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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5a967bd --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #62341 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62341) diff --git a/old/62341-h.zip b/old/62341-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 7fe843a..0000000 --- a/old/62341-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/62341-h/62341-h.htm b/old/62341-h/62341-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 4c8f1b8..0000000 --- a/old/62341-h/62341-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4882 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> - -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of Hearts of Oak Vol. 1, by W. Clark Russell. - </title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - <style type="text/css"> - - p { margin-top: .75em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .75em; - } - - p.bold {text-align: center; font-weight: bold;} - p.bold2 {text-align: center; font-weight: bold; font-size: 150%;} - - h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; - } - h1 span, h2 span { display: block; text-align: center; } - #id1 { font-size: smaller } - - - hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; - } - - body{margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; - } - - table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 5px; border-collapse: collapse; border: none; text-align: right;} - - .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ - /* visibility: hidden; */ - position: absolute; - left: 92%; - font-size: smaller; - text-align: right; - text-indent: 0px; - } /* page numbers */ - - .center {text-align: center;} - .smaller {font-size: smaller;} - .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} - .mynote { background-color: #DDE; color: black; padding: .5em; margin-left: 20%; - margin-right: 20%; } /* colored box for notes at beginning of file */ - .space-above {margin-top: 3em;} - .left {text-align: left;} - - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -Project Gutenberg's Heart of Oak, vol. 1., by William Clark Russell - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Heart of Oak, vol. 1. - A Three-Stranded Yarn - -Author: William Clark Russell - -Release Date: June 8, 2020 [EBook #62341] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEART OF OAK, VOL. 1. *** - - - - -Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class ="mynote"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:<br /><br /> -Obvious typographic errors have been corrected.<br /></p></div> - -<hr /> - -<div class="center"><a name="cover.jpg" id="cover.jpg"></a><img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="cover" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/newbooks.jpg" alt="NEW BOOKS AT EVERY LIBRARY" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p class="bold2">HEART OF OAK</p> - -<p class="bold">VOL. I.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="center">PRINTED BY<br />SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE<br />LONDON</p> - -<hr /> - -<h1>HEART OF OAK</h1> - -<p class="bold">A THREE-STRANDED YARN</p> - -<p class="bold space-above">BY</p> - -<p class="bold2">W. CLARK RUSSELL</p> - -<p class="bold">AUTHOR OF<br />'THE WRECK OF THE GROSVENOR' 'THE PHANTOM DEATH'<br /> -'THE CONVICT SHIP' ETC.</p> - -<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/dec.jpg" alt="Decoration" /></div> - -<p class="bold space-above">IN THREE VOLUMES—VOL. I.</p> - -<p class="bold space-above">LONDON<br />CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY<br />1895</p> - -<hr /> - -<h2>CONTENTS</h2> - -<p class="bold">OF</p> - -<p class="bold2">THE FIRST VOLUME</p> - -<table summary="CONTENTS"> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="left"><span class="smaller">CHAPTER</span></td> - <td><span class="smaller">PAGE</span></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>I. </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">Miss Otway opens the Story</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>II. </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">Marie's Sweetheart</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>III. </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">The 'Lady Emma'</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_30">30</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>IV. </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">Marie begins her Voyage</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>V. </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">The Hidden Life of the Ship</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_85">85</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>VI. </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">A Strange Man on Board</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_112">112</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>VII. </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">A Race and a Roller</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_136">136</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>VIII. </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">A Hurricane</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_161">161</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>IX. </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">Dismasted</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_190">190</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>X. </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">The Jury-Mast</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_212">212</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> - -<p class="bold2">HEART OF OAK</p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER I</span> <span class="smaller">MISS OTWAY OPENS THE STORY</span></h2> - -<p>I date the opening of this narrative, February 24, 1860.</p> - -<p>I was in the drawing-room of my father's house on the afternoon of that -day, awaiting the arrival of Captain Burke, of the ship 'Lady Emma,' -and his wife, Mary Burke, who had nursed me and brought me up, and -indeed been as a mother to me after my own mother's death in 1854; but -she had left us to marry Captain Edward Burke, and had already made two -voyages round the world with him, and was presently going a third. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p> - -<p>My father sat beside the fire reading a newspaper. His name was Sir -Mortimer Otway; he was fourth baronet and a colonel; had seen service -in India, though he had long left the army to settle down upon his -little seaside estate. He was a man of small fortune. Having said this, -I need not trouble you with more of his family history.</p> - -<p>I was his only surviving child, and my name is Marie; I have no other -Christian name than that; it was my mother's. My age was twenty and my -health delicate, so much so that Captain and Mrs. Burke were coming -from London expressly to talk over a scheme of my going round the world -in their ship for the benefit of my appetite and spirits and voice, and -perhaps for my lungs, though to be sure <i>they</i> were still sound at that -date.</p> - -<p>Ours was a fine house, about a hundred years old; it stood within a -stone's throw of the brink of the cliff; walls and hedges encompassed -some seventy or eighty acres of land,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> pleasantly wooded in places, and -there was a charming scene of garden on either hand the carriage drive. -I stood at the window with my eyes fastened upon the sea, which went in -a slope of grey steel to the dark sky of the horizon, where here and -there some roaming mass of vapour was hoary with snow. It was blowing -a fresh breeze, and the throb of the ocean was cold with the ice-like -glances of the whipped foam. Presently it thickened overhead, and snow -fell in a squall of wind that darkened the early afternoon into evening -with smoking lines of flying flakes. The sea faded as the reflection -of a star in troubled water. My father put down his newspaper and came -to the window. He was a tall man, bald, high-coloured; his eyes were -large and black, soft in expression, and steady in gaze; his beard -and moustache were of an iron grey, he was sixty years old, yet still -preserved the soldier's trick of carrying his figure to the full height -of his stature. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p> - -<p>'At what hour do you say they're to be here?'</p> - -<p>'At three.'</p> - -<p>He glanced at his watch, then out of the window.</p> - -<p>'That doesn't look like a scene where a delicate girl's going to get -strong!'</p> - -<p>'No,' I answered with a shiver.</p> - -<p>'But a crown piece on a chart will often cover the area of worse -weather than this, and for leagues beyond all shall be glorious -sunshine and blue water.'</p> - -<p>'It's hard to realise,' said I, straining my eyes through the snow for -a sight of the sea.</p> - -<p>'Well,' he exclaimed, turning his back upon the window, 'Bradshaw is -an able man; his instances of people whom a sea voyage has cured are -remarkable, and weigh with me. Living by the seaside is not like going -a voyage. It's the hundred climates which make the medicine. Then the -sights and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> sounds of the ocean are tonical. Are sailors ever ill at -sea? Yes, because they carry their sickness on board with them, or they -decay by bad usage, or perish by poisonous cargoes. The sea kills no -man—save by drowning.'</p> - -<p>He took a turn about the room, and I stared through the window at the -flying blankness.</p> - -<p>'Steam is more certain,' he went on, thinking aloud. 'You can time -yourself by steam. But then for health it doesn't give you all you -want. At least we can't make it fit in your case. It would be otherwise -if I had the means or was able to accompany you, or if I could put -you in charge of some sober, trustworthy old hand. Steam must signify -several changes to give you the time at sea that Bradshaw prescribes. -It's out of the question. No; Mrs. Burke's scheme is the practicable -one, and I shall feel easy when I think of you as watched over by your -old nurse. But I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> have several questions to ask. When are they coming? -Have they missed their train?'</p> - -<p>About five minutes after this they were shown in.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Burke, my old nurse, was a homely, plain, soft-hearted woman, a -little less than forty years of age at this time. She was stout, and -pale, though she was now a traveller, with large, short-sighted blue -eyes, a flat face, and a number of chins. She was dressed as you would -wish a homely skipper's wife to be: in a neat bonnet with a heavy -Shetland veil wrapped around it; a stout mantle, and a gown of thick -warm stuff. She sank a little curtsey to my father, who eagerly stepped -forward and cordially greeted his old servant; in an instant I had my -arms round her neck. You will believe I loved her when I tell you she -had come to my mother's service when I was a month old, and had been -my nurse and maid, and looked after me as a second mother<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> down to the -time when she left us to be married.</p> - -<p>Her husband stood smiling behind her. He was short, an Irishman: he -looked the completest sailor you can imagine—that is, a merchant -sailor. He was richly coloured by the sun, and his small, sharp, merry, -liquid blue eyes gleamed and trembled and sparkled in their sockets -like a pair of stars in some reflected hectic of sunset in the eastern -sky. Everything about him told of heartiness and good humour: there -was something arch in the very curl of his little slip of whiskers. A -set of fine white teeth lighted up his face like a smile of kindness -whenever he parted his lips. He was dressed in the blue cloth coat -and velvet collar, the figured waist-coat and bell-shaped trousers, -of the merchant service in those days, and over all he wore a great -pilot-cloth coat, whose tails fell nearly to his heels; inside of -which, as inside a sentry box, he stood up on slightly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> curved, easily -yielding legs, a model of a clean, wholesome, hearty British skipper.</p> - -<p>Of course I had met him before. I had attended his marriage, and was -never so dull but that the recollection of his face on that occasion -would make me smile, and often laugh aloud. He had also with his wife -spent a day with us after the return of his ship from the first voyage -they had made together. My father shook him cordially by the hand. He -then led him into the library, whilst I took Mrs. Burke upstairs.</p> - -<p>We could have found a thousand things to say to each other; there were -memories of sixteen years of my life common to us both. I could have -told her of my engagement and shown her my sweetheart's picture; but I -was anxious to hear Captain Burke on the subject of my proposed voyage, -and so after ten minutes we went downstairs, where we found my father -and the captain seated before a glowing fire, already deep in talk. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> - -<p>The captain jumped up when I entered, my father placed a chair for Mrs. -Burke, who curtseyed her thanks, and the four of us sat.</p> - -<p>'Well, now, Mrs. Burke,' said my father, addressing her very earnestly, -'your husband's ship is your suggestion, you know. You've sailed round -the world in her and you can tell me more about the sea than your -husband knows'—the captain gave a loud, nervous laugh—'as to the -suitability of such a ship and such a voyage as you recommend to Miss -Otway.'</p> - -<p>'I am sure, Sir Mortimer,' answered Mrs. Burke, 'that it'll do her -all the good, and more than all the good, that the doctors promise. -I should love to have her with me.' She turned to look at me -affectionately. 'Since you can't accompany her, sir, I'd not like to -think of her at sea, and me without the power of caring for her. No -steamer could be safer than the "Lady Emma."' The captain uttered a -nervous laugh of good-humoured <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>derision of steamers. 'If you will -trust my dear young lady to me, I'll warrant you, Sir Mortimer, -there's not the most splendid steamship afloat that shall make her a -comfortabler home than my husband's vessel.'</p> - -<p>'I have some knowledge of the sea, Captain Burke,' said my father. 'I -have made the voyage to India. What is the tonnage of the "Lady Emma"?'</p> - -<p>'Six hundred, sir.'</p> - -<p>'That's a small ship. The "Hindostan" was fourteen hundred tons.'</p> - -<p>'You don't want stilts aboard of six hundred tons to look over the head -of the biggest sea that can run,' answered the captain.</p> - -<p>'She sails beautifully and is a sweet-looking ship,' said my old nurse.</p> - -<p>'When do you start?' asked my father.</p> - -<p>'I hope to get away by the end of next month, sir.' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> - -<p>'Your little ships, I understand, which are not passenger vessels, -often sail very deeply loaded and are unsafe in that way,' said my -father.</p> - -<p>'There can be nothing wrong with a man's freeboard, sir, when his cargo -is what mine's going to be next trip: stout, brandy, whisky, samples of -tinned goods, a lot of theatre scenery, builder's stuff like as doors -and window frames, patent fuel and oil-cake.'</p> - -<p>'Gracious, what a mixture!' cried his wife.</p> - -<p>'What I suppose is termed a general cargo?' said my father; 'not the -best of cargoes in case of fire.'</p> - -<p>'What cargo is good when it comes to that, sir?' asked Captain Burke, -smiling. 'We must never think of risks at sea any more than we do -ashore. To my fancy there's more peril in a railway journey from here -to London than in a voyage from the Thames round the world.' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p> - -<p>'Miss Otway must be under somebody's care, Sir Mortimer,' said Mrs. -Burke.</p> - -<p>'How do you think she looks?'</p> - -<p>'Not as she'll look when I bring her back to you, sir.'</p> - -<p>'It's astonishing what a lot of colouring matter there is for the blood -in sea air,' said Captain Burke. 'When I was first going to sea I was -as pale as a baker; or, as my old father used to say, as a nun's lips -with kissing of beads; afterwards——' he paused with an arch look at -his wife. 'And the colour isn't always that of rum either,' he added.</p> - -<p>'Where does the ship first sail to, nurse?' said I.</p> - -<p>'Tell my young lady, Edward,' she answered.</p> - -<p>'We're bound to Valparaiso, and that's by way of Cape Horn,' said -the captain. 'We there discharge, fill afresh, and thence to Sydney, -New South Wales, thence to Algoa Bay, and so home—a beautiful round -voyage.' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> - -<p>'Right round the world, and so many lovely lands to view besides!' -exclaimed Mrs. Burke, looking at me; 'always in one ship, too, in one -home, Sir Mortimer, with me to see to her. Oh, I shall love to have -her!'</p> - -<p>My father looked out of the window at the wild whirl of snow that had -thickened till it was all flying whiteness through the glass, with -the coming and going of the thunder of a squall in the chimney, and a -subdued note of the snarling of surf, and said, 'Cape Horn will be a -cold passage for Miss Otway.'</p> - -<p>'It's more bracing than cold,' said Captain Burke. 'People that talk -of Cape Horn and the ice there don't know, I reckon, that parrots and -humming birds are to be met with in Strait le Maire. I was shipmate -with a man who's been picking fuchsias in such another snowfall as this -down on the coast of Patagonia.'</p> - -<p>'Miss Marie, you should see an iceberg;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> it's a beautiful sight when -lighted up by the sun,' said my nurse.</p> - -<p>'Beautifuller when under the moon and lying becalmed like a floating -city of marble, and nothing breaking the quiet save the breathing of -grampuses,' exclaimed the captain.</p> - -<p>In this strain we continued to talk for some time. My father better -understood than I did that my very life might depend upon my going a -voyage, and spending many months among the climates of the ocean. All -the doctors he had consulted about me were agreed in this, and the last -and the most eminent, whose opinion we had taken, had advised it with -such gravity and emphasis as determined him upon making at once the -best arrangements practicable, seeing that he was unable to accompany -me for several reasons; one, and a sufficient, being his dislike of the -sea when on it. Our long talk ended in his proposing to return with -Captain Burke to London to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> view the 'Lady Emma,' which was lying in -the East India Docks, and my old nurse consented to stop with me until -he returned, so that we could chat about the voyage and think over the -many little things which might be necessary to render my trip as happy -and comfortable as foresight could contrive. The one drawback that kept -my father hesitating throughout this meeting with Captain Burke and -his wife was this: the 'Lady Emma' would not carry a surgeon. But that -question, they decided, would be left until he had seen the ship, and -satisfied himself that she would make me such a sea-home as he could -with an easy heart send me away in.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER II</span> <span class="smaller">MARIE'S SWEETHEART</span></h2> - -<p>My father went to London next day with Captain Burke. I denied myself -to callers, and until my father came back remained alone with my old -nurse, once or twice taking a ramble along the seashore when the sun -shone; but my health was bad, and I had as little taste for walking as -for company.</p> - -<p>I suffered from a sort of spiritlessness and a dull indifference to -things. My health was the cause of my low-heartedness: but there were -many reasons now why I should feel wretched. It was not the merely -leaving my father and my home for a twelvemonth and longer, to wander -about the ocean in a ship in search of colour for my cheeks and light -for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> my eyes and strength for my voice; but for my health I should have -been married in the previous October; and now my marriage must be put -off till the sea had made me strong, and I was to be sundered from the -man I loved for months and months.</p> - -<p>My betrothal had happened whilst my old nurse Burke was away; it was -therefore news to her, and she listened to all about it with eager, -affectionate attention. I told her that my sweetheart was Mr. Archibald -Moore, the son of a private banker in the City of London. I had met -him at a ball in the neighbourhood, and within a month of that we were -engaged. He was the sweetest, dearest, handsomest—I found I did not -want words when it came to my praising him and speaking of my love.</p> - -<p>She said: 'Does he often come to see you, Miss Marie?'</p> - -<p>'Often. Every week. He is occupied with his father in the bank, and can -only spare from Saturday to Monday.' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p> - -<p>'Will he be here next Saturday?'</p> - -<p>'I hope so.'</p> - -<p>'Dear heart! Oh, Miss Marie, I have a thought: will not his father -spare him to sail with us, so that you can be together?'</p> - -<p>I shook my head.</p> - -<p>'But why not?'</p> - -<p>'Father would not hear of it.'</p> - -<p>She reflected and exclaimed, 'And Sir Mortimer would be quite right. -To be sure it would not do. Is it not a pity that we have to live for -our neighbours? Neighbours have broken folks' hearts, as well as their -fortunes. Why shouldn't you two be together on board my husband's ship? -But the neighbour says No, and people have to live for him. Drat the -prying, squinting starer into one's windows! he forces us to dress out -a better table than our purses can afford, and to give balls when we -ought to be cutting down the weekly bills. But he don't like the sea, -my dear. There are no <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>neighbours at sea. Unfortunately the wretch -stops ashore; people have to come back, and so he has 'em again!'</p> - -<p>Mrs. Burke made much of Mr. Moore's portrait. She had never seen a -handsomer gentleman. What was his age? I answered 'Thirty.' 'All the -sense,' said she, 'that a man's likely to have he'll have got between -thirty and forty. It'll comfort you, Miss Marie, to remember that Mr. -Moore's thirty when you're away. He's old enough to know what he's -about: he's made up his mind; there'll be no swerving.'</p> - -<p>This was a sort of gabble to please me. She knew my nature, and when -and how to say just the sort of thing to set my spirits dancing. In -truth the part of my proposed banishment hardest to bear was the fear -that a long absence would cool the heart of the man I loved.</p> - -<p>On Friday Mrs. Burke left us to rejoin her husband, whose home was in -Stepney, and on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> that day my father returned. He was in good spirits. -He had seen the 'Lady Emma' and thought her a fine ship. She was -classed high, and was yacht-like as a model. Mr. Moore had accompanied -him and Captain Burke to the docks, and was wonderfully pleased with -the vessel and her accommodation.</p> - -<p>'We've got over the difficulty of a doctor,' said my father.</p> - -<p>'How?' I answered.</p> - -<p>'Burke has consented to engage one. I told him if he would carry a -surgeon, by which I mean feed and accommodate him in the ship, I would -bear the other charges. He has a month before him, and may find a man -who wants a change of air and who'll give his services for a cabin -and food. Or, which is more likely, he'll meet with some intelligent -young gentleman who wants to try his 'prentice hand on sailors before -starting in practice ashore. Doctors find sailors useful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> as subjects; -they can experiment on them without professional anxiety as to the -result.'</p> - -<p>Now that it was as good as settled I was to sail in the 'Lady Emma,' -I looked forward to meeting Mr. Moore next day with dread and misery. -I was going away alone. All the risks of the sea lay before me. I was -low and poor in health. Who could be sure that the ocean would do for -me all that the doctors had promised? Who was to say it would let me -return alive? I might never meet my love again. When I said good-bye to -the man who by this time should have been my husband, it might be for -ever, and the thought made the prospect of meeting him next day almost -insupportable.</p> - -<p>He found me alone in the drawing-room. The servant admitted him and -closed the door. I stood up very white and crying; he took me in his -arms and kissed me, led me to a chair and sat beside me, holding my -hand and nursing it, and looking into my face for a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> little while, -scarcely able to speak. How shall I describe him, whose love for me, -as you shall presently read, was such as to make my love for him, -when I think of him as he sat beside me that day, as I follow him in -memory afterwards, too deep for human expression? He was tall, fair, -eyes of a dark blue, deep but gentle, and easily impassioned. He wore -a large yellow moustache, and was as perfectly the model of an English -gentleman in appearance as Captain Burke was a merchant skipper.</p> - -<p>He began immediately on the subject of my voyage.</p> - -<p>'It's hard we should be parted; but I like your little ship, Marie. -I've not met your old nurse, but I judge from what your father tells me -you could not be in better and safer hands. Captain Burke seems a fine -fellow—a thorough, practical seaman. I wish I could accompany you.'</p> - -<p>'Oh, Archie, I shall be so long alone!' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p> - -<p>'Ay, but you're to get well, dearest. I've thought the scheme over -thoroughly. If there's nothing for it but a voyage as the doctors -insist, your father's plans, your old nurse's suggestion, could not -be bettered. Who would look after you on board a big steamer? There -is nobody to accompany you—no relative, nobody we know, no party of -people I can hear of to entrust you to—making, I mean, such a voyage -as the doctors advise. I should be distracted when you were gone in -thinking of you as alone on a steamship at sea, with not a soul to take -the least interest in you saving the captain; and captains, I believe, -do not very much love these obligations. Civility, of course, everybody -expects, but a big ship to look after is a big business to attend to.'</p> - -<p>'It will be a terribly long voyage.'</p> - -<p>'To Valparaiso, and then to Sydney and Algoa Bay, and home. About -fourteen months. So Burke calculates it. A long<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> time, Marie; but if it -is to make you strong, it will not be too long.'</p> - -<p>In this wise we talked; then, there being two hours of daylight left, -I put on my hat and jacket and, taking my lover's arm, went with -him slowly down the great gap in the cliffs to the seashore. It was -sheltered down here. The yellow sunshine lay upon the brown sand, and -flashed in the lifting lengths of seaweed writhing amidst the surf, -and had a sense of April warmth, though it was a keen wind that then -blew—a northerly wind, strong, with a hurry of white clouds like -endless flocks of sheep, scampering southwards. The sands made a noble -promenade, surf-furrowed and hard as wood; the breakers tumbled close -beside us with a loud roar of thunder, and exquisite was the picture of -the trending cliffs, snowclad, gleaming with a delicate moonlike light -in the pale airy blue distance. All sights and sounds of sky and sea -appealed to me now with a meaning I had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> never before found in them. I -would stop my lover as we walked, to observe the swift and beautiful -miracle of the moulding of a breaker as it arched out of the troubled -brine, soaring, into a snowstorm, arching headlong to the sands with -the foam flying from its rushing peak like white feathers streaming -from a dazzling line of helmets; and once or twice as we talked, I -would pause to mark the flight of the gulls stemming the wind aslant in -curves of beauty, or sailing seawards on level, tremorless wings, and -flinging a salt ocean song with their short raw cries through the harsh -bass and storming accompaniment of the surf.</p> - -<p>'If the breeze does not make me strong here, why should the sea make me -strong elsewhere?' I said.</p> - -<p>'It is the change. I have heard of desperate cases made well by travel.'</p> - -<p>'It is hard! To think that my health should force me to that!' I -exclaimed, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>pointing to a little vessel that had rounded out of a point -two miles distant, and was lifting the white seas to the level of her -bows as she sank and soared before the fresh wind, every sail glowing -like a star, her rigging gleaming like golden wire, her decks sparkling -when she inclined them towards us, as though the glass and brass about -her were rubies and diamonds. 'I wonder if she will ever return, -Archie?'</p> - -<p>'Why not? Cheer up, dearest.'</p> - -<p>We watched her till she had shrunk into a little square of dim orange, -with the freckled green running in hardening ridges southwards, where -the shadow of the early February evening was deepening like smoke, -making the ocean distance past the sail look as wide again to the -imagination as the truth was. I shuddered and involuntarily pressed my -lover's arm.</p> - -<p>'The wind is too cold for you,' he said, and we slowly returned home -up through the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> great split in the cliff amongst whose hollows and -shoulders the roar of the surf was echoed back in quick, sudden, -intermittent notes like the sound of guns at sea.</p> - -<p>From this date until I sailed my time was wholly occupied in preparing -for the voyage. I went to London with my father to shop; Mrs. Burke -accompanied us, and half our purchases were owing to her advice. -Fortunately for her, as the wife of a sailor who was able to take -her to sea with him, she was childless, and could afford to give me -much of her time. They reckoned I was to be away fourteen months, but -Captain Burke advised us, having regard to the character of the voyage, -especially to the passage from Valparaiso to Sydney, to stock for a -round trip of eighteen months: this he thought would provide for a -good margin. Clothes for all the climates, from the roasting calms of -the line down to the frost-black gales of the Horn, were purchased; -many delicacies were laid in—a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> hundred elegant trifles of wine -and condiments, of sweetmeats and potted stuffs, to supplement the -captain's plain table or to find me a relish for some hungry howling -hour when the galley fire should be washed out. Mr. Moore wrote that he -frequently visited the ship, and that he and Mrs. Burke between them -were making my cabin as comfortable as my old nurse's foresight and -experience could manage.</p> - -<p>So went by this wretched time of waiting and of preparation.</p> - -<p>About a fortnight before the ship sailed my father received a letter -from Captain Burke, telling him that he had engaged a surgeon. His name -was Owen. His age he said was about forty-three; he was a widower. -The loss of his wife and two daughters three years before this period -had broken him down; he was unable to practise; had travelled in the -hopes of distracting his mind, but his means were slender and he was -unable to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> long away or go far; yet when he endeavoured to resume -work he found himself unequal to his professional calls. He thereupon -sold his practice and had lived for some months in retirement upon a -trifling income. Having seen Captain Burke's advertisement he offered -his services in exchange for a free voyage. The captain described him -as a gentlemanly man, his credentials excellent, and his experience -considerable.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER III</span> <span class="smaller">THE 'LADY EMMA'</span></h2> - -<p>On the morning of a day for ever memorable to me as the date of my -departure from my home—namely, March 31, 1860—my father and I went to -London, there to stay till April 2, when it was arranged that I should -go on board the ship at Gravesend. My grief worked like a passion in -me; yet I was quiet; my resolution to be calm whitened my cheeks, but -again and again my eyes brimmed in spite of my efforts.</p> - -<p>Oh, I so feared this going away alone! Even though I was to be in the -company of my faithful, dear Mrs. Burke, my very heart so shrank up -in me at the idea of saying farewell to my lover, with the chance of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> -never seeing him more, that sometimes when I said my prayers I would -ask God to make me too ill to leave home.</p> - -<p>It was a melancholy grey day when I drove with my father to the -station; the east wind sang like the surf in the naked, iron-hard -boughs, and the sea streamed in lines of snow into the black desolate -distance, unbroken by a gleam of sail, save, as we turned the corner -which gave me a view of the ocean, I caught sight of a lonely black and -red carcass of a steamer staggering along, tall and naked as though -plucked, with a hill of foam under her counter; the melancholy and -desolation of the day was in her, and no picture of shipwreck could -have made that scene of waters sadder.</p> - -<p>I had bidden good-bye to all I knew during the week: there were no more -farewells to be said. We entered the train, and when we ran out of the -station I felt that my long voyage had truly commenced. I'll not linger -over<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> my brief stay in London. Mr. Moore was constantly with me: indeed -we were seldom apart during those two days of my waiting to join the -ship at Gravesend. His father and sister called to say good-bye; I was -too poorly and low-spirited to visit them. In truth I never once left -the hotel until I drove with my father and Mr. Moore to the station to -take the train to Gravesend.</p> - -<p>Before embarking, however, I made the acquaintance of Mr. Owen, the -surgeon of the ship. He had occasion to be in the West End of London, -and Mrs. Burke asked him to call. I viewed him with considerable -curiosity, for it was not only he was to be my medical adviser—I could -not but reflect that I was to be locked up in a small ship with this -man for very many months, with no other change of society than Captain -and Mrs. Burke. I was pleasantly disappointed in him. I had figured -a yellow, long-faced, melancholy man, with a countenance ploughed by -frequent secret<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> weeping, and furrowed by pitiful memories and night -thoughts black as Dr. Young's. Instead there entered the room briskly, -with a sideways bow cleverly executed whilst in motion, the right arm -advanced, a short, plump figure of a man in a coat cut in something -of a clerical style, short legs, and a face that would have been -reasonably full but for its long aquiline nose, and contraction of -lineaments due to a big bush of hair standing out stiff in minute curls -over either ear. Otherwise he was bald.</p> - -<p>My father was extremely polite to him. He stayed an hour and partook -of some slight refreshment. He stared at me very earnestly, felt my -pulse, considered me generally with polite professional attention, and, -after he had put certain questions, said to my father with significant -gravity:</p> - -<p>'You may console yourself, sir, for the temporary loss of your -daughter; I do not scruple to say that in sending her on this <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>voyage -you will be saving her life. I believe I can recognise her case, and -strongly share the opinion of those who prescribe a long residence on -board ship upon the ocean.'</p> - -<p>My father's face lighted up: nothing I believe could have heartened him -more at the moment than this assurance. Mr. Moore took Mr. Owen by the -hand and said:</p> - -<p>'We shall be trusting her to you, sir; she is very dear to me. We -should be man and wife but for her health.'</p> - -<p>'All that my anxious attention can give her she shall have,' said Mr. -Owen, bowing over my lover's hand.</p> - -<p>Yet he did not stay his hour without letting us see, poor fellow, that -in the depths of his heart he was a grieving man. He said nothing; no -reference was made to his affliction: but in certain pauses the pain of -memory would enter his face like a shadow, and sometimes he would sigh -tremulously as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> one in sorrow sighs in sleep, scarcely knowing you saw, -that he did so.</p> - -<p>When he was gone, my father said to Mr. Moore that his spirits felt as -light again now that he had seen what sort of man it was who would have -charge of my health.</p> - -<p>'Taking all sides of it,' he said, 'I don't think we could have -done better. Marie goes with an old nurse who loves her as her own -child; Mr. Owen seems a kind-hearted, experienced, practical man. I -hope he understands that our appreciation of his kindness will not -be restricted to bare thanks on the return of the vessel. The more -I see of Burke, the better I like him. He is an honest, experienced -seaman from crown to heel, and in saying that I am allowing him all -the virtues. No; the arrangements are wholly to my satisfaction and my -mind is at rest. It will be like a long yachting trip for Marie: she -will have a fine ship under her,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> and all the seclusion and comfort of -a yacht combined with the safety of ample tonnage. I am satisfied. It -was a cruel difficulty; we have had to meet it; it is well met, and -now, Marie, there is nothing to do but wait. Have patience. The months -will swiftly roll by—then you will return to us, a healthy, fine young -woman, full of life and colour and vigour, instead of——' His voice -broke off in a sob and he turned his head away. I ran to him and he -held me.</p> - -<p>On April 2 we went down to Gravesend. Mr. Moore accompanied us. Captain -Burke had telegraphed that the 'Lady Emma' was lying off that town and -would tow to sea in the afternoon of the 2nd. We arrived at Gravesend -at about twelve o'clock and drove to a hotel. All my luggage had been -sent on board the ship in the docks. Mrs. Burke waited for us in a room -overlooking the river; here she had ordered luncheon to be served. She -seemed hearty and happy: <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>kissed me, and curtseyed to my father and Mr. -Moore, and taking me to the window said:</p> - -<p>'There she is, Miss Marie. There's your ocean home. What do you think -of her as a picture?'</p> - -<p>She pointed to a vessel that was straining at a buoy almost immediately -opposite. A tug was lying near her. It was a young April day; the -sunshine thin and pale, the blue of the heavens soft and dim, with a -number of swelling bodies of clouds, humped and bronzed, sailing with -the majesty of line-of-battle ships into the south-west. A brisk wind -blew and the river was full of life. The grey water twinkled and was -flashed in places into a clearness and beauty of bluish crystal by the -brushing of the breeze. The eye was filled and puzzled for some moments -by the abounding tints and motion. A large steamer with her line of -bulwarks palpitating with heads of emigrants was slowly passing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> down; -another with frosted funnel and drainings of red rust on her side, as -though she still bled from the scratches of a recent vicious fight -outside, was warily passing up: beside her was a large, full-rigged -ship towing to London, and the sluggish passage of the masts, yards, -and rigging of the two vessels, the steamer sliding past the other, -combined with the sudden turning of a little schooner close by, all her -canvas shaking, and with the heeling figure of a brig, her dark breasts -of patched canvas swelling for the flat shores opposite, a spout of -white water at her forefoot, and a short-lived vein of river-froth at -her rudder; <i>then</i>, close in, two barges heaped with cargo, blowing -along stiff as flag-poles under brown wings of sail; these with vessels -at both extremities of the Reach, coming and going, interlacing the -perspective of their rigging into a complication of colours and -wirelike outlines, for ever shifting: all this wonderful changing life, -I say, adding to it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> the trembling of the stream of river, the pouring -of smoke, the pulling and shivering of flags, put a giddiness into the -scene, and for some moments I stared idly, with Mrs. Burke beside me -pointing to the 'Lady Emma.'</p> - -<p>My eye then went to the ship, and rested upon as pretty a little -fabric as probably ever floated upon the water of the Thames. I may -venture upon a description of her and speak critically: indeed I must -presuppose some knowledge of the sea in you, otherwise I shall be at -a loss; for as you shall presently discover I was long enough upon -the ocean, under circumstances of distress scarcely paralleled in the -records, to learn by heart the language of the deep, how to speak of -ships and tell of sailors' doings, and I cannot but name the things of -the sea in the language in which the mariner talks of them.</p> - -<p>The 'Lady Emma' was a full-rigged ship,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> between six hundred and seven -hundred tons in burthen; she was a wooden ship—iron sailing vessels -were few in those days; she was painted black; but though loaded for -the voyage she sat lightly upon the water, and a hand's-breadth of new -metal sheathing burned along her water-line like a gilding of sunlight -the length of her. Her lower masts were white, her upper masts a bright -yellow; her yards were very square, or as a landsman would call them -wide: the most inexperienced eye might guess that when clothed in sail -she would spread wings as of an albatross in power, breadth, and beauty -for a meteoric flight over the long blue heave.</p> - -<p>'How do you like her, Miss Marie?' said Mrs. Burke.</p> - -<p>'She is a pretty ship, I think,' I answered.</p> - -<p>'She is a beauty,' said the good woman; 'she outsails everything.'</p> - -<p>'She has a fine commanding lift about the bows,' said Mr. Moore, -passing his arm<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> through mine. 'Captain Burke tells me she has done as -much as three hundred and twelve miles in the twenty-four hours.'</p> - -<p>'So she has, sir,' said Mrs. Burke.</p> - -<p>'I wish she'd maintain that rate of sailing all the time Marie is -aboard,' said my father.</p> - -<p>'Oh, Sir Mortimer, this going will seem but as of yesterday's happening -when yonder ship's out there again, returned, and your dear girl's in -your arms, strong, fine, and hearty, rich in voice, and bright-eyed as -she used to be when a baby. These voyages seem long to take, and when -they're ended it's like counting how many fingers you have to remember -them, so easy and quick it all went.'</p> - -<p>Lunch was served and we seated ourselves, but my throat was dry and -I could swallow nothing but a little wine. My father and Mr. Moore -pretended to eat; suddenly looking up I met my sweetheart's gaze: a -look of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>inexpressible tenderness and distress entered his face, and -starting from his seat he went to the window, and kept his back to us -for a few minutes. Mrs. Burke went to him and whispered in his ear; I -perfectly understood that she begged him to bear up for my sake: indeed -it needed but for my father and my lover to give way, for me to break -down utterly, with a menace of consequent prostration that must put an -end to this scheme of a voyage on the very threshold of it.</p> - -<p>We left the hotel at two o'clock and walked slowly to the pier. I was -closely veiled. I could not have borne the inquisitive stare of the -people as we passed. Whilst we waited for a boat, I watched a mother -saying good-bye to her son, a bright-haired boy of fourteen in the -uniform of a merchant midshipman. She was in deep mourning, a widow, -and I had but to look at her pale face to know that the boy was her -child. The lad struggled with his feelings; his determination<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> to be -manly and not to be seen to cry by the people standing round about nor -to go on board his ship with red eyes doubtless helped him. He broke -away from her with a sort of sharp sobbing laugh, crying, 'Back again -in a year, mother, back again in a year,' and left her. She stood as -though turned to stone. When in the boat he flourished his cap to her; -she watched him like a statue with the most dreadful expression of -grief the imagination could paint. Never shall I forget the motionless -figure of that widow mother and the grief in her face, and the look in -her tearless eyes.</p> - -<p>'There's plenty of sorrow in this world,' said Mrs. Burke, as the four -of us seated ourselves in the boat, 'and there's no place where more -grief's to be seen than here, owing to the leave-takings and the coming -back of ships with news.'</p> - -<p>'Master of a ship fell dead yesterday just as he was a-stepping -ashore,' said the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>waterman who was rowing us. 'Bad job for his large -family.'</p> - -<p>'You'll take care to have a letter ready before the ship is out of the -Channel, Marie,' said my father. 'Mrs. Burke, your husband will give -Miss Otway every opportunity of sending letters home?'</p> - -<p>'I'll see to it, Sir Mortimer.'</p> - -<p>We drew alongside the ship. Captain Burke and Mr. Owen stood at the -gangway to receive us. When I went up the ladder, supported by my -father, Captain Burke with his hat off extended his hand, saying:</p> - -<p>'Miss Otway, welcome on board the "Lady Emma." She has received my -whisper. She knows her errand and what's expected of her. She'll keep -time, Sir Mortimer; and the magic that'll happen betwixt the months -whilst our jibboom is pointing to as many courses as the compass has -marks is going to transform this delicate, pale young lady into the -heartiest,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> rosiest lass that ever stepped over a ship's side.'</p> - -<p>'I pray so, I pray so,' exclaimed my father.</p> - -<p>'Captain Burke is not too sanguine,' exclaimed Mr. Owen with a smile.</p> - -<p>'When do you start?' asked Mr. Moore.</p> - -<p>'Soon after three, sir, I hope,' answered Captain Burke.</p> - -<p>I ran my eye over the ship. The scene had that sort of morbid interest -to me which the architecture and furniture of a prison cell takes for -one who is to pass many months in it. I beheld a long white deck, -extending from the taffrail into the bows, with several structures -breaking the wide lustrous continuity: one forward was the galley, -the ship's kitchen; this side of it was a large boat with sheep -bleating inside her; whilst underneath was a sty-full of pigs, flanked -by hen-coops whose bars throbbed with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> ceaseless protrusion and -withdrawal of the flapping combs of cocks and the heads of hens. Near -us was a great square hatch, covered over with a tarpaulin, and farther -aft, as the proper expression is, was a big glazed frame for the -admission of light into the cabin; some distance past it a sort of box, -curved to the aspect of a hood, called the companion-way, conducted you -below. At the end of the ship was the wheel, like a circle of flame -with the brasswork of it flashing to the sun, and immediately in front -stood the compass box or binnacle, glittering like the wheel, and -trembling to its height upon the white planks like a short pillar of -fire.</p> - -<p>A number of sailors hung about the forecastle, and a man leaned in the -little door of the galley in a red shirt, bare to the elbows, eying us, -with a pair of fat, dough-like, tattooed arms crossed upon his breast, -a picture of stupid, sulky curiosity.</p> - -<p>We stayed for a few minutes talking in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> gangway; Mrs. Burke then -asked me to step below and see my cabin, and I went down the steps -followed by the rest, and entered the ship's little plain state-room.</p> - -<p>I stopped at the foot of the ladder and drew my breath with difficulty. -What was it? An extraordinary sensation of icy chill had passed through -me. It was over in an instant, but it was as though the hand of death -itself had clutched my heart. Was it a presentiment working so potently -as to affect me physically? Was it some subtle motion of the nerves -influenced by the sight of the interior, and by the strange shipboard -smells in it which there was no virtue in the hanging pots of flowers -to sweeten? I said nothing. My father halted to the arrest of my hand, -supposing I wished to look about me, and yet, oh, merciful God! when I -date myself back to that hour, and think of me as entering that cabin -for the first time, and then of what happened afterwards, I cannot for -an instant question—nay, with fear<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> and awe I devoutly believe—that -the heart-moving sensation of chill which came and went in the beat of -a pulse was a breath off the pinion of my angel of fate or destiny, -stirring in the thick-ribbed blackness of the future at sight of my -first entrance into the scene of my distress. Do not think me fanciful -nor high strained in expression or imagination. My meaning will be -clear to you.</p> - -<p>The Burkes had done their best to make this state cabin comfortable -to the eye. Shelves full of books were secured to the ship's wall: a -couple of globes of gold and silver fish hung under the skylight, where -too were some rows of flowers hanging in pots. A couple of tall glasses -were affixed to the cabin walls, and the lamp was handsome and of -bright metal. A new carpet was stretched over the deck, and the table -was covered with a cloth, so that the interior looked like a little -parlour or living-room ashore. I also observed a stove in the fore end -of the cabin; it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> looked new, as though fitted for this particular -voyage.</p> - -<p>'Dear Miss Marie, let me show you your bedroom,' said Mrs. Burke.</p> - -<p>A narrow corridor went out of this living room in the direction of the -stern; on either hand were cabins, four of a side. Mrs. Burke threw -open a door on the port or left hand side, and we entered a large -berth. Two had been knocked into one for my use.</p> - -<p>'This is bigger than anything I could have secured for you on board a -steamer,' said my father.</p> - -<p>My old nurse's eyes were upon me whilst I gazed around. They had -made as elegant a little bedroom of the place as could possibly be -manufactured on board a plain, homely sailing ship. Every convenience -was here, and the furniture was handsome. They had put pink silk -curtains to my bunk which was single—that is, the upper shelf was -removed so that I should have the upper deck clear<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> above me when I -pillowed my head. They had prettily decorated with drapery a large oval -glass nailed to the bulkhead: this mirror caught the light trembling -off the river, and brimming through the porthole and filled the -interior with a radiance of its own as though it had been a lamp. The -carpet was thick and rich; the armchair low and soft. A writing table -stood in the corner, and on it was a lovely bouquet; the berth was rich -with the smell of those delicious flowers; the atmosphere sweet as a -breeze in a garden of roses. It was my lover's gift, sent on board the -ship just before she left the docks, but I did not know this until -after I had said good-bye to him.</p> - -<p>'It is as comfortable as your bedroom at home, Marie,' said my father.</p> - -<p>'I find your thoughtful heart everywhere here, nurse,' said I.</p> - -<p>'We have all done our best, and our best shall go on being done,' she -answered, smiling,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> and meeting my father's gaze she dropped him one of -her little old-world curtseys.</p> - -<p>'I don't think you'll find anything missing, sir,' said Captain Burke, -'from Mr. Owen's medicine chest down to the smallest case of goodies in -the lazarette.'</p> - -<p>'My daughter is in kind hands. I am satisfied,' said my father, and he -came to me and put his arm round my neck.</p> - -<p>Captain Burke, saying he was needed on deck, went out. Mrs. Burke and -Mr. Owen followed; my father stepped into the state-room that I might -be alone with my lover.</p> - -<p>He caught me quickly to his heart and kissed me again and again with -a passion of grief and love. We had exchanged our vows before, over -and over. We could but kiss and whisper hopes of a sweet meeting, of a -lasting reunion by-and-by. It was like a parting between a young bride -and bridegroom, but with a dreadful significance going<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> into it out of -my health and out of the thought of the perils of the sea. Indeed, a -sadness as of death itself was in that parting, and I know Archie felt -that, as I did, when he released me and stood a moment looking into my -white face.</p> - -<p>When we went into the cabin I found my father earnestly conversing with -Mrs. Burke. He was asking questions about my luggage and effects, and -impressing certain things upon her memory. A few minutes later Captain -Burke came down the companion-steps, and, halting before he reached the -bottom, exclaimed:</p> - -<p>'Sir Mortimer, I'm sorry to say the tug'll be laying hold of us now -almost immediately.'</p> - -<p>My father started, looked at me with something frantic in the -expression of his face, then crying 'Well, if the time has come——' -and took me in his arms. Then with tears standing in his eyes, and -gazing <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>upwards, he asked God to bless and to protect me, and to -restore me, his only child, in safety and in health to him; and now -speechless with grief, mutely looking a farewell to Mrs. Burke, who -herself was weeping, he went on deck, followed by Mr. Moore, whose -leave-taking here had been no more than a single kiss pressed upon my -forehead as I stood beside the table after my father had released me.</p> - -<p>When they were gone I sank into a chair; Mrs. Burke looked with wet -eyes through a cabin window. She was right to let my grief have its -way. After a little I heard the voices of men chorusing on deck; -overhead people regularly tramped to and fro. Mr. Owen came into the -cabin and said:</p> - -<p>'Pray, Miss Otway, let me conduct you above. The air will refresh you, -and the picture of the river is striking and full of life.'</p> - -<p>'Come, dear Miss Marie, with me,' said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> Mrs. Burke, and I put my arm -through hers and went on deck.</p> - -<p>I stood still on discovering that our voyage was begun. Our ship had -been moored to a buoy; there had been no anchor to weigh, no wild -music of seamen nor hoarse quarter-deck commands to give the news of -departure to those under deck; the little tug had quietly manœuvred -for our tow-rope, and now the ship's bows were pointing down the river, -her keen stem shearing through the froth of the paddle-wheels ahead, -with some sailors heave-hoing as they dragged upon the ropes which -hoisted certain staysails and jibs; the old town of Gravesend was -sliding away upon the quarter. I strained my eyes in vain for a sight -of the boat in which my father and Mr. Moore might have been making for -the shore. Well perhaps that I could not distinguish her. I think it -would have broken my heart then to have seen them, thus, for the last -time, making their way ashore for that home<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> I was leaving for months, -and perhaps for ever!</p> - -<p>'We have started, nurse!' I exclaimed.</p> - -<p>'Yes, dear,' she answered. 'Do not make haste to cease crying. Let -nature work by degrees in her own fashion. I shall soon see my dear -girl looking proudly with health, and oh, the joy of your meeting with -your father and Mr. Moore, and my happiness when I see them staring at -you, scarce knowing you for your beauty and brightness!'</p> - -<p>The water blazed with sunshine, the merry twinkling of it by the fresh -April wind made the whole Reach a path of dazzling light. Twenty -vessels of all sorts were about us: some leaned with rounded canvas -soft as sifted snow, with yellow streaks of metal glancing wet to the -light out of the brackish foam, that wanted the shrillness and spit of -the froth of the brine; some lifted bare skeleton scaffolds of spars -and yards as they towed past; some were no bigger than a Yarmouth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> -smack, and some were great steamers and deep and lofty ships from or -for the Antipodes. But whatever you looked at was beautiful with the -hues of the afternoon, the backing of the green land, the inspiration -of the sea, the spirit of ocean liberty wide as the horizon that is -boundless, and high as the air through which the clouds blew.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER IV</span> <span class="smaller">MARIE BEGINS HER VOYAGE</span></h2> - -<p>This was the first voyage I had ever made. I was born in England, and -was left at school when my mother went round the Cape to India on -the second visit my father paid to that country. I had never in my -life crossed a wider breast of water than the English Channel between -Folkestone and Boulogne. Everything here, then, you will suppose was -wonderfully new to me; infinitely stranger indeed than had the ship -been a steamer whose funnel and masts have commonly but little in them -to bewilder the landgoing eye.</p> - -<p>Hundreds of times had I watched ships passing over the blue or grey -waters which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> our house overlooked; but they were as clouds to me, -indeterminable though beautiful decorations of the deep: I knew nothing -of their inner life, of one's sensations on board, what the sailors -in them did. I looked up now and beheld three masts towering into a -delicate fineness to the altitude of their own starry trucks, with -yards across, rigging complex as the meshes of a web, white triangular -sails between. A sailor stood at the wheel, floating off from it with -the easy, careless posture of the sea, his knotted hands gripping the -spokes of the gleaming circle. A stout-faced man in the tall hat of the -London streets, his neck swathed in a red shawl, walked up and down the -deck near the cabin skylight. Mrs. Burke told me he was the pilot. She -pointed to a man who was standing on the forecastle as though keeping a -look-out on the tug, and said that he was Mr. Green, the first mate of -the ship: indeed the only mate. The boatswain, she informed me, who was -not a certificated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> officer, would take charge of her husband's watch -when the ship was at sea.</p> - -<p>She talked thus to distract my mind. I asked her what she meant by her -'husband's watch,' thinking she meant the timekeeper in his pocket.</p> - -<p>'Why,' she said, 'every ship's crew is divided into two companies -or watches, called port and starboard; the starboard watch is the -captain's and the other the mate's. Let us walk a little. Already you -are looking better, positively.'</p> - -<p>Here Mr. Owen joined us.</p> - -<p>'I declare, doctor,' exclaimed Mrs. Burke, 'that Miss Otway has already -got a little colour in her cheeks, more even since we left Gravesend -than, I warrant, Sir Mortimer has seen in her the last twelvemonth -gone. If she means to begin to look well so soon, how will it be with -her, sir, when this ship's bowsprit is pointing the other way and we -shall be all ready to go ashore?' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p> - -<p>Mr. Owen, in a soft felt hat, an academic bush of hair under either -side of it, like the cauliflower wig of olden days, and a warm, heavy -black cloak, might have passed for a clergyman. He asked permission to -stroll the deck with us, and pointed out objects ashore and upon the -water with an intelligence that proved him the possessor of a talent -for colour.</p> - -<p>Once he broke off in what he was saying to look at the land; he sighed -deeply, yet, forcing a smile, said to Mrs. Burke:</p> - -<p>'That parting should never be a sad one which promises a happy meeting, -at the cost of no more than patience.'</p> - -<p>'Truly indeed not,' said Mrs. Burke cheerily.</p> - -<p>'It is the meeting! it is the meeting! promise <i>that</i>, and what is -the leave-taking?' he exclaimed, and was all on a sudden too moved to -speak: he faintly bowed, and went to the ship's side and looked at the -shore. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p> - -<p>We did not long remain on deck. I found the wind cold, my head -slightly ached; I was weary with the exhaustion which follows upon -fretting. Mrs. Burke went with me to my cabin, and we spent a long -while in talking, recalling old memories, and most of the time she was -cheerfully busy in seeing that my things were in their place and that I -wanted for nothing.</p> - -<p>The night had drawn down dark over the ship when we passed from my -berth into the state cabin. It was about seven o'clock. Supper was -ready. The table was bright with damask and silver and flowers; under -the skylight the large globe lamp glowed steadily, and filled the -interior with the soft radiance of sperm oil. I heard some men singing -out on deck and the noise of ropes flung down upon the planks. The -sound was strange and put a sort of wildness into this interior, -despite its fifty civilising details of furniture. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p> - -<p>A young sandy-haired youth, long and lank, in a camlet jacket, stood at -the foot of the companion-steps, and swung a bell with evident delight -in the noise he made. Mr. Owen started up from a locker in the corner -of the cabin on seeing us, and exclaimed:</p> - -<p>'There is a brave wind blowing. Captain Burke hopes to be off Deal by -midnight.'</p> - -<p>'That will be famous work,' said Mrs. Burke. 'But this is a clipper -ship.'</p> - -<p>'Are we sailing?' said I.</p> - -<p>'Yes. Some canvas is spread. But the tug still has hold of us,' -responded Mr. Owen.</p> - -<p>I felt no movement in the ship. She was going along with the seething -steadiness of a sleigh. Just then Captain Burke came below. His -composed, cheerful face, peak-bearded with red hair and arch, merry -Irish eyes, seemed to bring a new atmosphere of light into the place. -He addressed some friendly sympathetic question to me; we then seated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> -ourselves, I on the captain's right, and Mr. Owen at the foot of the -table.</p> - -<p>It was my first meal at sea, if indeed the ship could then be called at -sea, and memorable to me for that reason. I had tasted no food since -breakfast, and now tried to eat, but less from appetite than from the -desire to please my old nurse. My chat with her before supper had -determined me to fight with my grief, to regard the voyage as a long -holiday yachting excursion, which should be happy if I accepted it as -a twelvemonth's diversion that was to end in making me a new woman, -and in fitting me to become a wife. It was this last point that Mrs. -Burke had insisted upon, and, like a good many ideas which are obvious -and commonplace when uttered, it took my fancy, lighted up my views as -though it had been a sort of revelation, and whilst I sat at supper I -was so composed that more than once I caught Mr. Owen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> dart a glance of -surprise at me when I answered or put a question.</p> - -<p>'The sea is very smooth here, Edward,' said Mrs. Burke.</p> - -<p>'There's no sea yet,' he answered. 'It's river so far. We're towing -through what's called the Warp, near the Nore, whose light ye should be -able to see, Miss Otway,' said he, getting up and ducking and bobbing -to command the whole compass of a cabin window.</p> - -<p>'I wonder the ship doesn't run the tug down,' said Mr. Owen.</p> - -<p>The captain looked at me with his merry eyes and chuckled.</p> - -<p>'Ay, we're a match for the old slapper even with nothing on us but fore -and aft canvas and two topsails,' said he. 'I wish Sir Mortimer was -with us. Here's a voyage to thread a heart through the strands of his -years. I don't know that ever I met a gentleman I took a greater fancy -to, unless it's Mr.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> Moore,' and he gave me a bow, whilst I smiled, -feeling a faint glow in my cheeks.</p> - -<p>'There'll be a full moon at eight,' said Mr. Owen.</p> - -<p>'So there will, sir, thank God,' answered Captain Burke. 'We sailors -can never have too much light. No, not even in our wives' eyes,' said -he, with an askant arch look at Mrs. Burke.</p> - -<p>And now he began to talk. Though without the brogue in his tongue, he -had the fluency and humour of his country. He was full of stories of -adventure and experience; scarce a sea he had not navigated in his day. -His wife watched me eagerly, and if ever I smiled her face lighted up -and her kind eyes shone. All his efforts were directed to cheer me. -Observing Mr. Owen smelling at an egg he exclaimed:</p> - -<p>'What's that you've got?'</p> - -<p>'Something laid too soon, captain.'</p> - -<p>'Doctor,' said the captain, 'I know a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> sailor who made an experiment: -he put a number of French eggs under a sitting rooster, and what d'ye -think was hatched? Cocks and hens in the last stage of decrepitude! -They hopped and staggered about in his little back-yard, and died of -old age in twenty-four hours. That was his test of a bad egg. If he -wanted to make sure he hatched it.'</p> - -<p>Thus ran his careless, good-humoured gabble, and perhaps had he talked -wisely and soberly he would not have done me any good.</p> - -<p>He went on deck presently, and the mate, Mr. Green, came below to -get his supper. He was a middle-aged man, of a very nautical cut in -figure and clothes, with a sneering face, and a beard of wiry iron hair -covering his throat, though he shaved to the round of his chin, and a -droop of left eyelid put the expression of an acid leer into that side -of his face.</p> - -<p>Mr. Owen had withdrawn to his cabin.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> Mrs. Burke and I sat at a little -distance upon a comfortable sofa near the stove. The mate squared his -elbows and fell to work slowly but diligently, often lifting his knife -to his mouth and chewing with the solemnity of a goat.</p> - -<p>'He rose from before the mast,' said Mrs. Burke. 'I hope he's a good -sailor. This is his first voyage with my husband. He holds a master's -certificate, but that don't signify much, I expect. A man wants to know -human nature to command a crew of sailors. He's been a common seaman -himself, and fared ill, and worked hard on a starvation wage, as most -of the poor creatures do, and that's likely to make him hard with -the men and unpitying. It's always so. It's the person who's been in -service that makes the exacting mistress.'</p> - -<p>All this she spoke softly. She then inquired of the mate how the -weather was on deck. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p> - -<p>'Why, not so fine as it is down here, mum,' he answered. 'There's a -vast of stars, but 'tis black till the moon comes up.'</p> - -<p>'Where are we now?'</p> - -<p>'The Girdler ain't far off,' he answered, masticating slowly.</p> - -<p>'Is the tug still towing us?'</p> - -<p>'Oh, certainly yes, mum!'</p> - -<p>He did not seem disposed to talk, and answered with grimaces and the -awkward air of a man ill at ease.</p> - -<p>I was looking at his square sturdy figure, with his weather-ploughed -face and the muscles all about it working like vigorous pulses to -the movement of his jaws, when I felt a slight motion of the ship, a -gentle, cradling heave of the deck: the lamp and all things pendulous -swayed; creaking noises arose from all parts; a sudden giddiness took -me. The movement was repeated with the regularity of a clock's tick.</p> - -<p>'Isn't the sea getting up?' exclaimed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> Mrs. Burke, staring at the -gleaming ebony of the skylight windows and then around her.</p> - -<p>The mate arrested the tumbler whose contents he was turning into -his mouth to distend his lips in a grin, which he probably thought -concealed.</p> - -<p>'Why, I thought we were still in the river!' cried Mrs. Burke again.</p> - -<p>The mate, picking up his cap, rose, contorted his square figure into a -bow to us, and went up the companion-steps.</p> - -<p>The motion of the vessel affected me. Mrs. Burke got a pillow and made -me comfortable on the sofa, and, wrapping herself in a shawl, went on -deck. She returned presently and said that the river had widened into -a sea, with danger-lights sparkling here and there, and the full moon -rising solemnly and beautifully upon the port bow. She hugged herself -and said it was blowing fresh, and the ship under several breasts of -canvas<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> was chasing the little tug, which was splashing ahead as fast -as she could go.</p> - -<p>'We're doing between seven and eight miles an hour. Only think!' she -cried. 'We shall be opening the lights of Margate very soon. To think -of Margate and the sands and the shrimps, and us sailing past it to the -other end of the world. How do you feel, my dear?'</p> - -<p>I answered that I felt sick.</p> - -<p>'You will suffer for a day or two,' said she, 'and then you'll take no -more notice of it than I do. Hark! what is that?'</p> - -<p>The sounds proceeded from Mr. Owen's cabin.</p> - -<p>'They'll never get a cure for it,' said Mrs. Burke, looking in the -direction of the doctor's berth.</p> - -<p>I lay motionless, feeling very uncomfortable and ill. Mrs. Burke gave -me some brandy and put toilet vinegar to my head. She advised me to go -to bed, but I begged<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> leave to rest where I was. The motion of the ship -grew more lively the further she was towed towards the mouth of the -river, where the weight of the field of water past the Forelands would -dwell in every heave. At last, a little while after ten o'clock, I told -Mrs. Burke I felt as if the fresh air would revive me, on which she -wrapped me up in shawls and helped me on deck. She walked on firm legs -with the ease of an old salt, whilst I so swung and reeled upon her arm -that I must have fallen twenty times but for her support.</p> - -<p>But, nevertheless, the moment I emerged through the little -companion-hatch, with its load of warm atmosphere closing behind me in -a sensible pressure of mingled cabin smells and heat, I felt better; a -shout of bright strong moonlight wind fair betwixt my parted lips swept -away for the time all sensation of nausea: I breathed deep and looked -about with wonder. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p> - -<p>It was a fine, noble night-scene of water and ship. We were following -the tug under three topsails and a main topgallant sail and a flight of -fore and aft canvas; the sails swelled pale as steam into the moonlight -air, carrying the eye to the fine points of the mastheads, whose black -lines were beating time for a dance of stars. High up was the moon, -full, yellow, and glowing; if land was near, it was buried in the wild -windy sheen under the orb; the water rolled in liquid silver, islanded -here and there by the black flying shadows of bodies of vapour hurling -headlong, down the wind north-east: ahead the black smear of the tug's -smoke full of sparks, with a frequent rush of crimson flame out of the -funnel's throat, was flying low.</p> - -<p>Captain Burke came from the pilot's side to salute me, and pointing -abeam to starboard (I offer no excuse for writing of the sea in the -language of the sea) exclaimed: </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p> - -<p>'There's Whitstable somewhere down there, Miss Otway. And yonder should -be Herne Bay. With a powerful telescope we should presently be able to -see the bathing machines on Margate beach.'</p> - -<p>'What is that out there?' I asked.</p> - -<p>'A Geordie,' he answered, 'a north-country collier.'</p> - -<p>She was swarming along, a very spectre of a ship, lean, visionary, -glistening like the inside of an oyster shell in the moonlight, which -whitened the black hull of her into the same sort of misty sheen -that was upon the water, till she was blended with the air brimful -of moonlight, making a mocking phantom of her to fit in with the -desolation beyond, where you saw a red star of warning hinting at ooze, -and white crawling streaks and a pallid rib or two, with some fragment -of mast upward pointing in a finger of wreck, dumbly telling you -whither the spirit of the rest of it all had flown. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p> - -<p>I watched our little ship bowing in pursuit of the tug; she curtseyed -her white cloths to the moon, and the brine flashed at her bows at -every plunge, and went away in a wide, rich race astern, for there was -the churning of the paddles in it too.</p> - -<p>But soon I was overcome by nausea once more, the magic of the fresh air -failed me, and, yielding now to Mrs. Burke's entreaty, I suffered her -to carry me to my cabin.</p> - -<p>After this for the next four or five days I was so miserably ill that I -lay as one in a fit or swoon, scarcely sensible of more, and therefore -remembering but little more, than that Mrs. Burke was hour after hour -in my cabin, sleeping beside me on a mattress during the night, and -watching over me throughout that distressing time with touching and -unwearied devotion. Mr. Owen was too ill to visit me; but what could he -have done? Did he cure his own nausea? I think he knew of no physic for -mine. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p> - -<p>Indeed we met with very heavy weather in the Channel. The wind shifted -shortly after the tug had let go of the ship and blew a moderate -breeze out of the south-east, but in the morning the breeze freshened -into a gale; a head sea ran strong, short, and angry; the captain -drove the vessel along under shortened canvas, with sobbing decks and -spray-clouded bows as I learnt; but to me, inexperienced as I was, her -behaviour seemed frightfully wild and dangerous. I sometimes thought -she was going to pieces. My cabin was aft, the machinery of the helm -was nearly overhead, and the noise of it when she plunged her counter -into the foam, and the rudder received the blow of some immense volume -of rushing brine, sent shock after shock through the planks, and -through me as I lay in my bunk.</p> - -<p>But the stupor of sea-sickness was upon me, I had no fear; had the ship -actually gone to pieces I do not think I could or should have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> opened -my mouth to cry out. All that I asked for was death, and I was so sick -even unto that state that I cannot remember I once wished myself at -home, or thought for an instant of my father or Mr. Moore.</p> - -<p>But on the fifth day I was well enough to sit up and partake of a -little cold fowl and wine, and next day I was able to go on deck.</p> - -<p>By this time we were clear of the English Channel, and I looked around -me at the great ocean, swelling in long lines of rich sparkling blue -under the high morning sun. Far away, blue in the air, were some -leaning shafts of ships, and at the distance of a quarter of a mile a -large steamer was passing, steering the same road as ourselves.</p> - -<p>Weak as I was after my long confinement below, dazzled and confused too -by the splendour of the morning, and the novelty and wonder of that -windy scene of our bowing ship, clothed in canvas, gleaming like silk -to the trucks, I could not but pause with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> a start of admiration when -my sight went to that steamer. Captain Burke, seeing me as I leaned -on his wife's arm, crossed the deck, and after some commonplaces of -genial greeting told me that yonder vessel was a French man-of-war. -She was round sterned with portholes for guns there, and two white -lines full of gun-ports ran the length of her tall, shapely sides. She -was ship-rigged, and lifted a lustrous fabric of square canvas and -delicate cordage to the soft blue skies, a wide space of whose field -the gilded balls of her trucks traced as she rolled heavily but with -majesty, crushing the water at her bows to the impulse of her sails -and propeller into a heap of splendid whiteness, like to the foam at -the foot of some giant cataract. She was the noblest sea-piece I had -ever beheld: the tricolour was at her gaff-end, a blue vein of smoke, -filtering from a short black funnel, scarcely tarnished the azure over -the horizon betwixt her fore and main masts; a great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> gilt eagle was -perched with outstretched wings under her bowsprit, and seemed to be -poised for a soaring flight as though affrighted by the roar of spume -beneath; her decks were a blaze of light and colour when she rolled -them towards us, with the sparkle of uniforms, the flash of sun-stars -in bright metal, and gleams breaking from I know not whence, like -sudden flames from artillery.</p> - -<p>'I think I see her in charge of an English lieutenant,' said Captain -Burke, 'making a straight course for Portsmouth. They have built good -ships for us and will build again.'</p> - -<p>He placed chairs, and Mrs. Burke and I seated ourselves. I could now -look about me with enjoyment of what I beheld. The sun shone with some -warmth, and the wind blowing freely out of the west was of an April -mildness. The whole life of the universe seemed to be in that ocean -morning, with our ship in the middle of it bowing as she drove over the -long blue knolls. The hour was half-past eleven.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> Smoke was feathering -down upon the water over the lee side out of the chimney of the galley, -through whose door as I looked I saw a sailor emerge holding a steaming -tub, with which he staggered in the direction of a little square -hole on the forecastle. Immediately after a second sailor rolled out -similarly burthened.</p> - -<p>'The men are going to dinner,' said Mrs. Burke.</p> - -<p>'What do you give them to eat?' I asked the captain.</p> - -<p>'To-day,' said he, 'they'll dine on beef and pudding.'</p> - -<p>'It sounds a good dinner,' said Mrs. Burke. 'But all the while I'm at -sea, I'm wondering how sailors contrive to get through their work on -the food they get.'</p> - -<p>'Go and put those notions into their shaggy heads forwards and there'll -be a mutiny,' said the captain.</p> - -<p>'Beef as tasteless as one's boot if one could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> imagine it boiled,' said -Mrs. Burke, 'pudding like slabs of mortar, biscuits which glide about -on the feet of hundreds of little worms called weevils. Edward has had -to live on such food in his day, and I believe it is the beef and pork -of his seafaring youth that give him his premature looks. He oughtn't -to seem his age by ten years.'</p> - -<p>He eyed her archly and kindly. 'Premature is a good word,' said he. -'Sailors are always too soon in life. Soon with their money, and soon -with their drink and pleasures, and soon with their years, so that it -is soon over with them.'</p> - -<p>'They're a body of workmen I'm very sorry for,' said Mrs. Burke; 'their -wrongs are not understood, and they've got no champions.'</p> - -<p>As she pronounced these words the hairy head of a man, clothed in a -Scotch cap, showed in the little square of the forecastle hatch; he -took a wary view of the quarter-deck, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>then rose into the whole body of -a man picturesquely attired in a red shirt, blue trousers, a belt round -his waist, and a knife in a sheath upon his hip. He was followed by -three others, and after a short conversation they came along the decks -towards us.</p> - -<p>Captain Burke, appearing not to notice them, told his wife he was going -to fetch his sextant. Mr. Green, the sour-leering mate, was trudging -the weather side of the quarter-deck. The man who had first risen, the -hairy one of the Scotch cap, exclaimed, as the four of them came to a -halt in the gangway:</p> - -<p>'Can we have a word with the capt'n, sir?'</p> - -<p>'What d'e want?' answered the mate, speaking with half his back turned -on them as though he addressed some one out upon the water.</p> - -<p>'We're come to complain that the beef to-day ain't according to the -articles.' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p> - -<p>'As how?' said the mate, still looking seawards.</p> - -<p>''Tain't sweet, sir.'</p> - -<p>'No call to eat of it,' said the mate, turning his head and letting his -leering eye droop upon them.</p> - -<p>'That's not the way to speak,' whispered Mrs. Burke to me with a note -of impatience and temper. 'Why shouldn't the meat be tainted? It's so -in butchers' shops often enough.'</p> - -<p>'If there's no call to eat of it there's no call to turn to on it,' -said one of the men with a surly laugh.</p> - -<p>Here Captain Burke arrived with a sextant in his hand.</p> - -<p>'What is it, my lads?' said he quickly, but good-humouredly.</p> - -<p>'The starboard watch's allowance of meat's gone off, sir,' said the man -in the Scotch cap civilly enough.</p> - -<p>'The fok'sle's dark with the smell of it,' said another. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p> - -<p>'Notice a blue ring round the flame of the lamp?' said the captain.</p> - -<p>''Tain't meat for men,' exclaimed the man, who had growled out a laugh.</p> - -<p>'Go and bring aft what remains of it,' said Captain Burke, and he -stepped to the side and adjusted his sextant to get a meridional -observation.</p> - -<p>The men trudged forward. I could not but notice how eloquent of -grumbling their postures were as they walked. Experience has long since -assured me that no man can so perfectly make every limb and lineament -of him look his grievance as the sailor.</p> - -<p>They presently returned, bearing a dish: Captain Burke stooped to it -and sniffed.</p> - -<p>'You are right,' he exclaimed. 'Overboard with it, my lads. This should -never have been served out to you. 'Tis the cook's fault to boil such -offal. Mr. Green, see that the starboard watch have some canned mutton -for their dinner at once.' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> - -<p>The men emptied the contents of the kid over the side, looking very -well pleased, and then went forward.</p> - -<p>'They have no champions, my wife says,' exclaimed Captain Burke to me -with a smile. 'Poor fellows! But I'll tell you what, Miss Otway: you'll -never find Jack's rights wrong for the want of Jack taking the trouble -to keep them right.'</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER V</span> <span class="smaller">THE HIDDEN LIFE OF THE SHIP</span></h2> - -<p>I devoted the afternoon of the first day of my recovery from sickness -to a journal which I meant should serve as a letter both for my father -and Mr. Moore, to be transmitted home in sheets as the opportunity -occurred. My old nurse told me that her husband had written to my -father whilst in the Channel, and had sent the letter ashore at -Plymouth by a smack; so they would have news of me at home down to two -days before.</p> - -<p>I was so much interested in the little incident of the tainted meat I -have told you of, that I asked Captain Burke this day to let me taste a -specimen of the beef sailors were fed on. He laughed and said: </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p> - -<p>'Miss, your teeth are too little and white for such beef as that.'</p> - -<p>'I'll try a cut, too, with your leave, captain,' said Mr. Owen.</p> - -<p>The captain grinned at his wife, but complied nevertheless, and when we -sat down to supper, the steward placed a cube of forecastle beef before -us. There were plenty of good things on the table: my father had half -filled the lazarette, or after-hold, with delicacies, and we carried an -abundance of live stock: everything in that way, perhaps, but a cow, -for which no room could be made; but the steam of the sailors' beef -filled the atmosphere; the smells of all the other dishes yielded to -it. And yet it was good meat of its sort.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Burke wrinkled her nose, and said, 'Miss Marie, please do not -touch it.'</p> - -<p>'Captain Burke, I will taste a piece,' said I.</p> - -<p>'And I will thank you for a slice, captain,' said Mr. Owen. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p> - -<p>The captain made a great business of sharpening a carving knife, all -the while glancing from me to his wife with a laughing eye. The stuff -yielded to the sharp blade in a curled shaving: it was like cutting a -block of wood, that part I mean where the heart is.</p> - -<p>'Don't put it to your lips, my dear,' cried Mrs. Burke.</p> - -<p>I tasted a morsel: the steward watched me with an ill-concealed grin; -the meat, if meat it could be called, was hard as leather, salt as the -brine over the side, of a texture and hue no more resembling corned -beef such as we know the thing on shore than a whelk is like a turtle.</p> - -<p>Mr. Owen chewed and chewed. 'This is what the sailors make snuff-boxes -and models of ships of,' said he.</p> - -<p>'Is this as good as can be got?' I asked.</p> - -<p>'As good as the best,' said the captain, looking at it earnestly. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> - -<p>'You'll have plenty to talk about when you get home,' said my old nurse.</p> - -<p>'It is strange that science doesn't provide the seamen with food fit -to eat,' said Mr. Owen, helping himself eagerly to a slice of ham. 'I -believe I shall give the subject my attention when I get back.'</p> - -<p>'Science doesn't think of sailors, only of ships,' said Captain Burke. -'If I had my way my crew should have a fresh mess every day. But you -can't go to sea <i>all</i> live stock.'</p> - -<p>Thus we chatted. I listened with interest and asked questions. It was a -new life to me. Little did I then imagine how fearfully and tragically -deep I was to read into the darkest secrets of it.</p> - -<p>During a few days, which carried us to the Madeira latitudes, the -weather continued gloriously fine. A quiet north-westerly wind blew -throughout; the ship leaned gently away from the breeze and rippled -through the blue swell dreamily; all was so quiet aloft,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> all went -so peacefully on deck. I'd hang over the side for an hour at a time, -viewing the passage of the foam stars and flower-shaped bells, and -wreaths of froth sliding aft into a white line on either hand the -oil-smooth scope of wake; I'd watch with admiration the flight of -the flying fish, glancing from the ship's side like arrows of light -discharged through her metal sheathing; I'd drink in the large and -liberal sweetness of the wind, and stand in the sun that its light -might sink through and through me.</p> - -<p>In those few days Mr. Owen assured me the ocean had already done me -good.</p> - -<p>'But you are bound to profit,' he said as we walked the deck together, -'because you have not come too late to this physic of climates. People -are sent to sea with one lung gone and the other going, and their -friends wonder they should die, and talk of a voyage to sea as of no -use where there is organic mischief. You are here in good<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> time, Miss -Otway: be that reflection your comfort.'</p> - -<p>Then there came a change of weather; a few days of wet gale; green -seas ridging into cliffs upon the bow, and all the discomfort of a -long pitching and tossing bout. But I suffered no longer from sickness -however; I ate and slept well, and spent all the time in the cabin, -reading, working, chatting with Mrs. Burke or her husband, or Mr. Owen.</p> - -<p>Captain Burke amused me in these early days by explaining how he worked -out his sights. He gave me a very good idea of the art of navigation; -he and his wife shared a pleasant cabin confronting mine. It was a -little parlour in its way as well as a bedroom, cheerful with oil -paintings of ships, a small collection of china, and other matters -all carefully cleated and otherwise secured. Amongst the pictures was -a cutting in black paper mounted upon white of myself when a child -in my nurse's arms, the lineaments defined by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> streaks of bronze. -Captain Burke told me that his wife valued that little memorial above -everything in the cabin, including himself and all that they owned -ashore.</p> - -<p>He showed me his chronometers and explained their use; placed charts -before me and talked of the places we were to visit, and promised that -I should be able to take sights and work out the latitude and longitude -before we returned home.</p> - -<p>He said this at the dinner table during one of those days of wet, foul -weather.</p> - -<p>'Miss Otway,' he added, addressing Mr. Owen, 'is just doing what -everyone should do who goes a voyage, whether for entertainment or on -business; she's taking an intelligent interest in whatever's passing. -If everybody who went to sea did that the case of Jack would be -understood, and you'd hear no more of young ladies being astonished on -discovering that sailors look exactly like men.'</p> - -<p>'I never could make head nor tail myself,'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> said Mrs. Burke, 'of my -husband's method of finding out where the ship is.'</p> - -<p>'No voyage can ever be dull,' exclaimed Mr. Owen, 'that's sensibly -lived into. Yet every voyage is found dull.'</p> - -<p>'There's too much water,' said Mrs. Burke, 'and not enough things to -look at. But dull days have long legs, Miss Marie. Time soon passes,' -said she with a cheery look. 'The top's never spinning so fast as when -it is asleep.'</p> - -<p>'There's plenty to look at,' said I. 'I don't like weather that keeps -you under deck; but it can't be always so.'</p> - -<p>'Scarce once in a white moon, and never even <i>that</i> for sailors,' said -the captain.</p> - -<p>'What,' asked Mr. Owen, 'do you consider the great sights of the sea?'</p> - -<p>Captain Burke shut his eyes and scratched the back of his head, then -looking full at me he said:</p> - -<p>'What do you think of a ship in full sail,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> becalmed in the heat of -the fan-shaped reflection of the moon, Miss Otway? Or would you prefer -a whale as big as a brig leaping half out of water with a killer at -its throat? Or what d'ye say to a quadrille of water-spouts, the -white satin shoes on their feet gleaming as they slide, and the black -feathers in their hair nodding stately among the clouds brilliant with -electric gems.'</p> - -<p>'How?' inquired Mr. Owen, smoothing his bald head.</p> - -<p>'But at sea the less you find to talk about the better,' exclaimed -Captain Burke; 'I'd like my ship's log-book to be as dull as a parson's -tale. Trifles on the ocean become serious in a moment; a slight -deviation from dulness will start a tragedy. Give us no excitements.'</p> - -<p>The conversation was ended by his going on deck to send the mate down -to dinner.</p> - -<p>The miserable weather came to an end, and then we took the north-east -trades and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> swept down the Atlantic under wide spaces of canvas which -for many feet overhung the ship's weather side, and she rushed onwards -with the salt smoke blowing from her bows, and that swallow of the -deep, the stormy petrel, freckling in its swarm the wide hollows -betwixt the quartering ridges. For five days we sighted nothing, though -Captain Burke promised that the first homeward-bound ship he met with -willing to back her topsail should receive my letter.</p> - -<p>Once during these mornings, on coming on deck after breakfast, I found -the ship steadily washing through the seas with easy bowing motions, -leaving a league-long line of white behind her. We were in hot weather -now; an awning sheltered the quarter-deck, and comfortable chairs were -under it.</p> - -<p>It was the improving health in me that gave me the spirit I had; I did -not want to sit; the life of the sea seemed to sweep into my being in -a holiday dance of heart. Now<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> that I could feel without the suffering -that had before prostrated me, the whole vitality of the ship coming -out of the gallant flying fabric of her into the very poise of my form, -with a sense as of waltzing in each compelled motion of the figure, I -found an enjoyment in her buoyant motions, and in the rolling measures -of the surge, beyond anything my poor health had suffered me to know in -the ball-room, beyond all delight fine music had given me.</p> - -<p>When we came on deck Mrs. Burke stood a little while with her hand on -my arm, whilst I looked aloft and around; our gaze met; she laughed in -the fulness of some instant emotion of pleasure, and cried:</p> - -<p>'Oh, dear Miss Marie, I wish Sir Mortimer could see the light that is -in your eyes at this minute!'</p> - -<p>'I wonder,' said I, 'if Dr. Bradshaw and the others foresaw that I -should enjoy this voyage?' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p> - -<p>'Are you enjoying it?' she exclaimed eagerly.</p> - -<p>'I am constantly pining for home,' I answered, 'and longing—and -longing, to see father and Archie. And yet, somehow, this splendid -sunshine and wonderful scene of sea, this delicious feeling of being -borne through the air, makes me so glad and light-hearted that I -believe the strong tonic of the wind has affected my head.'</p> - -<p>'No more than it has mine,' she exclaimed.</p> - -<p>'It is like drinking wine in sorrow,' said I; 'the mind seems merry -with it, and the eyes sparkle, but the heart is sad all the same and -will speak presently.'</p> - -<p>'I'll tell Mr. Owen how you talk,' said she. 'You're not fair to the -remedy.'</p> - -<p>'I don't want to sit,' said I. 'Let me look at the ship this fine -morning: I should like to take a peep at the sailors' parlour. And -suppose we go right into the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> bows there and watch the glorious white -foam.'</p> - -<p>Captain Burke was in his cabin, the surly mate had charge of the ship, -so Mr. Owen accompanied us. There was little to see, however; we went -to the galley and looked in, and here we found the ship's cook making a -pie for the cabin. He was the fat-armed, dough-faced man who had stared -at us with imbecile curiosity when we came on board. It was a queer -little kitchen, not many times larger than a sentry box. Mrs. Burke -asked the man if the oven baked well.</p> - -<p>'Too vell, mum,' he answered, turning his face with an expression of -dull surprise upon it at sight of us standing in the galley doorway. -'He's for burning up. He vants too much vatching.'</p> - -<p>'How do you like being ship's cook?' said Mr. Owen.</p> - -<p>'Almost as much, I dessay, as you likes being ship's doctor,' he -answered. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p> - -<p>Mr. Owen looked deaf on a sudden, and, stepping back, found something -to interest him aloft.</p> - -<p>'What pie is that?' said Mrs. Burke, who had been casting her eye over -the little interior, with its equipment of shelves, crockery, oven, -coppers and the like, with the critical gaze of an exacting housekeeper.</p> - -<p>As she asked the question the ship leaned sharply upon a sea; the -cook staggered with a wild flourish of the knife he was trimming the -pie-crust with; the pie slipped and fell with a crash, breaking in -halves, and out rolled a dishful of preserved gooseberries.</p> - -<p>'You can see vat it is for yourself, mum,' said the cook, lancing -his knife at the mess on the deck with a force which drove the blade -quivering into the hard plank. 'Who'd be a blooming ship's cook? This -is the sort of life it is!' and, heedless of our presence, he began -to swear, and then roared out for Bill or some such name—meaning, -I suppose,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> his mate—that the fellow might come and swab up the -gooseberry puddle.</p> - -<p>We walked on to the forecastle.</p> - -<p>'That cook's a very insolent fellow,' said Mr. Owen. 'I hope he will -give me the pleasure of prescribing for him.'</p> - -<p>'All sea cooks are ill-tempered,' said Mrs. Burke. 'They live in little -boxes like that, and are obliged, for want of room, to stand close -to furnaces all day long, and their livers swell. But their trials -are many. I've heard of a sea striking a galley where the cook was in -it full of the business of the cabin dinner, and washing him and his -kitchen right aft, where he was rescued out of a depth of water as high -as a man's waist holding on for his life to a frying-pan. Cooks ashore -never meet with blows of that sort.'</p> - -<p>A number of the crew were at work on various jobs in this part of the -vessel. Two sat upon a sail, stitching at it. Hard by was a little -machine called a spun-yarn winch,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> merrily clinking, with a boy walking -backwards from it as it yielded the line it twisted.</p> - -<p>A man with a marline spike stood in the fore-shrouds working at a -ratline. I looked at everything I saw with interest and attention; -to me it was like the rising of a curtain upon a theatrical show of -incomparable beauty and variety; I found novelty in the very men; -I don't remember that I had ever seen such men on shore, least of -all down by the seaside, where the landsman seeks the sailor and -finds him in anything that wears a jersey and owns a boat. They were -hairy, burnt, wildly dressed, half-naked some of them; their trousers -turned above their knees, their chests bare, mossy, gleaming with -perspiration; arrows in Indian ink pointed like weather-cocks upon -their muscular naked arms as they moved them, and every man's fist was -barbarous with rings in Indian ink and his wrists with blue bracelets.</p> - -<p>'Do you see that hole there, Miss Otway?'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> said Mr. Owen, pointing to -a square hatch in the forecastle deck. 'Those men sleep down in that -hole,' said he.</p> - -<p>I drew close to the queer little trap-door to look down, taking care to -hold on to Mrs. Burke; for it was not only that the heave of the ship -was to be felt here in her falls and jumps, lofty as the peaks and deep -as the valleys which underran her: the trade wind stormed in thunder -out of the huge rigid hollow of the fore-course with the weight as of -a whole gale in the sweep of it, flying in long, steady shriekings and -whistlings under the arched foot, and smiting every heave of brine -leaping white above the cathead into crystal smoke.</p> - -<p>I gazed into a sort of well, at the bottom of which upon an old green -battered sea-chest sat a sailor. The man had a squint that had almost -twisted each ball of vision into his nose; he was deeply pitted, and -had long, curling, sand-coloured hair and a yellow<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> beard; he was pale -and weedy, with but a little piece of nose in the middle of his face, -and cheek-bones starting through his skin pale with heat, and when he -looked up and continued to stare at us with his desperate squint, he -made me guess how drowned sailors look when their bodies are washed -ashore. He was a sick man and off duty.</p> - -<p>'How are you feeling?' the doctor called down to him.</p> - -<p>'Oh, dot I vhas kep' togedder mit red-hot corkscrews,' he answered in a -voice that creaked like a sea-gull's note.</p> - -<p>'Go on taking your physic,' said Mr. Owen.</p> - -<p>'By Gott, yaw, dot vould be easy if der physic vhas rum,' answered -the man with a ghastly smile, continuing to stare up at us with an -occasional snapping blink of his eyelids. 'But der vater in der -bilge—und I gif you all der rats of der ship to be drownt in her -too—vas sweet gombared to him.' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p> - -<p>Mr. Owen drew back and the sufferer ceased to speak.</p> - -<p>'A nasty attack of sub-acute rheumatism,' the doctor said behind me.</p> - -<p>The rest of the sailors were on deck: this man sat alone on his chest -in the bottom of that well, and I pitied the poor solitary wretch from -my heart when I considered how every plunge and sharp movement of the -ship must serve to give a new twist to all those red-hot corkscrews he -complained of. It was too dark below to distinguish more than the man's -figure. I observed the fluctuations of a thin, watery yellow light, -and tasted in the occasional puffs of thick atmosphere that came up a -horrid smell of burning fat.</p> - -<p>'Do they cook down there?' I asked.</p> - -<p>'It is the fumes of the forecastle lamp Miss Otway smells,' said the -doctor. 'It's fed with the slush the sailors make their puddings with.'</p> - -<p>I wished to ask several questions, but the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> roar of the wind and the -sea silenced me. Mr. Owen took me by one arm, Mrs. Burke by the other, -and we carefully made our way into what is called the ship's head, past -a huge anchor and a little capstan, and ropes taut as harp-strings, -and vibrating with the wild drumming music of the sails whose corners -they confined. The huge bowsprit shot out directly ahead of us. It ran -tapering, and was like the finger of a giant pointing, inviting the -eye to the deep blue distant recess towards which we were rushing, and -which opened like the whole morning upon the sight each time our bows -soared to the foaming summit.</p> - -<p>They say that the finest sight in the world is a ship in full sail, -and perhaps it is, but I doubt if there's one in a thousand, one in a -hundred thousand, who has ever seen such a thing; and the reason is -that a ship in full sail means studding sails out on both sides, and -every stitch of the rest of her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> canvas set, and this figure she can -make only under conditions of wind so rare as to render the spectacle, -as I understand it, something outside the experience of anyone, sailor -or landsman, that ever I have conversed with.</p> - -<p>But to my mind there is a finer sight than a ship in full sail: and -that is the view of the vessel you are on board of rushing at you, -thundering at you, for ever charging into the seething troughs of brine -with the white foam scaling her wet and flashing bow, you meanwhile -perched out beyond her, watching her coming at you.</p> - -<p>They provided this magnificent treat for me that day. It fell out thus: -I overhung the rail in the head, looking down at the boiling dazzle -there, watching with indescribable delight and wonder the beautiful -sight of the cutwater of the ship, metalled high, sliding through the -brine, bowing till the ivory-white lady that was her figure-head was -depressed almost to the sip of the cloud<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> of foam which the hurl of the -bows sent roaring and flashing far ahead, to rush back in a singing, -seething sheet a moment after when the ship's head lifted upon the next -swelling heave, bright blue till it was charged and out-turned into -a noise and splendour of thunder and snow. Mrs. Burke and the doctor -looked down with me. My old nurse would sometimes turn an eye full of -satisfaction upon my face, which I felt was glowing with the spirit -this rushing ocean picture had kindled. I looked yearningly towards the -bowsprit end and exclaimed:</p> - -<p>'Oh, now, if I were a man, to be able to get out there and watch the -ship coming at me!'</p> - -<p>'Here comes Captain Burke,' said Mr. Owen.</p> - -<p>He had arrived on deck just then, and, seeing us in the bows of the -ship, was advancing.</p> - -<p>'Are you going to paint a picture of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> "Lady Emma," Miss Otway?' -said he, coming to my side and looking down at the thick and giddy -foam, roaring and spitting sometimes within arm's reach, and throbbing -aft into a wake whose tail went out of sight in the windy blue haze.</p> - -<p>'No.'</p> - -<p>'You are studying every effect!'</p> - -<p>'It is worth leaving home to see this!' said I. 'How fast are we -sailing?'</p> - -<p>'Thirteen knots an hour.'</p> - -<p>'Miss Marie wishes she was a man, Edward,' said Mrs. Burke.</p> - -<p>'All gallant-hearted girls wish that,' said he. 'But why?'</p> - -<p>'That she might be able to climb out on to the bowsprit and watch the -"Lady Emma" rushing at her.'</p> - -<p>'Is that so, miss?' cried the captain, whipping round upon me with his -Irish briskness and arch merry eyes. I smiled. 'It can be managed if -you please.' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p> - -<p>I looked at the long bowsprit forking out into jib-booms far ahead, -with white jibs curving upon it motionless as ice, save when now and -again one or another breathed to the plunge of the ship.</p> - -<p>'There must be no risks!' cried Mrs. Burke.</p> - -<p>'Chaw!' exclaimed her husband. 'Will you trust yourself in my hands, -Miss Otway?'</p> - -<p>'I will indeed.'</p> - -<p>He called to the boatswain of the ship, a big seaman with strong red -whiskers and a whistle round his neck: the finest specimen of an -English seaman I ever saw <i>out</i> of a man-of-war; this man who acted -as second mate, though uncertificated, I had once or twice conversed -with when he was on the quarter-deck, and found him very civil and -communicative, and a relief to the eye after leering Mr. Green.</p> - -<p>The captain gave him certain directions. He called to a couple of men, -and amongst<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> them—but I am unable to explain their procedure—they -rigged up a chair attached by a tackle to a stay; they bound me -securely in the chair, and by some machinery of ropes they gently and -slowly hauled me on to the bowsprit, the captain and the boatswain -sliding out in company. Mrs. Burke watched us with a countenance of -fright: I felt excessively nervous whilst I was being drawn to the -extremity of the great spar, and held my eyes closed, but did not -shriek nor speak. Indeed, somehow I felt safe, though a landsman might -have regarded my situation as in the last degree perilous.</p> - -<p>'Now look at the ship and tell me what you think of her,' said the -captain.</p> - -<p>They had got me to the end of the bowsprit sitting very comfortably -and tightly secured in a chair, and the captain and boatswain were on -either hand of me, though what they held on by I don't know. I looked, -and what I saw I shall never forget. For there,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> right in front of me, -heeled by the shouting wind, was the whole body of the ship, her milky -whiteness, mounting to the royal yards, rounding into violet gloom from -the sun, with gleaming half-moons of blue betwixt each yard, and every -afterbreast sliding under the netted shadow of rigging. I rose high in -my chair above the sea. Under me ran the blue surge sparkling deep and -clear to the bows, where it burst into snowstorms. I commanded a clear -view of the white decks through the arch of the foresail, a hundred -shadows slipped along them as they slanted up and then slanted down -with the rhythmic swing of a pendulum; a hundred fiery lights broke -from all parts as the ship leaned to the sun. The wind was filled with -the music of the rigging: deep organ notes, then a large swelling of -fifes and trumpets, coming in a sudden gust or gun of wind, with a -drum-like roll trembling out of the taut shrouds and backstays, and a -ceaseless bugling in the hollow of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> the canvas that arched like some -vast pinion close beside me.</p> - -<p>They carefully swayed my chair down the bowsprit and got me on to the -forecastle.</p> - -<p>'If this don't do you good, Miss Marie,' said my old nurse, extending -her hand to help me on to my feet, 'what will?'</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER VI</span> <span class="smaller">A STRANGE MAN ON BOARD</span></h2> - -<p>A few mornings after this, whilst we were at breakfast, the mate looked -down upon us through the open skylight, and called out:</p> - -<p>'There's a sail right ahead.'</p> - -<p>When we went on deck we found the vessel on the lee bow, within -signalling distance. The wind was the tail of the trade, a fiery -fanning out of north-north-east, with the loose scud brown as smoke -flying down it. The sea was full of violet gleams and blinkings of -froth; the billow ran without weight and its volume was small. It -seemed as if the heat was sucking the wind out of the sky, and still -we were a good many degrees north of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> equator, though I cannot -recollect the latitude.</p> - -<p>A signal of flags was run aloft to the end of the mizzen gaff: the -string of gay colours painted the wind and made a holiday figure of the -ship in a moment. When the stranger perceived our signal she hauled -down the red flag of the English merchant service which had been flying -at her trysail peak ever since we had been able to distinguish it, and -hoisted a long, thin streamer called an answering pennant.</p> - -<p>'All right!' exclaimed Captain Burke, putting down the glass he had -been viewing through. 'She is an Englishman, and is, no doubt, bound -home. Get your letter ready, Miss Otway, and if that brig is for -England I will send it across to her.'</p> - -<p>I ran to my cabin. The mere thought of communicating with home filled -me with excitement. This, though we had been some weeks at sea, was the -first opportunity for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> sending a letter home that had occurred. And -then little things on the ocean stir and move one greatly. Life is so -dull that the merest trifle is important, and what would scarcely be -noticeable ashore takes the aspect of a wonder.</p> - -<p>I had kept my journal punctually down to the preceding evening, and -had now only to write that a brig was approaching and would take the -letter, and send a thousand kisses to father and to Archie. I added -that I was happy and greatly improved in health. I lingered over this -bit of writing. It was like holding on to the dear hands of those I -addressed.</p> - -<p>When I had made an end, I went on deck with the letter. The brig had -slided abreast of us by this time: she looked a very smart little -vessel, with sharp bows and raking masts, very lofty. She had backed -her topsail as we had ours, and the two vessels lay within speaking -distance, bowing to one another with all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> imaginable civility. I -laughed to notice this; you would have thought them old acquaintances -who couldn't salute each other too often for delight in this meeting.</p> - -<p>'Brig ahoy!' hailed Captain Burke.</p> - -<p>'Hallo!' shouted a man standing a head and shoulders above the bulwark -rail with a staring negro at the wheel, showing a little past him, -whenever the brig swayed, her sand-coloured decks to us.</p> - -<p>'What ship is that, and where are you bound for?'</p> - -<p>'"The Queen o' the Night" from Mauritius vur Liverpool, a hundred and -ten days out. What ship's yon?'</p> - -<p>The information was fully given, and then Captain Burke bawled out to -know if the other would carry a letter home for him?</p> - -<p>'Ay, ay, but ye mun send it,' waved back the head and shoulders, with a -flourish of arm.</p> - -<p>Captain Burke flourished in response.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> Sailors talk more eloquently -by gesture than the people of any nation in the world. The contortion -of a hump-backed posture will in an instant reveal a voyage full of -troubles, and more than half an hour of talk is contained in a peculiar -toss of the hand.</p> - -<p>A number of the crew came running aft to the call of the mate: a -quarter-boat was cleared and lowered, four men entered her along with -the mate, who put my letter into his pocket and away they went for the -brig, miraculously vitalising and humanising the desert plain of ocean -by the mere picture of their straining forms and flashing oars, and the -gilt lines running astern from the white sides of the boat as she was -swept through it with Mr. Green's square frame, stiff-backed in the -stern, bobbing cask-like with the jump of the little craft, his hand on -the tiller.</p> - -<p>'One could almost think oneself at the seaside to see that boat,' said -Mrs. Burke.</p> - -<p>'Yes, I just now caught myself half <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>looking round,' I answered, 'with -a fancy of tall chalk cliffs, a little pier, a nest of houses in a -split——'</p> - -<p>I paused.</p> - -<p>'And a fine house on the top of the cliff, and trees at the back, and -a flight of rooks going up like smoke out of them,' said Mrs. Burke, -smiling.</p> - -<p>'It'll not be far off even, when we've gone all the way we've got to -go,' said the captain, 'and by the time we've hove it into sight again, -we shall have been as good as our word, Miss—good as the doctor's word -anyhow. What now would I give for some portrait machine that takes -colour and light instantaneously, that when they get your letter they -might see you as we do!'</p> - -<p>Mr. Green handed up the letter to the man who had hailed us, and -returned. The boat was then hoisted, the topsail swung, and the ensign -dipped as a farewell and thank you to the little homeward-bound brig. -I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> stood straining my eyes at her as her topsail swept out of hollow -shadow into a full breast of sunshine, and I watched her break the -long, soft, glittering wave into a little leap of scaling and combing -foam at her bow, leaning from the hot quiet wind with yard-arm sharply -pointed to it, in a posture of something living that steadies itself -aslant for a firmer grip. She was my ocean post-office. I cannot -express my thoughts as I viewed her thinning down and growing blue -in the atmosphere that was silver blue with water and blue sky, and -brimming sunshine. Captain Burke said she would probably arrive in -Liverpool before we were up with the Horn, for all that the catspaw and -the calm and the hard head wind had dismally belated her down to this -time.</p> - -<p>And now it is that a dreadful thing happened, making this day, with -what had gone before, the most remarkable of any to that hour. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p> - -<p>We were standing under the fore end of the quarter-deck awning, where -we could command the heights of the main and fore as well as see the -brig astern. Whilst Captain Burke was talking to me about her, his -wife hard by listening, assuring me I need have no doubt if the vessel -safely arrived at her port that her master would forward the letter to -my father, seeing that captains of ships hold this sort of obligation -as sacred: I say whilst the captain was talking thus, he happened to -look aloft, and, following the direction of his eye, I saw a seaman -on the weather fore topsail yard; his feet were on the foot-rope, he -overlay the yard, the outline of his figure clear as a tracing in ink -with his yellow naked calves and feet dingy against the white canvas. -What he did I could not see.</p> - -<p>The captain broke off and eyed the man intently; then, looking round -a little at Mr. Green, he exclaimed, 'What does that fellow mean by -sogering up there? I've been <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>watching him. Who is it? Call him down. I -don't want any loafing of that sort aboard my ship.'</p> - -<p>The mate went some steps forward and, looking up, bellowed in a voice -as harsh as the noise of surf on shingle, 'Fore topsail yard there! -Come down out of that, you ——' and here he employed several examples -of the forecastle speech which I will not write down because they are -not proper to remember, though we are to believe that the business of -the sea cannot be got through without brutal language.</p> - -<p>The man looked down at the mate, and said something; Mr. Green roared -out again to him to 'lay down,' on which I observed the sailor slided a -yard or two along the foot-ropes towards the topmast rigging; he then -fell!</p> - -<p>He struck the deck near the galley. Mrs. Burke shrieked. The man got -up in a moment, stood erect with blood gushing down<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> his cheeks, and -smiled at us, and the next moment dropped dead.</p> - -<p>I fainted, and when I came to my head was resting on Mrs. Burke's knee, -and Captain Burke was fanning me. The body had been carried into the -forecastle, a couple of seamen were scrubbing at the stains in the -white planks. Mr. Owen came slowly aft, and said that the poor fellow -was dead; then saw to me, took me by the hand, and seated me in the -coolness under the awning, where the pleasant shadow was fresh with the -gushing of the wind out of the hollow of the great mizzen.</p> - -<p>It was a frightful thing to have seen. I was looking at the man when -he fell, and my sight followed the flash of the poor figure to the -shocking <i>thud</i> of the deck! I saw him rise and smile—a smile made -dreadful by blood and heart-subduing by the suddenness of his falling -back dead.</p> - -<p>'How'll Mr. Green like to recall the violent words he used to the poor -fellow, I wonder?'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> said Mrs. Burke, glancing at the mate, who, to -be sure, showed no sensibility. He trudged the deck athwartship with -rounded back and arms up and down in the sea fashion; occasionally -leering at the sky to windward, or darting a sour look at the canvas -aloft. <i>He</i> was no man to muse with regret on the death of the sailor, -and lament his own intemperate speech; on the contrary, he was one -of those mates who sometimes become masters, to whom human life, -provided their own be not imperilled, is of no more consequence than -the extinction of the flame of the slush-fed lamp which lights the -sailor's sea-parlour. There were many dogs of that sort at sea in those -times, and some have survived into these; but the odious breed grows -scarce. Indeed, the world has agreed to find the type intolerable, and -may the day be at hand when the very last of the race shall be brought -to the gangway in the holy grip of the giantess Education, and dropped -overboard to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> plumb the depths of time, where lie the green bones of -Trunnion, Hatchway, and others of the clan!</p> - -<p>Mr. Owen recommended that the body should be buried that afternoon. The -weather was very hot; the breeze was slackening and the sea sheeting -out—full of fitful winding lanes of light as though the sun struck -upon wakes and tracks of oil—into the thickening distance, where the -heat was showing in a sensible presence of film, blending sky and water -till it was like looking at them through tears.</p> - -<p>'Very well,' said Captain Burke; 'in the first dog watch, if you -please.'</p> - -<p>It was at that hour almost calm, with a broad road of hot red light, -billowing snakelike from the ship's side over the soft undulations of -the western swell towards the rayless sun that still floated at some -height in the sky. I stood beside Mrs. Burke on the quarter-deck, -prayer-book in hand; the sailors came in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> a body from forward, and -amongst them they bore the corpse—an outline of tragic suggestion -under the large red ensign that hid it. They lifted out a portion of -the gangway and rested one end of the plank in the gap, and the captain -began to read.</p> - -<p>What is there in shore-going ceremony to compare in solemnity, in -pathos, in all the deepest of the meanings which are interpretable -out of human forms and customs, with the simple burial at sea? All -was as silent upon the water as the sinking of the sun himself into -the broadening road of gold under him. Aloft was a gentle sound of -winnowing canvas; a sob of the sea from alongside sometimes broke in -upon the captain's delivery.</p> - -<p>The expressions on the faces of the rough seamen were for the most part -fixed. How many shipmates and messmates had they helped bury in their -time? How should they be concerned by death? themselves having<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> the -Skeleton at their heels every hour of their existence at sea, allowed -but a crooked finger for their own lives, all the remainder of their -hands being their owner's!</p> - -<p><i>Now</i>, knowing sailors as I do, I can read those seamen's faces by the -aid of memory, and almost tell their thoughts as they stood there near -the gangway.</p> - -<p>'Well, poor Bill, there he lies.'—'My turn next perhaps.'—'What's -that yarn the skipper's a-reading? A blooming good job for them it's -true of! No call to talk of <i>souls</i> at sea. It's work hard, live hard, -and die hard here; and what's arterwards there's Bill there to say.'</p> - -<p>At a signal the flag was withdrawn, the stitched hammock was revealed, -the plank was tilted, and the grim parcel despatched.</p> - -<p>The night that followed was breathless and beautiful. In the south-east -under the moon the water stretched in a stainless field of light, -flashing, but still as a sheet of looking-glass; <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>our sails glowed -blandly like starlight itself as they rose one above another into the -whitened gloom in whose clear profound many meteors were darting, -leaving a smoke of spangles for all the world like sky-rockets under -the large trembling stars. Lovely <i>they</i> were: but for the moon I think -many had studded the water with points of light, to ride and widen upon -the black and noiseless lift of swell, thick and sluggish as though it -were oil that ran, and scarcely putting three moons'-breadth of motion -into our mastheads, though it sweetened the air with the rain of dew it -softly beat out of the canvas.</p> - -<p>The cabin was too hot to sit in. There was no magic in two windsails -and a wide skylight to cool it. I had played at cribbage with Mrs. -Burke till, with a yawn, the hour being about half-past nine, I -proposed that we should go on deck. The steward followed us with a tray -of refreshments; the captain and Mr. Owen joined us, pipes in mouth, -and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> we sat, nothing betwixt us and the stars but the moonlit shadow of -the night through which we saw them.</p> - -<p>Four bells were struck, ten o'clock; there was no light forward saving -a little sheen of the forecastle lamp round about the fore-scuttle, -like a dim luminous mist there. But the moon lay bright upon the white -planks of the deck, and though the rigging rose pale as tarnished -silver to the mastheads it made a network of shadows black as ebony, -which swung with the roll of the ship as though they kept time to music.</p> - -<p>I was looking at some of this delicate network on the main deck when -the figure of a man passed through it and approached the boatswain, -who had charge of the ship till midnight. They talked with a rumble in -their notes that was as good as telling you something was wrong. The -captain called out:</p> - -<p>'What does that man want?'</p> - -<p>The boatswain then came to us, leaving<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> the man standing, and -exclaimed, 'He says there's a strange sailor in the ship.'</p> - -<p>'What's that?' demanded Captain Burke.</p> - -<p>'He says there's a man walking about as don't belong to the ship's -company.'</p> - -<p>'Whose grog has he been cribbing?' said Mr. Owen.</p> - -<p>The captain called to the man, who came and stood before us. The -moonlight whitened him: he was a powerfully built fellow, with a -quantity of black hair hanging about his ears and dark nervous eyes, -which caught the light in silver stars.</p> - -<p>'What's this about a strange man being aboard?' said the captain.</p> - -<p>'There's a strange man in the ship, sir,' he answered.</p> - -<p>And now I observed that in the black shadow of the galley forward there -stood a little group of men, apparently striving to hear what was -spoken aft.</p> - -<p>'Have you seen him?' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p> - -<p>'Certainly I have, sir.'</p> - -<p>'Go on,' exclaimed the captain, impatiently.</p> - -<p>'I was on the fok'sle when he passed me. He walked slow. He looked at -me as he passed, and his face was wet.'</p> - -<p>'How could you tell <i>that</i> in this light?' said Mr. Owen.</p> - -<p>'The moonshine rippled in it, sir.'</p> - -<p>'Go on,' said the captain.</p> - -<p>'He was going aft as though just come out of the head. I made a step or -two and lost him.'</p> - -<p>'Where did he disappear?' said the boatswain in a voice of awe.</p> - -<p>'Why, in the gloom about the foremast.'</p> - -<p>'It'll be a stowaway come to light at a pretty late date,' exclaimed -Captain Burke, stiffening himself in his chair with a start of temper. -'Bo'sun, get a lantern, and take and give everything forward a good -overhaul.'</p> - -<p>'It's no stowaway, sir,' said the man who had seen the stranger. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p> - -<p>'Ho, d'ye know him, then?' cried the captain.</p> - -<p>'He was no stowaway,' repeated the seaman in a sudden roaring voice of -irrepressible excitement.</p> - -<p>The captain stared at him.</p> - -<p>'You won't make him a ghost, will you?' said Mr. Owen.</p> - -<p>The man viewed the doctor in silence, then suddenly shouted, whipping -round upon the boatswain:</p> - -<p>'Tom Hartley saw him.'</p> - -<p>'Call Tom Hartley aft,' exclaimed the captain.</p> - -<p>The name was bawled by the boatswain, and repeated in echoes like -distant laughter aloft. Then a man stepped out of the huddle of figures -in the shadow of the galley and came through the moonlight, followed by -four or five who halted at the gangway.</p> - -<p>'What's this you've seen, Hartley?' said Captain Burke. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p> - -<p>'I was at the scuttle butt with the dipper in my hand, when, turning my -head to look forrard, I see the shadow of a man with the glimmer of a -face upon it standing near the foremast. I took a step, thinking it was -one of the men, and lost it.'</p> - -<p>'How d'ye mean, lost it?' said the captain.</p> - -<p>'It sort of went out, sir.'</p> - -<p>'Take a lantern and search the ship forward, bo'sun,' said the captain.</p> - -<p>The three of them went forward, but I heard the first man tell the -boatswain that the way to see the stranger that had come aboard was not -by showing a light.</p> - -<p>'What's the meaning of it?' said Mrs. Burke.</p> - -<p>The captain rose in silence and walked the deck, going somewhat towards -the gangway, and staring forward and around. The group of seamen had -followed the boatswain, and were now on the forecastle, a knot of -silvered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> figures with their shadows like carvings of jet lying at -their feet.</p> - -<p>'Was it a strange man they saw?' I asked. 'If so, how did he come into -the ship?' and I own a chill ran through me as I asked the question.</p> - -<p>The mystery and awe of this wonderful, beautiful night of moonlight -and trance of ocean, glazed by the nightbeam as though it were an -ice-field, was in this hour to heighten into a sort of horror the -fancy of a strange man with a wet face walking forward; and then again -there was the memory of the death in the morning and the burial before -sundown. Mrs. Burke was silent, and I saw her watching her husband as -he uneasily moved here and there.</p> - -<p>'Pity it's happened,' said Mr. Owen. 'It's all nonsense, of course. -They'll find nobody. A very small optical illusion will carry -conviction into the brain of a noodle. All sailors are noodles in -superstition. And now all hands'll think there's a ghost aboard.' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p> - -<p>Captain Burke rejoined us abruptly, and seated himself.</p> - -<p>'They'll find nothing,' said he.</p> - -<p>'So I was just saying,' said the doctor.</p> - -<p>'But that'll be the worst of it,' exclaimed the captain. 'I wish it had -been that confounded seaman's watch below. I don't like such things as -this to happen in my ship.'</p> - -<p>'Why, Captain Burke, you don't mean to tell me——?' said Mr. Owen, -catching, as I did, the note of awe and nervousness in the other's -utterance.</p> - -<p>'I tell you what it is,' burst out the captain irritably; 'it's -devilish hot to-night, I know. Is this the Red Sea?'</p> - -<p>'Would it were, for that's where all the ghosts are laid,' said the -doctor good-humouredly.</p> - -<p>'I'm no infidel,' said the captain. 'I thank God I have my faith. -There's testimony enough in the Bible to the existence of ghosts to -satisfy any Christian man.' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p> - -<p>'Why, Edward,' cried Mrs. Burke, 'do you want to frighten Miss Marie?' -and she poured out a small tumbler of brandy and seltzer for him; he -swallowed the draught and said:</p> - -<p>'They'll find nothing; which will prove, of course,' said he, looking -at me, 'that there is nothing.'</p> - -<p>And then he began to talk a little mysteriously of a brig that had -sailed out of Cork; the crimps or runners had bundled a man stone -drunk into the forecastle, where the captain let him lie for a day or -two, guessing he would rally and turn to; instead of which they found -him dead, and there was no doubt he had been dead when put on board, -the crimps shipping the corpse in order to secure the man's wages. -They buried the loathly thing, but every night throughout the voyage -the apparition of it moved in the forepart of the vessel, and always -its ghostly hand struck one bell, which is half an hour past midnight -at sea, after which the shape disappeared, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> the watch on deck -breathed freely again. I say Captain Burke talked of this brig a little -mysteriously, as though he secretly believed in the story, yet was -ashamed we should think he did so.</p> - -<p>Whilst Mr. Owen was trying to make Mrs. Burke and me laugh with some -silly story of a spectre, the boatswain came aft.</p> - -<p>'Well,' said the captain.</p> - -<p>'There's no strange man forward, sir.'</p> - -<p>'Where have ye searched?'</p> - -<p>The boatswain named all sorts of places.</p> - -<p>'All right!' said the captain, springing to his feet. 'It's happened -right or wrong, and must take time to wear off. The dew is heavy: I -recommend Miss Otway to go below.'</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER VII</span> <span class="smaller">A RACE AND A ROLLER</span></h2> - -<p>Mrs. Burke talked with me in my cabin for some time. She wondered that -her husband could be so credulous as to believe in ghosts, and said -she had never before suspected he was superstitious. She kissed me and -said good-night, and went away thinking, I dare say, she had left me -fairly cheerful; and so indeed I was while she was with me, but when -she was gone, and I lay alone in the darkness, I felt very uneasy. The -cabin porthole was high above the low bunk in which I rested; I could -not see the stars in it, but the noise of waters fretted by a gentle -catspaw of wind came through very clearly, along with a dim sifting -of moonshine that ruled the gloom in a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> spectral spoke of light which -was like dreaming to see; it was a dismal, sobbing, moaning noise of -waters whilst it lasted, and made me think of the dead men deep down in -the sea, and of the apparition that had moved upon the forecastle, and -vanished seemingly as smoke goes out, till I was too afraid to sleep.</p> - -<p>The last bells I heard stealing faintly through the calm were -eight—four o'clock in the morning.</p> - -<p>However, I was at the breakfast table at the usual hour; Captain -Burke and his wife and the doctor came below from the deck and seated -themselves. Presently I said:</p> - -<p>'Are we making good way, Captain Burke?'</p> - -<p>'Noble way. We've taken a fine royal breeze right abeam. It's hit our -heels to a hair.'</p> - -<p>I looked at him as he spoke, and observed a certain dulness in his -countenance. The arch expression was gone out of his eyes, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> if they -seemed merry it was through their blue glitter, not their spirit. It -may have been his face which made me ask:</p> - -<p>'Was anything more seen of the ghost during the night?'</p> - -<p>'No, miss,' he answered abruptly.</p> - -<p>'It was no ghost, Miss Marie,' exclaimed my old nurse. 'Why, as Mr. -Owen justly says, you can't have no better ingredients for a spectre -than moonshine and the moving shadows of rigging.'</p> - -<p>'For such a noodle as the fellow that saw the thing,' said the doctor, -with a half-glance of interest and speculation at the captain.</p> - -<p>'You're not going to get correct likenesses of living people out of -moonshine and shadow,' said the captain.</p> - -<p>'Why, yes, out of light and shade merely, captain,' said Mr. Owen. -'What else would you do work with in pencil or crayon?'</p> - -<p>'I wonder you can be so silly, Edward,' said Mrs. Burke. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p> - -<p>I looked at her inquiringly, perceiving that something lay behind this: -on which she said, 'The man who saw the ghost has frightened Edward by -saying he thought it was the captain at first, the face was so like.'</p> - -<p>The captain sipped at a big breakfast cup to conceal his expression, -and subdue, as I thought, some temper excited by his wife's remark. He -then said, quietly smiling, but with no light of merriment upon him, 'I -went forward last night after you were turned in, Miss Otway, to take -a look round. I called to the fellow the ghost appeared to, and asked -him to describe the thing to me; he did so, and said it had my face. -My wife thinks I am frightened. You don't believe that, I hope? You'd -not feel safe in a ship commanded by a skipper who's to be scared by a -seaman's yarn.'</p> - -<p>'Just a little bit of forecastle malice, depend upon it,' said the -doctor. 'We'll have the truth of it yet. Perhaps they hope<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> to justify -their charges against your beef by dreaming terrific waking nightmares, -and seeing precisely the sort of thing that an unsavoury harness cask -would be fruitful of.'</p> - -<p>'You'll have the other man saying now that the thing he saw <i>was</i> like -you,' said Mrs. Burke.</p> - -<p>'He's said it,' exclaimed the captain, with an emphatic nod at her.</p> - -<p>Mr. Owen lay back in his chair with a loud laugh; an ill-timed -explosion and forced withal, for you easily saw that the mood of the -captain was then a distemper, which needed the medicine of a little -skilful sympathy. But the subject was dropped after the doctor's laugh, -and Captain Burke, turning to me, talked in a gentle voice of the -letter I had sent home, and calculated the distance the brig had sailed -since we spoke her, and chatted to entertain me and perhaps to brisken -up his own spirits.</p> - -<p>When I went on deck I beheld one of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> most spacious splendid scenes -of morning our ship had ever sprang through. It was blowing fresh, but -the seas ran steadily in defined hard blue ridges, smoking as they came -at us right abeam. The rolling of the ship was so regular as to be -scarcely noticeable. It was all cream and yeast to leeward; I had never -seen before alongside such a bubbling, throbbing spread of white spume, -winking, seething, crackling like burning brushwood, sweeping off in -steam whenever the heel of the ship hurled the blast under the foot -of the mainsail sheer into it over the rail. The clouds hung in vast -terraces to windward, with bodies of vapour blowing up to the zenith -out of the silk-white heaps, then scudding westward to mass themselves -low down in a coast of cloud, that looked, with its breaks and tints, -like a rich land dimly seen in mist.</p> - -<p>It was this cloud scenery, with its steady whirl of vapour between, -that made the morning show as wide again as it was. Mr.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> Owen, seeing -me alone looking at the water, joined me.</p> - -<p>'It is difficult to feel superstitious on such a morning as this,' said -he.</p> - -<p>'If the stranger comes again I hope it will be in daylight,' I -answered. 'The thing seems to have affected the captain's spirits.'</p> - -<p>'But not yours, I hope.'</p> - -<p>'I don't believe in ghosts,' said I, 'but I have faith in portents and -presentiments and premonitions.'</p> - -<p>He looked grave, and answered so had he, and was about to tell me -something, then checked himself; I think his imagination was with his -dead then, and that he could have told me of having received some -warning of the loss that was to befall him.</p> - -<p>'I am sorry,' said he, with a glance at the captain, who was on the -weather side of the deck talking with his wife, 'that the sailor should -have told Captain Burke the apparition was like him. These reports, -if there's good<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> faith in them, catch hold of a man's spirits. The -captain's worried. We must avoid the subject in his presence.'</p> - -<p>'I should not like to be told that I had appeared to a person,' said I.</p> - -<p>'I don't know,' he exclaimed, 'whether sailors are more superstitious -than others; they're thought to be so. They can plead good reasons. -Last night, for example, was fuller of the mysterious and the -spirit-like than any churchyard scene, however crumbling the church -tower, however red the colour than of the moon with a streak of -black cloud, like crape, above it. The superstitions of the sea are -extraordinary, and some of them beautiful. The Ancient Mariner was a -poet.'</p> - -<p>'He talks like one in the poem,' said I, smiling.</p> - -<p>'Coleridge went to the old sea chronicles for his ideas and imagery,' -he exclaimed. 'Shelvocke gave him the albatross, and he found his -painted ocean, and the shining and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> burning, wriggling things in it, in -Richard Hawkins. We can never see again as the old saw. They came with -the eyes of children and everything was marvellous. But many of the old -superstitions linger.'</p> - -<p>'Is there any particular superstition connected with apparitions at -sea?'</p> - -<p>'I am not well read in that subject,' he answered, laughing. 'Most of -the apparitions I have heard about concern the coming on and ending of -storms—mercurial spirits, spectres of the barometer. The old Jacks -swore that the Virgin frequently appeared in the height of a gale; they -had but to vow a taper and down dropped the wind. There was always a -gale in the wake of the "Flying Dutchman."'</p> - -<p>'There's nothing but weather for apparitions to predict at sea,' said I.</p> - -<p>'That wet-faced ghost of last night,' said he, 'reminds me of Lord -Byron's tale of a certain captain; his brother, who was in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> India, -entered his cabin in mid-ocean, and lay down in his bunk; when the -captain awoke he found his blankets wet through.'</p> - -<p>'Perhaps he forgot to close his cabin window,' said I.</p> - -<p>'Anyhow,' said Mr. Owen, 'Captain Kidd afterwards discovered that his -brother was drowned at that exact hour of the night.'</p> - -<p>'This is not nice talk for such a morning as this,' said I, chilled by -a sudden return of the uneasy superstitious feeling.</p> - -<p>'There's a fine sight coming along yonder,' cried out Captain Burke -just then, and he pointed over the weather bow with the telescope he -had been looking through.</p> - -<p>I crossed the deck and saw two large stars of light on the sea-line -almost directly ahead. Even whilst I gazed they sensibly enlarged. The -sun at this time was hanging on the left of them, and his light was -on the water between, flashing every headlong ridge into silver, and -silvering the sea-smoke till it flew<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> down the wind with the gleam of a -silken veil; and beyond this rushing splendour of silver sea, softened -here and there by the shadows of the sailing clouds, hung those two -glowing stars, steady as though they were fixed in the heavens.</p> - -<p>Captain Burke let fall the glass from his eye and said to Mr. Owen, 'An -ocean race.'</p> - -<p>'Yachts?' said the doctor.</p> - -<p>'Bless me no. Clippers rushing it for a wager. If this was the other -end of the year they'd probably prove tea-ships. It should be a fine -sight,' he cried, anticipation and spirit working his face into -something of its old merry, eager look.</p> - -<p>We were ourselves sailing fast, and the two ships were coming along -faster perhaps by two or three miles in the hour than we were going; in -a magically short time they were two defined shapes upon the bow about -a quarter of a mile apart, black spots under brilliant clouds showing -like shapes of white<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> flame through the windy blue dazzle trembling -into the atmosphere they were coming through. The sailors dropped their -several tasks to look; the surly mate stared with a fixed devouring -leer; all hands I guessed understood what they were to see; the cook -stepped from the galley to the rail. In less than half an hour from the -moment of our sighting them they were abreast, and when they were right -abeam this one hid the other, so completely were they neck and neck.</p> - -<p>By this time our own ship's number was flying at our peak, and now as -they came abreast, each having told us by a thin tongue of flag that -our colours had been spelt out, they hoisted their own names.</p> - -<p>'An Aberdeen clipper and a Blackwall liner,' said Captain Burke, -reading out of a signal book. 'Both from an Australian port. A very -pretty race indeed. But it's the spirit of Souchong that puts life into -that sort of thing.' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p> - -<p>Yet spite of that I thought the show as gallant as anything old ocean -ever submitted, if it were not a scene of old line-of-battle ships in -a gale of wind. They opened into six spires of delicate shadow and -snowlike whiteness; they leaned their full and starlike breasts to us, -the lustrous canvas tapering to an apex of cloth that was a very puff -of sail, wan as some web of cloud near the afternoon moon. Every stitch -that would draw was heaped upon them; they had the wind right abeam; -to windward they were clothed with studding-sails; betwixt the masts -some becalmed wing of fore and aft canvas would swing in and out idly -like the pinion of a wounded bird. The sight was a marvellous hurry of -shadows, and flashing lights, and steady shining of rounded canvas; and -under the bows of each a glass-clear sea arching, flashed into a very -snow-storm, and broke aft as far as the gangway.</p> - -<p>They passed like clouds, silent and stately,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> and I continued to watch -them till they were glowing astern, dwindling and dimming, but, as -Captain Burke declared, neck and neck yet even when they had sunk their -courses, and nothing above the clews of their topsails were 'dipping' -upon the horizon.</p> - -<p>It was not many days after this that we crossed the equator. A pleasant -sailing wind blew us over the line and failed us not till we had -reached almost within the Polar verge of the south-east trade wind, -into which Captain Burke and the mate sneaked the ship by careful and -unwearied attention to every faintest breathing that tarnished the -surface of the long, blue equatorial heave. Then one morning, coming on -deck, I found a strong wind humming like a concert of organs off the -port bow, and the vessel with her yards fore and aft, breaking through -a quick spitting sea, and clouds passing like dust over our mast-heads. -This was the first of the south-east trade wind. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span></p> - -<p>'It's all right with us now, Miss Otway,' said Captain Burke as he -shook me by the hand. 'We're making a straight course for the Horn, and -we shall be putting her nose off for the great South Sea presently.'</p> - -<p>But even though he spoke lightly, and seemed very well satisfied to -have taken the trade gale in its strength so young, there was the same -suggestion of spiritlessness in his manner that had been more or less -visible in him now ever since the sailor had told him he had seen his -apparition. Though the ghost had not again appeared; though Mr. Owen, -with the hope, no doubt, of settling the captain's spirits, had got -the seaman to admit that he might have been mistaken, that he was -leaning against the forecastle rail in a sort of doze perhaps when he -started and saw the thing, which, he avowed, might very well have been -an illusion of shadow and moonlight upon his sleepy vision—it was all -one; a weight of dejection had come upon the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> captain's mind, and ever -since the night of superstition he had ceased to be that merry, arch, -humorous Irishman who had called upon my father, and made us laugh -almost in the very anguish of my leave-taking. This was so noticeable -in him whilst he talked to me about the south-east trade wind, and -going for Cape Horn in a bee-line, and our first sunny port—full of -quaint costumes and pleasant fruit and queer merry-makings—just round -the corner, that on returning to the cabin sometime afterwards and -finding Mrs. Burke there sewing, I sat down beside her and talked about -him.</p> - -<p>'What should there be in this thing, nurse, to dispirit your husband -after all these days, now that the man has as good as sworn that he was -mistaken?'</p> - -<p>'Why, my dear, he is an Irishman, and they are a superstitious people.'</p> - -<p>'The crew no longer trouble themselves about that ghost.' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p> - -<p>'I don't think they do. The boatswain,' said she, laughing, 'told my -husband a man had said that as the ghost appeared with a wet face it -must have been Old Stormy.'</p> - -<p>'Who's Old Stormy?' said I.</p> - -<p>'Oh,' she answered, still laughing, 'there is a well-known windlass -song called "Old Stormy, he is dead and gone!"'</p> - -<p>'Old Stormy wouldn't be like Captain Burke,' said I.</p> - -<p>'And that should satisfy him,' she answered. 'I doubt that he's quite -the thing. These roasting latitudes use the liver cruelly. Then again -there's the anxiety of command. The tone of the mind gets lowered by -worry, which a man takes as a matter of routine, and doesn't heed -though it's working in him all the same. It'll wear off, I dare say, -when the weather gets cold.'</p> - -<p>She talked placidly, going on with her work with a comfortable, smiling -face. She had married too late in life to take anxious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> views of her -husband. It's the young wife that frets, I think. Not that Mrs. Burke -would not have shown herself deeply anxious had her husband been ailing -in his health; it was his fancies she took no notice of, a smile was -good enough for them.</p> - -<p>It chanced that on this same day there occurred an incident that had -nearly verified the judgment of any man who should have accepted -the visit of the apparition as a menace. After loitering at the -dinner-table in chat, I put on my hat and jacket and followed the -captain and Mr. Owen on deck. It was blowing very fresh, and though the -sun still nearly centred the heavens we were sailing under, the weight -of the blast put an edge into the feel of it. But it was a glorious, -invigorating, cordial draught; and I stood for awhile with my hand -upon the companion-hood, deeply breathing, and relishing to the inmost -pulses of my being that shouting musical tide of liberal gale, blue and -salt, yet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> sweet as sugar when it came charged with the damp of the -spray.</p> - -<p>The brown scud was flying off the working ridges on the horizon, and -the ship was bowed to her channels, charging the sea-flashes, with the -forecastle reeling in the frequent thickness of foam flying athwart. -She was carrying all she had of plain sail and clearly more than she -needed, for I had not been five minutes on deck when the captain -ordered the three royals to be clewed up and furled, and other sail to -be taken in.</p> - -<p>I continued standing at the hatch watching two men on the main royal -yard stow the sail there. It was a giddy sight to my girlish eye. -Indeed I had always found something wonderful in the agility and -fearlessness of the crew when they sprang aloft, and slided out upon -the yards, and struggled with the canvas that soared in huge bladders -from their grasp. I gazed up at the two fellows and tried to figure -the image our ship would make viewed from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> that height, and whilst I -was picturing a narrow streak of hull rushing headlong with a wild -play of dazzle on either hand of her, and all aslant to her trucks, -with yard-arms pointing skywards and stirless canvas thrilling like -a thousand drums out of the violet hollows, I was startled by a loud -cry directly overhead: and looking up I spied a man in the mizzen-top, -leaning off with one hand upon a shroud, and pointing eagerly to -leewards with the other, whilst he cried:</p> - -<p>'There's a whole coast of water a-coming along.'</p> - -<p>I directed my eyes at the lee line of the sea, where I saw, nearly at -the distance of the horizon, but clearly coming along at a prodigious -rate directly against the wind and rushing surge, a wall of water: -it was rounding its pouring volume high above the level of the sea, -and the vast bulk of it, stretching north and south, blazed with the -flashing of the sunlight upon the savage leaps and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>shattering recoils -of the surge it was rolling up against. Mrs. Burke, losing her wits at -the sight, shrieked out:</p> - -<p>'Oh, Edward, it will drown us!'</p> - -<p>Scarcely had she said this when her husband, who had taken but one -glance to leeward, roared out:</p> - -<p>'Hard up, hard up with the helm! Aft to the weather-braces. Square away -fore and aft! Lively, my lads, for Jesus' sake! If it takes us abeam -it'll sink the ship!'</p> - -<p>He yelled the words and they rang through the vessel. The sailors fled -to the braces: their practised ears heard in the captain's cry the note -that signifies at sea life or death, though some probably did not know -what the danger was. The gallant little ship answered her helm like a -racing yacht, and seethed aslant down the wind in a semicircle, bowing -the hawse-pipes into the billow breaking under her, and slowly righting -as she brought her stern to the breeze, till she was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> looking at the -long on-coming, cliff-like length of brine, with erect spars, rolling -never and bowing only as she swept to that wonderful heap of sea.</p> - -<p>It might have been hurling towards us at forty miles an hour, when we -are going ten, and in a few heart-beats our bows were lifting to it.</p> - -<p>'Hold on, all hands!' roared the captain from the wheel, which he was -grasping conjointly with the helmsman.</p> - -<p>'Hold tightly,' screamed Mrs. Burke to me as we stood together in the -companion.</p> - -<p>Mr. Owen flung himself on his knees behind the mizzen-mast. Green, -the mate, stood at the mizzen-rigging grasping a belaying-pin. It -was as though an electric storm was volleying in one continuous roar -of cloud battery overhead. The ship seemed to be thrown keel out of -water forward. I glanced astern at the instant that her bows took the -first of the slant of that mighty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> heave of sea, and the line of her -taffrail was depressed, like the edge of a spoon afloat in a cup, in -the crackling whiteness there, with Captain Burke and the helmsman low -down, pale and motionless. The sails throughout came in to the mast -with a single clap. In a breath or two we were on the rounded top of -that vast rolling lift of water that was roaring along either extremity -of it to the horizon; the wind was full of the thunder of the shock and -the snap of strong seas staggering on the under run; in that breathless -moment of our being poised atop the whole weight of the wind was -upon the ship; through the roar of the roller ran the bugling in the -rigging, and the low, deep humming of the canvas as it strained with -the blast.</p> - -<p>Then like an arrow down rushed the vessel. Oh, that was a frightful -moment! So steep was the slant that the water poured in tons over her -bows as she went. I turned sick. I thought she would take the valley -in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> a dive and strike clean through under the next sea, never again to -rise. Fortunately the run of the mighty roller left the water smooth in -its wake. The bows sprang buoyant, the whole ship seemed to leap with a -sort of shudder of rejoicing throughout her.</p> - -<p>'Trim sail the watch,' shouted the captain, letting go the helm and -coming forward. 'Mr. Green, bring the ship to her course again. A -desperately close shave. Had it come from the wind'ard, or taken us -abeam to leeward, or found us a strake or two deeper——'</p> - -<p>There was no need for him to finish the sentence. He came to the -companion-way.</p> - -<p>'An ocean hurdle,' said he, still very pale, and watching the wheel as -the man revolved the spokes to bring the ship to.</p> - -<p>'What was it, Edward?' cried his wife.</p> - -<p>'A roller,' said he. 'I hope there may not be another.' He looked to -leeward. 'One of those volcanic jokes or hurricane<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> survivals which try -periodically to swamp Ascension and St. Helena. Help Miss Otway below, -Mary, and give her a little drop of wine, and take a nip yourself.'</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER VIII</span> <span class="smaller">A HURRICANE</span></h2> - -<p>Our voyage, after this incident of the roller down to below the -latitude of Cape Horn, was uneventful. I had looked with dread to -the cold of that stormy and desolate part of the world; but when we -arrived, having struck a parallel, indeed, beyond which the captain -informed us we were not to push much further, I found the ocean climate -by no mean insupportable.</p> - -<p>My wardrobe had been a liberal equipment. I had furs, wraps and the -like in plenty, and all very warm; then again my health had wonderfully -improved, and this helped me to find the cold a lesser evil than I -had feared. Throughout the days a fire<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> glowed in the cabin. And yet -it was towards the close of June when we were nearly as far south as -the captain intended to go, and June is mid-winter in that part of the -world, with but four or five hours of light only in the day, and the -sun a little scarlet ball whose arc of flight might scarcely frame an -iceberg.</p> - -<p>All this while the captain remained the changed man I have before -attempted to express him. I did not observe that his despondency -increased upon him. He was as one who lives with some fixed belief in -his head, who, depressing his bearing and manner to a level, leaves -himself there, never sinking, but never rising either. For the rest -it had been as it still was, a monotonous routine of bells and meals, -reading, chatting, playing at games in the cabin; sometimes we had -spoken a ship; once we had floated quietly into a school of whales -which made the cold black deep lying under the large stars of the -south<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> as beautiful as any dream of poet with the silver willowy curves -of light they blew to the moon.</p> - -<p>In this time I found no opportunity to send a second letter home.</p> - -<p>I cannot remember our latitude on this day I am to write about. I -understood that, for reasons my memory will not suffer me to explain, -we had made more southing than was necessary, whilst we were further -to the east—half-way indeed, to Georgia Island,—than the captain -and mate cared to talk about. The weather had been sulky all the -morning; large snow clouds in soft dyes of darkness upon the stooping, -corrugated, leaden sky, floated sullenly athwart our mast-heads, but -without any squally outfly of wind so far, though often the snow fell -thickly. A large westerly swell was running, and the ship bowed heavily -upon it, finding nothing to steady her in the small beam breeze that -blew bitter as ice straight out of the south. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p> - -<p>I remained in the cabin all the morning, reading beside the fire. -Whilst we were at dinner, the mate, shaggy in thick pilot cloth and a -great fur cap between whose ear-covers his face lay small as though -withered by the cold into a mere leer of eye and a purple nose jewelled -with a little icicle, came half-way down the companion ladder.</p> - -<p>'There's a big island jumped out of a snowfall on the lee bow,' he -exclaimed. 'The lady'll like to see it p'raps,' having said which he -instantly returned on deck.</p> - -<p>Strangely enough, though we had measured many leagues of ocean often -for months and months studded with bergs, we had down to this hour -sighted nothing of the sort. I had longed to see an iceberg before all -other sights of the deep, and at once wrapped myself up, and went on -deck with the captain. On stepping to the lee side, there on the bow -about two miles off we beheld a vast iceberg like a mighty cathedral<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> -in alabaster shaping itself out of a soft vapoury shadow! As each -feature of the mass stole out it showed with an ivory-like clearness -against the hoary soot of the snow-cloud past it; the swell of the -sea washed the base in a large surf. The water was lead coloured as -the sky; its heavings were slow and stubborn, and each volume rolled -along as though it were of oil or quicksilver. Some lovely snow-white -petrels darted swallow-like athwart our sluggish wake. I cannot express -how their beauty deepened, to the imagination, the sky-wide loneliness -of this scene of ocean with its ice-island there, material as rock, -dissoluble as the smallest of the flakes falling upon it—a mere dream -of substance—a pageant of the deep as illusive as the tapestries of -the clouds.</p> - -<p>Many shadows of snow hung round the sea. It was like entering a vast -arena funereal with draperies.</p> - -<p>'What does that iceberg remind you of?'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> said Mr. Owen, approaching us -with Mrs. Burke.</p> - -<p>'Of a cathedral,' said I.</p> - -<p>'Exactly,' he exclaimed. 'Winchester and Canterbury combined, with -a hint from Strasburg in that corner to the right yonder, where its -opening is clear of the snow.'</p> - -<p>'A pretty little fairy toy to thump up against on a black howling -night,' said Captain Burke, with an uneasy look round at the weather.</p> - -<p>'This is as strange a day as ever I saw,' said Mrs. Burke.</p> - -<p>'How long could people live on such an iceberg as that?' said I.</p> - -<p>'Give 'em wreckage for huts and food and fuel, and they should live -long enough to be taken off,' answered the captain.</p> - -<p>'Ha!' exclaimed Mr. Owen, pensively regarding the majestic bulk, 'fancy -finding one's self alone on such an island as that! An ice Crusoe!' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p> - -<p>'I've known three whalers taken off a piece of ice four or five days -before the lump they floated on would have melted under their feet,' -said the captain.</p> - -<p>Mr. Owen viewed him with a smile. The captain abruptly left us, and -standing at the wheel directed his eyes earnestly round the sea and up -at the sky. Mrs. Burke said:</p> - -<p>'My husband's uneasy. I hope we are not going to have any very bad -weather.'</p> - -<p>'Miss Otway,' said Mr. Owen, 'do you know, those birds are the souls -of dead ballet-girls? Observe the exquisite time and grace of their -measures and curvings, as though they held their white skirts out and -revolved to unheard music.'</p> - -<p>Here Captain Burke called out sharply:</p> - -<p>'Get the main-topgallant sail furled and all three topsails -single-reefed.'</p> - -<p>In a few minutes the ship was clamorous with singing men and busy with -running figures; a pale ray of sunshine glanced just<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> then at no great -height above the horizon and flashed up our ice-glazed rigging and -flamed in the spears of ice at the catheads: it touched the iceberg -and the cathedral-like phantasy that was now abeam whitened out into a -glaring brilliance which flung a sheen of its own round about it; the -sky hung pale above and on its left, but to the right of it snow was -falling thickly. In a few minutes the whole mass vanished, a deeper -gloom closed in upon the sea, and the swell ran with an increased -weight.</p> - -<p>It was an 'all hands' job as sailors call it, and while the watches -were on the topsail yards, the captain bawled out 'two reefs,' and when -some hands went on to the mizzen topsail yard he cried out to them to -close-reef the sail, which, before the men came down, was clewed up and -furled. Even whilst I remained on deck a sort of vapourish thickness -had gathered round the horizon, as though the several draperies of -snow-cloud had compacted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> into a huge circular wall, blotting out -everything a mile off, whilst overhead the sooty stuff, like scud held -in suspense, floated low down till the sweep of the dog vane at the -royal mast-head seemed to rend it.</p> - -<p>It began to snow in large soft flakes. I went down the companion steps, -and Mrs. Burke and Mr. Owen followed me. I heard Mr. Owen say softly, -as though he would not have me overhear,</p> - -<p>'I wish the mercury had not sunk so low.'</p> - -<p>'I shall be glad to get out of this sea into the north, where the sun -is,' answered Mrs. Burke.</p> - -<p>It was after two, and the cabin lamp was alight. I removed my wraps and -took a chair close by the stove. The motion of the ship was large, and -sweeping upon the swell. You could judge of its character by watching -the oscillation of the lamp. Presently Mrs. Burke came from her cabin -and sat beside me. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p> - -<p>'We are going to have heavy weather, I fear,' said I.</p> - -<p>'Oh, well, this is a brave little ship,' she answered. 'We are a long -way from home down here, but she's carried us safely so far.'</p> - -<p>'She has truly, nurse. I cannot wonder that sailors should feel towards -ships they have long lived in almost as towards the women they love. -A ship is alive. I can think of her as with passions and feelings. -I've seen the "Lady Emma" erect her spars and look at a sea as a horse -cocks its ears at a gate—I once heard Mr. Green talking to her, and I -laughed to find myself thinking she understood him.'</p> - -<p>'What did he say?'</p> - -<p>'"Go it, old bucket"—I forget what more,' said I.</p> - -<p>'If it were not for Mr. Moore,' said she, looking at me with -affectionate eyes, 'I would stake all that my husband owns in this ship -that you ended in marrying a sailor.' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p> - -<p>I quietly shook my head.</p> - -<p>'Well, the sea has used you handsomely, anyway,' said she. 'I dare say -Sir Mortimer is at this minute wondering where you are. How he and Mr. -Moore will have pored over the map of the world, to be sure. But little -can they guess where you are this very day. This is the terrible Horn -your father was so afraid of for your sake. It's not so cold, is it? -And yet we are further south than it is customary for ships to venture. -What would Sir Mortimer think of such a sight as you saw to-day—that -great iceberg, I mean? Fancy such an object floating just opposite your -house. What a fortune for the boatmen!'</p> - -<p>Just then I heard a shouting on deck; it came dulled through the -planks, yet I caught a sharp, fierce note of instant need in it. A -minute later the ship leaned down to an outfly of wind that seemed of -hurricane force. I heard the thunder of the storm, and saw the lee -cabin windows drowned in the green brine,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> whilst the weather ports -winked like blinded eyes with the sudden lashing of foam. My chair gave -way, and with a shock I fell with it and rolled down the deck, and for -some moments lay helpless, astonished, terrified to the last degree, -but unhurt.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Burke clung to a stanchion, and I feared, whilst I watched her -stout form swinging off it, to see her let go, lest she should flash -down upon me and break my neck or maim me for life with her weight. I -could not imagine what was happening save that a sudden hurricane had -struck the ship and thrown her on her beam ends. She lay as though -capsized, with a horrible roaring, pounding thunderous noise of water -on the weather side of her, and frightful sounds in her hold, threaded -with dim notes of rending, as though sails were flogging in rags, or -masts going over the sides.</p> - -<p>I managed to get on my knees, and in that posture remained a minute -like one on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> roof of a house. Such was the slant of the deck -I could no more have crawled up it to where Mrs. Burke hung by a -stanchion than up a wall. This awful sensation of the ship being upset -was dreadfully increased and made a sickness of for the very soul -itself to faint under, by her motions in the vast hollow swell which -the hurricane was tearing into shreds. Whenever a pause of the beating -sea left a weather cabin window weeping, yet clear to that extent, I -could judge it was about black as midnight outside. The globe of the -lamp had swung hard against the deck, and rarely came from it even -with a windward roll. All in a moment the ship lurched over yet, till -you would have thought she was turning keel up, and this motion was -accompanied by such a thump of the sea, such a shattering inleaping -of tons of water, it was as though a huge gun or a whole broadside of -pieces had been fired on board of us. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span></p> - -<p>And again through the roaring blow of water I caught the muffled noise -of the rending of wood. I shrieked out in that moment of agonising -suspense, 'We are sinking!' and indeed so blinding was the eclipse of -the window glass that I did truly believe we were going down and were -even then below the surface.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Burke was unable to make any reply. She was almost black in the -face with the anguish of supporting her weight and with horror and -fear. In a few moments the strength of her arms gave out; but by -relaxing her grip she doubtless saved her neck; her grasp loosened and -she slided her embrace down the stanchion to the deck, and then let -go and swept silent and helpless as a length of timber down to close -beside me; her feet struck the cabin wall hard, and she lay a minute -without motion as though the breath had been shocked out of her. She -then grasped my hand and cried out: </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p> - -<p>'Oh, what can have happened? Are we amongst the ice? Did you hear a -noise as if our masts had been splintered?'</p> - -<p>I shrieked back—I put it thus strongly, for you cannot imagine the -uproar in that cabin, what with the grinding of the ship and the -freight, the creaking of a hundred strong fastenings, the cannonading -of flying tons of brine against the lifted exposed weather side of the -vessel—I say I shrieked back:</p> - -<p>'Let us try to get on deck. It is horrible to drown down here.'</p> - -<p>'Don't talk like that. What can have happened? Is Edward safe? What has -become of the ship? Oh, the suddenness of it! Are we amongst the ice?'</p> - -<p>Thus the poor woman raved. She was silenced by a roar of water like -a crash of thunder close overhead; a sea of giant bulk had swept the -quarter-deck, and in a breath a cataract, sparkling in the lamp light, -rushed smoking down the companion, and before<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> we could deliver a -scream we were up to our waists.</p> - -<p>The water must have been of an icy coldness, but I felt it not—at -least in that way; it was no colder than the summer ripples which I -would paddle in when a child. Terror had rendered me insensible to pain.</p> - -<p>'Cannot we drag ourselves out of it before more comes, or we shall be -drowned?' screamed poor Mrs. Burke.</p> - -<p>Then it was that the ship began to right. She righted slowly at first, -then came to a level keel with a sickening jerk and a wild leap of her -whole frame that sent the water in the cabin speeding and roaring white -as milk.</p> - -<p>A door opened and Mr. Owen stumbled out.</p> - -<p>'Oh, my God!' he cried. 'What has happened? I have been unable to -release myself. My berth is half-full of water.'</p> - -<p>And then he came splashing over to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> where Mrs. Burke and I stood with -an arm writhed about the stanchion. But oh, the soul-lifting sense of -relief that came into one with the feel of that level deck and the rise -and fall, hard and furious as the tossing was!</p> - -<p>'What has happened?' cried Mr. Owen.</p> - -<p>'Hark!' was Mrs. Burke's answer, in so shrill a note, that it -pierced the ear like a whistle. We heard the voices of men on deck. -A few moments later the figure of Captain Burke appeared in the -companion-way. He looked down and cried out:</p> - -<p>'Are you all right below there?'</p> - -<p>'Edward, come to us. What has happened?' shrieked Mrs. Burke.</p> - -<p>'How much water have you taken in down here?' he cried, and descended -to the bottom of the steps, where he stood looking round him like a man -bereft of his mind.</p> - -<p>'What is it, Edward?' screamed his wife. 'Tell us. We are half dead -with fright and nearly drowned.' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p> - -<p>'The ship's a sheer hulk—totally dismasted,' he cried, in a raving -way, still looking round and around and around.</p> - -<p>'Oh, oh,' wailed the poor woman, and the doctor, grey as ashes, -floundered through the rushing flood upon the cabin floor towards the -captain.</p> - -<p>'Not yet, sir, not yet, sir,' roared Captain Burke, holding him off -with both hands out. 'See to the ladies. Let them shift their clothes. -This water will drain off quickly. Give them brandy and take some. -Mary,' he shouted, 'the ship's alive, but if she's to remain so I -must see to her,' saying which he went up the steps, closing the -companion-way behind him.</p> - -<p>Mr. Owen splashed and staggered after him. He ran up the companion -steps bawling, 'Don't lock us up down here,' and tried the doors, but -was unable to open them.</p> - -<p>'Why has he shut us up?' I cried wildly, for this imprisonment was the -most dreadful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> passage of all; I felt as if I should suffocate.</p> - -<p>'He's afraid of more water pouring down and considers we're safer here -than on deck. He'll not leave us to drown. He'll not forget we're -here,' exclaimed Mrs. Burke.</p> - -<p>'He may be swept overboard, and the others will forget us.'</p> - -<p>'Come to your cabin and change your boots and dress. No more water is -coming in, you see. What is that noise? Hark! Oh, it is the clanging -of the pumps. How fearfully sudden! But it is always so at sea. Oh, -my poor husband! Come, Miss Marie, come and change, or this will be -giving you your death,' and grasping me by the arm the dear, poor, good -creature led me towards my cabin.</p> - -<p>As we stepped, moving very slowly with frequent abrupt halts and mutual -clingings, for the jump of the dismantled hull from hollow to peak, her -helpless beamwise lurch<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> from summit to valley, were a brain-sickness -in sensation, Mr. Owen came out of the pantry holding a bottle of -brandy and a glass. He bid me take a small glassful. I told him no, and -Mrs. Burke said it was no time to think of drinking. It might be that -we should be called upon very soon to save our lives, and every one -would want the best of his wits.</p> - -<p>'The captain recommended a draught of the spirit, and so do I,' said -Mr. Owen, reeling in the doorway with the motion of the ship and -submitting a figure which I must have laughed at, at a time less -appalling, with his short legs set apart, their shape defined by the -soaked small clothes which hung like loose plaster upon them, his bushy -mass of minute curls over either ear seeming to enlarge like the puff -from the mouth of a cannon even as the eye rested upon them, a bottle -in one hand, a wineglass in the other, and his face as pale as tallow. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p> - -<p>Mrs. Burke made no answer, and we gained our cabin.</p> - -<p>The stout door and high coaming had kept the interior fairly dry. I -changed, but though I immediately felt the comfort of the dry thick -clothing I cannot recollect that I shivered, that I even felt cold, so -completely was all physical sensibility in this dreadful time dominated -by my horror and surprise and my fright lest the ship should go down -with us whilst we were locked up below. Mrs. Burke left me, to shift -some of her own clothes.</p> - -<p>I stood at the cabin porthole, holding on by a stanchion that served -as a bed-post, and looked out. The thick glass was so blind with the -ceaseless wash of the roaring sea-flashes that I could distinguish -nothing save dissolving, shifting, shapeless bulks of dim white, vague -as snow-clad mountains beheld in starless gloom. But their thunder was -without, close beside; and their strength was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> in the hurl of the ship. -Indeed a vast dangerous sea had been set running almost as swiftly as -the hurricane had burst upon us, and running athwart was the huge swell -filled with the might of the greatest stretch of ocean in the world.</p> - -<p>In about half an hour Mrs. Burke came to me. The cabin lamp continued -to burn brightly, but the fire in the stove had been extinguished by -the water. She made me put on a pair of india-rubber shoes, for though -the brine had drained off the cabin floor, the thick carpet squelched -under the tread like wet sand which leaves a pool in your foot-print. -The keen edge of this swamp of brine was in the atmosphere, raw and -weedy and death cold; it was like entering a ship's hold under sea.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Burke got me to the table, and procured some stout and cold -chicken, and compelled me to eat, herself setting an <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>example. She -struggled with her spirits, and sought to talk a little cheerfully.</p> - -<p>'We are still alive, you see,' she said. 'The "Lady Emma" is one of the -strongest ships ever built. I am no longer frightened. I can feel the -life in a ship as a sailor does, and this vessel is jumping so briskly -that I am certain she is not taking in any water. My husband, besides, -is a thorough seaman. He knows exactly what to do, and what is best -will be done.' Then turning her head, she exclaimed, 'Where is Mr. -Owen?'</p> - -<p>She got up and opened the pantry door; afterwards knocked upon the door -of his berth. The noises were so many and distracting I could not hear -if he answered. She opened the door and exclaimed:</p> - -<p>'Won't you come and eat a little supper with us?'</p> - -<p>'No, thank 'ee,' he answered, in a thickish voice. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p> - -<p>Mrs. Burke stared at him awhile, then closed the door and returned to -me.</p> - -<p>The motions of the ship were so violent that we found it hard to keep -our seats.</p> - -<p>The food was flung over the fiddles into our laps. Every recovery had -the abruptness of the flight of a missile; the water roared about the -cabin windows, and again and again as the hull sank or soared, the -thunder of the sea swept through her as though she had split.</p> - -<p>The companion hatch was opened, and Captain Burke descended. He was -cased in oilskins, and one whole side of him was white with frozen -snow. He came to the table and sat down.</p> - -<p>'Now will you tell us what has happened, Edward?' exclaimed his wife, -and she crooked her brows with a straining of her large short-sighted -eyes, shining with fear, to catch the expression on his face as it -showed and shifted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> in a sort of hysteric agility with the leap of the -shadows under the lamp.</p> - -<p>'All three masts are gone by the board.'</p> - -<p>'What's to be done, then?'</p> - -<p>'Eh? Done?' he cried, white in the face, his eyes keen and hot with -irritability, pulling off his sou'-wester and striking it upon the -table with a blow that dislodged a moulded helmet of snow hard as -plaster, 'we want daylight first. You don't realise here what it's like -on deck. It's a frightful night.' He checked himself with a look at me -and added, 'But we'll have the old jade out of it though it should come -to warping her with the Horn for a kedge. We'll put ye safe ashore, -miss. By God, then, but Sir Mortimer shan't know you for plumpness and -bloom!'</p> - -<p>He forced a smile that had more the look of a snarl than a grin with -the teeth he disclosed, his eyes taking no part in it. His wife caught -a bottle from the swing-tray as it swept to her outstretched hand and -mixed a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> tumbler of drink. He swallowed it, and then picked up a leg of -fowl and a piece of white biscuit, and whilst he alternately bit from -either hand he talked to his wife thus:</p> - -<p>'The first outfly was a squall of hurricane force, and it pinned her -right down in the trough. I thought she was gone. The men could only -hold on. The boatswain at last managed to scramble forward, where he -got hold of an axe. He brought it aft, and others taking heart on -hearing him sing out, got into the main chains, and with hatchets -and knives went to work at the lanyards. The mast went, and with it -the other two. It was like the melting of a shadow aloft, with a -crash along the starboard length of her that's made matchwood of the -bulwarks, I allow, and in a minute spars and rigging were over the -side.'</p> - -<p>'Is the ship sound?'</p> - -<p>'Oh yes, she's tight enough. We've lost Green and four men.' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span></p> - -<p>'Oh, Edward, don't say it! Mr. Green—four men! How did it happen?'</p> - -<p>'How does anything happen at sea on a black night aboard a dismantled -ship with hills of ink and foam rolling over her? How it happened ask -of God who did it. They're not aboard.'</p> - -<p>He talked with jerking movements of the head, snapping his speech at -her, and his blue eyes were on fire. A look of fear of him gave a new -colour to the expression of horror and consternation in his wife's -face. I sat white and speechless, listening to him and to the booming -artillery of the sea, entering with ceaseless secret terror into the -motions of the ship, all so violent, so extravagantly wild at times -that I would say to myself, 'Now she is gone!'</p> - -<p>'Where are the crew?' asked Mrs. Burke.</p> - -<p>'Forward in their quarters. There's nothing to keep a look-out for -except daylight.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> The wreck's gone clear. The wheel's lashed, and -whatever comes <i>must</i> come. Is this the meaning of Old Stormy's visit, -miss?' said he to me with another of his desperate forced grins. 'My -apparition, you know, with a wet face! At sea omens are omens; the -fired part is, you never can tell what form the mischief means to take -so that you can provide against it.'</p> - -<p>His wife hid her face.</p> - -<p>'None of that!' he roared. 'There must be no breaking down in spirit -here. Miss Otway's to be returned safe and sound to her father. There's -no virtue in snivelling to help that, with all three masts gone and the -night like a wolf's throat, and ice islands close aboard. Where's Owen?'</p> - -<p>I said that he was in his cabin. He got up, opened the door, and looked -at him. There was no lamp in the doctor's berth, but the sheen of the -cabin light lay upon the interior. The captain entered the cabin, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> -if he spoke I did not hear him. He returned and said:</p> - -<p>'He is drunk! I will have a little talk with him by and by. I put you -two into his care and he gets drunk!'</p> - -<p>He drew on his sou'wester and stood up, holding by a stanchion.</p> - -<p>'Are you going on deck, Edward?' asked his wife.</p> - -<p>'Certainly I am.'</p> - -<p>'You'll be swept overboard.'</p> - -<p>'Not I. I'll rout out a couple of the men and we'll have this carpet -up. Pah! how the salt water stinks! They shall light ye a fire too. -Boil some coffee, Mary. You shall have what you want. I doubt but the -galley's stove. The longboat's safe, but the quarter boats are gone. -She wants steadying—she wants steadying;' and making a step or two he -sprang up the companion ladder and was gone.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER IX</span> <span class="smaller">DISMASTED</span></h2> - -<p>Captain Burke's manner of going persuaded me his mind was unhinged. He -had talked with excitement, shouted at his wife, his eyes had been full -of fire, and still it did not seem that he had fully grasped the whole -dreadful meaning of the disaster.</p> - -<p>After he had been gone a little while two men came into the cabin with -fuel for the stove. One had a bloodstained bandage round his forehead -under his sou'wester. The snow fell in pieces of white crust from the -oilskins of the seamen as they reeled with their hands full to the -stove. In the instant of their descent the sweep of the black gale -followed, and filled the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> atmosphere with darting needles of stinging -cold.</p> - -<p>'Is any water coming into the ship?' cried Mrs. Burke.</p> - -<p>'No, mum. The well's just been sounded. She's right enough in the -hull,' answered the man with a bandage round his head.</p> - -<p>'Aren't the decks being swept?'</p> - -<p>'Now and again a spray,' answered the same man. 'She's a-jumping of -it drily enough. She'll not hurt as she lies providing there's nothen -knocking about to run foul of.'</p> - -<p>'Is your head badly hurt?'</p> - -<p>'Just a little bit of a cut. Nothen to take notice of, thankee,' -answered the man, and he knelt down and lighted the fire, the other -looking on and around him with a gleaming gaze of curiosity.</p> - -<p>The lighting of that fire was a marvellous piece of rich deep colour as -I see it now, though I had no thoughts that way, I assure you, as I sat -watching the kneeling figure on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> that frightful night. He was in black -oilskins bright with snow; the other in yellow, snowclad likewise, and -as the kindling shavings spat out their yellow flames, the two men -showed more like some wild startling imagination of a poet done into a -grotesque glowing canvas, than a commonplace detail of shipboard life; -their faces sharpened and shrank, grinned and grew grim with twenty -shadowy expressions, their roaming seeking eyes burned like rubies -under the pent-houses of their sea-helmets; add the convulsive motions -of the dismasted hull, the ceaseless roar of seas pouring in mountains, -the dizzy flight, the sickening fall, the wild play of the lamp, the -deep, almost human groanings of the fabric with blows of the surge, -like bolts from the sky, shocking to her heart in sounds of rending.</p> - -<p>I hoped Mrs. Burke would ask questions of these men as to the safety -of the vessel, what would be done, our chances for our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> lives, and the -like, seeing that they were able seamen, mariners of experience with -memories perhaps of such things as this too; but she was the captain's -wife; so I held my peace and watched the men, clasping myself close in -the furs I sat in.</p> - -<p>Scarcely was the fire alight when again the cabin was made bitterly raw -by an icy-shriek out of the blackness, and three men, one of them the -steward, all clad in oilskins and hardly recognisable, descended. A -couple bore some galley things, a coffee pot, a saucepan, a gridiron, -some drinking mugs, and such matters. One of them said, 'By the -captain's orders, ladies,' and put the utensils on the deck near the -stove. Another exclaimed, 'We've been told to stop here. We can't get a -fire to burn in the galley. The fok'sle's cruel cold.'</p> - -<p>'Where's the cook?' said Mrs. Burke.</p> - -<p>'Overboard, along with the mate and three others,' said one of the men.</p> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span></p> - -<p>Mrs. Burke tossed her hands and after a pause said:</p> - -<p>'I'd cook a meal for you with pleasure, men, but I cannot bear this -motion—I cannot stand. Steward, fetch a ham from the pantry; there's -coffee there and biscuits. Get what's needed for a plentiful supper. -Four overboard! How many are left?'</p> - -<p>'Nine foremast hands, counting the bo'sun,' exclaimed the seaman with -the blood-stained bandage, looking round from the stove.</p> - -<p>Just then the rest of the seamen came below, a shaggy, snow-bleached -huddle, the gale following in a howl, with the captain's voice in the -frost-keen sling of it, shouting, 'Give them all they want to eat. Let -them have plenty of hot coffee, and top the meal off with a dram of rum -apiece.'</p> - -<p>The companion doors were then closed, but in such wise as to be easily -opened from within. After that moment's roar of ocean<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> and volley of -iron blast, the comparative calm in this interior seemed like peace -itself.</p> - -<p>'Isn't the captain coming down?' said Mrs. Burke in a voice something -wild with anxiety.</p> - -<p>'Presently, mum,' answered the boatswain, swaying easily from leg to -leg, his huge form thickened out by an immensely stout pea-coat; he -pulled his sou'-wester off as a mark of respect, and the snow on the -hatch of it flew to the deck compact, and lay there like a white wreath -on a grave.</p> - -<p>'He'll be frozen,' cried Mrs. Burke.</p> - -<p>'He's a-watching of an ice-mountain out over the bows,' said a man.</p> - -<p>I clasped my hands, and felt the blood forsake my heart on hearing -this. One of the men observed me, and in a voice that went through the -straining noises, like the sound of the sawing of wood, cried:</p> - -<p>'There's no call to frighten the ladies, Jim.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> That there block ain't -agoing to hurt us, anyhow.'</p> - -<p>They then settled who should cook; a man undertook the job; the steward -cut the ham into rashers, and after a little the place was full of the -smell of frying. They had their orders, and went to work. You would -not have guessed from their behaviour that we were a dismasted hull, -low down past the Horn, ice near us, ourselves rolling helpless on -a mountainous sea, a hurricane blowing, often blind with snow, our -situation so frightful that every next lurch, every next drive, might -carry us headlong out of hand. They fried the bacon, they boiled plenty -of coffee, they overhauled the pantry, and got out biscuit and jam and -such things; but all very quietly; I saw respect in their behaviour; -yet what I best remember was their easy, unconcerned way of going about -this business of getting supper. Whilst one cooked and others prepared -the table, others again rolled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> the wet carpet off the deck and stowed -it away in a corner.</p> - -<p>All this while poor Mrs. Burke kept straining her weak eyes at the -companion way. At last she jumped up and shrieked out:</p> - -<p>'Why doesn't the captain come down? He'll be frozen to death or washed -overboard. Which of you'll go and tell him to come to me?'</p> - -<p>The boatswain instantly went. He was absent five minutes, then returned -followed by the captain, who merely saying in a voice I should not have -known but for seeing him, 'Get on with your supper, my lads, get on -with your supper. 'Tis a bad job,' came to the stove and stood before -it warming his hands.</p> - -<p>His wife began to reason with him in a crying appealing voice for -remaining on deck: he looked at her and shook his head. She saw -something in his face that arrested her speech, and when I glanced at -the poor man I was thankful she ceased to worry him. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> stood on wide -straddled legs at the stove with his hands behind him, and the snow -draining into a pool at each heel, watching the men eating and drinking.</p> - -<p>I never should have imagined any ocean interior could make such a -picture as this. The wonder came into it out of the contrast betwixt -the rough coarse forecastle hands gathered around the table, with the -sparkle of silver plate in their fists, and the comparative elegance -of the state-room in which they sat, with its few looking-glasses and -other odds and ends of decoration as before described; and always -present was the overwhelming thought of the vessel's loneliness. I -could not indeed then figure her in her wretched state, but with -imagination's eye I saw the pale sweep of the decks glimmering with -snow, the deserted wheel: with each heave and fall I figured the climb -and plunge of the desolate mutilated craft upon the huge seas, black -and roaring as thunder, with a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> hanging, steadfast faintness out upon -the bow whenever the snow squall slackened and gave a view of a mile of -the flashing froth breaking in sullen glares between the iceberg and -the ship.</p> - -<p>'Eat hearty, lads,' said the captain, 'eat hearty. There's nothing to -be done with the ship till the dawn gives us a sight of her. Four of -ye gone....' He gave a sort of gasp, and stared a moment or two at his -wife, and then said to the boatswain, 'Wall, would she have righted, -think you, if the masts had stood?'</p> - -<p>The boatswain swallowed the contents of his mouth, and said -emphatically, 'No, sir. That second bust-down must ha' done for her.'</p> - -<p>A growl of assent ran round the table.</p> - -<p>'Well,' said the captain, 'we all know what's to be done. We've to -stick her northwards anyhow. Something may come along to give us a tow. -Failing that, there's enough of foremast standing for a jury rig. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> -machinery of the helm's sound. We've to blow to the nor'rards, I say, -edging that way for the crowded track.'</p> - -<p>The men said nothing. I seemed to find something ominous in their -silence. At the same time it rejoiced me to observe that the captain -talked collectedly, as though he had rallied his wits, and had clear -ideas and intentions.</p> - -<p>When the men had supped and cleared the table, they made as though -to go. The captain told them to occupy the cabin for the night. They -looked grateful at this, and then around them, as though considering -where they should lie. Their awkward grins, queer swaying postures, -backs curved, arms up and down, and fingers curled, their bearing, -glances, and manners, which expressed but little reference to our -lamentable and awful situation, gave me, I own, a sort of heart. -They looked as though, but for the captain and us women, and the -quarter-deck restraint<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> of the cabin, they'd have gathered about the -stove, and roared out hearty songs, drowning the fury without with -hurricane lungs of music, and spun yarns, and smoked their pipes with -as much thoughtless gaiety as they carried to their diversions ashore.</p> - -<p>The captain begged me to go to my cabin, and turn in and lie warm.</p> - -<p>'Will you go to bed at all to-night?' his wife asked him.</p> - -<p>'No,' he answered.</p> - -<p>'I suppose you mean to do all the looking out yourself, and end in -being found a frozen corpse, while Jack here is to sit by the stove?' -said she in a low voice, but audible to him and me, glancing round her -at the men.</p> - -<p>He peered at her with a scowl, and answered, 'I'm nearly crazy. Say -nothing if I'm not to go raving mad.'</p> - -<p>'May I not stop here?' said I.</p> - -<p>'What, with these men, miss?' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p> - -<p>'I like the company of sailors. The sight of these seamen keeps up my -spirits.'</p> - -<p>'My poor, dear Marie!' cried my nurse, putting the back of her hand -against my cheek. 'You can't sit here. Your father would not thank us -for throwing you into such company.'</p> - -<p>'How can you talk so at such a time?' I exclaimed. 'I dread to be alone -in my cabin. Where is this ship being hurled to? If she should be flung -against an iceberg——'</p> - -<p>'If <i>that</i>,' cried he, abruptly, and with temper, 'then as lief be in -your cabin as here, as here as on the deck.'</p> - -<p>Then, softening his voice, he said some reassuring things—I forget -them—I was crying with my face averted, that the men should not see -me. Mrs. Burke took my arm, and we entered my berth. She called to -the steward to light the lamp, and named some refreshments which he -presently brought, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> it was too bitterly cold to talk; nay, our -voices here, right aft as my berth was, were almost inaudible for the -thunderous wash of the sea along the slant of the side, with a lift of -it, when the toppling, helpless hull tumbled my cabin window to the -foam, that must again and again have soared high above the line of her -bulwark rails.</p> - -<p>I would not undress, but after I had drunk some wine, I got into my -bunk, where Mrs. Burke made a heap of me with bedclothes and furs; -then, kissing me and promising to look in from time to time, she dimmed -the lamp and went.</p> - -<p>I afterwards passed many terrible nights in this ship, but none worse -than this—perhaps because it was the first of them. The noises of the -sea and straining fabric drowned all sounds in the state-cabin. I could -not hear if the men talked, nor tell what they were doing. I terrified -myself by imagining that they would get at the spirits and make<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> -themselves drunk. Then there was always the haunting horror of ice near -us. At any moment I might feel a rending shock of collision. I was -sailor enough to know that if our ship was thrown against such a berg -as we had sighted that day, nay, even against a piece of ice of her own -bulk, she would be shivered into staves, and all before we could put -up one prayer to God. And often did I pray that night, and with plenty -of fervour of tongue, I don't doubt, but with little heart, I fear; I -was too frightened to realise the meaning of the words I used. Twice -Mrs. Burke visited me and said all was right; the sailors had been on -deck to pump the ship out; the hull was dry and buoyant, and the gale -abating. This news she gave me on her second visit. There was a vast -deal of snow in the wind, and the blackness was so thickened by it -there was no power in the rushing sea-flares to make a light for the -eye beyond a pistol shot; but the captain believed, she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> said, there -was no ice nearer to us than the cathedral island we had seen that -afternoon.</p> - -<p>Nature, however, was worn out at last and I fell asleep, and when I -awoke it was daylight, by which I guessed it was not much earlier than -noon; I looked through the porthole, a large lead-coloured, confused -swell was running, but it was unwrinkled and frothless. The motions of -the ship were extraordinarily wild and agitated; she was flung into -twenty postures in a minute. When I got out of my bunk I found it -impossible to stand without holding on. The water in the wash-stand -was a solid block of ice, but the cold did not seem so piercing, nor -of an edge so saw-like as I had found it yesterday. I contrived to -wrap myself up, and went out and saw Mrs. Burke sitting alone near -the stove. She sprang to help me, and said that a few minutes earlier -she had looked in, and left on finding me asleep. A pot of coffee was -beside the stove,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> and a breakfast of cold ham, tinned meat and other -things on the table.</p> - -<p>'Where are the crew?' I asked.</p> - -<p>'On deck,' she answered, 'endeavouring to rig up a mast.'</p> - -<p>'Is the captain hopeful?'</p> - -<p>'He means to stick to the ship,' she answered. 'Some of the men talk as -if there was nothing to be done with her, and spoke of going away in -the long boat.'</p> - -<p>'Is the vessel utterly dismasted?'</p> - -<p>'She is in a terrible plight. But make a good breakfast, dear. It is -quiet weather in spite of this horrible rolling. The hull is sound, and -we are sure to be fallen in with by some vessel that will help us.'</p> - -<p>As she spoke Mr. Owen came out of his cabin. His face was the pale -shadow of the countenance he had brought on board. He blinked his eyes, -and they were bloodshot; his very hair seemed to have been toned by -emotion into a sort of ashen colour. He made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> a slight bow, and sat -down at the table without speaking. Evidently he had breakfasted. Also, -no doubt, he had previously met Mrs. Burke. I judged by his behaviour -that the captain had talked to him; it was a mixture of sulkiness and -dislike.</p> - -<p>He had been kind and attentive to me on many occasions during the -voyage, and, full of fear and other crowding passions as I myself was, -I yet felt sorry for him. I bade him good morning and asked him if he -had been on deck. On this he rose, and clawing his way round the table, -so as to get near to me, he said:—</p> - -<p>'I owe you an apology for my conduct last night. My indiscretion was -not so much the result of cowardice as the state of my health. Much -less than I took in the hope of obtaining a little warmth and spirit -must have overcome me. I trust I have your forgiveness.'</p> - -<p>'There is nothing to forgive, Mr. Owen, nor is this a time to talk of -such things.' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p> - -<p>'The captain was scarcely manly in his language,' said he, turning to -Mrs. Burke. 'I am not an officer of the ship nor one of his crew. I am -practically a passenger, and claim the privileges of a passenger.'</p> - -<p>'Passengers are not allowed to take too much. All captains object -to drinking in their ships, particularly in such dreadful times of -excitement as last night,' said Mrs. Burke.</p> - -<p>I lifted my finger to call attention to the cries of men and the tread -of heavily shod feet overhead. Mr. Owen returned to his seat at the -table. Soon after this the skylight that was thick with frozen snow -whitened as to a watery beam of sunshine, or to some transient glance -of clearer day in the sky. I asked Mrs. Burke to take me on deck. She -seemed to shrink. I asked her if she had been on deck.</p> - -<p>'Yes,' she answered.</p> - -<p>'Then why should not I go?'</p> - -<p>'Feel how dangerously the hull rolls,'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> said she. 'You might be thrown -and break your neck.'</p> - -<p>But I saw that her real objection did not lie so much in that as in her -fear of the effect of the scene of the wreck upon me. Thus reading her -mind, I exclaimed:</p> - -<p>'I will go alone; but why will you not come?' and went to my cabin for -more wraps.</p> - -<p>She was ready before I was, and we clasped hands, and holding on -carefully likewise, stopping always for that sudden recovery of the -deck which would happen out of its slant with the rush of a cannon -ball slung by a line and let go at an angle, so ungovernable were the -motions of the dismasted hull, we gained the companion ladder, and -crawled to the head of the steps, where we stood in the companion -itself, with our heads above the hood.</p> - -<p>I shrieked on looking! Let my imaginations have been what they would, -here was the reality! I could not credit my sight. All three masts were -gone! nothing of the lower-masts <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>remained saving a height of two or -three feet of jagged and splintered trunk-sheaves of barbed milk-white -wood on the main and quarter decks, and about ten to fifteen feet of -the foremast. On the right or starboard side, lengths of the bulwark -were crushed flat. The decks were littered with gear, ropes' ends were -swimming overboard in the leaden swell like huge eels and sea-snakes -making from the wreck. On one side, dangling between the irons, was the -keel of a quarter-boat—all that remained of her; the opposite davits -were empty.</p> - -<p>But what idea can such talk as this give you of that wonderful dismal -picture of shipwreck, that spectacle of decks covered with snow, of -rails like an armoury with their bristling pendants of bayonet-blue -icicles? The galley was partly wrecked; the bowsprit stood soaring and -sinking upon the leaping waters, but the jibbooms were gone. I did -not know the hull. She looked shrunk to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> half her former size. The -sky stooped to the sea with its burden of vapour, but a break right -overhead hovered in a colour of sulphur. No wind stirred. Never was -there a deader stagnation in the atmosphere under the height of the -Line. Yet you were sensible of the presence of the spirit of this -wild, desolate part of the world even in such pauses as this, when you -watched the sullen motion of that troubled breast of deep, hurling -its glassy folds in comminglings which ran in silent warring to the -horizon. Far astern was a shape of white, a gleam in the sallow air -there, like that of a sail; but my eye was now experienced, and since -that dash of radiance was too big to be a ship, it must needs be ice. I -saw a collection of white tips on the starboard quarter when the swell -threw us high, and some points or shafts faint and bluish over the -bows. Otherwise the ocean line swept clear.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER X</span> <span class="smaller">THE JURY-MAST</span></h2> - -<p>All the remaining hands of the ship's company were at work forward. A -number of spare booms were stowed on top of the galley and had probably -saved the long-boat from being crushed when the masts fell. The sailors -had rigged up a triangle of booms with blocks and tackle dangling, and -even as Mrs. Burke and I stood in the companion way, they broke into -song as they hoisted a huge spar that was to serve as a mast. Their -hearty chorus was frequently interrupted by sharp, eager shouts from -Captain Burke or the boatswain Wall.</p> - -<p>The break overhead thinned out yet and made more light. A strange dim -dye of sulphur went sifting down to the horizon, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> sea in places -worked against it dark as bottle glass. About two miles off some whales -were blowing; their vast bulks showed in a black wet gleam amid the -swell; but even then such was the blending of their curved forms with -the confused running, that, but for their fountains, the eye had missed -them.</p> - -<p>We stood watching in the shelter of the companion way. The longer I -looked, the stranger, the more forlorn, the more lamentable the scene -showed, the more perilous and hopeless our situation seemed. What sort -of cloths were they going to spread upon such a height of boom as -they were chorusing at? I thought of the spacious concavities which -had risen to the stars, and to the blue heavens of our voyage, those -symmetric breasts of lustrous canvas which, when trimmed, snatched an -impulse for our clipper keel, from the antagonism of the head wind -itself; I saw the ship robed in the beauty of her sails, lifting her -star-saluting royals to the very path of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> flying scud with jibs and -staysails yearning from bowsprit and jibboom towards some deeper ocean -solitude past the horizon; and then I looked at the naked boom the men -were hoisting at the triangle or shears.</p> - -<p>'Oh, that cannot help us,' I cried; 'what does Captain Burke intend?'</p> - -<p>'Even if it should fail as a mast,' Mrs. Burke answered, 'it will be -useful as a flag-post. Why, this hull lies so flat without spars a ship -might pass three or four miles off and not see us.'</p> - -<p>Here the captain looked round and spied our heads. With a note of his -old cheerfulness he called out:</p> - -<p>'Many a good prize has been navigated out of an ocean battle-field -under leaner sticks than that, and added to the Royal Navy after -tasselling Jack's pocket-handkerchief with dollars.'</p> - -<p>This he seemed to say as much for the men as for me. He then approached -and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> asked me how I did; and told me not to look too long at the wreck.</p> - -<p>'Keep up your heart, miss,' said he. 'We'll have you out of this in -good time. Mary, don't let her stand here dwelling upon this scene. -Why, it was a nightmare even to my seasoned eyes when it first came out -of the dawn.'</p> - -<p>'Is that mast meant to carry a sail?' said I.</p> - -<p>'When we fix it and stay it we'll set something square upon it, -certainly. There'll be room for a bit of fore and aft canvas between -the head of it and the bowsprit end. Then let the wind blow south with -God's blessing, or east or west will do, to edge us north. We need but -steerage way, after which there'll be nothing to do but keep warm till -all's well. Take her below, Mary. Look at her face! She'll wither here.'</p> - -<p>The hours of daylight were so few that the night was upon the rolling -hull before the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> seamen had done more than lash the jury-mast to the -stump with a stay or two for support. And with the darkness of the -night there came along a black Cape Horn snow squall, like a dust storm -in its blinding power, with a thunder of wind in it, and so much more -afterwards that by five o'clock as high a sea was running as that of -the preceding day.</p> - -<p>The crew came into the cabin for shelter, and cooked their own supper -as before. They ate and then went to the stove, and afterwards Captain -Burke and his wife and myself sat down to some cold food and a cup of -hot coffee. Mr. Owen came to the door of his berth, but seeing the -captain at table at once retired, closing the door upon himself. The -captain took no notice. His good spirits were gone again. He drank -some coffee, but scarcely tasted food. His posture was one of gloomy -despondency as he sat at table, and he rarely lifted his eyes save to -dart a glance now and again at the sailors, which put it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> into my head -to think that more worked as causes for his dejection than the new -fierce gale and our awful situation. His wife often furtively looked -towards him but never ventured to address him, no, not even to ask him -if he would eat.</p> - -<p>Well, just such another evening and night as had passed happened -with us now. From time to time one or another would go on deck and -come below and report the night a flying blackness. On the boatswain -returning from one of these errands of observation the captain said:</p> - -<p>'Does it clear at all?'</p> - -<p>'Still as thick as muck, sir.'</p> - -<p>'Any smell of ice about?'</p> - -<p>'No, sir.'</p> - -<p>I wondered to hear them talk of smelling ice in a snow storm as thick -as froth, and said to the captain:</p> - -<p>'Is ice to be smelt?'</p> - -<p>He looked at me as though he had no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> mind to answer, to be even civil, -then said sharply, 'Yes.'</p> - -<p>My poor old nurse bristled like an angry hen at this behaviour, though -she was still afraid of the mood upon him, yet being determined that -I should get all the comfort possible out of any information the men -could give, she turned upon the boatswain, whose bulky, oilskinned -figure swung on frock-shaped leggings beside the stove, and said:</p> - -<p>'Did you ever smell ice, Mr. Wall?'</p> - -<p>He looked doubtfully at the captain, and answered awkwardly, 'Yes mum, -scores of times.'</p> - -<p>The captain rose and went on deck. At the same moment Mr. Owen came out -of his berth. It might have been that through some crevice in the cabin -bulkhead he was able to observe the captain's movements.</p> - -<p>'What sort of smell has ice?' I asked, for I could think of no thing -but icebergs, of the helplessness of our hull, of our being<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> swung by -these giant seas against a berg, and I wanted to hear how sailors tell -that ice is near without seeing it.</p> - -<p>'It's the extra coldness that makes the smell. Tain't no smell in the -or'nary meaning,' said the boatswain after a pause. 'The first time I -ever learnt that a man could smell ice in a breeze full of frost and -snow was in my first voyage in these parts. We was running off the -Horn, not so low as this here, in a smother o' flakes, nothen visible -of the ship from the wheel but her mainmast. I and another was steering -the ship, the mate comes rushing aft and sings out to the captain who -was walking abreast of the wheel, "I smell ice, sir." They both took -a sniff, and I could see by their way of snuffing they both smelt it -plain. They looked into the driving smother to starboard and then to -port, and then all on a sudden a man on the fok'sle cries out, "Ice -right ahead." "Hard aport!" sings out the capt'n, and out it jumped, -big as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> church, right on the bow. Smelt it myself then.'</p> - -<p>A low growl of laughter ran amongst the men, and several looked as -though they too had yarns to spin.</p> - -<p>I scarcely slept that night. The cold was terrible, and there were -the noises of the sea and the gale, and the heart-maddening rolling -and plunging. Yet, wonderful to relate, next morning, exactly as on -the day before, a dead calm was in the air, and the swollen hills -of swell ran in liquid lead in a confused shouldering. I went on -deck with Mrs. Burke at about twelve, and watched the men completing -the captain's toy-like affair of jury-mast. They had set a jib upon -the bowsprit, and were now bending a sail to a yard which was to be -hoisted to the head of the jury-mast. The lean stick was so abundantly -stayed that it looked like the inside of an umbrella. The rolls of -the hull were dangerous and very fierce; it was impossible to walk -the deck.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> This morning they had got a fire in the galley, which had -been roughly repaired. The brown smoke floated straight up out of the -swaying chimney, and, trifling as that detail of colour and life was, -yet somehow it brought back to the poor old hull something of her old -spirit and look. No farmyard sounds came from forward; no grunt from -the long-boat, no cackle nor crow from the hencoop; all the live-stock -had been frozen or drowned during the first night of the gale, when the -masts went.</p> - -<p>I saw those glancings of ice on the horizon which I had taken notice -of yesterday; they hung in the same quarters, and flamed at the same -distance against the dark sky with a fairy, star-like brightness. I -turned my eyes in every direction for a sail.</p> - -<p>'Don't ships ever come this way?' I asked.</p> - -<p>'Oh, yes, many,' answered Mrs. Burke.</p> - -<p>'What sort of ships?' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p> - -<p>'Whalers chiefly, Edward says.'</p> - -<p>'Suppose one should come; what will Captain Burke do?'</p> - -<p>'Ask her to tow us.'</p> - -<p>'If the master declines? This is a big, helpless vessel for another -ship to tow in such seas as run here. And what would a ship do with us -in tow should we meet with such weather as blew last night or the night -before?'</p> - -<p>She made no answer.</p> - -<p>'Surely Captain Burke will transfer us all.'</p> - -<p>'He'll not leave this vessel,' said she. 'It is not only that he has -himself an uninsured venture in her, his obtaining further employment -might depend upon his carrying the "Lady Emma" into safety. And if it -can be done, it ought to,' she added, with a flat, peering, anxious -look around the sea.</p> - -<p>Presently all was ready with the sail. The seamen raised a song, and, -to a steady, shearing noise of ropes in sheaves, with a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>frequent -chorus that swept like a shout of hope into the bitter, motionless -atmosphere, the yard slowly ascended the jury-mast. It was like a huge -lug-sail in form and fittings. Tauten it as they would, the breast -hollowed and rounded with such blows as of a cudgel, and such claps -as of musketry, that the boom sprang and buckled like a willow in a -breeze; the sail was therefore lowered until wind came to steady it.</p> - -<p>It put a weariness as of rheumatism into the body to stand long, and -when we saw the sail hoisted we went below.</p> - -<p>Mr. Owen was sitting beside the stove; he rose on our descending, and -went on deck to look around, then, after a brief halt in the shelter -of the companion-way returned, and sat him down at the table with the -fingers of his right hand buried in his right bush of hair, his whole -bearing abjectly disconsolate. Presently, looking at Mrs. Burke, he -exclaimed:</p> - -<p>'Is that single pole on the forecastle all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> the mast the captain means -to navigate this ship with?'</p> - -<p>'I do not know. My husband will be glad to tell you, I am sure,' -answered Mrs. Burke.</p> - -<p>He gave a ghastly sarcastic smile, that instantly vanished in his -former expression of sullen, resentful grief and dismay, showing, as -a man might, who is under a sudden tragic surprise, which enrages him -also. He looked down, shaking his head softly, and drumming, then -started as if he would walk, but the jerk and tumble of the deck was -too strong. I began to fear for the poor man's mind.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Burke told me the men would get dinner in the forecastle that -day—there, or in the galley. They did not come to the cabin. The only -man of them who arrived was the steward. He clothed the table, and made -us a tolerable show of dinner. I beg to recall to your memory the many -delicacies my father had laid in for me.</p> - -<p>It was about half-past one, I think, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> about the time when the -steward was done with the table, when the companion doors were opened, -and the captain came below. The lamp burned brightly: indeed, it made -most of the light we had. The skylight was, perhaps, half a foot thick -with frozen snow; the companion doors were kept closed to exclude -the cold; and little light came through the cabin windows, which the -hull dipped with pendulum-like monotony into the thunder shadow of -the swollen brine. Yet by the lamp-light we saw very clearly, and I -observed that the captain's face was lighted up with some life and -hope. I thought a sail was in sight, and started, expecting to hear him -say so.</p> - -<p>'There's some luck for us in this devil's own ocean after all,' said -he, swinging his figure towards us, eagerly watched by Mr. Owen, who -was on his feet leaning upon the table, and staring with head moving as -the captain moved. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></p> - -<p>'What is it?' cried his wife hysterically.</p> - -<p>'Why,' said he, 'there's a breeze sprung up out of the south'ard: -I've been watching the ship; there's drag enough in the rag we've got -upon her to give her way. And so, Miss Otway, be easy, now that we're -heading for the sun afresh, with a man at the wheel and a little scope -of wake astern of us.'</p> - -<p>'Anything better than lying like a log,' cried Mrs. Burke, with a short -swallow in her speech. 'I had hoped from your face there was a ship in -sight.'</p> - -<p>'And so did I,' I exclaimed.</p> - -<p>Mr. Owen sat down suddenly, and again buried his hand in his hair.</p> - -<p>'But this is as good as a ship being in sight,' cried the captain -irritable on a sudden. 'I want to blow north where ships are to be -fallen in with, and we're something to see now, with a thirty foot -hoist of canvas on top ten foot of freeboard; whereas, before—but -let's get something to eat.' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span></p> - -<p>We seated ourselves. Mr. Owen took a corner chair and spoke not a word -for some time, till at last, on the captain saying that if he fell in -with a vessel he would offer handsome sums for a tow, the doctor said -abruptly:</p> - -<p>'To where?'</p> - -<p>The captain eyed him with an unfeeling pause of contempt, and then -answered:</p> - -<p>'That would not rest with you, sir.'</p> - -<p>'I must request you to transfer me, if we fall in with a ship,' said -Mr. Owen.</p> - -<p>'I shall be happy,' said the captain, nervous and convulsive with -temper, 'at least—you've got to remember the object you're here for.' -He looked at me. 'Miss Otway is not likely to accompany you, and you'll -be no gentleman if you desert her.'</p> - -<p>'Miss Otway will accompany me if you give her an opportunity of leaving -this wreck,' said Mr. Owen.</p> - -<p>'This is no wreck, sir,' said the captain in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> a low-level voice of -menace, stooping his head and looking at the doctor under crooked -eyebrows.</p> - -<p>Mr. Owen muttered that he intended to save his life if he could, and -Miss Otway's too if he was allowed—the rest he mumbled: after ceasing -to articulate his lips moved; then, with a sudden impassioned motion -of despair and horror, he sprang from his chair and disappeared in his -berth, having barely taken three bites.</p> - -<p>'I fear his intellects have become disordered,' said Mrs. Burke.</p> - -<p>'He'd like to drive me out of the ship. The lily liver would have me -abandon a craft that's as staunch as the newest line-of-battle ship -afloat. What would it signify to <i>him</i> that I left a couple of thousand -pounds of my hard earnings to go to the bottom here, so long as <i>his</i> -dingy skinful of bones and bobs of curls were safely landed?' exclaimed -the captain in a low-pitched deliberate speech,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> that trembled -nevertheless with emotion and temper.</p> - -<p>His wife gave me a look as though she would entreat me not to talk to -him. Now and again he lifted up his eyes to a tell-tale compass that -hung exactly over his chair; almost as regular as the beat of a clock -was the plunge of the ship from right to left, from left to right. -The blinding green sense of one side and then the other of the cabin -portholes, and a loud yearning thunder of water washing past.</p> - -<p>After a little the captain went to his cabin. I said I would like to -see the ship under sail, and when we had clothed ourselves for the deck -Mrs. Burke and I went to the companion-steps.</p> - -<p>A seaman, clad in oilskins and swathed about the neck till he showed -nothing of his face but a pair of eyes, stood at the wheel. Some -delicate stars and darts of snow were falling, but they did not -cloud the view.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> The square of white canvas was stretched by a fresh -following breeze of bitter coldness, beyond frost itself: the sea was -feathering upon the swell, and a number of grey and white petrels -skimmed the flashes as they moulded their flight to the wind-furrowed -rounds. The white sail looked like a wild and sickly light when the -hull swung it athwart the soot over the horizon, but there could be no -doubt that the vessel was in motion. We durst not leave the holding -place of the companion-hood to look over the taffrail or side, but you -saw she had steerage way by the manner in which the fellow twirled the -wheel.</p> - -<p>A group of seamen with their hands deep buried, some of them sea-booted -fisherman-like to their knees, trudged the white frozen deck opposite -the galley. It was wonderful to see them keep their feet; the rumbling -hum of their strong, lungs stole aft against the wind; they swayed in -earnest talk, and minded us not when they faced our way, again and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> -again staring round at the sea as though for a sail.</p> - -<p>Now we had not been looking about us above five minutes when, happening -to glance aft past the helmsman, I saw the ocean not above half a mile -distant, white as milk, the forestretch of it was about two miles long; -how wide it went back I could not say, nor could I guess what it was; -there was no snow nor any particular blackness of cloud over it, nor -uncommon wildness of flight in the vapour overhanging us. Before I -could call Mrs. Burke's attention to the wonder, the seaman at the helm -turned and spied it, and instantly roared out in a voice that swept -past the ear like the wind of something heavy swiftly flying.</p> - -<p>'Why,' cried Mrs. Burke—but the rest of the sentence was clipped sheer -off her lips in a yell of squall, a very hurricane blast; the air was -dark with spray, in the midst of which I just caught sight of the -jury-mast and sail<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> disappearing—not abruptly, but in a dissolving -way, as a snowflake dies on water. The whole thing went in the shriek -of the blast, with a single report and a snowstorm of flying tatters; -the next instant Mrs. Burke was dragging me down the companion-steps -and we both got into the cabin dazed, frozen to the marrow, as much -confounded and terrified by that sudden meteoric shock and blast of -wind, with its burthen of white brine and its noise of fierce yells and -whistlings, as though we had scarcely escaped with our lives.</p> - -<p>The captain heard, or guessed what had happened; he rushed from his -berth on to the deck, but the squall pinned him in the companion-way -for a minute, and he stood struggling as though some man had taken him -by the throat. In five minutes, however, the furious outburst was spent -or had flown ahead; I could tell that by glancing at the cabin windows -whenever they lifted clear. The steward came below to trim the lamp.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> -Mrs. Burke asked him what was doing on deck. He answered, nothing, and -told us what we knew, that the jury-mast and sail had blown over the -bows.</p> - -<p>It was now to be felt by the distressful, horrid, jerky motion, that -the hull had taken up her old situation in the trough.</p> - -<p>'What has happened?' said Mr. Owen, coming out of his berth.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Burke told him. He groaned, and sat down close beside the stove, -folding his arms tightly, and said:</p> - -<p>'What is to become of us? This is distracting. I am prepared to meet my -Maker, but it is the suspense—it is the suspense—it is the having to -wait for death that crazes.'</p> - -<p>'I am surprised at you,' exclaimed Mrs. Burke, drawing herself up. -'How, as a man, can you talk so before this young lady? As for me, I -don't mind what you say; I am the wife of a sailor, and it's not in you -to improve my spirits or make me despair. But you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> have no right to -forget yourself as a man before Miss Otway.'</p> - -<p>He slapped his knee violently, crying out, 'Poor as I am, I would give -five hundred pounds had I never heard of your husband or his ship.'</p> - -<p>The poor woman looked at him with her flat eyes and curled her lip, -then gave me an expressive glance when he arose and began to move about -the cabin, holding on and looking at the windows to left and right as -they soared blind with the foam dazzle.</p> - -<p>It was dark as midnight on deck before the captain came below, and yet -it may not have been three o'clock. He approached the fire and stood -before it, his wife and myself sitting on either hand of him. He seemed -to steadfastly regard Mr. Owen, who was on a locker at the after end of -the cabin, but did not offer to speak. Presently his wife said:</p> - -<p>'Are the mast and sail lost for good, Edward?' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span></p> - -<p>'Ay.'</p> - -<p>'What was the whiteness that swept them away?'</p> - -<p>'What but a squall? This is a great ocean, and mark our luck; there -were thousands of miles of water for that squall to sweep over on -either hand of us, but Old Stormy bestrode it, and, scenting us, made -for the hull.'</p> - -<p>'There are other booms to rig up a mast with.'</p> - -<p>'So there are,' he answered, speaking quietly, with his eyes fixed upon -the form of the doctor as though he addressed him. 'There are other -spars, but there's not another crew to do the work.'</p> - -<p>His wife gave a start at this and looked up at him with a passion of -anxiety, putting her hand upon his arm.</p> - -<p>'The men have as good as told me,' said he, 'through the bo'sun, that -there's nothing to be done with jury-masts. They're willing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> to try -their hands to-morrow on another—to oblige me—but they'd rather get -my permission to prepare the long-boat for leaving the ship so as -to give chase to a sail if one should show too far off to speak us: -failing that, then to take advantage of a smooth in the weather and to -make for the northward in an open boat—in this sea—the idiots!'</p> - -<p>'But something must be done,' shouted Mr. Owen from his corner. 'The -ship will go to pieces if she's to be left to knock about in this -hollow sea.'</p> - -<p>Captain Burke took no more notice than had the doctor's voice been the -creaking of a bulkhead.</p> - -<p>It was quieter on that than on the preceding night. The wind, we -learnt, was a scanty breeze out of the south; here and there the vapour -had thinned, and a pale star shivered in the openings: our drift that -day had lifted some northward point of ice, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> the dim faintness of -it was visible on the port beam, as the helpless hull lay; that was -all the ice to be seen, and it was far enough off to keep us easy. A -large black swell was flowing north and south, but the folds were wide -and regular and the motion of the hull was almost easy upon it. These -matters about that scene of night outside I got from the captain and -steward.</p> - -<p>The sailors remained forward. I understood they managed very well now -they could keep the galley fire going. Once during this evening I asked -Captain Burke, when he came below for a glass of hot grog and biscuit, -why he did not burn a signal fire.</p> - -<p>'And risk setting the hull in a blaze?' said he, 'with the chance of -there being nothing within five hundred miles of us.'</p> - -<p>'It might bring help, Edward,' said his wife.</p> - -<p>He flung from us in a passion. It was a bad sign with him now, that -the merest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> nothings, such as my question, put him into a rage. He -swallowed his glass of grog and returned on deck, and when half-way -up the companion ladder he paused to shout back, 'No use in making a -flare unless there's something to signal to,' and then stepped into the -blackness outside.</p> - -<p>It was fine weather next day—fine for that part of the world, I mean; -glimpses of watery blue, betwixt curtains of ashy yellow and brown -vapour, some slanting pencils of dull sulphur in the north, striking -the line of the horizon out of a long ragged edge of cloud. The wind -was west, fresh enough to flash plumes of spray out of the running -wrinkles; there was the head of an iceberg away north to the right of -the weak shower of sunshine. This was all to be seen—saving always the -hull with her deck of frozen snow, and her catheads barbed with ice, -and her lines of rails bristling with daggers and small arms of frozen -dew and brine—when I looked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> through the companion hatch after leaving -my cabin.</p> - -<p>Whilst Mrs. Burke, Mr. Owen and myself breakfasted, we heard the people -on deck busy with another jury-mast. The captain's voice rang out again -in loud eager shouts. Mrs. Burke sent the steward up to beg her husband -come below and breakfast whilst the coffee was hot; he sent answer -that he could not leave; but even whilst the steward was delivering -the captain's reply, a long strange hallo was delivered by one of the -men; the sounds of bustle ceased; in a minute or two we heard a rush -of feet; Mr. Owen jumped from his chair and ran up the ladder, whence, -after he had paused to stare round, he shouted down in a voice of -ecstasy:—</p> - -<p>'A sail, Mrs. Burke! There's a ship in sight, Miss Otway!'</p> - -<p>I screamed with a sudden impulse of delight; I could no more have -arrested that cry than have stopped the hull from rolling;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> then, -swiftly as my legs would carry me and my arms would work, I gained -my berth and attired myself for the deck, and rushed up reckless of -foothold.</p> - -<p class="center space-above">END OF THE FIRST VOLUME</p> - -<p class="center space-above">PRINTED BY<br /> -SPOTTSWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE<br />LONDON</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Heart of Oak, vol. 1., by William Clark Russell - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEART OF OAK, VOL. 1. *** - -***** This file should be named 62341-h.htm or 62341-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/3/4/62341/ - -Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Heart of Oak, vol. 1. - A Three-Stranded Yarn - -Author: William Clark Russell - -Release Date: June 8, 2020 [EBook #62341] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEART OF OAK, VOL. 1. *** - - - - -Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - -+-------------------------------------------------+ -|Transcriber's note: | -| | -|Obvious typographic errors have been corrected. | -| | -+-------------------------------------------------+ - - -NEW BOOKS AT EVERY LIBRARY. - - - SONS OF BELIAL. By WILLIAM WESTALL. 2 vols. - - LILITH. By GEORGE MACDONALD. 1 vol. - - THE PROFESSOR'S EXPERIMENT. By MRS. HUNGERFORD. 3 vols. - - THE IMPRESSIONS OF AUREOLE. 1 vol. - - DAGONET ABROAD. By GEORGE R. SIMS. 1 vol. - - CLARENCE. By BRET HARTE. 1 vol. - - OTHELLO'S OCCUPATION. By MARY ANDERSON. 1 vol. - - HONOUR OF THIEVES. By C. J. CUTCLIFFE HYNE. 1 vol. - - THE MACDONALD LASS. By SARAH TYTLER. 1 vol. - - THE PRINCE OF BALKISTAN. By ALLEN UPWARD. 1 vol. - - THE KING IN YELLOW. By ROBERT W. CHAMBERS. 1 vol. - - -LONDON: CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY. - - - - -HEART OF OAK - -VOL. I. - - - - -PRINTED BY -SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE -LONDON - - - - -HEART OF OAK - -A THREE-STRANDED YARN - -BY - -W. CLARK RUSSELL - -AUTHOR OF -'THE WRECK OF THE GROSVENOR' 'THE PHANTOM DEATH' -'THE CONVICT SHIP' ETC. - -[Illustration: Decoration] - -IN THREE VOLUMES--VOL. I. - - -LONDON -CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY -1895 - - - - -CONTENTS - -OF - -THE FIRST VOLUME - -CHAPTER PAGE - I. MISS OTWAY OPENS THE STORY 1 - - II. MARIE'S SWEETHEART 16 - - III. THE 'LADY EMMA' 30 - - IV. MARIE BEGINS HER VOYAGE 57 - - V. THE HIDDEN LIFE OF THE SHIP 85 - - VI. A STRANGE MAN ON BOARD 112 - - VII. A RACE AND A ROLLER 136 - -VIII. A HURRICANE 161 - - IX. DISMASTED 190 - - X. THE JURY-MAST 212 - - - - -HEART OF OAK - - - - -CHAPTER I - -MISS OTWAY OPENS THE STORY - - -I date the opening of this narrative, February 24, 1860. - -I was in the drawing-room of my father's house on the afternoon of that -day, awaiting the arrival of Captain Burke, of the ship 'Lady Emma,' -and his wife, Mary Burke, who had nursed me and brought me up, and -indeed been as a mother to me after my own mother's death in 1854; but -she had left us to marry Captain Edward Burke, and had already made two -voyages round the world with him, and was presently going a third. - -My father sat beside the fire reading a newspaper. His name was Sir -Mortimer Otway; he was fourth baronet and a colonel; had seen service -in India, though he had long left the army to settle down upon his -little seaside estate. He was a man of small fortune. Having said this, -I need not trouble you with more of his family history. - -I was his only surviving child, and my name is Marie; I have no other -Christian name than that; it was my mother's. My age was twenty and my -health delicate, so much so that Captain and Mrs. Burke were coming -from London expressly to talk over a scheme of my going round the world -in their ship for the benefit of my appetite and spirits and voice, and -perhaps for my lungs, though to be sure _they_ were still sound at that -date. - -Ours was a fine house, about a hundred years old; it stood within a -stone's throw of the brink of the cliff; walls and hedges encompassed -some seventy or eighty acres of land, pleasantly wooded in places, and -there was a charming scene of garden on either hand the carriage drive. -I stood at the window with my eyes fastened upon the sea, which went in -a slope of grey steel to the dark sky of the horizon, where here and -there some roaming mass of vapour was hoary with snow. It was blowing -a fresh breeze, and the throb of the ocean was cold with the ice-like -glances of the whipped foam. Presently it thickened overhead, and snow -fell in a squall of wind that darkened the early afternoon into evening -with smoking lines of flying flakes. The sea faded as the reflection -of a star in troubled water. My father put down his newspaper and came -to the window. He was a tall man, bald, high-coloured; his eyes were -large and black, soft in expression, and steady in gaze; his beard -and moustache were of an iron grey, he was sixty years old, yet still -preserved the soldier's trick of carrying his figure to the full height -of his stature. - -'At what hour do you say they're to be here?' - -'At three.' - -He glanced at his watch, then out of the window. - -'That doesn't look like a scene where a delicate girl's going to get -strong!' - -'No,' I answered with a shiver. - -'But a crown piece on a chart will often cover the area of worse -weather than this, and for leagues beyond all shall be glorious -sunshine and blue water.' - -'It's hard to realise,' said I, straining my eyes through the snow for -a sight of the sea. - -'Well,' he exclaimed, turning his back upon the window, 'Bradshaw is -an able man; his instances of people whom a sea voyage has cured are -remarkable, and weigh with me. Living by the seaside is not like going -a voyage. It's the hundred climates which make the medicine. Then the -sights and sounds of the ocean are tonical. Are sailors ever ill at -sea? Yes, because they carry their sickness on board with them, or they -decay by bad usage, or perish by poisonous cargoes. The sea kills no -man--save by drowning.' - -He took a turn about the room, and I stared through the window at the -flying blankness. - -'Steam is more certain,' he went on, thinking aloud. 'You can time -yourself by steam. But then for health it doesn't give you all you -want. At least we can't make it fit in your case. It would be otherwise -if I had the means or was able to accompany you, or if I could put -you in charge of some sober, trustworthy old hand. Steam must signify -several changes to give you the time at sea that Bradshaw prescribes. -It's out of the question. No; Mrs. Burke's scheme is the practicable -one, and I shall feel easy when I think of you as watched over by your -old nurse. But I have several questions to ask. When are they coming? -Have they missed their train?' - -About five minutes after this they were shown in. - -Mrs. Burke, my old nurse, was a homely, plain, soft-hearted woman, a -little less than forty years of age at this time. She was stout, and -pale, though she was now a traveller, with large, short-sighted blue -eyes, a flat face, and a number of chins. She was dressed as you would -wish a homely skipper's wife to be: in a neat bonnet with a heavy -Shetland veil wrapped around it; a stout mantle, and a gown of thick -warm stuff. She sank a little curtsey to my father, who eagerly stepped -forward and cordially greeted his old servant; in an instant I had my -arms round her neck. You will believe I loved her when I tell you she -had come to my mother's service when I was a month old, and had been -my nurse and maid, and looked after me as a second mother down to the -time when she left us to be married. - -Her husband stood smiling behind her. He was short, an Irishman: he -looked the completest sailor you can imagine--that is, a merchant -sailor. He was richly coloured by the sun, and his small, sharp, merry, -liquid blue eyes gleamed and trembled and sparkled in their sockets -like a pair of stars in some reflected hectic of sunset in the eastern -sky. Everything about him told of heartiness and good humour: there -was something arch in the very curl of his little slip of whiskers. A -set of fine white teeth lighted up his face like a smile of kindness -whenever he parted his lips. He was dressed in the blue cloth coat -and velvet collar, the figured waist-coat and bell-shaped trousers, -of the merchant service in those days, and over all he wore a great -pilot-cloth coat, whose tails fell nearly to his heels; inside of -which, as inside a sentry box, he stood up on slightly curved, easily -yielding legs, a model of a clean, wholesome, hearty British skipper. - -Of course I had met him before. I had attended his marriage, and was -never so dull but that the recollection of his face on that occasion -would make me smile, and often laugh aloud. He had also with his wife -spent a day with us after the return of his ship from the first voyage -they had made together. My father shook him cordially by the hand. He -then led him into the library, whilst I took Mrs. Burke upstairs. - -We could have found a thousand things to say to each other; there were -memories of sixteen years of my life common to us both. I could have -told her of my engagement and shown her my sweetheart's picture; but I -was anxious to hear Captain Burke on the subject of my proposed voyage, -and so after ten minutes we went downstairs, where we found my father -and the captain seated before a glowing fire, already deep in talk. - -The captain jumped up when I entered, my father placed a chair for Mrs. -Burke, who curtseyed her thanks, and the four of us sat. - -'Well, now, Mrs. Burke,' said my father, addressing her very earnestly, -'your husband's ship is your suggestion, you know. You've sailed round -the world in her and you can tell me more about the sea than your -husband knows'--the captain gave a loud, nervous laugh--'as to the -suitability of such a ship and such a voyage as you recommend to Miss -Otway.' - -'I am sure, Sir Mortimer,' answered Mrs. Burke, 'that it'll do her -all the good, and more than all the good, that the doctors promise. -I should love to have her with me.' She turned to look at me -affectionately. 'Since you can't accompany her, sir, I'd not like to -think of her at sea, and me without the power of caring for her. No -steamer could be safer than the "Lady Emma."' The captain uttered a -nervous laugh of good-humoured derision of steamers. 'If you will -trust my dear young lady to me, I'll warrant you, Sir Mortimer, -there's not the most splendid steamship afloat that shall make her a -comfortabler home than my husband's vessel.' - -'I have some knowledge of the sea, Captain Burke,' said my father. 'I -have made the voyage to India. What is the tonnage of the "Lady Emma"?' - -'Six hundred, sir.' - -'That's a small ship. The "Hindostan" was fourteen hundred tons.' - -'You don't want stilts aboard of six hundred tons to look over the head -of the biggest sea that can run,' answered the captain. - -'She sails beautifully and is a sweet-looking ship,' said my old nurse. - -'When do you start?' asked my father. - -'I hope to get away by the end of next month, sir.' - -'Your little ships, I understand, which are not passenger vessels, -often sail very deeply loaded and are unsafe in that way,' said my -father. - -'There can be nothing wrong with a man's freeboard, sir, when his cargo -is what mine's going to be next trip: stout, brandy, whisky, samples of -tinned goods, a lot of theatre scenery, builder's stuff like as doors -and window frames, patent fuel and oil-cake.' - -'Gracious, what a mixture!' cried his wife. - -'What I suppose is termed a general cargo?' said my father; 'not the -best of cargoes in case of fire.' - -'What cargo is good when it comes to that, sir?' asked Captain Burke, -smiling. 'We must never think of risks at sea any more than we do -ashore. To my fancy there's more peril in a railway journey from here -to London than in a voyage from the Thames round the world.' - -'Miss Otway must be under somebody's care, Sir Mortimer,' said Mrs. -Burke. - -'How do you think she looks?' - -'Not as she'll look when I bring her back to you, sir.' - -'It's astonishing what a lot of colouring matter there is for the blood -in sea air,' said Captain Burke. 'When I was first going to sea I was -as pale as a baker; or, as my old father used to say, as a nun's lips -with kissing of beads; afterwards----' he paused with an arch look at -his wife. 'And the colour isn't always that of rum either,' he added. - -'Where does the ship first sail to, nurse?' said I. - -'Tell my young lady, Edward,' she answered. - -'We're bound to Valparaiso, and that's by way of Cape Horn,' said -the captain. 'We there discharge, fill afresh, and thence to Sydney, -New South Wales, thence to Algoa Bay, and so home--a beautiful round -voyage.' - -'Right round the world, and so many lovely lands to view besides!' -exclaimed Mrs. Burke, looking at me; 'always in one ship, too, in one -home, Sir Mortimer, with me to see to her. Oh, I shall love to have -her!' - -My father looked out of the window at the wild whirl of snow that had -thickened till it was all flying whiteness through the glass, with -the coming and going of the thunder of a squall in the chimney, and a -subdued note of the snarling of surf, and said, 'Cape Horn will be a -cold passage for Miss Otway.' - -'It's more bracing than cold,' said Captain Burke. 'People that talk -of Cape Horn and the ice there don't know, I reckon, that parrots and -humming birds are to be met with in Strait le Maire. I was shipmate -with a man who's been picking fuchsias in such another snowfall as this -down on the coast of Patagonia.' - -'Miss Marie, you should see an iceberg; it's a beautiful sight when -lighted up by the sun,' said my nurse. - -'Beautifuller when under the moon and lying becalmed like a floating -city of marble, and nothing breaking the quiet save the breathing of -grampuses,' exclaimed the captain. - -In this strain we continued to talk for some time. My father better -understood than I did that my very life might depend upon my going a -voyage, and spending many months among the climates of the ocean. All -the doctors he had consulted about me were agreed in this, and the last -and the most eminent, whose opinion we had taken, had advised it with -such gravity and emphasis as determined him upon making at once the -best arrangements practicable, seeing that he was unable to accompany -me for several reasons; one, and a sufficient, being his dislike of the -sea when on it. Our long talk ended in his proposing to return with -Captain Burke to London to view the 'Lady Emma,' which was lying in -the East India Docks, and my old nurse consented to stop with me until -he returned, so that we could chat about the voyage and think over the -many little things which might be necessary to render my trip as happy -and comfortable as foresight could contrive. The one drawback that kept -my father hesitating throughout this meeting with Captain Burke and -his wife was this: the 'Lady Emma' would not carry a surgeon. But that -question, they decided, would be left until he had seen the ship, and -satisfied himself that she would make me such a sea-home as he could -with an easy heart send me away in. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -MARIE'S SWEETHEART - - -My father went to London next day with Captain Burke. I denied myself -to callers, and until my father came back remained alone with my old -nurse, once or twice taking a ramble along the seashore when the sun -shone; but my health was bad, and I had as little taste for walking as -for company. - -I suffered from a sort of spiritlessness and a dull indifference to -things. My health was the cause of my low-heartedness: but there were -many reasons now why I should feel wretched. It was not the merely -leaving my father and my home for a twelvemonth and longer, to wander -about the ocean in a ship in search of colour for my cheeks and light -for my eyes and strength for my voice; but for my health I should have -been married in the previous October; and now my marriage must be put -off till the sea had made me strong, and I was to be sundered from the -man I loved for months and months. - -My betrothal had happened whilst my old nurse Burke was away; it was -therefore news to her, and she listened to all about it with eager, -affectionate attention. I told her that my sweetheart was Mr. Archibald -Moore, the son of a private banker in the City of London. I had met -him at a ball in the neighbourhood, and within a month of that we were -engaged. He was the sweetest, dearest, handsomest--I found I did not -want words when it came to my praising him and speaking of my love. - -She said: 'Does he often come to see you, Miss Marie?' - -'Often. Every week. He is occupied with his father in the bank, and can -only spare from Saturday to Monday.' - -'Will he be here next Saturday?' - -'I hope so.' - -'Dear heart! Oh, Miss Marie, I have a thought: will not his father -spare him to sail with us, so that you can be together?' - -I shook my head. - -'But why not?' - -'Father would not hear of it.' - -She reflected and exclaimed, 'And Sir Mortimer would be quite right. -To be sure it would not do. Is it not a pity that we have to live for -our neighbours? Neighbours have broken folks' hearts, as well as their -fortunes. Why shouldn't you two be together on board my husband's ship? -But the neighbour says No, and people have to live for him. Drat the -prying, squinting starer into one's windows! he forces us to dress out -a better table than our purses can afford, and to give balls when we -ought to be cutting down the weekly bills. But he don't like the sea, -my dear. There are no neighbours at sea. Unfortunately the wretch -stops ashore; people have to come back, and so he has 'em again!' - -Mrs. Burke made much of Mr. Moore's portrait. She had never seen a -handsomer gentleman. What was his age? I answered 'Thirty.' 'All the -sense,' said she, 'that a man's likely to have he'll have got between -thirty and forty. It'll comfort you, Miss Marie, to remember that Mr. -Moore's thirty when you're away. He's old enough to know what he's -about: he's made up his mind; there'll be no swerving.' - -This was a sort of gabble to please me. She knew my nature, and when -and how to say just the sort of thing to set my spirits dancing. In -truth the part of my proposed banishment hardest to bear was the fear -that a long absence would cool the heart of the man I loved. - -On Friday Mrs. Burke left us to rejoin her husband, whose home was in -Stepney, and on that day my father returned. He was in good spirits. -He had seen the 'Lady Emma' and thought her a fine ship. She was -classed high, and was yacht-like as a model. Mr. Moore had accompanied -him and Captain Burke to the docks, and was wonderfully pleased with -the vessel and her accommodation. - -'We've got over the difficulty of a doctor,' said my father. - -'How?' I answered. - -'Burke has consented to engage one. I told him if he would carry a -surgeon, by which I mean feed and accommodate him in the ship, I would -bear the other charges. He has a month before him, and may find a man -who wants a change of air and who'll give his services for a cabin -and food. Or, which is more likely, he'll meet with some intelligent -young gentleman who wants to try his 'prentice hand on sailors before -starting in practice ashore. Doctors find sailors useful as subjects; -they can experiment on them without professional anxiety as to the -result.' - -Now that it was as good as settled I was to sail in the 'Lady Emma,' -I looked forward to meeting Mr. Moore next day with dread and misery. -I was going away alone. All the risks of the sea lay before me. I was -low and poor in health. Who could be sure that the ocean would do for -me all that the doctors had promised? Who was to say it would let me -return alive? I might never meet my love again. When I said good-bye to -the man who by this time should have been my husband, it might be for -ever, and the thought made the prospect of meeting him next day almost -insupportable. - -He found me alone in the drawing-room. The servant admitted him and -closed the door. I stood up very white and crying; he took me in his -arms and kissed me, led me to a chair and sat beside me, holding my -hand and nursing it, and looking into my face for a little while, -scarcely able to speak. How shall I describe him, whose love for me, -as you shall presently read, was such as to make my love for him, -when I think of him as he sat beside me that day, as I follow him in -memory afterwards, too deep for human expression? He was tall, fair, -eyes of a dark blue, deep but gentle, and easily impassioned. He wore -a large yellow moustache, and was as perfectly the model of an English -gentleman in appearance as Captain Burke was a merchant skipper. - -He began immediately on the subject of my voyage. - -'It's hard we should be parted; but I like your little ship, Marie. -I've not met your old nurse, but I judge from what your father tells me -you could not be in better and safer hands. Captain Burke seems a fine -fellow--a thorough, practical seaman. I wish I could accompany you.' - -'Oh, Archie, I shall be so long alone!' - -'Ay, but you're to get well, dearest. I've thought the scheme over -thoroughly. If there's nothing for it but a voyage as the doctors -insist, your father's plans, your old nurse's suggestion, could not -be bettered. Who would look after you on board a big steamer? There -is nobody to accompany you--no relative, nobody we know, no party of -people I can hear of to entrust you to--making, I mean, such a voyage -as the doctors advise. I should be distracted when you were gone in -thinking of you as alone on a steamship at sea, with not a soul to take -the least interest in you saving the captain; and captains, I believe, -do not very much love these obligations. Civility, of course, everybody -expects, but a big ship to look after is a big business to attend to.' - -'It will be a terribly long voyage.' - -'To Valparaiso, and then to Sydney and Algoa Bay, and home. About -fourteen months. So Burke calculates it. A long time, Marie; but if it -is to make you strong, it will not be too long.' - -In this wise we talked; then, there being two hours of daylight left, -I put on my hat and jacket and, taking my lover's arm, went with -him slowly down the great gap in the cliffs to the seashore. It was -sheltered down here. The yellow sunshine lay upon the brown sand, and -flashed in the lifting lengths of seaweed writhing amidst the surf, -and had a sense of April warmth, though it was a keen wind that then -blew--a northerly wind, strong, with a hurry of white clouds like -endless flocks of sheep, scampering southwards. The sands made a noble -promenade, surf-furrowed and hard as wood; the breakers tumbled close -beside us with a loud roar of thunder, and exquisite was the picture of -the trending cliffs, snowclad, gleaming with a delicate moonlike light -in the pale airy blue distance. All sights and sounds of sky and sea -appealed to me now with a meaning I had never before found in them. I -would stop my lover as we walked, to observe the swift and beautiful -miracle of the moulding of a breaker as it arched out of the troubled -brine, soaring, into a snowstorm, arching headlong to the sands with -the foam flying from its rushing peak like white feathers streaming -from a dazzling line of helmets; and once or twice as we talked, I -would pause to mark the flight of the gulls stemming the wind aslant in -curves of beauty, or sailing seawards on level, tremorless wings, and -flinging a salt ocean song with their short raw cries through the harsh -bass and storming accompaniment of the surf. - -'If the breeze does not make me strong here, why should the sea make me -strong elsewhere?' I said. - -'It is the change. I have heard of desperate cases made well by travel.' - -'It is hard! To think that my health should force me to that!' I -exclaimed, pointing to a little vessel that had rounded out of a point -two miles distant, and was lifting the white seas to the level of her -bows as she sank and soared before the fresh wind, every sail glowing -like a star, her rigging gleaming like golden wire, her decks sparkling -when she inclined them towards us, as though the glass and brass about -her were rubies and diamonds. 'I wonder if she will ever return, -Archie?' - -'Why not? Cheer up, dearest.' - -We watched her till she had shrunk into a little square of dim orange, -with the freckled green running in hardening ridges southwards, where -the shadow of the early February evening was deepening like smoke, -making the ocean distance past the sail look as wide again to the -imagination as the truth was. I shuddered and involuntarily pressed my -lover's arm. - -'The wind is too cold for you,' he said, and we slowly returned home -up through the great split in the cliff amongst whose hollows and -shoulders the roar of the surf was echoed back in quick, sudden, -intermittent notes like the sound of guns at sea. - -From this date until I sailed my time was wholly occupied in preparing -for the voyage. I went to London with my father to shop; Mrs. Burke -accompanied us, and half our purchases were owing to her advice. -Fortunately for her, as the wife of a sailor who was able to take -her to sea with him, she was childless, and could afford to give me -much of her time. They reckoned I was to be away fourteen months, but -Captain Burke advised us, having regard to the character of the voyage, -especially to the passage from Valparaiso to Sydney, to stock for a -round trip of eighteen months: this he thought would provide for a -good margin. Clothes for all the climates, from the roasting calms of -the line down to the frost-black gales of the Horn, were purchased; -many delicacies were laid in--a hundred elegant trifles of wine -and condiments, of sweetmeats and potted stuffs, to supplement the -captain's plain table or to find me a relish for some hungry howling -hour when the galley fire should be washed out. Mr. Moore wrote that he -frequently visited the ship, and that he and Mrs. Burke between them -were making my cabin as comfortable as my old nurse's foresight and -experience could manage. - -So went by this wretched time of waiting and of preparation. - -About a fortnight before the ship sailed my father received a letter -from Captain Burke, telling him that he had engaged a surgeon. His name -was Owen. His age he said was about forty-three; he was a widower. -The loss of his wife and two daughters three years before this period -had broken him down; he was unable to practise; had travelled in the -hopes of distracting his mind, but his means were slender and he was -unable to be long away or go far; yet when he endeavoured to resume -work he found himself unequal to his professional calls. He thereupon -sold his practice and had lived for some months in retirement upon a -trifling income. Having seen Captain Burke's advertisement he offered -his services in exchange for a free voyage. The captain described him -as a gentlemanly man, his credentials excellent, and his experience -considerable. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -THE 'LADY EMMA' - - -On the morning of a day for ever memorable to me as the date of my -departure from my home--namely, March 31, 1860--my father and I went to -London, there to stay till April 2, when it was arranged that I should -go on board the ship at Gravesend. My grief worked like a passion in -me; yet I was quiet; my resolution to be calm whitened my cheeks, but -again and again my eyes brimmed in spite of my efforts. - -Oh, I so feared this going away alone! Even though I was to be in the -company of my faithful, dear Mrs. Burke, my very heart so shrank up -in me at the idea of saying farewell to my lover, with the chance of -never seeing him more, that sometimes when I said my prayers I would -ask God to make me too ill to leave home. - -It was a melancholy grey day when I drove with my father to the -station; the east wind sang like the surf in the naked, iron-hard -boughs, and the sea streamed in lines of snow into the black desolate -distance, unbroken by a gleam of sail, save, as we turned the corner -which gave me a view of the ocean, I caught sight of a lonely black and -red carcass of a steamer staggering along, tall and naked as though -plucked, with a hill of foam under her counter; the melancholy and -desolation of the day was in her, and no picture of shipwreck could -have made that scene of waters sadder. - -I had bidden good-bye to all I knew during the week: there were no more -farewells to be said. We entered the train, and when we ran out of the -station I felt that my long voyage had truly commenced. I'll not linger -over my brief stay in London. Mr. Moore was constantly with me: indeed -we were seldom apart during those two days of my waiting to join the -ship at Gravesend. His father and sister called to say good-bye; I was -too poorly and low-spirited to visit them. In truth I never once left -the hotel until I drove with my father and Mr. Moore to the station to -take the train to Gravesend. - -Before embarking, however, I made the acquaintance of Mr. Owen, the -surgeon of the ship. He had occasion to be in the West End of London, -and Mrs. Burke asked him to call. I viewed him with considerable -curiosity, for it was not only he was to be my medical adviser--I could -not but reflect that I was to be locked up in a small ship with this -man for very many months, with no other change of society than Captain -and Mrs. Burke. I was pleasantly disappointed in him. I had figured -a yellow, long-faced, melancholy man, with a countenance ploughed by -frequent secret weeping, and furrowed by pitiful memories and night -thoughts black as Dr. Young's. Instead there entered the room briskly, -with a sideways bow cleverly executed whilst in motion, the right arm -advanced, a short, plump figure of a man in a coat cut in something -of a clerical style, short legs, and a face that would have been -reasonably full but for its long aquiline nose, and contraction of -lineaments due to a big bush of hair standing out stiff in minute curls -over either ear. Otherwise he was bald. - -My father was extremely polite to him. He stayed an hour and partook -of some slight refreshment. He stared at me very earnestly, felt my -pulse, considered me generally with polite professional attention, and, -after he had put certain questions, said to my father with significant -gravity: - -'You may console yourself, sir, for the temporary loss of your -daughter; I do not scruple to say that in sending her on this voyage -you will be saving her life. I believe I can recognise her case, and -strongly share the opinion of those who prescribe a long residence on -board ship upon the ocean.' - -My father's face lighted up: nothing I believe could have heartened him -more at the moment than this assurance. Mr. Moore took Mr. Owen by the -hand and said: - -'We shall be trusting her to you, sir; she is very dear to me. We -should be man and wife but for her health.' - -'All that my anxious attention can give her she shall have,' said Mr. -Owen, bowing over my lover's hand. - -Yet he did not stay his hour without letting us see, poor fellow, that -in the depths of his heart he was a grieving man. He said nothing; no -reference was made to his affliction: but in certain pauses the pain of -memory would enter his face like a shadow, and sometimes he would sigh -tremulously as one in sorrow sighs in sleep, scarcely knowing you saw, -that he did so. - -When he was gone, my father said to Mr. Moore that his spirits felt as -light again now that he had seen what sort of man it was who would have -charge of my health. - -'Taking all sides of it,' he said, 'I don't think we could have -done better. Marie goes with an old nurse who loves her as her own -child; Mr. Owen seems a kind-hearted, experienced, practical man. I -hope he understands that our appreciation of his kindness will not -be restricted to bare thanks on the return of the vessel. The more -I see of Burke, the better I like him. He is an honest, experienced -seaman from crown to heel, and in saying that I am allowing him all -the virtues. No; the arrangements are wholly to my satisfaction and my -mind is at rest. It will be like a long yachting trip for Marie: she -will have a fine ship under her, and all the seclusion and comfort of -a yacht combined with the safety of ample tonnage. I am satisfied. It -was a cruel difficulty; we have had to meet it; it is well met, and -now, Marie, there is nothing to do but wait. Have patience. The months -will swiftly roll by--then you will return to us, a healthy, fine young -woman, full of life and colour and vigour, instead of----' His voice -broke off in a sob and he turned his head away. I ran to him and he -held me. - -On April 2 we went down to Gravesend. Mr. Moore accompanied us. Captain -Burke had telegraphed that the 'Lady Emma' was lying off that town and -would tow to sea in the afternoon of the 2nd. We arrived at Gravesend -at about twelve o'clock and drove to a hotel. All my luggage had been -sent on board the ship in the docks. Mrs. Burke waited for us in a room -overlooking the river; here she had ordered luncheon to be served. She -seemed hearty and happy: kissed me, and curtseyed to my father and Mr. -Moore, and taking me to the window said: - -'There she is, Miss Marie. There's your ocean home. What do you think -of her as a picture?' - -She pointed to a vessel that was straining at a buoy almost immediately -opposite. A tug was lying near her. It was a young April day; the -sunshine thin and pale, the blue of the heavens soft and dim, with a -number of swelling bodies of clouds, humped and bronzed, sailing with -the majesty of line-of-battle ships into the south-west. A brisk wind -blew and the river was full of life. The grey water twinkled and was -flashed in places into a clearness and beauty of bluish crystal by the -brushing of the breeze. The eye was filled and puzzled for some moments -by the abounding tints and motion. A large steamer with her line of -bulwarks palpitating with heads of emigrants was slowly passing down; -another with frosted funnel and drainings of red rust on her side, as -though she still bled from the scratches of a recent vicious fight -outside, was warily passing up: beside her was a large, full-rigged -ship towing to London, and the sluggish passage of the masts, yards, -and rigging of the two vessels, the steamer sliding past the other, -combined with the sudden turning of a little schooner close by, all her -canvas shaking, and with the heeling figure of a brig, her dark breasts -of patched canvas swelling for the flat shores opposite, a spout of -white water at her forefoot, and a short-lived vein of river-froth at -her rudder; _then_, close in, two barges heaped with cargo, blowing -along stiff as flag-poles under brown wings of sail; these with vessels -at both extremities of the Reach, coming and going, interlacing the -perspective of their rigging into a complication of colours and -wirelike outlines, for ever shifting: all this wonderful changing life, -I say, adding to it the trembling of the stream of river, the pouring -of smoke, the pulling and shivering of flags, put a giddiness into the -scene, and for some moments I stared idly, with Mrs. Burke beside me -pointing to the 'Lady Emma.' - -My eye then went to the ship, and rested upon as pretty a little -fabric as probably ever floated upon the water of the Thames. I may -venture upon a description of her and speak critically: indeed I must -presuppose some knowledge of the sea in you, otherwise I shall be at -a loss; for as you shall presently discover I was long enough upon -the ocean, under circumstances of distress scarcely paralleled in the -records, to learn by heart the language of the deep, how to speak of -ships and tell of sailors' doings, and I cannot but name the things of -the sea in the language in which the mariner talks of them. - -The 'Lady Emma' was a full-rigged ship, between six hundred and seven -hundred tons in burthen; she was a wooden ship--iron sailing vessels -were few in those days; she was painted black; but though loaded for -the voyage she sat lightly upon the water, and a hand's-breadth of new -metal sheathing burned along her water-line like a gilding of sunlight -the length of her. Her lower masts were white, her upper masts a bright -yellow; her yards were very square, or as a landsman would call them -wide: the most inexperienced eye might guess that when clothed in sail -she would spread wings as of an albatross in power, breadth, and beauty -for a meteoric flight over the long blue heave. - -'How do you like her, Miss Marie?' said Mrs. Burke. - -'She is a pretty ship, I think,' I answered. - -'She is a beauty,' said the good woman; 'she outsails everything.' - -'She has a fine commanding lift about the bows,' said Mr. Moore, -passing his arm through mine. 'Captain Burke tells me she has done as -much as three hundred and twelve miles in the twenty-four hours.' - -'So she has, sir,' said Mrs. Burke. - -'I wish she'd maintain that rate of sailing all the time Marie is -aboard,' said my father. - -'Oh, Sir Mortimer, this going will seem but as of yesterday's happening -when yonder ship's out there again, returned, and your dear girl's in -your arms, strong, fine, and hearty, rich in voice, and bright-eyed as -she used to be when a baby. These voyages seem long to take, and when -they're ended it's like counting how many fingers you have to remember -them, so easy and quick it all went.' - -Lunch was served and we seated ourselves, but my throat was dry and -I could swallow nothing but a little wine. My father and Mr. Moore -pretended to eat; suddenly looking up I met my sweetheart's gaze: a -look of inexpressible tenderness and distress entered his face, and -starting from his seat he went to the window, and kept his back to us -for a few minutes. Mrs. Burke went to him and whispered in his ear; I -perfectly understood that she begged him to bear up for my sake: indeed -it needed but for my father and my lover to give way, for me to break -down utterly, with a menace of consequent prostration that must put an -end to this scheme of a voyage on the very threshold of it. - -We left the hotel at two o'clock and walked slowly to the pier. I was -closely veiled. I could not have borne the inquisitive stare of the -people as we passed. Whilst we waited for a boat, I watched a mother -saying good-bye to her son, a bright-haired boy of fourteen in the -uniform of a merchant midshipman. She was in deep mourning, a widow, -and I had but to look at her pale face to know that the boy was her -child. The lad struggled with his feelings; his determination to be -manly and not to be seen to cry by the people standing round about nor -to go on board his ship with red eyes doubtless helped him. He broke -away from her with a sort of sharp sobbing laugh, crying, 'Back again -in a year, mother, back again in a year,' and left her. She stood as -though turned to stone. When in the boat he flourished his cap to her; -she watched him like a statue with the most dreadful expression of -grief the imagination could paint. Never shall I forget the motionless -figure of that widow mother and the grief in her face, and the look in -her tearless eyes. - -'There's plenty of sorrow in this world,' said Mrs. Burke, as the four -of us seated ourselves in the boat, 'and there's no place where more -grief's to be seen than here, owing to the leave-takings and the coming -back of ships with news.' - -'Master of a ship fell dead yesterday just as he was a-stepping -ashore,' said the waterman who was rowing us. 'Bad job for his large -family.' - -'You'll take care to have a letter ready before the ship is out of the -Channel, Marie,' said my father. 'Mrs. Burke, your husband will give -Miss Otway every opportunity of sending letters home?' - -'I'll see to it, Sir Mortimer.' - -We drew alongside the ship. Captain Burke and Mr. Owen stood at the -gangway to receive us. When I went up the ladder, supported by my -father, Captain Burke with his hat off extended his hand, saying: - -'Miss Otway, welcome on board the "Lady Emma." She has received my -whisper. She knows her errand and what's expected of her. She'll keep -time, Sir Mortimer; and the magic that'll happen betwixt the months -whilst our jibboom is pointing to as many courses as the compass has -marks is going to transform this delicate, pale young lady into the -heartiest, rosiest lass that ever stepped over a ship's side.' - -'I pray so, I pray so,' exclaimed my father. - -'Captain Burke is not too sanguine,' exclaimed Mr. Owen with a smile. - -'When do you start?' asked Mr. Moore. - -'Soon after three, sir, I hope,' answered Captain Burke. - -I ran my eye over the ship. The scene had that sort of morbid interest -to me which the architecture and furniture of a prison cell takes for -one who is to pass many months in it. I beheld a long white deck, -extending from the taffrail into the bows, with several structures -breaking the wide lustrous continuity: one forward was the galley, -the ship's kitchen; this side of it was a large boat with sheep -bleating inside her; whilst underneath was a sty-full of pigs, flanked -by hen-coops whose bars throbbed with the ceaseless protrusion and -withdrawal of the flapping combs of cocks and the heads of hens. Near -us was a great square hatch, covered over with a tarpaulin, and farther -aft, as the proper expression is, was a big glazed frame for the -admission of light into the cabin; some distance past it a sort of box, -curved to the aspect of a hood, called the companion-way, conducted you -below. At the end of the ship was the wheel, like a circle of flame -with the brasswork of it flashing to the sun, and immediately in front -stood the compass box or binnacle, glittering like the wheel, and -trembling to its height upon the white planks like a short pillar of -fire. - -A number of sailors hung about the forecastle, and a man leaned in the -little door of the galley in a red shirt, bare to the elbows, eying us, -with a pair of fat, dough-like, tattooed arms crossed upon his breast, -a picture of stupid, sulky curiosity. - -We stayed for a few minutes talking in the gangway; Mrs. Burke then -asked me to step below and see my cabin, and I went down the steps -followed by the rest, and entered the ship's little plain state-room. - -I stopped at the foot of the ladder and drew my breath with difficulty. -What was it? An extraordinary sensation of icy chill had passed through -me. It was over in an instant, but it was as though the hand of death -itself had clutched my heart. Was it a presentiment working so potently -as to affect me physically? Was it some subtle motion of the nerves -influenced by the sight of the interior, and by the strange shipboard -smells in it which there was no virtue in the hanging pots of flowers -to sweeten? I said nothing. My father halted to the arrest of my hand, -supposing I wished to look about me, and yet, oh, merciful God! when I -date myself back to that hour, and think of me as entering that cabin -for the first time, and then of what happened afterwards, I cannot for -an instant question--nay, with fear and awe I devoutly believe--that -the heart-moving sensation of chill which came and went in the beat of -a pulse was a breath off the pinion of my angel of fate or destiny, -stirring in the thick-ribbed blackness of the future at sight of my -first entrance into the scene of my distress. Do not think me fanciful -nor high strained in expression or imagination. My meaning will be -clear to you. - -The Burkes had done their best to make this state cabin comfortable -to the eye. Shelves full of books were secured to the ship's wall: a -couple of globes of gold and silver fish hung under the skylight, where -too were some rows of flowers hanging in pots. A couple of tall glasses -were affixed to the cabin walls, and the lamp was handsome and of -bright metal. A new carpet was stretched over the deck, and the table -was covered with a cloth, so that the interior looked like a little -parlour or living-room ashore. I also observed a stove in the fore end -of the cabin; it looked new, as though fitted for this particular -voyage. - -'Dear Miss Marie, let me show you your bedroom,' said Mrs. Burke. - -A narrow corridor went out of this living room in the direction of the -stern; on either hand were cabins, four of a side. Mrs. Burke threw -open a door on the port or left hand side, and we entered a large -berth. Two had been knocked into one for my use. - -'This is bigger than anything I could have secured for you on board a -steamer,' said my father. - -My old nurse's eyes were upon me whilst I gazed around. They had -made as elegant a little bedroom of the place as could possibly be -manufactured on board a plain, homely sailing ship. Every convenience -was here, and the furniture was handsome. They had put pink silk -curtains to my bunk which was single--that is, the upper shelf was -removed so that I should have the upper deck clear above me when I -pillowed my head. They had prettily decorated with drapery a large oval -glass nailed to the bulkhead: this mirror caught the light trembling -off the river, and brimming through the porthole and filled the -interior with a radiance of its own as though it had been a lamp. The -carpet was thick and rich; the armchair low and soft. A writing table -stood in the corner, and on it was a lovely bouquet; the berth was rich -with the smell of those delicious flowers; the atmosphere sweet as a -breeze in a garden of roses. It was my lover's gift, sent on board the -ship just before she left the docks, but I did not know this until -after I had said good-bye to him. - -'It is as comfortable as your bedroom at home, Marie,' said my father. - -'I find your thoughtful heart everywhere here, nurse,' said I. - -'We have all done our best, and our best shall go on being done,' she -answered, smiling, and meeting my father's gaze she dropped him one of -her little old-world curtseys. - -'I don't think you'll find anything missing, sir,' said Captain Burke, -'from Mr. Owen's medicine chest down to the smallest case of goodies in -the lazarette.' - -'My daughter is in kind hands. I am satisfied,' said my father, and he -came to me and put his arm round my neck. - -Captain Burke, saying he was needed on deck, went out. Mrs. Burke and -Mr. Owen followed; my father stepped into the state-room that I might -be alone with my lover. - -He caught me quickly to his heart and kissed me again and again with -a passion of grief and love. We had exchanged our vows before, over -and over. We could but kiss and whisper hopes of a sweet meeting, of a -lasting reunion by-and-by. It was like a parting between a young bride -and bridegroom, but with a dreadful significance going into it out of -my health and out of the thought of the perils of the sea. Indeed, a -sadness as of death itself was in that parting, and I know Archie felt -that, as I did, when he released me and stood a moment looking into my -white face. - -When we went into the cabin I found my father earnestly conversing with -Mrs. Burke. He was asking questions about my luggage and effects, and -impressing certain things upon her memory. A few minutes later Captain -Burke came down the companion-steps, and, halting before he reached the -bottom, exclaimed: - -'Sir Mortimer, I'm sorry to say the tug'll be laying hold of us now -almost immediately.' - -My father started, looked at me with something frantic in the -expression of his face, then crying 'Well, if the time has come----' -and took me in his arms. Then with tears standing in his eyes, and -gazing upwards, he asked God to bless and to protect me, and to -restore me, his only child, in safety and in health to him; and now -speechless with grief, mutely looking a farewell to Mrs. Burke, who -herself was weeping, he went on deck, followed by Mr. Moore, whose -leave-taking here had been no more than a single kiss pressed upon my -forehead as I stood beside the table after my father had released me. - -When they were gone I sank into a chair; Mrs. Burke looked with wet -eyes through a cabin window. She was right to let my grief have its -way. After a little I heard the voices of men chorusing on deck; -overhead people regularly tramped to and fro. Mr. Owen came into the -cabin and said: - -'Pray, Miss Otway, let me conduct you above. The air will refresh you, -and the picture of the river is striking and full of life.' - -'Come, dear Miss Marie, with me,' said Mrs. Burke, and I put my arm -through hers and went on deck. - -I stood still on discovering that our voyage was begun. Our ship had -been moored to a buoy; there had been no anchor to weigh, no wild -music of seamen nor hoarse quarter-deck commands to give the news of -departure to those under deck; the little tug had quietly manoeuvred -for our tow-rope, and now the ship's bows were pointing down the river, -her keen stem shearing through the froth of the paddle-wheels ahead, -with some sailors heave-hoing as they dragged upon the ropes which -hoisted certain staysails and jibs; the old town of Gravesend was -sliding away upon the quarter. I strained my eyes in vain for a sight -of the boat in which my father and Mr. Moore might have been making for -the shore. Well perhaps that I could not distinguish her. I think it -would have broken my heart then to have seen them, thus, for the last -time, making their way ashore for that home I was leaving for months, -and perhaps for ever! - -'We have started, nurse!' I exclaimed. - -'Yes, dear,' she answered. 'Do not make haste to cease crying. Let -nature work by degrees in her own fashion. I shall soon see my dear -girl looking proudly with health, and oh, the joy of your meeting with -your father and Mr. Moore, and my happiness when I see them staring at -you, scarce knowing you for your beauty and brightness!' - -The water blazed with sunshine, the merry twinkling of it by the fresh -April wind made the whole Reach a path of dazzling light. Twenty -vessels of all sorts were about us: some leaned with rounded canvas -soft as sifted snow, with yellow streaks of metal glancing wet to the -light out of the brackish foam, that wanted the shrillness and spit of -the froth of the brine; some lifted bare skeleton scaffolds of spars -and yards as they towed past; some were no bigger than a Yarmouth -smack, and some were great steamers and deep and lofty ships from or -for the Antipodes. But whatever you looked at was beautiful with the -hues of the afternoon, the backing of the green land, the inspiration -of the sea, the spirit of ocean liberty wide as the horizon that is -boundless, and high as the air through which the clouds blew. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -MARIE BEGINS HER VOYAGE - - -This was the first voyage I had ever made. I was born in England, and -was left at school when my mother went round the Cape to India on -the second visit my father paid to that country. I had never in my -life crossed a wider breast of water than the English Channel between -Folkestone and Boulogne. Everything here, then, you will suppose was -wonderfully new to me; infinitely stranger indeed than had the ship -been a steamer whose funnel and masts have commonly but little in them -to bewilder the landgoing eye. - -Hundreds of times had I watched ships passing over the blue or grey -waters which our house overlooked; but they were as clouds to me, -indeterminable though beautiful decorations of the deep: I knew nothing -of their inner life, of one's sensations on board, what the sailors -in them did. I looked up now and beheld three masts towering into a -delicate fineness to the altitude of their own starry trucks, with -yards across, rigging complex as the meshes of a web, white triangular -sails between. A sailor stood at the wheel, floating off from it with -the easy, careless posture of the sea, his knotted hands gripping the -spokes of the gleaming circle. A stout-faced man in the tall hat of the -London streets, his neck swathed in a red shawl, walked up and down the -deck near the cabin skylight. Mrs. Burke told me he was the pilot. She -pointed to a man who was standing on the forecastle as though keeping a -look-out on the tug, and said that he was Mr. Green, the first mate of -the ship: indeed the only mate. The boatswain, she informed me, who was -not a certificated officer, would take charge of her husband's watch -when the ship was at sea. - -She talked thus to distract my mind. I asked her what she meant by her -'husband's watch,' thinking she meant the timekeeper in his pocket. - -'Why,' she said, 'every ship's crew is divided into two companies -or watches, called port and starboard; the starboard watch is the -captain's and the other the mate's. Let us walk a little. Already you -are looking better, positively.' - -Here Mr. Owen joined us. - -'I declare, doctor,' exclaimed Mrs. Burke, 'that Miss Otway has already -got a little colour in her cheeks, more even since we left Gravesend -than, I warrant, Sir Mortimer has seen in her the last twelvemonth -gone. If she means to begin to look well so soon, how will it be with -her, sir, when this ship's bowsprit is pointing the other way and we -shall be all ready to go ashore?' - -Mr. Owen, in a soft felt hat, an academic bush of hair under either -side of it, like the cauliflower wig of olden days, and a warm, heavy -black cloak, might have passed for a clergyman. He asked permission to -stroll the deck with us, and pointed out objects ashore and upon the -water with an intelligence that proved him the possessor of a talent -for colour. - -Once he broke off in what he was saying to look at the land; he sighed -deeply, yet, forcing a smile, said to Mrs. Burke: - -'That parting should never be a sad one which promises a happy meeting, -at the cost of no more than patience.' - -'Truly indeed not,' said Mrs. Burke cheerily. - -'It is the meeting! it is the meeting! promise _that_, and what is -the leave-taking?' he exclaimed, and was all on a sudden too moved to -speak: he faintly bowed, and went to the ship's side and looked at the -shore. - -We did not long remain on deck. I found the wind cold, my head -slightly ached; I was weary with the exhaustion which follows upon -fretting. Mrs. Burke went with me to my cabin, and we spent a long -while in talking, recalling old memories, and most of the time she was -cheerfully busy in seeing that my things were in their place and that I -wanted for nothing. - -The night had drawn down dark over the ship when we passed from my -berth into the state cabin. It was about seven o'clock. Supper was -ready. The table was bright with damask and silver and flowers; under -the skylight the large globe lamp glowed steadily, and filled the -interior with the soft radiance of sperm oil. I heard some men singing -out on deck and the noise of ropes flung down upon the planks. The -sound was strange and put a sort of wildness into this interior, -despite its fifty civilising details of furniture. - -A young sandy-haired youth, long and lank, in a camlet jacket, stood at -the foot of the companion-steps, and swung a bell with evident delight -in the noise he made. Mr. Owen started up from a locker in the corner -of the cabin on seeing us, and exclaimed: - -'There is a brave wind blowing. Captain Burke hopes to be off Deal by -midnight.' - -'That will be famous work,' said Mrs. Burke. 'But this is a clipper -ship.' - -'Are we sailing?' said I. - -'Yes. Some canvas is spread. But the tug still has hold of us,' -responded Mr. Owen. - -I felt no movement in the ship. She was going along with the seething -steadiness of a sleigh. Just then Captain Burke came below. His -composed, cheerful face, peak-bearded with red hair and arch, merry -Irish eyes, seemed to bring a new atmosphere of light into the place. -He addressed some friendly sympathetic question to me; we then seated -ourselves, I on the captain's right, and Mr. Owen at the foot of the -table. - -It was my first meal at sea, if indeed the ship could then be called at -sea, and memorable to me for that reason. I had tasted no food since -breakfast, and now tried to eat, but less from appetite than from the -desire to please my old nurse. My chat with her before supper had -determined me to fight with my grief, to regard the voyage as a long -holiday yachting excursion, which should be happy if I accepted it as -a twelvemonth's diversion that was to end in making me a new woman, -and in fitting me to become a wife. It was this last point that Mrs. -Burke had insisted upon, and, like a good many ideas which are obvious -and commonplace when uttered, it took my fancy, lighted up my views as -though it had been a sort of revelation, and whilst I sat at supper I -was so composed that more than once I caught Mr. Owen dart a glance of -surprise at me when I answered or put a question. - -'The sea is very smooth here, Edward,' said Mrs. Burke. - -'There's no sea yet,' he answered. 'It's river so far. We're towing -through what's called the Warp, near the Nore, whose light ye should be -able to see, Miss Otway,' said he, getting up and ducking and bobbing -to command the whole compass of a cabin window. - -'I wonder the ship doesn't run the tug down,' said Mr. Owen. - -The captain looked at me with his merry eyes and chuckled. - -'Ay, we're a match for the old slapper even with nothing on us but fore -and aft canvas and two topsails,' said he. 'I wish Sir Mortimer was -with us. Here's a voyage to thread a heart through the strands of his -years. I don't know that ever I met a gentleman I took a greater fancy -to, unless it's Mr. Moore,' and he gave me a bow, whilst I smiled, -feeling a faint glow in my cheeks. - -'There'll be a full moon at eight,' said Mr. Owen. - -'So there will, sir, thank God,' answered Captain Burke. 'We sailors -can never have too much light. No, not even in our wives' eyes,' said -he, with an askant arch look at Mrs. Burke. - -And now he began to talk. Though without the brogue in his tongue, he -had the fluency and humour of his country. He was full of stories of -adventure and experience; scarce a sea he had not navigated in his day. -His wife watched me eagerly, and if ever I smiled her face lighted up -and her kind eyes shone. All his efforts were directed to cheer me. -Observing Mr. Owen smelling at an egg he exclaimed: - -'What's that you've got?' - -'Something laid too soon, captain.' - -'Doctor,' said the captain, 'I know a sailor who made an experiment: -he put a number of French eggs under a sitting rooster, and what d'ye -think was hatched? Cocks and hens in the last stage of decrepitude! -They hopped and staggered about in his little back-yard, and died of -old age in twenty-four hours. That was his test of a bad egg. If he -wanted to make sure he hatched it.' - -Thus ran his careless, good-humoured gabble, and perhaps had he talked -wisely and soberly he would not have done me any good. - -He went on deck presently, and the mate, Mr. Green, came below to -get his supper. He was a middle-aged man, of a very nautical cut in -figure and clothes, with a sneering face, and a beard of wiry iron hair -covering his throat, though he shaved to the round of his chin, and a -droop of left eyelid put the expression of an acid leer into that side -of his face. - -Mr. Owen had withdrawn to his cabin. Mrs. Burke and I sat at a little -distance upon a comfortable sofa near the stove. The mate squared his -elbows and fell to work slowly but diligently, often lifting his knife -to his mouth and chewing with the solemnity of a goat. - -'He rose from before the mast,' said Mrs. Burke. 'I hope he's a good -sailor. This is his first voyage with my husband. He holds a master's -certificate, but that don't signify much, I expect. A man wants to know -human nature to command a crew of sailors. He's been a common seaman -himself, and fared ill, and worked hard on a starvation wage, as most -of the poor creatures do, and that's likely to make him hard with -the men and unpitying. It's always so. It's the person who's been in -service that makes the exacting mistress.' - -All this she spoke softly. She then inquired of the mate how the -weather was on deck. - -'Why, not so fine as it is down here, mum,' he answered. 'There's a -vast of stars, but 'tis black till the moon comes up.' - -'Where are we now?' - -'The Girdler ain't far off,' he answered, masticating slowly. - -'Is the tug still towing us?' - -'Oh, certainly yes, mum!' - -He did not seem disposed to talk, and answered with grimaces and the -awkward air of a man ill at ease. - -I was looking at his square sturdy figure, with his weather-ploughed -face and the muscles all about it working like vigorous pulses to -the movement of his jaws, when I felt a slight motion of the ship, a -gentle, cradling heave of the deck: the lamp and all things pendulous -swayed; creaking noises arose from all parts; a sudden giddiness took -me. The movement was repeated with the regularity of a clock's tick. - -'Isn't the sea getting up?' exclaimed Mrs. Burke, staring at the -gleaming ebony of the skylight windows and then around her. - -The mate arrested the tumbler whose contents he was turning into -his mouth to distend his lips in a grin, which he probably thought -concealed. - -'Why, I thought we were still in the river!' cried Mrs. Burke again. - -The mate, picking up his cap, rose, contorted his square figure into a -bow to us, and went up the companion-steps. - -The motion of the vessel affected me. Mrs. Burke got a pillow and made -me comfortable on the sofa, and, wrapping herself in a shawl, went on -deck. She returned presently and said that the river had widened into -a sea, with danger-lights sparkling here and there, and the full moon -rising solemnly and beautifully upon the port bow. She hugged herself -and said it was blowing fresh, and the ship under several breasts of -canvas was chasing the little tug, which was splashing ahead as fast -as she could go. - -'We're doing between seven and eight miles an hour. Only think!' she -cried. 'We shall be opening the lights of Margate very soon. To think -of Margate and the sands and the shrimps, and us sailing past it to the -other end of the world. How do you feel, my dear?' - -I answered that I felt sick. - -'You will suffer for a day or two,' said she, 'and then you'll take no -more notice of it than I do. Hark! what is that?' - -The sounds proceeded from Mr. Owen's cabin. - -'They'll never get a cure for it,' said Mrs. Burke, looking in the -direction of the doctor's berth. - -I lay motionless, feeling very uncomfortable and ill. Mrs. Burke gave -me some brandy and put toilet vinegar to my head. She advised me to go -to bed, but I begged leave to rest where I was. The motion of the ship -grew more lively the further she was towed towards the mouth of the -river, where the weight of the field of water past the Forelands would -dwell in every heave. At last, a little while after ten o'clock, I told -Mrs. Burke I felt as if the fresh air would revive me, on which she -wrapped me up in shawls and helped me on deck. She walked on firm legs -with the ease of an old salt, whilst I so swung and reeled upon her arm -that I must have fallen twenty times but for her support. - -But, nevertheless, the moment I emerged through the little -companion-hatch, with its load of warm atmosphere closing behind me in -a sensible pressure of mingled cabin smells and heat, I felt better; a -shout of bright strong moonlight wind fair betwixt my parted lips swept -away for the time all sensation of nausea: I breathed deep and looked -about with wonder. - -It was a fine, noble night-scene of water and ship. We were following -the tug under three topsails and a main topgallant sail and a flight of -fore and aft canvas; the sails swelled pale as steam into the moonlight -air, carrying the eye to the fine points of the mastheads, whose black -lines were beating time for a dance of stars. High up was the moon, -full, yellow, and glowing; if land was near, it was buried in the wild -windy sheen under the orb; the water rolled in liquid silver, islanded -here and there by the black flying shadows of bodies of vapour hurling -headlong, down the wind north-east: ahead the black smear of the tug's -smoke full of sparks, with a frequent rush of crimson flame out of the -funnel's throat, was flying low. - -Captain Burke came from the pilot's side to salute me, and pointing -abeam to starboard (I offer no excuse for writing of the sea in the -language of the sea) exclaimed: - -'There's Whitstable somewhere down there, Miss Otway. And yonder should -be Herne Bay. With a powerful telescope we should presently be able to -see the bathing machines on Margate beach.' - -'What is that out there?' I asked. - -'A Geordie,' he answered, 'a north-country collier.' - -She was swarming along, a very spectre of a ship, lean, visionary, -glistening like the inside of an oyster shell in the moonlight, which -whitened the black hull of her into the same sort of misty sheen -that was upon the water, till she was blended with the air brimful -of moonlight, making a mocking phantom of her to fit in with the -desolation beyond, where you saw a red star of warning hinting at ooze, -and white crawling streaks and a pallid rib or two, with some fragment -of mast upward pointing in a finger of wreck, dumbly telling you -whither the spirit of the rest of it all had flown. - -I watched our little ship bowing in pursuit of the tug; she curtseyed -her white cloths to the moon, and the brine flashed at her bows at -every plunge, and went away in a wide, rich race astern, for there was -the churning of the paddles in it too. - -But soon I was overcome by nausea once more, the magic of the fresh air -failed me, and, yielding now to Mrs. Burke's entreaty, I suffered her -to carry me to my cabin. - -After this for the next four or five days I was so miserably ill that I -lay as one in a fit or swoon, scarcely sensible of more, and therefore -remembering but little more, than that Mrs. Burke was hour after hour -in my cabin, sleeping beside me on a mattress during the night, and -watching over me throughout that distressing time with touching and -unwearied devotion. Mr. Owen was too ill to visit me; but what could he -have done? Did he cure his own nausea? I think he knew of no physic for -mine. - -Indeed we met with very heavy weather in the Channel. The wind shifted -shortly after the tug had let go of the ship and blew a moderate -breeze out of the south-east, but in the morning the breeze freshened -into a gale; a head sea ran strong, short, and angry; the captain -drove the vessel along under shortened canvas, with sobbing decks and -spray-clouded bows as I learnt; but to me, inexperienced as I was, her -behaviour seemed frightfully wild and dangerous. I sometimes thought -she was going to pieces. My cabin was aft, the machinery of the helm -was nearly overhead, and the noise of it when she plunged her counter -into the foam, and the rudder received the blow of some immense volume -of rushing brine, sent shock after shock through the planks, and -through me as I lay in my bunk. - -But the stupor of sea-sickness was upon me, I had no fear; had the ship -actually gone to pieces I do not think I could or should have opened -my mouth to cry out. All that I asked for was death, and I was so sick -even unto that state that I cannot remember I once wished myself at -home, or thought for an instant of my father or Mr. Moore. - -But on the fifth day I was well enough to sit up and partake of a -little cold fowl and wine, and next day I was able to go on deck. - -By this time we were clear of the English Channel, and I looked around -me at the great ocean, swelling in long lines of rich sparkling blue -under the high morning sun. Far away, blue in the air, were some -leaning shafts of ships, and at the distance of a quarter of a mile a -large steamer was passing, steering the same road as ourselves. - -Weak as I was after my long confinement below, dazzled and confused too -by the splendour of the morning, and the novelty and wonder of that -windy scene of our bowing ship, clothed in canvas, gleaming like silk -to the trucks, I could not but pause with a start of admiration when -my sight went to that steamer. Captain Burke, seeing me as I leaned -on his wife's arm, crossed the deck, and after some commonplaces of -genial greeting told me that yonder vessel was a French man-of-war. -She was round sterned with portholes for guns there, and two white -lines full of gun-ports ran the length of her tall, shapely sides. She -was ship-rigged, and lifted a lustrous fabric of square canvas and -delicate cordage to the soft blue skies, a wide space of whose field -the gilded balls of her trucks traced as she rolled heavily but with -majesty, crushing the water at her bows to the impulse of her sails -and propeller into a heap of splendid whiteness, like to the foam at -the foot of some giant cataract. She was the noblest sea-piece I had -ever beheld: the tricolour was at her gaff-end, a blue vein of smoke, -filtering from a short black funnel, scarcely tarnished the azure over -the horizon betwixt her fore and main masts; a great gilt eagle was -perched with outstretched wings under her bowsprit, and seemed to be -poised for a soaring flight as though affrighted by the roar of spume -beneath; her decks were a blaze of light and colour when she rolled -them towards us, with the sparkle of uniforms, the flash of sun-stars -in bright metal, and gleams breaking from I know not whence, like -sudden flames from artillery. - -'I think I see her in charge of an English lieutenant,' said Captain -Burke, 'making a straight course for Portsmouth. They have built good -ships for us and will build again.' - -He placed chairs, and Mrs. Burke and I seated ourselves. I could now -look about me with enjoyment of what I beheld. The sun shone with some -warmth, and the wind blowing freely out of the west was of an April -mildness. The whole life of the universe seemed to be in that ocean -morning, with our ship in the middle of it bowing as she drove over the -long blue knolls. The hour was half-past eleven. Smoke was feathering -down upon the water over the lee side out of the chimney of the galley, -through whose door as I looked I saw a sailor emerge holding a steaming -tub, with which he staggered in the direction of a little square -hole on the forecastle. Immediately after a second sailor rolled out -similarly burthened. - -'The men are going to dinner,' said Mrs. Burke. - -'What do you give them to eat?' I asked the captain. - -'To-day,' said he, 'they'll dine on beef and pudding.' - -'It sounds a good dinner,' said Mrs. Burke. 'But all the while I'm at -sea, I'm wondering how sailors contrive to get through their work on -the food they get.' - -'Go and put those notions into their shaggy heads forwards and there'll -be a mutiny,' said the captain. - -'Beef as tasteless as one's boot if one could imagine it boiled,' said -Mrs. Burke, 'pudding like slabs of mortar, biscuits which glide about -on the feet of hundreds of little worms called weevils. Edward has had -to live on such food in his day, and I believe it is the beef and pork -of his seafaring youth that give him his premature looks. He oughtn't -to seem his age by ten years.' - -He eyed her archly and kindly. 'Premature is a good word,' said he. -'Sailors are always too soon in life. Soon with their money, and soon -with their drink and pleasures, and soon with their years, so that it -is soon over with them.' - -'They're a body of workmen I'm very sorry for,' said Mrs. Burke; 'their -wrongs are not understood, and they've got no champions.' - -As she pronounced these words the hairy head of a man, clothed in a -Scotch cap, showed in the little square of the forecastle hatch; he -took a wary view of the quarter-deck, then rose into the whole body of -a man picturesquely attired in a red shirt, blue trousers, a belt round -his waist, and a knife in a sheath upon his hip. He was followed by -three others, and after a short conversation they came along the decks -towards us. - -Captain Burke, appearing not to notice them, told his wife he was going -to fetch his sextant. Mr. Green, the sour-leering mate, was trudging -the weather side of the quarter-deck. The man who had first risen, the -hairy one of the Scotch cap, exclaimed, as the four of them came to a -halt in the gangway: - -'Can we have a word with the capt'n, sir?' - -'What d'e want?' answered the mate, speaking with half his back turned -on them as though he addressed some one out upon the water. - -'We're come to complain that the beef to-day ain't according to the -articles.' - -'As how?' said the mate, still looking seawards. - -''Tain't sweet, sir.' - -'No call to eat of it,' said the mate, turning his head and letting his -leering eye droop upon them. - -'That's not the way to speak,' whispered Mrs. Burke to me with a note -of impatience and temper. 'Why shouldn't the meat be tainted? It's so -in butchers' shops often enough.' - -'If there's no call to eat of it there's no call to turn to on it,' -said one of the men with a surly laugh. - -Here Captain Burke arrived with a sextant in his hand. - -'What is it, my lads?' said he quickly, but good-humouredly. - -'The starboard watch's allowance of meat's gone off, sir,' said the man -in the Scotch cap civilly enough. - -'The fok'sle's dark with the smell of it,' said another. - -'Notice a blue ring round the flame of the lamp?' said the captain. - -''Tain't meat for men,' exclaimed the man, who had growled out a laugh. - -'Go and bring aft what remains of it,' said Captain Burke, and he -stepped to the side and adjusted his sextant to get a meridional -observation. - -The men trudged forward. I could not but notice how eloquent of -grumbling their postures were as they walked. Experience has long since -assured me that no man can so perfectly make every limb and lineament -of him look his grievance as the sailor. - -They presently returned, bearing a dish: Captain Burke stooped to it -and sniffed. - -'You are right,' he exclaimed. 'Overboard with it, my lads. This should -never have been served out to you. 'Tis the cook's fault to boil such -offal. Mr. Green, see that the starboard watch have some canned mutton -for their dinner at once.' - -The men emptied the contents of the kid over the side, looking very -well pleased, and then went forward. - -'They have no champions, my wife says,' exclaimed Captain Burke to me -with a smile. 'Poor fellows! But I'll tell you what, Miss Otway: you'll -never find Jack's rights wrong for the want of Jack taking the trouble -to keep them right.' - - - - -CHAPTER V - -THE HIDDEN LIFE OF THE SHIP - - -I devoted the afternoon of the first day of my recovery from sickness -to a journal which I meant should serve as a letter both for my father -and Mr. Moore, to be transmitted home in sheets as the opportunity -occurred. My old nurse told me that her husband had written to my -father whilst in the Channel, and had sent the letter ashore at -Plymouth by a smack; so they would have news of me at home down to two -days before. - -I was so much interested in the little incident of the tainted meat I -have told you of, that I asked Captain Burke this day to let me taste a -specimen of the beef sailors were fed on. He laughed and said: - -'Miss, your teeth are too little and white for such beef as that.' - -'I'll try a cut, too, with your leave, captain,' said Mr. Owen. - -The captain grinned at his wife, but complied nevertheless, and when we -sat down to supper, the steward placed a cube of forecastle beef before -us. There were plenty of good things on the table: my father had half -filled the lazarette, or after-hold, with delicacies, and we carried an -abundance of live stock: everything in that way, perhaps, but a cow, -for which no room could be made; but the steam of the sailors' beef -filled the atmosphere; the smells of all the other dishes yielded to -it. And yet it was good meat of its sort. - -Mrs. Burke wrinkled her nose, and said, 'Miss Marie, please do not -touch it.' - -'Captain Burke, I will taste a piece,' said I. - -'And I will thank you for a slice, captain,' said Mr. Owen. - -The captain made a great business of sharpening a carving knife, all -the while glancing from me to his wife with a laughing eye. The stuff -yielded to the sharp blade in a curled shaving: it was like cutting a -block of wood, that part I mean where the heart is. - -'Don't put it to your lips, my dear,' cried Mrs. Burke. - -I tasted a morsel: the steward watched me with an ill-concealed grin; -the meat, if meat it could be called, was hard as leather, salt as the -brine over the side, of a texture and hue no more resembling corned -beef such as we know the thing on shore than a whelk is like a turtle. - -Mr. Owen chewed and chewed. 'This is what the sailors make snuff-boxes -and models of ships of,' said he. - -'Is this as good as can be got?' I asked. - -'As good as the best,' said the captain, looking at it earnestly. - -'You'll have plenty to talk about when you get home,' said my old nurse. - -'It is strange that science doesn't provide the seamen with food fit -to eat,' said Mr. Owen, helping himself eagerly to a slice of ham. 'I -believe I shall give the subject my attention when I get back.' - -'Science doesn't think of sailors, only of ships,' said Captain Burke. -'If I had my way my crew should have a fresh mess every day. But you -can't go to sea _all_ live stock.' - -Thus we chatted. I listened with interest and asked questions. It was a -new life to me. Little did I then imagine how fearfully and tragically -deep I was to read into the darkest secrets of it. - -During a few days, which carried us to the Madeira latitudes, the -weather continued gloriously fine. A quiet north-westerly wind blew -throughout; the ship leaned gently away from the breeze and rippled -through the blue swell dreamily; all was so quiet aloft, all went -so peacefully on deck. I'd hang over the side for an hour at a time, -viewing the passage of the foam stars and flower-shaped bells, and -wreaths of froth sliding aft into a white line on either hand the -oil-smooth scope of wake; I'd watch with admiration the flight of -the flying fish, glancing from the ship's side like arrows of light -discharged through her metal sheathing; I'd drink in the large and -liberal sweetness of the wind, and stand in the sun that its light -might sink through and through me. - -In those few days Mr. Owen assured me the ocean had already done me -good. - -'But you are bound to profit,' he said as we walked the deck together, -'because you have not come too late to this physic of climates. People -are sent to sea with one lung gone and the other going, and their -friends wonder they should die, and talk of a voyage to sea as of no -use where there is organic mischief. You are here in good time, Miss -Otway: be that reflection your comfort.' - -Then there came a change of weather; a few days of wet gale; green -seas ridging into cliffs upon the bow, and all the discomfort of a -long pitching and tossing bout. But I suffered no longer from sickness -however; I ate and slept well, and spent all the time in the cabin, -reading, working, chatting with Mrs. Burke or her husband, or Mr. Owen. - -Captain Burke amused me in these early days by explaining how he worked -out his sights. He gave me a very good idea of the art of navigation; -he and his wife shared a pleasant cabin confronting mine. It was a -little parlour in its way as well as a bedroom, cheerful with oil -paintings of ships, a small collection of china, and other matters -all carefully cleated and otherwise secured. Amongst the pictures was -a cutting in black paper mounted upon white of myself when a child -in my nurse's arms, the lineaments defined by streaks of bronze. -Captain Burke told me that his wife valued that little memorial above -everything in the cabin, including himself and all that they owned -ashore. - -He showed me his chronometers and explained their use; placed charts -before me and talked of the places we were to visit, and promised that -I should be able to take sights and work out the latitude and longitude -before we returned home. - -He said this at the dinner table during one of those days of wet, foul -weather. - -'Miss Otway,' he added, addressing Mr. Owen, 'is just doing what -everyone should do who goes a voyage, whether for entertainment or on -business; she's taking an intelligent interest in whatever's passing. -If everybody who went to sea did that the case of Jack would be -understood, and you'd hear no more of young ladies being astonished on -discovering that sailors look exactly like men.' - -'I never could make head nor tail myself,' said Mrs. Burke, 'of my -husband's method of finding out where the ship is.' - -'No voyage can ever be dull,' exclaimed Mr. Owen, 'that's sensibly -lived into. Yet every voyage is found dull.' - -'There's too much water,' said Mrs. Burke, 'and not enough things to -look at. But dull days have long legs, Miss Marie. Time soon passes,' -said she with a cheery look. 'The top's never spinning so fast as when -it is asleep.' - -'There's plenty to look at,' said I. 'I don't like weather that keeps -you under deck; but it can't be always so.' - -'Scarce once in a white moon, and never even _that_ for sailors,' said -the captain. - -'What,' asked Mr. Owen, 'do you consider the great sights of the sea?' - -Captain Burke shut his eyes and scratched the back of his head, then -looking full at me he said: - -'What do you think of a ship in full sail, becalmed in the heat of -the fan-shaped reflection of the moon, Miss Otway? Or would you prefer -a whale as big as a brig leaping half out of water with a killer at -its throat? Or what d'ye say to a quadrille of water-spouts, the -white satin shoes on their feet gleaming as they slide, and the black -feathers in their hair nodding stately among the clouds brilliant with -electric gems.' - -'How?' inquired Mr. Owen, smoothing his bald head. - -'But at sea the less you find to talk about the better,' exclaimed -Captain Burke; 'I'd like my ship's log-book to be as dull as a parson's -tale. Trifles on the ocean become serious in a moment; a slight -deviation from dulness will start a tragedy. Give us no excitements.' - -The conversation was ended by his going on deck to send the mate down -to dinner. - -The miserable weather came to an end, and then we took the north-east -trades and swept down the Atlantic under wide spaces of canvas which -for many feet overhung the ship's weather side, and she rushed onwards -with the salt smoke blowing from her bows, and that swallow of the -deep, the stormy petrel, freckling in its swarm the wide hollows -betwixt the quartering ridges. For five days we sighted nothing, though -Captain Burke promised that the first homeward-bound ship he met with -willing to back her topsail should receive my letter. - -Once during these mornings, on coming on deck after breakfast, I found -the ship steadily washing through the seas with easy bowing motions, -leaving a league-long line of white behind her. We were in hot weather -now; an awning sheltered the quarter-deck, and comfortable chairs were -under it. - -It was the improving health in me that gave me the spirit I had; I did -not want to sit; the life of the sea seemed to sweep into my being in -a holiday dance of heart. Now that I could feel without the suffering -that had before prostrated me, the whole vitality of the ship coming -out of the gallant flying fabric of her into the very poise of my form, -with a sense as of waltzing in each compelled motion of the figure, I -found an enjoyment in her buoyant motions, and in the rolling measures -of the surge, beyond anything my poor health had suffered me to know in -the ball-room, beyond all delight fine music had given me. - -When we came on deck Mrs. Burke stood a little while with her hand on -my arm, whilst I looked aloft and around; our gaze met; she laughed in -the fulness of some instant emotion of pleasure, and cried: - -'Oh, dear Miss Marie, I wish Sir Mortimer could see the light that is -in your eyes at this minute!' - -'I wonder,' said I, 'if Dr. Bradshaw and the others foresaw that I -should enjoy this voyage?' - -'Are you enjoying it?' she exclaimed eagerly. - -'I am constantly pining for home,' I answered, 'and longing--and -longing, to see father and Archie. And yet, somehow, this splendid -sunshine and wonderful scene of sea, this delicious feeling of being -borne through the air, makes me so glad and light-hearted that I -believe the strong tonic of the wind has affected my head.' - -'No more than it has mine,' she exclaimed. - -'It is like drinking wine in sorrow,' said I; 'the mind seems merry -with it, and the eyes sparkle, but the heart is sad all the same and -will speak presently.' - -'I'll tell Mr. Owen how you talk,' said she. 'You're not fair to the -remedy.' - -'I don't want to sit,' said I. 'Let me look at the ship this fine -morning: I should like to take a peep at the sailors' parlour. And -suppose we go right into the bows there and watch the glorious white -foam.' - -Captain Burke was in his cabin, the surly mate had charge of the ship, -so Mr. Owen accompanied us. There was little to see, however; we went -to the galley and looked in, and here we found the ship's cook making a -pie for the cabin. He was the fat-armed, dough-faced man who had stared -at us with imbecile curiosity when we came on board. It was a queer -little kitchen, not many times larger than a sentry box. Mrs. Burke -asked the man if the oven baked well. - -'Too vell, mum,' he answered, turning his face with an expression of -dull surprise upon it at sight of us standing in the galley doorway. -'He's for burning up. He vants too much vatching.' - -'How do you like being ship's cook?' said Mr. Owen. - -'Almost as much, I dessay, as you likes being ship's doctor,' he -answered. - -Mr. Owen looked deaf on a sudden, and, stepping back, found something -to interest him aloft. - -'What pie is that?' said Mrs. Burke, who had been casting her eye over -the little interior, with its equipment of shelves, crockery, oven, -coppers and the like, with the critical gaze of an exacting housekeeper. - -As she asked the question the ship leaned sharply upon a sea; the -cook staggered with a wild flourish of the knife he was trimming the -pie-crust with; the pie slipped and fell with a crash, breaking in -halves, and out rolled a dishful of preserved gooseberries. - -'You can see vat it is for yourself, mum,' said the cook, lancing -his knife at the mess on the deck with a force which drove the blade -quivering into the hard plank. 'Who'd be a blooming ship's cook? This -is the sort of life it is!' and, heedless of our presence, he began -to swear, and then roared out for Bill or some such name--meaning, -I suppose, his mate--that the fellow might come and swab up the -gooseberry puddle. - -We walked on to the forecastle. - -'That cook's a very insolent fellow,' said Mr. Owen. 'I hope he will -give me the pleasure of prescribing for him.' - -'All sea cooks are ill-tempered,' said Mrs. Burke. 'They live in little -boxes like that, and are obliged, for want of room, to stand close -to furnaces all day long, and their livers swell. But their trials -are many. I've heard of a sea striking a galley where the cook was in -it full of the business of the cabin dinner, and washing him and his -kitchen right aft, where he was rescued out of a depth of water as high -as a man's waist holding on for his life to a frying-pan. Cooks ashore -never meet with blows of that sort.' - -A number of the crew were at work on various jobs in this part of the -vessel. Two sat upon a sail, stitching at it. Hard by was a little -machine called a spun-yarn winch, merrily clinking, with a boy walking -backwards from it as it yielded the line it twisted. - -A man with a marline spike stood in the fore-shrouds working at a -ratline. I looked at everything I saw with interest and attention; -to me it was like the rising of a curtain upon a theatrical show of -incomparable beauty and variety; I found novelty in the very men; -I don't remember that I had ever seen such men on shore, least of -all down by the seaside, where the landsman seeks the sailor and -finds him in anything that wears a jersey and owns a boat. They were -hairy, burnt, wildly dressed, half-naked some of them; their trousers -turned above their knees, their chests bare, mossy, gleaming with -perspiration; arrows in Indian ink pointed like weather-cocks upon -their muscular naked arms as they moved them, and every man's fist was -barbarous with rings in Indian ink and his wrists with blue bracelets. - -'Do you see that hole there, Miss Otway?' said Mr. Owen, pointing to -a square hatch in the forecastle deck. 'Those men sleep down in that -hole,' said he. - -I drew close to the queer little trap-door to look down, taking care to -hold on to Mrs. Burke; for it was not only that the heave of the ship -was to be felt here in her falls and jumps, lofty as the peaks and deep -as the valleys which underran her: the trade wind stormed in thunder -out of the huge rigid hollow of the fore-course with the weight as of -a whole gale in the sweep of it, flying in long, steady shriekings and -whistlings under the arched foot, and smiting every heave of brine -leaping white above the cathead into crystal smoke. - -I gazed into a sort of well, at the bottom of which upon an old green -battered sea-chest sat a sailor. The man had a squint that had almost -twisted each ball of vision into his nose; he was deeply pitted, and -had long, curling, sand-coloured hair and a yellow beard; he was pale -and weedy, with but a little piece of nose in the middle of his face, -and cheek-bones starting through his skin pale with heat, and when he -looked up and continued to stare at us with his desperate squint, he -made me guess how drowned sailors look when their bodies are washed -ashore. He was a sick man and off duty. - -'How are you feeling?' the doctor called down to him. - -'Oh, dot I vhas kep' togedder mit red-hot corkscrews,' he answered in a -voice that creaked like a sea-gull's note. - -'Go on taking your physic,' said Mr. Owen. - -'By Gott, yaw, dot vould be easy if der physic vhas rum,' answered -the man with a ghastly smile, continuing to stare up at us with an -occasional snapping blink of his eyelids. 'But der vater in der -bilge--und I gif you all der rats of der ship to be drownt in her -too--vas sweet gombared to him.' - -Mr. Owen drew back and the sufferer ceased to speak. - -'A nasty attack of sub-acute rheumatism,' the doctor said behind me. - -The rest of the sailors were on deck: this man sat alone on his chest -in the bottom of that well, and I pitied the poor solitary wretch from -my heart when I considered how every plunge and sharp movement of the -ship must serve to give a new twist to all those red-hot corkscrews he -complained of. It was too dark below to distinguish more than the man's -figure. I observed the fluctuations of a thin, watery yellow light, -and tasted in the occasional puffs of thick atmosphere that came up a -horrid smell of burning fat. - -'Do they cook down there?' I asked. - -'It is the fumes of the forecastle lamp Miss Otway smells,' said the -doctor. 'It's fed with the slush the sailors make their puddings with.' - -I wished to ask several questions, but the roar of the wind and the -sea silenced me. Mr. Owen took me by one arm, Mrs. Burke by the other, -and we carefully made our way into what is called the ship's head, past -a huge anchor and a little capstan, and ropes taut as harp-strings, -and vibrating with the wild drumming music of the sails whose corners -they confined. The huge bowsprit shot out directly ahead of us. It ran -tapering, and was like the finger of a giant pointing, inviting the -eye to the deep blue distant recess towards which we were rushing, and -which opened like the whole morning upon the sight each time our bows -soared to the foaming summit. - -They say that the finest sight in the world is a ship in full sail, -and perhaps it is, but I doubt if there's one in a thousand, one in a -hundred thousand, who has ever seen such a thing; and the reason is -that a ship in full sail means studding sails out on both sides, and -every stitch of the rest of her canvas set, and this figure she can -make only under conditions of wind so rare as to render the spectacle, -as I understand it, something outside the experience of anyone, sailor -or landsman, that ever I have conversed with. - -But to my mind there is a finer sight than a ship in full sail: and -that is the view of the vessel you are on board of rushing at you, -thundering at you, for ever charging into the seething troughs of brine -with the white foam scaling her wet and flashing bow, you meanwhile -perched out beyond her, watching her coming at you. - -They provided this magnificent treat for me that day. It fell out thus: -I overhung the rail in the head, looking down at the boiling dazzle -there, watching with indescribable delight and wonder the beautiful -sight of the cutwater of the ship, metalled high, sliding through the -brine, bowing till the ivory-white lady that was her figure-head was -depressed almost to the sip of the cloud of foam which the hurl of the -bows sent roaring and flashing far ahead, to rush back in a singing, -seething sheet a moment after when the ship's head lifted upon the next -swelling heave, bright blue till it was charged and out-turned into -a noise and splendour of thunder and snow. Mrs. Burke and the doctor -looked down with me. My old nurse would sometimes turn an eye full of -satisfaction upon my face, which I felt was glowing with the spirit -this rushing ocean picture had kindled. I looked yearningly towards the -bowsprit end and exclaimed: - -'Oh, now, if I were a man, to be able to get out there and watch the -ship coming at me!' - -'Here comes Captain Burke,' said Mr. Owen. - -He had arrived on deck just then, and, seeing us in the bows of the -ship, was advancing. - -'Are you going to paint a picture of the "Lady Emma," Miss Otway?' -said he, coming to my side and looking down at the thick and giddy -foam, roaring and spitting sometimes within arm's reach, and throbbing -aft into a wake whose tail went out of sight in the windy blue haze. - -'No.' - -'You are studying every effect!' - -'It is worth leaving home to see this!' said I. 'How fast are we -sailing?' - -'Thirteen knots an hour.' - -'Miss Marie wishes she was a man, Edward,' said Mrs. Burke. - -'All gallant-hearted girls wish that,' said he. 'But why?' - -'That she might be able to climb out on to the bowsprit and watch the -"Lady Emma" rushing at her.' - -'Is that so, miss?' cried the captain, whipping round upon me with his -Irish briskness and arch merry eyes. I smiled. 'It can be managed if -you please.' - -I looked at the long bowsprit forking out into jib-booms far ahead, -with white jibs curving upon it motionless as ice, save when now and -again one or another breathed to the plunge of the ship. - -'There must be no risks!' cried Mrs. Burke. - -'Chaw!' exclaimed her husband. 'Will you trust yourself in my hands, -Miss Otway?' - -'I will indeed.' - -He called to the boatswain of the ship, a big seaman with strong red -whiskers and a whistle round his neck: the finest specimen of an -English seaman I ever saw _out_ of a man-of-war; this man who acted -as second mate, though uncertificated, I had once or twice conversed -with when he was on the quarter-deck, and found him very civil and -communicative, and a relief to the eye after leering Mr. Green. - -The captain gave him certain directions. He called to a couple of men, -and amongst them--but I am unable to explain their procedure--they -rigged up a chair attached by a tackle to a stay; they bound me -securely in the chair, and by some machinery of ropes they gently and -slowly hauled me on to the bowsprit, the captain and the boatswain -sliding out in company. Mrs. Burke watched us with a countenance of -fright: I felt excessively nervous whilst I was being drawn to the -extremity of the great spar, and held my eyes closed, but did not -shriek nor speak. Indeed, somehow I felt safe, though a landsman might -have regarded my situation as in the last degree perilous. - -'Now look at the ship and tell me what you think of her,' said the -captain. - -They had got me to the end of the bowsprit sitting very comfortably -and tightly secured in a chair, and the captain and boatswain were on -either hand of me, though what they held on by I don't know. I looked, -and what I saw I shall never forget. For there, right in front of me, -heeled by the shouting wind, was the whole body of the ship, her milky -whiteness, mounting to the royal yards, rounding into violet gloom from -the sun, with gleaming half-moons of blue betwixt each yard, and every -afterbreast sliding under the netted shadow of rigging. I rose high in -my chair above the sea. Under me ran the blue surge sparkling deep and -clear to the bows, where it burst into snowstorms. I commanded a clear -view of the white decks through the arch of the foresail, a hundred -shadows slipped along them as they slanted up and then slanted down -with the rhythmic swing of a pendulum; a hundred fiery lights broke -from all parts as the ship leaned to the sun. The wind was filled with -the music of the rigging: deep organ notes, then a large swelling of -fifes and trumpets, coming in a sudden gust or gun of wind, with a -drum-like roll trembling out of the taut shrouds and backstays, and a -ceaseless bugling in the hollow of the canvas that arched like some -vast pinion close beside me. - -They carefully swayed my chair down the bowsprit and got me on to the -forecastle. - -'If this don't do you good, Miss Marie,' said my old nurse, extending -her hand to help me on to my feet, 'what will?' - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -A STRANGE MAN ON BOARD - - -A few mornings after this, whilst we were at breakfast, the mate looked -down upon us through the open skylight, and called out: - -'There's a sail right ahead.' - -When we went on deck we found the vessel on the lee bow, within -signalling distance. The wind was the tail of the trade, a fiery -fanning out of north-north-east, with the loose scud brown as smoke -flying down it. The sea was full of violet gleams and blinkings of -froth; the billow ran without weight and its volume was small. It -seemed as if the heat was sucking the wind out of the sky, and still -we were a good many degrees north of the equator, though I cannot -recollect the latitude. - -A signal of flags was run aloft to the end of the mizzen gaff: the -string of gay colours painted the wind and made a holiday figure of the -ship in a moment. When the stranger perceived our signal she hauled -down the red flag of the English merchant service which had been flying -at her trysail peak ever since we had been able to distinguish it, and -hoisted a long, thin streamer called an answering pennant. - -'All right!' exclaimed Captain Burke, putting down the glass he had -been viewing through. 'She is an Englishman, and is, no doubt, bound -home. Get your letter ready, Miss Otway, and if that brig is for -England I will send it across to her.' - -I ran to my cabin. The mere thought of communicating with home filled -me with excitement. This, though we had been some weeks at sea, was the -first opportunity for sending a letter home that had occurred. And -then little things on the ocean stir and move one greatly. Life is so -dull that the merest trifle is important, and what would scarcely be -noticeable ashore takes the aspect of a wonder. - -I had kept my journal punctually down to the preceding evening, and -had now only to write that a brig was approaching and would take the -letter, and send a thousand kisses to father and to Archie. I added -that I was happy and greatly improved in health. I lingered over this -bit of writing. It was like holding on to the dear hands of those I -addressed. - -When I had made an end, I went on deck with the letter. The brig had -slided abreast of us by this time: she looked a very smart little -vessel, with sharp bows and raking masts, very lofty. She had backed -her topsail as we had ours, and the two vessels lay within speaking -distance, bowing to one another with all imaginable civility. I -laughed to notice this; you would have thought them old acquaintances -who couldn't salute each other too often for delight in this meeting. - -'Brig ahoy!' hailed Captain Burke. - -'Hallo!' shouted a man standing a head and shoulders above the bulwark -rail with a staring negro at the wheel, showing a little past him, -whenever the brig swayed, her sand-coloured decks to us. - -'What ship is that, and where are you bound for?' - -'"The Queen o' the Night" from Mauritius vur Liverpool, a hundred and -ten days out. What ship's yon?' - -The information was fully given, and then Captain Burke bawled out to -know if the other would carry a letter home for him? - -'Ay, ay, but ye mun send it,' waved back the head and shoulders, with a -flourish of arm. - -Captain Burke flourished in response. Sailors talk more eloquently -by gesture than the people of any nation in the world. The contortion -of a hump-backed posture will in an instant reveal a voyage full of -troubles, and more than half an hour of talk is contained in a peculiar -toss of the hand. - -A number of the crew came running aft to the call of the mate: a -quarter-boat was cleared and lowered, four men entered her along with -the mate, who put my letter into his pocket and away they went for the -brig, miraculously vitalising and humanising the desert plain of ocean -by the mere picture of their straining forms and flashing oars, and the -gilt lines running astern from the white sides of the boat as she was -swept through it with Mr. Green's square frame, stiff-backed in the -stern, bobbing cask-like with the jump of the little craft, his hand on -the tiller. - -'One could almost think oneself at the seaside to see that boat,' said -Mrs. Burke. - -'Yes, I just now caught myself half looking round,' I answered, 'with -a fancy of tall chalk cliffs, a little pier, a nest of houses in a -split----' - -I paused. - -'And a fine house on the top of the cliff, and trees at the back, and -a flight of rooks going up like smoke out of them,' said Mrs. Burke, -smiling. - -'It'll not be far off even, when we've gone all the way we've got to -go,' said the captain, 'and by the time we've hove it into sight again, -we shall have been as good as our word, Miss--good as the doctor's word -anyhow. What now would I give for some portrait machine that takes -colour and light instantaneously, that when they get your letter they -might see you as we do!' - -Mr. Green handed up the letter to the man who had hailed us, and -returned. The boat was then hoisted, the topsail swung, and the ensign -dipped as a farewell and thank you to the little homeward-bound brig. -I stood straining my eyes at her as her topsail swept out of hollow -shadow into a full breast of sunshine, and I watched her break the -long, soft, glittering wave into a little leap of scaling and combing -foam at her bow, leaning from the hot quiet wind with yard-arm sharply -pointed to it, in a posture of something living that steadies itself -aslant for a firmer grip. She was my ocean post-office. I cannot -express my thoughts as I viewed her thinning down and growing blue -in the atmosphere that was silver blue with water and blue sky, and -brimming sunshine. Captain Burke said she would probably arrive in -Liverpool before we were up with the Horn, for all that the catspaw and -the calm and the hard head wind had dismally belated her down to this -time. - -And now it is that a dreadful thing happened, making this day, with -what had gone before, the most remarkable of any to that hour. - -We were standing under the fore end of the quarter-deck awning, where -we could command the heights of the main and fore as well as see the -brig astern. Whilst Captain Burke was talking to me about her, his -wife hard by listening, assuring me I need have no doubt if the vessel -safely arrived at her port that her master would forward the letter to -my father, seeing that captains of ships hold this sort of obligation -as sacred: I say whilst the captain was talking thus, he happened to -look aloft, and, following the direction of his eye, I saw a seaman -on the weather fore topsail yard; his feet were on the foot-rope, he -overlay the yard, the outline of his figure clear as a tracing in ink -with his yellow naked calves and feet dingy against the white canvas. -What he did I could not see. - -The captain broke off and eyed the man intently; then, looking round -a little at Mr. Green, he exclaimed, 'What does that fellow mean by -sogering up there? I've been watching him. Who is it? Call him down. I -don't want any loafing of that sort aboard my ship.' - -The mate went some steps forward and, looking up, bellowed in a voice -as harsh as the noise of surf on shingle, 'Fore topsail yard there! -Come down out of that, you ----' and here he employed several examples -of the forecastle speech which I will not write down because they are -not proper to remember, though we are to believe that the business of -the sea cannot be got through without brutal language. - -The man looked down at the mate, and said something; Mr. Green roared -out again to him to 'lay down,' on which I observed the sailor slided a -yard or two along the foot-ropes towards the topmast rigging; he then -fell! - -He struck the deck near the galley. Mrs. Burke shrieked. The man got -up in a moment, stood erect with blood gushing down his cheeks, and -smiled at us, and the next moment dropped dead. - -I fainted, and when I came to my head was resting on Mrs. Burke's knee, -and Captain Burke was fanning me. The body had been carried into the -forecastle, a couple of seamen were scrubbing at the stains in the -white planks. Mr. Owen came slowly aft, and said that the poor fellow -was dead; then saw to me, took me by the hand, and seated me in the -coolness under the awning, where the pleasant shadow was fresh with the -gushing of the wind out of the hollow of the great mizzen. - -It was a frightful thing to have seen. I was looking at the man when -he fell, and my sight followed the flash of the poor figure to the -shocking _thud_ of the deck! I saw him rise and smile--a smile made -dreadful by blood and heart-subduing by the suddenness of his falling -back dead. - -'How'll Mr. Green like to recall the violent words he used to the poor -fellow, I wonder?' said Mrs. Burke, glancing at the mate, who, to -be sure, showed no sensibility. He trudged the deck athwartship with -rounded back and arms up and down in the sea fashion; occasionally -leering at the sky to windward, or darting a sour look at the canvas -aloft. _He_ was no man to muse with regret on the death of the sailor, -and lament his own intemperate speech; on the contrary, he was one -of those mates who sometimes become masters, to whom human life, -provided their own be not imperilled, is of no more consequence than -the extinction of the flame of the slush-fed lamp which lights the -sailor's sea-parlour. There were many dogs of that sort at sea in those -times, and some have survived into these; but the odious breed grows -scarce. Indeed, the world has agreed to find the type intolerable, and -may the day be at hand when the very last of the race shall be brought -to the gangway in the holy grip of the giantess Education, and dropped -overboard to plumb the depths of time, where lie the green bones of -Trunnion, Hatchway, and others of the clan! - -Mr. Owen recommended that the body should be buried that afternoon. The -weather was very hot; the breeze was slackening and the sea sheeting -out--full of fitful winding lanes of light as though the sun struck -upon wakes and tracks of oil--into the thickening distance, where the -heat was showing in a sensible presence of film, blending sky and water -till it was like looking at them through tears. - -'Very well,' said Captain Burke; 'in the first dog watch, if you -please.' - -It was at that hour almost calm, with a broad road of hot red light, -billowing snakelike from the ship's side over the soft undulations of -the western swell towards the rayless sun that still floated at some -height in the sky. I stood beside Mrs. Burke on the quarter-deck, -prayer-book in hand; the sailors came in a body from forward, and -amongst them they bore the corpse--an outline of tragic suggestion -under the large red ensign that hid it. They lifted out a portion of -the gangway and rested one end of the plank in the gap, and the captain -began to read. - -What is there in shore-going ceremony to compare in solemnity, in -pathos, in all the deepest of the meanings which are interpretable -out of human forms and customs, with the simple burial at sea? All -was as silent upon the water as the sinking of the sun himself into -the broadening road of gold under him. Aloft was a gentle sound of -winnowing canvas; a sob of the sea from alongside sometimes broke in -upon the captain's delivery. - -The expressions on the faces of the rough seamen were for the most part -fixed. How many shipmates and messmates had they helped bury in their -time? How should they be concerned by death? themselves having the -Skeleton at their heels every hour of their existence at sea, allowed -but a crooked finger for their own lives, all the remainder of their -hands being their owner's! - -_Now_, knowing sailors as I do, I can read those seamen's faces by the -aid of memory, and almost tell their thoughts as they stood there near -the gangway. - -'Well, poor Bill, there he lies.'--'My turn next perhaps.'--'What's -that yarn the skipper's a-reading? A blooming good job for them it's -true of! No call to talk of _souls_ at sea. It's work hard, live hard, -and die hard here; and what's arterwards there's Bill there to say.' - -At a signal the flag was withdrawn, the stitched hammock was revealed, -the plank was tilted, and the grim parcel despatched. - -The night that followed was breathless and beautiful. In the south-east -under the moon the water stretched in a stainless field of light, -flashing, but still as a sheet of looking-glass; our sails glowed -blandly like starlight itself as they rose one above another into the -whitened gloom in whose clear profound many meteors were darting, -leaving a smoke of spangles for all the world like sky-rockets under -the large trembling stars. Lovely _they_ were: but for the moon I think -many had studded the water with points of light, to ride and widen upon -the black and noiseless lift of swell, thick and sluggish as though it -were oil that ran, and scarcely putting three moons'-breadth of motion -into our mastheads, though it sweetened the air with the rain of dew it -softly beat out of the canvas. - -The cabin was too hot to sit in. There was no magic in two windsails -and a wide skylight to cool it. I had played at cribbage with Mrs. -Burke till, with a yawn, the hour being about half-past nine, I -proposed that we should go on deck. The steward followed us with a tray -of refreshments; the captain and Mr. Owen joined us, pipes in mouth, -and we sat, nothing betwixt us and the stars but the moonlit shadow of -the night through which we saw them. - -Four bells were struck, ten o'clock; there was no light forward saving -a little sheen of the forecastle lamp round about the fore-scuttle, -like a dim luminous mist there. But the moon lay bright upon the white -planks of the deck, and though the rigging rose pale as tarnished -silver to the mastheads it made a network of shadows black as ebony, -which swung with the roll of the ship as though they kept time to music. - -I was looking at some of this delicate network on the main deck when -the figure of a man passed through it and approached the boatswain, -who had charge of the ship till midnight. They talked with a rumble in -their notes that was as good as telling you something was wrong. The -captain called out: - -'What does that man want?' - -The boatswain then came to us, leaving the man standing, and -exclaimed, 'He says there's a strange sailor in the ship.' - -'What's that?' demanded Captain Burke. - -'He says there's a man walking about as don't belong to the ship's -company.' - -'Whose grog has he been cribbing?' said Mr. Owen. - -The captain called to the man, who came and stood before us. The -moonlight whitened him: he was a powerfully built fellow, with a -quantity of black hair hanging about his ears and dark nervous eyes, -which caught the light in silver stars. - -'What's this about a strange man being aboard?' said the captain. - -'There's a strange man in the ship, sir,' he answered. - -And now I observed that in the black shadow of the galley forward there -stood a little group of men, apparently striving to hear what was -spoken aft. - -'Have you seen him?' - -'Certainly I have, sir.' - -'Go on,' exclaimed the captain, impatiently. - -'I was on the fok'sle when he passed me. He walked slow. He looked at -me as he passed, and his face was wet.' - -'How could you tell _that_ in this light?' said Mr. Owen. - -'The moonshine rippled in it, sir.' - -'Go on,' said the captain. - -'He was going aft as though just come out of the head. I made a step or -two and lost him.' - -'Where did he disappear?' said the boatswain in a voice of awe. - -'Why, in the gloom about the foremast.' - -'It'll be a stowaway come to light at a pretty late date,' exclaimed -Captain Burke, stiffening himself in his chair with a start of temper. -'Bo'sun, get a lantern, and take and give everything forward a good -overhaul.' - -'It's no stowaway, sir,' said the man who had seen the stranger. - -'Ho, d'ye know him, then?' cried the captain. - -'He was no stowaway,' repeated the seaman in a sudden roaring voice of -irrepressible excitement. - -The captain stared at him. - -'You won't make him a ghost, will you?' said Mr. Owen. - -The man viewed the doctor in silence, then suddenly shouted, whipping -round upon the boatswain: - -'Tom Hartley saw him.' - -'Call Tom Hartley aft,' exclaimed the captain. - -The name was bawled by the boatswain, and repeated in echoes like -distant laughter aloft. Then a man stepped out of the huddle of figures -in the shadow of the galley and came through the moonlight, followed by -four or five who halted at the gangway. - -'What's this you've seen, Hartley?' said Captain Burke. - -'I was at the scuttle butt with the dipper in my hand, when, turning my -head to look forrard, I see the shadow of a man with the glimmer of a -face upon it standing near the foremast. I took a step, thinking it was -one of the men, and lost it.' - -'How d'ye mean, lost it?' said the captain. - -'It sort of went out, sir.' - -'Take a lantern and search the ship forward, bo'sun,' said the captain. - -The three of them went forward, but I heard the first man tell the -boatswain that the way to see the stranger that had come aboard was not -by showing a light. - -'What's the meaning of it?' said Mrs. Burke. - -The captain rose in silence and walked the deck, going somewhat towards -the gangway, and staring forward and around. The group of seamen had -followed the boatswain, and were now on the forecastle, a knot of -silvered figures with their shadows like carvings of jet lying at -their feet. - -'Was it a strange man they saw?' I asked. 'If so, how did he come into -the ship?' and I own a chill ran through me as I asked the question. - -The mystery and awe of this wonderful, beautiful night of moonlight -and trance of ocean, glazed by the nightbeam as though it were an -ice-field, was in this hour to heighten into a sort of horror the -fancy of a strange man with a wet face walking forward; and then again -there was the memory of the death in the morning and the burial before -sundown. Mrs. Burke was silent, and I saw her watching her husband as -he uneasily moved here and there. - -'Pity it's happened,' said Mr. Owen. 'It's all nonsense, of course. -They'll find nobody. A very small optical illusion will carry -conviction into the brain of a noodle. All sailors are noodles in -superstition. And now all hands'll think there's a ghost aboard.' - -Captain Burke rejoined us abruptly, and seated himself. - -'They'll find nothing,' said he. - -'So I was just saying,' said the doctor. - -'But that'll be the worst of it,' exclaimed the captain. 'I wish it had -been that confounded seaman's watch below. I don't like such things as -this to happen in my ship.' - -'Why, Captain Burke, you don't mean to tell me----?' said Mr. Owen, -catching, as I did, the note of awe and nervousness in the other's -utterance. - -'I tell you what it is,' burst out the captain irritably; 'it's -devilish hot to-night, I know. Is this the Red Sea?' - -'Would it were, for that's where all the ghosts are laid,' said the -doctor good-humouredly. - -'I'm no infidel,' said the captain. 'I thank God I have my faith. -There's testimony enough in the Bible to the existence of ghosts to -satisfy any Christian man.' - -'Why, Edward,' cried Mrs. Burke, 'do you want to frighten Miss Marie?' -and she poured out a small tumbler of brandy and seltzer for him; he -swallowed the draught and said: - -'They'll find nothing; which will prove, of course,' said he, looking -at me, 'that there is nothing.' - -And then he began to talk a little mysteriously of a brig that had -sailed out of Cork; the crimps or runners had bundled a man stone -drunk into the forecastle, where the captain let him lie for a day or -two, guessing he would rally and turn to; instead of which they found -him dead, and there was no doubt he had been dead when put on board, -the crimps shipping the corpse in order to secure the man's wages. -They buried the loathly thing, but every night throughout the voyage -the apparition of it moved in the forepart of the vessel, and always -its ghostly hand struck one bell, which is half an hour past midnight -at sea, after which the shape disappeared, and the watch on deck -breathed freely again. I say Captain Burke talked of this brig a little -mysteriously, as though he secretly believed in the story, yet was -ashamed we should think he did so. - -Whilst Mr. Owen was trying to make Mrs. Burke and me laugh with some -silly story of a spectre, the boatswain came aft. - -'Well,' said the captain. - -'There's no strange man forward, sir.' - -'Where have ye searched?' - -The boatswain named all sorts of places. - -'All right!' said the captain, springing to his feet. 'It's happened -right or wrong, and must take time to wear off. The dew is heavy: I -recommend Miss Otway to go below.' - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -A RACE AND A ROLLER - - -Mrs. Burke talked with me in my cabin for some time. She wondered that -her husband could be so credulous as to believe in ghosts, and said -she had never before suspected he was superstitious. She kissed me and -said good-night, and went away thinking, I dare say, she had left me -fairly cheerful; and so indeed I was while she was with me, but when -she was gone, and I lay alone in the darkness, I felt very uneasy. The -cabin porthole was high above the low bunk in which I rested; I could -not see the stars in it, but the noise of waters fretted by a gentle -catspaw of wind came through very clearly, along with a dim sifting -of moonshine that ruled the gloom in a spectral spoke of light which -was like dreaming to see; it was a dismal, sobbing, moaning noise of -waters whilst it lasted, and made me think of the dead men deep down in -the sea, and of the apparition that had moved upon the forecastle, and -vanished seemingly as smoke goes out, till I was too afraid to sleep. - -The last bells I heard stealing faintly through the calm were -eight--four o'clock in the morning. - -However, I was at the breakfast table at the usual hour; Captain -Burke and his wife and the doctor came below from the deck and seated -themselves. Presently I said: - -'Are we making good way, Captain Burke?' - -'Noble way. We've taken a fine royal breeze right abeam. It's hit our -heels to a hair.' - -I looked at him as he spoke, and observed a certain dulness in his -countenance. The arch expression was gone out of his eyes, and if they -seemed merry it was through their blue glitter, not their spirit. It -may have been his face which made me ask: - -'Was anything more seen of the ghost during the night?' - -'No, miss,' he answered abruptly. - -'It was no ghost, Miss Marie,' exclaimed my old nurse. 'Why, as Mr. -Owen justly says, you can't have no better ingredients for a spectre -than moonshine and the moving shadows of rigging.' - -'For such a noodle as the fellow that saw the thing,' said the doctor, -with a half-glance of interest and speculation at the captain. - -'You're not going to get correct likenesses of living people out of -moonshine and shadow,' said the captain. - -'Why, yes, out of light and shade merely, captain,' said Mr. Owen. -'What else would you do work with in pencil or crayon?' - -'I wonder you can be so silly, Edward,' said Mrs. Burke. - -I looked at her inquiringly, perceiving that something lay behind this: -on which she said, 'The man who saw the ghost has frightened Edward by -saying he thought it was the captain at first, the face was so like.' - -The captain sipped at a big breakfast cup to conceal his expression, -and subdue, as I thought, some temper excited by his wife's remark. He -then said, quietly smiling, but with no light of merriment upon him, 'I -went forward last night after you were turned in, Miss Otway, to take -a look round. I called to the fellow the ghost appeared to, and asked -him to describe the thing to me; he did so, and said it had my face. -My wife thinks I am frightened. You don't believe that, I hope? You'd -not feel safe in a ship commanded by a skipper who's to be scared by a -seaman's yarn.' - -'Just a little bit of forecastle malice, depend upon it,' said the -doctor. 'We'll have the truth of it yet. Perhaps they hope to justify -their charges against your beef by dreaming terrific waking nightmares, -and seeing precisely the sort of thing that an unsavoury harness cask -would be fruitful of.' - -'You'll have the other man saying now that the thing he saw _was_ like -you,' said Mrs. Burke. - -'He's said it,' exclaimed the captain, with an emphatic nod at her. - -Mr. Owen lay back in his chair with a loud laugh; an ill-timed -explosion and forced withal, for you easily saw that the mood of the -captain was then a distemper, which needed the medicine of a little -skilful sympathy. But the subject was dropped after the doctor's laugh, -and Captain Burke, turning to me, talked in a gentle voice of the -letter I had sent home, and calculated the distance the brig had sailed -since we spoke her, and chatted to entertain me and perhaps to brisken -up his own spirits. - -When I went on deck I beheld one of the most spacious splendid scenes -of morning our ship had ever sprang through. It was blowing fresh, but -the seas ran steadily in defined hard blue ridges, smoking as they came -at us right abeam. The rolling of the ship was so regular as to be -scarcely noticeable. It was all cream and yeast to leeward; I had never -seen before alongside such a bubbling, throbbing spread of white spume, -winking, seething, crackling like burning brushwood, sweeping off in -steam whenever the heel of the ship hurled the blast under the foot -of the mainsail sheer into it over the rail. The clouds hung in vast -terraces to windward, with bodies of vapour blowing up to the zenith -out of the silk-white heaps, then scudding westward to mass themselves -low down in a coast of cloud, that looked, with its breaks and tints, -like a rich land dimly seen in mist. - -It was this cloud scenery, with its steady whirl of vapour between, -that made the morning show as wide again as it was. Mr. Owen, seeing -me alone looking at the water, joined me. - -'It is difficult to feel superstitious on such a morning as this,' said -he. - -'If the stranger comes again I hope it will be in daylight,' I -answered. 'The thing seems to have affected the captain's spirits.' - -'But not yours, I hope.' - -'I don't believe in ghosts,' said I, 'but I have faith in portents and -presentiments and premonitions.' - -He looked grave, and answered so had he, and was about to tell me -something, then checked himself; I think his imagination was with his -dead then, and that he could have told me of having received some -warning of the loss that was to befall him. - -'I am sorry,' said he, with a glance at the captain, who was on the -weather side of the deck talking with his wife, 'that the sailor should -have told Captain Burke the apparition was like him. These reports, -if there's good faith in them, catch hold of a man's spirits. The -captain's worried. We must avoid the subject in his presence.' - -'I should not like to be told that I had appeared to a person,' said I. - -'I don't know,' he exclaimed, 'whether sailors are more superstitious -than others; they're thought to be so. They can plead good reasons. -Last night, for example, was fuller of the mysterious and the -spirit-like than any churchyard scene, however crumbling the church -tower, however red the colour than of the moon with a streak of -black cloud, like crape, above it. The superstitions of the sea are -extraordinary, and some of them beautiful. The Ancient Mariner was a -poet.' - -'He talks like one in the poem,' said I, smiling. - -'Coleridge went to the old sea chronicles for his ideas and imagery,' -he exclaimed. 'Shelvocke gave him the albatross, and he found his -painted ocean, and the shining and burning, wriggling things in it, in -Richard Hawkins. We can never see again as the old saw. They came with -the eyes of children and everything was marvellous. But many of the old -superstitions linger.' - -'Is there any particular superstition connected with apparitions at -sea?' - -'I am not well read in that subject,' he answered, laughing. 'Most of -the apparitions I have heard about concern the coming on and ending of -storms--mercurial spirits, spectres of the barometer. The old Jacks -swore that the Virgin frequently appeared in the height of a gale; they -had but to vow a taper and down dropped the wind. There was always a -gale in the wake of the "Flying Dutchman."' - -'There's nothing but weather for apparitions to predict at sea,' said I. - -'That wet-faced ghost of last night,' said he, 'reminds me of Lord -Byron's tale of a certain captain; his brother, who was in India, -entered his cabin in mid-ocean, and lay down in his bunk; when the -captain awoke he found his blankets wet through.' - -'Perhaps he forgot to close his cabin window,' said I. - -'Anyhow,' said Mr. Owen, 'Captain Kidd afterwards discovered that his -brother was drowned at that exact hour of the night.' - -'This is not nice talk for such a morning as this,' said I, chilled by -a sudden return of the uneasy superstitious feeling. - -'There's a fine sight coming along yonder,' cried out Captain Burke -just then, and he pointed over the weather bow with the telescope he -had been looking through. - -I crossed the deck and saw two large stars of light on the sea-line -almost directly ahead. Even whilst I gazed they sensibly enlarged. The -sun at this time was hanging on the left of them, and his light was -on the water between, flashing every headlong ridge into silver, and -silvering the sea-smoke till it flew down the wind with the gleam of a -silken veil; and beyond this rushing splendour of silver sea, softened -here and there by the shadows of the sailing clouds, hung those two -glowing stars, steady as though they were fixed in the heavens. - -Captain Burke let fall the glass from his eye and said to Mr. Owen, 'An -ocean race.' - -'Yachts?' said the doctor. - -'Bless me no. Clippers rushing it for a wager. If this was the other -end of the year they'd probably prove tea-ships. It should be a fine -sight,' he cried, anticipation and spirit working his face into -something of its old merry, eager look. - -We were ourselves sailing fast, and the two ships were coming along -faster perhaps by two or three miles in the hour than we were going; in -a magically short time they were two defined shapes upon the bow about -a quarter of a mile apart, black spots under brilliant clouds showing -like shapes of white flame through the windy blue dazzle trembling -into the atmosphere they were coming through. The sailors dropped their -several tasks to look; the surly mate stared with a fixed devouring -leer; all hands I guessed understood what they were to see; the cook -stepped from the galley to the rail. In less than half an hour from the -moment of our sighting them they were abreast, and when they were right -abeam this one hid the other, so completely were they neck and neck. - -By this time our own ship's number was flying at our peak, and now as -they came abreast, each having told us by a thin tongue of flag that -our colours had been spelt out, they hoisted their own names. - -'An Aberdeen clipper and a Blackwall liner,' said Captain Burke, -reading out of a signal book. 'Both from an Australian port. A very -pretty race indeed. But it's the spirit of Souchong that puts life into -that sort of thing.' - -Yet spite of that I thought the show as gallant as anything old ocean -ever submitted, if it were not a scene of old line-of-battle ships in -a gale of wind. They opened into six spires of delicate shadow and -snowlike whiteness; they leaned their full and starlike breasts to us, -the lustrous canvas tapering to an apex of cloth that was a very puff -of sail, wan as some web of cloud near the afternoon moon. Every stitch -that would draw was heaped upon them; they had the wind right abeam; -to windward they were clothed with studding-sails; betwixt the masts -some becalmed wing of fore and aft canvas would swing in and out idly -like the pinion of a wounded bird. The sight was a marvellous hurry of -shadows, and flashing lights, and steady shining of rounded canvas; and -under the bows of each a glass-clear sea arching, flashed into a very -snow-storm, and broke aft as far as the gangway. - -They passed like clouds, silent and stately, and I continued to watch -them till they were glowing astern, dwindling and dimming, but, as -Captain Burke declared, neck and neck yet even when they had sunk their -courses, and nothing above the clews of their topsails were 'dipping' -upon the horizon. - -It was not many days after this that we crossed the equator. A pleasant -sailing wind blew us over the line and failed us not till we had -reached almost within the Polar verge of the south-east trade wind, -into which Captain Burke and the mate sneaked the ship by careful and -unwearied attention to every faintest breathing that tarnished the -surface of the long, blue equatorial heave. Then one morning, coming on -deck, I found a strong wind humming like a concert of organs off the -port bow, and the vessel with her yards fore and aft, breaking through -a quick spitting sea, and clouds passing like dust over our mast-heads. -This was the first of the south-east trade wind. - -'It's all right with us now, Miss Otway,' said Captain Burke as he -shook me by the hand. 'We're making a straight course for the Horn, and -we shall be putting her nose off for the great South Sea presently.' - -But even though he spoke lightly, and seemed very well satisfied to -have taken the trade gale in its strength so young, there was the same -suggestion of spiritlessness in his manner that had been more or less -visible in him now ever since the sailor had told him he had seen his -apparition. Though the ghost had not again appeared; though Mr. Owen, -with the hope, no doubt, of settling the captain's spirits, had got -the seaman to admit that he might have been mistaken, that he was -leaning against the forecastle rail in a sort of doze perhaps when he -started and saw the thing, which, he avowed, might very well have been -an illusion of shadow and moonlight upon his sleepy vision--it was all -one; a weight of dejection had come upon the captain's mind, and ever -since the night of superstition he had ceased to be that merry, arch, -humorous Irishman who had called upon my father, and made us laugh -almost in the very anguish of my leave-taking. This was so noticeable -in him whilst he talked to me about the south-east trade wind, and -going for Cape Horn in a bee-line, and our first sunny port--full of -quaint costumes and pleasant fruit and queer merry-makings--just round -the corner, that on returning to the cabin sometime afterwards and -finding Mrs. Burke there sewing, I sat down beside her and talked about -him. - -'What should there be in this thing, nurse, to dispirit your husband -after all these days, now that the man has as good as sworn that he was -mistaken?' - -'Why, my dear, he is an Irishman, and they are a superstitious people.' - -'The crew no longer trouble themselves about that ghost.' - -'I don't think they do. The boatswain,' said she, laughing, 'told my -husband a man had said that as the ghost appeared with a wet face it -must have been Old Stormy.' - -'Who's Old Stormy?' said I. - -'Oh,' she answered, still laughing, 'there is a well-known windlass -song called "Old Stormy, he is dead and gone!"' - -'Old Stormy wouldn't be like Captain Burke,' said I. - -'And that should satisfy him,' she answered. 'I doubt that he's quite -the thing. These roasting latitudes use the liver cruelly. Then again -there's the anxiety of command. The tone of the mind gets lowered by -worry, which a man takes as a matter of routine, and doesn't heed -though it's working in him all the same. It'll wear off, I dare say, -when the weather gets cold.' - -She talked placidly, going on with her work with a comfortable, smiling -face. She had married too late in life to take anxious views of her -husband. It's the young wife that frets, I think. Not that Mrs. Burke -would not have shown herself deeply anxious had her husband been ailing -in his health; it was his fancies she took no notice of, a smile was -good enough for them. - -It chanced that on this same day there occurred an incident that had -nearly verified the judgment of any man who should have accepted -the visit of the apparition as a menace. After loitering at the -dinner-table in chat, I put on my hat and jacket and followed the -captain and Mr. Owen on deck. It was blowing very fresh, and though the -sun still nearly centred the heavens we were sailing under, the weight -of the blast put an edge into the feel of it. But it was a glorious, -invigorating, cordial draught; and I stood for awhile with my hand -upon the companion-hood, deeply breathing, and relishing to the inmost -pulses of my being that shouting musical tide of liberal gale, blue and -salt, yet sweet as sugar when it came charged with the damp of the -spray. - -The brown scud was flying off the working ridges on the horizon, and -the ship was bowed to her channels, charging the sea-flashes, with the -forecastle reeling in the frequent thickness of foam flying athwart. -She was carrying all she had of plain sail and clearly more than she -needed, for I had not been five minutes on deck when the captain -ordered the three royals to be clewed up and furled, and other sail to -be taken in. - -I continued standing at the hatch watching two men on the main royal -yard stow the sail there. It was a giddy sight to my girlish eye. -Indeed I had always found something wonderful in the agility and -fearlessness of the crew when they sprang aloft, and slided out upon -the yards, and struggled with the canvas that soared in huge bladders -from their grasp. I gazed up at the two fellows and tried to figure -the image our ship would make viewed from that height, and whilst I -was picturing a narrow streak of hull rushing headlong with a wild -play of dazzle on either hand of her, and all aslant to her trucks, -with yard-arms pointing skywards and stirless canvas thrilling like -a thousand drums out of the violet hollows, I was startled by a loud -cry directly overhead: and looking up I spied a man in the mizzen-top, -leaning off with one hand upon a shroud, and pointing eagerly to -leewards with the other, whilst he cried: - -'There's a whole coast of water a-coming along.' - -I directed my eyes at the lee line of the sea, where I saw, nearly at -the distance of the horizon, but clearly coming along at a prodigious -rate directly against the wind and rushing surge, a wall of water: -it was rounding its pouring volume high above the level of the sea, -and the vast bulk of it, stretching north and south, blazed with the -flashing of the sunlight upon the savage leaps and shattering recoils -of the surge it was rolling up against. Mrs. Burke, losing her wits at -the sight, shrieked out: - -'Oh, Edward, it will drown us!' - -Scarcely had she said this when her husband, who had taken but one -glance to leeward, roared out: - -'Hard up, hard up with the helm! Aft to the weather-braces. Square away -fore and aft! Lively, my lads, for Jesus' sake! If it takes us abeam -it'll sink the ship!' - -He yelled the words and they rang through the vessel. The sailors fled -to the braces: their practised ears heard in the captain's cry the note -that signifies at sea life or death, though some probably did not know -what the danger was. The gallant little ship answered her helm like a -racing yacht, and seethed aslant down the wind in a semicircle, bowing -the hawse-pipes into the billow breaking under her, and slowly righting -as she brought her stern to the breeze, till she was looking at the -long on-coming, cliff-like length of brine, with erect spars, rolling -never and bowing only as she swept to that wonderful heap of sea. - -It might have been hurling towards us at forty miles an hour, when we -are going ten, and in a few heart-beats our bows were lifting to it. - -'Hold on, all hands!' roared the captain from the wheel, which he was -grasping conjointly with the helmsman. - -'Hold tightly,' screamed Mrs. Burke to me as we stood together in the -companion. - -Mr. Owen flung himself on his knees behind the mizzen-mast. Green, -the mate, stood at the mizzen-rigging grasping a belaying-pin. It -was as though an electric storm was volleying in one continuous roar -of cloud battery overhead. The ship seemed to be thrown keel out of -water forward. I glanced astern at the instant that her bows took the -first of the slant of that mighty heave of sea, and the line of her -taffrail was depressed, like the edge of a spoon afloat in a cup, in -the crackling whiteness there, with Captain Burke and the helmsman low -down, pale and motionless. The sails throughout came in to the mast -with a single clap. In a breath or two we were on the rounded top of -that vast rolling lift of water that was roaring along either extremity -of it to the horizon; the wind was full of the thunder of the shock and -the snap of strong seas staggering on the under run; in that breathless -moment of our being poised atop the whole weight of the wind was -upon the ship; through the roar of the roller ran the bugling in the -rigging, and the low, deep humming of the canvas as it strained with -the blast. - -Then like an arrow down rushed the vessel. Oh, that was a frightful -moment! So steep was the slant that the water poured in tons over her -bows as she went. I turned sick. I thought she would take the valley -in a dive and strike clean through under the next sea, never again to -rise. Fortunately the run of the mighty roller left the water smooth in -its wake. The bows sprang buoyant, the whole ship seemed to leap with a -sort of shudder of rejoicing throughout her. - -'Trim sail the watch,' shouted the captain, letting go the helm and -coming forward. 'Mr. Green, bring the ship to her course again. A -desperately close shave. Had it come from the wind'ard, or taken us -abeam to leeward, or found us a strake or two deeper----' - -There was no need for him to finish the sentence. He came to the -companion-way. - -'An ocean hurdle,' said he, still very pale, and watching the wheel as -the man revolved the spokes to bring the ship to. - -'What was it, Edward?' cried his wife. - -'A roller,' said he. 'I hope there may not be another.' He looked to -leeward. 'One of those volcanic jokes or hurricane survivals which try -periodically to swamp Ascension and St. Helena. Help Miss Otway below, -Mary, and give her a little drop of wine, and take a nip yourself.' - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -A HURRICANE - - -Our voyage, after this incident of the roller down to below the -latitude of Cape Horn, was uneventful. I had looked with dread to -the cold of that stormy and desolate part of the world; but when we -arrived, having struck a parallel, indeed, beyond which the captain -informed us we were not to push much further, I found the ocean climate -by no mean insupportable. - -My wardrobe had been a liberal equipment. I had furs, wraps and the -like in plenty, and all very warm; then again my health had wonderfully -improved, and this helped me to find the cold a lesser evil than I -had feared. Throughout the days a fire glowed in the cabin. And yet -it was towards the close of June when we were nearly as far south as -the captain intended to go, and June is mid-winter in that part of the -world, with but four or five hours of light only in the day, and the -sun a little scarlet ball whose arc of flight might scarcely frame an -iceberg. - -All this while the captain remained the changed man I have before -attempted to express him. I did not observe that his despondency -increased upon him. He was as one who lives with some fixed belief in -his head, who, depressing his bearing and manner to a level, leaves -himself there, never sinking, but never rising either. For the rest -it had been as it still was, a monotonous routine of bells and meals, -reading, chatting, playing at games in the cabin; sometimes we had -spoken a ship; once we had floated quietly into a school of whales -which made the cold black deep lying under the large stars of the -south as beautiful as any dream of poet with the silver willowy curves -of light they blew to the moon. - -In this time I found no opportunity to send a second letter home. - -I cannot remember our latitude on this day I am to write about. I -understood that, for reasons my memory will not suffer me to explain, -we had made more southing than was necessary, whilst we were further -to the east--half-way indeed, to Georgia Island,--than the captain -and mate cared to talk about. The weather had been sulky all the -morning; large snow clouds in soft dyes of darkness upon the stooping, -corrugated, leaden sky, floated sullenly athwart our mast-heads, but -without any squally outfly of wind so far, though often the snow fell -thickly. A large westerly swell was running, and the ship bowed heavily -upon it, finding nothing to steady her in the small beam breeze that -blew bitter as ice straight out of the south. - -I remained in the cabin all the morning, reading beside the fire. -Whilst we were at dinner, the mate, shaggy in thick pilot cloth and a -great fur cap between whose ear-covers his face lay small as though -withered by the cold into a mere leer of eye and a purple nose jewelled -with a little icicle, came half-way down the companion ladder. - -'There's a big island jumped out of a snowfall on the lee bow,' he -exclaimed. 'The lady'll like to see it p'raps,' having said which he -instantly returned on deck. - -Strangely enough, though we had measured many leagues of ocean often -for months and months studded with bergs, we had down to this hour -sighted nothing of the sort. I had longed to see an iceberg before all -other sights of the deep, and at once wrapped myself up, and went on -deck with the captain. On stepping to the lee side, there on the bow -about two miles off we beheld a vast iceberg like a mighty cathedral -in alabaster shaping itself out of a soft vapoury shadow! As each -feature of the mass stole out it showed with an ivory-like clearness -against the hoary soot of the snow-cloud past it; the swell of the -sea washed the base in a large surf. The water was lead coloured as -the sky; its heavings were slow and stubborn, and each volume rolled -along as though it were of oil or quicksilver. Some lovely snow-white -petrels darted swallow-like athwart our sluggish wake. I cannot express -how their beauty deepened, to the imagination, the sky-wide loneliness -of this scene of ocean with its ice-island there, material as rock, -dissoluble as the smallest of the flakes falling upon it--a mere dream -of substance--a pageant of the deep as illusive as the tapestries of -the clouds. - -Many shadows of snow hung round the sea. It was like entering a vast -arena funereal with draperies. - -'What does that iceberg remind you of?' said Mr. Owen, approaching us -with Mrs. Burke. - -'Of a cathedral,' said I. - -'Exactly,' he exclaimed. 'Winchester and Canterbury combined, with -a hint from Strasburg in that corner to the right yonder, where its -opening is clear of the snow.' - -'A pretty little fairy toy to thump up against on a black howling -night,' said Captain Burke, with an uneasy look round at the weather. - -'This is as strange a day as ever I saw,' said Mrs. Burke. - -'How long could people live on such an iceberg as that?' said I. - -'Give 'em wreckage for huts and food and fuel, and they should live -long enough to be taken off,' answered the captain. - -'Ha!' exclaimed Mr. Owen, pensively regarding the majestic bulk, 'fancy -finding one's self alone on such an island as that! An ice Crusoe!' - -'I've known three whalers taken off a piece of ice four or five days -before the lump they floated on would have melted under their feet,' -said the captain. - -Mr. Owen viewed him with a smile. The captain abruptly left us, and -standing at the wheel directed his eyes earnestly round the sea and up -at the sky. Mrs. Burke said: - -'My husband's uneasy. I hope we are not going to have any very bad -weather.' - -'Miss Otway,' said Mr. Owen, 'do you know, those birds are the souls -of dead ballet-girls? Observe the exquisite time and grace of their -measures and curvings, as though they held their white skirts out and -revolved to unheard music.' - -Here Captain Burke called out sharply: - -'Get the main-topgallant sail furled and all three topsails -single-reefed.' - -In a few minutes the ship was clamorous with singing men and busy with -running figures; a pale ray of sunshine glanced just then at no great -height above the horizon and flashed up our ice-glazed rigging and -flamed in the spears of ice at the catheads: it touched the iceberg -and the cathedral-like phantasy that was now abeam whitened out into a -glaring brilliance which flung a sheen of its own round about it; the -sky hung pale above and on its left, but to the right of it snow was -falling thickly. In a few minutes the whole mass vanished, a deeper -gloom closed in upon the sea, and the swell ran with an increased -weight. - -It was an 'all hands' job as sailors call it, and while the watches -were on the topsail yards, the captain bawled out 'two reefs,' and when -some hands went on to the mizzen topsail yard he cried out to them to -close-reef the sail, which, before the men came down, was clewed up and -furled. Even whilst I remained on deck a sort of vapourish thickness -had gathered round the horizon, as though the several draperies of -snow-cloud had compacted into a huge circular wall, blotting out -everything a mile off, whilst overhead the sooty stuff, like scud held -in suspense, floated low down till the sweep of the dog vane at the -royal mast-head seemed to rend it. - -It began to snow in large soft flakes. I went down the companion steps, -and Mrs. Burke and Mr. Owen followed me. I heard Mr. Owen say softly, -as though he would not have me overhear, - -'I wish the mercury had not sunk so low.' - -'I shall be glad to get out of this sea into the north, where the sun -is,' answered Mrs. Burke. - -It was after two, and the cabin lamp was alight. I removed my wraps and -took a chair close by the stove. The motion of the ship was large, and -sweeping upon the swell. You could judge of its character by watching -the oscillation of the lamp. Presently Mrs. Burke came from her cabin -and sat beside me. - -'We are going to have heavy weather, I fear,' said I. - -'Oh, well, this is a brave little ship,' she answered. 'We are a long -way from home down here, but she's carried us safely so far.' - -'She has truly, nurse. I cannot wonder that sailors should feel towards -ships they have long lived in almost as towards the women they love. -A ship is alive. I can think of her as with passions and feelings. -I've seen the "Lady Emma" erect her spars and look at a sea as a horse -cocks its ears at a gate--I once heard Mr. Green talking to her, and I -laughed to find myself thinking she understood him.' - -'What did he say?' - -'"Go it, old bucket"--I forget what more,' said I. - -'If it were not for Mr. Moore,' said she, looking at me with -affectionate eyes, 'I would stake all that my husband owns in this ship -that you ended in marrying a sailor.' - -I quietly shook my head. - -'Well, the sea has used you handsomely, anyway,' said she. 'I dare say -Sir Mortimer is at this minute wondering where you are. How he and Mr. -Moore will have pored over the map of the world, to be sure. But little -can they guess where you are this very day. This is the terrible Horn -your father was so afraid of for your sake. It's not so cold, is it? -And yet we are further south than it is customary for ships to venture. -What would Sir Mortimer think of such a sight as you saw to-day--that -great iceberg, I mean? Fancy such an object floating just opposite your -house. What a fortune for the boatmen!' - -Just then I heard a shouting on deck; it came dulled through the -planks, yet I caught a sharp, fierce note of instant need in it. A -minute later the ship leaned down to an outfly of wind that seemed of -hurricane force. I heard the thunder of the storm, and saw the lee -cabin windows drowned in the green brine, whilst the weather ports -winked like blinded eyes with the sudden lashing of foam. My chair gave -way, and with a shock I fell with it and rolled down the deck, and for -some moments lay helpless, astonished, terrified to the last degree, -but unhurt. - -Mrs. Burke clung to a stanchion, and I feared, whilst I watched her -stout form swinging off it, to see her let go, lest she should flash -down upon me and break my neck or maim me for life with her weight. I -could not imagine what was happening save that a sudden hurricane had -struck the ship and thrown her on her beam ends. She lay as though -capsized, with a horrible roaring, pounding thunderous noise of water -on the weather side of her, and frightful sounds in her hold, threaded -with dim notes of rending, as though sails were flogging in rags, or -masts going over the sides. - -I managed to get on my knees, and in that posture remained a minute -like one on the roof of a house. Such was the slant of the deck -I could no more have crawled up it to where Mrs. Burke hung by a -stanchion than up a wall. This awful sensation of the ship being upset -was dreadfully increased and made a sickness of for the very soul -itself to faint under, by her motions in the vast hollow swell which -the hurricane was tearing into shreds. Whenever a pause of the beating -sea left a weather cabin window weeping, yet clear to that extent, I -could judge it was about black as midnight outside. The globe of the -lamp had swung hard against the deck, and rarely came from it even -with a windward roll. All in a moment the ship lurched over yet, till -you would have thought she was turning keel up, and this motion was -accompanied by such a thump of the sea, such a shattering inleaping -of tons of water, it was as though a huge gun or a whole broadside of -pieces had been fired on board of us. - -And again through the roaring blow of water I caught the muffled noise -of the rending of wood. I shrieked out in that moment of agonising -suspense, 'We are sinking!' and indeed so blinding was the eclipse of -the window glass that I did truly believe we were going down and were -even then below the surface. - -Mrs. Burke was unable to make any reply. She was almost black in the -face with the anguish of supporting her weight and with horror and -fear. In a few moments the strength of her arms gave out; but by -relaxing her grip she doubtless saved her neck; her grasp loosened and -she slided her embrace down the stanchion to the deck, and then let -go and swept silent and helpless as a length of timber down to close -beside me; her feet struck the cabin wall hard, and she lay a minute -without motion as though the breath had been shocked out of her. She -then grasped my hand and cried out: - -'Oh, what can have happened? Are we amongst the ice? Did you hear a -noise as if our masts had been splintered?' - -I shrieked back--I put it thus strongly, for you cannot imagine the -uproar in that cabin, what with the grinding of the ship and the -freight, the creaking of a hundred strong fastenings, the cannonading -of flying tons of brine against the lifted exposed weather side of the -vessel--I say I shrieked back: - -'Let us try to get on deck. It is horrible to drown down here.' - -'Don't talk like that. What can have happened? Is Edward safe? What has -become of the ship? Oh, the suddenness of it! Are we amongst the ice?' - -Thus the poor woman raved. She was silenced by a roar of water like -a crash of thunder close overhead; a sea of giant bulk had swept the -quarter-deck, and in a breath a cataract, sparkling in the lamp light, -rushed smoking down the companion, and before we could deliver a -scream we were up to our waists. - -The water must have been of an icy coldness, but I felt it not--at -least in that way; it was no colder than the summer ripples which I -would paddle in when a child. Terror had rendered me insensible to pain. - -'Cannot we drag ourselves out of it before more comes, or we shall be -drowned?' screamed poor Mrs. Burke. - -Then it was that the ship began to right. She righted slowly at first, -then came to a level keel with a sickening jerk and a wild leap of her -whole frame that sent the water in the cabin speeding and roaring white -as milk. - -A door opened and Mr. Owen stumbled out. - -'Oh, my God!' he cried. 'What has happened? I have been unable to -release myself. My berth is half-full of water.' - -And then he came splashing over to where Mrs. Burke and I stood with -an arm writhed about the stanchion. But oh, the soul-lifting sense of -relief that came into one with the feel of that level deck and the rise -and fall, hard and furious as the tossing was! - -'What has happened?' cried Mr. Owen. - -'Hark!' was Mrs. Burke's answer, in so shrill a note, that it -pierced the ear like a whistle. We heard the voices of men on deck. -A few moments later the figure of Captain Burke appeared in the -companion-way. He looked down and cried out: - -'Are you all right below there?' - -'Edward, come to us. What has happened?' shrieked Mrs. Burke. - -'How much water have you taken in down here?' he cried, and descended -to the bottom of the steps, where he stood looking round him like a man -bereft of his mind. - -'What is it, Edward?' screamed his wife. 'Tell us. We are half dead -with fright and nearly drowned.' - -'The ship's a sheer hulk--totally dismasted,' he cried, in a raving -way, still looking round and around and around. - -'Oh, oh,' wailed the poor woman, and the doctor, grey as ashes, -floundered through the rushing flood upon the cabin floor towards the -captain. - -'Not yet, sir, not yet, sir,' roared Captain Burke, holding him off -with both hands out. 'See to the ladies. Let them shift their clothes. -This water will drain off quickly. Give them brandy and take some. -Mary,' he shouted, 'the ship's alive, but if she's to remain so I -must see to her,' saying which he went up the steps, closing the -companion-way behind him. - -Mr. Owen splashed and staggered after him. He ran up the companion -steps bawling, 'Don't lock us up down here,' and tried the doors, but -was unable to open them. - -'Why has he shut us up?' I cried wildly, for this imprisonment was the -most dreadful passage of all; I felt as if I should suffocate. - -'He's afraid of more water pouring down and considers we're safer here -than on deck. He'll not leave us to drown. He'll not forget we're -here,' exclaimed Mrs. Burke. - -'He may be swept overboard, and the others will forget us.' - -'Come to your cabin and change your boots and dress. No more water is -coming in, you see. What is that noise? Hark! Oh, it is the clanging -of the pumps. How fearfully sudden! But it is always so at sea. Oh, -my poor husband! Come, Miss Marie, come and change, or this will be -giving you your death,' and grasping me by the arm the dear, poor, good -creature led me towards my cabin. - -As we stepped, moving very slowly with frequent abrupt halts and mutual -clingings, for the jump of the dismantled hull from hollow to peak, her -helpless beamwise lurch from summit to valley, were a brain-sickness -in sensation, Mr. Owen came out of the pantry holding a bottle of -brandy and a glass. He bid me take a small glassful. I told him no, and -Mrs. Burke said it was no time to think of drinking. It might be that -we should be called upon very soon to save our lives, and every one -would want the best of his wits. - -'The captain recommended a draught of the spirit, and so do I,' said -Mr. Owen, reeling in the doorway with the motion of the ship and -submitting a figure which I must have laughed at, at a time less -appalling, with his short legs set apart, their shape defined by the -soaked small clothes which hung like loose plaster upon them, his bushy -mass of minute curls over either ear seeming to enlarge like the puff -from the mouth of a cannon even as the eye rested upon them, a bottle -in one hand, a wineglass in the other, and his face as pale as tallow. - -Mrs. Burke made no answer, and we gained our cabin. - -The stout door and high coaming had kept the interior fairly dry. I -changed, but though I immediately felt the comfort of the dry thick -clothing I cannot recollect that I shivered, that I even felt cold, so -completely was all physical sensibility in this dreadful time dominated -by my horror and surprise and my fright lest the ship should go down -with us whilst we were locked up below. Mrs. Burke left me, to shift -some of her own clothes. - -I stood at the cabin porthole, holding on by a stanchion that served -as a bed-post, and looked out. The thick glass was so blind with the -ceaseless wash of the roaring sea-flashes that I could distinguish -nothing save dissolving, shifting, shapeless bulks of dim white, vague -as snow-clad mountains beheld in starless gloom. But their thunder was -without, close beside; and their strength was in the hurl of the ship. -Indeed a vast dangerous sea had been set running almost as swiftly as -the hurricane had burst upon us, and running athwart was the huge swell -filled with the might of the greatest stretch of ocean in the world. - -In about half an hour Mrs. Burke came to me. The cabin lamp continued -to burn brightly, but the fire in the stove had been extinguished by -the water. She made me put on a pair of india-rubber shoes, for though -the brine had drained off the cabin floor, the thick carpet squelched -under the tread like wet sand which leaves a pool in your foot-print. -The keen edge of this swamp of brine was in the atmosphere, raw and -weedy and death cold; it was like entering a ship's hold under sea. - -Mrs. Burke got me to the table, and procured some stout and cold -chicken, and compelled me to eat, herself setting an example. She -struggled with her spirits, and sought to talk a little cheerfully. - -'We are still alive, you see,' she said. 'The "Lady Emma" is one of the -strongest ships ever built. I am no longer frightened. I can feel the -life in a ship as a sailor does, and this vessel is jumping so briskly -that I am certain she is not taking in any water. My husband, besides, -is a thorough seaman. He knows exactly what to do, and what is best -will be done.' Then turning her head, she exclaimed, 'Where is Mr. -Owen?' - -She got up and opened the pantry door; afterwards knocked upon the door -of his berth. The noises were so many and distracting I could not hear -if he answered. She opened the door and exclaimed: - -'Won't you come and eat a little supper with us?' - -'No, thank 'ee,' he answered, in a thickish voice. - -Mrs. Burke stared at him awhile, then closed the door and returned to -me. - -The motions of the ship were so violent that we found it hard to keep -our seats. - -The food was flung over the fiddles into our laps. Every recovery had -the abruptness of the flight of a missile; the water roared about the -cabin windows, and again and again as the hull sank or soared, the -thunder of the sea swept through her as though she had split. - -The companion hatch was opened, and Captain Burke descended. He was -cased in oilskins, and one whole side of him was white with frozen -snow. He came to the table and sat down. - -'Now will you tell us what has happened, Edward?' exclaimed his wife, -and she crooked her brows with a straining of her large short-sighted -eyes, shining with fear, to catch the expression on his face as it -showed and shifted in a sort of hysteric agility with the leap of the -shadows under the lamp. - -'All three masts are gone by the board.' - -'What's to be done, then?' - -'Eh? Done?' he cried, white in the face, his eyes keen and hot with -irritability, pulling off his sou'-wester and striking it upon the -table with a blow that dislodged a moulded helmet of snow hard as -plaster, 'we want daylight first. You don't realise here what it's like -on deck. It's a frightful night.' He checked himself with a look at me -and added, 'But we'll have the old jade out of it though it should come -to warping her with the Horn for a kedge. We'll put ye safe ashore, -miss. By God, then, but Sir Mortimer shan't know you for plumpness and -bloom!' - -He forced a smile that had more the look of a snarl than a grin with -the teeth he disclosed, his eyes taking no part in it. His wife caught -a bottle from the swing-tray as it swept to her outstretched hand and -mixed a tumbler of drink. He swallowed it, and then picked up a leg of -fowl and a piece of white biscuit, and whilst he alternately bit from -either hand he talked to his wife thus: - -'The first outfly was a squall of hurricane force, and it pinned her -right down in the trough. I thought she was gone. The men could only -hold on. The boatswain at last managed to scramble forward, where he -got hold of an axe. He brought it aft, and others taking heart on -hearing him sing out, got into the main chains, and with hatchets -and knives went to work at the lanyards. The mast went, and with it -the other two. It was like the melting of a shadow aloft, with a -crash along the starboard length of her that's made matchwood of the -bulwarks, I allow, and in a minute spars and rigging were over the -side.' - -'Is the ship sound?' - -'Oh yes, she's tight enough. We've lost Green and four men.' - -'Oh, Edward, don't say it! Mr. Green--four men! How did it happen?' - -'How does anything happen at sea on a black night aboard a dismantled -ship with hills of ink and foam rolling over her? How it happened ask -of God who did it. They're not aboard.' - -He talked with jerking movements of the head, snapping his speech at -her, and his blue eyes were on fire. A look of fear of him gave a new -colour to the expression of horror and consternation in his wife's -face. I sat white and speechless, listening to him and to the booming -artillery of the sea, entering with ceaseless secret terror into the -motions of the ship, all so violent, so extravagantly wild at times -that I would say to myself, 'Now she is gone!' - -'Where are the crew?' asked Mrs. Burke. - -'Forward in their quarters. There's nothing to keep a look-out for -except daylight. The wreck's gone clear. The wheel's lashed, and -whatever comes _must_ come. Is this the meaning of Old Stormy's visit, -miss?' said he to me with another of his desperate forced grins. 'My -apparition, you know, with a wet face! At sea omens are omens; the -fired part is, you never can tell what form the mischief means to take -so that you can provide against it.' - -His wife hid her face. - -'None of that!' he roared. 'There must be no breaking down in spirit -here. Miss Otway's to be returned safe and sound to her father. There's -no virtue in snivelling to help that, with all three masts gone and the -night like a wolf's throat, and ice islands close aboard. Where's Owen?' - -I said that he was in his cabin. He got up, opened the door, and looked -at him. There was no lamp in the doctor's berth, but the sheen of the -cabin light lay upon the interior. The captain entered the cabin, but -if he spoke I did not hear him. He returned and said: - -'He is drunk! I will have a little talk with him by and by. I put you -two into his care and he gets drunk!' - -He drew on his sou'wester and stood up, holding by a stanchion. - -'Are you going on deck, Edward?' asked his wife. - -'Certainly I am.' - -'You'll be swept overboard.' - -'Not I. I'll rout out a couple of the men and we'll have this carpet -up. Pah! how the salt water stinks! They shall light ye a fire too. -Boil some coffee, Mary. You shall have what you want. I doubt but the -galley's stove. The longboat's safe, but the quarter boats are gone. -She wants steadying--she wants steadying;' and making a step or two he -sprang up the companion ladder and was gone. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -DISMASTED - - -Captain Burke's manner of going persuaded me his mind was unhinged. He -had talked with excitement, shouted at his wife, his eyes had been full -of fire, and still it did not seem that he had fully grasped the whole -dreadful meaning of the disaster. - -After he had been gone a little while two men came into the cabin with -fuel for the stove. One had a bloodstained bandage round his forehead -under his sou'wester. The snow fell in pieces of white crust from the -oilskins of the seamen as they reeled with their hands full to the -stove. In the instant of their descent the sweep of the black gale -followed, and filled the atmosphere with darting needles of stinging -cold. - -'Is any water coming into the ship?' cried Mrs. Burke. - -'No, mum. The well's just been sounded. She's right enough in the -hull,' answered the man with a bandage round his head. - -'Aren't the decks being swept?' - -'Now and again a spray,' answered the same man. 'She's a-jumping of -it drily enough. She'll not hurt as she lies providing there's nothen -knocking about to run foul of.' - -'Is your head badly hurt?' - -'Just a little bit of a cut. Nothen to take notice of, thankee,' -answered the man, and he knelt down and lighted the fire, the other -looking on and around him with a gleaming gaze of curiosity. - -The lighting of that fire was a marvellous piece of rich deep colour as -I see it now, though I had no thoughts that way, I assure you, as I sat -watching the kneeling figure on that frightful night. He was in black -oilskins bright with snow; the other in yellow, snowclad likewise, and -as the kindling shavings spat out their yellow flames, the two men -showed more like some wild startling imagination of a poet done into a -grotesque glowing canvas, than a commonplace detail of shipboard life; -their faces sharpened and shrank, grinned and grew grim with twenty -shadowy expressions, their roaming seeking eyes burned like rubies -under the pent-houses of their sea-helmets; add the convulsive motions -of the dismasted hull, the ceaseless roar of seas pouring in mountains, -the dizzy flight, the sickening fall, the wild play of the lamp, the -deep, almost human groanings of the fabric with blows of the surge, -like bolts from the sky, shocking to her heart in sounds of rending. - -I hoped Mrs. Burke would ask questions of these men as to the safety -of the vessel, what would be done, our chances for our lives, and the -like, seeing that they were able seamen, mariners of experience with -memories perhaps of such things as this too; but she was the captain's -wife; so I held my peace and watched the men, clasping myself close in -the furs I sat in. - -Scarcely was the fire alight when again the cabin was made bitterly raw -by an icy-shriek out of the blackness, and three men, one of them the -steward, all clad in oilskins and hardly recognisable, descended. A -couple bore some galley things, a coffee pot, a saucepan, a gridiron, -some drinking mugs, and such matters. One of them said, 'By the -captain's orders, ladies,' and put the utensils on the deck near the -stove. Another exclaimed, 'We've been told to stop here. We can't get a -fire to burn in the galley. The fok'sle's cruel cold.' - -'Where's the cook?' said Mrs. Burke. - -'Overboard, along with the mate and three others,' said one of the men. - -Mrs. Burke tossed her hands and after a pause said: - -'I'd cook a meal for you with pleasure, men, but I cannot bear this -motion--I cannot stand. Steward, fetch a ham from the pantry; there's -coffee there and biscuits. Get what's needed for a plentiful supper. -Four overboard! How many are left?' - -'Nine foremast hands, counting the bo'sun,' exclaimed the seaman with -the blood-stained bandage, looking round from the stove. - -Just then the rest of the seamen came below, a shaggy, snow-bleached -huddle, the gale following in a howl, with the captain's voice in the -frost-keen sling of it, shouting, 'Give them all they want to eat. Let -them have plenty of hot coffee, and top the meal off with a dram of rum -apiece.' - -The companion doors were then closed, but in such wise as to be easily -opened from within. After that moment's roar of ocean and volley of -iron blast, the comparative calm in this interior seemed like peace -itself. - -'Isn't the captain coming down?' said Mrs. Burke in a voice something -wild with anxiety. - -'Presently, mum,' answered the boatswain, swaying easily from leg to -leg, his huge form thickened out by an immensely stout pea-coat; he -pulled his sou'-wester off as a mark of respect, and the snow on the -hatch of it flew to the deck compact, and lay there like a white wreath -on a grave. - -'He'll be frozen,' cried Mrs. Burke. - -'He's a-watching of an ice-mountain out over the bows,' said a man. - -I clasped my hands, and felt the blood forsake my heart on hearing -this. One of the men observed me, and in a voice that went through the -straining noises, like the sound of the sawing of wood, cried: - -'There's no call to frighten the ladies, Jim. That there block ain't -agoing to hurt us, anyhow.' - -They then settled who should cook; a man undertook the job; the steward -cut the ham into rashers, and after a little the place was full of the -smell of frying. They had their orders, and went to work. You would -not have guessed from their behaviour that we were a dismasted hull, -low down past the Horn, ice near us, ourselves rolling helpless on -a mountainous sea, a hurricane blowing, often blind with snow, our -situation so frightful that every next lurch, every next drive, might -carry us headlong out of hand. They fried the bacon, they boiled plenty -of coffee, they overhauled the pantry, and got out biscuit and jam and -such things; but all very quietly; I saw respect in their behaviour; -yet what I best remember was their easy, unconcerned way of going about -this business of getting supper. Whilst one cooked and others prepared -the table, others again rolled the wet carpet off the deck and stowed -it away in a corner. - -All this while poor Mrs. Burke kept straining her weak eyes at the -companion way. At last she jumped up and shrieked out: - -'Why doesn't the captain come down? He'll be frozen to death or washed -overboard. Which of you'll go and tell him to come to me?' - -The boatswain instantly went. He was absent five minutes, then returned -followed by the captain, who merely saying in a voice I should not have -known but for seeing him, 'Get on with your supper, my lads, get on -with your supper. 'Tis a bad job,' came to the stove and stood before -it warming his hands. - -His wife began to reason with him in a crying appealing voice for -remaining on deck: he looked at her and shook his head. She saw -something in his face that arrested her speech, and when I glanced at -the poor man I was thankful she ceased to worry him. He stood on wide -straddled legs at the stove with his hands behind him, and the snow -draining into a pool at each heel, watching the men eating and drinking. - -I never should have imagined any ocean interior could make such a -picture as this. The wonder came into it out of the contrast betwixt -the rough coarse forecastle hands gathered around the table, with the -sparkle of silver plate in their fists, and the comparative elegance -of the state-room in which they sat, with its few looking-glasses and -other odds and ends of decoration as before described; and always -present was the overwhelming thought of the vessel's loneliness. I -could not indeed then figure her in her wretched state, but with -imagination's eye I saw the pale sweep of the decks glimmering with -snow, the deserted wheel: with each heave and fall I figured the climb -and plunge of the desolate mutilated craft upon the huge seas, black -and roaring as thunder, with a hanging, steadfast faintness out upon -the bow whenever the snow squall slackened and gave a view of a mile of -the flashing froth breaking in sullen glares between the iceberg and -the ship. - -'Eat hearty, lads,' said the captain, 'eat hearty. There's nothing to -be done with the ship till the dawn gives us a sight of her. Four of -ye gone....' He gave a sort of gasp, and stared a moment or two at his -wife, and then said to the boatswain, 'Wall, would she have righted, -think you, if the masts had stood?' - -The boatswain swallowed the contents of his mouth, and said -emphatically, 'No, sir. That second bust-down must ha' done for her.' - -A growl of assent ran round the table. - -'Well,' said the captain, 'we all know what's to be done. We've to -stick her northwards anyhow. Something may come along to give us a tow. -Failing that, there's enough of foremast standing for a jury rig. The -machinery of the helm's sound. We've to blow to the nor'rards, I say, -edging that way for the crowded track.' - -The men said nothing. I seemed to find something ominous in their -silence. At the same time it rejoiced me to observe that the captain -talked collectedly, as though he had rallied his wits, and had clear -ideas and intentions. - -When the men had supped and cleared the table, they made as though -to go. The captain told them to occupy the cabin for the night. They -looked grateful at this, and then around them, as though considering -where they should lie. Their awkward grins, queer swaying postures, -backs curved, arms up and down, and fingers curled, their bearing, -glances, and manners, which expressed but little reference to our -lamentable and awful situation, gave me, I own, a sort of heart. -They looked as though, but for the captain and us women, and the -quarter-deck restraint of the cabin, they'd have gathered about the -stove, and roared out hearty songs, drowning the fury without with -hurricane lungs of music, and spun yarns, and smoked their pipes with -as much thoughtless gaiety as they carried to their diversions ashore. - -The captain begged me to go to my cabin, and turn in and lie warm. - -'Will you go to bed at all to-night?' his wife asked him. - -'No,' he answered. - -'I suppose you mean to do all the looking out yourself, and end in -being found a frozen corpse, while Jack here is to sit by the stove?' -said she in a low voice, but audible to him and me, glancing round her -at the men. - -He peered at her with a scowl, and answered, 'I'm nearly crazy. Say -nothing if I'm not to go raving mad.' - -'May I not stop here?' said I. - -'What, with these men, miss?' - -'I like the company of sailors. The sight of these seamen keeps up my -spirits.' - -'My poor, dear Marie!' cried my nurse, putting the back of her hand -against my cheek. 'You can't sit here. Your father would not thank us -for throwing you into such company.' - -'How can you talk so at such a time?' I exclaimed. 'I dread to be alone -in my cabin. Where is this ship being hurled to? If she should be flung -against an iceberg----' - -'If _that_,' cried he, abruptly, and with temper, 'then as lief be in -your cabin as here, as here as on the deck.' - -Then, softening his voice, he said some reassuring things--I forget -them--I was crying with my face averted, that the men should not see -me. Mrs. Burke took my arm, and we entered my berth. She called to -the steward to light the lamp, and named some refreshments which he -presently brought, but it was too bitterly cold to talk; nay, our -voices here, right aft as my berth was, were almost inaudible for the -thunderous wash of the sea along the slant of the side, with a lift of -it, when the toppling, helpless hull tumbled my cabin window to the -foam, that must again and again have soared high above the line of her -bulwark rails. - -I would not undress, but after I had drunk some wine, I got into my -bunk, where Mrs. Burke made a heap of me with bedclothes and furs; -then, kissing me and promising to look in from time to time, she dimmed -the lamp and went. - -I afterwards passed many terrible nights in this ship, but none worse -than this--perhaps because it was the first of them. The noises of the -sea and straining fabric drowned all sounds in the state-cabin. I could -not hear if the men talked, nor tell what they were doing. I terrified -myself by imagining that they would get at the spirits and make -themselves drunk. Then there was always the haunting horror of ice near -us. At any moment I might feel a rending shock of collision. I was -sailor enough to know that if our ship was thrown against such a berg -as we had sighted that day, nay, even against a piece of ice of her own -bulk, she would be shivered into staves, and all before we could put -up one prayer to God. And often did I pray that night, and with plenty -of fervour of tongue, I don't doubt, but with little heart, I fear; I -was too frightened to realise the meaning of the words I used. Twice -Mrs. Burke visited me and said all was right; the sailors had been on -deck to pump the ship out; the hull was dry and buoyant, and the gale -abating. This news she gave me on her second visit. There was a vast -deal of snow in the wind, and the blackness was so thickened by it -there was no power in the rushing sea-flares to make a light for the -eye beyond a pistol shot; but the captain believed, she said, there -was no ice nearer to us than the cathedral island we had seen that -afternoon. - -Nature, however, was worn out at last and I fell asleep, and when I -awoke it was daylight, by which I guessed it was not much earlier than -noon; I looked through the porthole, a large lead-coloured, confused -swell was running, but it was unwrinkled and frothless. The motions of -the ship were extraordinarily wild and agitated; she was flung into -twenty postures in a minute. When I got out of my bunk I found it -impossible to stand without holding on. The water in the wash-stand -was a solid block of ice, but the cold did not seem so piercing, nor -of an edge so saw-like as I had found it yesterday. I contrived to -wrap myself up, and went out and saw Mrs. Burke sitting alone near -the stove. She sprang to help me, and said that a few minutes earlier -she had looked in, and left on finding me asleep. A pot of coffee was -beside the stove, and a breakfast of cold ham, tinned meat and other -things on the table. - -'Where are the crew?' I asked. - -'On deck,' she answered, 'endeavouring to rig up a mast.' - -'Is the captain hopeful?' - -'He means to stick to the ship,' she answered. 'Some of the men talk as -if there was nothing to be done with her, and spoke of going away in -the long boat.' - -'Is the vessel utterly dismasted?' - -'She is in a terrible plight. But make a good breakfast, dear. It is -quiet weather in spite of this horrible rolling. The hull is sound, and -we are sure to be fallen in with by some vessel that will help us.' - -As she spoke Mr. Owen came out of his cabin. His face was the pale -shadow of the countenance he had brought on board. He blinked his eyes, -and they were bloodshot; his very hair seemed to have been toned by -emotion into a sort of ashen colour. He made a slight bow, and sat -down at the table without speaking. Evidently he had breakfasted. Also, -no doubt, he had previously met Mrs. Burke. I judged by his behaviour -that the captain had talked to him; it was a mixture of sulkiness and -dislike. - -He had been kind and attentive to me on many occasions during the -voyage, and, full of fear and other crowding passions as I myself was, -I yet felt sorry for him. I bade him good morning and asked him if he -had been on deck. On this he rose, and clawing his way round the table, -so as to get near to me, he said:-- - -'I owe you an apology for my conduct last night. My indiscretion was -not so much the result of cowardice as the state of my health. Much -less than I took in the hope of obtaining a little warmth and spirit -must have overcome me. I trust I have your forgiveness.' - -'There is nothing to forgive, Mr. Owen, nor is this a time to talk of -such things.' - -'The captain was scarcely manly in his language,' said he, turning to -Mrs. Burke. 'I am not an officer of the ship nor one of his crew. I am -practically a passenger, and claim the privileges of a passenger.' - -'Passengers are not allowed to take too much. All captains object -to drinking in their ships, particularly in such dreadful times of -excitement as last night,' said Mrs. Burke. - -I lifted my finger to call attention to the cries of men and the tread -of heavily shod feet overhead. Mr. Owen returned to his seat at the -table. Soon after this the skylight that was thick with frozen snow -whitened as to a watery beam of sunshine, or to some transient glance -of clearer day in the sky. I asked Mrs. Burke to take me on deck. She -seemed to shrink. I asked her if she had been on deck. - -'Yes,' she answered. - -'Then why should not I go?' - -'Feel how dangerously the hull rolls,' said she. 'You might be thrown -and break your neck.' - -But I saw that her real objection did not lie so much in that as in her -fear of the effect of the scene of the wreck upon me. Thus reading her -mind, I exclaimed: - -'I will go alone; but why will you not come?' and went to my cabin for -more wraps. - -She was ready before I was, and we clasped hands, and holding on -carefully likewise, stopping always for that sudden recovery of the -deck which would happen out of its slant with the rush of a cannon -ball slung by a line and let go at an angle, so ungovernable were the -motions of the dismasted hull, we gained the companion ladder, and -crawled to the head of the steps, where we stood in the companion -itself, with our heads above the hood. - -I shrieked on looking! Let my imaginations have been what they would, -here was the reality! I could not credit my sight. All three masts were -gone! nothing of the lower-masts remained saving a height of two or -three feet of jagged and splintered trunk-sheaves of barbed milk-white -wood on the main and quarter decks, and about ten to fifteen feet of -the foremast. On the right or starboard side, lengths of the bulwark -were crushed flat. The decks were littered with gear, ropes' ends were -swimming overboard in the leaden swell like huge eels and sea-snakes -making from the wreck. On one side, dangling between the irons, was the -keel of a quarter-boat--all that remained of her; the opposite davits -were empty. - -But what idea can such talk as this give you of that wonderful dismal -picture of shipwreck, that spectacle of decks covered with snow, of -rails like an armoury with their bristling pendants of bayonet-blue -icicles? The galley was partly wrecked; the bowsprit stood soaring and -sinking upon the leaping waters, but the jibbooms were gone. I did -not know the hull. She looked shrunk to half her former size. The -sky stooped to the sea with its burden of vapour, but a break right -overhead hovered in a colour of sulphur. No wind stirred. Never was -there a deader stagnation in the atmosphere under the height of the -Line. Yet you were sensible of the presence of the spirit of this -wild, desolate part of the world even in such pauses as this, when you -watched the sullen motion of that troubled breast of deep, hurling -its glassy folds in comminglings which ran in silent warring to the -horizon. Far astern was a shape of white, a gleam in the sallow air -there, like that of a sail; but my eye was now experienced, and since -that dash of radiance was too big to be a ship, it must needs be ice. I -saw a collection of white tips on the starboard quarter when the swell -threw us high, and some points or shafts faint and bluish over the -bows. Otherwise the ocean line swept clear. - - - - -CHAPTER X - -THE JURY-MAST - - -All the remaining hands of the ship's company were at work forward. A -number of spare booms were stowed on top of the galley and had probably -saved the long-boat from being crushed when the masts fell. The sailors -had rigged up a triangle of booms with blocks and tackle dangling, and -even as Mrs. Burke and I stood in the companion way, they broke into -song as they hoisted a huge spar that was to serve as a mast. Their -hearty chorus was frequently interrupted by sharp, eager shouts from -Captain Burke or the boatswain Wall. - -The break overhead thinned out yet and made more light. A strange dim -dye of sulphur went sifting down to the horizon, and the sea in places -worked against it dark as bottle glass. About two miles off some whales -were blowing; their vast bulks showed in a black wet gleam amid the -swell; but even then such was the blending of their curved forms with -the confused running, that, but for their fountains, the eye had missed -them. - -We stood watching in the shelter of the companion way. The longer I -looked, the stranger, the more forlorn, the more lamentable the scene -showed, the more perilous and hopeless our situation seemed. What sort -of cloths were they going to spread upon such a height of boom as -they were chorusing at? I thought of the spacious concavities which -had risen to the stars, and to the blue heavens of our voyage, those -symmetric breasts of lustrous canvas which, when trimmed, snatched an -impulse for our clipper keel, from the antagonism of the head wind -itself; I saw the ship robed in the beauty of her sails, lifting her -star-saluting royals to the very path of the flying scud with jibs and -staysails yearning from bowsprit and jibboom towards some deeper ocean -solitude past the horizon; and then I looked at the naked boom the men -were hoisting at the triangle or shears. - -'Oh, that cannot help us,' I cried; 'what does Captain Burke intend?' - -'Even if it should fail as a mast,' Mrs. Burke answered, 'it will be -useful as a flag-post. Why, this hull lies so flat without spars a ship -might pass three or four miles off and not see us.' - -Here the captain looked round and spied our heads. With a note of his -old cheerfulness he called out: - -'Many a good prize has been navigated out of an ocean battle-field -under leaner sticks than that, and added to the Royal Navy after -tasselling Jack's pocket-handkerchief with dollars.' - -This he seemed to say as much for the men as for me. He then approached -and asked me how I did; and told me not to look too long at the wreck. - -'Keep up your heart, miss,' said he. 'We'll have you out of this in -good time. Mary, don't let her stand here dwelling upon this scene. -Why, it was a nightmare even to my seasoned eyes when it first came out -of the dawn.' - -'Is that mast meant to carry a sail?' said I. - -'When we fix it and stay it we'll set something square upon it, -certainly. There'll be room for a bit of fore and aft canvas between -the head of it and the bowsprit end. Then let the wind blow south with -God's blessing, or east or west will do, to edge us north. We need but -steerage way, after which there'll be nothing to do but keep warm till -all's well. Take her below, Mary. Look at her face! She'll wither here.' - -The hours of daylight were so few that the night was upon the rolling -hull before the seamen had done more than lash the jury-mast to the -stump with a stay or two for support. And with the darkness of the -night there came along a black Cape Horn snow squall, like a dust storm -in its blinding power, with a thunder of wind in it, and so much more -afterwards that by five o'clock as high a sea was running as that of -the preceding day. - -The crew came into the cabin for shelter, and cooked their own supper -as before. They ate and then went to the stove, and afterwards Captain -Burke and his wife and myself sat down to some cold food and a cup of -hot coffee. Mr. Owen came to the door of his berth, but seeing the -captain at table at once retired, closing the door upon himself. The -captain took no notice. His good spirits were gone again. He drank -some coffee, but scarcely tasted food. His posture was one of gloomy -despondency as he sat at table, and he rarely lifted his eyes save to -dart a glance now and again at the sailors, which put it into my head -to think that more worked as causes for his dejection than the new -fierce gale and our awful situation. His wife often furtively looked -towards him but never ventured to address him, no, not even to ask him -if he would eat. - -Well, just such another evening and night as had passed happened -with us now. From time to time one or another would go on deck and -come below and report the night a flying blackness. On the boatswain -returning from one of these errands of observation the captain said: - -'Does it clear at all?' - -'Still as thick as muck, sir.' - -'Any smell of ice about?' - -'No, sir.' - -I wondered to hear them talk of smelling ice in a snow storm as thick -as froth, and said to the captain: - -'Is ice to be smelt?' - -He looked at me as though he had no mind to answer, to be even civil, -then said sharply, 'Yes.' - -My poor old nurse bristled like an angry hen at this behaviour, though -she was still afraid of the mood upon him, yet being determined that -I should get all the comfort possible out of any information the men -could give, she turned upon the boatswain, whose bulky, oilskinned -figure swung on frock-shaped leggings beside the stove, and said: - -'Did you ever smell ice, Mr. Wall?' - -He looked doubtfully at the captain, and answered awkwardly, 'Yes mum, -scores of times.' - -The captain rose and went on deck. At the same moment Mr. Owen came out -of his berth. It might have been that through some crevice in the cabin -bulkhead he was able to observe the captain's movements. - -'What sort of smell has ice?' I asked, for I could think of no thing -but icebergs, of the helplessness of our hull, of our being swung by -these giant seas against a berg, and I wanted to hear how sailors tell -that ice is near without seeing it. - -'It's the extra coldness that makes the smell. Tain't no smell in the -or'nary meaning,' said the boatswain after a pause. 'The first time I -ever learnt that a man could smell ice in a breeze full of frost and -snow was in my first voyage in these parts. We was running off the -Horn, not so low as this here, in a smother o' flakes, nothen visible -of the ship from the wheel but her mainmast. I and another was steering -the ship, the mate comes rushing aft and sings out to the captain who -was walking abreast of the wheel, "I smell ice, sir." They both took -a sniff, and I could see by their way of snuffing they both smelt it -plain. They looked into the driving smother to starboard and then to -port, and then all on a sudden a man on the fok'sle cries out, "Ice -right ahead." "Hard aport!" sings out the capt'n, and out it jumped, -big as a church, right on the bow. Smelt it myself then.' - -A low growl of laughter ran amongst the men, and several looked as -though they too had yarns to spin. - -I scarcely slept that night. The cold was terrible, and there were -the noises of the sea and the gale, and the heart-maddening rolling -and plunging. Yet, wonderful to relate, next morning, exactly as on -the day before, a dead calm was in the air, and the swollen hills -of swell ran in liquid lead in a confused shouldering. I went on -deck with Mrs. Burke at about twelve, and watched the men completing -the captain's toy-like affair of jury-mast. They had set a jib upon -the bowsprit, and were now bending a sail to a yard which was to be -hoisted to the head of the jury-mast. The lean stick was so abundantly -stayed that it looked like the inside of an umbrella. The rolls of -the hull were dangerous and very fierce; it was impossible to walk -the deck. This morning they had got a fire in the galley, which had -been roughly repaired. The brown smoke floated straight up out of the -swaying chimney, and, trifling as that detail of colour and life was, -yet somehow it brought back to the poor old hull something of her old -spirit and look. No farmyard sounds came from forward; no grunt from -the long-boat, no cackle nor crow from the hencoop; all the live-stock -had been frozen or drowned during the first night of the gale, when the -masts went. - -I saw those glancings of ice on the horizon which I had taken notice -of yesterday; they hung in the same quarters, and flamed at the same -distance against the dark sky with a fairy, star-like brightness. I -turned my eyes in every direction for a sail. - -'Don't ships ever come this way?' I asked. - -'Oh, yes, many,' answered Mrs. Burke. - -'What sort of ships?' - -'Whalers chiefly, Edward says.' - -'Suppose one should come; what will Captain Burke do?' - -'Ask her to tow us.' - -'If the master declines? This is a big, helpless vessel for another -ship to tow in such seas as run here. And what would a ship do with us -in tow should we meet with such weather as blew last night or the night -before?' - -She made no answer. - -'Surely Captain Burke will transfer us all.' - -'He'll not leave this vessel,' said she. 'It is not only that he has -himself an uninsured venture in her, his obtaining further employment -might depend upon his carrying the "Lady Emma" into safety. And if it -can be done, it ought to,' she added, with a flat, peering, anxious -look around the sea. - -Presently all was ready with the sail. The seamen raised a song, and, -to a steady, shearing noise of ropes in sheaves, with a frequent -chorus that swept like a shout of hope into the bitter, motionless -atmosphere, the yard slowly ascended the jury-mast. It was like a huge -lug-sail in form and fittings. Tauten it as they would, the breast -hollowed and rounded with such blows as of a cudgel, and such claps -as of musketry, that the boom sprang and buckled like a willow in a -breeze; the sail was therefore lowered until wind came to steady it. - -It put a weariness as of rheumatism into the body to stand long, and -when we saw the sail hoisted we went below. - -Mr. Owen was sitting beside the stove; he rose on our descending, and -went on deck to look around, then, after a brief halt in the shelter -of the companion-way returned, and sat him down at the table with the -fingers of his right hand buried in his right bush of hair, his whole -bearing abjectly disconsolate. Presently, looking at Mrs. Burke, he -exclaimed: - -'Is that single pole on the forecastle all the mast the captain means -to navigate this ship with?' - -'I do not know. My husband will be glad to tell you, I am sure,' -answered Mrs. Burke. - -He gave a ghastly sarcastic smile, that instantly vanished in his -former expression of sullen, resentful grief and dismay, showing, as -a man might, who is under a sudden tragic surprise, which enrages him -also. He looked down, shaking his head softly, and drumming, then -started as if he would walk, but the jerk and tumble of the deck was -too strong. I began to fear for the poor man's mind. - -Mrs. Burke told me the men would get dinner in the forecastle that -day--there, or in the galley. They did not come to the cabin. The only -man of them who arrived was the steward. He clothed the table, and made -us a tolerable show of dinner. I beg to recall to your memory the many -delicacies my father had laid in for me. - -It was about half-past one, I think, and about the time when the -steward was done with the table, when the companion doors were opened, -and the captain came below. The lamp burned brightly: indeed, it made -most of the light we had. The skylight was, perhaps, half a foot thick -with frozen snow; the companion doors were kept closed to exclude -the cold; and little light came through the cabin windows, which the -hull dipped with pendulum-like monotony into the thunder shadow of -the swollen brine. Yet by the lamp-light we saw very clearly, and I -observed that the captain's face was lighted up with some life and -hope. I thought a sail was in sight, and started, expecting to hear him -say so. - -'There's some luck for us in this devil's own ocean after all,' said -he, swinging his figure towards us, eagerly watched by Mr. Owen, who -was on his feet leaning upon the table, and staring with head moving as -the captain moved. - -'What is it?' cried his wife hysterically. - -'Why,' said he, 'there's a breeze sprung up out of the south'ard: -I've been watching the ship; there's drag enough in the rag we've got -upon her to give her way. And so, Miss Otway, be easy, now that we're -heading for the sun afresh, with a man at the wheel and a little scope -of wake astern of us.' - -'Anything better than lying like a log,' cried Mrs. Burke, with a short -swallow in her speech. 'I had hoped from your face there was a ship in -sight.' - -'And so did I,' I exclaimed. - -Mr. Owen sat down suddenly, and again buried his hand in his hair. - -'But this is as good as a ship being in sight,' cried the captain -irritable on a sudden. 'I want to blow north where ships are to be -fallen in with, and we're something to see now, with a thirty foot -hoist of canvas on top ten foot of freeboard; whereas, before--but -let's get something to eat.' - -We seated ourselves. Mr. Owen took a corner chair and spoke not a word -for some time, till at last, on the captain saying that if he fell in -with a vessel he would offer handsome sums for a tow, the doctor said -abruptly: - -'To where?' - -The captain eyed him with an unfeeling pause of contempt, and then -answered: - -'That would not rest with you, sir.' - -'I must request you to transfer me, if we fall in with a ship,' said -Mr. Owen. - -'I shall be happy,' said the captain, nervous and convulsive with -temper, 'at least--you've got to remember the object you're here for.' -He looked at me. 'Miss Otway is not likely to accompany you, and you'll -be no gentleman if you desert her.' - -'Miss Otway will accompany me if you give her an opportunity of leaving -this wreck,' said Mr. Owen. - -'This is no wreck, sir,' said the captain in a low-level voice of -menace, stooping his head and looking at the doctor under crooked -eyebrows. - -Mr. Owen muttered that he intended to save his life if he could, and -Miss Otway's too if he was allowed--the rest he mumbled: after ceasing -to articulate his lips moved; then, with a sudden impassioned motion -of despair and horror, he sprang from his chair and disappeared in his -berth, having barely taken three bites. - -'I fear his intellects have become disordered,' said Mrs. Burke. - -'He'd like to drive me out of the ship. The lily liver would have me -abandon a craft that's as staunch as the newest line-of-battle ship -afloat. What would it signify to _him_ that I left a couple of thousand -pounds of my hard earnings to go to the bottom here, so long as _his_ -dingy skinful of bones and bobs of curls were safely landed?' exclaimed -the captain in a low-pitched deliberate speech, that trembled -nevertheless with emotion and temper. - -His wife gave me a look as though she would entreat me not to talk to -him. Now and again he lifted up his eyes to a tell-tale compass that -hung exactly over his chair; almost as regular as the beat of a clock -was the plunge of the ship from right to left, from left to right. -The blinding green sense of one side and then the other of the cabin -portholes, and a loud yearning thunder of water washing past. - -After a little the captain went to his cabin. I said I would like to -see the ship under sail, and when we had clothed ourselves for the deck -Mrs. Burke and I went to the companion-steps. - -A seaman, clad in oilskins and swathed about the neck till he showed -nothing of his face but a pair of eyes, stood at the wheel. Some -delicate stars and darts of snow were falling, but they did not -cloud the view. The square of white canvas was stretched by a fresh -following breeze of bitter coldness, beyond frost itself: the sea was -feathering upon the swell, and a number of grey and white petrels -skimmed the flashes as they moulded their flight to the wind-furrowed -rounds. The white sail looked like a wild and sickly light when the -hull swung it athwart the soot over the horizon, but there could be no -doubt that the vessel was in motion. We durst not leave the holding -place of the companion-hood to look over the taffrail or side, but you -saw she had steerage way by the manner in which the fellow twirled the -wheel. - -A group of seamen with their hands deep buried, some of them sea-booted -fisherman-like to their knees, trudged the white frozen deck opposite -the galley. It was wonderful to see them keep their feet; the rumbling -hum of their strong, lungs stole aft against the wind; they swayed in -earnest talk, and minded us not when they faced our way, again and -again staring round at the sea as though for a sail. - -Now we had not been looking about us above five minutes when, happening -to glance aft past the helmsman, I saw the ocean not above half a mile -distant, white as milk, the forestretch of it was about two miles long; -how wide it went back I could not say, nor could I guess what it was; -there was no snow nor any particular blackness of cloud over it, nor -uncommon wildness of flight in the vapour overhanging us. Before I -could call Mrs. Burke's attention to the wonder, the seaman at the helm -turned and spied it, and instantly roared out in a voice that swept -past the ear like the wind of something heavy swiftly flying. - -'Why,' cried Mrs. Burke--but the rest of the sentence was clipped sheer -off her lips in a yell of squall, a very hurricane blast; the air was -dark with spray, in the midst of which I just caught sight of the -jury-mast and sail disappearing--not abruptly, but in a dissolving -way, as a snowflake dies on water. The whole thing went in the shriek -of the blast, with a single report and a snowstorm of flying tatters; -the next instant Mrs. Burke was dragging me down the companion-steps -and we both got into the cabin dazed, frozen to the marrow, as much -confounded and terrified by that sudden meteoric shock and blast of -wind, with its burthen of white brine and its noise of fierce yells and -whistlings, as though we had scarcely escaped with our lives. - -The captain heard, or guessed what had happened; he rushed from his -berth on to the deck, but the squall pinned him in the companion-way -for a minute, and he stood struggling as though some man had taken him -by the throat. In five minutes, however, the furious outburst was spent -or had flown ahead; I could tell that by glancing at the cabin windows -whenever they lifted clear. The steward came below to trim the lamp. -Mrs. Burke asked him what was doing on deck. He answered, nothing, and -told us what we knew, that the jury-mast and sail had blown over the -bows. - -It was now to be felt by the distressful, horrid, jerky motion, that -the hull had taken up her old situation in the trough. - -'What has happened?' said Mr. Owen, coming out of his berth. - -Mrs. Burke told him. He groaned, and sat down close beside the stove, -folding his arms tightly, and said: - -'What is to become of us? This is distracting. I am prepared to meet my -Maker, but it is the suspense--it is the suspense--it is the having to -wait for death that crazes.' - -'I am surprised at you,' exclaimed Mrs. Burke, drawing herself up. -'How, as a man, can you talk so before this young lady? As for me, I -don't mind what you say; I am the wife of a sailor, and it's not in you -to improve my spirits or make me despair. But you have no right to -forget yourself as a man before Miss Otway.' - -He slapped his knee violently, crying out, 'Poor as I am, I would give -five hundred pounds had I never heard of your husband or his ship.' - -The poor woman looked at him with her flat eyes and curled her lip, -then gave me an expressive glance when he arose and began to move about -the cabin, holding on and looking at the windows to left and right as -they soared blind with the foam dazzle. - -It was dark as midnight on deck before the captain came below, and yet -it may not have been three o'clock. He approached the fire and stood -before it, his wife and myself sitting on either hand of him. He seemed -to steadfastly regard Mr. Owen, who was on a locker at the after end of -the cabin, but did not offer to speak. Presently his wife said: - -'Are the mast and sail lost for good, Edward?' - -'Ay.' - -'What was the whiteness that swept them away?' - -'What but a squall? This is a great ocean, and mark our luck; there -were thousands of miles of water for that squall to sweep over on -either hand of us, but Old Stormy bestrode it, and, scenting us, made -for the hull.' - -'There are other booms to rig up a mast with.' - -'So there are,' he answered, speaking quietly, with his eyes fixed upon -the form of the doctor as though he addressed him. 'There are other -spars, but there's not another crew to do the work.' - -His wife gave a start at this and looked up at him with a passion of -anxiety, putting her hand upon his arm. - -'The men have as good as told me,' said he, 'through the bo'sun, that -there's nothing to be done with jury-masts. They're willing to try -their hands to-morrow on another--to oblige me--but they'd rather get -my permission to prepare the long-boat for leaving the ship so as -to give chase to a sail if one should show too far off to speak us: -failing that, then to take advantage of a smooth in the weather and to -make for the northward in an open boat--in this sea--the idiots!' - -'But something must be done,' shouted Mr. Owen from his corner. 'The -ship will go to pieces if she's to be left to knock about in this -hollow sea.' - -Captain Burke took no more notice than had the doctor's voice been the -creaking of a bulkhead. - -It was quieter on that than on the preceding night. The wind, we -learnt, was a scanty breeze out of the south; here and there the vapour -had thinned, and a pale star shivered in the openings: our drift that -day had lifted some northward point of ice, and the dim faintness of -it was visible on the port beam, as the helpless hull lay; that was -all the ice to be seen, and it was far enough off to keep us easy. A -large black swell was flowing north and south, but the folds were wide -and regular and the motion of the hull was almost easy upon it. These -matters about that scene of night outside I got from the captain and -steward. - -The sailors remained forward. I understood they managed very well now -they could keep the galley fire going. Once during this evening I asked -Captain Burke, when he came below for a glass of hot grog and biscuit, -why he did not burn a signal fire. - -'And risk setting the hull in a blaze?' said he, 'with the chance of -there being nothing within five hundred miles of us.' - -'It might bring help, Edward,' said his wife. - -He flung from us in a passion. It was a bad sign with him now, that -the merest nothings, such as my question, put him into a rage. He -swallowed his glass of grog and returned on deck, and when half-way -up the companion ladder he paused to shout back, 'No use in making a -flare unless there's something to signal to,' and then stepped into the -blackness outside. - -It was fine weather next day--fine for that part of the world, I mean; -glimpses of watery blue, betwixt curtains of ashy yellow and brown -vapour, some slanting pencils of dull sulphur in the north, striking -the line of the horizon out of a long ragged edge of cloud. The wind -was west, fresh enough to flash plumes of spray out of the running -wrinkles; there was the head of an iceberg away north to the right of -the weak shower of sunshine. This was all to be seen--saving always the -hull with her deck of frozen snow, and her catheads barbed with ice, -and her lines of rails bristling with daggers and small arms of frozen -dew and brine--when I looked through the companion hatch after leaving -my cabin. - -Whilst Mrs. Burke, Mr. Owen and myself breakfasted, we heard the people -on deck busy with another jury-mast. The captain's voice rang out again -in loud eager shouts. Mrs. Burke sent the steward up to beg her husband -come below and breakfast whilst the coffee was hot; he sent answer -that he could not leave; but even whilst the steward was delivering -the captain's reply, a long strange hallo was delivered by one of the -men; the sounds of bustle ceased; in a minute or two we heard a rush -of feet; Mr. Owen jumped from his chair and ran up the ladder, whence, -after he had paused to stare round, he shouted down in a voice of -ecstasy:-- - -'A sail, Mrs. Burke! There's a ship in sight, Miss Otway!' - -I screamed with a sudden impulse of delight; I could no more have -arrested that cry than have stopped the hull from rolling; then, -swiftly as my legs would carry me and my arms would work, I gained -my berth and attired myself for the deck, and rushed up reckless of -foothold. - - -END OF THE FIRST VOLUME - - -PRINTED BY -SPOTTSWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE -LONDON - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Heart of Oak, vol. 1., by William Clark Russell - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEART OF OAK, VOL. 1. *** - -***** This file should be named 62341.txt or 62341.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/3/4/62341/ - -Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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