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diff --git a/old/55721-8.txt b/old/55721-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 72d5167..0000000 --- a/old/55721-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5379 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Under Rocking Skies, by L. Frank Tooker - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: Under Rocking Skies - -Author: L. Frank Tooker - -Release Date: October 9, 2017 [EBook #55721] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNDER ROCKING SKIES *** - - - - -Produced by David E. Brown and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - -UNDER ROCKING SKIES - - - - -[Illustration: "There was a twinkle in Captain March's eyes"] - - - - - UNDER - ROCKING SKIES - - BY - L. FRANK TOOKER - - AUTHOR OF - "THE CALL OF THE SEA," ETC. - - [Illustration] - - NEW YORK - THE CENTURY CO. - 1905 - - - - - Copyright, 1905, by - THE CENTURY CO. - - _Published October, 1905_ - - _COLONIAL PRESS - Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co. - Boston, U.S.A._ - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - - PAGE - - "THERE WAS A TWINKLE IN CAPTAIN MARCH'S EYES" _Frontispiece_ - - "THE BRIG WAS SLIDING DOWN THE SEAS LIKE A - BOY LET LOOSE FROM SCHOOL" 63 - - "'_YOU_ WILL NEED THE PATIENCE,' SHE SAID" 113 - - "THEY HEARD HIM WHISTLING FOR A WIND" 141 - - "THERE CAME A 'SMOOTH,' AND THE BOAT SHOT IN" 195 - - "'KEEP 'EM GOING! DON'T LET 'EM SLACK UP A BIT!'" 255 - - - - -UNDER ROCKING SKIES - - - - -UNDER ROCKING SKIES - - - - -I - -For a quarter of an hour Thomas Medbury had been standing at the east -window of his mother's parlor, gazing out across his neighbor's yard -with an eager intentness that betrayed a surprising absorption in a -landscape without striking features and wholly lacking in any human -interest. The low-studded room in which he stood was closely shut and -darkened, having about it the musty smell peculiar to old houses. There -were sea-fans before the fireplace, flanked on each side by polished -conch-shells. On the wall hung an oil-painting of the brig _North -Star_, with all sail set, and at her foretruck a white burgee, with -her name in red letters, standing straight out in half a gale of wind. -Family portraits in oval gilt frames were ranged with mathematical -precision along the remaining wall-spaces, and on the mantelpiece stood -a curious collection of objects brought from far lands--carved ivories -and strange ware from China, peculiar shells, a Japanese short sword, -and a South Pacific war-club. No one would have needed to be told that -it was the home of a sailor. - -Indeed, a keen observer might have guessed it from the young man -himself. He was tall and broad-shouldered, and bronzed to the color of -overripe wheat. His eyes had the steady, far-seeing look of the seaman, -but were not yet marked about by the crow's-feet that the glare of the -sun on the sea brings early in life. It was, moreover, a strong face, -straightforward and pleasant, and irradiated by an almost boyish -eagerness. - -Suddenly he leaned forward with quickened interest as the door of his -neighbor's house opened, and there stepped forth a short, stout man -of sixty, who stood a moment for a last word and then hurried down -the boxwood-lined path. He, too, was clearly a sailor: he walked with -his feet far apart, like a man so habituated to the rolling deck that -it seemed a waste of time and energy to alter his gait on the rare -occasions when he trod the firm ground. Medbury perceived that his -face wore a look of placid satisfaction, and with the tightening of -the lines of his own to an unspoken resolution, he hurried through -the house and across the yard, and, vaulting the low dividing fence, -approached his neighbor's back door. - -He lifted the latch without knocking, and at once came face to face -with a wet-eyed young woman standing at a table and listlessly cutting -out sugar-cookies with a tin mold. A child of four, leaning against -her, reached eagerly for the cutter, and a boy of ten sat near the -stove, softly crying. - -"Annie," said Medbury, abruptly, "where's Bob? I want to see him." - -"He's up-stairs, packing. He's going out with Cap'n Joel March," said -the young woman, tragically. The boy by the stove broke into a wail, -and she turned sharply toward him. - -"Do stop it, Bobbie!" she exclaimed. Then she walked toward the door to -call her husband. - -She returned at once, her husband, tall, brown, and wiry, walking -behind her with the subdued step of a culprit who feels that by -stepping softly, smiling unobtrusively, and gainsaying no man, he may -escape, through his humility, what he deserves for his misconduct. His -good-natured face lighted up at sight of Medbury. - -"Bob," said Medbury, without other prelude than a nod, "I want you to -do me a favor: don't go out this trip with Cap'n Joel." - -The other smiled uncertainly and seated himself. - -"Why, that's a funny thing to ask, Tom," he said wonderingly. "Annie's -been at me, of course; but I don't see what odds it makes to you. It's -a good berth, and it don't seem right to let the chance go by. Besides, -I've promised the old man. I can't back out now." - -"But he promised _me_ he'd stay home a spell," broke in his wife. "He -thinks that's nothing. He's just got home, after being away eleven -months. Why, baby didn't know him!" - -Under the concentrated gaze of her elders, the child contemplated her -father as a blinking puppy might have looked at an object that, from -being unfamiliar and terrifying, had gradually become an accepted but -still unexplained phenomenon. But presently she turned to Medbury. - -"Him gived me a pen-n-y," she said, with a serene gravity that seemed -to concern itself with the fact as a historical statement rather than -as a personal gratification. - -Medbury seized her and tossed her, giggling, in his arms. - -"He did, did he?" he exclaimed. "Well, he doesn't deserve to have -another if he can't stay home and get acquainted with you." He seated -himself, and, with the child snuggling against him, turned to her -father again. - -"It's a shame, Bob, after promising Annie. Mother says she hasn't -talked about anything for six months except your coming home for a -while. She said you were going to paint the house and fix things up, -and she's been running around asking everybody about the best kind of -paint, and planning where to set out shrubs and make flower-beds, and -dig up a little garden for the children. And now you run off at the -first chance!" - -"Why, I don't see why you take it so to heart, Tom," said Bob, smiling, -but a little grieved. He felt they ought to feel that he did it only -for the best. - -"Well, I'll tell you why: I want to go myself. I asked Cap'n Joel to -take me, but he wouldn't hear to it. Now, if he can't get anybody else, -he's bound to let me go in the end." - -Bob looked at him in amazement. - -"Why, you're going to have the new bark! What do you care for--" Then -all at once his face broke into a comprehending grin. "Oh, I see," he -added. He sat for a moment smiling down at the floor. "All right, Tom," -he said, looking up at last. "I'll do it. I wouldn't for anybody else. -I really didn't want to go, but I felt I ought to. But what I'm going -to say to the old man--" He looked at them with a troubled face. - -"Nothing," replied Medbury, promptly. He turned to the boy, who -was listening eagerly, the new hope of keeping his father at home -brightening his tear-stained cheeks. "Bobbie, go over and tell my -mother you want my fish-lines; then run up to Cap'n March's and tell -him your father can't go, after all. And hurry right back; your -father's going to take you fishing." - -The boy went out of the door and over the fence with a wild whoop of -unrestrained joy. Medbury caught up a hat and put it on his friend's -head. - -"You'll find my boat under Simeon's shop; everything's in her," he -told him. "We'll send Bobbie right down. And hurry; the tide's right -for fishing now. You want to get right off." He laughed boyishly. Then -he gently pushed Bob toward the door and watched him going down the -street. - -"Well, that's done," he said to Annie, and stepped outside, with his -hand still holding the latch. Suddenly he looked back. "Annie," he -said, "tell Bob I want him to go out with me as mate when the bark's -finished. Of course that's six months away; but tell him to keep it in -mind." With that he hurriedly closed the door. - -The boy returned, and followed his father, and five minutes later -Captain March turned in at the gate. His face was no longer placid, -but wore a look of annoyance. Medbury, watching him, saw him go away -a moment later, hurrying toward the harbor, taking shorter steps than -usual, and biting his bearded under lip in his perplexity. - -"Seems kind o' mean to bother the old fellow," Medbury said to himself, -looking troubled. He shook the feeling off as he added: "I guess it's -for his good. Now he'll look up Davis; he's the only man he can get." - -As he passed out of his gate, Annie called to him from her doorway. She -was smiling. - -"I wish you good luck, Tom." - -"Thank you, Annie," he replied. "Don't tell about this." - -She shook her head and laughed. - -"Not till it comes out all right," she promised. - -John Davis was sitting in the shipyard watching the carpenters setting -up a stern-post for a new vessel, and there the captain found him. -Medbury, watching them, saw them go away together; but at the corner of -the Shore Road and Main street they separated. - -Half-way up High street, Medbury caught up with Davis. - -"You're walking fast, John," he said. - -"Just shipped with Cap'n Joel," Davis replied, not slacking his gait, -but rather increasing it, as befitted a little man, sensitive as to his -size, when walking with a long-legged companion. - -"That's what I wanted to see you about," Medbury told him. "You're not -going." He smiled, but he glanced uneasily at Davis out of the corners -of his eyes. - -Davis stopped and looked at him. He was a middle-aged man with a red -beard and an uncertain temper, and now he stared at Medbury with -flushing face. Then he broke into a laugh. - -"I ain't, eh?" he demanded good-naturedly. "I'd like to know why not." - -Medbury smiled and laid his hand on the other's shoulder. - -"Because I want to go myself, John," he replied. "I've _got_ to go." - -Davis stared at him with dropping jaw. - -"You!" - -"That's what I said," Medbury replied. - -For a moment Davis stood grinning uncertainly; then he looked up. - -"Where's the joke?" he asked. "Blamed if I see it." - -"It's no joke," said Medbury, patiently. "I've _got_ to go. I can't -tell why--just now; but some day I may." - -Davis gazed up and down the street with an abstracted air; but all at -once he drew himself together and exclaimed: - -"Well, I'll be--" He broke off suddenly, and, turning sharply, began to -walk back to the village. - -"Where are you going?" asked Medbury, still standing in the road. - -Over his shoulder Davis answered laconically: - -"To tell the ol' man I can't go." He did not stop. - -"It's mighty good of you, John," Medbury called humbly. "I'll make it -up to you somehow--see if I don't." - -"Make it up!" cried Davis, stopping in the road. "I don't want nothin' -made up. You made it up, years ago, when you got me out of that affair -in Para. You didn't ask no questions that night; nor when you run -across our bar in that no'theaster to fish up my boy when his boat -capsized. I don't know what you're up to, and I don't care. It's all -right." He waved his hand lightly, as if to dismiss all obligations, -and departed in search of Captain March. - -But half a dozen steps away, Medbury heard him laugh, and turned to see -him standing in the road, looking back. - -"Just this minute saw what you was aimin' at," he called to Medbury. -"Well, good luck to you!" And, grinning to himself, he went his way. - -"Now," thought Medbury, "if Cap'n March'll only keep his eyes open for -the rest of the day, I guess he's not going to miss seeing me. I shall -be near, but not too near. Only I wish I knew of something to hurry -him up before too many people laugh and wish me luck." - -Fate, in the hands of a woman, was to do that for him. - - - - -II - - -With something of the serene imperturbability that was a part of -his habitual attitude toward life, the Rev. Robert Drew sat in a -rocking-chair on the little porch of his house and, slowly rocking, -looked out across the waters of the placid bay while he awaited Captain -March's summons. For twenty-four hours he had scarcely stirred from -home, that he might be in instant readiness for departure on the coming -of the captain's messenger; but the messenger still tarried, and the -_Henrietta C. March_, lying quietly at anchor off the harbor with her -mainsail up, seemed no nearer to sailing than she had been the day -before. - -It was early in March--March that had come in like a lamb and now -lay drowsing under a sun that hourly reddened the buds and gleamed -white on the salt-meadows and the shining boles of trees. There were -bird-calls at intervals; barnyard fowls sunned themselves in garden -spaces and sent up cloudy veils of dust: the life of the earth was -awakening. Drew could see dark specks about the harbor's mouth: he knew -that the boats had begun to go out for flatfish. The thought of even -that mild activity moved him to impatience, and, getting to his feet, -he walked to an open window and looked in. - -"Mother," he said, "I'm going to find Captain March and get some reason -from him why he doesn't sail. He can get a good mate, I hear; I don't -understand his delaying. I'm tired of it. If he isn't going, I wish to -know it, and arrange for a vacation elsewhere." - -"Very well, Robert." His mother looked up brightly. Her son as an -instrument of strenuous aggressiveness amused her. She had the sense -of humor, which he had not inherited, and it was this sense that lured -her on to add: "Don't say anything that you may regret." - -"Oh, no," he answered gravely, and went away, leaving her to the silent -laughter that always seemed to him, whenever he was a witness of it, as -something peculiarly elusive and almost pagan. - -In all Blackwater there was no cooler spot than Myron Beckwith's -boat-shop. Facing the Shore Road, and standing on piles, with big -sliding doors opening at each end, on a hot summer afternoon one could -always find a cool breeze drawing through it and hear the water lapping -about the piles beneath the floor. The panorama of village life passed -by on the Shore Road, and at the back doors one could sit and watch all -the activity of harbor and wharves and see the vessels going up and -down the sound. To sailors ashore and to idlers in general it was an -attractive spot. Here Drew found Captain March standing in a little -group near the rear doors, ruminating on life. - -"No," he was saying, "things go best by contraries. A sailor ought -to marry a girl from the inboard, who doesn't know a scow from a -full-rigged ship and is just a little scart at sight of salt water. -A man like the dominie here," he added, as Drew halted by the group, -"ought to marry a girl who's never been under conviction and has got a -spice of old Satan in her. That's what gives 'em variety and keeps 'em -interested. When you know just what you're going to have for your meals -every day, you kind o' lose interest in your eating." - -"Dominie," said Jehiel Dace, "you ought to get the cap'n to supply -your pulpit while you're off on your vacation. He's a good deal of a -preacher." - -"I have other uses for him," said Drew, with a smile. - -"'Twouldn't be a bad notion if we'd all change places now and then," -replied the captain. "We'd appreciate each other better. I don't -know but I could preach about as well as the dominie could run the -_Henrietta C._ I ain't so sure about the prayers. One thing, there's -several in that congregation I'd like to talk at." - -"Nothin' to hender you from freein' your mind as it is," suggested -Dace, brightening at the prospect. "You don't need no pulpit for that." - -There was a twinkle in Captain March's eyes, but he shook his head. - -"No," he said with an air of finality, "it wouldn't be official. Wisdom -has got to have authority to give it weight. Otherwise it's just blamed -impudence." - -"That's so," admitted Dace; "that's a good deal so. See what a man will -take from his wife without--" - -Captain March turned suddenly. - -"There he comes!" he exclaimed, and gazed steadily through the open -window. - -All eyes, turning in the same direction, saw a horseman galloping down -the Mount Horeb road. He descended the hill, was lost to sight behind -the rigging-loft, flashed past a bit of the Shore Road, and was hidden -again for a moment while they heard the thunder of his horse's feet on -the mill-creek bridge. Captain March seated himself and, with knees -wide apart, faced the land-side door. - -In front of the shop a boy threw himself from a panting horse. He -walked straight up to Captain March, and in much the same manner that a -courier might announce defeat to a king, said: - -"He can't come. His wife's sick, he says. He can't come." - -"That settles it," said the captain. "I heard Simeon Macy was ashore, -and I thought maybe I could get him for mate. Now I've got to go to -the city this afternoon and look one up." - -No one spoke, but every man in the group except the captain and -Drew thought of Thomas Medbury, and wondered how far a man might be -justified in letting personal reasons override necessity when his -vessel was loaded and ready for sea. - -Dace was the first to break the silence. - -"As I was sayin'," he remarked, "speakin' of wives--" - -Some one touched Drew on the shoulder and he turned quickly. It was -Deacon Taylor, anxious to talk over again the debated subject of a new -heater for the church. When Drew was again free the captain was gone. - -"Where did the captain go?" he asked. - -"My wisdom touchin' wives reminded him that his had sent him on an -errant," answered Dace. "He went to the market. I suppose by now he's -tryin' to explain to his wife how he happened to be three hours late -with the meat for dinner." - -At the market Drew was told that Captain March had gone home. When, -after a momentary hesitation, Drew had gone thither, it was only to -find Mrs. March sitting by a window, apparently watching for her -recreant husband. - -"And he wanted roast beef for dinner," sadly remarked that good lady -after she had told the minister that she knew no more about her -husband's whereabouts than she knew where Moses was buried. She turned -her face from him for an instant. - -"It is twelve o'clock, lacking seventeen minutes," she added in a tone -that suggested the tragic stage. Drew hurried away. - -When, after a hopeless search for the missing mariner, he wended his -way homeward half an hour later, he smiled to himself as he wondered if -it was not just as well: he could not for his life tell what he could -have said to urge the captain to sail. At his gate he came face to face -with a breathless small boy. - -"Mr. Drew," he gasped, "Cap'n March he says--he says--you be -at--Myron's boat-shop--boat-shop by half-past one--yes, sir. He's goin' -to sail." Then he disappeared. - -In wonder Drew hastened up to his house, to find his mother kneeling on -the floor and strapping a satchel. - -"I've just put some crullers and a glass of jelly in your bag," she -told him, without turning. "I don't suppose you'll get a thing that -tastes like real cooking. And I put your winter flannels in, too. It -will be cold nights, and you will sit out on deck and get chilled -through. Now come to dinner." - -"I don't understand this sudden haste," said Drew, as he took his seat -at the table. "I saw the captain an hour ago, and he showed no signs -of any impatience to be off. It seems too good to be true." - -Mrs. Drew laughed. - -"He says the same of you," she told him. "But if you really get away -you owe it to your mother. I am the god out of the machine--I. I was -tying up the flowering-currant bush by the fence, and Captain March -came by. He was hurrying, my dear. I never saw him hurry before. What -do sailors say--rolling both scuppers under? Yes; it was like that. -I called to him and asked him if he had seen my son. Yes, he had. -Then I told him that if he didn't sail soon you would need a second -vacation to recover from the nervous strain of waiting for this one to -begin. I let him know how you had done nothing for two days but sit by -your baggage and start at every sound. I told him, too, that you were -constantly worrying lest something should happen to keep you at home -at the last minute; so the sooner you got away the better." - -"Oh, mother! mother!" protested Drew, smiling. - -"Oh, I put it strongly--trust me for that. He said he had seen you, -but you had said nothing. I knew it would be like that. Oh, you were -two Buddhas sitting under the sacred Bo-tree, contemplating eternity. -Isn't that what the Buddha is supposed to do? You were like that, you -two, anyway. Well, he explained everything. He told me that two men -had promised to go out with him as mate, but changed their minds. He -thought it queer. Another asked to go, but, for personal reasons, he -didn't want him. But as soon as he knew just how you felt he said he'd -go right off for this man. I thought it very good of him. I hope the -man isn't a rough character. But, Robert, you didn't tell me that his -wife and daughter are going." She looked at her son reproachfully. - -"Whose wife and daughter? I can't follow you," he said. - -"The captain's, of course." - -"I believe he did mention the fact that his wife and little girl -were going, but it made no impression on me," Drew told her. "I have -scarcely thought of it since." - -"His little girl! Robert, haven't you ever seen her?" - -"No, mother." - -"Well, I suppose you knew of her, though they don't attend your -church." Then she changed the subject with an abruptness that was so -characteristic that Drew's thoughts slipped away from the question -he had been about to ask. "But, do you know," she said, "I think he -decided to go partly because he forgot his meat for dinner and he's -afraid of that round, good-natured-looking little wife of his. His -hurry to get away now looks as if he'd been too busy finding a mate to -get home earlier. He told me about it with an intimate chuckle that -seemed to take me right into his family closet and introduce me to the -skeleton." - -As Drew made his way through Beckwith's boat-shop half an hour later -and stopped at the wide sliding doors at the rear, a large yawl was -lying at the float. Three sailors sat on the thwarts, leaning forward -with the characteristic rounded shoulders and relaxed look of idle -seamen. Up the long plank walk from the boat hurried a tall, beardless -young man of twenty-eight or thirty. He walked with a swinging gait, -his shoulders were well back, and his face wore the look of one whose -thoughts were pleasant. - -He glanced from Drew to his baggage, then back to Drew again, and -smiled, showing firm white teeth. - -"Mr. Drew?" His voice suggested a query, but went on again immediately, -without waiting for an answer: "Tumble in. The old man's gone aboard. -He wouldn't wait." - -He paused while Drew gathered up his baggage, but did not offer to -assist. The American seaman is no burden-bearer for other men. - -The sailors in the boat turned incurious faces as they heard the two -draw near, then quickly rose and held the yawl to the float till they -were seated in the stern-sheets. In silence the oarsmen then took their -places, shipped their oars, and at Medbury's word sped away. - -Drew looked at his watch as they pulled away from the float. - -"It's not yet the hour Captain March set for leaving," he said. "I hope -I did not misunderstand it." - -"Oh, that's the old man's way," replied the other, lightly. "Now that -he's really off, he can't hurry fast enough--had to get Myron to take -him out in a sailboat while I was to wait for you." - -"Are you a Blackwater man?" asked Drew, later. - -"Born here, and my father and grandfather before me. I guess that makes -me a Blackwater man, all right. My name's Medbury. You know my mother; -she goes to your church." - -Drew's face brightened. - -"Yes, indeed. Now I understand why I've never seen you," he said. "Your -mother told me that you had not been home for more than two years. I've -not been here so long. She is very cheerful in her loneliness; I often -stop in to talk to her." - -"Yes," answered Medbury, soberly; "she told me. It does her lots of -good. She thinks a great deal of you." He paused a moment, and then -said: "I've promised her to take no more long voyages. She's getting -old, and I'm all she's got." - -"That's good," said Drew, heartily. He was very fond of the -bright-faced old woman who had lived to see the covetous ocean take all -but her youngest boy, and was quite prepared to like her son for her -sake. - - - - -III - - -The _Henrietta C. March_ was a brig of five hundred tons burden, and -was bound for Santa Cruz in the West Indies; and Captain March had -stopped off his home port to take aboard his wife and daughter and -Drew, who had been given a long vacation by his church. The mate of the -brig had been taken suddenly ill, and for two days the captain had been -trying to get a man to fill his place. - -It was with an impression of almost Crusoe-like loneliness that Drew -found himself upon the deck when they reached the brig at last, and -the mate, with the crew at his heels, had gone forward to swing the -boat to her place on the center-house, and then to the windlass to -heave the chain short. Drew set his baggage down on the deck and, -walking forward, watched the men heaving at the windlass, the jar and -clank of which filled the vessel. On the quarter-deck the captain, in -his shirt-sleeves and wearing a shapeless brown hat, walked back and -forth, occasionally glancing aloft at the fly, which was beginning -to straighten out in the freshening southwest breeze. His wife and -daughter were nowhere in sight. - -The clank of the windlass grew slower and slower as the cable -shortened, and every moment or two Medbury glanced over the bow. -Finally he raised his hand above his head, and the men came trooping -down from the forecastle-deck, some going aloft to loosen sails and -others going to various stations with a businesslike directness that -seemed to Drew to be under the guidance of wordless intuition. He -stood leaning against the fore-rigging as two came toward him with -the unseeing look of men who, having a duty to perform, recognize no -obstacle, and, gently pushing him aside, began to throw to the deck the -coils of running rigging against which he had been leaning. He moved -from place to place, always finding himself in the way and being pushed -aside with the silent directness that seemed purely impersonal, until -at last, throwing off his coat, he began to pull with the rest. In -silence they made place for him. For a time he found his hands catching -awkwardly at halyards and braces and slipping over and under other -harder hands; then at last he caught the swing, and his body rose and -sank with the bodies of the others, and his breathing came heavily and -thickened with theirs. The minister had found himself. - -It was not until the brig slowly paid off, heeling before the fresh -breeze, and the outward-bound song began its chant about her forefoot, -that he gathered up his baggage and went aft. Captain March was at the -wheel. - -"Go right down and make yourself to home," he said. "They'll show -you your room. I declare, you take a hold like an old hand. We'll be -sending you aloft in a few days." - -Drew smiled, but shook his head. - -"No," he said; "I shall stick to the deck." - -As he went down the companionway and stepped across the cabin, he saw -the round little form of Mrs. March kneeling before a locker in what -was to be his room. She turned her head at the sound of his footsteps. - -"I thought I'd tidy your room up a bit," she told him. "Gracious -knows, it needs it. You'd think it started out as a carpenter shop or -sail-loft, but got discouraged and ended up just plain litter. I guess -Cap'n March has left house-cleaning out of his almanac. And he said -this room was clean!" - -"Oh, I am sure it will do nicely, Mrs. March," Drew replied. "My mother -says I'm fond of a comfortable disorder." - -"I guess men are all alike in that," she said: "they like a -clutter--they think it's having things handy. But I hope you'll excuse -my back," she went on. "I was just telling my daughter that I was -almost ashamed to show my face to you. There I was scolding about Cap'n -March being so late, when all the time you and he were so anxious to -get off and he scurrying around to find a mate. I declare, sometimes it -seems as if the good Lord didn't do his best by women when he gave them -tongues. They're like drums to little children--make a dreadful noise -and keep them from better things." - -Drew smiled. It seemed clear that the captain had used some latitude in -explaining his late return home. Meanwhile Mrs. March was backing out -of the room. - -"There," she said; "it's in a sort of order, if you don't look too -close." - -Ten minutes later Drew came out into the cabin, having put away his -belongings. - -"I am sure the room couldn't be better, Mrs. March," he said. "It seems -to me delightfully cozy and neat." - -Mrs. March shook her head and smiled as she said: - -"I'd 'a' been better satisfied if you hadn't mentioned its being so -nice. I've noticed this about men folks, that when things suit them, -they don't notice them. When Cap'n March talks and acts like a man -right out of the Bible, I'm sure he's been up to mischief, or else has -something unpleasant on his mind, one." - -Drew laughed as he replied: - -"Then I'm going to cultivate wise silences, Mrs. March. I'll give you -the impression of a man walking in a dream. I have come on this voyage -to learn things; you are not letting me lose any time." - -"Oh, if you came to learn things, you'll be wasting time by talking -with the rest of us: you must go to my daughter here. She's been -called to that, you know--to teach all men and nations." Her voice -held a curious note: pride, resentment, anxiety, all seemed to marshal -themselves in the words. - -"Mother!" - -Drew turned quickly at the one word, to see the daughter standing in -the doorway of her room. He noticed that while the girl's brow was -drawn in a frown, her lips had the undecided irregularity of curve that -hinted at a smile suppressed. This study of particulars did not make -him any the less alert to a general impression of striking beauty. He -smiled and bowed somewhat elaborately, to which the girl returned a -curt little nod, though her answering smile was friendly. - -He had the tact to seem not to recognize the tension and to turn to -other subjects, and he now said, with a heartiness that seemed to have -long been waiting for expression, that they really were off at last. -His glance at the hanging lamp over the table, gently swaying in its -gimbals, had the effect of bringing the corroborative testimony of its -motion to their notice, while he went on to add that it seemed too -good to be true. He said that ever since the brig had anchored off the -harbor he had been haunted by the fear that something would happen at -the last moment to keep him at home. Not till now had he felt safe. - -"It's the other way about with me," said Mrs. March. "I shall not feel -safe till I get home again. If the Lord meant for us to go wandering -about on the face of the waters, he would have made them steady enough -to build roads on. If he put people 'way on the other side of the -earth, he meant them to stay there--and us, too," she added lamely, -but with sufficient clearness. - -Drew halted half-way up the companionway. - -"You don't mean to say that you are afraid of the sea, Mrs. March," he -asked, "after all your voyages?" - -"I've been going with Cap'n March off and on for twenty-five--yes, -thirty--years," she answered; "yet I never go out of sight of land -without feeling that I'm making faces at my Maker and daring him to -punish me." - -"Oh, mother's fear is her most precious possession," said the girl, -now for the first time coming forth into the cabin. "Nothing has ever -happened to her at sea; and that, she feels, is the best reason for -thinking that something is bound to happen the next time." She put her -hand on the elder woman's shoulder and smiled down on her from her -greater height. - -"Well, that's reasonable," retorted Mrs. March. "I was never one to -shut my eyes and claim it wasn't thundering. I've got my hearing. What -does the good Lord give us feelings for if he doesn't mean us to use -them?" With this challenge to unbelief in design in nature, she went to -her room. - -Captain March was still at the wheel when Drew returned to the deck. -Medbury was forward with the crew, busily stowing the anchor. Little -by little, Blackwater was disappearing behind the high white cliffs. -Drew took up the glass which lay in its box against the frame of the -sliding hood of the companionway and looked toward the village. Even -as he looked, the white spire of his church disappeared from view. He -saw it vanish, and put the glass down, to see the girl standing in the -companionway watching the changing shore. - -"I've seen the last of my church for three months," he said to her; -"now I am really loose and free." - -"It's good to get away from responsibility for a while," she said. "I -feel now as if I could dismiss all thought and worry until I return. -Then things may look different to me. I am going to think so, anyway." - -"Hetty," said the captain, "just run down and get my pipe off my desk, -won't you? You're younger than I am. Besides, I'm busy." He turned -to Drew. "Ashore I smoke cigars mostly; my wife says a pipe's low. -But here I'm master." He looked about his little kingdom with a mild, -complacent face. - -His daughter brought his pipe, and, with the gentle look not yet gone -from his face, he was filling it when a boyish-looking lad came aft -along the starboard side of the house, sent by the mate to take the -wheel. Drew, watching the captain, saw his face change. As the lad -came to the quarter-deck, the captain pointed a stubby finger at -him. "You--" he began harshly, and then hesitated and glanced at his -daughter. The boy stopped and turned a frightened look upon the captain. - -"Ever been to sea before?" demanded the captain. - -"Yes, sir," faltered the boy. - -"When?" - -"Along the sound here--last summer," he answered. - -"Ah," said the captain; then he added: "Didn't you learn the le'ward -side of a vessel?" - -The boy gave a startled look aloft, and then, with a flaming face, -turned quickly and came back along the lee side of the house. The -captain gave him the course, and without another word walked over to -the rail, where his daughter stood with Drew. - -"Sometimes they forget, sometimes they're green and don't know, and -sometimes it's just impudence," he said in a voice that the boy could -hear. "No matter which it is, ninety-nine times in a hundred the -sailorman who does it tumbles right into trouble. This happened to be -the hundredth time." - -His daughter took him by the shoulders and shook him gently. - -"Do you mean to say," she asked in a low voice, "that you might have -punished that boy for coming aft on the wrong side? You could see he -had forgotten or didn't know. Would you?" - -He smiled upon her. - -"Well," he answered, "he'd have remembered the next time if I had." - -She drew back haughtily. - -"I am going to parade--_parade_ up and down that gangway by the hour!" -she told him. - -Her father chuckled. - -"Nothing to hinder," he declared. - -"You're not down on the articles as a forecastle-hand, are you?" - -She did not stay to listen, but went indignantly away; at the cabin -door, however, she turned and came back. - -"You wouldn't have done it," she told him; "I know you wouldn't." She -stooped--she was taller than he--and kissed him lightly. Then she went -below. - -Her father gazed after her. - -"Sometimes she's a thousand feet tall," he said to Drew; "and then -again--" - -"No taller than your heart," suggested Drew as he hesitated. - -"That's about it, I guess," said the captain. - -The wind freshened as night came on, and had a touch of winter in its -sting. They were now running fast by the coast, the high cliffs of -which rose dark and desolate on the starboard. The water was black, -save where it ran hissing along the sides in a ragged gray ribbon of -foam. Behind them, in the west, a crimson flush lingered in the sky. -Drew stood at the break in the poop-deck, watching the shadowy forms -of the crew moving about the deck forward as they made the royal snug -for the night; far overhead he could hear the pennant halyards slatting -against the topmast in the dark. Every taut line and halyard sang in -the breeze, and there was a dull, humming roar in the canvas; under the -lower sails, across the deck, the wind swept crackling and keen. - -He heard the mate's last "That's well; belay!" and watched him come -aft. He passed without speaking, then hesitated and came back. - -"After we get through the Race," he said, "we'll begin to get the -swell." He spoke absent-mindedly, as if he were thinking of something -quite different; then he walked to the rail and sat down. Drew followed -him. - -Leaning his elbows on his knees, Medbury sat for a long time without -speaking; at last he looked up with a little laugh. - -"I'd give something to be out of this," he said. "I was a fool to -come. I might have known better. It's funny, but a man may know a -woman all his life, and at the end of the time know as little about -her as if he'd never seen her--that is, _really_ know her--how she'll -take things. Now, I suppose this was the very worst thing I could -have done. All that I've got to do is to wait till she gets ready and -she'll tell me so. Oh, I can see just how she'll look and what she'll -say! I don't need to have her tell me. 'You might have thought of _my_ -feelings!'"--he changed his voice,--"that's what she'll say. And I--" -he broke off impatiently. - -Drew looked at him in bewilderment. - -"I don't think I understand," he said. - -"You don't? Why, mother said she told you all about it one time when -you were at the house; she said she had to tell some one. That's how I -felt to-night, and I thought you knew." - -A light broke in upon Drew. - -"Ah!" he said. Then he went on: "Yes, she told me; but she did not tell -me the young lady's name. It is Miss March?" - -"Yes," Medbury answered. "I thought you must know. You'd have been the -only one in Blackwater if you hadn't. Sometimes I feel like the town -clock, with every one watching my face. That's one reason why I like -the China seas; I can't get farther away." - -"Your mother told me very little," said Drew; "she was worrying about -your not coming home, and lonely, and it did her good to speak. It -did not seem to me a hopeless situation as she told it. Captain March -strikes me as being a reasonable man." - -"I guess she didn't tell you all, then. Well, I was thinking of what -she said and how much she thought of you, and, thinking you knew, I -made up my mind to ask your advice. I felt that I had to talk to some -one." He hesitated a moment and then, with a boyish laugh, went on: -"You see, Hetty and I had always been pretty good friends from the time -we went to school together. Well, I've never got over it. When I first -went to sea she used to write to me; but after a while she went out to -Oberlin to live with an aunt while she went to college; and as I was -half the time on the other side of the world, we kind of lost track of -each other. I guess she lost track of me more than I did of her, for -she's changed since I saw her last, three years ago, and I can't quite -make her out. She's friendly enough, but she's different, and has come -home with a wild notion of going out to China as a missionary. Good -Lord! a girl like that to be thrown away on those--" He could think -of no word strong enough to convey his contempt. "Well," he went on, -"I can't see any place for me in that plan, but that doesn't seem -to trouble her. That's what worries me. Of course the old man's set -against her going; but he's set against me, too, because I'm a sailor. -That's the way things stand. When I heard she was going out with her -father this trip, and the mate was sick, I rushed off to the old man -and offered to go with him. He wouldn't hear of it, and engaged two -others; but I saw them privately, and they backed out. The old man -can't understand why they did. To-day he came to me, and here I am. -I've been offered a good vessel, and I intended to stay home a spell; -but when I heard Hetty was going, it seemed to me it was my last -chance--to go with her; but I guess it was a mistake. I can see she -thinks I've done a foolish thing, and is angry." - -"I think I can understand how she feels--how most women would feel," -said Drew, slowly, after a long pause. "Her sense of justice is -outraged--perhaps that's too strong a word; but she feels that you have -taken an unfair advantage of her in leaving her no way of escape. She -might not have cared to escape, but she likes to feel that retreat is -open to her. A woman fights at a disadvantage in these things; she is -more sensitive to public opinion than are men, and she has the instinct -of a hunted creature. I don't know that I can make it clear," he -concluded hopelessly. "Then, too, I may be wholly wrong." - -"Well, I don't know what I am going to do, now I'm here," said Medbury, -forlornly. - -"I should say, attend strictly to business and see her as little as -possible for a while," Drew told him. "As for her anger, that may be a -good sign. If she were simply indifferent to you, she wouldn't care. -She could leave it safely to time to make your coming ridiculous." - -When Drew entered the cabin, an hour later, Hetty sat at the table -reading, shading her eyes with her hand; her mother sat knitting near -her; and on the lounge her father reclined, pipe in mouth, his hat -on the floor beside him. Blinking in the strong light, Drew sat down -without removing his overcoat. - -"Ain't you going to stay a while?" asked the captain. "You can't make -church calls to-night." - -Drew laughed. - -"No," he said; "that's true. I'm out of that. But I'm going back on -deck soon. I can't get enough of it: the world seems all sky and stars. -I had lost sight of the fact that the earth is so trivial." - -Captain March let his feet come slowly to the floor and picked up his -hat. - -"That's a good deal so," he said. "Still, there's enough earth lying -loose around the Race to keep me from forgetting it, at least till -we've dropped it astern. I guess I'll go take a look up on deck." - -As her father disappeared, Hetty laid down her book and looked up. - -"Where are we now?" she asked Drew. - -"Little Gull Island light is just ahead of us," he answered. - -"That will be our last sight of land, won't it?" she asked. "I'm going -up to say good-by." - -When she had gone, her mother dropped her knitting in her lap. - -"I guess ministers are used to people coming to them with all their -troubles," she began, with a plaintive little note creeping into her -usually cheery voice, "and I _do_ hope you won't think I'm trying to -spoil your vacation by troubling you with ours; but Cap'n March and I -have talked and talked till we ain't on speaking terms with our own -judgments any more, and what to do next I don't know." Then she, too, -told the story. - -At the end of her hurried recital she said: - -"What she thinks of Tom I don't know; she's awfully close-mouthed -about some things. I like Tom, and if I had my way I guess I'd let the -young folks settle it themselves. But Cap'n March he's different. He's -going to take it for granted that she won't think of Tom because her -father disapproves of her marrying a sailor; and he will be so sure of -it, and so exasperating, that I don't know what he'll _make_ her do -first--marry Tom or go right off to China. In the end he'll let her do -just what she makes up her mind to do. He always did, and he always -will. If it's one thing, I don't care; but to think of her going off -alone to the other side of the world--" She picked up her work and -began to knit rapidly, with fast-falling tears. - -Drew sat with his elbow on the back of the chair, his chin in the palm -of his hand, looking down at the floor. - -"I wish I knew what to say--to advise, Mrs. March," he now said; "but I -do not. Perhaps after a while--" - -"Yes," she broke in eagerly; "that's all we could expect. I told -Cap'n March I was going to speak to you, and he seemed real pleased. -I'm sure you'll think of some way out," she added, with the cheerful -optimism with which we shift the burden of our desperate affairs to -the shoulders of others. It is hard to believe that Fate will continue -unkind when our friends are moved. "And I hope," she went on, "that -you won't feel it a duty to encourage Hetty's missionary notions. Of -course you're a minister and believe in missionaries, and I shouldn't -ask you to go against your conscience; but I suppose you can believe -in them without thinking that everybody's fit for the work. I'm sure -Hetty isn't. All the missionary women I ever saw were thin and homely, -and their clothes seemed just thrown at them. Hetty isn't a bit like -that. I can say so, if she is my daughter. And I've scarcely seen her -for three years; and if now she should go away to live at the end of -the world among heathen idols, with not a homelike thing, and no one to -mother her when she needs mothering, then I think that religion is very -kind to the heathen, who don't want it, and very cruel to a mother who -has always been a God-fearing woman and only wants her child near her -when she comes to die. She's all I've got." - -She had been speaking with increasing rapidity, but now a light -footfall sounded on deck, going aft, and she stopped. - -"Go up on deck," she said to Drew. "I don't want her to know I've ever -mentioned this to you. She's a dear girl, but sometimes I feel like a -hen who is the mother of a duckling. What she's going to do next I -don't know." - -Drew met the girl by the corner of the house. - -"I've been showing father the stars," she said. "He, a sailor, and not -to know them! I told him I thought it shameful." - -"I suppose he knew the north star," he said, smiling. - -"Oh, yes; he knew that. The others didn't seem to impress him. He said -they were too shifty to be of much use." - -"I think there are some folks who know so much that it kind o' clogs -their brains and keeps them from working right," said Captain March, -coming up behind her. "I have an idea that we can use just about so -much, and all over and above that is just pure waste. I once had a -mate that was like that. He could name all the stars, too, and knew a -good many things of that sort that didn't help him much to find his -longitude; but as for the look of the sky, or the heave of the sea, -or the feel of the wind, that meant nothing more to him than so much -blank paper. Now, when I walk the deck at night and look up and see -the stars shining overhead, winter or summer, they're company for me. -That's enough for me; what men call 'em I don't care. I suppose the -good Lord's got his own names for them." - -Hetty stayed on deck till Little Gull Island light came abreast; but -when she had gone below the captain sought out Drew as he stood by the -main-rigging and told him his daughter's desire. He made no mention of -Medbury. - -"Her mother thought you might help us," he concluded; "and I hope -you can, for we're in sore trouble. Still, I don't ask you to advise -against your conscience. Now I say, 'No,' to her; but if she feels -she's got to go, and doesn't change, why, I shall say, 'Yes,' in the -end. I know that. My father always wanted me to stay ashore, but I -was wild to go to sea. It seemed that I _had_ to go, and in the end I -did. I don't know that I got all I expected, but I got what I wanted; -and if my girl sets her heart on this as the only way for her to lead -her life, why, I sha'n't put a stone in her way when once I'm sure. It -wouldn't be right." - - - - -IV - - -Hetty had spread a shawl on the forward end of the house, and, with her -arm resting on the slide of the companionway, sat with an unopened book -in her lap and looked out across the shining sea. It was three bells -or more, and the morning sun was warm upon her face, and painted with -rainbow hues the spray that the fresh northwest wind clipped from every -toppling wave. The brig was sliding down the seas like a boy let loose -from school, now dipping her nose into a long roller with chuckling -hawse-pipes, now sinking into the blue hollows, sending the sheeted -spray outward for yards as her counter came home with a jarring thud. -The spars whined unceasingly, but the sails, bellying in the steady -breeze, made scarcely a sound, save when a sudden lurch spilled the -wind from the canvas, and it snapped like a great whip. - -The scene, with the vividness of its new sensations, now for the first -time experienced, impressed itself upon Drew's mind as something wholly -mysterious and strangely moving. After the first night, when there had -been no sea, he had remained steadily below, too ill to rise; but the -sickness had now passed, and it was with only the uncertainty of gait -of one not yet accustomed to the motion of the vessel that he had made -his way to the deck and looked out over the watery world. - -[Illustration: "The brig was sliding down the seas like a boy let loose -from school"] - -With a sense of aloofness, of absolute separation, from all that he had -ever known, he gazed about him. The words, - - "Look'd at each other with a wild surmise. - Silent, upon a peak in Darien," - -flashed through his mind: the perfect poem seemed strangely -interpretative of his mood. Then his gaze came back from the notched -and leaping horizon to the silent figure of Hetty, and, with the -lifting spirit of a mind released from the oppression of a strange and -portentous solitude, he clumsily made his way to her side, glad for -companionship. - -She looked up brightly. - -"Oh," she said, "I was wishing for some one to enjoy it with. I tried -to get my mother, but she would not come up. She said she could _feel_ -it; that was enough for her. I hope it is not enough for you." - -"No," he answered; "there is more in seeing it: it is strange and -overwhelming. I am inland-bred, you know: I feel as if all known things -had passed away." - -"To me it is like coming home," she declared. "I cannot remember when -it was not familiar. Now it is like lifting the latch of the door at -home after a long absence." - -He shook his head, smiling. - -"I cannot imagine any one thinking of it as companionable, as a part of -actual experience. I need hills and old trees and remembered turns in -roads to feel the intimacy of the world. This is strange and beautiful, -but leaves me an alien. It is like a kaleidoscope: nothing is twice the -same." - -"I do not care for things that are twice the same," she told him. "Here -something is always likely to happen. The only certain thing I know of -to-morrow is that we shall have plum-duff." She laughed. - -He looked at her, gravely smiling. - -"A certain noble discontent--you know the thought--is well; but--" -he was thinking of her mother's concern, and her words carried him -toward it; yet he hesitated, doubtful if it might not be too soon to -speak--"but constant change means lack of purpose, doesn't it? If you -set your heart on something,--something vastly different from anything -you have ever known,--it will be fruitless of good unless persisted -in--unless it wears grooves in your life. A mere impulse for change is -to be distrusted." He smiled and added: "Don't think that I cannot give -over preaching." - -"I know what you mean," replied the girl, looking seaward with troubled -eyes. "I suppose mother has told you what I wish. But it isn't a mere -desire for change, and everybody's disapproval only makes me more eager -to go. Isn't that a proof that the desire is something to be obeyed--a -real call? How can I be sure that it is not, unless I try? Do you think -me a silly person?" She looked at him with a suggestion of defiance, -but smilingly, too. - -"I should be the last one to think that," he told her. "Only look at it -from all sides--that is all your friends can ask." - -"Not father," she answered laughingly. "If I can be made to look at -it from his point of view, he will willingly spare me the rest. Poor -father! But let's not speak of it," she went on. "Look! the Mother -Carey's chicken!" - -She pointed to the bird, the black-and-white little creature which -always seems to be hurrying home, wherever it may be. Far to the -southeast a trail of smoke from an unseen steamer blotched the white -sky. On the main-deck the second mate and a sailor were patching a -topsail; from the galley drifted aft the cheerful whistling of the -steward, like a flock of blackbirds, and the homelike sound of rattling -pans. Only the man at the wheel was aft, now bending to the spokes, now -glancing at the binnacle, and now turning his eye aloft to the luff of -the mainsail. It was the morning of the third day out. - -Drew was silent so long that she turned a troubled face to him. - -"You must not think that I do not care for your advice," she said -gently; "I do--shall some day. Just now I cannot bear to speak of my -disappointment. It wasn't a sudden impulse; it was a part of my life, -and it must be given up, perhaps. After a little, when I can collect my -scattered forces, if you can help me--" She smiled uncertainly. - -"I know, I know," he hastened to say. "But I was really thinking of -something quite different--that three days ago I had not even seen you; -now our lives seem intimately near. Only at sea could that happen." - -"Yes," she agreed; "people grow into friendship quickly at sea--and -grow apart as quickly. I have heard my father say that is a reason -for the cruelty and harshness on shipboard--that men's tempers become -warped when they cannot escape from one another and they find no common -ground for companionship. He says there have been times when he fairly -hated a mate of his. On shore they might have been intimate for years -without an unpleasant thought." - -"Let us hope that we may escape that disaster," he said, with a smile. - -He wondered if Medbury had been in her thoughts. They had scarcely -spoken, he had observed. He himself had seen little of the younger -man, and he was quite prepared to rate him her inferior, in spite of -his physical attractiveness. He seemed a mere boy in his impulses; -he doubted not that he would keep his boyishness to the end of life. -Certainly, he told himself, he was lacking in her capacity for growth. - -Meanwhile his own first opinion of her beauty had not changed; it -was as apparent as ever, he told himself, and had taken on an added -grace with his widening knowledge of her many changing moods. As he -gazed at her now, he had an impression of distinction, but distinction -united with a certain gentleness that, he told himself, was rare. Her -face was in profile, and the mouth, clear-cut and undrooping, had the -softness of outline that he associated with good temper. Her eyes, -though now sad, had the same gentle look. He liked her thick brown -hair and the clear oval of her face: they gave him the impression of -harmony. In spite of his first feeling of attraction for Medbury, he -felt that the girl hesitated wisely; he could see no road by which -the two could travel as equal companions. That Medbury's hopes seemed -destined to be shattered did not move him greatly; for rarely to the -masculine onlooker is the disappointed lover a tragic figure. One has -seen him play his game and lose; now let him bear the loss manfully. - -They did not speak of her desire again that day; indeed, eight days -passed before he ventured to refer to it. Meanwhile they had become -great friends. The pleasant weather had held, and they had rolled down -the long, smooth seas, which daily seemed to grow bluer, under a sky -that remained cloudless. - -It was morning again, the morning of the eleventh day out, and they -sat in the same place, with much the same scene about them, though now -with a tropical softness flooding the world, and less heeded as their -thoughts turned more to themselves. He had been reading aloud while she -worked at some trifle, but suddenly he closed the book. - -"That is enough of other men's dreams," he said. "What of yours?" - -She did not even look up as she replied: - -"Mine are poor enough; I prefer those of others. Besides, I have -scarcely thought of them for days." - -"Are they less insistent?" he asked. - -"Don't!" she appealed. "Don't! I am not yet ready to face them. I have -lost my courage." - -"I will say no more," he said; "but I had thought that you seemed -different--ready to surrender. I had hoped so." - -She looked up now. - -"Are you against me, too?" she demanded. - -"Can you believe that?" he asked. "I had thought that I was for you--as -we all are." - -She smiled. - -"You are all making it very hard for me," she told him. - -A step sounded on the forward companionway, and Medbury appeared. He -glanced past them to the man at the wheel, looked aloft, then walked -slowly to the break of the deck. Suddenly he came back and seated -himself on the corner of the house near them. Apparently he had wearied -of self-suppression. - -He was manifestly trying to appear wholly at ease, and he began to -talk at once, and very rapidly, like one repeating a speech that had -been learned by heart. He spoke of the wind and the run of the vessel, -and he told them that they had not touched a sheet for more than sixty -hours. He said he hoped that it would last, though he added that he -doubted it. - -"When ought we to get out, Tom?" asked Hetty. She bit off her thread -as she spoke, and, spreading her work on her lap, examined it -absent-mindedly. - -"If the wind holds, in four or five days," he answered; "but I'm afraid -it won't. The sea's beginning to look oily now; the snap has gone out -of the wind. We'll be slatting and rolling in a dead calm by the middle -of the afternoon. I noticed the change in my bunk, and couldn't sleep." - -"I thought sailors could always sleep." This was Hetty's contribution -to the conversation as she still studied her work. - -"Well, I couldn't," he answered. - -"Then we may be three weeks going out," said Drew. "It seems like a -long time." - -"I was a hundred and twenty days on my last voyage--from Singapore," -said Medbury. - -"I am beginning to grasp the reason for the sailor's rapt, far-seeing -look," said Drew. "It is not strange that he never loses it, with his -constant study of invisible signs and meanings. But a hundred and -twenty days! What changes may take place in that time!" - -"We find changes enough," Medbury answered. "Sometimes I think we -sailors are the only things that do not change, except to grow older -and sadder. We always hope to find everything just as we left it, but -we never do." - -Hetty looked steadily seaward, and a fine flush came to her face; but -Drew was struck with the philosophy of the situation. - -"That surely ought to be true," he acquiesced--"that the sailor is the -most unchanging of men. One should come back wiser in sea-lore, but -solitude and the singleness of his purpose should keep him untouched by -all the distractions that change other men. I've noticed in Blackwater -the freshness of spirit, almost boyishness, of old men." - -Hetty's face was turned forward, and now she leaped to her feet. - -"What _is_ that, Tom?" she exclaimed. "We are running on a sand-bar!" - -A hundred yards ahead of them stretched a great golden-brown field -that looked like a salt-meadow in April. Above it wheeled a flock of -sea-birds. - -Medbury scarcely turned his head. - -"Sargasso weed," he answered, and grinned. "It's always waltzing about -in these latitudes." - -The girl walked to the main-rigging, and, leaning across the -sheer-pole, watched the yellow plain with wondering eyes. A moment -later, as they plunged into it, she caught her breath; it seemed -incredible to her that there should be no shock. - -Instantly the sounds of the sea were hushed; there was only the soft -hissing of the weed as it swept past the side of the brig. - -"Come up to the forecastle-deck and see it pile up on the bow," Medbury -said to the girl. - -She did not stir. - -"Won't you come?" - -"No," she answered. - -He leaned across the sheer-pole with her a moment in silence. The bell -forward struck four sharp strokes; it was like a cry in the night. Then -a sailor came lurching aft to relieve the man at the wheel. - -"Is it always going to be like this, Hetty?" Medbury asked her in a low -voice. - -"I suppose so." - -"You want it so?" - -"I said, 'I suppose so.'" - -"It's the same thing," he remarked drearily, and sighed. - -The sigh seemed to irritate her, for she turned upon him suddenly. - -"Why did you speak like that--before a stranger?" - -"Like what?" he asked, in astonishment. - -"About coming home unchanged, and finding nothing as you had left it. -Of course he knew what you meant. And it wasn't true, for I have not -changed. I could have sunk through the deck for shame." - -"Oh, _that_," he replied. "_He_ didn't understand; he thought it was a -text." - -"A text!" She turned away in scorn. - -A moment he stood looking outboard with unseeing eyes; then he stooped -and drew a boat-hook from the slings beneath the rail. - -"Wouldn't you like to have a piece?" he asked, pointing to the seaweed. - -She hesitated a moment, and then came back to his side. - -"Yes," she said. - -He drew in a great bunch and spread it at her feet, and she picked up a -bit with dainty fingers. - -"It's no longer beautiful," she said in disappointment, and dropped it -on the house. - -"No," he answered soberly, and tossed the weed back into the sea. - - - - -V - - -The wind died out, as he had predicted, and all the afternoon the brig -rolled on the long swells, which hourly grew heavier. They leaped -against the horizon, swung onward beneath the keel, and swept past with -the unrelenting persistency that seemed the embodiment of vindictive -hate. A gale can be combated, but, in the grasp of a calm, man is -helpless. Every part of the vessel cried out in protest. The canvas -slatted and flapped like the wings of a huge bird vainly trying to rise -from the waves; every block rattled and croaked; the main-boom, hauled -chock aft, snatched at its sheets with a viciousness that threatened -to part them at every roll and made their huge blocks crash; from -the pantry below came the constant rattle of crockery; and the blue -sea, dipped up through the scuppers, swashed back and forth across the -main-deck. By eight bells every stitch of canvas had been furled or -clewed up to save it, and the brig lay rolling in the dark hollows like -a drunken sailor reeling home. - -At dusk Hetty made her way to the forward companionway, and, seating -herself on the sill, with her hands clasped about the guard-rail, -looked out across the watery waste. The line of her eyes, parallel with -the deck, saw the stars fly downward till they seemed to vanish in -the sea, which suddenly seemed to tower like a huge black wall above -the brig; then suddenly it dropped away, and the stars flew up again, -and she saw them fairly overhead. Out of the swashing flood of the -main-deck, in a momentary lull, Medbury appeared. - -"Is that you, Hetty?" he said. - -"Yes," she answered. "It's awful, isn't it?" - -"It's a nasty roll, and no mistake. There's dirty weather knocking -about somewhere." - -"You mean a storm?" - -"Yes." - -"Shall we get it?" she asked. - -"We may and may not," he answered. "It's hard to say." - -"Could it be a hurricane coming?" she asked with awe. - -He laughed. - -"Haven't you ever heard the sailors' rhymes about hurricanes in the -West Indies?" he asked. - - "'July, - Stand by; - August, - Look out you must; - September, - Remember; - October, - All over.' - -That anchors March squarely in the middle of the safe months; so we're -all right, you see. No, it isn't a hurricane." - -He seated himself on the deck, and, leaning against the door-jamb, -braced himself to the roll. For a while they sat in silence, and -watched the long rollers infold them--three great ones, then a -succession of lower ones, in an ever-recurring sameness that moved the -girl with a growing nervousness. At last she turned to him and said: - -"I wanted to explain to you that I had no reason to be ugly this -morning. But what is the use? Father would always oppose; besides, I am -not sure myself. I want to be friends, nothing more." - -"Well! that is a wooden tale," he said disappointedly. - -"I never said anything different at any time, Tom," she protested. - -"Oh, I know. You always had a pair of skittish heels, Hetty." He -turned his face to her suddenly. "Is there any one else?" - -"No," she said. - -"All right," he answered; "I'll hope on. I've been doing that a long -time; I'm not going to stop now." He was silent a moment, and then he -said: "Do you know how long that's been, Hetty? Fourteen years. We were -in school then, and it began the day of that big snow-storm, when I -drew you home on my sled. You wore a red jacket, and your cheeks were -almost as red. I can see you sitting there now, and smiling whenever -I looked back. You were the shyest little thing! When we reached your -gate, you just slipped off and ran into the house without turning." - -"Oh, do you remember that!" - -"I've thought of it under every star in the sky, I think. I guess -that's the way it will always be with you--slipping away and not -looking back." He laughed a little dolefully. - -"I'm not like that," she said in a low voice. "I may go away, but I -shall look back. I am no longer a child." - -"Then don't go away," he said eagerly; but she stopped him. - -"Don't, Tom!" she pleaded. "Don't speak of it any more--now. Just be -friends." - -"All right, Hetty. It will be as you say. I don't nag my--friends." He -smiled forlornly. - -In silence they watched the swells racing in. They were like living -things, of incredible speed, insatiable, pitiless, rushing on to infold -them. As the brig rolled in their grasp, the girl instinctively moved -her body against the roll: it was as if she thought to lessen the awful -dip of the deck with her puny weight; and whenever the great rollers -passed, and the vessel, like a tired thing, lay for an instant almost -at peace in the lower levels of the sea, an involuntary sigh of relief -escaped her. Medbury heard her and looked up. - -"You're not afraid, Hetty, are you?" he asked. "It's disagreeable; -that's all." - -"No, not _really_, I think," she answered; "but I wish it would stop." - -"It's a regular cradle--as peaceful as that," he assured her. "Only -we're a little old for cradles, I guess," he added. - -"I am," she said. - -Over them the stars raced back and forth; for there were no clouds, -only a soft haze that made the stars seem large and near, but without -brightness. Close down to the sea a whitish film seemed to spread, -making the curtain of the night above it intensely black. Once, as they -dipped to port, Hetty's eyes caught sight of a deep-red glow suffusing -the lifted wave near the bow. She clutched at Medbury's arm. - -"What is that, Tom--there--like blood?" she gasped. - -"That? Why, the reflection of our port light. You poor thing!" he said -pityingly. "Hadn't you better go below? It's queer, but on a night like -this, or in thick weather, if you once lose your nerve, you see the -queerest things. Come, you'll be all right below." - -She dropped her face to her hands and laughed. - -"No," she said; "now I will stay. There!"--she straightened herself and -looked at him smilingly,--"now, I'll be sensible. Why do you look at me -like that?" she asked abruptly. - -He turned his face away. - -"Can't I even look at you? A friend could do that." - -"But that was different," she answered. "It was--" The look of yearning -love upon his face moved her strangely. She felt the impatient tears -flood her eyes. Meanwhile he hastened to speak of other things. - -"Do you remember how you used to tie your hair up in two tight little -braids?" he asked--"always tied with red ribbon?" - -"Mother did that," she answered promptly. "I hated it. I used to tell -her they made my head ache. I've forgotten now whether they did or not. -But it wasn't always red ribbon." - -"Wasn't it?" he asked. "That's what I remember." - -"Some things you've forgotten, you see," she told him. "It is easy to -forget, after all." - -The door of the passage below them opened, and some one stumbled toward -them. It was Drew. Medbury slipped away, vexed at the interruption, but -Hetty turned a relieved face to the newcomer. In this difference lay -the measure of their love. - -Reaching the deck, Drew almost dropped in the place where Medbury -had been sitting. He removed his cap from his head, and passed his -hand across his forehead. From the forecastle floated aft, above the -jangling noises of the brig, the faint strains of an accordion. - -"Just at this moment I have no higher ambition than to sit out there -and play like that," said Drew, turning his head to listen. - -"It sounds rather nice at sea," said the girl. "Maybe it's because I've -always heard it there that I like it." - -"Oh, it isn't that," he replied. "It's the care-free touch I envy. -Care-free--with all our fixed beliefs tumbling about us! See those -stars! And we have been taught to call them steadfast!" - -She laughed, and looked at him mischievously. - -"You're seasick again," she said. "I knew it by the way you dropped to -the deck." - -"I am," he promptly admitted. - -"Well, you're honest; you ought to be proud of that," she told him. -"Most men refuse to confess to seasickness until the fact confesses -itself." She laughed. - -"I might be proud of being honest if I were not too much ashamed of -being ill. The lesser feeling is lost in the greater." - -"You would feel better if you would not watch the rail. It's the worst -thing you can do." - -"You are watching it," he said. - -"But I am never affected," she replied. "Besides, I'm feeling reckless -to-night." - -He turned and looked at her smilingly. - -"You reckless! You are self-control itself," he declared. - -It is strange, but there are times when to be called self-controlled is -like an accusation. - -"That sounds like calling me hard and unfeeling," she said. - -"Rather say it's calling you happy. I think there is no happiness -without self-control," he replied. - -"Do you call it happiness," she cried--"rolling like this? I think it -is dull." - -"All happiness is more or less dull," he declared. "It's the price it -pays to discontent, which is supposed to know all the ups and downs of -life." - -"I should not like to think that," she said soberly. - -"Then I hope your whole life may prove it false," he answered. - -In the silence that followed, his eyes, searching the night with the -fascination in the thought of discovery that the sea gives even to the -sighting of a sail, came back to her face and lingered there. For a -moment he looked at her with the intent, impersonal gaze that he had -directed toward the horizon. She was leaning against the guard-rail, -with her hands clasped over her knees, and her eyes turned up to -the stars. Her head was uncovered, and her hair looked black above -the gleaming whiteness of her face, which wore the intense look of -abounding vitality that pallor sometimes gives in a larger measure than -vivid coloring. As he watched her face in the dim light, he became -distinctly alive to a new impression--the impression that he was -becoming strangely drawn to her. The knowledge came upon him suddenly, -like a ship looming above him in the night. - -It was inevitable that his first thought should be of Medbury; but -whatever he might later come to think of his own ethical implication, -in this first moment of self-discovery the thought was little more -than that he should have a care. In a rush of mental restlessness he -rose to his feet and walked to the rail. He could hear the second mate -as he tramped steadily back and forth on the quarter-deck, passing -like a shuttle from darkness to light as he crossed the glow from the -binnacle-lamp. The thump of the wheel jumping in its becket was almost -continuous; it irritated him as the louder noises of the sea and the -vessel had not done. In the east a red light shone and vanished; again -it appeared for a moment. He called Hetty's attention to it, but she -did not rise. When it appeared again it was farther to the north. - -"It's a steamer going home," she said. "It's like your happiness--just -a dull light moving uncertainly through darkness." - -"You mustn't think that," he said gently. - -"Oh, it's true," she persisted; "I can see it's true. I wanted to go -away, but it was only discontent. If I had gone, it would have been the -same. I should have been broken in the first struggle." - -"To-morrow the wind will blow again, and you will see things in a -different light. Nothing will matter then," he assured her. - -"Do you think I should have succeeded if I had gone?" She turned toward -him sharply while she waited for his answer. - -He had seated himself again, and he paused a moment before he replied. - -"I think you would have put your whole heart into your work," he said -at last. "When we do that, we need not think of results--or fear -them--need we?" - -"I shall always feel that it was right for me to go," she said, after a -pause. "The regret will remain." - -"It is hard to say what is right, we owe allegiance in so many ways. -A week ago your going was simply an interesting thought to me. Now I -cannot bear to think of it." - -She caught her breath sharply. - -"There's your steamer again," she exclaimed. "It's almost gone." - -It came to him vividly, with her conscious refusal to follow his -leading, that he was not having a care; and he added in haste: "I can -see the tragic significance of such a decision, now that I am no longer -a stranger--this putting away of all your old life--your father and -mother. Think what it means to them! Life has many facets: we've got to -look at them all." - -"Yes," she said slowly, as if she were looking at them all in turn; -then she continued: "But if we study them too closely, isn't there -danger of being simply irresolute and accomplishing nothing?" - -"To crown the present hour--might that not be the hardest, and -therefore the noblest, task?" he asked smilingly. "A nature that is -overwhelmed by its first disappointment will not be likely to succeed -in any path. That is not yours, I am sure." - -"It is easy for you to say that," she answered, with a touch of -impatience; "you have found your chosen work; I must stay at home. -What can we women in seaports do? We tremble through storms, and then -wait in fear for the marine news." She laughed at her own exaggeration. - -"It makes strong, hopeful women," he declared stoutly. - -"Is that all you ask of your work--to be made strong and hopeful?" she -demanded. "It makes me think of life as a gymnasium." - -"No," he answered frankly; "but I have not found my chosen work, or, -rather, my chosen field." - -"May I ask what that is? Do you mind telling me?" - -"I shall be glad," he replied. "It is simply to work among the poor -in a large town or city. I cannot go among the little children of the -crowded streets without a heartache. That is where my work calls me. -I love the people of Blackwater, and I can be happy there when I can -forget for a time; but I am not needed. Sometimes I feel that no one -is needed, they are so firmly fixed in their beliefs, so hopelessly -certain of themselves. But the little children of the crowded streets!" -He broke off suddenly. - -They heard the bell forward ring out sharply. Both counted the strokes -in silence. - -"Eight bells," she murmured, as it ceased. - -The forecastle door opened, and a shaft of light flashed like an -opening fan along the wet, shining deck. Shadowy forms began to move -about, and vanished in the darkness. Then the door was shut, and the -deck was dark again; only the clamor of the rolling vessel and the sea -about her went on unceasingly. - -"I am glad you told me," Hetty said at last in a low voice that had in -it a tremor of exaltation. She did not turn to him as she spoke, but -kept her eyes fixed upon the lines of whitened waves glimmering in the -dark. - -"It was little to tell," he said, with a laugh. - -"It was much to know," she answered gently. - -He wondered at the touch of feeling in her tone, for he could not know -that, having condemned him for a seemingly Laodicean contentment with -life, with as little reason she was now prepared to exalt him unduly, -seeing in his desired course a form of martyrdom at once moving and -heroic. It was in the line of her own desire, and the thought flashed -upon her that here was something even she might be permitted to do. - -They had come tremblingly to the heights of emotion: a little thing -might send the streams of their life together, or bear them farther and -farther apart. - - - - -VI - - -Day was breaking when Drew came on deck the next morning. The noises of -the vessel, which had clanked and whined all night through his broken -sleep, seemed to him to take on new life as he reached the deck; but -the brig, as she lay rolling in the trough of the sea, had the gray, -tired look of ships coming home from long voyages. There were no clouds -in the sky, but the stars had faded out, and even as he gazed the rim -of the sun appeared above the sea, flattened out on the horizon, then -rose in an elongated ball. For an instant a red pendant seemed to cling -to the far edge of the ocean; then it vanished, and the sun, round -again and red, had broken free. Day had come. - -The ocean had the glassy aspect of the preceding day; as far as the -eye carried not a catspaw darkened the surface. In every direction the -white sails of the Portuguese men-of-war rose and fell on the long blue -swells. Fifty yards astern the triangular dorsal fin of a shark moved -slowly across their track. Drew watched its silent progress with the -fascination that the landsman, seeing it for the first time, bestows -upon it as the embodiment of the cruelty and mystery of its abode. - -He turned at the sound of a footstep, and, seeing Medbury beside him, -greeted him, and then nodded astern. - -"It's a shark, isn't it?" he asked. "I never saw one before." - -"Yes," replied the mate. "It's queer, but everybody seems to know them -right off. Sort of natural dislike, I guess." - -Medbury watched it a moment and then looked aloft to where the fly hung -limp. - -"It beats all," he muttered; "there isn't air enough to float a -soap-bubble." He walked to the pennant halyards, and, untying them, -jerked the fly free from its staff. "It hasn't lifted an inch in -fifteen hours," he said. "Confound it! I believe the world has died -overnight!" Then he laughed at his own ill-nature. "It always gets on -my nerves--weather like this," he explained to Drew. - -He turned and walked to the other side of the vessel as Captain March -came on deck. He also looked aloft, glanced at the binnacle from mere -force of habit, and then swept the horizon with half-shut eyes. His -face was inscrutable, and absolutely without emotion. "It's going to be -hot," was his only remark. Then he walked to a camp-chair, and, drawing -it to the rail, sat down, and began to whistle softly. - -A moment later Medbury crossed over to where he sat. - -"I guess I'll rig up the triangle this morning and scrape the -mainmast," he said. "It's a good chance." - -The captain squinted aloft, but said nothing. - -"I'll start at the foot," continued the mate, as if in answer to -unspoken criticism. "Maybe it'll breeze up before the men get much -above the deck." - -"All right," said the captain, and went on whistling. - -"There isn't a breath of air," said Medbury. "I believe everything's -dead." - -"Nothing dead about this roll," replied Captain March. - -"Well, it ought to be," replied the mate, and walked forward. - -"I don't know as the crew's going to rise up and call him blessed when -he orders them aloft on that job in a swell like this," said the -captain to Drew; "but then, as I said, I don't know." - -Then the barefooted crew came aft with buckets and brooms to wash down -the decks, and he and Drew went below. When they came back to the -deck, after breakfast, two men were at the grindstone sharpening their -knives, and a third was scraping a bright pin-rail forward. Medbury sat -on the forward end of the house, making double-crown knots in the ends -of new man-ropes. He did not look up as Hetty and the minister came and -stood over him, watching his work. Captain March came past the group in -his morning walk. - -"You're not going to scrape the mainmast, eh?" he said, as he went by. -His eyes twinkled. - -Medbury did not look up as he answered: - -"No; I guess I'll keep them on deck." - -Hetty looked aloft at the mast thrashing through a wide arc. - -"I knew you wouldn't," she said. "It would have been--unlike you." - -Medbury glanced at her with a shamefaced smile, but he made no reply. - -Drew laughed. - -"Do you know, I had heard so much of the harsh treatment of sailors by -their officers that I came on this voyage prepared for something of the -sort, and dreading it," he said, in his slow, deep voice; "but I have -seen nothing but consideration." - -Medbury's mouth twitched with scornful amusement; it almost seemed to -him that Drew had unknowingly called him pusillanimous. He was by no -means a hard man, and was popular with his crews; but he was young and -a certain amount of swagger seemed amusing, while, in addition, he had -all the contempt of the American sailor for the stolid alien creatures -who more and more were finding their way into the forecastles of ships -that carried his country's flag. - -"I don't believe in being a brute," he began; "but--" - -"Yes," broke in Hetty, eagerly; "it is only a brute who will take -advantage of his power. I have been going to sea all my life, but I -have never seen cruelty. All the sailors I know are the largest-hearted -of men. I hate the tales that blacken them." - -"I have known them only ashore," said Drew, "and I certainly never knew -a more joyous, open-hearted people--hardly the sort to make tyrants -of." He turned to Medbury: "But you were going to say--?" - -Medbury sharply drew the strands of his rope through the outer walling -of the knot as he replied: - -"Oh, nothing." - -"I fancy," began Drew, "that sailors are too practical a class, -too constantly surrounded by danger, not to know the value of -self-restraint. It is wise to keep far from one the passion that fires -the mind beyond the point where the every-day work of living is -accomplished with the least friction." - -Medbury glanced up as he spoke, and caught the look that Hetty fastened -upon the speaker. There was nothing in the quiet gaze beyond interest -and the sympathy of kindred convictions, but it gave Medbury the -curious sensation of standing apart from them, of being irrevocably -alone. He turned away with a new pain about his heart. He was still -thinking of Hetty's look when Drew, busily erecting his card-house of -the sailor's life upon a foundation of calm philosophy, asked him if -he had ever seen cruelty on shipboard. His tone was the confident one -of the philosopher who, having formulated a theory, calmly awaits the -facts that will establish it. - -"You two might call it that," Medbury answered, not without a touch of -resentment in his voice; "I shouldn't. It's easy enough to talk about -self-restraint, but when it means letting things go to the dogs, and -maybe putting your vessel in danger--" He thrust his fid between the -strands of his rope with an energy that seemed to him adequately to -complete his meaning. - -Drew was dimly aware that the situation had somehow become charged -with feeling, and remained silent; but Hetty, with clearer instinct, -recognized the cause of Medbury's heat, and resented it, while she -recognized its potential force, feeling that she had unwittingly been -drawn from the calm current of broad discussion into an inner vortex of -personal emotion. That she had become unduly interested in Drew--she -clearly saw that the thought was in Medbury's mind--she indignantly -denied to herself. She turned toward the sailor with resentment shining -in her eyes; but at the sight of his head bowed above his work, there -flashed over her a strange revulsion of feeling. It was not tenderness, -though compounded of tenderness, pity, and the memory of many things. -His loyalty to her, which had lived on through long years in spite of -varying encouragement, had sometimes provoked her vexation, sometimes -her complacency; at this moment it suddenly appeared to her to be a -beautiful thing. His hair waved a little about his brows; his face, -though sad, showed the old fine courage. She saw his close-shut lips -held nothing of harshness. His hands, brown and sinewy, revealed -strength and skill, and were as yet uncoarsened by hard contact with -hemp and canvas in cold and wet and sun. "After all, _he's_ a man," she -thought, with tears welling in her eyes. - -She turned and looked out across the shining sea, feeling its -immensity, its power in the moving waves, to be somehow strangely -like the life that inclosed her and swept her on without the power of -volition. She did not turn as Drew spoke. - -"Shall we finish our book?" he had asked her. - -From time to time in the last few days he had read aloud from the -"Idylls of the King" while she worked at some trifle, or sat with hands -clasped in her lap and watched the waves in a pleasurable emotion to -which his fine, unaffected voice had contributed quite as largely as -the words of the poet. At this moment his question, in its abrupt -withdrawal from the general interest, seemed tactless. For an instant -she made no answer. - -"No, not now," she said at last. "Just at present it seems too unreal, -too far away, to move me. I don't believe I am an imaginative person; -life appeals to me too strongly." - -She had turned to watch Medbury's work while she was yet speaking, -and Drew, lingering a moment, had gone away with the impression of -dismissal. This she felt, and was troubled by it, and vexed at finding -herself troubled. Her vexation had the effect of bringing her nearer -in spirit to Medbury. - -"I believe I could do that," she said as she watched him. - -He looked up with a flush of pleasure. - -"Want to try?" he asked, and jumped to his feet. "I'll get a piece of -manila and teach you." - -He threw down a coil of running rigging for a seat for her, and -together they laughingly began the lesson. - -"I always envied the things boys did," she said. "I know how I used to -watch them, but was too afraid of being called a tomboy ever to attempt -anything. It's hard to be ambitious and sensitive, too." - -"I know you could run when you were a child," he said, smiling. "Do you -remember the time you snatched my hat and I did not catch you till you -got to Martha Parsons's gate? Then you turned and looked so serious -that I did not dare to take it." - -"Yes," she answered, with a laugh. "And I remember how frightened I was -when you followed me. I thought I had done the boldest thing. And when -we stopped and just looked at each other I was sure that you thought -so, too. Finally I said, 'Here's your hat,' and you said, 'Oh,' and -took it. I don't remember now how it ended." - -"I do," he said promptly. "I took it and went away; afterward I went -back, but you had gone. Then I thought of all the things I ought to -have said and done when it was too late." - -"Well, it was silly enough," she said, dismissing the subject. "I don't -know what made me do it." - -He had unlaid the strands of the rope while they talked, and now, -placing it in her hand, he showed her how to make a bight with one -strand and pass a second around the first, and a third around the -second, and up through the bight of the first, forming the wall. - -"Now you try," he said, and, undoing the knot, passed the rope to her. - -In a moment she held it up triumphantly. - -"What do you do next?" she asked. - -"Now we will put on the double crown." - -"It _is_ hard," she said after a moment more. "It looked simple enough -while you were doing it." She held the rope in her hand and looked at -him in smiling despair. "I shall never learn." - -"Yes, you will," he assured her. "You only need a little patience." - -"_You_ will need the patience," she answered. - -"Haven't I always had it with you?" he asked in a low voice. - -"Is that right?" she demanded, holding up the knot. - -"Yes; now run the end--no, this end--through the bight. That's right; -now pull it taut. You haven't answered my question, Hetty." - -[Illustration: "'_You_ will need the patience,' she said"] - -"You haven't asked any," she replied quickly; and then added: "What -next?" - -"Pull it tighter," he answered, and, leaning forward, drew it taut, for -an instant covering her hands with his own. - -She drew hers away quickly and dropped them in her lap. - -"It's no use," she told him; "I shall never learn." - -"Try!" he urged. - -"No; I cannot even try." She looked about her with restless eyes. -Something in her face stirred his foreboding. - -"Do you mean, Hetty--" - -"Oh, I mean nothing," she cried impatiently. "I wish the sea would go -down. It's dreadful." - -She sprang to her feet, and, moving to the rigging, leaned against the -sheer-pole and watched the blue sea rise almost to the line of the -deck, then fall away with appalling swiftness. Medbury followed her -there. - -"What's the matter?" he demanded. - -"Why don't you whistle for a wind?" she asked him. "Why don't you? I -think I'll go below until you do." - -"Isn't it pleasanter here?" he said. "You would call it a beautiful day -at home." - -"Yes, I should," she acknowledged. "It seems like April--April at home. -I can shut my eyes"--she shut them--"and see just how it looks: the big -willow by our gate growing green in a night, and the grass, and the -sunlight on everything--or rain; only the rain makes the grass greener, -and you don't mind it at all in spring, as you do at other times." - -He had watched her while she stood with eyes closed, but when she -opened them suddenly and looked at him with a smile, he turned away -in confusion, as if he had been caught watching her when he knew she -would not care to be seen. - -"That's the way your face always looks to me," he said, with the -boldness of embarrassment. - -"What do you mean?" she asked. Her lips parted as if to smile, but -closed again in a neutral line that was neither smile nor frown, but -might easily become either when she had heard his explanation. - -"Like April--your face is like that. It's always changing. I like it -always, but best when you smile, of course." - -"I cannot smile at a speech like that," she said primly, and turned a -serious face from him. - -For five minutes he kept his eyes turned from her, and then looked to -see if her April face had changed again. It had not, and a sigh escaped -him. - -At the sigh her face had become severe, but almost immediately he saw -her lips twitch, close firmly together, then part in a laugh. - -"There!" he cried triumphantly, and laughed with her. - -"Oh, Tom, you're ridiculous!" she cried, and struggled against her -laughter. But her face became serious again at once, and she added: "I -do not like such speeches. They sound silly." - -"All right," he replied, but not in the tone of one cast down. - -Captain March's keen eyes, as he walked the deck, looking aloft, saw a -slightly frayed spot in the maintopsail-halyard. Crossing the deck, he -stopped by the side of his mate. - -"Looks as if that halyard wouldn't stand much strain," he said. "Better -look at it before long, Mr. Medbury." He pointed to the place as -Medbury looked up. - -"I will, sir," answered Medbury. - -"Hawkins never did look after the little things," the captain went on, -with gentle grumbling. "Good man, but didn't seem to have any eyes -sometimes. Still, I was sorry to have him go ashore sick. He can't -afford to lay idle long. Same with John Davis. I thought he'd jump at -the chance to take Hawkins's place. I didn't think it so strange in -Bob Markham's backing out: he'd promised his wife to stay ashore. But -Davis--I don't understand about him. I never knew folks to act so. -Davis seemed pleased when I asked him, and hurried right off to get his -things; but before I'd hardly turned my head, back he galloped and said -he'd changed his mind. It made me a little provoked; and when I asked -him why, he just winked. Well!" He walked away, still grumbling. - -Medbury had not lifted his eyes from his work as the captain had -talked, but now he glanced up, to find Hetty's eyes watching him -keenly. Something in the intensity of her look stirred his foreboding. -He was not wholly unacquainted with the intuitive divination with -which women often flash upon the secrets men would withhold from them, -and now he braced himself for the question that he knew was coming. - -"Do _you_ know why they would not come?" she asked. Her voice was tense. - -He tried to show surprise at the question, but knew that he failed. - -"I suppose they didn't want to," he answered. - -"Don't you _know_?" she demanded. - -He hesitated, and she sprang to her feet. - -"You needn't tell me," she cried with suppressed passion. "I know. I -know you got them to. They'd do it for you. You seem to have obliging -friends. Oh!" She turned away, but came back immediately. "And now -I suppose everybody in Blackwater is laughing over the story. And -laughing at _me_! I didn't _want_ you to come; but if I'd known this, -do you think I would have set foot on this vessel while you were -aboard? I'd have _died_ first." She walked to the rail, but came -restlessly back. "Well, it's over now. Do you think I could go back -home and have people know that your--your trick had succeeded? There -have been times when I have thought that I could care for you in the -way you wish, but I couldn't be sure. If my face is like April, as you -say, I think my mind is, too. I cannot be _sure_. Sometimes I think I -do not care for anything; I think I have no heart. And then, when I see -you watching me, and I know what you are thinking, I almost hate you, -and want to go away from everything I've ever known. But now, after -this, it is ended. Oh, you make me ashamed!" - -He had heard her in a tumult of contending emotions--shame and sorrow -for hurting her, pity, remorse. Heart-sick, he rose to his feet. - -"I didn't mean to hurt you, Hetty. Good Lord! you know that! You _must_ -know it!" he exclaimed. "And no one will know. You needn't care." - -"Oh, needn't care!" she cried in scorn. - -Then, manlike, because he was sorry, but had no answer, he became angry. - -"You are a hard woman," he said, in a sudden letting-go of all -self-control--"a hard and heartless woman." - -She shrank from him as if he had struck her, and her face grew white. - -"I wish you wouldn't," she whispered passionately--"wouldn't speak to -me. You hurt me." - -He did not understand, and his face hardened, and his eyes grew hot -with impotent anger. It was as if all the conventions had dropped away -from him, and he had become the primitive man. He could crush her with -one hand, he blindly told himself; yet she mocked him and his strength. -All his life he had loved her, followed her in devoted service, but -to what end? To be shunned, eluded, mocked, and scorned. He gripped -his hands tightly together in his revolt against his enforced inaction -because she was weak and a woman. But for once he would speak. - -"You've hurt me for many a long year," he answered hotly, "but you'll -hurt me no more." With that he walked away as Cromwell must have gone -from the Long Parliament. - - - - -VII - - -Medbury descended to his room, opened the lid of his desk, and fumbled -about aimlessly with hands that trembled; then, as if he had found what -he had been looking for, he lowered the lid, and, leaning his elbows -upon it, stood looking moodily before him. He told himself that he was -glad it was over; anything was better than the long uncertainty that -had held him bound in chains for years. But no one should know that he -cared, and he glanced at the little hand-glass under his window to see -if his face had changed. It cheered him to note no difference since -morning, and, with boyish affectation, he smiled at his image in the -glass. But suddenly, as if to test his strength, his mind flashed the -image of Hetty before him--her face turned up to him smilingly, as he -had often seen it, her eyes, every feature. With a groan he dropped his -head upon his arms. - -He put the mood away from him sternly, and began to debate with himself -whether it would be better to keep on loving her all his days, going to -his grave a sad and lonely man, or gaily to turn to another at once, to -show how little he cared. He came to no decision because he could not -determine which course would hurt her more. - -It was his watch below, but he could not sleep, so taking his log-book, -pen, and ink out into the cabin, he sat down at the table, though it -was neither the time nor the place for writing up his log. - -Mrs. March was there alone, and, saying that he could not write at his -desk, Medbury opened his book. - -He wrote down the date, saw that he had written that of two days -before, so scratched it out, and replaced it with the correct one, -and slowly began to write "Dead calm" in bold letters up and down the -column for winds. - -"How long do you suppose this is going to last, Tom?" asked Mrs. March. - -Medbury looked up and shook his head. - -"There's no telling. Wind's an uncertain thing; nothing more so," he -replied, and dipped his pen into the ink, squared his shoulders, and -made the down stroke of the first letter of a new word with a care for -details that seemed to indicate that he had left the subject of winds -irrevocably behind, and then added, "except women." - -Mrs. March had thought the sentence finished, and had taken up her -knitting again. Now she merely nodded. - -"It's true," she said impartially. "Most women wouldn't know their own -minds if they were to come upon them in broad daylight. They are like -men in that." She shot an amused glance toward the young man. - -"You know them," he said bitterly, ignoring her last sentence, and -secretly disappointed at such ready acquiescence, which indicated, he -feared, a jocular state of mind. - -"You mean I don't know them," corrected Mrs. March. "No one does. Do -you suppose I know my own daughter's? No more than she does herself. I -suppose you were thinking of her, weren't you?" - -"It's all over," he answered, and laid down his pen, but continued to -make motions across the page with his finger. - -Mrs. March showed no surprise, but she ceased knitting, apparently out -of respect for the young man's feelings. - -"How do you know?" she asked. - -"She just told me so," replied Medbury, glad that he could at last -unburden himself. "She said she sometimes thought she had no heart. She -told me that there were times when she had thought that she might care -for me, but now she knew her own mind. So it's all over." - -"Know her own mind! Fiddlesticks!" exclaimed Mrs. March, and proceeded -to knit again. "I guess you've pestered her in some way, and so she -said, 'Now I'll decide.' I suppose you've told her often enough that -you couldn't live without her, and should always feel that way. It's -perfectly natural for a girl to want to see if you can't." - -"Then you think it may come out all right, after all?" he asked quickly. - -She made a little murmur of dissent. - -"I couldn't go so far as to say that. It may be just pretense, and it -may be the plain truth, and it may be she doesn't know. You can't tell. -You've got to wait and see." - -"Well," he replied gloomily, "I guess it's all over." He was not going -to be so weak, he told himself, as to begin to hope again. - -"I've always thought it would come out right in the end," continued -Mrs. March. "You know I don't feel like Cap'n March. I've always said, -'Let the young folks settle it for themselves'; and I've always liked -you, Tom. But you've always been too humble, and she's been too certain -of you. I kind o' thought, when you took things in your own hands and -came this trip, it was the best thing you could have done. A girl likes -a masterful man." - -"She told me it was the worst thing," Medbury replied. - -"Then I guess she was afraid of herself," said Mrs. March, with -conviction. "She was afraid she'd have to give in." - -Medbury shook his head doubtfully as he said: - -"I don't know why she should be afraid, Mrs. March." - -"Because a girl's love is a funny thing. There's fear in it, and -pretense, and bashfulness, and coldness, and all the craziest things -under the sun." - -He hesitated a moment before speaking, and then said, with boyish -shyness: - -"She's known me so long, and known how I felt, sometimes it seems to me -that maybe it's grown tiresome to her. A man like Drew, now, who hasn't -known her long--if he cared--" He hesitated. - -"I've thought that, too," said Mrs. March, gently. - -The cabin door opened, and they heard Hetty's laugh near. It had the -peculiarly resonant quality of a voice on deck in a calm, heard by one -below. It also sounded happy. Medbury slipped away to his room. - -The last words Mrs. March had spoken were in his mind, and he put -his book away in bitterness of spirit. He heard Hetty descend into -the cabin, speak to her mother, and then pass his door, going up the -forward companionway. A sudden wild impulse to be aggressive seized -him, and, leaving his room, he, too, ascended to the deck. - -She was standing outside the cabin door, and she turned and smiled as -he drew near. - -"I thought it was your watch below," she said pleasantly. - -He did not even look at her, but, hurrying to the booby-hatch, threw -open the sliding hood and descended. - -"Now I've done it," he said, as he seated himself upon a coiled hawser. -"What a fool I can be when I really put my mind to it!" - -But even with this repulse of her he was not satisfied; he wondered why -he had not at least looked at her with scorn, and he thought of several -bitter speeches that would have been better than silence. - - - - -VIII - - -Mrs. March sat in a steamer-chair wedged in between the side of the -cabin and the lounge, the captain was smoking, and Drew held his book -unopened in his hand, when Hetty went below later in the morning. - -"Well, I'm glad to see you," said Mrs. March. "I don't see how you -keep from tumbling overboard, we roll so. Why don't your father stop -it,--pour oil on the water, or something,--if he's such a good sailor? -But he only smokes. He doesn't even tell us how much worse it was on -some other trip. I thought sailors always did that. I'm sure they talk -of nothing else ashore. Just hear those dishes rattle!" - -"If you'd only go up on deck, mother," Hetty advised, "you'd not mind -it so much. It doesn't seem so bad there. It's a beautiful day." - -"No," her mother answered; "I'll stay here. You know how a pussy-cat -will crouch down and shut her eyes when you go to box her ears; well, -I'm like that. I don't want to see what's coming; I know well enough." - -"That's like Billy Marvin," said Captain March, with a chuckle. - -"Then Billy Marvin's smarter'n I ever took him to be," said Mrs. March. - -The captain took his pipe from his mouth and turned to Drew. - -"I don't know's you've ever met Billy," he said; "but he's one of our -Blackwater folks. He's been going to sea a good many years, but he's -never got beyond the galley. Five or six years ago he went out as -steward with Cap'n Dave Barker on the old _Maggie P. Monroe_, and off -Cape Fear one night they struck a pretty lively southeaster, and for a -time it looked pretty dubious. Cap'n Dave is kind of excitable in bad -weather, and he got to raving up and down the deck and declaring they -were all going to kingdom come before morning, and everybody was pretty -well scared. Well, Cap'n Dave's a good deal better sailor than he is -prophesier, and, the gale going down before daybreak, they all felt -pretty good, but tired out from being on deck all night, and sharp-set -for breakfast. Well, seven bells came, but no signs of Billy, so Cap'n -Dave sent the mate forward to stir him up. He found the galley closed, -with no sign of fire inside, and Billy fast asleep in his bunk just -off the galley. The mate picked up a dish-pan and banged it up against -the boarding right by Billy's head, expecting to see him jump straight -through the deck. All he did was to turn over slowly and look at the -mate. The mate said he didn't even blink. Well, he used some pretty -strong language, and Billy tumbled out and began to hustle around. He -said Cap'n Dave was so certain they were going to the bottom before -morning, that it seemed a pity wasting time and strength to wind his -clock and set the alarm, so he just tumbled in, thinking he might as -well be comfortable and get a good night's sleep, if it was going to be -his last. Then he turned to the mate--he was raking out his stove--and, -grinning sheepishly, said: 'Mr. Thompson, I thought you was the angel -Gabriel when you started all that racket, blest if I didn't!' Cap'n -Dave asked him afterward if he was disappointed when he saw the mate -standing over him instead of what he'd expected. Billy thought a -minute, and then said: 'Well, cap'n, if you'd kind o' set your mind on -seeing a first-class show performance, and then after you'd paid for -your seat and was good and ready, if the curtain should go up, and, lo -and behold! there wasn't nothing there but just Sam Thompson, what -would you 'a' been?'" - -Mrs. March laughed with the rest, and, leaning forward, touched her -daughter's arm. - -"Don't you remember the winter Billy's wife got religion?" she asked. -"I don't know about telling a minister that; he might think that -Blackwater was pretty stony soil. You see,"--she turned to Drew,--"the -vessel Billy was in was long overdue, and folks were getting uneasy -about her. There was a big revival that winter, and Billy's wife got -to coming every night and going forward to the mourners' bench; and, -first and last, a good many prayers were offered for her husband. Well, -when everybody had about given him up, the vessel got in, with Billy -safe and sound. That was the end of Maria's church-going. Finally the -minister went around to find out why she had lost all her interest, and -she told him. 'Mr. Snow,' she said, 'Billy wasn't in a bit of danger -all the time we was a-praying for him. He said they didn't have wind -enough to blow the smoke away from his galley stovepipe, and what we -ought to have done was to pray for a gale of wind. That kind o' made me -lose all faith in the deficiency of prayer.'" - -"I suppose she thought that the good Lord could look out for folks at -sea a good deal better than those who didn't know the circumstances," -commented Captain March. "That doesn't sound unreasonable." His eyes -twinkled as he looked at the minister. - -"I fear there are many that have very queer notions about prayer," said -Drew, smiling. "Once I heard a man pray: 'O Lord, keep us from burning -the candle of life at both ends, and snuffing the ashes in thy face!' -It was a little startling." - -"It does sound a little familiar," admitted Mrs. March. "It's funny -how free we can be with the Lord in our prayers, when, if we stood -face to face with him, we wouldn't dare whisper a word or lift our -eyes. I think a good many of us, if we ever do get to heaven, will feel -more like hiding our faces than rejoicing when we think of some of the -things we've prayed for. But maybe such people won't get there, after -all." She spoke with so great an air of relief that the others laughed. - -"Don't you want them to go, mother?" asked Hetty. - -"Well, I don't think it's the place for folks who don't feel as though -they are going to enjoy every bit of it, do you?" Mrs. March replied. - -Hetty laughed uneasily, and glanced at the minister. - -"Mother," she said, "aren't you afraid Mr. Drew will think you speak -too lightly of sacred things? He doesn't know you as we do." - -"Don't think me so narrow, please," Drew protested, smiling. "I -hope I can distinguish between perfect frankness of character and -irreverence." - -Mrs. March looked from one to the other in silence, a trifle awed at -the thought of herself in the rôle of blasphemer. Her confusion was -only momentary, however. - -"Did I say anything very dreadful, my dear?" she asked. "I didn't know -it. I don't like moping here, and if I'm going to like it hereafter, -I shall be a good deal changed, that's all. And if I'm going to be so -much changed as not to be myself, I don't see what satisfaction it's -going to be. I might as well be like foolish Susan Burtis, and have no -character at all." - -The others laughed, but Hetty scarcely heard her. She sat where she -could see through the narrow windows the line of sea and sky as the -brig rolled to port; then it flew up, and the bright sunlight flashed -across her face and along the floor of the cabin. Turning at last, her -eyes met Drew's. - -"Did you learn how to make it?" he asked her. - -"The knot? No, I gave it up." - -"Like the reading?" - -"I didn't give that up. You carried the book away." - -"I can bring it back." - -She shook her head. - -"Not yet," she told him; then she turned to her father. "Isn't the wind -ever going to come again?" she asked. - -"Well," replied Captain March, "it brought us here, and I guess it'll -carry us away. It generally does." - -"It's very slow," she complained. - -"It doesn't consider us, my dear," he replied. Then he rose slowly and -went up the companionway, and a moment later they heard him whistling -for a wind. - -Hetty jumped to her feet. - -"Father must see something--a catspaw at least," she exclaimed. "I'm -going to find out." With that she, too, sought the deck, followed by -Drew. - -[Illustration: "They heard him whistling for a wind"] - -Captain March stood sweeping the sea with his glass; but as they -approached him he lowered it, and went silently below. - -"There isn't one--not one," said Hetty, as she looked about for the -dark streaks of catspaws. Three great rollers came sweeping in, and -they rocked and pitched with the might of them. The girl caught at the -rail for support. "It makes one think of the words, 'Who hath measured -the waters in the hollow of his hand,' doesn't it?" she said solemnly. - -"Yes," he answered. - -"It makes me feel humble, but useless, and I do not care to feel like -that," she said. "I want to be doing things. Doesn't life seem barren -to you here?" - -He shook his head. - -"No," he replied. "Life means just as much as we put into it, I fancy, -and these days have meant much for me. I should not care to have them -blotted out." - -She had turned abruptly just as they rolled down on a long swell, and, -stumbling against the bitts, with a gasp fell outboard across the low -rail. - -Drew leaped toward her just in time. His hand, flashing out, caught her -as she was slipping from the rail, and brought her back against his -breast. For an instant he held her there. - -"Hetty! O Hetty!" he gasped, as their eyes met. - -"Don't! for pity's sake, don't!" she whispered, and, pulling herself -free, sank upon the bitts, put her hands to her face, and laughed -hysterically. In a moment she looked up. - -"Don't tell them," she said. "I should not like to have them know I -fell." Then she walked unsteadily toward the cabin door. Half-way -there, she looked back. "I ought to thank you," she said, in a low -voice, "and I do." And with that she disappeared. - -Medbury, overhauling a spare sail on the main-deck, had not seen it, -but the sailor with him had, and his exclamation had made Medbury turn -quickly, only to see Hetty standing with Drew's arm about her. He -stooped to his work again with shaking fingers; but the sailor stood -still, staring. - -Medbury glanced at him, his face growing white. - -"Here!" he said savagely, and the sailor turned to his task again -without a word. - -The day dragged interminably. Hetty remained steadily in her room; -through his watches on deck Medbury drove the men from one task to -another with a feverish harshness wholly unusual, and which brought his -watch to the forecastle at the end of the day in heated and profane -weariness. Drew spent the time on deck with a book, sometimes read -with slight comprehension, but more often closed over his finger, -while he watched the gleaming whiteness of the sea, seeing now a school -of flying-fish run like flashes of quicksilver through the long arcs -of their flight, and now the dorsal fin of a shark, like an inverted -ploughshare, cut the surface of the barren glebe. Even Captain March's -imperturbability became less rocklike. Once he paused at Drew's side -with a grumbling sound that was clearly a sigh. - -"Well, it's 'Paddy's hurricane,' and no mistake," he said. "I never -saw anything like it. Usually there's a little air stirring somewhere -about. You'd think that something queer had got into things, wouldn't -you?" - -He had been standing balancing himself easily to the swing of the deck, -but there came a vicious lunge, which stopped suddenly, as if arrested -by a great hand, and he went staggering down the slope with swaying -arms, like a collapsing sprinter. When he brought up against the rail, -he talked on in a level voice that recognized no interruption: - -"It's queer about a calm: there's noise enough in it if a sea's -running, and it gets on your nerves; but when the wind blows again, you -feel as if you'd just come out of an air-tight room, and the sound of -the wind makes you want to shout. There's Mr. Medbury, now; he's been -nagging the men all the afternoon as if he was afraid without the sound -of his voice, like a boy whistling on a dark road. It's ridiculous in a -grown man, but it's natural enough." - -Drew flushed, but made no reply. He, too, had been thinking of Medbury, -but his thoughts were not enviable. He had been false to a man who had -trusted him, he told himself, and he had shown feeling that he had no -moral right to show. It was in vain that he tried to convince himself -that his right to Hetty was as great as Medbury's own; in his heart -he felt that it was not. And what of the girl? he asked himself, in -growing remorse. After his action of the morning, could he again meet -her on the old footing of friendly fellowship? He could not go on, but -how could he now draw back? In any way that he looked, he could see -nothing but his moral cowardice. - -In a mental restlessness that he could not allay, he rose to his feet -and walked forward to the break in the deck. The sun, a copper-colored -ball, was nearing the horizon, and Medbury and his men were gathering -up the sail that they had been patching; one of the crew was sweeping -up the deck. The querulous complaining of Medbury's voice floated aft, -the human undertone in the jangling noises of disturbed nature. - -For a moment Drew watched the scene before him, and then descending the -steps and, hurrying across the plank that was blocked high above the -water that swashed across the deck from scupper to scupper, he stopped -at the galley door. The steward looked up gloomily, but, seeing Drew, -showed his gleaming teeth in a perfunctory smile that had none of its -usual geniality. Through the high slide in the partition between the -galley and the forecastle Drew could hear the watch trooping in with -angry mutterings against the mate. - -The steward grinned, and jerked his head toward the forecastle. - -"Yo' heah dat?" he said. "Dese heah cahms trouble-breedehs faw shuah. -Ole mahn Satan done chase dat buckra mate's soul roun' de stump all -eb'nin'. Two, t'ree bad mahns aboa'd dis hookeh, en two, t'ree cowahds. -Dose cowahds been da worse--some dahk night. Dat buckra mate betteh -watch out." He laughed. - -Drew stirred uneasily. The threats of the crew and the scarcely -understood warning of the West Indian steward had to his mind something -of the character of a Greek tragic chorus foretelling doom, and -presently he moved away out of hearing, not caring to have even -negatively any part in the moving finger of Fate. - -He wandered about aimlessly for a while, dreading to approach Medbury, -who, now that his work was done, stood near the main-rigging with his -pipe in his mouth, his spirit for the moment at peace. Drew had little -knowledge of sailors, but he was sufficiently a man of the world to -know that the irrepressible threats of the forecastle meant little. -Still, the steward had hinted at danger, and, yielding to the other's -better knowledge of his little world, Drew finally went aft to warn the -mate. - -Medbury looked up sharply as Drew approached, but turned his eyes away -immediately. In the silence that followed neither stirred, but, resting -their arms upon the sheer-pole, each seemed absorbed in the cloudless -panorama of the closing day. - -The sun sank lower and lower; one by one the crew came out of the -forecastle, and, dipping up buckets of water, sluiced themselves with -the noisy abandon of water-spaniels. The pungent scent of tobacco -floated aft, and now the sound of a laugh, or the scuffle of feet upon -the deck. From the galley came the soft, slurred speech of the steward, -lifted high in a quick exchange of wit with his forecastle neighbors, -and followed by the almost continuous flood of his unrestrained -cachinnation. Clearly the day was ending in peace. - -This peacefulness, so at variance with the scarcely restrained passion -that, a moment before, had sent him aft to warn Medbury of danger, left -Drew strangely bewildered. He turned to his companion, and with a smile -said: - -"Do you know, a moment ago I thought that the crew was on the verge of -mutiny; now I feel as if I had been dreaming. I don't understand it. -They are like care-free children now. I can't believe they are such -consummate actors." - -Medbury turned to him and grinned. - -"What made you think that?" he asked. - -"I was at the galley door and heard them making threats. The steward -seemed to think there was danger--to you," Drew answered. "I thought I -ought to warn you; but now it seems silly." - -"A sailorman's threat doesn't mean anything," Medbury told him, "and -prophesying evil is the 'doctor's' trade. He's a big voodoo out home in -Santa Cruz, and half the negroes on the island will go five miles out -of their way to avoid him." - -Drew paused a moment before speaking, then he said slowly: - -"Well, my crisis was only a mare's nest, it seems. I was beginning to -think it was to be a day of adventures. One seemed enough." - -"One?" queried Medbury, looking up sharply. - -"Yes; Miss March fell across the rail. I caught her just in time. I -thought you saw." - -Medbury's face flushed. - -"I didn't see," he said. "I didn't understand." - -It was Drew's face that flushed now. - -"I ought to explain," he began, but Medbury broke in: - -"You haven't anything to explain to me. I'm the mate of this vessel; -nothing more. That's all the interest I've got here, and all I want." - -With that he walked away. He knew it was childish, but, having let -himself go, he was no longer able to exercise his self-restraint till -the whole madness had passed. - - - - -IX - - -As Captain March went up the companionway after supper, he thought he -felt a puff of air across his face. Stepping out upon the deck, his -eyes instinctively turned to the northeast, from which direction he -expected the wind. A dove-colored light still shone in the eastern sky; -below it the sea was a darker color, irradiated by the glowing west. - -His daughter and the young men had followed him, and now she touched -his arm. - -"Isn't that a catspaw?" she asked, and pointed northward, where a dark -film of purple seemed to roughen the long slope of a swell that shone -like pink satin. Even as they looked, the slope became a shallow bowl, -and the patch of purple faded to the uniform gray of the hollowed wave. - -Captain March shook his head and sighed. - -"It does beat the deuce," he said. - -This was as wide a departure from the placid philosophy with which he -looked upon life as he ever gave expression to; and his daughter and -his mate, who knew him equally well, recognized in it the extent of his -mental disturbance. To them both the prolonged calm, in the changing -twilight, took on an aspect of uncanniness. It was as if they stood -absolutely alone, the last of living things, in a chaos of dead waters, -under the sweeping throng of stars, which saw not and heeded not the -blotting out of their small world. Tacitly both had agreed to give no -sign of their changed relations so long as they were compelled to meet -daily. - -Medbury slipped away forward for a turn about the deck. He looked at -the lights to see if they were in order. - -"They might as well be kept burning," he muttered, "though God knows -what good they are." - -Back on the quarter-deck, when he returned from his round, he found the -others leaning over the rail in silence. It had suddenly grown dark, -and a haze had come up, obscuring the stars and the sea. He paused near -Hetty, who looked up, smiled, and made room for him. - -"We thought we heard the beat of a steamer's paddle just now," she -said. "Listen!" - -He leaned over the rail beside her, but for a long time heard nothing -but the whine of spars, the rattle of the main-sheet blocks as the boom -swung them taut, and the jump of the wheel in its becket. At intervals -there came the sound of water dripping from the channels or spouting -from the scuppers. These sounds seemed to make more acute the silence -of the sea, which seemed like a living, threatening presence. At last -Medbury stood up. - -"There's nothing," he said. - -"Listen!" said Hetty, in a low voice, and again he dropped his elbows -to the rail. - -Suddenly there came a quick succession of muffled throbs, like the -far-off churning sound of a steamer's paddle-wheel; then it ceased as -absolutely as if a door had been closed noiselessly upon it. - -"There!" cried Hetty. - -Fully ten minutes passed before they heard it again. - -"It's queer," said Medbury. "There wasn't a sign of a steamer in sight -at sunset. She must be far away, and we hear her only when we're both -on the top of a swell. Sound carries a long way on a night like this." - -Captain March straightened up. - -"Bring me the glasses, Mr. Medbury," he said. - -Medbury brought them, and the captain slowly swept the horizon; then -he crossed the deck and walked to the main-rigging. Coming back, he -handed the glasses to Medbury. - -"Go forward and take a look," he said. - -In five minutes the mate came back, and went up the main-rigging to the -crosstrees. When he descended, he came aft. - -"It's getting thick," he said; "she ought to blow her whistle." - -"Better get your fog-horn forward," said the captain, and took the -glasses for another look as Medbury went below. A moment later the -mate returned to the deck with the long box of the patent fog-horn, -and presently the dreary wail began to sound at intervals from the -forecastle-deck. Hetty shivered as she heard it. - -"It frightens me!" she murmured, with a little catch in her voice. "It -frightens me!" - -The crew were at the rail forward, silent and listening. The fog had -blotted out the fore part of the vessel, but the forecastle door was -open, and the swinging lamp was like an orange center of light in a -nebulous haze. Once a sailor passed before it, and his shape loomed -black and huge against the luminous interior. At short intervals the -fog-horn sounded like a wailing banshee through the darkness; but there -was no answering signal: only at long intervals came that strange, -throbbing beat, like an uncanny chuckle, but seemingly neither nearer -nor farther away than at first. Hardly two aboard agreed as to its -direction, for the opaque walls of fog deflect sound-waves at sea, as a -crystal breaks a ray of light. - -Back on the quarter-deck Medbury was telling a curious story. - -"Two years ago," he began slowly, with the hesitation of a man who -feels moved to confidence against his better judgment, "we were running -up the straits to Singapore, when it suddenly came on thick. We were -close-hauled and had just about wind enough for steerageway, and we had -the fog-horn going and were keeping a sharp lookout, for we were right -in the track of shipping, and you know how vessels drift together in -a fog, no matter which way they were heading before it thickened up. -Well, we hadn't heard a peep all day, and toward night it seemed to be -lifting a little, when I heard the man at the wheel give a little cry, -and, looking astern, there, not a cable's length away, was a dingy, -raveled-out, full-rigged Portuguese brig slipping right across our -wake. They hadn't made a sound, and they didn't even then, though our -old man got black in the face with cursing them for their sins. There -was a black-whiskered old fellow, with his coat-collar turned up about -his ears, at the wheel; but he scarcely looked our direction: only once -he wagged his beard at us, and threw one arm over his head in a funny -way, and then squinted aloft again, paying no more attention to us -than if we'd been so much seaweed. But just forward the fore-rigging -there was a row of sailormen leaning over the rail, and their eyes -followed us like a lot of beady birds' eyes till the fog swallowed them -up again. Well, the day after we reached Singapore the old man came -aboard in a brown study. He said he'd heard ashore that there'd been -a lot of dirty weather knocking about the straits, and a Portuguese -brig called the _Villa Real_ was forty days overdue. Well, she stayed -overdue, and not a splinter or spun-yarn of her ever came ashore." He -paused a moment to relight his pipe, and then added: "On the stern of -the Portuguese brig that we had seen, in big white letters a foot high, -was the name _Villa Real_." - -In the silence that followed some one forward gave a low laugh; in the -fog it sounded strange and unnatural. - -"Did you ever hear a loon cry alongshore at night?" asked Medbury. For -the first time on the voyage he had become actually loquacious. "I used -to hear them at home when I was a boy. It's a creepy sound, and makes a -man feel lonesome and homesick." He paused, as if half-ashamed of the -confession, but went on, with a boyish chuckle: "Somehow, that fellow's -laugh made me think of it, though I can't say it sounded like a loon, -either. It's queer how one thing'll suggest another that isn't at all -like it." - -"It sounded strange to me, too," confessed Hetty. - -"Did it?" he said, turning to her. "Well, that's funny." - -"Knocking about in fog and storm, without sleep, a sailor gets queer -notions in his head at times," said Captain March, slowly. "Now I had a -little experience once that seemed queer at the time, though I suppose -it was natural enough, if you only knew how to explain it. You know -what queer shapes will sometimes loom up at night; but walk right -up to 'em and you find it's nothing but a stump or a white post or -something. Well, the first vessel I ever had was the schooner _Sarah -J. Mason_. I was pretty young at the time, and I guess I was a bit -nervous, but it does seem yet as if that first voyage as master was -the roughest I've ever had. I had chartered for Para, and we struck -dirty weather almost from the first. About eight days out the wind -came out ahead, light and baffling, and I got her topsails on for the -first time. But along after sundown it freshened up again, and I took -'em in. A young fellow from up the State somewhere had stowed the -maintopsail, and someway, I don't know how,--I guess he was hurrying -and a little careless; it was his watch below,--he slipped. For years -after that, when I wasn't feeling first-rate, I used to wake up with -a start, thinking I heard his yell again. Well, it wasn't very rough, -and we got a boat over, but it wasn't any use. He must have gone down -like a stone. After that it was dirty weather, with scarcely a glimpse -of the sun, all the way out. I was upset and worn out, I guess; but one -night, looking aloft, I saw some one on the main-crosstrees. There was -a good-sized moon, though the sky was overcast, but light enough to -see pretty distinctly. 'Who's that aloft?' says I to the second mate. -He didn't answer much of anything, but walked to the rail and looked -up. 'Well, call him down,' I said sharply, and he went to the rigging, -and, standing on the rail, yelled: 'Who's that up there?' Then he went -half-way up and stopped. I guess he stood there five minutes before he -came down and went forward. In a minute he came back, looking pretty -white. 'Everybody accounted for, sir,' he said, and his teeth were -chattering as if he had the ague. - -"Now, it sounds funny, but I never looked aloft at night on that trip -without wishing I didn't have to, and there wasn't a sailorman aboard -who could have been driven to go up to that masthead after dark if -he'd been killed for refusing. We had fair weather coming home, and we -carried that topsail till we blew it off her one night. I was plagued -glad to see it go." - -"Talking about explaining things if you only walk right up to them," -said Medbury--"now there 're some things you _can't_ explain. Take the -old _Martha Hunter_, for instance. How are you going to explain her?" -He leaned forward and addressed his talk to Drew, who knew nothing of -the _Martha Hunter_. "She was built in Blackwater when I was a boy," he -went on, "and before her ribs were all up Jerry Bartow fell from the -scaffolding and was killed, and Tom Martin nearly cut his foot off with -an adze while he was trimming a stick of timber that went into her. -It went in with the stain of his blood on it, and it wasn't the last -stain of the kind that she carried before she was through. Oh, she -was greedy for that sort of thing! When she was launched she must have -got the notion that she was designed to dig out a new channel in the -harbor, for she fetched bottom and carried away her rudder; and before -the year was out she came off the Boston mud-banks so badly hogged that -she looked as if she'd got her sheer on upside down. It wasn't long -before a sailorman fell from aloft and was killed on her deck; and -the very next trip, in warping her out of her berth in Wareham, the -hawser parted and broke the leg of the man who was holding turn at the -capstan. Cap'n Silas Hawkins brought her home to overhaul, and the very -first day he walked down the main-hatchway and was killed. Why, she -used to drag ashore in any sort of a white-ash breeze; and if there was -any dirty weather knocking about, she always managed to run her nose -into it, and would come limping home like a disreputable old girl out -on a lark. You could have filled a book with the stories of the men -she lost or maimed, and the trouble she got into first and last. But -she was fortunate in a way, too, for she made money, and you couldn't -lose her. I guess she's running yet." - -"I saw her a year ago last fall," said Captain March. "I haven't heard -anything startling about her since, so I guess she's going." - -"Well," said Medbury, "how are you going to explain her, and others -like her? I'm not superstitious, or any more so than the common run of -folks; but things like that--" He shrugged his shoulders and laughed, -then, dropping his elbows to the rail again, turned to listen. - -For a long time they had not noticed the sound that puzzled them, and -now, in the silence, they remembered it again, and strained their ears -to catch it once more. The fog-horn boomed out at regular intervals; -only the noises of the rolling brig were also heard. - -While they still stood listening, all at once Medbury thought he felt -a puff of wind. Yet it was not so much wind as it was a suggestion of -wind: it seemed to him that a hand, wet and cold, had been thrust close -to his face and then withdrawn. He could not explain the chill that -seemed to run through his frame. Then he shook off the feeling, and -turned to Captain March. - -"Did you feel a puff, sir?" he asked, and held his finger above his -head. - -"No," replied the captain. "If we get a stir of air, I'll put the -canvas on her. I don't want to slat the sails all to pieces, but if we -get enough for steerageway, we'll try it. I don't like loafing about in -a fog like this with my hands in my pockets." - -Then, even while he was speaking, out of the darkness and the fog and -the subdued murmurs of the ocean, without other warning than the -intangible beat that had mystified them, a long roller came sweeping -in, lifted them in its mighty arms, slipped past, and dropped them with -a shock that shook the brig, and forced a cry from the lips of every -soul aboard. - - - - -X - - -The group on the quarter-deck staggered together in a huddled bunch, -then fell apart as Medbury and the captain slipped out and ran forward. -Then the brig rose on another swell, and came up bumping, with a -snarling sound along the fore-chains. - -"It's some barnacled old derelict," Medbury turned to shout to the -captain, who was following him with surprising swiftness, but with -short, quick strides, like a waddling duck, and breathing heavily. -Medbury was on the rail, peering over into the darkness, when the -captain reached the fore-rigging. A group of sailors huddled about the -rail. - -"Here, you," called Captain March, "get fenders quick! Bring that spare -royal-yard--anything!" Then he lifted himself into the rigging by -Medbury's side. The next minute he was calling for a lantern and the -flare. - -They quickly had the yard and some planks lashed over the side, though -they knew that such protections were almost futile in the lift of the -swell that was then running. Under the light of the flare, gray and -almost invisible in the thick night, awash at one moment, at the next -showing a jagged line of railless stanchions, they saw the derelict -lying almost parallel with them. With the flare in his hand, Medbury -lowered himself down to the channel, looking for the place of contact. -Forward of the chains the side of the brig was badly scraped, and a -part of the channel was splintered; but they could see no other injury. - -"Lucky she didn't come under us when we dropped," Medbury said. - -"She may yet," replied the captain. He straightened up, and held his -hand above his head. There was not a breath of air stirring. He turned -to the mate again. "Get a boat over the side quick, Mr. Medbury," he -said; "we've got to pull out of this." - -They swung the boat off the center-house, and with difficulty, in the -heavy swell, got her over the side and away, with Medbury and five -of the men as her crew. A line was paid out to them, and run through -a forward chock and passed about the capstan. Standing by the port -cathead, Captain March "held turn." - -"Don't know what may happen," he said aloud to himself. "I'd better -keep a hold o' this in this swell." He sent a man up to the top with -a lantern, and the second mate to the wheel. "Straight ahead, now!" -he roared to the boat. "We don't want to swing her counter over it. -Straight ahead, now, you!" - -He could hear the thud of the oars in the rowlocks and their irregular -beat on the water, for rowing in the swell was hard; but he could hear, -too, the _zip! zip!_ of the line as it tautened, and then the splash as -it dropped slack. At times the two hulls came together with a jar, but -with no great shock after the first. - -Drew had come forward, and once he asked the captain if he could be of -assistance. Captain March was leaning over the side, peering into the -darkness for the derelict, and had not answered. When he turned to his -line again, Drew repeated the question. - -"No, no; just keep out of the way," replied the captain, with the -impersonal contempt of the sailor for the landsman afloat in times of -need. - -They drew ahead but slowly; it was only by inches at the best, and -there were times when they fell behind as the sweep of the sea -caught them and rolled them from side to side through a wide arc. -Fortunately, they were to the leeward of the wreck, and what advantage -there was in their greater buoyancy and height above the sea added -its little to the feeble efforts of the crew of the boat. Captain -March could hear the unsteady ding-donging of the oars in the rowlocks -as Medbury urged them on. He peered over the side of the brig with -straining eyes. - -"It ain't no way to go--like this," once he said aloud. It seemed a -trivial end, without the pomp of storm and the exaltation that comes -with the last struggle for life. He longed for the struggle for -himself, he longed for it for his vessel. - -At last there came a time when he could no longer see the derelict, and -he grew restive under the uncertainty. All at once he thought he felt -a breath of air across his face. He straightened himself, and held his -hand up to the wind. It was surely a puff, and, quickly making the line -fast, he hurried aft to take the wheel. - -"Get your staysails on her," he told the second mate, as he relieved -him. "Set your maintopmast staysail first,--there'll be a steadier air -up there,--then get your foretopmast staysail on her." He turned to -Drew. "Just bear a hand there, will you?" he said to him. - -He heard the staysail run up and the cry of the second mate to belay; -then he heard them sheeting it home. - -"Not too flat, Mr. Barrett! Not too flat!" he called. "Give her an easy -sheet, so she'll lift a little. Now up with the others!" - -He saw Hetty's face at the companionway, and glanced at her with -half-averted eyes. She was a true sailor's daughter, he thought with -pride. He did not object to her presence, for she never worried folks -with questions. Then he called to her: - -"It's all right, my girl. Don't you worry. Just tell your mother it's -all right." - -He heard the staysails flap from time to time, and so began to whistle -for a wind. "Deuce take it!" he muttered, "why don't it blow?" Every -moment or two he stepped to the rail and peered into the darkness to -note his progress. They had slowly drifted away from the wreck, the -stern of which now lay opposite the quarter-deck of the brig. The -second mate came running aft. - -"Shall we brace the yards around, and try to get what canvas we can on -her, sir?" he asked. - -Captain March shook his head. - -"No," he answered; "you couldn't do much, short-handed as you are. -Maybe we'd just lose control of her. But you go forward and call to Mr. -Medbury to keep a-going--keep a-going." - -It was a quarter of an hour before the derelict's stern was clearly -past the brig's. Slowly the house crept past--a high house, Captain -March could now see plainly, and painted white. "Some foreigner," he -thought with scorn, "scared to his boats before he was hurt." He felt -all the contempt of his race and kind for timid unseafaring peoples. - -Once when the wreck sank deeply in the hollow of the sea, and the swell -broke over her, she came up sputtering, and Captain March heard the -water gushing from some opening with the rhythmic _chug-chug_ of water -gurgling from a bottle. - -"That's what we heard," he said aloud. It sounded uncanny even now. "I -guess it's a water-butt that's shifted over on its side and the sea -washes full," he thought. "Well, it's creepy enough." - -Suddenly he gave a start, for from the wreck came the faint, -unmistakable crying of a cat. He walked to the rail and listened, -muttering to himself: "The scoundrels, to leave her behind!" He stood -by the rail for a moment, and presently called: "Kitty! kitty! poor -kitty!" Then he went back to the wheel again, whistling loudly for a -wind, that he might not hear the plaintive response to his call. - -For a time the situation had worn for Hetty a certain pleasurable -aspect of romance; but in the dragging moments that followed the -sending away of the boat, her nerves grew tense under the strain, and -seemed to present, as it were, sharp edges to the irritating suspense. -The low-riding wreck, awash at one moment, at the next looming -threateningly above them, showing its jagged outlines uncertainly -through the enlarging fog, took on an aspect wholly sinister. With only -the desire to get beyond sight of it, she crossed to the starboard -main-rigging, and gazed steadily out across the vaporous expanse of the -windless sea. - -Her resolute refusal to watch the derelict took on, in her mind, -something of the character of a senseless game with her fear: she told -herself that she would count two hundred before she looked to see if -it were farther away, then five hundred; after that she resolved not to -look until she heard a footstep or a voice. The latter task, unrelieved -by the mechanically mental exertion of the whispered numbers, became -speedily unbearable, and she began to count again. Presently a step -sounded on the deck near her. In the tension of the moment she looked -up, dangerously near to hysteria. - -It was, of course, Drew, the only idle man aboard. - -"We have passed it," he said gaily. - -Her hand was resting against the rigging, and now, as he spoke, in a -revulsion of feeling she laid her forehead against it and laughed. - -"You poor child!" he murmured. - -At that she lifted her head quickly and said: - -"The whole night has been so unreal--that strange sound, the fog, our -ghost talk, and this danger--" She looked past him in a strange mental -relaxation, feeling the inadequacy of words to convey her immeasurable -relief. - -"It has been hard for you," he said gently. "I thought of you, and -wished that I might help you, but I'm a helpless creature here." He -smiled. - -No one else had come near her or thought of her, she told herself -unreasonably; and now she turned upon him the frank, open look of a -child. - -"You do help me," she said. - -Alone in that strange calm, but barely escaped from a grave danger, -they looked at each other for a moment through the distorting glass of -their common isolation. Suddenly he moved toward her. - -"Then may it not be for always?" he whispered. He could gather no other -meaning from Medbury's speech at sunset than that he had given up all -hope. He himself was free to speak at last. Yet he must have spoken in -any case. - -She gave a little backward spring, and laid hold of the shrouds with a -hand that trembled. - -"Not that!" she gasped. "Oh, I didn't mean that!" - -"But I mean it," he urged. "Try to think of it favorably. You know the -work I desire: let us work together. Life would mean so much to me with -you near! And for you--it would be in the path of your own desires, to -work among the poor." - -For a moment it seemed like an open door to her hopes. - -"I had thought of your work since you spoke of it," she said in a low -voice; "and I wondered if they would let me try that--alone, of course, -I mean," she added with pretty confusion. "I should like to do some -good in the world. I seem so useless now. It gave me a new hope." - -"And I," he urged--"do not put me apart from it!" - -She had put him apart from it, she thought. She laid her hand upon the -shrouds and dropped her face to it for a moment. - -"Oh, I cannot tell!" she whispered. - -"Do not try to tell now," he said. "Wait! It--" - -Then sharply across their absorption they heard her father calling to -the second mate to order in the boat. Without a word, she slipped aft. - -As the boat drew near, Captain March went to the rail. - -"They've left a cat aboard," he called to Medbury. "She's forward. I -shouldn't like to leave even a cat like that." Then he added, as if to -show that his humanity was dictated more by reason than by sentiment, -"It seems unlucky--as if _we'd_ left her." - -"All right, sir," Medbury replied; "I'll get her." - -"Well, don't get stove. Just as soon as you come aboard, we'll make -sail. There's a little air stirring." - -As the boat swung away behind them, the captain told the second mate -to rig and sound the pumps. The brig was unusually tight, and it was -with no uneasiness that he gave the order, which he considered merely -perfunctory. - -The first half-dozen strokes told a different tale. He was stooping -to grip the spokes of the wheel when the first rush of water sounded -on the deck, and its fullness stopped him like a blow in the face. -Instantly he blew his whistle over the stern, and called to Medbury to -come aboard at once. He heard Medbury's "Aye, aye, sir," and called to -the second mate for a lantern. It was already on the quarter-deck when -the boat swung out of the darkness in under the stern. - -"We got her," Medbury called out, but Captain March made no reply. He -swung the lantern down toward the boat by a lanyard. - -"Find where we struck," he said, and, giving the wheel to the second -mate, hurried forward. - -He was standing on the fore-channel when Medbury brought the boat up, -and, going as near as he dared, held the lantern over the side. - -"There!" cried Medbury as the light of the lantern flashed over the -scarred and abraded spots that they had already noted; but Captain -March shook his head impatiently. - -"No," he said curtly; "lower down. Watch when she rises." - -The lantern shed a wan light upon the oily sea and the glistening black -hull. Five times the brig rose and fell on the easy rollers; then she -leaped to a great height, and for an instant, below the bilge, they -caught sight of a jagged stretch of copper, torn, and shrunken like a -withered apple. One glance showed that nothing could be done. - -They had the boat over the side again in an incredibly short time. -As he was rigging the fall to hoist her to her old place on the -center-house, Medbury hesitated, and then hurried aft. - -"Shall I lash the boat on deck, sir?" he asked, adding significantly: -"We may need it." - -"No, sir," replied the captain; "hoist it to its place. I don't make -preparations to abandon my ship till I've done something to save her. -Besides, I want the boat in the safest place if I've got to use it, -after all. But I'm not thinking of that yet." - -It was not long before the wind was coming out of the northeast in -quicker and stronger puffs, and, under every thread of canvas, they -began to forge ahead to the dismal clank of the pumps. There was no -question of breaking out the cargo, and trying to patch the leak -from the inside. It was to be a rush for port, to the music of the -pump-brakes. - -Medbury and Drew were standing by the port rail at four bells when -Captain March came on deck from a study of his chart. He glanced aloft, -looked to windward, then at his binnacle. - -"Ease the sheets a little, Mr. Medbury," he said, "and keep her off -half a point." He gave the course, then added: "Change the men at the -pumps every hour; we'll all have to take a hand at it before it's over. -The wind's freshening fast, and that's our chance. We've got to carry -everything to-night. Call me in an hour." - -He was going down the companionway when Medbury called to him. - -"That vessel was burned, sir," he said. He held up his hands, blackened -with the charred wood. - -"You don't say!" exclaimed the captain. "How did that cat happen to -escape?" - -"Somehow she got forward, and the fire spread aft. It was the only spot -untouched--the forecastle-deck." - -"What did you do with her?" asked the captain. "I forgot all about her." - -"Oh, I gave her to the steward; she was half-starved." - -"All right," said the captain; "all right." Then he went below. It was -the last bit of sleep he was to get for many an hour. - -With started sheets and a freshening breeze, the brig began the song -of the road. The laced foam went hissing past her sides, flecked here -and there with spots of phosphorescent light; under her fore-foot was -the growl of the heaped-up, rolling wave; now and then the shock of a -higher sea, thrown back from her bows in a smother of spray, shook her -from stem to stern. The fog had gone with the coming of wind, but the -rack, like a flock of birds, swept by overhead. The wind began to sigh -and whine in the rigging; with a tremulous, muffled roar the canvas -strained and thundered: but through every other noise, insistent, -penetrating, sounded the steady thump of the pumps and the rush of -water from the spouts. - -Once Medbury came aft after changing the men at the pumps, and stopped -at the corner of the house to look aloft; he had felt the deck swinging -wide under his feet. - -"Steady, man! steady!" he called to the man at the wheel. "Don't let -her yaw!" - -He watched the sails for a moment, turning at last with a sigh of -satisfaction to Drew, who was standing near. - -"She's picking up her skirts like a little lady," he said. His tone was -almost exultant. - -"It's good to feel the rush of movement again," said Drew; "but I'm a -little bewildered yet, it has come and gone so quickly--this strange -experience." - -"That's the way with things at sea," replied Medbury. "We're always -expecting things to happen, and surprised when they come. But I don't -know as it's much different with life in general," he added gloomily. -"Trust in nothing--that's the only way to escape being disappointed. -Trust in nothing, and be prepared for the worst." - - - - -XI - - -A slim shape came softly up out of the companionway, and, closing the -door, paused uncertainly. Facing the wind, the girl thrust back her -blowing hair, and looked about her. - -"I thought my father was here," she murmured, not knowing whether to go -or stay. - -"He's below," Medbury told her. - -"I thought he was here," she repeated. She hesitated a moment, and then -turned suddenly to Medbury. - -"Where are we going?" she asked him. - -"Better ask your father that," he replied. "He only gave me the course." - -"I did ask him. He said he believed we were chartered for Santa Cruz." - -"Then that's where we're going," he said promptly. - -"I can't realize yet what has happened," she went on; "it was so calm -and peaceful. It seems the strangest thing." - -"Oh, this sort of thing's been done before," replied Medbury. "They -can't accuse us of inventing any new kind of foolishness; so don't you -go to feeling proud because you think you've found something strange. -When you get out to Santa Cruz all the old captains in port will drop -aboard and spin yarns about what's happened to them, till you'll think -this is the commonest thing in the world." - -"You're trying to make me feel safe," she declared; "that frightens me -all the more. You take too much pains to assure me. Tell me truly: have -you ever been in greater danger?" - -"Yes," he answered; "many a time, and only last winter, for once. For -five minutes, one night, I thought of more things in my life than -I'd done for twenty years. I haven't done that yet, to-night. I never -thought to walk the streets of Blackwater again." - -Hetty tried to think how it would seem to feel that she, too, would not -walk the streets of Blackwater again. In two months, she remembered, -the cherry-trees would be in bloom there; she could see them whitening -the whole village. She looked at him and smiled. - -"Did you think of it in cherry-time, with all the streets and -dooryards white with blossoms?" she asked idly, with a vague notion of -distracting her thoughts from the present hour. - -"Yes," he answered quietly; "and of other white things--of drawing my -sled home from school through the drifts, and glad to be alive." - -She caught her breath and turned her face away. She was beginning to -understand, she told herself, what it was to be a sailor, and face -danger year after year, living one's life mainly in dreams, with only -far-off memories to feed upon. Her eyes filled with tears. Finally she -turned to him again with a little smile. - -"I'm beginning to know what it is to be a sailor," she said. - -The clock in the cabin struck, and the bell forward repeated the four -sharp strokes. A man came aft to relieve the wheel. A moment later -Captain March appeared on deck, and walked over to his daughter's side. - -"Heh! young lady," he said, "I thought I told you to turn in." - -"I'm going to stay with you a while," she answered, and took his arm. - -"Cap'n," said Medbury, "hadn't you better keep your watch below? I'll -change the men at the pumps and take a spell at the wheel myself. We -don't need you now." - -"No," replied the captain; "my place is on deck to-night." - -They stood in silence a long time, listening to the sounds of the -night, and having no inclination to speech. Suddenly, above the roar -of the wind, they heard the voice of the lookout crying from the -forecastle-deck: - -"Light ahead on the port bow! Light ahead! White light!" - -Captain March sprang to the wheel and jammed the helm hard up; Medbury -ran forward. He had scarcely reached the forecastle-deck when the light -came abreast, a cable's length away. All at once it began to swing in a -short, quick arc, and the people on the brig heard the cry of voices. -It swept past them like a banshee, with the light swinging frantically, -and the sound of oars chopping the sea in short, irregular strokes. -The next moment the brig came up into the wind with rattling blocks -and slapping canvas, and Captain March was roaring orders in a mighty -voice, while the watch below streamed out upon the deck like a hive of -frightened bees. - -[Illustration: "There came a 'smooth,' and the boat shot in"] - -They lay with sails shaking and a flare burning over the quarter, -and listened for the sound of oars again, with the brig rolling and -thrashing under them. They heard it at last, and a voice urging the -rowers on; and soon a boat came out of the blackness of the night, -reeling crazily over the seas. - -Medbury stood on the rail, with the crew clustered behind him, as the -boat swung in. - -"Steady!" he sang out. "Steady there, or you'll swamp her! Hold off, -and watch your chance!" - -There came a "smooth," and the boat shot in, and a black little figure -leaped upon a thwart, and, steadied by two men, was swung up over the -rail and to the deck by Medbury almost before he realized that it was a -woman. - -As her feet struck the deck, she turned with a little laugh. - -"_Mon Dieu!_" she cried, "eet iss betteh--dees." She watched the others -coming over the rail, and, when all were safe, turned to Medbury with a -little courtesy. "Eet iss ver' _ro_manteec tow be safed from doze salt -wateh by so nize young gentleman," she murmured, with a gleeful face. -"Yo' happen tow be a mah'ied man, maybe?" - -"No, ma'am," Medbury answered soberly. - -She laughed in his face. - -"Yo' sad faw das, maybe?" she asked mischievously. - -"Oh, no," he answered, laughingly recovering himself. - -"Das iss mo' betteh," she said demurely, and turned to Hetty. - -Taking both her hands in her own, she kissed her impulsively. - -"Ah ahm mo' gladdeh faw tow see yo' naw ahnybody," she said. "Ah see -nut'ing but doze mens all tam. Ah t'ink Ah go git crezzy," she added -laughingly. - -They got the brig on her course again, and took the captain of the boat -and his two passengers down into the cabin. The captain said his vessel -was a Danish bark from Copenhagen, bound for Santa Cruz, and she had -been burned two days before. They had taken to their boats, but, as -there was no wind, they had lingered near, in the hope that the smoke -from the burning vessel would be a beacon for some rescuer. But no -vessel had been sighted, and before night came on they had started on -their long road. Their other boat had been lost in the fog. - -The captain had told his story in fair English, and at its close he -turned to his passengers, and said they were going home to Santa -Cruz, where the young man, a lieutenant in the army, was stationed. -His sister, Miss Stromberg, he added, lived with her brother. As he -mentioned their names, he bowed. Both rose, and, passing gravely -around the group, shook hands with all. They were much alike--small, -dark-haired, with handsome, piquant faces. Life seemed a huge joke to -both. - -As they seated themselves again, the girl looked about her and smiled. - -"Ah t'ink dis iss mo' nizeh naw das liddy boat," she said. - -"Mooch mo' nizeh," her brother agreed. He smiled, and bowed to the -collected company, beginning with Hetty and ending with her. - -"I hope so," said Captain March; then he turned to the Danish captain -and added: "I'm glad to get your men; I've already found your vessel." - -When he had finished the story of his own misfortune, he went up on -deck, followed by the two rescued men. - -"My dear," said Mrs. March to the girl, "you must be tired out. Now you -must have something to eat and then go straight to bed. My daughter can -easily take you in her room." - -The girl laughed, and, leaning forward, placed her hand on the -speaker's knee. - -"Ah t'ink das iss mos' kind, lak ma own modder. Das iss ve'y nize. How -s'all Ah say no at so kind heaht? Ah t'ink Ah ahm 'mos' t'ousand year' -old, and 'mos' aslip--me." Her shoulders drooped; her eyes closed. -"And das iss ve'y im_po_lite wiz so kind, good peop'!" Her eyes opened -again, and begged forgiveness for the discourtesy. - -"Nonsense, child!" said Mrs. March. "I should think you'd be half dead. -I only hope you won't find worse trouble here; though I must say we -deserve all we get for trusting ourselves on the water--we women." - -"Yo' lak not doze wateh?" Miss Stromberg asked. - -"Like it!" said Mrs. March. "I'm afraid every minute." - -"Ah!" she murmured piteously. Her eyes caught Drew's look, and she -smiled. "Yo' lak eet, maybe?" she asked him. - -"Yes," he answered; "or at least until to-night. But I do not know it -well." - -"No?" she said. - -"Mr. Drew is a minister of the gospel," explained Mrs. March, with -dignity; then she added with smiling derision: "He thinks he's taking a -pleasure trip." - -"Ah!"--Miss Stromberg flashed a bright smile upon Drew--"das iss ve'y -nize tow be a min_ees_ter--tow be so good as tow prich tow peop'. Ma -fader one also wass; but me--" she shrugged her shoulders--"Ah find das -ve'y hahd tow be so good all da tam. Eet iss ve'y sad not tow tek doze -examp' off ma fader." She sighed. - -Her brother and Captain Rand joined her at supper, and brother and -sister were very gay; but the captain ate hurriedly, and speedily -returned to the deck. Lieutenant Stromberg soon followed him, but Drew -lingered. Miss Stromberg had been telling her experiences in the wreck. - -"And you were not frightened?" he asked her. - -"Mos' exceeding'," she answered gaily. - -"Your brother says you were very brave," he told her, smilingly. - -"He!" she exclaimed, with gay scorn. "He knows not. Eet iss woman's -paht tow deceife efer. Yo' learn so not alretty?" She laughed in his -face. - -"Ah, I have much to learn!" he answered, with a smile. - -"Eet iss so," she agreed; "doze theologic school tich not efer't'ing." - -"Now I shall be on my guard," he answered, and, going up the -companionway, laughingly bade her good night. - -"On guahd!" Her scoffing voice followed him. "Das iss doze mos' worse -tam." - -Smilingly he walked to the rail, and, leaning his elbows on it, looked -out into the night. Medbury, walking the deck, stopped at his side. - -"Jolly little bit of flotsam we picked up," he said. - -"Yes," answered Drew; "she is charming." - -"Well, she's a little flirt," said Medbury. "Did you hear what she said -to me when she came aboard? It took away my breath for a minute." He -laughed. - -"She's audacious," said Drew; "but I think that's all. I should rather -say she is bent on amusing herself. I should call her remarkably -sincere." - -"Well, she's remarkably pretty," replied Medbury. "And what a voice! -She makes that lingo of hers sound like a pretty little piece of music. -I hope we'll not have to make her take to the boat again." - -Until then Drew had hardly thought of the wind. Now it seemed like the -pressure of a hand against his face. The darkness of the night was -relieved by a luminous haze close down to the sea, which seemed to -radiate a mysterious light that was like an opaque spray. The stars -were gone, and the wind no longer came in gusts, but in a great rush -of sound that overbore speech like the beat of a corps of drums, near -and threatening. Every strand of rigging twanged in the sweep of the -gale; the canvas hummed with a muffled roar; now and then a wave broke -amidships with a sudden shock, and ran hissing across the deck. - -Medbury had gone forward to the pumps, which stopped suddenly, and Drew -felt his way along the house to the break in the deck. A group stood -about the well with a lantern, and Medbury was bending over it. "Slack -three feet and a half," he said, straightening up. Captain March turned -away without a word, and walked aft; but Drew stayed to see the pumps -rigged again and their wearying thump begin once more, with four men at -the bars. As Medbury passed him, Drew asked him what it was. - -"Three and a half feet," he said, and hurried past. - -Then Drew at last understood that there was that depth of water in the -hold. - -It came on to rain later, at first a few small drops out of the black -sky, and then a driving sheet that seemed to sweep straight on and -never to fall. One by one the passengers disappeared, and Captain March -and Medbury, in oilskins, held the quarter-deck with the man at the -wheel. Back and forth across the deck the captain walked, now climbing -to windward, with his body bent forward and his legs far apart, now -braced back, and taking short steps down the wet incline, and sometimes -breaking into a little run and checking himself at the rail. Medbury -stood for the most part at the windward corner of the house, going -forward from time to time, but never for long. They rarely spoke. - -Once Medbury went to the binnacle for a moment. - -"Steady, man! steady!" he said. "You're yawing over half the card." - -"Steady, sir," the sailor replied in an emotionless voice. - -Captain March stopped his walk at the wheel, and looked aloft. - -"Steer hard?" he asked good-naturedly. He had shouted, for the uproar -was now too great for ordinary speech. - -"Yes, sir," the man replied, and bent to the spokes. - -"Guess I'll take a hold with you," shouted the captain, and stepped to -his side; but Medbury touched his arm. - -"I'll take it," he said; but the captain shook his head. - -"No," he answered; "I'll try it a spell." - -Medbury cast an uneasy look aloft at the maintopsail. In the murky -light he could see it bellied out like a great bowl. - -"It's that topsail makes her steer hard," he cried in an aggrieved -tone. - -Captain March did not glance up. - -"Yes," he shouted; "but I guess it's drawing some." - -Medbury looked at him sharply, and then turned away, grinning. - -"Well, I guess it is!" he muttered to himself. "The old pirate!" - -He made his way to the topsail-sheet, and shook it; it was like a rod -of iron. - -"Couldn't budge it, if I wanted to," he said to himself. "I wonder how -long that sail's going to stand all this." - -He started forward, shot in under the lee of the center-house as a -great green sea came over the rail, and, dripping, mounted to the -forecastle-deck. The lookout stood with his arms clasped about the -capstan-head, staring straight ahead. In his yellow oilskins, he -had the look of a wooden man, washed by the seas, immobile, without -sensation. - -Medbury took him by the shoulder, and he barely turned his head. His -face was as emotionless as his figure; only his eyes showed life. - -"You'll--" Medbury lowered his head as he began to shout, for a sheet -of spray sprang at his face like a cat, blinding him and making him -gasp. Then he felt the deck slipping into a bottomless abyss, and, -opening his eyes, saw the jibboom disappear, then the bowsprit, while -over the bow rolled a great green wave, shot with white, and irradiated -with phosphorescence. Almost to the waist it buried them, while they -stood for what seemed an interminable time, clasping the capstan, -with the dragging water roaring about them. The strange fancy flashed -across Medbury's mind that it was like being on the nose of a gigantic -mole frantically burrowing underground. Then the bow rose again, shook -itself free, and Medbury and the sailor, unlocking their grip on the -capstan, looked at each other. - -"You'll have to get out of this," shouted Medbury, finishing what he -had begun to say. The man nodded. - -"That was the first bad one, sir," he yelled back. "I don't know's -I mind bein' drownded, but I don't want to be speared to death." He -looked aloft, where the lighter spars and sails seemed like a falling -arch above him. "I've been expectin' to get that royal-yard through my -back for the last hour. Couldn't hear it if it did tumble--in all this -noise." - -"Well, you'll have to get out of this," Medbury repeated mechanically. -"Go up to the top of the center-house. You'll be safe there." - -They made their way down, the man going up to his station, and Medbury -aft. - -"She's burrowing a good deal," he shouted in the captain's ear--"like -an old mole." - -The captain nodded. - -"Good reason," he replied. - -"What did you say?" - -"I said, 'Good reason.' There's a lot of heft in this wind." - -"I sent the lookout up to the top of the center-house," Medbury now -called. "No place for him forward." - -"That's right," answered Captain March; then he nodded his head to show -that he had heard and approved. - -The watch was changed at twelve, and the second mate came on deck, but -Medbury still lingered. Captain March would not leave the wheel. At -three bells Medbury sounded the pumps again, and reported a full three -and a half feet of water in the hold. It had gained two inches in three -hours. - -Captain March merely nodded when he was told, and turned his -inscrutable face aloft. - - - - -XII - - -The night was dragging on toward the hour when the watch on deck is -the hardest to bear. In his weariness of body and mind, Medbury had -grown indifferent to the tremendous rush of the wind. The noises of the -night no longer seemed near him, but far off, muffled by some strange -mental wind-break that hedged him in as if by a wall. Once or twice he -caught himself nodding, and looked up, startled, to take a turn or two -across the deck. His mind was tense with the mental strain, and the -changing of the men at the pumps, or any pause in the monotony of the -uproar, irritated him, as the stopping of a railroad train at stations -affects one dozing through a long journey. He was not afraid,--he had -even begun to exult in the self-control of his superior, seeing in his -perfect handling of his vessel something uncanny, even godlike,--yet -he was all the while keenly alive to the thought that Hetty lay below, -within the circle of impending danger. It was like being compelled to -run for one's life under a great weight. - -It was past four bells when the maintopsail split with a sharp report -like musketry-fire, and, looking up, they saw black space where just -before they had seen a gray hollow of canvas loom through the night. A -ragged fringe of gray flapped along the bolt-ropes, whipping straight -out in the force of the gale. They let tack and sheet go with a rush, -and strove to clew up the topsail, trying to save, in the stoical -following of habit, what was no longer worth saving. - -Medbury came aft when they had clewed up what remained of the sail. It -seemed ludicrous to try to stow that frazzled bit of whipping canvas. -He went close to the captain. - -"I didn't stow it, sir," he shouted in his ear. "Didn't seem worth -while to send a man aloft. No place for him. Nothing but a rag left." - -"No, no," the captain roared. "That's right. Don't want to expose -anybody more'n we can help." His voice seemed far away--detached, as it -were, in some strange manner. - -Medbury still lingered near. He was a bit excited, and wished to talk. - -"Steer any easier, sir?" he roared. - -Captain March nodded, then he leaned toward his mate. - -"Yes," he yelled. He nodded aloft. "Been expecting that." Then, for -the first time in his life, he became communicative as to his plans at -sea. "It's like this," he went on: "We've got five hundred miles to run -in this craft or an open boat. I'll make it in this, if I can. Got to -take some risk, you know. Can't afford to take in sail as long as she -carries it. When it goes of its own accord, well and good. Can't help -that." - -Medbury had begun to long, with an indescribable sense of weariness, -for the coming of day. Once, as he looked eastward, it seemed to him -that the curtain of darkness had lifted: the crests of the waves no -longer showed a vivid contrast to the black body of the watery waste, -but both were fading into a neutral tone of gray, and objects on board -began to have more definite outlines. Then all at once the royal flew -out of its bolt-ropes, like a hound loosened from its leash, and went -twisting and snapping into the night. - -Medbury saw the yard lowered to its place and all things made snug -forward. As he passed under the foresail to go aft again, he had to -brace himself against the wind, which drew under the sail like a -great flue. Every cord of the sail seemed vibrant with sound; and as -he staggered on, out of the tail of his eye he watched the mainsail -tug at its sheet, and boom and gaff swing up like straws. As his head -rose above the top of the house, he saw that Captain March's eyes were -following him, and he turned his own away. - -"If he sees me watching that mainsail," he said to himself, "he'll -think I'm wondering why he doesn't take it in." He smiled grimly. -"Well, that would be God's truth; but he sha'n't know it." So he stood -and gazed steadily seaward. - -Now it was surely day--day that showed itself in a gray sea leaping -against a gray sky. A driving mist, too vaporous to be called rain, -gave the same neutral tone to the vessel, which seemed to have lost -her individuality overnight. She had the tired, lifeless look of the -men on her deck; and as she groaned and whined along the watery road, -her aspect was at once human and wholly sad. Though they were far to -the south, the mist was cold upon their faces. Now and then a dash of -spray flew across the quarter-deck, and its greater warmth was pleasant -in comparison. By eight o'clock the water in the hold had gained six -inches, and the crew were beginning to lose heart. - -The group that gathered in the cabin that day had the restlessness -of people waiting to start on a long journey. In her growing fear, -Mrs. March hungered for companionship; she steadily kept to the -cabin, refusing to go to her room, but half-sat, half-reclined upon -the lounge, and watched the wooden walls reel about her. Whenever an -unusually heavy sea rolled them down, she gripped the back of the -lounge and prayed in silence; and when it passed she looked about her -with a spent face. Hetty and Miss Stromberg sat in steamer-chairs, -talked a little, and sometimes laughed without reason; from time to -time they staggered to their room, never remaining long, or losing for -a moment the aspect of being about to do something quite different. -Drew tried to be cheerful, but felt that he was only inane; now and -then he read in a book that at other times he held closed over his -finger. All day Lieutenant Stromberg sat at the table and played -solitaire, resolutely forbearing to cheat himself, being restrained by -the thought that he might be near his last hour. At times he made jokes -that no one seemed to understand, and then looked up wonderingly when -he laughed alone. - -It was afternoon when Hetty, unable longer to bear the thought of -the dark, close cabin,--all the windows had now been battened down -and the skylight covered,--made her way to the forward companionway, -and, opening the doors, looked out upon the deck with eyes wide with -wondering fear. The leeward rail was level with the sea, which boiled -about it; the deck ran like a mill-race. The sky was lost in the -driving mist, which closed about them in a gray wall that seemed like -a barrier to hide the impending dangers beyond. Clinging to the door, -she stepped out upon the deck and glanced aft. The wind beat her down -like a flower-stalk, and she crouched upon the door-step. But Medbury -had seen her, and hurried to her side. - -"You mustn't stay here; you know you mustn't," he protested. "We may -ship a sea at any time." He himself was dripping, and his face was rosy -with the damp wind: he looked like Neptune's very brother. - -"Yes," she cried; "yes; I'll go in a minute. I couldn't stand it down -there another second." She lifted her face above the house for an -instant, and nodded aft. "What is that for?" - -Above the taffrail, from quarter to quarter, a stout piece of canvas -had been stretched between two upright poles, shutting off the outlook -astern. Medbury glanced toward it before he replied. - -"That?" he said. "Oh, to keep the spray off the glass of the binnacle. -It clouds it so the men can't read the compass." It did not seem to him -wise to tell her that it was to keep the helmsmen from glancing over -their shoulders at the following seas, and perhaps losing their nerve -at a critical moment. "Please go down now; it makes me nervous to see -you here." - -She crouched down upon the door-step and looked up at him with a smile. - -"I didn't suppose you were ever nervous," she told him. - -"Well, I am, about you--any woman, in a sea like this." - -"Oh," she murmured, and looked away, thinking of his qualifying -"any woman." He had never spoken like that before--classed her with -other women. It showed that he had accepted the situation, and she -told herself that she was glad; nevertheless, it was not an unmixed -gladness: for the first time she felt that something had gone out of -her life that she had always calmly accepted as being as unchanging as -her native hills. Yet it seemed unreasonable that it should sadden her. -With a little shrug of impatience she put the thought away just as he -leaned to speak to her again. - -"Won't you go below now, Hetty?" he said, with a touch of impatience. -"I can't stay here." - -"I've not asked you to," she replied. - -"You know what I mean well enough," he said. "I can't leave you here -alone. You are a little tease, for all you can be so dignified at -times." - -"If you call me names, I shall certainly be dignified," she declared. -She looked away as she added: "You wouldn't call Miss Stromberg a -tease, I'm sure." - -"She's a little flirt," he answered promptly. - -"How do you know?" she asked. - -"Oh, I just think so. The dominie says she isn't, though. It's only -fair to say that," he replied. - -"I _wondered_ what men found to talk about so much," she said. - -He did not think it necessary to answer this, but stood looking out -over the deck with unseeing eyes. A wave broke at the side, leaped up, -and swept across the deck in a sheet of spray. - -She gasped as it struck her face, and then she laughed. - -"You see," he warned her. "The next time it may be worse." - -"It's better than that stuffy cabin," she answered, feeling an -exhilaration in the salt spray and the wind. There was comfort in his -presence, too, though she hardly acknowledged it to herself. It had -needed this storm and the danger to bring back to her all her old -ideals of manliness, cherished in her girlhood in the little seaport, -but weakened by her later acquaintance with a widely different life. - -She looked up suddenly and said: - -"Can't we still be friends, Tom--just friends?" - -"I'm your friend," he answered. He did not look toward her as he spoke. - -"You wouldn't speak to me yesterday." - -"I was a fool," he said, still looking away from her. - -"It hurt me," she said. She paused, but he did not speak, and she went -on: "We can always be friends, then, can't we?" - -For a moment he did not speak or look at her. - -"Oh, yes," he said at last; "we'll be friends. I'm going back to the -old long voyages again as soon as I can--in Santa Cruz, if your father -will let me off. In a year or two, or perhaps three, I may go back -home, and we may meet on the street, and shake hands, and smile, and -you will go away satisfied. 'He's my friend yet,' you may say, and -maybe think of me again in a year or two, or perhaps meet me and bow as -we pass. Or, more likely, _you_ will go away, and, coming back again -after a long time, meet a bent, brown old man and not recognize him. Or -you may ask about me, and be told: 'Oh, he died long ago, in the South -Pacific or Japan, or some other God-forsaken place.' 'I knew him long -ago,' you'll say, and then go on asking about others. I guess that's -what friendship like ours comes to mean." - -He turned to her as he ceased, and saw her rising to a stooping -position under the low sliding-hood. Her face was white. - -"I'm going below now," she said. - -"It's best," he answered; "I'm afraid to have you here." - -She descended two steps and then turned. - -"You are cruel," she said. Her voice trembled. - -"What did you say?" he asked. - -He leaned over toward her, for the gale had drowned her words. - -"I said, 'You are cruel.'" - -"Oh," he said vaguely, and watched her as she disappeared below. - - - - -XIII - - -In the cabin Lieutenant Stromberg was still playing solitaire; at -the opposite side of the table his sister sat, with Drew beside her, -reading aloud, as she took a lesson in English. - - "Da sea grows sto'-mee, da lit' ones mo-own, - But, ah-h, she gafe me nef-fair a lo-o-ok, - Faw her eyes weh seal'd tow da holy bo-o-ok! - Loud prays da pries'; shot stahnds da do'. - Coam avay, chillen, call no mo'! - Coam avay, coam da-own, call no mo'!" - -"Yo' pro-nouns doze _d_ in 'chillen'?" Her concerned eyes flashed an -anxious look up at Drew. - -"Yes," he answered--"'children.'" - -"Chil-d'en. Iss das mo' betteh?" - -He bowed gravely, but said: - -"You must pronounce the _r_, too." - -She shrugged her shoulders and laughed. - -"Ah t'ink doze _ahs_ ve'y dif_fi_cult tow pro-nouns. Alone, no; but wiz -doze ot'er let's doze bec-ome los'." She laughed again. - - "Coam avay, chil-_dahn_, call no mo'! - Coam avay, coam da-own, call no mo'!" - -She turned a bright look upon Hetty. - -"Meesteh Drew all tam rid doze po_et_ry; so Ah say tow tich me doze -lang-widge mo' betteh," she explained. "Ah was tich tow rid doze -Anglish by ma home tow Denmahk, but Ah leahn tow spik eet off ma black -maid tow St. Croix. She spik ve'y nize, but so sho'tly, Ah unnehstahnd -heh not alwis." - -"Shortly?" repeated Hetty, in doubt. - -"Fastly, ra_pid_ly," explained Lieutenant Stromberg, looking up from -his cards. "Ma sisteh's Anglish iss only a second coosin off das -real Anglish--second coosin twice remove'--t'r-rough Denmar-r-k and -Afr-r-rica." Lieutenant Stromberg knew his _r's_. - -"I think she speaks beautifully, with such opportunities," Hetty -replied, with spirit. - -Miss Stromberg beamed her thanks. - -"Ah t'ank yo' exceedin'," she said. She looked at her book, sighed, -looked up again, and continued: "But doze po_et_ry mek me tow haf -doze sadness--me." She sighed again and shook her head. "Yo' lak doze -po_et_ry?" - -"Not always," Hetty answered frankly. - -The questioner laid the book hesitatingly on the table, and her hands -drifted together in her lap. - -"Ah t'ink das iss mos' coh'ect," she agreed. "Eet iss not alwis -poss_i_ble tow lak eet when yo' s'all t'ink off ot'er t'ings--doze -noise' and stohms," she explained. - -"Yet yo' s'all desire to heah doze noise' ofer once mo' when yo' rich -St. Croix," said the lieutenant, without looking up from his game. -"'Ah, doze beau-tiful noise'!' yo' s'all say--'so poe_tic_al!'" He -laughed mischievously. - -"We shall miss many things when we reach St. Croix," said Drew, looking -at them and smiling. - -Hetty glanced at him, then she leaned forward and put her hand on the -Danish girl's arm. - -"We shall miss you," she said softly. - -"Ah, no!" Brother and sister spoke together. He turned and bowed to his -sister smilingly. - -"Ah, no!" she repeated; "yo' s'all coam at our house alwis; da do' -s'all stahnd wide faw yo' fawefer." Her eyes included them all in the -invitation. - -"Ah wass going tow spik doze sem lak ma sisteh," said the brother, with -a magnificent bow. - -"I shall bring the book," said Drew, touching it. "It may go better -there." - -"Shuah-lee!" laughed the Danish girl. "And yo' s'all rid eet in doze -gahden, among doze floweh' mos' beautiful, wiz doze o'ange-tree' and -t'ibet-tree' meking doze cool shadow, and doze sea-watah fah _be_-low -shining in da sun. And noise--yo' s'all heah on-lee doze sea-watah -mu'_mu_'ing soft-lee, and doze fountains whispehing, and poss_i_bly a -lil' song ofehhead, and maybe some dahkies pahssing _be_-hin' doze high -wall, calling tow sell yo' some t'ings ve'y nize--and nut'in' mo'." - -"Hot arepa! hot arepa dem! Ya da hot arepa!" In a high, slurring -singsong Lieutenant Stromberg gave the cry of the negro women -street-venders. - -"Yas; das iss eet," said his sister. "Yo' t'ink das iss nize?" - -"Ah, it would be _living_ poetry!" Drew answered. - -She smiled, looked up, caught his gaze; her own dropped to her hands -clasped in her lap. - -"Das iss mo' nizeh dan heah?" she asked demurely. - -"I shall never want to go away," he told her. - -"And when doze hurricane coam," began her brother, "how--" - -"Sh-h!" she exclaimed, while her eyes bubbled with laughter. "Why spik -off doze when we go-ing _in_-vite peop' at ouah house? Pos_si_bly doze -coam not aany mo'--doze huh'icane." - -"Pos_si_bly not," agreed her brother. - -"Aanyway," she continued triumphantly, "doze huh'icane nefer hu't us." - -For a moment Mrs. March had forgotten the rolling vessel and the -threatening sea. "The little tyke!" she said to herself, smilingly; but -her daughter spoke aloud. - -"Why do you make such a beautiful picture of it?" she asked. "Don't you -know that I must go back to the cold and the snow?" - -Miss Stromberg laughed, and shook her head. - -"Yo' s'all cah not," she answered. "Yo' s'all say, 'Oh, doze -huh'icane!' Wheah da heaht iss, da iss da beautiful pictu'. So womens -ah med," she added wisely. - -"And is your heart there--in that garden?" Drew asked. He smiled. - -She laughed again. - -"'Tiss joost heah--and unfast," she replied, and placed her hand on her -breast. "Eet hass no feexed 'abitation." - -On deck they heard the tramp of feet going aft, and then, as the -starboard side lifted, the cry of the crew hauling in the main sheet, -and the hoarse croak of the blocks. Before the tramp was heard again, -going forward, Captain March came from his room and hurried up to the -deck. - -Medbury walked over to his side. - -"The wind's hauled around a little, sir. We couldn't keep the course." - -Captain March looked aloft, then glanced at the compass. - -He gave no sign of having heard. Suddenly he stopped short and gazed -forward. - -"What's that contraption you got there, Mr. Medbury?" he asked. - -"One of the flanges of the pump gave 'way, sir," answered the mate, -"and we couldn't use but one bar; so I rigged up that whiz-jig. It's -better than one bar, and, besides, we can work it from the poop. If -things should get much worse, the men would drown on the main-deck." - -"Does the water gain on you?" the captain asked. - -"About the same--inch by inch. But she's getting a little logy, it -seems to me; and if the wind should go down or haul ahead--" He paused -in gloomy silence. - -"It won't," said the captain. - -He walked to the rail and took down the marking of the log-line, -and then went below to lay out his position on the chart. For two -days he had had no sun to take an observation, and could trust only -to dead-reckoning. Carefully he laid out his course and marked the -distance traveled, then tried to calculate how far the heave of the sea -and the set of the current had modified his right position. At last he -pricked out the spot with all the appearance of certainty, made a light -ring about the dot, and was rolling up his chart as his daughter came -to his side. - -"Where are we now, father?" she asked. - -He looked at her and smiled. - -"Just about here or hereabout," he told her. - -She took the chart from his hand and unrolled it. - -"Where are we?" she demanded. - -His stubby finger pointed to the dot. - -"It's a long way to go yet," she sighed. "I hoped we were nearer." - -As she spoke, the stern of the brig seemed to sink to a great depth, -swing wide, then settle again, and there came a crash of falling seas -upon the deck, and a wave went hissing across the house, falling in -sloppy cascades before the window facing forward, which had not been -battened. An instant later the captain was on deck. - -The canvas screen about the taffrail was flapping loose from one of the -poles; Medbury, with dripping oilskins, was at the wheel with one of -the helmsmen, but the other was under the lee rail with his head down -in his hands. - -"That was a heavy one, sir," called Medbury as he bent to the spokes. -He straightened up, panting, and nodded to the man who was down. "Don't -think he's much hurt," he shouted. - -Captain March walked over to the sailor, and, leaning over him, took -him by the shoulder. - -"What's the matter?" he demanded. - -The man rose slowly to his feet, shaking himself. - -"I struck my head against the bitts," he said slowly. "I guess it -stunned me for a minute." - -"Where?" asked the captain. - -The man, with fingers that trembled, slowly unbuttoned his sou'wester, -took it off, and fumbled about his head. The captain watched him. - -"Well, you better look out next time," he called with mild severity, -which stopped short of positive reproof. "I guess you were watching -over your shoulder more'n you were your course. Well, now you go -forward and send Charlie aft." - -He walked toward the wheel, but Medbury said: - -"I'll hold on here a spell, sir." - -"No," said the captain; "I'll take a hold. Just get that canvas lashed -up again, will you?" Then he took the wheel, which he was not to leave -again, except for one brief moment, until the end. - -When Medbury had lashed the screen fast, Captain March nodded to him to -come near, that he might speak. - -"Better start your topsail-sheets a bit," he shouted. "They'll lift a -little and ease her. Give 'em about two feet--no more'n that." - -As the afternoon wore on, the wind increased in force and the sea grew -heavier. Now and then a sharp shower swept past, and ceased suddenly; -but the clouds did not lift, and the rack flew overhead, low down, like -steam from a huge exhaust-pipe. At seven bells a topgallantsail-sheet -parted, and by the time the sail was housed and the yard lowered it was -dusk. - -As Medbury prepared to go aft again, he paused by the fore-rigging and -looked up. The canvas was thundering like a drum corps; the lee rigging -swung slack, but that to windward was as stiff as iron, and shrilled -like a score of fifes or roared like organ-pipes. - -"Oh, shut up!" he said aloud, and then grinned shamefacedly at his -irritability. - -As he came to the steps leading up to the poop-deck, he paused and -looked about him. It seemed to him that the wind had suddenly ceased, -and he could hear it far away, roaring back a defiance through the -murky twilight. The next moment he heard the captain shouting to call -all hands and shorten sail. - -With the crew increased by the men from the lost Danish bark, they -had all things made snug and fast in an incredibly short time, and -under maintopmast-staysail with the bonnet out, lower topsail, and -foretopmast-staysail, they were rolling down the long seas in leisurely -fashion by the time night was fairly upon them. - -Still panting with his heavy exertion, Medbury was standing by the -taffrail, looking down at the foam that now seemed only to creep by -them, and thinking gloomily of the water rising in the hold, when -suddenly he became aware of an increase in the weight of the wind -upon his face. He looked up, but, seeing nothing, glanced down again; -but in that brief moment the foam had disappeared, and he was gazing -into blackness. He turned quickly, only to see that the same darkness -had swallowed up the men at the wheel and every part of the vessel. -The binnacle-light was burning, but the dim glow stopped short at -the slide: beyond that it seemed to have no power to go. With an -indescribable sensation of being absolutely cut off from every living -thing, he stepped quickly toward the wheel, and, putting out his hand, -touched his captain. It gave him a curious feeling of intense relief. -Then he heard Captain March speaking in a calm voice that quieted him -instantly. - -"Is that you, Mr. Medbury?" he said. "What's wanted?" - -"It's getting black, sir," he said--"black as a nigger's pocket." - -"I noticed it," said the captain. - -"It came on all of a sudden," the mate went on. He wanted to hear -his voice and the voice of the captain: in some curious way even the -trivial words seemed to mitigate the awful darkness. - -"Maybe you'd better get out some lines for the men at the pumps, and -make 'em fast across deck," continued the captain. "We can't afford -to lose anybody overboard. And bring us some, too. When you've done -that, just go down to your room, as if you'd gone to fetch something. -Maybe it'll help the women-folks a little to see somebody from the deck -before it begins," he went on in a matter-of-fact voice. "But don't -stay. I may want you any minute." - -In haste, and with hands that fumbled a little, Medbury rigged stout -life-lines across the deck for the men at the pumps; and, leaving -straps for the captain and his companion at the wheel, descended into -the cabin. He struck a match in his room, and looked about him vaguely, -smiling to himself at his purposeless errand at a time when moments -were fraught with life or death. He was not, like his captain, a man of -imagination: his mere passage through the cabin seemed only a bit of -fanciful foolishness of which he was a trifle ashamed. - -His match flickered and went out; for a moment he stood staring before -him in the darkness, hearing the voices of those in the cabin as they -talked together. He heard Drew's deep tones, and Hetty replying to -them, and a sudden impotent rush of jealousy overwhelmed him as he -thought that he must battle on deck in what might be their last fight, -while this man, who had known her barely as many days as he had loved -her years, would be with her in these last hours. Blindly, without -looking to right or left, he walked through the cabin and ascended to -the deck. - -Though he had been below only a moment, an amazing change had taken -place. As he seized the hasp of the door to open it, the pressure from -the outside was so great that for a moment he thought that some one -was leaning against it. He knocked on it loudly, then pushed again, -becoming immediately aware that the resisting force was wind. Then -throwing all his weight forward, he squeezed through, with the door -slamming to behind him. - -It was only the beginning. The seas seemed to grow momentarily heavier, -and it became impossible to stand erect upon the deck. When Medbury -went forward to the pumps, as he did from time to time, he went with -bent body, keeping his hand upon the rail. His face was stiffened with -salt, which clung to his eyelashes and had to be wiped away constantly. -It became in time no longer possible to distinguish sounds: the bellow -of the wind, the roar of the sea, the thunder of the canvas, and the -groaning of spars and timber, became merged in an indescribable tumult, -the waves of which, like a great sea of sound, seemed to rise about -them and beat them down into insignificance. In this strange melting -away of all the known landmarks of his craft, Medbury stood at times -helpless and irresolute, and doggedly awaited the end. - -To those shut up in the cabin there came, as the night wore on, a -sense of impending danger. Once, unable longer to bear the feeling of -isolation from those who were fighting on deck for their lives, Hetty -made her way with difficulty to the companionway, and, mounting to the -doors, tried them. Then she turned. - -"They have locked us in!" she cried, staring down at her companions. -The lamp, swinging in its gimbals, cast only a faint light upon their -upturned, startled faces. Her lips trembled. "It makes me afraid," she -faltered. - -Miss Stromberg burst into tears. Hetty hurried down to her, and, -sitting close together on the lounge, the two clasped each other's -hands, listening. The men sat with closed eyes for the most part. Mrs. -March had long before gone to her room. - -Once there came three unusually heavy seas, and as the brig rolled down -it seemed to Hetty that they never would rise again, and, closing her -eyes, she prayed silently. Then there came the long "smooth," and she -opened her eyes and smiled upon her companion. - -"That is better, isn't it?" she whispered. - -"Ah do not lak eet," Miss Stromberg whispered back. "Ah ahm affred, -also--me." - -Hetty patted her hands. - -"It will be better soon," she said. - -"Do yo' t'ink Ah s'all be los' once mo'?" asked the girl. "Ah ahm tow -lit' tow was'e all doze sto'ms on--me." She laughed hysterically. - -"No, no!" cried Hetty. "You will be home to-morrow--in that garden." - -"Oh, doze gahden! Eet sims a t'ousand woilds f'om heah." - -"To-morrow," continued Hetty, "this will seem like a bad dream." - -"Ah pray Ah may slip mo' sound-lee," she murmured laughingly. "But -yo'--yo' haf doze cou'age!" she added admiringly. - -"I trust my father," replied Hetty. She was gaining courage by -imparting it. - -"And das young of_fic_er?" - -"Yes," said Hetty. - -"Yo' lak him mooch?" - -"I've known him all my life." - -"Das iss ve'y nize." She turned suddenly to Drew. "Wass yo' t'ink off?" -she asked him. - -He looked at her and smiled. - -"I was thinking of your garden just then," he replied. - -"Ah!" she murmured delightedly. "Yo' joost da sem lak us!" - -"You were thinking of it, too?" he asked. - -"Dees ve'y minute. Das iss ve'y nize--tow t'ink doze sem t'ings -altowgeddeh." - -"Eet iss a ve'y nize gahden," said Lieutenant Stromberg, "but eet -iss not so nize as yo' s'all t'ink. Nut'in' iss," he explained. "Eet -s'all _bec_-ome dull--lak dees, lak efer't'ing. Me--Ah s'all play doze -cahds." He laughed, and, taking his cards from the glass rack, began -another game of solitaire. - - - - -XIV - - -One by one the idlers in the cabin went to their rooms, and Drew, -putting on a storm-coat, stepped out upon the deck from the forward -companionway, blinded for a moment by the darkness. - -Slowly the shadowy world took on blurred outlines, and, turning his -gaze to windward, he saw gray flashes of foam leap high on the pointed -crests of waves, and drop quickly into darkness. The gale tore at him -and beat him down. He remembered that he had seen a sou'wester in his -room, and went softly below to get it. As he opened the door that led -from the passageway to the cabin, Hetty, with swinging arms, went -staggering across the unsteady floor toward the pantry. With a little -thrill of joy at finding her alone once more, Drew hastened to her side. - -She was on her knees, peering about her; but, startled by the sudden -obscurity that fell upon the room, she looked up quickly, to see him -standing in the doorway. - -"Oh," she exclaimed, "how you frightened me!" and turned to her search -again. "I was looking for something for my mother," she explained -when, a moment later, she rose to her feet. "I cannot find it." Still -glancing vaguely about her, she moved toward the doorway and made as if -to pass him; but he did not stir. - -"Can I not help you?" he asked. - -She shook her head, but did not look up. - -He had sought her with no other purpose than to be by her side for a -moment; for, though he had not seen her alone since he had asked her to -be his wife, he knew that this was not the fitting hour for his answer: -but neither could he let her go. - -"I cannot bear to see you suffer," he exclaimed. "Do not think our case -hopeless. It cannot be. We shall reach land yet." - -"Oh, you cannot know," she said listlessly. She had no thought to -be indifferent or cruel; standing, as she felt, face to face with -eternity, her thoughts had passed him by. She had come to regions where -he was a vague shadow, a part of a world no longer hers. She was only -the sailor's daughter now; all her faith and dreams lay with those who -were battling on the deck for the lives of all. - -Silently he stepped aside, and she went quickly to her room, closing -the door behind her and not looking back. - -He could not summon to his mind a single thread of proof; yet, as he -turned away, he knew that unconsciously she had given him her answer. -The closing door between them, he told himself, was the symbol. - -He was paler when he went up the companionway again, and his lips were -firmly closed; but there was no harshness in their lines, and he -carried his head high: clearly he would bear whatever life brought to -him. - -A moment later, as he stepped into the blinding darkness of the deck, -a wave broke near, and a sheet of water, clipped from the toppling -crest by the wind, swept across the house and struck him like a lash. -Staggered for an instant, with his hand slipping from the sliding-hood, -he dropped behind the house. - -He was still kneeling on the deck, brushing the water from his eyes, -when he felt rather than heard or saw some one go by. He would be sent -below, he knew, if seen by the captain or the mate; and he smiled as he -thought of his position, feeling like a schoolboy in mischief and in -danger of detection. Slowly he turned, and, without rising, watched the -passing figure. - -It was six bells, and Medbury had come forward to change the crew -at the pumps. As he stepped past the house and made his way to the -life-lines, he lifted his eyes and stopped short. The pumps were -deserted. Then he rushed forward and peered down upon the main-deck; -only the sloppy space showed itself, unrelieved by a human figure. One -of the down-hauls of the whiz-jig, whipping in the gale, snapped across -his face, and was flung irritably aside. - -In the first rush of his dismay the thought came to him that all -were lost; but the possibility of four men being swept away without -warning was too much to believe, and across his mind there flashed the -certainty that the crew had refused longer to work the pumps. That -they had been losing heart had been borne in upon him increasingly, -and now that he stood face to face with the desperate situation he -felt his face grow hot with the fury that seized him and bore him out -of himself. Some instinct told him that they had taken refuge down the -booby-hatchway, and he sprang to the sliding-hood, thrust it back, and -peered in. It was black and still, but the intangible something that -betrays the presence of human creatures seemed to pervade the place, -and he knew that his quarry was there. His voice choked with fury as he -yelled: - -"You damn' curs--you--you--want to ruin us all! Out of this--quick, or -I shoot you down like rats in a hole!" - -No sound came out of the black interior, and with a snarl of rage -he tore open the door, splintering the peg in the hasp, thrust one -foot over the sill to descend, and struck the back of a man. The next -instant he had the man by the collar, lifted him struggling to the -deck, and with a mighty swing sent him forward into the life-lines, -where he hung for a second, and then fell lightly, like a sprawling -cat, to the main-deck. With a snarl, Medbury swung himself into the -opening, and dropped between decks. Three men had been sitting on the -steps below the man he had thrown out, and he swept them off like -leaves from a wand, and he heard their smothered groans as he crushed -them together in a heap on the floor. He was in his own province now, -for the storeroom was his care, and he could have found a sail-needle -there in the dark; and as he freed himself from the sprawling bodies -under him, he swung about him, reaching out, with itching hands, for -his cowed and dispirited crew. - -He felt an arm encircle his legs, and kicked back viciously, feeling -rather than hearing his heel crunch against a face. The arm about his -legs dropped limp, and he felt another pawing along his shoulders and -reaching for his throat. With a quick thrust he found a bristly face, -and, striking straight with his free arm, sent the man tumbling to -the floor. He heard the sound of feet stumbling up the stairs, and -thought the fight was won, and so moved back, only to find shoulders -and legs clasped by other men. He clasped back, and the next moment -was staggering about the place in a hand-to-hand struggle. He kicked -himself free again, and with a quick thrust forward threw himself to -the floor, an opponent under him. He heard the sailor's head strike -hard, felt his hold relax, and rose, panting, to his knees as a lantern -swung in at the door, and Captain March's voice, cool and incisive, -called, "Stop right there!" Looking up, Medbury saw the light of -the lantern shining along the barrel of a pistol, and the captain's -impassive face above it. - -They put every man at the pumps, lashing them to the life-lines, and, -with a belaying-pin in his hand, Medbury stood guard over them and -rushed them at their work. Now and then a fitful flash of lightning -showed the men and the deck against a background of vitreous green -glare. - -Captain March watched them a moment, and then, placing his hand on his -mate's shoulder, yelled at his ear. Even then the words seemed far away -and indistinct. - -[Illustration: "'Keep 'em going! Don't let 'em slack up a bit!'"] - -"Keep 'em going! Don't let 'em slack up a bit!" he roared. "Never had -such a lot aboard a vessel of mine before. It makes me sick." - -"Yes, sir," shouted Medbury, grimly. - -"Don't understand it," went on the captain in an aggrieved, plaintive -voice; "nobody could." He paused irresolutely, and then said: "Hurt you -anywhere?" - -"Oh, no," answered the mate. "Guess I rather enjoyed it for a change. -Was pretty mad." - -The captain nodded, and was turning away when Medbury put out a -detaining hand. - -"How'd you know?" he shouted. - -"What?" - -"How did you know about it--the row?" Medbury asked again. - -"The dominie saw something was wrong, and told me. Got your lantern, -too. Good man--seemed to know what to do. Rather surprised me--don't -think they've got that sort of horse-sense, as a rule. But no business -on deck to-night. Told him so." Then he staggered aft, and took the -wheel from the second mate again. - -Drew had gone below when the crew went back to the pumps; but he was -strangely excited. He knew that he could not sleep, and in a state of -mental helplessness he sat for a long time upon the edge of his bunk. -Something of the significance of the scene on deck broke in upon him, -and he realized that the crew had given up hope. It was not revolt, but -a dumb, sheeplike acquiescence in fate. In his heart he was not without -a certain sympathy for the men, feeling in the overpowering mastery of -the storm something of the vanity of all human endeavor. Yet the mere -effort of holding himself in check, aloof from all the tumult of the -deck, grew momentarily more and more unbearable, and, rising at last, -he went up to the companionway door again. - -He saw at once, novice as he was, that in his brief absence the -situation had grown worse. There was a constant sweep of sheeted spray -across the deck, and he crouched behind the house, as he had done -before, both for protection and to avoid being seen by the mate. He -resented the thought of being ordered below. He could see the steady -rise and fall of the bodies of the men working the pumps, and Medbury -standing near them. It had grown lighter, he perceived, though it was -still black night. - -He was beginning to grow drowsy, and for a moment shifted his position, -when suddenly the brig seemed to pause and tremble, then spring to a -great height, and the next moment he had the sensation of falling in a -dream, and heard Medbury's voice, faint, muffled, like a voice coming -from a great distance underground, screaming, "Hold hard! Hold hard!" - -In a second of time, in the light of the foam that whitened the sea -to leeward, he saw the deck clearly: the men crouching low above the -life-lines; Medbury's face turned away, his hands grasping a line about -his waist, his body braced; and behind him, rising from his knees, -a man with uplifted arm about to strike. The next moment Drew threw -himself forward upon the man, and at the same instant was crushed -against the booby-hatch by a great weight of water. He was held there -till his ears roared and flashes of light snapped before his eyes and -his breath was almost gone; then he felt himself lifted and whirled -along for what seemed a great distance, with the body of the man he had -seized struggling in his grasp. He had at that moment the feeling that -his end had come, that he was being borne far from the garden with the -fountain, and from that other garden where he saw his mother kneeling -with a flower in her hand and her eyes turned up to him smilingly. -With these scenes standing out vividly in a dream where all things else -were strange unrealities, he was suddenly awakened to life by the crash -of his body against something cruelly hard, felt a sharp sting under -his arm, pressed it down tight, and fell to the deck alone. - -Groping in the darkness, almost breathless, half-blinded by water, -he got to his feet and looked about him. He was standing by the lee -rail, but the man with whom he had struggled was gone, blotted out. He -remembered the sting in his side, and, lifting his hand to the place, -struck the haft of a knife that still clung to his coat. Dazed and -bewildered, he drew it out, and, holding it gingerly, staggered back to -Medbury. - -The mate looked at him in astonishment. - -"You here?" he called. "You'd better go below." - -"I'm going," Drew answered. "I've had enough." With that he held out -the knife. - -"Where'd you get that?" demanded the mate, taking it. - -Clinging to the life-lines, Drew told his story briefly, and as clearly -as was possible in that shrieking gale, while Medbury turned the knife -over and over in his hand. - -"It's that damn' steward's," he said. "He's the one I threw out. I -forgot him." His voice trailed off in the tumult of the storm, and Drew -leaned forward to catch the words; then somehow he understood that the -mate was asking about the steward. - -"Gone," Drew shouted--"over the rail. I couldn't hold him." - -"Damn' good thing," replied Medbury, and gently pushed him toward the -companionway. - - - - -XV - - -It must have been four bells when the second mate found his way to -Medbury's side and told him that the captain wanted him. - -"I'm to stay here," he added. - -"Don't give them any let-up," Medbury shouted in his ear; "and lash -yourself fast. But don't give them any let-up." - -He struggled aft, and put his hand on the captain's shoulder. In the -light of the binnacle-lamp he could see that the old man's face was set -and grim. - -"Want me, sir?" he called, and bent his head to hear. - -"Yes," he heard. The captain whirled the wheel, and then continued: -"Yes; go aloft; see if you can see the light on Culebra." He paused to -shift the wheel, straightened up again, and went on: "These seas run--a -little like shoaling water. I'd hate to run too far to the westward and -fetch up on the shoals beyond Culebra. Bad enough as 'tis. Take a good -look, and hurry back." - -"All right, sir!" Medbury shouted, then made his way to the -main-rigging, and went slowly and carefully up. The wind flattened him -against the ratlines, so that it was with difficulty that he lifted -arms and knees; and when the brig swung to port, he seemed to be -clinging to the lower side of the rigging, so far did she roll down. -"Fetlock-shrouds all the way up," he muttered to himself. When he was -well above the obstructing lower topsail, he looked ahead. - -Under him, near the vessel, the sea gleamed spectrally over its whole -surface, but farther away it was black. The mist had lifted, and he had -the impression, even in the darkness, of a wide horizon-line; but no -light was to be seen. He went upward again, till the crosstrees were -just above him, and looked once more. - -He gazed long, sweeping the whole line of the sea ahead slowly, pausing -at each point, that he might not lose the flash. The strain brought the -tears to his eyes, and he wiped them with his sleeve and looked again. -Something in his dizzy altitude, in the task set him and its failure, -impressed him more than anything had yet done, and he began to lose -heart. - -"Father went this way," he muttered, "and I guess it's good enough for -me. He was a better man than I am. Poor Hetty!" He looked for the light -again, giving all his thought to it. Then he sighed. "I wish to God," -he went on, "that we'd let her be! She wouldn't have been here if we -hadn't teased her about China. I wish she was there. This is no way for -her to go--a girl like her." Then slowly at last he descended to the -deck. - -At the wheel, Captain March was growing unutterably weary, and -something like the same thoughts were passing through his mind. - -"Lord," he said, "I haven't ever been much of a praying man, and -I ain't going to begin now, when I can't shift for myself. I'd be -ashamed. You know I've tried to do right. I ain't afraid of death, but -I hate to lose the old boat. I've always had good luck, and I guess -I've kind o' got in the way of thinking it was going to last. I'd like -to have it. I rather expected to die at home, and be buried alongside -of mother. She thought of that a good deal." Of his wife and daughter -he would not trust himself to think. - -He looked up as Medbury approached him, but turned his eyes away -immediately. He saw that Culebra light had not been sighted. - -Medbury simply shook his head and stepped back, but the captain called -him nearer. - -"I guess it's too early," he said. "Go up again soon, and if we haven't -made it then, we'll try to get a sounding. See if that steward left any -cold tea below, will you?" - -As Medbury went down the companionway and into the pantry, a figure -came softly out of the girls' room and tiptoed across the cabin. It -was Hetty. As she neared the pantry, the swinging floor tripped her -and sent her flying into the room behind Medbury's back. She giggled -hysterically as he turned with a start. - -"Good Lord, Hetty!" he exclaimed, "haven't you gone to sleep yet?" - -"I couldn't sleep," she said plaintively. "I waited for you; I thought -you'd never come." She hesitated, laid her hand on his arm, and -continued slowly: "Now I want you to tell me the truth--the truth. I'm -not a child. I can bear it. I know we are in great danger--isn't it so?" - -He hesitated and looked away, and she dropped her hand to her side. - -"You needn't tell me; I know," she told him. - -"We've got a chance," he now explained. "It looks bad, I know, but -we've got a chance. I guess we've got an even chance." - -"We didn't think it would be like this when we left the harbor at home, -did we?" she continued. "It was like a spring day, and the buds were -getting red. I said the leaves would be full grown when we got back--I -said so to mother." She choked back a sob. - -"Don't, dear!" he pleaded. "Don't! You shall see them yet. You shall -live to grow old among your trees, Hetty." - -"But if I don't," she persisted, "and--anything happens, will you try -to get to me? I don't want to go alone, shut up down here." - -"Yes," he answered solemnly; "I'll get to you. But we're going to pull -through--really." - -"You will not forget!" she insisted. - -He laughed softly. - -"Do I ever forget you?" he asked - -"No," she said; "no--and I am glad." - -Then suddenly she flung her arms about his neck, pressed her cheek -against his, and vanished. - -When Medbury reached the deck he took the wheel while the captain drank -a great draught of the clear, cold tea. Taking the wheel again, he said -something that Medbury could not understand. - -"What's that, sir?" he asked, and leaned forward to catch the words. - -"I said you were gone long enough. Thought the teapot had got adrift." - -"Yes, sir," Medbury replied. "Didn't find it right away. That steward -never did leave things where you could put your hand right on them. -He--" Medbury paused. He was about to say that it was the last of the -steward's tea that the captain would ever drink, but changed his mind. -"I won't trouble the old man to-night," he said to himself. "Morning -will be time enough--if there is a morning." - -The canvas screen above the taffrail had whipped itself free, and the -great seas, in long ridges that seemed never to break, followed the -vessel with vindictive hate. The gale beat the men down, the spray -blinded them; now and then a rush of wind, coming with great fury, with -a wailing cry that sprang upon them like Indians from ambush, pressed -them onward along the rolling seas without motion other than the -forward one. Then the wind, relaxing its hold, left the brig wallowing -exhausted in the deep hollows, like a collapsing thing. - -It was after one of these outbursts that Medbury touched the captain's -arm. - -"Going up again," he yelled, and pointed aloft. - -The captain nodded, and Medbury slanted away. - -He went up deliberately, turning his eyes neither to right nor to -left until he saw the crosstrees just overhead. Stopping, he thrust -a leg between the ratlines to steady himself, and gazed ahead once -more. It had grown lighter, and he could now plainly distinguish the -blurred line where sky and water met. Suddenly, far ahead, he saw a -little point of light grow out of the blackness of the night, flash -for a moment, and then disappear. His heart leaped in exultation, but -he waited, to be sure. Again it flashed and disappeared. Marking its -position well, he hurried to the deck and aft. - -"It's ahead, sir," he shouted. "Bears a point off the starboard bow." - -Captain March made no reply; his face was as immobile as a figurehead. -Whatever exultation he may have felt in the triumph of his reckoning, -he was never to show it. - -By eight bells the light was abreast, and they had hauled up on their -course past Sail Rock. The gale was sweeping down through the passage, -with a threatening sea, and every bit of rigging roaring and piping to -the tune of the road. Suddenly, out of the blackness on their port bow -a dark shape loomed, and the rock stood up almost beside them. Without -changing the course a hair, they drew near, passed under its lee, -with the gale dropping for an instant and the staysails flapping, and -overhead, from the rock, the sound of startled sea-birds crying in the -night. Then the gale rushed down again, and sea and rigging roared once -more. - -Medbury gave a sigh of wonder. - -"Never heard anything like that before," he exclaimed. - -"You can always hear them at night, if you go close enough," said the -captain. - -"Well, it's stirring," replied Medbury. He walked to the rail and -scanned the sea with the glass. "Pity there isn't something more'n a -'bug light' on St. Thomas," he said to the captain as he walked over to -his side. "We might skip right in before daybreak." - -Captain March glanced over the rail. - -"By daybreak we'll not need St. Thomas light," he said dryly, and bent -to the wheel again. - -"The old pirate!" muttered Medbury. "He's chartered for Santa Cruz, and -that's where he's going! There's five feet of water in the hold, and -a tearing gale loose, and a worn-out, hopeless crew; but he's going -to Santa Cruz! If the wind should flop around or fall, we'd go to the -bottom; but it won't. It wouldn't have the cheek--not with him. Well!" - -The wind hauled over the quarter, and fell slightly; gradually the sea -grew pale, and spars and sails took on more definite shape; and then -all at once it was day, and they saw the sea whipped with foam, and -dark masses of purplish-black clouds hanging low, with dashes of gold -firing their edges in the east. St. Thomas had dropped behind them, -and far ahead the cone of Santa Cruz, gray and misty under the darker -clouds, was rising on the edge of the sea. - -Day came on apace; the wind dropped a trifle more, but not until the -harbor of Christiansted took shape, with the anchored ships lying thick -in the roadstead, and the bright-hued little town clinging to the -hillside above the water's edge, did the captain allow the girls on -deck. As they ascended at last, white but happy, and looked out of the -companionway, glancing eagerly about them, the gray, worn vessel, the -dark, low-hanging clouds, the wind-swept sea, appalled them, and for a -moment they could not speak. - -"Eet iss not lak home," murmured the Danish girl; "eet iss mos' sad -and mos' des_o_late." - -"But it's land," cried Hetty--"land after that awful sea!" - -They were silent for a moment and abstracted, gazing with curious eyes -at the land rising under the bow. Suddenly Miss Stromberg seized her -companion's arm. - -"Ah!" she cried, "doze flag--yonner!" She pointed where the red, -white-crossed ensign of Denmark flapped straight out in the gale above -the little white fort at the water's edge. "And op by doze tall tree," -she went on eagerly, "iss ma gahden--wiz yellow wall, and doze red -tiles beyon'. Now eet iss shuah-lee home." - -"It will be beautiful when the sun shines--Christiansted," said Hetty. - -Medbury, going forward, stopped a moment by the main-rigging, where -Drew stood alone. The pumps were quiet as they made harbor, and the -crew were forward. Drew was watching them with curious eyes. He -glanced up as Medbury drew near, and spoke. - -"What will be done with them?" he asked in a low voice. - -"With what?" asked Medbury. - -"With the crew. Wasn't it technically and actually mutiny?" - -Medbury laughed. - -"It was a beautiful fight," he said; then remembering their talk early -on the voyage, he added: "Call it a case of brutality, if you like; but -it seemed necessary." - -"But the men's part," persisted Drew--"will they not be punished?" - -"Man alive!" said Medbury, "they had been standing many hours at those -pumps and working as they'd never worked before--with no hope. That's -punishment enough, isn't it? They're tired now, and very humble, and, -I guess, if the truth could be told, pretty thankful to me. It wasn't -mutiny; it was a funk. They simply gave up, that's all. But if the old -man had done it, you wouldn't be looking into Christiansted roadstead -this morning. There's a man for you!" His voice changed as he added: -"And if it hadn't been for you, God knows where I'd be now. Over the -rail somewhere, with the steward's pretty little trinket in my back. I -haven't said much; but I guess you know I'm not going to forget it." - -"Do the ladies know?" asked Drew. He had not mentioned his own slight -scratch. - -"They know he was swept overboard," the mate replied. "I guess they -needn't know any more at present." Then he went forward. - -Rolling heavily, low above the sea, white with salt, but with the speed -of the gale in her rain-blackened sails, the brig flashed past the -shipping, crowded with wondering sailors, and drove straight for the -rocky beach where the cocoanut-palms came down to the shore, and on hot -mornings the negro washer-women lay their wet clothes upon the smooth -rocks, and the roadstead resounds with the echoing beat of their wooden -paddles. Then all at once Captain March's voice rang out, and with -sails shaking in the wind the _Henrietta C. March_ shot toward a narrow -ribbon of sand on the shore, struck, rolled slowly, and with a long, -grating sigh came safely to land. - -An hour later, as Medbury walked aft, he mounted the steps to -the poop-deck before he saw the flutter of Hetty's dress by the -main-rigging. She was looking steadily out to sea. - -He stopped by her side. - -"Here on this side, when you can see the town on the other!" he -exclaimed. "Haven't you had enough of the sea?" - -She looked up and smiled. - -"I was looking beyond the sea--as far as home," she said. - -"Are you homesick?" - -"No; only thinking of it." - -"It's a good thing to think of," he said soberly. - - "'East, west, - Hame's best.' - -After last night, that sounds true, doesn't it?" - -"It's always true--home and the old things," she said softly--"the -things we've always known." - -He looked down into her face. - -"Hetty," he said, "last night--you rushed away so quickly--is it all -right?" - -She turned her eyes seaward again as she answered in a low voice: - -"I think so--yes." - -"Oh, Hetty!" he whispered. - -She dropped her hand to her side, and he caught it for an instant. -Overhead there were widening patches of blue sky; the sea was taking -on a softer hue. Behind them the tropic world glowed in beauty. -On the beach little groups of negro women, in white bandanas and -bright-colored, wind-blown skirts, stood and watched the sailors aboard -the brig, their shrill laughter and cries coming up softened by the -gale, now rapidly falling. The pumps were going again. - -"It is the only familiar sound--that pump," said Hetty. - -Medbury scarcely heard her. - -"I don't understand it yet," he said at last, turning to her. "Just -when I thought it was all over, suddenly it comes out right. I don't -understand." - -"You never will, you poor boy," she replied, smiling up into his face. -Then suddenly her face grew grave, and she began to speak again: "It -was only when I thought it was all over that I began to think. Then -the storm came, and I saw how much it meant to me that you were near -me, and I was almost sure that I had made a mistake. I think I wasn't -_quite_ sure until you made that dreadful picture yesterday of what it -would be for us to be merely friends. Then I knew." - -"You said I was cruel," he told her. - -"You were," she said. - -"But if it brought us together, how--" - -"That doesn't make it any different." - -"Well," he replied, in his bewilderment, "I am sure I shall never -understand, as you say; but I do not care. It is enough to know that -everything is right at last. And you are sure that you will not mind -giving up China, Hetty, and the missionary work?" - -"Yes," she said firmly; "I was almost ready to give that up three days -ago--before I thought I cared for you, you know. I have thought many -things in these three days. Sometimes, when I think of them, I feel a -thousand years old, as Miss Stromberg says." - -The door of the cabin below them opened, and they heard the sound of -Drew's voice and Miss Stromberg's laugh. She was patiently waiting -until she could go ashore. - -"I was beginning to think that _he_ was going to stand in my way, -Hetty," said Medbury, nodding toward the cabin. - - -THE END. - - - - -TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES: - -Text in italics is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Under Rocking Skies, by L. Frank Tooker - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNDER ROCKING SKIES *** - -***** This file should be named 55721-8.txt or 55721-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/5/7/2/55721/ - -Produced by David E. 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