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diff --git a/44498-0.txt b/44498-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1b66e2d --- /dev/null +++ b/44498-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5159 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44498 *** + +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 £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 +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 _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 +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° 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?" + +"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° north latitude and 50° west longitude. + +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°; +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°, longitude 74° 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?" + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wreck of the Grosvenor, Volume 2 +of 3, by William Clark Russell + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44498 *** |