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diff --git a/old/44546-8.txt b/old/44546-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..03c828c --- /dev/null +++ b/old/44546-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5953 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Last Entry, by William Clark Russell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: The Last Entry + +Author: William Clark Russell + +Release Date: December 30, 2013 [EBook #44546] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST ENTRY *** + + + + +Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + +THE LAST ENTRY + + + + +NOVELS, ETC., BY W. CLARK RUSSELL. + + +Crown 8vo., cloth extra, 3s. 6d. each; post 8vo., illustrated boards, +2s. each; cloth limp, 2s. 6d. each. + + +ROUND THE GALLEY FIRE. +IN THE MIDDLE WATCH. +ON THE FO'K'SLE HEAD. +A VOYAGE TO THE CAPE. +A BOOK FOR THE HAMMOCK. +THE MYSTERY OF THE 'OCEAN STAR.' +THE ROMANCE OF JENNY HARLOWE. +AN OCEAN TRAGEDY. +MY SHIPMATE LOUISE. +ALONE ON A WIDE WIDE SEA. +THE GOOD SHIP 'MOHOCK.' +THE PHANTOM DEATH. +IS HE THE MAN? +THE CONVICT SHIP. +HEART OF OAK. +THE TALE OF THE TEN. +THE LAST ENTRY. + + +LONDON: CHATTO & WINDUS, 111 ST. MARTIN'S LANE, W.C. + + + + +OPINIONS OF THE PRESS + +ON + +THE LAST ENTRY + + +'"The Last Entry" is a rattling good salt-water yarn, told in the +author's usual breezy, exhilarating style.'--_Daily Mail._ + + +'In this new novel Mr. Russell has cleverly thrown its events into the +year 1837, and there are one or two ingenious passages which add to the +Diamond Jubilee interest which that date suggests.... "The Last Entry" +is as certain of general popularity as any of Mr. Russell's former tales +of the marvels of the sea.'--_Glasgow Herald._ + + +'We do not think it possible for anyone to dip into this novel without +desiring to finish it, and it adds another to the long list of successes +of our best sea author.'--_Librarian._ + + +'In addition to mutiny and murder, "The Last Entry" contains many of +those good things which have made Mr. Russell's pages a joy to so many +lovers of the sea during the last twenty years.... "The Last Entry" is a +welcome addition to Mr. Clark Russell's library.'--_Speaker._ + + +'The writer is as realistic and picturesque as usual in his vivid +descriptions of the stagnant life on board the homeward-bound +Indiaman.'--_Times._ + + +'It is full of pleasant vigour.... As is always the case in Mr. Clark +Russell's books, the elements are treated with the pen of an +artist.'--_Standard._ + + +'We expected plenty of go, of fresh and vigorous description of +sea-faring life, coupled with a story which would not be wanting in +interest. All this we have here.'--_Tablet._ + + + + +THE LAST ENTRY + +BY +W. CLARK RUSSELL + +AUTHOR OF +'THE WRECK OF THE "GROSVENOR,"' 'MY SHIPMATE LOUISE,' +'THE TALE OF THE TEN,' ETC. + +[Illustration: Decoration] + +A NEW EDITION + +LONDON +CHATTO & WINDUS +1899 + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER PAGE + I. MR. AND MISS VANDERHOLT 1 + + II. DOWN RIVER 28 + + III. 'ALONG OF BILL' 53 + + IV. CAPTAIN MARY LIND 82 + + V. ON THE EVE 119 + + VI. THE MURDERS 141 + + VII. CAPTAIN PARRY 169 + +VIII. IN SEARCH 196 + + IX. THE DISCOVERY 224 + + + + +THE LAST ENTRY + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +MR. AND MISS VANDERHOLT. + + +This story belongs to the year 1837, and was regarded by the generations +of that and a succeeding time as the most miraculous of all the recorded +deliverances from death at sea. + +It may be told thus: + +Mr. Montagu Vanderholt sat at breakfast with his daughter Violet one +morning in September. Vanderholt's house was one of a fine terrace close +to Hyde Park. He was a rich man, a retired Cape merchant, and his life +had been as chequered as Trelawney's, with nothing of romance and +nothing of imagination in it. He was the son of honest parents, of Dutch +extraction, and had run away to sea when about twelve years old. + +Nothing under the serious heavens was harsher, more charged with misery, +suffering, dirt, and wretchedness, than seafaring in the days when young +Vanderholt, with an idiot's cunning, fled to it from his father's +comfortable little home. He got a ship, was three years absent, and on +his return found both his father and mother dead. He went again to sea, +and, fortunately for him, was shipwrecked in the neighbourhood of +Simon's Bay. The survivors made their way to Cape Town, and presently +young Vanderholt got a job, and afterwards a position. He then became a +master, until, after some eight or ten years of heroic perseverance, +attended by much good luck, behold Mr. Vanderholt full-blown into a +colonial merchant prince. How much he was worth when he made up his mind +to settle in England, after the death of his wife, and when he had +disposed of his affairs so as to leave himself as free a man as ever he +had been when he was a common Jack Swab, really signifies nothing. It is +certain he had plenty, and plenty is enough, even for a merchant prince +of Dutch extraction. + +Besides Violet, he had two sons, who will not make an appearance on this +little brief stage. They are dismissed, therefore, with this brief +reference--that both were in the army, and both, at the time of this +tale, in India. + +Violet was Vanderholt's only daughter, and he loved her exceedingly. She +was not beautiful, but she was fair to see, with a pretty figure, and an +arch, gay smile. You saw the Dutch blood in her eyes, as you saw it in +her father's, whose orbs of vision, indeed, were ridiculously +small--scarcely visible in their bed of socket and lash. An English +mother had come to Violet's help in this matter. Taking her from top to +toe, with her surprising quantity of brown hair, soft complexion, good +mouth, teeth, and figure, Violet Vanderholt was undoubtedly a fine girl. + +The room in which they were breakfasting was imposingly furnished. The +pictures were many and fine. One in particular took the eye, and +detained it. It was hung over the sideboard, which glittered with plate; +it represented a schooner, bowed by a sudden blast, coming at you. The +white brine, shredded by the shrieking stroke of the squall, hissed +shrilly from the cut-water. The life and spirit of the reality was in +that fine canvas. The sailors seemed to run as you watched, the gaffs to +droop with the handling of their gear. She came rushing in a smother of +spume right at you, and, before delight could arise, you had felt a +pleasurable shock of surprise that was almost alarm. Such is the effect +produced by Cooper's bull as, with bowed head and eyes of fire, and +horns of death, it looks to be bounding with the velocity of a +locomotive out of the frame. + +Mr. Vanderholt and his daughter conversed for some time on matters of no +concern to us who are to follow their fortunes. Presently, after helping +himself to his second bloater--for his wealth had neither lessened his +appetite nor influenced his choice of dishes: he clung, with true Dutch +courage, to solid sausage; he loved new bread, smoking hot; he was +wedded to all the several kinds of cured fish, and often drank a pint of +beer, instead of coffee or tea, at his morning meal--he took his second +herring, and, whilst his gray beard wagged to the movement of his jaws, +an expression of pensiveness entered his face as he fastened his gaze +upon the picture of the rushing schooner. + +'How beautifully she is painted!' said he. 'It is the greatest of the +arts. How with the pen could you make that vessel show as the brush +has?' + +'It could only be done by suggestion,' said Miss Vanderholt, looking up +sideways at the picture. 'It is the hint that submits the pen-and-ink +sketch.' + +'So that, if a man has never seen a schooner, you might hint and suggest +all your life, and the death-bed of that man would still find his mind a +blank as to a schooner?' + +'True,' said his daughter. + +'I am going to tell you what I have made up my mind to do.' + +'Yes, and there she is,' interrupted the girl, with a sweep of her hand +at the picture. 'And pretty wet they are; and a fine handsome sea is +going to run presently, till the yacht shall swoop into the cataracts +like a wreck--veiled--strained! She is too small.' + +'You consider one hundred and eighty tons too small? What would Columbus +have thought of you? Do you know that Mynheer Vanderdecken is battling +with the storms of the Cape of Good Hope at this very hour in something +under one hundred and eighty tons?' + +'But I really don't think, father, that you need such an extensive +change.' + +'My doctors are of my opinion. I require nothing less than three months +of the sea-breeze, and all the climates that I can pack into that time.' + +'And George?' said Miss Vanderholt, her voice a little coloured by +vexation. 'He may arrive home and find us absent, and there will be +nobody in the world to tell him where we are--whether we are alive or +dead, and when we may be expected back.' + +'George won't be home till June next.' said Mr. Vanderholt. 'There is +no chance of it. Meanwhile, I mean to escape the winter by heading +direct for the Equator and back.' + +'I'm afraid it is likely that George will not be able to arrive in +England before the end of June,' exclaimed Miss Vanderholt. 'But if he +should return sooner, it would drive me mad to hear that he had come and +found me absent.' + +'We shall be back by February,' said Mr. Vanderholt, in that sort of +voice which makes you feel that the man who speaks is used to having his +way. + +'Shall you take any friends with you?' + +'Not even a dog,' answered Mr. Vanderholt. + +'Then it will be dull!' exclaimed his daughter. 'Nothing but sea and sky +and novels. Why not ask Mr. Allan Kinnaird? He is a very amusing man.' + +'I do not agree with you. Kinnaird is amusing for about half an hour. +Kinnaird and I never could get on at sea, locked up together as we +should be. He is always objecting to what I say, and he listens to my +jokes merely with the intention of enlarging upon their points so as to +defraud me of the laugh.' + +'Will you carry a doctor?' + +'I have thought over that. No; we will ship a medicine chest instead, +and a book treating of every disease under the sun. We do not go to sea +to be ill. A doctor will be in the way. He will be neither with us nor +of us. He might begin to bore you with his attentions, and you would +only think of him as a man who believes that he is under an obligation +to be agreeable.' + +'But the _Mowbray_ has not been afloat for two or three years,' said +Miss Vanderholt. + +'She has been well looked after. I have always liked the boat, and would +not sell her, though I have not used her of late,' said Mr. Vanderholt, +leaning back in his chair to contemplate to advantage the beautiful +picture over the sideboard. 'She is French built, and about twenty years +old. The French are better ship-builders than the English--infinitely +more choice in their lines and curves, and so scientific that you seldom +hear of a disaster in their experiments. Look at that vessel as she +rushes at you. How perfect is her entry! How insinuating the swell of +her bow, running into a beautiful roundness and plumpness of sides +instead of the up-and-down walls which the British yachtsman, who loves +to admire his yacht from the shore, conceives to be the one element +which gives a vessel stability! The more they narrow, the more they +blunder. You must have stability if you want seaworthiness. And in all +the years that I was at sea I never knew a crank ship a fast ship.' + +It was easily seen by the expression of Miss Vanderholt's face that she +was thinking of George. Finding her father had ceased to speak, she +exclaimed: + +'Who will be the captain?' + +'I shall ask my friend Fairbanks to recommend a man to me. He, of all +the shipowners that I am acquainted with, is certain to know of a good +man.' + +'Will he belong to the Royal Navy?' + +'No.' + +'Then, he will not be a gentleman?' + +Vanderholt looked at her intently. His face relaxed. He combed down his +beard, and said: + +'He will be a sailor; and if he is a sailor, he will be a man. Combine +these two things, and you produce an illustration of human existence +beyond the achievement of the most illustrious lineage and the most +ancient college.' + +Miss Vanderholt was used to her father's views, and continued her +breakfast with a distant, listening air, which promised no further +expression of opinion upon this proposed voyage to the Equator. A +stranger listening at that table to Vanderholt would have guessed that +he was a man of hot temper, a Dutchman at root in his views and +prejudices, not a man, perhaps, of many friends, spite of his wealth. He +fixed his little eyes upon his daughter, and, after gazing at her for +some time, with a look of anxiety, he said: + +'You know, Vi, I should not care to go without you.' + +'No, father; nor should I wish to be left alone at home.' + +'You will be happy in the old _Mowbray_. We will lay in a stock of good +things. We will make a fine holiday jaunt of it. Perhaps I shall be able +to show you some of the wonders of the deep. We will teach our crew to +sing litanies to break the spell of that demon the waterspout. We will +hook on to a whale, and thunder through it with foam to the figure-head, +with the velocity of the meteoric storm. We shall be at liberty to shift +our course as often as we please, and settle some marine problem for +good and all; not the sea-serpent--no. Who would defraud the newspapers +of that joke? But I am strongly of opinion that there is a distinct +difference between the dugong and the mermaid. The old idiots of the +fifteenth century no doubt confounded them; and the mermaid, shocked by +the hideous misrepresentation--for think of comparing some golden-haired +angel of an English girl with a New Zealand native woman, frightful with +the hues of her sky, and horrible with devices of the needle!--I say the +disgusted mermaid may have sunk into the ooze, resolved never again to +give man a sight of her face. Best of all, Vi, the voyage will do me +good, will do you good, and delightfully shorten the time of your +waiting for George.' + +'It is the only feeling I have in the matter,' answered the young lady. + +And now, having breakfasted, they arose and quitted the table. + +Miss Violet Vanderholt, being acquainted with her father's character, +and knowing that he rarely changed his mind, went to her room, where in +peace she occupied a full hour in writing a long letter to George. + +And who was George? One had but to peep over the girl's shoulder to +discover. 'My own darling George,' she began; and this sort of thing is +commonly accepted as the language of love. Captain George Parry was an +officer in the Honourable East India Company's service. When he was last +at home he had met Miss Violet, haunted her closely, and exhibited +himself in a variety of ways as deeply in love with her. Wonderful to +relate, Mr. Montagu Vanderholt took a fancy to the young man, and when +Ensign Parry called to ask his leave to consider himself engaged, he +was astounded by the cheerful 'Certainly, with pleasure, if you are both +satisfied,' which greeted him. A few questions and answers followed. Mr. +Vanderholt knew very little about the army, though he had two sons in +it. How long would Ensign Parry have to wait for his promotion? How long +was the engagement going to last? For his part, he did not like long +engagements: they made people ill. Many girls were hurried to their +graves by procrastination--that thief of sleep, the ice-cold 'lubbar +fiend' that bestrides women's hearts and keeps them shivering. + +The interview terminated to the satisfaction of both gentlemen. In due +time, Ensign Parry returned to India, and now, as Captain Parry, he was +expected home in June; but in one or two of his letters to Violet he had +expressed a hope that he would be able to get home by an earlier date. +It had been settled that they should be married soon after his arrival +in England. And this was the posture of affairs as regarded Captain +Parry and Miss Vanderholt. The young lady, seating herself, dipped her +pen and wrote. + +She wrote fast, and often with a flushed cheek when she underlined, or +doubly underlined, a word or a sentence. Her letter consisted mainly of +endearing expressions, such as, when read aloud in court after a couple +have quarrelled, excite merriment. She informed her sweetheart in this +letter that her father had made up his mind to go on a cruise for his +health as far as the Equator, in the old _Mowbray_. She was going with +him alone. George would know where she was, therefore, until her return +to England, which could not be delayed beyond February. She dared not +hope that George would arrive before the _Mowbray_ reached England. If +this should happen, then he might, perhaps, never receive this very +letter which she was writing. To provide against this, she said that +before she sailed she would write a second letter, and leave it with the +housekeeper. + +On the afternoon of this same day Mr. Vanderholt entered his carriage +and drove into the City. He alighted at the offices of a firm of +shipowners in Fenchurch Street, and was immediately confronted by the +very person he had called to see. They shook hands. + +'I want ten minutes with you, Fairbanks.' + +'As long as you please, Mr. Vanderholt. Always happy to be of service to +you.' + +It was plain that Mr. Vanderholt was not a skipper or a mate in search +of a situation on board one of the ships owned by this firm. They walked +through an office full of scribbling clerks; the walls were decorated +with pictures of ships in full sail, and odd configurations on glazed +yellow cloth, signifying cabin accommodation--first, second, and 'tween +decks. They reached a small back-room, and when Mr. Fairbanks closed the +door they were private. + +Mr. Vanderholt was rendered a little uneasy by Mr. Fairbanks' look of +expectation, and began somewhat in a hurry, lest his friend's +anticipation should grow. + +'It is a very trifling matter I have called to see you about, Fairbanks. +It concerns a skipper for my boat, the _Mowbray_. For some time past I +have been out of sorts, and have resolved to get clear of England during +the winter. I have a fine boat laid up in the Thames. She is 180 tons, +and I calculate, counting the cook and the fellow for the cabin, that a +skipper, a mate, and eight hands will suffice me. Do you know of a good +skipper?' + +Mr. Fairbanks brought his fingers together in an attitude of prayer, and +said he thought that by dint of inquiry he might be able to find one. + +'What pay?' said he. + +'Ten pounds a month,' answered Mr. Vanderholt. 'I want a good man.' + +'Do you take any company with you?' + +'Only my daughter.' + +'Then,' said Mr. Fairbanks, 'the skipper must not drink, and must not +swear. He must be a man of cleanly appearance, of considerable +experience, and able to hold his own in conversation.' + +'So,' said Mr. Vanderholt. + +'I believe,' said Mr. Fairbanks, 'that I know the man for you. He had +charge of a ship of ours, the _Sandyfoot_. It was but yesterday I +nodded to him outside these offices. If you take him you will carry a +romance in pilot-cloth to sea with you. This fellow--you will not +believe what I am going to tell you after you see him--was in love with +a girl. He broke with her in a quarrel, and went to sea, and by a +homeward ship wrote to ask her forgiveness and keep her heart whole for +him, as he would shortly return. He was swept overboard in a storm, +picked up floating on a buoy by a three-masted schooner, and carried to +China. On his arrival home, he found his sweetheart had gone out of her +mind. She recovered by degrees, under his influence, and they were to be +married. They proceeded together to church, and at the altar she went +mad again. Of course, the parson refused to officiate, and a few weeks +later the poor thing died.' + +'What is the name of our friend?' inquired Mr. Vanderholt, who had +listened without much interest to this romantic story. + +'Thomas Glew.' + +'Originally a nickname, meant to stick,' said Mr. Vanderholt dryly. +'Send him to me. You will oblige me by doing so.' + +'I'll endeavour to find him this afternoon, and you shall see him +to-morrow,' answered the other. 'And you really enjoy the prospect of a +cruise to the Equator and home?' + +'Would I go if I did not?' + +'But is not such sailing like running to and fro between wickets when +there's nobody bowling?' said Mr. Fairbanks, placing a decanter of old +Madeira and a box of cigars on the table. + +Mr. Vanderholt brimmed a deep-hearted wineglass, and lighted a cigar, +saying betwixt the puffs: + +'If there is no good in the pursuit of health, you are right.' + +'Well,' said Mr. Fairbanks, 'for my part I never could contemplate a +voyage of any sort without associating it with a port and business.' + +'Thank the North Star,' said the gentleman of Dutch extraction, 'with me +that time has passed!' + +'But to think of the Equator as a port of call!' exclaimed Mr. +Fairbanks; and they both began to laugh. + +The term 'port of call' set them conversing about trade, how matters +went in the City. Mr. Vanderholt talked fluently on all affairs +connected with shipping. After enjoying his cigar and his chat, he +re-entered his carriage, and was driven away. + +Next morning, at about eleven o'clock, he was in his study, writing some +letters. His daughter sat with him, reading a newspaper. A man-servant +opened the door, and said that a seafaring gentleman was in the 'all, +and had called by request. On a silver salver lay Mr. Fairbanks' card, +and Mr. Vanderholt, after glancing at the card, told the footman to show +Captain Glew in. + +There entered soon, with a quick, resolved, quarter-deck stride, a short +but powerfully-built man, shell-backed by ocean duties, with a face that +might have been cast in light bronze, that might have served as a ship's +figure-head in that metal, so roasted had it been in its day, so hard +set was it, as though fresh from the pickle of the harness-cask. The +flesh of the countenance had that sort of tension which does not admit +of much, or perhaps any, play of emotion. The man might expel a laugh +from his throat, but was he physically equal to a smile? He held a round +hat, and was soberly attired in blue cloth. He looked swiftly and +lightly around him, but seemed unmoved by the splendour of the +apartment. He sent a keen, gray, seawardly glance at Miss Vanderholt, +and fastened his gaze with an expression of attention upon her father. + +Miss Vanderholt viewed him with curiosity and disappointment. + +'Captain Glew?' said Mr. Vanderholt. + +'That's my name, sir,' answered the captain, in a voice as decisive as +his walk and air. 'I was asked to call upon you by Mr. Fairbanks.' + +'Right. Sit down. I had a good many years of it myself, but did not +reach the quarter-deck,' said Mr. Vanderholt. 'My end was plumb with the +fore-top.' + +The captain seated himself, but did not smile, nor did he look as if he +wanted to. + +'Many years at sea, Captain Glew?' + +'Thirty, sir.' + +'Did you run away, as I did, from home?' + +'No. I was put apprentice by my father, who had charge of a Bethel, and +was a man of education.' + +'Did Mr. Fairbanks explain what I wanted to see you about?' + +'Yes, sir. I believe you'll find me a suitable man. I confess I'd like +the job. I know the _Mowbray_.' + +Mr. Vanderholt's face lighted up. + +'I was off her in a wherry not above a fortnight ago, and we stopped to +admire her. I never saw prettier lines.' Here he raised his eyes to the +picture over the sideboard, as though observing it for the first time, +but his face discovered no marks of enthusiasm or admiration whilst he +let his sight rest for a moment on that square of splendid, +spirit-moving canvas. 'My uncle was a shipbuilder,' he continued, 'and I +have some knowledge of that trade. The finest examples of seaworthy +craft are, in my opinion, the Baltimore clippers--some of them, at all +events. The _Mowbray_ might be the queen of that fleet, sir.' + +Mr. Vanderholt glanced at his daughter, as if he should say, 'This is +our man.' He then rang the bell. A footman quickly appeared. + +'Wine,' said Mr. Vanderholt. + +'Not for me, if you please,' said Captain Glew, lifting his hand, and +bowing with a motion that made his refusal emphatic. + +'What will you take?' said Mr. Vanderholt. + +'Nothing whatever, I thank you, sir.' + +'Are you a teetotaler?' said Mr. Vanderholt, signing to the footman to +be gone. + +'No, sir. I am one of those men who drink only when they are thirsty, +and as I am seldom thirsty it follows that I drink little.' + +'Do you know anything about fore and aft seamanship?' + +_Now_ Captain Glew smiled, but the expression was like a passing spasm. + +'I do, sir. I have held command in several types of ships in my time. +Seven years ago I had charge for three voyages of a fruiter from the +Thames to the Western Islands.' + +'That will do,' said Mr. Vanderholt, with an appreciative flourish of +his hand, and a laugh of satisfaction. + +'Five years ago, being in distress for a position, and having a wife and +two children to maintain, I took command of a three-masted schooner to +the Brazils, where I left her and returned in charge of a little barque. +I then got a berth in Mr. Fairbanks' employ----' + +He was proceeding, but Mr. Vanderholt had heard enough. + +'I am quite satisfied,' said he. 'Now let us settle the matter straight +off. That is my way of going to work. I'm not for easing away +handsomely; I'm for letting go with a run. We shall want a mate, and we +shall want a crew. Can I trust you to see to this business?' + +'You can, sir.' + +'Let the crew be blue-water men. I shall want real sailors aboard the +_Mowbray_.' + +'There's nothing like them, sir.' + +'The craft lies dismantled, as you know. I leave the whole work of her +being made ready for sea to you. Employ your own labour. Call upon me +as the work proceeds. I shall make you several visits from time to time, +for I am a man of leisure.' + +'Does the young lady go with us, sir?' + +'Yes.' + +'You'll wish her cabin specially fitted?' + +'I will see to that myself, Captain Glew.' + +'Right, sir. And the voyage, I understand, is to be a cruise in the +North Atlantic?' + +'It is to be a run to the Equator and home.' + +'It seems such an odd place to steer for,' said Miss Vanderholt, +breaking the silence for the first time. + +'It's as determinable as a rock, anyhow!' exclaimed Mr. Vanderholt. 'I +want to be able to report a wonder when we return.' Here his Dutch +countenance put on the air of good-humoured cunning with which he +usually prefaced a joke. 'There is about a quarter of a mile of +Equatorial water which possesses a remarkable property. Sink an object +in it, and you draw it up gilt. If we strike this wonderful patch of +sea, we will gild the _Mowbray_ from waterway to truck; boats, +ground-tackle--everything--shall be resplendent, and we shall be the +marvel of London as we sail up the Thames.' + +Miss Vanderholt watched Captain Glew, to see how he relished this sort +of thing. + +The skipper exclaimed austerely: + +'It's a tract of water written of in books for the marines. It's not to +be found at sea, sir.' + +'We must strike it, man, so that we may return covered with glory.' + +'Patch got any colour, sir?' + +'I believe it is a blood-red. A man I once sailed with claimed to have +sighted it. He was in the foretop-mast crosstrees, and saw the patch off +the bow, and hailed the deck, but he squinted damnably. You can't keep a +true course for anything when you squint. The captain missed the patch. +No other man saw it; and the sailor, who was a Dane, was, or is, the +only man in the world who has ever seen that miraculous bit of +Equatorial water.' + +He looked at his daughter, clearly enjoying his own imagination; and +Captain Glew uttered a hollow laugh, and stood up. + +'I will visit the vessel to-morrow, sir, and report. I will bring my +papers along with me----' + +'No need,' interrupted Mr. Vanderholt; 'Mr. Fairbanks' introduction is +enough.' + +The man made a nautical bow to the father and daughter, and was going, +when he suddenly stopped to say: + +'Are you particular as to the nationalities of the men, sir?' + +'English and Dutchmen, in such proportions as may please you,' said Mr. +Vanderholt; 'but never a Dago, Captain Glew. I was once stabbed by a +Dago.' + +'And a Dago would have stabbed me if I hadn't killed him,' said the +captain. 'We'll ship no Dagos, sir.' + +He made another nautical bow, and departed. + +'I like him,' said Mr. Vanderholt, turning in his chair so as to resume +his letter-writing; 'but I guess the crew will find him a taut hand.' + +'What is a taut hand?' inquired his daughter. + +'A man who breeds mutinies,' he answered. + +He looked thoughtful for a few moments, as though visited by some tragic +memories; then, taking up his pen, he went on writing his letters. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +DOWN RIVER. + + +On the morning of November 21, 1837, the schooner _Mowbray_ lay at +anchor abreast of Greenwich. In the fresh westerly wind you found the +sun-white sparkle of winter. Buildings, ships, wharves, the further +bends of the Reach, stood out with the sharpness and delicacy of ivory +work. The movements of the drapery of bunting, the swelling and +breathing of passing canvas, were beautiful to see under the hard, blue +sky, with its frost-work of gleaming cloud high over Plaistow Level. + +The schooner looked exceedingly handsome as she floated at her cable, +with the ripples of the blown stream twisting in slender lines of light +from the cut-water. These lines flashed in her glossy sides as they +trembled past, and her coppered hull was beautified by other lustres +than the light of day, as she sat motionless, courting the eye to the +tall heights of the delicate mastheads, each of them star-crowned with a +shining gilt truck. + +She was handsomer than a yacht, because she lacked the summer precision +and fine-weather finish of that sort of craft. The nautical eye does not +love fine feathers. The _Mowbray_ was a sea-going boat. She had beam for +stability, a height of side which promised a dry ship, a spring of bow +smack-like with its promise of domination. Her copper shone; she was +sheathed to the bends; she carried little or no finery about her decks, +but the scantling of everything--the companion, the skylights, the +sailors' deck-house, nay, even the caboose forward--might have been that +of a ten-gun brig. + +The hour was about half-past eleven. A number of seamen, apparelled with +some regard to uniformity of attire, lounged in the bows, staring +Greenwich way, or at the familiar scene of docks the other side of the +river. They looked a rough company of the genuine merchant-sailor +type--raggedly hairy, defiant in stare, in fold of arm, resolved in +their several postures. They wore round hats and jackets, and the +bell-ended, blue-cloth trousers of the Jacks of that day. + +On the quarter-deck walked Captain Glew and the mate who had signed +articles for the run, Mr. Tweed. This was a short, hearty, plump man. +His grog-blossomed, jovial face suggested a suppressed boisterousness of +spirits; you felt that in him lay the voice for the back-parlour of the +Free and Easy. The owner of the vessel and party were expected on board +shortly, and Tweed had clothed himself with care, in a short, round +jacket, with a corner of red silk handkerchief carelessly straying from +one side-pocket. His trousers rippled as he walked, and the rest of him +consisted of a check shirt and pumps. + +'I think he ought to be pleased,' said Captain Glew, coming to a stand +at the binnacle, and throwing a look over the little ship and then up +aloft; 'nothing handsomer sails out of the Thames this year.' + +'She is sweet enough for a pennon,' said Tweed. 'I wish she was mine. +I'd like to go a-pirating in a vessel of this sort. No, I wouldn't, +either; I'd go a-slaving. A hundred and eighty tons. I reckon you could +stow away six hundred blacks in her 'tween decks.' + +'I sometimes wish I'd been born a hundred years sooner,' said Captain +Glew. 'I would have been a pirate; the ocean was thick with booty, and +you got an estate with very little risk. The dogs came to the gibbet +because they never would be satisfied.' + +'Piracy gave a sailor a good chance,' said the mate, with a groggy look +at the hands lounging forward. + +'Here am I grateful for this £30 job,' growled the captain. 'The wife +and young uns may now eat and drink for three months, and for three +months the thought of to-morrow morning shan't keep me awake. Holy +Jemmy! But it's on the quarter-deck where the hearts of stone are +wanted. To those fellows forward the getting a ship's as easy as an +oath. Do you or I get ships as easily as we swear?' + +'No, not by all that I'm worth!' answered Tweed. 'Captain, I have +followed the sea for twenty years, and I'll tell you how it stands with +me now: in my cabin you'll find a sea-chest; it's painted green--green +it should be; it's the colour of my life. In that sea-chest is all that +I own in the world, saving a matter of a few pounds stowed away ashore. +Twenty years of the sea, and nothing but a bloomed green sea-chest to +show for it!' exclaimed Tweed, with so much blood in his face that his +grog-blossoms made him look as if he had burst into a dangerous rash. + +Thus these worthies discoursed, as they walked the quarter-deck, +awaiting the arrival of Mr. Vanderholt and party. They had been +shipmates in prior times, were in some fashion connected, had frequently +of late met ashore, and had grown intimate during the time occupied by +the refitting of the _Mowbray_. We are not to confound the discipline of +this little schooner with that of a great Indiaman. Men who had +commanded fruiters were not commonly distant to their mates when they +afterwards handled small vessels. + +Forward the seamen growled in talk indistinguishable to the +quarter-deck walkers. + +'What sort of boss is th' ole man going to turn out?' exclaimed one of +the seamen, staring aft. 'I don't like his looks. But when once I've +signed a vessel's articles I'm for outweathering the skipper, if he was +the devil himself. He'll get no change out of Joseph Dabb, and it's +extraordinary, bullies, that Joseph Dabb should be my name.' + +'If there's no eddication in the fok'sle of this vessel, fired if there +oughtn't to be enough aft to enable all hands to spell the word "lush,"' +said a dark, heavy-browed man, gazing with a deep and surly smile at the +plump figure of Tweed, as he walked, rolling about like a butterbox in a +seaway, alongside the captain. 'I never see a face in all my time more +beautifully decorated. How many pints go to one of them blossoms? We +shall be hearing of him singing "We're all a-noddin'" in some middle +watch, when there's onusual need for a bright look-out.' + +'I was spliced three weeks ago,' exclaimed a red-headed seaman. 'I'm +a-missing of Sally, my joys. I feel gallus like going home again.' + +He eyed the land about the West India Docks, and extended his arms, +amidst a rumble of laughter and much spitting of yellow froth over the +bows. + +'I don't expect to see my old 'oman again,' exclaimed a seaman, standing +upright with his arms folded. 'If she don't die, she'll make tracks, +and, foreseeing of that, I sold off my household furniture yesterday.' + +'Ain't ye left her nothing to sit upon?' said the red-headed seaman. + +'Yes; a carpenter's knee. D'ye think I'm to be hubbled?' he cried, +letting fall his arms, and turning fiercely upon the red-headed man. 'I +wondered to find her at home last voyage. She'd have found me a true +man. Bruised if I like ship's carpenters, anyhow. I never yet knew a +ship's carpenter yer could trust as a man.' + +'Stow that!' exclaimed a seaman, leaning over the rail, and merely +turning his head to speak. + +'_You're_ no ship's carpenter,' was the answer. 'This ain't no ship. +Present company's always excepted, too, in polite society;' and he +began to step the deck with temper. + +'Where's this vessel bound to?' said another man. + +'I signed for a cruise,' answered someone. + +'Something was said about the Equator,' exclaimed another. + +'The Equator's no coast,' said the red-headed man. + +'The covey that owns this here craft,' exclaimed the carpenter, who was +also the boatswain, 'is a Dutchman. He ain't a Dutchman only--he's a +feenansure. Now, I've heard tell that when a Dutchman makes more money +than his mind's capable of weighing the idea of, his intellects go +wrong. Did ye ever hear of the prices they paid for toolips? I'm the son +of a sweep, lads, if some of 'em didn't pay as much as a £100 in good +money for a durned stalk not worth a cabbage! They was all rich men as +bought them bulbs, and they was all mad; and you lay your last +farden's-worth of silver spoons if this here scheme of a voyage to the +Equator ain't the caper of a blooming Dutchman who's made so much money +that his brains have given under the weight of the idea of his fortune!' + +Just then a large white boat was seen to be approaching the _Mowbray_ +from the direction of Greenwich, and in a few minutes she was +alongside--a boat full of ladies and gentlemen; and Captain Glew stood +at the open gangway, cap in hand. The party consisted of Mr. and Miss +Vanderholt and a few friends who had accompanied them to Greenwich to +see them off. Vanderholt shook hands with his captain, nodded to the +mate, and cast a look of approval in the direction of the forecastle. He +seemed in high spirits. His eyes smiled deep in their little sockets, +and the fresh and friendly wind blew his beard into twenty expressions +of kindly laughter. He was rigged out for the sea. No Minories slop-shop +could have furnished him with a salter aspect. The seamen on the +forecastle eyed him, and murmured one to another. They seemed to +recognise their own vocation in the man, yet viewed him doubtfully, as +dogs watch with suspicion the dog in Punch and Judy. + +His daughter was handsomely draped in velvet and fur, and wore a +turban-shaped hat that was as good for the deck as for her looks. In a +minute there was a little crowd of well-dressed gentlemen and ladies +standing on the quarter-deck, gazing around them and aloft, with Mr. +Vanderholt laughing with the wind in his beard, and Miss Vi gazing +somewhat pensively at the full scene of the schooner. + +It was the right sort of morning for a start for the ocean. The brisk +breeze covered the surface of the river with sliding shapes, coming and +going. A large Indiaman, newly arrived, with the rust of four months of +brine draining down her chain-plate bolts, her sheathing green as grass, +with a quivering of weeds here and there, lay off the Docks opposite. +Her house-flag blew stately from the lofty masthead; stately and proud, +too, she floated, tall and square. She seemed alive, and conscious of +victory. The lights of her cabin windows shook through the ripples in +long darts of silver. A chorus of thirty stormy throats swept down the +wind, and there came out of that inspiriting windlass-song of sailors +who had brought their lofty ship home the whole spirit of the ocean +into this living, brimming picture of river. + +Mr. Vanderholt's friends walked about the decks of the _Mowbray_, +praising the schooner highly. + +'He goes alone with his daughter,' said one gentleman to another, 'and +touches nowhere. I do not envy her.' + +'Don't you remember,' said the other, 'what the German said? "I don't +see der use of being seek onless you makes your friends seek mit you."' + +They both laughed. + +Mr. Vanderholt led the whole party into the cabin, where they found the +table clothed for a cold lunch. A steward stood in a corner, waiting for +the hour to strike when he should summon the company by a bell. Some +baskets of champagne were beside him. It was a roomy cabin, with plenty +of accommodation for eight or nine people to sit at table; brightly +lighted, handsomely upholstered, painted and gilded as charmingly as a +drawing-room. Some little berths aft had been knocked into two, and +Violet was very well pleased with the size and comfort of her sea +bedroom. She would swing in a cot; the furniture provided her with many +more conveniences than she would get ashore in a friend's house. + +Mr. Vanderholt's cabin was plainly equipped. He was going to sea as a +sailor; he was bent upon reviving old memories; and his guests laughed +when he pointed to a sea-chest, which he said contained nearly the whole +of his kit, which chest had also been the one he had used in the last +voyage he made as a sailor. + +'Do you see those ragged marks?' said he, stooping to run his finger +along the edge of the chest, whilst he looked up into the face of a +fashionably-dressed lady. 'They were caused by my cutting up plug +tobacco. I would not have them filled in. On this chest I have sat and +blown strong Cavendish tobacco-smoke into an atmosphere composed almost +entirely of carbonic acid gas; I have watched the blue ring burning +round the flame of the lamp, and smoked on.' + +'Would you be a sailor again?' asked the fashionably-dressed lady. + +'Not for a million on _these_ terms,' answered Mr. Vanderholt, bringing +his fist down, in a sudden passion of recollection, upon the lid of his +chest. + +Presently the little bell rang, and they seated themselves. The +champagne fizzed, knives and forks rattled on plates, the one steward +ran about. Mr. Vanderholt was in high spirits; he drank to his daughter +amongst others; no more cordial or hospitable gentleman ever sat at the +head of a cabin table. + +'The hardest part of a sailor's life,' said a pretty young woman, with +black eyes, and a handsome white feather coiled round a large hat, 'must +be saying good-bye to the girls, as I think they call them,' exposing a +row of milk-white teeth. 'They are absent for months and years; how can +you expect constancy?' + +'Ha!' exclaimed Mr. Vanderholt. 'But a man may be faithful, even though +he should be as much cut off from his girl as if he was buried. Don't +you remember what your Richard Steele says? I quote from memory: "The +poor fellow who lost his arm last siege will tell you that he feels the +fingers that are buried in Flanders ache every cold morning at +Chelsea."' + +'I do not see the application,' said one of the gentlemen. + +'It is perfectly plain,' said Violet, flushing. + +'Vanderholt,' exclaimed one of the guests, 'tell me what has become of +that old sailor who used to take a month in making a pair of clews for +the captain's cot, or a fancy pair of beckets for the mate's +camphor-wood chest.' + +'He belonged to the days of leisure,' answered Mr. Vanderholt. 'It is +all for speed now, cracking on, carrying away, four months to Bombay, +when in my time six months was looked upon as a good voyage.' + +Captain Glew, at the invitation of Mr. Vanderholt, sat at the foot of +the table. + +'The lady,' said he, with an inclination of his head in the direction of +the person referred to, 'was speaking just now of constancy amongst +sailors. I remember some years ago being aboard a ship in a collision. +The other vessel received us, and it turned out that the first seaman +who sprang into the ship was the husband of the wife of the captain.' + +'Lor', what a complication!' said somebody. + +'The seaman who sprang was supposed to be dead?' said Mr. Vanderholt. + +Captain Glew looked at him without smiling. His face, however, was not +wanting in a certain arch expression. + +'Sailors undergo very many more perils than are written down, or than +the world wots of,' said a gentleman. 'I once met a travelling show. +Part of it was a man in a cage. Nothing in this or the under world could +be more frightful to see than that man. And what had happened to him? He +had slept on a bale of cloves, and the cloves, by drawing all the +moisture out of him, had left him a skeleton, with a heart beating under +a loose coat of parchment.' + +'Poor thing!' said a lady. 'And are cloves so drying? Really! How could +the poor creature while away the time in a cage?' + +'By showing the crowd how to make clove-hitches, I expect,' said +Vanderholt. + +Captain Glew rose, and, bowing to the company, went to his cabin, which +was a cupboard forward annexed to the pantry. Opposite was the mate's. +He reappeared in a minute or two, said something to Mr. Vanderholt, and +passed on deck. + +'I wonder you do not touch at Madeira,' said a gentleman. + +'I touch at the Line only.' + +'Oh, but Miss Vanderholt,' exclaimed the gentleman, 'if you have not +seen Madeira, you should compel your father to stop at the island, + + + '"Where the virgins are soft as the roses they twine, + And all, save the spirit of man, is divine."' + + +'I know nothing about the virgins of that island,' said a gentleman; +'but the men who visit your ship, and the men who salute you when you +get ashore, are poisonously hideous. They cling like toads to a bed of +glorious growths. The spirit of man is not divine at Madeira.' + +'I touch nowhere,' said Mr. Vanderholt. 'When our forefoot cuts the zero +of the chart, we shift helm for the homeward run.' + +He glanced at a clock in the skylight, made a movement, and +simultaneously all stood up, and, standing, they drank a final glass of +champagne to the safety of the voyage, to Vanderholt's health, to the +return of the charming Violet Vanderholt; then, conducted by the owner +of the schooner, the guests went on deck, and in a few minutes took +their leave. + +There was much hand-shaking--all the usual assurances of friendship +agitated by leave-taking. Nevertheless, when the company were in their +boat, going ashore, one of the gentlemen exclaimed: + +'I think Vanderholt must be a selfish old cuckoo to carry away his +daughter to the ocean, with no other company but his own grumbling self +and Captain Glew.' + +'I would not be sailing to the Equator in that schooner for a thousand +pounds!' said a lady. 'I should have to be run away with to do such a +thing;' and she leered sweetly at a gentleman opposite her. + +'They are flourishing their handkerchiefs to us,' cried someone. + +All stood up in the boat to wave back. + +'For Gord's sake, sit down, ladies and gents! You'll be capsizing of +us!' bawled the one-eyed bow oar. + +On board the schooner they were getting under weigh. The name of the +boatswain--he was also the carpenter--who had shipped to act as second +mate whenever his services in this capacity should be required, was +Jones. No man blew the boatswain's silver pipe more sweetly. He had sent +his lark-like carol to the mastheads, and afar on either hand the +streaming river that pure music of the sea thrilled, whilst their guests +were making their way ashore. + +The _Mowbray_ was a small ship, but her deep-water men dealt with her as +though she had been a thousand-ton Indiaman. The hearties, in their +round jackets, sprang, as an echo of the boatswain's roaring cry, to the +windlass handles, and in a moment a voice, broken by years of drink and +by hailing the deck from immense heights, broke into that most +melancholy chorus, 'Across the Plains of Mexico.' + +The cherry-faced mate, Tweed, standing in the bows, soon reported the +cable up and down; then sail was made. The eager little ship herself +broke her anchor out of the London mud, and to the impulse of her +mounting standing jib, staysail, and gaff foresail, was, with a +clipper's restlessness of spirit in the whole length of her, swiftly +turning her head down-stream, whilst a few hands sang 'Old Stormy, he is +dead and gone' at the little windlass, lifting the anchor to the +cathead. + +Before the length of Blackwall Reach had been measured, the schooner was +clothed, her seamen coiling down, some attending the sheets--everything +quiet and comfortable. The captain stood beside the tiller, conning the +little vessel. He was qualified as a pilot for the Thames, and boasted +that he could smell his way up and down in the dark--and truly perhaps +the nose, in some parts of this noble river, would be as good as the +lead, or a buoy, to tell a man where he was. Glew caught the eye of Mr. +Vanderholt, who, approaching him, said: + +'I am very well pleased. You have chosen well. This is a good company of +seamen.' + +Captain Glew touched his cap, and continued to watch the schooner. She +was square-rigged forward, carried topsail, top-gallant-sail, and royal; +but there was no good in humbugging with this sort of canvas in a +serpentine river that shifts your course for you every two miles by +three or four points. + +Miss Vanderholt stood at the rail viewing the moving picture round +about, with a very pensive face. Her eyes often went to a large vessel +at anchor ahead. That full-rigged ship made her think of George. In much +such a ship, no doubt, George would return. When? In all probability +before her own arrival; and how maddening that would be! For, oddly +enough, though it was a long time since they had parted, Miss Violet +Vanderholt was quite as much in love with Captain George Parry as ever +she was on that day when she and her father saw him off in the East +India Docks, when she cried, and he hugged her, and when they had spent +half an hour up in a corner all alone in talk as impassioned as ever +passed between two lovers. + +This must convince us that there was something Dutch and solid in the +girl's character, for she had had many opportunities to recollect +herself and transfer her affection. Though Vanderholt's wealth was not +of a size to lead to newspaper paragraphs and to editorial +exaggerations, it was, in a quiet way, known and talked about, and +people passing his house would look up and nod at it, and say: + +'A rich old cock lives there.' + +However, Miss Vi's meditations were presently to be interrupted by a +scene not very unfamiliar in the River Thames. The wind was west, and it +blew a fresh breeze. The ripples rushing to the whipping carried a +little edging of foam. Whatever was under canvas, unless it was a barge, +or something running in a mile or two of straight water, leaned in +shafts of light. You caught the glance of copper sheathing, the sunshine +showered in a rainbow glow upon flashes of brackish foam bursting +without the life of brine from shearing bows and gliding sides. The +smoke ashore blew away quickly, and the heavens remained a beautiful +blue, and the sky over the Plaistow Flats shone like the inside of an +oyster-shell with the prismatic hues of a setting of motionless, +finely-linked clouds. + +Just as the _Mowbray_ passed down Bugsby's Reach, opening the long tract +of the Woolwich waters beyond, two collier brigs reaching up the river +swept into each other with crackling jibbooms. The schooner's road was +blocked; her helm was shifted swift as the swallow curves in flight, and +then followed a pause which enabled Miss Vanderholt to gain some little +insight into the ways of the deep, and the behaviour and speech of those +who go down to it for two or three pounds a month. + +The two brigs came together with a crash that might have been heard at +London Bridge. They butted bow to bow, then, swinging to, locked +themselves helplessly broadside to broadside, and began to float +shorewards, with sails and heavy pieces of timber falling from aloft, +and men, two or three of them wearing tall hats, and shawls round their +throats, rushing about the decks in agonies of pantomime. It was a +saying that there was no better school than the North Country Geordie +for seamanship. Certainly there was no school in which a man learnt more +quickly to swear. The _Mowbray_ floated close past, and all could be +seen. Nothing is more helpless in this world than two ships thus yoked, +steering each other ashore, with an occasional drag, or jerk, or butt, +that brings a ton of top-hamper crashing about the ears of the profane +on deck. + +'Let go your tawps'l brace, you blooming old fool! Don't you see it's +foul of my mainyard-arm?' + +'What in flames are you keeping your jib hoisted for? You're paying her +right into me!' + +'Jumped if we shan't both go ashore if yer don't starboard yer 'ellum. +Why don't you let go yer anchor, you rooting hogs?' + +'Yes, and tear my smothered bows out because a crew of dairymen don't +know how to steer their ship!' + +Then, in the midst of this--crash!--off short like a carrot would snap a +yard, or down, torn bodily out by its roots, would fall a gaff, amidst +yells of: + +'You gutter-sots! You're all drunk this holy day! Suffocate yer, you +scabs! Let go yer taws'l halliards! Don't you see they're binding the +wessels together by my yard that's gone in the slings?' + +But the _Mowbray_ was now on her course; the distance between her and +the embracing brigs was fast widening, and articulate oaths had faded +into a chorus of indistinguishable shouts. The vessels were doomed. They +both drifted ashore abreast of Woolwich, and next day a paper described +a fight that was bloody with knives between the two crews, and reported +the death of a foolhardy waterman who tried to make peace, clearly with +an eye to salvage. + +'This,' said Mr. Vanderholt, as the _Mowbray_, rounding into Galleon's +Reach, put the brigs out of sight, 'is a sample of the poetry of the +sea, Vi. But very few poets have dealt with subjects of this sort. They +write of the splendours of the sunset and moon-rise at sea, and such +things. Yet, if I were a poet, I would rather choose a subject in those +two brigs in the Thames in a collision, going ashore, full of curses, +than in all the stars which shine upon the ocean.' + +At five o'clock the _Mowbray_ let go her anchor off Gravesend. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +'ALONG OF BILL.' + + +It was dark when the _Mowbray_ brought up. The Gravesend lights trembled +windily, and there was a dance of lanterns as of fireflies upon the +breast of the stream. Mr. Vanderholt had no intention of going ashore. +He had ordered Captain Glew to bring up off Gravesend to avoid the risks +of the navigation of the river in a dark night. It is not customary for +the skippers of yachts to dine with their owners, but Mr. Vanderholt, +who was a seaman at heart, who disliked forms and ceremonies, having +made up his mind on the matter, had, after speaking a few words to his +daughter, walked up to Captain Glew and expressed a wish that he would +eat with them at their table. Glew touched his cap without any +expression of surprise or emotion of gratitude. He appeared to receive +the courtesy as a command, to accept it as he would an order to get the +vessel under weigh or shorten sail. + +At six o'clock the cabin bell was rung to call them to dinner. Mr. +Vanderholt and Captain Glew arrived from the deck, Miss Vanderholt from +her cabin. The interior was a pretty little picture of hospitality; two +handsome lamps shone purely and brightly. The burnished swing-trays +reflected the beams of the lamps. The light glanced dart-like in +polished bulkhead and mirror, and shone on silver and damask, and fruit +and crystal. The steward appeared with a dish of fish. + +'I think you have a pretty good cook in this vessel,' said Vanderholt, +examining the fish, as he helped his daughter. + +'He served his time in liners, and has done a deal of cooking at sea in +his day.' + +'I hope he will take some trouble to please the men,' said Mr. +Vanderholt. 'It is always bad food for the forecastle, but a bad cook +makes bad bad indeed.' + +'What do the men get to eat?' asked the young lady. + +'The usual ship-going fare, miss,' answered Glew: 'pork, junk, +pease-soup, biscuit, and the like.' + +'Who keeps the log of this ship?' said Mr. Vanderholt. + +'I shall,' said the captain. + +'What is a log?' inquired Miss Vanderholt. + +'A book, my dear, in which the chief mate of a ship enters daily her +situation, the state of the weather, and such observations as he is +capable of making.' + +'They are not many, or of a poetical order,' said Glew, with his faint +taut smile. 'The nearest romantic stroke that I can recollect was this +entry: "A dreadful day. At noon precisely the ship blew up, and nobody +was left but William Gibson."' + +'I suspect, captain,' said Mr. Vanderholt, 'that you will have met with +some romantic traverses in your time?' + +'I don't recall any,' answered the captain. + +'Why, to put one instance as delicately as I can,' said Mr. Vanderholt, +filling a silver tankard till it foamed over with India pale ale; 'that +extraordinary affair of some early love.' Miss Vi looked extremely +confused, and gazed with entreaty at her father. 'The remarkable story, +I mean,' continued Vanderholt, bringing out his mouth and nose covered +with froth, 'that Mr. Fairbanks told me.' + +'And what might the story be, sir?' said Captain Glew, looking blankly. + +Miss Vanderholt continued to gaze with entreaty, whilst her father +repeated the story. Captain Glew drained his wine-glass, and uttered a +dismal laugh, in which his face bore no part. + +'Why,' said he, 'that yarn's told of old Jim Dyson, old Captain Dyson, +who was found dead in his bed three years ago at the sign of the Sot's +Hole, down Limehouse way.' + +Miss Vanderholt burst out laughing. + +'I wonder Mr. Fairbanks should tell that yarn of me,' continued Captain +Glew. 'If my wife gets to hear of it--and there's trouble enough in +married life without lies----' + +'So the bubbles break as quickly as they are blown,' said Mr. +Vanderholt. 'But I confess I never would have thought it of you, Captain +Glew.' + +After dinner the father and daughter patrolled the deck, warmly wrapped. +Mr. Vanderholt smoked an immense pipe that curled from an amber tip at +his lips into a richly-bronzed and glowing bowl in his hand. It was +early night. The wind was gone, the stream of tide softly shaled along +the bends of the schooner in the note of surf washing on shingle heard +at a distance. How dismal, flat and gaunt looked the treeless Tilbury +shore in that sad light! The very stars shining over it seemed to +tremble with the spirit of mud and cold desolation. Shadowy shapes of +ships went by, sometimes to a sound of music, as of concertinas and the +like; tall phantasmal shapes, lifting spires as delicate as needles to +the stars, loomed anear and afar. In the main, silence lay upon that +river, with its burden of living freights. + +The crew loafed about the schooner's deck forward, and the grumble of +their voices came aft, along with the scent of tobacco-smoke. They +slept in a deck-house, with three windows of a side, and spikes of light +shot from those windows, occasionally glancing on the figure of a +passing man, and falling in streams of radiance upon the bulwarks. +Besides this deck-house, the schooner owned a small forecastle, +containing three or four bunks. + +'I don't know how it may be with you, Vi,' said Mr. Vanderholt, pressing +his daughter's arm affectionately against his side, 'but I give you my +word I feel better already.' + +'That's a good thing,' exclaimed the young lady. 'I wish George were +with us.' + +'George is not two men. He can't be in India and here at the same time.' + +'He ought to be here, by my side,' said Miss Vanderholt. 'Oh, how +delicious the voyage would then be! I should not object to your sailing +round the world.' + +'Make the youngster give up the army. He's got means of his own, and +_you'll_ be pretty well off, I hope,' said Mr. Vanderholt. 'If you go +out to India I shall be alone, and you'll die of some distemper, +engendered by what is there called "a station." No good in titular +dignity. The land teems with captains and colonels; and a time may come +when a man will be respected because he is not a major-general. It would +be different if George was in the Dutch army.' + +He was proceeding, when he suddenly stopped, catching a noise of oars on +the bow, and suddenly a long, sharp-stemmed boat, apparently a police +boat, shot out of the gloom, and a powerful voice hailed: + +'Schooner ahoy!' + +'Hallo!' answered Captain Glew, who was leaning over the side, at a +respectful distance from the father and daughter, furtively smoking a +cheroot. + +'I want to come aboard of you.' + +In a minute the boat was alongside, and a couple of men sprang over the +rail. + +'What vessel's this?' said one of the men, who, like his companion, wore +a tall, glazed hat, and was swathed to the throat in overcoat and +shawls. + +'The _Mowbray_, privately owned. What's your business?' said Captain +Glew. + +'We're Bow Street officers. We're searching the shipping for a man +named Simmons. D'ye want to see our warrant?' + +'What's he charged with?' said Mr. Vanderholt, coming with his daughter +on his arm from the other side of the deck. + +'Murder!' was the answer. + +Miss Vanderholt screamed. Her father said instantly: + +'Search my ship by all means. I hope the man may not be on board of us. +If he is, I do not sail. Captain Glew, render these two officers every +assistance.' + +The _Mowbray_ was a small vessel, and the search did not take long. The +hatches were lifted, the hold explored by lantern-light, the deck-house +was rummaged, the whole ship's company was mustered and severally +examined. It was strange to see those seamen standing in a line, with +the runners in their glazed hats flashing the light of their lanterns +over their rough, bearded, weather-blackened faces. They had assented +very easily to this mustering and examination, for the man was wanted +for murder, and the very name will subdue the roughest, and silence +those curses of the forecastle with which the two Bow Street fellows +were the sort of people to have been handsomely assailed by this crew, +had they bothered the men with a smaller errand. + +They searched the cabins, and, lastly, they entered the little +forecastle in which no man had as yet slept. A hole of a seabedroom was +this. You could scarcely stand upright in it. The two men descended the +short ladder, and Captain Glew stood atop waiting. The bullies of Bow +Street swung their lamps carefully. Suddenly one of them, delivering a +low gasp, said: 'Catch hold of this light, Tom.' He dropped on his +knees, and grabbed at a leg, the foot of which dimly showed under one of +the bunks. He hauled with a will, and out came the body of a man or boy, +shrieking like a woman in a fit. + +'Don't 'urt me! for God's sake, don't 'urt me, gemmen! I meant no 'arm. +It was all along of Bill.' + +'Is that a woman you've got down there?' sung out Captain Glew. + +'Nothing else, by the holy poker!' answered one of the officers, in a +voice that trembled with the temper of disappointment. + +'Yes, I'm a girl, gemmen. It was all along of Bill. Put me ashore, and I +promise never to offend again,' cried the unfortunate little woman, +sobbing grievously. + +Yet, bedraggled as she was, of a raw, uncouth, mixed look, with her +trousers and sailor's jacket, and plentiful black hair loosened by +dragging, she showed as a saucy, handsome wench, and the spirit of the +devil was in her black eyes when she looked at the Bow Street men. + +They all went on deck. + +'Thunder of heaven!' cried Mr. Vanderholt, in a voice of horror. 'The +murderer is on board our ship! They have got him. So,' he cried in a +voice deep with resolution, 'our voyage ends. To-morrow we return home.' + +'It's a woman, sir,' said Captain Glew. + +'A woman!' shouted Mr. Vanderholt. He quitted his daughter, and strode +straight up to the group as they came along, and, putting his face close +into the woman's, he exclaimed: 'What are you doing aboard my vessel?' + +'It's all along of Bill!' cried the girl. 'I never meant no 'arm, and I +can't tell yer what I done it for.' + +'Father,' said Miss Vanderholt, approaching the group, and taking a view +of the girl by the sheen that floated round about the lighted skylight, +'don't you think it's just possible that this person who's been in +hiding for some time may be a little bit hungry and thirsty? Ask her +into the cabin. She will tell us her story.' + +'Oh, lady, you is kind!' exclaimed the girl, extending both hands +towards Miss Violet, and again beginning to cry bitterly. + +'This way, then,' said Mr. Vanderholt. + +The Bow Street gentlemen descended with the rest. Whether they imagined +a scent of crime in this female stowaway, or whether they distinguished +a scent of drink in the cabin atmosphere, cannot, after all these years, +be settled with any degree of certainty. They seated themselves, and Mr. +Vanderholt offered them drink, and they drank, eyeing the girl with very +knowing looks, whilst she told her story in a high, strained voice. + +'What are ye?' began Captain Glew. + +'I'm barmaid at the One Bell in Cable Street, nigh the London Docks.' + +Here she paused, and looked at Miss Violet. The blood was red in her +cheeks, and her eyes were wild and wet with tears. Her aspect, in the +clear light of the lamp, was extraordinary. She seemed half a gipsy. Her +beauty was coarse and masculine; her hair, black as streaming ink, lay +upon her back in a wonderful quantity. + +'It was all along of Bill,' she went on. + +'Who's this bloomed Bill you've been talking about since you was lugged +out of it?' said one of the officers. + +'The young man I keeps company with,' she answered. 'We fell out because +of a sailor man that's aboard this vessel. Fred Maul his name is, and it +'ud have been good for me this blessed night had they strangled him in +the hour of his coming into this blistered world. Why,' she cried, +turning upon Miss Violet, who shrank a little from the gathering +ferocity of the woman, 'this beast of a Maul comes and 'angs about me, +and Bill, he falls jealous. Bill and me 'ad a row over this 'ere Maul. +He says to me: "I know the ship he's signed for; yer'd better foller +him." "By God!" cries I, mad with feeling that _he_ oughtn't to have +said it, "say that again, and I'll do it." He says it again.' Here the +unfortunate woman raised her voice till the little cabin rang; but +though the gentlemen of Bow Street shouted, and though Captain Glew and +Mr. Vanderholt sought, with a hundred gestures, to subdue her voice, +nothing could soften the hysteric, piercing note. 'He s'ys it ag'in, I +s'y, and, going away, the unfeeling devil comes back arter ten minutes, +and chucks a bundle on to the counter, and says, with a low sneer: +"There's your kit. Now go and foller Bill."' + +'And so here y'are,' said one of the officers. 'A tidy lot, I allow, for +a select hevening party. When I saw her boot, fired if I didn't think it +was a man.' + +The girl bit upon a sandwich, and glared fiercely at the officers while +she chewed. Miss Violet, with the merciful heart of her sex, fetched +some hairpins from her cabin, and gave them to the girl, who, with a +curtsey, and a smile of shame and thanks, turned to a strip of mirror +and swiftly coiled her hair upon her head. + +'Go and fetch the young lady's hat,' said Mr. Vanderholt to the steward. + +The Bow Street gentlemen, having drunk their glasses of cold brandy and +water, got up, saying they must be off. + +'Yer'll put me ashore, won't yer?' asked the girl. + +'Ay, they'll put you ashore,' said Mr. Vanderholt, slipping a sovereign +into the hand of one of them; 'and here's for a knot of gay ribbons for +you, miss,' said he, laughing at the figure of the woman, 'when you're +clear of this spree, and in petticoats again.' + +She thrust the sovereign into her breeches pocket, muttering 'Thank you, +sir,' whilst she scowled at the two officers. + +'Come along, miss, if you're coming; for we're off,' said one of the +men. + +The young woman followed them, gazing about her as she went as though +she had only just discovered that she was in a very richly-furnished +cabin, and in the presence of a gentleman and a very finely-dressed, +handsome young lady. She wore an expression that was like asking 'Where +am I? How did I get here? What's it about?' And then, pausing an instant +at the foot of the companion-steps, to look at Miss Violet, and say, 'It +was all along of Bill; but he'll get it 'ot when I meet him,' she went +up the ladder in the wake of Captain Glew. + +'Let them get clear of the schooner,' said Mr. Vanderholt, casting +himself upon a sofa. 'They're not what you would call pickings from the +sweetest of the social orders.' + +'What did she intend?' + +'She couldn't have told you. When women of that sort go mad with +jealousy, "stand by," as Jack says. She'd have had Maul's life, perhaps, +before we were out of the Channel.' + +He was interrupted by a great commotion on deck--loud cries of men, +mingled with the yells of a woman. + +'Stop here, Violet!' cried Mr. Vanderholt; and he rushed up the steps. + +The deck-house door was open. The light of the lantern streamed freely +into the air, and illuminated a considerable area of plank, in the midst +of which a fight was apparently going on, for it was thence the uproar +proceeded. Mr. Vanderholt ran forward, and saw the girl tearing with +outstretched claws at one of the men as though she would rend him in +pieces. His trouble was to get away. He butted and dodged behind his +elbow, shouting: 'S'elp me Bob, Polly, it worn't no fault o' mine'! And +then she would shriek out: 'Yer drove me to it! It was along o' you, and +not Bill, you sink----' And here she would nearly tear his ear off; and +then she got at his hair, whilst the man, never offering to hit her, +danced in the light, shouting with pain, and swearing that he had had +nothing to do with it. + +'Stop it!' roared Captain Glew. 'Is a gentleman's yacht to be disgraced +by a stowaway spitfire? Help her into the boat, Mr. Officers;' and +plunging, they bore the girl out of her entangled embrace of Maul, and +in a few minutes they were over the side, and gone. + +The crew followed Maul into the deck-house, and a grunt of laughter went +along with them. + +'What have you been a-doing to her?' says one. + +'Where's my 'at?' said Maul. + +'What do it feel like, Frederick?' sung out a sailor named Legg. 'As if +you was married?' + +'Never mind _her_. I'm a-thinking of what I've left behind me, my joys,' +exclaimed a seaman. + +'I'm durned mighty glad I sold off all my furniture,' said the +deep-throated Jack who had on an early occasion made a statement on this +subject. + +Father and daughter sat in the cabin till half-past ten. Miss Violet was +then sleepy, and went to bed. When she left her berth in the morning the +schooner was under weigh, storming through Sea Reach, with half a gale +of wind astern of her, and a thunderstorm of hell's own hue lancing the +land beyond Canvey Island with lightning that fell in showers of fiery +bayonets. It was a majestic, sublime, terrible storm. The girl, standing +in the companion-way, was fascinated. The sun peeped at a corner of this +purple-black bank of vapour, off which rags of tempest, gilded by his +radiance, were blowing sheer across the wind, whilst for miles the edge +of the electric mass was a line of glorious light. It was as though a +bed of fire lay on top, with the molten stuff darting in flames through +the swollen belly; and the thunder roared in rattling broadsides. + +The noble, dangerous scene of sky, however, was soon far astern; and the +schooner sped on, carving out a grass-green comber with her chisel-like +stem, and leaving the tail of a comet blowing in froth behind her. And +now did nothing noticeable happen for some days. They met with heavy +weather in the Channel. The wind darkened with snow, and the _Mowbray_, +under small canvas, ratched, panting over the crazy, choppy sea behind +the Goodwins for a board that should open her a free run down the +English coast. Miss Violet was rather sea-sick. Strange to say, her +father was rather sea-sick, too. + +'This motion,' he growled to Captain Glew, whilst he grasped a decanter +of brandy by the neck, 'is not an honest heave. I am a good sailor in +seas where the head and the stomach swing together, but when the stomach +leaps at the head, and the head darts back from the stomach, leaving a +sensation of brains in one's very toes, I give up.' + +And so saying, he swallowed a glass of brandy, and lay down. + +It was now that Miss Vi felt the want of a maid, or, at all events, of a +stewardess to attend upon her. But Vanderholt had been dogged and Dutch +in this matter when they had talked about the voyage at home. He would +have no women, he said; they would be going forward among the men, and +breeding trouble. Was it not good for Violet that she should learn to +help herself? Could not she do her own hair? Then let her cut it off; it +would be growing whilst they were away. These trifles illustrated Mr. +Vanderholt's eccentricities as a rich man, and Violet's submissiveness +as an only daughter. + +However, the fine girl was not so ill but that she could manage for +herself. Her nausea had left her, whilst her father still lay grunting, +incapable of smoking, and gray as his beard. She waited upon him, and +stood upright with ease upon a bounding deck by his side, holding on to +nothing but her own hands. He rolled a languid eye of admiration over +her. + +'I did not bargain for this,' said he, 'or, as God is my witness, we +would have joined the hooker at Plymouth.' + +'Where are we now?' + +'In the Chops, where the Channel always shows its teeth,' answered Mr. +Vanderholt, with an ashy grin of nausea. + +Vanderholt need not have been ashamed. Nelson, whilst rolling in the +Downs, wrote with pathetic irritability to his Emma of his incessant +sickness. A man has stepped ashore after a voyage to Australia. Would +not you suppose him seasoned? Yet, on crossing the Channel in one of the +small steamers, he was more violently sick than the most prostrate of +the Frenchmen who lay in cloaks, with tureens by their sides, helpless +about the decks. + +'There is the Bay of Biscay to come,' said Miss Violet, with a lurking +hope that, if her father's sickness continued, he would order Captain +Glew to steer for home again. + +'Yes, it is not far off, and I hope it may blow a hurricane when we get +there, for then I shall be all right. I like a tall sea. Man and boy, I +never could stand these rugged little Channel tumblers. Call for the +steward, my dear. I want some tea.' + +The old gentleman was not very accurate in his description of the state +of the ocean, nevertheless. A large and liberal sea was running +steadfast, in charging hills of green, which crumbled into foam. The +torn scud flew fast. Every hollow was the wide and seething valley of +Atlantic waters; and as the hull of the schooner sank into the trough, +you might catch in the noise of expiring spray, in the explosion of +coloured bubbles, winking like stars in beds of froth, a sound of +martial music. + +The _Mowbray_ was making splendid weather of it. The wind was right +abeam. She took the seas in steady lifts and falls. Regularly as the +beat of a pulse, the hull would disappear. She seemed a foundered craft, +till, in a minute, up she'd soar, with marble-hard breasts of canvas, +leaping like some creation or possession of the deep to the height of a +surge, bursting the flickering green peak into smoke, which blew away in +rainbows whenever the sun rolled out of some solemn-sailing cloud under +which the scud was scattering like smoke. + +It was half-past eleven o'clock in the morning. Captain Glew, coming +below for his sextant, looked in on Mr. Vanderholt, and exchanged a few +sentences with him touching affairs aboard. The schooner had been +liberally provisioned with fresh meat and loaves of bread for the +forecastle use, and, so far, the men had sat down to a fresh mess every +day. But carcasses and quarters, ribs and heads, and rumps must, unless +they are pickled, soon take a character to call 'avast,' even to a +sailor's appetite. Indeed, all the fresh meat was gone. It had been +eaten up. + +It was the dinner-hour aboard the _Mowbray_--at sea, before the mast, +everybody used to sit down and eat his dinner by the sun, at the same +time, no matter in what ocean he floated--and three or four men were +gathered about the door of the little caboose, waiting to carry the kids +into the deck-house. + +A hairy, tattooed lump of a man, named Simon Toole, after snuffling a +bit, exclaimed: + +'If it's to be pay-soup, maties, at the rate of this smell, then I'll +tell yer a story it reminds me of. Micky M'Carthy was able seaman on +board a brigantine. She foundered in mid-ocean. They'd just time to +chuck something to eat and drink into her, and there they was, afloat +under a broiling sun. By-'n-by, wan of thim, feeling thirsty, goes for a +drink, and what d'ye think they found they had shipped for water, which +was all the drink, by gob, they had? Casther-oil, bullies! It was +Micky's doing. He had mustook breakers of oil for breakers of water, and +then, all hands feeling thirsty, they nearly kilt him.' + +'Lads,' said a man named Dabb, 'now there's no fresh beef left, I'm +a-going to feel hungry.' + +'That's nater,' exclaimed Toole; 'knock, and there ain't no room. It's +always t'other ways about in this world. What couldn't I sit down and +ate? Everything, bedad, but the stuff they're going to give me.' + +'The capt'n looks plump,' said Dabb darkly, looking aft at Captain Glew, +who stood with a sextant upon the quarter. 'He's fed so well that I'm +gorged if he's left any room for a smile in his face.' + +'I knew a skipper,' said the cook, lounging half out of the galley-door, +and plunging into the conversation a little irrelevantly, 'who used to +talk to his ship and his masts as if they was alive. He'd look up at his +maintaws'l, and say: "D'ye think you could stand it if I shook a single +reef out of yer? Why, then, all right"; and then he'd bawl out the order +to the men. Next he'd step back right aft, paying no heed to the fellow +at the wheel, and looking aloft, would say to his mizzen taws'l, "I +think a reef can come out of you, too. Does the mast feel equal to the +strain, d'ye think? Why, then, my lads, jump aloft, and shake a reef +out of the mizzen taws'l." He was a queer dawg,' continued the +cook--'fat as a slug, and as long in seeing a thing as a balloon's in +falling.' + +Seeing the captain looking, he slunk back to his coppers. + +Presently the pea-soup and pork were ready, the kids were filled, and +the hands went to dinner. They sat on sea-chests, the kids were upon the +deck, and the sailors plunged their sheath-knives into the pale, fat +lumps of meat, and took what they wanted, a few using tin dishes, and +some ship's biscuit, as trenchers. + +'Blast me!' after a grim silence, presently exclaims James Jones, who +had shipped as boatswain and carpenter, 'if I don't think the Dutchman +has sneaked us aboard on the cheap. This here's no food for a man.' + +He held aloft a morsel of pork, and squinted up at it. + +'Yer taste'll grow,' said a sailor, with a sullen laugh. 'The flavour of +roast beef ain't out of your mouth yet, Jim.' + +'He'll be a mean cuss,' said the boatswain, continuing to squint +dangerously at the piece of pork, 'if it's to be no better than this.' + +'Here's the yarn of the meanest thing that ever was read of in books,' +said a seaman named Mike Scott. 'A man once said to me: "When I was a +boy, I stood at my father's gate, with a kitten on my shoulder. A man on +horseback stops and says: 'I likes to see little boys kind to animals. +Here's a farden for ye, sonny.'" And with that he gives him a button, +and then rides off. Who was it, d'ye think? Why, the Dook o' +Vellington.' + +'Not a vord agin the Dook. He's my godfather,' said a man. + +'I'm a-going to complain of this meat,' said the boatswain, starting up. + +Retaining the piece on the end of his knife, he stepped out of the +house, and walked aft. + +Captain Glew saw him coming, yet did not look towards him. On the +contrary, he began to take sights. Yet, as though he carried a slip of +looking-glass in the side of his nose, he saw the man approaching, and +he did not want to see that the boatswain held, on a level with his +face, a piece of meat at the end of his knife, to guess that his errand +was thunder-charged with the old-fashioned forecastle growl. The +captain's face was incapable of any play of expression. It was hard +beyond the holding of any further meaning the man's spirit or heart +could put into it. But his eyes could look all the abominations of a +tyrannical soul; and when he perceived the boatswain approaching, his +right eye gazed with a devilish malice at the sun through the little +telescope attached to his sextant. + +Many minutes passed before he heeded the man, who had drawn close and +stood waiting to be noticed. A huddle of heads, all looking in one +direction, with but one leg exposed, as though the crew had been changed +into one of those many-headed giants you read of in fairy tales, +embellished the deck-house door. The red-faced mate stood near the helm. +Presently, the captain, with his eye still gummed to his sextant, seemed +to see the man. + +'What d'yer want, Jones?' + +'I'd like yer to taste this piece of meat, sir. It isn't fit food for +men.' + +Captain Glew slowly let his sextant sink from his eye, and exclaimed: + +'Jones, I shipped you for a respectable, quiet sailor. This is a +gentleman's yacht. Don't disturb our quiet by anything in the South +Spainer or Cape Horn way.' + +'Yacht or no yacht, cap'n, this is strong meat, killed diseased; the +sorter stuff, if consumed, to lay the whole ship's company low with the +sickness the beast died of. Smell of it.' + +He offered the knife, with the pork on it, to the captain. + +'The fault is in the cooking,' said the captain; 'it always is; it +always will be. Go and growl to Allan.' + +'Is the rest of the pork to be like this?' said Jones, taking the dollop +off the point of his knife, and seeming to weigh it in the palm of his +gigantic, tar-stained hand. + +'Go forward and finish your dinner, Jones, and leave me to get an +observation,' said Captain Glew, with a very forbidding glance. + +He applied his sextant once more to his eye, walking a little way aft. + +The boatswain stood looking from him to the piece of pork, and from the +piece of pork to him; then saying, 'There goes my dinner,' he jerked the +pale, rather bluish lump over the side, and rolled forward. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +CAPTAIN MARY LIND. + + +Next day they broached a cask of beef for the forecastle. The meat +proved fairly sweet, and that and a kidful of currant-dumplings kept the +men quiet. But on the following day the bad pork was served out again. +Captain Glew refused to hear the boatswain on the subject, and those of +the men who could not swallow the meat made shift for a meal with +pea-soup and ship's biscuit. + +Not a word of this trouble, which Captain Glew must have known was +charged with one of the deadliest of all ocean menaces, reached Mr. +Vanderholt. + +'I'll not have him worried,' said Glew to the mate. 'If you sent them a +Mansion House tuck-out, the fiends would growl, tell you it wasn't +Galapagos turtle, and that they'd hooked better salmon out of cans. I'm +responsible for the stores. I knew what I was about when I ordered them. +Surely you know Humph Lyons, the ships' chandler in Dock Street, +Limehouse? He's shipped for me before, and he's likewise shipped for my +owners, and I've never heard a murmur against him.' + +'Was that the Lyons an action was brought against for selling condemned +Admiralty stores as good food for merchant sailors?' said Mr. Tweed, +with a grin. + +'It was his brother,' said Captain Glew. 'A man can't be responsible for +his relations.' + +'As to relations,' said Mr. Tweed, 'a man may try his darned hardest to +be all that's right, and in conformity with the law and piety, and still +find himself adrift at the end. I remember a skipper saying to me: "It's +all very well to say, 'Honour thy father and thy mother,' but I knew a +man who all his life did his fired best to honour his father, and when +his mother lay dying she told him, with the tears running over her +cheeks, that the man he'd been a-honouring all his life had never been +his father at all!"' + +Here the groggy little man set up so loud a laugh that Captain Glew +walked away, and the conversation came to an end. + +The days passed. The _Mowbray_ broke the seas of the Bay clothed to her +royal yard. Blue sky was over her, and sunshine bright as that of the +English June lighted up the rolling ocean. By this time Mr. Vanderholt +was perfectly recovered, and had ceased to apologize to Captain Glew for +being sea-sick. He smoked his long pipe. He stalked the deck arm-in-arm +with his daughter. He repeatedly asked her and Captain Glew how they +thought he was looking; and Captain Glew swore that in all his life he +had never seen any gentleman pick up so surprisingly fast. + +'I'm quite sure,' the captain said, 'Miss Vanderholt will agree with me, +sir, when I say that you're looking ten years younger this same day than +at the hour of your starting.' + +Miss Violet smiled, and Vanderholt stroked his beard, and grinned till +his eyes faded into little wrinkles. + +One fine hot morning, when the _Mowbray_ was far to the southward of the +Madeira parallels, Mr. Vanderholt and his daughter came on deck from the +breakfast-table, and seated themselves under the shelter of a short +awning. The young lady held a novel. Mr. Vanderholt smoked his immense +and richly-coloured pipe. Captain Glew passed them in short to-and-fro +look-out excursions; and forward the little ship carried a busy face, +with seamen at work on the hundred jobs which, fair or foul, a vessel +exacts from her crew at sea. A soft wind blew. The sky was capacious +with the clarity of the horizon, and wondrous lofty with light cloud, +resembling froth that dries in curls upon a beach. + +A ship was in sight on the starboard quarter, going away north-west, +under square yards. Her spires trembled in the moist, rich distance, as +though they were rays of starlight, twisting, burning, dying. She had +been too far off to signal, nor did Mr. Vanderholt seem particularly +anxious that the safety and whereabouts of his little ship should be +reported at home. + +'Who is troubling his head about us, do you think?' he had said to his +daughter on one occasion when this question of reporting had arisen +between him and Glew. 'I am not insured. No man in the city is concerned +for me. And of our friends, how many are thinking of us?' + +And he held up two fingers with a satirical smile, as though he should +say, 'D'ye think two are thinking of us?' + +'If George returns before we do,' Miss Vi had said in reply, 'I should +like him to know that all was well with us down to the date on which we +were last heard of.' + +'We'll signal steam,' had been old Vanderholt's answer. 'Anything blown +along by canvas will not arrive at home very much earlier than we +shall.' + +Now, on this morning--this fine hot morning--they sat together in very +comfortable deck-chairs, one trying to read a novel, the other finding +his tobacco delicious in the open air. Presently, directing her eyes at +some men who sat at work stitching upon a sail near the galley, Miss +Vanderholt said: + +'How could any man be a sailor! How could you have survived such a +horrible life! See how hard those men are kept at work all day; and at +night they have to watch, wet or dry, for four hours at a time.' + +'Ay; and the colder it is, and the damper it is, and the more abominable +in a general way the whole precious weather is, the harder they have to +watch,' answered Vanderholt. + +'Have sailors no amusements?' inquired his daughter. + +'How do sailors amuse themselves, Glew?' called Mr. Vanderholt. + +And the man, arresting his look-out walk, stood up before father and +daughter. + +'By growling, sir,' answered Glew. + +Miss Vanderholt did not like the expression that entered Captain Glew's +eyes when he made that answer. + +'A happy, well-disciplined crew are the jolliest company of men in the +world,' said Mr. Vanderholt. 'They have plenty to eat, no rent to pay, +dollars for the girls at the end of the voyage, and they behold the +wonders of the world at the cost of the ship-owner--poor fellow! For +diversions, think--they dance in the dog-watch, they sing songs and tell +stories, they play at cards, they fight----' + +'A little, sir,' said Captain Glew. + +'We made a sport of fighting in our time,' said Vanderholt. 'We'd take +two men, and nail them face to face on a sea-chest, with long spikes +driven through the stern of their trousers. It was good sport.' + +He opened his mouth to let out a cloud, smiling at some forecastle +recollections, which perhaps caused him to regret that his daughter was +present, for he found Glew a good listener. + +'Sailors take some pleasure in cards,' said Captain Glew. 'I remember, +when I was second-mate of a ship, having occasion to go forward. It was +night, a dead calm; a frightful thunderstorm was about us; the lightning +was hissing like snakes all over everything that was metal aloft, and +every crash of thunder was like the splitting of the heavens by God's +own hand in wrath. I took a peep down the forecastle, and in the midst +of this tremendous commotion, which was fit to subdue the heart of the +stoutest, sat four sailors at a chest, playing at cards, a lighted +candle in a bottle in the midst of them, all so intent on the game that +they heard and saw nothing.' + +'Sail-ho!' at this moment sang out a fellow aloft, on the little +top-gallant yard. + +'Where away?' shouted Glew, with the sharp of his hand to his mouth. + +'Right ahead, sir!' cried down the seaman, in a sort of chant. + +'If she's going to England you shall make our number, Glew--for George's +sake,' said Mr. Vanderholt, looking at his daughter. + +Just then the boatswain hailed the sailor on the top-gallant yard, and +gave him some directions. + +'That Jones is a fine-looking man,' said Mr. Vanderholt; 'such as he +should never want a ship. What's his nation?' + +'London, sir.' + +'A mighty nation!' exclaimed Miss Violet. + +'Which does not believe in a God,' said Vanderholt, 'though it worships +a Madonna called Our Lady of Threadneedle Street.' + +'There's many a pilgrim always bound to that shrine,' said Captain Glew, +trying to smile. + +'I am of Dutch extraction,' continued Mr. Vanderholt; 'but never dropped +the letter H, nor found the V's and W's difficult. I have +out-generationed that trouble of the foreigner. But why is it that the +Cockney should drop his H? You speak of London. Think of the number of +H's which are dropped in it every day!' + +'George once made a pun,' exclaimed Miss Vanderholt. 'We were talking of +a certain young lady, and I said: "Do you observe that she drops her +H's?" "Her sister does worse," he answered. "Address her and she drops +her eyes."' + +Captain Glew again tried to smile. Mr. Vanderholt, expelling a great +cloud of smoke, burst in: + +'Yes; and I'll tell you what those girls' father once said to me at an +evening party. He took me aside, and said: "Did you ever 'ear of that +fine riddle in rhyme supposed to have been written by Lord Byron, +though it's attributed to a lady? I'll tell it you," and my friend, with +a grave face, began: + + + '"'Twas whispered in 'eaven; 'twas muttered in 'ell'"-- + + +and so he went on to the end. "Well," says he, "what is it?" "I give it +up," says I. "The letter H," says he.' + +'Did you ever see a funeral at sea, father?' inquired Miss Vanderholt, +watching the ship ahead, that was growing larger and whiter. + +'Scores, my blessing; much too many. We shipped a heavy cargo at Bombay, +and amongst it was cholera. I can still hear, in that dead calm of +twelve days, the recurrent, sullen plunge of the shotted corpse.' + +'The worst of being buried is, that you don't know what they're saying +about you,' said Captain Glew. 'That's true, whether ashore or whether +at sea. As the corpse goes along in the car, it might like to know what +sort of a following it had, how the people who'd been thought friends +had turned out. Yet, I dare say,' he went on, 'that if a man could get +up and listen a bit, and take a look round, he'd be glad to sneak +back.' + +'Yes; if he had to hear his will read in a room full of relations,' said +Miss Violet. + +'I have often thought this,' said Mr. Vanderholt: 'that a man who is a +genius and famous should provide by his will for a quiet funeral; for, +by doing so, he guards against the risk of neglect.' + +This was a touch above Glew. Mr. Vanderholt rose, and went to the rail +to knock out the ashes of his pipe into the sea. Miss Violet began to +read, and the captain fell to walking the deck. + +The ship ahead grew rapidly. It was first like the half of the crescent +moon leaning and shining, then it swelled into cotton-white canvas and a +green hull. But the sun ate up the wind at noon. The vessels were then +two miles apart, and it was not until about three in the afternoon that +they were wafted by cat's-paws within speaking distance. She was a +little barque, dingy with long travel. Her copper was green. Her +figure-head was a romantic imagination. It represented a nymph, with her +black hair fairly concealing her shape, extending her arms in a posture +of ecstasy at a large gilt star that was fixed within a foot or two of +her hands. Her canvas shone like satin, and at her mizzen-peak end +languidly swung the Stripes and Stars, a very large flag, looking +brand-new. A number of men, some of them coloured, lay over the +forecastle-rail, indolently watching the _Mowbray_. The barque had a +little poop, and upon it, with one foot resting on a hen-coop and one +hand grasping a backstay, stood the most extraordinary figure Mr. +Vanderholt had ever beheld. + +It resembled a man dressed in what, in former ages, were known as +petticoat-breeches. Their plenty made them look like a frock. Inspecting +this figure through a binocular glass, Mr. Vanderholt perceived that the +rest of its garb consisted of a white shirt, a silk handkerchief, tied +in a sailor's knot under a wide turned-down collar, a braided jacket, +blue, and a cap with a naval peak, much after the pattern that is worn +by yachting men. + +A short, square man stood at the wheel, that blazed in a brass circle to +the sun, and beside him stood another man, remarkable for nothing but a +long goatlike beard, and a blue cap, tasselled, pointed, and +overhanging, such as mutinous smacksmen wear in Italian opera. + +'A queer ship's company!' exclaimed Mr. Vanderholt to Glew. 'In all your +going a-fishing did you ever see the like of such a sailor-man as that +chap yonder in the trousers?' + +Captain Glew's reply was arrested by a hail from the little barque. + +'Ho!' shrilled the strange figure in breeches. 'The schooner ahoy! What +schooner are you?' + +'The _Mowbray_, of London, on a cruise. What ship are you?' + +'The _Wife's Hope_, from Calcutta to New York! Eighty days out! Jute and +linseed! We're short of sugar: can you loan me some?' + +All this was delivered in the voice of a bantam-cock, delirious with +continuous triumphant clarioning. + +'The _Wife's Hope_,' said Mr. Vanderholt, turning to his daughter. +'Here's some Yankee notion.' + +'If that figure's not a woman,' answered Violet, 'it does not speak +with the voice of a man.' + +After a brief consultation with Mr. Vanderholt, Captain Glew shouted: + +'I think we can let you have some sugar--a cask of moist, and some lump, +to help you along to the next ship. We'll carry it aboard for you.' + +The figure in breeches flourished its hand in a gesture of delight, and +then began to walk the short poop with superior stately strides, +constantly directing glances at the yacht. The _Mowbray_ carried three +good boats, and the boat amidships was the long-boat; this was promptly +got over the side. They broke out a cask of moist sugar and a case of +lump; and a crew having entered her, Mr. and Miss Vanderholt were +steered by Mr. Tweed to the _Wife's Hope_ over the glazed heave of the +deep-blue afternoon swell. + +Very hot it was. The sunshine tingled in the water, and the trembling +fire rose roasting to the face. + +'Do you think we shall be welcome, father?' said Miss Vanderholt, a +little nervously. + +'We are here to see the wonders of the deep,' answered Mr. Vanderholt, +'whether they welcome us or not; and yonder figure seems to me to be one +of the greatest wonders in the world.' + +'It is a woman, sir,' said Mr. Tweed. + +'A female ship-master,' exclaimed Mr. Vanderholt. 'The _Wife's Hope_! It +should be the _Husband's Despair_.' + +Miss Violet was gazing at the receding shape of the _Mowbray_. The +schooner lightly leaned with the swell, darting glances of flame as she +swayed. Tender, blue fingers of shadow, like an outstretched hand in +front of the sun, overran her sails, and the swing of her canvas was a +miracle of milk-white light and violet shade against the hot liquid blue +of the afternoon sky. + +'A vessel like that is like a horse,' said Violet: 'you want to pat her +side, to whisper encouraging words to her, to thank her for the noble, +sweeping pace she has carried you at. How little she looks, and how +lonely!' + +They were fast approaching the barque. The petticoat-trousered figure, +seeing that company was coming, had ordered a ladder to be thrown over +the side, and she--for a woman it was--stood in the open gangway to +receive the visitors. + +'Have you brought what we asked you for?' she cried, the strain in her +voice lifting it to a shriek. + +Tweed answered with one of those tumbling gesticulations--a peculiar +drunken, rounding fall of the arm and dropping of the head--which with +sailors stand for 'yes.' + +'Jump aloft, a hand,' screamed the lady skipper, 'and make fast a whip +to the yard-arm! I'll want that sugar carefully hoisted!' + +The boat drove alongside, and Mr. and Miss Vanderholt ascended the short +ladder. Now that they stood close, they found that by no possibility +could her garb make a man of the captain, with her large fine eyes and +delicate features, though sunburnt to deformity. She was a tall woman, +with a lofty, commanding air, which was not to be neutralized by +anything diverting in the suggestions of her apparel. She looked hard at +Miss Violet, and ran her eyes over her dress; her sex spoke in that, +spite of her cropped head and abundant breeks. + +'I have brought a cask of moist sugar, and a case of broken lump,' said +Mr. Vanderholt, lifting his hat; 'and, madam, if you are in command of +this vessel, it gives me a very singular satisfaction to make your +acquaintance.' + +'Don't call me "madam," I beg, sir!' exclaimed the other, showing a +white set of teeth in a cordial smile, full of spirit. 'I am Captain +Lind.' + +'Captain Lind, then,' said Mr. Vanderholt, again lifting his hat, whilst +his eyes disappeared in a grin full of wrinkles. + +'You are the owner of that yacht, I reckon?' said Captain Lind; and Miss +Vanderholt noticed the American accent in the skipper's speech. + +'Ay, captain, that's my yacht, and this is my daughter,' answered +Vanderholt, continuing to grin with all his might, whilst he looked +first at Captain Lind, and then aloft, and then along the decks. + +'What do I owe you for that sugar?' said Captain Lind. + +'Our visit fully discharges your obligations, captain. There is enough, +maybe, to keep you sweet till you get more.' + +'Well, I thank you,' said the lady skipper; 'and when I have seen that +cask safely inboards, we'll go into the cabin and drink a cup of tea.' + +Mr. Vanderholt pulled out his watch, then, hailing Glew, said that he +and Miss Vanderholt would remain another half-hour on board the barque. + +'Don't let the vessels slide far apart, Glew!' he roared. 'Tweed, whilst +we're below keep a bright look-out on the weather.' + +The mate of the _Mowbray_ touched his cap. + +Miss Vanderholt stared with amazement at Captain Lind. A woman in charge +of a ship! A woman qualified to handle the complicated machinery of the +gear and sails of a barque of no mean tonnage, as tonnage then went! Did +the men obey her? Wasn't she afraid of her sailors? And Miss Violet +turned to inspect the seamen who were getting the sugar aboard in the +gangway, whilst others lay on the rail lazily staring at the _Mowbray_ +from the forecastle-head. A rough lot they looked--rougher even than the +_Mowbray's_ crew, by virtue, no doubt, of their apparel, which was +showing very much like the end of a long voyage. They carried +sheath-knives on their hips, straw hats or Scotch caps on their heads; +their naked breasts disclosed the wool upon them through rents in the +flying wide dungaree shirt. And a woman had command of these fellows, +had held them obedient, and brought them and the ship in safety to that +part of the ocean in which the _Mowbray_ had encountered them! Who had +ever heard of such a thing? It was a fact worth going to sea to realize. +'How George will laugh and doubt when I tell him!' Miss Vanderholt +thought, as she looked with wonder, deepening ever, at the amazing +figure built up of petticoat-trousers and blue jacket, very plentifully +braided. + +When the sugar was on board, Captain Lind, calling to the man in the +opera-cap, said: + +'See that cask safely stowed. This is a chance that mightn't happen +again 'twixt here and New York; and I tell you, mister,' said she, +turning to Mr. Vanderholt, 'that I have missed the sugar in my cup of +tea. I have a sweet tooth. Who is that gent?' she continued, looking at +Mr. Tweed. + +'He is the mate of my schooner,' answered Mr. Vanderholt. + +'Then, see here, Mr. Prunes,' she cried, with a womanly yell that +broadened Tweed's mouth from ear to ear; 'whilst we're at tea below, +you'll see that this gentleman has some refreshment. He can ask for what +he likes, and if we've got it, he can have it. Send the boy aft, Mr. +Prunes.' + +All this was addressed to the tasselled seaman who was apparently the +mate of the ship. + +Captain Lind then conducted Mr. Vanderholt and his daughter below into +the cabin--a little interior, rude in comparison with the _Mowbray's_ +cabin, yet comfortable and breezy with the panting of the heel of a +windsail, as the swing of the barque swelled the mouth of the tube +aloft. There were two little cabins aft, and two little cabins forward, +and a little square table amidships. A small black boy arrived. + +'Bring tea and biscuit, and tell Mr. Prunes to give you some lump sugar. +Don't eat none. Now spring! Hurrah!' + +The lad, with a grin, leapt up the ladder, and the soles of his naked +feet glimmered like bars of yellow soap as he disappeared. + +'I never heard before of a lady taking command of a ship,' said Mr. +Vanderholt. + +Captain Lind pulled her cap off, and disclosed a head of rich brown +hair, cut short, and divided in the middle. + +'Well,' she answered, stretching forth her hand as an invitation to Miss +Violet to seat herself, 'I'm not what is called in your country a lady. +I'm just a plain Amurrican woman. Of course you've never heard of such a +thing as a woman in charge of a ship. Are you an Englishman, sir?' + +'Why, yes. My name is foreign--Vanderholt; but I am an Englishman.' + +'Names don't signify now in the nationalities of folks,' exclaimed +Captain Lind, smiling at Miss Violet. 'Look at Amurrica. They're coming +fast, and when they settle they call themselves Amurricans. I can tell +you, sir, there are very few Amurricans in Amurrica. Who's the Amurrican +of to-day? Is he Mr. O'Brien, or is he Herr Von Dunks?' + +'You asked me if I was an Englishman,' said Mr. Vanderholt, who was +greatly entertained by the singular figure this strange, fine, original +woman presented, as she sat at table, talking, and waiting for a cup of +tea. + +'Yes; because if you're an Englishman you'll be a century astern of us +in Amurrica. We had to show you the road in nearly everything of +consequence. We gave you steam,' said the lady, coolly making way for +the negro boy, who just then arrived with tea--a japanned tray with an +old silver teapot upon it and a bowl of broken lump sugar. + +The captain instantly put one of these lumps into her mouth, and +continued to talk and suck while she poured out the milkless tea, and +shoved a plate of white biscuit towards Miss Vanderholt. + +'We gave you steam, sir, and electricity. We taught you ship-building; +for, until the Amurricans began to build, shapeliness and speed weren't +known to the world. We offer you the double topsail. You'll take twenty +years to consider it,' she said, leaning back in her chair with a sneer, +while she lifted her saucer and teacup and began to sip in a ladylike +way. + +'I had no idea that we were so much in your debt,' said Mr. Vanderholt. +'But I tell you what: if you can induce the ladies of Great Britain to +study navigation, and take charge of ships, after the example you are +setting, there are a great many husbands who will be everlastingly +obliged to you for indicating a new source of income for the family, and +a sure chance for peace at home.' + +'You don't reckon, p'r'aps, that we Amurricans gave you electricity?' +said the lady skipper, who seemed to find something suspicious in Mr. +Vanderholt's answer. 'Who flew the kite? Who brought fire from the skies +so that a man might know what to do with it?' + +Vanderholt, holding his countenance behind his beard, respectfully +bowed and sipped at his cup. + +'Are there other female captains like yourself in your country?' asked +Miss Vanderholt. + +'Two,' she answered; 'there may be more. I'm a third, certainly. Stop +till I spin the yarn. My father was a sea-captain, and when I was a girl +carried me with him on several voyages. My husband was the master of a +ship, and I always went to sea with him, and could discharge his duties +as well as he, and sometimes better. He died, and left me a childless +widow. But I was not poor. What with my father, and my husband, and here +and there a legacy, I had got to own a few thousand dollars, which I +didn't quite know what to do with, for I couldn't get value enough out +of the money to live upon.' + +Mr. Vanderholt pricked up his ears. Any reference to dollars and +interest engaged him. He listened, and forgot he was at sea. + +'Till one day,' continued Captain Lind, 'being at New York--I wasn't +then living in that city--I happened to pick up the _New York Hatchet_, +and, after reading it a bit, came across this passage----' + +She left the table and entered an after-berth. Mr. Vanderholt exchanged +looks with his daughter. Captain Lind returned, holding an old +newspaper. She seated herself, and, popping another lump of sugar into +her mouth, sucked, with a grave face, whilst she opened the paper. Then, +when the sugar was gone, she read aloud: + +'"Mrs. Sarah Davis, of New York, has just brilliantly passed her +examination for a certificate as shipmaster and pilot, and, on receiving +her certificate, will, it is announced, take the command of the yacht +_Emerald_. This lady is, it is said, not the first of her sex who has +been in command of a vessel. Mrs. Mary Miller, of New Orleans, obtained +a master's certificate a few years ago, and is now captain of the +full-rigged merchant-ship _Saline_." + +'When I read this, an idea came into my head, and I wasn't long in +making up my mind. There's no obligation in my country to take out a +master's certificate, any more than there is in yourn; but I was +determined to let 'm know I was fit to command a ship, and I presented +myself, and received some handsome compliments on a quality of all-round +knowledge sights in excess of what the average captain carries to the +ocean with him. This is my third voyage in the _Wife's Hope_.' + +'Why the _Wife's Hope_?' exclaimed Mr. Vanderholt. 'You told me you were +a widow.' + +'I named her the _Wife's Hope_,' answered Captain Lind, 'that she might +encourage married women cussed with drinking, loafing, idling, gambling, +worthless husbands, to direct their attention to a noble pursuit which +would carry them leagues clear of the troubles of home, put money in +their pockets, enable them to see the world and life, and help them,' +said she, putting another lump of sugar into her mouth, 'to acquire that +spirit of independence without which woman must always be meaner than +the plantation slave, and her case a gone sight more hopeless.' + +This little speech was delivered with some dignity. Mr. Vanderholt was +impressed, and ran his eyes over her figure, and looked at her face with +a countenance of earnest respect. The sugar in her mouth did not impair +the stateliness of her manner and utterance. + +'It would be more respectable and quiet than a divorce,' the captain +went on. 'You'd find no bad husband going to sea with his wife. The cuss +wouldn't have the liver for it.' + +'The star of your figure-head,' said Miss Violet, 'I suppose, is the art +of seamanship, and the figure stretching her hand towards it symbolizes +woman rapturously greeting a new calling?' + +'You've hit it down to the heels,' answered Captain Lind. 'It was my +notion. Quite a pome, ain't it? Were you pleased with it as you came +along?' + +'We were delighted,' said Mr. Vanderholt. 'I said to my daughter, or, if +I did not say it, it was in my mind to speak it, "There is in that +barque a strong original genius." America should distinguish you, +captain.' + +The captain bowed and smiled, and pushed the sugar-bowl away, that she +might not be tempted by its contents. + +'Aren't you afraid of your sailors?' asked Miss Vanderholt. + +'Afraid!' echoed the captain, bridling. 'What is there in sailors to be +afraid of? I have revolvers, and I know how to load and shoot, and I +should no more hesitate to send a ball through a mutinous seaman's nut +than put one of them lumps into my mouth. Don't you ever be afraid of +any man, miss. Why man bosses woman's jest a question of muscle. My crew +soon learnt the art of jumping to the music of my voice. I'm a little +shrill--don't reckon that I sink my sex in these clothes--and it may be +that sailors, being accustomed mainly to voices deep with drink and +hollow with vice, run the more nimbly for being called to in their +mother's tender notes. Will you have a cigar, sir?' + +And, without awaiting Mr. Vanderholt's reply, she entered a cabin, and, +after a short absence, returned with a box of cigars, a couple of loaded +revolvers, and two long, dangerous knives. + +'They need no better discipline whenever it comes to it,' said she, +helping herself to another lump of sugar. 'Take a cigar, sir?' + +Meanwhile, on deck the mate of the _Mowbray_ conversed with the mate of +the _Wife's Hope_. Mr. Tweed had asked for no other refreshment than a +glass of rum and cold water. He stood sucking a pipe in the gangway, +ready for the appearance of Mr. Vanderholt and his daughter on deck, and +beside him was Mr. Prunes. The first dog-watch had begun; it had seemed, +however, to Mr. Tweed that it was all dog-watch with the crew of the +_Wife's Hope_; they only appeared to lounge a little more now that one +of them had struck eight times on the forecastle bell. The sun was still +high, but his splendour was deepening, and the lights which sparkled +about the decks of the barque and in her sides were rich; she floated in +the silence upon the dark-blue sea, with the whole lazy spirit of the +hour in the sleepy droop of her canvas and the indolent roll of her +hull. + +'That's a fine schooner of yourn,' said Mr. Prunes to Mr. Tweed. 'It's +like having the Wight aboard to see her. Bound to the Equator, eh? And +what are you going to load there?' + +He pulled his long goatee, with a laugh that struck a shudder through +his cap. + +'This seems a pretty comfortable old barkey,' said Tweed, slowly looking +round him. 'Eighty days in finding your way here? Well, yer might have +done worse,' he added, with a look aloft. 'Doomed if I could keep my +face when I saw your skipper! It isn't that all that's becoming in a +female don't unite in her; it's her sex that makes me laugh.' + +'I shall be blamed glad when the voyage is ended,' said Prunes, pulling +off his cap, and wiping his forehead with it; and now Mr. Tweed was not +a little astonished to remark that this seaman wore his hair in a net. +'I signed more for a lark than for a berth. They told me that the +_Wife's Hope_ was in want of a chief mate. She was in Calcutta, and I +hadn't been long out of 'orspital. I knew she was commanded by a woman, +and reckoned upon being treated as captain, in fact, though _she_ might +call herself the old man. Never was a chap more mistaken. If she hasn't +held her own as master of this vessel from the moment the pilot left us, +I'll swallow that pipe.' + +'D'ye tell me she understands all about the manoeuvring of a ship?' said +Tweed. + +'There's no man out of the Thames or Mersey who's got a trick above her, +blow high, blow low, bet all you're a-going to take up!' exclaimed +Prunes. 'See her put this craft about! It's yachting for nice +discernment. I never knew any master keep his weather-eye lifting as +this female do. She can smell what's coming along. She's reefed down +when the sky's been blue as it is, all hands have been growling and +laughing at her, and a quarter of an hour later the barque's been on her +beam-ends, and the sea just one yell o' froth!' + +'Doomed if it 'ud be a believable thing, if it couldn't be seen,' said +Tweed. 'What made t'other mate leave the ship?' + +'The same as'll make me glad to get to New York,' answered Mr. Prunes, +putting on his cap, and caressing the tassel, whilst his eyes met in a +squint of earnestness in the grog-flowered countenance of Mr. Tweed. He +paused, and seemed to reflect. + +'What is it?' said Mr. Tweed. + +Mr. Prunes began to nod at him, and then said in a low, confidential +voice, and a glance aft at the companion-hatch: + +'She's in want of that sort of mate which ashore they calls a husband.' + +'Ha!' said Mr. Tweed; 'and it drove the other chap out of a good berth?' + +'Well, there was a many quarrels, I believe, afore they got to Calcutta. +Thinking that I might stand the better with her, seeing that I'm +middling young, and that the sea hasn't robbed me of all that I owe to +my mother, who was the handsomest woman in Shadwell, I kept dark about +my 'ome, and to this bloomed hour she don't know that I've got a wife +and three young uns awaiting my return in the little house I left 'em in +at Stepney.' + +'I'd up and tell her the truth, if I were you,' said Tweed. + +A gleam of cunning twinkled in Mr. Prunes's eyes. + +'I've been pretty comfortable for eighty days,' said he, 'under an +error. There's no call now to correct it, seeing that the end of the +voyage isn't fur off.' + +Whilst he spoke, Captain Lind and Mr. and Miss Vanderholt were coming on +deck. The captain sang out in a shrill, bantam-like voice, that caused +Prunes to glance somewhat sheepishly at Tweed: + +'The lady and gentleman are going aboard their schooner! See their boat +all ready!' + +Then, springing on to the rail with wonderful activity, she hailed the +_Mowbray_, and asked Captain Glew for his latitude and longitude. This +she received, and entered upon a piece of paper with a face of triumph. +Then, turning to Mr. Vanderholt, she exclaimed: + +'See here, sir! A mile out, and the error may be his.' + +'I am lost in admiration, I assure you,' said Vanderholt. 'I would +rather have met this barque than the _Flying Dutchman_. It will be far +more interesting to me to talk about than an apparition. It is really, +captain, an extraordinary departure! I wish you prosperity, I am sure, +ma'am.' + +He bowed low. The captain of the _Wife's Hope_ then shook hands +cordially with Miss Vanderholt. Tweed got into the boat, and the party +returned to the _Mowbray_. Just before sunset a breeze came right along +the red, shortening shaft of glory, as though it blew out of the sun. +Both vessels immediately trimmed for their respective courses, and in an +hour's time the _Wife's Hope_ had vanished in the starlit dusk of the +evening. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +ON THE EVE. + + +It was five days later, and in that time the _Mowbray_ had drawn four +hundred miles closer to the Equator, still leaving a wide expanse of +water to be measured. The weather had been of a constant tropic beauty. +The heave of the Atlantic swell had the wide and solemn indolence of the +South Pacific fold. + +Mr. Vanderholt's face was crimson with the sea. He certainly looked +extremely well; so, too, did his daughter. The sun had caught her, spite +of a diligent use of her parasol and swift flights from his scorching +eye to the shelter of the awning. It had delicately spangled the fair +flesh of her face with some golden freckles, which somehow gave an +archness to her looks, and a whiter flash to her teeth, when the play +of her lips exposed them. + +This fifth day following the meeting with the _Wife's Hope_ had glowed +through a cloudless splendour of sky into a glorious sunset, and a +promise of cool heavens, full of rich stars, with the Southern Cross-- + + + 'Memorial reverenced by a thousand storms'-- + + +low down over the jib-boom end. + +Mr. Vanderholt came on deck when the sun was gone, though all the west +was swimming in the fast waning crimson. A number of stars sparkled in +the east. Mr. Vanderholt looked at them with delight, for they reminded +him of the twinkling of the sky in windy summer trees. + +A pleasant air of wind was blowing. Now that the sun was gone, the +breeze seemed to fan over the bulwark-rail with the fragrance of a land +of flowers. It was a sweetness that made you think of the Arabian gale +of the poet, but the African land was leagues and leagues distant, and +that sweet breath, therefore, was old Ocean's own. + +The schooner, with every stitch upon her, saving the foretopmast +studding-sail, to the setting of which Mr. Vanderholt had an objection, +glided through the gathering dusk to the music of broken waters. Miss +Vanderholt sat in the cabin, under the lamp. She was reading, and +appeared to be interested. Mr. Vanderholt filled his pipe from a pouch +whose size corresponded with the bowl it was to feed, and whilst he did +this he looked about him. + +Glew stood between him and the lingering scarlet, and his body, black as +indigo, rose and fell. What was the matter? It seemed to Mr. Vanderholt +that an unnatural stillness was in the little vessel. He still preserved +the forecastle faculties, and carried the eye, whilst he could bend the +ear, of a sailor. Eight bells had been struck. The second dog-watch was +therefore over. The watch below would, or would not, have gone to bed. + +All this Mr. Vanderholt knew; but so bright, flushed, and sweet a night, +after the roasting and blinding glories of the day, might well prove a +temptation to the hands whose turn it was to take rest till midnight to +linger to converse and suck out yet another pipe of tobacco. + +But the silence forward was so deep that Vanderholt, hearkening with his +forefinger pressed upon his bowl of unlighted tobacco, thought it +ominous. At intervals somebody away in the bows would speak. The voice +was a growl, and it would be answered by a growl, and it seemed to the +owner of the _Mowbray_ that, whoever it might be that broke the silence +in his little ship, made utterance with the throat of a sleeping +mastiff. + +Mr. Vanderholt lighted his pipe, seated himself, and called to Captain +Glew, who immediately crossed the deck. + +'The men seem very quiet, Glew.' + +'And a good job too, sir. This is a yacht, and we've got a lady aboard.' + +'Ay, ay, man, that's so. But, yacht or no yacht, lady or no lady, surely +I'm the last man to be opposed to a little harmless dog-watch jollity +whenever my sailors have a mind to it.' + +The man at the helm was not far off, and Vanderholt spoke low. + +'They're a crew that want keeping under,' said Captain Glew. 'They're +not used to pleasure-sailing of this sort. I singled them out myself, +and had good hopes of them, and there's no fault to be found with them +as seamen. This light cruising job is fast spoiling them. They need the +heavy work of a full-rigged ship.' + +'If they find the job an easy one, then I suppose they're satisfied?' +said Mr. Vanderholt. + +'I'm very much afraid that there's no kind treatment, and no easy job +under the sun, that's going to satisfy an English sailor,' said Captain +Glew. + +'You're hard upon the calling, Glew. You're talking to a man who has had +to work hard and fare hard.' + +'Sir, if you'd been in command, you'd know that I speak the truth.' + +'Aren't you rather a taut hand, Glew? Not that I object to a strict +discipline on board ship; but there is a manner of talking to +sailors.... I've heard of a captain who never would address a sailor if +he could help it, but if he had anything to give him he'd put it down +upon the deck and kick it at him.' + +'And I've heard of sailors, sir, who've scuttled their ship, broken the +captain's heart by ruining the voyage, and made a widow of his wife by +sending him adrift in an open boat. I've had charge of seamen, and I +know their natures, and I'm sorry that you should think I'm a taut hand, +sir.' + +'Understand me,' said Vanderholt soothingly: 'you are, perhaps, a taut +hand, but I do not say unnecessarily taut. Frankly, I do not think the +men love you.' + +'What's a sailor's love like?' said Captain Glew. + +Here Miss Vanderholt came on deck. Captain Glew placed a chair for her +beside her father. + +'What a heavenly sweet and silent night!' exclaimed the young lady. 'Is +that a ship on fire down there?' + +'It's the moon rising, miss,' exclaimed Captain Glew. + +Her upper limb floated blood-red on the sea-line like a glowing ember. +She sailed up, large, swollen, stately, the face rusty, as though the +luminary had been a mighty casting in the African sands, and was now +sent aloft red-hot by some thrust of giant shoulders. At her coming the +wind freshened in a damp gust, the schooner strained, and the sound +arose of water broken quickly into froth. + +'Glew and I have been talking about the men, Vi,' said Mr. Vanderholt, +after contemplating for a few minutes the hot lunar dawn. + +'They don't look a very happy crew,' answered Miss Vanderholt; 'but heat +will make people sullen. The sailors have to work in the sun, and, after +all, there is very little money for them to receive apiece when they +reach home.' + +Vanderholt laughed, and said: + +'Quite as much as they shall get out of my pocket. Four pounds and five +pounds a month, Vi. Why, I've been signing on, when a fine young man, +for two pounds five, and glad to get it.' + +'Are the crew dissatisfied?' inquired Miss Violet. + +'Well, I don't mind owning to you, Mr. Vanderholt,' said the captain, +'that they've been trying to make a trouble about the stores. But I +wouldn't allow it.' + +He stopped short, with a vibratory note in his voice, as though a piece +of catgut had been twanged. + +'The stores ought to be good,' said Mr. Vanderholt. 'The cheque that was +made payable to Mr. Lyons was a liberal one.' + +'Do they grumble at one thing more than another?' said Miss Vanderholt. + +'Oh, first it's the pork, then it's the beef; they'll work their way +right through till they come to the pickles,' said Glew, with a short, +nervous laugh. + +'This is the first time I've heard that the men are dissatisfied,' +exclaimed Mr. Vanderholt. + +'What is the good of worrying you with fo'c's'le troubles, sir? You're +on a cruise for your health, and the worries of the ship should be mine, +not yours.' + +'It is well meant, Glew,' said Vanderholt, a little uneasily. 'They are +a rough body of men, mind. I was long fed on pork and beef, and my +palate has memory enough to distinguish, I think. Tell Allan to-morrow +to cook samples of both kinds, and I will lunch off them.' + +This being said, Mr. Vanderholt smoked for awhile in silence. The +question of pork and beef and sailors' grievances is uninteresting at +all times, and peculiarly uninviting on a fine moonlight night. The +subject was dropped. Captain Glew moved off, and father and daughter sat +alone in the moonlight. + +The atmosphere was now misty with the silver of the satellite; she was +nearly a full moon, and rained her glory most abundantly. She made a +fairy vision of the _Mowbray_, etherealizing her into a fabric of white +vapour and fountain-like lines as she leaned, purring at her cutwater, +from the delicate wind. + +'I don't think Glew treats the men well,' said Miss Vanderholt, turning +her knuckles to the moon to see the diamonds in her rings sparkle. 'He +is restrained when I'm on deck; I judge him by the demeanour of the +crew.' + +'They are not yachtsmen; they are not fresh-watermen. I, too, have eyes +in my head, and I'll not condemn Glew off-hand for being what the +Americans call a "hard case,"' answered Mr. Vanderholt. 'They are rough +fellows, got out of low sailors' boarding-houses. I know the breed--the +right sort of men for a jaunt of this kind--and I'm very well satisfied +with them. But they have the look of growlers, and the man Jones, who +should be the most trustworthy of the lot, has the very best genius for +putting on a surly, dangerous face, and posturing in the mutineer style +when hotly called to of any sea-dog that I can recall. So, Vi, I'm not +for interfering with the duties of the captain.' + +He smoked, and his little eyes dwelt upon the face of the beautiful +moon. + +'If the sea,' said he musingly, 'were a silver shield it could not flash +more brightly. How mysterious does the moon make the world of waters! +They speak of the awe bred of darkness--the awe, the uncertainty--yes, I +have known it; but how much more must this lighted ocean stir one's +spiritual pulses than if it were a bed of darkness!' + +'You are certainly better,' said Miss Violet; 'you are seldom poetical +at home.' + +'No man who has been to sea can help being a poet,' said the old +gentleman complacently, smoothing his beard. 'He beholds many strange +appearances; he dreams strangely. Mysterious fancies thicken upon the +drowsy vision of his lonely midnight look-out, and with him _then_ it is +as the great poet sublimely sings: + + + '"But shapes that come not at an earthly call, + Will not depart when mortal voices bid; + Lords of the visionary eye, whose lid, + Once raised, remains aghast, and will not fall."' + + +He relighted his pipe, and smiled at the moon, and seemed very well +pleased with the acuteness of his memory. + +'Those are noble lines,' said the girl. + +'They are Wordsworth's. Ach! What delight that man has given me.' + +'How much pleasanter it is,' said Miss Violet, 'on a glorious night like +this to talk of poetry, and the visionary shapes of the sea, than of +sailors' beef and pork!' + +'You would not think so if you had been stuck here for ten days on a +raft.' + +'Well,' exclaimed the girl, heaving a sigh, 'the Equator is not very far +off now, and then we shall turn and go home.' + +'I hope that our forefoot will cut the Line by the 25th,' answered Mr. +Vanderholt. 'We shall be home in February, brown, and in the best of +spirits.' + +'And George will have started--will be coming.' + +They talked for a little while about this gentleman. It was ten o'clock +before they quitted the deck. A man struck four bells on the forecastle. +Immediately a figure arose from the deep shadow cast by the deck-house +on the planks, and went aft to relieve the helm. Captain Glew stood on +the yacht's quarter, and was as visible in the moonshine as though the +bright dawn had broken. There was a muttering about the course at the +helm, and then the man who had been relieved took a step or two forward, +looking at the captain. + +'What are you staring at?' said Glew. + +The man, continuing to walk but slowly, persisted in staring, so that +his head revolved. + +'What are you staring at?' repeated Glew, in a soft but threatening +voice. + +The skylight and companion-way were wide open; he had no wish that his +note of temper should penetrate. + +'Mayn't a man use his eyesight aboard this bloody ship?' said the +seaman, coming to a halt. + +'Go forward!' exclaimed the captain, stiffening himself at the rail. + +The man seemed to hesitate, then went slowly towards the forecastle, +audibly muttering. This man's name was Joseph Dabb. + +When he was close to the deck-house, a sailor, who was squatting in the +shadow of it, exclaimed gruffly: + +'What was he a-saying of?' + +'Asked me what I was a-staring at because I was looking at him.' + +'S'elp me, all angels!' exclaimed the squatting figure, after spitting +right across the deck, 'if I don't feel sometimes like cutting the +scab's heart out of him! We're not men in _his_ sight. We're muck. He +thinks of us as muck, and he talks of us as muck. He speaks to us as if +we was muck, and it's muck he's shipped aboard this vessel for us muck +to eat.' + +He stood up, and the whites of his eyes glistened in the reflected +moonlight that whitened off the edges of the stay-foresail, as he turned +his gaze aft, where the figure of the captain walked. A man came out of +the deck-house and joined the company. Immediately after, a fourth man +approached from the forecastle, and stood listening. + +'They've been a-yarning about us half my trick,' said Dabb. 'The captain +said this pleasuring was a-spoiling of us.' + +All four united in a low, dismal laugh, which would have been a loud, +defiant, mirthless roar but for the sleepers in the deck-house, hard by +which they were talking. Sleep is counted a sacred thing at sea. + +'Ay,' exclaimed one of the men, who proved to be Mike Scott, 'you lay a +man's going to be spoilt by the pleasuring that's to be done under +_him_. What was said, Joe?' + +'That blarsted Dutchman talks in his beard. That and his pipe smothered +up his voice. I couldn't hear him. T'other was more clear. He spoke of +sailors as had scuttled their ships, as had broke the cap'n's heart by +ruinating his voyage, and made a widder of his wife by sending him +adrift. T'other speaks, and then the cap'n says, "What's a sailor's love +like?"' + +Silence followed. + +'What do he mean by "a sailor's love"?' exclaimed the third man, Maul. +'Is it a belaying-pin or a handspike? You'll find he's a-trying to +excite a disgust against us sailors in the mind of that old Dutchman, so +that he may make a difficulty about paying us at the end of the voyage.' + +''Ow d'ye know,' said Dabb, 'that it ain't the Dutchman who's put the +skipper up to ill-treating of us, reckoning upon sailing into the Thames +with some of us in irons? D'ye mean to say----' + +'Whisper, you crow!' + +'D'ye mean to say,' continued the man, lowering his voice, 'that the +stores were shipped without the Dutchman knowing of their character? +I'm a-beginning to smell blue hell in this business.' + +All this while the moon shone sweetly and piercingly. A divine peace was +upon the sea, and the light noises of the wind were as fresh as dew on +grass, with the sound as of the plashing of many fountains. In the cabin +they talked of poetry--and one of the sailors forward was for cutting +the captain's heart out! + +The little royal and top-gallant sail were half aback; the luffs of the +jibs were trembling. + +'Trim sail!' shouted Captain Glew; and he continued to bawl as he walked +slowly forwards: 'Brace forward the topsail-yard! Ease away the weather +braces! Get a drag on your jib-sheets!' And it was clear, by the manner +in which he delivered these orders to the men, that he had been watching +and thinking of them all the time they had been talking about him. + +All was quiet after this. The moon rolled down into the sea, the shadow +of the earth slipped off the eastern horizon, and the schooner floated +into another tropical morning, wide and high with cloudless splendour. +Nothing was in sight. + +The date was December 15, 1837. + +At half-past eleven, the steward, a man named Gordon, who had been +shipped for cabin duty, but who had sailed on many occasions as an able +seaman, so that his sympathies were wholly with the forecastle, went to +the harness-cask, and, unlocking it, picked over some pieces of meat, +brine-whitened, and carried two cubes of the flesh forward to the cook. + +'What's this for?' says Allan. 'Here's stink enough. The pork's measly +bad to-day!' + +'Samples for the cabin table,' said the steward, Gordon, dabbing the +flabby offal down on the dresser. + +'Ho!' says the cook. 'They'd best be cooked separate, I suppose. The +stench'll break the young lady's heart if they're boiled in them +coppers.' + +'Cook 'em as you like. That's your business,' said Gordon. 'It's for one +o'clock.' + +'Who's going to eat 'em?' + +'How big's a man's windpipe?' asked Gordon. The cook eyed him. 'Would +about that lump,' said Gordon, snatching up a knife and slightly scoring +a corner off one of the pieces, 'fit a man's windpipe?' + +'Ah! would it?' muttered the cook. 'And if you'll let me guess whose +pipe it is you're a-thinking of, I wouldn't mind telling you that I'm +game--s'elp me God!--to ram it down with this--a clean job!' + +And seizing a long, black, sharp-ended poker, he flourished it at +Gordon's mouth, poising it as though he meant to do for the steward. + +Gordon rounded out of the little caboose with a laugh. + +Mr. Tweed walked the weather side of the quarter-deck; his sextant lay +upon the skylight cover. The seaman named Legg was at the helm. His +figure, airily clad in duck and calico and wide straw hat, stood out +like a painted figure of marble, as it slightly rose and slightly fell +against the hot pale-blue sky in the north. + +Miss Vanderholt was seated in a deck-chair under the awning, beside a +quarter-boat. A book lay upon her lap, but her hands were clasped upon +it, and her eyes were bent upon the sea. She viewed it listlessly. The +monotony of that eternal girdle was growing shocking. It seemed to bind +up her very soul. She thought to herself: 'They speak of the freedom of +the sea. But doesn't its sense of freedom come only when motion is +swift, when the roar of the white water is strong, and when one's home +is not very far off?' + +It was the men's dinner-hour. Miss Violet had often, during the warm +weather, from her comfortable quarter-deck chair, observed a couple of +men a little before noon stagger with sweating faces out of the galley, +bearing in their hands a sort of wooden washing-tub, which sent up a +great deal of steam. This she knew was the crew's dinner. + +She had sometimes wondered how they ate: whether they spread a +table-cloth; whether they planted a cruet-stand in their midst, and +placed knives and forks on either hand, for the hearts to cut and come +again. Who carved? She supposed that the boatswain took the head of the +table. + +She had never felt so curious, however, in this matter as to ask +questions, and as, moreover, she had not caught so much as a glimpse of +the interior of the crew's dwelling-house, she had figured into +conviction a comfortable little sea-parlour in which the men dined just +as she and Glew and the mate and her father dined. + +'After all,' she mused, keeping her hands clasped upon her open book, +with her eyes fastened upon the sailors' house, 'it is the monotony of +the sea that repels. It must have its good side. Plenty to eat and +drink, and, as father says, most of the wonders of the world--islands, +harbours, inland scenes of beauty--to be visited at the cost of others.' + +Whilst she thus moralized, she beheld a head with a very savage and +malicious look upon its face in the deck-house door. The figure of the +man was exposed to the waist, and two great hands grasped for support +each side of the opening. It was the head of the boatswain of the +schooner, James Jones, carpenter and second mate--but as second mate he +had never been called upon to serve. He was uncovered, and his hair was +wild. His expression was devilish. Though at some distance from the +man, the young lady could clearly distinguish a look of fury upon the +seaman's face, as though he had just slain a shipmate, and was in the +act of leaping on deck. + +He stood in the doorway, and continued to stare aft. Miss Vanderholt +glanced uneasily at the skylight. She waited for her father and Captain +Glew to appear. The captain was bound to arrive in a minute or two, for +already Mr. Tweed, who had glanced at the boatswain without appearing to +see anything unusual in the man's fixed, half-in and half-out posture, +and dark, endevilled face, had picked up his sextant, and was ogling the +sun. + +Mr. Vanderholt was the first of the two to come on deck. His daughter +called to him softly, and said: + +'Father, did you ever see, in all your life, such a wicked expression as +that man wears?' + +'What man?' exclaimed Mr. Vanderholt, lancing his teeth with a silver +toothpick, and gazing along the decks with an expression of bland +benevolence. + +'That man there, in the door of the galley,' said the girl. 'He's been +standing like that for the last three or four minutes, hatless, looking +aft, with that face of fury, as if they'd tied him in the doorway and +were goading him.' + +'I certainly see a man lounging in the doorway,' said Mr. Vanderholt, +who was a little short-sighted. 'Does he look angry?' + +He spoke somewhat uneasily, and turned his head to see if the captain +was on deck. Glew at that moment rose through the hatch, armed with his +sextant. Vanderholt went up to him, and said: + +'There is a man leaning in the door of the caboose--now I look again I +see it is the boatswain--whose face my daughter tells me is formidable +with temper. I do not clearly see all that way off. I hope it will mean +no fresh trouble about the stores. Let them know I have ordered pieces +of the pork and beef to be boiled for our mid-day meal.' + +Whilst he was speaking, Glew's eyes were fixed upon the boatswain, who, +at the moment that Vanderholt ceased, withdrew. Glew's attitude was +immediately and insensibly charged with malice and danger, with +passions quickly growing and contending, by the odd, crouching air he +carried, whilst he had watched the boatswain and listened to his +employer. + +'That Jones,' he said, 'is the right sort of forecastle scoundrel to +breed a mutiny, and if he troubles me to-day we must have him out of it, +Mr. Vanderholt, in the approved old method. Mr. Tweed, can you lay your +hands readily upon a set of irons for that fellow?' + +The mate answered: + +'The carpenter has charge of the irons, sir, and the carpenter is, +unfortunately, the boatswain himself.' + +'Go forward,' said Captain Glew, 'and ask the man to give you a set of +irons.' + +'Stop!' exclaimed Mr. Vanderholt, glancing at the helmsman, whose eyes +were upon Glew, and who was clearly a listener. 'We must have no talk of +irons in this vessel, until something has been done to warrant their +introduction.' + +'If there should come a difficulty,' was the captain's answer, 'we may +find it impossible to get forward so as to procure the irons. I like to +be beforehand.' + +'I'll not have it!' said Mr. Vanderholt, with warmth. + +Captain Glew simply said, 'Ay, ay, sir,' and turned his face to the sun, +with his sextant lifted. + +Now it was that the boatswain reappeared, still without his hat, his +head very shaggy, his shirt-sleeves rolled above his elbows, disclosing +the muscles of a carthorse. He sprang, in a single bound, through the +door of the deck-house, grasping his mess-kid. The seaman Dabb followed; +he, too, grasped a mess-kid. Then the rest of the crew appeared--Gordon, +Allan, Toole, Scott, Maul. + +'Now, bullies, are we ready?' exclaimed Jones, in a voice of thunder; +and he put the kid upon the deck. Dabb did likewise. + +'Hurrah for a hot male of mate for the cabin!' shouted Simon Toole. + +The boatswain and Dabb, each man in his boots, kicked. They kicked at +the kids with all their might, and the wooden vessels rushed aft to the +very feet of Captain Glew and Vanderholt, scattering their precious +contents of pork and pea-soup over the smooth planks. Never was an +uglier affront offered to the master of a ship. Never had mutinous +insolence been carried to a greater height. Captain Glew turned white as +milk, but not with fear. Well for him had he felt fear. Mr. Vanderholt +was ashy pale. He called to his daughter to go below. She sprang up, +but, instead of going below, went and stood right aft, beside the +helmsman, to whom she said: + +'What do those men want?' + +'Their rights!' he answered, with a diabolical leer. + +The frightened girl made a quick step to the companion-hatch, and stood +beside the cover; she was afraid to go below. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE MURDERS. + + +'What's the meaning of this atrocious conduct, men?' shouted Mr. +Vanderholt. 'I am sorry if anything's wrong with you. I am an old +sailor----' + +He was interrupted by Captain Glew roaring out: 'Tweed, help me to put +that scoundrel in irons!' And he rushed forward, Tweed following. + +'Oh, my God!' cried Mr. Vanderholt; 'stay your hands, men! This is my +ship! I am master here! I'll see your wrongs righted!' + +'There'll be murder!' shrieked Miss Vanderholt. + +'Go below, for Christ's sake!' roared the distracted man; and, catching +hold of his daughter's arm, he dragged her down the steps into the +cabin. + +'No man in this ship puts me in irons,' said the boatswain, showing his +teeth, as he squared up at Captain Glew, with his immensely thick arms +covered with hair, arrows and crucifixes. 'I've been wanting the killing +of you this many a day, you rat! and, as you men hear me, by the living +Lord, I'll kill him if he lays a finger upon me!' + +For a few minutes Captain Glew paused, waiting for Mr. Tweed, who had +disappeared. He stood one man to seven; his nostrils were dilated; his +eyes were on fire; his skin was a ghastly white; and his fingers worked +like those of one who plays a piano. His breath flew from him in sharp, +quite audible hissings. He was the incarnation of wrath fiendish above +anything human, and in that pause those of the men who met his gaze +seemed to quail. + +Mr. Vanderholt came running from the companion-hatch. His right hand was +in the pocket of his coat. + +'What is it, men?' he bawled. 'I am an old sailor, and was a man at sea +when you were boys. Is your pork bad? Is the rest of your food bad?' + +'Go and gut yourself!' roared Dabb. 'If that cuckoo had the victualling +of this ship, you had the paying of him; and was there ever a Dutchman +that didn't know good food from bad by the price of it?' + +He was proceeding. Gordon, standing alongside, clipped the dog over the +back of his neck, and silenced him. + +Mr. Vanderholt swayed speechless on the slightly heaving deck of his +vessel. He was petrified. He stared at the insolent villain; he couldn't +credit his senses. + +Indeed, it was shocking that that fine old gentleman, with his full gray +beard, his dignified bearing, his knowledge of life and letters, his +years, his great fortune, should be thus addressed by a brute of the +sea, a scab, a wen of the ocean, who ashore, in liquor, was, of course, +the swaggering, yelping terror of women and little children. + +Mr. Tweed came along from the forecastle, grasping an iron bar with +rings upon it The moment the men saw him, three or four--Scott, Toole, +Allan, and another--flung themselves upon him. The irons were sent +whizzing overboard, the man himself was felled to the deck. He rose in a +minute, breathless and mad. + +'But you _shall_ come aft. Help me, Tweed!' And the captain, crying this +out in a voice frightful to hear with its tension of passion, flung +himself upon the boatswain. + +'The man who moves--the man who interferes with the captain, I'll +shoot!' shouted Vanderholt, pulling out a revolver, a six-barrelled +engine of those days, from his pocket, and taking aim at the crew. + +Tweed had sprung upon the boatswain, and now three madmen were +wrestling. A fourth rushed in; he was Simon Toole. He yelled like a +savage as he leapt upon the heaving and writhing group. + +'Stand back, or I'll shoot you!' shouted Mr. Vanderholt. 'I have six +men's lives here.' + +He saw Toole seize Captain Glew by the throat, and taking aim at the +man, he pulled the trigger. The flash, the report, was followed by a +dying groan, and Tweed, with both hands lifted and clenched, fell, shot +through the head. + +At this moment an iron belaying-pin[1] struck Mr. Vanderholt across the +face. It was Maul who hurled it. He flung it with the rage and meaning +of murder, standing not a couple of fathoms away from the unhappy +gentleman, who dropped like a running man when he falls dead from heart +disease. + +'You murderous curs!' groaned Captain Glew, falling upon one knee with +his hand to his side. + +For a little while they stood raging; their shouts were hoarse and +insane. Legg bawled to them from the helm, and they answered him. You +would have thought that they were breeding some fresh hellish scene of +bloodshed amongst themselves, so flushed, wild, clamorous was the mob of +them, every man trying to drown the other's voice. + +'It was his doing!' said Jones, pointing to the figure of the dying +captain. 'I never wanted it!' + +'Anyhow, we're not responsible for _him_,' said Allan, nodding at the +body of the mate. 'Who floored the Dutchman?' + +'I did!' yelled Maul. + +'He's a killed man,' said Scott, stooping to look at him. + +'Water,' whispered Captain Glew. + +Toole's eyes were on the captain at the instant, and the ruffian saw the +man's lips move. + +'He's spakin'!' he exclaimed, with a face of sudden horror, backing two +or three steps. + +Dabb put his ear to the dying man's mouth. + +'He asks for water,' said the seaman; and he sprang to the scuttle-butt +and filled a pannikin which stood handily by the side of the dipper, +and, lifting Captain Glew's head, he poured some of the cool drink into +his mouth. + +'Drag me out of the sun,' muttered the captain. + +'Mike, len's a hand,' called Dabb; and quite gently these two seamen, +who were just now devils, carried the captain aft into the shelter of +the awning, where they left him to lie and expire, with the Union Jack +rolled up as a pillow. + +'I never wanted it! I never wanted it!' suddenly broke out the +boatswain, in a deep groaning voice. 'This is a swinging matter. What's +to be done? It's damnation to our souls. Why couldn't ye have let the +old Dutchman be?' + +'His pistol was full cock on you, Jim, when I let fly,' answered Maul. +'He's only stunned. Hasn't a man a right to fight for his life? Look at +them barrels!' he added, pointing to the revolver. + +'Here comes his daughter,' exclaimed Gordon. + +Miss Vanderholt was standing in the companion-way. She wore a straw hat, +and her eyes, under the shadow of the brim and under the fluff of hair +about her brow, looked twice their usual size--strained, unwinking, +blind, with sudden, dreadful amazement, but brilliant as light also with +horror and terror. + +She came out of the hatch slowly. Legg, at the helm, with a note of +commiseration, said: + +'He's only been knocked down. He shouldn't have got messing about with +firearms amongst a mob of angry men.' + +She did not hear him, or, if she did, she did not heed him. + +She went straight to her father, making a low wailing or moaning noise +as she walked. The boatswain exclaimed: + +'No harm was intended to him, miss. 'Twas him that shot Mr. Tweed.' + +She stooped, moaning, but so as to be scarcely audible, and looked +closely into her father's face. He lay on his back, staring with white +eyes, half-closed, at the sky. He had fallen as though shot through the +heart. A great, livid weal, dreadful to see, blackened and lifted his +brow. A little blood that had trickled from one ear lay glazed close +beside the gray hair of his whiskers. + +'Is he dead?' she asked, looking round at the men, and speaking in a +voice sunk with fear. + +'Let's carry him aft to his cabin. It's not right the young lady should +see him lying there,' said Gordon. + +Thereupon, Gordon, Allan, and Jones picked the body up and bore him aft, +followed by Miss Vanderholt, who often staggered as she walked. They got +him into a cabin, and put him down upon a sofa. + +'An ugly job!' said one of the seamen. + +'Who did it?' the girl asked. + +The men made no answer. + +'Oh, father!' she cried, trembling violently; then, dropping upon her +knees beside him, she began to free his throat. 'He may only be +stunned,' she said. 'What is to be done? Shall I bathe his face?' + +'If he's only stunned, I allow he'll come to all right, if he's left +alone,' said Gordon. + +'You'll please to recollect this,' said one of the men: 'he comes +rushing along, with a pistol to shoot us with, and the motive was to +strike the revolver out of his hand before he could send a second shot. +It was him that killed the mate;' and the speaker wheeled on his naked +feet, and went to the companion ladder. He was almost immediately +followed by the others. + +The girl was alone with her dead father. But was he dead? He looked so. +Yet the lifeless looks of one in a swoon or in a fit may easily pass as +marks of death. She ran to his cabin, and fetched a bowl, into which she +splashed cold water from a decanter, and for a quarter of an hour she +ceaselessly bathed his face and head. He never stirred. Not the least +sigh escaped him. She could not find his pulse, though she sought for +it, with trembling fingers, about his wrists. His hands were growing +cold, and they lay very dead and heavy in hers, and still she thought, +still she hoped, she prayed. + +'It may be the same as a fit, or a swoon. He has been stunned. If I sit +here patiently, I may see signs of life, and he will come to.' + +But, if he should be dead? What would they do with the schooner? What +would they do with her? Terrors shook her; they wrenched her heart, and +she wrung her hands in agony. + +If her father was dead, and she quite understood that Captain Glew and +Mr. Tweed were dead, though she but vaguely understood that her father +had shot the mate, and that Captain Glew had been assassinated--if he +was dead, she was alone in the schooner with eight seamen, who had made +outlaws and reckless criminals of themselves by the murders done that +morning. + +Meanwhile, on deck, the men were quieting down. Their rude, unreasoning +passions were paling. Consternation was beginning to work in them. They +had gone fearfully and tragically far beyond the unformed wrathful +fancies which were in them when they kicked the mess-kids aft, and when +the Irishman howled at the sight. + +The mate lay dead, with a dark purple hole in his forehead, upon the +deck, abreast of the little square of main hatch. Aft, with his head +pillowed on the rolled-up ensign, was the corpse of the captain. These +were sights, coupled with the thought of the dead man below, to drive +the keenest power of realization of what had happened that day into the +mind of an idiot, and there was no idiot in that schooner. + +Legg had been relieved at the wheel by Scott. + +The _Mowbray_, all this while, was sailing a dead south course for the +Equator--her queer destination--royally clothed; her white breasts of +canvas were swelled with the blue gushing of the wind; her jibs yearned +at their sheets as they rose and sank in a play of soft shadow, with the +airy rise and the seething stoop of the bows. + +'There's too much gone and happened this all-fired day,' said Allan, +folding his naked, burnt arms on his breast, and leaning against the +side of his little caboose whilst he eyed askew the body of the mate. +'What's to be done?' + +The men came and stood about him. + +'It was like forcing of a man's hand,' exclaimed the boatswain. 'I was +never in a mess of this sort afore. But, curse catch me, if an angel +could have stood him--an angel from the skies!' he shouted, lifting up +his two great hands, with a wild melodramatic gesture, to the heavens. +'I couldn't tell you why, but there was hate of us as sailor-men in the +very turn of the rooter's body as he walked the deck. There's but one +remedy for the likes of him, but it's hard upon sailors;' and he smeared +the sweat off his brow, which had taken a scowl dark as thunder. + +'I saw that there bleeding old Dutchman a-covering of you, Jim,' said +Maul, pointing to the revolver which yet lay upon the deck. 'There was +no mistaking the meaning in his face. I'd pulled out the pin ready for +whatever was to come along, and, say what yer will, yer owe me your +life.' + +'What's to be done?' said the cook. 'All this here moralizing ain't +going to help us. Are them bodies to be left to lie there till they +turn?' + +'Don't be in such a smothering hurry!' exclaimed Legg. 'How are ye to +know they're gone home? 'Ere's Bill for chucking of two warm bodies +overboard. Feel their pulses, or try their breath with a piece of glass, +or, maybe, you'll be murdering of them over again.' + +'Don't talk of murdering!' said the boatswain savagely. 'That man there +was killed by Mr. Vanderholt.' + +'Where are we sailing to?' says Gordon. + +'Why!' exclaimed Dabb, sending a pair of drink-stained eyes slowly +travelling over the little ship, 'I'm dumped, mates, if there's e'er a +navigator in the vessel!' + +At this juncture Toole and Jones stepped to the body of the mate, and +carried him to the side of the captain, whose form they bent over. The +boatswain went down upon his knees, and looked with a face of hate and +horror at the countenance of the dead man. This was a picture to +handsomely symbolize one large, old, red tradition of the Merchant +Service. Are there any Glews left? So long as they remain in command, so +long will they prove the solvers of the so-called mysteries of the +ocean--the abandoned ship, the boat-load of men whose statements differ, +the stranded body with the wound in its throat. + +'These men are dead,' says the boatswain, standing up. 'No use in +letting 'em lie here to shock the female, should she come on deck. Get +'em covered up, and we'll bury 'em this afternoon.' + +Toole fetched a small tarpaulin, and hid the bodies. + +'How's the Dutchman getting on, I wonder?' said the boatswain. + +He went to the open skylight, and looked down. He saw the figure of Mr. +Vanderholt lying stiff in death on a sofa locker; his daughter sat +beside him, inclined forwards, resting her chin on her hands, herself, +whilst the boatswain watched, as stirless as the dead. + +The seaman stepped back, and walked forward slowly. The sailors, Scott +excepted, were gathered about the deck-house door, holding a council +upon their condition and prospects. There was the hurry of nerve in +their speech, and again one or another would look ahead, or on either +bow. The boatswain, shoving in amongst them, said in his deep voice: + +'I'm for getting something to eat. I want my dinner.' + +'And I'm for getting something to drink,' said Toole. + +The boatswain picked up Mr. Vanderholt's revolver, and, whilst he +examined it, before pocketing it, he said: + +'There's no chance of my bossing you, lads. I'll never do more than +advise you. But let me give you this counsel: of course there'll be +drink for the cabin somewhere aft. We're entitled to our allowance of +rum, anyhow, and if we add a bottle or two of the cabin stuff to that +allowance, who's a-going to miss it? That's not counsel, you say--no, +but _this_ is: don't none of you go and get drunk. I vow to God the +first man that falls insensible I'll chuck overboard. We're murderers +and pirates--d'ye know that?' he roared, with a ferocious look at the +men--a look that might have convinced shrewder perceptions than those +about him that he was going mad--'and we're to take care, if we don't +want to swing, that we're not found out. Can ye guess what swinging's +like? Many's the time I've thought of it--of the gray, wet morning, and +their coming in to fetch you to be hanged, and their making your arms +fast astern, with a parson walking in front reading about death; then +the standing upon the trap-door, and the crowds of faces--my God!--all +looking at you, and, worst of all, the awful feeling that a man must +have when the cap's drawed down, and he stands awaiting!' + +'There's no call to keep on, Jim,' said Dabb; 'we don't want to be +hanged, and we don't mean to do it. And who's a-going to fall down dead +drunk, and act the beast, as you says, a-seeing how it stands with us?' + +'Let's get something to eat,' said the boatswain. 'Jim,' said he, +turning to Gordon, 'you know the ropes aft. Bring something for'ard from +the Dutchman's pantry fit for the men to sit down to.' + +'Am I to bring any drink?' says Gordon. + +'What have they got down there?' asked Maul. + +'There's some cases of bottled ale.' + +'Bring eight bottles for'ards,' said the boatswain. 'Joe, go you along +and lend him a hand.' + +Gordon and Dabb walked aft, and disappeared down the companion-hatch. +The others trudged about their deck-house door, passing and repassing +each other in short look-out walks, their heads sunk, their backs bowed, +and their hands plunged deep in their breeches pockets. + +After some time, Gordon and the other arrived with their arms full of +bottles of beer and preserved meats, and delicate cabin eatables out of +the pantry. It was broiling hot. Mike Scott at the helm bawled to them +to bring him a bottle. He swilled the foaming draught down out of a +pannikin in a sort of dance of ecstasy. + +'What's the young woman a-doing of?' asked the boatswain, following +Gordon into the deck-house. + +'She was sitting by her father's body when we entered. She jumps up as +if she'd been stabbed, and says in a little shriek: "What do you men +want?" I answered in the kindest voice I've got: "We're not here to hurt +you, miss. The men are hungry, and want food, and I've come to fetch 'em +some--food and a little beer. What can I get for you, miss?" says I. +"This is the luncheon-hour. Let me spread the table for you." She shook, +and held out her hands as though shoving me away. How could she sit down +and eat with him lying there? Indeed, it went against me to name it, +Jim. It was flung cruelly hard. I never see such a forehead as the poor +old bloke's got.' + +'By the vart of me oath, then,' exclaimed Toole--for now all hands had +swarmed into the deck-house--'Maul took aim at the pistol, and never +meant to kill him!' + +They were hungry and thirsty, a rough, red-handed mob of seamen. They +sat down upon their chests, and ate and drank, one taking a plateful of +food to the helmsman, and whilst they dined they discoursed upon what +was to be done. + +Occasionally the boatswain would step out and look around. The wind was +slack, the fiery eye of heaven was eating it up, and the sea waved in +dull shades of satin and silver in winding dyes of faint violet and +glassy brightness, as though a current ran; it sheeted with colours +faint with tropic heat into the now visionary distance where sea and sky +were blent. + +'What are we to do with this vessel, and how are we to manage for +ourselves?' said the boatswain, who sat on a chest with a tin of +preserved meat between his knees. 'That's the question.' + +'Ain't this moist stuff veal and 'am?' Whatever it is, it's blooming +nice,' said a sailor. + +'Joe, knock the 'ead off this 'ere bottle for me; you've got the knack.' + +'Isn't there no port to which we could carry this craft and dispose of +her, and then disperse?' said Allan, the cook. 'She might go for a song, +for me. We only want our wages.' + +'Where's the port without a fired consul?' said Maul. 'I'll tell ye what +'d happen: they'd ask questions, a file of soldiers 'ud come aboard, us +men 'ud be marched off into a fortress, and lie in cells fourteen or +twenty foot under the sea. There our beards would grow, our bones would +wear out our shirts, and all the music ye'd get, mates, would be the +clank of chains.' + +'No port for me!' said Toole. 'I'm for kaping on the say, and being +found in a situation of disthress.' + +'We must agree to one yarn, and stick to it. What about the lady?' said +Dabb. + +'Do she know what's happened?' said Maul. 'How it came about, I mean? +Then she couldn't say nothing agin our yarn.' + +'Tell'e what, my lads,' said the boatswain, looking thoughtfully around +him, 'I'm not at all sure that the right tack don't lie in our up and +telling the truth, explaining how we was exasperated, and proving that +the deaths was accidental.' + +'You're a-going to prove nothing accidental out of that bloke's knife,' +said Dabb, with a dry, uncomfortable laugh, nodding at Toole. + +'As good an accident as Maul's murtherous belaying-pin, and be damned to +ye!' exclaimed the Irishman. 'Brothers, I'm thinking Joe there would +have me be the only hanged man of this company. Is that because I'm a +furriner?' + +His eyes, fiercely squinting, met in Dabb's hot face. The seamen began +to cut up tobacco, and then they lurched to the galley to light their +pipes. The boatswain, pipe in mouth, stood in the waist, looking round +him and aloft. + +The little ship lay nearly becalmed. The sails swayed idly, fanning +sweet draughts athwartships. The boatswain walked to the binnacle, and +said, after looking at the card: + +'There's no call now, Mike, to keep her heading for the Equator. I'm +for giving my stern to this here boiling.' + +'What's settled?' said Scott. + +'Nothing.' + +'I don't see,' said the man irritably, 'how anything's to be settled in +this here roasting heat, and them two bodies side by side there. Him in +the cabin's alone enough to take the curl out of a man's spirit. To +think of him, with half a fathom of death, blue as ink, across his brow, +and himself a-walking these very decks but just a little while gone! +Three! It's too many!' + +'One was the Dutchman's job,' answered the boatswain. 'But see here! Are +ye afraid?' + +'Afraid o' what?' + +'Well, only that you're talking as if the ghosts of them bodies had +jockeyed the yard-arms of your mind, and was close reefing your +intellect.' + +'I don't like dead bodies,' said Scott; 'and of all the dead bodies +a-going,' he added, with a countenance of gloomy ferocity, 'the least I +like is murdered bodies. Why don't ye get 'em cleared out overboard, +Jim, and sweeten the little hooker? Do human blood smell? Something that +my nose never tasted afore came along not long since in a breath o' +wind.' + +The boatswain went to the tarpaulin, pulled it aside, and examined the +two dead faces. + +'Dead they are,' said he, with a shiver of sick disgust. + +He walked forward, and presently a few of the men came to the tarpaulin, +carrying hammocks, twine, sinkers for the clews. They made despatch. +Captain Glew, blind with death, threatened them as malevolently as in +life, with his upper lip lifted and stiffened, exposing a snarling grin +of fangs. The other poor wretch lay composed; the grog-blossoms had +faded. His cheek was as pale as moonlight, and the expression was a +smile. + +Before stitching up the bodies, they emptied the pockets. Captain Glew +had a silver watch and chain, a leather pocket-book, a silver-mounted, +wooden pipe, a bunch of keys, and other odds and ends. The mate +likewise owned a watch and a hair chain, tipped with gold--a woman's +gift, no doubt. + +'These things shall be put into their cabins,' said the boatswain. 'He's +left a widow and young uns.' + +'Are we going to bury 'em in their clothes?' said Toole. + +'Holes and all,' answered Legg, with a significant glance at the +sheath-knife on the Irishman's hip. + +In a few minutes the two bodies made their last plunge, amidst the +silence of the seamen, some of whom, nevertheless, continued to smoke, +and the bubbles which flashed to the surface were as lasting a memorial +of the dead twain's resting-place as any gravestone which could have +been erected ashore for dogs to smell at. + +A light air from the south-west was coming along, over the burnished +heave, in a delicate blue film, with feelers and crawlers of the draught +tarnishing the water in front of the breeze-line in catspaws. + +'Shall we stick this vessel's head north?' said the boatswain, and now +all hands came together in the gangway close beside the bulwark-rail, +whence the bodies had sped; there was to be a discussion over every +suggestion. + +'If we go north, where's it to carry us to?' said Gordon. + +'Out of this heat, anyhow,' answered the boatswain. + +'We ought to make up our minds,' said the cook, with an uneasy look at +the sea. 'We're just that sort of craft which is sure to excite notice. +"Hallo," they sings out, "a yacht all this way down here!" and they +comes sheering alongside to hail and take a look.' + +'I'm not for going any further to the s'uth'ard,' said the boatswain +doggedly. + +After a great deal of talk, during which the galley was repeatedly +visited for pipe-lights, they agreed to head the vessel north, if for no +other reason than that of temperature. So the helm was put hard up, and +the little vessel wore. When the ropes had been coiled down and the +decks cleared, the boatswain called Gordon and Scott, who by this hour +was relieved at the helm. These two men seemed the most respectable of +the clan, perhaps the fittest for the mission the boatswain had now in +his mind. + +'Mates,' said he, dropping his words between hard sucks at an inch of +sooty pipe, 'there's a difficulty in the cabin that's got to be made an +end of. The Dutchman must be buried. Now, the three of us had better go +below, with sail-cloth and twine, and stitch him up to the satisfaction +of his daughter. I'd give this hand,' said he, holding up a paw as big +as a boxing-glove, 'if he hadn't been killed. He had meant to get his +dinner off our junk and pork to-day. It was the captain kept him in +ignorance of our condition.' + +'He'd have shot as many of us as there was balls in his pistol,' said +Scott. + +'You're right,' said the boatswain, as though he found something to +rally him in that thought. 'Let's get what's wanted, my lads, and make +an end.' + +The dead man was alone when they entered the cabin. The ghastly hue of +the blow that had killed him was fading. One hand lay upon his beard, +and he seemed in thought. + +'Quick, now,' says the boatswain, 'whilst the lady's out of sight.' + +They emptied his pockets, putting everything they found upon the table, +then quickly fell to swathing and stitching. In the midst of this work +Gordon violently started, and cried out, muttering, 'Lor', how she took +me!' Miss Vanderholt stood near him. She was painfully white, and her +eyes were swollen almost to concealment. Yet anyone capable of +interpreting human expression must have found a subtle token of +resolution in her features, shadowy marks of firmness, as though the +countenance was struggling to take its presentment from the spirit. This +might be visible sooner to the eye of sympathy than to the vision of the +head. + +'Are you going to bury him?' she exclaimed, in a low, trembling voice. + +'Yes, miss,' said the boatswain, rearing himself, and backing and +looking at her. + +'Is there no one who can read a prayer from the service over him?' said +the girl. + +The men looked at one another, shaking their heads, and then the +boatswain said: + +'Tell 'e what, lads: we'll stitch the poor gentleman up ready, and +leave him a-bit, whilst the lady says a prayer by his side. It'll do him +more good than any prayer that's a-going to come from us, whether we +reads it, or whether we imagines it.' + +Miss Vanderholt took a step to her father and kissed him, then, weeping +silently, went to the foremost end of the cabin, and stood waiting. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[1] A belaying-pin is a bar of wood or metal. It fits in a rail, and is +used for making a rope fast to. When of wood it is heavy enough, when of +metal deadly as a weapon or a missile. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +CAPTAIN PARRY. + + +On the night of December 20, in the same year of the mutiny of the +_Mowbray_, a large full-rigged ship, homeward bound, was, to the north +of the Equator, stealing silently through the dusk. The hour was about +half-past nine. The moon rode high and shone gloriously, and the edge of +the plain of ocean came in two sweeps of ebony to the clasp of splendour +under the satellite. The ship lifted a cloud of sail to the stars. The +night-wind was lightly breathing, and every cloth was asleep, stirless +as alabaster mouldings, curving from each yard-arm, and climbing with +the whiteness of the moon into three spires. + +This ship was the _Alfred_, but not the famous Thames East Indiaman of +that name. She was about sixteen hundred tons, with an abundant crew, a +captain and four mates. She was carrying a valuable cargo and a number +of passengers from India to London, and once only had she halted--at +Simon's Bay, where she put a lieutenant of Marines and fifteen men +ashore, and then proceeded, after filling her fresh-water casks. She was +a flush-decked ship, and when you stood at the wheel your eye ran along +a spacious length of deck, rounding with the exquisite art of the +shipwright into flaring bows which sank into the true clipper lines, +high above the keen and coppered forefoot. + +A number of ladies and gentlemen sat and moved about the decks. The +awnings were furled, and the moonshine glistened upon these people, and +sparkled in the jewellery of the ladies, and silvered the whiskers of +the gentlemen. On the weather side of the long quarter-deck walked the +commander of the ship, Captain Barrington. A lady's hand was tucked +under his arm, and he frequently looked to windward whilst he talked. To +leeward paced the mate, and a little distance forward, in the deep +shadows of the main-rigging, stood a group of midshipmen. + +Right aft, upon the taffrail, sat three gentlemen. One smoked a pipe, +the others cheroots. Captain Barrington permitted his guests--as he, +with facetious politeness, called his passengers--to smoke upon the +quarter-deck after five bells in the first watch. A considerable surface +of grating stretched betwixt these three gentlemen and the wheel. The +wheel was something forward of the grating, and the helmsman, therefore, +absorbed in the business of keeping the ship to her course, could hear +little more than the rumble of the tones of the gentlemen who conversed +on the taffrail. + +'I say, Parry,' said one of the gentlemen, who was, indeed, no less a +personage than the surgeon of the ship, casting his eyes up at the moon, +and tasting his tobacco, with slow enjoyment, in the discharge of each +little cloud of it; 'did it ever occur to you to consider that all the +great processes of this world--that all creation, in short, is based on +circles?' + +'Why do you address yourself to me?' said Captain Parry. 'What do I +know about circles?' + +'Behold yonder moon,' continued the doctor, pointing with the stem of +his pipe to the luminary, beautiful with her greenish tinge, so +sparklingly and brilliantly edged, too, so marvellously clear-cut, that +you might then realize, if you never did before, the miracle of her +self-poised flight through the domain of violet ether. 'She is a +circle,' said the doctor. 'So is the sun. So are the stars. The flight +of our system through space, if not a circle, is nearly so--enough to +justify my theory that, when the Great Hand launched Creation, the +design was one of circles.' + +'Oh, blow that!' said one of the gentlemen. 'Parry, hand us a cheroot.' + +'Whatever brings God closer to us is good,' said the doctor. 'This +theory of construction proves the existence of a genius like to man's in +the Great Spirit, and we can be in sympathy with it.' + +'The breeze seems scanting,' said Captain Parry. 'If this voyage goes on +lasting, I shall be like the sailor who, when he was washed ashore on a +desert island in his shirt, complained that he certainly did feel the +want of a few necessaries.' + +'A man going home to be married ought not to be becalmed,' said the +doctor. + +'How do you like the idea of being married, Parry?' said the third +gentleman, who was one Lieutenant Piercy. + +Captain Parry viewed the beautiful moon in silence. + +'Until I got married myself,' said the Doctor, 'I used to express +marriage by what I consider an excellent image. A man marrying is like +unto a ship that grounds on a bar and beats over, where she lies unable +to get out; so other ships passing behold her riding, royal yards +across, and the bar thick under the bows.' + +Captain Parry continued to view the moon. + +'A man for comfort,' said Piercy, 'should marry a roomy woman. You know +what I mean--a woman who'll give him plenty of geographical and +intellectual room to move in. He's still contained in her, d'ye see, +still in sympathy, still sacramentally one, yet he's got plenty of +room,' he drawled. 'I remember some idiots who berthed a number of +horses on board ship, and allowed no room for the toss of their heads. +It's room that a chap wants in marriage.' + +'Isn't that something white ahead there?' said Parry, pointing into the +starry visionary distance, right over the bow. + +The others seemed to look. + +'Something white should be a ghost,' said Piercy. 'I wonder if ghosts +walk the sea as they do churchyards?' + +'The most terrifying ghost that, to my mind, ever appeared,' said the +doctor, 'must have been the spirit of the Prince of Saxony. He came in +complete steel, suddenly, upon his unhappy relative, who had idly +pronounced his name, never dreaming to see him, and said: "Karl, Karl, +was wollst du mit mich?" Is it the German that makes this question +awful?' + +'The worst of all ghosts,' said Captain Parry, who had been straining +his eyes at the elusive gleam ahead, 'are the phantasies of the sick +eye.' + +'Right,' said the doctor. + +'When I was ill some years ago in India, I had been reading Boswell's +"Life of Johnson," and every night at a certain hour a miniature figure +of Dr. Johnson would sit upon the mantelpiece and play the spinet. I +knew the old cock hadn't a note of music in his soul. His head wagged +like a simmering cauliflower. I was in a mortal funk whilst he played, +but was too weak to throw anything at him. When the vision first +appeared, I thought it might have been a large bottle. The mantelpiece +was cleared, and still old Sam came and played upon the spinet for five +nights running.' + +'The most inconvenient of all ghosts is the living ghost,' said +Lieutenant Piercy. 'An Irish sergeant told me that, before he left +Ireland, he lent an uncle five pounds. On returning, after fourteen +years, he called upon his uncle, and asked him for the money. "Och, +shure," said the man, "haven't I spent the double of it in masses for +yez?"' + +'Talking of ghosts,' said the doctor, 'what do you say, gentlemen, to +this psychological touch? A young man--call him Brown--after years of +deliberation, seriously considers that he has been born into the wrong +family. He is wholly out of sympathy with his relations. He is superior +to them. He loves music, the fine arts, literature, and so on. His +sisters are vulgar, his father a cad. The young man, feeling convinced +that a serious mistake has happened, goes forth to search for his own +family. He finds them at last, a cultivated circle of people, and they +all seem to know that he belongs to them. Strangely enough, young Brown +meets in this family with one of the sons, a young fellow of his own +age--call him Jones. Jones laments to Brown that he is entirely out of +sympathy with his family. They are superior to him. He likes vulgar +songs, the diverting company of ostlers and billiard-markers. He objects +to young ladies. He prefers shop-girls. The point is clear,' said the +doctor. 'These young men were born into the wrong families. Brown hinted +to Jones that he would meet with the right parties at the Browns', and +Jones was received by the Browns with that instinctive perception of his +claims as a member of the family which had characterized the meeting +between Brown and the Jones's.' + +'Brown is a snob and Jones an ass,' said Parry. + +Here the chief officer came right aft, and looked into the binnacle. As +the cheeks are sucked in, so the sails hollowed to the sudden emptiness +of the atmosphere along with the slight floating roll of the whole +fabric. A low thunder fore and aft broke from the masts. + +'I'm sick of that noise!' exclaimed Lieutenant Piercy. 'The cockroaches +dance to it. The kitchen offal that the cook threw overboard yesterday +delights in it, and dwells alongside, a loving listener. I say, Mr. +Mulready,' he called to the mate, 'when are you going to give us a whole +gale over the taffrail--something that shall come roaring down upon the +ship in a cloudless thunder of wind?' + +'Ha, sir, when?' answered the mate, a dry man. + +Captain Parry, with a slight yawn, stood up, stretched his arms, stepped +across the grating, and sprang upon the deck, then stood looking over +the bulwark-rail at the distant icy gleam on the bow. + +'The heat seems to have baked the life out of Parry,' said Lieutenant +Piercy, 'or is it that his spirits sink as he approaches home, knowing +what lies before him?' + +'A man should feel himself a poor creature,' exclaimed the doctor, 'when +he understands that a fit of despondency, a mood of unspeakable +depression, reaching even unto tears, may be caused, not by the +affections--oh no!--but by a little piece of celery, or half a pickled +walnut.' + +'I am thirsty,' said Piercy; 'come below, doctor, and have a drink.' + +Four bells were struck. The ladies disappeared. Five bells--then most of +the gentlemen vanished. Six bells, and now the ship seemed clothed in +sleep and silence. At intervals faint catspaws stirred, none of which +were neglected by the mate of the watch, who, regardless of the +smothered curses of the seamen, hoarsely roared orders for the braces to +be manned. Thus, stealthily, the ship floated through the midnight sea, +flooded with moonshine. + +Then came the dawn, the resurrection of the day, trailing its ghastly +shroud across the face of the eastern sky. The watch of the mate came +round again at eight bells--four o'clock--and when the day broke it +found him on deck, standing at the rail, and peering ahead. + +'Bring me the glass,' said he to a midshipman. + +Some three points on the bow of the ship lay a schooner. She had all +cloths showing, saving her little top-gallant sail and royal. She was +certainly not under command, and yet she did not seem derelict. Mr. +Mulready levelled the ship's glass. What was she? + +Scarcely a yacht, yet of yacht-like finish and delicacy. The faint +breeze trembled in her moon-white canvas. She lay head to wind, and the +long pulse of ocean swell, in lifting and sinking her, exposed her +sheathing in flashes, and submitted to the eye of Mr. Mulready the +handsomest sea-going model he had ever looked at. + +'Something wrong there,' thought he, carefully covering her with his +glass, and intently examining her for any signs of life, for smoke in +the caboose chimney, for a head peering in sickness over the bulwark +rail. + +About a mile and a half separated the two vessels, and it had taken the +_Alfred_ nearly the whole night long to measure the space betwixt the +gleam over the bows and the spot of waters whence it had first been +sighted by Captain Parry. + +The chief mate could do nothing without the captain; but, whilst the +crew were washing down the decks, often pausing for a breath or two in +their scrubbing to glance at the graceful, helpless, lonely fabric that +was now drawing abeam, Captain Barrington stepped through the +companion-hatch. His sight immediately went to the schooner. + +'What vessel have we there?' he exclaimed, and he picked up the +telescope that lay upon the skylight. 'She is abandoned, sir,' said he +to his chief mate. + +'She looks too beautiful for ill-luck,' answered the mate. 'The man who +moulded her knew his art.' + +'What's she doing all this way down here?' said Captain Barrington, +talking with the telescope at his eye. 'She's a gentleman's +pleasure-boat. Has she been sacked, and her crew and pleasure-party +murdered? Brace the foretopsail aback. I'll send a boat aboard.' + +The ship came to a stand, with a lazy sigh of the light breeze in her +canvas, the yards of the fore creaking on parrel and truss as they came +round to the drag of hauling sailors. A boat was manned, lowered, and +despatched in charge of the third officer, an intelligent young +gentleman of the name of Blundell. + +'Thoroughly overhaul her,' the captain had said. 'If she is derelict, +bring away the log-book and papers.' + +And as the boat swept towards the schooner the skipper turned to Mr. +Mulready and exclaimed: + +'If she be abandoned, I'll put a crew aboard, and we'll sail home +together. There is value in that little ship, sir, and she is too +handsome a craft to be allowed to wash about down here.' + +Some of the male passengers arrived for their customary bath in the +head. Do not believe the bath-room of the metal palace of this day +comparable as a luxury to the old head-pump. + +You stripped, you sprang on to a grating betwixt the head-boards, and an +ordinary seaman went to work. The gushing blue brine sank to your +marrow. It gushed in cold sweetness through and through you. You gazed +down, and saw the clear blue profound out of which the sparkling coil +that hissed over your body was being drawn. It was the one delight of +the tropics, the one joy that haply sometimes checked the profanities in +the passengers' mouths when they came on deck and found the ship +motionless. + +One of the first to come on deck to taste the sweetness of the head-pump +was Captain Parry. The instant he rose through the hatch his eye caught +sight of the schooner. He stood awhile staring; someone coming up behind +him forced him to move out of the hatch. He stepped out, still with his +eyes glued to the schooner, and advancing, that his vision might clear +the quarter-boat, he again came to a stand, staring. + +He was a tall, well-built young man, about eight-and-twenty years of +age, close-shaven and dark, and there was something Roman and heroic in +the cast of his countenance. He was airily clothed for the bath, and +watched the schooner with a towel or two dangling in his grasp. + +By this time the boat had reached the side of the apparently abandoned +vessel, and the third officer might with the naked eye easily have been +seen to spring aboard, followed by a seaman. He stood awhile taking a +view of the decks, then disappeared. + +'Captain Barrington,' exclaimed Captain Parry, wheeling suddenly upon +the skipper of the ship as he approached him, 'is anything known of that +vessel?' + +'I have just sent a boat to board her,' answered the captain. + +'Will you allow me to use that glass?' + +He took the telescope from the captain's hands, and resting the tubes on +the bulwark rail, gazed thirstily. There was something of +astonishment--indeed, of amazement--in his face when he turned to +Captain Barrington. + +'I don't think I can be mistaken,' he exclaimed in a low voice, talking +to the captain, but looking at the schooner. 'It is the same +figure-head, exactly the same rig, the same size, so far as the eye can +measure her at this distance. She has a deck-house for her sailors, and +her paintwork is the same. It will be extraordinary!' + +He fetched his breath in a half-gasp. + +'Do you know that vessel, d'ye say, Captain Parry?' asked old +Barrington, looking with curiosity and interest at the fine young +fellow. + +'I would swear that she is the _Mowbray_,' answered Captain Parry, +picking up the glass afresh, and continuing to talk. 'She was purchased +by Mr. Vanderholt, who made a yacht of her, and, when I was last in +England, I went a short cruise in her along with Mr. Vanderholt and his +daughter, the lady to whom--to whom---- Good God! the longer I look, the +more I am satisfied. No name is painted on her; you will find her name +in the boats. What, under heaven, brings her here, lying abandoned? +Yes, oh yes! I'd pick her out if she were in a fleet of five hundred +sail.' + +'It may be as you say,' exclaimed Captain Barrington. 'It is a very +remarkable meeting. But we can be sure of nothing until the third +officer returns.' + +A few passengers, attracted by this conversation, had drawn close. You +heard murmurs of excitement. A voyage at sea, in the old days of tacks +and sheets, was a tedious affair, in spite of flirtation, cards, the +simple diversions of the dance on the quarter-deck, the heaving of the +quoit, the bets on the run. Even a floating bottle was a something to +cause a stir. It broke the dull continuity of the day. A sail was a +Godsend. And here now, after many weeks of tedious ocean travel, here +now had suddenly uprisen, all at once, coming down a-beam out of the +darkness of the midnight, so to speak, an ocean mystery that would be +fraught with an inexpressible significance if Captain Parry's conjecture +proved accurate. + +To this gentleman, for whom the head pump had magically ceased to have +existence, the time of waiting and suspense was frantically long. +Lieutenant Piercy came and stood beside him. + +'But, supposing it is the _Mowbray_,' said the young officer: 'her +presence in this sea needn't concern your friends. The vessel may have +been sold. They may have been carrying her to some distant port. If it +is fever, the dead will be found; if mutiny----' Here Lieutenant Piercy +stopped, puzzled. + +'I don't think Vanderholt would sell her,' exclaimed Parry. 'He was +proud merely of her possession, though he did not often go afloat. How +amazing to see her lying there! Of course it is the _Mowbray_,' he +exclaimed, again levelling the glass. 'She used to carry a long-boat, +and that's gone. If her people have left her, they went away in it.' + +'She's certainly abandoned,' said Piercy, 'or something living would +have shown itself by this time.' + +'Why the deuce doesn't that fellow Blundell return?' muttered Parry, in +an agony of impatience. + +But, even as he spoke, the figure of the mate might have been observed +to drop over the schooner's side into the boat. The oars swept the +brine into steam. The boat hissed alongside, and the third mate stepped +on board. All the people of the saloon or cabin had by this time heard +the news; they knew that an abandoned schooner, which was an ocean +mystery, lay close by, and they had made great haste to dress +themselves, insomuch that a large number of them were on deck. They +elbowed round the third mate, and the commander, and Captain Parry, to +hear the ship's officer's report. + +'She is the _Mowbray_, sir, of, and from, London. I can't find any +papers. Here's her log-book, sir. The last entry is in a female hand. +The vessel was apparently on a pleasure cruise.' + +'Let me look at that book,' said Captain Parry. + +He turned the pages till he came to the last entry, then began to read, +now and then swaying himself, then making a step in recoil. All saw by +his face and his motions, by his strange gestures, by the wild looks he +would sometimes cast from the page to the schooner, that what he read +was carrying the bitterness of death to his heart. Meanwhile the +captain was questioning the third officer. + +'There's nothing alive on board?' + +'Nothing, sir. I searched everywhere.' + +'No dead bodies?' + +'None, sir.' + +'Did you discover nothing to enable us to make a guess at what's become +of her people?' + +'Everything is in its place, sir. The log-book was left conspicuously +open on the table of the cabin, that had, doubtless, been occupied by +the captain.' + +'Will you kindly accompany me below, Captain Barrington?' said Captain +Parry, who was so extremely agitated and distressed that he could barely +utter the words. + +The passengers made room. Every face bore marks of pity and +astonishment. They had heard that the last entry was in a female hand, +and they had also heard--indeed, they could see--that yonder schooner +was abandoned. + +Captain Parry followed the commander of the ship down the +companion-steps into a bright, handsomely-furnished saloon; thence they +passed into an after-cabin, the door of which Captain Barrington shut. A +large, old-fashioned stern window provided a spacious view of the sea. +The light came off the water in a cloud of splendour, and glowed and +throbbed upon the nautical brass instruments upon the table, and +sparkled in a glazed framed likeness of Mrs. Barrington. + +'The entry here,' exclaimed Captain Parry, trembling with excitement, +and the twenty contending passions within him, 'is in the handwriting of +the young lady to whom I am--to whom I was--to whom I am to be married +on my arrival in England. She is Miss Violet Vanderholt. You perceive,' +he said, pointing with a shaking forefinger, 'that she writes her name. +The story she tells is of a diabolical mutiny. It took place on December +15. This entry is dated the 18th; to-day is the 20th. The _Mowbray_ has, +therefore, been abandoned two days only, perhaps not a day, for though +this last entry is dated the 18th, the crew need not necessarily have +abandoned the schooner till yesterday, or even this morning.' + +'It is certain,' said Captain Barrington, 'that the hands, together with +the young lady, were on board the schooner on the 18th.' + +'Quite certain, sir; but here is her story. Pray read it aloud to me; I +did not fully master it.' + +Captain Parry, with a shaking hand, gave the log-book to his companion. +It was of the usual form of log-book, with a good wide space for +'Remarks' on the right-hand side of each page. Captain Barrington, a +white-haired man of fifty-five, with scarlet cheeks, glanced over a few +of the earlier entries. He saw that the log had been kept down to +December 14, afterwards the entry was in a female hand, strong, sure, +but somewhat small: + +'I have ascertained that none of the men can read. I am writing an +account of what has befallen us, hoping, since the men talk of leaving +her and taking me with them, that this yacht may be met with, and this +log-book discovered. I heartily pray any into whose hands this book may +fall that he will publish my narrative to the world, so that my father's +fate and my own may be made known to Captain George Parry, H.E.I.C.'s +Service, to whom I am engaged to be married.' + +The commander looked at Parry with brows arched by astonishment and +sailorly concern. The officer brought his hands together in a convulsive +gesture, and turned his eyes with a look of despair upon the sea, framed +in the window. + +'My father was Mr. Montagu Vanderholt, a well-known Cape merchant. We +resided at ---- Terrace, Hyde Park, London. I, Violet Vanderholt, am his +only daughter. He thought that a sea-trip would do him good. He asked me +to accompany him. I was his only companion, and we set sail from the +Thames, November 1, in this year. The master was Captain Glew. He +treated the crew harshly, and excited their hate, though he was cautious +in his behaviour when I was on deck, so that I never could say he spoke +to a man barbarously. But the dreadful tragedy of this voyage was +occasioned by the bad food supplied to the sailors. This was undoubtedly +Captain Glew's fault. He had been commissioned to victual the vessel, +and was responsible for her stores, and I fear he knew that what he +bought was not wholesome for men to eat, though the charges my poor +father was at should have given the men the very best quality of food. +They complained to Glew, but not to my father. Captain Glew never hinted +that the men were murmuring, and the mutiny was sprung upon us with +dreadful suddenness. The captain and the mate seized the boatswain, and +a man stabbed the captain in the side, and mortally wounded him. My +father dragged me below, and, rushing into his cabin for a pistol, +returned on deck to cow the men with the weapon. They did not heed him, +and he fired, and, as I have since been told, and must believe, shot the +mate, Mr. Tweed, accidentally through the head. Mr. Vanderholt was +killed by an iron bar, flung with murderous violence. They afterwards +feigned that this bar was thrown with the intention of dashing the +pistol from my father's hand. This is all that I have to relate. + +'I am writing this at ten o'clock on the morning of the 18th. I cannot +imagine what the men intend. I asked the boatswain, who has treated me +with great civility throughout, to tell me what they mean to do. This +very morning I repeated the question. He answered he could not say. The +men were undecided. Some were for going away in the boat, and taking +their chance of being picked up, and some for remaining in the vessel. I +gathered from his manner that these were few. What are they to do with +the schooner if they stick to her? They might, indeed, wreck her off +some island where they could represent themselves as shipwrecked men. I +know that they regard me as a witness against them, and that my life is +in great danger, and the merciful God alone knows what is to become of +me. It is nearly----' + +Here the entry ended. + +The commander of the ship looked at Captain Parry. + +'The hand of Providence is in this,' said the scarlet-faced man, very +soberly and seriously. + +'They cannot be far off!' exclaimed Captain Parry, stepping to the stern +window with an air of distraction, and staring out at the sea. + +'It is a clock-calm,' said the commander, 'and if anything which moves +by canvas has received the crew, we may presume that she lies as +helpless as we, not far distant.' + +'But what excuse could they make,' said Captain Parry, 'to be +transferred from so staunch a little ship as the _Mowbray_?' + +'They might say that they were without a navigator.' + +'Wouldn't another vessel put a navigator on board so fine a craft and +send her home, sooner than leave her to go to pieces? In that case we +should not have found her here.' + +'There's nothing to be done at sea, sir, by arguing and speculating,' +said Captain Barrington, still preserving his very serious manner, as +though, indeed, he had found something to awe him in the circumstance +of a girl writing, so to speak, in the heart of the Atlantic, with +particular reference to her lover, and that lover reading her words +there. 'It is as likely as not,' he continued, 'that they have gone away +in the long-boat. It is clear, from the narrative, that the majority +were in favour of that measure. These are quiet waters, and the men have +reason to hope that they will be picked up soon, in which case they can +tell their own story.' + +'But Miss Vanderholt?' exclaimed Captain Parry. 'She can bear witness +against them. What will they do with her?' + +'Ha!' exclaimed the commander, fetching a deep breath. 'It is certain, +anyhow, that she is not in the schooner.' + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +IN SEARCH. + + +In the year of this story Old Leisure was still going to sea. He +flourished as pleasantly upon the ocean as amidst the hens and +dunghills, the milkmaids and dairies, of the Poyser farmyard. He brought +his main-topsail to the mast without reluctance when there was anything +to be seen or talked to; he went on board the stranger, and dined with +him; invited the stranger in return; then leisurely proceeded. There was +no prompt despatch, to speak of, no urgency. The wind was the prevailing +condition of the immense distances which the wooden keel traversed. Old +Leisure kept his eye to windward, and hauled out his bowlines; but it +was a time of ambling, of dozing, and of whistling for winds until too +much came. + +Only in such a time as this now dealt with could we conceive a large, +full-rigged ship, homeward bound from India, full of impatient hearts, +hove-to, with a derelict schooner within easy hail, and the commander +taking plenty of time to reason about her with a gentleman who was +infinitely concerned in her unexpected, astounding apparition and +log-book narrative. + +'The thought of Miss Vanderholt being at the mercy of a crew of mutinous +ruffians is unbearable!' exclaimed Captain Parry. 'What is to be done? +Advise me, in the name of God, captain! You know--you know--I have told +you she was to be my wife. You are an old sailor. For God's sake, +counsel me!' + +'If I could be sure that they had made off in their boat, and were still +afloat in her,' answered the captain, 'I should know how to advise you. +But if they have been received on board a ship, then I don't see what +can be done. For in what direction may that ship be heading? Enough if +your young lady should be safe, sir. Supposing her to be on board a +ship, I have no doubt of your hearing good news of her, in course of +time, after your arrival in England.' + +He opened the cabin-door, and called to one of the stewards. + +'My compliments to the chief officer, and ask him to come to me.' + +Mr. Mulready quickly presented himself. + +'We have some notion,' said Captain Barrington, addressing his mate, +whilst he laid his hand upon the log of the _Mowbray_, 'that the crew of +the schooner may have left her in their boat, taking the young lady with +them. Send a couple of hands--don't trouble the young gentlemen,' said +he, with a supercilious smile, vanishing almost as it appeared upon his +firm lips, 'but a couple of sharp hands to the royal mastheads. Give one +of them this glass.' He handed Mr. Mulready a binocular. 'Let the other +take the ship's telescope aloft. I want the sea carefully swept. Make +them understand that they must creep in their search to the very verge, +for how far off is a boat visible? But they might sight the gleam of her +lugsail.' + +Mr. Mulready took the glasses, and went swiftly out. + +Captain Parry stood at the open window, listening to what was passing, +straining his sight also with consuming passions of dread, blind desire, +helpless wrath, at the star-blue line of the sea that swept the +brilliance of the heavens within little more than a league. The captain +of the ship went to a locker, and took out a chart of the Atlantic. He +spread it, and called to Captain Parry. + +The officer turned, and eagerly stepped to the chart. He saw zigzag +prickings or lines upon the white sheet, as though somebody had been +trying to represent flashes of lightning. Each line terminated in a +little dotted circle. These were the 'runs.' But, then, these were also +the Doldrums, and the motive power of that ship, the _Alfred_, lay in +the breeze that, in the Doldrums, blows in the delicate catspaw that +scarcely has power to run a shiver into the glazed breast. + +'This was our situation at noon yesterday,' said the commander, putting +his finger upon the northernmost little circle. 'There is no land for +leagues, as you may observe.' + +'What are those rocks?' observed Captain Parry, peering. + +'St. Paul's Island--a horrible hornet's nest of black fangs, entirely +out of the boat's reach. I am not sure that I ever heard of a boat +effecting a landing. Anyone cast ashore there must perish. There is +nothing to eat or drink. It is the desolation of hell!' added the +commander, with a note of religious fervour in his speech; 'and a +dreadful surf like a nightmare of storm raves day and night round those +rocks.' + +'What is to be done?' said Captain Parry, lifting himself erect from the +chart. 'If they are in a boat they cannot be far distant. They have not +long left the schooner, but every stroke of the oar carries them further +away, and renders the search more hopeless.' + +'The search?' exclaimed the commander, in a note of inquiry and +surprise. + +'I don't mean in this ship, of course,' said the officer, speaking with +agitation and very quickly. 'A clipper schooner lies close at hand. If +you will lend me a navigator and a few hands, we will sweep the sea, +taking this mark,' he continued, putting his finger upon the chart, 'as +our base, and hunting with masthead look-outs, and fierce fires burning +by night, in circles whose circumference or diameter I should leave to +the judgment of the mate in charge.' + +The commander began to slowly pace his cabin. Once he paused, and gazed +with a face of earnest gravity at the sea that came brimming to the +counter in a sheet of winding lines, the light swathes of the tropic +calm, the oily gleam, the trouble of some stream of current twinkling in +diamonds. + +Captain Parry eyed him with anxiety. He dreaded a discussion that might +kill the hope that had suddenly been born in him. A tap on the door +caused the commander to start. + +Mr. Mulready entered. + +'The masthead men have been working hard with their glasses, sir, and +report nothing in sight.' + +'How is the schooner?' + +'Forlorn, but safe, sir.' + +'Take a boat and go aboard, and make a further thorough examination of +her, and overhaul her stores--all as smartly as may be, sir. This +gentleman has an idea, and I don't know but that it might prove +practicable,' said the commander. And, as Mr. Mulready left the cabin, +the captain of the ship turned to Parry, and asked him to follow him on +deck. + +On the commander emerging, the third mate approached and touched his +cap, and exclaimed: + +'When I said there was no living thing aboard that schooner, sir, I +should have reported a small coop full of cocks and hens, all alive, and +very hungry and thirsty. I fed them with some rice I found in the +galley, and poured a quantity of water into their trough.' + +He saluted, and marched off. + +'In the face of Miss Vanderholt's last entry,' said the captain to +Parry, 'we don't want live cocks and hens to tell us that that vessel +has been recently abandoned.' + +She lay softly lifting upon the light swell, a beautiful, helpless +fabric. The shudders which ran through her canvas were like the +distress of something living. She had slewed somewhat, bringing her +jibbooms to bear upon the ship. In the blind, hopeless way of abandoned +craft, she was posture-making for help. + +The excitement aboard the _Alfred_ was very great indeed. The +mastheading of the men, the pictures of their little bodies high in the +heavens, sweeping the deep with binocular and telescope, had immensely +stimulated the passions of curiosity and wonder. + +What did the captain expect the sailors to see upon that vast girdle of +brine, that rolled flawless to the glorious stroke of the sun? It was +known that the young lady who had been on board the schooner was +betrothed to Captain Parry. Could romance be carried beyond this? The +ladies fluttered in talk, the gentlemen growled. + +'I'm keeping a diary,' said a major, with great, dyed, well-curled +whiskers, to the surgeon of the ship, 'of this voyage home, as I did of +the voyage out, and I shall probably publish it, sir. But this incident +will not be credited. Sages in their day have believed in ghosts, and +laughed to scorn a report of earthquakes.' + +'I do not see why this incident should not be believed,' said the +doctor. + +'It is too probable--for the sea, sir. If you want a sea-fact to be +accepted, state that which a sailor will know to be impossible.' + +'Parry looks as haggard as if he had been up for a week of nights,' said +the doctor. + +Many eyes were fixed upon him as he stood beside the master of the ship, +viewing the schooner and talking. The ship forward was a gem of an ocean +piece, with the smoke of her galley-chimney going straight up, the +sailors--it was their breakfast-time--lounging in the cool of the shade +of the jibs, with hook-pots and biscuits, and pipes of tobacco: and the +great foresail, white as milk, floated motionless from its long yard. + +Some soldiers in white clothes were seated upon the booms, in the wake +of the draught which would stir from that vast square of sail when the +weak swell of the sea put a faint pulse of life into it. The sky was +sublimely lofty, with the light-blue brilliance of the tropic zone; not +a cloud to depress it to the sight, and all the air was gone. + +Captain Barrington and Captain Parry stood together at the mizzen +shrouds, looking at the schooner, conversing, and waiting for the return +of the mate. The passengers very respectfully gave them a wide berth. + +'No,' says Captain Barrington presently; 'I shall have no objection, +sir. I am to be influenced by humanity in this business. My owners +cannot and will not object,' he added, as if thinking aloud. 'We shall +be saving a valuable yacht. Mr. Blundell is a very efficient young +officer, quite experienced enough to take charge, and he will receive +certain instructions from me, sir, for we must define the area of sea to +be searched, and the time to be taken.' + +He looked at the schooner thoughtfully. + +'She is under two hundred tons,' said he. 'Mr. Blundell and four men and +a boy should suffice; I can spare no more.' + +'I am no sailor, but I can pull and haul,' said Captain Parry. 'I can +do a man's bit. What time would you limit us to?' + +'I should wish to be a little elastic. There's no wind here to depend +upon,' answered the commander. 'I will see Mr. Blundell in my cabin +after breakfast, and explain my ideas.' + +Presently the breakfast-bell rang. The captain and the passengers went +below. Captain Parry asked that a biscuit and a cup of tea should be +brought to him on deck. He gazed round upon the spacious sea, and the +tranquillity of it soothed and calmed his inward, hidden, fuming +impatience. + +He knew that the stagnation that held the _Alfred_ motionless would keep +the boat so, unless the men rowed, which was not very conceivable, for +sailors do not commonly row when the distance they have to traverse runs +into hundreds of miles. If they had been taken aboard a ship, she, too, +must be lying becalmed. + +Yet one black dread ever haunted Captain Parry's fancies. He was going +to seek the boat. Had Miss Vanderholt accompanied the men? Would they +carry with them a living witness to their piracy and murders? Had not +she been murdered before the schooner was abandoned? + +It was ten o'clock when the mate returned from the _Mowbray_. All this +while the sea remained satin-smooth. The sun, soaring high, burnt +fiercely; the paint bubbled in blisters, the pitch ran in soft-soap, and +the whole light of the schooner's canvas poured under her in quivering +sheets of quicksilver. + +Mr. Mulready was dark with dirt and sweat, and looked like a man who has +passed a week in stowing a ship's hold. Captain Parry stood in the +gangway to receive him, and the mate's immediate inquiry was for the +commander. He was closeted with Mr. Blundell. + +'What news can you give me?' said the military officer, grasping the +dry-minded mate by the arm, and looking beseechingly into his face. + +'There's just plenty of stores and fresh water,' answered Mr. Mulready, +'enough to last a small crew six months. Her after-hold is rich in the +eating line. There are about two dozen cocks and hens.' + +'I don't mean _that_!' exclaimed Parry wildly. 'Did you find no hint of +the fate of the young lady?' + +'My answer must be,' answered the mate, with a certain formal, +sympathetic gravity, 'that nothing is alive on yonder vessel saving a +few cocks and hens.' + +The captain made his appearance, followed by Mr. Blundell. + +'I have arranged with the third officer,' said he, walking straight up +to Captain Parry and the mate, 'that he shall take charge of the yacht +and search for the boat. There can be no hurry whilst this clock-calm +lasts. Still, I dare say you'll be glad to go on board.' + +'I'm mad to go on board!' answered Captain Parry. + +'Get your luggage together, then, sir. Mr. Blundell will provide the +schooner with a couple of pistols out of the arms' chest, and the +necessary ammunition. If you fall in with the boat, remember they are +eight seamen, rendered desperate by murder. You will be but seven. The +possibility is faint, the chance is the smallest,' the captain muttered +in a dying voice. + +'I thank you for your foresight,' said Parry; and he went hastily to his +cabin to pack up. + +The mate told Captain Barrington that there were plenty of rockets and +portfires aboard the schooner. A fireball by night might bring the boat +to the yacht. He then produced a piece of paper, and gave the commander +an idea of the quantity of stores in the little vessel. + +'They'll want nothing from us, then,' said Captain Barrington. 'However, +since the mutiny appears to have been owing to the rottenness of the +food, sling a couple of casks of our beef into the boat.' + +It was eleven o'clock when all was ready for Captain Parry to go on +board the _Mowbray_. Four men and a boy had volunteered as a crew, and +when the boat was freighted she lay deep alongside with seamen's chests, +luggage, casks of beef, and human beings. The passengers made a tender +farewell of this singular, most romantic leave-taking in mid-ocean. +They pressed forward to shake Captain Parry by the hand. Some hoped that +the blessing of God would attend his search. More than one lady raised a +handkerchief to her eyes. As the boat shoved off, a hearty cheer broke +from the whole length of the vessel. The boat reached the side of the +_Mowbray_, and all that was to be received on board was hoisted up. + +Captain Parry breathed deep, and wore a wildness in his looks, whilst he +stood for a few minutes gazing round about him. Of course, he remembered +the little ship perfectly well--the delightful cruise he had taken in +her, with Violet and her father, a little while before he returned to +India. He looked, and began to realize the brutal scene as the girl had +sketched it in that last entry. It was hard to think of his immensely +wealthy friend Mr. Vanderholt meeting a mean, base end at the hands of a +brutal Ratcliffe sailor. What had they done with Violet? The little ship +seemed to smell of human blood. The airy graces of her heights, the +beauty of all that was choice and finished betwixt her rails, seemed to +have departed. Wherever murder stalks, the spirit of horror, attended +by the ghost of neglect and decay, follows. They break the windows of +the house. They command the spiders to build. The dirty little building +in which the body was found is going to pieces. The alley up which the +body was dragged is of a sickly green, with a growth of unwholesome +grass. + +It was so with this yacht--this beautiful fabric, the _Mowbray_. The +wizardry of murder had changed her to the sight of Parry. He cursed her +with all his heart as the cause of the destruction of his sweetheart and +Mr. Vanderholt, and, wondering what the devil had brought her so far +from home, whether it might be possible that father and daughter had +been sailing to India to meet him, that they might return together in +the same vessel, he put his hand upon the fire-hot companion-hood, and +descended the ladder. + +He searched, as the two mates had searched, and, of course, found more +than they. He beheld in a cabin memorials of his sweetheart--her +dresses, her hats, a veil, and a pair of gloves lay in her cot. One +glove was still bulked with the impress of her hand, as though she had +but just now drawn it off in a hurry, and cast it down. He peered +narrowly. The cabin was a charming little boudoir. He witnessed no +suggestions of violence; nothing appeared to have been disturbed. He +sought for marks of blood, then thought to himself, 'If she is murdered, +they did not kill her with a knife--they drowned her.' + +He stayed for half an hour in this cabin, then entered the adjoining +berth, which had been Mr. Vanderholt's. He found nothing to help him +here. The old gentleman had been eccentric. He had believed he loved the +life of the forecastle,--God help him!--and he had illustrated his idle +imagination of fondness by causing his berth to be rendered as +uncomfortable as possible. + +Parry was disturbed in his investigations of this berth by a bustle in +the cabin. He looked out, and saw a couple of sailors coming down with +his luggage. + +'Tumble those traps in here,' said he. 'Are we moving?' + +'It is a fact, sir,' said one of the men, who was a Swede. 'A little +gentle vindt has begun to blow, and der _Alfred_ is going home.' + +'Home? I do not quite understand,' exclaimed Captain Parry. + +He said no more, however, to the men, and went on deck to look about +him. + +An air of heaven, blowing out of the boundless blue, with not a cloud in +the sky to show you where it came from, was wrinkling the wide waters +into a thrilling azure, and under the sun the glory was blinding. + +They had trimmed sail on the schooner--a trifling matter; a hand was at +the helm; Mr. Blundell stood beside him, looking into the little +binnacle. On the bow was the _Alfred_, with her foretop-sail full, every +cloth stirless, so soft was the cradling of that sea. Her yards were +braced forwards, and she seemed to lean; she floated upright in silent +majesty, nevertheless, her trucks plumb with the zenith, and, as she +gained way, her short scope of wake sparkled like a shoal of herrings +under her counter. + +Mr. Blundell was a stout, hearty young sailor, about two-and-twenty +years of age. He had that sort of face which is often met at sea under +both flags--perfectly hairless, fleshy, permanently tinctured by the +roasting fires and the drying-in gales and frosts of ocean-travel. He +was looking at the compass of the schooner when Captain Parry +approached. Perhaps he sought for a hint or two in gear that did not +lead like a ship's, and canvas that was not shaped for square-yards. At +a motion from Captain Parry, he drew away from the helmsman. + +'I am at a loss,' said the captain, looking at the ship under the +shelter of his hand. 'Is the _Alfred_ going home?' + +'Certainly, sir,' answered Mr. Blundell. 'We've dipped our farewell. +We're now on our own hook.' + +'Then, I mistook. I supposed when Captain Barrington talked of limiting +us to time that he intended we should return to him here,' said Captain +Parry. + +The young mate smiled. + +'His notion in limiting us to time,' said he, 'was that we should not +run the quest into a hopeless job. There should be a limit.' + +'Of course, a reasonable limit,' said Parry. 'What is it?' + +'It has been left to my judgment, sir; and I am willing to be governed +by you.' + +'Thanks, Blundell!' + +Captain Parry, pronouncing this sentence with warmth and emotion, +stepped to the binnacle and looked at the card. + +'You are holding the schooner north-west,' said he. 'You have a reason?' + +'We must head her on one course or another,' answered Blundell. 'I +propose, with your leave, to carry out Captain Barrington's ideas. He +has sketched me a circular course. I'll compass it off on the chart +below presently, and you shall form your own opinion. Loose the square +canvas, my lads!' he sang out, abruptly breaking from Captain Parry. + +The captain lent a hand to pull and haul; he dragged to the music of the +salt-throats at the sheets and halliards. The breeze freshened in a +steady gushing. The ocean was a miracle of laughing light. Already you +heard the snore of foam at the cutwater, and the stealthy hiss of its +passage aft. + +The _Alfred_ was growing small and square in the blue distance. She was +feeling the breeze now, and her pale and shapely shadow leaned as she +headed, with an occasional dim flash from her wet, black side, into the +far northern recess. + +Captain Parry went below, and returned on deck with the binocular which +he had observed in Mr. Vanderholt's cabin. The main rigging of the +_Mowbray_ was rattled down to the height of the lower masthead. The +captain got into the shrouds, and made his way to the crosstrees. +Higher, being no sailor, he durst not crawl. With one hand he grasped a +topmast shroud that was sweating tar; with the other he lifted the +glasses, and searched the sea till his eyes swelled and throbbed in +their sockets. When he descended he said to the mate: + +'I have wondered why the men should have left the schooner afloat. Don't +they usually scuttle vessels in affairs of this sort?' + +'I heard the captain and the second officer talk this matter over,' said +Mr. Blundell. 'The second mate thought that the villains knew what they +were about when they left the schooner floating. She would be met with, +and boarded. They'd find nothing to give them an idea of what had +happened. So she'd be carried away to a port as a mystery, and that +would be giving the men a better chance than had they scuttled her.' + +'Why?' + +'Always one of the men who've been concerned in bloody businesses of +this sort finds his way to a hospital. He lies alongside another man and +gabbles. The second mate seemed to think that if one of the men of this +yacht turned up at a hospital and gabbled, less would be made of what he +said if the schooner had been towed into port as a mystery than had she +been sunk. For my part,' added Mr. Blundell, 'I believe they left her +afloat because they couldn't find the heart to sink her. She is a +beauty,' he murmured; and he whistled as he looked aloft and around. + +'I take the second mate's view,' said Captain Parry. + +He now made the tour of the schooner. He went forward and looked into +the men's deck-house, then dropped into the little forecastle and peered +round him. When he regained the deck, he saw a seaman climbing the +fore-rigging, with a binocular glass slung over his shoulder. He watched +him till the man had reached the royal yard, over which he threw his +leg, with his back against the sun-bright mast. The seaman began to +sweep the sea slowly and critically. + +'Good God!' thought Captain Parry, with a sudden heart-leap, 'if the +boat is afloat, or has not been picked up, we ought to fall in with +her.' + +The noise of the breeze was in his ears, a glad sense of motion came to +him from the quick salt seething alongside. His heart leapt up; but in a +minute all was dark again within him, with the horrible dread that +Violet had been murdered by the men before they quitted the schooner. + +The large, comfortable long-boat had been lifted out of its chocks, and +was gone. Captain Parry noticed, however, that two good boats hung in +the davits on either hand. He was impatient to learn the directions +given by Captain Barrington, but Mr. Blundell was busy with the little +ship's affairs just then. He had to appoint a cook, and see to the +dinner; he had to arrange for a masthead look-out that should be brief +under that broiling eye of day. They were few, and it taxed his genius +as a sailor to make the most of them. + +At last he found some time to spare. A sailor was left to trudge a +look-out; one at the helm made two, one on the royal yard made three. +The cook was the fourth, and the 'boy' was left to stand-by. Captain +Parry followed the mate into the cabin, and, whilst Blundell went into +his berth for the chart of the Atlantic, the captain stood looking about +him and thinking. She had sat there, or there, he thought, at table. It +was so recent, the very fragrance of her might be found in the +atmosphere. How often had her feet trodden those steps? He saw her, in +imagination, reading; she pored upon some volume, under that golden +globe, with her hair illuminated; he thought of her agony of heart when +she rushed on deck at the sound of firearms, and saw her father, the +captain, and mate lying dead, and knew that she was alone with a crew of +murderers. + +'This is how Captain Barrington hopes we'll work it, sir,' said +Blundell, coming out of Captain Glew's berth, and putting a chart upon +the table. + +He also produced a pair of compasses and a nautical instrument for +measuring distances. He pulled a paper, covered with calculations, from +his pocket, and placed it by his side. + +'This will be it, I think, sir,' said Blundell, sticking a leg of the +compass into the chart; 'where the point of this leg is we were when we +parted company with the _Alfred_. We allow the boat a start of +thirty-six hours, remembering always that our weather will have been +hers.' + +'Quite so!' exclaimed Captain Parry, devouring every word. + +'I am now heading,' continued the mate, with a glance at the paper, 'to +arrive at this point.' Here he put the pencil end of the compasses upon +the chart. 'When we arrive there, our navigation will be this.' + +He now, with great care, and constant references to the paper of +figures, together with a frequent use of the nautical instruments for +measuring distances, described a number of circles. These circles lay +one within another, and when completed they might be likened to a +cone-shaped spring, or to a corkscrew looked at vertically. + +'You will perceive, Captain Parry,' said the mate, 'that the distance +between each circle is the same. How far can a man see from the +schooner's royal yard? Well, Captain Barrington would not allow that he +should be able to see so small an object as a boat, even with a good +telescope, at a greater distance than thirteen miles. Thirteen miles to +port and thirteen to starboard. Each circle, therefore, is twenty-six +miles wide.' + +'If the boat is afloat,' exclaimed Captain Parry, viewing the discs with +admiration full of hope, 'she must positively be within one of these +circles?' + +'Unless she has taken a breeze and blown clear, or means to come running +into the inner whilst we're steering our dead best for the outer +circles.' + +'What chance do we stand?' + +'Frankly, sir, the smallest chance that ever was found at sea,' +answered the young mate, rolling up his chart. + +'The horrible consideration with me,' said Captain Parry, 'is that the +young lady may not be in the boat.' + +Mr. Blundell looked slowly round the cabin, but made no answer. + +'What do you think?' exclaimed Parry. 'If we fall in with the boat shall +we find Miss Vanderholt in her?' + +The mate mused, toyed a bit with the chart, rolling and unrolling it, +then said: + +'From what I overheard the mate say about the entry the young lady made +in the log-book, I should argue that the men had been using her civilly +from the time of the mutiny. That's in her favour, sir.' + +Parry eyed him intently. All the shrewdness in Blundell's brain was +working in his face, sharpening his gaze and pinching lips and nose into +a lifted look of eagerness whilst he talked. + +'There seems to have been no trouble aboard this vessel,' he continued, +'until the mutiny took place. That should signify that the men, taking +them all round, were steady as sailors go. No doubt they'd got something +in the Nova Scotia way in their captain. He appears to have been one of +those captains who, after draining the blood out of men's veins, runs +gunpowder in, then applies the fuse. Everybody's aghast at the bloody +business, but it's one man's doing.' + +'You believe that they would not use violence towards Miss Vanderholt?' + +'Until I knew, I could never persuade myself that they'd make away with +her. They are men. I dare say they were demons whilst they fought, and +thought of the cause of their fighting. I'll not believe that, as +English seamen, they'd kill the poor lady.' + +'She's a living witness against them.' + +'They'll have heaped oath upon oath upon her, sir. Likely as not they'll +put her aboard something passing, themselves going away and waiting for +the next ship.' + +'God grant it!' exclaimed Captain Parry. 'It's the first bit of hope +that's come to me since we fell in with the schooner.' + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE DISCOVERY. + + +The wind that evening freshened out of the north-west glare of sunset. +The sky thickened, and some small wings of scud flew south-east, bronzed +by the western splendour dimming fast. The sea ran in a cloudy green, +but without weight, in the light tropic surge. + +At sundown Mr. Blundell hailed the royal yard, and the answer, hoarse in +tone as a seagull's scream, was: + +'Nothing in sight, sir.' + +The mate ordered the man to come down on deck, and half an hour later, +when darkness was on the face of the deep, and the last red scar had +died out of the starless sky, the _Mowbray_ was slopping softly through +the creaming waters, under her mainsail and standing jib. + +It was like being hove-to; but she had way, and when Captain Parry +looked over the taffrail, he saw the cold, green lights of the sea +revolving and sliding off in the short spread of yeast the nimble +clipper carried with her. + +It drew down a night ghastly with the pallor of the hidden moon. At +about nine o'clock they burnt a flare; the crimson flames rose +quivering, and the smoke drove, black as a thunder-cloud, betwixt the +masts to leeward. The little ship stood out against the night +fire-tinctured. + +She looked, with her glowing yellow masts and fiery shrouds, to be built +of flame. The night came in walls of blackness to this wild and +beautiful vision, and the noise of the sea, and the sense of the +infinity of the deep, that was running and seething out of sight, filled +the glowing picture with an entrancing spirit of mystery. You would have +said that she owed her life and light to the sea-gods. + +Both Parry and the mate, whilst this flare was burning, repeatedly +directed their night-glasses at the ocean, and, even whilst it burnt, a +man came aft to the call of the mate and sent up a couple of rockets. +The fireballs hissed, burst, and vanished in spangles, darting a lustre +as of lightning across a little space of sky. + +The flare crackled, leapt up, smouldered, and was extinguished by a +bucket of water. + +A couple of lanterns--bright globular glasses--were lighted, and hung up +in the main rigging, one on each side. This brought the hour to about a +quarter past ten. The sea was again searched, its ghastly face had +stolen out, and the heads of the breaking billows under that thick and +pallid sky were like flashes of guns in mist. + +'If the lady isn't in this circle, Captain Parry,' said Mr. Blundell +cheerfully, 'let's hope we'll find her in the next. If the boat's within +ten miles of us they'll have seen our flare and those fireballs.' + +'But we are moving through the sea,' said Captain Parry. 'If we make +them a head wind, and continue to sail, how are they to fetch us?' + +'The schooner's only just under command, sir. If I heave to the drift +will put me out. With your kind leave I'll go below and get a glass of +grog.' + +They both went into the cabin, leaving a man to look out. They were +waited upon by the 'boy,' who was, indeed, a young man of about +eight-and-twenty, with a face full of sallow fluff, and an old man's +look in his eyes and in the contraction of his brows, as though he had +been born in the workhouse and knew life. + +But at sea there were but three ratings, and if you don't sign articles +as an able or ordinary seaman, then, if you were eighty years old, and +could scarcely creep over the ship's side with your cargo of scythe and +hour-glass, you'd still be called a boy. + +The mate and Captain Parry sat for a little in the cabin, sipping cold +brandy and water. + +'Should the men in the boat see our flares and rockets,' said the +captain, 'what will they think of them?' + +'They'll approach us to take a look.' + +'But if they make out that we are the schooner of their piracy and +murders, will they come on board?' + +'She's an open boat, sir, and you have to consider how men will be +driven by exposure. Anyhow,' said Mr. Blundell, 'if we can only coax her +this side the horizon, we may easily keep her in sight till we've worn +them out.' + +'I have been thinking of these red-hot skies, too. Will Miss Vanderholt +be able to survive the exposure of even a day and a night?' And Captain +Parry swayed in his chair with the grief of the thought. + +'Well,' said the mate, with the note of a stout heart in his voice, +'only a sailor is able to tell a man what ladies really can go through. +Low-class females, emigrants and the like, cave in quickly; they are the +shriekers. They cannot bear terror, and it kills them on rafts and in +boats. But your thoroughbred lady is always the one that I've seen, +heard of, and read of, who has shown a lion's heart and the coldness of +a stone head in shipwreck. If Miss Vanderholt be in the boat, you'll +find that she'll have suffered less than the men.' + +A faint smile stirred the lips of Captain Parry; but he grew quickly +grave again, with the distress of his imaginations. At that moment a +hoarse cry in the skylight made them spring to their feet. + +'There's a big ship a-bearing down upon us!' + +The mate rushed up the steps, followed by Captain Parry. The ghostly +sheen of the moon still clouded as with steam the thickness of the +night, and the scene of heaven and sea was mystical with elusive +distance, with the soft near flash of the surge, and the windy chaos of +the horizon. + +On the bow, not half a mile distant, was a large pale shape. The +night-glass made her white-hulled, with canvas to her trucks. The +schooner was thrown into the wind. It was clearly the intention of the +stranger to speak the _Mowbray_. Through the small scattering hiss of +the sea on either hand you might have heard the low, constant thunder of +the bow-wave of the ship as she washed through the brine, making a light +for herself with her sides and white heights, but showing no lights. On +a sudden the human silence was broken by a short, gruff command, weak +with distance. The sound might then be heard of yards being swung; ropes +crowed in blocks, parrels creaked on masts, and in a few minutes a large +white ship, with the fires of the sea dripping at her cutwater, lay +abreast of the schooner, all way choked out of her by the backed +topsail. + +'Schooner ahoy!' + +'Hallo!' shouted Mr. Blundell, sending his voice far into the darkness +over the ship's rail, whence the hail had proceeded. + +'What's wrong with you that you are sending up rockets and burning +flares?' + +'We are in search of a boat. Have you met with a boat containing eight +men and a lady?' + +A short silence ensued. + +'What schooner are you?' + +'The _Mowbray_, of, and now for, the Thames, when we recover the boat. +What ship are you?' + +'The _Georgina Wilde_, Liverpool to Melbourne. I expect your people have +been rescued. We passed a schooner's long-boat yesterday morning, and I +read your name, the _Mowbray_, in her stern sheets.' + +'If that's the case,' exclaimed Mr. Blundell quickly to Captain Parry, +'there'll be no good left in this circle job.' + +'Has he no more information to give us?' said Captain Parry, with a +hopeless stare at the tall, pale shadow, upon whose decks nothing was +visible in that thickness save a dull, Will-o'-the-wisp-like glimmer +where the binnacle stand stood. + +The schooner was hailed again. + +'Hallo!' answered Blundell. + +'We sighted a derelict yesterday at noon. She was within a mile or two +of the long-boat. Looked like a small brig, timber-laden.' + +'How would she bear from us now?' bawled the mate. + +It was plain, from the stillness that followed, that the man with the +powerful hoarse voice had walked to his compass-stand to consider the +required bearings. A midnight hush came down upon the deep then, spite +of the plash and gurgle of waters in motion, and of a dull song of wind +up aloft in the rigging of the schooner. + +Now it was that a single shaft of moonlight glanced through a rift down +upon the sea, flashing up the rolling head of a surge into a melting +hill of silver. The night seemed to sweep with a deeper dye of blackness +from either hand that pure crystal ray. Yet it made a light, too. It +gave substance and firmness to the visionary ship abeam. + +Captain Parry saw a figure coming along the deck from the binnacle to +the rail to hail. He also perceived figures of seamen on the short +topgallant forecastle; likewise he beheld the bowsprit and jibbooms +forking out like a huge spear, poised for hurling in the grasp of a +giant, and betwixt that extreme point of jibboom and masthead floated +symmetric clouds of soft whiteness; but the moonbeam was eclipsed in a +few moments, and the white ship sank back into a vision, glimmering and +scarce determinable. + +Again the schooner was hailed. + +'The bearings of the derelict,' shouted the voice, in tones of the +volume of a speaking-trumpet, 'will be north-west by north half north, +about. Don't take this as if it was an observation. Try about forty mile +on that course, and if nothing heaves into view, sweep the sea. The +derelict's bound to be afloat. Farewell! Good luck attend you!' Then, a +minute later, 'Swing the main topsail yard! Ease away your weather main +braces!' + +The pale and lofty shadow leaned from the damp night breeze, and the +water trembled into fire along the visionary length of her, when, with a +soft stoop of her bow to some invisible heave of the ocean, she broke +her way onwards, dissolving quickly into the night. + +'About forty miles distant,' said Mr. Blundell, stepping to the compass. +'Shall we head on a course for her, sir?' + +'Oh, most certainly!' answered Captain Parry. + +'Better jog along under easy canvas, till it comes daylight, anyhow,' +said the mate. + +The course was shifted, sail trimmed, the gaff foresail was set, and the +schooner, carrying the midnight breeze abeam, slided soundless through +the gloom over the black, wide swell of the sea. + +Captain Parry was too anxious to take rest. He lighted a cheroot, and +paced the deck with Mr. Blundell, who had heroically resolved not to +turn in that night--not to turn in at all until the timber-laden +derelict had been sighted, boarded and rummaged. + +They kept the lanterns burning in the rigging. They never knew how it +might be with the eight men and the lady, supposing the lady with them. +It is true that the long-boat had been fallen in with adrift; but then, +as Mr. Blundell put it, 'That might be due to an accident, without +signifying that they'd been received on board a ship, and their boat let +go.' + +'My own view's this, sir,' said he, as he lighted one of Parry's +cheroots at the glowing tip of the Captain's. 'The men saw that timber +craft, and being scorched with the heat, and wild with cramp, they +resolved to make for the shelter of it, where they could stretch their +arms and take the kinks out of their legs. The painter which held the +boat slipped, and she drifted softly off, and when they saw that she was +gone she was a dozen ships' lengths distant. They could do nothing, +aboard a drowned timberman with empty davits, and a list of perhaps +forty degrees, but let her go. That's my notion. We shall find all hands +aboard. If so, what will you wish me to do, sir?' + +'Bring them into this schooner,' answered Captain Parry. 'If they have +murdered Miss Vanderholt, they shall swing for it, by God!' + +'But pray consider this, sir,' said Mr. Blundell coolly. 'They are eight +men, daring, defiant devils, no doubt, bullies in the alley, jolly +examples of your Jack Muck. We are seven. To bring them on board we +should be obliged to fetch them. But, sir, we can't leave the schooner +deserted. She might run away from us. She got her liberty once, and the +appearance of the derelict might excite her appetite afresh for +freedom.' + +'For God's sake, Mr. Blundell,' broke in Captain Parry, 'don't joke!' + +'I mean, sir,' continued Mr. Blundell, in a voice that did him some +honour, as it proved he could be abashed, 'that we should have to leave +three of our people to look after the schooner, so that we should go +four to eight in order to fetch them.' + +'We are armed,' exclaimed Captain Parry. + +'Two pistols,' said the mate. + +'We must bring them aboard--we must bring them aboard!' cried Captain +Parry, in a voice that almost shouted with nerve. 'Will they be +content,' he went on after a hard suck or two at his cigar, 'to continue +washing about in a wreck that might spread under them at any minute like +a pack of cards when they see a schooner alongside willing to receive +them?' + +'To be hanged, sir.' + +'Who's to tell them _that_ till we've got them under hatches?' said +Captain Parry. + +'They know this craft,' said Blundell, in a note of gloom. 'It'll be a +job. Eight of 'em, and only four of us. It'll take us all we know.' + +Captain Parry belonged to a fighting profession. When he talked of +boarding the timberman and bringing off the eight men, his imagination +was a little confused. He brandished a sword in fancy; he was followed +by a number of smart men in red coats, and with fixed bayonets. He did +not quite gather that, if he headed the boarders, he should be leading +into glory three timid seamen who were entirely averse to selling their +lives at any price. Moreover, Captain Parry was not a sailor. He could +not imagine how difficult it is to gain the deck of a ship whose people +do not want you. These eight men would, in a deck cargo of timber, find +plenty of materials fit for knocking out the bottom of a boat, and the +brains of those who should venture their noses above the rail. + +But it was an idle argument betwixt him and the mate. Were they going to +find the half-foundered brig? Would the eight men be in her? Would Miss +Vanderholt be amongst them? + +At daybreak nothing was visible in the telescope from the fore royal +yard. The weather had cleared in the night. It was a strange, +mountainous morning of huge swollen cloud, whose sun-bright bellies +amazingly whitened the silver of that ocean. Now and again, round about +the horizon, a spark of lightning flashed in the heart of a violet +shadow of vapour, and now and again a low note of thunder, distant, +tremulous as an organ strain, rolled across the sea, as though some +huge, deep-throated beast, big as a hill, and couchant behind the +horizon, was being worried. + +There was breeze enough to keep the schooner's sails full, and sunrise +found the _Mowbray_ pursuing the course of the night. Captain Parry +refreshed himself with a bucket of cold green brine, and tried to make +some breakfast. Mr. Blundell ate heartily, and again, as they sat at +table, they argued upon the course to adopt should they find the eight +seamen on the wreck. + +'If they've got Miss Vanderholt with them,' said the mate, 'I should +recommend asking them to allow us to receive her aboard--we leaving them +aboard the wreck to be taken off by the next thing that passes.' + +'I like that idea,' said Captain Parry; 'it would save bloodshed. We +want nothing but the young lady. They should be glad to get easily rid +of her as a witness. If they are short of food, we can supply them with +stores enough to keep them going for a time that would allow of a +reasonable chance of their being rescued.' + +'They'll want provisions, anyhow,' said the mate. 'Stove timbermen float +on their cargo. You need to dive to get at the grub in those derelicts. +I'm counting upon hunger courting them into the schooner without +obliging us to try what coaxing them with four men and two pistols is +going to do.' + +They went on deck, and stared at the sea-line through glasses. A little +before noon, just at the moment when Mr. Blundell was coming out of his +cabin with his sextant, a man stationed aloft on the look-out hailed +him. + +'What is it?' shouted Blundell, springing through the companion-hatch. + +'There is a black object away down upon the port-bow. It looks like a +boat.' + +'How does it bear on the bow?' cried Blundell to the little figure +aloft, a sailor with a face set in black whiskers. + +He looked to tremble in the heat up there, and his shape, as he stood +erect to the height of the truck, seemed shot with the lights of several +dyes, and against a swollen heap of cloud past him he showed like a +coloured daguerreotype. + +'About two points,' was his answer. + +Mr. Blundell shifted his helm for it, but, whatever it might be, it was +not yet visible from the deck. The mate got an observation of the sun, +and went below to work it out. When he returned he found Captain Parry +examining a dark object on the bow with a telescope. + +'It's a ship's boat most unquestionably,' said the captain, turning to +Mr. Blundell. + +The mate was at this instant hailed afresh from the masthead. + +'There's another dark object about a point on the weather-bow,' said the +fellow dangling high in air, his hoarse voice softening in falls as it +reached the ear from the hollows of the sails. 'She'll be the wreck, +sir,' he howled, after working away with his glass. + +Captain Parry was as pale as the dawn with excitement and expectation. + +'I vow to God,' said he, bringing his fist down on the rail, 'I would +certainly lose my left arm with cheerfulness to know at this instant +that Miss Vanderholt is alive and well in the wreck!' + +'If she is with them they'll all come aboard together,' said the mate, +with scarce conscious dryness. 'Hunger and thirst will work their way +with beasts, let alone men.' + +Little more was said whilst the schooner, driven by a five-knot breeze, +swept in long floating launches down upon the boat that came and went. +There had been wind somewhere, and a small swell rolled in from the +westward, running lightning flashes through the water. No man could say +it was the _Mowbray's_ long-boat till they had luffed and shaken the +wind out of the schooner close alongside the little fabric. Then her +identity was settled by a single glance at her through the glass. The +yacht's name, '_Mowbray_--London,' was painted in large black letters in +the stern-sheets. + +'Stand by to hook her,' shouted the mate. + +A seaman aft, jumping for a boathook in one of the quarter-boats, +sprang into the little ledge of the main chains. The schooner was +slightly manoeuvred; the boat was brought close alongside and captured. +She was as empty and dry as an old cocoanut-shell. + +'What does that signify?' said Captain Parry. + +'One of two things, clearly,' answered Blundell. 'Either they have +carried all the stores they left the yacht with aboard the wreck, or the +ship that picked them up emptied her before sending her adrift.' + +'Would they let a valuable boat like that go?' + +The mate shrugged his shoulders. There are some questions concerning the +sea which even a sailor cannot answer. + +'Do you see that her long painter is trailing overboard?' exclaimed +Captain Parry. 'Does it not look as if the knot had unhitched and let +her slip away?' + +'But from what, sir? That trailing length of rope might as easily mean +that she was let slip from a ship, as that she slipped of her own accord +from a wreck.' + +This talk, uttered swiftly, occupied a minute, whilst they overhung the +rail, looking into the boat alongside. + +'We must have her out of that,' said the mate, 'and restore her.' + +The man who was hanging to her by the boathook, turning up a face as +dark as a new bronze coin, exclaimed: + +'There's something white right aft, jammed away down under them +stern-sheets.' + +It was immediately wanted, of course, but the man with the boathook +could not get it and keep a hold of the boat, too; so another man jumped +in and brought up a pocket-handkerchief. + +'It's a lady's,' said the mate. + +'It's Miss Vanderholt's!' exclaimed Captain Parry, observing a small 'V. +V.' in the corner. + +Two or three marks of blood stained it, as though the lip, nose, or ear +had slightly bled. + +'What does it betoken?' said Captain Parry, looking at the handkerchief, +and speaking softly, as though to himself. 'If it is a memorial, why, +in God's name, should it come to me blood-stained?' + +They got the boat aboard; all hands, including Parry, pulling and +hauling at the tackles. When she was chocked, a course was shaped for +the derelict brig, according to the indication of the masthead man. It +was a time of thrilling anxiety for Parry. The handkerchief was no +warrant that the girl had been in the boat. They might have bound her, +and drowned her at the side of the schooner, and yet a handkerchief of +hers might have found its way into the boat. The handkerchief, then, +proved nothing. Nevertheless, Parry found a sinister significance in the +blood-marks. Was not this blood-stained token most tragically +portentous, as the only relic or memorial of his love that the sea had +to offer him? He looked at it, and in the wildness of his heart he made +a meaning of it: it was a farewell to him, a message mute and eloquent; +it said to him that her father was slain, and that she was lost to him +for ever. Thus he stood interpreting the thing. + +Shortly after one o'clock the derelict was in view right ahead. The +telescope then easily resolved her. She was a small black brig, with her +lower masts standing and bowsprit gone. She sat tolerably high, but +rolled with the sickly sluggishness of the waterlogged hulk. As the +schooner approached, features of the wreck grew plain. She carried a +deck-load of timber, and her hold was evidently full of timber. By some +desperate gale she had been wrenched till her butts started, her strong +fastenings gave, her topmasts went, and the green seas rushing in, +drowned her into a lifelessness of helm. + +On board the schooner they could perceive no wreckage floating near. +What sufferings, obscure and horrible, was that little wreck +memorializing? The phantoms of the imagination peopled her. White-faced +men, dying in squatting postures, were upon the sea-broken deck-load of +timber. There was no captain, no command, the fingers of famine had +effaced distinctions. Then one would die with a groan, falling sideways +with his white eyes glazing to the sun; and another would mutter in +delirium, and call upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and motion with a +ghastly smile to his mother to make haste with the drink of water she +was bringing him. + +Phantoms or no phantoms, all were gone. The wreck lay apparently +lifeless, absolutely abandoned, a yawning frame, sodden by weeks of +washing to and fro. Thus it seemed to the eyes aboard the schooner as +she drew closer and closer to the desolate, mournful, storm-broken +fabric. + +'There may be rats in that vessel,' said the mate, with a countenance +made up of relief and extreme curiosity; 'but I don't see them, Captain +Parry, neither do I see anything else that's living.' + +'A ship has taken them off,' said Captain Parry, in a tone of hopeless +misery; 'and it may be months and years before I find out what is the +fate of Miss Vanderholt.' + +They were now within a musket-shot of the wreck. The yacht's way was +arrested, and she seemed to stand at gaze, with her people staring. The +long swell swung a dismal roll into the lifeless hull. A raffle of +rigging lay over her sides, and whenever she rolled away she tore this +gear up from the water as if it had been sea-plants whose roots were a +thousand fathoms deep; it rose hissing to the drag, and sank, like +baffled snakes, when she came wearily over again. It made the heart sick +to watch her, to figure one's self as alone upon her; the loose timbers +clattering through the long, black night, the dark water welling in sobs +alongside, the awful and soul-subduing spirit of stillness that lies in +the sea when its billows are silent, as though the hush in the central +heart of the profound rose like an emanation of wind or vapour, taking +the senses of the lonely one with the maddening undertones of spiritual +utterance. + +Mr. Blundell continued to view the wreck through a glass. Captain Parry +stood beside him with tightly-folded arms, death-white with grief and +the sickness of disappointment, and silent. + +'There is nobody aboard that vessel, sir.' + +'I fear not,' the captain answered in a low voice. + +'The only place where people could find shelter,' said the mate, 'is in +that little green deck-house. If there were eight men sitting in the +house, one would have seen us, and all have tumbled out long ago.' + +'The long-boat has told us the story,' said the captain. 'They have been +taken on board another vessel. Is Miss Vanderholt with them?' + +He started as to a sudden access of temper and determination, and said: + +'Blundell, give me two of your men, and lower that boat. I'll board the +brig. I may find something to give us a clue.' + +'Put one of the revolvers in your pocket, sir,' said Mr. Blundell. + +A boat was lowered, and two men and Captain Parry, armed, entered her. +All was lifeless aboard the wreck. It would have been ridiculous, then, +to suspect an ambush. She had old-fashioned channels, platforms by which +her lower rigging was extended and secured to dead-eyes. These platforms +remained. The hulk would souse them, hissing, and lift them seething and +streaming, but through long intervals they would sway dry with pendulum +regularity. + +'The main chains will be your only chance, sir,' said one of the +seamen. 'Am I to go on board with ye?' + +'If you will.' + +'Then, Tom, when we're out of it, shove off for God's sake, and keep her +clear of them chains. If they come down upon you, your life and the boat +ain't worth a drowned cockroach.' + +Watching his chance with great patience, Captain Parry sprang. He +stumbled; but a wild flourish of his arm brought his hand safely to an +iron belaying-pin in the rail above. He seized another hard by, and, +lifting his knees to the rail, gained the deck. + +He stood holding on. The peculiar jerky rolling of the hull threatened +to throw him, until a minute or two of sympathetic feeling _into_ the +life of the fabric should have put some government of it into his legs. +The sailor had easily followed. + +Captain Parry was looking at the forepart of the vessel, which was a +horrible litter and muddle of heaped-up timber and smashed caboose, when +his companion muttered in his ear in a low growl: + +'My God, master, there's a living man!' + +A living man it was, standing right in the door of the deck-house. He +was a seaman, and carried a strange face to those who looked at him, +though one might have said he should be familiar enough to anybody +belonging to the schooner _Mowbray_. He was James Jones, the boatswain +of the yacht. His cheeks were gaunt and grimy, and his eyes blazed in +their hollows. His hair lay in streaks over his ears, and down the back +of his head, as though to repeated greasy tuggings and pullings. He was +without his coat, and his great muscular arms were bare to above the +elbow. + +Captain Parry recoiled a step, thrusting his hand into the pocket where +the pistol lay. He suspected this man to be one of the eight, and that +the seven would burst out in a minute. + +'I'm damned if ye ain't come just in the nick of time!' said Jones; and +his grin, and exhibition of yellow fangs, and his dirty skin and flaming +eyes, made his face horrible. 'I tell ye what I've just found out. There +ain't no death! "How do I know that?" says you. Why, ye see, a man +ain't dead till he dies, and when he's dead death ain't got no existence +for him. D'ye see it?' said he with an inimitable leer. + +Captain Parry saw that he was mad, but in the moment of detecting this +he observed something more. Behind the madman, looking over his +shoulders, stood Miss Vanderholt. She was robed in white, and wore a +small straw hat. She was pale, as though exhausted, perhaps from the +want of food or drink; otherwise, but for her impassioned transforming +gaze, she looked as though she had but now come with Captain Parry to +view the wreck. + +'Oh, Violet, my dear one! Violet, I have found you!' cried Parry, and he +rushed towards her. + +She shrieked, standing still and clasping her hands, and looking up to +God. + +'There's no admission 'ere!' roared the madman, barricading the door by +extending his arms. 'This is a royal yacht. Why don't you cast your eyes +aloft and view the Royal Standard a-flying? The Princess Victoria is +within. Didn't I know her gracious mother, the Duchess? I'm an English +sailor, and I'm loyal to my native country. God save the King!' + +Saying which, he turned and bowed with every mark of profound veneration +to Miss Vanderholt. + +'Let me pass, man!' cried Captain Parry, pulling out his revolver and +hustling the powerful fellow. + +'Hide it!' screamed Violet; 'he is mad! He has been kind to me! Oh, my +God! George, am I dreaming? Is it you in the flesh, or am I mad, too?' + +She put her hands to her eyes, and reeled to a stanchion, against which +she leaned. The madman continued to barricade the door, both huge arms +extended. + +'Look here,' cried Parry, almost as mad as the seaman he confronted, +with impatience, infuriated by this hellish lunatic obstruction, wild to +clasp the girl, whose reel and motion of hands had stabbed his heart; +'we want to get at this young lady at once, to take her on board yonder +schooner. Make way, for God's sake! I'll hear all about your views on +death when we're comfortable aboard that vessel.' + +'There's no blooming man,' shouted the madman, 'a-going to approach the +Princess Victoria without falling down upon his bended knees and +crawling to her feet, as the custom is at St. James's Palace!' + +Miss Vanderholt went into hysterics. She shrieked with laughter; she +sobbed as if her heart was breaking. + +'I think you'd better go down upon your knees, sir,' said the sailor who +had accompanied Parry. 'Here, my lad,' said he, crooking his finger into +a fish-hook at the man, 'you just make way for the gent to crawl to her +Gracious 'Ighness, and whilst he's kow-towing, give me that there yarn +of yourn about death.' + +He winked at the captain, who sank upon his knees. The scene was +grotesque, tragic, extraordinary. The boatswain watched the figure of +the captain with fiery suspicion whilst he passed on all fours through +the door of the deck-house. Miss Vanderholt was still in hysterics. + +'Damn the ruffian! I can't stand it!' shouted the captain, and he sprang +to his feet and clasped the girl. + +But the madman had begun to state his queer paradox with fearful +earnestness to the seaman, who had fixed him with a stare, and was, with +singular judgment in a common fool of a drunken sailor, drawing him out +of sight of the couple. + +Miss Vanderholt lay in her lover's arms, weeping and laughing; but a few +kisses and murmurs of devotion produced a very good effect. She +controlled herself, and then they were able to talk in swift questions +and eager answers. Outside the madman continued to argue with the sailor +on the subject of death. + +'There ain't no death!' he roared, with all the strength of his throat. +'D'ye call it a good job, mate? Here stands the man as has got rid of +the terror of the world. Hark you, bully! Ye can turn in now without +fearing to die. It'll do away with prayers, for there ain't no death!' + +Thus he raved, whilst inside, the girl, in the embrace of her +sweetheart, talked in a score of feverish questions and answers. She was +white, but clearly not from want of food. Up in a corner of the +deck-house stood a little load of tins of meat and biscuit, removed +from the _Mowbray's_ hold by her revolted men. In another corner was the +long-boat's big breaker, and a pannikin at hand for a drink. + +'Let's get away from this wreck,' said Parry, clasping the girl's hand. +'Yet, what a wonderful meeting!' he cried, devouring her with his eyes. +'What a miraculous deliverance! Oh, the hand of God is in it, and I am +grateful--I am grateful!' + +They moved towards the door, and the madman saw them coming. + +'Look here,' he cried, making for them in a jump or two, with an air so +menacing that Parry's hand instantly sought his pistol. 'No man walks +alongside the Princess Victoria aboard this Royal yacht. Her 'Ighness +the Duchess taught me how to behave myself in the eye of Royalty when I +was a young un, and this is how it's done,' said he, giving Captain +Parry a shove that drove him some feet from Miss Vanderholt; then, +stepping in front of the girl, he bowed low, with all those marks of +abject veneration which had distinguished his former obeisance, and +saying, 'If your Royal 'Ighness will now step out,' he moved backwards. + +But a long plank lay athwart his path; the captain and the seaman saw +what was to happen; the madman fell heavily backwards over it. + +'Bring the boat alongside, Jim!' bawled the sailor. 'This is the Ryle +yacht. See the Standard a-flying? The Princess Victoria is aboard, and +we've got to back her into the boat according to the custom of the Court +of St. James's Palace.' + +The boatswain was up again, and, flourishing his hand, he cried: + +'Right!' + +'You leave him to me, sir,' said the sailor, with a half-wink at Captain +Parry, who was absolutely at a loss. + +He would not for a million have shot the unhappy madman, and yet he +durst not approach Miss Vanderholt whilst that huge and brawny lunatic +watched him. + +The seaman in the boat concluded that his shipmate had lost his mind. + +'What the blooming blazes,' he thought to himself, 'is Bill a-jawing +about, with his Ryle yachts and Ryle Standards?' + +And he looked right up into the sky. + +'Stand by now, Tom, to receive her Ryle 'Ighness!' shouted the sailor, +with a glance at the madman. 'As her 'Ighness must go first, there's no +harm, I hope,' said he, 'in her walking face foremost?' + +'She always do,' shouted the boatswain. 'Bow her to the rail, and hand +her over.' + +Nothing could have been better. The swell gave them a good deal of +trouble, but two of them were sailors, and presently Miss Vanderholt was +in the boat. Captain Parry sprang into the chains, and, watching his +opportunity, leapt, and was by his sweetheart's side in a minute. + +The madman overhung the rails, staring greedily. He knuckled his brow as +one who would drive a pain out of his brain, then began to laugh when +Captain Parry jumped into the boat. + +'Bring him along, Bill. You lay he'll know what to do!' cried the sailor +in the boat. + +'Her Ryle 'Ighness commands you to attend her, sir,' said the seaman. +'Step right over the side into the chains, and don't jump back'ards.' + +The boatswain drew himself stiffly erect, and, after gazing aloft at the +vision of the Standard, which blew in rich folds under the swelling +clouds to his insane eye, he exclaimed: + +'Who's going to look after her Royal 'Ighness's yacht if I leave her?' + +'She'll lie quiet enough, mate, till you return,' said the sailor. +'Hark! Her Ryle 'Ighness is a-calling of you.' + +'Pray attend upon me! I command your presence in this boat!' cried the +girl in the loudest, most imperious voice her condition would permit her +to manage. + +The poor creature bowed low over the rail, then in silence dropped into +the chains, followed by the sailor, and in a minute or two both were +seated in the boat. + +All went quietly. The boatswain shifted restlessly in his seat, with a +grin of stupefaction. His burning eyes rolled over the _Mowbray_, and +again and again he pulled his hair with hands that sweated like tallow. + +Miss Vanderholt's first exclamation, when she was handed over the side, +was, 'My father! my poor father!' And she began to cry. The dreadful +scene rose before her mental vision, and she shook with old sensations +of terror. + +Captain Parry, passing his arm through hers, gently and tenderly led her +below. She had been too much moved to address Mr. Blundell, and for a +little while she needed the privacy of the cabin and her lover's +company. Presently, whilst they sat below, she told Captain Parry the +story of the mutiny, and her adventures down to this hour. + +It seems that some of the men were for going away at once in the +long-boat, after scuttling the yacht; others were for letting her lie +afloat; but all were agreed that she must be abandoned. Then Miss +Vanderholt found out that they were undecided what they should do with +her. Most of them, she gathered, were for leaving her in the yacht, to +take her chance of being picked up. + +'Why not?' said they. 'We can shorten sail for her before we leave. We +can lash the helm amidships. She's got plenty to eat and drink. She +can't come to hurt in these waters, and is bound to be rescued.' + +But the boatswain, who had grown ferocious in temper, and had manifested +many symptoms of insanity, swore that she should not be abandoned to her +fate. She was an Englishwoman; he was an English seaman. By God! he +would brain any man who talked of leaving the poor young lady alone to +wash about in the schooner. + +She told Captain Parry that this Jones overawed the men, and they seemed +to treat him as though his madness made him superior to themselves. They +all left in the long-boat. The boatswain next morning went quite mad, +and took Miss Vanderholt to be the Princess Victoria. He bowed humbly to +her in the boat; he would sometimes kneel to her. He whipped a straw hat +off a man's head to shade her with. + +His hallucination was, fortunately, a sober one. He supposed the men to +be the crew of the cutter of some Royal yacht or other, and himself in +command, seeking the vessel that her Gracious Highness, as he frequently +called her, might sail round the world. A man cut his finger in opening +a tin, and the young lady gave him her handkerchief to bind the wound. +He left it in the boat. + +When they fell in with the derelict they were exhausted with the +scorching heat and the exposure by night, and determined to take shelter +and rest aboard, and signal for help, if help should heave into view. +They emptied the long-boat; but that same evening of their entering the +derelict, about an hour before sundown, a small brigantine leisurely +came flapping down upon them, and seven men entered the long-boat and +rowed for her, leaving the boatswain and the young lady to their fate. + +Not until long afterwards was it discovered that this brigantine was a +Frenchman, that her crew had mutinied, and sent her captain and mate +adrift, and that, though they perceived the figures of the boatswain and +the young lady on the brig, yet, on the _Mowbray's_ men telling them +that one could bear witness to the mutiny, and that the other was a +dangerous madman, they put their helm up and sailed away. + +Before the set of sun the _Mowbray_ was heeling to a fresh breeze; every +cloth that could draw was driving her cutwater through it, and her +clipper-stem rose the white brine raving to her hawse-pipes. She seemed, +like those on board, to have got the scent, and to know that she was +going home. + + +THE END. + + +BILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD. + +[Illustration: Decoration] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Last Entry, by William Clark Russell + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST ENTRY *** + +***** This file should be named 44546-8.txt or 44546-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/5/4/44546/ + +Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: The Last Entry + +Author: William Clark Russell + +Release Date: December 30, 2013 [EBook #44546] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST ENTRY *** + + + + +Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="center"><a name="cover.jpg" id="cover.jpg"></a><img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="cover" /></div> + +<hr /> + +<h2>NOVELS, ETC., BY W. CLARK RUSSELL.</h2> + +<div class="box"> +<p class="center">Crown 8vo., cloth extra, 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> each; post 8vo., illustrated +boards, 2<i>s.</i> each; cloth limp, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> each.</p> + +<blockquote><p>ROUND THE GALLEY FIRE.<br /> +IN THE MIDDLE WATCH.<br /> +ON THE FO'K'SLE HEAD.<br /> +A VOYAGE TO THE CAPE.<br /> +A BOOK FOR THE HAMMOCK.<br /> +THE MYSTERY OF THE 'OCEAN STAR.'<br /> +THE ROMANCE OF JENNY HARLOWE.<br /> +AN OCEAN TRAGEDY.<br /> +MY SHIPMATE LOUISE.<br /> +ALONE ON A WIDE WIDE SEA.<br /> +THE GOOD SHIP 'MOHOCK.'<br /> +THE PHANTOM DEATH.<br /> +IS HE THE MAN?<br /> +THE CONVICT SHIP.<br /> +HEART OF OAK.<br /> +THE TALE OF THE TEN.<br /> +THE LAST ENTRY.</p></blockquote> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">London</span>: CHATTO & WINDUS, <span class="smcap">111 St. Martin's Lane, W.C.</span></p></div> + +<hr /> + +<p class="bold2">THE LAST ENTRY</p> + +<hr /> + +<h2>OPINIONS OF THE PRESS</h2> + +<p class="bold">ON</p> + +<p class="bold2">THE LAST ENTRY</p> + +<p>'"The Last Entry" is a rattling good salt-water yarn, told in the +author's usual breezy, exhilarating style.'—<i>Daily Mail.</i></p> + +<p>'In this new novel Mr. Russell has cleverly thrown its events into the +year 1837, and there are one or two ingenious passages which add to the +Diamond Jubilee interest which that date suggests.... "The Last Entry" +is as certain of general popularity as any of Mr. Russell's former tales +of the marvels of the sea.'—<i>Glasgow Herald.</i></p> + +<p>'We do not think it possible for anyone to dip into this novel without +desiring to finish it, and it adds another to the long list of successes +of our best sea author.'—<i>Librarian.</i></p> + +<p>'In addition to mutiny and murder, "The Last Entry" contains many of +those good things which have made Mr. Russell's pages a joy to so many +lovers of the sea during the last twenty years.... "The Last Entry" is a +welcome addition to Mr. Clark Russell's library.'—<i>Speaker.</i></p> + +<p>'The writer is as realistic and picturesque as usual in his vivid +descriptions of the stagnant life on board the homeward-bound +Indiaman.'—<i>Times.</i></p> + +<p>'It is full of pleasant vigour.... As is always the case in Mr. Clark +Russell's books, the elements are treated with the pen of an +artist.'—<i>Standard.</i></p> + +<p>'We expected plenty of go, of fresh and vigorous description of +sea-faring life, coupled with a story which would not be wanting in +interest. All this we have here.'—<i>Tablet.</i></p> + +<hr /> + +<h1>THE LAST ENTRY</h1> + +<p class="bold space-above">BY</p> + +<p class="bold2">W. CLARK RUSSELL</p> + +<p class="center">AUTHOR OF<br /> +'THE WRECK OF THE "GROSVENOR,"' 'MY SHIPMATE LOUISE,'<br /> +'THE TALE OF THE TEN,' ETC.</p> + +<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/dec.jpg" alt="Decoration" /></div> + +<p class="bold space-above">A NEW EDITION</p> + +<p class="bold space-above">LONDON<br />CHATTO & WINDUS<br />1899</p> + +<hr /> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<table summary="CONTENTS"> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="left"><small>CHAPTER</small></td> + <td><small>PAGE</small></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>I.</td> + <td class="left"> MR. AND MISS VANDERHOLT</td> + <td><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>II.</td> + <td class="left"> DOWN RIVER</td> + <td><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>III.</td> + <td class="left"> 'ALONG OF BILL'</td> + <td><a href="#Page_53">53</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>IV.</td> + <td class="left"> CAPTAIN MARY LIND</td> + <td><a href="#Page_82">82</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>V.</td> + <td class="left"> ON THE EVE</td> + <td><a href="#Page_119">119</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>VI.</td> + <td class="left"> THE MURDERS</td> + <td><a href="#Page_141">141</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>VII.</td> + <td class="left"> CAPTAIN PARRY</td> + <td><a href="#Page_169">169</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>VIII.</td> + <td class="left"> IN SEARCH</td> + <td><a href="#Page_196">196</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>IX.</td> + <td class="left"> THE DISCOVERY</td> + <td><a href="#Page_224">224</a></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + +<p class="bold2">THE LAST ENTRY</p> + +<h2><span>CHAPTER I.</span> <span class="smaller">MR. AND MISS VANDERHOLT.</span></h2> + +<p>This story belongs to the year 1837, and was regarded by the generations +of that and a succeeding time as the most miraculous of all the recorded +deliverances from death at sea.</p> + +<p>It may be told thus:</p> + +<p>Mr. Montagu Vanderholt sat at breakfast with his daughter Violet one +morning in September. Vanderholt's house was one of a fine terrace close +to Hyde Park. He was a rich man, a retired Cape merchant, and his life +had been as chequered as Trelawney's, with nothing of romance and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> +nothing of imagination in it. He was the son of honest parents, of Dutch +extraction, and had run away to sea when about twelve years old.</p> + +<p>Nothing under the serious heavens was harsher, more charged with misery, +suffering, dirt, and wretchedness, than seafaring in the days when young +Vanderholt, with an idiot's cunning, fled to it from his father's +comfortable little home. He got a ship, was three years absent, and on +his return found both his father and mother dead. He went again to sea, +and, fortunately for him, was shipwrecked in the neighbourhood of +Simon's Bay. The survivors made their way to Cape Town, and presently +young Vanderholt got a job, and afterwards a position. He then became a +master, until, after some eight or ten years of heroic perseverance, +attended by much good luck, behold Mr. Vanderholt full-blown into a +colonial merchant prince. How much he was worth when he made up his mind +to settle in England, after the death of his wife, and when he had +disposed of his affairs so as to leave himself as free a man as ever he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> +had been when he was a common Jack Swab, really signifies nothing. It is +certain he had plenty, and plenty is enough, even for a merchant prince +of Dutch extraction.</p> + +<p>Besides Violet, he had two sons, who will not make an appearance on this +little brief stage. They are dismissed, therefore, with this brief +reference—that both were in the army, and both, at the time of this +tale, in India.</p> + +<p>Violet was Vanderholt's only daughter, and he loved her exceedingly. She +was not beautiful, but she was fair to see, with a pretty figure, and an +arch, gay smile. You saw the Dutch blood in her eyes, as you saw it in +her father's, whose orbs of vision, indeed, were ridiculously +small—scarcely visible in their bed of socket and lash. An English +mother had come to Violet's help in this matter. Taking her from top to +toe, with her surprising quantity of brown hair, soft complexion, good +mouth, teeth, and figure, Violet Vanderholt was undoubtedly a fine girl.</p> + +<p>The room in which they were breakfasting was imposingly furnished. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> +pictures were many and fine. One in particular took the eye, and +detained it. It was hung over the sideboard, which glittered with plate; +it represented a schooner, bowed by a sudden blast, coming at you. The +white brine, shredded by the shrieking stroke of the squall, hissed +shrilly from the cut-water. The life and spirit of the reality was in +that fine canvas. The sailors seemed to run as you watched, the gaffs to +droop with the handling of their gear. She came rushing in a smother of +spume right at you, and, before delight could arise, you had felt a +pleasurable shock of surprise that was almost alarm. Such is the effect +produced by Cooper's bull as, with bowed head and eyes of fire, and +horns of death, it looks to be bounding with the velocity of a +locomotive out of the frame.</p> + +<p>Mr. Vanderholt and his daughter conversed for some time on matters of no +concern to us who are to follow their fortunes. Presently, after helping +himself to his second bloater—for his wealth had neither lessened his +appetite nor influenced his choice of dishes: he clung, with true Dutch +courage,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> to solid sausage; he loved new bread, smoking hot; he was +wedded to all the several kinds of cured fish, and often drank a pint of +beer, instead of coffee or tea, at his morning meal—he took his second +herring, and, whilst his gray beard wagged to the movement of his jaws, +an expression of pensiveness entered his face as he fastened his gaze +upon the picture of the rushing schooner.</p> + +<p>'How beautifully she is painted!' said he. 'It is the greatest of the +arts. How with the pen could you make that vessel show as the brush +has?'</p> + +<p>'It could only be done by suggestion,' said Miss Vanderholt, looking up +sideways at the picture. 'It is the hint that submits the pen-and-ink +sketch.'</p> + +<p>'So that, if a man has never seen a schooner, you might hint and suggest +all your life, and the death-bed of that man would still find his mind a +blank as to a schooner?'</p> + +<p>'True,' said his daughter.</p> + +<p>'I am going to tell you what I have made up my mind to do.'</p> + +<p>'Yes, and there she is,' interrupted the girl, with a sweep of her hand +at the picture.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> 'And pretty wet they are; and a fine handsome sea is +going to run presently, till the yacht shall swoop into the cataracts +like a wreck—veiled—strained! She is too small.'</p> + +<p>'You consider one hundred and eighty tons too small? What would Columbus +have thought of you? Do you know that Mynheer Vanderdecken is battling +with the storms of the Cape of Good Hope at this very hour in something +under one hundred and eighty tons?'</p> + +<p>'But I really don't think, father, that you need such an extensive +change.'</p> + +<p>'My doctors are of my opinion. I require nothing less than three months +of the sea-breeze, and all the climates that I can pack into that time.'</p> + +<p>'And George?' said Miss Vanderholt, her voice a little coloured by +vexation. 'He may arrive home and find us absent, and there will be +nobody in the world to tell him where we are—whether we are alive or +dead, and when we may be expected back.'</p> + +<p>'George won't be home till June next.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> said Mr. Vanderholt. 'There is +no chance of it. Meanwhile, I mean to escape the winter by heading +direct for the Equator and back.'</p> + +<p>'I'm afraid it is likely that George will not be able to arrive in +England before the end of June,' exclaimed Miss Vanderholt. 'But if he +should return sooner, it would drive me mad to hear that he had come and +found me absent.'</p> + +<p>'We shall be back by February,' said Mr. Vanderholt, in that sort of +voice which makes you feel that the man who speaks is used to having his +way.</p> + +<p>'Shall you take any friends with you?'</p> + +<p>'Not even a dog,' answered Mr. Vanderholt.</p> + +<p>'Then it will be dull!' exclaimed his daughter. 'Nothing but sea and sky +and novels. Why not ask Mr. Allan Kinnaird? He is a very amusing man.'</p> + +<p>'I do not agree with you. Kinnaird is amusing for about half an hour. +Kinnaird and I never could get on at sea, locked up together as we +should be. He is always objecting to what I say, and he listens to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> my +jokes merely with the intention of enlarging upon their points so as to +defraud me of the laugh.'</p> + +<p>'Will you carry a doctor?'</p> + +<p>'I have thought over that. No; we will ship a medicine chest instead, +and a book treating of every disease under the sun. We do not go to sea +to be ill. A doctor will be in the way. He will be neither with us nor +of us. He might begin to bore you with his attentions, and you would +only think of him as a man who believes that he is under an obligation +to be agreeable.'</p> + +<p>'But the <i>Mowbray</i> has not been afloat for two or three years,' said +Miss Vanderholt.</p> + +<p>'She has been well looked after. I have always liked the boat, and would +not sell her, though I have not used her of late,' said Mr. Vanderholt, +leaning back in his chair to contemplate to advantage the beautiful +picture over the sideboard. 'She is French built, and about twenty years +old. The French are better ship-builders than the English—infinitely +more choice in their lines and curves, and so scientific that you seldom +hear of a disaster in their experiments. Look at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> that vessel as she +rushes at you. How perfect is her entry! How insinuating the swell of +her bow, running into a beautiful roundness and plumpness of sides +instead of the up-and-down walls which the British yachtsman, who loves +to admire his yacht from the shore, conceives to be the one element +which gives a vessel stability! The more they narrow, the more they +blunder. You must have stability if you want seaworthiness. And in all +the years that I was at sea I never knew a crank ship a fast ship.'</p> + +<p>It was easily seen by the expression of Miss Vanderholt's face that she +was thinking of George. Finding her father had ceased to speak, she +exclaimed:</p> + +<p>'Who will be the captain?'</p> + +<p>'I shall ask my friend Fairbanks to recommend a man to me. He, of all +the shipowners that I am acquainted with, is certain to know of a good +man.'</p> + +<p>'Will he belong to the Royal Navy?'</p> + +<p>'No.'</p> + +<p>'Then, he will not be a gentleman?'</p> + +<p>Vanderholt looked at her intently. His<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> face relaxed. He combed down his +beard, and said:</p> + +<p>'He will be a sailor; and if he is a sailor, he will be a man. Combine +these two things, and you produce an illustration of human existence +beyond the achievement of the most illustrious lineage and the most +ancient college.'</p> + +<p>Miss Vanderholt was used to her father's views, and continued her +breakfast with a distant, listening air, which promised no further +expression of opinion upon this proposed voyage to the Equator. A +stranger listening at that table to Vanderholt would have guessed that +he was a man of hot temper, a Dutchman at root in his views and +prejudices, not a man, perhaps, of many friends, spite of his wealth. He +fixed his little eyes upon his daughter, and, after gazing at her for +some time, with a look of anxiety, he said:</p> + +<p>'You know, Vi, I should not care to go without you.'</p> + +<p>'No, father; nor should I wish to be left alone at home.'</p> + +<p>'You will be happy in the old <i>Mowbray</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> We will lay in a stock of good +things. We will make a fine holiday jaunt of it. Perhaps I shall be able +to show you some of the wonders of the deep. We will teach our crew to +sing litanies to break the spell of that demon the waterspout. We will +hook on to a whale, and thunder through it with foam to the figure-head, +with the velocity of the meteoric storm. We shall be at liberty to shift +our course as often as we please, and settle some marine problem for +good and all; not the sea-serpent—no. Who would defraud the newspapers +of that joke? But I am strongly of opinion that there is a distinct +difference between the dugong and the mermaid. The old idiots of the +fifteenth century no doubt confounded them; and the mermaid, shocked by +the hideous misrepresentation—for think of comparing some golden-haired +angel of an English girl with a New Zealand native woman, frightful with +the hues of her sky, and horrible with devices of the needle!—I say the +disgusted mermaid may have sunk into the ooze, resolved never again to +give man a sight of her face. Best of all, Vi, the voyage will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> do me +good, will do you good, and delightfully shorten the time of your +waiting for George.'</p> + +<p>'It is the only feeling I have in the matter,' answered the young lady.</p> + +<p>And now, having breakfasted, they arose and quitted the table.</p> + +<p>Miss Violet Vanderholt, being acquainted with her father's character, +and knowing that he rarely changed his mind, went to her room, where in +peace she occupied a full hour in writing a long letter to George.</p> + +<p>And who was George? One had but to peep over the girl's shoulder to +discover. 'My own darling George,' she began; and this sort of thing is +commonly accepted as the language of love. Captain George Parry was an +officer in the Honourable East India Company's service. When he was last +at home he had met Miss Violet, haunted her closely, and exhibited +himself in a variety of ways as deeply in love with her. Wonderful to +relate, Mr. Montagu Vanderholt took a fancy to the young man, and when +Ensign Parry called to ask his leave to consider<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> himself engaged, he +was astounded by the cheerful 'Certainly, with pleasure, if you are both +satisfied,' which greeted him. A few questions and answers followed. Mr. +Vanderholt knew very little about the army, though he had two sons in +it. How long would Ensign Parry have to wait for his promotion? How long +was the engagement going to last? For his part, he did not like long +engagements: they made people ill. Many girls were hurried to their +graves by procrastination—that thief of sleep, the ice-cold 'lubbar +fiend' that bestrides women's hearts and keeps them shivering.</p> + +<p>The interview terminated to the satisfaction of both gentlemen. In due +time, Ensign Parry returned to India, and now, as Captain Parry, he was +expected home in June; but in one or two of his letters to Violet he had +expressed a hope that he would be able to get home by an earlier date. +It had been settled that they should be married soon after his arrival +in England. And this was the posture of affairs as regarded Captain +Parry and Miss Vanderholt. The young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> lady, seating herself, dipped her +pen and wrote.</p> + +<p>She wrote fast, and often with a flushed cheek when she underlined, or +doubly underlined, a word or a sentence. Her letter consisted mainly of +endearing expressions, such as, when read aloud in court after a couple +have quarrelled, excite merriment. She informed her sweetheart in this +letter that her father had made up his mind to go on a cruise for his +health as far as the Equator, in the old <i>Mowbray</i>. She was going with +him alone. George would know where she was, therefore, until her return +to England, which could not be delayed beyond February. She dared not +hope that George would arrive before the <i>Mowbray</i> reached England. If +this should happen, then he might, perhaps, never receive this very +letter which she was writing. To provide against this, she said that +before she sailed she would write a second letter, and leave it with the +housekeeper.</p> + +<p>On the afternoon of this same day Mr. Vanderholt entered his carriage +and drove into the City. He alighted at the offices of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> a firm of +shipowners in Fenchurch Street, and was immediately confronted by the +very person he had called to see. They shook hands.</p> + +<p>'I want ten minutes with you, Fairbanks.'</p> + +<p>'As long as you please, Mr. Vanderholt. Always happy to be of service to +you.'</p> + +<p>It was plain that Mr. Vanderholt was not a skipper or a mate in search +of a situation on board one of the ships owned by this firm. They walked +through an office full of scribbling clerks; the walls were decorated +with pictures of ships in full sail, and odd configurations on glazed +yellow cloth, signifying cabin accommodation—first, second, and 'tween +decks. They reached a small back-room, and when Mr. Fairbanks closed the +door they were private.</p> + +<p>Mr. Vanderholt was rendered a little uneasy by Mr. Fairbanks' look of +expectation, and began somewhat in a hurry, lest his friend's +anticipation should grow.</p> + +<p>'It is a very trifling matter I have called to see you about, Fairbanks. +It concerns a skipper for my boat, the <i>Mowbray</i>. For<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> some time past I +have been out of sorts, and have resolved to get clear of England during +the winter. I have a fine boat laid up in the Thames. She is 180 tons, +and I calculate, counting the cook and the fellow for the cabin, that a +skipper, a mate, and eight hands will suffice me. Do you know of a good +skipper?'</p> + +<p>Mr. Fairbanks brought his fingers together in an attitude of prayer, and +said he thought that by dint of inquiry he might be able to find one.</p> + +<p>'What pay?' said he.</p> + +<p>'Ten pounds a month,' answered Mr. Vanderholt. 'I want a good man.'</p> + +<p>'Do you take any company with you?'</p> + +<p>'Only my daughter.'</p> + +<p>'Then,' said Mr. Fairbanks, 'the skipper must not drink, and must not +swear. He must be a man of cleanly appearance, of considerable +experience, and able to hold his own in conversation.'</p> + +<p>'So,' said Mr. Vanderholt.</p> + +<p>'I believe,' said Mr. Fairbanks, 'that I know the man for you. He had +charge of a ship of ours, the <i>Sandyfoot</i>. It was but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> yesterday I +nodded to him outside these offices. If you take him you will carry a +romance in pilot-cloth to sea with you. This fellow—you will not +believe what I am going to tell you after you see him—was in love with +a girl. He broke with her in a quarrel, and went to sea, and by a +homeward ship wrote to ask her forgiveness and keep her heart whole for +him, as he would shortly return. He was swept overboard in a storm, +picked up floating on a buoy by a three-masted schooner, and carried to +China. On his arrival home, he found his sweetheart had gone out of her +mind. She recovered by degrees, under his influence, and they were to be +married. They proceeded together to church, and at the altar she went +mad again. Of course, the parson refused to officiate, and a few weeks +later the poor thing died.'</p> + +<p>'What is the name of our friend?' inquired Mr. Vanderholt, who had +listened without much interest to this romantic story.</p> + +<p>'Thomas Glew.'</p> + +<p>'Originally a nickname, meant to stick,'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> said Mr. Vanderholt dryly. +'Send him to me. You will oblige me by doing so.'</p> + +<p>'I'll endeavour to find him this afternoon, and you shall see him +to-morrow,' answered the other. 'And you really enjoy the prospect of a +cruise to the Equator and home?'</p> + +<p>'Would I go if I did not?'</p> + +<p>'But is not such sailing like running to and fro between wickets when +there's nobody bowling?' said Mr. Fairbanks, placing a decanter of old +Madeira and a box of cigars on the table.</p> + +<p>Mr. Vanderholt brimmed a deep-hearted wineglass, and lighted a cigar, +saying betwixt the puffs:</p> + +<p>'If there is no good in the pursuit of health, you are right.'</p> + +<p>'Well,' said Mr. Fairbanks, 'for my part I never could contemplate a +voyage of any sort without associating it with a port and business.'</p> + +<p>'Thank the North Star,' said the gentleman of Dutch extraction, 'with me +that time has passed!'</p> + +<p>'But to think of the Equator as a port<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> of call!' exclaimed Mr. +Fairbanks; and they both began to laugh.</p> + +<p>The term 'port of call' set them conversing about trade, how matters +went in the City. Mr. Vanderholt talked fluently on all affairs +connected with shipping. After enjoying his cigar and his chat, he +re-entered his carriage, and was driven away.</p> + +<p>Next morning, at about eleven o'clock, he was in his study, writing some +letters. His daughter sat with him, reading a newspaper. A man-servant +opened the door, and said that a seafaring gentleman was in the 'all, +and had called by request. On a silver salver lay Mr. Fairbanks' card, +and Mr. Vanderholt, after glancing at the card, told the footman to show +Captain Glew in.</p> + +<p>There entered soon, with a quick, resolved, quarter-deck stride, a short +but powerfully-built man, shell-backed by ocean duties, with a face that +might have been cast in light bronze, that might have served as a ship's +figure-head in that metal, so roasted had it been in its day, so hard +set was it, as though fresh from the pickle of the harness-cask. The +flesh of the countenance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> had that sort of tension which does not admit +of much, or perhaps any, play of emotion. The man might expel a laugh +from his throat, but was he physically equal to a smile? He held a round +hat, and was soberly attired in blue cloth. He looked swiftly and +lightly around him, but seemed unmoved by the splendour of the +apartment. He sent a keen, gray, seawardly glance at Miss Vanderholt, +and fastened his gaze with an expression of attention upon her father.</p> + +<p>Miss Vanderholt viewed him with curiosity and disappointment.</p> + +<p>'Captain Glew?' said Mr. Vanderholt.</p> + +<p>'That's my name, sir,' answered the captain, in a voice as decisive as +his walk and air. 'I was asked to call upon you by Mr. Fairbanks.'</p> + +<p>'Right. Sit down. I had a good many years of it myself, but did not +reach the quarter-deck,' said Mr. Vanderholt. 'My end was plumb with the +fore-top.'</p> + +<p>The captain seated himself, but did not smile, nor did he look as if he +wanted to.</p> + +<p>'Many years at sea, Captain Glew?'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p><p>'Thirty, sir.'</p> + +<p>'Did you run away, as I did, from home?'</p> + +<p>'No. I was put apprentice by my father, who had charge of a Bethel, and +was a man of education.'</p> + +<p>'Did Mr. Fairbanks explain what I wanted to see you about?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, sir. I believe you'll find me a suitable man. I confess I'd like +the job. I know the <i>Mowbray</i>.'</p> + +<p>Mr. Vanderholt's face lighted up.</p> + +<p>'I was off her in a wherry not above a fortnight ago, and we stopped to +admire her. I never saw prettier lines.' Here he raised his eyes to the +picture over the sideboard, as though observing it for the first time, +but his face discovered no marks of enthusiasm or admiration whilst he +let his sight rest for a moment on that square of splendid, +spirit-moving canvas. 'My uncle was a shipbuilder,' he continued, 'and I +have some knowledge of that trade. The finest examples of seaworthy +craft are, in my opinion, the Baltimore clippers—some of them, at all +events. The <i>Mowbray</i> might be the queen of that fleet, sir.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p><p>Mr. Vanderholt glanced at his daughter, as if he should say, 'This is +our man.' He then rang the bell. A footman quickly appeared.</p> + +<p>'Wine,' said Mr. Vanderholt.</p> + +<p>'Not for me, if you please,' said Captain Glew, lifting his hand, and +bowing with a motion that made his refusal emphatic.</p> + +<p>'What will you take?' said Mr. Vanderholt.</p> + +<p>'Nothing whatever, I thank you, sir.'</p> + +<p>'Are you a teetotaler?' said Mr. Vanderholt, signing to the footman to +be gone.</p> + +<p>'No, sir. I am one of those men who drink only when they are thirsty, +and as I am seldom thirsty it follows that I drink little.'</p> + +<p>'Do you know anything about fore and aft seamanship?'</p> + +<p><i>Now</i> Captain Glew smiled, but the expression was like a passing spasm.</p> + +<p>'I do, sir. I have held command in several types of ships in my time. +Seven years ago I had charge for three voyages of a fruiter from the +Thames to the Western Islands.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p><p>'That will do,' said Mr. Vanderholt, with an appreciative flourish of +his hand, and a laugh of satisfaction.</p> + +<p>'Five years ago, being in distress for a position, and having a wife and +two children to maintain, I took command of a three-masted schooner to +the Brazils, where I left her and returned in charge of a little barque. +I then got a berth in Mr. Fairbanks' employ——'</p> + +<p>He was proceeding, but Mr. Vanderholt had heard enough.</p> + +<p>'I am quite satisfied,' said he. 'Now let us settle the matter straight +off. That is my way of going to work. I'm not for easing away +handsomely; I'm for letting go with a run. We shall want a mate, and we +shall want a crew. Can I trust you to see to this business?'</p> + +<p>'You can, sir.'</p> + +<p>'Let the crew be blue-water men. I shall want real sailors aboard the +<i>Mowbray</i>.'</p> + +<p>'There's nothing like them, sir.'</p> + +<p>'The craft lies dismantled, as you know. I leave the whole work of her +being made ready for sea to you. Employ your own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> labour. Call upon me +as the work proceeds. I shall make you several visits from time to time, +for I am a man of leisure.'</p> + +<p>'Does the young lady go with us, sir?'</p> + +<p>'Yes.'</p> + +<p>'You'll wish her cabin specially fitted?'</p> + +<p>'I will see to that myself, Captain Glew.'</p> + +<p>'Right, sir. And the voyage, I understand, is to be a cruise in the +North Atlantic?'</p> + +<p>'It is to be a run to the Equator and home.'</p> + +<p>'It seems such an odd place to steer for,' said Miss Vanderholt, +breaking the silence for the first time.</p> + +<p>'It's as determinable as a rock, anyhow!' exclaimed Mr. Vanderholt. 'I +want to be able to report a wonder when we return.' Here his Dutch +countenance put on the air of good-humoured cunning with which he +usually prefaced a joke. 'There is about a quarter of a mile of +Equatorial water which possesses a remarkable property. Sink an object +in it, and you draw it up gilt. If we strike this wonderful patch of +sea, we will gild the <i>Mowbray</i> from waterway to truck;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> boats, +ground-tackle—everything—shall be resplendent, and we shall be the +marvel of London as we sail up the Thames.'</p> + +<p>Miss Vanderholt watched Captain Glew, to see how he relished this sort +of thing.</p> + +<p>The skipper exclaimed austerely:</p> + +<p>'It's a tract of water written of in books for the marines. It's not to +be found at sea, sir.'</p> + +<p>'We must strike it, man, so that we may return covered with glory.'</p> + +<p>'Patch got any colour, sir?'</p> + +<p>'I believe it is a blood-red. A man I once sailed with claimed to have +sighted it. He was in the foretop-mast crosstrees, and saw the patch off +the bow, and hailed the deck, but he squinted damnably. You can't keep a +true course for anything when you squint. The captain missed the patch. +No other man saw it; and the sailor, who was a Dane, was, or is, the +only man in the world who has ever seen that miraculous bit of +Equatorial water.'</p> + +<p>He looked at his daughter, clearly enjoying his own imagination; and +Captain Glew uttered a hollow laugh, and stood up.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p><p>'I will visit the vessel to-morrow, sir, and report. I will bring my +papers along with me——'</p> + +<p>'No need,' interrupted Mr. Vanderholt; 'Mr. Fairbanks' introduction is +enough.'</p> + +<p>The man made a nautical bow to the father and daughter, and was going, +when he suddenly stopped to say:</p> + +<p>'Are you particular as to the nationalities of the men, sir?'</p> + +<p>'English and Dutchmen, in such proportions as may please you,' said Mr. +Vanderholt; 'but never a Dago, Captain Glew. I was once stabbed by a +Dago.'</p> + +<p>'And a Dago would have stabbed me if I hadn't killed him,' said the +captain. 'We'll ship no Dagos, sir.'</p> + +<p>He made another nautical bow, and departed.</p> + +<p>'I like him,' said Mr. Vanderholt, turning in his chair so as to resume +his letter-writing; 'but I guess the crew will find him a taut hand.'</p> + +<p>'What is a taut hand?' inquired his daughter.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p><p>'A man who breeds mutinies,' he answered.</p> + +<p>He looked thoughtful for a few moments, as though visited by some tragic +memories; then, taking up his pen, he went on writing his letters.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>CHAPTER II.</span> <span class="smaller">DOWN RIVER.</span></h2> + +<p>On the morning of November 21, 1837, the schooner <i>Mowbray</i> lay at +anchor abreast of Greenwich. In the fresh westerly wind you found the +sun-white sparkle of winter. Buildings, ships, wharves, the further +bends of the Reach, stood out with the sharpness and delicacy of ivory +work. The movements of the drapery of bunting, the swelling and +breathing of passing canvas, were beautiful to see under the hard, blue +sky, with its frost-work of gleaming cloud high over Plaistow Level.</p> + +<p>The schooner looked exceedingly handsome as she floated at her cable, +with the ripples of the blown stream twisting in slender lines of light +from the cut-water. These lines flashed in her glossy sides as they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +trembled past, and her coppered hull was beautified by other lustres +than the light of day, as she sat motionless, courting the eye to the +tall heights of the delicate mastheads, each of them star-crowned with a +shining gilt truck.</p> + +<p>She was handsomer than a yacht, because she lacked the summer precision +and fine-weather finish of that sort of craft. The nautical eye does not +love fine feathers. The <i>Mowbray</i> was a sea-going boat. She had beam for +stability, a height of side which promised a dry ship, a spring of bow +smack-like with its promise of domination. Her copper shone; she was +sheathed to the bends; she carried little or no finery about her decks, +but the scantling of everything—the companion, the skylights, the +sailors' deck-house, nay, even the caboose forward—might have been that +of a ten-gun brig.</p> + +<p>The hour was about half-past eleven. A number of seamen, apparelled with +some regard to uniformity of attire, lounged in the bows, staring +Greenwich way, or at the familiar scene of docks the other side of the +river. They looked a rough company of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> the genuine merchant-sailor +type—raggedly hairy, defiant in stare, in fold of arm, resolved in +their several postures. They wore round hats and jackets, and the +bell-ended, blue-cloth trousers of the Jacks of that day.</p> + +<p>On the quarter-deck walked Captain Glew and the mate who had signed +articles for the run, Mr. Tweed. This was a short, hearty, plump man. +His grog-blossomed, jovial face suggested a suppressed boisterousness of +spirits; you felt that in him lay the voice for the back-parlour of the +Free and Easy. The owner of the vessel and party were expected on board +shortly, and Tweed had clothed himself with care, in a short, round +jacket, with a corner of red silk handkerchief carelessly straying from +one side-pocket. His trousers rippled as he walked, and the rest of him +consisted of a check shirt and pumps.</p> + +<p>'I think he ought to be pleased,' said Captain Glew, coming to a stand +at the binnacle, and throwing a look over the little ship and then up +aloft; 'nothing handsomer sails out of the Thames this year.'</p> + +<p>'She is sweet enough for a pennon,' said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> Tweed. 'I wish she was mine. +I'd like to go a-pirating in a vessel of this sort. No, I wouldn't, +either; I'd go a-slaving. A hundred and eighty tons. I reckon you could +stow away six hundred blacks in her 'tween decks.'</p> + +<p>'I sometimes wish I'd been born a hundred years sooner,' said Captain +Glew. 'I would have been a pirate; the ocean was thick with booty, and +you got an estate with very little risk. The dogs came to the gibbet +because they never would be satisfied.'</p> + +<p>'Piracy gave a sailor a good chance,' said the mate, with a groggy look +at the hands lounging forward.</p> + +<p>'Here am I grateful for this £30 job,' growled the captain. 'The wife +and young uns may now eat and drink for three months, and for three +months the thought of to-morrow morning shan't keep me awake. Holy +Jemmy! But it's on the quarter-deck where the hearts of stone are +wanted. To those fellows forward the getting a ship's as easy as an +oath. Do you or I get ships as easily as we swear?'</p> + +<p>'No, not by all that I'm worth!' answered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> Tweed. 'Captain, I have +followed the sea for twenty years, and I'll tell you how it stands with +me now: in my cabin you'll find a sea-chest; it's painted green—green +it should be; it's the colour of my life. In that sea-chest is all that +I own in the world, saving a matter of a few pounds stowed away ashore. +Twenty years of the sea, and nothing but a bloomed green sea-chest to +show for it!' exclaimed Tweed, with so much blood in his face that his +grog-blossoms made him look as if he had burst into a dangerous rash.</p> + +<p>Thus these worthies discoursed, as they walked the quarter-deck, +awaiting the arrival of Mr. Vanderholt and party. They had been +shipmates in prior times, were in some fashion connected, had frequently +of late met ashore, and had grown intimate during the time occupied by +the refitting of the <i>Mowbray</i>. We are not to confound the discipline of +this little schooner with that of a great Indiaman. Men who had +commanded fruiters were not commonly distant to their mates when they +afterwards handled small vessels.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p><p>Forward the seamen growled in talk indistinguishable to the +quarter-deck walkers.</p> + +<p>'What sort of boss is th' ole man going to turn out?' exclaimed one of +the seamen, staring aft. 'I don't like his looks. But when once I've +signed a vessel's articles I'm for outweathering the skipper, if he was +the devil himself. He'll get no change out of Joseph Dabb, and it's +extraordinary, bullies, that Joseph Dabb should be my name.'</p> + +<p>'If there's no eddication in the fok'sle of this vessel, fired if there +oughtn't to be enough aft to enable all hands to spell the word "lush,"' +said a dark, heavy-browed man, gazing with a deep and surly smile at the +plump figure of Tweed, as he walked, rolling about like a butterbox in a +seaway, alongside the captain. 'I never see a face in all my time more +beautifully decorated. How many pints go to one of them blossoms? We +shall be hearing of him singing "We're all a-noddin'" in some middle +watch, when there's onusual need for a bright look-out.'</p> + +<p>'I was spliced three weeks ago,' exclaimed a red-headed seaman. 'I'm +a-missing of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> Sally, my joys. I feel gallus like going home again.'</p> + +<p>He eyed the land about the West India Docks, and extended his arms, +amidst a rumble of laughter and much spitting of yellow froth over the +bows.</p> + +<p>'I don't expect to see my old 'oman again,' exclaimed a seaman, standing +upright with his arms folded. 'If she don't die, she'll make tracks, +and, foreseeing of that, I sold off my household furniture yesterday.'</p> + +<p>'Ain't ye left her nothing to sit upon?' said the red-headed seaman.</p> + +<p>'Yes; a carpenter's knee. D'ye think I'm to be hubbled?' he cried, +letting fall his arms, and turning fiercely upon the red-headed man. 'I +wondered to find her at home last voyage. She'd have found me a true +man. Bruised if I like ship's carpenters, anyhow. I never yet knew a +ship's carpenter yer could trust as a man.'</p> + +<p>'Stow that!' exclaimed a seaman, leaning over the rail, and merely +turning his head to speak.</p> + +<p>'<i>You're</i> no ship's carpenter,' was the answer. 'This ain't no ship. +Present <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>company's always excepted, too, in polite society;' and he +began to step the deck with temper.</p> + +<p>'Where's this vessel bound to?' said another man.</p> + +<p>'I signed for a cruise,' answered someone.</p> + +<p>'Something was said about the Equator,' exclaimed another.</p> + +<p>'The Equator's no coast,' said the red-headed man.</p> + +<p>'The covey that owns this here craft,' exclaimed the carpenter, who was +also the boatswain, 'is a Dutchman. He ain't a Dutchman only—he's a +feenansure. Now, I've heard tell that when a Dutchman makes more money +than his mind's capable of weighing the idea of, his intellects go +wrong. Did ye ever hear of the prices they paid for toolips? I'm the son +of a sweep, lads, if some of 'em didn't pay as much as a £100 in good +money for a durned stalk not worth a cabbage! They was all rich men as +bought them bulbs, and they was all mad; and you lay your last +farden's-worth of silver spoons if this here scheme of a voyage to the +Equator ain't the caper of a blooming Dutchman who's made so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> much money +that his brains have given under the weight of the idea of his fortune!'</p> + +<p>Just then a large white boat was seen to be approaching the <i>Mowbray</i> +from the direction of Greenwich, and in a few minutes she was +alongside—a boat full of ladies and gentlemen; and Captain Glew stood +at the open gangway, cap in hand. The party consisted of Mr. and Miss +Vanderholt and a few friends who had accompanied them to Greenwich to +see them off. Vanderholt shook hands with his captain, nodded to the +mate, and cast a look of approval in the direction of the forecastle. He +seemed in high spirits. His eyes smiled deep in their little sockets, +and the fresh and friendly wind blew his beard into twenty expressions +of kindly laughter. He was rigged out for the sea. No Minories slop-shop +could have furnished him with a salter aspect. The seamen on the +forecastle eyed him, and murmured one to another. They seemed to +recognise their own vocation in the man, yet viewed him doubtfully, as +dogs watch with suspicion the dog in Punch and Judy.</p> + +<p>His daughter was handsomely draped in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> velvet and fur, and wore a +turban-shaped hat that was as good for the deck as for her looks. In a +minute there was a little crowd of well-dressed gentlemen and ladies +standing on the quarter-deck, gazing around them and aloft, with Mr. +Vanderholt laughing with the wind in his beard, and Miss Vi gazing +somewhat pensively at the full scene of the schooner.</p> + +<p>It was the right sort of morning for a start for the ocean. The brisk +breeze covered the surface of the river with sliding shapes, coming and +going. A large Indiaman, newly arrived, with the rust of four months of +brine draining down her chain-plate bolts, her sheathing green as grass, +with a quivering of weeds here and there, lay off the Docks opposite. +Her house-flag blew stately from the lofty masthead; stately and proud, +too, she floated, tall and square. She seemed alive, and conscious of +victory. The lights of her cabin windows shook through the ripples in +long darts of silver. A chorus of thirty stormy throats swept down the +wind, and there came out of that inspiriting windlass-song of sailors +who had brought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> their lofty ship home the whole spirit of the ocean +into this living, brimming picture of river.</p> + +<p>Mr. Vanderholt's friends walked about the decks of the <i>Mowbray</i>, +praising the schooner highly.</p> + +<p>'He goes alone with his daughter,' said one gentleman to another, 'and +touches nowhere. I do not envy her.'</p> + +<p>'Don't you remember,' said the other, 'what the German said? "I don't +see der use of being seek onless you makes your friends seek mit you."'</p> + +<p>They both laughed.</p> + +<p>Mr. Vanderholt led the whole party into the cabin, where they found the +table clothed for a cold lunch. A steward stood in a corner, waiting for +the hour to strike when he should summon the company by a bell. Some +baskets of champagne were beside him. It was a roomy cabin, with plenty +of accommodation for eight or nine people to sit at table; brightly +lighted, handsomely upholstered, painted and gilded as charmingly as a +drawing-room. Some little berths aft had been knocked into two, and +Violet was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> very well pleased with the size and comfort of her sea +bedroom. She would swing in a cot; the furniture provided her with many +more conveniences than she would get ashore in a friend's house.</p> + +<p>Mr. Vanderholt's cabin was plainly equipped. He was going to sea as a +sailor; he was bent upon reviving old memories; and his guests laughed +when he pointed to a sea-chest, which he said contained nearly the whole +of his kit, which chest had also been the one he had used in the last +voyage he made as a sailor.</p> + +<p>'Do you see those ragged marks?' said he, stooping to run his finger +along the edge of the chest, whilst he looked up into the face of a +fashionably-dressed lady. 'They were caused by my cutting up plug +tobacco. I would not have them filled in. On this chest I have sat and +blown strong Cavendish tobacco-smoke into an atmosphere composed almost +entirely of carbonic acid gas; I have watched the blue ring burning +round the flame of the lamp, and smoked on.'</p> + +<p>'Would you be a sailor again?' asked the fashionably-dressed lady.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p><p>'Not for a million on <i>these</i> terms,' answered Mr. Vanderholt, bringing +his fist down, in a sudden passion of recollection, upon the lid of his +chest.</p> + +<p>Presently the little bell rang, and they seated themselves. The +champagne fizzed, knives and forks rattled on plates, the one steward +ran about. Mr. Vanderholt was in high spirits; he drank to his daughter +amongst others; no more cordial or hospitable gentleman ever sat at the +head of a cabin table.</p> + +<p>'The hardest part of a sailor's life,' said a pretty young woman, with +black eyes, and a handsome white feather coiled round a large hat, 'must +be saying good-bye to the girls, as I think they call them,' exposing a +row of milk-white teeth. 'They are absent for months and years; how can +you expect constancy?'</p> + +<p>'Ha!' exclaimed Mr. Vanderholt. 'But a man may be faithful, even though +he should be as much cut off from his girl as if he was buried. Don't +you remember what your Richard Steele says? I quote from memory: "The +poor fellow who lost his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> arm last siege will tell you that he feels the +fingers that are buried in Flanders ache every cold morning at +Chelsea."'</p> + +<p>'I do not see the application,' said one of the gentlemen.</p> + +<p>'It is perfectly plain,' said Violet, flushing.</p> + +<p>'Vanderholt,' exclaimed one of the guests, 'tell me what has become of +that old sailor who used to take a month in making a pair of clews for +the captain's cot, or a fancy pair of beckets for the mate's +camphor-wood chest.'</p> + +<p>'He belonged to the days of leisure,' answered Mr. Vanderholt. 'It is +all for speed now, cracking on, carrying away, four months to Bombay, +when in my time six months was looked upon as a good voyage.'</p> + +<p>Captain Glew, at the invitation of Mr. Vanderholt, sat at the foot of +the table.</p> + +<p>'The lady,' said he, with an inclination of his head in the direction of +the person referred to, 'was speaking just now of constancy amongst +sailors. I remember some years ago being aboard a ship in a collision. +The other vessel received us, and it turned out that the first seaman +who sprang into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> the ship was the husband of the wife of the captain.'</p> + +<p>'Lor', what a complication!' said somebody.</p> + +<p>'The seaman who sprang was supposed to be dead?' said Mr. Vanderholt.</p> + +<p>Captain Glew looked at him without smiling. His face, however, was not +wanting in a certain arch expression.</p> + +<p>'Sailors undergo very many more perils than are written down, or than +the world wots of,' said a gentleman. 'I once met a travelling show. +Part of it was a man in a cage. Nothing in this or the under world could +be more frightful to see than that man. And what had happened to him? He +had slept on a bale of cloves, and the cloves, by drawing all the +moisture out of him, had left him a skeleton, with a heart beating under +a loose coat of parchment.'</p> + +<p>'Poor thing!' said a lady. 'And are cloves so drying? Really! How could +the poor creature while away the time in a cage?'</p> + +<p>'By showing the crowd how to make clove-hitches, I expect,' said +Vanderholt.</p> + +<p>Captain Glew rose, and, bowing to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> company, went to his cabin, which +was a cupboard forward annexed to the pantry. Opposite was the mate's. +He reappeared in a minute or two, said something to Mr. Vanderholt, and +passed on deck.</p> + +<p>'I wonder you do not touch at Madeira,' said a gentleman.</p> + +<p>'I touch at the Line only.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, but Miss Vanderholt,' exclaimed the gentleman, 'if you have not +seen Madeira, you should compel your father to stop at the island,</p> + +<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div>'"Where the virgins are soft as the roses they twine,</div> +<div>And all, save the spirit of man, is divine."'</div> +</div></div></div> + +<p>'I know nothing about the virgins of that island,' said a gentleman; +'but the men who visit your ship, and the men who salute you when you +get ashore, are poisonously hideous. They cling like toads to a bed of +glorious growths. The spirit of man is not divine at Madeira.'</p> + +<p>'I touch nowhere,' said Mr. Vanderholt. 'When our forefoot cuts the zero +of the chart, we shift helm for the homeward run.'</p> + +<p>He glanced at a clock in the skylight,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> made a movement, and +simultaneously all stood up, and, standing, they drank a final glass of +champagne to the safety of the voyage, to Vanderholt's health, to the +return of the charming Violet Vanderholt; then, conducted by the owner +of the schooner, the guests went on deck, and in a few minutes took +their leave.</p> + +<p>There was much hand-shaking—all the usual assurances of friendship +agitated by leave-taking. Nevertheless, when the company were in their +boat, going ashore, one of the gentlemen exclaimed:</p> + +<p>'I think Vanderholt must be a selfish old cuckoo to carry away his +daughter to the ocean, with no other company but his own grumbling self +and Captain Glew.'</p> + +<p>'I would not be sailing to the Equator in that schooner for a thousand +pounds!' said a lady. 'I should have to be run away with to do such a +thing;' and she leered sweetly at a gentleman opposite her.</p> + +<p>'They are flourishing their handkerchiefs to us,' cried someone.</p> + +<p>All stood up in the boat to wave back.</p> + +<p>'For Gord's sake, sit down, ladies and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> gents! You'll be capsizing of +us!' bawled the one-eyed bow oar.</p> + +<p>On board the schooner they were getting under weigh. The name of the +boatswain—he was also the carpenter—who had shipped to act as second +mate whenever his services in this capacity should be required, was +Jones. No man blew the boatswain's silver pipe more sweetly. He had sent +his lark-like carol to the mastheads, and afar on either hand the +streaming river that pure music of the sea thrilled, whilst their guests +were making their way ashore.</p> + +<p>The <i>Mowbray</i> was a small ship, but her deep-water men dealt with her as +though she had been a thousand-ton Indiaman. The hearties, in their +round jackets, sprang, as an echo of the boatswain's roaring cry, to the +windlass handles, and in a moment a voice, broken by years of drink and +by hailing the deck from immense heights, broke into that most +melancholy chorus, 'Across the Plains of Mexico.'</p> + +<p>The cherry-faced mate, Tweed, standing in the bows, soon reported the +cable up and down; then sail was made. The eager little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> ship herself +broke her anchor out of the London mud, and to the impulse of her +mounting standing jib, staysail, and gaff foresail, was, with a +clipper's restlessness of spirit in the whole length of her, swiftly +turning her head down-stream, whilst a few hands sang 'Old Stormy, he is +dead and gone' at the little windlass, lifting the anchor to the +cathead.</p> + +<p>Before the length of Blackwall Reach had been measured, the schooner was +clothed, her seamen coiling down, some attending the sheets—everything +quiet and comfortable. The captain stood beside the tiller, conning the +little vessel. He was qualified as a pilot for the Thames, and boasted +that he could smell his way up and down in the dark—and truly perhaps +the nose, in some parts of this noble river, would be as good as the +lead, or a buoy, to tell a man where he was. Glew caught the eye of Mr. +Vanderholt, who, approaching him, said:</p> + +<p>'I am very well pleased. You have chosen well. This is a good company of +seamen.'</p> + +<p>Captain Glew touched his cap, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>continued to watch the schooner. She +was square-rigged forward, carried topsail, top-gallant-sail, and royal; +but there was no good in humbugging with this sort of canvas in a +serpentine river that shifts your course for you every two miles by +three or four points.</p> + +<p>Miss Vanderholt stood at the rail viewing the moving picture round +about, with a very pensive face. Her eyes often went to a large vessel +at anchor ahead. That full-rigged ship made her think of George. In much +such a ship, no doubt, George would return. When? In all probability +before her own arrival; and how maddening that would be! For, oddly +enough, though it was a long time since they had parted, Miss Violet +Vanderholt was quite as much in love with Captain George Parry as ever +she was on that day when she and her father saw him off in the East +India Docks, when she cried, and he hugged her, and when they had spent +half an hour up in a corner all alone in talk as impassioned as ever +passed between two lovers.</p> + +<p>This must convince us that there was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> something Dutch and solid in the +girl's character, for she had had many opportunities to recollect +herself and transfer her affection. Though Vanderholt's wealth was not +of a size to lead to newspaper paragraphs and to editorial +exaggerations, it was, in a quiet way, known and talked about, and +people passing his house would look up and nod at it, and say:</p> + +<p>'A rich old cock lives there.'</p> + +<p>However, Miss Vi's meditations were presently to be interrupted by a +scene not very unfamiliar in the River Thames. The wind was west, and it +blew a fresh breeze. The ripples rushing to the whipping carried a +little edging of foam. Whatever was under canvas, unless it was a barge, +or something running in a mile or two of straight water, leaned in +shafts of light. You caught the glance of copper sheathing, the sunshine +showered in a rainbow glow upon flashes of brackish foam bursting +without the life of brine from shearing bows and gliding sides. The +smoke ashore blew away quickly, and the heavens remained a beautiful +blue, and the sky over the Plaistow Flats shone like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> the inside of an +oyster-shell with the prismatic hues of a setting of motionless, +finely-linked clouds.</p> + +<p>Just as the <i>Mowbray</i> passed down Bugsby's Reach, opening the long tract +of the Woolwich waters beyond, two collier brigs reaching up the river +swept into each other with crackling jibbooms. The schooner's road was +blocked; her helm was shifted swift as the swallow curves in flight, and +then followed a pause which enabled Miss Vanderholt to gain some little +insight into the ways of the deep, and the behaviour and speech of those +who go down to it for two or three pounds a month.</p> + +<p>The two brigs came together with a crash that might have been heard at +London Bridge. They butted bow to bow, then, swinging to, locked +themselves helplessly broadside to broadside, and began to float +shorewards, with sails and heavy pieces of timber falling from aloft, +and men, two or three of them wearing tall hats, and shawls round their +throats, rushing about the decks in agonies of pantomime. It was a +saying that there was no better school than the North<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> Country Geordie +for seamanship. Certainly there was no school in which a man learnt more +quickly to swear. The <i>Mowbray</i> floated close past, and all could be +seen. Nothing is more helpless in this world than two ships thus yoked, +steering each other ashore, with an occasional drag, or jerk, or butt, +that brings a ton of top-hamper crashing about the ears of the profane +on deck.</p> + +<p>'Let go your tawps'l brace, you blooming old fool! Don't you see it's +foul of my mainyard-arm?'</p> + +<p>'What in flames are you keeping your jib hoisted for? You're paying her +right into me!'</p> + +<p>'Jumped if we shan't both go ashore if yer don't starboard yer 'ellum. +Why don't you let go yer anchor, you rooting hogs?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, and tear my smothered bows out because a crew of dairymen don't +know how to steer their ship!'</p> + +<p>Then, in the midst of this—crash!—off short like a carrot would snap a +yard, or down, torn bodily out by its roots, would fall a gaff, amidst +yells of:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p><p>'You gutter-sots! You're all drunk this holy day! Suffocate yer, you +scabs! Let go yer taws'l halliards! Don't you see they're binding the +wessels together by my yard that's gone in the slings?'</p> + +<p>But the <i>Mowbray</i> was now on her course; the distance between her and +the embracing brigs was fast widening, and articulate oaths had faded +into a chorus of indistinguishable shouts. The vessels were doomed. They +both drifted ashore abreast of Woolwich, and next day a paper described +a fight that was bloody with knives between the two crews, and reported +the death of a foolhardy waterman who tried to make peace, clearly with +an eye to salvage.</p> + +<p>'This,' said Mr. Vanderholt, as the <i>Mowbray</i>, rounding into Galleon's +Reach, put the brigs out of sight, 'is a sample of the poetry of the +sea, Vi. But very few poets have dealt with subjects of this sort. They +write of the splendours of the sunset and moon-rise at sea, and such +things. Yet, if I were a poet, I would rather choose a subject in those +two brigs in the Thames in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> collision, going ashore, full of curses, +than in all the stars which shine upon the ocean.'</p> + +<p>At five o'clock the <i>Mowbray</i> let go her anchor off Gravesend.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>CHAPTER III.</span> <span class="smaller">'ALONG OF BILL.'</span></h2> + +<p>It was dark when the <i>Mowbray</i> brought up. The Gravesend lights trembled +windily, and there was a dance of lanterns as of fireflies upon the +breast of the stream. Mr. Vanderholt had no intention of going ashore. +He had ordered Captain Glew to bring up off Gravesend to avoid the risks +of the navigation of the river in a dark night. It is not customary for +the skippers of yachts to dine with their owners, but Mr. Vanderholt, +who was a seaman at heart, who disliked forms and ceremonies, having +made up his mind on the matter, had, after speaking a few words to his +daughter, walked up to Captain Glew and expressed a wish that he would +eat with them at their table. Glew touched his cap without any +expression of surprise or emotion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> of gratitude. He appeared to receive +the courtesy as a command, to accept it as he would an order to get the +vessel under weigh or shorten sail.</p> + +<p>At six o'clock the cabin bell was rung to call them to dinner. Mr. +Vanderholt and Captain Glew arrived from the deck, Miss Vanderholt from +her cabin. The interior was a pretty little picture of hospitality; two +handsome lamps shone purely and brightly. The burnished swing-trays +reflected the beams of the lamps. The light glanced dart-like in +polished bulkhead and mirror, and shone on silver and damask, and fruit +and crystal. The steward appeared with a dish of fish.</p> + +<p>'I think you have a pretty good cook in this vessel,' said Vanderholt, +examining the fish, as he helped his daughter.</p> + +<p>'He served his time in liners, and has done a deal of cooking at sea in +his day.'</p> + +<p>'I hope he will take some trouble to please the men,' said Mr. +Vanderholt. 'It is always bad food for the forecastle, but a bad cook +makes bad bad indeed.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p><p>'What do the men get to eat?' asked the young lady.</p> + +<p>'The usual ship-going fare, miss,' answered Glew: 'pork, junk, +pease-soup, biscuit, and the like.'</p> + +<p>'Who keeps the log of this ship?' said Mr. Vanderholt.</p> + +<p>'I shall,' said the captain.</p> + +<p>'What is a log?' inquired Miss Vanderholt.</p> + +<p>'A book, my dear, in which the chief mate of a ship enters daily her +situation, the state of the weather, and such observations as he is +capable of making.'</p> + +<p>'They are not many, or of a poetical order,' said Glew, with his faint +taut smile. 'The nearest romantic stroke that I can recollect was this +entry: "A dreadful day. At noon precisely the ship blew up, and nobody +was left but William Gibson."'</p> + +<p>'I suspect, captain,' said Mr. Vanderholt, 'that you will have met with +some romantic traverses in your time?'</p> + +<p>'I don't recall any,' answered the captain.</p> + +<p>'Why, to put one instance as delicately as I can,' said Mr. Vanderholt, +filling a silver<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> tankard till it foamed over with India pale ale; 'that +extraordinary affair of some early love.' Miss Vi looked extremely +confused, and gazed with entreaty at her father. 'The remarkable story, +I mean,' continued Vanderholt, bringing out his mouth and nose covered +with froth, 'that Mr. Fairbanks told me.'</p> + +<p>'And what might the story be, sir?' said Captain Glew, looking blankly.</p> + +<p>Miss Vanderholt continued to gaze with entreaty, whilst her father +repeated the story. Captain Glew drained his wine-glass, and uttered a +dismal laugh, in which his face bore no part.</p> + +<p>'Why,' said he, 'that yarn's told of old Jim Dyson, old Captain Dyson, +who was found dead in his bed three years ago at the sign of the Sot's +Hole, down Limehouse way.'</p> + +<p>Miss Vanderholt burst out laughing.</p> + +<p>'I wonder Mr. Fairbanks should tell that yarn of me,' continued Captain +Glew. 'If my wife gets to hear of it—and there's trouble enough in +married life without lies——'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p><p>'So the bubbles break as quickly as they are blown,' said Mr. +Vanderholt. 'But I confess I never would have thought it of you, Captain +Glew.'</p> + +<p>After dinner the father and daughter patrolled the deck, warmly wrapped. +Mr. Vanderholt smoked an immense pipe that curled from an amber tip at +his lips into a richly-bronzed and glowing bowl in his hand. It was +early night. The wind was gone, the stream of tide softly shaled along +the bends of the schooner in the note of surf washing on shingle heard +at a distance. How dismal, flat and gaunt looked the treeless Tilbury +shore in that sad light! The very stars shining over it seemed to +tremble with the spirit of mud and cold desolation. Shadowy shapes of +ships went by, sometimes to a sound of music, as of concertinas and the +like; tall phantasmal shapes, lifting spires as delicate as needles to +the stars, loomed anear and afar. In the main, silence lay upon that +river, with its burden of living freights.</p> + +<p>The crew loafed about the schooner's deck forward, and the grumble of +their voices<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> came aft, along with the scent of tobacco-smoke. They +slept in a deck-house, with three windows of a side, and spikes of light +shot from those windows, occasionally glancing on the figure of a +passing man, and falling in streams of radiance upon the bulwarks. +Besides this deck-house, the schooner owned a small forecastle, +containing three or four bunks.</p> + +<p>'I don't know how it may be with you, Vi,' said Mr. Vanderholt, pressing +his daughter's arm affectionately against his side, 'but I give you my +word I feel better already.'</p> + +<p>'That's a good thing,' exclaimed the young lady. 'I wish George were +with us.'</p> + +<p>'George is not two men. He can't be in India and here at the same time.'</p> + +<p>'He ought to be here, by my side,' said Miss Vanderholt. 'Oh, how +delicious the voyage would then be! I should not object to your sailing +round the world.'</p> + +<p>'Make the youngster give up the army. He's got means of his own, and +<i>you'll</i> be pretty well off, I hope,' said Mr. Vanderholt. 'If you go +out to India I shall be alone, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> you'll die of some distemper, +engendered by what is there called "a station." No good in titular +dignity. The land teems with captains and colonels; and a time may come +when a man will be respected because he is not a major-general. It would +be different if George was in the Dutch army.'</p> + +<p>He was proceeding, when he suddenly stopped, catching a noise of oars on +the bow, and suddenly a long, sharp-stemmed boat, apparently a police +boat, shot out of the gloom, and a powerful voice hailed:</p> + +<p>'Schooner ahoy!'</p> + +<p>'Hallo!' answered Captain Glew, who was leaning over the side, at a +respectful distance from the father and daughter, furtively smoking a +cheroot.</p> + +<p>'I want to come aboard of you.'</p> + +<p>In a minute the boat was alongside, and a couple of men sprang over the +rail.</p> + +<p>'What vessel's this?' said one of the men, who, like his companion, wore +a tall, glazed hat, and was swathed to the throat in overcoat and +shawls.</p> + +<p>'The <i>Mowbray</i>, privately owned. What's your business?' said Captain +Glew.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p><p>'We're Bow Street officers. We're searching the shipping for a man +named Simmons. D'ye want to see our warrant?'</p> + +<p>'What's he charged with?' said Mr. Vanderholt, coming with his daughter +on his arm from the other side of the deck.</p> + +<p>'Murder!' was the answer.</p> + +<p>Miss Vanderholt screamed. Her father said instantly:</p> + +<p>'Search my ship by all means. I hope the man may not be on board of us. +If he is, I do not sail. Captain Glew, render these two officers every +assistance.'</p> + +<p>The <i>Mowbray</i> was a small vessel, and the search did not take long. The +hatches were lifted, the hold explored by lantern-light, the deck-house +was rummaged, the whole ship's company was mustered and severally +examined. It was strange to see those seamen standing in a line, with +the runners in their glazed hats flashing the light of their lanterns +over their rough, bearded, weather-blackened faces. They had assented +very easily to this mustering and examination, for the man was wanted +for murder, and the very name will subdue the roughest, and silence +those curses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> of the forecastle with which the two Bow Street fellows +were the sort of people to have been handsomely assailed by this crew, +had they bothered the men with a smaller errand.</p> + +<p>They searched the cabins, and, lastly, they entered the little +forecastle in which no man had as yet slept. A hole of a seabedroom was +this. You could scarcely stand upright in it. The two men descended the +short ladder, and Captain Glew stood atop waiting. The bullies of Bow +Street swung their lamps carefully. Suddenly one of them, delivering a +low gasp, said: 'Catch hold of this light, Tom.' He dropped on his +knees, and grabbed at a leg, the foot of which dimly showed under one of +the bunks. He hauled with a will, and out came the body of a man or boy, +shrieking like a woman in a fit.</p> + +<p>'Don't 'urt me! for God's sake, don't 'urt me, gemmen! I meant no 'arm. +It was all along of Bill.'</p> + +<p>'Is that a woman you've got down there?' sung out Captain Glew.</p> + +<p>'Nothing else, by the holy poker!'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> answered one of the officers, in a +voice that trembled with the temper of disappointment.</p> + +<p>'Yes, I'm a girl, gemmen. It was all along of Bill. Put me ashore, and I +promise never to offend again,' cried the unfortunate little woman, +sobbing grievously.</p> + +<p>Yet, bedraggled as she was, of a raw, uncouth, mixed look, with her +trousers and sailor's jacket, and plentiful black hair loosened by +dragging, she showed as a saucy, handsome wench, and the spirit of the +devil was in her black eyes when she looked at the Bow Street men.</p> + +<p>They all went on deck.</p> + +<p>'Thunder of heaven!' cried Mr. Vanderholt, in a voice of horror. 'The +murderer is on board our ship! They have got him. So,' he cried in a +voice deep with resolution, 'our voyage ends. To-morrow we return home.'</p> + +<p>'It's a woman, sir,' said Captain Glew.</p> + +<p>'A woman!' shouted Mr. Vanderholt. He quitted his daughter, and strode +straight up to the group as they came along, and, putting his face close +into the woman's, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> exclaimed: 'What are you doing aboard my vessel?'</p> + +<p>'It's all along of Bill!' cried the girl. 'I never meant no 'arm, and I +can't tell yer what I done it for.'</p> + +<p>'Father,' said Miss Vanderholt, approaching the group, and taking a view +of the girl by the sheen that floated round about the lighted skylight, +'don't you think it's just possible that this person who's been in +hiding for some time may be a little bit hungry and thirsty? Ask her +into the cabin. She will tell us her story.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, lady, you is kind!' exclaimed the girl, extending both hands +towards Miss Violet, and again beginning to cry bitterly.</p> + +<p>'This way, then,' said Mr. Vanderholt.</p> + +<p>The Bow Street gentlemen descended with the rest. Whether they imagined +a scent of crime in this female stowaway, or whether they distinguished +a scent of drink in the cabin atmosphere, cannot, after all these years, +be settled with any degree of certainty. They seated themselves, and Mr. +Vanderholt offered them drink, and they drank, eyeing the girl with very +knowing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> looks, whilst she told her story in a high, strained voice.</p> + +<p>'What are ye?' began Captain Glew.</p> + +<p>'I'm barmaid at the One Bell in Cable Street, nigh the London Docks.'</p> + +<p>Here she paused, and looked at Miss Violet. The blood was red in her +cheeks, and her eyes were wild and wet with tears. Her aspect, in the +clear light of the lamp, was extraordinary. She seemed half a gipsy. Her +beauty was coarse and masculine; her hair, black as streaming ink, lay +upon her back in a wonderful quantity.</p> + +<p>'It was all along of Bill,' she went on.</p> + +<p>'Who's this bloomed Bill you've been talking about since you was lugged +out of it?' said one of the officers.</p> + +<p>'The young man I keeps company with,' she answered. 'We fell out because +of a sailor man that's aboard this vessel. Fred Maul his name is, and it +'ud have been good for me this blessed night had they strangled him in +the hour of his coming into this blistered world. Why,' she cried, +turning upon Miss Violet, who shrank a little from the gathering +ferocity of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> woman, 'this beast of a Maul comes and 'angs about me, +and Bill, he falls jealous. Bill and me 'ad a row over this 'ere Maul. +He says to me: "I know the ship he's signed for; yer'd better foller +him." "By God!" cries I, mad with feeling that <i>he</i> oughtn't to have +said it, "say that again, and I'll do it." He says it again.' Here the +unfortunate woman raised her voice till the little cabin rang; but +though the gentlemen of Bow Street shouted, and though Captain Glew and +Mr. Vanderholt sought, with a hundred gestures, to subdue her voice, +nothing could soften the hysteric, piercing note. 'He s'ys it ag'in, I +s'y, and, going away, the unfeeling devil comes back arter ten minutes, +and chucks a bundle on to the counter, and says, with a low sneer: +"There's your kit. Now go and foller Bill."'</p> + +<p>'And so here y'are,' said one of the officers. 'A tidy lot, I allow, for +a select hevening party. When I saw her boot, fired if I didn't think it +was a man.'</p> + +<p>The girl bit upon a sandwich, and glared fiercely at the officers while +she chewed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> Miss Violet, with the merciful heart of her sex, fetched +some hairpins from her cabin, and gave them to the girl, who, with a +curtsey, and a smile of shame and thanks, turned to a strip of mirror +and swiftly coiled her hair upon her head.</p> + +<p>'Go and fetch the young lady's hat,' said Mr. Vanderholt to the steward.</p> + +<p>The Bow Street gentlemen, having drunk their glasses of cold brandy and +water, got up, saying they must be off.</p> + +<p>'Yer'll put me ashore, won't yer?' asked the girl.</p> + +<p>'Ay, they'll put you ashore,' said Mr. Vanderholt, slipping a sovereign +into the hand of one of them; 'and here's for a knot of gay ribbons for +you, miss,' said he, laughing at the figure of the woman, 'when you're +clear of this spree, and in petticoats again.'</p> + +<p>She thrust the sovereign into her breeches pocket, muttering 'Thank you, +sir,' whilst she scowled at the two officers.</p> + +<p>'Come along, miss, if you're coming; for we're off,' said one of the +men.</p> + +<p>The young woman followed them, gazing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> about her as she went as though +she had only just discovered that she was in a very richly-furnished +cabin, and in the presence of a gentleman and a very finely-dressed, +handsome young lady. She wore an expression that was like asking 'Where +am I? How did I get here? What's it about?' And then, pausing an instant +at the foot of the companion-steps, to look at Miss Violet, and say, 'It +was all along of Bill; but he'll get it 'ot when I meet him,' she went +up the ladder in the wake of Captain Glew.</p> + +<p>'Let them get clear of the schooner,' said Mr. Vanderholt, casting +himself upon a sofa. 'They're not what you would call pickings from the +sweetest of the social orders.'</p> + +<p>'What did she intend?'</p> + +<p>'She couldn't have told you. When women of that sort go mad with +jealousy, "stand by," as Jack says. She'd have had Maul's life, perhaps, +before we were out of the Channel.'</p> + +<p>He was interrupted by a great commotion on deck—loud cries of men, +mingled with the yells of a woman.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p><p>'Stop here, Violet!' cried Mr. Vanderholt; and he rushed up the steps.</p> + +<p>The deck-house door was open. The light of the lantern streamed freely +into the air, and illuminated a considerable area of plank, in the midst +of which a fight was apparently going on, for it was thence the uproar +proceeded. Mr. Vanderholt ran forward, and saw the girl tearing with +outstretched claws at one of the men as though she would rend him in +pieces. His trouble was to get away. He butted and dodged behind his +elbow, shouting: 'S'elp me Bob, Polly, it worn't no fault o' mine'! And +then she would shriek out: 'Yer drove me to it! It was along o' you, and +not Bill, you sink——' And here she would nearly tear his ear off; and +then she got at his hair, whilst the man, never offering to hit her, +danced in the light, shouting with pain, and swearing that he had had +nothing to do with it.</p> + +<p>'Stop it!' roared Captain Glew. 'Is a gentleman's yacht to be disgraced +by a stowaway spitfire? Help her into the boat, Mr. Officers;' and +plunging, they bore the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> girl out of her entangled embrace of Maul, and +in a few minutes they were over the side, and gone.</p> + +<p>The crew followed Maul into the deck-house, and a grunt of laughter went +along with them.</p> + +<p>'What have you been a-doing to her?' says one.</p> + +<p>'Where's my 'at?' said Maul.</p> + +<p>'What do it feel like, Frederick?' sung out a sailor named Legg. 'As if +you was married?'</p> + +<p>'Never mind <i>her</i>. I'm a-thinking of what I've left behind me, my joys,' +exclaimed a seaman.</p> + +<p>'I'm durned mighty glad I sold off all my furniture,' said the +deep-throated Jack who had on an early occasion made a statement on this +subject.</p> + +<p>Father and daughter sat in the cabin till half-past ten. Miss Violet was +then sleepy, and went to bed. When she left her berth in the morning the +schooner was under weigh, storming through Sea Reach, with half a gale +of wind astern of her, and a thunderstorm of hell's own hue lancing the +land<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> beyond Canvey Island with lightning that fell in showers of fiery +bayonets. It was a majestic, sublime, terrible storm. The girl, standing +in the companion-way, was fascinated. The sun peeped at a corner of this +purple-black bank of vapour, off which rags of tempest, gilded by his +radiance, were blowing sheer across the wind, whilst for miles the edge +of the electric mass was a line of glorious light. It was as though a +bed of fire lay on top, with the molten stuff darting in flames through +the swollen belly; and the thunder roared in rattling broadsides.</p> + +<p>The noble, dangerous scene of sky, however, was soon far astern; and the +schooner sped on, carving out a grass-green comber with her chisel-like +stem, and leaving the tail of a comet blowing in froth behind her. And +now did nothing noticeable happen for some days. They met with heavy +weather in the Channel. The wind darkened with snow, and the <i>Mowbray</i>, +under small canvas, ratched, panting over the crazy, choppy sea behind +the Goodwins for a board that should open her a free run down the +English coast. Miss Violet was rather <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>sea-sick. Strange to say, her +father was rather sea-sick, too.</p> + +<p>'This motion,' he growled to Captain Glew, whilst he grasped a decanter +of brandy by the neck, 'is not an honest heave. I am a good sailor in +seas where the head and the stomach swing together, but when the stomach +leaps at the head, and the head darts back from the stomach, leaving a +sensation of brains in one's very toes, I give up.'</p> + +<p>And so saying, he swallowed a glass of brandy, and lay down.</p> + +<p>It was now that Miss Vi felt the want of a maid, or, at all events, of a +stewardess to attend upon her. But Vanderholt had been dogged and Dutch +in this matter when they had talked about the voyage at home. He would +have no women, he said; they would be going forward among the men, and +breeding trouble. Was it not good for Violet that she should learn to +help herself? Could not she do her own hair? Then let her cut it off; it +would be growing whilst they were away. These trifles illustrated Mr. +Vanderholt's eccentricities as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> a rich man, and Violet's submissiveness +as an only daughter.</p> + +<p>However, the fine girl was not so ill but that she could manage for +herself. Her nausea had left her, whilst her father still lay grunting, +incapable of smoking, and gray as his beard. She waited upon him, and +stood upright with ease upon a bounding deck by his side, holding on to +nothing but her own hands. He rolled a languid eye of admiration over +her.</p> + +<p>'I did not bargain for this,' said he, 'or, as God is my witness, we +would have joined the hooker at Plymouth.'</p> + +<p>'Where are we now?'</p> + +<p>'In the Chops, where the Channel always shows its teeth,' answered Mr. +Vanderholt, with an ashy grin of nausea.</p> + +<p>Vanderholt need not have been ashamed. Nelson, whilst rolling in the +Downs, wrote with pathetic irritability to his Emma of his incessant +sickness. A man has stepped ashore after a voyage to Australia. Would +not you suppose him seasoned? Yet, on crossing the Channel in one of the +small steamers, he was more violently sick than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> the most prostrate of +the Frenchmen who lay in cloaks, with tureens by their sides, helpless +about the decks.</p> + +<p>'There is the Bay of Biscay to come,' said Miss Violet, with a lurking +hope that, if her father's sickness continued, he would order Captain +Glew to steer for home again.</p> + +<p>'Yes, it is not far off, and I hope it may blow a hurricane when we get +there, for then I shall be all right. I like a tall sea. Man and boy, I +never could stand these rugged little Channel tumblers. Call for the +steward, my dear. I want some tea.'</p> + +<p>The old gentleman was not very accurate in his description of the state +of the ocean, nevertheless. A large and liberal sea was running +steadfast, in charging hills of green, which crumbled into foam. The +torn scud flew fast. Every hollow was the wide and seething valley of +Atlantic waters; and as the hull of the schooner sank into the trough, +you might catch in the noise of expiring spray, in the explosion of +coloured bubbles, winking like stars in beds of froth, a sound of +martial music.</p> + +<p>The <i>Mowbray</i> was making splendid weather<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> of it. The wind was right +abeam. She took the seas in steady lifts and falls. Regularly as the +beat of a pulse, the hull would disappear. She seemed a foundered craft, +till, in a minute, up she'd soar, with marble-hard breasts of canvas, +leaping like some creation or possession of the deep to the height of a +surge, bursting the flickering green peak into smoke, which blew away in +rainbows whenever the sun rolled out of some solemn-sailing cloud under +which the scud was scattering like smoke.</p> + +<p>It was half-past eleven o'clock in the morning. Captain Glew, coming +below for his sextant, looked in on Mr. Vanderholt, and exchanged a few +sentences with him touching affairs aboard. The schooner had been +liberally provisioned with fresh meat and loaves of bread for the +forecastle use, and, so far, the men had sat down to a fresh mess every +day. But carcasses and quarters, ribs and heads, and rumps must, unless +they are pickled, soon take a character to call 'avast,' even to a +sailor's appetite. Indeed, all the fresh meat was gone. It had been +eaten up.</p> + +<p>It was the dinner-hour aboard the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span><i>Mowbray</i>—at sea, before the mast, +everybody used to sit down and eat his dinner by the sun, at the same +time, no matter in what ocean he floated—and three or four men were +gathered about the door of the little caboose, waiting to carry the kids +into the deck-house.</p> + +<p>A hairy, tattooed lump of a man, named Simon Toole, after snuffling a +bit, exclaimed:</p> + +<p>'If it's to be pay-soup, maties, at the rate of this smell, then I'll +tell yer a story it reminds me of. Micky M'Carthy was able seaman on +board a brigantine. She foundered in mid-ocean. They'd just time to +chuck something to eat and drink into her, and there they was, afloat +under a broiling sun. By-'n-by, wan of thim, feeling thirsty, goes for a +drink, and what d'ye think they found they had shipped for water, which +was all the drink, by gob, they had? Casther-oil, bullies! It was +Micky's doing. He had mustook breakers of oil for breakers of water, and +then, all hands feeling thirsty, they nearly kilt him.'</p> + +<p>'Lads,' said a man named Dabb, 'now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> there's no fresh beef left, I'm +a-going to feel hungry.'</p> + +<p>'That's nater,' exclaimed Toole; 'knock, and there ain't no room. It's +always t'other ways about in this world. What couldn't I sit down and +ate? Everything, bedad, but the stuff they're going to give me.'</p> + +<p>'The capt'n looks plump,' said Dabb darkly, looking aft at Captain Glew, +who stood with a sextant upon the quarter. 'He's fed so well that I'm +gorged if he's left any room for a smile in his face.'</p> + +<p>'I knew a skipper,' said the cook, lounging half out of the galley-door, +and plunging into the conversation a little irrelevantly, 'who used to +talk to his ship and his masts as if they was alive. He'd look up at his +maintaws'l, and say: "D'ye think you could stand it if I shook a single +reef out of yer? Why, then, all right"; and then he'd bawl out the order +to the men. Next he'd step back right aft, paying no heed to the fellow +at the wheel, and looking aloft, would say to his mizzen taws'l, "I +think a reef can come out of you, too. Does the mast feel equal to the +strain, d'ye think? Why, then, my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> lads, jump aloft, and shake a reef +out of the mizzen taws'l." He was a queer dawg,' continued the +cook—'fat as a slug, and as long in seeing a thing as a balloon's in +falling.'</p> + +<p>Seeing the captain looking, he slunk back to his coppers.</p> + +<p>Presently the pea-soup and pork were ready, the kids were filled, and +the hands went to dinner. They sat on sea-chests, the kids were upon the +deck, and the sailors plunged their sheath-knives into the pale, fat +lumps of meat, and took what they wanted, a few using tin dishes, and +some ship's biscuit, as trenchers.</p> + +<p>'Blast me!' after a grim silence, presently exclaims James Jones, who +had shipped as boatswain and carpenter, 'if I don't think the Dutchman +has sneaked us aboard on the cheap. This here's no food for a man.'</p> + +<p>He held aloft a morsel of pork, and squinted up at it.</p> + +<p>'Yer taste'll grow,' said a sailor, with a sullen laugh. 'The flavour of +roast beef ain't out of your mouth yet, Jim.'</p> + +<p>'He'll be a mean cuss,' said the boatswain,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> continuing to squint +dangerously at the piece of pork, 'if it's to be no better than this.'</p> + +<p>'Here's the yarn of the meanest thing that ever was read of in books,' +said a seaman named Mike Scott. 'A man once said to me: "When I was a +boy, I stood at my father's gate, with a kitten on my shoulder. A man on +horseback stops and says: 'I likes to see little boys kind to animals. +Here's a farden for ye, sonny.'" And with that he gives him a button, +and then rides off. Who was it, d'ye think? Why, the Dook o' +Vellington.'</p> + +<p>'Not a vord agin the Dook. He's my godfather,' said a man.</p> + +<p>'I'm a-going to complain of this meat,' said the boatswain, starting up.</p> + +<p>Retaining the piece on the end of his knife, he stepped out of the +house, and walked aft.</p> + +<p>Captain Glew saw him coming, yet did not look towards him. On the +contrary, he began to take sights. Yet, as though he carried a slip of +looking-glass in the side of his nose, he saw the man approaching, and +he did not want to see that the boatswain held, on a level with his +face, a piece of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> meat at the end of his knife, to guess that his errand +was thunder-charged with the old-fashioned forecastle growl. The +captain's face was incapable of any play of expression. It was hard +beyond the holding of any further meaning the man's spirit or heart +could put into it. But his eyes could look all the abominations of a +tyrannical soul; and when he perceived the boatswain approaching, his +right eye gazed with a devilish malice at the sun through the little +telescope attached to his sextant.</p> + +<p>Many minutes passed before he heeded the man, who had drawn close and +stood waiting to be noticed. A huddle of heads, all looking in one +direction, with but one leg exposed, as though the crew had been changed +into one of those many-headed giants you read of in fairy tales, +embellished the deck-house door. The red-faced mate stood near the helm. +Presently, the captain, with his eye still gummed to his sextant, seemed +to see the man.</p> + +<p>'What d'yer want, Jones?'</p> + +<p>'I'd like yer to taste this piece of meat, sir. It isn't fit food for +men.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p><p>Captain Glew slowly let his sextant sink from his eye, and exclaimed:</p> + +<p>'Jones, I shipped you for a respectable, quiet sailor. This is a +gentleman's yacht. Don't disturb our quiet by anything in the South +Spainer or Cape Horn way.'</p> + +<p>'Yacht or no yacht, cap'n, this is strong meat, killed diseased; the +sorter stuff, if consumed, to lay the whole ship's company low with the +sickness the beast died of. Smell of it.'</p> + +<p>He offered the knife, with the pork on it, to the captain.</p> + +<p>'The fault is in the cooking,' said the captain; 'it always is; it +always will be. Go and growl to Allan.'</p> + +<p>'Is the rest of the pork to be like this?' said Jones, taking the dollop +off the point of his knife, and seeming to weigh it in the palm of his +gigantic, tar-stained hand.</p> + +<p>'Go forward and finish your dinner, Jones, and leave me to get an +observation,' said Captain Glew, with a very forbidding glance.</p> + +<p>He applied his sextant once more to his eye, walking a little way aft.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p><p>The boatswain stood looking from him to the piece of pork, and from the +piece of pork to him; then saying, 'There goes my dinner,' he jerked the +pale, rather bluish lump over the side, and rolled forward.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>CHAPTER IV.</span> <span class="smaller">CAPTAIN MARY LIND.</span></h2> + +<p>Next day they broached a cask of beef for the forecastle. The meat +proved fairly sweet, and that and a kidful of currant-dumplings kept the +men quiet. But on the following day the bad pork was served out again. +Captain Glew refused to hear the boatswain on the subject, and those of +the men who could not swallow the meat made shift for a meal with +pea-soup and ship's biscuit.</p> + +<p>Not a word of this trouble, which Captain Glew must have known was +charged with one of the deadliest of all ocean menaces, reached Mr. +Vanderholt.</p> + +<p>'I'll not have him worried,' said Glew to the mate. 'If you sent them a +Mansion House tuck-out, the fiends would growl,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> tell you it wasn't +Galapagos turtle, and that they'd hooked better salmon out of cans. I'm +responsible for the stores. I knew what I was about when I ordered them. +Surely you know Humph Lyons, the ships' chandler in Dock Street, +Limehouse? He's shipped for me before, and he's likewise shipped for my +owners, and I've never heard a murmur against him.'</p> + +<p>'Was that the Lyons an action was brought against for selling condemned +Admiralty stores as good food for merchant sailors?' said Mr. Tweed, +with a grin.</p> + +<p>'It was his brother,' said Captain Glew. 'A man can't be responsible for +his relations.'</p> + +<p>'As to relations,' said Mr. Tweed, 'a man may try his darned hardest to +be all that's right, and in conformity with the law and piety, and still +find himself adrift at the end. I remember a skipper saying to me: "It's +all very well to say, 'Honour thy father and thy mother,' but I knew a +man who all his life did his fired best to honour his father, and when +his mother lay dying she told him, with the tears running over her +cheeks,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> that the man he'd been a-honouring all his life had never been +his father at all!"'</p> + +<p>Here the groggy little man set up so loud a laugh that Captain Glew +walked away, and the conversation came to an end.</p> + +<p>The days passed. The <i>Mowbray</i> broke the seas of the Bay clothed to her +royal yard. Blue sky was over her, and sunshine bright as that of the +English June lighted up the rolling ocean. By this time Mr. Vanderholt +was perfectly recovered, and had ceased to apologize to Captain Glew for +being sea-sick. He smoked his long pipe. He stalked the deck arm-in-arm +with his daughter. He repeatedly asked her and Captain Glew how they +thought he was looking; and Captain Glew swore that in all his life he +had never seen any gentleman pick up so surprisingly fast.</p> + +<p>'I'm quite sure,' the captain said, 'Miss Vanderholt will agree with me, +sir, when I say that you're looking ten years younger this same day than +at the hour of your starting.'</p> + +<p>Miss Violet smiled, and Vanderholt stroked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> his beard, and grinned till +his eyes faded into little wrinkles.</p> + +<p>One fine hot morning, when the <i>Mowbray</i> was far to the southward of the +Madeira parallels, Mr. Vanderholt and his daughter came on deck from the +breakfast-table, and seated themselves under the shelter of a short +awning. The young lady held a novel. Mr. Vanderholt smoked his immense +and richly-coloured pipe. Captain Glew passed them in short to-and-fro +look-out excursions; and forward the little ship carried a busy face, +with seamen at work on the hundred jobs which, fair or foul, a vessel +exacts from her crew at sea. A soft wind blew. The sky was capacious +with the clarity of the horizon, and wondrous lofty with light cloud, +resembling froth that dries in curls upon a beach.</p> + +<p>A ship was in sight on the starboard quarter, going away north-west, +under square yards. Her spires trembled in the moist, rich distance, as +though they were rays of starlight, twisting, burning, dying. She had +been too far off to signal, nor did Mr. Vanderholt seem particularly +anxious that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> the safety and whereabouts of his little ship should be +reported at home.</p> + +<p>'Who is troubling his head about us, do you think?' he had said to his +daughter on one occasion when this question of reporting had arisen +between him and Glew. 'I am not insured. No man in the city is concerned +for me. And of our friends, how many are thinking of us?'</p> + +<p>And he held up two fingers with a satirical smile, as though he should +say, 'D'ye think two are thinking of us?'</p> + +<p>'If George returns before we do,' Miss Vi had said in reply, 'I should +like him to know that all was well with us down to the date on which we +were last heard of.'</p> + +<p>'We'll signal steam,' had been old Vanderholt's answer. 'Anything blown +along by canvas will not arrive at home very much earlier than we +shall.'</p> + +<p>Now, on this morning—this fine hot morning—they sat together in very +comfortable deck-chairs, one trying to read a novel, the other finding +his tobacco delicious in the open air. Presently, directing her eyes at +some men who sat at work stitching upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> a sail near the galley, Miss +Vanderholt said:</p> + +<p>'How could any man be a sailor! How could you have survived such a +horrible life! See how hard those men are kept at work all day; and at +night they have to watch, wet or dry, for four hours at a time.'</p> + +<p>'Ay; and the colder it is, and the damper it is, and the more abominable +in a general way the whole precious weather is, the harder they have to +watch,' answered Vanderholt.</p> + +<p>'Have sailors no amusements?' inquired his daughter.</p> + +<p>'How do sailors amuse themselves, Glew?' called Mr. Vanderholt.</p> + +<p>And the man, arresting his look-out walk, stood up before father and +daughter.</p> + +<p>'By growling, sir,' answered Glew.</p> + +<p>Miss Vanderholt did not like the expression that entered Captain Glew's +eyes when he made that answer.</p> + +<p>'A happy, well-disciplined crew are the jolliest company of men in the +world,' said Mr. Vanderholt. 'They have plenty to eat, no rent to pay, +dollars for the girls at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> end of the voyage, and they behold the +wonders of the world at the cost of the ship-owner—poor fellow! For +diversions, think—they dance in the dog-watch, they sing songs and tell +stories, they play at cards, they fight——'</p> + +<p>'A little, sir,' said Captain Glew.</p> + +<p>'We made a sport of fighting in our time,' said Vanderholt. 'We'd take +two men, and nail them face to face on a sea-chest, with long spikes +driven through the stern of their trousers. It was good sport.'</p> + +<p>He opened his mouth to let out a cloud, smiling at some forecastle +recollections, which perhaps caused him to regret that his daughter was +present, for he found Glew a good listener.</p> + +<p>'Sailors take some pleasure in cards,' said Captain Glew. 'I remember, +when I was second-mate of a ship, having occasion to go forward. It was +night, a dead calm; a frightful thunderstorm was about us; the lightning +was hissing like snakes all over everything that was metal aloft, and +every crash of thunder was like the splitting of the heavens by God's +own hand in wrath. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> took a peep down the forecastle, and in the midst +of this tremendous commotion, which was fit to subdue the heart of the +stoutest, sat four sailors at a chest, playing at cards, a lighted +candle in a bottle in the midst of them, all so intent on the game that +they heard and saw nothing.'</p> + +<p>'Sail-ho!' at this moment sang out a fellow aloft, on the little +top-gallant yard.</p> + +<p>'Where away?' shouted Glew, with the sharp of his hand to his mouth.</p> + +<p>'Right ahead, sir!' cried down the seaman, in a sort of chant.</p> + +<p>'If she's going to England you shall make our number, Glew—for George's +sake,' said Mr. Vanderholt, looking at his daughter.</p> + +<p>Just then the boatswain hailed the sailor on the top-gallant yard, and +gave him some directions.</p> + +<p>'That Jones is a fine-looking man,' said Mr. Vanderholt; 'such as he +should never want a ship. What's his nation?'</p> + +<p>'London, sir.'</p> + +<p>'A mighty nation!' exclaimed Miss Violet.</p> + +<p>'Which does not believe in a God,' said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> Vanderholt, 'though it worships +a Madonna called Our Lady of Threadneedle Street.'</p> + +<p>'There's many a pilgrim always bound to that shrine,' said Captain Glew, +trying to smile.</p> + +<p>'I am of Dutch extraction,' continued Mr. Vanderholt; 'but never dropped +the letter H, nor found the V's and W's difficult. I have +out-generationed that trouble of the foreigner. But why is it that the +Cockney should drop his H? You speak of London. Think of the number of +H's which are dropped in it every day!'</p> + +<p>'George once made a pun,' exclaimed Miss Vanderholt. 'We were talking of +a certain young lady, and I said: "Do you observe that she drops her +H's?" "Her sister does worse," he answered. "Address her and she drops +her eyes."'</p> + +<p>Captain Glew again tried to smile. Mr. Vanderholt, expelling a great +cloud of smoke, burst in:</p> + +<p>'Yes; and I'll tell you what those girls' father once said to me at an +evening party. He took me aside, and said: "Did you ever 'ear of that +fine riddle in rhyme supposed to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> have been written by Lord Byron, +though it's attributed to a lady? I'll tell it you," and my friend, with +a grave face, began:</p> + +<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div>'"'Twas whispered in 'eaven; 'twas muttered in 'ell'"—</div> +</div></div></div> + +<p>and so he went on to the end. "Well," says he, "what is it?" "I give it +up," says I. "The letter H," says he.'</p> + +<p>'Did you ever see a funeral at sea, father?' inquired Miss Vanderholt, +watching the ship ahead, that was growing larger and whiter.</p> + +<p>'Scores, my blessing; much too many. We shipped a heavy cargo at Bombay, +and amongst it was cholera. I can still hear, in that dead calm of +twelve days, the recurrent, sullen plunge of the shotted corpse.'</p> + +<p>'The worst of being buried is, that you don't know what they're saying +about you,' said Captain Glew. 'That's true, whether ashore or whether +at sea. As the corpse goes along in the car, it might like to know what +sort of a following it had, how the people who'd been thought friends +had turned out. Yet, I dare say,' he went on, 'that if a man could get +up and listen a bit,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> and take a look round, he'd be glad to sneak +back.'</p> + +<p>'Yes; if he had to hear his will read in a room full of relations,' said +Miss Violet.</p> + +<p>'I have often thought this,' said Mr. Vanderholt: 'that a man who is a +genius and famous should provide by his will for a quiet funeral; for, +by doing so, he guards against the risk of neglect.'</p> + +<p>This was a touch above Glew. Mr. Vanderholt rose, and went to the rail +to knock out the ashes of his pipe into the sea. Miss Violet began to +read, and the captain fell to walking the deck.</p> + +<p>The ship ahead grew rapidly. It was first like the half of the crescent +moon leaning and shining, then it swelled into cotton-white canvas and a +green hull. But the sun ate up the wind at noon. The vessels were then +two miles apart, and it was not until about three in the afternoon that +they were wafted by cat's-paws within speaking distance. She was a +little barque, dingy with long travel. Her copper was green. Her +figure-head was a romantic imagination. It represented a nymph, with her +black hair fairly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> concealing her shape, extending her arms in a posture +of ecstasy at a large gilt star that was fixed within a foot or two of +her hands. Her canvas shone like satin, and at her mizzen-peak end +languidly swung the Stripes and Stars, a very large flag, looking +brand-new. A number of men, some of them coloured, lay over the +forecastle-rail, indolently watching the <i>Mowbray</i>. The barque had a +little poop, and upon it, with one foot resting on a hen-coop and one +hand grasping a backstay, stood the most extraordinary figure Mr. +Vanderholt had ever beheld.</p> + +<p>It resembled a man dressed in what, in former ages, were known as +petticoat-breeches. Their plenty made them look like a frock. Inspecting +this figure through a binocular glass, Mr. Vanderholt perceived that the +rest of its garb consisted of a white shirt, a silk handkerchief, tied +in a sailor's knot under a wide turned-down collar, a braided jacket, +blue, and a cap with a naval peak, much after the pattern that is worn +by yachting men.</p> + +<p>A short, square man stood at the wheel, that blazed in a brass circle to +the sun, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> beside him stood another man, remarkable for nothing but a +long goatlike beard, and a blue cap, tasselled, pointed, and +overhanging, such as mutinous smacksmen wear in Italian opera.</p> + +<p>'A queer ship's company!' exclaimed Mr. Vanderholt to Glew. 'In all your +going a-fishing did you ever see the like of such a sailor-man as that +chap yonder in the trousers?'</p> + +<p>Captain Glew's reply was arrested by a hail from the little barque.</p> + +<p>'Ho!' shrilled the strange figure in breeches. 'The schooner ahoy! What +schooner are you?'</p> + +<p>'The <i>Mowbray</i>, of London, on a cruise. What ship are you?'</p> + +<p>'The <i>Wife's Hope</i>, from Calcutta to New York! Eighty days out! Jute and +linseed! We're short of sugar: can you loan me some?'</p> + +<p>All this was delivered in the voice of a bantam-cock, delirious with +continuous triumphant clarioning.</p> + +<p>'The <i>Wife's Hope</i>,' said Mr. Vanderholt, turning to his daughter. +'Here's some Yankee notion.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p><p>'If that figure's not a woman,' answered Violet, 'it does not speak +with the voice of a man.'</p> + +<p>After a brief consultation with Mr. Vanderholt, Captain Glew shouted:</p> + +<p>'I think we can let you have some sugar—a cask of moist, and some lump, +to help you along to the next ship. We'll carry it aboard for you.'</p> + +<p>The figure in breeches flourished its hand in a gesture of delight, and +then began to walk the short poop with superior stately strides, +constantly directing glances at the yacht. The <i>Mowbray</i> carried three +good boats, and the boat amidships was the long-boat; this was promptly +got over the side. They broke out a cask of moist sugar and a case of +lump; and a crew having entered her, Mr. and Miss Vanderholt were +steered by Mr. Tweed to the <i>Wife's Hope</i> over the glazed heave of the +deep-blue afternoon swell.</p> + +<p>Very hot it was. The sunshine tingled in the water, and the trembling +fire rose roasting to the face.</p> + +<p>'Do you think we shall be welcome,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> father?' said Miss Vanderholt, a +little nervously.</p> + +<p>'We are here to see the wonders of the deep,' answered Mr. Vanderholt, +'whether they welcome us or not; and yonder figure seems to me to be one +of the greatest wonders in the world.'</p> + +<p>'It is a woman, sir,' said Mr. Tweed.</p> + +<p>'A female ship-master,' exclaimed Mr. Vanderholt. 'The <i>Wife's Hope</i>! It +should be the <i>Husband's Despair</i>.'</p> + +<p>Miss Violet was gazing at the receding shape of the <i>Mowbray</i>. The +schooner lightly leaned with the swell, darting glances of flame as she +swayed. Tender, blue fingers of shadow, like an outstretched hand in +front of the sun, overran her sails, and the swing of her canvas was a +miracle of milk-white light and violet shade against the hot liquid blue +of the afternoon sky.</p> + +<p>'A vessel like that is like a horse,' said Violet: 'you want to pat her +side, to whisper encouraging words to her, to thank her for the noble, +sweeping pace she has carried you at. How little she looks, and how +lonely!'</p> + +<p>They were fast approaching the barque.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> The petticoat-trousered figure, +seeing that company was coming, had ordered a ladder to be thrown over +the side, and she—for a woman it was—stood in the open gangway to +receive the visitors.</p> + +<p>'Have you brought what we asked you for?' she cried, the strain in her +voice lifting it to a shriek.</p> + +<p>Tweed answered with one of those tumbling gesticulations—a peculiar +drunken, rounding fall of the arm and dropping of the head—which with +sailors stand for 'yes.'</p> + +<p>'Jump aloft, a hand,' screamed the lady skipper, 'and make fast a whip +to the yard-arm! I'll want that sugar carefully hoisted!'</p> + +<p>The boat drove alongside, and Mr. and Miss Vanderholt ascended the short +ladder. Now that they stood close, they found that by no possibility +could her garb make a man of the captain, with her large fine eyes and +delicate features, though sunburnt to deformity. She was a tall woman, +with a lofty, commanding air, which was not to be neutralized by +anything diverting in the suggestions of her apparel. She looked hard at +Miss Violet, and ran her eyes over her dress;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> her sex spoke in that, +spite of her cropped head and abundant breeks.</p> + +<p>'I have brought a cask of moist sugar, and a case of broken lump,' said +Mr. Vanderholt, lifting his hat; 'and, madam, if you are in command of +this vessel, it gives me a very singular satisfaction to make your +acquaintance.'</p> + +<p>'Don't call me "madam," I beg, sir!' exclaimed the other, showing a +white set of teeth in a cordial smile, full of spirit. 'I am Captain +Lind.'</p> + +<p>'Captain Lind, then,' said Mr. Vanderholt, again lifting his hat, whilst +his eyes disappeared in a grin full of wrinkles.</p> + +<p>'You are the owner of that yacht, I reckon?' said Captain Lind; and Miss +Vanderholt noticed the American accent in the skipper's speech.</p> + +<p>'Ay, captain, that's my yacht, and this is my daughter,' answered +Vanderholt, continuing to grin with all his might, whilst he looked +first at Captain Lind, and then aloft, and then along the decks.</p> + +<p>'What do I owe you for that sugar?' said Captain Lind.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p><p>'Our visit fully discharges your obligations, captain. There is enough, +maybe, to keep you sweet till you get more.'</p> + +<p>'Well, I thank you,' said the lady skipper; 'and when I have seen that +cask safely inboards, we'll go into the cabin and drink a cup of tea.'</p> + +<p>Mr. Vanderholt pulled out his watch, then, hailing Glew, said that he +and Miss Vanderholt would remain another half-hour on board the barque.</p> + +<p>'Don't let the vessels slide far apart, Glew!' he roared. 'Tweed, whilst +we're below keep a bright look-out on the weather.'</p> + +<p>The mate of the <i>Mowbray</i> touched his cap.</p> + +<p>Miss Vanderholt stared with amazement at Captain Lind. A woman in charge +of a ship! A woman qualified to handle the complicated machinery of the +gear and sails of a barque of no mean tonnage, as tonnage then went! Did +the men obey her? Wasn't she afraid of her sailors? And Miss Violet +turned to inspect the seamen who were getting the sugar aboard in the +gangway, whilst others lay on the rail lazily<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> staring at the <i>Mowbray</i> +from the forecastle-head. A rough lot they looked—rougher even than the +<i>Mowbray's</i> crew, by virtue, no doubt, of their apparel, which was +showing very much like the end of a long voyage. They carried +sheath-knives on their hips, straw hats or Scotch caps on their heads; +their naked breasts disclosed the wool upon them through rents in the +flying wide dungaree shirt. And a woman had command of these fellows, +had held them obedient, and brought them and the ship in safety to that +part of the ocean in which the <i>Mowbray</i> had encountered them! Who had +ever heard of such a thing? It was a fact worth going to sea to realize. +'How George will laugh and doubt when I tell him!' Miss Vanderholt +thought, as she looked with wonder, deepening ever, at the amazing +figure built up of petticoat-trousers and blue jacket, very plentifully +braided.</p> + +<p>When the sugar was on board, Captain Lind, calling to the man in the +opera-cap, said:</p> + +<p>'See that cask safely stowed. This is a chance that mightn't happen +again 'twixt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> here and New York; and I tell you, mister,' said she, +turning to Mr. Vanderholt, 'that I have missed the sugar in my cup of +tea. I have a sweet tooth. Who is that gent?' she continued, looking at +Mr. Tweed.</p> + +<p>'He is the mate of my schooner,' answered Mr. Vanderholt.</p> + +<p>'Then, see here, Mr. Prunes,' she cried, with a womanly yell that +broadened Tweed's mouth from ear to ear; 'whilst we're at tea below, +you'll see that this gentleman has some refreshment. He can ask for what +he likes, and if we've got it, he can have it. Send the boy aft, Mr. +Prunes.'</p> + +<p>All this was addressed to the tasselled seaman who was apparently the +mate of the ship.</p> + +<p>Captain Lind then conducted Mr. Vanderholt and his daughter below into +the cabin—a little interior, rude in comparison with the <i>Mowbray's</i> +cabin, yet comfortable and breezy with the panting of the heel of a +windsail, as the swing of the barque swelled the mouth of the tube +aloft. There were two little cabins aft, and two little cabins forward, +and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> a little square table amidships. A small black boy arrived.</p> + +<p>'Bring tea and biscuit, and tell Mr. Prunes to give you some lump sugar. +Don't eat none. Now spring! Hurrah!'</p> + +<p>The lad, with a grin, leapt up the ladder, and the soles of his naked +feet glimmered like bars of yellow soap as he disappeared.</p> + +<p>'I never heard before of a lady taking command of a ship,' said Mr. +Vanderholt.</p> + +<p>Captain Lind pulled her cap off, and disclosed a head of rich brown +hair, cut short, and divided in the middle.</p> + +<p>'Well,' she answered, stretching forth her hand as an invitation to Miss +Violet to seat herself, 'I'm not what is called in your country a lady. +I'm just a plain Amurrican woman. Of course you've never heard of such a +thing as a woman in charge of a ship. Are you an Englishman, sir?'</p> + +<p>'Why, yes. My name is foreign—Vanderholt; but I am an Englishman.'</p> + +<p>'Names don't signify now in the nationalities of folks,' exclaimed +Captain Lind, smiling at Miss Violet. 'Look at Amurrica.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> They're coming +fast, and when they settle they call themselves Amurricans. I can tell +you, sir, there are very few Amurricans in Amurrica. Who's the Amurrican +of to-day? Is he Mr. O'Brien, or is he Herr Von Dunks?'</p> + +<p>'You asked me if I was an Englishman,' said Mr. Vanderholt, who was +greatly entertained by the singular figure this strange, fine, original +woman presented, as she sat at table, talking, and waiting for a cup of +tea.</p> + +<p>'Yes; because if you're an Englishman you'll be a century astern of us +in Amurrica. We had to show you the road in nearly everything of +consequence. We gave you steam,' said the lady, coolly making way for +the negro boy, who just then arrived with tea—a japanned tray with an +old silver teapot upon it and a bowl of broken lump sugar.</p> + +<p>The captain instantly put one of these lumps into her mouth, and +continued to talk and suck while she poured out the milkless tea, and +shoved a plate of white biscuit towards Miss Vanderholt.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p><p>'We gave you steam, sir, and electricity. We taught you ship-building; +for, until the Amurricans began to build, shapeliness and speed weren't +known to the world. We offer you the double topsail. You'll take twenty +years to consider it,' she said, leaning back in her chair with a sneer, +while she lifted her saucer and teacup and began to sip in a ladylike +way.</p> + +<p>'I had no idea that we were so much in your debt,' said Mr. Vanderholt. +'But I tell you what: if you can induce the ladies of Great Britain to +study navigation, and take charge of ships, after the example you are +setting, there are a great many husbands who will be everlastingly +obliged to you for indicating a new source of income for the family, and +a sure chance for peace at home.'</p> + +<p>'You don't reckon, p'r'aps, that we Amurricans gave you electricity?' +said the lady skipper, who seemed to find something suspicious in Mr. +Vanderholt's answer. 'Who flew the kite? Who brought fire from the skies +so that a man might know what to do with it?'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p><p>Vanderholt, holding his countenance behind his beard, respectfully +bowed and sipped at his cup.</p> + +<p>'Are there other female captains like yourself in your country?' asked +Miss Vanderholt.</p> + +<p>'Two,' she answered; 'there may be more. I'm a third, certainly. Stop +till I spin the yarn. My father was a sea-captain, and when I was a girl +carried me with him on several voyages. My husband was the master of a +ship, and I always went to sea with him, and could discharge his duties +as well as he, and sometimes better. He died, and left me a childless +widow. But I was not poor. What with my father, and my husband, and here +and there a legacy, I had got to own a few thousand dollars, which I +didn't quite know what to do with, for I couldn't get value enough out +of the money to live upon.'</p> + +<p>Mr. Vanderholt pricked up his ears. Any reference to dollars and +interest engaged him. He listened, and forgot he was at sea.</p> + +<p>'Till one day,' continued Captain Lind, 'being at New York—I wasn't +then living in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> that city—I happened to pick up the <i>New York Hatchet</i>, +and, after reading it a bit, came across this passage——'</p> + +<p>She left the table and entered an after-berth. Mr. Vanderholt exchanged +looks with his daughter. Captain Lind returned, holding an old +newspaper. She seated herself, and, popping another lump of sugar into +her mouth, sucked, with a grave face, whilst she opened the paper. Then, +when the sugar was gone, she read aloud:</p> + +<p>'"Mrs. Sarah Davis, of New York, has just brilliantly passed her +examination for a certificate as shipmaster and pilot, and, on receiving +her certificate, will, it is announced, take the command of the yacht +<i>Emerald</i>. This lady is, it is said, not the first of her sex who has +been in command of a vessel. Mrs. Mary Miller, of New Orleans, obtained +a master's certificate a few years ago, and is now captain of the +full-rigged merchant-ship <i>Saline</i>."</p> + +<p>'When I read this, an idea came into my head, and I wasn't long in +making up my mind. There's no obligation in my country to take out a +master's certificate, any more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> than there is in yourn; but I was +determined to let 'm know I was fit to command a ship, and I presented +myself, and received some handsome compliments on a quality of all-round +knowledge sights in excess of what the average captain carries to the +ocean with him. This is my third voyage in the <i>Wife's Hope</i>.'</p> + +<p>'Why the <i>Wife's Hope</i>?' exclaimed Mr. Vanderholt. 'You told me you were +a widow.'</p> + +<p>'I named her the <i>Wife's Hope</i>,' answered Captain Lind, 'that she might +encourage married women cussed with drinking, loafing, idling, gambling, +worthless husbands, to direct their attention to a noble pursuit which +would carry them leagues clear of the troubles of home, put money in +their pockets, enable them to see the world and life, and help them,' +said she, putting another lump of sugar into her mouth, 'to acquire that +spirit of independence without which woman must always be meaner than +the plantation slave, and her case a gone sight more hopeless.'</p> + +<p>This little speech was delivered with some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> dignity. Mr. Vanderholt was +impressed, and ran his eyes over her figure, and looked at her face with +a countenance of earnest respect. The sugar in her mouth did not impair +the stateliness of her manner and utterance.</p> + +<p>'It would be more respectable and quiet than a divorce,' the captain +went on. 'You'd find no bad husband going to sea with his wife. The cuss +wouldn't have the liver for it.'</p> + +<p>'The star of your figure-head,' said Miss Violet, 'I suppose, is the art +of seamanship, and the figure stretching her hand towards it symbolizes +woman rapturously greeting a new calling?'</p> + +<p>'You've hit it down to the heels,' answered Captain Lind. 'It was my +notion. Quite a pome, ain't it? Were you pleased with it as you came +along?'</p> + +<p>'We were delighted,' said Mr. Vanderholt. 'I said to my daughter, or, if +I did not say it, it was in my mind to speak it, "There is in that +barque a strong original genius." America should distinguish you, +captain.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p><p>The captain bowed and smiled, and pushed the sugar-bowl away, that she +might not be tempted by its contents.</p> + +<p>'Aren't you afraid of your sailors?' asked Miss Vanderholt.</p> + +<p>'Afraid!' echoed the captain, bridling. 'What is there in sailors to be +afraid of? I have revolvers, and I know how to load and shoot, and I +should no more hesitate to send a ball through a mutinous seaman's nut +than put one of them lumps into my mouth. Don't you ever be afraid of +any man, miss. Why man bosses woman's jest a question of muscle. My crew +soon learnt the art of jumping to the music of my voice. I'm a little +shrill—don't reckon that I sink my sex in these clothes—and it may be +that sailors, being accustomed mainly to voices deep with drink and +hollow with vice, run the more nimbly for being called to in their +mother's tender notes. Will you have a cigar, sir?'</p> + +<p>And, without awaiting Mr. Vanderholt's reply, she entered a cabin, and, +after a short absence, returned with a box of cigars, a couple of loaded +revolvers, and two long, dangerous knives.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p><p>'They need no better discipline whenever it comes to it,' said she, +helping herself to another lump of sugar. 'Take a cigar, sir?'</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, on deck the mate of the <i>Mowbray</i> conversed with the mate of +the <i>Wife's Hope</i>. Mr. Tweed had asked for no other refreshment than a +glass of rum and cold water. He stood sucking a pipe in the gangway, +ready for the appearance of Mr. Vanderholt and his daughter on deck, and +beside him was Mr. Prunes. The first dog-watch had begun; it had seemed, +however, to Mr. Tweed that it was all dog-watch with the crew of the +<i>Wife's Hope</i>; they only appeared to lounge a little more now that one +of them had struck eight times on the forecastle bell. The sun was still +high, but his splendour was deepening, and the lights which sparkled +about the decks of the barque and in her sides were rich; she floated in +the silence upon the dark-blue sea, with the whole lazy spirit of the +hour in the sleepy droop of her canvas and the indolent roll of her +hull.</p> + +<p>'That's a fine schooner of yourn,' said Mr. Prunes to Mr. Tweed. 'It's +like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> having the Wight aboard to see her. Bound to the Equator, eh? And +what are you going to load there?'</p> + +<p>He pulled his long goatee, with a laugh that struck a shudder through +his cap.</p> + +<p>'This seems a pretty comfortable old barkey,' said Tweed, slowly looking +round him. 'Eighty days in finding your way here? Well, yer might have +done worse,' he added, with a look aloft. 'Doomed if I could keep my +face when I saw your skipper! It isn't that all that's becoming in a +female don't unite in her; it's her sex that makes me laugh.'</p> + +<p>'I shall be blamed glad when the voyage is ended,' said Prunes, pulling +off his cap, and wiping his forehead with it; and now Mr. Tweed was not +a little astonished to remark that this seaman wore his hair in a net. +'I signed more for a lark than for a berth. They told me that the +<i>Wife's Hope</i> was in want of a chief mate. She was in Calcutta, and I +hadn't been long out of 'orspital. I knew she was commanded by a woman, +and reckoned upon being treated as captain, in fact, though <i>she</i> might +call herself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> the old man. Never was a chap more mistaken. If she hasn't +held her own as master of this vessel from the moment the pilot left us, +I'll swallow that pipe.'</p> + +<p>'D'ye tell me she understands all about the manœuvring of a ship?' +said Tweed.</p> + +<p>'There's no man out of the Thames or Mersey who's got a trick above her, +blow high, blow low, bet all you're a-going to take up!' exclaimed +Prunes. 'See her put this craft about! It's yachting for nice +discernment. I never knew any master keep his weather-eye lifting as +this female do. She can smell what's coming along. She's reefed down +when the sky's been blue as it is, all hands have been growling and +laughing at her, and a quarter of an hour later the barque's been on her +beam-ends, and the sea just one yell o' froth!'</p> + +<p>'Doomed if it 'ud be a believable thing, if it couldn't be seen,' said +Tweed. 'What made t'other mate leave the ship?'</p> + +<p>'The same as'll make me glad to get to New York,' answered Mr. Prunes, +putting on his cap, and caressing the tassel, whilst his eyes met in a +squint of earnestness in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> grog-flowered countenance of Mr. Tweed. He +paused, and seemed to reflect.</p> + +<p>'What is it?' said Mr. Tweed.</p> + +<p>Mr. Prunes began to nod at him, and then said in a low, confidential +voice, and a glance aft at the companion-hatch:</p> + +<p>'She's in want of that sort of mate which ashore they calls a husband.'</p> + +<p>'Ha!' said Mr. Tweed; 'and it drove the other chap out of a good berth?'</p> + +<p>'Well, there was a many quarrels, I believe, afore they got to Calcutta. +Thinking that I might stand the better with her, seeing that I'm +middling young, and that the sea hasn't robbed me of all that I owe to +my mother, who was the handsomest woman in Shadwell, I kept dark about +my 'ome, and to this bloomed hour she don't know that I've got a wife +and three young uns awaiting my return in the little house I left 'em in +at Stepney.'</p> + +<p>'I'd up and tell her the truth, if I were you,' said Tweed.</p> + +<p>A gleam of cunning twinkled in Mr. Prunes's eyes.</p> + +<p>'I've been pretty comfortable for eighty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> days,' said he, 'under an +error. There's no call now to correct it, seeing that the end of the +voyage isn't fur off.'</p> + +<p>Whilst he spoke, Captain Lind and Mr. and Miss Vanderholt were coming on +deck. The captain sang out in a shrill, bantam-like voice, that caused +Prunes to glance somewhat sheepishly at Tweed:</p> + +<p>'The lady and gentleman are going aboard their schooner! See their boat +all ready!'</p> + +<p>Then, springing on to the rail with wonderful activity, she hailed the +<i>Mowbray</i>, and asked Captain Glew for his latitude and longitude. This +she received, and entered upon a piece of paper with a face of triumph. +Then, turning to Mr. Vanderholt, she exclaimed:</p> + +<p>'See here, sir! A mile out, and the error may be his.'</p> + +<p>'I am lost in admiration, I assure you,' said Vanderholt. 'I would +rather have met this barque than the <i>Flying Dutchman</i>. It will be far +more interesting to me to talk about than an apparition. It is really, +captain, an extraordinary departure! I wish you prosperity, I am sure, +ma'am.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p><p>He bowed low. The captain of the <i>Wife's Hope</i> then shook hands +cordially with Miss Vanderholt. Tweed got into the boat, and the party +returned to the <i>Mowbray</i>. Just before sunset a breeze came right along +the red, shortening shaft of glory, as though it blew out of the sun. +Both vessels immediately trimmed for their respective courses, and in an +hour's time the <i>Wife's Hope</i> had vanished in the starlit dusk of the evening.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>CHAPTER V.</span> <span class="smaller">ON THE EVE.</span></h2> + +<p>It was five days later, and in that time the <i>Mowbray</i> had drawn four +hundred miles closer to the Equator, still leaving a wide expanse of +water to be measured. The weather had been of a constant tropic beauty. +The heave of the Atlantic swell had the wide and solemn indolence of the +South Pacific fold.</p> + +<p>Mr. Vanderholt's face was crimson with the sea. He certainly looked +extremely well; so, too, did his daughter. The sun had caught her, spite +of a diligent use of her parasol and swift flights from his scorching +eye to the shelter of the awning. It had delicately spangled the fair +flesh of her face with some golden freckles, which somehow gave an +archness to her looks, and a whiter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> flash to her teeth, when the play +of her lips exposed them.</p> + +<p>This fifth day following the meeting with the <i>Wife's Hope</i> had glowed +through a cloudless splendour of sky into a glorious sunset, and a +promise of cool heavens, full of rich stars, with the Southern Cross—</p> + +<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div>'Memorial reverenced by a thousand storms'—</div> +</div></div></div> + +<p>low down over the jib-boom end.</p> + +<p>Mr. Vanderholt came on deck when the sun was gone, though all the west +was swimming in the fast waning crimson. A number of stars sparkled in +the east. Mr. Vanderholt looked at them with delight, for they reminded +him of the twinkling of the sky in windy summer trees.</p> + +<p>A pleasant air of wind was blowing. Now that the sun was gone, the +breeze seemed to fan over the bulwark-rail with the fragrance of a land +of flowers. It was a sweetness that made you think of the Arabian gale +of the poet, but the African land was leagues and leagues distant, and +that sweet breath, therefore, was old Ocean's own.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span></p><p>The schooner, with every stitch upon her, saving the foretopmast +studding-sail, to the setting of which Mr. Vanderholt had an objection, +glided through the gathering dusk to the music of broken waters. Miss +Vanderholt sat in the cabin, under the lamp. She was reading, and +appeared to be interested. Mr. Vanderholt filled his pipe from a pouch +whose size corresponded with the bowl it was to feed, and whilst he did +this he looked about him.</p> + +<p>Glew stood between him and the lingering scarlet, and his body, black as +indigo, rose and fell. What was the matter? It seemed to Mr. Vanderholt +that an unnatural stillness was in the little vessel. He still preserved +the forecastle faculties, and carried the eye, whilst he could bend the +ear, of a sailor. Eight bells had been struck. The second dog-watch was +therefore over. The watch below would, or would not, have gone to bed.</p> + +<p>All this Mr. Vanderholt knew; but so bright, flushed, and sweet a night, +after the roasting and blinding glories of the day, might well prove a +temptation to the hands<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> whose turn it was to take rest till midnight to +linger to converse and suck out yet another pipe of tobacco.</p> + +<p>But the silence forward was so deep that Vanderholt, hearkening with his +forefinger pressed upon his bowl of unlighted tobacco, thought it +ominous. At intervals somebody away in the bows would speak. The voice +was a growl, and it would be answered by a growl, and it seemed to the +owner of the <i>Mowbray</i> that, whoever it might be that broke the silence +in his little ship, made utterance with the throat of a sleeping +mastiff.</p> + +<p>Mr. Vanderholt lighted his pipe, seated himself, and called to Captain +Glew, who immediately crossed the deck.</p> + +<p>'The men seem very quiet, Glew.'</p> + +<p>'And a good job too, sir. This is a yacht, and we've got a lady aboard.'</p> + +<p>'Ay, ay, man, that's so. But, yacht or no yacht, lady or no lady, surely +I'm the last man to be opposed to a little harmless dog-watch jollity +whenever my sailors have a mind to it.'</p> + +<p>The man at the helm was not far off, and Vanderholt spoke low.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p><p>'They're a crew that want keeping under,' said Captain Glew. 'They're +not used to pleasure-sailing of this sort. I singled them out myself, +and had good hopes of them, and there's no fault to be found with them +as seamen. This light cruising job is fast spoiling them. They need the +heavy work of a full-rigged ship.'</p> + +<p>'If they find the job an easy one, then I suppose they're satisfied?' +said Mr. Vanderholt.</p> + +<p>'I'm very much afraid that there's no kind treatment, and no easy job +under the sun, that's going to satisfy an English sailor,' said Captain +Glew.</p> + +<p>'You're hard upon the calling, Glew. You're talking to a man who has had +to work hard and fare hard.'</p> + +<p>'Sir, if you'd been in command, you'd know that I speak the truth.'</p> + +<p>'Aren't you rather a taut hand, Glew? Not that I object to a strict +discipline on board ship; but there is a manner of talking to +sailors.... I've heard of a captain who never would address a sailor if +he could help it, but if he had anything to give him he'd<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> put it down +upon the deck and kick it at him.'</p> + +<p>'And I've heard of sailors, sir, who've scuttled their ship, broken the +captain's heart by ruining the voyage, and made a widow of his wife by +sending him adrift in an open boat. I've had charge of seamen, and I +know their natures, and I'm sorry that you should think I'm a taut hand, +sir.'</p> + +<p>'Understand me,' said Vanderholt soothingly: 'you are, perhaps, a taut +hand, but I do not say unnecessarily taut. Frankly, I do not think the +men love you.'</p> + +<p>'What's a sailor's love like?' said Captain Glew.</p> + +<p>Here Miss Vanderholt came on deck. Captain Glew placed a chair for her +beside her father.</p> + +<p>'What a heavenly sweet and silent night!' exclaimed the young lady. 'Is +that a ship on fire down there?'</p> + +<p>'It's the moon rising, miss,' exclaimed Captain Glew.</p> + +<p>Her upper limb floated blood-red on the sea-line like a glowing ember. +She sailed up, large, swollen, stately, the face rusty, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> though the +luminary had been a mighty casting in the African sands, and was now +sent aloft red-hot by some thrust of giant shoulders. At her coming the +wind freshened in a damp gust, the schooner strained, and the sound +arose of water broken quickly into froth.</p> + +<p>'Glew and I have been talking about the men, Vi,' said Mr. Vanderholt, +after contemplating for a few minutes the hot lunar dawn.</p> + +<p>'They don't look a very happy crew,' answered Miss Vanderholt; 'but heat +will make people sullen. The sailors have to work in the sun, and, after +all, there is very little money for them to receive apiece when they +reach home.'</p> + +<p>Vanderholt laughed, and said:</p> + +<p>'Quite as much as they shall get out of my pocket. Four pounds and five +pounds a month, Vi. Why, I've been signing on, when a fine young man, +for two pounds five, and glad to get it.'</p> + +<p>'Are the crew dissatisfied?' inquired Miss Violet.</p> + +<p>'Well, I don't mind owning to you, Mr. Vanderholt,' said the captain, +'that they've<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> been trying to make a trouble about the stores. But I +wouldn't allow it.'</p> + +<p>He stopped short, with a vibratory note in his voice, as though a piece +of catgut had been twanged.</p> + +<p>'The stores ought to be good,' said Mr. Vanderholt. 'The cheque that was +made payable to Mr. Lyons was a liberal one.'</p> + +<p>'Do they grumble at one thing more than another?' said Miss Vanderholt.</p> + +<p>'Oh, first it's the pork, then it's the beef; they'll work their way +right through till they come to the pickles,' said Glew, with a short, +nervous laugh.</p> + +<p>'This is the first time I've heard that the men are dissatisfied,' +exclaimed Mr. Vanderholt.</p> + +<p>'What is the good of worrying you with fo'c's'le troubles, sir? You're +on a cruise for your health, and the worries of the ship should be mine, +not yours.'</p> + +<p>'It is well meant, Glew,' said Vanderholt, a little uneasily. 'They are +a rough body of men, mind. I was long fed on pork and beef, and my +palate has memory enough to distinguish, I think. Tell Allan<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> to-morrow +to cook samples of both kinds, and I will lunch off them.'</p> + +<p>This being said, Mr. Vanderholt smoked for awhile in silence. The +question of pork and beef and sailors' grievances is uninteresting at +all times, and peculiarly uninviting on a fine moonlight night. The +subject was dropped. Captain Glew moved off, and father and daughter sat +alone in the moonlight.</p> + +<p>The atmosphere was now misty with the silver of the satellite; she was +nearly a full moon, and rained her glory most abundantly. She made a +fairy vision of the <i>Mowbray</i>, etherealizing her into a fabric of white +vapour and fountain-like lines as she leaned, purring at her cutwater, +from the delicate wind.</p> + +<p>'I don't think Glew treats the men well,' said Miss Vanderholt, turning +her knuckles to the moon to see the diamonds in her rings sparkle. 'He +is restrained when I'm on deck; I judge him by the demeanour of the +crew.'</p> + +<p>'They are not yachtsmen; they are not fresh-watermen. I, too, have eyes +in my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> head, and I'll not condemn Glew off-hand for being what the +Americans call a "hard case,"' answered Mr. Vanderholt. 'They are rough +fellows, got out of low sailors' boarding-houses. I know the breed—the +right sort of men for a jaunt of this kind—and I'm very well satisfied +with them. But they have the look of growlers, and the man Jones, who +should be the most trustworthy of the lot, has the very best genius for +putting on a surly, dangerous face, and posturing in the mutineer style +when hotly called to of any sea-dog that I can recall. So, Vi, I'm not +for interfering with the duties of the captain.'</p> + +<p>He smoked, and his little eyes dwelt upon the face of the beautiful +moon.</p> + +<p>'If the sea,' said he musingly, 'were a silver shield it could not flash +more brightly. How mysterious does the moon make the world of waters! +They speak of the awe bred of darkness—the awe, the uncertainty—yes, I +have known it; but how much more must this lighted ocean stir one's +spiritual pulses than if it were a bed of darkness!'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p><p>'You are certainly better,' said Miss Violet; 'you are seldom poetical +at home.'</p> + +<p>'No man who has been to sea can help being a poet,' said the old +gentleman complacently, smoothing his beard. 'He beholds many strange +appearances; he dreams strangely. Mysterious fancies thicken upon the +drowsy vision of his lonely midnight look-out, and with him <i>then</i> it is +as the great poet sublimely sings:</p> + +<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div>'"But shapes that come not at an earthly call,</div> +<div class="i1">Will not depart when mortal voices bid;</div> +<div class="i1">Lords of the visionary eye, whose lid,</div> +<div>Once raised, remains aghast, and will not fall."'</div> +</div></div></div> + +<p>He relighted his pipe, and smiled at the moon, and seemed very well +pleased with the acuteness of his memory.</p> + +<p>'Those are noble lines,' said the girl.</p> + +<p>'They are Wordsworth's. Ach! What delight that man has given me.'</p> + +<p>'How much pleasanter it is,' said Miss Violet, 'on a glorious night like +this to talk of poetry, and the visionary shapes of the sea, than of +sailors' beef and pork!'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p><p>'You would not think so if you had been stuck here for ten days on a +raft.'</p> + +<p>'Well,' exclaimed the girl, heaving a sigh, 'the Equator is not very far +off now, and then we shall turn and go home.'</p> + +<p>'I hope that our forefoot will cut the Line by the 25th,' answered Mr. +Vanderholt. 'We shall be home in February, brown, and in the best of +spirits.'</p> + +<p>'And George will have started—will be coming.'</p> + +<p>They talked for a little while about this gentleman. It was ten o'clock +before they quitted the deck. A man struck four bells on the forecastle. +Immediately a figure arose from the deep shadow cast by the deck-house +on the planks, and went aft to relieve the helm. Captain Glew stood on +the yacht's quarter, and was as visible in the moonshine as though the +bright dawn had broken. There was a muttering about the course at the +helm, and then the man who had been relieved took a step or two forward, +looking at the captain.</p> + +<p>'What are you staring at?' said Glew.</p> + +<p>The man, continuing to walk but slowly,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> persisted in staring, so that +his head revolved.</p> + +<p>'What are you staring at?' repeated Glew, in a soft but threatening +voice.</p> + +<p>The skylight and companion-way were wide open; he had no wish that his +note of temper should penetrate.</p> + +<p>'Mayn't a man use his eyesight aboard this bloody ship?' said the +seaman, coming to a halt.</p> + +<p>'Go forward!' exclaimed the captain, stiffening himself at the rail.</p> + +<p>The man seemed to hesitate, then went slowly towards the forecastle, +audibly muttering. This man's name was Joseph Dabb.</p> + +<p>When he was close to the deck-house, a sailor, who was squatting in the +shadow of it, exclaimed gruffly:</p> + +<p>'What was he a-saying of?'</p> + +<p>'Asked me what I was a-staring at because I was looking at him.'</p> + +<p>'S'elp me, all angels!' exclaimed the squatting figure, after spitting +right across the deck, 'if I don't feel sometimes like cutting the +scab's heart out of him! We're not men in <i>his</i> sight. We're muck. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> +thinks of us as muck, and he talks of us as muck. He speaks to us as if +we was muck, and it's muck he's shipped aboard this vessel for us muck +to eat.'</p> + +<p>He stood up, and the whites of his eyes glistened in the reflected +moonlight that whitened off the edges of the stay-foresail, as he turned +his gaze aft, where the figure of the captain walked. A man came out of +the deck-house and joined the company. Immediately after, a fourth man +approached from the forecastle, and stood listening.</p> + +<p>'They've been a-yarning about us half my trick,' said Dabb. 'The captain +said this pleasuring was a-spoiling of us.'</p> + +<p>All four united in a low, dismal laugh, which would have been a loud, +defiant, mirthless roar but for the sleepers in the deck-house, hard by +which they were talking. Sleep is counted a sacred thing at sea.</p> + +<p>'Ay,' exclaimed one of the men, who proved to be Mike Scott, 'you lay a +man's going to be spoilt by the pleasuring that's to be done under +<i>him</i>. What was said, Joe?'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p><p>'That blarsted Dutchman talks in his beard. That and his pipe smothered +up his voice. I couldn't hear him. T'other was more clear. He spoke of +sailors as had scuttled their ships, as had broke the cap'n's heart by +ruinating his voyage, and made a widder of his wife by sending him +adrift. T'other speaks, and then the cap'n says, "What's a sailor's love +like?"'</p> + +<p>Silence followed.</p> + +<p>'What do he mean by "a sailor's love"?' exclaimed the third man, Maul. +'Is it a belaying-pin or a handspike? You'll find he's a-trying to +excite a disgust against us sailors in the mind of that old Dutchman, so +that he may make a difficulty about paying us at the end of the voyage.'</p> + +<p>''Ow d'ye know,' said Dabb, 'that it ain't the Dutchman who's put the +skipper up to ill-treating of us, reckoning upon sailing into the Thames +with some of us in irons? D'ye mean to say——'</p> + +<p>'Whisper, you crow!'</p> + +<p>'D'ye mean to say,' continued the man, lowering his voice, 'that the +stores were shipped without the Dutchman knowing of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> their character? +I'm a-beginning to smell blue hell in this business.'</p> + +<p>All this while the moon shone sweetly and piercingly. A divine peace was +upon the sea, and the light noises of the wind were as fresh as dew on +grass, with the sound as of the plashing of many fountains. In the cabin +they talked of poetry—and one of the sailors forward was for cutting +the captain's heart out!</p> + +<p>The little royal and top-gallant sail were half aback; the luffs of the +jibs were trembling.</p> + +<p>'Trim sail!' shouted Captain Glew; and he continued to bawl as he walked +slowly forwards: 'Brace forward the topsail-yard! Ease away the weather +braces! Get a drag on your jib-sheets!' And it was clear, by the manner +in which he delivered these orders to the men, that he had been watching +and thinking of them all the time they had been talking about him.</p> + +<p>All was quiet after this. The moon rolled down into the sea, the shadow +of the earth slipped off the eastern horizon, and the schooner floated +into another tropical <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>morning, wide and high with cloudless splendour. +Nothing was in sight.</p> + +<p>The date was December 15, 1837.</p> + +<p>At half-past eleven, the steward, a man named Gordon, who had been +shipped for cabin duty, but who had sailed on many occasions as an able +seaman, so that his sympathies were wholly with the forecastle, went to +the harness-cask, and, unlocking it, picked over some pieces of meat, +brine-whitened, and carried two cubes of the flesh forward to the cook.</p> + +<p>'What's this for?' says Allan. 'Here's stink enough. The pork's measly +bad to-day!'</p> + +<p>'Samples for the cabin table,' said the steward, Gordon, dabbing the +flabby offal down on the dresser.</p> + +<p>'Ho!' says the cook. 'They'd best be cooked separate, I suppose. The +stench'll break the young lady's heart if they're boiled in them +coppers.'</p> + +<p>'Cook 'em as you like. That's your business,' said Gordon. 'It's for one +o'clock.'</p> + +<p>'Who's going to eat 'em?'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p><p>'How big's a man's windpipe?' asked Gordon. The cook eyed him. 'Would +about that lump,' said Gordon, snatching up a knife and slightly scoring +a corner off one of the pieces, 'fit a man's windpipe?'</p> + +<p>'Ah! would it?' muttered the cook. 'And if you'll let me guess whose +pipe it is you're a-thinking of, I wouldn't mind telling you that I'm +game—s'elp me God!—to ram it down with this—a clean job!'</p> + +<p>And seizing a long, black, sharp-ended poker, he flourished it at +Gordon's mouth, poising it as though he meant to do for the steward.</p> + +<p>Gordon rounded out of the little caboose with a laugh.</p> + +<p>Mr. Tweed walked the weather side of the quarter-deck; his sextant lay +upon the skylight cover. The seaman named Legg was at the helm. His +figure, airily clad in duck and calico and wide straw hat, stood out +like a painted figure of marble, as it slightly rose and slightly fell +against the hot pale-blue sky in the north.</p> + +<p>Miss Vanderholt was seated in a deck-chair under the awning, beside a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>quarter-boat. A book lay upon her lap, but her hands were clasped upon +it, and her eyes were bent upon the sea. She viewed it listlessly. The +monotony of that eternal girdle was growing shocking. It seemed to bind +up her very soul. She thought to herself: 'They speak of the freedom of +the sea. But doesn't its sense of freedom come only when motion is +swift, when the roar of the white water is strong, and when one's home +is not very far off?'</p> + +<p>It was the men's dinner-hour. Miss Violet had often, during the warm +weather, from her comfortable quarter-deck chair, observed a couple of +men a little before noon stagger with sweating faces out of the galley, +bearing in their hands a sort of wooden washing-tub, which sent up a +great deal of steam. This she knew was the crew's dinner.</p> + +<p>She had sometimes wondered how they ate: whether they spread a +table-cloth; whether they planted a cruet-stand in their midst, and +placed knives and forks on either hand, for the hearts to cut and come +again. Who carved? She supposed that the boatswain took the head of the +table.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p><p>She had never felt so curious, however, in this matter as to ask +questions, and as, moreover, she had not caught so much as a glimpse of +the interior of the crew's dwelling-house, she had figured into +conviction a comfortable little sea-parlour in which the men dined just +as she and Glew and the mate and her father dined.</p> + +<p>'After all,' she mused, keeping her hands clasped upon her open book, +with her eyes fastened upon the sailors' house, 'it is the monotony of +the sea that repels. It must have its good side. Plenty to eat and +drink, and, as father says, most of the wonders of the world—islands, +harbours, inland scenes of beauty—to be visited at the cost of others.'</p> + +<p>Whilst she thus moralized, she beheld a head with a very savage and +malicious look upon its face in the deck-house door. The figure of the +man was exposed to the waist, and two great hands grasped for support +each side of the opening. It was the head of the boatswain of the +schooner, James Jones, carpenter and second mate—but as second mate he +had never been called upon to serve. He was uncovered, and his hair was +wild.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> His expression was devilish. Though at some distance from the +man, the young lady could clearly distinguish a look of fury upon the +seaman's face, as though he had just slain a shipmate, and was in the +act of leaping on deck.</p> + +<p>He stood in the doorway, and continued to stare aft. Miss Vanderholt +glanced uneasily at the skylight. She waited for her father and Captain +Glew to appear. The captain was bound to arrive in a minute or two, for +already Mr. Tweed, who had glanced at the boatswain without appearing to +see anything unusual in the man's fixed, half-in and half-out posture, +and dark, endevilled face, had picked up his sextant, and was ogling the +sun.</p> + +<p>Mr. Vanderholt was the first of the two to come on deck. His daughter +called to him softly, and said:</p> + +<p>'Father, did you ever see, in all your life, such a wicked expression as +that man wears?'</p> + +<p>'What man?' exclaimed Mr. Vanderholt, lancing his teeth with a silver +toothpick, and gazing along the decks with an expression of bland +benevolence.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p><p>'That man there, in the door of the galley,' said the girl. 'He's been +standing like that for the last three or four minutes, hatless, looking +aft, with that face of fury, as if they'd tied him in the doorway and +were goading him.'</p> + +<p>'I certainly see a man lounging in the doorway,' said Mr. Vanderholt, +who was a little short-sighted. 'Does he look angry?'</p> + +<p>He spoke somewhat uneasily, and turned his head to see if the captain +was on deck. Glew at that moment rose through the hatch, armed with his +sextant. Vanderholt went up to him, and said:</p> + +<p>'There is a man leaning in the door of the caboose—now I look again I +see it is the boatswain—whose face my daughter tells me is formidable +with temper. I do not clearly see all that way off. I hope it will mean +no fresh trouble about the stores. Let them know I have ordered pieces +of the pork and beef to be boiled for our mid-day meal.'</p> + +<p>Whilst he was speaking, Glew's eyes were fixed upon the boatswain, who, +at the moment that Vanderholt ceased, withdrew. Glew's attitude was +immediately and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>insensibly charged with malice and danger, with +passions quickly growing and contending, by the odd, crouching air he +carried, whilst he had watched the boatswain and listened to his +employer.</p> + +<p>'That Jones,' he said, 'is the right sort of forecastle scoundrel to +breed a mutiny, and if he troubles me to-day we must have him out of it, +Mr. Vanderholt, in the approved old method. Mr. Tweed, can you lay your +hands readily upon a set of irons for that fellow?'</p> + +<p>The mate answered:</p> + +<p>'The carpenter has charge of the irons, sir, and the carpenter is, +unfortunately, the boatswain himself.'</p> + +<p>'Go forward,' said Captain Glew, 'and ask the man to give you a set of +irons.'</p> + +<p>'Stop!' exclaimed Mr. Vanderholt, glancing at the helmsman, whose eyes +were upon Glew, and who was clearly a listener. 'We must have no talk of +irons in this vessel, until something has been done to warrant their +introduction.'</p> + +<p>'If there should come a difficulty,' was the captain's answer, 'we may +find it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>impossible to get forward so as to procure the irons. I like to +be beforehand.'</p> + +<p>'I'll not have it!' said Mr. Vanderholt, with warmth.</p> + +<p>Captain Glew simply said, 'Ay, ay, sir,' and turned his face to the sun, +with his sextant lifted.</p> + +<p>Now it was that the boatswain reappeared, still without his hat, his +head very shaggy, his shirt-sleeves rolled above his elbows, disclosing +the muscles of a carthorse. He sprang, in a single bound, through the +door of the deck-house, grasping his mess-kid. The seaman Dabb followed; +he, too, grasped a mess-kid. Then the rest of the crew appeared—Gordon, +Allan, Toole, Scott, Maul.</p> + +<p>'Now, bullies, are we ready?' exclaimed Jones, in a voice of thunder; +and he put the kid upon the deck. Dabb did likewise.</p> + +<p>'Hurrah for a hot male of mate for the cabin!' shouted Simon Toole.</p> + +<p>The boatswain and Dabb, each man in his boots, kicked. They kicked at +the kids with all their might, and the wooden vessels rushed aft to the +very feet of Captain Glew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> and Vanderholt, scattering their precious +contents of pork and pea-soup over the smooth planks. Never was an +uglier affront offered to the master of a ship. Never had mutinous +insolence been carried to a greater height. Captain Glew turned white as +milk, but not with fear. Well for him had he felt fear. Mr. Vanderholt +was ashy pale. He called to his daughter to go below. She sprang up, +but, instead of going below, went and stood right aft, beside the +helmsman, to whom she said:</p> + +<p>'What do those men want?'</p> + +<p>'Their rights!' he answered, with a diabolical leer.</p> + +<p>The frightened girl made a quick step to the companion-hatch, and stood +beside the cover; she was afraid to go below.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>CHAPTER VI.</span> <span class="smaller">THE MURDERS.</span></h2> + +<p>'What's the meaning of this atrocious conduct, men?' shouted Mr. +Vanderholt. 'I am sorry if anything's wrong with you. I am an old +sailor——'</p> + +<p>He was interrupted by Captain Glew roaring out: 'Tweed, help me to put +that scoundrel in irons!' And he rushed forward, Tweed following.</p> + +<p>'Oh, my God!' cried Mr. Vanderholt; 'stay your hands, men! This is my +ship! I am master here! I'll see your wrongs righted!'</p> + +<p>'There'll be murder!' shrieked Miss Vanderholt.</p> + +<p>'Go below, for Christ's sake!' roared the distracted man; and, catching +hold of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> daughter's arm, he dragged her down the steps into the +cabin.</p> + +<p>'No man in this ship puts me in irons,' said the boatswain, showing his +teeth, as he squared up at Captain Glew, with his immensely thick arms +covered with hair, arrows and crucifixes. 'I've been wanting the killing +of you this many a day, you rat! and, as you men hear me, by the living +Lord, I'll kill him if he lays a finger upon me!'</p> + +<p>For a few minutes Captain Glew paused, waiting for Mr. Tweed, who had +disappeared. He stood one man to seven; his nostrils were dilated; his +eyes were on fire; his skin was a ghastly white; and his fingers worked +like those of one who plays a piano. His breath flew from him in sharp, +quite audible hissings. He was the incarnation of wrath fiendish above +anything human, and in that pause those of the men who met his gaze +seemed to quail.</p> + +<p>Mr. Vanderholt came running from the companion-hatch. His right hand was +in the pocket of his coat.</p> + +<p>'What is it, men?' he bawled. 'I am an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> old sailor, and was a man at sea +when you were boys. Is your pork bad? Is the rest of your food bad?'</p> + +<p>'Go and gut yourself!' roared Dabb. 'If that cuckoo had the victualling +of this ship, you had the paying of him; and was there ever a Dutchman +that didn't know good food from bad by the price of it?'</p> + +<p>He was proceeding. Gordon, standing alongside, clipped the dog over the +back of his neck, and silenced him.</p> + +<p>Mr. Vanderholt swayed speechless on the slightly heaving deck of his +vessel. He was petrified. He stared at the insolent villain; he couldn't +credit his senses.</p> + +<p>Indeed, it was shocking that that fine old gentleman, with his full gray +beard, his dignified bearing, his knowledge of life and letters, his +years, his great fortune, should be thus addressed by a brute of the +sea, a scab, a wen of the ocean, who ashore, in liquor, was, of course, +the swaggering, yelping terror of women and little children.</p> + +<p>Mr. Tweed came along from the forecastle, grasping an iron bar with +rings upon it The moment the men saw him, three or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> four—Scott, Toole, +Allan, and another—flung themselves upon him. The irons were sent +whizzing overboard, the man himself was felled to the deck. He rose in a +minute, breathless and mad.</p> + +<p>'But you <i>shall</i> come aft. Help me, Tweed!' And the captain, crying this +out in a voice frightful to hear with its tension of passion, flung +himself upon the boatswain.</p> + +<p>'The man who moves—the man who interferes with the captain, I'll +shoot!' shouted Vanderholt, pulling out a revolver, a six-barrelled +engine of those days, from his pocket, and taking aim at the crew.</p> + +<p>Tweed had sprung upon the boatswain, and now three madmen were +wrestling. A fourth rushed in; he was Simon Toole. He yelled like a +savage as he leapt upon the heaving and writhing group.</p> + +<p>'Stand back, or I'll shoot you!' shouted Mr. Vanderholt. 'I have six +men's lives here.'</p> + +<p>He saw Toole seize Captain Glew by the throat, and taking aim at the +man, he pulled the trigger. The flash, the report, was followed by a +dying groan, and Tweed, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> both hands lifted and clenched, fell, shot +through the head.</p> + +<p>At this moment an iron belaying-pin<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> struck Mr. Vanderholt across the +face. It was Maul who hurled it. He flung it with the rage and meaning +of murder, standing not a couple of fathoms away from the unhappy +gentleman, who dropped like a running man when he falls dead from heart +disease.</p> + +<p>'You murderous curs!' groaned Captain Glew, falling upon one knee with +his hand to his side.</p> + +<p>For a little while they stood raging; their shouts were hoarse and +insane. Legg bawled to them from the helm, and they answered him. You +would have thought that they were breeding some fresh hellish scene of +bloodshed amongst themselves, so flushed, wild, clamorous was the mob of +them, every man trying to drown the other's voice.</p> + +<p>'It was his doing!' said Jones, pointing to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> the figure of the dying +captain. 'I never wanted it!'</p> + +<p>'Anyhow, we're not responsible for <i>him</i>,' said Allan, nodding at the +body of the mate. 'Who floored the Dutchman?'</p> + +<p>'I did!' yelled Maul.</p> + +<p>'He's a killed man,' said Scott, stooping to look at him.</p> + +<p>'Water,' whispered Captain Glew.</p> + +<p>Toole's eyes were on the captain at the instant, and the ruffian saw the +man's lips move.</p> + +<p>'He's spakin'!' he exclaimed, with a face of sudden horror, backing two +or three steps.</p> + +<p>Dabb put his ear to the dying man's mouth.</p> + +<p>'He asks for water,' said the seaman; and he sprang to the scuttle-butt +and filled a pannikin which stood handily by the side of the dipper, +and, lifting Captain Glew's head, he poured some of the cool drink into +his mouth.</p> + +<p>'Drag me out of the sun,' muttered the captain.</p> + +<p>'Mike, len's a hand,' called Dabb; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> quite gently these two seamen, +who were just now devils, carried the captain aft into the shelter of +the awning, where they left him to lie and expire, with the Union Jack +rolled up as a pillow.</p> + +<p>'I never wanted it! I never wanted it!' suddenly broke out the +boatswain, in a deep groaning voice. 'This is a swinging matter. What's +to be done? It's damnation to our souls. Why couldn't ye have let the +old Dutchman be?'</p> + +<p>'His pistol was full cock on you, Jim, when I let fly,' answered Maul. +'He's only stunned. Hasn't a man a right to fight for his life? Look at +them barrels!' he added, pointing to the revolver.</p> + +<p>'Here comes his daughter,' exclaimed Gordon.</p> + +<p>Miss Vanderholt was standing in the companion-way. She wore a straw hat, +and her eyes, under the shadow of the brim and under the fluff of hair +about her brow, looked twice their usual size—strained, unwinking, +blind, with sudden, dreadful amazement, but brilliant as light also with +horror and terror.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p><p>She came out of the hatch slowly. Legg, at the helm, with a note of +commiseration, said:</p> + +<p>'He's only been knocked down. He shouldn't have got messing about with +firearms amongst a mob of angry men.'</p> + +<p>She did not hear him, or, if she did, she did not heed him.</p> + +<p>She went straight to her father, making a low wailing or moaning noise +as she walked. The boatswain exclaimed:</p> + +<p>'No harm was intended to him, miss. 'Twas him that shot Mr. Tweed.'</p> + +<p>She stooped, moaning, but so as to be scarcely audible, and looked +closely into her father's face. He lay on his back, staring with white +eyes, half-closed, at the sky. He had fallen as though shot through the +heart. A great, livid weal, dreadful to see, blackened and lifted his +brow. A little blood that had trickled from one ear lay glazed close +beside the gray hair of his whiskers.</p> + +<p>'Is he dead?' she asked, looking round at the men, and speaking in a +voice sunk with fear.</p> + +<p>'Let's carry him aft to his cabin. It's not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> right the young lady should +see him lying there,' said Gordon.</p> + +<p>Thereupon, Gordon, Allan, and Jones picked the body up and bore him aft, +followed by Miss Vanderholt, who often staggered as she walked. They got +him into a cabin, and put him down upon a sofa.</p> + +<p>'An ugly job!' said one of the seamen.</p> + +<p>'Who did it?' the girl asked.</p> + +<p>The men made no answer.</p> + +<p>'Oh, father!' she cried, trembling violently; then, dropping upon her +knees beside him, she began to free his throat. 'He may only be +stunned,' she said. 'What is to be done? Shall I bathe his face?'</p> + +<p>'If he's only stunned, I allow he'll come to all right, if he's left +alone,' said Gordon.</p> + +<p>'You'll please to recollect this,' said one of the men: 'he comes +rushing along, with a pistol to shoot us with, and the motive was to +strike the revolver out of his hand before he could send a second shot. +It was him that killed the mate;' and the speaker wheeled on his naked +feet, and went to the companion ladder. He was almost immediately +followed by the others.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span></p><p>The girl was alone with her dead father. But was he dead? He looked so. +Yet the lifeless looks of one in a swoon or in a fit may easily pass as +marks of death. She ran to his cabin, and fetched a bowl, into which she +splashed cold water from a decanter, and for a quarter of an hour she +ceaselessly bathed his face and head. He never stirred. Not the least +sigh escaped him. She could not find his pulse, though she sought for +it, with trembling fingers, about his wrists. His hands were growing +cold, and they lay very dead and heavy in hers, and still she thought, +still she hoped, she prayed.</p> + +<p>'It may be the same as a fit, or a swoon. He has been stunned. If I sit +here patiently, I may see signs of life, and he will come to.'</p> + +<p>But, if he should be dead? What would they do with the schooner? What +would they do with her? Terrors shook her; they wrenched her heart, and +she wrung her hands in agony.</p> + +<p>If her father was dead, and she quite understood that Captain Glew and +Mr. Tweed were dead, though she but vaguely understood that her father +had shot the mate,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> and that Captain Glew had been assassinated—if he +was dead, she was alone in the schooner with eight seamen, who had made +outlaws and reckless criminals of themselves by the murders done that +morning.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, on deck, the men were quieting down. Their rude, unreasoning +passions were paling. Consternation was beginning to work in them. They +had gone fearfully and tragically far beyond the unformed wrathful +fancies which were in them when they kicked the mess-kids aft, and when +the Irishman howled at the sight.</p> + +<p>The mate lay dead, with a dark purple hole in his forehead, upon the +deck, abreast of the little square of main hatch. Aft, with his head +pillowed on the rolled-up ensign, was the corpse of the captain. These +were sights, coupled with the thought of the dead man below, to drive +the keenest power of realization of what had happened that day into the +mind of an idiot, and there was no idiot in that schooner.</p> + +<p>Legg had been relieved at the wheel by Scott.</p> + +<p>The <i>Mowbray</i>, all this while, was sailing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> a dead south course for the +Equator—her queer destination—royally clothed; her white breasts of +canvas were swelled with the blue gushing of the wind; her jibs yearned +at their sheets as they rose and sank in a play of soft shadow, with the +airy rise and the seething stoop of the bows.</p> + +<p>'There's too much gone and happened this all-fired day,' said Allan, +folding his naked, burnt arms on his breast, and leaning against the +side of his little caboose whilst he eyed askew the body of the mate. +'What's to be done?'</p> + +<p>The men came and stood about him.</p> + +<p>'It was like forcing of a man's hand,' exclaimed the boatswain. 'I was +never in a mess of this sort afore. But, curse catch me, if an angel +could have stood him—an angel from the skies!' he shouted, lifting up +his two great hands, with a wild melodramatic gesture, to the heavens. +'I couldn't tell you why, but there was hate of us as sailor-men in the +very turn of the rooter's body as he walked the deck. There's but one +remedy for the likes of him, but it's hard upon sailors;' and he smeared +the sweat off<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> his brow, which had taken a scowl dark as thunder.</p> + +<p>'I saw that there bleeding old Dutchman a-covering of you, Jim,' said +Maul, pointing to the revolver which yet lay upon the deck. 'There was +no mistaking the meaning in his face. I'd pulled out the pin ready for +whatever was to come along, and, say what yer will, yer owe me your +life.'</p> + +<p>'What's to be done?' said the cook. 'All this here moralizing ain't +going to help us. Are them bodies to be left to lie there till they +turn?'</p> + +<p>'Don't be in such a smothering hurry!' exclaimed Legg. 'How are ye to +know they're gone home? 'Ere's Bill for chucking of two warm bodies +overboard. Feel their pulses, or try their breath with a piece of glass, +or, maybe, you'll be murdering of them over again.'</p> + +<p>'Don't talk of murdering!' said the boatswain savagely. 'That man there +was killed by Mr. Vanderholt.'</p> + +<p>'Where are we sailing to?' says Gordon.</p> + +<p>'Why!' exclaimed Dabb, sending a pair of drink-stained eyes slowly +travelling over the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> little ship, 'I'm dumped, mates, if there's e'er a +navigator in the vessel!'</p> + +<p>At this juncture Toole and Jones stepped to the body of the mate, and +carried him to the side of the captain, whose form they bent over. The +boatswain went down upon his knees, and looked with a face of hate and +horror at the countenance of the dead man. This was a picture to +handsomely symbolize one large, old, red tradition of the Merchant +Service. Are there any Glews left? So long as they remain in command, so +long will they prove the solvers of the so-called mysteries of the +ocean—the abandoned ship, the boat-load of men whose statements differ, +the stranded body with the wound in its throat.</p> + +<p>'These men are dead,' says the boatswain, standing up. 'No use in +letting 'em lie here to shock the female, should she come on deck. Get +'em covered up, and we'll bury 'em this afternoon.'</p> + +<p>Toole fetched a small tarpaulin, and hid the bodies.</p> + +<p>'How's the Dutchman getting on, I wonder?' said the boatswain.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span></p><p>He went to the open skylight, and looked down. He saw the figure of Mr. +Vanderholt lying stiff in death on a sofa locker; his daughter sat +beside him, inclined forwards, resting her chin on her hands, herself, +whilst the boatswain watched, as stirless as the dead.</p> + +<p>The seaman stepped back, and walked forward slowly. The sailors, Scott +excepted, were gathered about the deck-house door, holding a council +upon their condition and prospects. There was the hurry of nerve in +their speech, and again one or another would look ahead, or on either +bow. The boatswain, shoving in amongst them, said in his deep voice:</p> + +<p>'I'm for getting something to eat. I want my dinner.'</p> + +<p>'And I'm for getting something to drink,' said Toole.</p> + +<p>The boatswain picked up Mr. Vanderholt's revolver, and, whilst he +examined it, before pocketing it, he said:</p> + +<p>'There's no chance of my bossing you, lads. I'll never do more than +advise you. But let me give you this counsel: of course<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> there'll be +drink for the cabin somewhere aft. We're entitled to our allowance of +rum, anyhow, and if we add a bottle or two of the cabin stuff to that +allowance, who's a-going to miss it? That's not counsel, you say—no, +but <i>this</i> is: don't none of you go and get drunk. I vow to God the +first man that falls insensible I'll chuck overboard. We're murderers +and pirates—d'ye know that?' he roared, with a ferocious look at the +men—a look that might have convinced shrewder perceptions than those +about him that he was going mad—'and we're to take care, if we don't +want to swing, that we're not found out. Can ye guess what swinging's +like? Many's the time I've thought of it—of the gray, wet morning, and +their coming in to fetch you to be hanged, and their making your arms +fast astern, with a parson walking in front reading about death; then +the standing upon the trap-door, and the crowds of faces—my God!—all +looking at you, and, worst of all, the awful feeling that a man must +have when the cap's drawed down, and he stands awaiting!'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p><p>'There's no call to keep on, Jim,' said Dabb; 'we don't want to be +hanged, and we don't mean to do it. And who's a-going to fall down dead +drunk, and act the beast, as you says, a-seeing how it stands with us?'</p> + +<p>'Let's get something to eat,' said the boatswain. 'Jim,' said he, +turning to Gordon, 'you know the ropes aft. Bring something for'ard from +the Dutchman's pantry fit for the men to sit down to.'</p> + +<p>'Am I to bring any drink?' says Gordon.</p> + +<p>'What have they got down there?' asked Maul.</p> + +<p>'There's some cases of bottled ale.'</p> + +<p>'Bring eight bottles for'ards,' said the boatswain. 'Joe, go you along +and lend him a hand.'</p> + +<p>Gordon and Dabb walked aft, and disappeared down the companion-hatch. +The others trudged about their deck-house door, passing and repassing +each other in short look-out walks, their heads sunk, their backs bowed, +and their hands plunged deep in their breeches pockets.</p> + +<p>After some time, Gordon and the other arrived with their arms full of +bottles of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> beer and preserved meats, and delicate cabin eatables out of +the pantry. It was broiling hot. Mike Scott at the helm bawled to them +to bring him a bottle. He swilled the foaming draught down out of a +pannikin in a sort of dance of ecstasy.</p> + +<p>'What's the young woman a-doing of?' asked the boatswain, following +Gordon into the deck-house.</p> + +<p>'She was sitting by her father's body when we entered. She jumps up as +if she'd been stabbed, and says in a little shriek: "What do you men +want?" I answered in the kindest voice I've got: "We're not here to hurt +you, miss. The men are hungry, and want food, and I've come to fetch 'em +some—food and a little beer. What can I get for you, miss?" says I. +"This is the luncheon-hour. Let me spread the table for you." She shook, +and held out her hands as though shoving me away. How could she sit down +and eat with him lying there? Indeed, it went against me to name it, +Jim. It was flung cruelly hard. I never see such a forehead as the poor +old bloke's got.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span></p><p>'By the vart of me oath, then,' exclaimed Toole—for now all hands had +swarmed into the deck-house—'Maul took aim at the pistol, and never +meant to kill him!'</p> + +<p>They were hungry and thirsty, a rough, red-handed mob of seamen. They +sat down upon their chests, and ate and drank, one taking a plateful of +food to the helmsman, and whilst they dined they discoursed upon what +was to be done.</p> + +<p>Occasionally the boatswain would step out and look around. The wind was +slack, the fiery eye of heaven was eating it up, and the sea waved in +dull shades of satin and silver in winding dyes of faint violet and +glassy brightness, as though a current ran; it sheeted with colours +faint with tropic heat into the now visionary distance where sea and sky +were blent.</p> + +<p>'What are we to do with this vessel, and how are we to manage for +ourselves?' said the boatswain, who sat on a chest with a tin of +preserved meat between his knees. 'That's the question.'</p> + +<p>'Ain't this moist stuff veal and 'am?'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> Whatever it is, it's blooming +nice,' said a sailor.</p> + +<p>'Joe, knock the 'ead off this 'ere bottle for me; you've got the knack.'</p> + +<p>'Isn't there no port to which we could carry this craft and dispose of +her, and then disperse?' said Allan, the cook. 'She might go for a song, +for me. We only want our wages.'</p> + +<p>'Where's the port without a fired consul?' said Maul. 'I'll tell ye what +'d happen: they'd ask questions, a file of soldiers 'ud come aboard, us +men 'ud be marched off into a fortress, and lie in cells fourteen or +twenty foot under the sea. There our beards would grow, our bones would +wear out our shirts, and all the music ye'd get, mates, would be the +clank of chains.'</p> + +<p>'No port for me!' said Toole. 'I'm for kaping on the say, and being +found in a situation of disthress.'</p> + +<p>'We must agree to one yarn, and stick to it. What about the lady?' said +Dabb.</p> + +<p>'Do she know what's happened?' said Maul. 'How it came about, I mean? +Then she couldn't say nothing agin our yarn.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p><p>'Tell'e what, my lads,' said the boatswain, looking thoughtfully around +him, 'I'm not at all sure that the right tack don't lie in our up and +telling the truth, explaining how we was exasperated, and proving that +the deaths was accidental.'</p> + +<p>'You're a-going to prove nothing accidental out of that bloke's knife,' +said Dabb, with a dry, uncomfortable laugh, nodding at Toole.</p> + +<p>'As good an accident as Maul's murtherous belaying-pin, and be damned to +ye!' exclaimed the Irishman. 'Brothers, I'm thinking Joe there would +have me be the only hanged man of this company. Is that because I'm a +furriner?'</p> + +<p>His eyes, fiercely squinting, met in Dabb's hot face. The seamen began +to cut up tobacco, and then they lurched to the galley to light their +pipes. The boatswain, pipe in mouth, stood in the waist, looking round +him and aloft.</p> + +<p>The little ship lay nearly becalmed. The sails swayed idly, fanning +sweet draughts athwartships. The boatswain walked to the binnacle, and +said, after looking at the card:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p><p>'There's no call now, Mike, to keep her heading for the Equator. I'm +for giving my stern to this here boiling.'</p> + +<p>'What's settled?' said Scott.</p> + +<p>'Nothing.'</p> + +<p>'I don't see,' said the man irritably, 'how anything's to be settled in +this here roasting heat, and them two bodies side by side there. Him in +the cabin's alone enough to take the curl out of a man's spirit. To +think of him, with half a fathom of death, blue as ink, across his brow, +and himself a-walking these very decks but just a little while gone! +Three! It's too many!'</p> + +<p>'One was the Dutchman's job,' answered the boatswain. 'But see here! Are +ye afraid?'</p> + +<p>'Afraid o' what?'</p> + +<p>'Well, only that you're talking as if the ghosts of them bodies had +jockeyed the yard-arms of your mind, and was close reefing your +intellect.'</p> + +<p>'I don't like dead bodies,' said Scott; 'and of all the dead bodies +a-going,' he added, with a countenance of gloomy ferocity, 'the least I +like is murdered bodies. Why don't ye<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> get 'em cleared out overboard, +Jim, and sweeten the little hooker? Do human blood smell? Something that +my nose never tasted afore came along not long since in a breath o' +wind.'</p> + +<p>The boatswain went to the tarpaulin, pulled it aside, and examined the +two dead faces.</p> + +<p>'Dead they are,' said he, with a shiver of sick disgust.</p> + +<p>He walked forward, and presently a few of the men came to the tarpaulin, +carrying hammocks, twine, sinkers for the clews. They made despatch. +Captain Glew, blind with death, threatened them as malevolently as in +life, with his upper lip lifted and stiffened, exposing a snarling grin +of fangs. The other poor wretch lay composed; the grog-blossoms had +faded. His cheek was as pale as moonlight, and the expression was a +smile.</p> + +<p>Before stitching up the bodies, they emptied the pockets. Captain Glew +had a silver watch and chain, a leather pocket-book, a silver-mounted, +wooden pipe, a bunch of keys, and other odds and ends. The mate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> +likewise owned a watch and a hair chain, tipped with gold—a woman's +gift, no doubt.</p> + +<p>'These things shall be put into their cabins,' said the boatswain. 'He's +left a widow and young uns.'</p> + +<p>'Are we going to bury 'em in their clothes?' said Toole.</p> + +<p>'Holes and all,' answered Legg, with a significant glance at the +sheath-knife on the Irishman's hip.</p> + +<p>In a few minutes the two bodies made their last plunge, amidst the +silence of the seamen, some of whom, nevertheless, continued to smoke, +and the bubbles which flashed to the surface were as lasting a memorial +of the dead twain's resting-place as any gravestone which could have +been erected ashore for dogs to smell at.</p> + +<p>A light air from the south-west was coming along, over the burnished +heave, in a delicate blue film, with feelers and crawlers of the draught +tarnishing the water in front of the breeze-line in catspaws.</p> + +<p>'Shall we stick this vessel's head north?' said the boatswain, and now +all hands came together in the gangway close beside the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> bulwark-rail, +whence the bodies had sped; there was to be a discussion over every +suggestion.</p> + +<p>'If we go north, where's it to carry us to?' said Gordon.</p> + +<p>'Out of this heat, anyhow,' answered the boatswain.</p> + +<p>'We ought to make up our minds,' said the cook, with an uneasy look at +the sea. 'We're just that sort of craft which is sure to excite notice. +"Hallo," they sings out, "a yacht all this way down here!" and they +comes sheering alongside to hail and take a look.'</p> + +<p>'I'm not for going any further to the s'uth'ard,' said the boatswain +doggedly.</p> + +<p>After a great deal of talk, during which the galley was repeatedly +visited for pipe-lights, they agreed to head the vessel north, if for no +other reason than that of temperature. So the helm was put hard up, and +the little vessel wore. When the ropes had been coiled down and the +decks cleared, the boatswain called Gordon and Scott, who by this hour +was relieved at the helm. These two men seemed the most respectable of +the clan,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> perhaps the fittest for the mission the boatswain had now in +his mind.</p> + +<p>'Mates,' said he, dropping his words between hard sucks at an inch of +sooty pipe, 'there's a difficulty in the cabin that's got to be made an +end of. The Dutchman must be buried. Now, the three of us had better go +below, with sail-cloth and twine, and stitch him up to the satisfaction +of his daughter. I'd give this hand,' said he, holding up a paw as big +as a boxing-glove, 'if he hadn't been killed. He had meant to get his +dinner off our junk and pork to-day. It was the captain kept him in +ignorance of our condition.'</p> + +<p>'He'd have shot as many of us as there was balls in his pistol,' said +Scott.</p> + +<p>'You're right,' said the boatswain, as though he found something to +rally him in that thought. 'Let's get what's wanted, my lads, and make +an end.'</p> + +<p>The dead man was alone when they entered the cabin. The ghastly hue of +the blow that had killed him was fading. One hand lay upon his beard, +and he seemed in thought.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p><p>'Quick, now,' says the boatswain, 'whilst the lady's out of sight.'</p> + +<p>They emptied his pockets, putting everything they found upon the table, +then quickly fell to swathing and stitching. In the midst of this work +Gordon violently started, and cried out, muttering, 'Lor', how she took +me!' Miss Vanderholt stood near him. She was painfully white, and her +eyes were swollen almost to concealment. Yet anyone capable of +interpreting human expression must have found a subtle token of +resolution in her features, shadowy marks of firmness, as though the +countenance was struggling to take its presentment from the spirit. This +might be visible sooner to the eye of sympathy than to the vision of the +head.</p> + +<p>'Are you going to bury him?' she exclaimed, in a low, trembling voice.</p> + +<p>'Yes, miss,' said the boatswain, rearing himself, and backing and +looking at her.</p> + +<p>'Is there no one who can read a prayer from the service over him?' said +the girl.</p> + +<p>The men looked at one another, shaking their heads, and then the +boatswain said:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p><p>'Tell 'e what, lads: we'll stitch the poor gentleman up ready, and +leave him a-bit, whilst the lady says a prayer by his side. It'll do him +more good than any prayer that's a-going to come from us, whether we +reads it, or whether we imagines it.'</p> + +<p>Miss Vanderholt took a step to her father and kissed him, then, weeping +silently, went to the foremost end of the cabin, and stood waiting.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> A belaying-pin is a bar of wood or metal. It fits in a +rail, and is used for making a rope fast to. When of wood it is heavy +enough, when of metal deadly as a weapon or a missile.</p></div></div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>CHAPTER VII.</span> <span class="smaller">CAPTAIN PARRY.</span></h2> + +<p>On the night of December 20, in the same year of the mutiny of the +<i>Mowbray</i>, a large full-rigged ship, homeward bound, was, to the north +of the Equator, stealing silently through the dusk. The hour was about +half-past nine. The moon rode high and shone gloriously, and the edge of +the plain of ocean came in two sweeps of ebony to the clasp of splendour +under the satellite. The ship lifted a cloud of sail to the stars. The +night-wind was lightly breathing, and every cloth was asleep, stirless +as alabaster mouldings, curving from each yard-arm, and climbing with +the whiteness of the moon into three spires.</p> + +<p>This ship was the <i>Alfred</i>, but not the famous Thames East Indiaman of +that name.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> She was about sixteen hundred tons, with an abundant crew, a +captain and four mates. She was carrying a valuable cargo and a number +of passengers from India to London, and once only had she halted—at +Simon's Bay, where she put a lieutenant of Marines and fifteen men +ashore, and then proceeded, after filling her fresh-water casks. She was +a flush-decked ship, and when you stood at the wheel your eye ran along +a spacious length of deck, rounding with the exquisite art of the +shipwright into flaring bows which sank into the true clipper lines, +high above the keen and coppered forefoot.</p> + +<p>A number of ladies and gentlemen sat and moved about the decks. The +awnings were furled, and the moonshine glistened upon these people, and +sparkled in the jewellery of the ladies, and silvered the whiskers of +the gentlemen. On the weather side of the long quarter-deck walked the +commander of the ship, Captain Barrington. A lady's hand was tucked +under his arm, and he frequently looked to windward whilst he talked. To +leeward paced the mate, and a little distance forward, in the deep +shadows of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> main-rigging, stood a group of midshipmen.</p> + +<p>Right aft, upon the taffrail, sat three gentlemen. One smoked a pipe, +the others cheroots. Captain Barrington permitted his guests—as he, +with facetious politeness, called his passengers—to smoke upon the +quarter-deck after five bells in the first watch. A considerable surface +of grating stretched betwixt these three gentlemen and the wheel. The +wheel was something forward of the grating, and the helmsman, therefore, +absorbed in the business of keeping the ship to her course, could hear +little more than the rumble of the tones of the gentlemen who conversed +on the taffrail.</p> + +<p>'I say, Parry,' said one of the gentlemen, who was, indeed, no less a +personage than the surgeon of the ship, casting his eyes up at the moon, +and tasting his tobacco, with slow enjoyment, in the discharge of each +little cloud of it; 'did it ever occur to you to consider that all the +great processes of this world—that all creation, in short, is based on +circles?'</p> + +<p>'Why do you address yourself to me?'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> said Captain Parry. 'What do I +know about circles?'</p> + +<p>'Behold yonder moon,' continued the doctor, pointing with the stem of +his pipe to the luminary, beautiful with her greenish tinge, so +sparklingly and brilliantly edged, too, so marvellously clear-cut, that +you might then realize, if you never did before, the miracle of her +self-poised flight through the domain of violet ether. 'She is a +circle,' said the doctor. 'So is the sun. So are the stars. The flight +of our system through space, if not a circle, is nearly so—enough to +justify my theory that, when the Great Hand launched Creation, the +design was one of circles.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, blow that!' said one of the gentlemen. 'Parry, hand us a cheroot.'</p> + +<p>'Whatever brings God closer to us is good,' said the doctor. 'This +theory of construction proves the existence of a genius like to man's in +the Great Spirit, and we can be in sympathy with it.'</p> + +<p>'The breeze seems scanting,' said Captain Parry. 'If this voyage goes on +lasting, I shall be like the sailor who, when he was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> washed ashore on a +desert island in his shirt, complained that he certainly did feel the +want of a few necessaries.'</p> + +<p>'A man going home to be married ought not to be becalmed,' said the +doctor.</p> + +<p>'How do you like the idea of being married, Parry?' said the third +gentleman, who was one Lieutenant Piercy.</p> + +<p>Captain Parry viewed the beautiful moon in silence.</p> + +<p>'Until I got married myself,' said the Doctor, 'I used to express +marriage by what I consider an excellent image. A man marrying is like +unto a ship that grounds on a bar and beats over, where she lies unable +to get out; so other ships passing behold her riding, royal yards +across, and the bar thick under the bows.'</p> + +<p>Captain Parry continued to view the moon.</p> + +<p>'A man for comfort,' said Piercy, 'should marry a roomy woman. You know +what I mean—a woman who'll give him plenty of geographical and +intellectual room to move in. He's still contained in her, d'ye see, +still in sympathy, still sacramentally one, yet he's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> got plenty of +room,' he drawled. 'I remember some idiots who berthed a number of +horses on board ship, and allowed no room for the toss of their heads. +It's room that a chap wants in marriage.'</p> + +<p>'Isn't that something white ahead there?' said Parry, pointing into the +starry visionary distance, right over the bow.</p> + +<p>The others seemed to look.</p> + +<p>'Something white should be a ghost,' said Piercy. 'I wonder if ghosts +walk the sea as they do churchyards?'</p> + +<p>'The most terrifying ghost that, to my mind, ever appeared,' said the +doctor, 'must have been the spirit of the Prince of Saxony. He came in +complete steel, suddenly, upon his unhappy relative, who had idly +pronounced his name, never dreaming to see him, and said: "Karl, Karl, +was wollst du mit mich?" Is it the German that makes this question +awful?'</p> + +<p>'The worst of all ghosts,' said Captain Parry, who had been straining +his eyes at the elusive gleam ahead, 'are the phantasies of the sick +eye.'</p> + +<p>'Right,' said the doctor.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p><p>'When I was ill some years ago in India, I had been reading Boswell's +"Life of Johnson," and every night at a certain hour a miniature figure +of Dr. Johnson would sit upon the mantelpiece and play the spinet. I +knew the old cock hadn't a note of music in his soul. His head wagged +like a simmering cauliflower. I was in a mortal funk whilst he played, +but was too weak to throw anything at him. When the vision first +appeared, I thought it might have been a large bottle. The mantelpiece +was cleared, and still old Sam came and played upon the spinet for five +nights running.'</p> + +<p>'The most inconvenient of all ghosts is the living ghost,' said +Lieutenant Piercy. 'An Irish sergeant told me that, before he left +Ireland, he lent an uncle five pounds. On returning, after fourteen +years, he called upon his uncle, and asked him for the money. "Och, +shure," said the man, "haven't I spent the double of it in masses for +yez?"'</p> + +<p>'Talking of ghosts,' said the doctor, 'what do you say, gentlemen, to +this psychological touch? A young man—call him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> Brown—after years of +deliberation, seriously considers that he has been born into the wrong +family. He is wholly out of sympathy with his relations. He is superior +to them. He loves music, the fine arts, literature, and so on. His +sisters are vulgar, his father a cad. The young man, feeling convinced +that a serious mistake has happened, goes forth to search for his own +family. He finds them at last, a cultivated circle of people, and they +all seem to know that he belongs to them. Strangely enough, young Brown +meets in this family with one of the sons, a young fellow of his own +age—call him Jones. Jones laments to Brown that he is entirely out of +sympathy with his family. They are superior to him. He likes vulgar +songs, the diverting company of ostlers and billiard-markers. He objects +to young ladies. He prefers shop-girls. The point is clear,' said the +doctor. 'These young men were born into the wrong families. Brown hinted +to Jones that he would meet with the right parties at the Browns', and +Jones was received by the Browns with that instinctive perception of his +claims as a member of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> family which had characterized the meeting +between Brown and the Jones's.'</p> + +<p>'Brown is a snob and Jones an ass,' said Parry.</p> + +<p>Here the chief officer came right aft, and looked into the binnacle. As +the cheeks are sucked in, so the sails hollowed to the sudden emptiness +of the atmosphere along with the slight floating roll of the whole +fabric. A low thunder fore and aft broke from the masts.</p> + +<p>'I'm sick of that noise!' exclaimed Lieutenant Piercy. 'The cockroaches +dance to it. The kitchen offal that the cook threw overboard yesterday +delights in it, and dwells alongside, a loving listener. I say, Mr. +Mulready,' he called to the mate, 'when are you going to give us a whole +gale over the taffrail—something that shall come roaring down upon the +ship in a cloudless thunder of wind?'</p> + +<p>'Ha, sir, when?' answered the mate, a dry man.</p> + +<p>Captain Parry, with a slight yawn, stood up, stretched his arms, stepped +across the grating, and sprang upon the deck, then stood<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> looking over +the bulwark-rail at the distant icy gleam on the bow.</p> + +<p>'The heat seems to have baked the life out of Parry,' said Lieutenant +Piercy, 'or is it that his spirits sink as he approaches home, knowing +what lies before him?'</p> + +<p>'A man should feel himself a poor creature,' exclaimed the doctor, 'when +he understands that a fit of despondency, a mood of unspeakable +depression, reaching even unto tears, may be caused, not by the +affections—oh no!—but by a little piece of celery, or half a pickled +walnut.'</p> + +<p>'I am thirsty,' said Piercy; 'come below, doctor, and have a drink.'</p> + +<p>Four bells were struck. The ladies disappeared. Five bells—then most of +the gentlemen vanished. Six bells, and now the ship seemed clothed in +sleep and silence. At intervals faint catspaws stirred, none of which +were neglected by the mate of the watch, who, regardless of the +smothered curses of the seamen, hoarsely roared orders for the braces to +be manned. Thus, stealthily, the ship floated through the midnight sea, +flooded with moonshine.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p><p>Then came the dawn, the resurrection of the day, trailing its ghastly +shroud across the face of the eastern sky. The watch of the mate came +round again at eight bells—four o'clock—and when the day broke it +found him on deck, standing at the rail, and peering ahead.</p> + +<p>'Bring me the glass,' said he to a midshipman.</p> + +<p>Some three points on the bow of the ship lay a schooner. She had all +cloths showing, saving her little top-gallant sail and royal. She was +certainly not under command, and yet she did not seem derelict. Mr. +Mulready levelled the ship's glass. What was she?</p> + +<p>Scarcely a yacht, yet of yacht-like finish and delicacy. The faint +breeze trembled in her moon-white canvas. She lay head to wind, and the +long pulse of ocean swell, in lifting and sinking her, exposed her +sheathing in flashes, and submitted to the eye of Mr. Mulready the +handsomest sea-going model he had ever looked at.</p> + +<p>'Something wrong there,' thought he, carefully covering her with his +glass, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>intently examining her for any signs of life, for smoke in +the caboose chimney, for a head peering in sickness over the bulwark +rail.</p> + +<p>About a mile and a half separated the two vessels, and it had taken the +<i>Alfred</i> nearly the whole night long to measure the space betwixt the +gleam over the bows and the spot of waters whence it had first been +sighted by Captain Parry.</p> + +<p>The chief mate could do nothing without the captain; but, whilst the +crew were washing down the decks, often pausing for a breath or two in +their scrubbing to glance at the graceful, helpless, lonely fabric that +was now drawing abeam, Captain Barrington stepped through the +companion-hatch. His sight immediately went to the schooner.</p> + +<p>'What vessel have we there?' he exclaimed, and he picked up the +telescope that lay upon the skylight. 'She is abandoned, sir,' said he +to his chief mate.</p> + +<p>'She looks too beautiful for ill-luck,' answered the mate. 'The man who +moulded her knew his art.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p><p>'What's she doing all this way down here?' said Captain Barrington, +talking with the telescope at his eye. 'She's a gentleman's +pleasure-boat. Has she been sacked, and her crew and pleasure-party +murdered? Brace the foretopsail aback. I'll send a boat aboard.'</p> + +<p>The ship came to a stand, with a lazy sigh of the light breeze in her +canvas, the yards of the fore creaking on parrel and truss as they came +round to the drag of hauling sailors. A boat was manned, lowered, and +despatched in charge of the third officer, an intelligent young +gentleman of the name of Blundell.</p> + +<p>'Thoroughly overhaul her,' the captain had said. 'If she is derelict, +bring away the log-book and papers.'</p> + +<p>And as the boat swept towards the schooner the skipper turned to Mr. +Mulready and exclaimed:</p> + +<p>'If she be abandoned, I'll put a crew aboard, and we'll sail home +together. There is value in that little ship, sir, and she is too +handsome a craft to be allowed to wash about down here.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p><p>Some of the male passengers arrived for their customary bath in the +head. Do not believe the bath-room of the metal palace of this day +comparable as a luxury to the old head-pump.</p> + +<p>You stripped, you sprang on to a grating betwixt the head-boards, and an +ordinary seaman went to work. The gushing blue brine sank to your +marrow. It gushed in cold sweetness through and through you. You gazed +down, and saw the clear blue profound out of which the sparkling coil +that hissed over your body was being drawn. It was the one delight of +the tropics, the one joy that haply sometimes checked the profanities in +the passengers' mouths when they came on deck and found the ship +motionless.</p> + +<p>One of the first to come on deck to taste the sweetness of the head-pump +was Captain Parry. The instant he rose through the hatch his eye caught +sight of the schooner. He stood awhile staring; someone coming up behind +him forced him to move out of the hatch. He stepped out, still with his +eyes glued to the schooner, and advancing,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> that his vision might clear +the quarter-boat, he again came to a stand, staring.</p> + +<p>He was a tall, well-built young man, about eight-and-twenty years of +age, close-shaven and dark, and there was something Roman and heroic in +the cast of his countenance. He was airily clothed for the bath, and +watched the schooner with a towel or two dangling in his grasp.</p> + +<p>By this time the boat had reached the side of the apparently abandoned +vessel, and the third officer might with the naked eye easily have been +seen to spring aboard, followed by a seaman. He stood awhile taking a +view of the decks, then disappeared.</p> + +<p>'Captain Barrington,' exclaimed Captain Parry, wheeling suddenly upon +the skipper of the ship as he approached him, 'is anything known of that +vessel?'</p> + +<p>'I have just sent a boat to board her,' answered the captain.</p> + +<p>'Will you allow me to use that glass?'</p> + +<p>He took the telescope from the captain's hands, and resting the tubes on +the bulwark rail, gazed thirstily. There was something of +astonishment—indeed, of amazement—in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> his face when he turned to +Captain Barrington.</p> + +<p>'I don't think I can be mistaken,' he exclaimed in a low voice, talking +to the captain, but looking at the schooner. 'It is the same +figure-head, exactly the same rig, the same size, so far as the eye can +measure her at this distance. She has a deck-house for her sailors, and +her paintwork is the same. It will be extraordinary!'</p> + +<p>He fetched his breath in a half-gasp.</p> + +<p>'Do you know that vessel, d'ye say, Captain Parry?' asked old +Barrington, looking with curiosity and interest at the fine young +fellow.</p> + +<p>'I would swear that she is the <i>Mowbray</i>,' answered Captain Parry, +picking up the glass afresh, and continuing to talk. 'She was purchased +by Mr. Vanderholt, who made a yacht of her, and, when I was last in +England, I went a short cruise in her along with Mr. Vanderholt and his +daughter, the lady to whom—to whom—— Good God! the longer I look, the +more I am satisfied. No name is painted on her; you will find her name +in the boats. What, under<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> heaven, brings her here, lying abandoned? +Yes, oh yes! I'd pick her out if she were in a fleet of five hundred +sail.'</p> + +<p>'It may be as you say,' exclaimed Captain Barrington. 'It is a very +remarkable meeting. But we can be sure of nothing until the third +officer returns.'</p> + +<p>A few passengers, attracted by this conversation, had drawn close. You +heard murmurs of excitement. A voyage at sea, in the old days of tacks +and sheets, was a tedious affair, in spite of flirtation, cards, the +simple diversions of the dance on the quarter-deck, the heaving of the +quoit, the bets on the run. Even a floating bottle was a something to +cause a stir. It broke the dull continuity of the day. A sail was a +Godsend. And here now, after many weeks of tedious ocean travel, here +now had suddenly uprisen, all at once, coming down a-beam out of the +darkness of the midnight, so to speak, an ocean mystery that would be +fraught with an inexpressible significance if Captain Parry's conjecture +proved accurate.</p> + +<p>To this gentleman, for whom the head pump had magically ceased to have +existence,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> the time of waiting and suspense was frantically long. +Lieutenant Piercy came and stood beside him.</p> + +<p>'But, supposing it is the <i>Mowbray</i>,' said the young officer: 'her +presence in this sea needn't concern your friends. The vessel may have +been sold. They may have been carrying her to some distant port. If it +is fever, the dead will be found; if mutiny——' Here Lieutenant Piercy +stopped, puzzled.</p> + +<p>'I don't think Vanderholt would sell her,' exclaimed Parry. 'He was +proud merely of her possession, though he did not often go afloat. How +amazing to see her lying there! Of course it is the <i>Mowbray</i>,' he +exclaimed, again levelling the glass. 'She used to carry a long-boat, +and that's gone. If her people have left her, they went away in it.'</p> + +<p>'She's certainly abandoned,' said Piercy, 'or something living would +have shown itself by this time.'</p> + +<p>'Why the deuce doesn't that fellow Blundell return?' muttered Parry, in +an agony of impatience.</p> + +<p>But, even as he spoke, the figure of the mate might have been observed +to drop over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> the schooner's side into the boat. The oars swept the +brine into steam. The boat hissed alongside, and the third mate stepped +on board. All the people of the saloon or cabin had by this time heard +the news; they knew that an abandoned schooner, which was an ocean +mystery, lay close by, and they had made great haste to dress +themselves, insomuch that a large number of them were on deck. They +elbowed round the third mate, and the commander, and Captain Parry, to +hear the ship's officer's report.</p> + +<p>'She is the <i>Mowbray</i>, sir, of, and from, London. I can't find any +papers. Here's her log-book, sir. The last entry is in a female hand. +The vessel was apparently on a pleasure cruise.'</p> + +<p>'Let me look at that book,' said Captain Parry.</p> + +<p>He turned the pages till he came to the last entry, then began to read, +now and then swaying himself, then making a step in recoil. All saw by +his face and his motions, by his strange gestures, by the wild looks he +would sometimes cast from the page to the schooner, that what he read +was carrying<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> the bitterness of death to his heart. Meanwhile the +captain was questioning the third officer.</p> + +<p>'There's nothing alive on board?'</p> + +<p>'Nothing, sir. I searched everywhere.'</p> + +<p>'No dead bodies?'</p> + +<p>'None, sir.'</p> + +<p>'Did you discover nothing to enable us to make a guess at what's become +of her people?'</p> + +<p>'Everything is in its place, sir. The log-book was left conspicuously +open on the table of the cabin, that had, doubtless, been occupied by +the captain.'</p> + +<p>'Will you kindly accompany me below, Captain Barrington?' said Captain +Parry, who was so extremely agitated and distressed that he could barely +utter the words.</p> + +<p>The passengers made room. Every face bore marks of pity and +astonishment. They had heard that the last entry was in a female hand, +and they had also heard—indeed, they could see—that yonder schooner +was abandoned.</p> + +<p>Captain Parry followed the commander of the ship down the +companion-steps into a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> bright, handsomely-furnished saloon; thence they +passed into an after-cabin, the door of which Captain Barrington shut. A +large, old-fashioned stern window provided a spacious view of the sea. +The light came off the water in a cloud of splendour, and glowed and +throbbed upon the nautical brass instruments upon the table, and +sparkled in a glazed framed likeness of Mrs. Barrington.</p> + +<p>'The entry here,' exclaimed Captain Parry, trembling with excitement, +and the twenty contending passions within him, 'is in the handwriting of +the young lady to whom I am—to whom I was—to whom I am to be married +on my arrival in England. She is Miss Violet Vanderholt. You perceive,' +he said, pointing with a shaking forefinger, 'that she writes her name. +The story she tells is of a diabolical mutiny. It took place on December +15. This entry is dated the 18th; to-day is the 20th. The <i>Mowbray</i> has, +therefore, been abandoned two days only, perhaps not a day, for though +this last entry is dated the 18th, the crew need not necessarily have +abandoned the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> schooner till yesterday, or even this morning.'</p> + +<p>'It is certain,' said Captain Barrington, 'that the hands, together with +the young lady, were on board the schooner on the 18th.'</p> + +<p>'Quite certain, sir; but here is her story. Pray read it aloud to me; I +did not fully master it.'</p> + +<p>Captain Parry, with a shaking hand, gave the log-book to his companion. +It was of the usual form of log-book, with a good wide space for +'Remarks' on the right-hand side of each page. Captain Barrington, a +white-haired man of fifty-five, with scarlet cheeks, glanced over a few +of the earlier entries. He saw that the log had been kept down to +December 14, afterwards the entry was in a female hand, strong, sure, +but somewhat small:</p> + +<p>'I have ascertained that none of the men can read. I am writing an +account of what has befallen us, hoping, since the men talk of leaving +her and taking me with them, that this yacht may be met with, and this +log-book discovered. I heartily pray any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> into whose hands this book may +fall that he will publish my narrative to the world, so that my father's +fate and my own may be made known to Captain George Parry, H.E.I.C.'s +Service, to whom I am engaged to be married.'</p> + +<p>The commander looked at Parry with brows arched by astonishment and +sailorly concern. The officer brought his hands together in a convulsive +gesture, and turned his eyes with a look of despair upon the sea, framed +in the window.</p> + +<p>'My father was Mr. Montagu Vanderholt, a well-known Cape merchant. We +resided at —— Terrace, Hyde Park, London. I, Violet Vanderholt, am his +only daughter. He thought that a sea-trip would do him good. He asked me +to accompany him. I was his only companion, and we set sail from the +Thames, November 1, in this year. The master was Captain Glew. He +treated the crew harshly, and excited their hate, though he was cautious +in his behaviour when I was on deck, so that I never could say he spoke +to a man barbarously. But the dreadful tragedy of this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> voyage was +occasioned by the bad food supplied to the sailors. This was undoubtedly +Captain Glew's fault. He had been commissioned to victual the vessel, +and was responsible for her stores, and I fear he knew that what he +bought was not wholesome for men to eat, though the charges my poor +father was at should have given the men the very best quality of food. +They complained to Glew, but not to my father. Captain Glew never hinted +that the men were murmuring, and the mutiny was sprung upon us with +dreadful suddenness. The captain and the mate seized the boatswain, and +a man stabbed the captain in the side, and mortally wounded him. My +father dragged me below, and, rushing into his cabin for a pistol, +returned on deck to cow the men with the weapon. They did not heed him, +and he fired, and, as I have since been told, and must believe, shot the +mate, Mr. Tweed, accidentally through the head. Mr. Vanderholt was +killed by an iron bar, flung with murderous violence. They afterwards +feigned that this bar was thrown with the intention of dashing the +pistol from my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> father's hand. This is all that I have to relate.</p> + +<p>'I am writing this at ten o'clock on the morning of the 18th. I cannot +imagine what the men intend. I asked the boatswain, who has treated me +with great civility throughout, to tell me what they mean to do. This +very morning I repeated the question. He answered he could not say. The +men were undecided. Some were for going away in the boat, and taking +their chance of being picked up, and some for remaining in the vessel. I +gathered from his manner that these were few. What are they to do with +the schooner if they stick to her? They might, indeed, wreck her off +some island where they could represent themselves as shipwrecked men. I +know that they regard me as a witness against them, and that my life is +in great danger, and the merciful God alone knows what is to become of +me. It is nearly——'</p> + +<p>Here the entry ended.</p> + +<p>The commander of the ship looked at Captain Parry.</p> + +<p>'The hand of Providence is in this,' said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> the scarlet-faced man, very +soberly and seriously.</p> + +<p>'They cannot be far off!' exclaimed Captain Parry, stepping to the stern +window with an air of distraction, and staring out at the sea.</p> + +<p>'It is a clock-calm,' said the commander, 'and if anything which moves +by canvas has received the crew, we may presume that she lies as +helpless as we, not far distant.'</p> + +<p>'But what excuse could they make,' said Captain Parry, 'to be +transferred from so staunch a little ship as the <i>Mowbray</i>?'</p> + +<p>'They might say that they were without a navigator.'</p> + +<p>'Wouldn't another vessel put a navigator on board so fine a craft and +send her home, sooner than leave her to go to pieces? In that case we +should not have found her here.'</p> + +<p>'There's nothing to be done at sea, sir, by arguing and speculating,' +said Captain Barrington, still preserving his very serious manner, as +though, indeed, he had found something to awe him in the circumstance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> +of a girl writing, so to speak, in the heart of the Atlantic, with +particular reference to her lover, and that lover reading her words +there. 'It is as likely as not,' he continued, 'that they have gone away +in the long-boat. It is clear, from the narrative, that the majority +were in favour of that measure. These are quiet waters, and the men have +reason to hope that they will be picked up soon, in which case they can +tell their own story.'</p> + +<p>'But Miss Vanderholt?' exclaimed Captain Parry. 'She can bear witness +against them. What will they do with her?'</p> + +<p>'Ha!' exclaimed the commander, fetching a deep breath. 'It is certain, +anyhow, that she is not in the schooner.'</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>CHAPTER VIII.</span> <span class="smaller">IN SEARCH.</span></h2> + +<p>In the year of this story Old Leisure was still going to sea. He +flourished as pleasantly upon the ocean as amidst the hens and +dunghills, the milkmaids and dairies, of the Poyser farmyard. He brought +his main-topsail to the mast without reluctance when there was anything +to be seen or talked to; he went on board the stranger, and dined with +him; invited the stranger in return; then leisurely proceeded. There was +no prompt despatch, to speak of, no urgency. The wind was the prevailing +condition of the immense distances which the wooden keel traversed. Old +Leisure kept his eye to windward, and hauled out his bowlines; but it +was a time of ambling, of dozing,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> and of whistling for winds until too +much came.</p> + +<p>Only in such a time as this now dealt with could we conceive a large, +full-rigged ship, homeward bound from India, full of impatient hearts, +hove-to, with a derelict schooner within easy hail, and the commander +taking plenty of time to reason about her with a gentleman who was +infinitely concerned in her unexpected, astounding apparition and +log-book narrative.</p> + +<p>'The thought of Miss Vanderholt being at the mercy of a crew of mutinous +ruffians is unbearable!' exclaimed Captain Parry. 'What is to be done? +Advise me, in the name of God, captain! You know—you know—I have told +you she was to be my wife. You are an old sailor. For God's sake, +counsel me!'</p> + +<p>'If I could be sure that they had made off in their boat, and were still +afloat in her,' answered the captain, 'I should know how to advise you. +But if they have been received on board a ship, then I don't see what +can be done. For in what direction may that ship be heading? Enough if +your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> young lady should be safe, sir. Supposing her to be on board a +ship, I have no doubt of your hearing good news of her, in course of +time, after your arrival in England.'</p> + +<p>He opened the cabin-door, and called to one of the stewards.</p> + +<p>'My compliments to the chief officer, and ask him to come to me.'</p> + +<p>Mr. Mulready quickly presented himself.</p> + +<p>'We have some notion,' said Captain Barrington, addressing his mate, +whilst he laid his hand upon the log of the <i>Mowbray</i>, 'that the crew of +the schooner may have left her in their boat, taking the young lady with +them. Send a couple of hands—don't trouble the young gentlemen,' said +he, with a supercilious smile, vanishing almost as it appeared upon his +firm lips, 'but a couple of sharp hands to the royal mastheads. Give one +of them this glass.' He handed Mr. Mulready a binocular. 'Let the other +take the ship's telescope aloft. I want the sea carefully swept. Make +them understand that they must creep in their search to the very verge,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> +for how far off is a boat visible? But they might sight the gleam of her +lugsail.'</p> + +<p>Mr. Mulready took the glasses, and went swiftly out.</p> + +<p>Captain Parry stood at the open window, listening to what was passing, +straining his sight also with consuming passions of dread, blind desire, +helpless wrath, at the star-blue line of the sea that swept the +brilliance of the heavens within little more than a league. The captain +of the ship went to a locker, and took out a chart of the Atlantic. He +spread it, and called to Captain Parry.</p> + +<p>The officer turned, and eagerly stepped to the chart. He saw zigzag +prickings or lines upon the white sheet, as though somebody had been +trying to represent flashes of lightning. Each line terminated in a +little dotted circle. These were the 'runs.' But, then, these were also +the Doldrums, and the motive power of that ship, the <i>Alfred</i>, lay in +the breeze that, in the Doldrums, blows in the delicate catspaw that +scarcely has power to run a shiver into the glazed breast.</p> + +<p>'This was our situation at noon yesterday,' said the commander, putting +his finger upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> the northernmost little circle. 'There is no land for +leagues, as you may observe.'</p> + +<p>'What are those rocks?' observed Captain Parry, peering.</p> + +<p>'St. Paul's Island—a horrible hornet's nest of black fangs, entirely +out of the boat's reach. I am not sure that I ever heard of a boat +effecting a landing. Anyone cast ashore there must perish. There is +nothing to eat or drink. It is the desolation of hell!' added the +commander, with a note of religious fervour in his speech; 'and a +dreadful surf like a nightmare of storm raves day and night round those +rocks.'</p> + +<p>'What is to be done?' said Captain Parry, lifting himself erect from the +chart. 'If they are in a boat they cannot be far distant. They have not +long left the schooner, but every stroke of the oar carries them further +away, and renders the search more hopeless.'</p> + +<p>'The search?' exclaimed the commander, in a note of inquiry and +surprise.</p> + +<p>'I don't mean in this ship, of course,' said the officer, speaking with +agitation and very quickly. 'A clipper schooner lies close at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> hand. If +you will lend me a navigator and a few hands, we will sweep the sea, +taking this mark,' he continued, putting his finger upon the chart, 'as +our base, and hunting with masthead look-outs, and fierce fires burning +by night, in circles whose circumference or diameter I should leave to +the judgment of the mate in charge.'</p> + +<p>The commander began to slowly pace his cabin. Once he paused, and gazed +with a face of earnest gravity at the sea that came brimming to the +counter in a sheet of winding lines, the light swathes of the tropic +calm, the oily gleam, the trouble of some stream of current twinkling in +diamonds.</p> + +<p>Captain Parry eyed him with anxiety. He dreaded a discussion that might +kill the hope that had suddenly been born in him. A tap on the door +caused the commander to start.</p> + +<p>Mr. Mulready entered.</p> + +<p>'The masthead men have been working hard with their glasses, sir, and +report nothing in sight.'</p> + +<p>'How is the schooner?'</p> + +<p>'Forlorn, but safe, sir.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p><p>'Take a boat and go aboard, and make a further thorough examination of +her, and overhaul her stores—all as smartly as may be, sir. This +gentleman has an idea, and I don't know but that it might prove +practicable,' said the commander. And, as Mr. Mulready left the cabin, +the captain of the ship turned to Parry, and asked him to follow him on +deck.</p> + +<p>On the commander emerging, the third mate approached and touched his +cap, and exclaimed:</p> + +<p>'When I said there was no living thing aboard that schooner, sir, I +should have reported a small coop full of cocks and hens, all alive, and +very hungry and thirsty. I fed them with some rice I found in the +galley, and poured a quantity of water into their trough.'</p> + +<p>He saluted, and marched off.</p> + +<p>'In the face of Miss Vanderholt's last entry,' said the captain to +Parry, 'we don't want live cocks and hens to tell us that that vessel +has been recently abandoned.'</p> + +<p>She lay softly lifting upon the light swell, a beautiful, helpless +fabric. The shudders<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> which ran through her canvas were like the +distress of something living. She had slewed somewhat, bringing her +jibbooms to bear upon the ship. In the blind, hopeless way of abandoned +craft, she was posture-making for help.</p> + +<p>The excitement aboard the <i>Alfred</i> was very great indeed. The +mastheading of the men, the pictures of their little bodies high in the +heavens, sweeping the deep with binocular and telescope, had immensely +stimulated the passions of curiosity and wonder.</p> + +<p>What did the captain expect the sailors to see upon that vast girdle of +brine, that rolled flawless to the glorious stroke of the sun? It was +known that the young lady who had been on board the schooner was +betrothed to Captain Parry. Could romance be carried beyond this? The +ladies fluttered in talk, the gentlemen growled.</p> + +<p>'I'm keeping a diary,' said a major, with great, dyed, well-curled +whiskers, to the surgeon of the ship, 'of this voyage home, as I did of +the voyage out, and I shall probably publish it, sir. But this incident +will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> not be credited. Sages in their day have believed in ghosts, and +laughed to scorn a report of earthquakes.'</p> + +<p>'I do not see why this incident should not be believed,' said the +doctor.</p> + +<p>'It is too probable—for the sea, sir. If you want a sea-fact to be +accepted, state that which a sailor will know to be impossible.'</p> + +<p>'Parry looks as haggard as if he had been up for a week of nights,' said +the doctor.</p> + +<p>Many eyes were fixed upon him as he stood beside the master of the ship, +viewing the schooner and talking. The ship forward was a gem of an ocean +piece, with the smoke of her galley-chimney going straight up, the +sailors—it was their breakfast-time—lounging in the cool of the shade +of the jibs, with hook-pots and biscuits, and pipes of tobacco: and the +great foresail, white as milk, floated motionless from its long yard.</p> + +<p>Some soldiers in white clothes were seated upon the booms, in the wake +of the draught which would stir from that vast square of sail when the +weak swell of the sea put a faint pulse of life into it. The sky<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> was +sublimely lofty, with the light-blue brilliance of the tropic zone; not +a cloud to depress it to the sight, and all the air was gone.</p> + +<p>Captain Barrington and Captain Parry stood together at the mizzen +shrouds, looking at the schooner, conversing, and waiting for the return +of the mate. The passengers very respectfully gave them a wide berth.</p> + +<p>'No,' says Captain Barrington presently; 'I shall have no objection, +sir. I am to be influenced by humanity in this business. My owners +cannot and will not object,' he added, as if thinking aloud. 'We shall +be saving a valuable yacht. Mr. Blundell is a very efficient young +officer, quite experienced enough to take charge, and he will receive +certain instructions from me, sir, for we must define the area of sea to +be searched, and the time to be taken.'</p> + +<p>He looked at the schooner thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>'She is under two hundred tons,' said he. 'Mr. Blundell and four men and +a boy should suffice; I can spare no more.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p><p>'I am no sailor, but I can pull and haul,' said Captain Parry. 'I can +do a man's bit. What time would you limit us to?'</p> + +<p>'I should wish to be a little elastic. There's no wind here to depend +upon,' answered the commander. 'I will see Mr. Blundell in my cabin +after breakfast, and explain my ideas.'</p> + +<p>Presently the breakfast-bell rang. The captain and the passengers went +below. Captain Parry asked that a biscuit and a cup of tea should be +brought to him on deck. He gazed round upon the spacious sea, and the +tranquillity of it soothed and calmed his inward, hidden, fuming +impatience.</p> + +<p>He knew that the stagnation that held the <i>Alfred</i> motionless would keep +the boat so, unless the men rowed, which was not very conceivable, for +sailors do not commonly row when the distance they have to traverse runs +into hundreds of miles. If they had been taken aboard a ship, she, too, +must be lying becalmed.</p> + +<p>Yet one black dread ever haunted Captain Parry's fancies. He was going +to seek the boat. Had Miss Vanderholt accompanied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> the men? Would they +carry with them a living witness to their piracy and murders? Had not +she been murdered before the schooner was abandoned?</p> + +<p>It was ten o'clock when the mate returned from the <i>Mowbray</i>. All this +while the sea remained satin-smooth. The sun, soaring high, burnt +fiercely; the paint bubbled in blisters, the pitch ran in soft-soap, and +the whole light of the schooner's canvas poured under her in quivering +sheets of quicksilver.</p> + +<p>Mr. Mulready was dark with dirt and sweat, and looked like a man who has +passed a week in stowing a ship's hold. Captain Parry stood in the +gangway to receive him, and the mate's immediate inquiry was for the +commander. He was closeted with Mr. Blundell.</p> + +<p>'What news can you give me?' said the military officer, grasping the +dry-minded mate by the arm, and looking beseechingly into his face.</p> + +<p>'There's just plenty of stores and fresh water,' answered Mr. Mulready, +'enough to last a small crew six months. Her after-hold<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> is rich in the +eating line. There are about two dozen cocks and hens.'</p> + +<p>'I don't mean <i>that</i>!' exclaimed Parry wildly. 'Did you find no hint of +the fate of the young lady?'</p> + +<p>'My answer must be,' answered the mate, with a certain formal, +sympathetic gravity, 'that nothing is alive on yonder vessel saving a +few cocks and hens.'</p> + +<p>The captain made his appearance, followed by Mr. Blundell.</p> + +<p>'I have arranged with the third officer,' said he, walking straight up +to Captain Parry and the mate, 'that he shall take charge of the yacht +and search for the boat. There can be no hurry whilst this clock-calm +lasts. Still, I dare say you'll be glad to go on board.'</p> + +<p>'I'm mad to go on board!' answered Captain Parry.</p> + +<p>'Get your luggage together, then, sir. Mr. Blundell will provide the +schooner with a couple of pistols out of the arms' chest, and the +necessary ammunition. If you fall in with the boat, remember they are +eight seamen, rendered desperate by murder. You<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> will be but seven. The +possibility is faint, the chance is the smallest,' the captain muttered +in a dying voice.</p> + +<p>'I thank you for your foresight,' said Parry; and he went hastily to his +cabin to pack up.</p> + +<p>The mate told Captain Barrington that there were plenty of rockets and +portfires aboard the schooner. A fireball by night might bring the boat +to the yacht. He then produced a piece of paper, and gave the commander +an idea of the quantity of stores in the little vessel.</p> + +<p>'They'll want nothing from us, then,' said Captain Barrington. 'However, +since the mutiny appears to have been owing to the rottenness of the +food, sling a couple of casks of our beef into the boat.'</p> + +<p>It was eleven o'clock when all was ready for Captain Parry to go on +board the <i>Mowbray</i>. Four men and a boy had volunteered as a crew, and +when the boat was freighted she lay deep alongside with seamen's chests, +luggage, casks of beef, and human beings. The passengers made a tender +farewell of this singular, most romantic leave-taking in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> mid-ocean. +They pressed forward to shake Captain Parry by the hand. Some hoped that +the blessing of God would attend his search. More than one lady raised a +handkerchief to her eyes. As the boat shoved off, a hearty cheer broke +from the whole length of the vessel. The boat reached the side of the +<i>Mowbray</i>, and all that was to be received on board was hoisted up.</p> + +<p>Captain Parry breathed deep, and wore a wildness in his looks, whilst he +stood for a few minutes gazing round about him. Of course, he remembered +the little ship perfectly well—the delightful cruise he had taken in +her, with Violet and her father, a little while before he returned to +India. He looked, and began to realize the brutal scene as the girl had +sketched it in that last entry. It was hard to think of his immensely +wealthy friend Mr. Vanderholt meeting a mean, base end at the hands of a +brutal Ratcliffe sailor. What had they done with Violet? The little ship +seemed to smell of human blood. The airy graces of her heights, the +beauty of all that was choice and finished betwixt her rails, seemed to +have departed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> Wherever murder stalks, the spirit of horror, attended +by the ghost of neglect and decay, follows. They break the windows of +the house. They command the spiders to build. The dirty little building +in which the body was found is going to pieces. The alley up which the +body was dragged is of a sickly green, with a growth of unwholesome +grass.</p> + +<p>It was so with this yacht—this beautiful fabric, the <i>Mowbray</i>. The +wizardry of murder had changed her to the sight of Parry. He cursed her +with all his heart as the cause of the destruction of his sweetheart and +Mr. Vanderholt, and, wondering what the devil had brought her so far +from home, whether it might be possible that father and daughter had +been sailing to India to meet him, that they might return together in +the same vessel, he put his hand upon the fire-hot companion-hood, and +descended the ladder.</p> + +<p>He searched, as the two mates had searched, and, of course, found more +than they. He beheld in a cabin memorials of his sweetheart—her +dresses, her hats, a veil,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> and a pair of gloves lay in her cot. One +glove was still bulked with the impress of her hand, as though she had +but just now drawn it off in a hurry, and cast it down. He peered +narrowly. The cabin was a charming little boudoir. He witnessed no +suggestions of violence; nothing appeared to have been disturbed. He +sought for marks of blood, then thought to himself, 'If she is murdered, +they did not kill her with a knife—they drowned her.'</p> + +<p>He stayed for half an hour in this cabin, then entered the adjoining +berth, which had been Mr. Vanderholt's. He found nothing to help him +here. The old gentleman had been eccentric. He had believed he loved the +life of the forecastle,—God help him!—and he had illustrated his idle +imagination of fondness by causing his berth to be rendered as +uncomfortable as possible.</p> + +<p>Parry was disturbed in his investigations of this berth by a bustle in +the cabin. He looked out, and saw a couple of sailors coming down with +his luggage.</p> + +<p>'Tumble those traps in here,' said he. 'Are we moving?'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p><p>'It is a fact, sir,' said one of the men, who was a Swede. 'A little +gentle vindt has begun to blow, and der <i>Alfred</i> is going home.'</p> + +<p>'Home? I do not quite understand,' exclaimed Captain Parry.</p> + +<p>He said no more, however, to the men, and went on deck to look about +him.</p> + +<p>An air of heaven, blowing out of the boundless blue, with not a cloud in +the sky to show you where it came from, was wrinkling the wide waters +into a thrilling azure, and under the sun the glory was blinding.</p> + +<p>They had trimmed sail on the schooner—a trifling matter; a hand was at +the helm; Mr. Blundell stood beside him, looking into the little +binnacle. On the bow was the <i>Alfred</i>, with her foretop-sail full, every +cloth stirless, so soft was the cradling of that sea. Her yards were +braced forwards, and she seemed to lean; she floated upright in silent +majesty, nevertheless, her trucks plumb with the zenith, and, as she +gained way, her short scope of wake sparkled like a shoal of herrings +under her counter.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></p><p>Mr. Blundell was a stout, hearty young sailor, about two-and-twenty +years of age. He had that sort of face which is often met at sea under +both flags—perfectly hairless, fleshy, permanently tinctured by the +roasting fires and the drying-in gales and frosts of ocean-travel. He +was looking at the compass of the schooner when Captain Parry +approached. Perhaps he sought for a hint or two in gear that did not +lead like a ship's, and canvas that was not shaped for square-yards. At +a motion from Captain Parry, he drew away from the helmsman.</p> + +<p>'I am at a loss,' said the captain, looking at the ship under the +shelter of his hand. 'Is the <i>Alfred</i> going home?'</p> + +<p>'Certainly, sir,' answered Mr. Blundell. 'We've dipped our farewell. +We're now on our own hook.'</p> + +<p>'Then, I mistook. I supposed when Captain Barrington talked of limiting +us to time that he intended we should return to him here,' said Captain +Parry.</p> + +<p>The young mate smiled.</p> + +<p>'His notion in limiting us to time,' said he, 'was that we should not +run the quest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> into a hopeless job. There should be a limit.'</p> + +<p>'Of course, a reasonable limit,' said Parry. 'What is it?'</p> + +<p>'It has been left to my judgment, sir; and I am willing to be governed +by you.'</p> + +<p>'Thanks, Blundell!'</p> + +<p>Captain Parry, pronouncing this sentence with warmth and emotion, +stepped to the binnacle and looked at the card.</p> + +<p>'You are holding the schooner north-west,' said he. 'You have a reason?'</p> + +<p>'We must head her on one course or another,' answered Blundell. 'I +propose, with your leave, to carry out Captain Barrington's ideas. He +has sketched me a circular course. I'll compass it off on the chart +below presently, and you shall form your own opinion. Loose the square +canvas, my lads!' he sang out, abruptly breaking from Captain Parry.</p> + +<p>The captain lent a hand to pull and haul; he dragged to the music of the +salt-throats at the sheets and halliards. The breeze freshened in a +steady gushing. The ocean was a miracle of laughing light. Already<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> you +heard the snore of foam at the cutwater, and the stealthy hiss of its +passage aft.</p> + +<p>The <i>Alfred</i> was growing small and square in the blue distance. She was +feeling the breeze now, and her pale and shapely shadow leaned as she +headed, with an occasional dim flash from her wet, black side, into the +far northern recess.</p> + +<p>Captain Parry went below, and returned on deck with the binocular which +he had observed in Mr. Vanderholt's cabin. The main rigging of the +<i>Mowbray</i> was rattled down to the height of the lower masthead. The +captain got into the shrouds, and made his way to the crosstrees. +Higher, being no sailor, he durst not crawl. With one hand he grasped a +topmast shroud that was sweating tar; with the other he lifted the +glasses, and searched the sea till his eyes swelled and throbbed in +their sockets. When he descended he said to the mate:</p> + +<p>'I have wondered why the men should have left the schooner afloat. Don't +they usually scuttle vessels in affairs of this sort?'</p> + +<p>'I heard the captain and the second officer talk this matter over,' said +Mr. Blundell.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> 'The second mate thought that the villains knew what they +were about when they left the schooner floating. She would be met with, +and boarded. They'd find nothing to give them an idea of what had +happened. So she'd be carried away to a port as a mystery, and that +would be giving the men a better chance than had they scuttled her.'</p> + +<p>'Why?'</p> + +<p>'Always one of the men who've been concerned in bloody businesses of +this sort finds his way to a hospital. He lies alongside another man and +gabbles. The second mate seemed to think that if one of the men of this +yacht turned up at a hospital and gabbled, less would be made of what he +said if the schooner had been towed into port as a mystery than had she +been sunk. For my part,' added Mr. Blundell, 'I believe they left her +afloat because they couldn't find the heart to sink her. She is a +beauty,' he murmured; and he whistled as he looked aloft and around.</p> + +<p>'I take the second mate's view,' said Captain Parry.</p> + +<p>He now made the tour of the schooner.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> He went forward and looked into +the men's deck-house, then dropped into the little forecastle and peered +round him. When he regained the deck, he saw a seaman climbing the +fore-rigging, with a binocular glass slung over his shoulder. He watched +him till the man had reached the royal yard, over which he threw his +leg, with his back against the sun-bright mast. The seaman began to +sweep the sea slowly and critically.</p> + +<p>'Good God!' thought Captain Parry, with a sudden heart-leap, 'if the +boat is afloat, or has not been picked up, we ought to fall in with +her.'</p> + +<p>The noise of the breeze was in his ears, a glad sense of motion came to +him from the quick salt seething alongside. His heart leapt up; but in a +minute all was dark again within him, with the horrible dread that +Violet had been murdered by the men before they quitted the schooner.</p> + +<p>The large, comfortable long-boat had been lifted out of its chocks, and +was gone. Captain Parry noticed, however, that two good boats hung in +the davits on either hand. He was impatient to learn the directions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> +given by Captain Barrington, but Mr. Blundell was busy with the little +ship's affairs just then. He had to appoint a cook, and see to the +dinner; he had to arrange for a masthead look-out that should be brief +under that broiling eye of day. They were few, and it taxed his genius +as a sailor to make the most of them.</p> + +<p>At last he found some time to spare. A sailor was left to trudge a +look-out; one at the helm made two, one on the royal yard made three. +The cook was the fourth, and the 'boy' was left to stand-by. Captain +Parry followed the mate into the cabin, and, whilst Blundell went into +his berth for the chart of the Atlantic, the captain stood looking about +him and thinking. She had sat there, or there, he thought, at table. It +was so recent, the very fragrance of her might be found in the +atmosphere. How often had her feet trodden those steps? He saw her, in +imagination, reading; she pored upon some volume, under that golden +globe, with her hair illuminated; he thought of her agony of heart when +she rushed on deck at the sound of firearms, and saw her father,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> the +captain, and mate lying dead, and knew that she was alone with a crew of +murderers.</p> + +<p>'This is how Captain Barrington hopes we'll work it, sir,' said +Blundell, coming out of Captain Glew's berth, and putting a chart upon +the table.</p> + +<p>He also produced a pair of compasses and a nautical instrument for +measuring distances. He pulled a paper, covered with calculations, from +his pocket, and placed it by his side.</p> + +<p>'This will be it, I think, sir,' said Blundell, sticking a leg of the +compass into the chart; 'where the point of this leg is we were when we +parted company with the <i>Alfred</i>. We allow the boat a start of +thirty-six hours, remembering always that our weather will have been +hers.'</p> + +<p>'Quite so!' exclaimed Captain Parry, devouring every word.</p> + +<p>'I am now heading,' continued the mate, with a glance at the paper, 'to +arrive at this point.' Here he put the pencil end of the compasses upon +the chart. 'When we arrive there, our navigation will be this.'</p> + +<p>He now, with great care, and constant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> references to the paper of +figures, together with a frequent use of the nautical instruments for +measuring distances, described a number of circles. These circles lay +one within another, and when completed they might be likened to a +cone-shaped spring, or to a corkscrew looked at vertically.</p> + +<p>'You will perceive, Captain Parry,' said the mate, 'that the distance +between each circle is the same. How far can a man see from the +schooner's royal yard? Well, Captain Barrington would not allow that he +should be able to see so small an object as a boat, even with a good +telescope, at a greater distance than thirteen miles. Thirteen miles to +port and thirteen to starboard. Each circle, therefore, is twenty-six +miles wide.'</p> + +<p>'If the boat is afloat,' exclaimed Captain Parry, viewing the discs with +admiration full of hope, 'she must positively be within one of these +circles?'</p> + +<p>'Unless she has taken a breeze and blown clear, or means to come running +into the inner whilst we're steering our dead best for the outer +circles.'</p> + +<p>'What chance do we stand?'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p><p>'Frankly, sir, the smallest chance that ever was found at sea,' +answered the young mate, rolling up his chart.</p> + +<p>'The horrible consideration with me,' said Captain Parry, 'is that the +young lady may not be in the boat.'</p> + +<p>Mr. Blundell looked slowly round the cabin, but made no answer.</p> + +<p>'What do you think?' exclaimed Parry. 'If we fall in with the boat shall +we find Miss Vanderholt in her?'</p> + +<p>The mate mused, toyed a bit with the chart, rolling and unrolling it, +then said:</p> + +<p>'From what I overheard the mate say about the entry the young lady made +in the log-book, I should argue that the men had been using her civilly +from the time of the mutiny. That's in her favour, sir.'</p> + +<p>Parry eyed him intently. All the shrewdness in Blundell's brain was +working in his face, sharpening his gaze and pinching lips and nose into +a lifted look of eagerness whilst he talked.</p> + +<p>'There seems to have been no trouble aboard this vessel,' he continued, +'until the mutiny took place. That should signify that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> the men, taking +them all round, were steady as sailors go. No doubt they'd got something +in the Nova Scotia way in their captain. He appears to have been one of +those captains who, after draining the blood out of men's veins, runs +gunpowder in, then applies the fuse. Everybody's aghast at the bloody +business, but it's one man's doing.'</p> + +<p>'You believe that they would not use violence towards Miss Vanderholt?'</p> + +<p>'Until I knew, I could never persuade myself that they'd make away with +her. They are men. I dare say they were demons whilst they fought, and +thought of the cause of their fighting. I'll not believe that, as +English seamen, they'd kill the poor lady.'</p> + +<p>'She's a living witness against them.'</p> + +<p>'They'll have heaped oath upon oath upon her, sir. Likely as not they'll +put her aboard something passing, themselves going away and waiting for +the next ship.'</p> + +<p>'God grant it!' exclaimed Captain Parry. 'It's the first bit of hope +that's come to me since we fell in with the schooner.'</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>CHAPTER IX.</span> <span class="smaller">THE DISCOVERY.</span></h2> + +<p>The wind that evening freshened out of the north-west glare of sunset. +The sky thickened, and some small wings of scud flew south-east, bronzed +by the western splendour dimming fast. The sea ran in a cloudy green, +but without weight, in the light tropic surge.</p> + +<p>At sundown Mr. Blundell hailed the royal yard, and the answer, hoarse in +tone as a seagull's scream, was:</p> + +<p>'Nothing in sight, sir.'</p> + +<p>The mate ordered the man to come down on deck, and half an hour later, +when darkness was on the face of the deep, and the last red scar had +died out of the starless sky, the <i>Mowbray</i> was slopping softly through +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> creaming waters, under her mainsail and standing jib.</p> + +<p>It was like being hove-to; but she had way, and when Captain Parry +looked over the taffrail, he saw the cold, green lights of the sea +revolving and sliding off in the short spread of yeast the nimble +clipper carried with her.</p> + +<p>It drew down a night ghastly with the pallor of the hidden moon. At +about nine o'clock they burnt a flare; the crimson flames rose +quivering, and the smoke drove, black as a thunder-cloud, betwixt the +masts to leeward. The little ship stood out against the night +fire-tinctured.</p> + +<p>She looked, with her glowing yellow masts and fiery shrouds, to be built +of flame. The night came in walls of blackness to this wild and +beautiful vision, and the noise of the sea, and the sense of the +infinity of the deep, that was running and seething out of sight, filled +the glowing picture with an entrancing spirit of mystery. You would have +said that she owed her life and light to the sea-gods.</p> + +<p>Both Parry and the mate, whilst this flare<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> was burning, repeatedly +directed their night-glasses at the ocean, and, even whilst it burnt, a +man came aft to the call of the mate and sent up a couple of rockets. +The fireballs hissed, burst, and vanished in spangles, darting a lustre +as of lightning across a little space of sky.</p> + +<p>The flare crackled, leapt up, smouldered, and was extinguished by a +bucket of water.</p> + +<p>A couple of lanterns—bright globular glasses—were lighted, and hung up +in the main rigging, one on each side. This brought the hour to about a +quarter past ten. The sea was again searched, its ghastly face had +stolen out, and the heads of the breaking billows under that thick and +pallid sky were like flashes of guns in mist.</p> + +<p>'If the lady isn't in this circle, Captain Parry,' said Mr. Blundell +cheerfully, 'let's hope we'll find her in the next. If the boat's within +ten miles of us they'll have seen our flare and those fireballs.'</p> + +<p>'But we are moving through the sea,' said Captain Parry. 'If we make +them a head wind, and continue to sail, how are they to fetch us?'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span></p><p>'The schooner's only just under command, sir. If I heave to the drift +will put me out. With your kind leave I'll go below and get a glass of +grog.'</p> + +<p>They both went into the cabin, leaving a man to look out. They were +waited upon by the 'boy,' who was, indeed, a young man of about +eight-and-twenty, with a face full of sallow fluff, and an old man's +look in his eyes and in the contraction of his brows, as though he had +been born in the workhouse and knew life.</p> + +<p>But at sea there were but three ratings, and if you don't sign articles +as an able or ordinary seaman, then, if you were eighty years old, and +could scarcely creep over the ship's side with your cargo of scythe and +hour-glass, you'd still be called a boy.</p> + +<p>The mate and Captain Parry sat for a little in the cabin, sipping cold +brandy and water.</p> + +<p>'Should the men in the boat see our flares and rockets,' said the +captain, 'what will they think of them?'</p> + +<p>'They'll approach us to take a look.'</p> + +<p>'But if they make out that we are the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> schooner of their piracy and +murders, will they come on board?'</p> + +<p>'She's an open boat, sir, and you have to consider how men will be +driven by exposure. Anyhow,' said Mr. Blundell, 'if we can only coax her +this side the horizon, we may easily keep her in sight till we've worn +them out.'</p> + +<p>'I have been thinking of these red-hot skies, too. Will Miss Vanderholt +be able to survive the exposure of even a day and a night?' And Captain +Parry swayed in his chair with the grief of the thought.</p> + +<p>'Well,' said the mate, with the note of a stout heart in his voice, +'only a sailor is able to tell a man what ladies really can go through. +Low-class females, emigrants and the like, cave in quickly; they are the +shriekers. They cannot bear terror, and it kills them on rafts and in +boats. But your thoroughbred lady is always the one that I've seen, +heard of, and read of, who has shown a lion's heart and the coldness of +a stone head in shipwreck. If Miss Vanderholt be in the boat, you'll +find that she'll have suffered less than the men.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span></p><p>A faint smile stirred the lips of Captain Parry; but he grew quickly +grave again, with the distress of his imaginations. At that moment a +hoarse cry in the skylight made them spring to their feet.</p> + +<p>'There's a big ship a-bearing down upon us!'</p> + +<p>The mate rushed up the steps, followed by Captain Parry. The ghostly +sheen of the moon still clouded as with steam the thickness of the +night, and the scene of heaven and sea was mystical with elusive +distance, with the soft near flash of the surge, and the windy chaos of +the horizon.</p> + +<p>On the bow, not half a mile distant, was a large pale shape. The +night-glass made her white-hulled, with canvas to her trucks. The +schooner was thrown into the wind. It was clearly the intention of the +stranger to speak the <i>Mowbray</i>. Through the small scattering hiss of +the sea on either hand you might have heard the low, constant thunder of +the bow-wave of the ship as she washed through the brine, making a light +for herself with her sides and white heights, but showing no lights. On +a sudden the human<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> silence was broken by a short, gruff command, weak +with distance. The sound might then be heard of yards being swung; ropes +crowed in blocks, parrels creaked on masts, and in a few minutes a large +white ship, with the fires of the sea dripping at her cutwater, lay +abreast of the schooner, all way choked out of her by the backed +topsail.</p> + +<p>'Schooner ahoy!'</p> + +<p>'Hallo!' shouted Mr. Blundell, sending his voice far into the darkness +over the ship's rail, whence the hail had proceeded.</p> + +<p>'What's wrong with you that you are sending up rockets and burning +flares?'</p> + +<p>'We are in search of a boat. Have you met with a boat containing eight +men and a lady?'</p> + +<p>A short silence ensued.</p> + +<p>'What schooner are you?'</p> + +<p>'The <i>Mowbray</i>, of, and now for, the Thames, when we recover the boat. +What ship are you?'</p> + +<p>'The <i>Georgina Wilde</i>, Liverpool to Melbourne. I expect your people have +been rescued. We passed a schooner's long-boat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> yesterday morning, and I +read your name, the <i>Mowbray</i>, in her stern sheets.'</p> + +<p>'If that's the case,' exclaimed Mr. Blundell quickly to Captain Parry, +'there'll be no good left in this circle job.'</p> + +<p>'Has he no more information to give us?' said Captain Parry, with a +hopeless stare at the tall, pale shadow, upon whose decks nothing was +visible in that thickness save a dull, Will-o'-the-wisp-like glimmer +where the binnacle stand stood.</p> + +<p>The schooner was hailed again.</p> + +<p>'Hallo!' answered Blundell.</p> + +<p>'We sighted a derelict yesterday at noon. She was within a mile or two +of the long-boat. Looked like a small brig, timber-laden.'</p> + +<p>'How would she bear from us now?' bawled the mate.</p> + +<p>It was plain, from the stillness that followed, that the man with the +powerful hoarse voice had walked to his compass-stand to consider the +required bearings. A midnight hush came down upon the deep then, spite +of the plash and gurgle of waters in motion, and of a dull song of wind +up aloft in the rigging of the schooner.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span></p><p>Now it was that a single shaft of moonlight glanced through a rift down +upon the sea, flashing up the rolling head of a surge into a melting +hill of silver. The night seemed to sweep with a deeper dye of blackness +from either hand that pure crystal ray. Yet it made a light, too. It +gave substance and firmness to the visionary ship abeam.</p> + +<p>Captain Parry saw a figure coming along the deck from the binnacle to +the rail to hail. He also perceived figures of seamen on the short +topgallant forecastle; likewise he beheld the bowsprit and jibbooms +forking out like a huge spear, poised for hurling in the grasp of a +giant, and betwixt that extreme point of jibboom and masthead floated +symmetric clouds of soft whiteness; but the moonbeam was eclipsed in a +few moments, and the white ship sank back into a vision, glimmering and +scarce determinable.</p> + +<p>Again the schooner was hailed.</p> + +<p>'The bearings of the derelict,' shouted the voice, in tones of the +volume of a speaking-trumpet, 'will be north-west by north half north, +about. Don't take this as if it was an observation. Try about forty mile +on that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> course, and if nothing heaves into view, sweep the sea. The +derelict's bound to be afloat. Farewell! Good luck attend you!' Then, a +minute later, 'Swing the main topsail yard! Ease away your weather main +braces!'</p> + +<p>The pale and lofty shadow leaned from the damp night breeze, and the +water trembled into fire along the visionary length of her, when, with a +soft stoop of her bow to some invisible heave of the ocean, she broke +her way onwards, dissolving quickly into the night.</p> + +<p>'About forty miles distant,' said Mr. Blundell, stepping to the compass. +'Shall we head on a course for her, sir?'</p> + +<p>'Oh, most certainly!' answered Captain Parry.</p> + +<p>'Better jog along under easy canvas, till it comes daylight, anyhow,' +said the mate.</p> + +<p>The course was shifted, sail trimmed, the gaff foresail was set, and the +schooner, carrying the midnight breeze abeam, slided soundless through +the gloom over the black, wide swell of the sea.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span></p><p>Captain Parry was too anxious to take rest. He lighted a cheroot, and +paced the deck with Mr. Blundell, who had heroically resolved not to +turn in that night—not to turn in at all until the timber-laden +derelict had been sighted, boarded and rummaged.</p> + +<p>They kept the lanterns burning in the rigging. They never knew how it +might be with the eight men and the lady, supposing the lady with them. +It is true that the long-boat had been fallen in with adrift; but then, +as Mr. Blundell put it, 'That might be due to an accident, without +signifying that they'd been received on board a ship, and their boat let +go.'</p> + +<p>'My own view's this, sir,' said he, as he lighted one of Parry's +cheroots at the glowing tip of the Captain's. 'The men saw that timber +craft, and being scorched with the heat, and wild with cramp, they +resolved to make for the shelter of it, where they could stretch their +arms and take the kinks out of their legs. The painter which held the +boat slipped, and she drifted softly off, and when they saw that she was +gone she was a dozen ships' lengths distant. They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> could do nothing, +aboard a drowned timberman with empty davits, and a list of perhaps +forty degrees, but let her go. That's my notion. We shall find all hands +aboard. If so, what will you wish me to do, sir?'</p> + +<p>'Bring them into this schooner,' answered Captain Parry. 'If they have +murdered Miss Vanderholt, they shall swing for it, by God!'</p> + +<p>'But pray consider this, sir,' said Mr. Blundell coolly. 'They are eight +men, daring, defiant devils, no doubt, bullies in the alley, jolly +examples of your Jack Muck. We are seven. To bring them on board we +should be obliged to fetch them. But, sir, we can't leave the schooner +deserted. She might run away from us. She got her liberty once, and the +appearance of the derelict might excite her appetite afresh for +freedom.'</p> + +<p>'For God's sake, Mr. Blundell,' broke in Captain Parry, 'don't joke!'</p> + +<p>'I mean, sir,' continued Mr. Blundell, in a voice that did him some +honour, as it proved he could be abashed, 'that we should have to leave +three of our people to look<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> after the schooner, so that we should go +four to eight in order to fetch them.'</p> + +<p>'We are armed,' exclaimed Captain Parry.</p> + +<p>'Two pistols,' said the mate.</p> + +<p>'We must bring them aboard—we must bring them aboard!' cried Captain +Parry, in a voice that almost shouted with nerve. 'Will they be +content,' he went on after a hard suck or two at his cigar, 'to continue +washing about in a wreck that might spread under them at any minute like +a pack of cards when they see a schooner alongside willing to receive +them?'</p> + +<p>'To be hanged, sir.'</p> + +<p>'Who's to tell them <i>that</i> till we've got them under hatches?' said +Captain Parry.</p> + +<p>'They know this craft,' said Blundell, in a note of gloom. 'It'll be a +job. Eight of 'em, and only four of us. It'll take us all we know.'</p> + +<p>Captain Parry belonged to a fighting profession. When he talked of +boarding the timberman and bringing off the eight men, his imagination +was a little confused. He brandished a sword in fancy; he was followed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> +by a number of smart men in red coats, and with fixed bayonets. He did +not quite gather that, if he headed the boarders, he should be leading +into glory three timid seamen who were entirely averse to selling their +lives at any price. Moreover, Captain Parry was not a sailor. He could +not imagine how difficult it is to gain the deck of a ship whose people +do not want you. These eight men would, in a deck cargo of timber, find +plenty of materials fit for knocking out the bottom of a boat, and the +brains of those who should venture their noses above the rail.</p> + +<p>But it was an idle argument betwixt him and the mate. Were they going to +find the half-foundered brig? Would the eight men be in her? Would Miss +Vanderholt be amongst them?</p> + +<p>At daybreak nothing was visible in the telescope from the fore royal +yard. The weather had cleared in the night. It was a strange, +mountainous morning of huge swollen cloud, whose sun-bright bellies +amazingly whitened the silver of that ocean. Now and again, round about +the horizon,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> a spark of lightning flashed in the heart of a violet +shadow of vapour, and now and again a low note of thunder, distant, +tremulous as an organ strain, rolled across the sea, as though some +huge, deep-throated beast, big as a hill, and couchant behind the +horizon, was being worried.</p> + +<p>There was breeze enough to keep the schooner's sails full, and sunrise +found the <i>Mowbray</i> pursuing the course of the night. Captain Parry +refreshed himself with a bucket of cold green brine, and tried to make +some breakfast. Mr. Blundell ate heartily, and again, as they sat at +table, they argued upon the course to adopt should they find the eight +seamen on the wreck.</p> + +<p>'If they've got Miss Vanderholt with them,' said the mate, 'I should +recommend asking them to allow us to receive her aboard—we leaving them +aboard the wreck to be taken off by the next thing that passes.'</p> + +<p>'I like that idea,' said Captain Parry; 'it would save bloodshed. We +want nothing but the young lady. They should be glad to get easily rid +of her as a witness. If<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> they are short of food, we can supply them with +stores enough to keep them going for a time that would allow of a +reasonable chance of their being rescued.'</p> + +<p>'They'll want provisions, anyhow,' said the mate. 'Stove timbermen float +on their cargo. You need to dive to get at the grub in those derelicts. +I'm counting upon hunger courting them into the schooner without +obliging us to try what coaxing them with four men and two pistols is +going to do.'</p> + +<p>They went on deck, and stared at the sea-line through glasses. A little +before noon, just at the moment when Mr. Blundell was coming out of his +cabin with his sextant, a man stationed aloft on the look-out hailed +him.</p> + +<p>'What is it?' shouted Blundell, springing through the companion-hatch.</p> + +<p>'There is a black object away down upon the port-bow. It looks like a +boat.'</p> + +<p>'How does it bear on the bow?' cried Blundell to the little figure +aloft, a sailor with a face set in black whiskers.</p> + +<p>He looked to tremble in the heat up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> there, and his shape, as he stood +erect to the height of the truck, seemed shot with the lights of several +dyes, and against a swollen heap of cloud past him he showed like a +coloured daguerreotype.</p> + +<p>'About two points,' was his answer.</p> + +<p>Mr. Blundell shifted his helm for it, but, whatever it might be, it was +not yet visible from the deck. The mate got an observation of the sun, +and went below to work it out. When he returned he found Captain Parry +examining a dark object on the bow with a telescope.</p> + +<p>'It's a ship's boat most unquestionably,' said the captain, turning to +Mr. Blundell.</p> + +<p>The mate was at this instant hailed afresh from the masthead.</p> + +<p>'There's another dark object about a point on the weather-bow,' said the +fellow dangling high in air, his hoarse voice softening in falls as it +reached the ear from the hollows of the sails. 'She'll be the wreck, +sir,' he howled, after working away with his glass.</p> + +<p>Captain Parry was as pale as the dawn with excitement and expectation.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span></p><p>'I vow to God,' said he, bringing his fist down on the rail, 'I would +certainly lose my left arm with cheerfulness to know at this instant +that Miss Vanderholt is alive and well in the wreck!'</p> + +<p>'If she is with them they'll all come aboard together,' said the mate, +with scarce conscious dryness. 'Hunger and thirst will work their way +with beasts, let alone men.'</p> + +<p>Little more was said whilst the schooner, driven by a five-knot breeze, +swept in long floating launches down upon the boat that came and went. +There had been wind somewhere, and a small swell rolled in from the +westward, running lightning flashes through the water. No man could say +it was the <i>Mowbray's</i> long-boat till they had luffed and shaken the +wind out of the schooner close alongside the little fabric. Then her +identity was settled by a single glance at her through the glass. The +yacht's name, '<i>Mowbray</i>—London,' was painted in large black letters in +the stern-sheets.</p> + +<p>'Stand by to hook her,' shouted the mate.</p> + +<p>A seaman aft, jumping for a boathook in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> one of the quarter-boats, +sprang into the little ledge of the main chains. The schooner was +slightly manœuvred; the boat was brought close alongside and +captured. She was as empty and dry as an old cocoanut-shell.</p> + +<p>'What does that signify?' said Captain Parry.</p> + +<p>'One of two things, clearly,' answered Blundell. 'Either they have +carried all the stores they left the yacht with aboard the wreck, or the +ship that picked them up emptied her before sending her adrift.'</p> + +<p>'Would they let a valuable boat like that go?'</p> + +<p>The mate shrugged his shoulders. There are some questions concerning the +sea which even a sailor cannot answer.</p> + +<p>'Do you see that her long painter is trailing overboard?' exclaimed +Captain Parry. 'Does it not look as if the knot had unhitched and let +her slip away?'</p> + +<p>'But from what, sir? That trailing length of rope might as easily mean +that she was let slip from a ship, as that she slipped of her own accord +from a wreck.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span></p><p>This talk, uttered swiftly, occupied a minute, whilst they overhung the +rail, looking into the boat alongside.</p> + +<p>'We must have her out of that,' said the mate, 'and restore her.'</p> + +<p>The man who was hanging to her by the boathook, turning up a face as +dark as a new bronze coin, exclaimed:</p> + +<p>'There's something white right aft, jammed away down under them +stern-sheets.'</p> + +<p>It was immediately wanted, of course, but the man with the boathook +could not get it and keep a hold of the boat, too; so another man jumped +in and brought up a pocket-handkerchief.</p> + +<p>'It's a lady's,' said the mate.</p> + +<p>'It's Miss Vanderholt's!' exclaimed Captain Parry, observing a small 'V. +V.' in the corner.</p> + +<p>Two or three marks of blood stained it, as though the lip, nose, or ear +had slightly bled.</p> + +<p>'What does it betoken?' said Captain Parry, looking at the handkerchief, +and speaking softly, as though to himself. 'If<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> it is a memorial, why, +in God's name, should it come to me blood-stained?'</p> + +<p>They got the boat aboard; all hands, including Parry, pulling and +hauling at the tackles. When she was chocked, a course was shaped for +the derelict brig, according to the indication of the masthead man. It +was a time of thrilling anxiety for Parry. The handkerchief was no +warrant that the girl had been in the boat. They might have bound her, +and drowned her at the side of the schooner, and yet a handkerchief of +hers might have found its way into the boat. The handkerchief, then, +proved nothing. Nevertheless, Parry found a sinister significance in the +blood-marks. Was not this blood-stained token most tragically +portentous, as the only relic or memorial of his love that the sea had +to offer him? He looked at it, and in the wildness of his heart he made +a meaning of it: it was a farewell to him, a message mute and eloquent; +it said to him that her father was slain, and that she was lost to him +for ever. Thus he stood interpreting the thing.</p> + +<p>Shortly after one o'clock the derelict was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> in view right ahead. The +telescope then easily resolved her. She was a small black brig, with her +lower masts standing and bowsprit gone. She sat tolerably high, but +rolled with the sickly sluggishness of the waterlogged hulk. As the +schooner approached, features of the wreck grew plain. She carried a +deck-load of timber, and her hold was evidently full of timber. By some +desperate gale she had been wrenched till her butts started, her strong +fastenings gave, her topmasts went, and the green seas rushing in, +drowned her into a lifelessness of helm.</p> + +<p>On board the schooner they could perceive no wreckage floating near. +What sufferings, obscure and horrible, was that little wreck +memorializing? The phantoms of the imagination peopled her. White-faced +men, dying in squatting postures, were upon the sea-broken deck-load of +timber. There was no captain, no command, the fingers of famine had +effaced distinctions. Then one would die with a groan, falling sideways +with his white eyes glazing to the sun; and another would mutter in +delirium, and call<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and motion with a +ghastly smile to his mother to make haste with the drink of water she +was bringing him.</p> + +<p>Phantoms or no phantoms, all were gone. The wreck lay apparently +lifeless, absolutely abandoned, a yawning frame, sodden by weeks of +washing to and fro. Thus it seemed to the eyes aboard the schooner as +she drew closer and closer to the desolate, mournful, storm-broken +fabric.</p> + +<p>'There may be rats in that vessel,' said the mate, with a countenance +made up of relief and extreme curiosity; 'but I don't see them, Captain +Parry, neither do I see anything else that's living.'</p> + +<p>'A ship has taken them off,' said Captain Parry, in a tone of hopeless +misery; 'and it may be months and years before I find out what is the +fate of Miss Vanderholt.'</p> + +<p>They were now within a musket-shot of the wreck. The yacht's way was +arrested, and she seemed to stand at gaze, with her people staring. The +long swell swung a dismal roll into the lifeless hull. A raffle of +rigging lay over her sides, and whenever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> she rolled away she tore this +gear up from the water as if it had been sea-plants whose roots were a +thousand fathoms deep; it rose hissing to the drag, and sank, like +baffled snakes, when she came wearily over again. It made the heart sick +to watch her, to figure one's self as alone upon her; the loose timbers +clattering through the long, black night, the dark water welling in sobs +alongside, the awful and soul-subduing spirit of stillness that lies in +the sea when its billows are silent, as though the hush in the central +heart of the profound rose like an emanation of wind or vapour, taking +the senses of the lonely one with the maddening undertones of spiritual +utterance.</p> + +<p>Mr. Blundell continued to view the wreck through a glass. Captain Parry +stood beside him with tightly-folded arms, death-white with grief and +the sickness of disappointment, and silent.</p> + +<p>'There is nobody aboard that vessel, sir.'</p> + +<p>'I fear not,' the captain answered in a low voice.</p> + +<p>'The only place where people could find shelter,' said the mate, 'is in +that little green<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> deck-house. If there were eight men sitting in the +house, one would have seen us, and all have tumbled out long ago.'</p> + +<p>'The long-boat has told us the story,' said the captain. 'They have been +taken on board another vessel. Is Miss Vanderholt with them?'</p> + +<p>He started as to a sudden access of temper and determination, and said:</p> + +<p>'Blundell, give me two of your men, and lower that boat. I'll board the +brig. I may find something to give us a clue.'</p> + +<p>'Put one of the revolvers in your pocket, sir,' said Mr. Blundell.</p> + +<p>A boat was lowered, and two men and Captain Parry, armed, entered her. +All was lifeless aboard the wreck. It would have been ridiculous, then, +to suspect an ambush. She had old-fashioned channels, platforms by which +her lower rigging was extended and secured to dead-eyes. These platforms +remained. The hulk would souse them, hissing, and lift them seething and +streaming, but through long intervals they would sway dry with pendulum +regularity.</p> + +<p>'The main chains will be your only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> chance, sir,' said one of the +seamen. 'Am I to go on board with ye?'</p> + +<p>'If you will.'</p> + +<p>'Then, Tom, when we're out of it, shove off for God's sake, and keep her +clear of them chains. If they come down upon you, your life and the boat +ain't worth a drowned cockroach.'</p> + +<p>Watching his chance with great patience, Captain Parry sprang. He +stumbled; but a wild flourish of his arm brought his hand safely to an +iron belaying-pin in the rail above. He seized another hard by, and, +lifting his knees to the rail, gained the deck.</p> + +<p>He stood holding on. The peculiar jerky rolling of the hull threatened +to throw him, until a minute or two of sympathetic feeling <i>into</i> the +life of the fabric should have put some government of it into his legs. +The sailor had easily followed.</p> + +<p>Captain Parry was looking at the forepart of the vessel, which was a +horrible litter and muddle of heaped-up timber and smashed caboose, when +his companion muttered in his ear in a low growl:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span></p><p>'My God, master, there's a living man!'</p> + +<p>A living man it was, standing right in the door of the deck-house. He +was a seaman, and carried a strange face to those who looked at him, +though one might have said he should be familiar enough to anybody +belonging to the schooner <i>Mowbray</i>. He was James Jones, the boatswain +of the yacht. His cheeks were gaunt and grimy, and his eyes blazed in +their hollows. His hair lay in streaks over his ears, and down the back +of his head, as though to repeated greasy tuggings and pullings. He was +without his coat, and his great muscular arms were bare to above the +elbow.</p> + +<p>Captain Parry recoiled a step, thrusting his hand into the pocket where +the pistol lay. He suspected this man to be one of the eight, and that +the seven would burst out in a minute.</p> + +<p>'I'm damned if ye ain't come just in the nick of time!' said Jones; and +his grin, and exhibition of yellow fangs, and his dirty skin and flaming +eyes, made his face horrible. 'I tell ye what I've just found out. There +ain't no death! "How do I know that?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> says you. Why, ye see, a man +ain't dead till he dies, and when he's dead death ain't got no existence +for him. D'ye see it?' said he with an inimitable leer.</p> + +<p>Captain Parry saw that he was mad, but in the moment of detecting this +he observed something more. Behind the madman, looking over his +shoulders, stood Miss Vanderholt. She was robed in white, and wore a +small straw hat. She was pale, as though exhausted, perhaps from the +want of food or drink; otherwise, but for her impassioned transforming +gaze, she looked as though she had but now come with Captain Parry to +view the wreck.</p> + +<p>'Oh, Violet, my dear one! Violet, I have found you!' cried Parry, and he +rushed towards her.</p> + +<p>She shrieked, standing still and clasping her hands, and looking up to +God.</p> + +<p>'There's no admission 'ere!' roared the madman, barricading the door by +extending his arms. 'This is a royal yacht. Why don't you cast your eyes +aloft and view the Royal Standard a-flying? The Princess Victoria is +within. Didn't I know her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> gracious mother, the Duchess? I'm an English +sailor, and I'm loyal to my native country. God save the King!'</p> + +<p>Saying which, he turned and bowed with every mark of profound veneration +to Miss Vanderholt.</p> + +<p>'Let me pass, man!' cried Captain Parry, pulling out his revolver and +hustling the powerful fellow.</p> + +<p>'Hide it!' screamed Violet; 'he is mad! He has been kind to me! Oh, my +God! George, am I dreaming? Is it you in the flesh, or am I mad, too?'</p> + +<p>She put her hands to her eyes, and reeled to a stanchion, against which +she leaned. The madman continued to barricade the door, both huge arms +extended.</p> + +<p>'Look here,' cried Parry, almost as mad as the seaman he confronted, +with impatience, infuriated by this hellish lunatic obstruction, wild to +clasp the girl, whose reel and motion of hands had stabbed his heart; +'we want to get at this young lady at once, to take her on board yonder +schooner. Make way, for God's sake! I'll hear all about your views on +death when we're comfortable aboard that vessel.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span></p><p>'There's no blooming man,' shouted the madman, 'a-going to approach the +Princess Victoria without falling down upon his bended knees and +crawling to her feet, as the custom is at St. James's Palace!'</p> + +<p>Miss Vanderholt went into hysterics. She shrieked with laughter; she +sobbed as if her heart was breaking.</p> + +<p>'I think you'd better go down upon your knees, sir,' said the sailor who +had accompanied Parry. 'Here, my lad,' said he, crooking his finger into +a fish-hook at the man, 'you just make way for the gent to crawl to her +Gracious 'Ighness, and whilst he's kow-towing, give me that there yarn +of yourn about death.'</p> + +<p>He winked at the captain, who sank upon his knees. The scene was +grotesque, tragic, extraordinary. The boatswain watched the figure of +the captain with fiery suspicion whilst he passed on all fours through +the door of the deck-house. Miss Vanderholt was still in hysterics.</p> + +<p>'Damn the ruffian! I can't stand it!' shouted the captain, and he sprang +to his feet and clasped the girl.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span></p><p>But the madman had begun to state his queer paradox with fearful +earnestness to the seaman, who had fixed him with a stare, and was, with +singular judgment in a common fool of a drunken sailor, drawing him out +of sight of the couple.</p> + +<p>Miss Vanderholt lay in her lover's arms, weeping and laughing; but a few +kisses and murmurs of devotion produced a very good effect. She +controlled herself, and then they were able to talk in swift questions +and eager answers. Outside the madman continued to argue with the sailor +on the subject of death.</p> + +<p>'There ain't no death!' he roared, with all the strength of his throat. +'D'ye call it a good job, mate? Here stands the man as has got rid of +the terror of the world. Hark you, bully! Ye can turn in now without +fearing to die. It'll do away with prayers, for there ain't no death!'</p> + +<p>Thus he raved, whilst inside, the girl, in the embrace of her +sweetheart, talked in a score of feverish questions and answers. She was +white, but clearly not from want of food. Up in a corner of the +deck-house stood a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> little load of tins of meat and biscuit, removed +from the <i>Mowbray's</i> hold by her revolted men. In another corner was the +long-boat's big breaker, and a pannikin at hand for a drink.</p> + +<p>'Let's get away from this wreck,' said Parry, clasping the girl's hand. +'Yet, what a wonderful meeting!' he cried, devouring her with his eyes. +'What a miraculous deliverance! Oh, the hand of God is in it, and I am +grateful—I am grateful!'</p> + +<p>They moved towards the door, and the madman saw them coming.</p> + +<p>'Look here,' he cried, making for them in a jump or two, with an air so +menacing that Parry's hand instantly sought his pistol. 'No man walks +alongside the Princess Victoria aboard this Royal yacht. Her 'Ighness +the Duchess taught me how to behave myself in the eye of Royalty when I +was a young un, and this is how it's done,' said he, giving Captain +Parry a shove that drove him some feet from Miss Vanderholt; then, +stepping in front of the girl, he bowed low, with all those marks of +abject veneration which had distinguished his former obeisance, and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>saying, 'If your Royal 'Ighness will now step out,' he moved backwards.</p> + +<p>But a long plank lay athwart his path; the captain and the seaman saw +what was to happen; the madman fell heavily backwards over it.</p> + +<p>'Bring the boat alongside, Jim!' bawled the sailor. 'This is the Ryle +yacht. See the Standard a-flying? The Princess Victoria is aboard, and +we've got to back her into the boat according to the custom of the Court +of St. James's Palace.'</p> + +<p>The boatswain was up again, and, flourishing his hand, he cried:</p> + +<p>'Right!'</p> + +<p>'You leave him to me, sir,' said the sailor, with a half-wink at Captain +Parry, who was absolutely at a loss.</p> + +<p>He would not for a million have shot the unhappy madman, and yet he +durst not approach Miss Vanderholt whilst that huge and brawny lunatic +watched him.</p> + +<p>The seaman in the boat concluded that his shipmate had lost his mind.</p> + +<p>'What the blooming blazes,' he thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> to himself, 'is Bill a-jawing +about, with his Ryle yachts and Ryle Standards?'</p> + +<p>And he looked right up into the sky.</p> + +<p>'Stand by now, Tom, to receive her Ryle 'Ighness!' shouted the sailor, +with a glance at the madman. 'As her 'Ighness must go first, there's no +harm, I hope,' said he, 'in her walking face foremost?'</p> + +<p>'She always do,' shouted the boatswain. 'Bow her to the rail, and hand +her over.'</p> + +<p>Nothing could have been better. The swell gave them a good deal of +trouble, but two of them were sailors, and presently Miss Vanderholt was +in the boat. Captain Parry sprang into the chains, and, watching his +opportunity, leapt, and was by his sweetheart's side in a minute.</p> + +<p>The madman overhung the rails, staring greedily. He knuckled his brow as +one who would drive a pain out of his brain, then began to laugh when +Captain Parry jumped into the boat.</p> + +<p>'Bring him along, Bill. You lay he'll know what to do!' cried the sailor +in the boat.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span></p><p>'Her Ryle 'Ighness commands you to attend her, sir,' said the seaman. +'Step right over the side into the chains, and don't jump back'ards.'</p> + +<p>The boatswain drew himself stiffly erect, and, after gazing aloft at the +vision of the Standard, which blew in rich folds under the swelling +clouds to his insane eye, he exclaimed:</p> + +<p>'Who's going to look after her Royal 'Ighness's yacht if I leave her?'</p> + +<p>'She'll lie quiet enough, mate, till you return,' said the sailor. +'Hark! Her Ryle 'Ighness is a-calling of you.'</p> + +<p>'Pray attend upon me! I command your presence in this boat!' cried the +girl in the loudest, most imperious voice her condition would permit her +to manage.</p> + +<p>The poor creature bowed low over the rail, then in silence dropped into +the chains, followed by the sailor, and in a minute or two both were +seated in the boat.</p> + +<p>All went quietly. The boatswain shifted restlessly in his seat, with a +grin of stupefaction. His burning eyes rolled over the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> <i>Mowbray</i>, and +again and again he pulled his hair with hands that sweated like tallow.</p> + +<p>Miss Vanderholt's first exclamation, when she was handed over the side, +was, 'My father! my poor father!' And she began to cry. The dreadful +scene rose before her mental vision, and she shook with old sensations +of terror.</p> + +<p>Captain Parry, passing his arm through hers, gently and tenderly led her +below. She had been too much moved to address Mr. Blundell, and for a +little while she needed the privacy of the cabin and her lover's +company. Presently, whilst they sat below, she told Captain Parry the +story of the mutiny, and her adventures down to this hour.</p> + +<p>It seems that some of the men were for going away at once in the +long-boat, after scuttling the yacht; others were for letting her lie +afloat; but all were agreed that she must be abandoned. Then Miss +Vanderholt found out that they were undecided what they should do with +her. Most of them, she gathered, were for leaving her in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> yacht, to +take her chance of being picked up.</p> + +<p>'Why not?' said they. 'We can shorten sail for her before we leave. We +can lash the helm amidships. She's got plenty to eat and drink. She +can't come to hurt in these waters, and is bound to be rescued.'</p> + +<p>But the boatswain, who had grown ferocious in temper, and had manifested +many symptoms of insanity, swore that she should not be abandoned to her +fate. She was an Englishwoman; he was an English seaman. By God! he +would brain any man who talked of leaving the poor young lady alone to +wash about in the schooner.</p> + +<p>She told Captain Parry that this Jones overawed the men, and they seemed +to treat him as though his madness made him superior to themselves. They +all left in the long-boat. The boatswain next morning went quite mad, +and took Miss Vanderholt to be the Princess Victoria. He bowed humbly to +her in the boat; he would sometimes kneel to her. He whipped a straw hat +off a man's head to shade her with.</p> + +<p>His hallucination was, fortunately, a sober<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> one. He supposed the men to +be the crew of the cutter of some Royal yacht or other, and himself in +command, seeking the vessel that her Gracious Highness, as he frequently +called her, might sail round the world. A man cut his finger in opening +a tin, and the young lady gave him her handkerchief to bind the wound. +He left it in the boat.</p> + +<p>When they fell in with the derelict they were exhausted with the +scorching heat and the exposure by night, and determined to take shelter +and rest aboard, and signal for help, if help should heave into view. +They emptied the long-boat; but that same evening of their entering the +derelict, about an hour before sundown, a small brigantine leisurely +came flapping down upon them, and seven men entered the long-boat and +rowed for her, leaving the boatswain and the young lady to their fate.</p> + +<p>Not until long afterwards was it discovered that this brigantine was a +Frenchman, that her crew had mutinied, and sent her captain and mate +adrift, and that, though they perceived the figures of the boatswain and +the young lady on the brig, yet, on the <i>Mowbray's</i> <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>men telling them +that one could bear witness to the mutiny, and that the other was a +dangerous madman, they put their helm up and sailed away.</p> + +<p>Before the set of sun the <i>Mowbray</i> was heeling to a fresh breeze; every +cloth that could draw was driving her cutwater through it, and her +clipper-stem rose the white brine raving to her hawse-pipes. She seemed, +like those on board, to have got the scent, and to know that she was +going home.</p> + +<p class="center space-above">THE END.</p> + +<p class="space-above"> </p> + +<hr class="smler" /> + +<p class="center">BILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span></p> + +<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/dec.jpg" alt="Decoration" /></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Last Entry, by William Clark Russell + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST ENTRY *** + +***** This file should be named 44546-h.htm or 44546-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/5/4/44546/ + +Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: The Last Entry + +Author: William Clark Russell + +Release Date: December 30, 2013 [EBook #44546] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST ENTRY *** + + + + +Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + +THE LAST ENTRY + + + + +NOVELS, ETC., BY W. CLARK RUSSELL. + + +Crown 8vo., cloth extra, 3s. 6d. each; post 8vo., illustrated boards, +2s. each; cloth limp, 2s. 6d. each. + + +ROUND THE GALLEY FIRE. +IN THE MIDDLE WATCH. +ON THE FO'K'SLE HEAD. +A VOYAGE TO THE CAPE. +A BOOK FOR THE HAMMOCK. +THE MYSTERY OF THE 'OCEAN STAR.' +THE ROMANCE OF JENNY HARLOWE. +AN OCEAN TRAGEDY. +MY SHIPMATE LOUISE. +ALONE ON A WIDE WIDE SEA. +THE GOOD SHIP 'MOHOCK.' +THE PHANTOM DEATH. +IS HE THE MAN? +THE CONVICT SHIP. +HEART OF OAK. +THE TALE OF THE TEN. +THE LAST ENTRY. + + +LONDON: CHATTO & WINDUS, 111 ST. MARTIN'S LANE, W.C. + + + + +OPINIONS OF THE PRESS + +ON + +THE LAST ENTRY + + +'"The Last Entry" is a rattling good salt-water yarn, told in the +author's usual breezy, exhilarating style.'--_Daily Mail._ + + +'In this new novel Mr. Russell has cleverly thrown its events into the +year 1837, and there are one or two ingenious passages which add to the +Diamond Jubilee interest which that date suggests.... "The Last Entry" +is as certain of general popularity as any of Mr. Russell's former tales +of the marvels of the sea.'--_Glasgow Herald._ + + +'We do not think it possible for anyone to dip into this novel without +desiring to finish it, and it adds another to the long list of successes +of our best sea author.'--_Librarian._ + + +'In addition to mutiny and murder, "The Last Entry" contains many of +those good things which have made Mr. Russell's pages a joy to so many +lovers of the sea during the last twenty years.... "The Last Entry" is a +welcome addition to Mr. Clark Russell's library.'--_Speaker._ + + +'The writer is as realistic and picturesque as usual in his vivid +descriptions of the stagnant life on board the homeward-bound +Indiaman.'--_Times._ + + +'It is full of pleasant vigour.... As is always the case in Mr. Clark +Russell's books, the elements are treated with the pen of an +artist.'--_Standard._ + + +'We expected plenty of go, of fresh and vigorous description of +sea-faring life, coupled with a story which would not be wanting in +interest. All this we have here.'--_Tablet._ + + + + +THE LAST ENTRY + +BY +W. CLARK RUSSELL + +AUTHOR OF +'THE WRECK OF THE "GROSVENOR,"' 'MY SHIPMATE LOUISE,' +'THE TALE OF THE TEN,' ETC. + +[Illustration: Decoration] + +A NEW EDITION + +LONDON +CHATTO & WINDUS +1899 + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER PAGE + I. MR. AND MISS VANDERHOLT 1 + + II. DOWN RIVER 28 + + III. 'ALONG OF BILL' 53 + + IV. CAPTAIN MARY LIND 82 + + V. ON THE EVE 119 + + VI. THE MURDERS 141 + + VII. CAPTAIN PARRY 169 + +VIII. IN SEARCH 196 + + IX. THE DISCOVERY 224 + + + + +THE LAST ENTRY + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +MR. AND MISS VANDERHOLT. + + +This story belongs to the year 1837, and was regarded by the generations +of that and a succeeding time as the most miraculous of all the recorded +deliverances from death at sea. + +It may be told thus: + +Mr. Montagu Vanderholt sat at breakfast with his daughter Violet one +morning in September. Vanderholt's house was one of a fine terrace close +to Hyde Park. He was a rich man, a retired Cape merchant, and his life +had been as chequered as Trelawney's, with nothing of romance and +nothing of imagination in it. He was the son of honest parents, of Dutch +extraction, and had run away to sea when about twelve years old. + +Nothing under the serious heavens was harsher, more charged with misery, +suffering, dirt, and wretchedness, than seafaring in the days when young +Vanderholt, with an idiot's cunning, fled to it from his father's +comfortable little home. He got a ship, was three years absent, and on +his return found both his father and mother dead. He went again to sea, +and, fortunately for him, was shipwrecked in the neighbourhood of +Simon's Bay. The survivors made their way to Cape Town, and presently +young Vanderholt got a job, and afterwards a position. He then became a +master, until, after some eight or ten years of heroic perseverance, +attended by much good luck, behold Mr. Vanderholt full-blown into a +colonial merchant prince. How much he was worth when he made up his mind +to settle in England, after the death of his wife, and when he had +disposed of his affairs so as to leave himself as free a man as ever he +had been when he was a common Jack Swab, really signifies nothing. It is +certain he had plenty, and plenty is enough, even for a merchant prince +of Dutch extraction. + +Besides Violet, he had two sons, who will not make an appearance on this +little brief stage. They are dismissed, therefore, with this brief +reference--that both were in the army, and both, at the time of this +tale, in India. + +Violet was Vanderholt's only daughter, and he loved her exceedingly. She +was not beautiful, but she was fair to see, with a pretty figure, and an +arch, gay smile. You saw the Dutch blood in her eyes, as you saw it in +her father's, whose orbs of vision, indeed, were ridiculously +small--scarcely visible in their bed of socket and lash. An English +mother had come to Violet's help in this matter. Taking her from top to +toe, with her surprising quantity of brown hair, soft complexion, good +mouth, teeth, and figure, Violet Vanderholt was undoubtedly a fine girl. + +The room in which they were breakfasting was imposingly furnished. The +pictures were many and fine. One in particular took the eye, and +detained it. It was hung over the sideboard, which glittered with plate; +it represented a schooner, bowed by a sudden blast, coming at you. The +white brine, shredded by the shrieking stroke of the squall, hissed +shrilly from the cut-water. The life and spirit of the reality was in +that fine canvas. The sailors seemed to run as you watched, the gaffs to +droop with the handling of their gear. She came rushing in a smother of +spume right at you, and, before delight could arise, you had felt a +pleasurable shock of surprise that was almost alarm. Such is the effect +produced by Cooper's bull as, with bowed head and eyes of fire, and +horns of death, it looks to be bounding with the velocity of a +locomotive out of the frame. + +Mr. Vanderholt and his daughter conversed for some time on matters of no +concern to us who are to follow their fortunes. Presently, after helping +himself to his second bloater--for his wealth had neither lessened his +appetite nor influenced his choice of dishes: he clung, with true Dutch +courage, to solid sausage; he loved new bread, smoking hot; he was +wedded to all the several kinds of cured fish, and often drank a pint of +beer, instead of coffee or tea, at his morning meal--he took his second +herring, and, whilst his gray beard wagged to the movement of his jaws, +an expression of pensiveness entered his face as he fastened his gaze +upon the picture of the rushing schooner. + +'How beautifully she is painted!' said he. 'It is the greatest of the +arts. How with the pen could you make that vessel show as the brush +has?' + +'It could only be done by suggestion,' said Miss Vanderholt, looking up +sideways at the picture. 'It is the hint that submits the pen-and-ink +sketch.' + +'So that, if a man has never seen a schooner, you might hint and suggest +all your life, and the death-bed of that man would still find his mind a +blank as to a schooner?' + +'True,' said his daughter. + +'I am going to tell you what I have made up my mind to do.' + +'Yes, and there she is,' interrupted the girl, with a sweep of her hand +at the picture. 'And pretty wet they are; and a fine handsome sea is +going to run presently, till the yacht shall swoop into the cataracts +like a wreck--veiled--strained! She is too small.' + +'You consider one hundred and eighty tons too small? What would Columbus +have thought of you? Do you know that Mynheer Vanderdecken is battling +with the storms of the Cape of Good Hope at this very hour in something +under one hundred and eighty tons?' + +'But I really don't think, father, that you need such an extensive +change.' + +'My doctors are of my opinion. I require nothing less than three months +of the sea-breeze, and all the climates that I can pack into that time.' + +'And George?' said Miss Vanderholt, her voice a little coloured by +vexation. 'He may arrive home and find us absent, and there will be +nobody in the world to tell him where we are--whether we are alive or +dead, and when we may be expected back.' + +'George won't be home till June next.' said Mr. Vanderholt. 'There is +no chance of it. Meanwhile, I mean to escape the winter by heading +direct for the Equator and back.' + +'I'm afraid it is likely that George will not be able to arrive in +England before the end of June,' exclaimed Miss Vanderholt. 'But if he +should return sooner, it would drive me mad to hear that he had come and +found me absent.' + +'We shall be back by February,' said Mr. Vanderholt, in that sort of +voice which makes you feel that the man who speaks is used to having his +way. + +'Shall you take any friends with you?' + +'Not even a dog,' answered Mr. Vanderholt. + +'Then it will be dull!' exclaimed his daughter. 'Nothing but sea and sky +and novels. Why not ask Mr. Allan Kinnaird? He is a very amusing man.' + +'I do not agree with you. Kinnaird is amusing for about half an hour. +Kinnaird and I never could get on at sea, locked up together as we +should be. He is always objecting to what I say, and he listens to my +jokes merely with the intention of enlarging upon their points so as to +defraud me of the laugh.' + +'Will you carry a doctor?' + +'I have thought over that. No; we will ship a medicine chest instead, +and a book treating of every disease under the sun. We do not go to sea +to be ill. A doctor will be in the way. He will be neither with us nor +of us. He might begin to bore you with his attentions, and you would +only think of him as a man who believes that he is under an obligation +to be agreeable.' + +'But the _Mowbray_ has not been afloat for two or three years,' said +Miss Vanderholt. + +'She has been well looked after. I have always liked the boat, and would +not sell her, though I have not used her of late,' said Mr. Vanderholt, +leaning back in his chair to contemplate to advantage the beautiful +picture over the sideboard. 'She is French built, and about twenty years +old. The French are better ship-builders than the English--infinitely +more choice in their lines and curves, and so scientific that you seldom +hear of a disaster in their experiments. Look at that vessel as she +rushes at you. How perfect is her entry! How insinuating the swell of +her bow, running into a beautiful roundness and plumpness of sides +instead of the up-and-down walls which the British yachtsman, who loves +to admire his yacht from the shore, conceives to be the one element +which gives a vessel stability! The more they narrow, the more they +blunder. You must have stability if you want seaworthiness. And in all +the years that I was at sea I never knew a crank ship a fast ship.' + +It was easily seen by the expression of Miss Vanderholt's face that she +was thinking of George. Finding her father had ceased to speak, she +exclaimed: + +'Who will be the captain?' + +'I shall ask my friend Fairbanks to recommend a man to me. He, of all +the shipowners that I am acquainted with, is certain to know of a good +man.' + +'Will he belong to the Royal Navy?' + +'No.' + +'Then, he will not be a gentleman?' + +Vanderholt looked at her intently. His face relaxed. He combed down his +beard, and said: + +'He will be a sailor; and if he is a sailor, he will be a man. Combine +these two things, and you produce an illustration of human existence +beyond the achievement of the most illustrious lineage and the most +ancient college.' + +Miss Vanderholt was used to her father's views, and continued her +breakfast with a distant, listening air, which promised no further +expression of opinion upon this proposed voyage to the Equator. A +stranger listening at that table to Vanderholt would have guessed that +he was a man of hot temper, a Dutchman at root in his views and +prejudices, not a man, perhaps, of many friends, spite of his wealth. He +fixed his little eyes upon his daughter, and, after gazing at her for +some time, with a look of anxiety, he said: + +'You know, Vi, I should not care to go without you.' + +'No, father; nor should I wish to be left alone at home.' + +'You will be happy in the old _Mowbray_. We will lay in a stock of good +things. We will make a fine holiday jaunt of it. Perhaps I shall be able +to show you some of the wonders of the deep. We will teach our crew to +sing litanies to break the spell of that demon the waterspout. We will +hook on to a whale, and thunder through it with foam to the figure-head, +with the velocity of the meteoric storm. We shall be at liberty to shift +our course as often as we please, and settle some marine problem for +good and all; not the sea-serpent--no. Who would defraud the newspapers +of that joke? But I am strongly of opinion that there is a distinct +difference between the dugong and the mermaid. The old idiots of the +fifteenth century no doubt confounded them; and the mermaid, shocked by +the hideous misrepresentation--for think of comparing some golden-haired +angel of an English girl with a New Zealand native woman, frightful with +the hues of her sky, and horrible with devices of the needle!--I say the +disgusted mermaid may have sunk into the ooze, resolved never again to +give man a sight of her face. Best of all, Vi, the voyage will do me +good, will do you good, and delightfully shorten the time of your +waiting for George.' + +'It is the only feeling I have in the matter,' answered the young lady. + +And now, having breakfasted, they arose and quitted the table. + +Miss Violet Vanderholt, being acquainted with her father's character, +and knowing that he rarely changed his mind, went to her room, where in +peace she occupied a full hour in writing a long letter to George. + +And who was George? One had but to peep over the girl's shoulder to +discover. 'My own darling George,' she began; and this sort of thing is +commonly accepted as the language of love. Captain George Parry was an +officer in the Honourable East India Company's service. When he was last +at home he had met Miss Violet, haunted her closely, and exhibited +himself in a variety of ways as deeply in love with her. Wonderful to +relate, Mr. Montagu Vanderholt took a fancy to the young man, and when +Ensign Parry called to ask his leave to consider himself engaged, he +was astounded by the cheerful 'Certainly, with pleasure, if you are both +satisfied,' which greeted him. A few questions and answers followed. Mr. +Vanderholt knew very little about the army, though he had two sons in +it. How long would Ensign Parry have to wait for his promotion? How long +was the engagement going to last? For his part, he did not like long +engagements: they made people ill. Many girls were hurried to their +graves by procrastination--that thief of sleep, the ice-cold 'lubbar +fiend' that bestrides women's hearts and keeps them shivering. + +The interview terminated to the satisfaction of both gentlemen. In due +time, Ensign Parry returned to India, and now, as Captain Parry, he was +expected home in June; but in one or two of his letters to Violet he had +expressed a hope that he would be able to get home by an earlier date. +It had been settled that they should be married soon after his arrival +in England. And this was the posture of affairs as regarded Captain +Parry and Miss Vanderholt. The young lady, seating herself, dipped her +pen and wrote. + +She wrote fast, and often with a flushed cheek when she underlined, or +doubly underlined, a word or a sentence. Her letter consisted mainly of +endearing expressions, such as, when read aloud in court after a couple +have quarrelled, excite merriment. She informed her sweetheart in this +letter that her father had made up his mind to go on a cruise for his +health as far as the Equator, in the old _Mowbray_. She was going with +him alone. George would know where she was, therefore, until her return +to England, which could not be delayed beyond February. She dared not +hope that George would arrive before the _Mowbray_ reached England. If +this should happen, then he might, perhaps, never receive this very +letter which she was writing. To provide against this, she said that +before she sailed she would write a second letter, and leave it with the +housekeeper. + +On the afternoon of this same day Mr. Vanderholt entered his carriage +and drove into the City. He alighted at the offices of a firm of +shipowners in Fenchurch Street, and was immediately confronted by the +very person he had called to see. They shook hands. + +'I want ten minutes with you, Fairbanks.' + +'As long as you please, Mr. Vanderholt. Always happy to be of service to +you.' + +It was plain that Mr. Vanderholt was not a skipper or a mate in search +of a situation on board one of the ships owned by this firm. They walked +through an office full of scribbling clerks; the walls were decorated +with pictures of ships in full sail, and odd configurations on glazed +yellow cloth, signifying cabin accommodation--first, second, and 'tween +decks. They reached a small back-room, and when Mr. Fairbanks closed the +door they were private. + +Mr. Vanderholt was rendered a little uneasy by Mr. Fairbanks' look of +expectation, and began somewhat in a hurry, lest his friend's +anticipation should grow. + +'It is a very trifling matter I have called to see you about, Fairbanks. +It concerns a skipper for my boat, the _Mowbray_. For some time past I +have been out of sorts, and have resolved to get clear of England during +the winter. I have a fine boat laid up in the Thames. She is 180 tons, +and I calculate, counting the cook and the fellow for the cabin, that a +skipper, a mate, and eight hands will suffice me. Do you know of a good +skipper?' + +Mr. Fairbanks brought his fingers together in an attitude of prayer, and +said he thought that by dint of inquiry he might be able to find one. + +'What pay?' said he. + +'Ten pounds a month,' answered Mr. Vanderholt. 'I want a good man.' + +'Do you take any company with you?' + +'Only my daughter.' + +'Then,' said Mr. Fairbanks, 'the skipper must not drink, and must not +swear. He must be a man of cleanly appearance, of considerable +experience, and able to hold his own in conversation.' + +'So,' said Mr. Vanderholt. + +'I believe,' said Mr. Fairbanks, 'that I know the man for you. He had +charge of a ship of ours, the _Sandyfoot_. It was but yesterday I +nodded to him outside these offices. If you take him you will carry a +romance in pilot-cloth to sea with you. This fellow--you will not +believe what I am going to tell you after you see him--was in love with +a girl. He broke with her in a quarrel, and went to sea, and by a +homeward ship wrote to ask her forgiveness and keep her heart whole for +him, as he would shortly return. He was swept overboard in a storm, +picked up floating on a buoy by a three-masted schooner, and carried to +China. On his arrival home, he found his sweetheart had gone out of her +mind. She recovered by degrees, under his influence, and they were to be +married. They proceeded together to church, and at the altar she went +mad again. Of course, the parson refused to officiate, and a few weeks +later the poor thing died.' + +'What is the name of our friend?' inquired Mr. Vanderholt, who had +listened without much interest to this romantic story. + +'Thomas Glew.' + +'Originally a nickname, meant to stick,' said Mr. Vanderholt dryly. +'Send him to me. You will oblige me by doing so.' + +'I'll endeavour to find him this afternoon, and you shall see him +to-morrow,' answered the other. 'And you really enjoy the prospect of a +cruise to the Equator and home?' + +'Would I go if I did not?' + +'But is not such sailing like running to and fro between wickets when +there's nobody bowling?' said Mr. Fairbanks, placing a decanter of old +Madeira and a box of cigars on the table. + +Mr. Vanderholt brimmed a deep-hearted wineglass, and lighted a cigar, +saying betwixt the puffs: + +'If there is no good in the pursuit of health, you are right.' + +'Well,' said Mr. Fairbanks, 'for my part I never could contemplate a +voyage of any sort without associating it with a port and business.' + +'Thank the North Star,' said the gentleman of Dutch extraction, 'with me +that time has passed!' + +'But to think of the Equator as a port of call!' exclaimed Mr. +Fairbanks; and they both began to laugh. + +The term 'port of call' set them conversing about trade, how matters +went in the City. Mr. Vanderholt talked fluently on all affairs +connected with shipping. After enjoying his cigar and his chat, he +re-entered his carriage, and was driven away. + +Next morning, at about eleven o'clock, he was in his study, writing some +letters. His daughter sat with him, reading a newspaper. A man-servant +opened the door, and said that a seafaring gentleman was in the 'all, +and had called by request. On a silver salver lay Mr. Fairbanks' card, +and Mr. Vanderholt, after glancing at the card, told the footman to show +Captain Glew in. + +There entered soon, with a quick, resolved, quarter-deck stride, a short +but powerfully-built man, shell-backed by ocean duties, with a face that +might have been cast in light bronze, that might have served as a ship's +figure-head in that metal, so roasted had it been in its day, so hard +set was it, as though fresh from the pickle of the harness-cask. The +flesh of the countenance had that sort of tension which does not admit +of much, or perhaps any, play of emotion. The man might expel a laugh +from his throat, but was he physically equal to a smile? He held a round +hat, and was soberly attired in blue cloth. He looked swiftly and +lightly around him, but seemed unmoved by the splendour of the +apartment. He sent a keen, gray, seawardly glance at Miss Vanderholt, +and fastened his gaze with an expression of attention upon her father. + +Miss Vanderholt viewed him with curiosity and disappointment. + +'Captain Glew?' said Mr. Vanderholt. + +'That's my name, sir,' answered the captain, in a voice as decisive as +his walk and air. 'I was asked to call upon you by Mr. Fairbanks.' + +'Right. Sit down. I had a good many years of it myself, but did not +reach the quarter-deck,' said Mr. Vanderholt. 'My end was plumb with the +fore-top.' + +The captain seated himself, but did not smile, nor did he look as if he +wanted to. + +'Many years at sea, Captain Glew?' + +'Thirty, sir.' + +'Did you run away, as I did, from home?' + +'No. I was put apprentice by my father, who had charge of a Bethel, and +was a man of education.' + +'Did Mr. Fairbanks explain what I wanted to see you about?' + +'Yes, sir. I believe you'll find me a suitable man. I confess I'd like +the job. I know the _Mowbray_.' + +Mr. Vanderholt's face lighted up. + +'I was off her in a wherry not above a fortnight ago, and we stopped to +admire her. I never saw prettier lines.' Here he raised his eyes to the +picture over the sideboard, as though observing it for the first time, +but his face discovered no marks of enthusiasm or admiration whilst he +let his sight rest for a moment on that square of splendid, +spirit-moving canvas. 'My uncle was a shipbuilder,' he continued, 'and I +have some knowledge of that trade. The finest examples of seaworthy +craft are, in my opinion, the Baltimore clippers--some of them, at all +events. The _Mowbray_ might be the queen of that fleet, sir.' + +Mr. Vanderholt glanced at his daughter, as if he should say, 'This is +our man.' He then rang the bell. A footman quickly appeared. + +'Wine,' said Mr. Vanderholt. + +'Not for me, if you please,' said Captain Glew, lifting his hand, and +bowing with a motion that made his refusal emphatic. + +'What will you take?' said Mr. Vanderholt. + +'Nothing whatever, I thank you, sir.' + +'Are you a teetotaler?' said Mr. Vanderholt, signing to the footman to +be gone. + +'No, sir. I am one of those men who drink only when they are thirsty, +and as I am seldom thirsty it follows that I drink little.' + +'Do you know anything about fore and aft seamanship?' + +_Now_ Captain Glew smiled, but the expression was like a passing spasm. + +'I do, sir. I have held command in several types of ships in my time. +Seven years ago I had charge for three voyages of a fruiter from the +Thames to the Western Islands.' + +'That will do,' said Mr. Vanderholt, with an appreciative flourish of +his hand, and a laugh of satisfaction. + +'Five years ago, being in distress for a position, and having a wife and +two children to maintain, I took command of a three-masted schooner to +the Brazils, where I left her and returned in charge of a little barque. +I then got a berth in Mr. Fairbanks' employ----' + +He was proceeding, but Mr. Vanderholt had heard enough. + +'I am quite satisfied,' said he. 'Now let us settle the matter straight +off. That is my way of going to work. I'm not for easing away +handsomely; I'm for letting go with a run. We shall want a mate, and we +shall want a crew. Can I trust you to see to this business?' + +'You can, sir.' + +'Let the crew be blue-water men. I shall want real sailors aboard the +_Mowbray_.' + +'There's nothing like them, sir.' + +'The craft lies dismantled, as you know. I leave the whole work of her +being made ready for sea to you. Employ your own labour. Call upon me +as the work proceeds. I shall make you several visits from time to time, +for I am a man of leisure.' + +'Does the young lady go with us, sir?' + +'Yes.' + +'You'll wish her cabin specially fitted?' + +'I will see to that myself, Captain Glew.' + +'Right, sir. And the voyage, I understand, is to be a cruise in the +North Atlantic?' + +'It is to be a run to the Equator and home.' + +'It seems such an odd place to steer for,' said Miss Vanderholt, +breaking the silence for the first time. + +'It's as determinable as a rock, anyhow!' exclaimed Mr. Vanderholt. 'I +want to be able to report a wonder when we return.' Here his Dutch +countenance put on the air of good-humoured cunning with which he +usually prefaced a joke. 'There is about a quarter of a mile of +Equatorial water which possesses a remarkable property. Sink an object +in it, and you draw it up gilt. If we strike this wonderful patch of +sea, we will gild the _Mowbray_ from waterway to truck; boats, +ground-tackle--everything--shall be resplendent, and we shall be the +marvel of London as we sail up the Thames.' + +Miss Vanderholt watched Captain Glew, to see how he relished this sort +of thing. + +The skipper exclaimed austerely: + +'It's a tract of water written of in books for the marines. It's not to +be found at sea, sir.' + +'We must strike it, man, so that we may return covered with glory.' + +'Patch got any colour, sir?' + +'I believe it is a blood-red. A man I once sailed with claimed to have +sighted it. He was in the foretop-mast crosstrees, and saw the patch off +the bow, and hailed the deck, but he squinted damnably. You can't keep a +true course for anything when you squint. The captain missed the patch. +No other man saw it; and the sailor, who was a Dane, was, or is, the +only man in the world who has ever seen that miraculous bit of +Equatorial water.' + +He looked at his daughter, clearly enjoying his own imagination; and +Captain Glew uttered a hollow laugh, and stood up. + +'I will visit the vessel to-morrow, sir, and report. I will bring my +papers along with me----' + +'No need,' interrupted Mr. Vanderholt; 'Mr. Fairbanks' introduction is +enough.' + +The man made a nautical bow to the father and daughter, and was going, +when he suddenly stopped to say: + +'Are you particular as to the nationalities of the men, sir?' + +'English and Dutchmen, in such proportions as may please you,' said Mr. +Vanderholt; 'but never a Dago, Captain Glew. I was once stabbed by a +Dago.' + +'And a Dago would have stabbed me if I hadn't killed him,' said the +captain. 'We'll ship no Dagos, sir.' + +He made another nautical bow, and departed. + +'I like him,' said Mr. Vanderholt, turning in his chair so as to resume +his letter-writing; 'but I guess the crew will find him a taut hand.' + +'What is a taut hand?' inquired his daughter. + +'A man who breeds mutinies,' he answered. + +He looked thoughtful for a few moments, as though visited by some tragic +memories; then, taking up his pen, he went on writing his letters. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +DOWN RIVER. + + +On the morning of November 21, 1837, the schooner _Mowbray_ lay at +anchor abreast of Greenwich. In the fresh westerly wind you found the +sun-white sparkle of winter. Buildings, ships, wharves, the further +bends of the Reach, stood out with the sharpness and delicacy of ivory +work. The movements of the drapery of bunting, the swelling and +breathing of passing canvas, were beautiful to see under the hard, blue +sky, with its frost-work of gleaming cloud high over Plaistow Level. + +The schooner looked exceedingly handsome as she floated at her cable, +with the ripples of the blown stream twisting in slender lines of light +from the cut-water. These lines flashed in her glossy sides as they +trembled past, and her coppered hull was beautified by other lustres +than the light of day, as she sat motionless, courting the eye to the +tall heights of the delicate mastheads, each of them star-crowned with a +shining gilt truck. + +She was handsomer than a yacht, because she lacked the summer precision +and fine-weather finish of that sort of craft. The nautical eye does not +love fine feathers. The _Mowbray_ was a sea-going boat. She had beam for +stability, a height of side which promised a dry ship, a spring of bow +smack-like with its promise of domination. Her copper shone; she was +sheathed to the bends; she carried little or no finery about her decks, +but the scantling of everything--the companion, the skylights, the +sailors' deck-house, nay, even the caboose forward--might have been that +of a ten-gun brig. + +The hour was about half-past eleven. A number of seamen, apparelled with +some regard to uniformity of attire, lounged in the bows, staring +Greenwich way, or at the familiar scene of docks the other side of the +river. They looked a rough company of the genuine merchant-sailor +type--raggedly hairy, defiant in stare, in fold of arm, resolved in +their several postures. They wore round hats and jackets, and the +bell-ended, blue-cloth trousers of the Jacks of that day. + +On the quarter-deck walked Captain Glew and the mate who had signed +articles for the run, Mr. Tweed. This was a short, hearty, plump man. +His grog-blossomed, jovial face suggested a suppressed boisterousness of +spirits; you felt that in him lay the voice for the back-parlour of the +Free and Easy. The owner of the vessel and party were expected on board +shortly, and Tweed had clothed himself with care, in a short, round +jacket, with a corner of red silk handkerchief carelessly straying from +one side-pocket. His trousers rippled as he walked, and the rest of him +consisted of a check shirt and pumps. + +'I think he ought to be pleased,' said Captain Glew, coming to a stand +at the binnacle, and throwing a look over the little ship and then up +aloft; 'nothing handsomer sails out of the Thames this year.' + +'She is sweet enough for a pennon,' said Tweed. 'I wish she was mine. +I'd like to go a-pirating in a vessel of this sort. No, I wouldn't, +either; I'd go a-slaving. A hundred and eighty tons. I reckon you could +stow away six hundred blacks in her 'tween decks.' + +'I sometimes wish I'd been born a hundred years sooner,' said Captain +Glew. 'I would have been a pirate; the ocean was thick with booty, and +you got an estate with very little risk. The dogs came to the gibbet +because they never would be satisfied.' + +'Piracy gave a sailor a good chance,' said the mate, with a groggy look +at the hands lounging forward. + +'Here am I grateful for this L30 job,' growled the captain. 'The wife +and young uns may now eat and drink for three months, and for three +months the thought of to-morrow morning shan't keep me awake. Holy +Jemmy! But it's on the quarter-deck where the hearts of stone are +wanted. To those fellows forward the getting a ship's as easy as an +oath. Do you or I get ships as easily as we swear?' + +'No, not by all that I'm worth!' answered Tweed. 'Captain, I have +followed the sea for twenty years, and I'll tell you how it stands with +me now: in my cabin you'll find a sea-chest; it's painted green--green +it should be; it's the colour of my life. In that sea-chest is all that +I own in the world, saving a matter of a few pounds stowed away ashore. +Twenty years of the sea, and nothing but a bloomed green sea-chest to +show for it!' exclaimed Tweed, with so much blood in his face that his +grog-blossoms made him look as if he had burst into a dangerous rash. + +Thus these worthies discoursed, as they walked the quarter-deck, +awaiting the arrival of Mr. Vanderholt and party. They had been +shipmates in prior times, were in some fashion connected, had frequently +of late met ashore, and had grown intimate during the time occupied by +the refitting of the _Mowbray_. We are not to confound the discipline of +this little schooner with that of a great Indiaman. Men who had +commanded fruiters were not commonly distant to their mates when they +afterwards handled small vessels. + +Forward the seamen growled in talk indistinguishable to the +quarter-deck walkers. + +'What sort of boss is th' ole man going to turn out?' exclaimed one of +the seamen, staring aft. 'I don't like his looks. But when once I've +signed a vessel's articles I'm for outweathering the skipper, if he was +the devil himself. He'll get no change out of Joseph Dabb, and it's +extraordinary, bullies, that Joseph Dabb should be my name.' + +'If there's no eddication in the fok'sle of this vessel, fired if there +oughtn't to be enough aft to enable all hands to spell the word "lush,"' +said a dark, heavy-browed man, gazing with a deep and surly smile at the +plump figure of Tweed, as he walked, rolling about like a butterbox in a +seaway, alongside the captain. 'I never see a face in all my time more +beautifully decorated. How many pints go to one of them blossoms? We +shall be hearing of him singing "We're all a-noddin'" in some middle +watch, when there's onusual need for a bright look-out.' + +'I was spliced three weeks ago,' exclaimed a red-headed seaman. 'I'm +a-missing of Sally, my joys. I feel gallus like going home again.' + +He eyed the land about the West India Docks, and extended his arms, +amidst a rumble of laughter and much spitting of yellow froth over the +bows. + +'I don't expect to see my old 'oman again,' exclaimed a seaman, standing +upright with his arms folded. 'If she don't die, she'll make tracks, +and, foreseeing of that, I sold off my household furniture yesterday.' + +'Ain't ye left her nothing to sit upon?' said the red-headed seaman. + +'Yes; a carpenter's knee. D'ye think I'm to be hubbled?' he cried, +letting fall his arms, and turning fiercely upon the red-headed man. 'I +wondered to find her at home last voyage. She'd have found me a true +man. Bruised if I like ship's carpenters, anyhow. I never yet knew a +ship's carpenter yer could trust as a man.' + +'Stow that!' exclaimed a seaman, leaning over the rail, and merely +turning his head to speak. + +'_You're_ no ship's carpenter,' was the answer. 'This ain't no ship. +Present company's always excepted, too, in polite society;' and he +began to step the deck with temper. + +'Where's this vessel bound to?' said another man. + +'I signed for a cruise,' answered someone. + +'Something was said about the Equator,' exclaimed another. + +'The Equator's no coast,' said the red-headed man. + +'The covey that owns this here craft,' exclaimed the carpenter, who was +also the boatswain, 'is a Dutchman. He ain't a Dutchman only--he's a +feenansure. Now, I've heard tell that when a Dutchman makes more money +than his mind's capable of weighing the idea of, his intellects go +wrong. Did ye ever hear of the prices they paid for toolips? I'm the son +of a sweep, lads, if some of 'em didn't pay as much as a L100 in good +money for a durned stalk not worth a cabbage! They was all rich men as +bought them bulbs, and they was all mad; and you lay your last +farden's-worth of silver spoons if this here scheme of a voyage to the +Equator ain't the caper of a blooming Dutchman who's made so much money +that his brains have given under the weight of the idea of his fortune!' + +Just then a large white boat was seen to be approaching the _Mowbray_ +from the direction of Greenwich, and in a few minutes she was +alongside--a boat full of ladies and gentlemen; and Captain Glew stood +at the open gangway, cap in hand. The party consisted of Mr. and Miss +Vanderholt and a few friends who had accompanied them to Greenwich to +see them off. Vanderholt shook hands with his captain, nodded to the +mate, and cast a look of approval in the direction of the forecastle. He +seemed in high spirits. His eyes smiled deep in their little sockets, +and the fresh and friendly wind blew his beard into twenty expressions +of kindly laughter. He was rigged out for the sea. No Minories slop-shop +could have furnished him with a salter aspect. The seamen on the +forecastle eyed him, and murmured one to another. They seemed to +recognise their own vocation in the man, yet viewed him doubtfully, as +dogs watch with suspicion the dog in Punch and Judy. + +His daughter was handsomely draped in velvet and fur, and wore a +turban-shaped hat that was as good for the deck as for her looks. In a +minute there was a little crowd of well-dressed gentlemen and ladies +standing on the quarter-deck, gazing around them and aloft, with Mr. +Vanderholt laughing with the wind in his beard, and Miss Vi gazing +somewhat pensively at the full scene of the schooner. + +It was the right sort of morning for a start for the ocean. The brisk +breeze covered the surface of the river with sliding shapes, coming and +going. A large Indiaman, newly arrived, with the rust of four months of +brine draining down her chain-plate bolts, her sheathing green as grass, +with a quivering of weeds here and there, lay off the Docks opposite. +Her house-flag blew stately from the lofty masthead; stately and proud, +too, she floated, tall and square. She seemed alive, and conscious of +victory. The lights of her cabin windows shook through the ripples in +long darts of silver. A chorus of thirty stormy throats swept down the +wind, and there came out of that inspiriting windlass-song of sailors +who had brought their lofty ship home the whole spirit of the ocean +into this living, brimming picture of river. + +Mr. Vanderholt's friends walked about the decks of the _Mowbray_, +praising the schooner highly. + +'He goes alone with his daughter,' said one gentleman to another, 'and +touches nowhere. I do not envy her.' + +'Don't you remember,' said the other, 'what the German said? "I don't +see der use of being seek onless you makes your friends seek mit you."' + +They both laughed. + +Mr. Vanderholt led the whole party into the cabin, where they found the +table clothed for a cold lunch. A steward stood in a corner, waiting for +the hour to strike when he should summon the company by a bell. Some +baskets of champagne were beside him. It was a roomy cabin, with plenty +of accommodation for eight or nine people to sit at table; brightly +lighted, handsomely upholstered, painted and gilded as charmingly as a +drawing-room. Some little berths aft had been knocked into two, and +Violet was very well pleased with the size and comfort of her sea +bedroom. She would swing in a cot; the furniture provided her with many +more conveniences than she would get ashore in a friend's house. + +Mr. Vanderholt's cabin was plainly equipped. He was going to sea as a +sailor; he was bent upon reviving old memories; and his guests laughed +when he pointed to a sea-chest, which he said contained nearly the whole +of his kit, which chest had also been the one he had used in the last +voyage he made as a sailor. + +'Do you see those ragged marks?' said he, stooping to run his finger +along the edge of the chest, whilst he looked up into the face of a +fashionably-dressed lady. 'They were caused by my cutting up plug +tobacco. I would not have them filled in. On this chest I have sat and +blown strong Cavendish tobacco-smoke into an atmosphere composed almost +entirely of carbonic acid gas; I have watched the blue ring burning +round the flame of the lamp, and smoked on.' + +'Would you be a sailor again?' asked the fashionably-dressed lady. + +'Not for a million on _these_ terms,' answered Mr. Vanderholt, bringing +his fist down, in a sudden passion of recollection, upon the lid of his +chest. + +Presently the little bell rang, and they seated themselves. The +champagne fizzed, knives and forks rattled on plates, the one steward +ran about. Mr. Vanderholt was in high spirits; he drank to his daughter +amongst others; no more cordial or hospitable gentleman ever sat at the +head of a cabin table. + +'The hardest part of a sailor's life,' said a pretty young woman, with +black eyes, and a handsome white feather coiled round a large hat, 'must +be saying good-bye to the girls, as I think they call them,' exposing a +row of milk-white teeth. 'They are absent for months and years; how can +you expect constancy?' + +'Ha!' exclaimed Mr. Vanderholt. 'But a man may be faithful, even though +he should be as much cut off from his girl as if he was buried. Don't +you remember what your Richard Steele says? I quote from memory: "The +poor fellow who lost his arm last siege will tell you that he feels the +fingers that are buried in Flanders ache every cold morning at +Chelsea."' + +'I do not see the application,' said one of the gentlemen. + +'It is perfectly plain,' said Violet, flushing. + +'Vanderholt,' exclaimed one of the guests, 'tell me what has become of +that old sailor who used to take a month in making a pair of clews for +the captain's cot, or a fancy pair of beckets for the mate's +camphor-wood chest.' + +'He belonged to the days of leisure,' answered Mr. Vanderholt. 'It is +all for speed now, cracking on, carrying away, four months to Bombay, +when in my time six months was looked upon as a good voyage.' + +Captain Glew, at the invitation of Mr. Vanderholt, sat at the foot of +the table. + +'The lady,' said he, with an inclination of his head in the direction of +the person referred to, 'was speaking just now of constancy amongst +sailors. I remember some years ago being aboard a ship in a collision. +The other vessel received us, and it turned out that the first seaman +who sprang into the ship was the husband of the wife of the captain.' + +'Lor', what a complication!' said somebody. + +'The seaman who sprang was supposed to be dead?' said Mr. Vanderholt. + +Captain Glew looked at him without smiling. His face, however, was not +wanting in a certain arch expression. + +'Sailors undergo very many more perils than are written down, or than +the world wots of,' said a gentleman. 'I once met a travelling show. +Part of it was a man in a cage. Nothing in this or the under world could +be more frightful to see than that man. And what had happened to him? He +had slept on a bale of cloves, and the cloves, by drawing all the +moisture out of him, had left him a skeleton, with a heart beating under +a loose coat of parchment.' + +'Poor thing!' said a lady. 'And are cloves so drying? Really! How could +the poor creature while away the time in a cage?' + +'By showing the crowd how to make clove-hitches, I expect,' said +Vanderholt. + +Captain Glew rose, and, bowing to the company, went to his cabin, which +was a cupboard forward annexed to the pantry. Opposite was the mate's. +He reappeared in a minute or two, said something to Mr. Vanderholt, and +passed on deck. + +'I wonder you do not touch at Madeira,' said a gentleman. + +'I touch at the Line only.' + +'Oh, but Miss Vanderholt,' exclaimed the gentleman, 'if you have not +seen Madeira, you should compel your father to stop at the island, + + + '"Where the virgins are soft as the roses they twine, + And all, save the spirit of man, is divine."' + + +'I know nothing about the virgins of that island,' said a gentleman; +'but the men who visit your ship, and the men who salute you when you +get ashore, are poisonously hideous. They cling like toads to a bed of +glorious growths. The spirit of man is not divine at Madeira.' + +'I touch nowhere,' said Mr. Vanderholt. 'When our forefoot cuts the zero +of the chart, we shift helm for the homeward run.' + +He glanced at a clock in the skylight, made a movement, and +simultaneously all stood up, and, standing, they drank a final glass of +champagne to the safety of the voyage, to Vanderholt's health, to the +return of the charming Violet Vanderholt; then, conducted by the owner +of the schooner, the guests went on deck, and in a few minutes took +their leave. + +There was much hand-shaking--all the usual assurances of friendship +agitated by leave-taking. Nevertheless, when the company were in their +boat, going ashore, one of the gentlemen exclaimed: + +'I think Vanderholt must be a selfish old cuckoo to carry away his +daughter to the ocean, with no other company but his own grumbling self +and Captain Glew.' + +'I would not be sailing to the Equator in that schooner for a thousand +pounds!' said a lady. 'I should have to be run away with to do such a +thing;' and she leered sweetly at a gentleman opposite her. + +'They are flourishing their handkerchiefs to us,' cried someone. + +All stood up in the boat to wave back. + +'For Gord's sake, sit down, ladies and gents! You'll be capsizing of +us!' bawled the one-eyed bow oar. + +On board the schooner they were getting under weigh. The name of the +boatswain--he was also the carpenter--who had shipped to act as second +mate whenever his services in this capacity should be required, was +Jones. No man blew the boatswain's silver pipe more sweetly. He had sent +his lark-like carol to the mastheads, and afar on either hand the +streaming river that pure music of the sea thrilled, whilst their guests +were making their way ashore. + +The _Mowbray_ was a small ship, but her deep-water men dealt with her as +though she had been a thousand-ton Indiaman. The hearties, in their +round jackets, sprang, as an echo of the boatswain's roaring cry, to the +windlass handles, and in a moment a voice, broken by years of drink and +by hailing the deck from immense heights, broke into that most +melancholy chorus, 'Across the Plains of Mexico.' + +The cherry-faced mate, Tweed, standing in the bows, soon reported the +cable up and down; then sail was made. The eager little ship herself +broke her anchor out of the London mud, and to the impulse of her +mounting standing jib, staysail, and gaff foresail, was, with a +clipper's restlessness of spirit in the whole length of her, swiftly +turning her head down-stream, whilst a few hands sang 'Old Stormy, he is +dead and gone' at the little windlass, lifting the anchor to the +cathead. + +Before the length of Blackwall Reach had been measured, the schooner was +clothed, her seamen coiling down, some attending the sheets--everything +quiet and comfortable. The captain stood beside the tiller, conning the +little vessel. He was qualified as a pilot for the Thames, and boasted +that he could smell his way up and down in the dark--and truly perhaps +the nose, in some parts of this noble river, would be as good as the +lead, or a buoy, to tell a man where he was. Glew caught the eye of Mr. +Vanderholt, who, approaching him, said: + +'I am very well pleased. You have chosen well. This is a good company of +seamen.' + +Captain Glew touched his cap, and continued to watch the schooner. She +was square-rigged forward, carried topsail, top-gallant-sail, and royal; +but there was no good in humbugging with this sort of canvas in a +serpentine river that shifts your course for you every two miles by +three or four points. + +Miss Vanderholt stood at the rail viewing the moving picture round +about, with a very pensive face. Her eyes often went to a large vessel +at anchor ahead. That full-rigged ship made her think of George. In much +such a ship, no doubt, George would return. When? In all probability +before her own arrival; and how maddening that would be! For, oddly +enough, though it was a long time since they had parted, Miss Violet +Vanderholt was quite as much in love with Captain George Parry as ever +she was on that day when she and her father saw him off in the East +India Docks, when she cried, and he hugged her, and when they had spent +half an hour up in a corner all alone in talk as impassioned as ever +passed between two lovers. + +This must convince us that there was something Dutch and solid in the +girl's character, for she had had many opportunities to recollect +herself and transfer her affection. Though Vanderholt's wealth was not +of a size to lead to newspaper paragraphs and to editorial +exaggerations, it was, in a quiet way, known and talked about, and +people passing his house would look up and nod at it, and say: + +'A rich old cock lives there.' + +However, Miss Vi's meditations were presently to be interrupted by a +scene not very unfamiliar in the River Thames. The wind was west, and it +blew a fresh breeze. The ripples rushing to the whipping carried a +little edging of foam. Whatever was under canvas, unless it was a barge, +or something running in a mile or two of straight water, leaned in +shafts of light. You caught the glance of copper sheathing, the sunshine +showered in a rainbow glow upon flashes of brackish foam bursting +without the life of brine from shearing bows and gliding sides. The +smoke ashore blew away quickly, and the heavens remained a beautiful +blue, and the sky over the Plaistow Flats shone like the inside of an +oyster-shell with the prismatic hues of a setting of motionless, +finely-linked clouds. + +Just as the _Mowbray_ passed down Bugsby's Reach, opening the long tract +of the Woolwich waters beyond, two collier brigs reaching up the river +swept into each other with crackling jibbooms. The schooner's road was +blocked; her helm was shifted swift as the swallow curves in flight, and +then followed a pause which enabled Miss Vanderholt to gain some little +insight into the ways of the deep, and the behaviour and speech of those +who go down to it for two or three pounds a month. + +The two brigs came together with a crash that might have been heard at +London Bridge. They butted bow to bow, then, swinging to, locked +themselves helplessly broadside to broadside, and began to float +shorewards, with sails and heavy pieces of timber falling from aloft, +and men, two or three of them wearing tall hats, and shawls round their +throats, rushing about the decks in agonies of pantomime. It was a +saying that there was no better school than the North Country Geordie +for seamanship. Certainly there was no school in which a man learnt more +quickly to swear. The _Mowbray_ floated close past, and all could be +seen. Nothing is more helpless in this world than two ships thus yoked, +steering each other ashore, with an occasional drag, or jerk, or butt, +that brings a ton of top-hamper crashing about the ears of the profane +on deck. + +'Let go your tawps'l brace, you blooming old fool! Don't you see it's +foul of my mainyard-arm?' + +'What in flames are you keeping your jib hoisted for? You're paying her +right into me!' + +'Jumped if we shan't both go ashore if yer don't starboard yer 'ellum. +Why don't you let go yer anchor, you rooting hogs?' + +'Yes, and tear my smothered bows out because a crew of dairymen don't +know how to steer their ship!' + +Then, in the midst of this--crash!--off short like a carrot would snap a +yard, or down, torn bodily out by its roots, would fall a gaff, amidst +yells of: + +'You gutter-sots! You're all drunk this holy day! Suffocate yer, you +scabs! Let go yer taws'l halliards! Don't you see they're binding the +wessels together by my yard that's gone in the slings?' + +But the _Mowbray_ was now on her course; the distance between her and +the embracing brigs was fast widening, and articulate oaths had faded +into a chorus of indistinguishable shouts. The vessels were doomed. They +both drifted ashore abreast of Woolwich, and next day a paper described +a fight that was bloody with knives between the two crews, and reported +the death of a foolhardy waterman who tried to make peace, clearly with +an eye to salvage. + +'This,' said Mr. Vanderholt, as the _Mowbray_, rounding into Galleon's +Reach, put the brigs out of sight, 'is a sample of the poetry of the +sea, Vi. But very few poets have dealt with subjects of this sort. They +write of the splendours of the sunset and moon-rise at sea, and such +things. Yet, if I were a poet, I would rather choose a subject in those +two brigs in the Thames in a collision, going ashore, full of curses, +than in all the stars which shine upon the ocean.' + +At five o'clock the _Mowbray_ let go her anchor off Gravesend. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +'ALONG OF BILL.' + + +It was dark when the _Mowbray_ brought up. The Gravesend lights trembled +windily, and there was a dance of lanterns as of fireflies upon the +breast of the stream. Mr. Vanderholt had no intention of going ashore. +He had ordered Captain Glew to bring up off Gravesend to avoid the risks +of the navigation of the river in a dark night. It is not customary for +the skippers of yachts to dine with their owners, but Mr. Vanderholt, +who was a seaman at heart, who disliked forms and ceremonies, having +made up his mind on the matter, had, after speaking a few words to his +daughter, walked up to Captain Glew and expressed a wish that he would +eat with them at their table. Glew touched his cap without any +expression of surprise or emotion of gratitude. He appeared to receive +the courtesy as a command, to accept it as he would an order to get the +vessel under weigh or shorten sail. + +At six o'clock the cabin bell was rung to call them to dinner. Mr. +Vanderholt and Captain Glew arrived from the deck, Miss Vanderholt from +her cabin. The interior was a pretty little picture of hospitality; two +handsome lamps shone purely and brightly. The burnished swing-trays +reflected the beams of the lamps. The light glanced dart-like in +polished bulkhead and mirror, and shone on silver and damask, and fruit +and crystal. The steward appeared with a dish of fish. + +'I think you have a pretty good cook in this vessel,' said Vanderholt, +examining the fish, as he helped his daughter. + +'He served his time in liners, and has done a deal of cooking at sea in +his day.' + +'I hope he will take some trouble to please the men,' said Mr. +Vanderholt. 'It is always bad food for the forecastle, but a bad cook +makes bad bad indeed.' + +'What do the men get to eat?' asked the young lady. + +'The usual ship-going fare, miss,' answered Glew: 'pork, junk, +pease-soup, biscuit, and the like.' + +'Who keeps the log of this ship?' said Mr. Vanderholt. + +'I shall,' said the captain. + +'What is a log?' inquired Miss Vanderholt. + +'A book, my dear, in which the chief mate of a ship enters daily her +situation, the state of the weather, and such observations as he is +capable of making.' + +'They are not many, or of a poetical order,' said Glew, with his faint +taut smile. 'The nearest romantic stroke that I can recollect was this +entry: "A dreadful day. At noon precisely the ship blew up, and nobody +was left but William Gibson."' + +'I suspect, captain,' said Mr. Vanderholt, 'that you will have met with +some romantic traverses in your time?' + +'I don't recall any,' answered the captain. + +'Why, to put one instance as delicately as I can,' said Mr. Vanderholt, +filling a silver tankard till it foamed over with India pale ale; 'that +extraordinary affair of some early love.' Miss Vi looked extremely +confused, and gazed with entreaty at her father. 'The remarkable story, +I mean,' continued Vanderholt, bringing out his mouth and nose covered +with froth, 'that Mr. Fairbanks told me.' + +'And what might the story be, sir?' said Captain Glew, looking blankly. + +Miss Vanderholt continued to gaze with entreaty, whilst her father +repeated the story. Captain Glew drained his wine-glass, and uttered a +dismal laugh, in which his face bore no part. + +'Why,' said he, 'that yarn's told of old Jim Dyson, old Captain Dyson, +who was found dead in his bed three years ago at the sign of the Sot's +Hole, down Limehouse way.' + +Miss Vanderholt burst out laughing. + +'I wonder Mr. Fairbanks should tell that yarn of me,' continued Captain +Glew. 'If my wife gets to hear of it--and there's trouble enough in +married life without lies----' + +'So the bubbles break as quickly as they are blown,' said Mr. +Vanderholt. 'But I confess I never would have thought it of you, Captain +Glew.' + +After dinner the father and daughter patrolled the deck, warmly wrapped. +Mr. Vanderholt smoked an immense pipe that curled from an amber tip at +his lips into a richly-bronzed and glowing bowl in his hand. It was +early night. The wind was gone, the stream of tide softly shaled along +the bends of the schooner in the note of surf washing on shingle heard +at a distance. How dismal, flat and gaunt looked the treeless Tilbury +shore in that sad light! The very stars shining over it seemed to +tremble with the spirit of mud and cold desolation. Shadowy shapes of +ships went by, sometimes to a sound of music, as of concertinas and the +like; tall phantasmal shapes, lifting spires as delicate as needles to +the stars, loomed anear and afar. In the main, silence lay upon that +river, with its burden of living freights. + +The crew loafed about the schooner's deck forward, and the grumble of +their voices came aft, along with the scent of tobacco-smoke. They +slept in a deck-house, with three windows of a side, and spikes of light +shot from those windows, occasionally glancing on the figure of a +passing man, and falling in streams of radiance upon the bulwarks. +Besides this deck-house, the schooner owned a small forecastle, +containing three or four bunks. + +'I don't know how it may be with you, Vi,' said Mr. Vanderholt, pressing +his daughter's arm affectionately against his side, 'but I give you my +word I feel better already.' + +'That's a good thing,' exclaimed the young lady. 'I wish George were +with us.' + +'George is not two men. He can't be in India and here at the same time.' + +'He ought to be here, by my side,' said Miss Vanderholt. 'Oh, how +delicious the voyage would then be! I should not object to your sailing +round the world.' + +'Make the youngster give up the army. He's got means of his own, and +_you'll_ be pretty well off, I hope,' said Mr. Vanderholt. 'If you go +out to India I shall be alone, and you'll die of some distemper, +engendered by what is there called "a station." No good in titular +dignity. The land teems with captains and colonels; and a time may come +when a man will be respected because he is not a major-general. It would +be different if George was in the Dutch army.' + +He was proceeding, when he suddenly stopped, catching a noise of oars on +the bow, and suddenly a long, sharp-stemmed boat, apparently a police +boat, shot out of the gloom, and a powerful voice hailed: + +'Schooner ahoy!' + +'Hallo!' answered Captain Glew, who was leaning over the side, at a +respectful distance from the father and daughter, furtively smoking a +cheroot. + +'I want to come aboard of you.' + +In a minute the boat was alongside, and a couple of men sprang over the +rail. + +'What vessel's this?' said one of the men, who, like his companion, wore +a tall, glazed hat, and was swathed to the throat in overcoat and +shawls. + +'The _Mowbray_, privately owned. What's your business?' said Captain +Glew. + +'We're Bow Street officers. We're searching the shipping for a man +named Simmons. D'ye want to see our warrant?' + +'What's he charged with?' said Mr. Vanderholt, coming with his daughter +on his arm from the other side of the deck. + +'Murder!' was the answer. + +Miss Vanderholt screamed. Her father said instantly: + +'Search my ship by all means. I hope the man may not be on board of us. +If he is, I do not sail. Captain Glew, render these two officers every +assistance.' + +The _Mowbray_ was a small vessel, and the search did not take long. The +hatches were lifted, the hold explored by lantern-light, the deck-house +was rummaged, the whole ship's company was mustered and severally +examined. It was strange to see those seamen standing in a line, with +the runners in their glazed hats flashing the light of their lanterns +over their rough, bearded, weather-blackened faces. They had assented +very easily to this mustering and examination, for the man was wanted +for murder, and the very name will subdue the roughest, and silence +those curses of the forecastle with which the two Bow Street fellows +were the sort of people to have been handsomely assailed by this crew, +had they bothered the men with a smaller errand. + +They searched the cabins, and, lastly, they entered the little +forecastle in which no man had as yet slept. A hole of a seabedroom was +this. You could scarcely stand upright in it. The two men descended the +short ladder, and Captain Glew stood atop waiting. The bullies of Bow +Street swung their lamps carefully. Suddenly one of them, delivering a +low gasp, said: 'Catch hold of this light, Tom.' He dropped on his +knees, and grabbed at a leg, the foot of which dimly showed under one of +the bunks. He hauled with a will, and out came the body of a man or boy, +shrieking like a woman in a fit. + +'Don't 'urt me! for God's sake, don't 'urt me, gemmen! I meant no 'arm. +It was all along of Bill.' + +'Is that a woman you've got down there?' sung out Captain Glew. + +'Nothing else, by the holy poker!' answered one of the officers, in a +voice that trembled with the temper of disappointment. + +'Yes, I'm a girl, gemmen. It was all along of Bill. Put me ashore, and I +promise never to offend again,' cried the unfortunate little woman, +sobbing grievously. + +Yet, bedraggled as she was, of a raw, uncouth, mixed look, with her +trousers and sailor's jacket, and plentiful black hair loosened by +dragging, she showed as a saucy, handsome wench, and the spirit of the +devil was in her black eyes when she looked at the Bow Street men. + +They all went on deck. + +'Thunder of heaven!' cried Mr. Vanderholt, in a voice of horror. 'The +murderer is on board our ship! They have got him. So,' he cried in a +voice deep with resolution, 'our voyage ends. To-morrow we return home.' + +'It's a woman, sir,' said Captain Glew. + +'A woman!' shouted Mr. Vanderholt. He quitted his daughter, and strode +straight up to the group as they came along, and, putting his face close +into the woman's, he exclaimed: 'What are you doing aboard my vessel?' + +'It's all along of Bill!' cried the girl. 'I never meant no 'arm, and I +can't tell yer what I done it for.' + +'Father,' said Miss Vanderholt, approaching the group, and taking a view +of the girl by the sheen that floated round about the lighted skylight, +'don't you think it's just possible that this person who's been in +hiding for some time may be a little bit hungry and thirsty? Ask her +into the cabin. She will tell us her story.' + +'Oh, lady, you is kind!' exclaimed the girl, extending both hands +towards Miss Violet, and again beginning to cry bitterly. + +'This way, then,' said Mr. Vanderholt. + +The Bow Street gentlemen descended with the rest. Whether they imagined +a scent of crime in this female stowaway, or whether they distinguished +a scent of drink in the cabin atmosphere, cannot, after all these years, +be settled with any degree of certainty. They seated themselves, and Mr. +Vanderholt offered them drink, and they drank, eyeing the girl with very +knowing looks, whilst she told her story in a high, strained voice. + +'What are ye?' began Captain Glew. + +'I'm barmaid at the One Bell in Cable Street, nigh the London Docks.' + +Here she paused, and looked at Miss Violet. The blood was red in her +cheeks, and her eyes were wild and wet with tears. Her aspect, in the +clear light of the lamp, was extraordinary. She seemed half a gipsy. Her +beauty was coarse and masculine; her hair, black as streaming ink, lay +upon her back in a wonderful quantity. + +'It was all along of Bill,' she went on. + +'Who's this bloomed Bill you've been talking about since you was lugged +out of it?' said one of the officers. + +'The young man I keeps company with,' she answered. 'We fell out because +of a sailor man that's aboard this vessel. Fred Maul his name is, and it +'ud have been good for me this blessed night had they strangled him in +the hour of his coming into this blistered world. Why,' she cried, +turning upon Miss Violet, who shrank a little from the gathering +ferocity of the woman, 'this beast of a Maul comes and 'angs about me, +and Bill, he falls jealous. Bill and me 'ad a row over this 'ere Maul. +He says to me: "I know the ship he's signed for; yer'd better foller +him." "By God!" cries I, mad with feeling that _he_ oughtn't to have +said it, "say that again, and I'll do it." He says it again.' Here the +unfortunate woman raised her voice till the little cabin rang; but +though the gentlemen of Bow Street shouted, and though Captain Glew and +Mr. Vanderholt sought, with a hundred gestures, to subdue her voice, +nothing could soften the hysteric, piercing note. 'He s'ys it ag'in, I +s'y, and, going away, the unfeeling devil comes back arter ten minutes, +and chucks a bundle on to the counter, and says, with a low sneer: +"There's your kit. Now go and foller Bill."' + +'And so here y'are,' said one of the officers. 'A tidy lot, I allow, for +a select hevening party. When I saw her boot, fired if I didn't think it +was a man.' + +The girl bit upon a sandwich, and glared fiercely at the officers while +she chewed. Miss Violet, with the merciful heart of her sex, fetched +some hairpins from her cabin, and gave them to the girl, who, with a +curtsey, and a smile of shame and thanks, turned to a strip of mirror +and swiftly coiled her hair upon her head. + +'Go and fetch the young lady's hat,' said Mr. Vanderholt to the steward. + +The Bow Street gentlemen, having drunk their glasses of cold brandy and +water, got up, saying they must be off. + +'Yer'll put me ashore, won't yer?' asked the girl. + +'Ay, they'll put you ashore,' said Mr. Vanderholt, slipping a sovereign +into the hand of one of them; 'and here's for a knot of gay ribbons for +you, miss,' said he, laughing at the figure of the woman, 'when you're +clear of this spree, and in petticoats again.' + +She thrust the sovereign into her breeches pocket, muttering 'Thank you, +sir,' whilst she scowled at the two officers. + +'Come along, miss, if you're coming; for we're off,' said one of the +men. + +The young woman followed them, gazing about her as she went as though +she had only just discovered that she was in a very richly-furnished +cabin, and in the presence of a gentleman and a very finely-dressed, +handsome young lady. She wore an expression that was like asking 'Where +am I? How did I get here? What's it about?' And then, pausing an instant +at the foot of the companion-steps, to look at Miss Violet, and say, 'It +was all along of Bill; but he'll get it 'ot when I meet him,' she went +up the ladder in the wake of Captain Glew. + +'Let them get clear of the schooner,' said Mr. Vanderholt, casting +himself upon a sofa. 'They're not what you would call pickings from the +sweetest of the social orders.' + +'What did she intend?' + +'She couldn't have told you. When women of that sort go mad with +jealousy, "stand by," as Jack says. She'd have had Maul's life, perhaps, +before we were out of the Channel.' + +He was interrupted by a great commotion on deck--loud cries of men, +mingled with the yells of a woman. + +'Stop here, Violet!' cried Mr. Vanderholt; and he rushed up the steps. + +The deck-house door was open. The light of the lantern streamed freely +into the air, and illuminated a considerable area of plank, in the midst +of which a fight was apparently going on, for it was thence the uproar +proceeded. Mr. Vanderholt ran forward, and saw the girl tearing with +outstretched claws at one of the men as though she would rend him in +pieces. His trouble was to get away. He butted and dodged behind his +elbow, shouting: 'S'elp me Bob, Polly, it worn't no fault o' mine'! And +then she would shriek out: 'Yer drove me to it! It was along o' you, and +not Bill, you sink----' And here she would nearly tear his ear off; and +then she got at his hair, whilst the man, never offering to hit her, +danced in the light, shouting with pain, and swearing that he had had +nothing to do with it. + +'Stop it!' roared Captain Glew. 'Is a gentleman's yacht to be disgraced +by a stowaway spitfire? Help her into the boat, Mr. Officers;' and +plunging, they bore the girl out of her entangled embrace of Maul, and +in a few minutes they were over the side, and gone. + +The crew followed Maul into the deck-house, and a grunt of laughter went +along with them. + +'What have you been a-doing to her?' says one. + +'Where's my 'at?' said Maul. + +'What do it feel like, Frederick?' sung out a sailor named Legg. 'As if +you was married?' + +'Never mind _her_. I'm a-thinking of what I've left behind me, my joys,' +exclaimed a seaman. + +'I'm durned mighty glad I sold off all my furniture,' said the +deep-throated Jack who had on an early occasion made a statement on this +subject. + +Father and daughter sat in the cabin till half-past ten. Miss Violet was +then sleepy, and went to bed. When she left her berth in the morning the +schooner was under weigh, storming through Sea Reach, with half a gale +of wind astern of her, and a thunderstorm of hell's own hue lancing the +land beyond Canvey Island with lightning that fell in showers of fiery +bayonets. It was a majestic, sublime, terrible storm. The girl, standing +in the companion-way, was fascinated. The sun peeped at a corner of this +purple-black bank of vapour, off which rags of tempest, gilded by his +radiance, were blowing sheer across the wind, whilst for miles the edge +of the electric mass was a line of glorious light. It was as though a +bed of fire lay on top, with the molten stuff darting in flames through +the swollen belly; and the thunder roared in rattling broadsides. + +The noble, dangerous scene of sky, however, was soon far astern; and the +schooner sped on, carving out a grass-green comber with her chisel-like +stem, and leaving the tail of a comet blowing in froth behind her. And +now did nothing noticeable happen for some days. They met with heavy +weather in the Channel. The wind darkened with snow, and the _Mowbray_, +under small canvas, ratched, panting over the crazy, choppy sea behind +the Goodwins for a board that should open her a free run down the +English coast. Miss Violet was rather sea-sick. Strange to say, her +father was rather sea-sick, too. + +'This motion,' he growled to Captain Glew, whilst he grasped a decanter +of brandy by the neck, 'is not an honest heave. I am a good sailor in +seas where the head and the stomach swing together, but when the stomach +leaps at the head, and the head darts back from the stomach, leaving a +sensation of brains in one's very toes, I give up.' + +And so saying, he swallowed a glass of brandy, and lay down. + +It was now that Miss Vi felt the want of a maid, or, at all events, of a +stewardess to attend upon her. But Vanderholt had been dogged and Dutch +in this matter when they had talked about the voyage at home. He would +have no women, he said; they would be going forward among the men, and +breeding trouble. Was it not good for Violet that she should learn to +help herself? Could not she do her own hair? Then let her cut it off; it +would be growing whilst they were away. These trifles illustrated Mr. +Vanderholt's eccentricities as a rich man, and Violet's submissiveness +as an only daughter. + +However, the fine girl was not so ill but that she could manage for +herself. Her nausea had left her, whilst her father still lay grunting, +incapable of smoking, and gray as his beard. She waited upon him, and +stood upright with ease upon a bounding deck by his side, holding on to +nothing but her own hands. He rolled a languid eye of admiration over +her. + +'I did not bargain for this,' said he, 'or, as God is my witness, we +would have joined the hooker at Plymouth.' + +'Where are we now?' + +'In the Chops, where the Channel always shows its teeth,' answered Mr. +Vanderholt, with an ashy grin of nausea. + +Vanderholt need not have been ashamed. Nelson, whilst rolling in the +Downs, wrote with pathetic irritability to his Emma of his incessant +sickness. A man has stepped ashore after a voyage to Australia. Would +not you suppose him seasoned? Yet, on crossing the Channel in one of the +small steamers, he was more violently sick than the most prostrate of +the Frenchmen who lay in cloaks, with tureens by their sides, helpless +about the decks. + +'There is the Bay of Biscay to come,' said Miss Violet, with a lurking +hope that, if her father's sickness continued, he would order Captain +Glew to steer for home again. + +'Yes, it is not far off, and I hope it may blow a hurricane when we get +there, for then I shall be all right. I like a tall sea. Man and boy, I +never could stand these rugged little Channel tumblers. Call for the +steward, my dear. I want some tea.' + +The old gentleman was not very accurate in his description of the state +of the ocean, nevertheless. A large and liberal sea was running +steadfast, in charging hills of green, which crumbled into foam. The +torn scud flew fast. Every hollow was the wide and seething valley of +Atlantic waters; and as the hull of the schooner sank into the trough, +you might catch in the noise of expiring spray, in the explosion of +coloured bubbles, winking like stars in beds of froth, a sound of +martial music. + +The _Mowbray_ was making splendid weather of it. The wind was right +abeam. She took the seas in steady lifts and falls. Regularly as the +beat of a pulse, the hull would disappear. She seemed a foundered craft, +till, in a minute, up she'd soar, with marble-hard breasts of canvas, +leaping like some creation or possession of the deep to the height of a +surge, bursting the flickering green peak into smoke, which blew away in +rainbows whenever the sun rolled out of some solemn-sailing cloud under +which the scud was scattering like smoke. + +It was half-past eleven o'clock in the morning. Captain Glew, coming +below for his sextant, looked in on Mr. Vanderholt, and exchanged a few +sentences with him touching affairs aboard. The schooner had been +liberally provisioned with fresh meat and loaves of bread for the +forecastle use, and, so far, the men had sat down to a fresh mess every +day. But carcasses and quarters, ribs and heads, and rumps must, unless +they are pickled, soon take a character to call 'avast,' even to a +sailor's appetite. Indeed, all the fresh meat was gone. It had been +eaten up. + +It was the dinner-hour aboard the _Mowbray_--at sea, before the mast, +everybody used to sit down and eat his dinner by the sun, at the same +time, no matter in what ocean he floated--and three or four men were +gathered about the door of the little caboose, waiting to carry the kids +into the deck-house. + +A hairy, tattooed lump of a man, named Simon Toole, after snuffling a +bit, exclaimed: + +'If it's to be pay-soup, maties, at the rate of this smell, then I'll +tell yer a story it reminds me of. Micky M'Carthy was able seaman on +board a brigantine. She foundered in mid-ocean. They'd just time to +chuck something to eat and drink into her, and there they was, afloat +under a broiling sun. By-'n-by, wan of thim, feeling thirsty, goes for a +drink, and what d'ye think they found they had shipped for water, which +was all the drink, by gob, they had? Casther-oil, bullies! It was +Micky's doing. He had mustook breakers of oil for breakers of water, and +then, all hands feeling thirsty, they nearly kilt him.' + +'Lads,' said a man named Dabb, 'now there's no fresh beef left, I'm +a-going to feel hungry.' + +'That's nater,' exclaimed Toole; 'knock, and there ain't no room. It's +always t'other ways about in this world. What couldn't I sit down and +ate? Everything, bedad, but the stuff they're going to give me.' + +'The capt'n looks plump,' said Dabb darkly, looking aft at Captain Glew, +who stood with a sextant upon the quarter. 'He's fed so well that I'm +gorged if he's left any room for a smile in his face.' + +'I knew a skipper,' said the cook, lounging half out of the galley-door, +and plunging into the conversation a little irrelevantly, 'who used to +talk to his ship and his masts as if they was alive. He'd look up at his +maintaws'l, and say: "D'ye think you could stand it if I shook a single +reef out of yer? Why, then, all right"; and then he'd bawl out the order +to the men. Next he'd step back right aft, paying no heed to the fellow +at the wheel, and looking aloft, would say to his mizzen taws'l, "I +think a reef can come out of you, too. Does the mast feel equal to the +strain, d'ye think? Why, then, my lads, jump aloft, and shake a reef +out of the mizzen taws'l." He was a queer dawg,' continued the +cook--'fat as a slug, and as long in seeing a thing as a balloon's in +falling.' + +Seeing the captain looking, he slunk back to his coppers. + +Presently the pea-soup and pork were ready, the kids were filled, and +the hands went to dinner. They sat on sea-chests, the kids were upon the +deck, and the sailors plunged their sheath-knives into the pale, fat +lumps of meat, and took what they wanted, a few using tin dishes, and +some ship's biscuit, as trenchers. + +'Blast me!' after a grim silence, presently exclaims James Jones, who +had shipped as boatswain and carpenter, 'if I don't think the Dutchman +has sneaked us aboard on the cheap. This here's no food for a man.' + +He held aloft a morsel of pork, and squinted up at it. + +'Yer taste'll grow,' said a sailor, with a sullen laugh. 'The flavour of +roast beef ain't out of your mouth yet, Jim.' + +'He'll be a mean cuss,' said the boatswain, continuing to squint +dangerously at the piece of pork, 'if it's to be no better than this.' + +'Here's the yarn of the meanest thing that ever was read of in books,' +said a seaman named Mike Scott. 'A man once said to me: "When I was a +boy, I stood at my father's gate, with a kitten on my shoulder. A man on +horseback stops and says: 'I likes to see little boys kind to animals. +Here's a farden for ye, sonny.'" And with that he gives him a button, +and then rides off. Who was it, d'ye think? Why, the Dook o' +Vellington.' + +'Not a vord agin the Dook. He's my godfather,' said a man. + +'I'm a-going to complain of this meat,' said the boatswain, starting up. + +Retaining the piece on the end of his knife, he stepped out of the +house, and walked aft. + +Captain Glew saw him coming, yet did not look towards him. On the +contrary, he began to take sights. Yet, as though he carried a slip of +looking-glass in the side of his nose, he saw the man approaching, and +he did not want to see that the boatswain held, on a level with his +face, a piece of meat at the end of his knife, to guess that his errand +was thunder-charged with the old-fashioned forecastle growl. The +captain's face was incapable of any play of expression. It was hard +beyond the holding of any further meaning the man's spirit or heart +could put into it. But his eyes could look all the abominations of a +tyrannical soul; and when he perceived the boatswain approaching, his +right eye gazed with a devilish malice at the sun through the little +telescope attached to his sextant. + +Many minutes passed before he heeded the man, who had drawn close and +stood waiting to be noticed. A huddle of heads, all looking in one +direction, with but one leg exposed, as though the crew had been changed +into one of those many-headed giants you read of in fairy tales, +embellished the deck-house door. The red-faced mate stood near the helm. +Presently, the captain, with his eye still gummed to his sextant, seemed +to see the man. + +'What d'yer want, Jones?' + +'I'd like yer to taste this piece of meat, sir. It isn't fit food for +men.' + +Captain Glew slowly let his sextant sink from his eye, and exclaimed: + +'Jones, I shipped you for a respectable, quiet sailor. This is a +gentleman's yacht. Don't disturb our quiet by anything in the South +Spainer or Cape Horn way.' + +'Yacht or no yacht, cap'n, this is strong meat, killed diseased; the +sorter stuff, if consumed, to lay the whole ship's company low with the +sickness the beast died of. Smell of it.' + +He offered the knife, with the pork on it, to the captain. + +'The fault is in the cooking,' said the captain; 'it always is; it +always will be. Go and growl to Allan.' + +'Is the rest of the pork to be like this?' said Jones, taking the dollop +off the point of his knife, and seeming to weigh it in the palm of his +gigantic, tar-stained hand. + +'Go forward and finish your dinner, Jones, and leave me to get an +observation,' said Captain Glew, with a very forbidding glance. + +He applied his sextant once more to his eye, walking a little way aft. + +The boatswain stood looking from him to the piece of pork, and from the +piece of pork to him; then saying, 'There goes my dinner,' he jerked the +pale, rather bluish lump over the side, and rolled forward. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +CAPTAIN MARY LIND. + + +Next day they broached a cask of beef for the forecastle. The meat +proved fairly sweet, and that and a kidful of currant-dumplings kept the +men quiet. But on the following day the bad pork was served out again. +Captain Glew refused to hear the boatswain on the subject, and those of +the men who could not swallow the meat made shift for a meal with +pea-soup and ship's biscuit. + +Not a word of this trouble, which Captain Glew must have known was +charged with one of the deadliest of all ocean menaces, reached Mr. +Vanderholt. + +'I'll not have him worried,' said Glew to the mate. 'If you sent them a +Mansion House tuck-out, the fiends would growl, tell you it wasn't +Galapagos turtle, and that they'd hooked better salmon out of cans. I'm +responsible for the stores. I knew what I was about when I ordered them. +Surely you know Humph Lyons, the ships' chandler in Dock Street, +Limehouse? He's shipped for me before, and he's likewise shipped for my +owners, and I've never heard a murmur against him.' + +'Was that the Lyons an action was brought against for selling condemned +Admiralty stores as good food for merchant sailors?' said Mr. Tweed, +with a grin. + +'It was his brother,' said Captain Glew. 'A man can't be responsible for +his relations.' + +'As to relations,' said Mr. Tweed, 'a man may try his darned hardest to +be all that's right, and in conformity with the law and piety, and still +find himself adrift at the end. I remember a skipper saying to me: "It's +all very well to say, 'Honour thy father and thy mother,' but I knew a +man who all his life did his fired best to honour his father, and when +his mother lay dying she told him, with the tears running over her +cheeks, that the man he'd been a-honouring all his life had never been +his father at all!"' + +Here the groggy little man set up so loud a laugh that Captain Glew +walked away, and the conversation came to an end. + +The days passed. The _Mowbray_ broke the seas of the Bay clothed to her +royal yard. Blue sky was over her, and sunshine bright as that of the +English June lighted up the rolling ocean. By this time Mr. Vanderholt +was perfectly recovered, and had ceased to apologize to Captain Glew for +being sea-sick. He smoked his long pipe. He stalked the deck arm-in-arm +with his daughter. He repeatedly asked her and Captain Glew how they +thought he was looking; and Captain Glew swore that in all his life he +had never seen any gentleman pick up so surprisingly fast. + +'I'm quite sure,' the captain said, 'Miss Vanderholt will agree with me, +sir, when I say that you're looking ten years younger this same day than +at the hour of your starting.' + +Miss Violet smiled, and Vanderholt stroked his beard, and grinned till +his eyes faded into little wrinkles. + +One fine hot morning, when the _Mowbray_ was far to the southward of the +Madeira parallels, Mr. Vanderholt and his daughter came on deck from the +breakfast-table, and seated themselves under the shelter of a short +awning. The young lady held a novel. Mr. Vanderholt smoked his immense +and richly-coloured pipe. Captain Glew passed them in short to-and-fro +look-out excursions; and forward the little ship carried a busy face, +with seamen at work on the hundred jobs which, fair or foul, a vessel +exacts from her crew at sea. A soft wind blew. The sky was capacious +with the clarity of the horizon, and wondrous lofty with light cloud, +resembling froth that dries in curls upon a beach. + +A ship was in sight on the starboard quarter, going away north-west, +under square yards. Her spires trembled in the moist, rich distance, as +though they were rays of starlight, twisting, burning, dying. She had +been too far off to signal, nor did Mr. Vanderholt seem particularly +anxious that the safety and whereabouts of his little ship should be +reported at home. + +'Who is troubling his head about us, do you think?' he had said to his +daughter on one occasion when this question of reporting had arisen +between him and Glew. 'I am not insured. No man in the city is concerned +for me. And of our friends, how many are thinking of us?' + +And he held up two fingers with a satirical smile, as though he should +say, 'D'ye think two are thinking of us?' + +'If George returns before we do,' Miss Vi had said in reply, 'I should +like him to know that all was well with us down to the date on which we +were last heard of.' + +'We'll signal steam,' had been old Vanderholt's answer. 'Anything blown +along by canvas will not arrive at home very much earlier than we +shall.' + +Now, on this morning--this fine hot morning--they sat together in very +comfortable deck-chairs, one trying to read a novel, the other finding +his tobacco delicious in the open air. Presently, directing her eyes at +some men who sat at work stitching upon a sail near the galley, Miss +Vanderholt said: + +'How could any man be a sailor! How could you have survived such a +horrible life! See how hard those men are kept at work all day; and at +night they have to watch, wet or dry, for four hours at a time.' + +'Ay; and the colder it is, and the damper it is, and the more abominable +in a general way the whole precious weather is, the harder they have to +watch,' answered Vanderholt. + +'Have sailors no amusements?' inquired his daughter. + +'How do sailors amuse themselves, Glew?' called Mr. Vanderholt. + +And the man, arresting his look-out walk, stood up before father and +daughter. + +'By growling, sir,' answered Glew. + +Miss Vanderholt did not like the expression that entered Captain Glew's +eyes when he made that answer. + +'A happy, well-disciplined crew are the jolliest company of men in the +world,' said Mr. Vanderholt. 'They have plenty to eat, no rent to pay, +dollars for the girls at the end of the voyage, and they behold the +wonders of the world at the cost of the ship-owner--poor fellow! For +diversions, think--they dance in the dog-watch, they sing songs and tell +stories, they play at cards, they fight----' + +'A little, sir,' said Captain Glew. + +'We made a sport of fighting in our time,' said Vanderholt. 'We'd take +two men, and nail them face to face on a sea-chest, with long spikes +driven through the stern of their trousers. It was good sport.' + +He opened his mouth to let out a cloud, smiling at some forecastle +recollections, which perhaps caused him to regret that his daughter was +present, for he found Glew a good listener. + +'Sailors take some pleasure in cards,' said Captain Glew. 'I remember, +when I was second-mate of a ship, having occasion to go forward. It was +night, a dead calm; a frightful thunderstorm was about us; the lightning +was hissing like snakes all over everything that was metal aloft, and +every crash of thunder was like the splitting of the heavens by God's +own hand in wrath. I took a peep down the forecastle, and in the midst +of this tremendous commotion, which was fit to subdue the heart of the +stoutest, sat four sailors at a chest, playing at cards, a lighted +candle in a bottle in the midst of them, all so intent on the game that +they heard and saw nothing.' + +'Sail-ho!' at this moment sang out a fellow aloft, on the little +top-gallant yard. + +'Where away?' shouted Glew, with the sharp of his hand to his mouth. + +'Right ahead, sir!' cried down the seaman, in a sort of chant. + +'If she's going to England you shall make our number, Glew--for George's +sake,' said Mr. Vanderholt, looking at his daughter. + +Just then the boatswain hailed the sailor on the top-gallant yard, and +gave him some directions. + +'That Jones is a fine-looking man,' said Mr. Vanderholt; 'such as he +should never want a ship. What's his nation?' + +'London, sir.' + +'A mighty nation!' exclaimed Miss Violet. + +'Which does not believe in a God,' said Vanderholt, 'though it worships +a Madonna called Our Lady of Threadneedle Street.' + +'There's many a pilgrim always bound to that shrine,' said Captain Glew, +trying to smile. + +'I am of Dutch extraction,' continued Mr. Vanderholt; 'but never dropped +the letter H, nor found the V's and W's difficult. I have +out-generationed that trouble of the foreigner. But why is it that the +Cockney should drop his H? You speak of London. Think of the number of +H's which are dropped in it every day!' + +'George once made a pun,' exclaimed Miss Vanderholt. 'We were talking of +a certain young lady, and I said: "Do you observe that she drops her +H's?" "Her sister does worse," he answered. "Address her and she drops +her eyes."' + +Captain Glew again tried to smile. Mr. Vanderholt, expelling a great +cloud of smoke, burst in: + +'Yes; and I'll tell you what those girls' father once said to me at an +evening party. He took me aside, and said: "Did you ever 'ear of that +fine riddle in rhyme supposed to have been written by Lord Byron, +though it's attributed to a lady? I'll tell it you," and my friend, with +a grave face, began: + + + '"'Twas whispered in 'eaven; 'twas muttered in 'ell'"-- + + +and so he went on to the end. "Well," says he, "what is it?" "I give it +up," says I. "The letter H," says he.' + +'Did you ever see a funeral at sea, father?' inquired Miss Vanderholt, +watching the ship ahead, that was growing larger and whiter. + +'Scores, my blessing; much too many. We shipped a heavy cargo at Bombay, +and amongst it was cholera. I can still hear, in that dead calm of +twelve days, the recurrent, sullen plunge of the shotted corpse.' + +'The worst of being buried is, that you don't know what they're saying +about you,' said Captain Glew. 'That's true, whether ashore or whether +at sea. As the corpse goes along in the car, it might like to know what +sort of a following it had, how the people who'd been thought friends +had turned out. Yet, I dare say,' he went on, 'that if a man could get +up and listen a bit, and take a look round, he'd be glad to sneak +back.' + +'Yes; if he had to hear his will read in a room full of relations,' said +Miss Violet. + +'I have often thought this,' said Mr. Vanderholt: 'that a man who is a +genius and famous should provide by his will for a quiet funeral; for, +by doing so, he guards against the risk of neglect.' + +This was a touch above Glew. Mr. Vanderholt rose, and went to the rail +to knock out the ashes of his pipe into the sea. Miss Violet began to +read, and the captain fell to walking the deck. + +The ship ahead grew rapidly. It was first like the half of the crescent +moon leaning and shining, then it swelled into cotton-white canvas and a +green hull. But the sun ate up the wind at noon. The vessels were then +two miles apart, and it was not until about three in the afternoon that +they were wafted by cat's-paws within speaking distance. She was a +little barque, dingy with long travel. Her copper was green. Her +figure-head was a romantic imagination. It represented a nymph, with her +black hair fairly concealing her shape, extending her arms in a posture +of ecstasy at a large gilt star that was fixed within a foot or two of +her hands. Her canvas shone like satin, and at her mizzen-peak end +languidly swung the Stripes and Stars, a very large flag, looking +brand-new. A number of men, some of them coloured, lay over the +forecastle-rail, indolently watching the _Mowbray_. The barque had a +little poop, and upon it, with one foot resting on a hen-coop and one +hand grasping a backstay, stood the most extraordinary figure Mr. +Vanderholt had ever beheld. + +It resembled a man dressed in what, in former ages, were known as +petticoat-breeches. Their plenty made them look like a frock. Inspecting +this figure through a binocular glass, Mr. Vanderholt perceived that the +rest of its garb consisted of a white shirt, a silk handkerchief, tied +in a sailor's knot under a wide turned-down collar, a braided jacket, +blue, and a cap with a naval peak, much after the pattern that is worn +by yachting men. + +A short, square man stood at the wheel, that blazed in a brass circle to +the sun, and beside him stood another man, remarkable for nothing but a +long goatlike beard, and a blue cap, tasselled, pointed, and +overhanging, such as mutinous smacksmen wear in Italian opera. + +'A queer ship's company!' exclaimed Mr. Vanderholt to Glew. 'In all your +going a-fishing did you ever see the like of such a sailor-man as that +chap yonder in the trousers?' + +Captain Glew's reply was arrested by a hail from the little barque. + +'Ho!' shrilled the strange figure in breeches. 'The schooner ahoy! What +schooner are you?' + +'The _Mowbray_, of London, on a cruise. What ship are you?' + +'The _Wife's Hope_, from Calcutta to New York! Eighty days out! Jute and +linseed! We're short of sugar: can you loan me some?' + +All this was delivered in the voice of a bantam-cock, delirious with +continuous triumphant clarioning. + +'The _Wife's Hope_,' said Mr. Vanderholt, turning to his daughter. +'Here's some Yankee notion.' + +'If that figure's not a woman,' answered Violet, 'it does not speak +with the voice of a man.' + +After a brief consultation with Mr. Vanderholt, Captain Glew shouted: + +'I think we can let you have some sugar--a cask of moist, and some lump, +to help you along to the next ship. We'll carry it aboard for you.' + +The figure in breeches flourished its hand in a gesture of delight, and +then began to walk the short poop with superior stately strides, +constantly directing glances at the yacht. The _Mowbray_ carried three +good boats, and the boat amidships was the long-boat; this was promptly +got over the side. They broke out a cask of moist sugar and a case of +lump; and a crew having entered her, Mr. and Miss Vanderholt were +steered by Mr. Tweed to the _Wife's Hope_ over the glazed heave of the +deep-blue afternoon swell. + +Very hot it was. The sunshine tingled in the water, and the trembling +fire rose roasting to the face. + +'Do you think we shall be welcome, father?' said Miss Vanderholt, a +little nervously. + +'We are here to see the wonders of the deep,' answered Mr. Vanderholt, +'whether they welcome us or not; and yonder figure seems to me to be one +of the greatest wonders in the world.' + +'It is a woman, sir,' said Mr. Tweed. + +'A female ship-master,' exclaimed Mr. Vanderholt. 'The _Wife's Hope_! It +should be the _Husband's Despair_.' + +Miss Violet was gazing at the receding shape of the _Mowbray_. The +schooner lightly leaned with the swell, darting glances of flame as she +swayed. Tender, blue fingers of shadow, like an outstretched hand in +front of the sun, overran her sails, and the swing of her canvas was a +miracle of milk-white light and violet shade against the hot liquid blue +of the afternoon sky. + +'A vessel like that is like a horse,' said Violet: 'you want to pat her +side, to whisper encouraging words to her, to thank her for the noble, +sweeping pace she has carried you at. How little she looks, and how +lonely!' + +They were fast approaching the barque. The petticoat-trousered figure, +seeing that company was coming, had ordered a ladder to be thrown over +the side, and she--for a woman it was--stood in the open gangway to +receive the visitors. + +'Have you brought what we asked you for?' she cried, the strain in her +voice lifting it to a shriek. + +Tweed answered with one of those tumbling gesticulations--a peculiar +drunken, rounding fall of the arm and dropping of the head--which with +sailors stand for 'yes.' + +'Jump aloft, a hand,' screamed the lady skipper, 'and make fast a whip +to the yard-arm! I'll want that sugar carefully hoisted!' + +The boat drove alongside, and Mr. and Miss Vanderholt ascended the short +ladder. Now that they stood close, they found that by no possibility +could her garb make a man of the captain, with her large fine eyes and +delicate features, though sunburnt to deformity. She was a tall woman, +with a lofty, commanding air, which was not to be neutralized by +anything diverting in the suggestions of her apparel. She looked hard at +Miss Violet, and ran her eyes over her dress; her sex spoke in that, +spite of her cropped head and abundant breeks. + +'I have brought a cask of moist sugar, and a case of broken lump,' said +Mr. Vanderholt, lifting his hat; 'and, madam, if you are in command of +this vessel, it gives me a very singular satisfaction to make your +acquaintance.' + +'Don't call me "madam," I beg, sir!' exclaimed the other, showing a +white set of teeth in a cordial smile, full of spirit. 'I am Captain +Lind.' + +'Captain Lind, then,' said Mr. Vanderholt, again lifting his hat, whilst +his eyes disappeared in a grin full of wrinkles. + +'You are the owner of that yacht, I reckon?' said Captain Lind; and Miss +Vanderholt noticed the American accent in the skipper's speech. + +'Ay, captain, that's my yacht, and this is my daughter,' answered +Vanderholt, continuing to grin with all his might, whilst he looked +first at Captain Lind, and then aloft, and then along the decks. + +'What do I owe you for that sugar?' said Captain Lind. + +'Our visit fully discharges your obligations, captain. There is enough, +maybe, to keep you sweet till you get more.' + +'Well, I thank you,' said the lady skipper; 'and when I have seen that +cask safely inboards, we'll go into the cabin and drink a cup of tea.' + +Mr. Vanderholt pulled out his watch, then, hailing Glew, said that he +and Miss Vanderholt would remain another half-hour on board the barque. + +'Don't let the vessels slide far apart, Glew!' he roared. 'Tweed, whilst +we're below keep a bright look-out on the weather.' + +The mate of the _Mowbray_ touched his cap. + +Miss Vanderholt stared with amazement at Captain Lind. A woman in charge +of a ship! A woman qualified to handle the complicated machinery of the +gear and sails of a barque of no mean tonnage, as tonnage then went! Did +the men obey her? Wasn't she afraid of her sailors? And Miss Violet +turned to inspect the seamen who were getting the sugar aboard in the +gangway, whilst others lay on the rail lazily staring at the _Mowbray_ +from the forecastle-head. A rough lot they looked--rougher even than the +_Mowbray's_ crew, by virtue, no doubt, of their apparel, which was +showing very much like the end of a long voyage. They carried +sheath-knives on their hips, straw hats or Scotch caps on their heads; +their naked breasts disclosed the wool upon them through rents in the +flying wide dungaree shirt. And a woman had command of these fellows, +had held them obedient, and brought them and the ship in safety to that +part of the ocean in which the _Mowbray_ had encountered them! Who had +ever heard of such a thing? It was a fact worth going to sea to realize. +'How George will laugh and doubt when I tell him!' Miss Vanderholt +thought, as she looked with wonder, deepening ever, at the amazing +figure built up of petticoat-trousers and blue jacket, very plentifully +braided. + +When the sugar was on board, Captain Lind, calling to the man in the +opera-cap, said: + +'See that cask safely stowed. This is a chance that mightn't happen +again 'twixt here and New York; and I tell you, mister,' said she, +turning to Mr. Vanderholt, 'that I have missed the sugar in my cup of +tea. I have a sweet tooth. Who is that gent?' she continued, looking at +Mr. Tweed. + +'He is the mate of my schooner,' answered Mr. Vanderholt. + +'Then, see here, Mr. Prunes,' she cried, with a womanly yell that +broadened Tweed's mouth from ear to ear; 'whilst we're at tea below, +you'll see that this gentleman has some refreshment. He can ask for what +he likes, and if we've got it, he can have it. Send the boy aft, Mr. +Prunes.' + +All this was addressed to the tasselled seaman who was apparently the +mate of the ship. + +Captain Lind then conducted Mr. Vanderholt and his daughter below into +the cabin--a little interior, rude in comparison with the _Mowbray's_ +cabin, yet comfortable and breezy with the panting of the heel of a +windsail, as the swing of the barque swelled the mouth of the tube +aloft. There were two little cabins aft, and two little cabins forward, +and a little square table amidships. A small black boy arrived. + +'Bring tea and biscuit, and tell Mr. Prunes to give you some lump sugar. +Don't eat none. Now spring! Hurrah!' + +The lad, with a grin, leapt up the ladder, and the soles of his naked +feet glimmered like bars of yellow soap as he disappeared. + +'I never heard before of a lady taking command of a ship,' said Mr. +Vanderholt. + +Captain Lind pulled her cap off, and disclosed a head of rich brown +hair, cut short, and divided in the middle. + +'Well,' she answered, stretching forth her hand as an invitation to Miss +Violet to seat herself, 'I'm not what is called in your country a lady. +I'm just a plain Amurrican woman. Of course you've never heard of such a +thing as a woman in charge of a ship. Are you an Englishman, sir?' + +'Why, yes. My name is foreign--Vanderholt; but I am an Englishman.' + +'Names don't signify now in the nationalities of folks,' exclaimed +Captain Lind, smiling at Miss Violet. 'Look at Amurrica. They're coming +fast, and when they settle they call themselves Amurricans. I can tell +you, sir, there are very few Amurricans in Amurrica. Who's the Amurrican +of to-day? Is he Mr. O'Brien, or is he Herr Von Dunks?' + +'You asked me if I was an Englishman,' said Mr. Vanderholt, who was +greatly entertained by the singular figure this strange, fine, original +woman presented, as she sat at table, talking, and waiting for a cup of +tea. + +'Yes; because if you're an Englishman you'll be a century astern of us +in Amurrica. We had to show you the road in nearly everything of +consequence. We gave you steam,' said the lady, coolly making way for +the negro boy, who just then arrived with tea--a japanned tray with an +old silver teapot upon it and a bowl of broken lump sugar. + +The captain instantly put one of these lumps into her mouth, and +continued to talk and suck while she poured out the milkless tea, and +shoved a plate of white biscuit towards Miss Vanderholt. + +'We gave you steam, sir, and electricity. We taught you ship-building; +for, until the Amurricans began to build, shapeliness and speed weren't +known to the world. We offer you the double topsail. You'll take twenty +years to consider it,' she said, leaning back in her chair with a sneer, +while she lifted her saucer and teacup and began to sip in a ladylike +way. + +'I had no idea that we were so much in your debt,' said Mr. Vanderholt. +'But I tell you what: if you can induce the ladies of Great Britain to +study navigation, and take charge of ships, after the example you are +setting, there are a great many husbands who will be everlastingly +obliged to you for indicating a new source of income for the family, and +a sure chance for peace at home.' + +'You don't reckon, p'r'aps, that we Amurricans gave you electricity?' +said the lady skipper, who seemed to find something suspicious in Mr. +Vanderholt's answer. 'Who flew the kite? Who brought fire from the skies +so that a man might know what to do with it?' + +Vanderholt, holding his countenance behind his beard, respectfully +bowed and sipped at his cup. + +'Are there other female captains like yourself in your country?' asked +Miss Vanderholt. + +'Two,' she answered; 'there may be more. I'm a third, certainly. Stop +till I spin the yarn. My father was a sea-captain, and when I was a girl +carried me with him on several voyages. My husband was the master of a +ship, and I always went to sea with him, and could discharge his duties +as well as he, and sometimes better. He died, and left me a childless +widow. But I was not poor. What with my father, and my husband, and here +and there a legacy, I had got to own a few thousand dollars, which I +didn't quite know what to do with, for I couldn't get value enough out +of the money to live upon.' + +Mr. Vanderholt pricked up his ears. Any reference to dollars and +interest engaged him. He listened, and forgot he was at sea. + +'Till one day,' continued Captain Lind, 'being at New York--I wasn't +then living in that city--I happened to pick up the _New York Hatchet_, +and, after reading it a bit, came across this passage----' + +She left the table and entered an after-berth. Mr. Vanderholt exchanged +looks with his daughter. Captain Lind returned, holding an old +newspaper. She seated herself, and, popping another lump of sugar into +her mouth, sucked, with a grave face, whilst she opened the paper. Then, +when the sugar was gone, she read aloud: + +'"Mrs. Sarah Davis, of New York, has just brilliantly passed her +examination for a certificate as shipmaster and pilot, and, on receiving +her certificate, will, it is announced, take the command of the yacht +_Emerald_. This lady is, it is said, not the first of her sex who has +been in command of a vessel. Mrs. Mary Miller, of New Orleans, obtained +a master's certificate a few years ago, and is now captain of the +full-rigged merchant-ship _Saline_." + +'When I read this, an idea came into my head, and I wasn't long in +making up my mind. There's no obligation in my country to take out a +master's certificate, any more than there is in yourn; but I was +determined to let 'm know I was fit to command a ship, and I presented +myself, and received some handsome compliments on a quality of all-round +knowledge sights in excess of what the average captain carries to the +ocean with him. This is my third voyage in the _Wife's Hope_.' + +'Why the _Wife's Hope_?' exclaimed Mr. Vanderholt. 'You told me you were +a widow.' + +'I named her the _Wife's Hope_,' answered Captain Lind, 'that she might +encourage married women cussed with drinking, loafing, idling, gambling, +worthless husbands, to direct their attention to a noble pursuit which +would carry them leagues clear of the troubles of home, put money in +their pockets, enable them to see the world and life, and help them,' +said she, putting another lump of sugar into her mouth, 'to acquire that +spirit of independence without which woman must always be meaner than +the plantation slave, and her case a gone sight more hopeless.' + +This little speech was delivered with some dignity. Mr. Vanderholt was +impressed, and ran his eyes over her figure, and looked at her face with +a countenance of earnest respect. The sugar in her mouth did not impair +the stateliness of her manner and utterance. + +'It would be more respectable and quiet than a divorce,' the captain +went on. 'You'd find no bad husband going to sea with his wife. The cuss +wouldn't have the liver for it.' + +'The star of your figure-head,' said Miss Violet, 'I suppose, is the art +of seamanship, and the figure stretching her hand towards it symbolizes +woman rapturously greeting a new calling?' + +'You've hit it down to the heels,' answered Captain Lind. 'It was my +notion. Quite a pome, ain't it? Were you pleased with it as you came +along?' + +'We were delighted,' said Mr. Vanderholt. 'I said to my daughter, or, if +I did not say it, it was in my mind to speak it, "There is in that +barque a strong original genius." America should distinguish you, +captain.' + +The captain bowed and smiled, and pushed the sugar-bowl away, that she +might not be tempted by its contents. + +'Aren't you afraid of your sailors?' asked Miss Vanderholt. + +'Afraid!' echoed the captain, bridling. 'What is there in sailors to be +afraid of? I have revolvers, and I know how to load and shoot, and I +should no more hesitate to send a ball through a mutinous seaman's nut +than put one of them lumps into my mouth. Don't you ever be afraid of +any man, miss. Why man bosses woman's jest a question of muscle. My crew +soon learnt the art of jumping to the music of my voice. I'm a little +shrill--don't reckon that I sink my sex in these clothes--and it may be +that sailors, being accustomed mainly to voices deep with drink and +hollow with vice, run the more nimbly for being called to in their +mother's tender notes. Will you have a cigar, sir?' + +And, without awaiting Mr. Vanderholt's reply, she entered a cabin, and, +after a short absence, returned with a box of cigars, a couple of loaded +revolvers, and two long, dangerous knives. + +'They need no better discipline whenever it comes to it,' said she, +helping herself to another lump of sugar. 'Take a cigar, sir?' + +Meanwhile, on deck the mate of the _Mowbray_ conversed with the mate of +the _Wife's Hope_. Mr. Tweed had asked for no other refreshment than a +glass of rum and cold water. He stood sucking a pipe in the gangway, +ready for the appearance of Mr. Vanderholt and his daughter on deck, and +beside him was Mr. Prunes. The first dog-watch had begun; it had seemed, +however, to Mr. Tweed that it was all dog-watch with the crew of the +_Wife's Hope_; they only appeared to lounge a little more now that one +of them had struck eight times on the forecastle bell. The sun was still +high, but his splendour was deepening, and the lights which sparkled +about the decks of the barque and in her sides were rich; she floated in +the silence upon the dark-blue sea, with the whole lazy spirit of the +hour in the sleepy droop of her canvas and the indolent roll of her +hull. + +'That's a fine schooner of yourn,' said Mr. Prunes to Mr. Tweed. 'It's +like having the Wight aboard to see her. Bound to the Equator, eh? And +what are you going to load there?' + +He pulled his long goatee, with a laugh that struck a shudder through +his cap. + +'This seems a pretty comfortable old barkey,' said Tweed, slowly looking +round him. 'Eighty days in finding your way here? Well, yer might have +done worse,' he added, with a look aloft. 'Doomed if I could keep my +face when I saw your skipper! It isn't that all that's becoming in a +female don't unite in her; it's her sex that makes me laugh.' + +'I shall be blamed glad when the voyage is ended,' said Prunes, pulling +off his cap, and wiping his forehead with it; and now Mr. Tweed was not +a little astonished to remark that this seaman wore his hair in a net. +'I signed more for a lark than for a berth. They told me that the +_Wife's Hope_ was in want of a chief mate. She was in Calcutta, and I +hadn't been long out of 'orspital. I knew she was commanded by a woman, +and reckoned upon being treated as captain, in fact, though _she_ might +call herself the old man. Never was a chap more mistaken. If she hasn't +held her own as master of this vessel from the moment the pilot left us, +I'll swallow that pipe.' + +'D'ye tell me she understands all about the manoeuvring of a ship?' said +Tweed. + +'There's no man out of the Thames or Mersey who's got a trick above her, +blow high, blow low, bet all you're a-going to take up!' exclaimed +Prunes. 'See her put this craft about! It's yachting for nice +discernment. I never knew any master keep his weather-eye lifting as +this female do. She can smell what's coming along. She's reefed down +when the sky's been blue as it is, all hands have been growling and +laughing at her, and a quarter of an hour later the barque's been on her +beam-ends, and the sea just one yell o' froth!' + +'Doomed if it 'ud be a believable thing, if it couldn't be seen,' said +Tweed. 'What made t'other mate leave the ship?' + +'The same as'll make me glad to get to New York,' answered Mr. Prunes, +putting on his cap, and caressing the tassel, whilst his eyes met in a +squint of earnestness in the grog-flowered countenance of Mr. Tweed. He +paused, and seemed to reflect. + +'What is it?' said Mr. Tweed. + +Mr. Prunes began to nod at him, and then said in a low, confidential +voice, and a glance aft at the companion-hatch: + +'She's in want of that sort of mate which ashore they calls a husband.' + +'Ha!' said Mr. Tweed; 'and it drove the other chap out of a good berth?' + +'Well, there was a many quarrels, I believe, afore they got to Calcutta. +Thinking that I might stand the better with her, seeing that I'm +middling young, and that the sea hasn't robbed me of all that I owe to +my mother, who was the handsomest woman in Shadwell, I kept dark about +my 'ome, and to this bloomed hour she don't know that I've got a wife +and three young uns awaiting my return in the little house I left 'em in +at Stepney.' + +'I'd up and tell her the truth, if I were you,' said Tweed. + +A gleam of cunning twinkled in Mr. Prunes's eyes. + +'I've been pretty comfortable for eighty days,' said he, 'under an +error. There's no call now to correct it, seeing that the end of the +voyage isn't fur off.' + +Whilst he spoke, Captain Lind and Mr. and Miss Vanderholt were coming on +deck. The captain sang out in a shrill, bantam-like voice, that caused +Prunes to glance somewhat sheepishly at Tweed: + +'The lady and gentleman are going aboard their schooner! See their boat +all ready!' + +Then, springing on to the rail with wonderful activity, she hailed the +_Mowbray_, and asked Captain Glew for his latitude and longitude. This +she received, and entered upon a piece of paper with a face of triumph. +Then, turning to Mr. Vanderholt, she exclaimed: + +'See here, sir! A mile out, and the error may be his.' + +'I am lost in admiration, I assure you,' said Vanderholt. 'I would +rather have met this barque than the _Flying Dutchman_. It will be far +more interesting to me to talk about than an apparition. It is really, +captain, an extraordinary departure! I wish you prosperity, I am sure, +ma'am.' + +He bowed low. The captain of the _Wife's Hope_ then shook hands +cordially with Miss Vanderholt. Tweed got into the boat, and the party +returned to the _Mowbray_. Just before sunset a breeze came right along +the red, shortening shaft of glory, as though it blew out of the sun. +Both vessels immediately trimmed for their respective courses, and in an +hour's time the _Wife's Hope_ had vanished in the starlit dusk of the +evening. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +ON THE EVE. + + +It was five days later, and in that time the _Mowbray_ had drawn four +hundred miles closer to the Equator, still leaving a wide expanse of +water to be measured. The weather had been of a constant tropic beauty. +The heave of the Atlantic swell had the wide and solemn indolence of the +South Pacific fold. + +Mr. Vanderholt's face was crimson with the sea. He certainly looked +extremely well; so, too, did his daughter. The sun had caught her, spite +of a diligent use of her parasol and swift flights from his scorching +eye to the shelter of the awning. It had delicately spangled the fair +flesh of her face with some golden freckles, which somehow gave an +archness to her looks, and a whiter flash to her teeth, when the play +of her lips exposed them. + +This fifth day following the meeting with the _Wife's Hope_ had glowed +through a cloudless splendour of sky into a glorious sunset, and a +promise of cool heavens, full of rich stars, with the Southern Cross-- + + + 'Memorial reverenced by a thousand storms'-- + + +low down over the jib-boom end. + +Mr. Vanderholt came on deck when the sun was gone, though all the west +was swimming in the fast waning crimson. A number of stars sparkled in +the east. Mr. Vanderholt looked at them with delight, for they reminded +him of the twinkling of the sky in windy summer trees. + +A pleasant air of wind was blowing. Now that the sun was gone, the +breeze seemed to fan over the bulwark-rail with the fragrance of a land +of flowers. It was a sweetness that made you think of the Arabian gale +of the poet, but the African land was leagues and leagues distant, and +that sweet breath, therefore, was old Ocean's own. + +The schooner, with every stitch upon her, saving the foretopmast +studding-sail, to the setting of which Mr. Vanderholt had an objection, +glided through the gathering dusk to the music of broken waters. Miss +Vanderholt sat in the cabin, under the lamp. She was reading, and +appeared to be interested. Mr. Vanderholt filled his pipe from a pouch +whose size corresponded with the bowl it was to feed, and whilst he did +this he looked about him. + +Glew stood between him and the lingering scarlet, and his body, black as +indigo, rose and fell. What was the matter? It seemed to Mr. Vanderholt +that an unnatural stillness was in the little vessel. He still preserved +the forecastle faculties, and carried the eye, whilst he could bend the +ear, of a sailor. Eight bells had been struck. The second dog-watch was +therefore over. The watch below would, or would not, have gone to bed. + +All this Mr. Vanderholt knew; but so bright, flushed, and sweet a night, +after the roasting and blinding glories of the day, might well prove a +temptation to the hands whose turn it was to take rest till midnight to +linger to converse and suck out yet another pipe of tobacco. + +But the silence forward was so deep that Vanderholt, hearkening with his +forefinger pressed upon his bowl of unlighted tobacco, thought it +ominous. At intervals somebody away in the bows would speak. The voice +was a growl, and it would be answered by a growl, and it seemed to the +owner of the _Mowbray_ that, whoever it might be that broke the silence +in his little ship, made utterance with the throat of a sleeping +mastiff. + +Mr. Vanderholt lighted his pipe, seated himself, and called to Captain +Glew, who immediately crossed the deck. + +'The men seem very quiet, Glew.' + +'And a good job too, sir. This is a yacht, and we've got a lady aboard.' + +'Ay, ay, man, that's so. But, yacht or no yacht, lady or no lady, surely +I'm the last man to be opposed to a little harmless dog-watch jollity +whenever my sailors have a mind to it.' + +The man at the helm was not far off, and Vanderholt spoke low. + +'They're a crew that want keeping under,' said Captain Glew. 'They're +not used to pleasure-sailing of this sort. I singled them out myself, +and had good hopes of them, and there's no fault to be found with them +as seamen. This light cruising job is fast spoiling them. They need the +heavy work of a full-rigged ship.' + +'If they find the job an easy one, then I suppose they're satisfied?' +said Mr. Vanderholt. + +'I'm very much afraid that there's no kind treatment, and no easy job +under the sun, that's going to satisfy an English sailor,' said Captain +Glew. + +'You're hard upon the calling, Glew. You're talking to a man who has had +to work hard and fare hard.' + +'Sir, if you'd been in command, you'd know that I speak the truth.' + +'Aren't you rather a taut hand, Glew? Not that I object to a strict +discipline on board ship; but there is a manner of talking to +sailors.... I've heard of a captain who never would address a sailor if +he could help it, but if he had anything to give him he'd put it down +upon the deck and kick it at him.' + +'And I've heard of sailors, sir, who've scuttled their ship, broken the +captain's heart by ruining the voyage, and made a widow of his wife by +sending him adrift in an open boat. I've had charge of seamen, and I +know their natures, and I'm sorry that you should think I'm a taut hand, +sir.' + +'Understand me,' said Vanderholt soothingly: 'you are, perhaps, a taut +hand, but I do not say unnecessarily taut. Frankly, I do not think the +men love you.' + +'What's a sailor's love like?' said Captain Glew. + +Here Miss Vanderholt came on deck. Captain Glew placed a chair for her +beside her father. + +'What a heavenly sweet and silent night!' exclaimed the young lady. 'Is +that a ship on fire down there?' + +'It's the moon rising, miss,' exclaimed Captain Glew. + +Her upper limb floated blood-red on the sea-line like a glowing ember. +She sailed up, large, swollen, stately, the face rusty, as though the +luminary had been a mighty casting in the African sands, and was now +sent aloft red-hot by some thrust of giant shoulders. At her coming the +wind freshened in a damp gust, the schooner strained, and the sound +arose of water broken quickly into froth. + +'Glew and I have been talking about the men, Vi,' said Mr. Vanderholt, +after contemplating for a few minutes the hot lunar dawn. + +'They don't look a very happy crew,' answered Miss Vanderholt; 'but heat +will make people sullen. The sailors have to work in the sun, and, after +all, there is very little money for them to receive apiece when they +reach home.' + +Vanderholt laughed, and said: + +'Quite as much as they shall get out of my pocket. Four pounds and five +pounds a month, Vi. Why, I've been signing on, when a fine young man, +for two pounds five, and glad to get it.' + +'Are the crew dissatisfied?' inquired Miss Violet. + +'Well, I don't mind owning to you, Mr. Vanderholt,' said the captain, +'that they've been trying to make a trouble about the stores. But I +wouldn't allow it.' + +He stopped short, with a vibratory note in his voice, as though a piece +of catgut had been twanged. + +'The stores ought to be good,' said Mr. Vanderholt. 'The cheque that was +made payable to Mr. Lyons was a liberal one.' + +'Do they grumble at one thing more than another?' said Miss Vanderholt. + +'Oh, first it's the pork, then it's the beef; they'll work their way +right through till they come to the pickles,' said Glew, with a short, +nervous laugh. + +'This is the first time I've heard that the men are dissatisfied,' +exclaimed Mr. Vanderholt. + +'What is the good of worrying you with fo'c's'le troubles, sir? You're +on a cruise for your health, and the worries of the ship should be mine, +not yours.' + +'It is well meant, Glew,' said Vanderholt, a little uneasily. 'They are +a rough body of men, mind. I was long fed on pork and beef, and my +palate has memory enough to distinguish, I think. Tell Allan to-morrow +to cook samples of both kinds, and I will lunch off them.' + +This being said, Mr. Vanderholt smoked for awhile in silence. The +question of pork and beef and sailors' grievances is uninteresting at +all times, and peculiarly uninviting on a fine moonlight night. The +subject was dropped. Captain Glew moved off, and father and daughter sat +alone in the moonlight. + +The atmosphere was now misty with the silver of the satellite; she was +nearly a full moon, and rained her glory most abundantly. She made a +fairy vision of the _Mowbray_, etherealizing her into a fabric of white +vapour and fountain-like lines as she leaned, purring at her cutwater, +from the delicate wind. + +'I don't think Glew treats the men well,' said Miss Vanderholt, turning +her knuckles to the moon to see the diamonds in her rings sparkle. 'He +is restrained when I'm on deck; I judge him by the demeanour of the +crew.' + +'They are not yachtsmen; they are not fresh-watermen. I, too, have eyes +in my head, and I'll not condemn Glew off-hand for being what the +Americans call a "hard case,"' answered Mr. Vanderholt. 'They are rough +fellows, got out of low sailors' boarding-houses. I know the breed--the +right sort of men for a jaunt of this kind--and I'm very well satisfied +with them. But they have the look of growlers, and the man Jones, who +should be the most trustworthy of the lot, has the very best genius for +putting on a surly, dangerous face, and posturing in the mutineer style +when hotly called to of any sea-dog that I can recall. So, Vi, I'm not +for interfering with the duties of the captain.' + +He smoked, and his little eyes dwelt upon the face of the beautiful +moon. + +'If the sea,' said he musingly, 'were a silver shield it could not flash +more brightly. How mysterious does the moon make the world of waters! +They speak of the awe bred of darkness--the awe, the uncertainty--yes, I +have known it; but how much more must this lighted ocean stir one's +spiritual pulses than if it were a bed of darkness!' + +'You are certainly better,' said Miss Violet; 'you are seldom poetical +at home.' + +'No man who has been to sea can help being a poet,' said the old +gentleman complacently, smoothing his beard. 'He beholds many strange +appearances; he dreams strangely. Mysterious fancies thicken upon the +drowsy vision of his lonely midnight look-out, and with him _then_ it is +as the great poet sublimely sings: + + + '"But shapes that come not at an earthly call, + Will not depart when mortal voices bid; + Lords of the visionary eye, whose lid, + Once raised, remains aghast, and will not fall."' + + +He relighted his pipe, and smiled at the moon, and seemed very well +pleased with the acuteness of his memory. + +'Those are noble lines,' said the girl. + +'They are Wordsworth's. Ach! What delight that man has given me.' + +'How much pleasanter it is,' said Miss Violet, 'on a glorious night like +this to talk of poetry, and the visionary shapes of the sea, than of +sailors' beef and pork!' + +'You would not think so if you had been stuck here for ten days on a +raft.' + +'Well,' exclaimed the girl, heaving a sigh, 'the Equator is not very far +off now, and then we shall turn and go home.' + +'I hope that our forefoot will cut the Line by the 25th,' answered Mr. +Vanderholt. 'We shall be home in February, brown, and in the best of +spirits.' + +'And George will have started--will be coming.' + +They talked for a little while about this gentleman. It was ten o'clock +before they quitted the deck. A man struck four bells on the forecastle. +Immediately a figure arose from the deep shadow cast by the deck-house +on the planks, and went aft to relieve the helm. Captain Glew stood on +the yacht's quarter, and was as visible in the moonshine as though the +bright dawn had broken. There was a muttering about the course at the +helm, and then the man who had been relieved took a step or two forward, +looking at the captain. + +'What are you staring at?' said Glew. + +The man, continuing to walk but slowly, persisted in staring, so that +his head revolved. + +'What are you staring at?' repeated Glew, in a soft but threatening +voice. + +The skylight and companion-way were wide open; he had no wish that his +note of temper should penetrate. + +'Mayn't a man use his eyesight aboard this bloody ship?' said the +seaman, coming to a halt. + +'Go forward!' exclaimed the captain, stiffening himself at the rail. + +The man seemed to hesitate, then went slowly towards the forecastle, +audibly muttering. This man's name was Joseph Dabb. + +When he was close to the deck-house, a sailor, who was squatting in the +shadow of it, exclaimed gruffly: + +'What was he a-saying of?' + +'Asked me what I was a-staring at because I was looking at him.' + +'S'elp me, all angels!' exclaimed the squatting figure, after spitting +right across the deck, 'if I don't feel sometimes like cutting the +scab's heart out of him! We're not men in _his_ sight. We're muck. He +thinks of us as muck, and he talks of us as muck. He speaks to us as if +we was muck, and it's muck he's shipped aboard this vessel for us muck +to eat.' + +He stood up, and the whites of his eyes glistened in the reflected +moonlight that whitened off the edges of the stay-foresail, as he turned +his gaze aft, where the figure of the captain walked. A man came out of +the deck-house and joined the company. Immediately after, a fourth man +approached from the forecastle, and stood listening. + +'They've been a-yarning about us half my trick,' said Dabb. 'The captain +said this pleasuring was a-spoiling of us.' + +All four united in a low, dismal laugh, which would have been a loud, +defiant, mirthless roar but for the sleepers in the deck-house, hard by +which they were talking. Sleep is counted a sacred thing at sea. + +'Ay,' exclaimed one of the men, who proved to be Mike Scott, 'you lay a +man's going to be spoilt by the pleasuring that's to be done under +_him_. What was said, Joe?' + +'That blarsted Dutchman talks in his beard. That and his pipe smothered +up his voice. I couldn't hear him. T'other was more clear. He spoke of +sailors as had scuttled their ships, as had broke the cap'n's heart by +ruinating his voyage, and made a widder of his wife by sending him +adrift. T'other speaks, and then the cap'n says, "What's a sailor's love +like?"' + +Silence followed. + +'What do he mean by "a sailor's love"?' exclaimed the third man, Maul. +'Is it a belaying-pin or a handspike? You'll find he's a-trying to +excite a disgust against us sailors in the mind of that old Dutchman, so +that he may make a difficulty about paying us at the end of the voyage.' + +''Ow d'ye know,' said Dabb, 'that it ain't the Dutchman who's put the +skipper up to ill-treating of us, reckoning upon sailing into the Thames +with some of us in irons? D'ye mean to say----' + +'Whisper, you crow!' + +'D'ye mean to say,' continued the man, lowering his voice, 'that the +stores were shipped without the Dutchman knowing of their character? +I'm a-beginning to smell blue hell in this business.' + +All this while the moon shone sweetly and piercingly. A divine peace was +upon the sea, and the light noises of the wind were as fresh as dew on +grass, with the sound as of the plashing of many fountains. In the cabin +they talked of poetry--and one of the sailors forward was for cutting +the captain's heart out! + +The little royal and top-gallant sail were half aback; the luffs of the +jibs were trembling. + +'Trim sail!' shouted Captain Glew; and he continued to bawl as he walked +slowly forwards: 'Brace forward the topsail-yard! Ease away the weather +braces! Get a drag on your jib-sheets!' And it was clear, by the manner +in which he delivered these orders to the men, that he had been watching +and thinking of them all the time they had been talking about him. + +All was quiet after this. The moon rolled down into the sea, the shadow +of the earth slipped off the eastern horizon, and the schooner floated +into another tropical morning, wide and high with cloudless splendour. +Nothing was in sight. + +The date was December 15, 1837. + +At half-past eleven, the steward, a man named Gordon, who had been +shipped for cabin duty, but who had sailed on many occasions as an able +seaman, so that his sympathies were wholly with the forecastle, went to +the harness-cask, and, unlocking it, picked over some pieces of meat, +brine-whitened, and carried two cubes of the flesh forward to the cook. + +'What's this for?' says Allan. 'Here's stink enough. The pork's measly +bad to-day!' + +'Samples for the cabin table,' said the steward, Gordon, dabbing the +flabby offal down on the dresser. + +'Ho!' says the cook. 'They'd best be cooked separate, I suppose. The +stench'll break the young lady's heart if they're boiled in them +coppers.' + +'Cook 'em as you like. That's your business,' said Gordon. 'It's for one +o'clock.' + +'Who's going to eat 'em?' + +'How big's a man's windpipe?' asked Gordon. The cook eyed him. 'Would +about that lump,' said Gordon, snatching up a knife and slightly scoring +a corner off one of the pieces, 'fit a man's windpipe?' + +'Ah! would it?' muttered the cook. 'And if you'll let me guess whose +pipe it is you're a-thinking of, I wouldn't mind telling you that I'm +game--s'elp me God!--to ram it down with this--a clean job!' + +And seizing a long, black, sharp-ended poker, he flourished it at +Gordon's mouth, poising it as though he meant to do for the steward. + +Gordon rounded out of the little caboose with a laugh. + +Mr. Tweed walked the weather side of the quarter-deck; his sextant lay +upon the skylight cover. The seaman named Legg was at the helm. His +figure, airily clad in duck and calico and wide straw hat, stood out +like a painted figure of marble, as it slightly rose and slightly fell +against the hot pale-blue sky in the north. + +Miss Vanderholt was seated in a deck-chair under the awning, beside a +quarter-boat. A book lay upon her lap, but her hands were clasped upon +it, and her eyes were bent upon the sea. She viewed it listlessly. The +monotony of that eternal girdle was growing shocking. It seemed to bind +up her very soul. She thought to herself: 'They speak of the freedom of +the sea. But doesn't its sense of freedom come only when motion is +swift, when the roar of the white water is strong, and when one's home +is not very far off?' + +It was the men's dinner-hour. Miss Violet had often, during the warm +weather, from her comfortable quarter-deck chair, observed a couple of +men a little before noon stagger with sweating faces out of the galley, +bearing in their hands a sort of wooden washing-tub, which sent up a +great deal of steam. This she knew was the crew's dinner. + +She had sometimes wondered how they ate: whether they spread a +table-cloth; whether they planted a cruet-stand in their midst, and +placed knives and forks on either hand, for the hearts to cut and come +again. Who carved? She supposed that the boatswain took the head of the +table. + +She had never felt so curious, however, in this matter as to ask +questions, and as, moreover, she had not caught so much as a glimpse of +the interior of the crew's dwelling-house, she had figured into +conviction a comfortable little sea-parlour in which the men dined just +as she and Glew and the mate and her father dined. + +'After all,' she mused, keeping her hands clasped upon her open book, +with her eyes fastened upon the sailors' house, 'it is the monotony of +the sea that repels. It must have its good side. Plenty to eat and +drink, and, as father says, most of the wonders of the world--islands, +harbours, inland scenes of beauty--to be visited at the cost of others.' + +Whilst she thus moralized, she beheld a head with a very savage and +malicious look upon its face in the deck-house door. The figure of the +man was exposed to the waist, and two great hands grasped for support +each side of the opening. It was the head of the boatswain of the +schooner, James Jones, carpenter and second mate--but as second mate he +had never been called upon to serve. He was uncovered, and his hair was +wild. His expression was devilish. Though at some distance from the +man, the young lady could clearly distinguish a look of fury upon the +seaman's face, as though he had just slain a shipmate, and was in the +act of leaping on deck. + +He stood in the doorway, and continued to stare aft. Miss Vanderholt +glanced uneasily at the skylight. She waited for her father and Captain +Glew to appear. The captain was bound to arrive in a minute or two, for +already Mr. Tweed, who had glanced at the boatswain without appearing to +see anything unusual in the man's fixed, half-in and half-out posture, +and dark, endevilled face, had picked up his sextant, and was ogling the +sun. + +Mr. Vanderholt was the first of the two to come on deck. His daughter +called to him softly, and said: + +'Father, did you ever see, in all your life, such a wicked expression as +that man wears?' + +'What man?' exclaimed Mr. Vanderholt, lancing his teeth with a silver +toothpick, and gazing along the decks with an expression of bland +benevolence. + +'That man there, in the door of the galley,' said the girl. 'He's been +standing like that for the last three or four minutes, hatless, looking +aft, with that face of fury, as if they'd tied him in the doorway and +were goading him.' + +'I certainly see a man lounging in the doorway,' said Mr. Vanderholt, +who was a little short-sighted. 'Does he look angry?' + +He spoke somewhat uneasily, and turned his head to see if the captain +was on deck. Glew at that moment rose through the hatch, armed with his +sextant. Vanderholt went up to him, and said: + +'There is a man leaning in the door of the caboose--now I look again I +see it is the boatswain--whose face my daughter tells me is formidable +with temper. I do not clearly see all that way off. I hope it will mean +no fresh trouble about the stores. Let them know I have ordered pieces +of the pork and beef to be boiled for our mid-day meal.' + +Whilst he was speaking, Glew's eyes were fixed upon the boatswain, who, +at the moment that Vanderholt ceased, withdrew. Glew's attitude was +immediately and insensibly charged with malice and danger, with +passions quickly growing and contending, by the odd, crouching air he +carried, whilst he had watched the boatswain and listened to his +employer. + +'That Jones,' he said, 'is the right sort of forecastle scoundrel to +breed a mutiny, and if he troubles me to-day we must have him out of it, +Mr. Vanderholt, in the approved old method. Mr. Tweed, can you lay your +hands readily upon a set of irons for that fellow?' + +The mate answered: + +'The carpenter has charge of the irons, sir, and the carpenter is, +unfortunately, the boatswain himself.' + +'Go forward,' said Captain Glew, 'and ask the man to give you a set of +irons.' + +'Stop!' exclaimed Mr. Vanderholt, glancing at the helmsman, whose eyes +were upon Glew, and who was clearly a listener. 'We must have no talk of +irons in this vessel, until something has been done to warrant their +introduction.' + +'If there should come a difficulty,' was the captain's answer, 'we may +find it impossible to get forward so as to procure the irons. I like to +be beforehand.' + +'I'll not have it!' said Mr. Vanderholt, with warmth. + +Captain Glew simply said, 'Ay, ay, sir,' and turned his face to the sun, +with his sextant lifted. + +Now it was that the boatswain reappeared, still without his hat, his +head very shaggy, his shirt-sleeves rolled above his elbows, disclosing +the muscles of a carthorse. He sprang, in a single bound, through the +door of the deck-house, grasping his mess-kid. The seaman Dabb followed; +he, too, grasped a mess-kid. Then the rest of the crew appeared--Gordon, +Allan, Toole, Scott, Maul. + +'Now, bullies, are we ready?' exclaimed Jones, in a voice of thunder; +and he put the kid upon the deck. Dabb did likewise. + +'Hurrah for a hot male of mate for the cabin!' shouted Simon Toole. + +The boatswain and Dabb, each man in his boots, kicked. They kicked at +the kids with all their might, and the wooden vessels rushed aft to the +very feet of Captain Glew and Vanderholt, scattering their precious +contents of pork and pea-soup over the smooth planks. Never was an +uglier affront offered to the master of a ship. Never had mutinous +insolence been carried to a greater height. Captain Glew turned white as +milk, but not with fear. Well for him had he felt fear. Mr. Vanderholt +was ashy pale. He called to his daughter to go below. She sprang up, +but, instead of going below, went and stood right aft, beside the +helmsman, to whom she said: + +'What do those men want?' + +'Their rights!' he answered, with a diabolical leer. + +The frightened girl made a quick step to the companion-hatch, and stood +beside the cover; she was afraid to go below. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE MURDERS. + + +'What's the meaning of this atrocious conduct, men?' shouted Mr. +Vanderholt. 'I am sorry if anything's wrong with you. I am an old +sailor----' + +He was interrupted by Captain Glew roaring out: 'Tweed, help me to put +that scoundrel in irons!' And he rushed forward, Tweed following. + +'Oh, my God!' cried Mr. Vanderholt; 'stay your hands, men! This is my +ship! I am master here! I'll see your wrongs righted!' + +'There'll be murder!' shrieked Miss Vanderholt. + +'Go below, for Christ's sake!' roared the distracted man; and, catching +hold of his daughter's arm, he dragged her down the steps into the +cabin. + +'No man in this ship puts me in irons,' said the boatswain, showing his +teeth, as he squared up at Captain Glew, with his immensely thick arms +covered with hair, arrows and crucifixes. 'I've been wanting the killing +of you this many a day, you rat! and, as you men hear me, by the living +Lord, I'll kill him if he lays a finger upon me!' + +For a few minutes Captain Glew paused, waiting for Mr. Tweed, who had +disappeared. He stood one man to seven; his nostrils were dilated; his +eyes were on fire; his skin was a ghastly white; and his fingers worked +like those of one who plays a piano. His breath flew from him in sharp, +quite audible hissings. He was the incarnation of wrath fiendish above +anything human, and in that pause those of the men who met his gaze +seemed to quail. + +Mr. Vanderholt came running from the companion-hatch. His right hand was +in the pocket of his coat. + +'What is it, men?' he bawled. 'I am an old sailor, and was a man at sea +when you were boys. Is your pork bad? Is the rest of your food bad?' + +'Go and gut yourself!' roared Dabb. 'If that cuckoo had the victualling +of this ship, you had the paying of him; and was there ever a Dutchman +that didn't know good food from bad by the price of it?' + +He was proceeding. Gordon, standing alongside, clipped the dog over the +back of his neck, and silenced him. + +Mr. Vanderholt swayed speechless on the slightly heaving deck of his +vessel. He was petrified. He stared at the insolent villain; he couldn't +credit his senses. + +Indeed, it was shocking that that fine old gentleman, with his full gray +beard, his dignified bearing, his knowledge of life and letters, his +years, his great fortune, should be thus addressed by a brute of the +sea, a scab, a wen of the ocean, who ashore, in liquor, was, of course, +the swaggering, yelping terror of women and little children. + +Mr. Tweed came along from the forecastle, grasping an iron bar with +rings upon it The moment the men saw him, three or four--Scott, Toole, +Allan, and another--flung themselves upon him. The irons were sent +whizzing overboard, the man himself was felled to the deck. He rose in a +minute, breathless and mad. + +'But you _shall_ come aft. Help me, Tweed!' And the captain, crying this +out in a voice frightful to hear with its tension of passion, flung +himself upon the boatswain. + +'The man who moves--the man who interferes with the captain, I'll +shoot!' shouted Vanderholt, pulling out a revolver, a six-barrelled +engine of those days, from his pocket, and taking aim at the crew. + +Tweed had sprung upon the boatswain, and now three madmen were +wrestling. A fourth rushed in; he was Simon Toole. He yelled like a +savage as he leapt upon the heaving and writhing group. + +'Stand back, or I'll shoot you!' shouted Mr. Vanderholt. 'I have six +men's lives here.' + +He saw Toole seize Captain Glew by the throat, and taking aim at the +man, he pulled the trigger. The flash, the report, was followed by a +dying groan, and Tweed, with both hands lifted and clenched, fell, shot +through the head. + +At this moment an iron belaying-pin[1] struck Mr. Vanderholt across the +face. It was Maul who hurled it. He flung it with the rage and meaning +of murder, standing not a couple of fathoms away from the unhappy +gentleman, who dropped like a running man when he falls dead from heart +disease. + +'You murderous curs!' groaned Captain Glew, falling upon one knee with +his hand to his side. + +For a little while they stood raging; their shouts were hoarse and +insane. Legg bawled to them from the helm, and they answered him. You +would have thought that they were breeding some fresh hellish scene of +bloodshed amongst themselves, so flushed, wild, clamorous was the mob of +them, every man trying to drown the other's voice. + +'It was his doing!' said Jones, pointing to the figure of the dying +captain. 'I never wanted it!' + +'Anyhow, we're not responsible for _him_,' said Allan, nodding at the +body of the mate. 'Who floored the Dutchman?' + +'I did!' yelled Maul. + +'He's a killed man,' said Scott, stooping to look at him. + +'Water,' whispered Captain Glew. + +Toole's eyes were on the captain at the instant, and the ruffian saw the +man's lips move. + +'He's spakin'!' he exclaimed, with a face of sudden horror, backing two +or three steps. + +Dabb put his ear to the dying man's mouth. + +'He asks for water,' said the seaman; and he sprang to the scuttle-butt +and filled a pannikin which stood handily by the side of the dipper, +and, lifting Captain Glew's head, he poured some of the cool drink into +his mouth. + +'Drag me out of the sun,' muttered the captain. + +'Mike, len's a hand,' called Dabb; and quite gently these two seamen, +who were just now devils, carried the captain aft into the shelter of +the awning, where they left him to lie and expire, with the Union Jack +rolled up as a pillow. + +'I never wanted it! I never wanted it!' suddenly broke out the +boatswain, in a deep groaning voice. 'This is a swinging matter. What's +to be done? It's damnation to our souls. Why couldn't ye have let the +old Dutchman be?' + +'His pistol was full cock on you, Jim, when I let fly,' answered Maul. +'He's only stunned. Hasn't a man a right to fight for his life? Look at +them barrels!' he added, pointing to the revolver. + +'Here comes his daughter,' exclaimed Gordon. + +Miss Vanderholt was standing in the companion-way. She wore a straw hat, +and her eyes, under the shadow of the brim and under the fluff of hair +about her brow, looked twice their usual size--strained, unwinking, +blind, with sudden, dreadful amazement, but brilliant as light also with +horror and terror. + +She came out of the hatch slowly. Legg, at the helm, with a note of +commiseration, said: + +'He's only been knocked down. He shouldn't have got messing about with +firearms amongst a mob of angry men.' + +She did not hear him, or, if she did, she did not heed him. + +She went straight to her father, making a low wailing or moaning noise +as she walked. The boatswain exclaimed: + +'No harm was intended to him, miss. 'Twas him that shot Mr. Tweed.' + +She stooped, moaning, but so as to be scarcely audible, and looked +closely into her father's face. He lay on his back, staring with white +eyes, half-closed, at the sky. He had fallen as though shot through the +heart. A great, livid weal, dreadful to see, blackened and lifted his +brow. A little blood that had trickled from one ear lay glazed close +beside the gray hair of his whiskers. + +'Is he dead?' she asked, looking round at the men, and speaking in a +voice sunk with fear. + +'Let's carry him aft to his cabin. It's not right the young lady should +see him lying there,' said Gordon. + +Thereupon, Gordon, Allan, and Jones picked the body up and bore him aft, +followed by Miss Vanderholt, who often staggered as she walked. They got +him into a cabin, and put him down upon a sofa. + +'An ugly job!' said one of the seamen. + +'Who did it?' the girl asked. + +The men made no answer. + +'Oh, father!' she cried, trembling violently; then, dropping upon her +knees beside him, she began to free his throat. 'He may only be +stunned,' she said. 'What is to be done? Shall I bathe his face?' + +'If he's only stunned, I allow he'll come to all right, if he's left +alone,' said Gordon. + +'You'll please to recollect this,' said one of the men: 'he comes +rushing along, with a pistol to shoot us with, and the motive was to +strike the revolver out of his hand before he could send a second shot. +It was him that killed the mate;' and the speaker wheeled on his naked +feet, and went to the companion ladder. He was almost immediately +followed by the others. + +The girl was alone with her dead father. But was he dead? He looked so. +Yet the lifeless looks of one in a swoon or in a fit may easily pass as +marks of death. She ran to his cabin, and fetched a bowl, into which she +splashed cold water from a decanter, and for a quarter of an hour she +ceaselessly bathed his face and head. He never stirred. Not the least +sigh escaped him. She could not find his pulse, though she sought for +it, with trembling fingers, about his wrists. His hands were growing +cold, and they lay very dead and heavy in hers, and still she thought, +still she hoped, she prayed. + +'It may be the same as a fit, or a swoon. He has been stunned. If I sit +here patiently, I may see signs of life, and he will come to.' + +But, if he should be dead? What would they do with the schooner? What +would they do with her? Terrors shook her; they wrenched her heart, and +she wrung her hands in agony. + +If her father was dead, and she quite understood that Captain Glew and +Mr. Tweed were dead, though she but vaguely understood that her father +had shot the mate, and that Captain Glew had been assassinated--if he +was dead, she was alone in the schooner with eight seamen, who had made +outlaws and reckless criminals of themselves by the murders done that +morning. + +Meanwhile, on deck, the men were quieting down. Their rude, unreasoning +passions were paling. Consternation was beginning to work in them. They +had gone fearfully and tragically far beyond the unformed wrathful +fancies which were in them when they kicked the mess-kids aft, and when +the Irishman howled at the sight. + +The mate lay dead, with a dark purple hole in his forehead, upon the +deck, abreast of the little square of main hatch. Aft, with his head +pillowed on the rolled-up ensign, was the corpse of the captain. These +were sights, coupled with the thought of the dead man below, to drive +the keenest power of realization of what had happened that day into the +mind of an idiot, and there was no idiot in that schooner. + +Legg had been relieved at the wheel by Scott. + +The _Mowbray_, all this while, was sailing a dead south course for the +Equator--her queer destination--royally clothed; her white breasts of +canvas were swelled with the blue gushing of the wind; her jibs yearned +at their sheets as they rose and sank in a play of soft shadow, with the +airy rise and the seething stoop of the bows. + +'There's too much gone and happened this all-fired day,' said Allan, +folding his naked, burnt arms on his breast, and leaning against the +side of his little caboose whilst he eyed askew the body of the mate. +'What's to be done?' + +The men came and stood about him. + +'It was like forcing of a man's hand,' exclaimed the boatswain. 'I was +never in a mess of this sort afore. But, curse catch me, if an angel +could have stood him--an angel from the skies!' he shouted, lifting up +his two great hands, with a wild melodramatic gesture, to the heavens. +'I couldn't tell you why, but there was hate of us as sailor-men in the +very turn of the rooter's body as he walked the deck. There's but one +remedy for the likes of him, but it's hard upon sailors;' and he smeared +the sweat off his brow, which had taken a scowl dark as thunder. + +'I saw that there bleeding old Dutchman a-covering of you, Jim,' said +Maul, pointing to the revolver which yet lay upon the deck. 'There was +no mistaking the meaning in his face. I'd pulled out the pin ready for +whatever was to come along, and, say what yer will, yer owe me your +life.' + +'What's to be done?' said the cook. 'All this here moralizing ain't +going to help us. Are them bodies to be left to lie there till they +turn?' + +'Don't be in such a smothering hurry!' exclaimed Legg. 'How are ye to +know they're gone home? 'Ere's Bill for chucking of two warm bodies +overboard. Feel their pulses, or try their breath with a piece of glass, +or, maybe, you'll be murdering of them over again.' + +'Don't talk of murdering!' said the boatswain savagely. 'That man there +was killed by Mr. Vanderholt.' + +'Where are we sailing to?' says Gordon. + +'Why!' exclaimed Dabb, sending a pair of drink-stained eyes slowly +travelling over the little ship, 'I'm dumped, mates, if there's e'er a +navigator in the vessel!' + +At this juncture Toole and Jones stepped to the body of the mate, and +carried him to the side of the captain, whose form they bent over. The +boatswain went down upon his knees, and looked with a face of hate and +horror at the countenance of the dead man. This was a picture to +handsomely symbolize one large, old, red tradition of the Merchant +Service. Are there any Glews left? So long as they remain in command, so +long will they prove the solvers of the so-called mysteries of the +ocean--the abandoned ship, the boat-load of men whose statements differ, +the stranded body with the wound in its throat. + +'These men are dead,' says the boatswain, standing up. 'No use in +letting 'em lie here to shock the female, should she come on deck. Get +'em covered up, and we'll bury 'em this afternoon.' + +Toole fetched a small tarpaulin, and hid the bodies. + +'How's the Dutchman getting on, I wonder?' said the boatswain. + +He went to the open skylight, and looked down. He saw the figure of Mr. +Vanderholt lying stiff in death on a sofa locker; his daughter sat +beside him, inclined forwards, resting her chin on her hands, herself, +whilst the boatswain watched, as stirless as the dead. + +The seaman stepped back, and walked forward slowly. The sailors, Scott +excepted, were gathered about the deck-house door, holding a council +upon their condition and prospects. There was the hurry of nerve in +their speech, and again one or another would look ahead, or on either +bow. The boatswain, shoving in amongst them, said in his deep voice: + +'I'm for getting something to eat. I want my dinner.' + +'And I'm for getting something to drink,' said Toole. + +The boatswain picked up Mr. Vanderholt's revolver, and, whilst he +examined it, before pocketing it, he said: + +'There's no chance of my bossing you, lads. I'll never do more than +advise you. But let me give you this counsel: of course there'll be +drink for the cabin somewhere aft. We're entitled to our allowance of +rum, anyhow, and if we add a bottle or two of the cabin stuff to that +allowance, who's a-going to miss it? That's not counsel, you say--no, +but _this_ is: don't none of you go and get drunk. I vow to God the +first man that falls insensible I'll chuck overboard. We're murderers +and pirates--d'ye know that?' he roared, with a ferocious look at the +men--a look that might have convinced shrewder perceptions than those +about him that he was going mad--'and we're to take care, if we don't +want to swing, that we're not found out. Can ye guess what swinging's +like? Many's the time I've thought of it--of the gray, wet morning, and +their coming in to fetch you to be hanged, and their making your arms +fast astern, with a parson walking in front reading about death; then +the standing upon the trap-door, and the crowds of faces--my God!--all +looking at you, and, worst of all, the awful feeling that a man must +have when the cap's drawed down, and he stands awaiting!' + +'There's no call to keep on, Jim,' said Dabb; 'we don't want to be +hanged, and we don't mean to do it. And who's a-going to fall down dead +drunk, and act the beast, as you says, a-seeing how it stands with us?' + +'Let's get something to eat,' said the boatswain. 'Jim,' said he, +turning to Gordon, 'you know the ropes aft. Bring something for'ard from +the Dutchman's pantry fit for the men to sit down to.' + +'Am I to bring any drink?' says Gordon. + +'What have they got down there?' asked Maul. + +'There's some cases of bottled ale.' + +'Bring eight bottles for'ards,' said the boatswain. 'Joe, go you along +and lend him a hand.' + +Gordon and Dabb walked aft, and disappeared down the companion-hatch. +The others trudged about their deck-house door, passing and repassing +each other in short look-out walks, their heads sunk, their backs bowed, +and their hands plunged deep in their breeches pockets. + +After some time, Gordon and the other arrived with their arms full of +bottles of beer and preserved meats, and delicate cabin eatables out of +the pantry. It was broiling hot. Mike Scott at the helm bawled to them +to bring him a bottle. He swilled the foaming draught down out of a +pannikin in a sort of dance of ecstasy. + +'What's the young woman a-doing of?' asked the boatswain, following +Gordon into the deck-house. + +'She was sitting by her father's body when we entered. She jumps up as +if she'd been stabbed, and says in a little shriek: "What do you men +want?" I answered in the kindest voice I've got: "We're not here to hurt +you, miss. The men are hungry, and want food, and I've come to fetch 'em +some--food and a little beer. What can I get for you, miss?" says I. +"This is the luncheon-hour. Let me spread the table for you." She shook, +and held out her hands as though shoving me away. How could she sit down +and eat with him lying there? Indeed, it went against me to name it, +Jim. It was flung cruelly hard. I never see such a forehead as the poor +old bloke's got.' + +'By the vart of me oath, then,' exclaimed Toole--for now all hands had +swarmed into the deck-house--'Maul took aim at the pistol, and never +meant to kill him!' + +They were hungry and thirsty, a rough, red-handed mob of seamen. They +sat down upon their chests, and ate and drank, one taking a plateful of +food to the helmsman, and whilst they dined they discoursed upon what +was to be done. + +Occasionally the boatswain would step out and look around. The wind was +slack, the fiery eye of heaven was eating it up, and the sea waved in +dull shades of satin and silver in winding dyes of faint violet and +glassy brightness, as though a current ran; it sheeted with colours +faint with tropic heat into the now visionary distance where sea and sky +were blent. + +'What are we to do with this vessel, and how are we to manage for +ourselves?' said the boatswain, who sat on a chest with a tin of +preserved meat between his knees. 'That's the question.' + +'Ain't this moist stuff veal and 'am?' Whatever it is, it's blooming +nice,' said a sailor. + +'Joe, knock the 'ead off this 'ere bottle for me; you've got the knack.' + +'Isn't there no port to which we could carry this craft and dispose of +her, and then disperse?' said Allan, the cook. 'She might go for a song, +for me. We only want our wages.' + +'Where's the port without a fired consul?' said Maul. 'I'll tell ye what +'d happen: they'd ask questions, a file of soldiers 'ud come aboard, us +men 'ud be marched off into a fortress, and lie in cells fourteen or +twenty foot under the sea. There our beards would grow, our bones would +wear out our shirts, and all the music ye'd get, mates, would be the +clank of chains.' + +'No port for me!' said Toole. 'I'm for kaping on the say, and being +found in a situation of disthress.' + +'We must agree to one yarn, and stick to it. What about the lady?' said +Dabb. + +'Do she know what's happened?' said Maul. 'How it came about, I mean? +Then she couldn't say nothing agin our yarn.' + +'Tell'e what, my lads,' said the boatswain, looking thoughtfully around +him, 'I'm not at all sure that the right tack don't lie in our up and +telling the truth, explaining how we was exasperated, and proving that +the deaths was accidental.' + +'You're a-going to prove nothing accidental out of that bloke's knife,' +said Dabb, with a dry, uncomfortable laugh, nodding at Toole. + +'As good an accident as Maul's murtherous belaying-pin, and be damned to +ye!' exclaimed the Irishman. 'Brothers, I'm thinking Joe there would +have me be the only hanged man of this company. Is that because I'm a +furriner?' + +His eyes, fiercely squinting, met in Dabb's hot face. The seamen began +to cut up tobacco, and then they lurched to the galley to light their +pipes. The boatswain, pipe in mouth, stood in the waist, looking round +him and aloft. + +The little ship lay nearly becalmed. The sails swayed idly, fanning +sweet draughts athwartships. The boatswain walked to the binnacle, and +said, after looking at the card: + +'There's no call now, Mike, to keep her heading for the Equator. I'm +for giving my stern to this here boiling.' + +'What's settled?' said Scott. + +'Nothing.' + +'I don't see,' said the man irritably, 'how anything's to be settled in +this here roasting heat, and them two bodies side by side there. Him in +the cabin's alone enough to take the curl out of a man's spirit. To +think of him, with half a fathom of death, blue as ink, across his brow, +and himself a-walking these very decks but just a little while gone! +Three! It's too many!' + +'One was the Dutchman's job,' answered the boatswain. 'But see here! Are +ye afraid?' + +'Afraid o' what?' + +'Well, only that you're talking as if the ghosts of them bodies had +jockeyed the yard-arms of your mind, and was close reefing your +intellect.' + +'I don't like dead bodies,' said Scott; 'and of all the dead bodies +a-going,' he added, with a countenance of gloomy ferocity, 'the least I +like is murdered bodies. Why don't ye get 'em cleared out overboard, +Jim, and sweeten the little hooker? Do human blood smell? Something that +my nose never tasted afore came along not long since in a breath o' +wind.' + +The boatswain went to the tarpaulin, pulled it aside, and examined the +two dead faces. + +'Dead they are,' said he, with a shiver of sick disgust. + +He walked forward, and presently a few of the men came to the tarpaulin, +carrying hammocks, twine, sinkers for the clews. They made despatch. +Captain Glew, blind with death, threatened them as malevolently as in +life, with his upper lip lifted and stiffened, exposing a snarling grin +of fangs. The other poor wretch lay composed; the grog-blossoms had +faded. His cheek was as pale as moonlight, and the expression was a +smile. + +Before stitching up the bodies, they emptied the pockets. Captain Glew +had a silver watch and chain, a leather pocket-book, a silver-mounted, +wooden pipe, a bunch of keys, and other odds and ends. The mate +likewise owned a watch and a hair chain, tipped with gold--a woman's +gift, no doubt. + +'These things shall be put into their cabins,' said the boatswain. 'He's +left a widow and young uns.' + +'Are we going to bury 'em in their clothes?' said Toole. + +'Holes and all,' answered Legg, with a significant glance at the +sheath-knife on the Irishman's hip. + +In a few minutes the two bodies made their last plunge, amidst the +silence of the seamen, some of whom, nevertheless, continued to smoke, +and the bubbles which flashed to the surface were as lasting a memorial +of the dead twain's resting-place as any gravestone which could have +been erected ashore for dogs to smell at. + +A light air from the south-west was coming along, over the burnished +heave, in a delicate blue film, with feelers and crawlers of the draught +tarnishing the water in front of the breeze-line in catspaws. + +'Shall we stick this vessel's head north?' said the boatswain, and now +all hands came together in the gangway close beside the bulwark-rail, +whence the bodies had sped; there was to be a discussion over every +suggestion. + +'If we go north, where's it to carry us to?' said Gordon. + +'Out of this heat, anyhow,' answered the boatswain. + +'We ought to make up our minds,' said the cook, with an uneasy look at +the sea. 'We're just that sort of craft which is sure to excite notice. +"Hallo," they sings out, "a yacht all this way down here!" and they +comes sheering alongside to hail and take a look.' + +'I'm not for going any further to the s'uth'ard,' said the boatswain +doggedly. + +After a great deal of talk, during which the galley was repeatedly +visited for pipe-lights, they agreed to head the vessel north, if for no +other reason than that of temperature. So the helm was put hard up, and +the little vessel wore. When the ropes had been coiled down and the +decks cleared, the boatswain called Gordon and Scott, who by this hour +was relieved at the helm. These two men seemed the most respectable of +the clan, perhaps the fittest for the mission the boatswain had now in +his mind. + +'Mates,' said he, dropping his words between hard sucks at an inch of +sooty pipe, 'there's a difficulty in the cabin that's got to be made an +end of. The Dutchman must be buried. Now, the three of us had better go +below, with sail-cloth and twine, and stitch him up to the satisfaction +of his daughter. I'd give this hand,' said he, holding up a paw as big +as a boxing-glove, 'if he hadn't been killed. He had meant to get his +dinner off our junk and pork to-day. It was the captain kept him in +ignorance of our condition.' + +'He'd have shot as many of us as there was balls in his pistol,' said +Scott. + +'You're right,' said the boatswain, as though he found something to +rally him in that thought. 'Let's get what's wanted, my lads, and make +an end.' + +The dead man was alone when they entered the cabin. The ghastly hue of +the blow that had killed him was fading. One hand lay upon his beard, +and he seemed in thought. + +'Quick, now,' says the boatswain, 'whilst the lady's out of sight.' + +They emptied his pockets, putting everything they found upon the table, +then quickly fell to swathing and stitching. In the midst of this work +Gordon violently started, and cried out, muttering, 'Lor', how she took +me!' Miss Vanderholt stood near him. She was painfully white, and her +eyes were swollen almost to concealment. Yet anyone capable of +interpreting human expression must have found a subtle token of +resolution in her features, shadowy marks of firmness, as though the +countenance was struggling to take its presentment from the spirit. This +might be visible sooner to the eye of sympathy than to the vision of the +head. + +'Are you going to bury him?' she exclaimed, in a low, trembling voice. + +'Yes, miss,' said the boatswain, rearing himself, and backing and +looking at her. + +'Is there no one who can read a prayer from the service over him?' said +the girl. + +The men looked at one another, shaking their heads, and then the +boatswain said: + +'Tell 'e what, lads: we'll stitch the poor gentleman up ready, and +leave him a-bit, whilst the lady says a prayer by his side. It'll do him +more good than any prayer that's a-going to come from us, whether we +reads it, or whether we imagines it.' + +Miss Vanderholt took a step to her father and kissed him, then, weeping +silently, went to the foremost end of the cabin, and stood waiting. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[1] A belaying-pin is a bar of wood or metal. It fits in a rail, and is +used for making a rope fast to. When of wood it is heavy enough, when of +metal deadly as a weapon or a missile. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +CAPTAIN PARRY. + + +On the night of December 20, in the same year of the mutiny of the +_Mowbray_, a large full-rigged ship, homeward bound, was, to the north +of the Equator, stealing silently through the dusk. The hour was about +half-past nine. The moon rode high and shone gloriously, and the edge of +the plain of ocean came in two sweeps of ebony to the clasp of splendour +under the satellite. The ship lifted a cloud of sail to the stars. The +night-wind was lightly breathing, and every cloth was asleep, stirless +as alabaster mouldings, curving from each yard-arm, and climbing with +the whiteness of the moon into three spires. + +This ship was the _Alfred_, but not the famous Thames East Indiaman of +that name. She was about sixteen hundred tons, with an abundant crew, a +captain and four mates. She was carrying a valuable cargo and a number +of passengers from India to London, and once only had she halted--at +Simon's Bay, where she put a lieutenant of Marines and fifteen men +ashore, and then proceeded, after filling her fresh-water casks. She was +a flush-decked ship, and when you stood at the wheel your eye ran along +a spacious length of deck, rounding with the exquisite art of the +shipwright into flaring bows which sank into the true clipper lines, +high above the keen and coppered forefoot. + +A number of ladies and gentlemen sat and moved about the decks. The +awnings were furled, and the moonshine glistened upon these people, and +sparkled in the jewellery of the ladies, and silvered the whiskers of +the gentlemen. On the weather side of the long quarter-deck walked the +commander of the ship, Captain Barrington. A lady's hand was tucked +under his arm, and he frequently looked to windward whilst he talked. To +leeward paced the mate, and a little distance forward, in the deep +shadows of the main-rigging, stood a group of midshipmen. + +Right aft, upon the taffrail, sat three gentlemen. One smoked a pipe, +the others cheroots. Captain Barrington permitted his guests--as he, +with facetious politeness, called his passengers--to smoke upon the +quarter-deck after five bells in the first watch. A considerable surface +of grating stretched betwixt these three gentlemen and the wheel. The +wheel was something forward of the grating, and the helmsman, therefore, +absorbed in the business of keeping the ship to her course, could hear +little more than the rumble of the tones of the gentlemen who conversed +on the taffrail. + +'I say, Parry,' said one of the gentlemen, who was, indeed, no less a +personage than the surgeon of the ship, casting his eyes up at the moon, +and tasting his tobacco, with slow enjoyment, in the discharge of each +little cloud of it; 'did it ever occur to you to consider that all the +great processes of this world--that all creation, in short, is based on +circles?' + +'Why do you address yourself to me?' said Captain Parry. 'What do I +know about circles?' + +'Behold yonder moon,' continued the doctor, pointing with the stem of +his pipe to the luminary, beautiful with her greenish tinge, so +sparklingly and brilliantly edged, too, so marvellously clear-cut, that +you might then realize, if you never did before, the miracle of her +self-poised flight through the domain of violet ether. 'She is a +circle,' said the doctor. 'So is the sun. So are the stars. The flight +of our system through space, if not a circle, is nearly so--enough to +justify my theory that, when the Great Hand launched Creation, the +design was one of circles.' + +'Oh, blow that!' said one of the gentlemen. 'Parry, hand us a cheroot.' + +'Whatever brings God closer to us is good,' said the doctor. 'This +theory of construction proves the existence of a genius like to man's in +the Great Spirit, and we can be in sympathy with it.' + +'The breeze seems scanting,' said Captain Parry. 'If this voyage goes on +lasting, I shall be like the sailor who, when he was washed ashore on a +desert island in his shirt, complained that he certainly did feel the +want of a few necessaries.' + +'A man going home to be married ought not to be becalmed,' said the +doctor. + +'How do you like the idea of being married, Parry?' said the third +gentleman, who was one Lieutenant Piercy. + +Captain Parry viewed the beautiful moon in silence. + +'Until I got married myself,' said the Doctor, 'I used to express +marriage by what I consider an excellent image. A man marrying is like +unto a ship that grounds on a bar and beats over, where she lies unable +to get out; so other ships passing behold her riding, royal yards +across, and the bar thick under the bows.' + +Captain Parry continued to view the moon. + +'A man for comfort,' said Piercy, 'should marry a roomy woman. You know +what I mean--a woman who'll give him plenty of geographical and +intellectual room to move in. He's still contained in her, d'ye see, +still in sympathy, still sacramentally one, yet he's got plenty of +room,' he drawled. 'I remember some idiots who berthed a number of +horses on board ship, and allowed no room for the toss of their heads. +It's room that a chap wants in marriage.' + +'Isn't that something white ahead there?' said Parry, pointing into the +starry visionary distance, right over the bow. + +The others seemed to look. + +'Something white should be a ghost,' said Piercy. 'I wonder if ghosts +walk the sea as they do churchyards?' + +'The most terrifying ghost that, to my mind, ever appeared,' said the +doctor, 'must have been the spirit of the Prince of Saxony. He came in +complete steel, suddenly, upon his unhappy relative, who had idly +pronounced his name, never dreaming to see him, and said: "Karl, Karl, +was wollst du mit mich?" Is it the German that makes this question +awful?' + +'The worst of all ghosts,' said Captain Parry, who had been straining +his eyes at the elusive gleam ahead, 'are the phantasies of the sick +eye.' + +'Right,' said the doctor. + +'When I was ill some years ago in India, I had been reading Boswell's +"Life of Johnson," and every night at a certain hour a miniature figure +of Dr. Johnson would sit upon the mantelpiece and play the spinet. I +knew the old cock hadn't a note of music in his soul. His head wagged +like a simmering cauliflower. I was in a mortal funk whilst he played, +but was too weak to throw anything at him. When the vision first +appeared, I thought it might have been a large bottle. The mantelpiece +was cleared, and still old Sam came and played upon the spinet for five +nights running.' + +'The most inconvenient of all ghosts is the living ghost,' said +Lieutenant Piercy. 'An Irish sergeant told me that, before he left +Ireland, he lent an uncle five pounds. On returning, after fourteen +years, he called upon his uncle, and asked him for the money. "Och, +shure," said the man, "haven't I spent the double of it in masses for +yez?"' + +'Talking of ghosts,' said the doctor, 'what do you say, gentlemen, to +this psychological touch? A young man--call him Brown--after years of +deliberation, seriously considers that he has been born into the wrong +family. He is wholly out of sympathy with his relations. He is superior +to them. He loves music, the fine arts, literature, and so on. His +sisters are vulgar, his father a cad. The young man, feeling convinced +that a serious mistake has happened, goes forth to search for his own +family. He finds them at last, a cultivated circle of people, and they +all seem to know that he belongs to them. Strangely enough, young Brown +meets in this family with one of the sons, a young fellow of his own +age--call him Jones. Jones laments to Brown that he is entirely out of +sympathy with his family. They are superior to him. He likes vulgar +songs, the diverting company of ostlers and billiard-markers. He objects +to young ladies. He prefers shop-girls. The point is clear,' said the +doctor. 'These young men were born into the wrong families. Brown hinted +to Jones that he would meet with the right parties at the Browns', and +Jones was received by the Browns with that instinctive perception of his +claims as a member of the family which had characterized the meeting +between Brown and the Jones's.' + +'Brown is a snob and Jones an ass,' said Parry. + +Here the chief officer came right aft, and looked into the binnacle. As +the cheeks are sucked in, so the sails hollowed to the sudden emptiness +of the atmosphere along with the slight floating roll of the whole +fabric. A low thunder fore and aft broke from the masts. + +'I'm sick of that noise!' exclaimed Lieutenant Piercy. 'The cockroaches +dance to it. The kitchen offal that the cook threw overboard yesterday +delights in it, and dwells alongside, a loving listener. I say, Mr. +Mulready,' he called to the mate, 'when are you going to give us a whole +gale over the taffrail--something that shall come roaring down upon the +ship in a cloudless thunder of wind?' + +'Ha, sir, when?' answered the mate, a dry man. + +Captain Parry, with a slight yawn, stood up, stretched his arms, stepped +across the grating, and sprang upon the deck, then stood looking over +the bulwark-rail at the distant icy gleam on the bow. + +'The heat seems to have baked the life out of Parry,' said Lieutenant +Piercy, 'or is it that his spirits sink as he approaches home, knowing +what lies before him?' + +'A man should feel himself a poor creature,' exclaimed the doctor, 'when +he understands that a fit of despondency, a mood of unspeakable +depression, reaching even unto tears, may be caused, not by the +affections--oh no!--but by a little piece of celery, or half a pickled +walnut.' + +'I am thirsty,' said Piercy; 'come below, doctor, and have a drink.' + +Four bells were struck. The ladies disappeared. Five bells--then most of +the gentlemen vanished. Six bells, and now the ship seemed clothed in +sleep and silence. At intervals faint catspaws stirred, none of which +were neglected by the mate of the watch, who, regardless of the +smothered curses of the seamen, hoarsely roared orders for the braces to +be manned. Thus, stealthily, the ship floated through the midnight sea, +flooded with moonshine. + +Then came the dawn, the resurrection of the day, trailing its ghastly +shroud across the face of the eastern sky. The watch of the mate came +round again at eight bells--four o'clock--and when the day broke it +found him on deck, standing at the rail, and peering ahead. + +'Bring me the glass,' said he to a midshipman. + +Some three points on the bow of the ship lay a schooner. She had all +cloths showing, saving her little top-gallant sail and royal. She was +certainly not under command, and yet she did not seem derelict. Mr. +Mulready levelled the ship's glass. What was she? + +Scarcely a yacht, yet of yacht-like finish and delicacy. The faint +breeze trembled in her moon-white canvas. She lay head to wind, and the +long pulse of ocean swell, in lifting and sinking her, exposed her +sheathing in flashes, and submitted to the eye of Mr. Mulready the +handsomest sea-going model he had ever looked at. + +'Something wrong there,' thought he, carefully covering her with his +glass, and intently examining her for any signs of life, for smoke in +the caboose chimney, for a head peering in sickness over the bulwark +rail. + +About a mile and a half separated the two vessels, and it had taken the +_Alfred_ nearly the whole night long to measure the space betwixt the +gleam over the bows and the spot of waters whence it had first been +sighted by Captain Parry. + +The chief mate could do nothing without the captain; but, whilst the +crew were washing down the decks, often pausing for a breath or two in +their scrubbing to glance at the graceful, helpless, lonely fabric that +was now drawing abeam, Captain Barrington stepped through the +companion-hatch. His sight immediately went to the schooner. + +'What vessel have we there?' he exclaimed, and he picked up the +telescope that lay upon the skylight. 'She is abandoned, sir,' said he +to his chief mate. + +'She looks too beautiful for ill-luck,' answered the mate. 'The man who +moulded her knew his art.' + +'What's she doing all this way down here?' said Captain Barrington, +talking with the telescope at his eye. 'She's a gentleman's +pleasure-boat. Has she been sacked, and her crew and pleasure-party +murdered? Brace the foretopsail aback. I'll send a boat aboard.' + +The ship came to a stand, with a lazy sigh of the light breeze in her +canvas, the yards of the fore creaking on parrel and truss as they came +round to the drag of hauling sailors. A boat was manned, lowered, and +despatched in charge of the third officer, an intelligent young +gentleman of the name of Blundell. + +'Thoroughly overhaul her,' the captain had said. 'If she is derelict, +bring away the log-book and papers.' + +And as the boat swept towards the schooner the skipper turned to Mr. +Mulready and exclaimed: + +'If she be abandoned, I'll put a crew aboard, and we'll sail home +together. There is value in that little ship, sir, and she is too +handsome a craft to be allowed to wash about down here.' + +Some of the male passengers arrived for their customary bath in the +head. Do not believe the bath-room of the metal palace of this day +comparable as a luxury to the old head-pump. + +You stripped, you sprang on to a grating betwixt the head-boards, and an +ordinary seaman went to work. The gushing blue brine sank to your +marrow. It gushed in cold sweetness through and through you. You gazed +down, and saw the clear blue profound out of which the sparkling coil +that hissed over your body was being drawn. It was the one delight of +the tropics, the one joy that haply sometimes checked the profanities in +the passengers' mouths when they came on deck and found the ship +motionless. + +One of the first to come on deck to taste the sweetness of the head-pump +was Captain Parry. The instant he rose through the hatch his eye caught +sight of the schooner. He stood awhile staring; someone coming up behind +him forced him to move out of the hatch. He stepped out, still with his +eyes glued to the schooner, and advancing, that his vision might clear +the quarter-boat, he again came to a stand, staring. + +He was a tall, well-built young man, about eight-and-twenty years of +age, close-shaven and dark, and there was something Roman and heroic in +the cast of his countenance. He was airily clothed for the bath, and +watched the schooner with a towel or two dangling in his grasp. + +By this time the boat had reached the side of the apparently abandoned +vessel, and the third officer might with the naked eye easily have been +seen to spring aboard, followed by a seaman. He stood awhile taking a +view of the decks, then disappeared. + +'Captain Barrington,' exclaimed Captain Parry, wheeling suddenly upon +the skipper of the ship as he approached him, 'is anything known of that +vessel?' + +'I have just sent a boat to board her,' answered the captain. + +'Will you allow me to use that glass?' + +He took the telescope from the captain's hands, and resting the tubes on +the bulwark rail, gazed thirstily. There was something of +astonishment--indeed, of amazement--in his face when he turned to +Captain Barrington. + +'I don't think I can be mistaken,' he exclaimed in a low voice, talking +to the captain, but looking at the schooner. 'It is the same +figure-head, exactly the same rig, the same size, so far as the eye can +measure her at this distance. She has a deck-house for her sailors, and +her paintwork is the same. It will be extraordinary!' + +He fetched his breath in a half-gasp. + +'Do you know that vessel, d'ye say, Captain Parry?' asked old +Barrington, looking with curiosity and interest at the fine young +fellow. + +'I would swear that she is the _Mowbray_,' answered Captain Parry, +picking up the glass afresh, and continuing to talk. 'She was purchased +by Mr. Vanderholt, who made a yacht of her, and, when I was last in +England, I went a short cruise in her along with Mr. Vanderholt and his +daughter, the lady to whom--to whom---- Good God! the longer I look, the +more I am satisfied. No name is painted on her; you will find her name +in the boats. What, under heaven, brings her here, lying abandoned? +Yes, oh yes! I'd pick her out if she were in a fleet of five hundred +sail.' + +'It may be as you say,' exclaimed Captain Barrington. 'It is a very +remarkable meeting. But we can be sure of nothing until the third +officer returns.' + +A few passengers, attracted by this conversation, had drawn close. You +heard murmurs of excitement. A voyage at sea, in the old days of tacks +and sheets, was a tedious affair, in spite of flirtation, cards, the +simple diversions of the dance on the quarter-deck, the heaving of the +quoit, the bets on the run. Even a floating bottle was a something to +cause a stir. It broke the dull continuity of the day. A sail was a +Godsend. And here now, after many weeks of tedious ocean travel, here +now had suddenly uprisen, all at once, coming down a-beam out of the +darkness of the midnight, so to speak, an ocean mystery that would be +fraught with an inexpressible significance if Captain Parry's conjecture +proved accurate. + +To this gentleman, for whom the head pump had magically ceased to have +existence, the time of waiting and suspense was frantically long. +Lieutenant Piercy came and stood beside him. + +'But, supposing it is the _Mowbray_,' said the young officer: 'her +presence in this sea needn't concern your friends. The vessel may have +been sold. They may have been carrying her to some distant port. If it +is fever, the dead will be found; if mutiny----' Here Lieutenant Piercy +stopped, puzzled. + +'I don't think Vanderholt would sell her,' exclaimed Parry. 'He was +proud merely of her possession, though he did not often go afloat. How +amazing to see her lying there! Of course it is the _Mowbray_,' he +exclaimed, again levelling the glass. 'She used to carry a long-boat, +and that's gone. If her people have left her, they went away in it.' + +'She's certainly abandoned,' said Piercy, 'or something living would +have shown itself by this time.' + +'Why the deuce doesn't that fellow Blundell return?' muttered Parry, in +an agony of impatience. + +But, even as he spoke, the figure of the mate might have been observed +to drop over the schooner's side into the boat. The oars swept the +brine into steam. The boat hissed alongside, and the third mate stepped +on board. All the people of the saloon or cabin had by this time heard +the news; they knew that an abandoned schooner, which was an ocean +mystery, lay close by, and they had made great haste to dress +themselves, insomuch that a large number of them were on deck. They +elbowed round the third mate, and the commander, and Captain Parry, to +hear the ship's officer's report. + +'She is the _Mowbray_, sir, of, and from, London. I can't find any +papers. Here's her log-book, sir. The last entry is in a female hand. +The vessel was apparently on a pleasure cruise.' + +'Let me look at that book,' said Captain Parry. + +He turned the pages till he came to the last entry, then began to read, +now and then swaying himself, then making a step in recoil. All saw by +his face and his motions, by his strange gestures, by the wild looks he +would sometimes cast from the page to the schooner, that what he read +was carrying the bitterness of death to his heart. Meanwhile the +captain was questioning the third officer. + +'There's nothing alive on board?' + +'Nothing, sir. I searched everywhere.' + +'No dead bodies?' + +'None, sir.' + +'Did you discover nothing to enable us to make a guess at what's become +of her people?' + +'Everything is in its place, sir. The log-book was left conspicuously +open on the table of the cabin, that had, doubtless, been occupied by +the captain.' + +'Will you kindly accompany me below, Captain Barrington?' said Captain +Parry, who was so extremely agitated and distressed that he could barely +utter the words. + +The passengers made room. Every face bore marks of pity and +astonishment. They had heard that the last entry was in a female hand, +and they had also heard--indeed, they could see--that yonder schooner +was abandoned. + +Captain Parry followed the commander of the ship down the +companion-steps into a bright, handsomely-furnished saloon; thence they +passed into an after-cabin, the door of which Captain Barrington shut. A +large, old-fashioned stern window provided a spacious view of the sea. +The light came off the water in a cloud of splendour, and glowed and +throbbed upon the nautical brass instruments upon the table, and +sparkled in a glazed framed likeness of Mrs. Barrington. + +'The entry here,' exclaimed Captain Parry, trembling with excitement, +and the twenty contending passions within him, 'is in the handwriting of +the young lady to whom I am--to whom I was--to whom I am to be married +on my arrival in England. She is Miss Violet Vanderholt. You perceive,' +he said, pointing with a shaking forefinger, 'that she writes her name. +The story she tells is of a diabolical mutiny. It took place on December +15. This entry is dated the 18th; to-day is the 20th. The _Mowbray_ has, +therefore, been abandoned two days only, perhaps not a day, for though +this last entry is dated the 18th, the crew need not necessarily have +abandoned the schooner till yesterday, or even this morning.' + +'It is certain,' said Captain Barrington, 'that the hands, together with +the young lady, were on board the schooner on the 18th.' + +'Quite certain, sir; but here is her story. Pray read it aloud to me; I +did not fully master it.' + +Captain Parry, with a shaking hand, gave the log-book to his companion. +It was of the usual form of log-book, with a good wide space for +'Remarks' on the right-hand side of each page. Captain Barrington, a +white-haired man of fifty-five, with scarlet cheeks, glanced over a few +of the earlier entries. He saw that the log had been kept down to +December 14, afterwards the entry was in a female hand, strong, sure, +but somewhat small: + +'I have ascertained that none of the men can read. I am writing an +account of what has befallen us, hoping, since the men talk of leaving +her and taking me with them, that this yacht may be met with, and this +log-book discovered. I heartily pray any into whose hands this book may +fall that he will publish my narrative to the world, so that my father's +fate and my own may be made known to Captain George Parry, H.E.I.C.'s +Service, to whom I am engaged to be married.' + +The commander looked at Parry with brows arched by astonishment and +sailorly concern. The officer brought his hands together in a convulsive +gesture, and turned his eyes with a look of despair upon the sea, framed +in the window. + +'My father was Mr. Montagu Vanderholt, a well-known Cape merchant. We +resided at ---- Terrace, Hyde Park, London. I, Violet Vanderholt, am his +only daughter. He thought that a sea-trip would do him good. He asked me +to accompany him. I was his only companion, and we set sail from the +Thames, November 1, in this year. The master was Captain Glew. He +treated the crew harshly, and excited their hate, though he was cautious +in his behaviour when I was on deck, so that I never could say he spoke +to a man barbarously. But the dreadful tragedy of this voyage was +occasioned by the bad food supplied to the sailors. This was undoubtedly +Captain Glew's fault. He had been commissioned to victual the vessel, +and was responsible for her stores, and I fear he knew that what he +bought was not wholesome for men to eat, though the charges my poor +father was at should have given the men the very best quality of food. +They complained to Glew, but not to my father. Captain Glew never hinted +that the men were murmuring, and the mutiny was sprung upon us with +dreadful suddenness. The captain and the mate seized the boatswain, and +a man stabbed the captain in the side, and mortally wounded him. My +father dragged me below, and, rushing into his cabin for a pistol, +returned on deck to cow the men with the weapon. They did not heed him, +and he fired, and, as I have since been told, and must believe, shot the +mate, Mr. Tweed, accidentally through the head. Mr. Vanderholt was +killed by an iron bar, flung with murderous violence. They afterwards +feigned that this bar was thrown with the intention of dashing the +pistol from my father's hand. This is all that I have to relate. + +'I am writing this at ten o'clock on the morning of the 18th. I cannot +imagine what the men intend. I asked the boatswain, who has treated me +with great civility throughout, to tell me what they mean to do. This +very morning I repeated the question. He answered he could not say. The +men were undecided. Some were for going away in the boat, and taking +their chance of being picked up, and some for remaining in the vessel. I +gathered from his manner that these were few. What are they to do with +the schooner if they stick to her? They might, indeed, wreck her off +some island where they could represent themselves as shipwrecked men. I +know that they regard me as a witness against them, and that my life is +in great danger, and the merciful God alone knows what is to become of +me. It is nearly----' + +Here the entry ended. + +The commander of the ship looked at Captain Parry. + +'The hand of Providence is in this,' said the scarlet-faced man, very +soberly and seriously. + +'They cannot be far off!' exclaimed Captain Parry, stepping to the stern +window with an air of distraction, and staring out at the sea. + +'It is a clock-calm,' said the commander, 'and if anything which moves +by canvas has received the crew, we may presume that she lies as +helpless as we, not far distant.' + +'But what excuse could they make,' said Captain Parry, 'to be +transferred from so staunch a little ship as the _Mowbray_?' + +'They might say that they were without a navigator.' + +'Wouldn't another vessel put a navigator on board so fine a craft and +send her home, sooner than leave her to go to pieces? In that case we +should not have found her here.' + +'There's nothing to be done at sea, sir, by arguing and speculating,' +said Captain Barrington, still preserving his very serious manner, as +though, indeed, he had found something to awe him in the circumstance +of a girl writing, so to speak, in the heart of the Atlantic, with +particular reference to her lover, and that lover reading her words +there. 'It is as likely as not,' he continued, 'that they have gone away +in the long-boat. It is clear, from the narrative, that the majority +were in favour of that measure. These are quiet waters, and the men have +reason to hope that they will be picked up soon, in which case they can +tell their own story.' + +'But Miss Vanderholt?' exclaimed Captain Parry. 'She can bear witness +against them. What will they do with her?' + +'Ha!' exclaimed the commander, fetching a deep breath. 'It is certain, +anyhow, that she is not in the schooner.' + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +IN SEARCH. + + +In the year of this story Old Leisure was still going to sea. He +flourished as pleasantly upon the ocean as amidst the hens and +dunghills, the milkmaids and dairies, of the Poyser farmyard. He brought +his main-topsail to the mast without reluctance when there was anything +to be seen or talked to; he went on board the stranger, and dined with +him; invited the stranger in return; then leisurely proceeded. There was +no prompt despatch, to speak of, no urgency. The wind was the prevailing +condition of the immense distances which the wooden keel traversed. Old +Leisure kept his eye to windward, and hauled out his bowlines; but it +was a time of ambling, of dozing, and of whistling for winds until too +much came. + +Only in such a time as this now dealt with could we conceive a large, +full-rigged ship, homeward bound from India, full of impatient hearts, +hove-to, with a derelict schooner within easy hail, and the commander +taking plenty of time to reason about her with a gentleman who was +infinitely concerned in her unexpected, astounding apparition and +log-book narrative. + +'The thought of Miss Vanderholt being at the mercy of a crew of mutinous +ruffians is unbearable!' exclaimed Captain Parry. 'What is to be done? +Advise me, in the name of God, captain! You know--you know--I have told +you she was to be my wife. You are an old sailor. For God's sake, +counsel me!' + +'If I could be sure that they had made off in their boat, and were still +afloat in her,' answered the captain, 'I should know how to advise you. +But if they have been received on board a ship, then I don't see what +can be done. For in what direction may that ship be heading? Enough if +your young lady should be safe, sir. Supposing her to be on board a +ship, I have no doubt of your hearing good news of her, in course of +time, after your arrival in England.' + +He opened the cabin-door, and called to one of the stewards. + +'My compliments to the chief officer, and ask him to come to me.' + +Mr. Mulready quickly presented himself. + +'We have some notion,' said Captain Barrington, addressing his mate, +whilst he laid his hand upon the log of the _Mowbray_, 'that the crew of +the schooner may have left her in their boat, taking the young lady with +them. Send a couple of hands--don't trouble the young gentlemen,' said +he, with a supercilious smile, vanishing almost as it appeared upon his +firm lips, 'but a couple of sharp hands to the royal mastheads. Give one +of them this glass.' He handed Mr. Mulready a binocular. 'Let the other +take the ship's telescope aloft. I want the sea carefully swept. Make +them understand that they must creep in their search to the very verge, +for how far off is a boat visible? But they might sight the gleam of her +lugsail.' + +Mr. Mulready took the glasses, and went swiftly out. + +Captain Parry stood at the open window, listening to what was passing, +straining his sight also with consuming passions of dread, blind desire, +helpless wrath, at the star-blue line of the sea that swept the +brilliance of the heavens within little more than a league. The captain +of the ship went to a locker, and took out a chart of the Atlantic. He +spread it, and called to Captain Parry. + +The officer turned, and eagerly stepped to the chart. He saw zigzag +prickings or lines upon the white sheet, as though somebody had been +trying to represent flashes of lightning. Each line terminated in a +little dotted circle. These were the 'runs.' But, then, these were also +the Doldrums, and the motive power of that ship, the _Alfred_, lay in +the breeze that, in the Doldrums, blows in the delicate catspaw that +scarcely has power to run a shiver into the glazed breast. + +'This was our situation at noon yesterday,' said the commander, putting +his finger upon the northernmost little circle. 'There is no land for +leagues, as you may observe.' + +'What are those rocks?' observed Captain Parry, peering. + +'St. Paul's Island--a horrible hornet's nest of black fangs, entirely +out of the boat's reach. I am not sure that I ever heard of a boat +effecting a landing. Anyone cast ashore there must perish. There is +nothing to eat or drink. It is the desolation of hell!' added the +commander, with a note of religious fervour in his speech; 'and a +dreadful surf like a nightmare of storm raves day and night round those +rocks.' + +'What is to be done?' said Captain Parry, lifting himself erect from the +chart. 'If they are in a boat they cannot be far distant. They have not +long left the schooner, but every stroke of the oar carries them further +away, and renders the search more hopeless.' + +'The search?' exclaimed the commander, in a note of inquiry and +surprise. + +'I don't mean in this ship, of course,' said the officer, speaking with +agitation and very quickly. 'A clipper schooner lies close at hand. If +you will lend me a navigator and a few hands, we will sweep the sea, +taking this mark,' he continued, putting his finger upon the chart, 'as +our base, and hunting with masthead look-outs, and fierce fires burning +by night, in circles whose circumference or diameter I should leave to +the judgment of the mate in charge.' + +The commander began to slowly pace his cabin. Once he paused, and gazed +with a face of earnest gravity at the sea that came brimming to the +counter in a sheet of winding lines, the light swathes of the tropic +calm, the oily gleam, the trouble of some stream of current twinkling in +diamonds. + +Captain Parry eyed him with anxiety. He dreaded a discussion that might +kill the hope that had suddenly been born in him. A tap on the door +caused the commander to start. + +Mr. Mulready entered. + +'The masthead men have been working hard with their glasses, sir, and +report nothing in sight.' + +'How is the schooner?' + +'Forlorn, but safe, sir.' + +'Take a boat and go aboard, and make a further thorough examination of +her, and overhaul her stores--all as smartly as may be, sir. This +gentleman has an idea, and I don't know but that it might prove +practicable,' said the commander. And, as Mr. Mulready left the cabin, +the captain of the ship turned to Parry, and asked him to follow him on +deck. + +On the commander emerging, the third mate approached and touched his +cap, and exclaimed: + +'When I said there was no living thing aboard that schooner, sir, I +should have reported a small coop full of cocks and hens, all alive, and +very hungry and thirsty. I fed them with some rice I found in the +galley, and poured a quantity of water into their trough.' + +He saluted, and marched off. + +'In the face of Miss Vanderholt's last entry,' said the captain to +Parry, 'we don't want live cocks and hens to tell us that that vessel +has been recently abandoned.' + +She lay softly lifting upon the light swell, a beautiful, helpless +fabric. The shudders which ran through her canvas were like the +distress of something living. She had slewed somewhat, bringing her +jibbooms to bear upon the ship. In the blind, hopeless way of abandoned +craft, she was posture-making for help. + +The excitement aboard the _Alfred_ was very great indeed. The +mastheading of the men, the pictures of their little bodies high in the +heavens, sweeping the deep with binocular and telescope, had immensely +stimulated the passions of curiosity and wonder. + +What did the captain expect the sailors to see upon that vast girdle of +brine, that rolled flawless to the glorious stroke of the sun? It was +known that the young lady who had been on board the schooner was +betrothed to Captain Parry. Could romance be carried beyond this? The +ladies fluttered in talk, the gentlemen growled. + +'I'm keeping a diary,' said a major, with great, dyed, well-curled +whiskers, to the surgeon of the ship, 'of this voyage home, as I did of +the voyage out, and I shall probably publish it, sir. But this incident +will not be credited. Sages in their day have believed in ghosts, and +laughed to scorn a report of earthquakes.' + +'I do not see why this incident should not be believed,' said the +doctor. + +'It is too probable--for the sea, sir. If you want a sea-fact to be +accepted, state that which a sailor will know to be impossible.' + +'Parry looks as haggard as if he had been up for a week of nights,' said +the doctor. + +Many eyes were fixed upon him as he stood beside the master of the ship, +viewing the schooner and talking. The ship forward was a gem of an ocean +piece, with the smoke of her galley-chimney going straight up, the +sailors--it was their breakfast-time--lounging in the cool of the shade +of the jibs, with hook-pots and biscuits, and pipes of tobacco: and the +great foresail, white as milk, floated motionless from its long yard. + +Some soldiers in white clothes were seated upon the booms, in the wake +of the draught which would stir from that vast square of sail when the +weak swell of the sea put a faint pulse of life into it. The sky was +sublimely lofty, with the light-blue brilliance of the tropic zone; not +a cloud to depress it to the sight, and all the air was gone. + +Captain Barrington and Captain Parry stood together at the mizzen +shrouds, looking at the schooner, conversing, and waiting for the return +of the mate. The passengers very respectfully gave them a wide berth. + +'No,' says Captain Barrington presently; 'I shall have no objection, +sir. I am to be influenced by humanity in this business. My owners +cannot and will not object,' he added, as if thinking aloud. 'We shall +be saving a valuable yacht. Mr. Blundell is a very efficient young +officer, quite experienced enough to take charge, and he will receive +certain instructions from me, sir, for we must define the area of sea to +be searched, and the time to be taken.' + +He looked at the schooner thoughtfully. + +'She is under two hundred tons,' said he. 'Mr. Blundell and four men and +a boy should suffice; I can spare no more.' + +'I am no sailor, but I can pull and haul,' said Captain Parry. 'I can +do a man's bit. What time would you limit us to?' + +'I should wish to be a little elastic. There's no wind here to depend +upon,' answered the commander. 'I will see Mr. Blundell in my cabin +after breakfast, and explain my ideas.' + +Presently the breakfast-bell rang. The captain and the passengers went +below. Captain Parry asked that a biscuit and a cup of tea should be +brought to him on deck. He gazed round upon the spacious sea, and the +tranquillity of it soothed and calmed his inward, hidden, fuming +impatience. + +He knew that the stagnation that held the _Alfred_ motionless would keep +the boat so, unless the men rowed, which was not very conceivable, for +sailors do not commonly row when the distance they have to traverse runs +into hundreds of miles. If they had been taken aboard a ship, she, too, +must be lying becalmed. + +Yet one black dread ever haunted Captain Parry's fancies. He was going +to seek the boat. Had Miss Vanderholt accompanied the men? Would they +carry with them a living witness to their piracy and murders? Had not +she been murdered before the schooner was abandoned? + +It was ten o'clock when the mate returned from the _Mowbray_. All this +while the sea remained satin-smooth. The sun, soaring high, burnt +fiercely; the paint bubbled in blisters, the pitch ran in soft-soap, and +the whole light of the schooner's canvas poured under her in quivering +sheets of quicksilver. + +Mr. Mulready was dark with dirt and sweat, and looked like a man who has +passed a week in stowing a ship's hold. Captain Parry stood in the +gangway to receive him, and the mate's immediate inquiry was for the +commander. He was closeted with Mr. Blundell. + +'What news can you give me?' said the military officer, grasping the +dry-minded mate by the arm, and looking beseechingly into his face. + +'There's just plenty of stores and fresh water,' answered Mr. Mulready, +'enough to last a small crew six months. Her after-hold is rich in the +eating line. There are about two dozen cocks and hens.' + +'I don't mean _that_!' exclaimed Parry wildly. 'Did you find no hint of +the fate of the young lady?' + +'My answer must be,' answered the mate, with a certain formal, +sympathetic gravity, 'that nothing is alive on yonder vessel saving a +few cocks and hens.' + +The captain made his appearance, followed by Mr. Blundell. + +'I have arranged with the third officer,' said he, walking straight up +to Captain Parry and the mate, 'that he shall take charge of the yacht +and search for the boat. There can be no hurry whilst this clock-calm +lasts. Still, I dare say you'll be glad to go on board.' + +'I'm mad to go on board!' answered Captain Parry. + +'Get your luggage together, then, sir. Mr. Blundell will provide the +schooner with a couple of pistols out of the arms' chest, and the +necessary ammunition. If you fall in with the boat, remember they are +eight seamen, rendered desperate by murder. You will be but seven. The +possibility is faint, the chance is the smallest,' the captain muttered +in a dying voice. + +'I thank you for your foresight,' said Parry; and he went hastily to his +cabin to pack up. + +The mate told Captain Barrington that there were plenty of rockets and +portfires aboard the schooner. A fireball by night might bring the boat +to the yacht. He then produced a piece of paper, and gave the commander +an idea of the quantity of stores in the little vessel. + +'They'll want nothing from us, then,' said Captain Barrington. 'However, +since the mutiny appears to have been owing to the rottenness of the +food, sling a couple of casks of our beef into the boat.' + +It was eleven o'clock when all was ready for Captain Parry to go on +board the _Mowbray_. Four men and a boy had volunteered as a crew, and +when the boat was freighted she lay deep alongside with seamen's chests, +luggage, casks of beef, and human beings. The passengers made a tender +farewell of this singular, most romantic leave-taking in mid-ocean. +They pressed forward to shake Captain Parry by the hand. Some hoped that +the blessing of God would attend his search. More than one lady raised a +handkerchief to her eyes. As the boat shoved off, a hearty cheer broke +from the whole length of the vessel. The boat reached the side of the +_Mowbray_, and all that was to be received on board was hoisted up. + +Captain Parry breathed deep, and wore a wildness in his looks, whilst he +stood for a few minutes gazing round about him. Of course, he remembered +the little ship perfectly well--the delightful cruise he had taken in +her, with Violet and her father, a little while before he returned to +India. He looked, and began to realize the brutal scene as the girl had +sketched it in that last entry. It was hard to think of his immensely +wealthy friend Mr. Vanderholt meeting a mean, base end at the hands of a +brutal Ratcliffe sailor. What had they done with Violet? The little ship +seemed to smell of human blood. The airy graces of her heights, the +beauty of all that was choice and finished betwixt her rails, seemed to +have departed. Wherever murder stalks, the spirit of horror, attended +by the ghost of neglect and decay, follows. They break the windows of +the house. They command the spiders to build. The dirty little building +in which the body was found is going to pieces. The alley up which the +body was dragged is of a sickly green, with a growth of unwholesome +grass. + +It was so with this yacht--this beautiful fabric, the _Mowbray_. The +wizardry of murder had changed her to the sight of Parry. He cursed her +with all his heart as the cause of the destruction of his sweetheart and +Mr. Vanderholt, and, wondering what the devil had brought her so far +from home, whether it might be possible that father and daughter had +been sailing to India to meet him, that they might return together in +the same vessel, he put his hand upon the fire-hot companion-hood, and +descended the ladder. + +He searched, as the two mates had searched, and, of course, found more +than they. He beheld in a cabin memorials of his sweetheart--her +dresses, her hats, a veil, and a pair of gloves lay in her cot. One +glove was still bulked with the impress of her hand, as though she had +but just now drawn it off in a hurry, and cast it down. He peered +narrowly. The cabin was a charming little boudoir. He witnessed no +suggestions of violence; nothing appeared to have been disturbed. He +sought for marks of blood, then thought to himself, 'If she is murdered, +they did not kill her with a knife--they drowned her.' + +He stayed for half an hour in this cabin, then entered the adjoining +berth, which had been Mr. Vanderholt's. He found nothing to help him +here. The old gentleman had been eccentric. He had believed he loved the +life of the forecastle,--God help him!--and he had illustrated his idle +imagination of fondness by causing his berth to be rendered as +uncomfortable as possible. + +Parry was disturbed in his investigations of this berth by a bustle in +the cabin. He looked out, and saw a couple of sailors coming down with +his luggage. + +'Tumble those traps in here,' said he. 'Are we moving?' + +'It is a fact, sir,' said one of the men, who was a Swede. 'A little +gentle vindt has begun to blow, and der _Alfred_ is going home.' + +'Home? I do not quite understand,' exclaimed Captain Parry. + +He said no more, however, to the men, and went on deck to look about +him. + +An air of heaven, blowing out of the boundless blue, with not a cloud in +the sky to show you where it came from, was wrinkling the wide waters +into a thrilling azure, and under the sun the glory was blinding. + +They had trimmed sail on the schooner--a trifling matter; a hand was at +the helm; Mr. Blundell stood beside him, looking into the little +binnacle. On the bow was the _Alfred_, with her foretop-sail full, every +cloth stirless, so soft was the cradling of that sea. Her yards were +braced forwards, and she seemed to lean; she floated upright in silent +majesty, nevertheless, her trucks plumb with the zenith, and, as she +gained way, her short scope of wake sparkled like a shoal of herrings +under her counter. + +Mr. Blundell was a stout, hearty young sailor, about two-and-twenty +years of age. He had that sort of face which is often met at sea under +both flags--perfectly hairless, fleshy, permanently tinctured by the +roasting fires and the drying-in gales and frosts of ocean-travel. He +was looking at the compass of the schooner when Captain Parry +approached. Perhaps he sought for a hint or two in gear that did not +lead like a ship's, and canvas that was not shaped for square-yards. At +a motion from Captain Parry, he drew away from the helmsman. + +'I am at a loss,' said the captain, looking at the ship under the +shelter of his hand. 'Is the _Alfred_ going home?' + +'Certainly, sir,' answered Mr. Blundell. 'We've dipped our farewell. +We're now on our own hook.' + +'Then, I mistook. I supposed when Captain Barrington talked of limiting +us to time that he intended we should return to him here,' said Captain +Parry. + +The young mate smiled. + +'His notion in limiting us to time,' said he, 'was that we should not +run the quest into a hopeless job. There should be a limit.' + +'Of course, a reasonable limit,' said Parry. 'What is it?' + +'It has been left to my judgment, sir; and I am willing to be governed +by you.' + +'Thanks, Blundell!' + +Captain Parry, pronouncing this sentence with warmth and emotion, +stepped to the binnacle and looked at the card. + +'You are holding the schooner north-west,' said he. 'You have a reason?' + +'We must head her on one course or another,' answered Blundell. 'I +propose, with your leave, to carry out Captain Barrington's ideas. He +has sketched me a circular course. I'll compass it off on the chart +below presently, and you shall form your own opinion. Loose the square +canvas, my lads!' he sang out, abruptly breaking from Captain Parry. + +The captain lent a hand to pull and haul; he dragged to the music of the +salt-throats at the sheets and halliards. The breeze freshened in a +steady gushing. The ocean was a miracle of laughing light. Already you +heard the snore of foam at the cutwater, and the stealthy hiss of its +passage aft. + +The _Alfred_ was growing small and square in the blue distance. She was +feeling the breeze now, and her pale and shapely shadow leaned as she +headed, with an occasional dim flash from her wet, black side, into the +far northern recess. + +Captain Parry went below, and returned on deck with the binocular which +he had observed in Mr. Vanderholt's cabin. The main rigging of the +_Mowbray_ was rattled down to the height of the lower masthead. The +captain got into the shrouds, and made his way to the crosstrees. +Higher, being no sailor, he durst not crawl. With one hand he grasped a +topmast shroud that was sweating tar; with the other he lifted the +glasses, and searched the sea till his eyes swelled and throbbed in +their sockets. When he descended he said to the mate: + +'I have wondered why the men should have left the schooner afloat. Don't +they usually scuttle vessels in affairs of this sort?' + +'I heard the captain and the second officer talk this matter over,' said +Mr. Blundell. 'The second mate thought that the villains knew what they +were about when they left the schooner floating. She would be met with, +and boarded. They'd find nothing to give them an idea of what had +happened. So she'd be carried away to a port as a mystery, and that +would be giving the men a better chance than had they scuttled her.' + +'Why?' + +'Always one of the men who've been concerned in bloody businesses of +this sort finds his way to a hospital. He lies alongside another man and +gabbles. The second mate seemed to think that if one of the men of this +yacht turned up at a hospital and gabbled, less would be made of what he +said if the schooner had been towed into port as a mystery than had she +been sunk. For my part,' added Mr. Blundell, 'I believe they left her +afloat because they couldn't find the heart to sink her. She is a +beauty,' he murmured; and he whistled as he looked aloft and around. + +'I take the second mate's view,' said Captain Parry. + +He now made the tour of the schooner. He went forward and looked into +the men's deck-house, then dropped into the little forecastle and peered +round him. When he regained the deck, he saw a seaman climbing the +fore-rigging, with a binocular glass slung over his shoulder. He watched +him till the man had reached the royal yard, over which he threw his +leg, with his back against the sun-bright mast. The seaman began to +sweep the sea slowly and critically. + +'Good God!' thought Captain Parry, with a sudden heart-leap, 'if the +boat is afloat, or has not been picked up, we ought to fall in with +her.' + +The noise of the breeze was in his ears, a glad sense of motion came to +him from the quick salt seething alongside. His heart leapt up; but in a +minute all was dark again within him, with the horrible dread that +Violet had been murdered by the men before they quitted the schooner. + +The large, comfortable long-boat had been lifted out of its chocks, and +was gone. Captain Parry noticed, however, that two good boats hung in +the davits on either hand. He was impatient to learn the directions +given by Captain Barrington, but Mr. Blundell was busy with the little +ship's affairs just then. He had to appoint a cook, and see to the +dinner; he had to arrange for a masthead look-out that should be brief +under that broiling eye of day. They were few, and it taxed his genius +as a sailor to make the most of them. + +At last he found some time to spare. A sailor was left to trudge a +look-out; one at the helm made two, one on the royal yard made three. +The cook was the fourth, and the 'boy' was left to stand-by. Captain +Parry followed the mate into the cabin, and, whilst Blundell went into +his berth for the chart of the Atlantic, the captain stood looking about +him and thinking. She had sat there, or there, he thought, at table. It +was so recent, the very fragrance of her might be found in the +atmosphere. How often had her feet trodden those steps? He saw her, in +imagination, reading; she pored upon some volume, under that golden +globe, with her hair illuminated; he thought of her agony of heart when +she rushed on deck at the sound of firearms, and saw her father, the +captain, and mate lying dead, and knew that she was alone with a crew of +murderers. + +'This is how Captain Barrington hopes we'll work it, sir,' said +Blundell, coming out of Captain Glew's berth, and putting a chart upon +the table. + +He also produced a pair of compasses and a nautical instrument for +measuring distances. He pulled a paper, covered with calculations, from +his pocket, and placed it by his side. + +'This will be it, I think, sir,' said Blundell, sticking a leg of the +compass into the chart; 'where the point of this leg is we were when we +parted company with the _Alfred_. We allow the boat a start of +thirty-six hours, remembering always that our weather will have been +hers.' + +'Quite so!' exclaimed Captain Parry, devouring every word. + +'I am now heading,' continued the mate, with a glance at the paper, 'to +arrive at this point.' Here he put the pencil end of the compasses upon +the chart. 'When we arrive there, our navigation will be this.' + +He now, with great care, and constant references to the paper of +figures, together with a frequent use of the nautical instruments for +measuring distances, described a number of circles. These circles lay +one within another, and when completed they might be likened to a +cone-shaped spring, or to a corkscrew looked at vertically. + +'You will perceive, Captain Parry,' said the mate, 'that the distance +between each circle is the same. How far can a man see from the +schooner's royal yard? Well, Captain Barrington would not allow that he +should be able to see so small an object as a boat, even with a good +telescope, at a greater distance than thirteen miles. Thirteen miles to +port and thirteen to starboard. Each circle, therefore, is twenty-six +miles wide.' + +'If the boat is afloat,' exclaimed Captain Parry, viewing the discs with +admiration full of hope, 'she must positively be within one of these +circles?' + +'Unless she has taken a breeze and blown clear, or means to come running +into the inner whilst we're steering our dead best for the outer +circles.' + +'What chance do we stand?' + +'Frankly, sir, the smallest chance that ever was found at sea,' +answered the young mate, rolling up his chart. + +'The horrible consideration with me,' said Captain Parry, 'is that the +young lady may not be in the boat.' + +Mr. Blundell looked slowly round the cabin, but made no answer. + +'What do you think?' exclaimed Parry. 'If we fall in with the boat shall +we find Miss Vanderholt in her?' + +The mate mused, toyed a bit with the chart, rolling and unrolling it, +then said: + +'From what I overheard the mate say about the entry the young lady made +in the log-book, I should argue that the men had been using her civilly +from the time of the mutiny. That's in her favour, sir.' + +Parry eyed him intently. All the shrewdness in Blundell's brain was +working in his face, sharpening his gaze and pinching lips and nose into +a lifted look of eagerness whilst he talked. + +'There seems to have been no trouble aboard this vessel,' he continued, +'until the mutiny took place. That should signify that the men, taking +them all round, were steady as sailors go. No doubt they'd got something +in the Nova Scotia way in their captain. He appears to have been one of +those captains who, after draining the blood out of men's veins, runs +gunpowder in, then applies the fuse. Everybody's aghast at the bloody +business, but it's one man's doing.' + +'You believe that they would not use violence towards Miss Vanderholt?' + +'Until I knew, I could never persuade myself that they'd make away with +her. They are men. I dare say they were demons whilst they fought, and +thought of the cause of their fighting. I'll not believe that, as +English seamen, they'd kill the poor lady.' + +'She's a living witness against them.' + +'They'll have heaped oath upon oath upon her, sir. Likely as not they'll +put her aboard something passing, themselves going away and waiting for +the next ship.' + +'God grant it!' exclaimed Captain Parry. 'It's the first bit of hope +that's come to me since we fell in with the schooner.' + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE DISCOVERY. + + +The wind that evening freshened out of the north-west glare of sunset. +The sky thickened, and some small wings of scud flew south-east, bronzed +by the western splendour dimming fast. The sea ran in a cloudy green, +but without weight, in the light tropic surge. + +At sundown Mr. Blundell hailed the royal yard, and the answer, hoarse in +tone as a seagull's scream, was: + +'Nothing in sight, sir.' + +The mate ordered the man to come down on deck, and half an hour later, +when darkness was on the face of the deep, and the last red scar had +died out of the starless sky, the _Mowbray_ was slopping softly through +the creaming waters, under her mainsail and standing jib. + +It was like being hove-to; but she had way, and when Captain Parry +looked over the taffrail, he saw the cold, green lights of the sea +revolving and sliding off in the short spread of yeast the nimble +clipper carried with her. + +It drew down a night ghastly with the pallor of the hidden moon. At +about nine o'clock they burnt a flare; the crimson flames rose +quivering, and the smoke drove, black as a thunder-cloud, betwixt the +masts to leeward. The little ship stood out against the night +fire-tinctured. + +She looked, with her glowing yellow masts and fiery shrouds, to be built +of flame. The night came in walls of blackness to this wild and +beautiful vision, and the noise of the sea, and the sense of the +infinity of the deep, that was running and seething out of sight, filled +the glowing picture with an entrancing spirit of mystery. You would have +said that she owed her life and light to the sea-gods. + +Both Parry and the mate, whilst this flare was burning, repeatedly +directed their night-glasses at the ocean, and, even whilst it burnt, a +man came aft to the call of the mate and sent up a couple of rockets. +The fireballs hissed, burst, and vanished in spangles, darting a lustre +as of lightning across a little space of sky. + +The flare crackled, leapt up, smouldered, and was extinguished by a +bucket of water. + +A couple of lanterns--bright globular glasses--were lighted, and hung up +in the main rigging, one on each side. This brought the hour to about a +quarter past ten. The sea was again searched, its ghastly face had +stolen out, and the heads of the breaking billows under that thick and +pallid sky were like flashes of guns in mist. + +'If the lady isn't in this circle, Captain Parry,' said Mr. Blundell +cheerfully, 'let's hope we'll find her in the next. If the boat's within +ten miles of us they'll have seen our flare and those fireballs.' + +'But we are moving through the sea,' said Captain Parry. 'If we make +them a head wind, and continue to sail, how are they to fetch us?' + +'The schooner's only just under command, sir. If I heave to the drift +will put me out. With your kind leave I'll go below and get a glass of +grog.' + +They both went into the cabin, leaving a man to look out. They were +waited upon by the 'boy,' who was, indeed, a young man of about +eight-and-twenty, with a face full of sallow fluff, and an old man's +look in his eyes and in the contraction of his brows, as though he had +been born in the workhouse and knew life. + +But at sea there were but three ratings, and if you don't sign articles +as an able or ordinary seaman, then, if you were eighty years old, and +could scarcely creep over the ship's side with your cargo of scythe and +hour-glass, you'd still be called a boy. + +The mate and Captain Parry sat for a little in the cabin, sipping cold +brandy and water. + +'Should the men in the boat see our flares and rockets,' said the +captain, 'what will they think of them?' + +'They'll approach us to take a look.' + +'But if they make out that we are the schooner of their piracy and +murders, will they come on board?' + +'She's an open boat, sir, and you have to consider how men will be +driven by exposure. Anyhow,' said Mr. Blundell, 'if we can only coax her +this side the horizon, we may easily keep her in sight till we've worn +them out.' + +'I have been thinking of these red-hot skies, too. Will Miss Vanderholt +be able to survive the exposure of even a day and a night?' And Captain +Parry swayed in his chair with the grief of the thought. + +'Well,' said the mate, with the note of a stout heart in his voice, +'only a sailor is able to tell a man what ladies really can go through. +Low-class females, emigrants and the like, cave in quickly; they are the +shriekers. They cannot bear terror, and it kills them on rafts and in +boats. But your thoroughbred lady is always the one that I've seen, +heard of, and read of, who has shown a lion's heart and the coldness of +a stone head in shipwreck. If Miss Vanderholt be in the boat, you'll +find that she'll have suffered less than the men.' + +A faint smile stirred the lips of Captain Parry; but he grew quickly +grave again, with the distress of his imaginations. At that moment a +hoarse cry in the skylight made them spring to their feet. + +'There's a big ship a-bearing down upon us!' + +The mate rushed up the steps, followed by Captain Parry. The ghostly +sheen of the moon still clouded as with steam the thickness of the +night, and the scene of heaven and sea was mystical with elusive +distance, with the soft near flash of the surge, and the windy chaos of +the horizon. + +On the bow, not half a mile distant, was a large pale shape. The +night-glass made her white-hulled, with canvas to her trucks. The +schooner was thrown into the wind. It was clearly the intention of the +stranger to speak the _Mowbray_. Through the small scattering hiss of +the sea on either hand you might have heard the low, constant thunder of +the bow-wave of the ship as she washed through the brine, making a light +for herself with her sides and white heights, but showing no lights. On +a sudden the human silence was broken by a short, gruff command, weak +with distance. The sound might then be heard of yards being swung; ropes +crowed in blocks, parrels creaked on masts, and in a few minutes a large +white ship, with the fires of the sea dripping at her cutwater, lay +abreast of the schooner, all way choked out of her by the backed +topsail. + +'Schooner ahoy!' + +'Hallo!' shouted Mr. Blundell, sending his voice far into the darkness +over the ship's rail, whence the hail had proceeded. + +'What's wrong with you that you are sending up rockets and burning +flares?' + +'We are in search of a boat. Have you met with a boat containing eight +men and a lady?' + +A short silence ensued. + +'What schooner are you?' + +'The _Mowbray_, of, and now for, the Thames, when we recover the boat. +What ship are you?' + +'The _Georgina Wilde_, Liverpool to Melbourne. I expect your people have +been rescued. We passed a schooner's long-boat yesterday morning, and I +read your name, the _Mowbray_, in her stern sheets.' + +'If that's the case,' exclaimed Mr. Blundell quickly to Captain Parry, +'there'll be no good left in this circle job.' + +'Has he no more information to give us?' said Captain Parry, with a +hopeless stare at the tall, pale shadow, upon whose decks nothing was +visible in that thickness save a dull, Will-o'-the-wisp-like glimmer +where the binnacle stand stood. + +The schooner was hailed again. + +'Hallo!' answered Blundell. + +'We sighted a derelict yesterday at noon. She was within a mile or two +of the long-boat. Looked like a small brig, timber-laden.' + +'How would she bear from us now?' bawled the mate. + +It was plain, from the stillness that followed, that the man with the +powerful hoarse voice had walked to his compass-stand to consider the +required bearings. A midnight hush came down upon the deep then, spite +of the plash and gurgle of waters in motion, and of a dull song of wind +up aloft in the rigging of the schooner. + +Now it was that a single shaft of moonlight glanced through a rift down +upon the sea, flashing up the rolling head of a surge into a melting +hill of silver. The night seemed to sweep with a deeper dye of blackness +from either hand that pure crystal ray. Yet it made a light, too. It +gave substance and firmness to the visionary ship abeam. + +Captain Parry saw a figure coming along the deck from the binnacle to +the rail to hail. He also perceived figures of seamen on the short +topgallant forecastle; likewise he beheld the bowsprit and jibbooms +forking out like a huge spear, poised for hurling in the grasp of a +giant, and betwixt that extreme point of jibboom and masthead floated +symmetric clouds of soft whiteness; but the moonbeam was eclipsed in a +few moments, and the white ship sank back into a vision, glimmering and +scarce determinable. + +Again the schooner was hailed. + +'The bearings of the derelict,' shouted the voice, in tones of the +volume of a speaking-trumpet, 'will be north-west by north half north, +about. Don't take this as if it was an observation. Try about forty mile +on that course, and if nothing heaves into view, sweep the sea. The +derelict's bound to be afloat. Farewell! Good luck attend you!' Then, a +minute later, 'Swing the main topsail yard! Ease away your weather main +braces!' + +The pale and lofty shadow leaned from the damp night breeze, and the +water trembled into fire along the visionary length of her, when, with a +soft stoop of her bow to some invisible heave of the ocean, she broke +her way onwards, dissolving quickly into the night. + +'About forty miles distant,' said Mr. Blundell, stepping to the compass. +'Shall we head on a course for her, sir?' + +'Oh, most certainly!' answered Captain Parry. + +'Better jog along under easy canvas, till it comes daylight, anyhow,' +said the mate. + +The course was shifted, sail trimmed, the gaff foresail was set, and the +schooner, carrying the midnight breeze abeam, slided soundless through +the gloom over the black, wide swell of the sea. + +Captain Parry was too anxious to take rest. He lighted a cheroot, and +paced the deck with Mr. Blundell, who had heroically resolved not to +turn in that night--not to turn in at all until the timber-laden +derelict had been sighted, boarded and rummaged. + +They kept the lanterns burning in the rigging. They never knew how it +might be with the eight men and the lady, supposing the lady with them. +It is true that the long-boat had been fallen in with adrift; but then, +as Mr. Blundell put it, 'That might be due to an accident, without +signifying that they'd been received on board a ship, and their boat let +go.' + +'My own view's this, sir,' said he, as he lighted one of Parry's +cheroots at the glowing tip of the Captain's. 'The men saw that timber +craft, and being scorched with the heat, and wild with cramp, they +resolved to make for the shelter of it, where they could stretch their +arms and take the kinks out of their legs. The painter which held the +boat slipped, and she drifted softly off, and when they saw that she was +gone she was a dozen ships' lengths distant. They could do nothing, +aboard a drowned timberman with empty davits, and a list of perhaps +forty degrees, but let her go. That's my notion. We shall find all hands +aboard. If so, what will you wish me to do, sir?' + +'Bring them into this schooner,' answered Captain Parry. 'If they have +murdered Miss Vanderholt, they shall swing for it, by God!' + +'But pray consider this, sir,' said Mr. Blundell coolly. 'They are eight +men, daring, defiant devils, no doubt, bullies in the alley, jolly +examples of your Jack Muck. We are seven. To bring them on board we +should be obliged to fetch them. But, sir, we can't leave the schooner +deserted. She might run away from us. She got her liberty once, and the +appearance of the derelict might excite her appetite afresh for +freedom.' + +'For God's sake, Mr. Blundell,' broke in Captain Parry, 'don't joke!' + +'I mean, sir,' continued Mr. Blundell, in a voice that did him some +honour, as it proved he could be abashed, 'that we should have to leave +three of our people to look after the schooner, so that we should go +four to eight in order to fetch them.' + +'We are armed,' exclaimed Captain Parry. + +'Two pistols,' said the mate. + +'We must bring them aboard--we must bring them aboard!' cried Captain +Parry, in a voice that almost shouted with nerve. 'Will they be +content,' he went on after a hard suck or two at his cigar, 'to continue +washing about in a wreck that might spread under them at any minute like +a pack of cards when they see a schooner alongside willing to receive +them?' + +'To be hanged, sir.' + +'Who's to tell them _that_ till we've got them under hatches?' said +Captain Parry. + +'They know this craft,' said Blundell, in a note of gloom. 'It'll be a +job. Eight of 'em, and only four of us. It'll take us all we know.' + +Captain Parry belonged to a fighting profession. When he talked of +boarding the timberman and bringing off the eight men, his imagination +was a little confused. He brandished a sword in fancy; he was followed +by a number of smart men in red coats, and with fixed bayonets. He did +not quite gather that, if he headed the boarders, he should be leading +into glory three timid seamen who were entirely averse to selling their +lives at any price. Moreover, Captain Parry was not a sailor. He could +not imagine how difficult it is to gain the deck of a ship whose people +do not want you. These eight men would, in a deck cargo of timber, find +plenty of materials fit for knocking out the bottom of a boat, and the +brains of those who should venture their noses above the rail. + +But it was an idle argument betwixt him and the mate. Were they going to +find the half-foundered brig? Would the eight men be in her? Would Miss +Vanderholt be amongst them? + +At daybreak nothing was visible in the telescope from the fore royal +yard. The weather had cleared in the night. It was a strange, +mountainous morning of huge swollen cloud, whose sun-bright bellies +amazingly whitened the silver of that ocean. Now and again, round about +the horizon, a spark of lightning flashed in the heart of a violet +shadow of vapour, and now and again a low note of thunder, distant, +tremulous as an organ strain, rolled across the sea, as though some +huge, deep-throated beast, big as a hill, and couchant behind the +horizon, was being worried. + +There was breeze enough to keep the schooner's sails full, and sunrise +found the _Mowbray_ pursuing the course of the night. Captain Parry +refreshed himself with a bucket of cold green brine, and tried to make +some breakfast. Mr. Blundell ate heartily, and again, as they sat at +table, they argued upon the course to adopt should they find the eight +seamen on the wreck. + +'If they've got Miss Vanderholt with them,' said the mate, 'I should +recommend asking them to allow us to receive her aboard--we leaving them +aboard the wreck to be taken off by the next thing that passes.' + +'I like that idea,' said Captain Parry; 'it would save bloodshed. We +want nothing but the young lady. They should be glad to get easily rid +of her as a witness. If they are short of food, we can supply them with +stores enough to keep them going for a time that would allow of a +reasonable chance of their being rescued.' + +'They'll want provisions, anyhow,' said the mate. 'Stove timbermen float +on their cargo. You need to dive to get at the grub in those derelicts. +I'm counting upon hunger courting them into the schooner without +obliging us to try what coaxing them with four men and two pistols is +going to do.' + +They went on deck, and stared at the sea-line through glasses. A little +before noon, just at the moment when Mr. Blundell was coming out of his +cabin with his sextant, a man stationed aloft on the look-out hailed +him. + +'What is it?' shouted Blundell, springing through the companion-hatch. + +'There is a black object away down upon the port-bow. It looks like a +boat.' + +'How does it bear on the bow?' cried Blundell to the little figure +aloft, a sailor with a face set in black whiskers. + +He looked to tremble in the heat up there, and his shape, as he stood +erect to the height of the truck, seemed shot with the lights of several +dyes, and against a swollen heap of cloud past him he showed like a +coloured daguerreotype. + +'About two points,' was his answer. + +Mr. Blundell shifted his helm for it, but, whatever it might be, it was +not yet visible from the deck. The mate got an observation of the sun, +and went below to work it out. When he returned he found Captain Parry +examining a dark object on the bow with a telescope. + +'It's a ship's boat most unquestionably,' said the captain, turning to +Mr. Blundell. + +The mate was at this instant hailed afresh from the masthead. + +'There's another dark object about a point on the weather-bow,' said the +fellow dangling high in air, his hoarse voice softening in falls as it +reached the ear from the hollows of the sails. 'She'll be the wreck, +sir,' he howled, after working away with his glass. + +Captain Parry was as pale as the dawn with excitement and expectation. + +'I vow to God,' said he, bringing his fist down on the rail, 'I would +certainly lose my left arm with cheerfulness to know at this instant +that Miss Vanderholt is alive and well in the wreck!' + +'If she is with them they'll all come aboard together,' said the mate, +with scarce conscious dryness. 'Hunger and thirst will work their way +with beasts, let alone men.' + +Little more was said whilst the schooner, driven by a five-knot breeze, +swept in long floating launches down upon the boat that came and went. +There had been wind somewhere, and a small swell rolled in from the +westward, running lightning flashes through the water. No man could say +it was the _Mowbray's_ long-boat till they had luffed and shaken the +wind out of the schooner close alongside the little fabric. Then her +identity was settled by a single glance at her through the glass. The +yacht's name, '_Mowbray_--London,' was painted in large black letters in +the stern-sheets. + +'Stand by to hook her,' shouted the mate. + +A seaman aft, jumping for a boathook in one of the quarter-boats, +sprang into the little ledge of the main chains. The schooner was +slightly manoeuvred; the boat was brought close alongside and captured. +She was as empty and dry as an old cocoanut-shell. + +'What does that signify?' said Captain Parry. + +'One of two things, clearly,' answered Blundell. 'Either they have +carried all the stores they left the yacht with aboard the wreck, or the +ship that picked them up emptied her before sending her adrift.' + +'Would they let a valuable boat like that go?' + +The mate shrugged his shoulders. There are some questions concerning the +sea which even a sailor cannot answer. + +'Do you see that her long painter is trailing overboard?' exclaimed +Captain Parry. 'Does it not look as if the knot had unhitched and let +her slip away?' + +'But from what, sir? That trailing length of rope might as easily mean +that she was let slip from a ship, as that she slipped of her own accord +from a wreck.' + +This talk, uttered swiftly, occupied a minute, whilst they overhung the +rail, looking into the boat alongside. + +'We must have her out of that,' said the mate, 'and restore her.' + +The man who was hanging to her by the boathook, turning up a face as +dark as a new bronze coin, exclaimed: + +'There's something white right aft, jammed away down under them +stern-sheets.' + +It was immediately wanted, of course, but the man with the boathook +could not get it and keep a hold of the boat, too; so another man jumped +in and brought up a pocket-handkerchief. + +'It's a lady's,' said the mate. + +'It's Miss Vanderholt's!' exclaimed Captain Parry, observing a small 'V. +V.' in the corner. + +Two or three marks of blood stained it, as though the lip, nose, or ear +had slightly bled. + +'What does it betoken?' said Captain Parry, looking at the handkerchief, +and speaking softly, as though to himself. 'If it is a memorial, why, +in God's name, should it come to me blood-stained?' + +They got the boat aboard; all hands, including Parry, pulling and +hauling at the tackles. When she was chocked, a course was shaped for +the derelict brig, according to the indication of the masthead man. It +was a time of thrilling anxiety for Parry. The handkerchief was no +warrant that the girl had been in the boat. They might have bound her, +and drowned her at the side of the schooner, and yet a handkerchief of +hers might have found its way into the boat. The handkerchief, then, +proved nothing. Nevertheless, Parry found a sinister significance in the +blood-marks. Was not this blood-stained token most tragically +portentous, as the only relic or memorial of his love that the sea had +to offer him? He looked at it, and in the wildness of his heart he made +a meaning of it: it was a farewell to him, a message mute and eloquent; +it said to him that her father was slain, and that she was lost to him +for ever. Thus he stood interpreting the thing. + +Shortly after one o'clock the derelict was in view right ahead. The +telescope then easily resolved her. She was a small black brig, with her +lower masts standing and bowsprit gone. She sat tolerably high, but +rolled with the sickly sluggishness of the waterlogged hulk. As the +schooner approached, features of the wreck grew plain. She carried a +deck-load of timber, and her hold was evidently full of timber. By some +desperate gale she had been wrenched till her butts started, her strong +fastenings gave, her topmasts went, and the green seas rushing in, +drowned her into a lifelessness of helm. + +On board the schooner they could perceive no wreckage floating near. +What sufferings, obscure and horrible, was that little wreck +memorializing? The phantoms of the imagination peopled her. White-faced +men, dying in squatting postures, were upon the sea-broken deck-load of +timber. There was no captain, no command, the fingers of famine had +effaced distinctions. Then one would die with a groan, falling sideways +with his white eyes glazing to the sun; and another would mutter in +delirium, and call upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and motion with a +ghastly smile to his mother to make haste with the drink of water she +was bringing him. + +Phantoms or no phantoms, all were gone. The wreck lay apparently +lifeless, absolutely abandoned, a yawning frame, sodden by weeks of +washing to and fro. Thus it seemed to the eyes aboard the schooner as +she drew closer and closer to the desolate, mournful, storm-broken +fabric. + +'There may be rats in that vessel,' said the mate, with a countenance +made up of relief and extreme curiosity; 'but I don't see them, Captain +Parry, neither do I see anything else that's living.' + +'A ship has taken them off,' said Captain Parry, in a tone of hopeless +misery; 'and it may be months and years before I find out what is the +fate of Miss Vanderholt.' + +They were now within a musket-shot of the wreck. The yacht's way was +arrested, and she seemed to stand at gaze, with her people staring. The +long swell swung a dismal roll into the lifeless hull. A raffle of +rigging lay over her sides, and whenever she rolled away she tore this +gear up from the water as if it had been sea-plants whose roots were a +thousand fathoms deep; it rose hissing to the drag, and sank, like +baffled snakes, when she came wearily over again. It made the heart sick +to watch her, to figure one's self as alone upon her; the loose timbers +clattering through the long, black night, the dark water welling in sobs +alongside, the awful and soul-subduing spirit of stillness that lies in +the sea when its billows are silent, as though the hush in the central +heart of the profound rose like an emanation of wind or vapour, taking +the senses of the lonely one with the maddening undertones of spiritual +utterance. + +Mr. Blundell continued to view the wreck through a glass. Captain Parry +stood beside him with tightly-folded arms, death-white with grief and +the sickness of disappointment, and silent. + +'There is nobody aboard that vessel, sir.' + +'I fear not,' the captain answered in a low voice. + +'The only place where people could find shelter,' said the mate, 'is in +that little green deck-house. If there were eight men sitting in the +house, one would have seen us, and all have tumbled out long ago.' + +'The long-boat has told us the story,' said the captain. 'They have been +taken on board another vessel. Is Miss Vanderholt with them?' + +He started as to a sudden access of temper and determination, and said: + +'Blundell, give me two of your men, and lower that boat. I'll board the +brig. I may find something to give us a clue.' + +'Put one of the revolvers in your pocket, sir,' said Mr. Blundell. + +A boat was lowered, and two men and Captain Parry, armed, entered her. +All was lifeless aboard the wreck. It would have been ridiculous, then, +to suspect an ambush. She had old-fashioned channels, platforms by which +her lower rigging was extended and secured to dead-eyes. These platforms +remained. The hulk would souse them, hissing, and lift them seething and +streaming, but through long intervals they would sway dry with pendulum +regularity. + +'The main chains will be your only chance, sir,' said one of the +seamen. 'Am I to go on board with ye?' + +'If you will.' + +'Then, Tom, when we're out of it, shove off for God's sake, and keep her +clear of them chains. If they come down upon you, your life and the boat +ain't worth a drowned cockroach.' + +Watching his chance with great patience, Captain Parry sprang. He +stumbled; but a wild flourish of his arm brought his hand safely to an +iron belaying-pin in the rail above. He seized another hard by, and, +lifting his knees to the rail, gained the deck. + +He stood holding on. The peculiar jerky rolling of the hull threatened +to throw him, until a minute or two of sympathetic feeling _into_ the +life of the fabric should have put some government of it into his legs. +The sailor had easily followed. + +Captain Parry was looking at the forepart of the vessel, which was a +horrible litter and muddle of heaped-up timber and smashed caboose, when +his companion muttered in his ear in a low growl: + +'My God, master, there's a living man!' + +A living man it was, standing right in the door of the deck-house. He +was a seaman, and carried a strange face to those who looked at him, +though one might have said he should be familiar enough to anybody +belonging to the schooner _Mowbray_. He was James Jones, the boatswain +of the yacht. His cheeks were gaunt and grimy, and his eyes blazed in +their hollows. His hair lay in streaks over his ears, and down the back +of his head, as though to repeated greasy tuggings and pullings. He was +without his coat, and his great muscular arms were bare to above the +elbow. + +Captain Parry recoiled a step, thrusting his hand into the pocket where +the pistol lay. He suspected this man to be one of the eight, and that +the seven would burst out in a minute. + +'I'm damned if ye ain't come just in the nick of time!' said Jones; and +his grin, and exhibition of yellow fangs, and his dirty skin and flaming +eyes, made his face horrible. 'I tell ye what I've just found out. There +ain't no death! "How do I know that?" says you. Why, ye see, a man +ain't dead till he dies, and when he's dead death ain't got no existence +for him. D'ye see it?' said he with an inimitable leer. + +Captain Parry saw that he was mad, but in the moment of detecting this +he observed something more. Behind the madman, looking over his +shoulders, stood Miss Vanderholt. She was robed in white, and wore a +small straw hat. She was pale, as though exhausted, perhaps from the +want of food or drink; otherwise, but for her impassioned transforming +gaze, she looked as though she had but now come with Captain Parry to +view the wreck. + +'Oh, Violet, my dear one! Violet, I have found you!' cried Parry, and he +rushed towards her. + +She shrieked, standing still and clasping her hands, and looking up to +God. + +'There's no admission 'ere!' roared the madman, barricading the door by +extending his arms. 'This is a royal yacht. Why don't you cast your eyes +aloft and view the Royal Standard a-flying? The Princess Victoria is +within. Didn't I know her gracious mother, the Duchess? I'm an English +sailor, and I'm loyal to my native country. God save the King!' + +Saying which, he turned and bowed with every mark of profound veneration +to Miss Vanderholt. + +'Let me pass, man!' cried Captain Parry, pulling out his revolver and +hustling the powerful fellow. + +'Hide it!' screamed Violet; 'he is mad! He has been kind to me! Oh, my +God! George, am I dreaming? Is it you in the flesh, or am I mad, too?' + +She put her hands to her eyes, and reeled to a stanchion, against which +she leaned. The madman continued to barricade the door, both huge arms +extended. + +'Look here,' cried Parry, almost as mad as the seaman he confronted, +with impatience, infuriated by this hellish lunatic obstruction, wild to +clasp the girl, whose reel and motion of hands had stabbed his heart; +'we want to get at this young lady at once, to take her on board yonder +schooner. Make way, for God's sake! I'll hear all about your views on +death when we're comfortable aboard that vessel.' + +'There's no blooming man,' shouted the madman, 'a-going to approach the +Princess Victoria without falling down upon his bended knees and +crawling to her feet, as the custom is at St. James's Palace!' + +Miss Vanderholt went into hysterics. She shrieked with laughter; she +sobbed as if her heart was breaking. + +'I think you'd better go down upon your knees, sir,' said the sailor who +had accompanied Parry. 'Here, my lad,' said he, crooking his finger into +a fish-hook at the man, 'you just make way for the gent to crawl to her +Gracious 'Ighness, and whilst he's kow-towing, give me that there yarn +of yourn about death.' + +He winked at the captain, who sank upon his knees. The scene was +grotesque, tragic, extraordinary. The boatswain watched the figure of +the captain with fiery suspicion whilst he passed on all fours through +the door of the deck-house. Miss Vanderholt was still in hysterics. + +'Damn the ruffian! I can't stand it!' shouted the captain, and he sprang +to his feet and clasped the girl. + +But the madman had begun to state his queer paradox with fearful +earnestness to the seaman, who had fixed him with a stare, and was, with +singular judgment in a common fool of a drunken sailor, drawing him out +of sight of the couple. + +Miss Vanderholt lay in her lover's arms, weeping and laughing; but a few +kisses and murmurs of devotion produced a very good effect. She +controlled herself, and then they were able to talk in swift questions +and eager answers. Outside the madman continued to argue with the sailor +on the subject of death. + +'There ain't no death!' he roared, with all the strength of his throat. +'D'ye call it a good job, mate? Here stands the man as has got rid of +the terror of the world. Hark you, bully! Ye can turn in now without +fearing to die. It'll do away with prayers, for there ain't no death!' + +Thus he raved, whilst inside, the girl, in the embrace of her +sweetheart, talked in a score of feverish questions and answers. She was +white, but clearly not from want of food. Up in a corner of the +deck-house stood a little load of tins of meat and biscuit, removed +from the _Mowbray's_ hold by her revolted men. In another corner was the +long-boat's big breaker, and a pannikin at hand for a drink. + +'Let's get away from this wreck,' said Parry, clasping the girl's hand. +'Yet, what a wonderful meeting!' he cried, devouring her with his eyes. +'What a miraculous deliverance! Oh, the hand of God is in it, and I am +grateful--I am grateful!' + +They moved towards the door, and the madman saw them coming. + +'Look here,' he cried, making for them in a jump or two, with an air so +menacing that Parry's hand instantly sought his pistol. 'No man walks +alongside the Princess Victoria aboard this Royal yacht. Her 'Ighness +the Duchess taught me how to behave myself in the eye of Royalty when I +was a young un, and this is how it's done,' said he, giving Captain +Parry a shove that drove him some feet from Miss Vanderholt; then, +stepping in front of the girl, he bowed low, with all those marks of +abject veneration which had distinguished his former obeisance, and +saying, 'If your Royal 'Ighness will now step out,' he moved backwards. + +But a long plank lay athwart his path; the captain and the seaman saw +what was to happen; the madman fell heavily backwards over it. + +'Bring the boat alongside, Jim!' bawled the sailor. 'This is the Ryle +yacht. See the Standard a-flying? The Princess Victoria is aboard, and +we've got to back her into the boat according to the custom of the Court +of St. James's Palace.' + +The boatswain was up again, and, flourishing his hand, he cried: + +'Right!' + +'You leave him to me, sir,' said the sailor, with a half-wink at Captain +Parry, who was absolutely at a loss. + +He would not for a million have shot the unhappy madman, and yet he +durst not approach Miss Vanderholt whilst that huge and brawny lunatic +watched him. + +The seaman in the boat concluded that his shipmate had lost his mind. + +'What the blooming blazes,' he thought to himself, 'is Bill a-jawing +about, with his Ryle yachts and Ryle Standards?' + +And he looked right up into the sky. + +'Stand by now, Tom, to receive her Ryle 'Ighness!' shouted the sailor, +with a glance at the madman. 'As her 'Ighness must go first, there's no +harm, I hope,' said he, 'in her walking face foremost?' + +'She always do,' shouted the boatswain. 'Bow her to the rail, and hand +her over.' + +Nothing could have been better. The swell gave them a good deal of +trouble, but two of them were sailors, and presently Miss Vanderholt was +in the boat. Captain Parry sprang into the chains, and, watching his +opportunity, leapt, and was by his sweetheart's side in a minute. + +The madman overhung the rails, staring greedily. He knuckled his brow as +one who would drive a pain out of his brain, then began to laugh when +Captain Parry jumped into the boat. + +'Bring him along, Bill. You lay he'll know what to do!' cried the sailor +in the boat. + +'Her Ryle 'Ighness commands you to attend her, sir,' said the seaman. +'Step right over the side into the chains, and don't jump back'ards.' + +The boatswain drew himself stiffly erect, and, after gazing aloft at the +vision of the Standard, which blew in rich folds under the swelling +clouds to his insane eye, he exclaimed: + +'Who's going to look after her Royal 'Ighness's yacht if I leave her?' + +'She'll lie quiet enough, mate, till you return,' said the sailor. +'Hark! Her Ryle 'Ighness is a-calling of you.' + +'Pray attend upon me! I command your presence in this boat!' cried the +girl in the loudest, most imperious voice her condition would permit her +to manage. + +The poor creature bowed low over the rail, then in silence dropped into +the chains, followed by the sailor, and in a minute or two both were +seated in the boat. + +All went quietly. The boatswain shifted restlessly in his seat, with a +grin of stupefaction. His burning eyes rolled over the _Mowbray_, and +again and again he pulled his hair with hands that sweated like tallow. + +Miss Vanderholt's first exclamation, when she was handed over the side, +was, 'My father! my poor father!' And she began to cry. The dreadful +scene rose before her mental vision, and she shook with old sensations +of terror. + +Captain Parry, passing his arm through hers, gently and tenderly led her +below. She had been too much moved to address Mr. Blundell, and for a +little while she needed the privacy of the cabin and her lover's +company. Presently, whilst they sat below, she told Captain Parry the +story of the mutiny, and her adventures down to this hour. + +It seems that some of the men were for going away at once in the +long-boat, after scuttling the yacht; others were for letting her lie +afloat; but all were agreed that she must be abandoned. Then Miss +Vanderholt found out that they were undecided what they should do with +her. Most of them, she gathered, were for leaving her in the yacht, to +take her chance of being picked up. + +'Why not?' said they. 'We can shorten sail for her before we leave. We +can lash the helm amidships. She's got plenty to eat and drink. She +can't come to hurt in these waters, and is bound to be rescued.' + +But the boatswain, who had grown ferocious in temper, and had manifested +many symptoms of insanity, swore that she should not be abandoned to her +fate. She was an Englishwoman; he was an English seaman. By God! he +would brain any man who talked of leaving the poor young lady alone to +wash about in the schooner. + +She told Captain Parry that this Jones overawed the men, and they seemed +to treat him as though his madness made him superior to themselves. They +all left in the long-boat. The boatswain next morning went quite mad, +and took Miss Vanderholt to be the Princess Victoria. He bowed humbly to +her in the boat; he would sometimes kneel to her. He whipped a straw hat +off a man's head to shade her with. + +His hallucination was, fortunately, a sober one. He supposed the men to +be the crew of the cutter of some Royal yacht or other, and himself in +command, seeking the vessel that her Gracious Highness, as he frequently +called her, might sail round the world. A man cut his finger in opening +a tin, and the young lady gave him her handkerchief to bind the wound. +He left it in the boat. + +When they fell in with the derelict they were exhausted with the +scorching heat and the exposure by night, and determined to take shelter +and rest aboard, and signal for help, if help should heave into view. +They emptied the long-boat; but that same evening of their entering the +derelict, about an hour before sundown, a small brigantine leisurely +came flapping down upon them, and seven men entered the long-boat and +rowed for her, leaving the boatswain and the young lady to their fate. + +Not until long afterwards was it discovered that this brigantine was a +Frenchman, that her crew had mutinied, and sent her captain and mate +adrift, and that, though they perceived the figures of the boatswain and +the young lady on the brig, yet, on the _Mowbray's_ men telling them +that one could bear witness to the mutiny, and that the other was a +dangerous madman, they put their helm up and sailed away. + +Before the set of sun the _Mowbray_ was heeling to a fresh breeze; every +cloth that could draw was driving her cutwater through it, and her +clipper-stem rose the white brine raving to her hawse-pipes. She seemed, +like those on board, to have got the scent, and to know that she was +going home. + + +THE END. + + +BILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD. + +[Illustration: Decoration] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Last Entry, by William Clark Russell + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST ENTRY *** + +***** This file should be named 44546.txt or 44546.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/5/4/44546/ + +Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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