
-"This is my daughter, sir," he exclaimed, with cold emphasis; and
-though I knew he was not accountable for his behaviour, I shrunk back,
-feeling more completely snubbed than ever I remember being in my life.
-
-With her assistance he got into the bunk, and lay there quite still.
-
-She drew close to me, and obliged me to share the seat she made of the
-box which had contained the steward's linen.
-
-"You are not angry with him?" she whispered.
-
-"Indeed not."
-
-"I shall lose him soon. He will not live long," she said, and tears
-came into her eyes.
-
-"God will spare him to you, Miss Robertson. Have courage. Our trials
-are nearly ended. Once ashore he will recover his health--it is this
-miserable confinement, this gloomy cabin, this absence of the comforts
-he has been used to, that are telling upon his mind. He will live to
-recall all this in his English home. The worst has never come until it
-is passed--that is my creed; because the worst may be transformed into
-good even when it is on us."
-
-"_You_ have the courage," she answered, "not I. But you give me
-courage. God knows what I should have done but for you."
-
-I looked into her brave soft eyes, swimming in tears, and could have
-spoken some deep thoughts to her then, awakened by her words.
-
-I was silent a moment, and then said--
-
-"You must not go on deck to-day. Indeed, I think you had better remain
-below until I ask you to join me."
-
-"Why? Is there any new danger?"
-
-"Nothing you need fear. The men who fancy themselves very nearly at
-their journey's end, threaten to grow boisterous. But my importance to
-them is too great to allow them to offend me _yet_. Still, it will be
-best for you to keep out of sight."
-
-"I will do whatever you wish."
-
-"I am sure you will. My wish is to save you--not my wish only--it is my
-resolution. Trust in me wholly, Miss Robertson. Keep up your courage,
-for I may want you to help me at the last."
-
-"You must trust in me, too, as my whole trust is in you," she answered,
-smiling.
-
-I smiled back at her, and said--
-
-"Now, let me tell you what may happen--what all my energies are and
-have been engaged to bring about. On Friday afternoon I shall tell
-the carpenter that the ship is fifty or sixty miles off the coast
-of Florida. If the night is calm--and I pray that it may be--the
-ship will be hove to, that is, rendered stationary on the water; the
-long-boat will be slung over the side, and the quarter-boat lowered.
-All _this_ is certain to happen. But now come my doubts. Will the crew
-remain on board until the man they send into the hold to scuttle the
-vessel rejoins them? or will they get into the boats and wait for him
-alongside? If they take to the boats and wait for the man, the ship is
-ours. If they remain on board, then our preservation will depend upon
-the bo'sun."
-
-"How?"
-
-"He will either kill the man who gets into the hold, or knock him
-insensible. He will then have to act as though _he_ were the man he has
-knocked on the head."
-
-"I see."
-
-"If they call to him, he will have to answer them without showing
-himself. Perhaps he will call to them. They will answer him. They will
-necessarily muffle their voices that we who are aft may not suspect
-what they are about. In that case the bo'sun may counterfeit the voice
-of the man he has knocked on the head successfully."
-
-"But what will he tell them?"
-
-"Why, that his job is nearly finished, and that they had best take to
-the boats and hold off for him, as he is scuttling her in half a dozen
-places, and the people aft will find her sinking and make a rush to the
-boats if they are not kept away. He will tell them that when he has
-done scuttling her, he will run up and jump overboard and swim to them.
-This, if done cleverly, may decide the men to shove off. We shall see."
-
-"It is a clever scheme," she answered, musingly. "The boatswain's life
-depends upon his success, and I believe he will succeed in duping them."
-
-"What can be done he will do, I am sure," I said, not choosing to
-admit that I had not her confidence in the stratagem, because I feared
-that the more the boatswain should endeavour to disguise his voice the
-greater would be the risk of its being recognised. "But let me tell you
-that this is the worst view of the case. It is quite probable that the
-men will take to the boats and wait for their mate to finish in the
-hold, not only because it will save time, but because they will imagine
-it an effectual way of compelling us to remain on the vessel.
-
-"What villains! and if they take to the boats?"
-
-"Then I shall want you."
-
-"What can I do?"
-
-"We shall see. There still remains a third chance. The carpenter is,
-or I have read his character upside down, a born murderer. It is
-possible that this villain may design to leave the man whom he sends
-into the hold to sink with the ship. He has not above half a dozen
-chums, confidential friends, among the crew; and it will be his and
-their policy to rid themselves of the others as best they can, so
-as to diminish the number of witnesses against them. If, therefore,
-they contemplate this, they will leave the ship while they suppose
-the act of scuttling to be actually proceeding. Now, amongst the many
-schemes which have entered my mind, there was one I should have put
-into practice had I not feared to commit any action which might in the
-smallest degree imperil your safety. This scheme was to cautiously
-sound the minds of the men who were not in the carpenter's intimate
-confidence; ascertain how far they relished the notion of quitting
-the ship for a shore that might prove inhospitable, or on which their
-boats might be wrecked and themselves drowned, and discover by what
-shrewdness I am master of, how many I might get to come over to my side
-if the boatswain and myself turned upon Stevens and killed him, shot
-down Johnson, and fell, armed with my revolver and a couple of belaying
-pins, upon Cornish and Fish--these three men composing Stevens'
-cabinet. I say that this was quite practicable, and no very great
-courage required to execute it, as we should have killed or stunned
-these men before they would be able to resist us."
-
-"There would be nine left."
-
-"Yes; but I should have reckoned upon some of them helping me."
-
-"You could not have depended upon them."
-
-"Well, we have another plan, and I refer to this only to show you a
-specimen of some of the schemes which have come into my head."
-
-"Mr. Royle, if you had a pistol to give me, I would help you to shoot
-them! Show me how I can aid you in saving our lives, and I will do your
-bidding!" she exclaimed, with her eyes on fire.
-
-I put my finger on my lip and smiled.
-
-She blushed scarlet and said, "You do not think me womanly to talk so!"
-
-"You would not hate me were you to know my thoughts," I answered,
-rising.
-
-"Are you going, Mr. Royle?"
-
-"Yes. Stevens, for all I know, may have seen me come in here. I would
-rather he should find me in my own cabin."
-
-"We see very little of you, considering that we are all three in one
-small ship," she said, hanging her head.
-
-"I never leave you willingly, and would be with you all day if I might.
-But a rough sailor like me is poor company."
-
-"Sailors are the best company in the world, Mr. Royle."
-
-"Only one woman in every hundred thinks so--perhaps one in every
-thousand. Well, you would see less of me than you do if I was not
-prepared to lay down my life for you. No! I don't say that boastfully.
-I have sworn in my heart to save you, and it shall cost me my life if I
-fail. That is what I should have said."
-
-She turned her back suddenly, and I hardly knew whether I had not said
-too much. I stood watching her for a few moments, with my fingers on
-the handle of the door. Finding she did not move, I went quietly out,
-but as I closed the door I heard her sob. Now, what had I said to make
-her cry? I did not like to go in again, and so I repaired to my cabin,
-wishing, instead of allowing my conversation to drift into a personal
-current, I had confined it to my plans, which I had not half unfolded
-to her, but from which I had been as easily diverted as if they were a
-bit of fiction instead of a living plot that our lives depended on.
-
-During my watch from four to six, Stevens joined me, and asked how
-"Floridy" would bear from the ship when she was hove to?
-
-I told him that Florida was not an island, but part of the main coast
-of North America, and that he might head the boats any point from
-N.N.W. to S.S.W. and still, from a distance of fifty or sixty miles,
-fetch some part of the Florida coast, which I dared say, showed a
-seaboard ranging four hundred miles long.
-
-This seemed new to him, which more than ever convinced me of his
-ignorance, for though I had repeatedly pointed out Florida to him, yet
-he did not know but that it was an island, which might easily be missed
-by steering the boats a point out of the course given.
-
-He then asked me what compasses we had that we might take with us.
-
-"We shall only want one in the long-boat," I replied; "and there is one
-on the table in the captain's cabin which will do. Have you got the
-long-boat all ready?"
-
-"Ay, clean as a new brass farden, and provisioned for a month."
-
-"Now let me understand; when the ship is hove to you will sling the
-long-boat over?"
-
-"I explained all that before," he answered gruffly.
-
-"Not that."
-
-"You're hangin' on a tidy bit about them there boats. What do you
-think?"
-
-"I suppose my life is as good as yours, and that I have a right to find
-out how we are to abandon this ship and make the shore," I answered,
-with some show of warmth, my object being to get all the information
-from him that was possible to be drawn. "You'll get the long-boat
-alongside, and all hands will jump into her? Is that it?"
-
-"Why, wot do you think we'd get the boat alongside for if we didn't get
-into her?" he replied, with a kind of growling laugh.
-
-"Will anybody be left on the ship?"
-
-"Anybody left on the ship?" he exclaimed, fetching a sudden breath:
-"Wot's put that in yer head?"
-
-"I was afraid that that yellow devil, the cook, might induce you to
-leave the steward behind to take his chance to sink or swim in her,
-just out of revenge for calling bad pork good," said I, fixing my eyes
-upon him.
-
-"No, no, nothen of the sort," he replied quickly, and with evident
-alarm. "Curse the cook! d'ye think I's skipper to give them kind o'
-orders?"
-
-"Now you see what I am driving at," I said, laying my hand on his arm,
-and addressing him with a smile. "I really did think you meant to leave
-the poor devil of a steward behind. And what I wanted to understand
-was how you proposed to manage with the boats to prevent him boarding
-you--that is why I was curious."
-
-The suspicious ruffian took the bait as I meant he should; and putting
-on an unconcerned manner, which fitted him as ill as the pilot jacket
-which he had stolen from the captain he had murdered, and which he
-was now wearing, inquired, "What I meant by that? If they left the
-steward behind--not that they was goin' to, but to say it, for the sake
-o' argyment--what would the management of the boats have to do with
-preventin' him boardin' of them? He didn't understand."
-
-"Oh, nothing," I replied with a shrug. "Since we are to take the
-steward with us, there's an end of the matter."
-
-"Can't you explain, sir?" he cried, striving to suppress his temper.
-
-"It is not worth the trouble," said I; "because, don't you see, if even
-you had made up your mind to leave the steward on the ship, you'd only
-have one man to deal with. What put this matter into my head was a
-yarn I read some time ago about a ship's company wishing to leave their
-vessel. There were only two boats which were serviceable, and these
-wouldn't hold above two-thirds of the crew. So the men conspired among
-themselves--do you understand me?"
-
-"Yes, yes, I'm a-followin' of you."
-
-"That is, twelve men out of a crew composed of eighteen hands resolved
-to lower the boats and get away, and leave the others to shift for
-themselves. But they had to act cautiously, because, don't you see,
-the fellows who were to be left behind would become desperate with the
-fear of death, and if any of them contrived to get into the boats,
-they might begin a fight, which, if it didn't capsize the boats, was
-pretty sure to end in a drowning match. Of course, in our case, as I
-have said, even supposing you _had_ made up your mind to leave the
-steward behind, we should have nothing to fear, because he would be
-only one man. But when you come to two or three, or four men driven mad
-by terror, then look out if they get among you in a boat; for fear will
-make two as strong as six, and I shouldn't like to be in the boat where
-such a fight was taking place."
-
-"Well, but how did them other chaps manage as you're tellin' about?"
-
-"Why, they all got into the boats in a lump, and shoved off well clear
-of the ship. The others jumped into the water after them, but never
-reached the boats. But all this doesn't hit _our_ case. You wished me
-to explain, and now you know my reasons for asking you how you meant
-to manage with the boats. Do not forget that there is a woman among
-us, and a fight at the last moment, when our lives may depend upon
-orderliness and coolness, may drown us all."
-
-And so saying I left him, under pretence of looking at the compass.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX.
-
-
-I had no reason to suppose that the hints I took care to wrap up in my
-conversation with Stevens would shape his actions to the form I wished
-them to take; but though they did no good, they would certainly do me
-no harm, and it was at least certain that my opinion was respected, so
-that I might hope that some weight would attach to whatever suggestions
-I offered.
-
-Nothing now remained to be done but to wait the result of events; but
-no language can express an idea of my anxiety as the hours passed,
-bringing us momentarily closer to the dreaded and yet wished-for issue.
-
-Some of the men got intoxicated that afternoon, and I believe two of
-them had a desperate set to; they sang until they were tired, and for
-tea had more hot roast pork and fowls.
-
-But the majority had their senses, and kept those who were drunk under;
-so that the riot was all forward.
-
-I wondered what the boatswain would think of the shindy over his head,
-and whether he had a watch to tell the time by. His abode was surely a
-very dismal one, among the coals in the forepeak, and dark as night,
-with plenty of rats to squeak about his ears, and the endless creaking
-and complaining of the timbers under water.
-
-A terrible idea possessed me once. It was that he might be asleep when
-the man went down to scuttle the ship, who, of course, would take a
-candle with him, and find him lying there.
-
-But there was no use in _imagining_ evil. I could only do what was
-possible. If we were doomed to die, why, we must meet our fate
-heroically. What more?
-
-It blew freshly at eleven o'clock, and held all night. I kept all
-the sail on the ship that she would bear, and up to noon next day we
-spanked along at a great pace.
-
-Then the wind fell light and veered round to the north; but this did
-not matter to me, for I showed the carpenter a run on the chart which
-convincingly proved to him that, even if we did no more than four
-knots an hour until next day, we should be near enough to the coast of
-Florida to heave to.
-
-This afternoon the men made preparations to swing the long-boat over
-the side, clapping on strops to the collar of the mainstay, and forward
-round the tressel-tree, ready to hook on the tackles to lift the boat
-out of her chocks. Their eagerness to get away from the ship was well
-illustrated by these early preparations.
-
-All that day they fared sumptuously on roast pork, and whatever took
-their fancy among the cuddy stores, but drank little, or at all events
-not enough to affect them, though there was sufficient rum in the hold
-to kill them all off in a day, had they had a mind to broach the casks.
-
-Towards evening we sighted no less than five ships, two standing to the
-south and the others steering north. The spectacle of these vessels
-fully persuaded Stevens that we were nearing the coast, he telling me
-he had no doubt they were from the West Indies, which he supposed were
-not more than four hundred miles distant.
-
-I did not undeceive him.
-
-I saw Miss Robertson for a few minutes that evening to repeat my
-caution to her not to show herself on deck.
-
-The men were again at their pranks in the forecastle, sky-larking
-as they call it at sea, and, though not drunk, they were making a
-tremendous noise. One of them had got a concertina, and sat playing
-it, tailor-fashion, on top of the capstan, and some were dancing, two
-having dressed themselves up as women in canvas bonnets, and blankets
-round them to resemble skirts.
-
-Fun of this sort would have been innocent enough had there been
-any recognized discipline to overlook it; but from decent mirth to
-boisterous, coarse disorder, is an easy step to sailors, and in the
-present temper of the crew the least provocation might convert the ship
-into a theatre for exhibitions of horse-play which, begun in vanity,
-might end in criminal excesses.
-
-During my brief conversation with Miss Robertson, I asked her an odd
-question--Could she steer a ship?
-
-She answered, "Yes."
-
-"You say 'yes' because you will try if you are wanted to do so," I said.
-
-"I say 'yes' because I really understand how to use the wheel," she
-replied, seriously.
-
-"Where did you learn?"
-
-"During our voyage to the Cape of Good Hope. I used to watch the man
-steering, and observe him move the wheel so as to keep the compass card
-steady. I told Captain Jenkinson I should like to learn to steer, and
-he would often let me hold the wheel, and for fun give me orders."
-
-"Which way would you pull the spokes if I told you to put the helm to
-starboard?"
-
-"To the left," she answered, promptly.
-
-"And if I said 'hard over?'"
-
-"If the wind was blowing on the left hand side I would push the wheel
-to the right until I could push it no further. You can't puzzle me,
-indeed. I know all the steering terms. _Really_, I can steer."
-
-I quite believed her, though I should never have dreamt of her
-proficiency in this matter, and told her that if we succeeded in
-getting away from the boats, she would be of the utmost importance to
-us, because then there would be three men to work the ship, whereas two
-only would be at liberty if one had to take the wheel.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-And now I come to Friday.
-
-We were keeping no regular watches. Stevens, ever distrustful of
-me, was markedly so now that our voyage was nearly ended. He was
-incessantly up and down, looking at the compass, computing the ship's
-speed by staring at the passing water, and often engaged, sometimes
-on the poop, sometimes on the forecastle, in conversation with Fish,
-Cornish, Johnson, and others.
-
-He made no inquiries after Mr. or Miss Robertson; he appeared to have
-forgotten their existence. I also noticed that he shirked me as often
-as he could, leaving the deck when I appeared, and mounting the ladder
-the furthest from where I stood when he came aft from the main-deck.
-
-The dawn had broken with a promise of a beautiful day; though the
-glass, which had been dropping very slowly all through the night,
-stood low at eight o'clock that morning. The sun, even at that early
-hour, was intensely hot, and here and there the pitch in the seams of
-the deck adhered to the soles of one's boots, while the smell of the
-paint-work rose hot in the nostrils.
-
-There was a long swell, the undulations moderate though wide apart,
-coming from the westward; the clouds were very high, and the sky a
-dazzling blue, and the wind about north, very soft and refreshing.
-
-The men were quiet, and continued so throughout the day. Many of
-them, as well as the carpenter, incessantly gazed around the horizon,
-evidently fearing the approach of a vessel; and some would steal aft
-and look at the compass, and then go away again.
-
-We were under all plain sail, and the ship, as near as I could tell,
-was making about five knots an hour, though the log gave us seven, and
-I logged it seven on the slate in case of any arguments arising.
-
-When I came on deck with my sextant in hand to take sights, I was
-struck by the intent expressions on the faces of the crew, the whole of
-whom, even including the cook, had collected on the poop, or stood upon
-the ladders waiting for me.
-
-When I saw them thus congregated, my heart for a moment failed me.
-
-The tremendous doubt crossed my mind--were they acquainted with the
-ship's whereabouts? Did they know, had they known all through, that I
-was deceiving them?
-
-No!
-
-As I looked at them I became reassured. Theirs was an anxiety I should
-have been blind to misconstrue. The true expression on their faces
-represented nothing but eager curiosity to know whether our journey
-were really ended, or whether more time must elapse before they could
-quit the ship which they had rendered accursed with the crime of
-murder, and which as I well knew, from what Stevens had over and over
-again let fall, they abhorred with all the terrors of vulgar conscience.
-
-Having made my observations, I was about to quit the poop, when one of
-the men called out--
-
-"Tell us what you make it."
-
-"I will when I have worked it out," I replied.
-
-"Work it out here, whilst we looks on."
-
-"Do any of you understand navigation?"
-
-There was no reply.
-
-"Unless you can count," said I, "you'll not be able to follow me."
-
-"Two and two and one makes nine," said a voice.
-
-"What do ye mean by jokin'? You ought to be ashamed o' yourself,"
-exclaimed one of the men. And then there was a blow, and immediately
-after an oath.
-
-"If you want me to work out these sights in your presence, I'll do so,"
-said I.
-
-And I went below to get the things I required, leaving my sextant on
-deck to show them that I meant to be honest.
-
-When I returned, they were all around the skylight, gazing at the
-sextant as though it were an animal; no man taking the liberty to touch
-it, however.
-
-They came, hustling each other about me as I sat on the skylight
-working out my figures, and I promise you their proximity, coupled with
-my notion that they _might_ suspect I had been deceiving them, did not
-sharpen my wits so as to expedite my calculations.
-
-I carried two reckonings in my head--false, and the true; and finding
-our actual whereabouts to be ninety-eight miles from Bermuda, the
-islands bearing W.S.W. as straight as a line, I unfolded the chart, and
-giving them the imaginary longitude and latitude, put my finger upon
-the spot we were supposed to have reached, exclaiming,
-
-"Now you can see where we are!"
-
-"Just make a small mark there with your pencil, will you?" said
-Johnson; "then all hands can have a look."
-
-I did so, and quitted the skylight, surrendering the chart to the men,
-who made a strange picture as they stood poring over it, pointing with
-their brown forefingers and arguing.
-
-"There's no question I can answer, is there?" said I to the carpenter.
-
-"Mates, is there anything you want to say to Mr. Royle?" he exclaimed.
-
-"When are we going to heave the ship to?" asked Fish.
-
-"That's for you to answer," I rejoined.
-
-"Well, I'm not for standin' too close in shore," said Fish.
-
-"How fur off do you say is this here Florida coast?" asked Johnson.
-
-"About sixty miles. Look at the chart."
-
-"And every minute brings us nearer," said a man.
-
-"That's true," I replied. "But you don't want to leave the ship before
-dusk, do you?"
-
-The men looked at each other as though they were not sure that they
-ought to confide so much to me as an answer to my question would
-involve. I particularly took notice of this, and felt how thoroughly I
-was put aside by them in their intentions.
-
-The carpenter said, "You'll understand our arrangements by-and-by, Mr.
-Royle. How's the wind?"
-
-"About north," said I.
-
-"Mates, shall we bring the yards to the masts and keep the leeches
-liftin' till we're ready to stop her?"
-
-"The best thing as can happen," said Johnson.
-
-"She'll lie to the west'ards at that, and 'll look to be sailin'
-properly if a wessel sights her; and she'll make no way neither," said
-Stevens.
-
-"You can't do better," I exclaimed.
-
-So the helm was put down, and as the men went to work I descended to my
-cabin.
-
-The steward's head was at the pantry door, and I called to him, "Bring
-me a biscuit and the sherry."
-
-I wanted neither, but I had something to say to him; and if Stevens
-saw him come to my cabin with a tray in his hand he was not likely to
-follow and listen at the door.
-
-The steward put the tray down and was going away, when I took him by
-the arm and led him to the extremity of the cabin.
-
-"Do you value your life?" I said to him in a whisper.
-
-He stared at me and turned pale.
-
-"Just listen," I continued. "At dusk this evening the men are going to
-leave the ship in the boats. They are going to scuttle the ship first
-that she may fill with water and sink. It is not their intention to
-take us with them."
-
-"My God!" he muttered, trembling like a freezing man: "are we to be
-left on board to sink?"
-
-"That is what they mean. But the bo'sun, whom they believe to be
-drowned, is in the hold ready to kill the man who goes down to scuttle
-the ship. If we act promptly we may save our lives and get away from
-the ruffians. There are only three of us, but we must fight as though
-we were twelve men if it should come to our having to fight. Understand
-that. When once the men are in the boats no creature among them must
-ever get on board again alive. Hit hard--spare nothing! If we are
-beaten, we are dead men; if we conquer, our lives are our own."
-
-"I'll do my best," answered the steward, the expression on whose face,
-however, was anything but heroical. "But you must tell me what to do,
-sir. I shan't know, sir. I never was in a fight, and the sight of blood
-is terrifying to me, sir."
-
-"You'll have to bottle up your fears. Don't misunderstand me, steward.
-Every man left on board this ship to drown will look to his companions
-to help him to save his life. And by all that's holy, if you show any
-cowardice, if you skulk, if you do not fight like forty men, if you do
-not stick by my side and obey my words like a flash of lightning, as
-sure as you breathe I'll put a bullet through your head. I'll kill you
-for not helping me."
-
-And I pulled out the pistol from my pocket and flourished it under his
-nose.
-
-He recoiled from the weapon with his eyes half out of his head, and
-gasped--
-
-"What am I to use, sir?"
-
-"The first iron belaying-pin you can snatch up," I answered. "There
-are plenty to be found. And now be off. Not a look, not a word! Go to
-your work as usual. If you open your mouth you are a dead man."
-
-He went away as pale as a ghost. However, cur as he was, I did not
-despair of his turning to at the last moment. Cowards will sometimes
-make terrible antagonists. The madness of fear renders them desperate,
-and in their frenzy they will do more execution than the brave
-deliberate man.
-
-I did not remain long off the poop, being too anxious to observe the
-movements of the crew.
-
-I found the breeze slackening fast, with every appearance of a calm
-in the hot, misty blue sky, and the glassy aspect of the horizon. The
-lower sails flapped to every motion of the ship, and lying close to
-what little wind there was, we made no progress at all.
-
-The promise of a calm, though favourable to the intentions of the men,
-in so far as it would keep the horizon clear of sailing ships, and so
-limit the probability of their operations being witnessed to the chance
-of a steamer passing, was a blow to me; as one essential part of my
-scheme, that of swinging the mainyards round, and getting way on the
-ship, when the men had left her, would be impracticable.
-
-The glass, indeed, stood low, but then this might betoken the coming
-of more wind than I should want, a gale that would detain the men on
-the ship, and force them to defer the scheme of abandoning her for an
-indefinite period.
-
-They had gone to dinner, but were so quiet that the vessel seemed
-deserted, and nothing was audible but the clank of the tiller-chains
-and the rattling of the sails against the masts.
-
-Stevens was forward, apparently having his dinner with the men. In
-glancing through the skylight, I saw Mary Robertson looking up at me.
-I leaned forward, so that my face was concealed from the man at the
-wheel--the only person on deck besides myself--and whispered--
-
-"Keep up your courage, and be ready to act as I may direct."
-
-"I am quite ready," she answered.
-
-"Remain in your cabin," I said, "and don't let the men see you;" for it
-had flashed upon me that if the crew saw her they might force her to go
-along with them in the boats.
-
-"I wanted a little brandy for papa," she answered. "He is very poorly
-and weak, and rambles terribly in his talk."
-
-She turned to hide her tears from me, and prevent me witnessing her
-struggles to restrain them. She would feel their impotence, the mockery
-of them at such a time; besides, dear heart, she would think I should
-distrust her courage if she let me see her weep.
-
-The steward came forward under the skylight as she entered her cabin,
-and said--
-
-"I will fight for my life, sir."
-
-"That is my advice to you."
-
-"I will do my best. I have been thinking of my wife and child, sir."
-
-"Hush!" I cried. "Not so loud. If your courage fails you, there is a
-girl in that cabin there, who will show you how to be brave. Remember
-two things--act quickly and strike hard; and for God's sake don't fall
-to drinking to pull up your nerves. If I find you drunk I will call
-upon the men to drown you."
-
-And with this injunction I left the skylight.
-
-The men remained a great while in the forecastle, all so quiet that
-I wondered whether some among them were even now below scuttling the
-ship. But they would hardly act so prematurely. To be sure, it would
-take a long time for the ship to fill, bored even in half a dozen
-places by an auger; but until the evening fell, and they were actually
-in the boats, they could not be sure that a wind would not spring up to
-oblige them to keep to the ship.
-
-I remained on deck, never thinking of dinner, watching the weather
-anxiously.
-
-An ordinary seaman came aft to relieve the wheel; but finding that the
-ship had no steerage way on her, he squatted himself on the taffrail,
-pulled out a pipe and began to smoke. I took no notice of him.
-
-Shortly afterwards Stevens came along the main-deck and mounted the
-poop.
-
-"A dead calm," said he, after sweeping the horizon with his hand over
-his eyes, "and blessedly hot."
-
-"Is the ship to be left all standing?" I inquired.
-
-"What do you think?" he replied, with an air of indifference, casting
-his eyes aloft.
-
-"I should snug her, certainly."
-
-"Why?" he demanded, folding his arms, and staring at me as he leaned
-against the poop-rail.
-
-"Because, should she drift, and be overhauled by another ship, it will
-look more ship-shape if she is found snug, as though she had been
-abandoned in a storm."
-
-"There's something in that," he answered, without shifting his position.
-
-"Shall I tell the men to shorten sail?"
-
-"If you like," he replied, grinning in my face.
-
-I pretended not to observe his odd manner, being very anxious to get in
-all the sail that I could whilst there were men to do it. So I sang
-out, "All hands shorten sail!"
-
-The men on the forecastle stared, and burst into a laugh; and one of
-a group on the main-deck, who were inspecting the provisions for the
-long-boat, which lay under a tarpaulin, exclaimed--
-
-"Wot's goin' to happen?"
-
-I glanced at the carpenter, who still surveyed me with a broad grin,
-and walked aft. I was a fool not to have anticipated this. What was it
-to the crew whether the ship sank with all sails standing or with all
-sails furled?
-
-I was too restless to go below; but to dissemble my terrible anxiety
-as well as I could, I lighted a pipe and crouched in the shadow of the
-mizzen-mast out of the way of the broiling sun.
-
-The breeze had utterly gone. The sea was glassy, and white and long
-wreaths of mist stood, down in the south, upon the horizon. As I looked
-at the ship, at her graceful spaces of canvas lowering upon the fine
-and delicate masts, her white decks, her gleaming brass-work, the
-significance of the crime meditated by the crew was shocking to me.
-The awful cold-bloodedness with which they meant to sink the beautiful
-vessel, with the few poor lives who were to be left defenceless on
-board, overwhelmed me with horror and detestation. So atrocious an act
-I thought the Almighty would not surely permit. Could not I count upon
-His mercy and protection? Remembering that I had not sought Him yet,
-I pulled off my cap, and without kneeling--for I durst not kneel with
-the eyes of the men upon me--I mutely invoked His heavenly protection.
-I pleaded with all the strength of my heart for the sweet and helpless
-girl whom, under His divine providence, I had already rescued from one
-dreadful fate, and whom, under His sure guidance, I might yet preserve
-from the slow and bitter death which the crew had planned that we
-should suffer.
-
-It was not until six o'clock that the carpenter ordered the men to get
-the long-boat over. But just before he called out I had noticed, with
-a leap of joy in me, that the water out in the north-west was dark as
-with the shadow of a cloud upon it.
-
-Though this was no more than a cat's paw, and travelled very slowly, I
-was certain, not only from the indications of the barometer, but from
-the complexion of the sky, that wind was behind.
-
-The men did not appear to notice it, and when the carpenter sang out
-the order all hands went to work briskly.
-
-Some ran aloft with tackles, which they made fast to the starboard
-fore and main yard-arms; others hooked on tackles to the straps which
-were already round the tressel-tree and collar of the mainstay. But
-willingly as they worked, even these preliminary measures ran into a
-great deal of time, and before they had done, a light breeze had come
-down on the ship and taken her aback.
-
-The carpenter, seeing this, clapped some hands on to the fore and
-mizzen braces, and filled the fore and after sails. The ship was
-therefore hove to with her head at west.
-
-This done, he went to the wheel, put the helm amidship and made it
-fast; and then went forward again to superintend the work.
-
-I took up my position on the starboard side of the poop, close against
-the ladder, and there I remained. I scanned the faces of the men
-carefully, and found all hands present, including the cook. I thus
-knew that no man was below in the hold, and it was now my business to
-watch closely that I might miss the man who should have the job to
-scuttle the ship.
-
-The breeze died away, but in the same direction whence it had come was
-another shadow, more defined and extending far to the north.
-
-The men had begun their work late, and as they knew that they had
-little or no twilight to count upon, laboured hard at the difficult
-task of raising the long-boat out of her chucks and swinging her clear
-of the bulwarks.
-
-It was close upon seven o'clock before they were ready to hoist. They
-took the end of one fall to the capstan on the main-deck, the other
-they led forward through a block, and presently up rose the boat until
-it was on a level with the bulwarks. Then the yard-arm tackles were
-manned, the midship falls slacked off, and the big boat sank gently
-down into the water.
-
-She was brought alongside at once, and three men jumped into her. Then
-began the process of storing the provisions. This was carried on by
-five men, while the remaining three came aft, and whilst one got into
-the quarter-boat, the other two lowered her.
-
-_At this moment I missed the carpenter._
-
-I held my breath, looking into the boats and all round.
-
-He was not to be seen.
-
-I strained my ear at the foremost skylight, conceiving that he might
-have entered the cuddy.
-
-All was silent there.
-
-Beyond the shadow of a doubt, he it was who had planned the scuttling
-of the ship, and he it was who had left the deck to do it.
-
-It was a supreme moment. I had not contemplated that _he_ would be the
-man who should bore the hole. If the boatswain killed him----!
-
-Great God! the hands were on deck--all about us! If he did not return,
-they would seek him. He was their leader, and they were not likely to
-quit the ship without him.
-
-The hair stirred on my head; the sweat stood in beads on my face. I bit
-my lip half through to control my features, and stood waiting for--I
-knew not what!
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER X.
-
-
-The men went on busily provisioning the long-boat, some whistling gay
-tunes, others laughing and passing jokes, all in good spirits, as
-though they were going on a holiday expedition.
-
-The shadow on the horizon was broadening fast, and the sun was sinking
-quickly, making the ocean blood-red with its burning effulgence, and
-veining the well-greased masts with lines of fire.
-
-What had happened?
-
-Even now, as I thought, was the villain lying dead, with the auger in
-his hand?
-
-The minutes rolling past seemed eternal. Five, ten, twenty minutes
-came and went. The sun's lower limb was close against the water-line,
-sipping the ruby splendour it had kindled. The breeze was now close
-at hand, but we still lay in a breathless calm, and the sails flapped
-softly to the tuneful motion of the deep.
-
-Then some of the men who remained on deck went over the ship's side,
-leaving four of the crew on the main-deck close against the gangway.
-These men sometimes looked at me, sometimes into the cuddy, sometimes
-forward, but none of them spoke.
-
-Now the sun was half hidden, and the soft breeze blowing upon the
-sails, outlined the masts against those which were backed.
-
-Suddenly--and I started as though I had beheld a ghost--the carpenter
-came round from before the galley, and walked quickly to the gangway.
-
-"Over with you, lads!" he cried.
-
-Like rats leaping from a sinking hull they dropped, one after the
-other, into the long-boat, the carpenter going last. Their painter was
-fast to a chain-plate, and they cast it adrift. The quarter-boat was in
-tow, and in a few minutes both boats stood at some two or three cables'
-lengths from the ship, the men watching her.
-
-The last glorious fragment of the sinking sun fled, and darkness came
-creeping swiftly over the sea.
-
-I had stood like one in whom life had suddenly been extinguished--too
-much amazed to act. Seeing the carpenter return, I had made sure that
-he had killed the boatswain; but his behaviour contradicted this
-supposition. Had he been attacked by the boatswain and killed him,
-would he have quitted the ship without revenging himself upon me, whom
-he would know to be at the bottom of this conspiracy against his life?
-
-What, then, was the meaning of his return, his collected manner, his
-silent exit from the ship? Had the boatswain, lying hidden, _died_?
-The thought fired my blood. Yes, I believed that he had died--that the
-carpenter had performed his task unmolested without perceiving the
-corpse--and that, whilst I stood there, the water was rushing into the
-ship's hold!
-
-I flung myself off the poop, and bounded forward. In the briefest
-possible time I was peering down the forescuttle.
-
-"Below there!" I called.
-
-There was no answer.
-
-"Below there, I say, boatswain!"
-
-My cry was succeeded by a hollow, thumping sound.
-
-"Below there!" I shouted, for the third time.
-
-I heard the sounds of a foot treading on something that crunched under
-the tread.
-
-"I am Mr. Royle. Bo'sun, are you below? For God Almighty's sake answer
-and let me know that you are living."
-
-"Have the skunks cleared out?" responded a voice, and, stumbling as he
-moved, the boatswain came under the forescuttle and turned up his face.
-
-"What have you done?" I cried, almost delirious.
-
-"Why, plugged up two on 'em. There's only one more," he answered.
-
-"One more what?"
-
-"Leaks--holes--whatever you call 'em."
-
-So saying, he shouldered his way back into the gloom.
-
-It was now all as clear as daylight to me. I waited some minutes,
-bursting with impatience and anxiety, during which I heard him
-hammering away like a caulker. My fear was that the men would discover
-that they had omitted to put a compass in the boats, and that they
-would return for one. There were other things, too, of which they might
-perceive the omission, and row to the ship to obtain them before she
-sank.
-
-Just as I was about to cry out to him to bear a hand, the boatswain's
-face gleamed under the hatchway.
-
-"Have you done?" I exclaimed.
-
-"Ay, ay."
-
-"Is she tight?"
-
-"Tight as a cocoa-nut."
-
-"Up with you, then! There is a bit of a breeze blowing. Let us swing
-the mainyards and get way upon the ship. They are waiting to see her
-settle before they up sail. It is dark enough to act. Hurrah, now!"
-
-He came up through the forecastle and followed me on to the main-deck.
-
-Though not yet dark, the shadow of the evening made it difficult to
-distinguish faces even a short distance off. There was a pretty little
-wind up aloft rounding the royals and top-gallant sails, and flattening
-the sails on the mainyards well against the masts.
-
-I stopped a second to look over the bulwarks, and found that the boats
-still remained at about three cable-lengths from the ship. They had
-slipped the mast in the long-boat; but I noticed that the two boats
-lay side by side, four men in the quarter-boat, and the rest in the
-long-boat, and that they were handing out some of the stores which had
-been stowed in the quarter-boat, to lighten her.
-
-"We must lose no time, Mr. Royle," exclaimed the boatswain. "How many
-hands can we muster?"
-
-"Three."
-
-"That'll do. We can swing the mainyard. Who's the third?--the steward?
-Let's have him out."
-
-I ran to the cuddy and called the steward. He came out of the pantry.
-
-"On to the poop with you!" I cried. "Right aft you'll find the bo'sun
-there. Miss Robertson!"
-
-At the sound of her name she stepped forth from her cabin.
-
-"The men are out of the ship," I exclaimed. "We are ready to get way
-upon her. Will you take the wheel at once?"
-
-She was running on to the poop before the request was well out of my
-mouth.
-
-The boatswain had already let go the starboard main-braces; and as I
-rushed aft he and the steward were hauling to leeward. I threw the
-whole weight of my body on the brace, and pulled with the strength of
-two men.
-
-"Put the wheel to starboard!" I called out; and the girl, having cast
-off the lashing with marvellous quickness, ran the spokes over.
-
-"By God, she's a wonder!" cried the boatswain, looking at her.
-
-And so was he. The muscles on his bare arms stood up like lumps of iron
-under the flesh as he strained the heavy brace.
-
-The great yards swung easily; the topsail, top-gallant, and royal yards
-came round with the mainyard, and swung themselves when the sails
-filled.
-
-There was no time to gather in the slack of the lee-braces. I ran to
-windward, belayed the braces, and raised a loud cry.
-
-"They're after us, bo'sun!--they're after us!"
-
-We might have been sure of that; for if we had not been able to
-see them we could have heard them: the grinding of the oars in the
-rowlocks, the frothing of the water at the boat's bows, the cries and
-oaths of the men in the long-boat, inciting the others to overtake us.
-
-Only the quarter-boat was in pursuit as yet; but in the long-boat they
-were rigging up the stun'-sail they had shipped, meaning, as they were
-to windward, to bear down upon us.
-
-There was no doubt that they guessed their scheme had been baffled by
-discerning _three_ men on deck. The carpenter at least knew that old
-Mr. Robertson was too ill to leave his cabin, and failing _him_ he
-would instantly perceive that a trick had been played; and though he
-could not tell in that light and at that distance who the third man
-was, he would certainly know that this third man's presence on board
-implied the existence of a plot to save the ship.
-
-As the boat approached I perceived that she was rowed by four men and
-steered by a fifth, and presently, hearing his voice, I understood that
-this man steering was Stevens.
-
-The ship had just got way enough upon her to answer her helm. Already
-we were drawing the long-boat away from our beam on to the quarter.
-
-I shouted to Miss Robertson "Steady! keep her straight as she is!" for
-even now we had brought the wind too far aft for the trim of the yards.
-
-"Steward," I cried, "whip out one of those iron belaying-pins, and
-stand by to hammer away."
-
-We then posted ourselves, the boatswain and the steward at the gangway,
-and I half-way up the poop ladder, each with a heavy belaying-pin
-in his hand, ready to receive the scoundrels who were making for the
-starboard main-chains.
-
-The boat, urged furiously through the water, came up to us hand over
-fist, the carpenter cursing us furiously, and swearing that he would do
-for us yet.
-
-I got my pistol ready, meaning to shoot the ruffian the moment he
-should be within reach of the weapon, but abandoned this intention from
-a motive of hate and revenge. I knew if I killed him as he sat there in
-the stern sheets, that the others would take fright and run away; and
-such was my passion, and the sense of our superiority over them from
-our position in the ship as against theirs in the boat, that I made up
-my mind to let them come alongside and get into the chains, so that we
-might kill them all as a warning to the occupants of the long-boat, who
-were now coming down upon us before the breeze.
-
-I took one glance at Miss Robertson: her figure was visible by the side
-of the wheel. She was steering as steadily as any sailor, and, with an
-emotion of gratitude to God for giving us such help, and her so much
-courage at this supreme moment, I addressed all my energies to the
-bloody work before me.
-
-The boat dashed alongside, and the men threw in their oars. The fellow
-in the bow grabbed hold of one of the chain-plates, passed the boat's
-painter around it, hauled it short and made it fast with incredible
-activity and speed. Then pulling their knives out of the sheaths they
-all came clambering into the main-chains.
-
-So close as they now were, I could make out the faces of the men. One
-was big Johnson, another Cornish, the third Fish, the fourth, Schmidten.
-
-I alone was visible. The boatswain and the steward stood with uplifted
-arms ready to strike at the first head that showed itself.
-
-The carpenter sprang on to the bulwark just where I stood. He poised
-his knife to stab me under the throat.
-
-"Now, you murderous treacherous ruffian!" I cried at the top of my
-voice, "say your prayers!"
-
-I levelled the pistol at his head, the muzzle not being a yard away
-from his face, and pulled the trigger. The bright flash illuminated him
-like a ray of lightning. He uttered a scream shrill as a child's, but
-terrific in intensity, clapped his hands to his face, and fell like a
-stone into the main-chains.
-
-"It is your turn now!" I roared to Johnson, and let fly at him. He was
-holding on to one of the main shrouds in the act of springing on to
-the deck. I missed his head, but struck him in the arm, I think; for
-he let go the shroud with a deep groan, reeled backwards, and toppled
-overboard, and I heard the heavy splash of his body as he fell.
-
-But we were not even now three to three, but three to one; for the
-boatswain had let drive with his frightful belaying-pin at Fish's head,
-just as that enormous protuberance had shown itself over the bulwark,
-and the wretch lay dead or stunned in the boat alongside; whilst the
-steward, who had secreted a huge carving-knife in his bosom, had
-stabbed the Dutchman right in the stomach, leaving the knife in him;
-and the miserable creature hung over the bulwark, head and arms hanging
-down towards the water, and suddenly writhing as he thus hung, dropped
-overboard.
-
-Cornish, of all five men alone lived. I had watched him aim a blow at
-the boatswain's back, and fired, but missed him. But he too had missed
-his aim, and the boatswain, slueing round, struck his wrist with the
-belaying-pin--whack! it sounded like the blow of a hammer on wood--and
-the knife fell from his hand.
-
-"Mercy! spare my life!" he roared, seeing that I had again covered him,
-having two more shots left.
-
-The steward, capable, now that things had gone well with us, of
-performing prodigies of valour, rushed upon him, laid hold of his legs,
-and pulled him off the bulwark on to the deck.
-
-I thought the fall had broken his back, for he lay groaning and
-motionless.
-
-"Don't kill him," I cried. "Make his hands fast and leave him for the
-present. We may want him by-and-by."
-
-The boatswain whipped a rope's end round him and shoved him against the
-rail, and then came running up the poop ladder, wiping the streaming
-perspiration from his face.
-
-The breeze was freshening, and the boat alongside wobbled and splashed
-as the ship towed her through the water.
-
-I ran aft and stared into the gloom astern. I could see nothing of the
-long-boat. I looked again and again, and fetched the night-glass, and
-by its aid, sure enough, I beheld her, a smudge on the even ground of
-the gloom, standing away close to the wind, for this much I could tell
-by the outline of her sail.
-
-"Miss Robertson!" I cried, "we are saved! Yonder is the long-boat
-leaving us. Our lives are our own!"
-
-"I bless God for His mercy," she answered quietly. But then her pent-up
-feelings mastered her; she rocked to and fro, grasping the spokes
-of the wheel, and I extended my arms just in time to save her from
-falling.
-
-"Bo'sun!" I shouted, and he came hurrying to me. "Miss Robertson has
-fainted! Reach me a flag out of that locker."
-
-He handed me a signal-flag, and I laid the poor girl gently down upon
-the deck with the flag for a pillow under her head.
-
-"Fetch me some brandy, bo'sun. The steward will give you a wine-glass
-full."
-
-And with one hand upon the wheel to steady the ship, I knelt by the
-girl's side, holding her cold fingers, with so much tenderness and love
-for her in my heart, that I could have wept like a woman to see her
-lying so pale and still.
-
-The boatswain returned quickly, followed by the steward. I surrendered
-the wheel to the former, and taking the brandy, succeeded in
-introducing some into her mouth. By dint of this and chafing her hands
-and moistening her forehead, I restored her to consciousness. I then,
-with my arm supporting her, helped her into the cuddy; but I did not
-stay an instant after this, for there was plenty of work to be done on
-deck; and though we had escaped one peril, yet here we might be running
-headlong into another, for the ship was under full sail; we had but
-three men to work her, not counting Cornish, of whose willingness or
-capacity to work after his rough handling I as yet knew nothing. The
-glass stood low, and if a gale should spring up and catch us as we
-were, it was fifty to one if the ship did not go to the bottom.
-
-"Bo'sun," I exclaimed, "what's to be done now?"
-
-"Shorten sail whilst the wind's light, that's sartin," he answered.
-"But the first job must be to get Cornish out of his lashin's and set
-him on his legs. He must lend us a hand."
-
-"Yes; we'll do that," I replied. "Steward, can you steer?"
-
-"No, sir," responded the steward.
-
-"Oh, damn it!" exclaimed the boatswain. "I'd rather be a guffy than a
-steward," meaning by guffy a marine.
-
-"Well," cried I, "you must try."
-
-"But I know nothing about it, sir."
-
-"Come here and lay hold of these spokes. Look at that card--no, by
-Jove! you can't see it."
-
-But the binnacle lamp was trimmed, and in a moment the boatswain
-had pulled out a lucifer match, dexterously caught the flame in his
-hollowed hands and fired the mesh.
-
-"Look at that card," I said, as the boatswain shipped the lamp.
-
-"I'm a lookin', sir."
-
-"Do you see that it points south-east?"
-
-"Yes, sir."
-
-"If those letters S.E. swing to the left of the lubber's point--that
-black mark there--pull the spokes to the left until S.E. comes to the
-mark again. If S.E. goes to the right, shove the spokes to the right.
-Do you understand?"
-
-"Yes, I think I do, sir."
-
-"Mind your eye, steward. Don't let those letters get away from you, or
-you'll run the ship into the long-boat, and bring all hands on board
-again."
-
-And leaving him holding on to the wheel with the fear, and in the
-attitude of a cockney clinging for his life, the boatswain and I walked
-to the main-deck.
-
-Cornish lay like a bundle against the rail. When he saw us he cried
-out--
-
-"Kill me if you like; but for God's sake loosen this rope first! It's
-keepin' my blood all in one place!"
-
-"How do you know we haven't come to drown you?" cried the boatswain in
-an awful voice. "Don't jaw us about your blood. You won't want none in
-five minutes."
-
-"Then the Lord have mercy upon my soul!" groaned the poor wretch, and
-let drop his head which he had lifted out of the scuppers to address us.
-
-"Drownin's too easy for the likes o' you," continued the boatswain.
-"You want whippin' and picklin', and then quarterin' arterwards."
-
-"We are willing to spare your life," said I, feeling that we had no
-time to waste, "if you will give us your word to help us to work this
-ship, and bring her into port if we get no assistance on the road."
-
-"I'll do anything if you'll spare my life," moaned he, "and loose this
-rope round my middle."
-
-"Do you think he's to be trusted, Mr. Royle?" said the boatswain, in
-a stern voice, playing a part. "There's a bloodthirsty look on his
-countinunce, and his eyes are full o' murder."
-
-"Only try me!" groaned Cornish, faintly.
-
-"He wur Stevens' chief mate," continued the boatswain; "an' I think it
-'ud be wiser to leave him as he is for a few hours whilst we consider
-the adwisability of trustin' of him."
-
-"Then I shall be cut in halves," moaned Cornish.
-
-"Well," I exclaimed, pretending first to reflect, "we will try you; and
-if you act honestly by us you shall have no cause to complain. But if
-you attempt to play false, we will treat you as you deserve; we will
-shoot you as we shot your mates, and pitch your body overboard. So
-you'll know what to expect. Bos'un, cast him adrift."
-
-He was speedily liberated, and the boatswain hoisted him on to his
-feet, when finding him very shaky, I fetched a glass of rum from the
-pantry, which he swallowed.
-
-"Thank you, sir," said he, rubbing his wrist, which the boatswain had
-struck during the conflict. "I'll be honest and do what I can. You may
-trust me to work for you. This here mutiny belonged to all hands, and
-was no one man's, unless it were Stevens'; and I'd rather be here than
-in the long-boat."
-
-"Bo'sun," said I, cutting the fellow short, "the carpenter made the
-port quarter-boat useless by knocking some planks out of her. We ought
-to get the boat alongside in board while the water's smooth--we may
-want her."
-
-"Right you are, Mr. Royle," said he. "Pay us out a rope's end, will
-you, and I'll drop her under the davits?"
-
-And, active as a cat, he scrambled into the main-chains.
-
-But on a sudden I heard a heavy splash.
-
-"My God!" I cried "he's fallen overboard!" And I was rushing towards
-the poop when I heard him sing out, "Hallo! here's another!" and this
-was followed by a second splash.
-
-I got on to the bulwarks and bawled to him, "Where are you? What are
-you doing? Are you bathing?"
-
-"The deuce a bit," he answered. "It was one o' them blessed mutineers
-in the main-chains, and here was another in the boat. I pitched 'em
-into the water. Now then, slacken gently, and belay when I sing out."
-
-In a few moments the boat was under the davits and both falls hooked
-on. Then up came the boatswain, and the three of us began to hoist,
-manning first one fall, and then the other, bit by bit, until the boat
-was up; but she was a heavy load, with her freight of provisions and
-water--too precious to us to lose--and we panted, I promise you, by the
-time she was abreast of the poop rail.
-
-"Mr. Bo'sun," said Cornish, suddenly, "beggin' your pardon--I thought
-you was dead."
-
-"Did you, Jim Cornish?"
-
-"I thought you was drownded, sir."
-
-"Well, I ain't the fust drownded man as has come to life agin."
-
-"All hands, Mr. Bo'sun, thought you was overboard, lyin' drownded. You
-_was_ overboard?"
-
-"And do you think I'm going to explain?" answered the boatswain,
-contemptuously.
-
-"It terrified me to see you, sir."
-
-"Well, perhaps I ain't real arter all. How do you know? Seein' ain't
-believin', so old women say."
-
-"I don't believe in ghosts; but I thought you was one, Mr. Bo'sun, and
-so did big Johnson when he swore you was one of the three at the port
-main-braces."
-
-"Well, I ain't ashamed o' bein' a shadder. Better men nor me have been
-shadders. I knew a ship-chandler as wos a churchwarden and worth a mint
-o' money, who became a shadder, and kept his wife from marryin' William
-Soaper, o' the Coopid public-house Love Lane, Shadwell High Street, by
-standin' at the foot of her bed every night at eight bells. He had a
-cast in wun eye, Mr. Royle, and that's how his wife knew him."
-
-"Well, I'll say no more--but my hair riz when you turned an' hit me
-over the arm. I thought you couldn't be substantial like."
-
-"'Cause you didn't get enough o' my belaying-pin," rejoined the
-boatswain, with a loud laugh. "Wait till you turn dusty agin, mate, and
-then you'll see wot a real ghost can do."
-
-Just then Miss Robertson emerged from the companion. I ran to her and
-entreated her to remain below--though for an hour only.
-
-"No, no," she answered, "let me help you. I am much better--I am quite
-well now. I can steer the ship while you take in some of the sails, for
-I know there are too many sails set if wind should come."
-
-Then, seeing Cornish, she started and held my arm, whispering, "Who is
-he? Have they come on board?"
-
-I briefly explained, and then renewed my entreaties that she should
-remain in her cabin; but she said she would not leave the deck, even if
-I refused her permission to steer, and pleaded so eloquently, holding
-my arm and raising her sweet eyes to my face, that I reluctantly gave
-way.
-
-She hastened eagerly to take the steward's place, and I never saw any
-man resign a responsible position more willingly than he.
-
-I now explained to the boatswain that the glass stood very low, and
-that we must at once turn to and get in all the sail we could hand.
-
-I asked Cornish if he thought he was able to go aloft, and on his
-answering in the affirmative, first testing the strength of his wrist
-by hanging with his whole weight to one of the rattlins on the mizzen
-rigging, we went to work to clew up the three royals.
-
-I knew that the steward was of no use aloft, and never even asked him
-if he would venture his hand at it, for I was pretty sure he would lose
-his head and tumble overboard before he had mounted twenty feet, and
-he was too useful to us to lose right off in that way.
-
-Cornish went up to stow the mizzen-royal, and the boatswain and I went
-aloft to the main-royal. The breeze was still very gentle and the ship
-slipping smoothly through the black space of sea; but when we were on
-the main-royal yard I called the attention of the boatswain to the
-appearance of the sky in the north-west, for it was lightning faintly
-in that direction, and the pale illumination sufficed to expose a huge
-bank of cloud stretching far to the north.
-
-"We shall be able to get the top-gallant sails off her," he said, "and
-the jibs and staysails. But I don't know how we're going to furl the
-mainsail, and it'll take us all night to reef the topsails."
-
-"We must work all night," I answered, "and do what we can. Just tell
-me, whilst I pass this gasket, how you managed in the hold."
-
-"Why," he answered, "you know I took a kind o' crow-bar down with me,
-and I reckoned on splittin' open the head of the fust chap as should
-drop through the forescuttle. But turnin' it over in my mind, I thought
-it 'ud be dangerous to kill the feller, as his mates might take it into
-their heads to wait for him. And so I determined to hide myself when I
-heerd the cove comin', and stand by to plug up the holes arter he wur
-gone."
-
-Here he discharged some tobacco-juice from his mouth, and dried his
-lips on the sail.
-
-"Werry well; I had my knife with me an' a box o' matches, and werry
-useful they wos. I made a bit of a flare by combing out a strand of
-yarns and settin' fire to it, and found wot was more pleasin' to my eye
-than had I come across a five-pun note--I mean a spare broom-stick,
-which I found knockin' about in the coal-hole; and I cut it into
-pieces and pointed 'em ready to sarve. I knew who ever 'ud come, would
-use an auger, and know'd the size hole it 'ud cut; and by-and-by, but
-the Lord knows how long it were afore it happened, I hears some one
-drop down the forescuttle and strike a match and light a bit o' candle
-end. I got behind the bulkhead, where there was a plank out, and I see
-the carpenter wurking away with his auger, blowin' and sweatin' like
-any respectable hartizan earnin' of honest wages. By-and-by the water
-comes rushin' in; and then he bores another hole and the water comes
-through that; and then he bores another hole, arter which he blows out
-his candle and goes away, scramblin' up on deck. My fingers quivered to
-give him one for hisself with the end o' my crow-bar over the back of
-his head. However, no sooner did he clear out than I struck a match,
-fits in the bits of broom-stick, and stops the leaks as neatly as he
-made 'em. I thought they'd hear me drivin' of them plugs in, and that
-was all I was afraid of. But the ship's none the worse for them holes.
-She's as tight as ever she wos: an' I reckon' if she gets no more water
-in her than 'll come through them plugs, she won't be in a hurry to
-sink."
-
-I laughed, and we shook hands heartily.
-
-I often think over that: the immense height we looked down from; the
-mystical extent of black water mingling with the far-off sky; the faint
-play of lightning on the horizon; the dark hull of the ship far below,
-with the dim radiance of the cuddy lamps upon the skylights; the brave,
-sweet girl steering us, and we two perched on a dizzy eminence, shaking
-hands!
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XI.
-
-
-Cornish had stowed the mizzen-royal by the time we had reached the
-deck, and when he joined us we clewed up the fore top-gallant sail, so
-that we might hand that sail when we had done with the royal.
-
-I found this man quite civil and very willing, and in my opinion he
-spoke honestly when he declared that he had rather be with us than in
-the long-boat.
-
-The lightning was growing more vivid upon the horizon; that is, when
-I looked in that direction from the towering height of the fore-royal
-yard; and it jagged and scored with blue lines the great volume and
-belt of cloud that hung to the sea. The wind had slightly freshened,
-but still it remained a very gentle breeze, and urged the ship
-noiselessly through the water.
-
-The stars were few and languishing as you may sometimes have seen them
-on a summer's night in England when the air is sultry and the night
-dull and thunderous. All the horizon round was lost in gloom, save
-where the lightning threw out at swift intervals the black water-line
-against the gleaming background of cloud.
-
-When we again reached the deck we were rather scant of breath, and I,
-being unused of late to this kind of exercise, felt the effects of it
-more than the others.
-
-However, if it was going to blow a gale of wind as the glass
-threatened, it was very advisable that we should shorten sail now that
-it was calm; for assuredly three men, even though working for their
-lives as we were, would be utterly useless up aloft when once the
-weather got bad.
-
-We went into the cuddy and took all three of us a sup of rum to give us
-life, and I then said, "Shall we turn to and snug away aft since we are
-here?"
-
-They agreed; so we went on the poop and let go the mizzen top-gallant
-and topsail halliards, roused out the reef-tackles, and went aloft,
-where we first stowed the top-gallant sail, and then got down upon the
-topsail-yard.
-
-It was a hard job tying in all three reefs, passing the earrings and
-hauling the reef-bands taut along the yard; but we managed to complete
-the job in about half an hour.
-
-Miss Robertson remained at the wheel all this time, and the steward was
-useful on deck to let go any ropes which we found fast.
-
-"It pains me," I said to the girl, "to see you standing here. I know
-you are worn out, and I feel to be acting a most unmanly part in
-allowing you to have your way."
-
-"You cannot do without me. Why do you want to make your crew smaller in
-number than it is?" she answered, smiling with the light reflected from
-the compass card upon her face. "Look at the lightning over there! I'm
-sailor enough to know that our masts would be broken if the wind struck
-the ship with all this sail upon her. And what is _my_ work--idly
-standing here--compared to yours--you, who have already done so much,
-and are still doing the work of many men?"
-
-"You argue too well for my wishes. I want you to agree with me."
-
-"Whom have you to take my place here?"
-
-"Only the steward."
-
-"He cannot steer, Mr. Royle; and I assure you the ship wants watching."
-
-I laughed at this nautical language in her sweet mouth, and said--
-
-"Well, you shall remain here a little while longer."
-
-"One thing," she exclaimed, "I will ask you to do--to look into our
-cabin and see if papa wants anything."
-
-I ran below and peeped into the cabin. She had already lighted the lamp
-belonging to it, and so I was able to see that the old gentleman was
-asleep. I procured some brandy-and-water and biscuit and also a chair,
-and returned on deck.
-
-"Your father is asleep," said I, "so you may make your mind easy
-about him. Here are some refreshments--and see, if I put this chair
-here you can sit and hold the wheel steady with one hand. There is no
-occasion to remain on your feet. Keep that star yonder--right over
-the yard-arm," pointing it out to her. "That is as good a guide as the
-compass for the time being. We need only keep the sails full. I can
-shape no course as yet, though we shall haul round the moment we have
-stripped more canvas off her."
-
-I now heard the voices of Cornish and the boatswain right away far out
-in the darkness ahead, and running forward on to the forecastle, I
-found them stowing the flying jib.
-
-To save time I let go the outer and inner jib-halliards, and, with
-the assistance of the steward, hauled these sails down. He and I also
-clewed up the main top-gallant-sail, took the main tack and sheet to
-the winch and got them up, rounded up the leechlines and buntlines as
-well as we could, and then belayed and went forward again. I let go the
-fore-topsail halliards and took the ends of the reef-tackles to the
-capstan, and whilst the two others were tackling the outer jib, the
-steward and I hauled down the main-topmast staysail, and snugged it as
-best we could in the netting.
-
-These tasks achieved, I got upon the bowsprit, and gave the two men a
-hand to stow the jibs.
-
-"Now mates," I cried, "let's get upon the fore-topsail yard and see
-what we can do there."
-
-And up we went, and in three quarters of an hour, with the help of
-a jigger, we had hauled out the earrings and tied every blessed
-reef-point in the sail.
-
-But this was the finishing touch to our strength, and Cornish was so
-exhausted that I had to help him over the top down the fore rigging.
-
-We had indeed accomplished wonders: close-reefed two of the three
-topsails, stowed the three jibs, the three royals, two top-gallant
-sails and staysails. Our work was rendered three times harder than it
-need have been by the darkness; we had to fumble and grope, and, by
-being scarcely able to see each other, we found it extremely difficult
-to work in unison; so that, instead of hauling altogether, we hauled
-at odd times, and rendered our individual strength ineffectual, when,
-could we have collectively exerted it, we should have achieved our
-purpose easily.
-
-"I must sit down for a spell, sir," said Cornish. "I can't do no more
-work yet."
-
-"If we could only get that top-gallant sail off her," I exclaimed,
-looking longingly up at it. But all the same, I felt that a whole
-regiment of bayonets astern of me could not have urged me one inch up
-the shrouds.
-
-We dragged our weary limbs aft and squatted ourselves near the wheel, I
-for one being scarcely able to stand.
-
-"Mr. Royle," said Miss Robertson, "will you and the others go down into
-the cabin and get some sleep? I will keep watch, and promise faithfully
-to wake you the moment I think necessary."
-
-"Bo'sun," I exclaimed, "do you hear that? Miss Robertson wants us to
-turn in. She will keep watch, she says, and call us if a gale comes!"
-
-"God bless her!" said the boatswain. "I called her a wonder just now,
-and I'll call her a wonder again. So she is! and though she hears me
-speak, and may think me wantin' in good manners, I'll say this--an'
-tired as I am I'd fight the man now as he stood who'd contradict
-me--that she's just one o' the best--mind, Jim, I say the best--o' the
-werry properest kind o' gals as God Almighty ever made, a regular real
-woman to the eye, and a sailor in her heart. And by the livin' Moses,
-Jim, if you can tell me now to my face that you would ha' let her sink
-in this here wessel, I'll chuck you overboard, you willin! so say it!"
-
-"I don't want to say it," muttered Cornish, penitentially. "I never
-thought o' the lady. I forgot she were on board. Mr. Bo'sun, don't
-say no more about it, please. I've done my duty I hope, Mr. Royle.
-I've worked werry hard considerin' my bad wrist. I'd liefer fight for
-the lady than agin her, now that I see wot she's made of. 'Bygones is
-bygones,' as the cock as had his eye knocked out in a fight said, when
-he looked about and couldn't see nothen of it; and if you call me a
-willin, well and good; I'll not arguey, for I dare say you ain't fur
-wrong, mate."
-
-"Mr. Royle, you have not answered me. Will you and the others lie down
-and sleep whilst I watch?"
-
-"Not yet, Miss Robertson. By-and-by, perhaps. We have more work before
-us, and are only resting. Steward!"
-
-He came from behind the companion, where I think he had fallen asleep.
-
-"Yes, Mr. Royle, sir."
-
-"Cut below and mix all hands a jug of brandy-and-water, and bring some
-biscuits. Here, bo'sun, is some tobacco. Smoke a pipe. Fire away,
-Cornish. It's more soothing than sleep, mates."
-
-"The lightning's growin' rayther powerful," said the boatswain, looking
-astern as he loaded his pipe.
-
-"Don't it look as if it wur settin' away to the eastards?" exclaimed
-Cornish.
-
-"No," I replied, watching the lurid gleams lighting up the piled-up
-clouds. "It's coming after us dead on end, though slowly enough."
-
-I pulled out my watch and held it close to the binnacle.
-
-"Half-past two!" I cried, amazed at the passage of time. "Upon my word,
-I didn't think it was twelve o'clock yet. Miss Robertson, I know I
-cannot induce you to go below; but you must allow me to relieve you for
-a spell at the wheel. I can sit and steer as well as you. You'll find
-this grating comfortable."
-
-Saying which I pulled out some flags from the locker, made a kind of
-cushion for her back, and I then took her chair, keeping the wheel
-steady with my foot.
-
-There was less wind than there had been half an hour before; enough to
-give the vessel steerage-way, and that was all.
-
-We were heading S.E., the wind, or what there was of it, upon the
-port-quarter. There was every promise of a calm falling again, and
-this I should not have minded, nor the lightning either, which might
-well have been the play of a passing thunderstorm, had it not been for
-the permanent depression of the mercury.
-
-The air was very warm, but less oppressive than it had been; the sea
-black and even, and the heavens with a stooping, murky aspect.
-
-It was some comfort to me, however, to look aloft, and see the amount
-of canvas we had taken off the ship. If we could only manage to pull
-up our strength again, we might still succeed in furling the main
-top-gallant sail, and reefing the topsail before change of weather came.
-
-The steward made his appearance with the spirits and biscuit; and Miss
-Robertson went below, whispering to me as she passed, that she wished
-to look at her father, and that she would return in a few minutes.
-
-"Now that the lady's gone, Mr. Royle," exclaimed the boatswain as soon
-as she had left the deck, "let's talk over our situation, and think
-what's to be done."
-
-The steward squatted himself on his hams like a coolie, and posed
-himself in an attitude of eager attention.
-
-"Quite right, bo'sun," I replied. "I have been thinking during the time
-we have been at work, and will tell you what my plans are. At noon
-yesterday--that will be fifteen hours ago--the Bermuda Islands bore as
-true as a hair west-half-south. We hove to with the ship's head to the
-norrard and westward, and made some way at that, and taking the run
-we have made to-night, I allow that if we head the ship west by north
-we shall make the islands, with anything like a breeze, some time on
-Monday morning."
-
-"But, if we're just off the coast of Florida," said Cornish, "why
-couldn't we turn to and run for the West Indie Islands?"
-
-"Which is nearest, I wonders," exclaimed the boatswain, "the West
-Hindie Islands or the kingdom of Jericho?"
-
-"It's 'ardly a time for jokin'," remonstrated the steward.
-
-"I don't know that I said anything funny," observed Cornish, warmly.
-
-"Well, then, wot do you mean by talking o' the West Hindie Islands?"
-cried the boatswain.
-
-"Wot do I mean?" retorted the other; "why, wot I says. Here we are off
-the coast of Floridy----"
-
-"Off the coast o' your grandmother! Shut up, mate, and let Mr. Royle
-speak. You know nothen about it."
-
-"The Bermudas are nearer to hand than the West Indies," I continued,
-not choosing to explain. "What we have to do, then, the moment we can
-use our legs, is to haul the ship round. How is the wind now? N.N.W.
-Well, she will lie properly. And as soon as ever it comes daybreak, we
-must run up a signal of distress, and keep it flying. What more can we
-do?"
-
-"I suppose," said the boatswain, doubtfully, sucking so hard at his
-pipe that it glowed like a steamer's red light under his nose, "you
-wouldn't like to wenture on a run to the English Channel, Mr. Royle?
-It would be airning some kind o' fame, and perhaps a trifle o' money
-from the owners, if it wur to git about that three hands--well, I'll
-ax the steward's pardon, and say four--that four hands brought this
-here blessed ship and her walleyable cargo out o' a rigular knock-down
-mutiny, all aways up the Atlantic Ocean, into the Henglish Channel, and
-landed her safe in the West Hindie Docks. I never see my name in print
-in my life----"
-
-"What's your true name, Mr. Bo'sun?" inquired the steward.
-
-"Joshua, or Jo Forward, young feller; sometimes called Forrard,
-sometimes Jo, and on Sundays Mister."
-
-"I know a Forward as lives at Blackwall," said the steward.
-
-"Do yer? Well, then, now you knows two. Wot I was sayin', Mr. Royle,
-was, I never see my name in print in my life, and I should like to see
-it regular wrote down in the newspapers. Lloyd's is always my weekly
-pennorth ashore."
-
-He knocked the hot ashes into the palm of his hand, scrutinised it
-earnestly to see that there was no tobacco left in it, and tossed it
-away.
-
-"A good deal, sir," said the steward, in a thin voice, "is to be said
-about the lady we saved. The saving of her alone, would make 'eros of
-us in the public mind."
-
-"Wot do you call us--'eros?" exclaimed the boatswain.
-
-"Yes, sir, 'eros!"
-
-"What's the meaning of that word, Mr. Royle?--any relation to earwigs?"
-
-"He means heroes," I replied. "Don't you, steward?"
-
-"I did more than mean it--I said it, sir," exclaimed the steward.
-
-"That's how the Chaneymen talk, and quarrel with you for not followin'
-of their sense. Wot do you think of my notion, Jim, of sailin' this
-wessel to England?" said the boatswain.
-
-Cornish made no answer. I saw him, in the pale light diffused around
-the binnacle, wipe his mouth with the back of his hand, and shift
-uneasily on his seat. I could scarcely wonder that the boatswain's idea
-should make him feel uncomfortable.
-
-"Your scheme," said I, "would be a capital one providing that every
-man of us four had six hands and six legs, and the strength of three
-big Johnsons, that we could do without sleep, and split ourselves into
-pieces whenever we had occasion to reef topsails. But, as I am only
-capable of doing one man's work, and require rest like other weakly
-mortals, I must tell you plainly that I for one should be very sorry to
-undertake to work this ship to the English Channel, unless you would
-guarantee that by dawn this morning we should receive a draft of at
-least six men out of a passing vessel."
-
-"Well, well," said the boatswain, "it was only a thought; and I don't
-say it is to be done."
-
-"Not to be thought on--much less done," exclaimed Cornish.
-
-"Don't be too sartin, friend," retorted the boatswain, turning smartly
-on him. "'Where there's a will there's a way,' wos a sayin' when I was
-a lad."
-
-"If it comes on to blow," I put in, "it may take us all we can do to
-fetch Bermuda. Don't dream of aiming for a further port."
-
-At this moment Miss Robertson returned. I asked her how she had found
-her father, and she replied, in a low voice, that he was sleeping, but
-that his breathing was very faint and uncertain, and that he sometimes
-talked in his sleep.
-
-She could not disguise her anxiety, and I entreated her to go below and
-watch him and rest herself as well; but she answered that she would not
-leave the deck until I had finished taking in sail and doing what was
-necessary.
-
-"You cannot tell me that I am not of use," she added. "I will steer
-whilst you work, and if you wish to sleep I will watch for you. Why
-should I not do so? I can benefit papa more by helping you to save
-the ship than by leaving you to work alone while I sit with him. I
-pray God," she said, in her sweet, low, troubled voice, "that all may
-go well with us. But I have been so near to death that it scarcely
-frightens me now. Tell me what to do and I will do it--though for your
-sake alone, as you would have sacrificed your life for mine. I owe you
-what I can never repay--and how kind, how gentle, how good you have
-been to my father and me!"
-
-She spoke in so low a voice that it was impossible for any one to hear
-her but myself; and so greatly did her words effect me--I, who had now
-learnt to love her, who could indeed have died a hundredfold over for
-her dear sake, that I dared not trust myself to speak. Had I spoken I
-should have said what I was sure she would have disliked to hear from
-a rough sailor like me: nay, I even turned away from her that I might
-be silent, recoiling from my own heart's language that seemed but an
-impertinence, an unfair obtrusion of claims which, even though she
-admitted them by speaking of my having saved her life, I should have
-been unmanly to assert.
-
-I quickly recovered myself, and said, forcing a laugh--
-
-"You are as bad a mutineer as the others. But as you will not obey me,
-I must obey you."
-
-And looking for some moments at the ponderous bank of cloud in the
-north-west, of which the gathering brightness and intensity of the
-lightning was illustrating its steady approach, I exclaimed--
-
-"Are we strong enough to turn to, mates?"
-
-"We can douse that top-gallant sail, I dare say," answered the
-boatswain. "Up on your pins, steward."
-
-And we trooped along to the main-deck.
-
-The spell of rest, and perhaps the grog, not to mention the tobacco,
-had done us no harm; the three of us went aloft, carrying the jigger
-with us which we left in the main-top, and furled the top-gallant sail,
-if not in man-of-war fashion and with a proper harbour bunt, at all
-events very securely.
-
-But the main-topsail was another matter. All three of us had to lay out
-to windward to haul taut one earring; then skim along to the other end
-of the yard to the other earring; and so up and down, and still more
-reef-points and still more earrings, until my legs and fingers ached.
-
-This job over, we rested ourselves in the main-top, and then got upon
-the main-yard, and made shift to pass the yard-arm gaskets round the
-sail and stow it after a fashion, though I had no doubt that the first
-gale of wind that struck it would blow it clear of its lashings in a
-minute.
-
-Then on deck again with the main-topsail halliards to the capstan; and
-the dawn found the ship under three close-reefed topsails, foresail,
-and fore-topmast staysail, the whole of the other canvas having been
-reefed and stowed by three worn-out men, one of whom had been pretty
-nearly knocked up by the fight with the mutineers, the second of whom
-was fresh from an imprisonment of three days in a close, stifling, and
-rat-swarming coal-hole, whilst the third had received such a crack
-on his wrist as would have sent any man but an English sailor to his
-hammock and kept him ill and groaning for a month.
-
-
-END OF VOL. II.
-
-
-    LONDON:
-    PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS,
-    STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
-
-
-
-
-Transcriber's Notes:
-
-
-Cover and Table of Contents created by Transcriber and placed in the
-Public Domain.
-
-Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant
-preference was found in the three volumes of this novel, or to remedy
-simple typographical errors; otherwise they were not changed.
-
-Dialect and other non-standard spellings have not been changed.
-
-Spaces before the contraction "'ll" (for "will") have been retained.
-
-Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines have been retained.
-
-Page 82: "Sailors don't no nothing" is printed as "know" in a different
-edition of this book.
-
-Page 203: The closing quotation mark after "of them? He didn't
-understand." perhaps should be after "of them?"
-
-
-
-
-
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