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diff --git a/old/62344-h/62344-h.htm b/old/62344-h/62344-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index c090092..0000000 --- a/old/62344-h/62344-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,10219 +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" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=us-ascii" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of My Shipmate Louise, Volume 2, by W. Clark Russell. - </title> -<link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2 { - text-align: center; - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} -h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} - -div.titlepage {text-align: center; page-break-before: always; page-break-after: always;} -div.titlepage p {text-align: center; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 2em;} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} - - - -table { - margin-left: auto; - margin-right: auto; -} - - - .tdr {text-align: right;} - - -.pagenum { - position: absolute; - left: 92%; - font-size: smaller; - text-align: right; -} - - -.hangingindent { text-indent: -2em; margin-left: 2em; } - -.bbox {border: solid 2px; margin-left: 25%; margin-right: 25%; padding-left: 2em; padding-right: 2em;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - - - -.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} - -.ph1 {text-align: center; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;} -.ph2 {text-align: center; font-size: xx-large; font-weight: bold;} - -.antiqua { - font-family: Blackletter, Fraktur, Textur, "Old English Text MT", "Olde English Mt", "Olde English", Gothic, serif, sans-serif;} - -.large {font-size: 125%;} -.xlarge {font-size: 150%;} -.tiny {font-size: 50%;} - -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - - -.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; - color: black; - font-size:smaller; - padding:0.5em; - margin-bottom:5em; - font-family:sans-serif, serif; } - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of My Shipmate Louise, Volume 2 (of 3), by -William Clark Russell - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: My Shipmate Louise, Volume 2 (of 3) - The Romance of a Wreck - -Author: William Clark Russell - -Release Date: June 8, 2020 [EBook #62344] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY SHIPMATE LOUISE, VOLUME 2 *** - - - - -Produced by David E. Brown 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="figcenter"><img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="" /></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - - - - - -<h1>MY SHIPMATE LOUISE</h1> - -<p class="center"><b>VOL. II.</b></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<div class="bbox"> -<p class="ph1">NEW NOVELS AT ALL LIBRARIES.</p> - - -<div class="hangingindent"> - -<p>A FELLOW OF TRINITY. By <span class="smcap">Alan St. Aubyn</span> -and <span class="smcap">Walt Wheeler</span>. 3 vols.</p> - -<p>THE WORD AND THE WILL. By <span class="smcap">James Payn</span>. -3 vols.</p> - -<p>AUNT ABIGAIL DYKES. By <span class="smcap">George Randolph</span>. -1 vol.</p> - -<p>A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. By <span class="smcap">Bret -Harte</span>. 1 vol.</p> - -<p>RUFFINO. By <span class="smcap">Ouida</span>. 1 vol.</p> - - -<p class="center">London: CHATTO & WINDUS, Piccadilly, W.</p> - - -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/iTitle.jpg" alt="" /></div> - -<hr class="tb" /> -<div class="titlepage"> - -<p><span class="xlarge">MY SHIPMATE LOUISE</span></p> - -<p><span class="large"><span class="antiqua">The Romance of a Wreck</span></span></p> - -<p>BY<br /> - -<span class="large">W. CLARK RUSSELL</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/iTitlelogo.jpg" alt="" /></div> - -<p>IN THREE VOLUMES<br /> - -<span class="large">VOL. II.</span></p> -<br /> - -<p><span class="antiqua">London</span><br /> -<span class="large">CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY</span><br /> -1890</p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="center"> -PRINTED BY<br /> -SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE<br /> -LONDON</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak">CONTENTS<br /> -<span class="tiny">OF</span><br /> -<small>THE SECOND VOLUME</small></h2></div> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" summary="table"> - -<tr><td class="tdr"><small>CHAPTER</small></td><td> </td><td class="tdr"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr">XV.</td><td> A SINGULAR PLOT</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1"> 1</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr">XVI.</td><td> WE SIGHT A WRECK</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_22"> 22</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr">XVII.</td><td> THE ‘MAGICIENNE’</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_45"> 45</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr">XVIII.</td><td> ADRIFT</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_66"> 66</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr">XIX.</td><td> NIGHT</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_86"> 86</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr">XX.</td><td> I SEARCH THE WRECK</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_108"> 108</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr">XXI.</td><td> WE SIGHT A SAIL</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_134"> 134</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr">XXII.</td><td> THE ‘LADY BLANCHE’</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_156"> 156</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr">XXIII.</td><td> CAPTAIN BRAINE</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_178"> 178</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr">XXIV.</td><td> THE CREW OF THE BARQUE</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_202"> 202</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr">XXV.</td><td> I KEEP A LOOKOUT</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_223"> 223</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr">XXVI.</td><td> I AM QUESTIONED</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_245"> 245</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr">XXVII.</td><td> THE BRIG’S LONGBOAT</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_269"> 269</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr">XXVIII.</td><td> I QUESTION WETHERLY </td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_289"> 289</a></td></tr> -</table> - -<hr class="chap" /> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span> - - - -<p class="ph2">MY SHIPMATE LOUISE</p> - - - - -<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XV<br /> - -<small>A SINGULAR PLOT</small></h2></div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">It</span> speedily ran amongst us of the cuddy that -the dead sailor who had been so very impressively -interred by old Keeling had returned to -the ship, and was alive in some part of her, -secure in handcuffs or in leg-irons; but so -much was made of the fire which had broken -out that Crabb’s reappearance lost as a miracle -half the weight it would have carried had it -happened alone. Besides, the sense of the -people soon gathered that the business was a -plot which had been managed with astonishing -cleverness, and it all seemed plain as mud -in a wine-glass when the whisper went round -that Hemmeridge was under arrest as an arch-conspirator -in the matter. And certainly it -made one feel far from comfortable even to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> -think that for the past weeks a ruffian of a -true piratical complexion had been secreted in -the ship’s hold, where his confederates would -keep him supplied with tobacco and the means -of lighting it, and where, in his borings and -pryings, he was tolerably certain to have -stumbled upon something inflammatory in the -shape of spirits. Indeed, it made me draw my -breath short when my mind went to the rum -puncheons and the powder-magazine below, -and to the vision of Crabb, drunk, stupidly -groping with a naked light in his hand, during -some midnight hour, maybe, when we were -all in bed.</p> - -<p>However, the imagination of the passengers -would hardly go to these lengths. Their -thoughts held to the fire, and their talk chiefly -concerned it. When the skipper came below -for a glass of grog that night, the ladies so -baited him with questions that one pitied him -almost for not being able to enjoy the privilege -of venting his heated soul in a few strong -words.</p> - -<p>‘I <i>cannot</i> satisfy myself, Captain Keeling, -that the fire is utterly extinguished,’ said Mrs. -Bannister.</p> - -<p>‘Might it not burst out again, capting?’<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> -cried Mrs. Hudson. ‘There should be plenty -of pails kept filled with water ready to empty -if smoke is smelt.’</p> - -<p>‘Perhaps something may be on fire even -now!’ exclaimed Mrs Joliffe, ‘something that -doesn’t make a smoke; and how <i>then</i> are the -sailors to tell if all is right in the bottom of -the ship?’</p> - -<p>‘Captain Keeling,’ cried Mrs. Trevor, ‘is it -quite safe to go to bed, do you think?’</p> - -<p>‘If a fire should break out,’ said Miss -Hudson in a trembling voice, as though shudder -after shudder were chasing through her, ‘how -can we depend upon being called? It is impossible -to hear downstairs what is going on -on deck.’</p> - -<p>Poor old marline-spike made a bolt of it -at last, fairly turning tail and rushing up the -companion steps when it came to the colonel -striking in and topping off the female broadsides -by inquiries of a like nature delivered at -the very height of his pipes.</p> - -<p>However, the night passed quietly; and -when next morning came and the people -assembled at breakfast, all fear of fire was -seemingly gone, and little more was talked -about than Crabb and what his designs had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> -been, the topic gathering no mean accentuation -from the doctor’s vacant place. Somewhere -about ten o’clock I was standing at the taffrail -watching the ship’s wake, that was languidly -streaming off in a short oily surface, and -wondering whether, if we were to fall in with -nothing brisker than these faint airs and -draughts of wind, all hands would not have -grown white-haired and decrepit by the time -we were up with the Cape, leaving the Indian -Ocean and Bombay out of consideration, when -the head-steward came up to me.</p> - -<p>‘Captain Keeling’s compliments, sir, and -he’ll feel greatly hobliged, providing you’re -not hotherwise occupied, by your stepping to -his cabin, sir.’</p> - -<p>‘Oh yes, with pleasure,’ said I. ‘Is he -alone?’</p> - -<p>‘He is not, sir.’</p> - -<p>I went down the companion steps, knocked -at the captain’s door, and entered. It was a -roomy interior, a very noble ship’s berth, -occupying hard upon the width of the deck -right aft, saving, as I have before described, a -sort of small chart-room alongside, bulkheaded -off. There was a large stern window, after the -olden fashion, with the blue line of the horizon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> -gently sliding up and down it, and a shivering -light lifting off the sea to the glass, sharp and -of a sort of azure brilliancy, as though from -diamonds set a-trembling. Keeling, in full -fig, his face showing of a dark red against -some maple-coloured ground of bulkhead or -ship’s side, was seated at a table. He instantly -rose on my entering, gave me one of his wire-drawn -bows, and motioned me to a seat, thanking -me in a few words for coming. On the -starboard hand stood Crabb and the sailmaker, -handcuffed, and on either side of them was a -seaman with a cutlass dangling at his hip. -On the port hand sat Dr. Hemmeridge, his -legs crossed, his thumbs in the armholes of -his waistcoat, and his head drooped. He was -deadly pale, and looked horribly ill and worried. -Near him was one of the sailors, a young fellow -of some seven or eight and twenty, with a -quantity of hair falling over his brow, a straggling -beard, and small black eyes, which -roamed swiftly in glances charged methought -with the spirit of mutiny and menace and -defiance. Mr. Prance was at the captain’s -elbow; and the third mate was seated at an -end of the table with a pen in his hand and -some paper in front of him.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>I bowed to Hemmeridge, but he took no -notice. Until the captain addressed me, I -stared hard at Crabb; for even now, with the -ugly ruffian standing before me, my mind found -it difficult to realise that he was alive; that -the creature I gazed at was the man whom all -hands of us, with an exception or two, supposed -overboard a thousand fathoms deep. -There was, besides, the fascination of his -ugliness. The hunch-like curve of his back, -his little blood-stained eyes looking away from -his nose, as though they sought to peer at -something at the back of his head, the greasy -trail of carroty hair upon his back, the fragment -of nose over his hare-lip, these and the -rest of him combined into the representation -of the most extravagantly grotesque, ill-favoured -figure ever witnessed outside the -bars of a menagerie. The sailmaker’s face -was as white as one of his bolts of canvas, -but it wore a determined look, though I -noticed a quivering in the nostrils of his high-perched -nose, and a constant uneasy movement -of the fingers, as of dying hands plucking at -bedclothes.</p> - -<p>‘Mr. Dugdale,’ exclaimed old Keeling with -the dignity and gravity of a judge, ‘I’ve taken<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> -the liberty to send for you, as I am informed -by Mr. Prance that when that man there’—inclining -his head towards Crabb without looking -at him—‘was lying, as it was supposed, -dead in his bunk, you accompanied Mr. -Hemmeridge, the ship’s surgeon’—here he -indicated the doctor with a motion of his head -but without looking at him either—‘into the -forecastle, and stood for some considerable -time surveying the so-called corpse.’</p> - -<p>‘That is quite true,’ said I.</p> - -<p>‘Did Mr. Hemmeridge expose the man’s -face to you?’</p> - -<p>‘He did.’</p> - -<p>‘What impression was produced upon your -mind by the sight of the—of the—body?’</p> - -<p>Crabb gave a horrible grin.</p> - -<p>‘That he was stone-dead, Captain Keeling; -so stone-dead, sir, that I can scarcely credit -the man himself is now before me.’</p> - -<p>Hemmeridge looked up and fixed his eyes -upon me.</p> - -<p>‘It is but reasonable I should inform you, -Mr. Dugdale,’ continued old marline-spike, -‘that Mr. Hemmeridge is under arrest on suspicion -of conspiring with Crabb, with Willett, -and with Thomas Bobbins’—he glanced at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> -man who stood next to the doctor—‘to plunder -the ship. Bobbins has given evidence that -leaves me in no doubt as to the guilt of Crabb -and Willett.’</p> - -<p>Crabb uttered a curse through his teeth, -accompanied with a look at the young seaman, -in the one-eyed gleam of which murder methought -was writ too large to be mistaken for -any other intention. Old Keeling did not heed -him.</p> - -<p>‘Bobbins’s story,’ he continued, ‘is to this -effect: that Crabb was to swallow a potion -which would produce the appearance of death; -that the sailmaker was to have a hammock -weighted, shaped, and in all respects equipped -to resemble the one in which Crabb would be -stitched up: that in the dead of night, when -the ship was silent, and the deck forward -vacant, the sham hammock was to be placed -upon the fore-hatch by the sailmaker and -Bobbins, and the cover containing that man’—inclining -his head at Crabb—‘conveyed into -the sailmaker’s cabin, where it was to be cut -open, the man freed, and secreted in the berth -till consciousness had returned, and he was in -a fit state to seize the first opportunity of -sneaking into the hold. All this was done,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>’ -old Keeling went on, Mr. Prance meanwhile -looking as grave as an owl over the skipper’s -shoulder, whilst every now and again a hideous -grin would distort Crabb’s frightful mouth, -though the sailmaker continued to stare at the -captain with a white and determined countenance, -and Hemmeridge to listen with a frowning -worried look, his leg that crossed the other -swinging like a pendulum. ‘The man Crabb -got into the hold, was supplied with food -and drink by Willett and Bobbins, and with -tools to enable him to break into the mail-room’——</p> - -<p>‘And I’d ha’ done it too,’ here interrupted -Crabb in a voice like a saw going through a -balk of timber, ‘if it hadn’t been for the -stinking smoke of them blasted blankets.’</p> - -<p>‘This inquiry,’ continued Keeling, ‘now -entirely concerns Mr. Hemmeridge. You tell -me, Mr. Dugdale, that Crabb seemed to you as -a stone-dead man.’</p> - -<p>‘The devil himself couldn’t ha’ told the -difference,’ bawled Crabb. ‘<i>He’s</i> not in it,’ -insolently motioning with his elbow towards -the doctor. ‘Wouldn’t that blooming Bobbins -ha’ said so?’ and he darted another murderous -glance at the hairy young sailor.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>‘I can assure you, Captain Keeling,’ said I, -‘that the man was perfectly dead. There is -not a shadow of a doubt in my mind that Mr. -Hemmeridge was fully convinced the body was -a corpse. Convinced, captain, but dissatisfied -too; and perhaps,’ said I, with a glance at -Crabb, ‘it is a pity for more sakes than one -that he did not carry out his idea of a post-mortem -examination.’</p> - -<p>‘Mr. Dugdale,’ exclaimed Hemmeridge in -a low, deep, trembling voice, ‘before God and -man, I am innocent; and I hope to live to call -Captain Keeling to account for this monstrous -slander, this enormous suspicion, this dishonourable -and detestable accusation.’</p> - -<p>‘I’ve never heered,’ said the man named -Bobbins, in a long-drawn whining voice, ‘that -this gent was consarned. I remembered Crabb -asking what was to be done if so be the surgeon -should cut him up to see what he died of, and -Mr. Willett kissed the Bible afore Crabb and -me to this: that if the surgeon made up his -mind to open Crabb, Willett was to show him -the bottle of physic, and to tell him that -Crabb had took it for some bad complaint, -and that, though he might look dead, he -worn’t so.’</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>Crabb hove a fearful curse at the man. -The bushy-whiskered sailor who guarded him -on the right significantly put his hand upon -the hilt of his cutlass whilst he said something -to him under his breath.</p> - -<p>‘This is new to me,’ exclaimed Keeling, -screwing his eye gimlet-fashion into the face of -Bobbins, and then letting it drop, as if satisfied. -‘Mr. Hemmeridge, I have <i>suspected</i> you, -sir; but it’s a little soon for you to talk of my -having <i>accused</i> you. You are a medical man. -If anybody knows death by looking upon it -you should. Yet, though this man Crabb is -merely counterfeiting death, you come aft to -me and report him dead! What am I to infer? -Your ignorance or your guilt, sir?’</p> - -<p>‘Captain Keeling,’ cried I, ‘believe me -when I promise you the man was not <i>counterfeiting</i> -death. He was to all intents and purposes -a corpse. How was this brought about? -Surely by no exercise of his own art. The -look of the eye—the droop of the jaw—the -hue of the skin—Captain Keeling, it was death -to the sight: no counterfeit—an effect produced -by something much more powerful than -the effort of such a will as that man has;’ -and I pointed with my thumb at Crabb, who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> -told me with a curse to mind my own business.</p> - -<p>‘Mr. Dugdale, I thank you,’ said Hemmeridge, -bowing to me.</p> - -<p>Captain Keeling held up a long thin phial -about three-quarters full of a dark liquor. I -had not before noticed it.</p> - -<p>‘This has been produced,’ said he, ‘by the -man Bobbins, who states that it is the stuff -which Crabb swallowed, and which caused -the death-like aspect you saw in him.’ He put -the bottle down; then clenching his fist, smote -the table violently. ‘I cannot credit it!’ he -cried. ‘I cannot be imposed on. Am I to -believe that there is any drug in existence -which will produce in a living being the exact -semblance of death?’</p> - -<p>‘Oh, I think so, sir,’ said Prance, speaking -mildly.</p> - -<p>Hemmeridge sneered.</p> - -<p>‘A semblance of death,’ roared old Keeling, -twisting round upon his chief mate, ‘capable -of deceiving the eye—the practised eye of a -medical man? You may give me a dose of -laudanum, and I may look dead to you, sir, -but not to Mr. Hemmeridge yonder. No, sir; -I am not to be persuaded,’ and here he brought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> -his fist down upon the table again. ‘It is -either gross ignorance or direct connivance, -and I mean to be satisfied—I mean to sift it -to the bottom—I mean to get at the truth, -by——!’</p> - -<p>His face was full of blood, and he puffed -and blew like a swimmer struggling for his -life.</p> - -<p>‘You’ve got the truth, and be so-and-so to -you,’ broke in Crabb.</p> - -<p>The armed sailor ground his elbow into the -fellow’s ribs.</p> - -<p>‘I am merely here to answer your questions, -Captain Keeling,’ said I, ‘and must -apologise for taking a single step beyond the -object you had in calling me to you; but at -least permit me to ask, cannot Mr. Hemmeridge -explain the nature of the drug contained in -that bottle?’</p> - -<p>‘I do not know what it is,’ exclaimed -Hemmeridge.</p> - -<p>‘Suppose, sir,’ said Mr. Prance, ‘we give -Crabb another dose; then you’ll be able to -judge for yourself.’</p> - -<p>‘You don’t give me no more doses!’ said -Crabb. ‘Try it on yourselves.’</p> - -<p>The captain sat a little, looking at me<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> -vacantly, lost in thought. He suddenly turned -to Hemmeridge.</p> - -<p>‘You are at liberty, sir; I remove the -arrest.’</p> - -<p>‘And is that all?’ exclaimed the other, -after a brief pause, viewing him steadily. ‘I -must have an apology, sir; an apology ample, -abundant, satisfying.’</p> - -<p>‘I will see you’—began old Keeling, -then checked himself. ‘You can leave this -cabin, sir.’</p> - -<p>Hemmeridge rose from his chair. ‘I leave -this cabin, sir,’ said he, ‘and I also leave my -duties. Professionally, I do no more in this -ship, sir. You have disgraced, you have dishonoured -me. But,’ said he, shaking his -finger at him, ‘you shall make me amends at -Bombay, sir—you shall make me amends at -Bombay!’</p> - -<p>He stalked from the cabin, old Keeling -watching him with a frown, but in silence.</p> - -<p>‘Captain,’ I exclaimed, rising as the door -closed behind the doctor, ‘I am persuaded -that Mr. Hemmeridge is innocent of all participation -in this bad business. You have on -board a gentleman who, I believe, has a very -extensive knowledge of drugs and herbs and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> -the like—I mean Mr. Saunders. It is just -possible he might know the nature of the contents -of that bottle.’</p> - -<p>Keeling reflected a minute, and then said: -‘Mr. Prance, send my compliments to Mr. -Saunders, and ask him to my cabin.’</p> - -<p>The mate went out; I was following him.</p> - -<p>‘Pray, stay a little, Mr. Dugdale,’ said the -skipper.—‘Men, take those fellows forward.—Remain -where you are,’ he added, turning to -Bobbins.</p> - -<p>A seaman flung open the door, and Crabb -and the sailmaker passed out, followed by the -second armed sailor, who silenced some blasphemous -abuse that Crabb had paused to -deliver, by giving him a shove that drove him -headlong into the cuddy.</p> - -<p>‘I am sorry to detain you, Mr. Dugdale,’ -said the captain. ‘Mr. Saunders is a rather -nervous gentleman, and it might be agreeable -to him to find you here.’</p> - -<p>‘You do not detain me, Captain Keeling. -This is an amazing business, almost too -wonderful in its way to believe in. Have -you ascertained how Crabb became possessed -of that magical drug?—and magical it must -be, captain, for I give you my word that never<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> -showed any corpse deader than that fellow -when Hemmeridge removed the canvas from -his face.’</p> - -<p>‘I beg your honour’s pardon,’ exclaimed -Bobbins, preserving his lamenting and whining -voice, and knuckling his forehead as he spoke, -whilst I could see old Keeling lifting his eyes -to him with disgust and aversion strong in his -purple countenance. ‘Mr. Willett told me -that Crabb ’ud say he’d got that there stuff off -a travelling Jew that he fell in with at some -Mediterranean port. He bought two lots of -it, and tried a dose on a man who took it unbeknown, -reckoning it good for spasms. He -believed as it had killed the chap, sich was -his corpse-like swound; but he come to all -right arter four-and-twenty hours, and niver -knowed nothen about it, and believed it still -to be Monday when it were Toosday. This -put the scheme he tried on here into his -head.’</p> - -<p>‘Has he ever attempted anything of the -same sort before?’ inquired Keeling.</p> - -<p>‘I dunno, sir. He’s a bad un. It ’ud -make a marble heffigy sweat to hear him talk -in his sleep.’</p> - -<p>There was a knock at the cabin door, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> -Mr. Prance ushered in Mr. Saunders. The little -chap looked very small as he entered, holding -his large hat in his hand. He was pale, and -stared up at us with something of alarm as we -rose to his entrance, the skipper giving him the -same hide-bound bow that he had greeted me -with.</p> - -<p>‘Is Mr. Saunders acquainted with the story -of this business, Mr. Prance?’ old Keeling inquired.</p> - -<p>‘Yes, sir,’ replied the mate. ‘I gave him -the substance of it in a few words as we came -along.’</p> - -<p>‘It is extremely startling,’ said the little -man, climbing on to the chair into which old -Keeling had waved him, and dangling his short -legs over the edge as a small boy might.</p> - -<p>‘Your knowledge of drugs and medicines, -Mr. Saunders, is, I believe, very considerable?’ -said the skipper. The little fellow bowed. -‘This,’ said Keeling, holding up the phial, ‘is -a drug, the stupefying effects of which, I am -informed, are so remarkable that any one who -takes it entirely loses animation, and presents -such an aspect of death as will deceive the -eye of the most expert medical practitioner. -Is such a thing conceivable, Mr. Saunders?’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>The little man reflected very earnestly for -some moments, with his eyes fixed upon -Keeling. He then asked Mr. Prance to hand -him the phial, which he uncorked, and smelt -and tasted.</p> - -<p>‘I cannot be positive,’ he exclaimed, with -a slow, wise shake of his large head; ‘but I -strongly suspect this to be what is known as -<i>morion</i>, the death-wine of Pliny and Dioscorides. -Mr. Dugdale, observe the strange, -peculiar faint smell—what does it suggest?’</p> - -<p>I put the bottle to my nose and sniffed. -‘Opium will it be, Mr. Saunders?’</p> - -<p>‘Just so,’ he cried. ‘Captain Keeling, -smell you, sir.’</p> - -<p>The old skipper applied the bottle to his -nostrils and snuffled a little. ‘I should call -this a kind of opium,’ said he.</p> - -<p>‘If,’ exclaimed Mr. Saunders, ‘it be morion, -as I believe it is, it is made from the mandragora -or mandrake of the kind that flourishes -in Greece and Palestine and in certain parts -of the Mediterranean seaboard.’</p> - -<p>‘But am I to understand,’ said Keeling, -‘that a dose of it is going to make a man look -as dead as if he were killed?’</p> - -<p>‘The effect of morion,’ responded Mr.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> -Saunders, ‘is that of suspended animation, -scarcely distinguishable from death.’</p> - -<p>‘Could it deceive a qualified man such as -Dr. Hemmeridge?’ demanded the skipper.</p> - -<p>‘I should think it very probable,’ answered -little Saunders cautiously; ‘in fact, sir, as we -have seen, he <i>was</i> deceived by the effects of -that drug, be it morion or anything else.’</p> - -<p>‘You can go forward,’ said the captain to -Bobbins.</p> - -<p>The fellow flourished a hand to his brow -and left the cabin.</p> - -<p>‘Mr. Saunders, I am obliged to you, sir, -for your information,’ continued old Keeling. -‘I trust to have your opinion confirmed -either in Bombay or in London. To me it -seems a very incredible thing. Mr. Dugdale, -I thank you for the trouble you have given -yourself to attend here.’</p> - -<p>He bowed; and little Saunders and myself, -accompanied by Mr. Prance, entered the -cuddy.</p> - -<p>‘A most extraordinary business altogether,’ -cried the little man: ‘it is wonderful enough, -supposing the stuff to be morion, that a -common sailor should be in possession of such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> -a drug; but much more wonderful yet that -it should occur to him to employ it as an -instrument in probably the most audacious -project ever adventured on board ship.’</p> - -<p>‘Hemmeridge might have opened Crabb,’ -said I.</p> - -<p>‘Well, the rogue foresaw it, and provided -against it, as we know,’ exclaimed Mr. Prance. -‘There is pocketable booty in the mail-room -to the value of hard upon a hundred and fifty -thousand pounds. A man like Crabb will run -risks for such plunder, Mr. Dugdale. If the -sailmaker had kept his word and produced -the bottle to Hemmeridge, the doctor would -have been pretty sure to stay his hand.’</p> - -<p>‘Why, likely as not,’ I exclaimed: ‘but -tell me, Mr. Prance—that fellow Bobbins -seems to have been coaxed very easily into -peaching.’</p> - -<p>‘Ay,’ said he; ‘there’d been an ugly -quarrel between him and Willett ten days ago. -I believe the rascal would not have split -whilst Crabb lay snug and secret in the hold, -but on his showing himself, Bobbins took -fright, thought of his neck, and being actuated -besides by hatred of Willett, came forward and -volunteered the whole yarn.’</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>‘And how is he to be served?’ inquired -Mr. Saunders.</p> - -<p>‘Left to be at large, sir,’ answered the -mate; ‘and punishment enough, too, as any -one may suppose, of a false-hearted, lily-livered -shipmate who has to swing his hammock three -or four months among a forecastle full of -hands. For my part,’ added he with a laugh, -‘if I were that miscreant, I’d rather be snug -in irons along with Willett and the cast-eyed -pirate, stowed safe out of sight.’</p> - -<p>He entered his cabin, and Mr. Saunders -and I stepped on to the quarter-deck.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> -<h2 class="nobreak"> -CHAPTER XVI<br /> - -<small>WE SIGHT A WRECK</small></h2></div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> wonder and excitement raised in us by -the extraordinary forecastle conspiracy to -plunder the ship’s mail-room passed away in -two or three days. Monotony at sea is heavy -and flattening. It passes over the soul as an -iron roller over a lawn, and smoothes down -every asperity of memory into the merest flatness -of moods and humours. Hemmeridge -showed himself no more. I never again saw -him whilst I was in the <i>Countess Ida</i>. He lay -hid in his cabin, where he was fed, by the -captain’s orders, from the cuddy table; but -he refused to leave his berth, swore he would -not prescribe so much as a pill though a pestilence -should fall upon the whole ship’s company, -and virtually left us all without the -means of obtaining professional advice. His -part in Crabb’s and the sailmaker’s scheme -was vehemently discussed, as you will suppose.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> -The colonel of course was without a shadow -of a doubt of his guilt; but the rest of us, -saving Mr. Johnson, who declined to give an -opinion, considered him as wholly innocent.</p> - -<p>Little Saunders gave himself a small air of -importance as a person referred to by the -captain on his knowledge of herbs, and strutted -on the merits of his suspicion that the liquor -was what he called morion. He took me into -his cabin, and climbing into his bunk, produced -a folio volume half the size of himself, -with which he dropped upon the deck, hugging -the book to his heart as though it were -his wife.</p> - -<p>‘Here,’ said he, opening the volume and -pointing at it and looking up into my face, ‘is -an account of the growth out of which morion -is extracted. That,’ continued he, still pointing -with a little forefinger and a long white -nail, ‘is a picture of the plant in flower. This -is an illustration of the young fruit. Here is -the ovary, and here is the stamen. It is, in -short, the well known mandragora of Hippocrates. -It consists of three or four species of -stemless herbs, perennial,’ said he, carrying his -eyes to the book, ‘and very hardy. Their -roots are large and thick; and, as I told the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> -captain,’ cried he with a little movement of -triumph, and pointing to the sentence eagerly, -‘it is an inhabitant of the Mediterranean -parallels.’</p> - -<p>And then the little chap read out a long -description of the flowers of the mandrake, of -the corolla and lobes, of the berries and leaves, -and I know not what else besides, in all of -which my ignorant ear could find nothing of -the smallest interest.</p> - -<p>He afterwards went with his big book to -the skipper, who, Mr. Prance told me, was -impressed, though he was not to be persuaded.</p> - -<p>‘He will not believe,’ said the chief officer, -‘that there can be any aspect in a living body -to deceive a medical man into a belief that the -person is dead. I said to him: “How about -the folks that are buried alive, sir?” He -answered: “They are unhappy wretches, -whom ignorant and gross persons, calling -themselves medical men, lightly glance at -and pronounce dead, and hurry away from. -Hemmeridge would know better, sir. He <i>does</i> -know better. I cannot satisfy myself that he -could not distinguish life in that man Crabb. -And what’s the inference then? No matter,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> -sir. I will have this thing gone closely into -when we arrive at Bombay.” Captain Keeling -is an obstinate old sailor, Mr. Dugdale,’ continued -the mate. ‘In truth, Hemmeridge is -as innocent as you or I.’</p> - -<p>Three days passed away. All this while -the Indiaman was scarcely doing more than -rippling through it. It was hard to realise -that we were out in the mid-heart almost of -one of old earth’s mightiest oceans, so peaceful -was the water, so still the heavens, so placid -the dim sultry distances, where sky and sea -were blended in a blue faintness, out of the -north-west corner of which the light wind -blew without power enough to swing the foot -of the courses or to put a twinkle into the tall -moon-coloured cloths of the topmast studdingsails.</p> - -<p>It was a Monday morning, as very well -indeed do I remember. I went on deck at -about seven o’clock for a bath; and on looking -over the forecastle rail, down away upon the -starboard bow I caught sight of something -sparkling that might very well have passed for -the reflection in the water of a brilliant -luminary. The old Scotch carpenter was -leaning against the forecastle capstan smoking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> -a pipe, his weather-hardened face of leather -drooping over his folded arms.</p> - -<p>‘Pray, what is that object shining down -there?’ said I.</p> - -<p>‘Well, it puzzled me, sir,’ he answered, -slowly raising his head, and then leisurely -staring in the direction of the appearance: -‘It’s naething mair nor less than a ship’s hull, -sir.’</p> - -<p>By this time I was able to distinguish a -bit clearer, and could trace, amid the delicate -haze of silver glory that was hanging all over -the sea that way, as it came in gushing and -floating folds of magnificence from the sun -that was already many degrees above the -horizon, the outline of the hull of a small -vessel, the proportions so faint as to be almost -illusive. She was too far distant to exhibit -much more than the mere flash she made, yet -she was an object to constrain the attention in -that wide blank shining calm of sea, and I -lingered a little while looking at her, meanwhile -yarning with the old carpenter about -Crabb and the sailmaker and the incident of -the fire, and such matters.</p> - -<p>At breakfast there was some talk about -this hull, and Mr. Emmett told the captain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> -that he hoped a shot would be sent at her, as -who was to know but that another cargo of -monkeys might be exorcised out of the fabric.</p> - -<p>‘I should rather like to visit a wreck,’ I -heard Miss Temple say across the table to Mr. -Colledge: ‘I mean, of course, an abandoned -vessel floating in the middle of the ocean.’</p> - -<p>‘I protest I would rather die than think of -such a thing,’ exclaimed her aunt.</p> - -<p>‘Well, I don’t know,’ said Colledge; ‘it -would be something to do and something to -talk about. Did you ever board a wreck, -Captain Keeling?’</p> - -<p>‘No, sir.’</p> - -<p>‘I would choose a wreck,’ continued Miss -Temple, in her clear, rich, somewhat trembling -voice, but with an air that let you know she -confined her speech to Mrs. Radcliffe and the -young sprig opposite, and old marline-spike, -as I love to call him, ‘that had been abandoned -for months, indeed for years, if such a thing -could be: a hull covered with shells and weed -and grass, into which the spirit of the enormous -loneliness of the wide ocean had entered, -so that you could get to think of her as a creation -of the sea itself, as an uninhabited island -is, or a noble seabird. Think,’ she continued,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> -fixing her large dark eyes upon Colledge with -a light, almost sarcastic smile flickering about -her lips, as though she was perfectly sensible -that her thoughts and language were a trifle -taller than that honourable young gentleman’s -intellectual stature rose to—‘think of being -utterly alone during a long, breathless, moonlit -night on board such a wreck as I am imagining. -The stillness! the imaginations which -would come shaping out of the shadows! By -putting one’s ear to the hatchway, as you -sailors call it, Captain Keeling, what should -one be able to hear?’</p> - -<p>‘The noise of water washing about below, -ma’am—I don’t see what else,’ answered the -old skipper, stiffening up his figure, whilst -he adjusted his cravat, and gazing at her with -a highly literal countenance over the points of -his shirt collars.</p> - -<p>She did not seem to hear him; her head -had drooped, as though to a sudden engrossing -thought, and her gaze rested upon something -which her delicate fingers toyed with -upon the table.</p> - -<p>‘What very odd fancies you have, Louise,’ -exclaimed Mrs. Radcliffe with a peck of her -face at the girl’s handsome profile.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>‘Rather a good subject for a descriptive -article, Johnson,’ exclaimed Emmett aside with -a drawl.</p> - -<p>‘Or for a picture,’ answered Johnson; -‘better on canvas than on paper, I think; -don’t you, Mr. Saunders? Calm sea—a moon -up in the air—a wreck showing black against -the white reflection under the planet—a -haughty young lady’—here he softened his -voice—‘inclining her head to the fore-hatch -with her hand to her ear.—A first-class idea, -Emmett. Seize it, or it may occur to another -man.’</p> - -<p>Miss Temple was speaking again, but the -rude imbecile jabber of the journalist prevented -me from hearing her; and bestowing -a sea-blessing on his head under my breath, I -left the table and went on deck.</p> - -<p>There was every promise of a dead calm -anon. The sea looked like ice in places with -the bluish glint of the brine that softened the -lines and curves betwixt the crawlings of the -air into a tender contrast for the lustrous -azure of the water where it was touched by the -wind. It was a high, hot, cloudless morning, -the topmost canvas, white as milk, looking -dizzy up in the blue, as though it trembled in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> -some sultry belt of atmosphere there. I went -to the rail to view the wreck, and instantly -made out on the other side of her the shining -square of a sail—some ship on the rim of -the horizon that had crawled into sight since -six bells of the morning watch, and was now -creeping down the smooth plain of sea with -her yards braced somewhat forward, making -a wind for herself out of what was scarce -more than a catspaw to us, who had the thin -fanning nearly over the stern.</p> - -<p>Prance came up from the breakfast table -with a telescope in his hand and stood by my -side.</p> - -<p>‘That ship down yonder grows,’ he exclaimed, -pointing the glass and speaking with -his eye at it; ‘there’ll be more air stirring -down there than here; but little enough anywhere -presently, though I tell you what, Mr -Dugdale, there’s drop enough in the mercury -to inspire one with hope.’</p> - -<p>He brought the telescope to bear upon -the hull, and was silent for a few moments, -whilst I waited impatiently for him to make -an end, wanting to look too.</p> - -<p>‘I don’t think I can be mistaken,’ said he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> -presently in a musing voice: ‘look you, Mr. -Dugdale.’</p> - -<p>‘At what?’ said I, as I took the glass from -him.</p> - -<p>‘At the hull yonder.’</p> - -<p>I put the telescope upon the rail and knelt -to it. Points which were invisible to the -naked sight were clear enough now. The wreck -was that of a vessel of some two hundred and -fifty tons. She sat very light or high upon -the water, and it was a part of the copper -that rose to her bends which had emitted the -flash that caught my eye on the forecastle. -Her foremast was standing, and her foreyard -lay crossed upon it. Her bowsprit also forked -out, but the jib-booms were gone. Lengths -of her bulwark were smashed level to the -deck; but gaunt as her mastless condition -made her look, miserable as she showed in -the mutilation of her sides, the beautiful -shape of the hull stole out upon the sight -through the deformities of her wrecked condition, -as the fine shape of a woman expresses -itself in defiance of the beggar’s rags which -may clothe her.</p> - -<p>‘By George, then, Mr. Prance—why, yes, -to be sure! I see what you mean,’ I cried all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> -on a sudden—‘that must be our buccaneering -friend of the other day!’</p> - -<p>‘Neither more nor less,’ said he; ‘an odd -rencontre certainly, considering what a big -place the sea is. And yet I don’t know: such -a clipper will have sailed two feet to our one, -though she exposed no more than her foresail. -She’ll have run as we did, and the light airs -and baffling weather which followed will easily -account for this meeting.’</p> - -<p>‘She is not yet the handful of charred -staves you thought her, Mr. Prance,’ said I; -‘they managed to get the fire under anyway, -though they had to abandon the brig in the -end. What is that fellow beyond her? She -has the look of a man-of-war: a ship, I -believe: yes, I think I can catch sight of the -yards on the mizzen peeping past the sails on -the main.’</p> - -<p>All her canvas had risen, but nothing of -her hull, saving the black film of her bulwark -hovering upon the horizon with an icy gleam -betwixt it and the sea-line, as though there -was no more of her than that. When the -others came on deck there was no little excitement -amongst them on learning that the hull -was neither more nor less than the veritable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> -wreck of the brig whose presence had filled -us with alarm and misery a few days before. -Glasses of all sorts were brought to bear upon -her, and by this time it was to be ascertained -without doubt that she was absolutely deserted; -‘unless,’ I heard Mr. Emmett say to Mr. Prance, -‘her people should be lying concealed within, -hoping to coax us to visit her by an appearance -of being deserted, when, of course, they would -cut us off, and plunder our remains—I mean, -those who would be fools enough to board her -out of curiosity.’</p> - -<p>‘Likely as not,’ Mr. Prance answered with -a sour smile. ‘I would advise you not to attempt -to inspect her.’</p> - -<p>‘Not I,’ answered the painter; and the chief -officer turned abruptly from him to smother a -laugh.</p> - -<p>It was not long, however, before the delicate -miracle of distant canvas shining past the hull -upon the calm blue like some spire of alabaster -was recognised as a man-of-war, not alone by -the cut of her canvas and by other peculiarities -aloft readily determinable by the seafaring -eye, but by the chequered band upon her hull, -that had mounted fair to the firm crystal-like -rim of the ocean, and by the line of white<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> -hammock-cloths that crowned her tall defences. -She was some small corvette or ship-sloop, with -her nationality to be sworn to even all that -way off.</p> - -<p>‘An Englishman, do you think, Captain -Keeling?’ asked Colonel Bannister.</p> - -<p>‘Oh, God bless my heart, yes, sir,’ answered -the skipper.</p> - -<p>‘Now, <i>how</i> do you know, capting?’ cried -Mrs. Hudson.</p> - -<p>‘By my instincts as a Briton, ma’am,’ he -answered; ‘patriotism so enlarges the nostril -that a man can taste with his nose whenever -anything of his country’s about in the air.’</p> - -<p>‘To think of it now!’ exclaimed Mrs. -Hudson. ‘I’m sorry the robbers have left that -wreck. I should like the pirates to have been -caught by the man-of-war and hung up.’</p> - -<p>The hour of noon had been ‘made,’ as it -is called at sea, and it was then a dead calm, -with the clear chimes of eight bells ringing -through a wonderful stillness on high, so faint -was the undulation in the water, so soft the -stir in the canvas to the gentle swaying of the -tall spars. The wreck of the brig lay about -two miles distant off the starboard beam, and -by this hour the corvette, as she now proved<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> -to be, with the crimson cross fluttering at her -peak, had floated to within a mile and a half -or thereabouts on the other side of the hull; -and thus the three of us lay. The corvette, -slewing her length out to us to the twist of -some subtle current upon the still surface, -showed a very handsome stately figure of a -ship, at that distance at least. Her sails had -the fairy-like delicacy of silver tint you observe -in the moon when she hangs in an afternoon -sky; they fitted the yardarms to perfection, -and I stood admiring for a long quarter of an -hour at a time the graceful lines of the bolt-ropes -faintly curving to the yardarm sheave-holes, -each clew looking a little way past the -corner of the sail beneath it. A gilt figure-head -of some royal device flashed at her bows and -shed a ruddy gleam upon the water under it. -There was the glistering of gilt about her -quarter-galleries, and the sparkle of glass there. -But Mr. Prance said that he would swear she -was an old ship, her timbers as soft as cheese, -and her chain-pumps nearly worn out with -plying, for all that she looked in the perspective -of that azure atmosphere as airy a beauty as -ever gave the milk-white bosoms of her canvas -to the wind.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>I went down on the quarter-deck to smoke -a pipe, and whilst I lay over the bulwark rail -watching the man-of-war, my eye was taken -by a somewhat curious appearance in the line -of the ocean away down in the south-west -quarter. It was a sensible depression in the -edge of the sea, as though you viewed it through -defective window-glass. It was an atmospheric -effect, and an odd one. The circle went round -with the clearness of the side of a lens, save -to that part, and there it looked as though -some gigantic knife had pared a piece clean -out—with this addition: that there was a -curious sort of faintness as of mist where the -sky joined the sea in the hollow of this queer -dip. I ran my eye over the poop to see if -others up there were noting this appearance, -but I did not observe that it had won attention. -For my part, I should have made nothing of -it, accepting it as some trick of refraction, but -for it somehow entering into my head to remember -how the second mate of the ship I had -made my first voyage in once told me of a -sudden shift of weather that had taken his craft -aback and wrecked her to her tops, and that it -had been heralded, though there was no man -to interpret the sign, by just such another<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> -horizontal depression as that upon which my -eyes were now resting.</p> - -<p>However, on dismounting from the bulwarks -for a brief yarn with little Saunders, the -matter went out of my mind and I thought no -more of it.</p> - -<p>Whilst we were at lunch, Mr. Cocker came -down the companion steps cap in hand, and said -something to the captain.</p> - -<p>‘All right, sir,’ I heard old Keeling answer: -‘it will be a visit of curiosity rather than of -courtesy. How far is the boat?’</p> - -<p>‘She’s only just left the wreck, sir.’</p> - -<p>‘Very well, Mr. Cocker.’</p> - -<p>The second mate remounted the steps.</p> - -<p>‘The corvette,’ exclaimed old Keeling, addressing -us generally, ‘has sent a boat to the -wreck, presumably to overhaul and report -upon her. The boat is now approaching us. -I have little doubt that the corvette is homeward -bound, in which case, ladies and gentlemen, -you might be glad to send letters by her. -There will be plenty of time. The calm, I fear, -threatens to last.’</p> - -<p>There was instantly a hurry amongst the -passengers, most of whom rushed away from -the table to write their letters.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>I emptied my wine-glass and went on deck, -and saw a man-of-war’s boat approaching us; -the bright ash oars rose and fell with exquisite -precision, and the white water spat from the -stem of the little craft as she was swept through -it by the rowers, with a young fellow in the -uniform of a naval lieutenant of that day -steering her. She came flashing alongside; -up rose the oars, the lively hearty in the bows -hooked on, and the officer, lightly springing -on to the rope ladder which had been dropped -over the side for his convenience, gained the -deck with a twist of his thumb that was meant -as a salutation to the ship.</p> - -<p>Old Keeling was now on the poop, and Mr. -Cocker conducted the lieutenant to him. I -happened to be standing near, talking with -Colledge and Mrs. Radcliffe, Miss Temple not -yet having returned with the letter which she -had gone to her cabin to write. The skipper -received the naval officer with a gracious -bow.</p> - -<p>‘Our captain,’ exclaimed the young fellow, -in a gentlemanly easy way, ‘instructed me to -overhaul yonder wreck, and then come on -to you to see if we can be of any service;’ -and I saw his eye rest with an expression of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> -delight upon Miss Hudson, who rose through -the companion at that instant and drew close -to hear what passed.</p> - -<p>‘Sir,’ cried old Keeling, with another bow, -‘I am obliged to your captain, sir. It is, sir, -very considerate of him to send. My passengers -are preparing letters, and we shall be -very sensible of your goodness in receiving -and transmitting them.’</p> - -<p>‘Pray, what ship is this, sir?’ exclaimed -the lieutenant, glancing about him with the -curiosity of a stranger, and then taking -another thirsty peep at the golden young -lady.</p> - -<p>‘The <i>Countess Ida</i>, sir, of and from London -for Bombay, so many days out. And pray, -what ship is that?’</p> - -<p>‘His Majesty’s ship <i>Magicienne</i>.’</p> - -<p>Colledge started. ‘Beg pardon,’ he -exclaimed. ‘Isn’t Sir Edward Panton her -commander?’</p> - -<p>‘He is,’ answered the lieutenant.</p> - -<p>‘By George, my cousin!’ cried Colledge; -‘haven’t seen him these seven years. How -doocid odd, now, to fall in with him <i>here</i>!’</p> - -<p>‘Oh, indeed,’ said the lieutenant, with a -hint of respect in his manner that might have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> -been wanting in it before. ‘May I venture to -ask your name?’</p> - -<p>‘Colledge.’</p> - -<p>‘Ah! of course; a son of my Lord Sandown. -This will be news for Sir Edward.’ He sent -a look at the corvette, as though measuring -the distance between the vessels.</p> - -<p>‘Sir,’ here said old Keeling, ‘I believe that -luncheon is still upon the table. Let me -conduct you below, sir. It will have been a -mighty hot ride for you out upon those unsheltered -waters.’</p> - -<p>The lieutenant bowed, and followed the -skipper to the companion. Colledge put his -arm through mine and led me to the rail.</p> - -<p>‘I say, Dugdale,’ he exclaimed. ‘I should -like to see my cousin. It would be rather a -lark to visit his ship, wouldn’t it? Not too -far off, is she, d’ye think?’ he added, cocking -his eye at the vessel.</p> - -<p>‘Why, no; not on such a day as this.’</p> - -<p>‘Will you come if I go?’</p> - -<p>‘With the greatest pleasure.’</p> - -<p>‘Oh, that’s downright jolly of you, by -George. We’ll go in my cousin’s boat, and -he’ll send us back. I like the look of those -men-of-war’s men. It makes one feel safe even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> -to see them rowing. Ah, there goes something -to drink for the poor fellows. Upon my -word, old Keeling buttons up a kind heart -under that queer coat of his.’</p> - -<p>‘I presume,’ said I, ‘that the lieutenant -will make no difficulty in consenting to carry -us in his boat. I am ignorant of the rules -which govern his service. Suppose you step -below, and arrange with him? If he may -not take us, Keeling will lend us a boat, I am -sure.’</p> - -<p>Down he went full of eagerness, his -handsome face flushed with excitement. Mrs. -Radcliffe had joined two or three ladies, and -stood with them asking questions of Mr. -Cocker about the corvette and the wreck. -On glancing through the skylight presently, I -saw the lieutenant picking a piece of cold -fowl at the table, with a bottle of champagne -at his elbow. Old Keeling sat at his side, and -opposite were Colledge and Miss Temple. -The four of them were chatting briskly. I -took a peep at the boat under the gangway. -It was a treat to see the jolly English faces of -the fellows, and to hear the tongue of the old -home spoken over the side. A number of -our seamen had perched themselves on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> -bulwarks and were calling questions to the -men-of-war’s-men whilst they watched them -draining the glasses which the steward had -sent down to them in a basket. From the -answers the fellows made I gathered that the -<i>Magicienne</i> was from Simon’s Bay, having been -relieved on the coast, where she had been -stationed for I will not pretend to remember -how long. Small wonder that the bronzed, -round-faced, bullet-headed, but exceedingly -gentlemanly lieutenant should have fixed a -transported eye on the sweet face and golden -hair and the violet stars of Miss Hudson after -his unendurably long frizzling months of West -African beauties.</p> - -<p>In about twenty minutes he made his -appearance upon deck, followed by Keeling -and Miss Temple and Colledge, who came -sliding up to me to say that it was all right: -the lieutenant would convey us with pleasure -and bring us back: and what did I think? -Miss Temple was to be of our party.</p> - -<p>‘Humph!’ said I; ‘any other ladies?’</p> - -<p>He made a grimace. ‘No,’ he responded -in a whisper; ‘the lieutenant suggested others; -but I could twig in Miss Temple’s face that if -others went she would remain. You know<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> -there’s not a woman on board that she cares -about. I rather want,’ said he, returning to -his former voice, ‘to introduce her to my -cousin. He will be seeing my father when -he returns, and is pretty sure to talk,’ said he, -giving me a wink.</p> - -<p>‘Does Miss Temple know that you’ve -invited me?’</p> - -<p>‘She does, Trojan.’</p> - -<p>‘And how did she receive the news?’</p> - -<p>‘With rapture,’ he cried.</p> - -<p>‘A fig for such raptures! but I’ll go, spite -of her delight.’</p> - -<p>By this time Miss Temple had made known -her intentions to her aunt. I became aware -of this circumstance by the old lady uttering -a loud shriek.</p> - -<p>‘It is entirely out of the question; I forbid -you to go,’ she cried, with a face of agony on her.</p> - -<p>‘Nonsense!’ answered Miss Temple: she -and her aunt and old Keeling and the lieutenant -were slowly coming towards the break of the -poop, where Colledge and I waited whilst this -altercation proceeded; so everything said was -plainly to be heard by us. ‘It is as calm as -a river,’ exclaimed the girl, sending one of her -flashing looks at the sea.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>‘You may be drowned; you may never -return. I will not permit it. What would -your mother think?’ cried poor Mrs. Radcliffe -vehemently, pecking away with her face, and -clapping her hands to emphasise her words.</p> - -<p>‘Aunt, do not be ridiculous, I beg. I -shall go. It will amuse me, and I am already -very weary of the voyage. Only consider: at -this rate of sailing we may be five or six -months longer at sea. This is a little harmless, -safe distraction. Now, <i>don’t</i> be foolish, -auntie.’</p> - -<p>The old lady appealed to Captain Keeling. -He was looking somewhat dubiously round the -horizon when the lieutenant broke in; then -Colledge indulged in a flourish, and though I -can’t trace the steps of it, nor recollect the -talk, somehow or other a little later on the -three of us were in the boat, a bag of letters -on a thwart, the lieutenant picking up the -yoke-lines as he seated himself, the bow-oar -thrusting off, with a vision through the open -rail of the poop of old Captain Keeling stiffly -sawing the air with his arms, in some effort, -as I took it, to console Mrs. Radcliffe, who -flourished a handkerchief to her face as -though she wept.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> -<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XVII<br /> - -<small>THE ‘MAGICIENNE’</small></h2></div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> corvette looked a mighty long distance -away from the low elevation of the boat’s -gunwale—almost as far as the horizon, it -seemed to my eyes, though from the height of -the deck of the Indiaman the sea-line showed -something above the bulwarks of the man-of-war. -One hardly noticed the movement in -the sea on board the <i>Countess Ida</i>, so solemn -and steady was the swing of the great fabric, -a movement stealing into one’s thoughts like -a habit, and leaving one unconscious of it; -but the heave was instantly to be felt in the -boat, and I own that I could not have believed -there was so much swell until I felt the lift of -the noiseless polished fold and marked the -soft blue volume of the water brimming to -the hot and blistered sides and green sheathing -of the Indiaman.</p> - -<p>A huge lump of a ship she looked as we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> -were swept away from her; her masts soaring -in three spires with the flash of a vane above -the airy gossamer of the loftiest cloths; groups -of passengers watching us from the violet-tinted -shadow under the awning, heads of -seamen at the rail, or figures of them upon -the forecastle near the huge cathead that -struck a shadow of its own into the water -under it. The great bowsprit went tapering -to the delicacy of the flying-jib-boom end -marshalling the flight of white jibs; a stream -of radiance floated in the water under each -large window. Inexpressible is the effect she -produced taken along with the dwindling of -her to the impulse of our oars, with the fining -down into thinnest notes of the voices of the -people, and with the soft and still softening -sounds of her canvas lightly swaying.</p> - -<p>‘A grand old ship,’ exclaimed the lieutenant.</p> - -<p>‘I had no idea she owned such a handsome -stern,’ said Colledge; ‘quite a blaze of gilt, I -do protest, Miss Temple. How gloriously old -Keeling’s cabin-window sparkles amid the -gingerbread magnificence of decoration.’</p> - -<p>‘What is there in the art of painting to -reproduce such a picture as that?’ exclaimed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> -Miss Temple, with her dark eyes glowing to -the mood of delight raised in her by the -beautiful spectacle. ‘It is like looking at an -image in a soap-bubble. What brush could -fling those silver-bluish daintinesses of tint -upon canvas, and make one see the ship -through this atmosphere filled with ocean-light?’</p> - -<p>‘Ocean-light!’ exclaimed the lieutenant, -viewing her with an air of profound admiration; -‘that is the fit expression, madam. -Light at sea is different from light on shore.’</p> - -<p>‘As how?’ cried Colledge.</p> - -<p>‘Oh, my dear fellow, see what a reflecting -eye the ocean has,’ said I; ‘it stares back in -glory to the glory that looks down upon it. -Mould and clay can’t do that, you know.’</p> - -<p>‘True,’ said the lieutenant.</p> - -<p>‘Pray,’ said I, addressing him, ‘when you -overhauled that hull yonder, did you meet -with anything to warrant our suspicion that -she was a rover?’</p> - -<p>‘I found no papers,’ said he; ‘forward, -she is burnt into a shell. All her guns are -gone—dropped overboard, I suppose, to keep -her afloat. She has a little round-house aft, -and in it sits a man.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>‘A man?’ exclaimed Miss Temple.</p> - -<p>‘He sits in a musing posture,’ continued -the lieutenant; ‘he frowns, and seems vexed. -He holds a feather pen in one hand, and -supports his head on the elbow of his left arm, -but he doesn’t write: possibly because there is -no ink and the wind seems to have blown his -paper away.’</p> - -<p>‘Is he dead?’ exclaimed Miss Temple.</p> - -<p>‘Quite,’ responded the lieutenant, with a -smile of enjoyment of her beauty.</p> - -<p>‘God bless me!’ cried Colledge, staring at -the hull under the sharp of his hand.</p> - -<p>‘Is she a picaroon, think you, sir?’ said I.</p> - -<p>‘Impossible to say,’ he answered; ‘there -are stands of small-arms in her cabin below, -and a sweep of ’tweendecks full of piratic -bedding. She will have been crowded with -sailors, I should think, sir.’</p> - -<p>The six men-of-war’s men were making the -fine little cutter hum as they bent to their -oars, one hairy face showing past another, the -eyes of each man upon his blade, though now -and again one or another would steal a respectful -peep at Miss Temple. What exquisite -discipline their demeanour suggested! One -hardly needed to do more than glance at them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> -to sound to the very depths the whole philosophy -of our naval story. How should it be -otherwise than as it is with a nation that -could be the mother of such children as those -fellows?</p> - -<p>The lieutenant was very talkative, and -had a deal to say about the West Coast of -Africa and Cape Town; and he had a great -many questions to ask about home. Miss -Temple constantly directed her eyes over the -side, as though affected and even startled by -the proximity of the mighty surface. And -boundless the light blue heaving plain looked -as it went swimming to the far-off slope of -sky that it seemed to wash—the vaster, the -more enormous for the breaks of toy-like -craft upon it; for the Indiaman and the -corvette were standards to assist the mind -into some perception of the surrounding -immensity, and never to me did the heavens -seem so high nor the curve of the ocean -boundary so remote as I found them from the -low seat of the cutter, with the corvette -growing over the bow, and the Indiaman -astern dwarfed to the dimensions of a boy’s -model of a ship.</p> - -<p>It was a longer pull than I should have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> -believed, and roastingly hot, thanks to the -flaming reflection that filled the heart of the -sea, and to the motionless atmosphere, which -was scarcely to be stirred even into the -subtlest fanning of the cheek by our passage -through it. Miss Temple’s face in the shadow -of her parasol resembled some incomparable -carving in marble, and but little of vitality -was to be seen in it outside of her rich, full, -eloquent eyes, when she fell into some pause -of thought and looked away into the dim blue -distance as though she beheld a vision down -in it. The corvette appeared deserted, with -her high bulwarks topped yet with a line of -hammocks; but it was easy to see that it was -known on board the lieutenant was bringing -a lady along with others to visit the man-of-war, -for there was already a proper gangway -ladder over the side, with a grating to step -out on, though the broad-beamed craft swayed -more to the swell than the Indiaman, and so -dipped the platform that it needed a deal of -manoeuvring to save Miss Temple from wetting -her feet.</p> - -<p>Sir Edward Panton, a tall, exceedingly -handsome man, with iron-grey hair and a -sun-reddened complexion, received us at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> -gangway. He seemed scarcely able to believe -his eyes when Colledge called out to him. He -welcomed Miss Temple with an air of lofty -respectful dignity that would have sat well -upon some nobleman of magnificence welcoming -a royal visitor to his home. Chairs were -brought from the cabin and placed on the -quarter-deck in the shelter of the awning, along -with a little table, upon which were put some -excellent sherry, claret, and seltzer-water, and -a box of capital cigars. The look of this ship, -after the Indiaman’s encumbered decks broken -by their poop and topgallant forecastle, was a -real treat to the seafaring eye. She was flush -fore and aft: every plank was as white as a -peeled almond; the black breeches of her -artillery gave a noble, massive, imposing character -to her tall, immensely thick bulwarks; -the ratlines showed straight as thin bars of -iron in the wide spread of shrouds and topmast -rigging; the running gear was flemish-coiled; -the brass-work sparkled like burnished -gold; the snow-like cloths of the fore-course -gathered an amazing brightness from their -mere contrast with the red coat of a marine -pacing the forecastle; the sailors, in white -clothes, straw-hats, and naked feet, sprang<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> -softly here and there to the light chirrupings -of a pipe, or went on with the various jobs -they were about on deck and in the rigging -amid a silence that one might ask for in vain -among a crew of merchantmen. Far away -down upon the starboard beam was the Indiaman, -blue in the airy distance, with a sort of -winking of shadows upon her square and lofty -canvas, as the cloths swung in and out, -brightening and dimming.</p> - -<p>Sir Edward was delighted to see his -cousin, and it seemed as if there was to be no -end to their talk, so numberless were the -questions the commander put about home, -his family, doings in London, matters political, -and so on, and so on. I had a chance, whilst -Colledge was spinning some long twister of -private interest to Sir Edward, to exchange a -few words with Miss Temple, whose behaviour -in the main might have easily led me to believe -that she was absolutely unconscious of -my presence; in fact, I shouldn’t have addressed -her then but for finding in the domestic -and personal gossip of the two cousins an -obligation of either talking or walking away.</p> - -<p>‘The <i>Countess Ida</i> looks a long distance -off, Miss Temple.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>‘Farther, I think, than this ship looks -from her.’</p> - -<p>‘That is owing to a change in the atmosphere. -We shall be having some weather -by-and-by.’</p> - -<p>‘Not before we return, I hope.’</p> - -<p>‘The blue thickens yonder,’ I exclaimed, -indicating that quarter of the sea where I had -noticed the depression of the horizon.</p> - -<p>She gazed listlessly; her eyes then went -roaming over the ship with a sparkle in them -of the pleasure the whiteness and the brightness -and the orderliness of all that she beheld -gave her.</p> - -<p>Presently Sir Edward exclaimed: ‘Miss -Temple, you would like to inspect this vessel, -I am sure. I wish to show Stephen my wife’s -portrait, and I want you to see it. Mr. Dugdale, -you will join us.’</p> - -<p>Down we went into a very pleasant cabin, -and the captain produced a water-colour -sketch of his lady.</p> - -<p>‘A sweet face!’ exclaimed Miss Temple; -whilst Sir Edward gazed at the picture with -eyes full of the yearning heart of a sailor long -divorced from his love.</p> - -<p>‘Have you found your charmer yet,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> -Stephen?’ said he. ‘Any girl won your budding -affections?’</p> - -<p>The youth looked at me suddenly and -turned of a deep red. I believe he would -have said no at once, and with a cocksure -face, had I not been there. Miss Temple’s -gaze rested upon him.</p> - -<p>‘Why, who is it, Stephen, eh?’ exclaimed -Sir Edward with a merry laugh. ‘See how -he blushes, Miss Temple! a sure sign that he -has let go his anchor, though he is riding to -a long scope all the way out here. Who is it, -Steve?’</p> - -<p>‘Oh, hang it, Ned, never mind; you -bother a fellow so,’ answered Colledge with a -fine air of mingled irritation and confusion, -and a half-look at me that was just the same -as saying, ‘What an ass I am making of -myself!’</p> - -<p>‘Miss Temple,’ exclaimed Sir Edward, -laughing heartily again, ‘he may possibly -have confided the lady’s name to you? Pray -satisfy my curiosity, that I may congratulate -him before we part.’</p> - -<p>‘I am as ignorant as you are,’ she replied, -with an expression of cold surprise in her -face.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>I marched to a porthole to look out, that -I might conceal an irrepressible grin.</p> - -<p>‘I say, show us the ship, will ye, Ned?’ -shouted Colledge; ‘there’s a long pull before -us, and we’re bound to India, you know.’</p> - -<p>Captain Panton led the way out of the -cabin, and went in advance with Miss Temple, -pointing here and explaining there, and full -of his ship. Colledge sidled up to me.</p> - -<p>‘Dugdale,’ he exclaimed in a whisper, ‘do -you believe that Miss Temple will guess from -my idiotic manner just now that I’m engaged -to be married?’</p> - -<p>‘Oh yes; I saw her gaze sink right into -you and then go clean through you. It is -best as it is, Colledge. You may breathe -freely now.’</p> - -<p>He smothered an execration, and continued -gloomy and silent for some time. -There was not very much to be seen below. -We were presently on deck; and after another -ten minutes’ chat, during which Colledge -seemed to regain his spirits, the boat was -ordered alongside.</p> - -<p>‘It shall be my secret as well as yours, -Stephen, long before you are home from your -tiger-hunts!’ exclaimed Sir Edward at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> -gangway, waggishly shaking his forefinger at -his cousin.</p> - -<p>We shook hands, entered the boat; the -lieutenant took his seat, the oars sparkled, -and away we went with a flourish of our hats -to the commander, who stood for some time -in the open gangway watching us.</p> - -<p>‘There’s a trifle more swell than there was, -I fancy,’ said I to the lieutenant.</p> - -<p>‘I think there is,’ he answered, looking -over the sea as if he thought of something -else.</p> - -<p>‘What a confounded quiz Ned is!’ exclaimed -Colledge. ‘He’s rather too fond of a -laugh at other people’s expense. I think that -sort of thing a mistake myself.’</p> - -<p>‘He is a very handsome gentleman,’ -said I.</p> - -<p>‘Well, I’m mighty glad to have seen him,’ -said Colledge. ‘He’s a dear good fellow, -only—— I hope you’ve enjoyed the trip, -Miss Temple?’</p> - -<p>‘Thoroughly, thank you; it is a delightful -change. How strange to think of that toy -yonder as being our home for some months to -come! It is like fancying one’s self as dwelling -in a star, to see her floating out there in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> -blue haze, as though she were poised in the -atmosphere.’</p> - -<p>She fastened her eyes on the Indiaman as -she spoke. One saw in this that she had a -sailor’s observation for atmospheric effect. -Star-like the ship looked in the distance—a -dash of misty light in the blue haze, hovering, -as it were, above the junction of sea and sky, -where the blending of the elements was so -dim and hot that you couldn’t tell where they -met.</p> - -<p>‘Isn’t it thickening up a trifle, somehow?’ -said I to the lieutenant. ‘Look to the right -of the wreck there—what is that appearance?’</p> - -<p>‘What do you see?’ he exclaimed.</p> - -<p>‘Why, to my fancy, it is as though there -were a dust-storm miles away yonder.’</p> - -<p>He smiled, and answered: ‘Mere heat. One -doesn’t need many months on the West African -coast to grow used to that sort of aspects. -They suggest nothing but quinine to me.’</p> - -<p>‘What time is it?’ said Colledge.</p> - -<p>We pulled out our watches: it was half-past -four.</p> - -<p>‘I am sorry we are returning to the Indiaman,’ -said he. ‘I should like to get away -from her for a little while; then one would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> -find something of freshness in her when one -returned. I am not thirsting to meet Mr. -Johnson and Mr. Emmett and Mr. Greenhew -again. Are you, Miss Temple?’</p> - -<p>She slightly smiled, and said, ‘I wish -Bombay were as near to us as the <i>Magicienne</i> -is to the Indiaman.’</p> - -<p>‘I have an idea!’ cried Colledge, whose -shining eyes, methought, seemed to suggest -the influence of the last large bumper of sherry -he had tossed down before leaving the corvette. -‘Let us kill another hour by boarding the -wreck.’</p> - -<p>‘I shall be very pleased to put the boat -alongside,’ said the lieutenant. ‘What do you -say, Miss Temple?’</p> - -<p>She looked at the Indiaman, and then sent -a swift glance at me, as though she would read -my face without having me know she had -peeped at it.</p> - -<p>‘Will there be time before it falls dark?’ -she answered. ‘I am in no hurry to return; -but I do not want to make my aunt miserable -by remaining out upon the water until after -sunset.’</p> - -<p>‘Oh, we have abundance of time,’ said the -lieutenant.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>‘It will give us so much to talk about,’ -exclaimed Colledge. ‘I want to see what sort of -a ship it was that frightened us so abominably -the other day.’</p> - -<p>‘What do you say, Mr. Dugdale?’ said -Miss Temple.</p> - -<p>‘I am thinking of the lonely sentinel this -gentleman was telling us about as we came -along,’ said I.</p> - -<p>‘Oh, one peep! one peep at him, just one -peep!’ cried Colledge: ‘<i>don’t</i> let us go back -to the Indiaman too soon. At this rate,’ he -added, turning up his slightly flushed face to -the sky, ‘we may have another six months of -her.’</p> - -<p>The lieutenant laughed, and, anxious to -please him, as I supposed, quietly pulled a -yoke-line and swept the boat’s head fair for -the hull. His making nothing of the appearance -I had called his attention to was reassuring. -I should have thought nothing of -it either but for the indent in the horizon that -morning, and the recollection that grew out of -it, as I have told you. But then old Keeling -had let us start from his ship without a hint, -and Sir Edward had uttered no caution, though, -to be sure, in those days the barometer was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> -not the shaper of marine speculations it has -since become; and the silence of these two -skippers, and the smile and careless rejoinder -of the lieutenant, should have been amply -satisfying. Nevertheless, there was no question -but that the light swell heaving out of the -north-west was sensibly gaining in volume and -speed, and that it was the mere respiration -of the ocean I could by no means persuade -myself, though it might signify nothing.</p> - -<p>Colledge grew somewhat frolicsome; indeed, -I seemed to find an artificiality in his -spirits, as though he would clear Miss Temple’s -memory of Captain Panton’s <i>badinage</i> by -laughter and jokes. The lieutenant fell in -with his humour, said some comical things, -and told one or two lively anecdotes of the -blacks of that part of the coast the corvette -was fresh from. The men-of-war’s men pulled -steadily, and the keen stem of the cutter -sheared through the oil-smooth surface with -a noise as of the ripping of satin; but now -and again she would swing down into a hollow -that put the low sides of the wreck out of -sight, whilst, as we approached, I noticed that -the hull was leaning from side to side in a -swing which did not need to greatly increase<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> -to put the lieutenant to his trumps to get Miss -Temple aboard.</p> - -<p>But by this time the girl was showing -some vivacity, smiling at the lieutenant’s jokes, -laughing lightly in her clear, rich, trembling -tones at Colledge’s remarks. It seemed to me -as if her previous quietude had produced a -resolution which she was now acting up to. -She was apparently eager to inspect the wreck, -and said that such an adventure would make -a heroine of her at home when she came to -tell the story of it.</p> - -<p>It was a long, dragging pull over that -heaving, breathless sea, and through that -sweltering afternoon, with its sky of the complexion -of brass about the zenith. The three -craft, as they lay, formed a right-angled triangle, -the apex, to call it so, being the derelict, -and the getting to her involved a longer -stretching of the Jacks’ backs than, as I -suspected, the lieutenant had calculated on. -The sweat poured from the men’s brows, and -their faces were like purple rags under their -straw hats as they swung with the precision -and the monotony of the tick of a clock over -the looms of their oars.</p> - -<p>‘She’s rather unsteady, isn’t she?’ exclaimed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> -Colledge as we approached the -hulk.</p> - -<p>‘So much the better,’ said the lieutenant; -‘her bulwarks are gone, and every dip inclines -her bare deck as a platform for a jump.’</p> - -<p>‘She may be sinking,’ cried Miss Temple.</p> - -<p>‘Dry as a bone, madam, I assure you,’ -said the officer. ‘I looked into her hold, and -there’s scarce more water than would serve to -drown a rat.’</p> - -<p>‘I see her name in long white letters -under her counter,’ I exclaimed. ‘Can you -read it, Colledge?’</p> - -<p>‘The <i>Aspirante</i>,’ said the lieutenant.</p> - -<p>We now fell silent, with our eyes upon -the hull, whilst the officer manœuvred with -the yoke-lines to run the cutter handsomely -alongside. A single chime from a bell came -thrilling with a soft silver note through the -hushed air. Miss Temple started, and the -officer grinned into Colledge’s face, but nothing -was said. She was a very clean wreck. Her -foremast stood stoutly supported by the -shrouds; but the braces of the foreyard were -slack, and the swing of the spar, upon which -the canvas lay rolled in awkward heaps, -roughly secured by lines, as though the work<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> -of hands wild with hurry, somehow imparted -a strange, forlorn, most melancholy character -to the nakedness of that solitary mast. She -showed no guns; her decks appeared to have -been swept; the rise of her in the water -proved that her people must have jettisoned -a deal of whatever they were able to come -at; her wheel was gone, and her rudder -slowly swayed to every heave. There were a -few ropes’ ends over her side, the hacked -remains of standing-rigging; but the water -brimmed clear of wreckage to her channels.</p> - -<p>‘Oars!’ cried the lieutenant. The bowman -sprang erect; and in a few moments we -were floating alongside, soaring and falling -against the black run of her, with the deck -gaping through the length of smashed bulwark -to the level of our heads when we stood -up, each time she came lazily rolling over to -us. The clear chime of the bell rang out -again.</p> - -<p>‘What is it?’ cried Miss Temple.</p> - -<p>‘The ship’s bell,’ said the lieutenant; ‘it -has got jammed as it hangs, and the tongue -strikes the side when the heave is a little -sharper than usual.’</p> - -<p>He followed this on with certain directions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> -to the men. Two of them, watching their -chance, sprang on to the slope of the deck, -and then went hoisting up away from us as -the hull swayed wearily to starboard. ‘Stand -by now!’ bawled the lieutenant. ‘Miss -Temple, let me assist you on to this thwart.’ -She leapt upon it with something of defiance -in her manner, and the officer, grasping her -elbow, supported her. I thought Colledge -looked a little uneasy and pale. We waited; -but an opportunity was some time in coming.</p> - -<p>‘Mr. Colledge,’ said the lieutenant, ‘be -kind enough to take my place and support -the lady.’ He jumped lightly into the main-chains, -and was on deck in a jiffy. ‘Haul -her in close, men. Now, Miss Temple. Catch -hold of my hand and of this sailor’s when I -say so.’</p> - -<p>Up swung the boat; the girl extended -her hands, which were instantly grasped. -‘Jump, madam!’ and she went in a graceful -bound from the thwart to the deck.</p> - -<p>I watched till a heave brought me on a -line with the chains into which I jumped.</p> - -<p>‘Now, Mr. Colledge!’ called out the lieutenant. -He hung in the wind, and I thought -he would refuse to leave the boat; but Miss<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> -Temple with her face slightly flushed stood -watching as though waiting for him, her noble -figure swaying with a marvellous careless -grace upon the floating slopes of the planks; -and this started him. He got on to a thwart, -where he was supported by a sailor till a -chance offered for his hands to be gripped, -and then he was hauled on to the hull; but -he came perilously near to going overboard, -for the sudden sinking away of the cutter -from under him paralysed his effort to jump, -and he swung against the side of the wreck in -the grasp of the lieutenant and a seaman, who -dragged him up just in time to save his legs -from being ground by the soaring of the boat. -The two sailors then jumped into the cutter, -which shoved off, and lay rising and falling -upon the quarter to the scope of her painter.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> -<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XVIII<br /> - -<small>ADRIFT</small></h2></div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">There</span> was a small deck-house standing abaft -the jagged ends of the stump of the mainmast, -a low-pitched, somewhat narrow, and rather -long structure, with a door facing the wheel, -or where the wheel had stood, and a couple of -small windows on either hand, the glass of -which was entirely gone.</p> - -<p>‘The lonely watchman of this wreck is still -at home, doubtless waiting to receive us,’ said -the lieutenant, pointing to the little building. -‘Shall we pay him a visit?’</p> - -<p>‘Oh yes; let us see everything that there -may be to look at,’ answered Colledge, who -had not yet recovered his breath, but who was -working hard, I could see, to regain his late -air of vivacity, though he was pale, and shot -several uneasy glances around him as he -spoke.</p> - -<p>‘I would rather not look,’ said Miss -Temple; ‘it will make me dream.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>‘You will have nothing to talk about, then,’ -said Colledge.</p> - -<p>‘It is the most natural object in the world,’ -exclaimed the lieutenant; ‘if he could be -stuffed, preserving the posture he is in, and -exhibited in London, thousands would assemble -to view him.’</p> - -<p>I left them to persuade Miss Temple if -they could, and walking aft, opened the door, -and peeped in. It was just a plain, immensely -strong, roughly furnished deck erection, with -a small hatch close against the entrance, conducting, -as I supposed, to the cabin beneath. -On either side went a row of lockers; in the -centre was a short narrow table, supported by -stanchions; and at this table sat the figure of -a man. He was in an attitude of writing; his -right hand grasped a long feather pen; his left -elbow was on the table, and his cheek was -supported by his hand. He was dressed in -white jean breeches, the ends of which were -stuffed into a pair of yellow leather half-boots. -There was a large belt round his waist, clasped -by some ornament resembling a two-headed -eagle, of a shining metal, probably silver. -His shirt was a pale red flannel, over which -was a jacket cut in the Spanish fashion; his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> -hair was long, and flowed in black ringlets -upon his back. His hat was a large sombrero, -and I had to walk abreast of him to see his -face. I was prepared to witness a ghastly -sight. Instead, I beheld a countenance of -singular beauty. It was as if the hand of -death had moulded some faultless human -countenance out of white wax. The lids of -the eyes drooped, and the gaze seemed rooted -upon the table, as though the man lay rapt -and motionless in some sweet and perfect -dream. His small moustache was like a touch -of delicate pencilling. He looked to have -been a person of some three or four and -twenty years of age.</p> - -<p>As I stood surveying the figure, the interior -was shadowed. Miss Temple and the others -stood in the doorway. The lieutenant and -Colledge entered; the girl would not approach.</p> - -<p>‘Here, Miss Temple,’ said I, ‘is the handsomest -man I have ever seen.’</p> - -<p>‘Can he be dead?’ exclaimed Colledge in -a subdued voice of awe.</p> - -<p>‘He’ll never be deader,’ said the lieutenant, -peering curiously into the face of the corpse. -‘<i>Handsome</i>, do you consider him, sir? Well,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> -we all have our tastes, to be sure. He looks -like a woman masquerading.’</p> - -<p>‘Who was he, I wonder?’ asked Miss -Temple in a low tone, standing in a half-shrinking -attitude at the door.</p> - -<p>‘Very hard to say,’ said I. ‘Too young -for the captain, I should think. Probably the -mate.’</p> - -<p>‘A pirate, anyway,’ said the lieutenant.</p> - -<p>‘Hark!’ cried Miss Temple; ‘this ship is -tolling his knell.’</p> - -<p>The mellow chime floated past the ear. -The effect was extraordinary, so clear was -the note as it rang through the soft sounds -of the weltering waters; so ghostly, wild, -and unreal, too, the character it gathered -from the presence of that silent, stirless -penman.</p> - -<p>‘I say, we’ve seen enough of him, I think,’ -exclaimed Colledge.</p> - -<p>‘Shall we bury him?’ said I.</p> - -<p>‘Oh no, sir,’ exclaimed the lieutenant; -‘this sheer hulk is his coffin. Leave the dead -to bury their dead. Now for a glimpse of the -cabin.’</p> - -<p>Miss Temple entered with some reluctance; -the lieutenant handed her through the hatch<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> -down the short ladder, and Colledge and I -followed. We found ourselves in a moderately-sized -state-room of the width of the little -vessel, with bulkheads at either end, each containing -a couple of cabins. There was a -small skylight overhead, all the glass of it -shattered, but light enough fell through to -enable us to see easily. Colledge had plucked -up heart, and now bustled about somewhat -manfully, opening the cabin doors, starting as -if he saw horrible sights, cracking jokes as in -the boat, and calling to Miss Temple to look -here and look there, and so on.</p> - -<p>‘Hallo!’ cried the lieutenant, putting his -head into one of the cabins at the fore-end of -the state-room; ‘I missed this room when I -overhauled her. What have we here? A -pantry is it, or a larder?’</p> - -<p>I looked over his shoulder, and by the faint -light sifting through the bull’s-eye in the deck, -made out the contents of what was apparently -a storeroom. There were several shelves containing -crockery, cheeses, hams, and other -articles of food. Under the lower shelf, heaped -upon the deck, were stowed several dozens of -bottles in straw.</p> - -<p>‘The corsairs,’ said the lieutenant, ‘will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> -always be memorable for the excellence of -their tipple. What is this, now?’</p> - -<p>He picked up a bottle, knocked off the -head, and taking a little tin drinking-vessel -from a shelf, half filled it, then smelled, and -tasted.</p> - -<p>‘An exquisite Burgundy,’ he cried. ‘Try -it, Mr. Dugdale.’</p> - -<p>It was indeed a very choice sound wine. -The lieutenant half filled a pannikin for -Colledge, who emptied it with a sigh of enjoyment. -‘What would my father give for such -stuff as this!’ said he.</p> - -<p>The lieutenant found a wine-glass, which -he carefully cleansed with the liquor, and then -filling it, he asked Miss Temple to drink to -the confusion of all pirates. She laughed, and -declined.</p> - -<p>‘Oh, you must sip it, if you please,’ cried -Colledge, ‘if only to heighten the romance of -this adventure. Think of the additional colour -your story will get out of this incident of -drinking perdition to the corsairs in wine of -their own!’</p> - -<p>She was about to answer, when the hull -rolled heavily. The lieutenant slipped; the -wine-glass fell to the deck, and was shivered;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> -Colledge, grasping me to steady himself, threw -me off my balance, and the pair of us went -rolling to the bottles. The young fellow -scrambled on to his legs with a loud laugh.</p> - -<p>‘I believe this vessel is tipsy,’ said he.</p> - -<p>‘Do you mark the increase in the weight -of the swell?’ I exclaimed as I regained my -legs.</p> - -<p>The roll of the vessel the other way had -been severe, and now she was dipping her -sides regularly with an oscillation extravagant -enough to render standing very inconvenient.</p> - -<p>‘We must be off, I think,’ said the lieutenant.</p> - -<p>‘Miss Temple hasn’t drunk confusion to -the pirates,’ exclaimed Colledge with the persistency -of brains flushed with wine.</p> - -<p>‘I would rather not do so,’ she answered, -her fine face looking curiously pale in that -dull light, whilst she glanced restlessly towards -the state cabin. She pulled out a little watch. -‘It is certainly time to return to the Indiaman,’ -she added.</p> - -<p>‘Oh, but don’t let us leave all this noble -drink to go down to the bottom of the sea,’ -cried Colledge. ‘Is there nothing that we can -pack some of the bottles in? If we could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> -only manage to get away with a couple of -dozen—twelve for ourselves and twelve for -my cousin?’—and with red face and bright -eyes he went staggering with the heave of the -hull to the shelves and stood holding on, looking -about him.</p> - -<p>‘It might be managed, I think,’ said the -lieutenant, who seemed all anxiety to oblige -him.</p> - -<p>‘I wish to be gone,’ exclaimed Miss Temple -with a strong hint of the imperiousness that -had been familiar to me in the Indiaman in the -air with which she looked at and addressed -the lieutenant. ‘What is the meaning of this -increased rolling? I shall not be able to enter -the boat.’</p> - -<p>‘No fear of that, madam,’ answered the -lieutenant; ‘a dismasted egg-shell like this -will roll to the weakest heave. A trifle more -swell has certainly set in, but it is nothing.’</p> - -<p>I was not so sure of that. What he was -pleased to describe as a trifling increase was to -my mind, and very distinctly too, a heightening -and broadening of the undulations, of which -the significance was rendered strong by the -suddenness of the thing. It meant wind close -at hand, I could swear.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>‘I’ll go on deck and see how things are,’ -said I.</p> - -<p>‘Take me with you, Mr. Dugdale,’ exclaimed -Miss Temple.</p> - -<p>‘You will suffer me to assist you?’ said the -lieutenant.</p> - -<p>‘Oh, I say, <i>don’t</i> leave all this wine here,’ -cried Colledge. ‘Mr.—I mean Lieutenant—upon -my word, I must apologise for not having -asked your name—can’t we manage to find -some old basket’——</p> - -<p>‘What is that down in the corner there, -Mr. Colledge?’ said the lieutenant, laughing.</p> - -<p>‘Pray, take me on deck, Mr. Dugdale?’ -exclaimed Miss Temple haughtily and with -temper, and she came to my side and passed -her arm through mine.</p> - -<p>The swaying of the light hull without top-hamper -to steady her so hindered one’s movements -by the staggering lurches it flung one -into, that it cost me no small effort to steer a -fair course with Miss Temple hanging to me, -to the cabin steps. I helped her up the ladder, -and felt in her arm the shudder that swept -through her as she sent a single swift glance -at the dead figure at the table.</p> - -<p>The moment I emerged I cried out: ‘My<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> -God! see there! Why, if we are not -quick’—— And putting my head into the -doorway again, I roared down the hatch: -‘For heaven’s sake, come on deck, or we shall -lose both ships!’</p> - -<p>Indeed, all away in the north-west was -a white blankness of vapour bearing right -down upon the hull, with a long and heavy -swell rolling out of it, the heads of which as -they came washing from under the base of the -thickness were dark with wind. The sky -overhead was of a sort of watery ashen colour, -going down to the eastern sea-line in a weak, -dim blue, so obscure with the complexion of -the approaching vaporous mass that the -corvette on the left hand and the Indiaman -on the right appeared as little more than pallid -smudges, with a kind of looming out of their -dull, distorted proportions that made them -show as though they hung upon the very verge -of the ocean. I told Miss Temple to hold to -the side of the deck-house to steady herself, -and rushed to the quarter. The cutter lay -there to the scope of her painter, rising and -falling in a manner bewildering to see to one -who knew that she had to be entered from -these perilously sloping decks. The moment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> -my head was seen, one of the sailors bawled -out: ‘The Indiaman’s fired two guns, sir.’</p> - -<p>‘Why the deuce,’ I shouted in a passion, -‘didn’t one of you jump aboard to report -what was coming? Haul alongside, for God’s -sake.’</p> - -<p>At this moment the lieutenant appeared, -followed by Colledge. He took one look, and -came in a bound to the sheer edge of the deck, -where the remains of the line of crushed bulwarks -stood like fangs. ‘Lively now!’ he -cried; ‘hand over hand with it.’</p> - -<p>‘We shall be smothered out of sight in a -few minutes,’ I exclaimed; ‘shall we be acting -wisely in quitting this hull? We may lose -both ships in that weather there, and what will -there be to do then?’</p> - -<p>‘Don’t frighten the lady, sir,’ he answered, -turning upon me with a frown. ‘Miss Temple, -there is nothing to be alarmed at. We shall -get you into the boat simply enough, and the -vapour will speedily clear. I know these -waters.’</p> - -<p>Colledge stood gazing round him, looking -horribly frightened. The boat was dragged -alongside: one moment she was above the -level of the naked edge of the deck; the next<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> -she was sliding away out of sight into the -hollow, with the wreck rolling heavily off from -her.</p> - -<p>‘Now, Miss Temple,’ cried the lieutenant. -‘Help me to steady the lady, Mr. Dugdale. -Stand by, two of you men there, to receive -her.’</p> - -<p>Miss Temple set her lips, and her eyes were -on fire with anger and fear. ‘I shall not be -able to enter that boat,’ said she.</p> - -<p>‘Oh, madam, be persuaded,’ cried the -lieutenant, speaking irritably out of his -clear perception of the danger of delay -and of the peril of passing her into the -cutter. ‘Mr. Dugdale, take Miss Temple’s -arm.’</p> - -<p>She shrank back, with a firmer grip of the -deck-house, against which she had set her -shoulder to steady herself. ‘You will kill -me!’ she cried.</p> - -<p>‘Mr. Dugdale,’ exclaimed the lieutenant -wildly, ‘for God’s sake, jump into the boat, -that Miss Temple may see how easily it is to -be done. I must be the last to leave.’</p> - -<p>‘Let Mr. Colledge jump first,’ said I. ‘I -may probably be more useful to you and the -lady than he.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>‘Jump, Mr. Colledge!’ cried the lieutenant.</p> - -<p>The young fellow went to the edge of the -deck. ‘I shall break my neck,’ he shouted; -‘I shall fall into the sea; I shall be drowned.’</p> - -<p>‘No, sir! no, sir!’ roared one of the -seamen; ‘jump as the boat lifts; we’ll catch -you.’</p> - -<p>‘<i>Now!</i>’ cried the lieutenant.</p> - -<p>Colledge sprang; down sank the boat out -of sight; then up she soared again with Colledge -safe in the embrace of one of the most -powerful of the sailors.</p> - -<p>‘Here it comes!’ said I.</p> - -<p>As the words left my lips, the wind, with -a long fierce howl, swept over the deck of the -hull, and a moment later the fog was boiling -all about us. It was like a mighty burst of -steam; and in a breath the ocean vanished, and -there was nothing to see but the wool-white -blankness and a space of thirty or forty feet -of water beyond the wreck. All on a sudden, -the lieutenant, who had gone to the edge of -the deck, perhaps to see how it was with -Colledge, or to bawl some further directions -to the seamen, staggered to a deep and swinging -heel of the hull and went overboard. It<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> -happened in a second. My instant impression -was that he had jumped for the boat; -but I knew better when I heard the men -roaring out.</p> - -<p>‘For heaven’s sake, Miss Temple,’ I cried, -‘keep a firm hold, and do not attempt to stir, -or the angle of the decks will certainly rush -you over the side.’</p> - -<p>So saying, I staggered to the quarter -where there were some eight or ten feet of -bulwarks still standing, and looked over. -The men had let go the painter of their boat, -and were shouting instructions to one another -as some of them flung their oars over into the -rowlocks, whilst others overhung the gunwale -eagerly with pale faces and looks of consternation -and dread, searching the round -volumes of the swell, which the wind was -now whipping into yeast, for any signs of -their officer.</p> - -<p>‘Keep alongside!’ I bellowed; ‘he will -rise near.’</p> - -<p>But the fellows were distracted, unnerved, -and there was nobody to give them orders. -The howling of the wind, the sudden leaping -down upon them of this blindness of white -vapour, the violent upheavals and sinkings of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> -the cutter upon the run of the liquid hills, -heavily increased the distraction raised in -them by their lieutenant’s disappearance. -They had three oars out, possessed, I suppose, -by some mad fancy of merely paddling whilst -they stared round the water; and even whilst -I watched them, and whilst I yelled to them -to get their six oars over, and to pull for -their lives to alongside the wreck, the boat, -yielding to the full weight of the blast and to -the long irresistible heavings of the swell, -faded out of sight in the flying thickness; and -ere I could fully realise what had occurred, -the narrow space of foam-freckled pouring -waters showed blank to where the flying -vapour seemed to hang like a wall of white -smoke.</p> - -<p>I continued to stare, occasionally bringing -my eyes away from the spot where the boat -had vanished to the water alongside; but the -lieutenant had sunk. There could be no -doubt that the poor fellow on rising from his -first dive had struck the bends of the hull as -she rolled heavily over to the trough where -he had vanished, and so had been drowned, -struck down again into the depths, to rise no -more. I could not realise the truth. I felt<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> -as if I had fallen crazy, and was imagining -dreadful horrors. It was but a minute or -two before that he had turned to me with a -frown—it was but a little while before that -he was full of jokes and laughter in the cabin—and -now he lay a dead man, sinking and -yet sinking under our heaving and plunging -keel, dead as the figure yonder in that little -cabin, of whom he had spoken jestingly so -lately that the words and tone of his voice -were still in my ear!</p> - -<p>‘Where is the boat, Mr. Dugdale?’</p> - -<p>I turned slowly round and looked at the -girl with an air of stupefaction, then stared -again into the blankness, and with shuddering -heart swept my eyes over the water alongside, -brimming in humpbacked rounds to the very -line of the deck, and sweeping away into the -near thickness with a spitting and seething -and flashing of foam off each long slant to the -fierce shrill smiting of the wind.</p> - -<p>‘Has the boat left us, Mr. Dugdale?’</p> - -<p>With a desperate effort I rallied myself, -and watching for my chances betwixt the wild -slopings of the deck, I reached the deck-house, -and held on by the girl’s side.</p> - -<p>‘The boat has been blown away. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> -men fell imbecile, I do believe, when they -saw their officer drop overboard. What -madmen to let go the painter, to manœuvre -with three oars in a heavy cutter in the teeth -of such a wind as this, and on the top of that -swell!’</p> - -<p>‘Did they recover the lieutenant?’ she -asked.</p> - -<p>‘No.’</p> - -<p>‘Oh, Mr. Dugdale,’ she shrieked, ‘do you -tell me he is drowned?’</p> - -<p>‘Yes—yes—he is drowned,’ I answered, -scarce able to articulate for the sudden fit of -horror that came upon me again.</p> - -<p>‘Drowned!’ she exclaimed. ‘Oh no—not -so suddenly! He may be struggling close -against the vessel now’—she moved as if to -go to the side to look. I grasped her arm.</p> - -<p>‘Do not stir,’ I cried; ‘the slope of the -deck will carry you overboard. It is all open -to the water abreast of us.’</p> - -<p>‘Shocking! It is unendurable! Drowned -so swiftly! And the boat—the boat, Mr. -Dugdale?’</p> - -<p>The cruel distress in her voice, the anguish -of mind expressed in her parted lips, her -heaving breast, her strained, brilliant, wide-open<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> -staring looks about her, obliged me to -recollect myself by forcing me to understand -my obligations as a man.</p> - -<p>‘Miss Temple, this fog may prove but a -passing thickness. There is a clear sky over -it, and when the vapour settles away, the sea -will open to its confines. The Indiaman knows -we are here. We were watched, too, from -the corvette, no doubt, and she must regain -her boat besides. The cutter is a powerful -little fabric, and there is nothing as yet in this -weather or in that sea to hurt her. It is a -hard experience for you; but it will prove a -brief one only, I am sure. Let me assist you -to a seat in this deck-house. Your having to -hold on here is fatiguing and dangerous.’</p> - -<p>‘I could not enter whilst that man is there,’ -she exclaimed. ‘Oh, hark to that bell!’ she -cried hysterically; ‘it is tolling for <i>us</i> now!’</p> - -<p>‘You must be sheltered,’ I exclaimed; -‘and that body must come out of it. Will -you sit on the deck? You will be safer so.’</p> - -<p>She sank down; and to still further secure -her, I went sliding and clawing like a monkey -to the quarter, where, with my knife, I severed -an end of rope—a piece of gear belayed to a -pin—with which I returned to her side. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> -passed the line round her waist, and firmly -attached the ends to one of several iron uprights -which supported the structure; and -begging her to compose her mind, and not to -doubt of our deliverance within the next two -or three hours, I entered the little building.</p> - -<p>It was a loathsome job; but the girl must -be sheltered, and it was not to be borne that -she should have such a companion as that -corpse, when there was the great graveyard -of the sea within an easy drag to receive the -body. Yet I must own to coming to a stand -with a long look at the silent figure before I -could muster up stomach enough to lay hands -upon him. Indeed, as I now fixed my eyes -on the body, I wondered whether he could be -really dead, so startlingly lifelike was his posture, -so pensive his air, so vital the aspect of -him to the minutest feature, down to the pen -betwixt his fingers, and the reposeful position -of his small wax-white hand upon the table. -How could I tell but that he might be in some -sort of trance, and that my heaving him overboard -would be the same as murdering him? -However, after a spell of staring, I shook off -these alarms and conjectures, and grasping -him by the arm, got him upon the deck; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> -presently I had him abreast of that part of the -brig’s side where the bulwarks were gone; -and trembling as violently as though I were -about to drown a living being, I waited for a -roll of the hull, then gave the body a heave, -and away it went, striking the swell in a diving -attitude, and floating off and down into it, as -if it swam.</p> - -<p>This done, I crept back to Miss Temple -and squatted beside her.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - - - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> -<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XIX<br /> - -<small>NIGHT</small></h2></div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> wind blew hard, and the vapour swept -past in a horizontal pouring, masses of it -coming on a sudden in a blinding thickness -till you could not see half the wreck’s length; -then the silver-tinted volumes would brighten -for a breath or two, and show the steel-coloured -sea heaving its freckled and foamless -folds into the vaporous faintness a few hundred -feet off; then the mist would boil down and -over us once more until it was like being in a -room filled with steam.</p> - -<p>‘The cabin is empty,’ said I—the girl being -on the port side, I had taken care to drag the -body to starboard—‘there are seats, and you -will be sheltered there. This is damping -stuff.’</p> - -<p>‘Not yet,’ she answered. ‘I am as safe -here. I hate the thought of having anything -to screen the sea from me. I want to look—at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> -any moment the Indiaman or the man-of-war -may come close to us.’</p> - -<p>‘Be it so,’ said I. ‘Heavens, how rapidly -has all this happened! One of the cutter’s -men shouted to me that the Indiaman had -fired two guns. Why did they not report -this to us? Did they believe the swell would -not let them get aboard? They saw—of -course they saw—this fog bearing down; why -did not the madmen let us know of it?’</p> - -<p>‘What will my aunt think?’</p> - -<p>‘Why, she will be in a terrible fright. But -it will not last. We shall be picked up presently. -I would rather be here than in the -cutter. If they are wise, they will ride to -their oars; if they row or allow the wind and -seas to drive them, they are bound to lose -both ships, the night being at hand; and then -God help them!’</p> - -<p>‘Oh, it was an evil moment,’ she cried, -‘when we sighted the corvette!’</p> - -<p>‘It was an evil moment,’ I exclaimed bitterly -and wrathfully, ‘when Mr. Colledge, -who had undoubtedly taken too much wine -on board the <i>Magicienne</i>, suggested that we -should kill an hour on this hull. Where,’ I -cried passionately, ‘could the unhappy lieutenant’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> -wits have been? He laughed at me -for indicating the appearance I witnessed in -the north-west. Was there nothing in the -weight of this swell to convince him that -there must be mischief not far off?’</p> - -<p>‘What will my aunt think?’ she repeated, -as though she scarcely heeded my words, -whilst she brought her hands, brilliant with -rings, together and stared into the thickness -with her eyes on fire with fear and amazement -and the score of wild emotions which -filled her.</p> - -<p>Though I held my peace on the subject, -the wind, that was blowing with the spite of -an ugly squall, was exciting an alarm in me -that rose above all other considerations of our -situation. The hatches lay open and there -was nothing to be seen of their covers about -the decks. If this weather continued, a high -sea must presently follow, in which case there -could be nothing to save the wreck from filling -and foundering. The lieutenant had -assured us that she was dry; but it was -certain that she had been badly wrenched by -the lightning stroke that had dismasted and -apparently set her on fire forward, and by the -furious gale that had chased her afterwards;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> -and though she may have been tight when -the lieutenant overhauled her, this constant -working in the strong swell might at any instant -cause her to start a butt or open a seam, -and then what should I be able to do? Both -pumps were smashed level to the deck; there -was no boat; there was nothing discoverable -fore and aft which I could launch and secure -my companion and myself to. It was with -inexpressible anxiety, therefore, that I would -send my gaze from time to time to windward, -in the hope of observing a thinning in the -thickness there, or any the faintest imaginable -sign to elate me with the belief that the worst -of the fog was on us, that we were now feeling -the worst of the wind, and that the ocean -would be clearing soon.</p> - -<p>The time passed. I looked at my watch -after we had been sitting a little, and found it -six o’clock. The sun would be setting in -something more than an hour, and a bitter -black night was bound to follow if the vapour -had not cleared when daylight ended. There -was now a smart sea running, but the swell -had flattened something, I thought. The hull -was horribly frisky, leaning at desperate -angles from side to side, and often recovering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> -herself with a jerk that must have flung us to -the deck had we not been seated. But she -was extraordinarily light, and floated very -tall, and though there would sometimes come -a blow of salt water against the bow that -flashed across the deck in a mass of foam and -green crystals, yet she soared so nimbly to the -height of every surge that she took in amazingly -little water. Indeed, it was not long -before I felt myself infinitely comforted by her -behaviour, convinced that it would have to -breeze up with much more spite than the -wind now had to put us in jeopardy from a -filling hold.</p> - -<p>Shortly before the hour of sundown, I -induced Miss Temple to occupy the deck-house. -She entered with a great deal of -reluctance, and seated herself in a corner that -was the furthest away from where the body -had been. It had not been very easy to converse -outside. The ceaseless roaring and -washing noises of the water, with the alarming -thumps and leapings of froth at the bow, and -the sounds of the rushing wind sweeping in -gusty cries over the mutilated rails of the -hull as she was hove up full into it, and then -sinking into a sort of humming moaning as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> -the wreck drove down the liquid acclivity -into the swift comparative stillness of the -trough: all this was distracting and terrifying, -and speech had been difficult. But the interior -of the deck-house was a shelter to the -ear and voice. I seated myself opposite the -girl, giving her as wide, respectful a berth as -the narrow cabin permitted. The shadow of -the evening lay already sullen in the white -mist that seemed to boil upon the wind, though -at that hour it was not so thick but that the -gaze might be able to penetrate a distance of -a quarter of a mile. Miss Temple was deadly -pale. Even her lips had lost their delicate -rosy tint, and sat blanched in their compression. -Her eyes looked preternaturally large, -and there was an expression of passionate -desperation in them, as one might figure of -some proud, high-spirited creature driven at -bay, and rounding upon the pursuer with a -gaze charged with despair and wrath and the -misery of some heart-breaking resolution.</p> - -<p>‘I believe I shall go mad,’ she said, ‘if -this fog does not cease. I feel as though I -were now insane, and that what we are suffering -is the imagination of madness.’</p> - -<p>‘It is a frightful time of suspense,’ I answered;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> -‘we must have patience: there is no -other medicine for this sort of affliction.’</p> - -<p>‘I could stab myself,’ she cried, ‘for -being in this position. There is the Indiaman -close at hand; I see her saloon cheerful with -lamplight, the tables glittering, the passengers -seated, talking and laughing, without a -thought of us by this time.’ I shook my -head. She continued: ‘I think of the security, -the comfort of that ship, which I never -once reflected on when in her. And now -contrast this!’</p> - -<p>She rolled her wonderful eyes over the -narrow compartment in a shuddering way -that was eloquent with abhorrence.</p> - -<p>‘Why am I here? It is my own fault. I -could stab myself for my folly.’</p> - -<p>It made one think of some beautiful wild -creature newly caged to watch her.</p> - -<p>‘It is bad enough,’ said I; ‘but it might -be much worse. Think of yourself in that -open boat—on this high sea, and amidst this -blinding vapour: no water, no food, the -blackness of the night coming down, and a -thousand leagues of ocean all around you.’</p> - -<p>‘Is not the cutter safer than this horrible -wreck?’ she cried. ‘If the morning exposes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> -the ships to the people in her, they can row; -but what can we do?’</p> - -<p>‘If the morning exposes the ships,’ said I, -‘they’ll see us, and very joyfully attempt to -fetch us—that is to sail to us.’</p> - -<p>She turned to look through a window the -glass of which was gone, and through which -the wind was shrilling as though it blew into -a cylinder. It was fast darkening. In these -latitudes twilight is brief, and in such weather -as this there would be none. It was little -more now than sombre blank greyness outside, -with a sight of the steel-coloured swell, -over whose humps the seas were rushing in -foam, shouldering and vanishing into the -thickness. But there was no increase in the -wind, and the run of the surge did not gain -in weight.</p> - -<p>I watched the girl while she looked through -the window. It is not in language to convey -the tragic irony that was put into our situation -by her sparkling holiday attire. Her -dress was of some white material, of a silken -or lustrous nature, that most perfectly fitted -the beauties of her person. Her hat was -some rich combination of richly plumed -straw. She had removed her gloves on descending<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> -into the cabin of the hull when we -boarded her, and many rings of splendour -and value flashed on her fingers in a very -armour of jewels and gold. There were gems -in her ears, and a heavy chain of gold round -her neck, terminating in a whole cluster of -trinkets at her girdle, in which was sheathed -a watch of the size of her thumb-nail. Think -of this glittering figure, this stately, most perfect -shape of womanhood in the gloom of the -strong, rude interior of the deck-house, with -its few rough details of fittings in the shape -of a table and lockers, nothing to see through -the window but the rough deck spreading -naked to its splinters of bulwark, with the -angry foam of waters beyond, and a near sky -of fast blackening vapour!</p> - -<p>‘What are we to do?’ she exclaimed, -resuming her former attitude and fixing her -large desperate eyes upon me.</p> - -<p>‘We must wait,’ said I.</p> - -<p>‘You have been a sailor, Mr. Dugdale; -tell me what you think?’</p> - -<p>‘Well, first of all, we must be prepared -to spend the night on this wreck’—— She -flashed her hands to her face and held them -there, and I waited for her to look at me<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> -again. ‘This weather,’ I proceeded, ‘is not -likely to last very long. The dawn will probably -exhibit a clear sky. If the ships are -not in sight’—she drew in her breath with an -hysterical ‘Oh’—‘they will still have the -bearings of the wreck, and search for us. -Were there but a single vessel to hunt after -the hull, we might still feel perfectly safe; -but there are two, and one of them is an -English man-of-war.’</p> - -<p>‘But will Sir Edward Panton know that -we are here?’</p> - -<p>‘No doubt. He or others will have seen -the cutter deviate for the wreck instead of -pulling for the Indiaman.’</p> - -<p>‘But they may think we are in the boat; -and if she is not recovered, they will search -for her, and not trouble themselves about the -wreck.’</p> - -<p>‘We must be hopeful, and we must be -patient,’ said I.</p> - -<p>It was now rapidly growing dark. The -white waters showed ghastly over the edge of -the bare deck to each convulsive jerking roll -of the hull, and my companion’s white face -was little more than a glimmer in the gloom -of the corner in which she sat. The thought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> -of the long black hours which lay before us -was intolerable. I looked about me for a -lamp, but there was nothing of the kind, nor -hook nor bracket to prove that a lamp or -lantern was ever used in this small abode. I -told Miss Temple that I would go below and -search for something wherewith to make a -light.</p> - -<p>‘Will you be long?’ she asked.</p> - -<p>‘I’ll make haste,’ said I.</p> - -<p>‘Yes, if you please, Mr. Dugdale,’ she -exclaimed.</p> - -<p>I had in my pocket the old-fashioned arrangement -of tinder-box and sulphur matches, -being, indeed, too confirmed a smoker to -stir very far without that convenience. The -mere descent of the steps was a horrible -labour, owing to the extravagant leaps and -rolls of the mere shell of wreck, and my progress -was scarcely more than inch by inch, -forced to hold on as I was with the tenacity -of the grip of a parrot’s beak. The straining -noises in the cabin might have easily led me -to suppose that the hull was going to pieces. -Every blow of the sea trembled through her -down here as though the fabric forward were -breaking up, and I recollect swinging by a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> -stanchion for some minute or two, overwhelmed -with the consternation excited in -me by the sounds, and by a sudden recollection -of the lieutenant’s words that the brig -in her forecastle had been burnt out. But I -had promised Miss Temple to be speedy; and -the thought of her sitting lonely above in -terror and despair brought my mind back to -its bearings.</p> - -<p>It was almost pitch-dark, but remembering -the situation of the pantry in which the -lieutenant had cracked the bottle of wine, I -dropped on my hands and knees, not daring -to trust my feet, and crawled towards it. -When I guessed by groping that I was near -the door, I kindled a match and entered the -pantry; and after consuming about half-a-dozen -matches, I met with a tin box that was -full of long wax candles, which looked to me -very much like a sample of booty, as it was -scarcely to be supposed that a vessel of the -class of the <i>Aspirante</i> would lay in stores of -that quality. I hunted for a candlestick, and -found a small empty pickle bottle, which -would very well answer the purpose of holding -the candle. This I squeezed under my -waistcoat, and filled my coat-pockets with a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> -couple of bottles of wine, a handful of ship’s -biscuit, and a little tin drinking-vessel; and -then putting the box of candles under my -arm, I fell again upon my hands and knees, -crawled to the cabin ladder, and joined the -deck-house so wearied by the posture I had -been forced to adopt and by the convulsive -motions of the deck, which had put an aching -as of rheumatism into every bone, that I was -forced to sit and remain quiet for some -minutes.</p> - -<p>The wind swept in through the denuded -windows; but the structure, as I have before -said, was long in proportion to its width, and -at the fore-end the atmosphere was quiet -enough for a candle to burn in. I secured -the empty pickle bottle to a stanchion with -my handkerchief, and placed the lighted -candle in it; and the square of the bottle -held the flame at a sufficient distance from -the stanchion to provide against all risk of -fire. The light seemed to raise some little -heart in Miss Temple.</p> - -<p>‘You are brave,’ she exclaimed, with a -glance at the black square of the hatch, ‘to -descend into that dreadful dungeon. There -may be dead bodies there.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>‘I am not afraid of dead bodies,’ said I. -‘I wish there were nothing more harmful in -this world than dead men. Here are two -bottles of wine and some biscuit. You will -be the better for a little refreshment.’</p> - -<p>I knocked off the head of a bottle and -handed her a draught. She looked at the -rough drinking-vessel for a little, and then -said with a painful smile: ‘A desperate -change, Mr. Dugdale, from the table of the -Indiaman! Will this wine hurt me?’</p> - -<p>‘I will drink first, to reassure you, if you -please,’ said I.</p> - -<p>‘No,’ she exclaimed; ‘I must not be too -cowardly;’ and she drank.</p> - -<p>I took a good drain myself, and found it -the same noble wine that the poor lieutenant -had tasted.</p> - -<p>‘Try one of these biscuits, Miss Temple,’ -said I; ‘they are but coarse eating for you, -I fear; they are the bread that poor Jack is -fed on.’</p> - -<p>She took one and nibbled at it.</p> - -<p>‘Ha!’ said I, ‘this is an ocean experience -indeed. This is being shipwrecked. You -will have a deal more to talk about when you -get home than Colledge could have dreamt of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> -in proposing this excursion for that purpose. -Can you bite that biscuit?’</p> - -<p>‘Yes,’ she answered.</p> - -<p>‘It is rather flinty,’ said I, munching. -‘There should be something more relishable -than this to be come at below. I will make -another hunt.’</p> - -<p>‘No, if you please,’ she cried vehemently; -‘do not leave me, Mr. Dugdale.’</p> - -<p>‘Ay, but food apart, since we must needs -remain here through the night, I must endeavour -to find something soft for you to lie -upon. You cannot rest upon that hard -locker.’</p> - -<p>‘Oh, I do not want to rest,’ she exclaimed. -‘Do you think I could sleep? I shall sit as I -am, and pray for the light to come and for a -sight of the ships.’</p> - -<p>I made no answer, though it was on the -tip of my tongue to say I was sorry for her -sake that it was I, and not Colledge, whom -she was adrift with. It was an impulse -coming through some sudden hot recollection -of her treatment of me on board the <i>Countess -Ida</i>; but I bit my lip, and was grateful for -my silence a moment after, when I saw her -fine eyes swimming with tears.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>‘Pray have hope,’ I exclaimed. ‘I am -sure after a bit you will find plenty of courage -in your heart to confront this little passage, -hard as it is. I will do what I can. I would -you had a better sailor than I by your side; -but what can be done by me shall be done, -and the worst is a long way off yet, I am -certain.’</p> - -<p>She put her hands upon the table and hid -her face in them. I lifted the lid of the -locker I was using as a seat, to stow away -the bottles in a safe place; for, talk as I -might, it was only God could know whether -it might not end in a single drop of the liquor -becoming more precious to us than twenty -times the value of the cargo of the Indiaman. -There were some wearing apparel, a few small -coils of ratline-stuff, and other odds and ends -in the locker, but nothing noticeable. I then -clawed my way to the deck-house door to -take a look round. It was black as fog and -darkness could make it. Close alongside, the -foam glanced dimly, with now and again a -flash of phosphoric light in some dark coil -down whose slope the hull was sliding; but -there was nothing else to see. The wind still -blew fresh, but there was no recognisable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> -increase in it since the hour of its first coming -down upon the wreck. It made a most -dismal and melancholy noise of howling in the -sky, as it swept through the dark obscurity, -splitting upon the foremast and the shrouds -which supported the spar, in a low-toned -long-drawn shriek, which had something of -the sound of a human note as it pierced -through the hissing and seething round about, -and through the strange, low, dull thunder -made by the shouldering of liquid folds -coming together as they ran, and by the hurl -of the surge as it rounded and dissolved into -foam.</p> - -<p>There could be very little doubt that the -drift of a light empty shell of a wreck with a -yard and mast and shrouds forward for the -wind to catch hold of would be considerable -in such weather as this. Helped by the beat -of the seas, she might easily blow dead to leeward, -in the trough as she was, at the rate of -some three to four miles in the hour, so that -daybreak would find her forty or fifty miles -distant from the spot where we had boarded -her. However, I comforted myself with the -reflection that the commanders of the two -ships would have a clear perception of such a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> -drift as I calculated, and allow for it in the -search they would surely make for the hull. -I had but one fear: that the cutter had been -seen leaving the wreck, for there was an -interval at least of a minute or two between -her dropping astern and manœuvring with her -three oars and her envelopment by the fog. -If, then, she had been sighted, the inference -would inevitably be that Miss Temple, Colledge, -and myself were in her; and so the -hunt would be for the cutter, without reference -to the hull, with every prospect of the -search carrying the ships miles below the -verge of our horizon.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile, as I stood in that doorway -looking into the blackness over the sides, I -bent my ear anxiously forward; but though -there were constant shocks of the sea smiting -the bow, I never caught the noise of water -falling in weight enough upon the deck to -alarm me. The leap of the surge seemed to -be always forward of the fore-shrouds, and -the ducking and tossing of the fabric was so -nimble, and the pouring of the blast so steadfast, -that nearly all the water that sprang to -the blow of the bow was carried overboard by -the wind. This was about as comforting an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> -assurance as could come to me; for I tell you -it was enough to turn one’s heart into lead to -look into that starless wall of blackness close -against the ship, to see nothing but the pallid -glimmer of froth, to hearken to the noises in -the air, to feel the sickening and dizzy heavings -of the sea, and then realise that this hull -had been struck by lightning, that the forepart -of her was burnt into a thin case of -charred timbers, and that all three hatches in -her, together with the skylight, lay open and -yawning like the mouths of wells to the first -rush of sea that should tumble over the side.</p> - -<p>I will not feign to remember how that -night passed. The tall wax candle burnt -bravely and lasted long; but the guttering of -it to the circlings of the air in the extremity -of the cabin obliged me to light another before -the night was spent. It a little encouraged -Miss Temple to be able to see. God knows -how it might have been with her had we been -obliged to sit in that blackness. Once the -candle was blown out, and when I had succeeded -in lighting it afresh, after a few minutes -of groping and hunting and manœuvring with -my tinder-box, I looked at the girl, and knew -by the horror that shone in her eyes, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> -marble hardness in the aspect of her parted -lips, as though her mouth were some carved -expression of fear, how heart-subduing had -that short spell of blackness proved. From -time to time she would ask for a little wine, -which she sipped as though thirsty, but she -swallowed a few drops only, as if she feared -that the wine, by heating her, would increase -her thirst; yet when I spoke of going below -to seek for some fresh water, she begged me -not to leave her.</p> - -<p>‘It is the memory of the body that sat at -this table which makes loneliness insupportable -to me, Mr. Dugdale,’ she exclaimed. ‘I seemed -to see the dreadful object when the candle -went out. I thought I had more spirit. I -am but a very weak woman, after all.’</p> - -<p>‘I do not think so,’ said I; ‘you are bearing -this frightful trial very nobly. How -would it be with some girls I know? They -would be swooning away; they would be -exhausting themselves in cries; they would -be tearing themselves to pieces in hysterics. -And how is it with me? Sometimes I am -frightened to death, but not with fears of -darkness or of the dead. I am certain we -shall be rescued; this hull is making excellent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> -weather of it; there is food and drink below, -yet I am filled with consternation and grief. -Why should it be otherwise? We are creatures -of nerves, and this is an experience to -test the courage of a saint.’</p> - -<p>Well, we would exchange a few sentences -after this pattern, and then fall silent for a -whole hour at a time. She never closed her -eyes throughout the night. Whenever I -glanced at her, I met her gaze brilliant with -emotion. The change was so sudden that I -found it impossible to fully realise it. When -I thought of Miss Temple aboard the <i>Countess -Ida</i>, her haughtiness, her character of -almost insolent reserve, how she had hardly -found it in her to address me with an accent -of courtesy, her ungracious treatment of me -after the service I had done her in rescuing -her from a perilous situation: I say when I -recalled all this and a deal more, and then -viewed her as she sat opposite, crouching in -a corner, supporting herself by grasping the -table with her heavily ringed fingers, the -high-born delicate beauty of her lineaments -showing like some cameo in ivory, and reflected -that she and I were absolutely alone, -that it might come to her owing her life to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> -me, or that we might be doomed to miserably -perish together—this girl, this unapproachable -young lady, at whom I had been wont -to stare furtively with fascinated eyes on -board the Indiaman for long spells at a stretch—I -could not bring my mind to credit the -reality of our situation.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> -<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XX<br /> - -<small>I SEARCH THE WRECK</small></h2></div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">All</span> night long it blew a strong wind, but -shortly before daybreak it fined down on a -sudden into a light air out of the south-west, -leaving a troubled rolling sea behind it. It -was still very thick all round the horizon, so -that from the door of the deck-house my gaze -scarcely penetrated a distance of two miles. -It was no longer fog, however, but cloud, -sullen, low-lying, here and there shaping out; -a familiar tropical dawn in the parallels, -though it made one think too of the smothers -you fall in with on the edge of the Gulf Stream.</p> - -<p>I stepped on deck to wait for the light to -break, and Miss Temple came to the door to -look also. The hull still rolled violently, but -without the dangerous friskiness of the jumps, -recoils, and staggering recoveries of the night -when there was a sharp sea running as well as -a long heaving swell. My heart was in my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> -gaze as the dim faintness came sifting into the -darkness of the east. In a few minutes it was -a grey morn, the sea an ugly lead, and the -horizon all round of the aspect of a drizzling -November day in the English Channel. We -both swept the water with our sight, again -and again looking, straining our vision into -the dim distances; but to no purpose.</p> - -<p>‘Do you see anything?’ exclaimed Miss -Temple.</p> - -<p>‘No,’ I answered, ‘there is nothing in -sight.’</p> - -<p>‘Oh, my heart will break!’ she cried.</p> - -<p>‘We must wait awhile,’ said I: ‘this sort -of weather has a trick of clearing rapidly, and -it may be all bright sky and wide shining surface -of ocean long before noon; then we shall -see the ships, and they will see us. But this -is a low level. Something may heave into -view from the height of that mast. I shall not -be long gone. Be careful to hold on firmly, -Miss Temple; nay, oblige me by sitting in the -deck-house. Should you relax your grasp, a -sudden roll may carry you overboard.’</p> - -<p>In silence, and with a face of despair, she -took her seat on a locker, and very warily I -made my way forwards. We had taken but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> -a brief view of the hull when we boarded her, -and the appearance of her towards the bows -was new to me. There were twenty signs of -her having been swept again and again by the -seas. No doubt, her hatches had been uncovered, -that her people might rummage her -before going away in her boats; and the -covers, for all I could tell, might have been -rolled overboard by some of her violent workings. -Yet it was certain that she must have -been swept when her hatches were covered, -or the lieutenant would not have found her -with a dry hold. But I had been long enough -at sea to know that it is the improbable conjecture -that oftenest fits the fact of a marine -disaster.</p> - -<p>I took a view of the foremast, to make -sure that all was sound with it, and then -sprang into the shrouds and gained the top. -Some few feet of the splintered topmast still -stood, and under the platform at which I had -arrived the foreyard swang drearily to its -overhauled braces hanging in bights. There -was no more to see here than from the deck. -The thick atmosphere receded nothing to this -elevation, and would have been as impenetrable -had I climbed a thousand feet. It was like<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> -being in the heart of an amphitheatre of sulky -shadows. The water rolled foamless, and there -was little more air to be felt than was made -by the sickeningly monotonous swing of the -solitary spar from whose summit I explored -the ocean limits in all directions, frowning -to the heart-breaking intensity of my stare. -By heaven, then, thought I, we <i>are</i> alone! and -if we are to be picked up by either of the -ships, it will not be to-day nor maybe to-morrow!</p> - -<p>I glanced down at the deck of the hull, -and observed that the sides of the fore-hatch -were black with extinguished fire. The head-rail -was gone to port, and from the eyes of -her to the deck-house aft the fabric had a -fearfully wrecked look, with its mutilated -bulwark stanchions, its yawning hatchways, -its dislocated capstan, and other details of a -like kind, all helping to a horrible wildness of -appearance to one who viewed, as I did, from -an eminence, the crazy, fire-blackened, dismasted -old basket, that wallowed as though -every head of swell that rolled at her must -overwhelm and drown her hollow interior.</p> - -<p>I again sent my eyes in another passionate -search, then descended. As I sprang from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> -shrouds on to the deck, my eye was taken by -the brig’s bell, that dangled from a frame close -against the foremast. Dreading lest some increase -in the swell should start it off into ringing -in some dismal hour of gloom and heighten -Miss Temple’s misery and terror, I unhooked -the tongue of it, and threw it down, and rejoined -my companion, whose white face put -the piteous question of her heart to me in -silence.</p> - -<p>‘No,’ said I, swaying in front of her as I -held on to the door; ‘there is nothing to be -seen.’</p> - -<p>‘Oh it is hard! it is hard!’ she cried. ‘If -one could only recall a few hours—be able to -go back to yesterday! I do not fear death: -but to die thus—to drown in that dreadful -sea—no one to be able to tell how I perished.’ -She sobbed, but with dry eyes.</p> - -<p>There was no reasoning with such a fit of -despair as this, nor was it possible for me to -say anything out of which she might extract a -grain of comfort, seeing that I could but speak -conjecturally, and with no other perception -than was to be shaped by the faint light of my -own hopes. My heart was deeply moved by -her misery. Her beauty showed wan, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> -was inexpressibly appealing with its air of -misery. The effects of the long and fearful -vigils of the night that was gone were cruelly -visible in her. There was a violet shadow -under her eyes, her lips were pale, her lids -drooped, her hair hung in some little disorder -about her brow and ears; her very dress -seemed significant of shipwreck, mocking the -eye with what the grim usage of the sea had -already transformed into mere ironical finery. -Yet there was too much of the nature she had -familiarised me to on board the Indiaman still -expressed in the natural haughty set of her -lips, even charged as they were with the anguish -that worked in her, to win me to any -attempt of tender reassurance. I watched -her dumbly, though my soul was melted into -pity. Presently she looked at me.</p> - -<p>‘I suppose there is nothing to be done, -Mr. Dugdale?’</p> - -<p>‘Indeed, then,’ said I, ‘there is a deal to -be done. First of all, you must cheer up your -heart, which you will find easy if you can -credit me when I tell you that this hull is -perfectly buoyant; that though the weather -is thick and gloomy, the sun, as he gains -power, is certain to open out the ocean to us;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> -that there are two ships close at hand searching -for us; that there are provisions enough -below to enable us to support life for days -and perhaps weeks; and that, even if the -Indiaman or the corvette fail to fall in with -us, we are sure to be sighted by one of the -numerous vessels which are daily traversing -this great ocean highway. What, then, are -we to do but compose our minds, exert our -patience, keep a bright lookout, be provided -with means for signalling our distress, and -meanwhile not to suffer our unfortunate condition -to starve us? And that reminds me to -overhaul the pantry for something better than -biscuit to break our fast with.’</p> - -<p>A softness I should have thought impossible -to the spirited fires of her eyes when all -was well with her entered her gaze for a -moment as it rested upon me, and a faint -smile flickered upon and vanished off her lips; -but she did not speak, and I dropped through -the hatch to ascertain if the pantry could -yield us something more nourishing than -ship’s bread.</p> - -<p>The sullenness of the day without lay in -gloom below. I was forced to return for a -candle, with which I entered the little cabin<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> -that I had visited on the previous day; but -when I came to make a search I could find -nothing more to eat than cheese, biscuit, and -marmalade. There was a number of raw -hams, but the galley was gone, and there was -no means to cook them. There were two -casks of flour, a sack of some kind of dried -beans, and a small barrel of moist sugar. -These matters had probably been overlooked -when the crew hurriedly removed themselves -from the brig. No doubt, at the time of -jettisoning such commodities as the hold -might have stored, they had broken out as -much food and water as they could take with -them. There was more than a bottle of wine -in the deck-house; down here, stowed away -in straw and secured by a batten, were some -three or four scores of full bottles, all, I -supposed, holding the same generous liquor -contained in the first of them we had tasted. -But there was no fresh water. I sought with -diligence, but to no purpose. Possibly the -people might have left some casks of it in the -hold; but that was a search I would not at -present undertake.</p> - -<p>I took some cheese and marmalade and -another handful of biscuits, along with a knife<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> -and a couple of tin dishes. As I passed -through the cabin, the light of the candle I -held glanced upon a stand of small-arms fixed -just abaft the short flight of the hatch-ladder. -There were some thirty to forty muskets of -an old-fashioned make, even for those days, -and on either hand of them, swinging in tiers -or rows from nails or hooks in the bulkhead, -were a quantity of cutlasses, half-pikes, tomahawks, -and other items of the grim machinery -of murder. I placed the food upon the deck-house -table.</p> - -<p>‘A shabby repast, Miss Temple,’ said I, -‘but we may easily support life on such fare -until we are rescued.’</p> - -<p>She ate some biscuit and marmalade, and -drank a little wine; but she incessantly sent -her gaze through the windows or the open -door, and sighed frequently in tremulous respirations, -and sometimes there would enter a -singular look of bewilderment into the expression -of her eyes, as though her mind at -such moments failed her, and did but imperfectly -understand our situation. I would then -fear that the horror which possessed her -might end in breaking down her spirits, and -even dement her, indeed. Already her eyes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> -were languid with grief and want of rest, -and such strength and life as they still possessed -seemed weakened yet by the shadowing -of the long fringes. I endeavoured to win -her away from her thoughts by talking to -her.</p> - -<p>I possessed a pocket-book, which supplied -me with pencil and paper, and I drew a diagram -of the two ships’ and the wreck’s position, -as I was best able to conceive it, and made -arrows to figure the direction of the wind, -and marked distances in figures, and enlarged -freely and heartily upon our prospects, pointing -with my pencil to the paper whilst I -talked. This interested her. She came round -to the locker on which I sat, and placed herself -beside me, and leaned her face near to -mine, supporting her head by her elbow whilst -she gazed with eyes riveted to the paper, -listening thirstily. I had never had her so -close to me before saving that day when we -swung together on to the hencoop, but then it -was a constrained situation, and she had let -me suspect that it was very distasteful to her. -It was far otherwise now. She was near me of -her own will; I felt her warm breath on my -cheek; the subtle fragrance of her presence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> -was in the air I respired. I talked eagerly to -conceal the emotions she excited, and I felt -the blood hot in my face when I had made an -end with my diagram, and drew a little away -to restore the book to my pocket.</p> - -<p>She now seemed able and willing to converse, -but she did not offer to leave my side.</p> - -<p>‘Suppose the ships are unable to find us, -Mr. Dugdale?’</p> - -<p>‘Some other vessel is certain to fall in -with us.’</p> - -<p>‘But she may be bound to a part of the -world very remote from India or England.’</p> - -<p>‘True,’ said I; ‘but as she jogs along she -may encounter a vessel proceeding to England, -into which we shall be easily able to tranship -ourselves.’</p> - -<p>‘How tedious! We may have to wander -for months about the ocean!’</p> - -<p>‘It is always step by step, Miss Temple, in -this life. Let us begin at the beginning, and -quit this wreck, at any rate.’</p> - -<p>‘All my luggage is in the Indiaman. How -I am to manage I cannot conceive,’ said she, -running her eyes over her dress, and lifting -her hand to her hat.</p> - -<p>‘Pray let no such consideration as dress<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> -trouble you. The experience will gain in -romance from our necessities, and we shall be -able to read “Robinson Crusoe” with new enjoyment.’</p> - -<p>She faintly smiled, with just a hint of -peevishness in the curl of her lip.</p> - -<p>‘If this be romance, Mr. Dugdale, may my -days henceforth, if God be merciful enough -to preserve us, be steeped in the dullest -prose.’</p> - -<p>‘I wonder where Colledge and the cutter’s -crew are?’ said I.</p> - -<p>‘I do not think,’ she exclaimed, ‘if Mr. -Colledge were in your place he would show -your spirit.’</p> - -<p>‘He was a great favourite of yours, Miss -Temple.’</p> - -<p>‘Not great. I rather liked him. I knew -some of his connections. He was an amiable -person. I did not know that he was engaged -to be married.’</p> - -<p>I was astonished that she should have -said this, but I was eager to encourage her to -talk, and in our state of misery it would signify -but little what topic we lighted upon.</p> - -<p>‘Did he inform you he was engaged?’ -said I.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>‘No. I perceived it in his looks when his -cousin asked him the question. Did he ever -tell you who the young lady was?’ she added -listlessly, and though she spoke of the thing -it was easy to see that she was without interest -in it.</p> - -<p>I could not tell a lie, and silence would -have been injurious to my wishes for her. -Besides, she had guessed the truth by no help -from me, and then, again, our situation rendered -the subject exquisitely trifling and -insignificant.</p> - -<p>‘Yes,’ I replied; ‘we were cabin fellows, -and intimate. He showed me the girl’s portrait—a -plump, pretty little woman. Her -name is Fanny Crawley, daughter of one of -the numberless Sir Johns or Sir Thomases of -this age.’</p> - -<p>She was looking through the cabin door -at the sea, and scarcely seemed to hear or to -heed me. Am I strictly honourable in this? -thought I. Pshaw! it was no moment to consider -the rights and wrongs of such a thing. -Her discovery had freed me from all obligation -of secrecy, and what I had supplied -she would have easily been able to ascertain -for herself on her return home, if, indeed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> -home was ever to be viewed again by either -of us.</p> - -<p>‘What horrible weather!’ she exclaimed, -bringing her eyes to my face; ‘there is no -wind, and the sea rolls like liquid lead. When -you were at sea, were you ever in a situation -of danger such as this?’</p> - -<p>‘This is an uneasy time,’ said I; ‘but -do not call it a situation of danger yet. I -am going shortly to overhaul the wreck. I -must keep her afloat until we are taken off -her.’</p> - -<p>‘How long were you at sea, Mr. Dugdale?’</p> - -<p>‘Two years.’</p> - -<p>‘Is your father a sailor?’</p> - -<p>‘No; my father is dead. He was captain -in the 38th Regiment of Foot, and was killed -at Burmah.’</p> - -<p>There was a kind of dawning of interest -in her eyes, an expression I had not noticed -when she talked of Colledge and his engagement.</p> - -<p>‘My father was in the army, too,’ said -she; ‘but he saw very little service. Is your -mother living?’</p> - -<p>‘She is.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>She sighed bitterly, and hid her face whilst -she exclaimed:</p> - -<p>‘Oh, my poor mother! my poor mother! -How little she knows! And she was so -reluctant to let me leave her.’ She sighed -again deeply, and let her hands fall, and then -sank into silence.</p> - -<p>I quitted the deck-house to take another -look round. Just then rain began to fall, -and the sea became shrouded with the discharge. -So oil smooth now was the swell -that each drop as it fell pitted the lead-coloured -rounds with a black point, and the -water alongside looked to be spotted with ink. -As I had met with no fresh water in the little -room that I call the pantry, and as there -might be none in the hold, or none that with -my single pair of hands I should be able to -come at, I resolved to take advantage of the -wet that was pouring down, and dived into the -cabin to search for any vessel that would -catch and hold it. The flour and sugar casks -in the pantry would not do. I peered into -the other berths, but could see nothing to -answer the purpose. It was of the first consequence, -however, to us that we should -possess a store of drinking water to mix with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> -our wine, for we were in the tropics; the -atmosphere was heavy with heat, even under -a shrouded heaven; it was easy to figure what -the temperature would rise to when the sun -should shine forth; and the mere fancy of -days of stagnation and of vertical suns, of -this hull roasting; under the central broiling -eye, of the breathless sea, stretching in -feverish breathings into the dim, blue distance, -unbroken by any tip of sail, and no -fresh water to drink, was horribly oppressive, -and rendered me half crazy to find some contrivance -to catch the rain, which might at -any moment cease. The thought of the lockers -in the deck-house occurred to me. I mounted -the ladder and searched them, and to my unspeakable -joy, found in the locker upon which -Miss Temple had been seated during the night, -four canvas buckets, apparently brand new, as -I might judge, from the cloth and from the -rope handles. The rain fell heavily, and the -water gushed in streams from the roof of the -deck-house at many points of it. In a very -short time the buckets were filled, but they -were of a permeable substance, and it was -necessary to decant them as soon as possible. -There was no difficulty in doing this, for there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> -were several empty bottles in the shelves below -along with a couple of large jars, some tin -pannikins, and so forth. These I brought up, -washed them in the rain, and then filled them, -and in this manner contrived to store away -a good number of gallons, not to mention the -contents of the buckets, which I left hanging -outside to fill up afresh, meaning to use them -first, and taking my chance of loss through -the water soaking through them.</p> - -<p>All this, that is to be described in a few -lines of writing, signified a lengthy occupation, -that broke well into the day. Miss -Temple watched my labours with interest, -and begged to be of service; but she could -be of little use to me, nor would I suffer her -to expose herself to the wet.</p> - -<p>‘Will not this rain fill the hull,’ she exclaimed, -‘and sink her?’</p> - -<p>‘It would need to keep on raining for a -long while to do that,’ said I, laughing. ‘I -am going below to inspect the forepart of her, -and to ascertain, if possible, what her hold -contains. Will you accompany me? The -hull rolls steadily; you will not find walking -inconvenient, and it is very necessary that you -should occupy your mind.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>‘I should like to do so,’ she answered; -‘but ought not one of us to stay here in case -the sea should clear and show us the ships?’</p> - -<p>‘Alas!’ said I, ‘there is no wind, and the -ships probably lie as motionless as we. This -weather will not speedily clear, I believe. -We shall not be long below, and any sort of -exertion is better than sitting here in loneliness -and musing upon the inevitable, and -adding the misery of thought to the distress -of our situation.’</p> - -<p>‘Yes, you are right,’ she exclaimed, rising. -‘You give me some heart, Mr. Dugdale, yet I -do not know why. There is nothing that you -can say to encourage me to hope.’</p> - -<p>To this I made no reply, but took her -hand, and assisted her to descend the ladder. -She came to a stand at the foot of it, as though -terrified by the gloom.</p> - -<p>‘It is dreadful,’ she exclaimed in a low -voice, ‘to think that only a few short hours ago -the poor lieutenant whose heart was beating -high with thoughts of returning home, should -have been laughing and joking—here! I can -hear his voice still; I can hear Mr. Colledge’s -laughter. Hark! What noises are those?’</p> - -<p>‘Rats!’ I exclaimed.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>The squeaking was shrill and fierce and -close to. I lighted a candle, she meanwhile -coming to my side, her elbow rubbing mine, -as though she would have my hand within an -instant’s reach of her own. The squeaking -continued. It sounded as though there were -some score of rats worrying something, or -fighting among themselves.</p> - -<p>‘Hold this candle for a moment,’ said -I, and I advanced to the bulkhead and -grasped a cutlass, and then peeped into the -little passage that divided the after cabins. -The rats were somewhere along it, but it -was too dark to see; so laying the cutlass -aside, I took down a musket and sent the -heavy weapon javelin-fashion sheer into -the thick of the hideous noise. A huge rat -as big as a kitten rushed over my feet; -Miss Temple uttered a shriek, and let fall the -candle.</p> - -<p>‘Do not be alarmed!’ I shouted; ‘the -beasts know their way below;’ and seeing the -pallid outline of the candle upon the deck I -picked it up and relighted it.</p> - -<p>‘Oh, Mr. Dugdale,’ she cried, in a voice -that trembled with disgust and fear, ‘what -am I to do? I dare not be here, and I dare<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> -not be above, alone. What is more shocking -and terrifying than a rat?’</p> - -<p>I told her that rats were much more afraid -of us than we could possibly be of them; but, -commiserating her alarm, I offered to escort -her to the deck-house.</p> - -<p>‘But you will not leave me there,’ she -exclaimed.</p> - -<p>‘It is very necessary,’ said I, ‘that I should -examine the state of the hull.’</p> - -<p>‘Then I will stay with you,’ said she. ‘I -cannot endure to be alone.’</p> - -<p>She gathered up her dress, holding the -folds of it with one hand, whilst she passed -the other through my arm. I could feel her -shuddering as she clung to me. Her eyes -were large with fright and aversion, and they -sparkled to the candle-flame as she rolled them -over the deck. At the extremity of the passage -that separated the foremost berths from the -pantry stood what I believed a bulkhead; -but on bringing the candle to it I discovered -that it was a door of very heavy scantling -that slided in grooves with a stout iron handle -for pulling it by. It travelled very easily, as -something that had been repeatedly used. -The moment it was open there was plenty of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> -daylight, for the open square of the main -hatch yawned close by overhead, of dimensions -considerable enough to illuminate every part -of this interior. I stood viewing with wonder -a scene of extraordinary confusion. There -were no hammocks, but all about the decks, -in higgledly-piggledly heaps and clusters, were -mats of some sort of West Indian reeds, rugs -and blankets, bolster-shaped bags, a few sea-chests, -most of them capsized, with their lids -open, and a surprising intermixture of hook-pots, -tin-dishes, sea-boots, oilskins, empty -broken cases, staves of casks, tackles, and a -raffle of gear and other things of which -my mind does not preserve the recollection. -Several large rats, on my swinging the door -along its grooves, darted from out of the -various heaps and shot with incredible velocity -down through the large hatch that conducted -into the hold, and that lay on a line with the -hatch above.</p> - -<p>‘By all that’s—— Well, well! here’s -been excitement, surely,’ said I. ‘Was ever -panical terror more incomparably suggested? -But this brig was full of men, and there was -manifestly a tremendous scramble at the last. -Would not anyone think that there had been -a fierce fight down here?’</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>‘Do you think there are any dead bodies -under those things?’ exclaimed Miss Temple -in a hollow whisper.</p> - -<p>‘See!’ cried I; ‘lest there should be more -rats about, suppose I contrive some advantage -for you over the beasts;’ and so saying I -dragged one of the largest of the sea-chests to -the bulkhead and helped her to get upon it.</p> - -<p>This seemed to make her easier. Filled as -my mind was with conflicting emotions excited -by the extraordinary scene of hurry and -disorder which I surveyed, I could yet find -leisure to glance at and deeply admire her -fine, commanding figure, as she stood with -inimitable, unconscious grace, swaying upon -the chest to the regular rolling of the hull. -It was a picture of a sort to live as long as the -memory lasted. There she stood, draped in -the elegancies of her white apparel, her full, -dark eyes large and vital again in the shadow -of her rich hat, under which her face showed -colourless and faultless in lineament as some -incomparable achievement of the sculptor’s -art: her beauty and dignity heightened in a -manner not to be expressed or explained by -the character of the scene round about—the -uncovered square of hatch through which the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> -rain was falling, the wild disorder of the deck, -the rude beams and coarse sides of the interior.</p> - -<p>I approached the edge of the hatchway -and looked down. Little more was to be seen -than ballast, on the top of which lay a -couple of dismounted guns, apparently twelve-pounders. -A short distance forward in the -gloom were the outlines of some casks and -cases. The hull was dry, as the lieutenant -had said. Water there undoubtedly must -have been, washing to and fro under the -ballast and down in the run, but too inconsiderable -in quantity to give me the least -uneasiness. One glance below sufficed to -assure me that the fabric of the wreck was -tight.</p> - -<p>I considered a little whether it might not -be possible to so protect the yawning hatches -as to provide against any violent inroads of -water should this dirty shadow of weather -that overhung the wreck in wet end in wind; -but there were no tarpaulins to be seen, no -spare planks or anything of a like kind which -could be converted into a cover, nothing but -mats and rugs, which were not to be put to -any sort of use in the direction I had in my -mind.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>I left Miss Temple standing on the chest, -darting alarmed glances at the huddled heaps -which littered the decks, and walked forward -to a doorway in a stout partition that bulkheaded -off a short space of forecastle from these -’tweendecks. There was an open forescuttle -here that made plenty of light. This was -the interior that had been burnt out, as the -lieutenant had told me, to the condition of a -charred shell. The deck and sides were as -black as a hat, and the place showed as if it -had been constructed of charcoal. A strong -smell as of fire still lingered. Whatever had -been here in the shape of sea-furniture was -burnt, or removed by the people. I picked -up a small handspike, and entering the cindery -apartment, beat here and there against the -semi-calcined planks, almost expecting to find -the handspike shoot through; but black -as the timber looked it yielded a hearty -echo to my thumps, and I returned to Miss -Temple satisfied that the hull was still very -staunch, and, but for her uncovered hatches, -as seaworthy as ever she had been at any time -since her launch.</p> - -<p>Whilst turning over some of the mats and -wearing apparel on the deck with my foot I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> -spied a large cube of something yellow, and, -picking it up and examining it, I was very -happy to discover that it was tobacco. I made -more of this than had I found a purse of a -hundred guineas, for, though I had my pipe -in my pocket, I was without anything to smoke, -and I cannot express how hungrily during the -night I had yearned for the exceeding solace -of a few whiffs, and with what melancholy I -had viewed the prospect of having to wait -until we were rescued before I should obtain -a cigar or a pipe of tobacco.</p> - -<p>‘What have you there, Mr. Dugdale?’ -cried Miss Temple.</p> - -<p>‘A little matter that, coming on top of the -discovery that this hull is as good as a cork -under our feet, helps very greatly towards reestablishing -my peace of mind—a lump of -very beautiful tobacco,’ and I smelt it fondly -again.</p> - -<p>‘Oh, Mr. Dugdale, I thought it was a dead -rat,’ she exclaimed. ‘What are all those -mats?’</p> - -<p>‘The privateersmen used them to sleep on, -I expect. The quantity of them tells us how -heavily manned this old waggon went.’</p> - -<p>‘There is no wind, Mr. Dugdale. The rain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> -falls in perfectly straight lines. Let us return -to the deck-house.’</p> - -<p>I took her hand and helped her to dismount. -She gathered her dress about her as -before, and passed with trepidation through -the darksome cabin, holding tightly by my -arm, and then, with a wearied despairful air, -seated herself upon a locker and leaned her -chin in her hand, biting her under lip whilst -she gazed vacantly through the little window -at the sullen raining gloom of the sky.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> -<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XXI<br /> - -<small>WE SIGHT A SAIL</small></h2></div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">I should</span> but tease you by attempting to narrate -the passage of the hours from this point. -All day long it rained; no air stirred, and the -leaden sea flattened into sulky heavings wide -apart, on which the hull rolled quietly. -Possessing but the clothes in which I stood, I -fetched an oilskin from the ’tweendecks to -save me from a wet skin, and thus attired -made several journeys into the foretop, where -I lingered, straining my gaze all around into -the shrouded horizon till my eyeballs seemed -to crack to the stretching of my vision. Sometimes, -when in the deck-house, I would start -to my feet on fancying I heard a sound of -oars, but it was never more than some sobbing -wash of swell, or some stir of the rudder -swayed on its pintles by the movement of the -fabric. There was plenty of stuff below with -which to produce smoke, but no preparation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> -for such a signal could be made whilst it -rained, nor could any purpose be served by -having the materials ready until the weather -cleared, and wind blew, and something hove -into sight.</p> - -<p>Miss Temple’s miserable dejection grieved -me bitterly. The horror of our situation -seemed to increase upon her, and say what I -might I never succeeded in coaxing the least -air of spirit into her face. It was distressing -beyond language to see this haughty, beautiful, -high-born woman, accustomed to every refinement -and elegance that was to be purchased -or contrived, reduced to such a pass as this: -languidly putting her lips to the rough pannikin -in which I would hand her a draught of -wine and water; scarcely able to bite the flinty -biscuit which, with marmalade and cheese, -formed our repasts; sitting for weary long -spells at a time motionless in a corner of the -rough structure, her eyelids heavy, her gaze -fixed and listless, her lips parted, with all their -old haughty expression of imperious resolution -gone from them, her fingers locked upon her -lap, her breast now and again rising and falling -with hysteric swiftness to some wrenching -emotion which yet found her face marble-like,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> -and her eyes without their familiar impassioned -glow.</p> - -<p>I recollect wondering once, whilst watching -her silently, whether there would prove -anything in this experience to change her -character. Should the Indiaman recover us, -there might be a full fourteen or even sixteen -weeks of association before us yet. Once -safely aboard the <i>Countess Ida</i>, would she let -this experience slip out of her mind as an influence, -and repeat in her manner towards -myself the cold indifference, the haughty -neglect, the distant supercilious usage which I -had found so objectionable, that I was coming -very near to as cordially hating her character -as I deeply admired the beauties and perfections -of her face and person. Was she not a -sort of woman to accept an obligation and to -look, if it suited her to do so, very coldly -afterwards upon the person who had obliged -her? Ridiculous as the emotion was at such -a time, when, for all I knew, in a few hours -the pair of us might be floating a brace of -corpses, fathoms deep in that leaden ocean -over the side, yet I must confess to a small -stir of exultation to the thought that supposing -us to be rescued, let her behave as she pleased,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> -she never could escape the memory of having -been alone with me in this horrible hull, nor -avert the discovery of this circumstance by -her relatives and friends. It was a consideration, -indeed, to bring her mightily closer to -me than ever she had dreamt of, and to my -mind it was as complete a turning of the -tables as the most romantic fancy could have -invented—that she who could scarce address -me on board the Indiaman for pride, and for -dislike too, for all I could tell, should now be -in the intimate and lonely association of shipwreck -with me, clinging to me, entreating me -not to leave her side; dependent upon such -spirit and energy as I possessed for the food -and drink that was to support us, and again -and again talking to me with a freedom which -she would have exhibited to no living creature -in the Indiaman, her aunt excepted.</p> - -<p>When that second night came down black -as thunder, raining hard, the ocean breathless, -I entreated her to rest.</p> - -<p>‘You must sleep, Miss Temple,’ said I; ‘I -will keep watch.’</p> - -<p>She shook her head.</p> - -<p>‘Nay,’ I continued, ‘you will rest comfortably -upon this locker. You need but a pillow.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> -There is nothing in the cabins to be thought -of for that purpose; but I believe I can contrive -a soft bolster for you out of my coat.’</p> - -<p>‘You are very kind, but I shall not be -able to sleep.’</p> - -<p>I continued to entreat her, and I saw she -was affected by my earnestness.</p> - -<p>‘Since it will please you if I lie down, Mr. -Dugdale, I will do so,’ said she.</p> - -<p>I whipped off my coat and rolled it up, -and she removed her hat with a manner that -made me see she abhorred even this trifling -disturbance of her apparel, as though it signified -a sort of settling down to the unspeakable -life of the wreck. The fabric swayed so tenderly -that the bottle containing the candle -stood without risk of capsizal upon the table, -and the small but steady flame shone clearly -upon her. How delicate were her features -by that light; how rich and beautiful the -exceeding abundance of the dark coils of her -hair, the richer and the more beautiful for the -neglect in it, for the shadowing of her white -brow by the disordered tresses, for the drooping -of it about her ears, with the sparkle of -diamonds there! Presently she was resting.</p> - -<p>I removed the candle to the stanchion, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> -secured the bottle where the light would be -off her eyes, and sat me down near the doorway -as far from her as the narrow breadth of -the structure would permit, where I filled a -pipe and smoked, expelling the fumes into the -air, and listening with a heavy heart to the -faint sounds breaking from the interior of the -hull to the washing moan at long intervals of -some passing heave of swell, and to the -squeaking of the rats in the cabin below—a -most dismal and shocking sound, I do protest, -to hearken to amidst the hush and blackness -of that ocean night, scarce vexed by more -than the pattering of the rain.</p> - -<p>From time to time Miss Temple would -address me; then she fell silent, and by-and-by -looking towards her, and observing her -to lie motionless, I softly crept to abreast of -her, keeping the table between, and found -her sleeping.</p> - -<p>It was then something after ten by my -watch, and she slept for five hours without a -stir, though now and again she spoke in her -sleep. I know not why I should have remained -awake unless it was to keep my -weather-eye lifting for the rats. There was -nothing to watch for or to hope for in such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> -weather as that. Once, when the beasts -below were very noisy—for, as you will suppose, -in that solemn stillness their squeakings -rose with a singularly sharp edge to the ear—I -bethought me of the pantry, and could not -remember whether I had shut the door. For -all I could yet tell, the stores we had to depend -upon were in that little cabin, and if the -rats found their way to the food, we might -speedily starve. I lighted a second candle, -that, should the girl suddenly awake, she -might not find herself in the dark, and stepped -below, and found the door closed. I opened -it, and minutely surveyed the interior, and -observing all to be well, shut the door and -came away; but never can I forget the uncontrollable -chills and shudders which seized -me on passing through that cabin! I do not -doubt my mind had been a little weakened. -The remains of the mainmast pierced the -deck, and stood like a pillar; it stirred to the -movement of the candle in my hand, and I -stopped with a violent start to gaze at it -while the perspiration broke from my forehead. -Vague indeterminable shapes seemed -to flit past and about the stand of arms. The -dull noises in the hold took to my alarmed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> -ear the notes of human groans. Several rats -scurried in flying forms of blackness towards -the after cabins: they seemed to start up -through the deck at my feet!</p> - -<p>When I resumed my seat on the locker, I -was trembling from head to foot, and my -heart beat with feverish rapidity. A draught -of wine rallied me, and I tried to find something -ridiculous in my fears. But all the -same my dejection was as that of a man under -sentence of death, and again and again I -would put up a prayer to God for our speedy -deliverance, whilst I sat hearkening to the -noises below, to the steady pattering of the -rain, to the occasional melancholy sob of -water, and to the broken, unintelligible muttering -of the sleeping girl.</p> - -<p>At some hour between three and four my -companion awoke. She sat up with a cry of -wonder, and by the candle-light I observed -her staring around, with looks of astonishment -and horror such as might appear in the face -of a person who starts from some pleasant -dream into the realities of a dreadful situation. -I waited until she should have recollected -herself, to use the fine expressive word -of the old writers.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>‘I have been dreaming of home,’ she -said, in a low voice, ‘of safety, of comfort, of -everything that I am now wanting. What -time is it, Mr. Dugdale?’</p> - -<p>I put my watch close to my face and told -her the hour.</p> - -<p>‘How black the night continues!’ she -said—‘how silent, too!’ she added, after -hearkening awhile. ‘It has ceased to rain, -and there is not a breath of air.’</p> - -<p>‘It has not rained for these two hours -past,’ said I. ‘I am impatient for the day to -break. The horizon should be tolerably clear, -if there be no rain; yet what can daybreak -possibly disclose to us on top of such a night -of stagnation as this has been?’</p> - -<p>‘Have you slept?’</p> - -<p>‘No.’</p> - -<p>‘Then you will take some rest now. It is -my turn to watch.’</p> - -<p>‘The dawn will be breaking in a couple -of hours,’ said I; ‘I will wait till it comes to -take a look. Should nothing be in sight, I -will endeavour to rest. You will not suffer in -the daylight from the feeling of loneliness -that would make you wretched now if I -slept.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>‘Whilst you are here, although sleeping, -Mr. Dugdale, I should not feel lonely. Your -voice assures me that you need sleep. I have -been resting five hours. How patient you -are!’</p> - -<p>She took up my jacket, reformed it pillow-fashion, -placed it on the locker where her -own head had lain, and moved to make room -for me, seating herself where my feet would -about come.</p> - -<p>‘Pray lie down, Mr. Dugdale. I shall be -closer to you here than you have been to me, -and I can awaken you in an instant if there -should be occasion to do so.’</p> - -<p>I complied, rather to please her than to -humour my own wishes; for though my eyelids -had the heaviness of lead, there was a -thrilling and hurrying of nervous sensation in -me which were as good as a threat that I -should not sleep. And so it proved, for after -I had held my head pillowed for some half -hour, I was still broad awake; and then -growing impatient of my posture, I sat -erect.</p> - -<p>‘No use, Miss Temple, I cannot sleep; -and since that is so, pray resume this hard -couch and finish out your slumbers.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>But this she would not do, protesting that -she was fully rested. I was too desirous of -her company to weary her with entreaties, -and until the day broke we sat at that narrow -table with the light close enough to enable us -to see each other clearly. I remember saying -to her:</p> - -<p>‘Since this is an experience you were -fated to pass through—I suppose we must all -believe in the pre-ordination of our lives—my -sincere regret is that you should not have -been imprisoned in this hull with somebody -more agreeable to yourself than I.’</p> - -<p>‘Why do you say that?’ she exclaimed, -giving me a look that carried me back. ‘In -this state of misery a compliment would be -shocking.’</p> - -<p>‘I seek no compliment,’ said I. ‘I am -merely expressing a regret.’</p> - -<p>‘You regret that you are here?’ she exclaimed. -‘So do I, for then I should not be -here. But since it is my lot to be here, I am -satisfied with my companion; I would not -exchange him for any other person on board -the <i>Countess Ida</i>.’</p> - -<p>I bowed.</p> - -<p>‘Should we be rescued,’ she continued,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> -keeping her dark gaze full upon me as she -spoke (and something of their beauty and -brilliancy of light had returned to her eyes -with her rest), ‘I shall be deeply in your -debt. My mother will thank you, Mr. -Dugdale.’</p> - -<p>‘I have done nothing, Miss Temple. It is -you who are now complimentary, and I fear -ironical.’</p> - -<p>She slightly shook her head and sighed, -then remained silent for a minute or two, -and said: ‘How small and contemptible my -spirit shows itself when I am tested! Do -you recollect when this wretched brig was -lying near us, how I took a parasol from -my aunt and levelled it at this vessel and -talked of wishing to see a sea fight and of -shooting a man? How brave I was when -there was nothing particularly to be afraid -of, and how cowardly I have shown myself -here.’</p> - -<p>‘I should have scarcely believed,’ said I, -‘that you were sensible of my presence at the -time you speak of.’</p> - -<p>‘Why?’ she asked.</p> - -<p>‘Indeed,’ I continued, ‘I should have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> -scarcely believed that you were sensible that -I was on board the ship.’</p> - -<p>‘Mr. Dugdale, if my manner did not please -you, this is no time to reproach me with it.’ -Her eyes sparkled and her lip curled peevishly.</p> - -<p>‘Hark!’ I exclaimed; ‘I hear a rippling -noise as of approaching wind.’ I passed round -the table, gained the door, and looked out. -The atmosphere was still motionless, but the -sounds of rippling drew near, and presently I -felt a pleasant little air blowing over the stern -of the hull, accompanied with the tinkling -and lipping noises of water set in motion -trembling to the brig’s side. But it was still -pitch dark, and search the sky where I would, -I could observe no break of faintness, no -leanest vision of star, no vaguest outline of -cloud in the impenetrable obscurity.</p> - -<p>I returned to the table, this time seating -myself opposite to Miss Temple. It was easily -seen in her face that she was sensible I did -this consciously. Indeed, the gaze she rested -upon me was a look of inquiry as though she -would discover whether this holding aloof on -my part was due to respect or to dislike. -Then, as though she suddenly sickened to such -idle considerations, she exclaimed with an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> -eager awakening of her in her whole manner, -‘Does this breeze come from the direction -where the ships are, or where you may -suppose them to be, Mr. Dugdale?’</p> - -<p>‘For the life of me I could not tell you,’ -I responded; ‘there are no quarters of the -compass for human senses on such a night as -this, in a hull that may be headed on all sorts -of courses by the set of the swell; but the -dawn will be here anon, and if this draught -hold, we shall be able to find out whence it -proceeds.’</p> - -<p>It was still blowing the same light breeze -when day broke, and I then knew that the -wind sat about north-west. Miss Temple and -I stepped on to the deck, where we stood in -an agony of impatience awaiting the full -revelation of the sea. One saw why it should -have been so pitch dark throughout the night; -the sky was overcast from horizon to horizon -by a sheet of sallowish leaden-hued vapour. -Yet the atmosphere had cleared so as to enable -the sight to penetrate to the verge of the -normal sea-line, where the ocean stood in a -firm rim of the darkness of indigo in the east -against the grey of the morning that was -spreading out behind it. I took a long and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> -steady view of the circle; my companion’s -eyes were riveted upon me as I did so; she -had rather trust my sight than hers, and -her gaze glowed with an inexpressible eagerness -to witness in my face an expression that -should inform her I beheld a sail.</p> - -<p>‘It is the same inhuman abominable blankness -as that of yesterday,’ said I, fetching a -deep breath of rage and grief; then shocked -by the air of horror and despair in Miss -Temple, I added: ‘Yet this gives us a view of -but little more than seven miles. Here is an -air, surely, to whip something along. The -ships of this ocean cannot all have rotted in -yesterday’s pestilential calm. Oh for such -another telescope as Mr. Prance’s!’ and so -saying I trudged forwards, and in a few -minutes was sweeping the horizon from the -elevation of the foretop.</p> - -<p>I ran my eyes slowly and piercingly along -the sea-line, starting from the part into which -the vessel’s mutilated bowsprit pointed, and -when my vision was over the starboard quarter, -I beheld trembling upon the utmost verge of -the livid waters stretching to the shrouded -sky a minute fragment of white—a tip as of a -seagull’s pinion, but of a certainty a sail! I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> -lingered to make sure. Miss Temple watched -me from abaft the deck-house. My glance -went to her for an instant, and I saw her -bring her hands together and lift them, as -though she witnessed in my posture that I -descried something. My heart hammered -violently in my ears, and my breathing was -short and laboured.</p> - -<p>‘What do you see?’ Miss Temple cried at -last, her rich voice, tremulous with excitement -and expectation, floating up like the -notes of a flute.</p> - -<p>‘A sail!’ I exclaimed, calling with an -effort. ‘Patience! I must stay here to make -sure of the direction she is taking,’ and I stood -for a minute pointing while she strained her -sight; but there was nothing for her to see -down there.</p> - -<p>The breeze had weight enough to determine -the matter with some despatch, and I -knew that if the sail were heading away from -us, it must speedily vanish, so mere a speck -was it that showed. Instead, though I will -not say that it <i>grew</i> whilst I stood staring, it -hung with a fixedness to satisfy me that the -vessel was steering a course that must bring -us into the sphere of her horizon; and not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> -having the least doubt of this, I dropped over -the short futtock shrouds of the wreck and -sprang on to the deck.</p> - -<p>‘It is a ship, Mr. Dugdale!’ cried Miss -Temple with something of an hysteric accent -of inquiry in her voice.</p> - -<p>‘Assuredly,’ I answered.</p> - -<p>‘Will she see us, do you think?’</p> - -<p>‘Ay, if she does not shift her helm. But -we will <i>compel</i> her to see us.’</p> - -<p>The girl suddenly grasped my hand in -both hers, bowed her head over it, and I felt -a tear. I was so affected that I stood looking, -unable to speak. It was a sort of submission -in its way. I cannot convey my thoughts of -it. She was without her hat; I see her now -as she bent over my hand; I feel the ice-cold -pressure of her fingers, and recall the -tears glittering through the beauty of her -downcast lashes as they rose. She slowly lifted -her large wet eyes to my face.</p> - -<p>‘What an experience this has been!’ she -whispered; ‘how shall I be able to persuade -people that I underwent it and lived?’</p> - -<p>She still unconsciously held my hand. I -put my lips to her fingers, and she released -me.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>‘It must always be one of the very happiest -memories of my life to me,’ said I. ‘I shall -never make you believe in the joy your deliverance -will fill me with.’</p> - -<p>‘Oh yes, yes!’ she cried passionately; -then sending a look over the quarter, she -added: ‘Are we not losing time? Is there not -something we can do to summon her to us? -Will it be long before she appears?’</p> - -<p>‘No; we are not losing time,’ I answered. -‘I shall have plenty of leisure to make a -smoke, and that is what we must presently do. -If she be the Indiaman or the corvette, all that -is visible of her from yonder foretop is her -royals. Her topgallant sails, her topsails, and -her courses will have to climb before her hull -shows. Her speed to this air will not exceed -four knots. She is probably twenty miles -distant yet, and we must allow her, unless the -breeze freshens, a good three hours to give us -a full sight of herself on that horizon out there. -So let us first get something to eat, Miss -Temple, and then I will go to work.’</p> - -<p>But our excitement was too strong to -suffer us to make more than a phantom of a -meal. A little biscuit soaked in wine formed -my companion’s breakfast, but her spirits<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> -had returned to her; the remembered brilliancy -was in her eyes again; a faint, most -delicate flush was on her cheek; with unconscious -fingers she caressed her hair as though, -influenced by a womanly instinct of which she -was insensible, she adjusted her tresses in -preparation of our reception by the people of -the ship. She was sure it was the <i>Countess -Ida</i>. There was real gaiety in the laugh with -which she said that she knew Mrs. Radcliffe’s -character, that she could well imagine how -her aunt had tormented Captain Keeling, how -ceaselessly the old lady would importune the -captain to make haste and recover her niece.</p> - -<p>‘Oh, what a meeting it will be!’ she -cried.</p> - -<p>‘The sail may prove the corvette, though,’ -said I.</p> - -<p>‘But she will rescue us, Mr. Dugdale, and -hunt after the Indiaman, and Sir Edward will -put us on board of her.’</p> - -<p>I left her to enter the ’tweendecks, where -I collected a number of mats, blankets, staves -of casks, and other material, which would -burn and produce a thick smoke; and presently, -with the assistance of Miss Temple, -had a great heap of these things stacked on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> -deck betwixt the foremast and the mainhatch. -It was a hard job to get the stuff to kindle, -for the mats were damp and the staves not to -be set on fire by a sulphur match. But on -overhauling the lockers in the deck-house I -found a tin can half full of oil and a small -parcel of rags; and by means of these I set -my bonfire alight. The planks of the deck -were thick and wet, and securely calked, and -the burning stuff was well clear of the hatch; -there was no fear then, as I believed, of the -fire penetrating the deck. It made a prodigious -smoke. The mass of damp blankets -and rags smouldered into a dark thick column, -which mounted high ere it arched over to -the wind. It was a signal to be sighted as -far away as the ship was, and I stood watching -it with transported eyes as it soared in -belching folds gyrating into and blackening -out upon the breeze till it showed like a -steamer’s smoke or a ship on fire.</p> - -<p>I waited a little, and then got into the -fore-shrouds to mark the sail afresh, and -beheld the gleam of her canvas when I was -still two or three ratlines below the futtock -shrouds: good assurance, indeed, of her -rising, and nimbly too, and heading square<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> -for us. I strained my gaze at her from the -height of the top, but she was far too remote -to be distinguishable; nothing more, indeed, -than a little ivory shaft against the sulky sallow -of the sky.</p> - -<p>It now occurred to me that I might -accentuate the signal of the smoke by letting -fall the foresail, for here was a space of -canvas that would not only catch the eye, but -suggest the hull as a still inhabited wreck -that was on fire. I called to Miss Temple. -She looked up eagerly.</p> - -<p>‘Do you see those ropes leading to the -deck from the arms of this yard?’ said I, -pointing.</p> - -<p>‘Yes.’</p> - -<p>‘I want you to haul them taut, Miss -Temple—gather in the slack to prevent the -yard from swinging, as I mean to get upon -it.’</p> - -<p>She understood me perfectly. Her jewelled -fingers flashed upon the rope as she threw the -brace off the belaying pin, and I gazed down -with a smile of deep admiration at her noble -figure whilst she swayed at the line tightening -and then belaying it again.</p> - -<p>‘You should have been a sailor’s daughter,’<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> -I cried; ‘there is the true skill of the -ancient mariner in your trick of holding on -with one hand and making fast with the -other. Will you please now tighten the -brace on the right-hand side.’</p> - -<p>She did so, and I got upon the yard and, -‘laying out’ upon it, as it is called, severed -with my knife the ropes with which the canvas -was frapped to the spar, and down fell -the sail with a large rent right amidships of -it, though that signified nothing in a square -of white that was to serve as a signal only. -I descended to the deck.</p> - -<p>‘Why have you loosed that sail?’ inquired -Miss Temple. I explained. ‘But will not -the wreck now blow away from that ship?’</p> - -<p>‘No,’ said I; ‘she will fall off and come to. -But the yard must be trimmed to achieve that.’</p> - -<p>So saying I let go the weather-brace and -swung the yard fore and aft as far as I -could bring it, then overhauled the clew-garnets, -that all there was of the sail might -show. The hull slewed to the pressure, then -hung quiet; meanwhile I continued to feed -the blaze, heaping on rugs and blankets and -so firing up that at times the smoke hung as -thick to leeward as a thundercloud.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> -<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XXII<br /> - -<small>THE ‘LADY BLANCHE’</small></h2></div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">So</span> light was the breeze, that it was drawing -on to ten o’clock in the morning before the -approaching vessel lay plain on the sea. Long -before this I had made her out to be a square-rigged -craft, and sometimes I would imagine -that she was the corvette, and sometimes that -she was the <i>Countess Ida</i>. It had been a time -of breathless expectation, of crushing suspense. -Again and again had I mounted the -rigging to make sure that she had not shifted -her course, and was edging away from us. -Again and again had I run my eyes round -the sea with a passionate prayer in my heart -that the wind might hold; for if it shifted, we -stood to lose the ship; and if it fell, the -calm might last all day, with the prospect of -another black night before us and a deserted -ocean at daybreak.</p> - -<p>But now, drawing on to this hour of ten, -the hull of the vessel had risen to its bends,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> -and though I might be certain of nothing -else, it was absolutely sure that the stranger -was neither the <i>Magicienne</i> nor the <i>Countess -Ida</i>. She had puzzled me greatly for a considerable -time; for even when her fore-course -had fairly lifted she yet seemed to be rising -more canvas. But by this hour I could distinguish. -She was a small vessel, painted -white—whether barque or ship I could not -then tell. She had studdingsails out and -skysails set, and showed as an airy delicate -square of pearl; and indeed I might have -believed that she was the Indiaman for that -reason, until her snow-white body came stealing -out to the stare I fixed upon her, and -then I looked at Miss Temple.</p> - -<p>Her sight for seafaring details was not -mine. She was trembling as she said: -‘Which ship is she, Mr. Dugdale?’</p> - -<p>‘Neither,’ I answered.</p> - -<p>‘Neither!’ she cried.</p> - -<p>‘Do not you observe that yonder craft -has a white hull, and that she is a small ship? -But what does it matter? She is bound to -see us. She will rescue us; and, let the -future be what it may, our one consuming -need now is to quit this hull.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>She had so reckoned upon the stranger -proving either the corvette or the Indiaman, -that, had the approaching craft been no more -than a mirage, had the fabric melted upon -the air as we watched it, she could not have -looked more blank, more wildly and hopelessly -disappointed.</p> - -<p>‘Neither!’ she repeated, breathing with -difficulty. ‘Oh, Mr. Dugdale, what are we -to do?’</p> - -<p>‘Why, get on board of her, in the name -of God,’ I cried—‘giving Him thanks when -we are there.’</p> - -<p>‘But she may—she will be’—she paused, -unable to articulate: then with an effort: -‘She may be going to another part of the -world.’</p> - -<p>‘It matters not,’ I answered, observing -with rapture that the vessel was heading -more directly for us; ‘she will put us aboard -something homeward bound. Will not that -be better than stopping here, Miss Temple?’</p> - -<p>‘Oh yes, oh yes!’ she cried; ‘but if we -waited a little, the Indiaman might find us.’</p> - -<p>‘Heaven forbid! we have waited long -enough.’</p> - -<p>So speaking, I rushed forward, picked up<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> -the handspike with which I had beaten upon -the forecastle wall, secured a blanket to it, -and, dancing aft, fell to flourishing it with all -my might. Very slowly the vessel came -floating down upon us with a light swaying -of her trucks from side to side, and a tender -twinkling of the folds of her lower canvas, -which there was not weight enough in the -wind to hold distended. Her hull was exceedingly -graceful, and of a milky whiteness; -and, as she leaned from us on some wide fold -of the breathing waters, she exposed a hand’s-breadth -of burnished copper, which put a -wonderful quality of beauty and delicacy into -the whole fabric, as though she were a little -model in frosted silver.</p> - -<p>‘Before she takes us on board, Mr. Dugdale,’ -exclaimed Miss Temple, ‘will not you -mount the rigging to see if there is another -ship in sight that may prove the Indiaman?’</p> - -<p>‘But even if the Indiaman were in sight,’ -said I, ‘we should seize this the first of our -opportunities to escape from this floating -tomb. For heaven’s sake, let us get aboard -that fellow!’</p> - -<p>As I spoke, I seized the handspike again -and frantically flourished it. All this while<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> -there was a column of smoke ascending -steadily from my fire of rugs and mats -and darkening the sea over the starboard -bow. I was now able to make out that the -coming craft was a barque. My eyes were -glued to her; my heart thumped furiously; -the wildest alternations of joy and dread -seized me. Suppose she should prove some -foreigner in charge of a man indifferent -to human life, some cold-blooded miscreant -who had shifted his helm merely to satisfy his -curiosity, and who, on perceiving that the -smoke was no more than a signal, and that -the wreck floated high, should slide quietly -on and leave us to our fate? Such things -had been; such things were again and again -happening. As she drew with a snail-like -motion abreast without touching a brace, -without any signs of movement about her -deck, my eyes turned dim; I feared I was -about to swoon.</p> - -<p>‘Will she not stop?’ exclaimed Miss -Temple, in a voice of terror.</p> - -<p>Lifting the handspike with its fluttering -blanket high above my head, I waved it furiously -for some moments, then flinging it down -upon the deck, applied my hands to the sides<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> -of my mouth, and, in a voice of such energy -that it came near to cracking every vein in -my head, I yelled: ‘Barque ahoy! For -God’s sake, send a boat and take us off.’</p> - -<p>As the words left my throat, the vessel’s -helm was put down; the clew of the mainsail -mounted, and her topsail yard slowly revolved, -bringing every cloth upon the main -aback, and in a few minutes the graceful little -craft was lying without way within speaking -distance of us.</p> - -<p>In the violence of my transport, I grasped -Miss Temple’s hand and again and again -pressed my lips to it, congratulating her and -myself so, for I had no words. The figures -of the people were clearly visible: a row of -heads forward, the fellow at the wheel on a -short raised deck, and two men dressed in -white clothes with large straw hats at the -mizzen rigging. One of them leisurely clambered -on to the rail, and, holding by one hand -to a backstay, sang out:</p> - -<p>‘Wreck ahoy! How many are there of -you?’</p> - -<p>‘Two of us only,’ I shouted back; ‘this -lady and myself.’</p> - -<p>‘Any contagious sickness?’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>‘No, no,’ I bawled, amazed by the question. -‘Pray, send a boat.’</p> - -<p>He continued to stand, as though viewing -us meditatively; then, ‘Wreck ahoy!’</p> - -<p>‘Hallo!’ I cried, scarcely able to send my -voice owing to the consternation excited in -me by the man’s behaviour.</p> - -<p>‘Are you a sailor?’ he roared.</p> - -<p>‘Oh, say yes, say yes!’ cried Miss Temple; -‘he may be in want of men.’</p> - -<p>‘Ay, ay,’ I cried; ‘I’m a sailor.’</p> - -<p>‘What sort of sailor?’</p> - -<p>‘I belonged to an Indiaman.’</p> - -<p>‘Afore the mast?’</p> - -<p>‘No, no! send a boat—I’ll tell you all -about it.’</p> - -<p>He descended from the rail and apparently -addressed the man that stood near, who -walked to the companion-hatch and returned -with a telescope; the other took it from him, -then knelt down to rest the glass on the rail, -and surveyed us through the lenses for at -least a couple of minutes, after which he rose, -returned the glass to his companion, and -flourished his hand at us. I watched, utterly -unable to guess what was next to happen. -My fears foreboded the departure of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> -barque, and the impatience in me worked -like madness in my blood. But mercifully -we were not to be kept long in this intolerable -state of suspense. A few minutes after the -man, whom I supposed to be the captain, had -motioned to us with his arm, a number of -sailors came to the davits at the foremost -extremity of the raised after-deck, where swung -a small white boat of a whaling pattern. -Four of them entered her, and she sank -slowly to the water’s edge, where she was -promptly freed from her tackles, and three -oars thrown over. The fellow in the stern -sheets was the man who had handed the glass -to the other. The oarsmen pulled swiftly, -and in a very short time the little craft was -alongside.</p> - -<p>‘Only two of ye, is it?’ said the fellow -who grasped the tiller, a short, square, sun-blackened, -coarse-looking sailor.</p> - -<p>‘Only two,’ I cried.</p> - -<p>‘Any luggage?’</p> - -<p>‘No,’ I answered.</p> - -<p>‘Nothen portable aboard worth carrying -off, is there?’</p> - -<p>‘Yes,’ I answered, cursing him in my heart -for the delay these questions involved; ‘there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> -are several hams, bottles of fine wine, cheeses, -and the like below.’</p> - -<p>‘Odds niggers! we’ll have ’em then,’ he -exclaimed; and in an instant he was in the -wreck’s chains, wriggling over the side and -calling to one of his fellows to follow him. -They hung in the wind a moment, staring -their hardest at Miss Temple and myself; then -said the short square man in white: ‘Where -be the goods, master?’</p> - -<p>I pointed to the hatch in the deck-house, -and directed them to what I called the pantry. -But nothing could have induced me to leave -the deck. As they disappeared I stepped to -the side where the bulwarks were gone.</p> - -<p>‘Bring the boat close under, my lads,’ I -exclaimed to the two fellows in her, ‘and -stand by to receive the lady.’</p> - -<p>The hull was rolling gently, with just -enough of depression to render a jump into -the little fabric as it rose very easy and safe. -‘Now, Miss Temple,’ I cried. She sprang -without an instant’s hesitation, was caught by -one of the sailors, and in a jiffy the pair of us -were snug in the stern sheets side by side.</p> - -<p>The two men could not take their eyes off -us. They surveyed us with countenances of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> -profound astonishment, running their gaze -over Miss Temple as though she were some -creature of another world: as well they might, -indeed, seeing the contrast between the -groaning, mutilated, smoking hull and this -girl leaping from her deck in the choice and -elegant attire of the highest fashion, as the -two poor devils would imagine—for what eye -would <i>they</i> have for the disorder of her -apparel?—and her hands, breast, and ears -sparkling with jewels of value and splendour.</p> - -<p>‘Are ye English, sir?’ said one of them, -a middle-aged man, of an honest cast of -countenance, with minute eyes deep sunk in -his head, and a pair of greyish whiskers -uniting at his throat.</p> - -<p>‘Why, yes, to be sure,’ I answered.</p> - -<p>‘The lady too, sir?’</p> - -<p>‘Yes, man, yes. What ship are you?’</p> - -<p>‘The <i>Lady Blanche</i>,’ he answered.</p> - -<p>‘Where bound?’</p> - -<p>‘To Mauritius, from the river Thames.’</p> - -<p>I glanced at Miss Temple; but either she -had not heeded the fellow’s answer or her -mind failed to collect its meaning.</p> - -<p>‘Been long aboard here, sir?’ said the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> -man, indicating the hull by a sideways motion -of his head.</p> - -<p>‘Two nights,’ I answered. ‘There should -be a corvette and an Indiaman close at hand -hereabouts. Have you met with either -ship?’</p> - -<p>‘No, sir.’</p> - -<p>‘Sighted no sail at all?’</p> - -<p>‘Nothen like un,’ exclaimed the other -sailor. ‘Th’ ocean’s gone and growed into a -Hafrican desert.’</p> - -<p>The square man in white, followed by his -attendant seaman, arrived at the side, bearing -between them a blanket loaded with the produce -of the pantry, to judge by the clinking -of bottle glass and the orbicular bulgings of -cheeses and rounds of hams.</p> - -<p>‘Catch this here bundle now,’ sung out -the square man, who, later on, I ascertained -was the barque’s carpenter, acting also as the -second mate. ‘Handsomely over the bricks. -It’s wine, bullies.’</p> - -<p>The blanket and its contents were received, -and deposited in the bottom of the boat. The -men entered her, and we shoved off.</p> - -<p>‘Did you make up that there fire, sir?’ -inquired the square man, bringing his eyes in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> -a stare of astonishment from Miss Temple to -myself.</p> - -<p>‘Yes; nobody else. This lady and I are -alone.’</p> - -<p>‘Then you’ve set the bloomin’ hull on fire,’ -said he.</p> - -<p>I started, and sent a look at the column -of smoke, at which I had never once glanced -whilst lying alongside, so distracted was my -attention by the multiplicity of emotions which -surged in me. There was no need to gaze -long to gather that more was going, to the -making of the coils of smoke which were now -rising in soot than the nearly consumed remains -of the mats and rugs which I had -stacked and fed.</p> - -<p>‘The fire’s burnt clean through the deck,’ -said the square man, ‘and there are some -casks in flames just forrads of the main -hatch. What might they have contained, -d’ye know?’</p> - -<p>‘I don’t know,’ I answered, trembling like -a half-frozen kitten as I watched the smoke, -and thought of what must have come to -us, if yonder barque’s approach had been -delayed!</p> - -<p>‘I suppose there’ll be gunpowder aboard?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>’ -continued the square man. ‘Pull, lads! If a -bust-up happens, it’ll find us too near at this.’</p> - -<p>The men bent their backs, and the sharp-ended -little boat went smoking through the -quiet rippling waters. Nothing more was -said. The square man, whose rugged, -weather-blackened face preserved an inimitable -air of amazement, eyed us askant, particularly -running his gaze over Miss Temple’s -attire, and letting it rest upon her rings. The -toil of the seamen kept them silent. For my -part, I was too overcome to utter a word. -The passion of delight excited by our deliverance—that -is to say, as signified by our -rescue by the barque—was paralysed by the -horror with which I viewed the growing -denseness of the smoke rising from the hull. -She was on fire! Great heaven, what would -have been our fate—without a boat, without -the materials for the construction of a raft—with -no more than a few staves of casks to -hold by! Such a sea-brigand as the wreck -had been in her day was sure to have a -liberal store of gunpowder stowed somewhere -below: in all probability, in a magazine in -the hold under her cabin. What, then, -would there have been for us to do? We<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> -must either have sought death by leaping -overboard, or awaited the horrible annihilation -of an explosion!</p> - -<p>Miss Temple’s eyes were large and her -lips pale and her face bloodless, as though -she were in a swoon. She was seeing how it -was, and how it must have been with us, and -she seemed smitten to the motionlessness of a -statue by the perception as she sat by my -side staring at the receding hull.</p> - -<p>We swept to the little gangway ladder -that had been dropped over the rail, and -with some difficulty I assisted the girl over -the side, swinging by the man-rope with one -hand and supporting her waist with the -other. The man who had hailed us stood at -the gangway. I instantly went up to him -with my hand outstretched.</p> - -<p>‘Sir,’ said I, ‘you are the captain, no -doubt. I thank you for this deliverance, for -this preservation of our lives, for this rescue -from what <i>now</i> must have proved a horrible -doom of fire.’</p> - -<p>He took my hand and held it without -answering, whilst he continued to stare at me -with an intentness that in a very few moments -astonished and embarrassed me.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span>‘What is your name, sir?’ he presently -said.</p> - -<p>‘Laurence Dugdale,’ I answered.</p> - -<p>‘Mate of an Indiaman, I think you said, -sir?’</p> - -<p>‘No,’ I replied. ‘I was for two years at -sea in an Indiaman as midshipman.’</p> - -<p>He let fall my hand, and his face changed -whilst he recoiled a step, meanwhile running -his eyes from top to toe of me.</p> - -<p>‘A midshipman?’ he exclaimed, with an -accent of contempt. ‘Why, a midshipman -ain’t a <i>sailor</i>! How long ago is it since you -was a midshipman?’</p> - -<p>‘Six years,’ I answered, completely bewildered -by questioning of this sort at such a -moment.</p> - -<p>‘Six years!’ he cried, whilst his face grew -longer still. ‘Why, then, I don’t suppose -you’ll even <i>know</i> what a quadrant means?’</p> - -<p>‘Certainly I know all about it,’ I answered, -with a half-glance at Miss Temple, who stood -beside me listening to these questions in a -torment of surprise and suspense.</p> - -<p>‘Are ye acquainted with navigation, then?’ -inquired the captain.</p> - -<p>‘Sufficiently well, I believe, to enable me<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> -to carry a ship to any part of the world,’ I -rejoined, controlling my rising temper, though -I was sensible that there was blood in my -cheeks and that my eyes were expressing my -mood.</p> - -<p>‘Why, then, that’s all right!’ he cried, -brightening up. ‘You tell me you could find -your way about with a sextant?’</p> - -<p>‘Yes, sir, I have told you so.’</p> - -<p>‘By heaven! then,’ he roared, ‘I’m glad -to see ye! Welcome aboard the <i>Lady Blanche</i>, -sir. And you, mem, I am sure.’ Here he -pulled off his immense straw hat and gave -Miss Temple an unspeakably grotesque bow. -‘What have you got there?’ he bawled to -the square man.</p> - -<p>‘A blanket full of wines and cheeses and -’ams,’ answered the man, who was helping to -manœuvre the bundle inboards over the side.</p> - -<p>‘All right, all right!’ shouted the captain. -‘Now put ’em down, do, and get your boat -hooked on and hoisted, d’ye hear? and get -your topsail yard swung. Why, who’s been -and set that wreck on fire?’</p> - -<p>‘The flare’s burnt through her deck,’ cried -the square man in a surly tone, ‘and I allow -she’ll be ablowing up in a few minutes.’</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>But she was too far distant to suffer this -conjecture to alarm the captain.</p> - -<p>‘Let her blow up,’ said he; ‘there’s room -enough for her,’ and then giving Miss Temple -another convulsive bow, he invited us to step -into the cabin.</p> - -<p>This was a little state-room under the short -after-deck, and, with its bulkheaded berths -abaft, a miniature likeness in its way of the -<i>Countess Ida’s</i> saloon. It was a cosy little -place, with a square table amidships, a bench -on either hand of it screwed to the deck, a -flat skylight overhead, a couple of old-fashioned -lamps, a small stove near to the -trunk of the mizzenmast, a rack full of -tumblers, and so forth.</p> - -<p>‘Sit ye down, mem,’ said the captain, -pointing to a bench. ‘Sir, be seated. I -heard Mr. Lush just now talk of wines, and -cheeses, and hams; but what d’ye say to a -cut of boiled beef and a bottle of London -stout? Drifting about in a wreck ain’t wholesome -for the soul, I believe; but I never -heard that it affected the appetite.’</p> - -<p>‘You are very good,’ I exclaimed; ‘our -food for the last three days has been no more -than ship’s bread and marmalade—poor fare<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> -for the lady, fresh from the comforts and -luxuries of an Indiaman’s cuddy.’</p> - -<p>He went to the cabin door and bawled; -and a young fellow, whom I afterwards found -out was his servant, came running aft. He -gave him certain directions, then returned to -the table, where he sat for a long two minutes -first staring at me and then at Miss Temple -without a wink of his eyes. I observed that -my companion shrunk from this extraordinary -silent scrutiny. I had never witnessed -in any other human head such eyes as that -fellow had. They were a deformity by their -size, being about twice too big for the width -and length of his face, of a deep ink-black, -resembling discs of ebony gummed upon -china. There was no glow, no mind in them, -that I could distinguish, scarcely anything of -vitality outside their preternatural capacity of -staring, that was yet immeasurably heightened -by the steadiness of the lids, which I never -once beheld blinking. His face was long and -yellow, closely shorn, and of an indigo blue -down the cheeks, upon the chin, and upon the -upper lip. He had a very long aquiline nose -with large nostrils, which constantly dilated, -as though he snuffed up rather than breathed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> -the air. His eyebrows were extraordinarily -thick, and met in a peculiar tuft in the indent -of the skull above the nose; whilst his hair, -black as his eyes, and smooth and gleaming -as the back of a raven, lay combed over his -ears down upon his back. He was dressed in -a suit of white drill, the flowing extremities of -his trousers rounding to his feet in the shape -of the mouth of a bell, from which protruded -a pair of long square-toed shoes of yellow -leather. I should instantly have put him -down as a Yankee but for his accent, that was -cockney beyond the endurance of a polite -ear.</p> - -<p>I broke into his intolerable scrutiny by -asking him from what port his ship hailed; -but he continued to stare at me in silence for -some considerable time after I had made this -inquiry. He then started, flourished a great -red cotton pocket-handkerchief to his brow, -and exclaimed: ‘Sir, you spoke?’</p> - -<p>I repeated the question.</p> - -<p>‘The <i>Lady Blanche</i> is owned at Hull,’ said -he; ‘but we’re from the Thames for Mauritius. -And what’s your story? How came -you and this beautiful lady aboard that hull? -You’re gentlefolks, I allow. I see breeding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> -in your hands, mem,’ fixing his unwinking -eyes upon her rings. ‘You talk of an -Indeeman. Let’s have it all afore the boiled -beef comes along.’</p> - -<p>So saying, he hooked his thumbs in his -waistcoat, brought his back against the table, -and forking his long shanks out, sat in -a posture of attention, keeping his amazing -eyes bent on my face whilst I spoke. It did -not take me very long to give him the tale. -He listened without so much as a syllable -escaping from him, and when I had made an -end, he continued to craze at me in silence.</p> - -<p>‘By what name shall I address you?’ -said Miss Temple.</p> - -<p>He started, as before, and answered: -‘John Braine; Captain John Braine, mem; -or call it Captain Braine: John’s only in the -road. That’s my name, mem.’</p> - -<p>She forced a smile, and said: ‘Captain -Braine, the <i>Countess Ida</i> cannot be far distant, -and I have most earnestly to entreat you -to seek her. I am sure she is to be found -after a very short hunt. I have a dear relative -on board of her, who will fret her heart -away if she believes I am lost. All my luggage, -too, is in that ship. My mother, Lady<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> -Temple, will most cheerfully pay any sum -that may be asked for such trouble and loss -of time as your search for the Indiaman might -occasion.’</p> - -<p>I thought he meant to stare at her without -answering; but after a short pause he -exclaimed: ‘The Indeeman’s bound to Bombay, -ain’t she? Well, we’re a-navigating the -same road she’s taking. It is three days since -you lost her; where’ll she be now, then? -That can only be known to the angels, which -look down from a taller height than there’s -e’er a truck afloat that’ll come nigh. Now, -mem, I might shift my hellum and dodge -about for a whole fortnight and do no good. -It would be the same as making up our minds -to lose her. But by keeping all on as we are, -there’ll ne’er be an hour that won’t hold -inside of it a chance of our rising her on one -bow or t’other. See what I mean, mem? -You’re aboard of a barque with legs, as Jack -says. Your Indeeman’s had a three days’ -start; and if so be as she is to be picked up, -I’ll engage to have ye aboard of her within a -week. But to dodge about in search of her—the -Lord love’ee, mem! The sea’s too big -for any sort of chiveying.’</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>‘I am completely of Captain Braine’s -opinion,’ said I, addressing Miss Temple, whose -face was full of distress and dismay. ‘It -would be unreasonable to expect this gentleman -to delay his voyage by a search that, in -all human probability, must prove unprofitable. -A hunt would involve the loss of our -one chance of falling in with her this side the -Cape.’</p> - -<p>She clasped her hands and hung her head, -but made no reply. The captain’s servant -entered at that moment with a tray of food, -which he placed upon the table; and the -skipper bidding us fall to and make ourselves -at home in a voice as suggestive of the croak -of a raven as was his hair of the plumage of -that bird, stalked on to the deck, where the -sailors—who by this time had hoisted the -boat and trimmed the barque’s yards—were -coiling down the gear and returning to the -various jobs they had been upon before they -had hove the ship to.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> -<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XXIII<br /> - -<small>CAPTAIN BRAINE</small></h2></div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">After</span> three days of sailors’ biscuit and strong -cheese and marmalade of the flavour of foot -sugar, the lump of cold salt beef that the captain’s -man set before me ate to my palate with -a relish that I had never before found in the -choicest and most exquisitely cooked meat; -and a real treat, too, to my shipwrecked -sensibilities, was the inspiration of home and -civilisation in the tumbler of foaming London -stout. Miss Temple seemed too harassed, too -broken down in mind, to partake of food; but -by dint of coaxing and entreating I got her to -taste a mouthful, and then put her lips to a -glass of stout; and presently she appeared to -find her appetite by eating, as the French say, -and ended with such a repast as I could have -wished to see her make.</p> - -<p>When the man put the tray down, he went<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> -out, and the girl and I were alone during the -meal. Now that I had recovered from the -first heart-subduing shock of the discovery -that the hull was on fire, and could realise -that, even supposing she had not been set on -fire, we had still been delivered from what in -all probability must have proved a long, lingering, -soul-killing time of expectation, dying -out into hopelessness and into a period of -famine, thirst, and death: I say now that I -could realise our rescue from these horrors, -my spirits mounted, my joy was an intoxication, -I could have cried and laughed at the -same time, like one in hysteria. I longed to -jump from my chair and dance about the -cabin that I might vent the oppression of my -transports by movement. I was but a young -man, and life was dear to me, and we had -been in dire peril, and were safe. What a -paradise was this cosy little cabin after that -ghost-haunted, narrow crib of a deck-house! -How soothing beyond all words to the nerves -was the light floating rolling of the graceful -little snow-white barque, under control of her -helm, and vitalised in every plank by the impulse -of her airy soaring canvas, compared -with the jerky, feverish, staggering, tumblefication<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> -of the wreck, with its deadly deck -leaning at desperate angles to the fang-like -remnants of the crushed bulwarks, and its -uncovered hatches yawning to the heavens, as -though in a dumb mouthing of entreaty for -extinction!</p> - -<p>‘Oh! Miss Temple,’ I cried, ‘I cannot -bring my mind to believe in our good fortune! -This time yesterday! how hopeless -we were! And now we are safe! I thank -God, I most humbly thank God, for His -mercy! Your lot would soon have become a -frightful one aboard that wreck.’</p> - -<p>‘Yet what would I give,’ she exclaimed, -‘if this ship were the <i>Countess Ida</i>! What is -to become of us? For how long are we to -wander about in a state of destitution, Mr. -Dugdale—mere beggars, without apparel, -without conveniences, dependent for our very -meals upon the bounty of strangers?’ and she -brought her eyes, with the old flash in them, -from the table to my face, at which she gazed -with an expression of temper and mortification.</p> - -<p>‘You would not be a woman,’ said I, ‘if -you did not think of your dress. But, pray, -consider this: that your baggage is now<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> -recoverable; whereas, but for this <i>Lady -Blanche</i>——’</p> - -<p>‘Oh! but it would have been so happy a -thing, that might so easily have happened too, -had this vessel been the Indiaman.’</p> - -<p>‘Cannot you summon a little patience to -your aid?’ said I. ‘Our strange-eyed captain -spoke with judgment when he suggested the -probability of your exchanging his ship for -the <i>Countess Ida</i> within a week.’</p> - -<p>‘Well, I will be patient, if I can,’ said she, -looking down with an air of trouble and distress -in the pout of her lip; ‘but is it not -about time that the adventure ended?’</p> - -<p>‘Suppose it may be only now beginning?’</p> - -<p>She gave me a side-glance and exclaimed -somewhat haughtily: ‘I really believe, Mr. -Dugdale, you enjoy this sort of experiences; -and if I were a man—— But it <i>must</i> end!’ -she added with an air as though she was -about to weep. ‘It is unendurable to think -of being carried about the world in this -fashion. I shall insist—well, I shall bribe -Captain Braine to question every ship he -passes as to her destination, and the first -vessel we encounter that is going home I shall -go on board of.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>‘Alone?’ said I.</p> - -<p>‘No,’ she answered, half closing her -eyes and looking a little away from me; -‘you would not suffer me to travel alone? -Besides, do not you want to get home -too?’</p> - -<p>‘I would rather find my way to Bombay,’ -said I. ‘My baggage as well as yours is -aboard the <i>Countess Ida</i>, and I should like to -get it, though not at the cost of too much -trouble. I am bound to India on a visit, and -am not expected home for a good many -months. Now, I don’t see why both of us -shouldn’t keep our appointments by sticking -in this barque, and sailing in her to the -Mauritius, whence we ought to be able, without -difficulty, to ship ourselves for Bombay. -The <i>Lady Blanche</i> has the hull of a clipper, -and it will be strange if the pair of us are -not ashore at Bombay some weeks before the -<i>Countess Ida</i> sails.’</p> - -<p>She listened with impatience, and when I -had ended, said: ‘If the chance offers, I -shall certainly go home. I shall take the -first ship that passes, though it should cost -a thousand pounds to bribe Captain Braine -and the commander of the vessel that receives<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> -me. How is it possible for me to continue -thus?’ and here she looked at her dress. -‘And where is Mauritius? Is it not nearly as -far off as Bombay? Whereas England is -not so very remote from this part of the -ocean.’</p> - -<p>‘Well, Miss Temple, I am your humble -servant,’ said I. ‘Head as you will, I shall -most dutifully follow you.’</p> - -<p>‘I beg that you will not be satirical.’</p> - -<p>‘God forbid!’ said I, averting my eyes; -for I was sensible that they were expressing -more than I had any desire she should -observe. ‘I wish to see you safe, and meanwhile -happy. If we pick up a ship homeward -bound, we can commission Captain Braine to -request Keeling, if he encounters him, to -transfer our baggage to the first craft he -speaks going to England. Your aunt’s maid -will know all about your luggage.’</p> - -<p>She watched me, as though doubtful -whether I was joking or not; but I was cut -short by the entrance of Captain Braine.</p> - -<p>‘I hope you have done pretty well?’ he -exclaimed, after gazing at us for a short time -without speaking; ‘it is poor fare, mem, for -the likes of you. But the ship’ll afford<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> -nothing fresh till we kill a pig. What did -you say your name was, sir?’</p> - -<p>‘Dugdale,’ said I.</p> - -<p>‘Ha!’ he cried, whilst he viewed me steadfastly, -‘to be sure. Dugdale. That was it. -Well, Mr. Dugdale, there might be an edifying -sight for you and the lady to behold from the -deck.’</p> - -<p>‘What?’ swiftly exclaimed Miss Temple -with a start.</p> - -<p>‘The hull, mem, we took you from,’ he -replied in his hollow somewhat deep voice, -‘is rapidly growing into a big blaze.’</p> - -<p>Her face changed to a mood of disappointment. -I believe she thought that the -captain had come to announce the Indiaman -in sight: I was about to speak:</p> - -<p>‘Captain Braine,’ she said, approaching -him by a dramatic stride, and exclaiming -proudly, as though she would subdue him by -her mere manner to acquiescence in her -wishes, ‘I am without wearing apparel, saving -the attire in which you now view me, and it -is absolutely necessary I should return home -as speedily as possible. My mother will fear -that I have perished, and I must be the bearer -of my own news, or the report of my being<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> -lost may cause her death, so exceedingly delicate -is her health. She is rich, and will reward -you in any sum you may think proper to -demand for enabling me to return to England -quickly.’</p> - -<p>An indescribable smile as she said these -words crept over the man’s face and vanished. -I was strongly impressed by the expression of -it, and observed him closely.</p> - -<p>‘Therefore, Captain Braine,’ she proceeded, -‘I have to entreat you to promise me that you -will signal to the ships you may pass, and put -me on board the first one, no matter what -sort of vessel she be, that is sailing directly -to England.’</p> - -<p>He silently surveyed her, and then directed -his eyes at me.</p> - -<p>‘You’ll be wanting to get home too, sir, I -suppose?’ said he.</p> - -<p>‘Oh yes,’ I replied. ‘Miss Temple is under -my care, and I must see her safe.’</p> - -<p>He turned to her again, and stood staring; -then said: ‘That’ll be all right, mem; we’re -bound to be falling in with something coming -along presently; and if England’s her destination -and she’ll receive ye, the boat that -brought you from the hull shall take you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> -to her, weather permitting. That’ll do, I -think?’</p> - -<p>She bowed, looking as pleased as agitation -and anxiety would allow her.</p> - -<p>‘Come now and take a look at the hull,’ -continued Captain Braine; ‘and then’——</p> - -<p>‘You quite understand, I hope,’ she interrupted, -‘that any sum’——</p> - -<p>He broke in with an odd flourish of his -hand. ‘No need to mention that matter, -mem,’ he exclaimed;—‘we are Christian men -in that part of the country where I come from, -and there’s never no talk of pay amongst us -for doing what the Lord directs—succouring -distressed fellow-creatures.’</p> - -<p>With which he spun upon his heels and -walked out of the cabin, leaving us to follow -him.</p> - -<p>I had no eyes nor thoughts for anything -else than the hull the moment I saw her. I -remember recoiling as to a blow, and panting -for a few breaths with my hand to my -side. She had slipped to something more -than two miles away down on the starboard -quarter, and although only a portion of her -was as yet on fire, she was showing as a body -of flame brilliant and forked, soaring and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> -drooping against the leaden-hued background -of sky. Shudder after shudder went like ice -through me as my sight swept the mighty -girdle of the deep, coming back to the little -body of flame that most horribly to every -trembling instinct in me accentuated the -lonely immensity of the surface on which it -glowed.</p> - -<p>‘Think—if we were on her now!’ I muttered -to Miss Temple. She hid her face.</p> - -<p>‘Was there any valleyables aboard her, -Mr. Dugdale, d’ye know?’ said the captain.</p> - -<p>‘I cannot tell you,’ I answered in a voice -subdued by emotion; ‘I did not search the -sleeping-berths. There was little enough in -her hold.’</p> - -<p>‘Ye should have crept away down in the -run,’ said he; ‘that’s where the chaps which -peopled her would stow their booty if they -had any. If I’d known she’d been a privateersman—— How -came ye to set her on -fire?’</p> - -<p>‘My signal burnt through her deck, so I -was informed by that gentleman there,’ I replied, -indicating the square man, who stood a -little way from us.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>‘Was that so, Mr. Lush?’ cried the captain.</p> - -<p>‘Was what so?’ asked Mr. Lush. The -captain explained. ‘Well, I dunno,’ answered -the other; ‘there was fire in the hold when I -looked down, and it seemed to me as if flakes -of it was falling through the deck. But what -does it signify? Wood ain’t cast-iron, and if -ye makes a flare upon a timber deck, why, -then what I says is, stand by!’</p> - -<p>‘Oh look, Mr. Dugdale!’ shrieked Miss -Temple at that moment, tossing her arms in -horror, and standing with her hands-upraised, -as though in a posture of calling down a curse -upon the distant thing.</p> - -<p>My eye was on the wreck, as hers had -been, and I saw it all. There was a huge -crimson flash, as though some volcanic head -had belched in fire; daylight as it was, the -stretch of clouds above and beyond the wreck -glared out in a dull rusty red to the amazing -stream of flame; a volume of smoke white as -steam, shaped like a balloon, and floating -solid to the sight, slowly rose like some -phenomenal emanation from the secret depths -of the ocean. There followed the sullen, -deep-throated blast of the explosion. Captain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> -Braine snatched a telescope from the skylight -and levelled it, and after peering a little, -thrust the glass into my hand.</p> - -<p>‘See if you can find out where she’s gone -to,’ said he with a singular grin, in which his -eyes did not participate.</p> - -<p>I looked: the water delicately brushed by -the light wind flowed in nakedness under the -shadow of the slowly soaring and enlarging -cloud of white smoke. Not the minutest -point of black, not the merest atom of fragment -of wreck, was visible. I put down the -glass with a quivering hand, and going to the -rail, looked into the sea to conceal my moist -eyes, too overcome to speak.</p> - -<p>‘A good job you weren’t in that hull, -mem,’ said the captain to Miss Temple; ‘it -would be sky high with any one that had been -there by this time: a devil of a mount, as -Jack says. But you’re aboard a tidy little -ship now. If so be that you are at all of a -nautical judge, mem, cast your eyes aloft and -tell me if there’s e’er an Indeeman or a man-of-war, -too, if ye will, with spars stayed as my -masts is, with such a fit of canvas, with such -a knowing cocked-ear like look as the run of -them yardarms has, with such mastheads<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> -tapering away like the holy spire of a meetinghouse, -and that beautiful little skysail atop to -sarve as a cloud for any tired angel that may -be flying along to rest upon! Ha!’</p> - -<p>He drew so deep a breath as he concluded -that I turned to look at him. He stood -gazing up at the canvas on the main as -though in an ecstasy; his hands were crossed -upon his breast after the manner of coy -virgins in paintings; his right knee was -crooked and projected; I could not have -imagined so curious a figure off the stage. -Indeed, I supposed he was acting now to -divert Miss Temple. I glanced at the tough, -sullen, storm darkened face of old Lush, to -gather his opinion on the behaviour of this -captain; but his expression was of wood, and -there was no other meaning in it that I could -distinguish save what was put there by the -action of his jaws as he gnawed upon a junk -of tobacco, carrying his sight from seawards -to aloft and back again as regularly as the -swing of the spars.</p> - -<p>Miss Temple drew to my side with a manner -of uneasiness about her. She whispered, -while she seemed to be speaking of the wreck, -motioning with her hand in the direction of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> -the smoke that was slowly drawing on to our -beam in a great staring, still-compacted mass, -white as fog against the leaden heaven: ‘I -believe he is not in his right mind.’</p> - -<p>‘No matter,’ I swiftly replied; ‘his ship -is sound. Captain,’ I exclaimed, ‘I hope you -will have a spare cabin for this lady. For my -part, you may sling me a hammock anywhere, -or a rug and a plank will make me all the bed -I want.’</p> - -<p>‘Oh, there’s accommodation for ye both -below,’ he answered; ‘there’s the mate’s -berth unoccupied. The lady can have that. -And next door to it there’s a cabin with a -bunk in it. I’ll have it cleared out for you. -Come down and see for yourselves.’</p> - -<p>He led the way into the little cuddy, as I -may term it, and conducted us to a hatch -close against the two sleeping berths right aft. -He descended a short flight of steps, and we -found ourselves in ’tweendecks in which I -should not have been able to stand erect with -a tall hat on. It was gloomy down here. I -could distinguish with difficulty a number of -cases of light goods stowed from the deck to -the beams, and completely blocking up all -the forward portion of this part of the vessel.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> -There were two cabins in the extremity corresponding -with the cabins above, with such -another small hatch as we had descended -through lying close against them, but covered: -the entrance as I took it to ‘the run’ or -‘lazarette.’ Captain Braine opened the cabin -door on the port side, and we peered into a -small but clean and airy berth lighted by a -large scuttle. I noticed a couple of sea-chests, -a suit of oilskins hanging under a little shelf -full of books, a locker, a mattress, and a bundle -of blankets in the bunk, a large chart of the -English Channel nailed against the side, and -other matters of a like sort.</p> - -<p>‘You’ll be able to make yourself pretty -comfortable here, mem,’ said Captain Braine.</p> - -<p>‘Are there any rats?’ asked Miss Temple, -rolling her eyes nervously over the deck.</p> - -<p>‘Bless you, no!’ answered the captain. -‘At the very worst, a cockroach here and -there, mem.’</p> - -<p>‘But this cabin is occupied,’ said I.</p> - -<p>‘It was, young gentleman, it was,’ he exclaimed, -in a hollow raven voice, that wonderfully -corresponded with his countenance, and -particularly somehow or other with his hair—‘it -was my chief-mate’s cabin. But he’s dead,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> -sir.’ He gazed at me steadfastly, and added, -‘Dead and gone, sir.’</p> - -<p>Miss Temple slightly started, and with a -hurried glance at the bunk, asked how long -the man had been dead.</p> - -<p>‘Three weeks,’ responded Captain Braine, -preserving his sepulchral tone, as though he -supposed it was the correct voice in which to -deliver melancholy information.</p> - -<p>‘May I see the next cabin?’ said Miss -Temple.</p> - -<p>‘Certainly’ he answered; and going out, -he opened the door.</p> - -<p>This room was the same size as the -berth which adjoined it; but it was crowded -with a collection of sailmakers’ and boatswains’ -stores, bolts of canvas, new buckets, -scrubbing brushes, and so on. There was a -bunk under the scuttle full of odds and ends.</p> - -<p>‘I would rather occupy this berth than -the other,’ said Miss Temple.</p> - -<p>‘You’re not afraid of ghosts, mem?’ exclaimed -the captain, fixing his immense dead -black eyes upon her.</p> - -<p>‘I presume this room can be cleared out, -and I prefer it to the other,’ she answered -haughtily.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>I broke in, somewhat alarmed by these -airs: ‘Oh, by all means, Miss Temple. Choose -the cabin you best like. Captain Braine is all -kindness in furnishing us with such excellent -accommodation. This stuff can be put into -my berth, if you please, captain. I shall -merely need room enough to get into my -bunk.’</p> - -<p>‘I’ll make that all right,’ he answered -somewhat sulkily. ‘How about bedding? -The lady’s a trifle particular, I fear. She -wouldn’t be satisfied to roll herself up in a -dead man’s blanket, I guess.’</p> - -<p>‘Leave me to manage,’ said I, forcing a -note of cheerfulness into my voice, though I -was greatly vexed by Miss Temple’s want of -tact. ‘There’s more bedding than either of -us will require in less than a bolt of your -canvas. We are fresh from an experience -that would make a paradise of your forepeak, -captain. And so,’ said I, plunging from the -subject, in the hope of carrying off the ill-humour -that showed in his face, ‘you are -without a chief-mate?’</p> - -<p>‘I’ll tell you about that by-and-by,’ said -he. ‘This here crib, then, is to be the lady’s? -Now, what have I got that you’ll be wanting,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> -mem? There’s a bit of a looking-glass next -door. He used to shave himself in it. You -won’t mind that, perhaps? His image ain’t -impressed on the plate. It’ll show ye true as -you are, for all that he shaved himself in it.’</p> - -<p>Miss Temple smiled, and said that she -would be glad to have the glass.</p> - -<p>‘There’ll be his hairbrush,’ continued -Captain Braine, ‘though <i>that</i> might prove -objectionable,’ he added doubtfully, talking -with his eyes fixed unwinkingly upon her. -‘And yet I don’t know; if it was put to soak -in a bucket of salt-water, it ought to come out -sweet enough. There’s likewise a comb,’ he -proceeded, taking his chin betwixt his thumb -and forefinger and stroking it: ‘there’s nothing -to hurt in a comb, and it’s at your sarvice, -mem. If poor old Chicken were here, he’d -be very willing, I’m sure; but he’s gone—gone -dead.’</p> - -<p>He looked at Miss Temple again. I watched -him with attention. He seemed to sink into -a fit of musing; then, waking up out of it in -a sudden way, he cried: ‘You’ve got no -luggage at all, have ye, mem?’</p> - -<p>‘No,’ responded Miss Temple with gravity.</p> - -<p>‘I’m sorry,’ said he, ‘that I didn’t bring<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> -Mrs. Braine along with me this voyage. She -wanted to come, poor thing, observing me to -be but very ordinary during most of the time -I was ashore—very ordinary indeed,’ he repeated, -shaking his head. ‘If she was here -we could manage.’</p> - -<p>‘Pray, give yourself no concern on that -head, captain,’ said I; ‘we shall be falling in -with the Indiaman presently; and supposing -the worst to come to the worst—what time do -you give yourself for the run from here to the -Mauritius?’</p> - -<p>‘I’m not agoing to say—I’m not agoing to -say!’ he cried with an accent of excitement -that astonished me; ‘what’s the good of -talking when you don’t know? Wouldn’t it -be a sin to go and make promises to people in -your condition and disappoint ’em? I can -just tell ye this: that Baltimore itself never -turned out a keel able to clip through it as -this here <i>Lady Blanche</i> can when the chance -is given her. And now,’ he exclaimed, changing -his voice, ‘suppose we clear out of this, and -go up into the daylight and fresh air;’ and -without pausing for an answer he trudged -off.</p> - -<p>I handed Miss Temple up the ladder, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> -we gained the little cabin, or living-room as it -might be termed. The young fellow who acted -as steward or servant was busy at the glass-rack. -The captain called to him, and peremptorily -and most intelligently gave him -certain instructions with respect to the clearing -out and preparing of the berths below for our -reception. He told him where he would find -a spare mattress—‘Quite new, never yet slept -on,’ he said, contorting his figure into a bow -to Miss Temple—he had a couple of shawls -and a homely old rug which had made several -voyages, and these were to be put into her -bunk; the man was to see that the lady lacked -no convenience which the barque could afford. -‘The late Mr. Chicken’s mattress was to be -given to me along with his bedding, if so be -that I was willing to use the same.’ Other -instructions, all expressive of foresight and -hospitable consideration, he gave to the fellow, -who then went forward to obtain help to clear -out the cabins.</p> - -<p>‘We are deeply indebted to you, captain,’ -said I, ‘for this very generous behaviour’——</p> - -<p>‘Not a word, sir, if you please,’ he interrupted. -‘I have a soul as well as another, -and I know my duty. Lady, a hint: you have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> -some fine jewelry upon you; take my advice -and put it in your pocket.’</p> - -<p>She was alarmed by this, and looked at -me.</p> - -<p>I smiled, and said, ‘The captain of a -ship is Lord Paramount; his orders must be -obeyed, Miss Temple.’</p> - -<p>Without another word she began to pull -off her rings, the skipper steadfastly watching -her.</p> - -<p>‘Will you take charge of them for me, Mr. -Dugdale?’ said she.</p> - -<p>I placed them in my pocket. She then -took off a very beautiful diamond locket from -her throat, and this I also carefully stowed -away.</p> - -<p>‘I will remove my earrings presently,’ she -exclaimed with a slight flush in her cheek and -a sparkle as of ire in her gaze, though her lips -still indicated an emotion of dismay.</p> - -<p>‘My advice to you is—at once, mem,’ said -the captain.</p> - -<p>‘We must believe that Captain Braine is -fully sensible of the meaning of his requests,’ -said I, answering the glance she shot at me.</p> - -<p>She removed the earrings and gave them -to me. The captain stood running his eyes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> -over her figure; then, with a melodramatic -gesture, pointed to her watch. This, too, with -the handsome chain belonging to it, I pocketed. -He now addressed himself to contemplating -me.</p> - -<p>‘You don’t need to show any watch-chain,’ -said he, speaking with his head drooping -towards his left shoulder; ‘there’s no good in -that signet ring either. As to the breast-pin’—he -half-closed one eye—‘well, perhaps that’s a -thing that won’t hurt where it is.’</p> - -<p>He waited until I had taken off my ring -and dropped my chain into my waistcoat -pocket, and then, looking first of all aft and -then forward, then up at the little skylight, -whilst he seemed to hold his breath as though -intently listening, he approached us, as we -stood together, by a stride, and said in a low -deep voice, tremulous with intensity of utterance: -‘My men are not to be trusted. Hush! -If they imagined I suspected them, they would -cut my throat and heave me overboard.’</p> - -<p>Miss Temple took my arm.</p> - -<p>‘Let me understand you?’ said I, wrestling -with my amazement. ‘In what sense are they -untrustworthy?’</p> - -<p>He stared eagerly and nervously about him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> -again, and then, extending the fingers of his -left hand, he touched one of them after -another, as though counting, whilst he said: -‘First, I have reason to believe that Lush, the -carpenter, who acts as my second mate, committed -a murder four years ago.’</p> - -<p>‘Good God!’ I ejaculated.</p> - -<p>‘Hold!’ he cried. ‘Next, there ain’t no -shadow of a doubt that two at least of my -able seamen are escaped convicts. Next, there -is a man forward who was concerned in a -mutiny that ended in the ringleaders being -hung. Next’—he paused, and then exclaimed: -‘but no need to go on alarming the lady.’</p> - -<p>‘But were you not acquainted with these -men’s characters at the time of their signing -articles?’ said I.</p> - -<p>‘No, young man—no,’ he answered with -a most melancholy shake of the head; ‘it’s all -come out since, and a deal more atop of it. -But hush! Discretion is the better part of -valour, as Jack says. There’s no call to be -afraid. They know the man I am, and what’s -better, they know I know <i>them</i>. Ye’re quite -safe, mem; only, don’t be a-tempting sailors -of their sort by a sight of the valleyables you’ve -been a-carrying about with you. And now,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> -perhaps you’ll excuse me whilst I goes and -looks after the ship.’</p> - -<p>He gave us another extraordinary bow—I -never met with any posture-maker who -approached this man in the capacity of distorting -his person—and walked out of the -cabin.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> -<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XXIV<br /> - -<small>THE CREW OF THE BARQUE</small></h2></div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">Miss Temple</span> released my arm and sank upon -a bench.</p> - -<p>‘Can you doubt now that he is mad?’ she -exclaimed.</p> - -<p>‘Somewhat eccentric, certainly, but perhaps -not mad, though. He is treating us -very kindly. How intelligently he instructed -his man in regard to our cabins!’</p> - -<p>‘He may be kind; but I believe we should -have been safer on the hull than here.’</p> - -<p>‘Oh no, no, no!’</p> - -<p>‘But I say yes,’ she exclaimed in her most -imperious air, and gazing at me with hot and -glowing eyes. ‘It is quite true the wreck -was burnt; but if this vessel had not come -into sight, you would not have signalled, and -then the hull would not have been set on fire. -It is maddening to think that perhaps within -the next three or four hours the Indiaman or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> -the corvette may sail over the very spot -where the wreck blew up.’</p> - -<p>‘I heartily hope that one or the other -will do so,’ said I; ‘for if she be so close -to us as all that, we’re bound to fall in with -her.’</p> - -<p>She looked at her hands, turning her -fingers back and front, as though they were -some novel and unexpected sight to her.</p> - -<p>‘I wonder, Mr. Dugdale,’ said she, ‘you -can doubt that the man is insane. Remember -the extraordinary questions he put to you -when we first arrived. I believe, had you -told him you were ignorant of navigation, he -would have sent us back to the wreck. And -then how he stares! There is something -shocking in the fixed regard of his dreadfully -inanimate black eyes. What a very extraordinary -face, too! I cannot believe that he -is a sailor. He has the appearance of a monk -just released from some term of fearful -penance and mortification.’</p> - -<p>‘On the other hand he has received us -very kindly. He would not suffer you to -speak of paying him. He promptly set us -down to such entertainment as his vessel -furnishes. He may be mad half-way round<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> -the compass, but all the rest of the points -are sound,’</p> - -<p>‘I am astonished,’ she cried with a manner -of petulant vivacity, ‘to hear you say that we -are safer in this ship than had we remained in -the hull. There we were alone; but who are -the people with whom we must be locked up -in this vessel until we sight the Indiaman or -some sail that will receive us? A murderer—convicts—mutineers—a -crew of men in whose -sight a jewel must not be exhibited lest they -should be tempted. Tempted to what?’ She -violently shuddered. ‘How can you speak of -this ship as safer than the wreck?’</p> - -<p>‘Because I happen to feel quite certain -that she is; but I will not say so, for it vexes -you to hear me.’</p> - -<p>‘Oh this ridiculous, this horribly ridiculous -degrading situation fills me with anger. To -think of being reduced to a perfect state of -squalor—having to conceal one’s jewelry for -fear of—of—something awful, I am sure; and -you dare not, though you <i>could</i> name it, Mr. -Dugdale.’ I smiled, and her warmth increased. -‘That I should have been ever tempted,’ she -proceeded, ‘to undertake the odious voyage -to Bombay, for <i>this</i>! To be without a change<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> -of dress, to be obliged to sleep in a little dark -horrid cabin, and meanwhile not to have the -least notion when it is all to end!’</p> - -<p>Well, thought I, as I looked at her eyes -shining with spirit and temper, and marked -the faint hectic of her ill-humour in her -cheeks, the expression of mingled pride and -fretfulness in her lips, the wrathful rising and -falling of her breast, here, to be sure, is a new -version of the play of Katharine and Petruchio; -only, though she be Kate to the life, it -is not I, but old daddy Neptune who is to -break her spirit, and unshrew her into somebody’s -very humble servant. But is there any -magic, I thought, even in ocean’s rough, -brutal, unconscionable usage to render docile -such a woman as this? Nay, would any man -wish it otherwise with her than as it is when -he gazes at her eyes and figure, beholds the -dignity and haughtiness of her carriage, the -assumption of maiden sovereignty visible in -every move of her arm, in every curl of her -lip, in every motion of her form!</p> - -<p>‘What are you thinking of?’ she asked: -‘you are plunged in thought. I hope you are -struggling to do justice to my perception of -the truth.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>I started, and then laughed out. ‘I will -not tell you what I was thinking of,’ said I; -‘but I will express what was in my mind -whilst you were speaking just now. You -dwell with horror upon the captain’s account -of his crew. Well, I heartily wish for both -our sakes that they were an honest straight-headed -body of men. But then every ship’s -forecastle is a menagerie. There is ruffianism, -and there is respectability. Quite likely that -the carpenter Lush may have killed a man; -but one must hear the story before deciding -to call him a murderer. So of the convicts; -so of the mutineers. In many ships at sea -there is unspeakable provocation, and crimes -are committed of which the blood rests upon -the head of anyone sooner than those who are -held guilty and punished by the law. I am -not to be greatly frightened by Captain -Braine’s talk of his crew, particularly since in -a few days we may either be on board the -Indiaman or homeward-bound in another ship. -Let us now go on deck. I wish to take a -view of the sailors, and see what sort of a -craft this is, for as yet I have seen but little -of her.’</p> - -<p>I could not help remarking that she kept<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> -very close to me as we made our way out of -the cuddy, and that the glances she directed -forwards where some seamen were at work -were full of apprehension. The short poop of -the <i>Lady Blanche</i> was gained by a central -ladder falling fair in the face of the little doorway -of the cuddy front with its two small -windows and row of buckets. A low, handsomely -carved wooden rail was fixed athwart -the break of this raised deck, and I stood -with Miss Temple at a point of it that provided -me with a clear view fore and aft. The -captain sat on a grating abaft the wheel reading. -Mr. Lush was near the mizzen rigging, -gazing seawards with a stubborn wooden expression -of face. After the spacious decks -and wide topgallant-forecastle of the Indiaman, -this little <i>Lady Blanche</i> looked a mere -toy. But though a ship shows least admirably -from her own deck, I found a deal to please -and even delight me in the first comprehensive -look I threw around. She was as clean as a -yacht; the insides of her bulwarks were -painted a delicate green, and they were as -spotless as though the brush were just off -them; on either side were two little brass -guns, mounted on carriages, and they shone<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> -as freshly as though the sunlight were upon -them; the running gear was everywhere -neatly coiled away. The small caboose, with -its smoking chimney, abaft the foremast; the -length of windlass close in under the overlap -of the short space of forecastle; the white -longboat; the white scuttle-butt abreast of -it; the little winch abaft the mainmast; the -brass-lined circle of the wheel in the grasp of -the sober, good-tempered-looking old fellow -who had made one of the boat’s crew; the -two shapely clinker-built quarter-boats hanging -at the davits abreast of the mizzen mast—these -and much more seemed details of a -miniature delicacy and finish, that entered -with surprising effect into the fabric’s general -character of toy-like grace and elegance. On -high, the white canvas soared in symmetrical -spaces; but after the towering spires of the -Indiaman, the main-yard of this little barque -seemed within reach of the hand, and the -tiny skysail that crowned the summit of the -airy, snow-white, faintly-swelling cloths, no -bigger than a lady’s pocket-handkerchief.</p> - -<p>‘This is really a beautiful little ship, Miss -Temple,’ said I.</p> - -<p>‘I might be able to admire her from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> -deck of the <i>Countess Ida</i>,’ she answered; ‘but -there must be happiness to enable me to find -beauty, and I am not happy here.’</p> - -<p>I searched the sea-line, but it was as bare -and flawless as the rim of a brand-new guinea. -The dull shadow of the morning still overspread -the heavens; it was the same leaden -sky, with here and there a little break of -faintness, revealing some edge of apparently -motionless cloud, and the ocean lay sallow -beneath it, darker than it was for the pencilling -of the ripples which wrinkled the wide -expanse as they rode the long, light heave of -the swell. There were some sailors at work -in the waist on jobs, of which I forget the -nature; I examined them attentively—they -were within easy eyeshot; but though there -was no lack of prejudice in my observation, -I protest I could find nothing rascally in their -appearance. They were all of them of the -then familiar type of merchant seaman, as like -to members of the crew of the Indiaman as -one pea is to another; faces burnt by the sun -and decorated with the usual assemblage of -warts and moles, all of them of an unmistakably -English cut—I am speaking of the five -of them then visible—dressed in the rough<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> -apparel of the ocean, rude shirts revealing -the bare hairy breast, duck breeches with -stains of oil and tar in them which there was -no virtue in the scrubbing-brush and the lee-scuppers -to remedy. Miss Temple, standing -at my side, gazed at them.</p> - -<p>‘They have quite the look of cut-throats, -I think,’ said she.</p> - -<p>‘Well, now, to my fancy,’ said I, ‘they -seem as honest a set of lively hearties as one -could wish to sail with.’</p> - -<p>‘You merely say that to encourage me,’ -she exclaimed with a pout of vexation. ‘Observe -that man with the black beard—the one -that is nearest to us. Could you figure a completer -likeness of a pirate? I do not like his -way of glancing at us out of the corner of his -eyes. An honest sailor would stare boldly.’</p> - -<p>I laughed, and then put on a face of -apology.</p> - -<p>‘You will be smiling at these fears in a -few days, I hope,’ I exclaimed.</p> - -<p>‘Yes; but it is the meanwhile we have to -think of,’ she answered. ‘Look at that man -there’—meaning Mr. Lush; ‘pray, tell me, -Mr. Dugdale, that he has a very handsome, -manly, good-tempered face.’</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>‘No; I confess I don’t like his appearance,’ -I answered, stealing a peep at the sulky-looking -old dog, who continued to stare at the -horizon with the immovability of a figure-head; -‘yet inside of that hide there may be -stowed away a very worthy member of society. -A crab-apple is not a fruit to delight the eye; -but I believe it is wholesome eating, though -a trifle austere.’</p> - -<p>At that moment the captain looked up -from his book, and after taking a prolonged -view of us, came in a slow walk to where we -were standing, holding the volume in his -hand.</p> - -<p>‘You have a charming little ship here, -captain,’ said I; ‘I am exceedingly pleased -with her.’</p> - -<p>‘Yes, sir; she’s a handy craft. She will -do her work,’ he answered, sending his unwinking -eyes with their sort of slow dead look -along the deck.</p> - -<p>‘Which of those men down there are the -convicts and mutineers?’ began Miss Temple.</p> - -<p>He whipped round upon her with a vehemence -of manner that seemed a veritable fury -of temper to the first seeing and hearing of it.</p> - -<p>‘For God Almighty’s sake, not a word!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> -D’ye want to see me a murdered man?’ He -twisted round on to me: ‘Sir, you are to -know nothing if you please. This lady is to -know nothing. I asked ye both in the cabin -to be secret. God’s death! if that man -yonder had overheard her!’ He stopped -short, pointing with his thumb over his -shoulder at Lush.</p> - -<p>Miss Temple was deadly pale. She had -the same cowed air I had observed in her -during our first few hours aboard the wreck.</p> - -<p>‘I am very sorry—’ she muttered.</p> - -<p>‘For the love of God, mem!’ he exclaimed -in a whisper, putting his finger to his lips.</p> - -<p>It was time to change the subject. I -asked him how long he had occupied in his -passage from the Thames to this point, spoke -of the light trade-wind and baffling airs we -had encountered, told him once again of the -privateering brig, asked him what he thought -would be the chance of the corvette’s cutter -in such weather as she went adrift in, and in -this way coaxed him out of his temper until -I had got him to some posture of affability -once more. I do not recollect the number -of days he named as contained in his passage -from London, but I can remember that it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> -a very swift run, proving daily totals which -must have come very near to steam at -times.</p> - -<p>‘Such a nimble keel as this should make -you very easy, Miss Temple,’ said I; ‘why, -here is a craft to sail round and round the -<i>Countess Ida</i>. Even though we shouldn’t pick -her up, it is fifty to one that of all her -passengers we two shall be the first to arrive -in India.’</p> - -<p>She fastened her eyes upon the deck -with a countenance of incredulity and -despair.</p> - -<p>‘I suppose your port will be St. Louis, -sir?’ said I.</p> - -<p>He stared at me for some moments without -speaking, and then slowly inclined his -head in a single nod.</p> - -<p>‘I was never in that island,’ I continued; -‘but I presume we shall not be at a loss for -a vessel to carry us to some part of India -whence we may easily make our way to Bombay.’</p> - -<p>His lack-lustre gaze seemed to grow deader -as, after a pause, he exclaimed: ‘There’ll be -some French skipper to make terms with, I -don’t doubt, for a passage north.’</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>‘You talk, Mr. Dugdale,’ said Miss Temple, -‘as though you were well assured that we -should not fall in with the Indiaman.’</p> - -<p>‘I am desirous of creating plenty of -chances for ourselves,’ said I; then gathering -that this might not be a topic profitable to -pursue in the presence of so singular a listener -as Captain Braine, I again branched off. -‘How many,’ said I carelessly, ‘go to a crew -with you, captain?’</p> - -<p>He answered leisurely: ‘Thirteen as we -now are, all told. There was fourteen afore -Mr. Chicken died.’</p> - -<p>‘Well, even at that,’ said I, ‘a single -watch should be able to reef down for you. -I suppose’—here I sunk my voice—‘that Mr. -Lush yonder is now your chief mate?’</p> - -<p>‘No,’ he replied, speaking stealthily; ‘I’m -my own chief mate. He’s the ship’s carpenter, -and stands watch as second officer. -But what are ye to do,’ he proceeded, preserving -his stealthy delivery, ‘with a man -whose education don’t let him go no further -than making a mark for his name?’</p> - -<p>‘Then, I take it, there is nobody aboard -capable of navigating the vessel but yourself?’</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>‘We’ll talk about that presently,’ said he -with a singular look, and pointing with his -finger to the deck.</p> - -<p>I observed that Miss Temple narrowly -watched him.</p> - -<p>‘Was Mr. Chicken a pretty good navigator?’ -said I.</p> - -<p>He appeared to forget himself in thought, -then with a slow emerging air, so to speak, -and a steadfast, quite embarrassing stare, he -responded: ‘Chicken was acquainted with -the use of the sextant. He likewise understood -the meaning of Greenwich time. He -couldn’t take a star; but his reckonings was -always close when he got them out of the sun. -He’d been bred a collierman, and it took him -some time to recover the loss of coasts and lee -shores and lights. But he was a good sailor, -and a religious man; and his death was a -blow, sir.’</p> - -<p>‘Almost a pity that it wasn’t Mr. Lush -who was beckoned overboard,’ said I. (The -carpenter had now trudged aft, and was looking -into the compass out of hearing.)</p> - -<p>‘Ah!’ exclaimed Captain Braine, heaving -a deep sigh and shaking his head: ‘Lush’s -loss would have been my gain. One Chicken<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> -was worth all the Lushes that were ever afloat.—But -hush, mem, if <i>you</i> please.’</p> - -<p>‘I shall certainly say nothing more about -your crew,’ exclaimed Miss Temple quickly -and a little haughtily, while she slightly -recoiled from the face he turned upon her.</p> - -<p>‘Have you any books aboard, Captain -Braine?’ said I, glancing at the volume he -held in his hand. ‘Any sort of amusement -in the shape of chess or cards to help Miss -Temple and myself to kill an hour or two from -time to time?’</p> - -<p>‘There are some vollums in Chicken’s -cabin that belonged to him,’ answered Captain -Braine. ‘I’ve read two or three of them. -His cargo that way was usually edifying. -There’s Baxter’s “Shove:” a good yarn; there’s -the “Pilgrim’s Progress;” and there’s the “Whole -Dooty o’ Man”—a bit leewardly; I couldn’t -fetch to windward in it myself. For my part, -one book’s enough for me; and excepting -some vollums on navigation, it is the only -work I goes to sea with.’</p> - -<p>‘The Bible!’ I exclaimed, taking it from -him. I was astonished and pleased. There -seemed little for one to apprehend in the -character of a man who could dedicate his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> -leisure to the study of that Book, and I was -sensible of an emotion of respect for the -strange-looking, staring figure as I returned -the little volume to him.</p> - -<p>He dropped it into a side-pocket, and then -most abruptly walked to the rail, took a long -look at the weather and a long look aloft, -trudged over to Mr. Lush, with whom he -exchanged a sentence or two, and immediately -afterwards disappeared down the companion.</p> - -<p>For some time after this Miss Temple and -I paced the deck together. There was much -to talk about, and my companion found a deal -to say about Captain Braine, whilst, as we -walked, I would catch her taking furtive peeps -at Mr. Lush, who, it was easy to see, had -inspired her with aversion and fear, though -the man had not offered to address a word to -us, nor had he once looked our way, thirstily -inquisitive as his stare had been whilst in the -boat. I could not help contrasting her -behaviour now with what I recollected of it -aboard the <i>Countess Ida</i>. She had put her -hand into my arm, and the intimacy of our -association in this way might well have -suggested an affianced pair. She talked -eagerly and with all the passion of the many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> -emotions which rose in her with her references, -to our situation, to her aunt, to the chance of -our sighting the Indiaman, and the like; and -I don’t doubt that the men who watched us -from the forepart of the vessel put us down -either as husband and wife or a betrothed -couple.</p> - -<p>And all this in three days! Three days -ago she could hardly bring herself to speak -or even to look at me; and now fortune had -contrived that she should have no other -companion, that she should be locked up with -me alone in a dismasted hull, and then be -brought, always with me at her side, into a -vessel where, as she believed, there was much -more to fill us with alarm than in the worst -of the conditions which entered into our -existence aboard the wreck! Again and again -she would ask, with her dark and glowing -eyes bent with an expression of despair upon -my face, when it was to end and how it was -to end; and these questions my heart would -echo as I gazed at the cold and alarmed beauty -of her face, but with a very different meaning -from what she attached to the inquiries.</p> - -<p>At last she grew weary of walking, and I -took her below and sat with her awhile on a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> -cushioned locker. It was now drawing on to -four o’clock in the afternoon; the breeze -quiet, the sky in shadow, the sea very smooth -save for the soft undulation of the swell, -which pleasantly and soothingly cradled the -little fabric as she slipped through it, of a -milky white from water-line to truck, to the impulse -of her wide overhanging pinions. After -a bit, I observed a heaviness in the lids of my -companion, and urged her to lie down and take -some rest. She consented; and I lingered at her -side until sleep overcame her, and then I stood -for awhile surveying with deep admiration the -calm sweetness of her face, into which had -stolen the tenderness of the unconscious -woman, softening down the haughty arching -of eyebrow, unbending the imperious set of -the mouth. It was as though her spirit clad -in her own beauty was revealed to me disrobed -of all the trappings of the waking -humours. I could have knelt by her side, -and in that posture have watched her for an -hour. Can it be, thought I, as I crept softly to -the cuddy door, that I am in love with her?</p> - -<p>I leisurely filled my pipe from the hunk of -tobacco I had met with in the wreck, taking, -whilst I did so, as I stood on the quarter-deck,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> -a good steady look at such of the sailors as -were about, though I contrived an idly curious -manner, and directed my eyes as often at the -barque’s furniture as at the seamen. After I -had been on the poop a few minutes, Mr. Lush -left it to go forward; and with my pipe betwixt -my teeth, I lounged over to the binnacle -to see how the ship headed. The man who -grasped the spokes was the honest-faced fellow -I had before noticed at the wheel; he, I mean, -of the minute eyes and whiskers joined at his -throat, who had addressed me in the boat -whilst we lay alongside the hull. I noticed -that he seemed to stir a little uneasily as I -approached, as though nervously meditating a -speech, and I had scarcely glanced into the -compass bowl when he exclaimed: ‘I beg -your pardon, sir.’</p> - -<p>I looked at him.</p> - -<p>‘The noose,’ said he, ‘came forrads afore -I lay aft for this here trick that the ship you -came out of and lost sight of was the <i>Countess -Ida</i>.’</p> - -<p>‘That is so,’ I exclaimed.</p> - -<p>‘Might I make so bold,’ he continued, -slightly moving the wheel, and bringing his -specks of eyes into a squint over my head as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> -he sent a glance at the tiny skysail pulling -under the main-truck, ‘as to inquire if so be -that the bo’sun of that ship was a man named -Smallridge?’</p> - -<p>‘Yes, Smallridge; that was the boatswain’s -name,’ I replied, warming up to the mere -reference to that hearty sailor.</p> - -<p>‘Well,’ said he, ‘I heerd that he was agoing -bo’sun in that ship, and I was pretty nigh -signing for her myself, only that her date of -sailing didn’t give me quite long enough -ashore. And how <i>is</i> Mr. Smallridge, sir?’</p> - -<p>‘Very well indeed,’ said I.</p> - -<p>‘I’ve got a perticler respect for Mr. Smallridge,’ -he continued; ‘he kep’ company with -my sister for some time, and would ha’ married -her, but she tailed on to a sojer whilst he was -away, prefarring the lobster to the shellback, -sir. Well, I’m glad to larn that he’s hearty, -I’m sure. If so be as we should fall in with -the <i>Countess Ida</i>, and put you aboard without -my seeing of Mr. Smallridge, I’d take it werry -kind, sir, if you’d give him Joe Wetherly’s -respects.’</p> - -<p>‘I certainly will,’ said I with alacrity; ‘but -I fear there is little chance of our meeting -with the Indiaman.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>‘Well, there’s no telling,’ he exclaimed; -‘but she’ll have to be right in this here -barque’s road, supposing her to be ahead; -and if we should pass her in the dark, why, -then, good-night! for she’s like grease in the -water is this here <i>Lady Blanche</i>.’</p> - -<p>‘Smallridge and I were very good friends. -He’d been a sailor in the ship I was afterwards -midshipman in.’</p> - -<p>‘Oh, indeed,’ cried he. ‘And so <i>you</i> was -at sea, sir?’</p> - -<p>I was about to reply, designing to lead him -on into answering certain questions I had in -my mind concerning the captain and crew of -the barque, when Mr. Lush came up the poop -ladder; so, knowing the etiquette, I hauled -off, but with the full intention of sounding Mr. -Joe Weatherly at large when an opportunity -should offer.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> -<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XXV<br /> - -<small>I KEEP A LOOKOUT</small></h2></div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">I slipped</span> half-way down the little companion -ladder to take a peep at Miss Temple, and on -observing her to be resting quietly, I returned, -and after lighting my pipe anew, stepped over -to Mr. Lush, who was employed in cutting off -a piece of tobacco from a black cake to serve -him as a quid.</p> - -<p>‘It is not often hereabouts,’ said I, by way -of starting a conversation, ‘that one has a sky -like that all day long overhanging one’s mastheads.’</p> - -<p>‘No,’ said he; ‘but it’s better than the -roasting sun;’ and he opened his lame mouth -to receive the cube of tobacco into the hollow -of his cheek, whilst he eyed the sky askant, as -though in recognition of it as a subject of talk.</p> - -<p>‘Did you fall in with the smother that -ended in the lady and I being stranded aboard -the wreck?’ I inquired.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>‘No; there’s been ne’er a smother with -us.’</p> - -<p>‘The death of Mr. Chicken,’ said I, ‘must -have been a blow, seeing that the barque -carried but a couple of mates.’</p> - -<p>‘How many mates do a ship of this size -want?’ said he, without looking at me and -slowly masticating.</p> - -<p>‘Well, she has only one now, anyway,’ -said I.</p> - -<p>‘No; she ain’t got even one,’ he exclaimed, -with the manner of an ill-tempered man who -only listens for the sake of contradiction and -argument.</p> - -<p>‘Are not <i>you</i> second mate?’ I asked.</p> - -<p>‘Not I,’ he replied with a gruff laugh. -‘They calls me second mate, and I keeps -watch and watch with the capt’n as if I <i>was</i> -second mate; but what I’m signed for is -carpenter, and carpenter I be, and there’s -nothen more to be made out of me than that, -and I don’t care who the bloomin’ blazes hears -me say it.’</p> - -<p>He drew to the rail by a step and expectorated -violently over it. I was too -anxious for information about this little ship -and her crew to suffer my curiosity to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> -hindered by the man’s rough, coarse, ill-natured -speech and demeanour.</p> - -<p>‘I was wondering where you took your -meals,’ said I. ‘I now understand. You live -forward?’ He gave me a surly nod. ‘But -not in the forecastle?’</p> - -<p>‘Where else? Ain’t the fok’sle good -enough for me?’</p> - -<p>‘But does not association of that sort -weaken your control over the men?’</p> - -<p>‘<i>I’ve</i> got no control, and don’t want none. -The men’ll run if I sing out. And what -more’s to be expected of sailors?’</p> - -<p>‘It seems queer, though,’ said I, ‘since you -undertake the work of a second mate, that you -shouldn’t live aft. It must have been lonely -eating for the skipper after Mr. Chicken died?’</p> - -<p>‘I did live aft afore Mr. Chicken died,’ he -exclaimed, biting his tobacco with temper, -whilst his weather-stained face gathered a -new shade of duskiness to the mounting of -the blood into his head; ‘and then when the -capt’n and me comes to be alone, he tarns to -and finds out that I ain’t choice enough to sit -down with—says I ain’t got the art of perlite -eatin’, calls me a hog to my face, and tells me -that my snout’s for the mess kid and not for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> -knives and forks and crockery. Him!’ He -turned his face to the rail and spat again, and -looked at me with an expression of anger, but -checked himself with violence, and pushed his -hands into his breeches pockets with an irritable -motion of his whole frame.</p> - -<p>I considered that enough had been said; -and though I had gained but little information, -it was at least made clear to me that -there was no love lost between Captain Braine -and Mr. Lush. But further conversation -would have been rendered impossible in any -case, for just then a man struck eight bells on -the main-deck, and a minute or two later the -wheel was relieved, the captain arrived, and the -carpenter went forward in a round-backed -sulky walk, his legs bowed, his muscular arms -hanging up and down without a swing, each -bunch of his fingers curled like fish-hooks.</p> - -<p>I had talked enough, and was weary of -standing and walking; so, when I spied the -skipper, I slipped off the poop and seated myself -on a bench abreast of my sleeping companion, -where I remained for half an hour, -often gazing at her, my mind very busy with -a hundred thoughts, foremost amongst which -was the shuddering recollection of our late<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> -experiences and narrow escape, and deep -thankfulness to God for His merciful preservation -of us. The entrance of the captain’s -servant—a young fellow named Wilkins, to be -hereafter so called: a memorable figure in -this startlingly eventful passage of my life -which I am endeavouring to relate: a veal-faced, -red-headed, shambling fellow of some -two-and-twenty years, with white eyebrows -and lashes, and a dim blue eye—the entrance, -I say, of this man with a tray of tea-things -aroused Miss Temple, who, after a brief bewildered -stare at me, smiled, and sat upright.</p> - -<p>‘There is always something new now,’ she -exclaimed, ‘to look at when I open my eyes -after sleeping. Yesterday it was the wreck; -to-day it is this ship. What will it be to-morrow? -Is there anything in sight, Mr. -Dugdale?’</p> - -<p>‘There was nothing when I left the deck -half an hour ago,’ said I.</p> - -<p>She had awakened with a slight flush of -sleep in her face that greatly enriched her -eyes; but the delicate glow quickly faded; -she was speedily colourless as alabaster. She -smoothed her hair and put on her hat, that -she had removed when she lay down.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>‘It is strange,’ she exclaimed in a low -voice, ‘I should not seem able to endure feeling -that I am not in a condition to instantly -leave this vessel. It was so with me in the -wreck. Even without my hat, I feel unready; -and then, again, there is the sense of not being -exactly as I was when I left the <i>Countess -Ida</i>.’</p> - -<p>The captain called through the skylight: -‘Wilkins, bring me some tea and a biscuit up -here.’</p> - -<p>‘Ay, ay, sir.’</p> - -<p>‘Pray,’ said I, ‘when and where does the -captain dine?’</p> - -<p>‘I took his dinner to his cabin,’ responded -the young fellow; ‘he mostly eats there. But -now you’re here, I allow he’ll be a-jining of -you.’</p> - -<p>‘This is no meal for you, Miss Temple,’ -said I, with a glance at the old teapot and -the small plate of biscuits which furnished out -the repast. ‘No milk—brown sugar—no -butter, of course!’ Wilkins grinned whilst -he poured out some tea into a cup. ‘You’ve -had nothing to eat since we first came aboard.’</p> - -<p>‘I want nothing,’ she answered.</p> - -<p>‘Well, then, <i>I</i> do,’ said I. ‘Captain Braine<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> -is quite right. Shipwreck doesn’t impair the -appetite.’</p> - -<p>‘There’ll be supper at seven, sir,’ said -Wilkins.</p> - -<p>‘And what do you call supper?’ I inquired.</p> - -<p>‘Why,’ answered the fellow, ‘there’ll be -the beef ye had this morning, piccalillis, -bottled stout, biscuit after this here pattern, -and cold currant dumplings.’</p> - -<p>He then went up the companion steps with -some biscuit and tea for the captain. I -laughed out.</p> - -<p>‘Not so good as the Indiaman’s dinner-table, -Miss Temple, but better than the hull’s -entertainment. We must wait till supper’s -served. Meanwhile, I’ll blunt my appetite -on a biscuit. Will you give me a cup of -tea?’</p> - -<p>It was genuine forecastle liquor, such as -might have been boiled in a copper, of the -hue of ink, and full of fragments of stalk. -However, the mere looking at it was something -to do, and we sat toying with our cups, -making-pretend, as it were, to be drinking tea -and talking.</p> - -<p>‘I wonder,’ I exclaimed in the course of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> -our conversation, ‘whether the cutter was -picked up by one of the ships? If she lost -both of them, will she have lived in the -weather that followed? Anyway, the corvette -is certain to make a long hunt for her, with -the hope also of falling in with the Indiaman, -for Sir Edward will think it possible that -Keeling has his men aboard, and will want to -make sure. I fear this business of the cutter -may have led to such manœuvring on the -part of the two ships as must render our -falling-in with one or the other of them very -unlikely.’</p> - -<p>‘Oh, why do you say that?’ she cried.</p> - -<p>‘It is but a surmise,’ said I; ‘anyhow, I -heartily hope the cutter <i>has</i> been picked up, -if only for Colledge’s sake. The sudden loss -of the lieutenant will have dreadfully scared -him.’</p> - -<p>‘I earnestly wish that Mr. Colledge may -have been saved,’ said she with a faint glitter -of temper in her gaze; ‘but I could wish ten -times more earnestly that he had never been -born, or that he had sailed in any other ship -than the <i>Countess Ida</i>; for then I should not -be here.’</p> - -<p>‘Your aunt endeavoured to dissuade you.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>‘She did; and I am rightly served for not -obeying her.’</p> - -<p>‘You are very high-spirited, Miss Temple; -it is your nature, and you cannot help yourself. -You are a young lady to insist upon -having your own way, and you always get it.’</p> - -<p>‘Mr. Dugdale, you are too young to lecture -me.’</p> - -<p>‘How old do you think I am?’ said I.</p> - -<p>‘Oh, about six-and-twenty,’ she answered -with a slight incurious run of her eyes over -me that recalled her manner in the Indiaman.</p> - -<p>‘Well, if I am,’ said I, ‘it is a good solid -age to achieve. There is room for enough -experiences in six-and-twenty years to enable -a young man to utter several very truthful -observations to high-spirited young ladies who -insist upon having their way, and then quarrel -with everybody because their way is not -exactly the road they wish to tread.’</p> - -<p>She slightly knitted her fair brows and -looked at me fixedly.</p> - -<p>‘Mr. Dugdale,’ said she, ‘you would not -have dared to talk to me like this on board -the <i>Countess Ida</i>.’</p> - -<p>‘I was afraid of you there.’</p> - -<p>‘You <i>respected</i> me there, you mean, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> -now—because’—— She came to a stop, with -a little quivering at the extremities of her -mouth.</p> - -<p>‘I am no longer afraid of you, or, rather, -I no longer respect you because you happen -to be in this particular situation, which needs -no explanation whatever: that is, I suppose, -what you wish to say. But you misjudge me -indeed. I was afraid of you on board the -Indiaman, but I did not respect you; nay, my -aversion was as cordial as could be possibly -imagined in a man who thought you then, as -he thinks you still, the handsomest woman he -has ever seen in his life, or could ever have -dreamt of. But that aversion is passing,’ I -continued, watching with delight her marvellous -gaze of astonishment and the warm -flush that had overspread her face. ‘I am -discovering that much of what excited my -dislike and regret aboard the Indiaman is -artificial, an insincerity in you. This afternoon, -whilst you slept, I sat near you for -half an hour, gazing at you. All expression -of haughtiness had faded from your -mouth: your countenance wore an air of exquisite -placidity, of gentle kindness, of tender -good nature. In short, Miss Temple, I saw<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> -you as you are, as your good angel knows -you to be, as you have it in your power to -appear.’ I sprang to my feet. ‘How shall -we kill the blessed hours that lie before us? -Only think, it is barely five o’clock.’</p> - -<p>She gazed at me with an amazement that -seemed to render her speechless; her face was -on fire, and her throat blushed to where the -collar of her dress circled it. ‘It will not do,’ -I continued, ‘to attempt to murder time by -talking, or it will come to your killing me -instead of the hours. I’ll go and overhaul the -late Mr. Chicken’s bedroom, or, rather, his -effects. There <i>may</i> be something to interest. -Even the mouldiest backgammon board would -be worth a million;’ and I made for the little -hatch that conducted to our sleeping berths, -leaving her motionless at the table.</p> - -<p>Come, thought I, as I dropped into the -’tweendecks, a short spell of loneliness will do -you good, my haughty beauty, by making you -realise how it would be with you were you -actually alone. This is the first of the homely -thrusts I have been preparing for you, and I -will not spare you less as I grow to love you -more, taking my chance of your abhorring -me, though it may not come to <i>that</i> either.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span>I peeped into the berth that had been prepared -for her, and found all the odds and ends -which had encumbered it gone; there was a -clean mattress on the bunk, and on top of -it an old but comely rug and a couple of -shawls; a small looking-glass dangled near -the porthole. But what an interior for this -delicately nurtured, high and mighty young -lady of quality to lie in! No carpet, no chest -of drawers, nothing beyond the looking-glass -and a tin dish for washing in; in short, a mere -marine cell, as like as might be to any little -whitewashed room with grated window ashore -in which a policeman would lock up a pick-pocket!</p> - -<p>I entered my own berth. The boatswain’s -and sailmaker’s stores were not here, and I -found a ‘clean hold,’ as a sailor might say. -In fact, all Chicken’s traps being about, caused -the berth to present a much more hospitable -aspect than the adjacent one afforded. I examined -the books, but found most of them to -consist of religious literature, as the captain -had said, and the rest of them works on the -nautical life. Though it was hard to reconcile -a fancy of cards with the late Mr. Chicken’s -character as portrayed by the skipper, I yet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> -looked into a couple of chests in the hope of -meeting with a pack; but neither cards nor -any species of object calculated to divert did -I come across; and growing weary of hunting, -I returned to the cuddy.</p> - -<p>I perceived or imagined an air of reproach -in Miss Temple; but she had mastered her -temper and astonishment.</p> - -<p>‘There is nothing belonging to the late -Mr. Chicken to entertain us,’ said I.</p> - -<p>‘It surely does not signify, Mr. Dugdale. -Do you suppose that I have the heart -to play at cards or chess? Is not there -more wind than there was? I will ask you -to take me on deck. Something may be in -sight, and it will not be dark for some time -yet.’</p> - -<p>I gave her my hand, and helped her up -the little ladder. There was more wind, as -she had said; the skysails had been furled and -a studdingsail or two hauled down, and the -little barque, with her yards almost square, -was sweeping swiftly over the smooth waters, -slightly heeling from side to side as she went. -The foam in yeasty bubbles and soft cream-hued -clouds went spinning and writhing from -her bows into her wake, that ran like a path<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> -of coral sand over the darkling waters, now -complexioned into lividness by the gloomy -plain of vaporous sky. The crew were on -the forecastle—it was well into the first dog-watch—lounging, -sitting, yarning, and smoking. -Amidst them I noticed Mr. Lush, leaning -against the rail with a short sooty pipe in his -mouth, the bowl of which was inverted. He -was in his shirt sleeves, and he reclined with -his arms folded upon his breast, apparently -listening, in that dogged posture, to one of the -sailors, who was reciting something with outstretched -arm and a long forefinger, with -which he seemed to be figuring diagrams upon -the air. Upon the slope of the starboard cathead, -coming into the deck, sat my friend -Joe Wetherly, with a pair of thick-rimmed -spectacles on his nose; he pored on a book -with moving lips, from which he would expel -at intervals great clouds of smoke through a -pipe betwixt his teeth. So small was the -barque, so seemingly close at hand the forecastle -to the break of the poop, that even such -minute details as these were perfectly visible -to me.</p> - -<p>Captain Braine stood near the wheel. He -continuously stared at us, but did not shift<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> -his attitude nor offer to address us. I swept -the sea-line, but to no purpose.</p> - -<p>‘How sickeningly wearisome has that bare -horizon grown to me!’ exclaimed Miss Temple, -with a shuddering sigh; ‘it has just the sort -of monotony that would speedily drive me -crazy. I am sure; not the wearisomeness of -four walls, nor the tiresomeness of a single -eternal glimpse of unchanging country to be -had through a window; no! there is a -mockery in it which you do not find in the -most insipid, colourless scene on land. It is -not, and still it always <i>is</i>, the same. It recedes -to your pursuit, yet it is unalterable, and how -cruelly barren is it of suggestions!’</p> - -<p>‘Yet a sight of the Indiaman,’ said I, -‘should develop whatever of the picturesque -may be hidden in that tiresome girdle.’</p> - -<p>‘Ah, yes!’ she answered; ‘but we are -now running away from our chances. How -swiftly this boat sails! If the Indiaman is -behind us, we shall see no more of her.’</p> - -<p>‘Do not let us depress each other with -talk of this kind,’ said I; ‘let me give you -my arm, and we will stroll a little.’</p> - -<p>We had been on deck about twenty -minutes, when the captain, who had continued<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> -to steadfastly gaze at us in a most extraordinary -ruminating way, crossed the deck.</p> - -<p>‘Pray, sir,’ said he, ‘could I trust you to -keep a lookout for me if I went below for a -short spell?’</p> - -<p>‘I will do so with pleasure.’</p> - -<p>‘D’ye know what orders to give, if anything -requiring orders should happen?’</p> - -<p>‘Why,’ said I, smiling, ‘there are a good -many orders going at sea, you know, captain. -Figure a situation, and I will see if I can -recollect the routine.’</p> - -<p>He stared at me musingly with his dead -black eyes, and then said: ‘Well, suppose the -breeze freshens with a dark look to wind’ard, -and I’m below and asleep, and have left ye no -instructions; what would you do?’</p> - -<p>‘Call you,’ said I.</p> - -<p>‘And quite right, too,’ he cried, with a -vehement nod of approval, and a glance at -Miss Temple, as if he would have her participate -in his satisfaction. ‘But put me out of -the question, and allow that you’ve got to act -for yourself.’</p> - -<p>‘Why, Captain Braine,’ I exclaimed, -‘though my time at sea was brief, I am no -longshoreman. Such a question as yours<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> -means merely the first letter in the marine -alphabet.’</p> - -<p>‘I ain’t so sure of that,’ said he, with his -fixed regard.</p> - -<p>‘I admit,’ continued I, ‘that I have never -been shipmate with a fore-and-aft rigged -mizzenmast; but if it’s merely a question of -shortening sail, why, what else under the -moon is to be done than to take in your -studdingsails and clew up your royals and -haul down your flying jib, and then let go -your foretopgallant halliards, and haul down -your light staysails’—and so I rambled on, -winding up with, ‘I am leaving your after-canvas -untouched, because it is already in, you -see; whilst as to your jibs and staysails, I -assume of course that they are set.’</p> - -<p>He lifted his hand. ‘Thank’ee,’ said he; -‘I shan’t be long;’ and down he went.</p> - -<p>‘You will surely believe <i>now</i> that he is -mad!’ said Miss Temple with anxiety, but -softly, for the fellow at the wheel stood near, -and I had seen a grin crumple up his features -to the skipper’s question.</p> - -<p>‘He may want me to serve him as a mate,’ -said I, laughing.</p> - -<p>‘You will do nothing of the kind, I hope,’<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> -she exclaimed, as we fell to pacing the deck -afresh.</p> - -<p>‘I will do anything that may help me to -see you safe,’ said I.</p> - -<p>‘But cannot you perceive, Mr. Dugdale, -that if he believes you fit to serve him as a -mate, as you call it, he may prevent you from -leaving his ship by declining to communicate -with passing vessels?’</p> - -<p>‘That is true,’ said I.</p> - -<p>‘I am certain,’ she cried, squeezing my arm -in the energy of her emotion, ‘that he has -some design in his mind to make you serve -him. Why should he have teased you when -we came, poor miserable creatures! fresh -from the wreck, with inquiries about your -knowledge of navigation? Oh, beware of -him! He may not be quite mad, but he may -be as wicked as the worst of his men.’</p> - -<p>‘We must wait,’ said I, for her conjectures -were quite reasonable enough to prove disturbing. -‘But after all,’ I cried, brightening -up to the new idea that possessed me, ‘if we -are to sail to the Mauritius with him’——</p> - -<p>‘No!’ she exclaimed; ‘that is not to be -dreamt of.’</p> - -<p>‘Yet listen, I entreat you. If it is our uncomfortable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> -doom to remain in this barque -until she reaches her port, I do not know but -that the captain would be very honestly in the -right in expecting me to work my passage—that -is to say, to help him by keeping a lookout, -and by serving him in other ways which -may be possible to me.’</p> - -<p>‘Do not dream of sailing to the Mauritius!’ -she cried impetuously; ‘we must either soon -meet with the Indiaman or return home.’</p> - -<p>I could not forbear a smile at her imperious -<i>we</i>, as though whatever she did I must do.</p> - -<p>‘Ay, that is what we want,’ I exclaimed; -‘but then if we don’t fall in with the Indiaman -nor with a vessel homeward bound’——</p> - -<p>‘Absurd! Dozens of ships are to be met -with every day sailing home to England from -some part or other of the world. The idea of -remaining in this vessel is not to be entertained -for an instant. It would be intolerable -enough for me even to make the comparatively -short passage home, destitute as I am of everything; -but to leisurely proceed <i>all</i> the way to -the Mauritius—— Oh, be very careful, Mr. -Dugdale. I beg you not to know anything at -all about navigation and the duties of a sailor.’</p> - -<p>‘I can’t do that,’ I answered; ‘I have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> -loaded my gun and must stick to it; but I -promise you I will put no more shot in it.’</p> - -<p>She eyed me with great impatience and -warmth, as though provoked by my answer: -but she held her peace, and presently our -conversation went to other matters.</p> - -<p>Shortly before six o’clock the sky cleared -somewhat to windward. The wide pall of -leaden cloud lifted there, as though it were -some huge carpet a corner of which was being -rolled up, and there looked to flow a very -lagoon of pure blue ether, moist and rich with -the evening shadow, into the space betwixt -the rim of the sea and the edge of the cloud. -A clearer, more penetrating light broadened -out; and going to the companion hatch, I -took the telescope that lay in brackets there -and carefully searched the horizon. But the -sea washed bare to the sky on all sides.</p> - -<p>I did not observe that the men gathered -together on the forecastle seemed to notice -the captain’s absence, though I expected they -would come to stare a bit when the fellow who -stood at the wheel should go forward and tell -them that I had been acting as mate of the -watch. For my part this queer duty coming -upon me made the whole experience more wild<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> -and improbable to my imagination than had -been any other feature of it since we quitted -the Indiaman. Never was there such a forcing -of adventures, as it were, upon a man. It -was like dreaming to reflect that a little time -ago I was a passenger, an easy-going, smoking, -drinking, chess-playing young fellow, without -a care, with plenty of clothes and money -enough in my cabin, and that now I was a -half-starved, shipwrecked wretch, without the -value of a straw in the shape of possessions, -outside of what I stood up in and had in my -pockets, keeping a lookout as though, faith, I -was some poor, struggling, hungry second -mate, newly enlarged from an odious term of -apprenticeship! like dreaming, I say, to think -that a little time ago the young lady by my -side was a reserved, disdainful creature, with -scarcely a word betwixt her lips to throw at -me, and that now she could not speak of her -future without making me a sharer in it, that -she could not see enough of me, nor have my -arm too close for her hand; whilst in point of -destitution she, the most richly clad of the -Indiaman’s lady passengers, she, who had -seemed to me to appear in a new dress nearly -every day, was out and away more beggared<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> -than I; for so far as I was concerned there was -always the barque’s slop chest to come upon; -or, failing that, there would be jackets and -breeches and ‘housewives’ enough forward to -serve my turn if the push grew severe; -whereas Miss Temple was as badly off as if -she had been cast away upon a desert island!</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> -<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XXVI<br /> - -<small>I AM QUESTIONED</small></h2></div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> captain did not again return on deck. -At six o’clock Mr. Lush’s white jacket was -forked up to him through the forecastle hatch: -he slipped it on and came aft to relieve the -watch; but though he looked about a little -for the skipper, I could not find in his wooden -face that he made anything of not perceiving -him. By seven o’clock the sky had cleared; -the wide stretch of vapour which had all day -long obscured the sky had settled away down -beyond the southern rim, and the soft violet -of the tropic evening heaven was made beautiful -by spaces at wide intervals of a delicate -filigree-work of white cloud, dainty and fine -to the eye as frost on a meadow. The setting -sun glowed in the west like a golden target, -rayless, palpitating, and a cone-shaped wake -of flame hung under him. There was a -pleasant whipping of wind over the sea, a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> -merry air that whitened the heads of the -ripples, and it blew sweet and warm.</p> - -<p>Lush had loosed the skysails again and -sent the royal studdingsails up, and the -barque went nimbly floating through it in the -resemblance of some golden-tinctured fabric -of silver hull and sails of cloth of silver; -indeed, from the point of view of the space -of deck abaft the wheel, she showed like some -fairy creation in that atmosphere that was -brimful of scarlet light, and upon that -sapphire plain whose tender long-drawn -undulations seemed to wave a faint golden -hue through, the blue of the brine, as though -there were dyes of a westering sun-colour -rising from the heart of the deep, and then -subsiding.</p> - -<p>On looking through the skylight I perceived -Wilkins placing supper on the table. -This was an unusual meal at sea, at least -aboard of a homely trader of the pattern of -the <i>Lady Blanche</i>, and was a distinct illustration -in its way, to my recollections of seafaring -life, of the odd character of the man who -commanded the barque. He came out of his -cabin as we seated ourselves, giving Miss -Temple a grotesque bow before taking his -place.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>‘Sorry, mem,’ said he, casting his slow eye -over the table, ‘that there’s nothing choicer -in the way of victuals to offer you. I find -that the wine brought aboard from the wreck -is a middling good quality of liquor, and it is -to be saved for you, mem. Wilkins, open a -bottle, and give it to the lady. Pity that -shore-going folks who take interest in the -nautical calling don’t turn to and invent something -better for the likes of me than salt pork -and beef and biscuit, and peas which are only -fit to load a blunderbuss with. There have -been times when a singular longing’s come -upon me for a cut of prime sirloin and a -floury potato, as Jack says. But the sea-life’s -a hard calling, look at it from which end of -the ship ye may. How did you get on in -your watch on deck, Mr. Dugdale?’ he added -with a gaunt smile, in which I could not -distinguish the least complexion of mirth.</p> - -<p>‘There was nothing to be done,’ said I, -working away at a piece of salt beef, for I was -exceedingly hungry.</p> - -<p>‘But ye’d have known what to do if there -had been?’ said he.</p> - -<p>Miss Temple’s glance admonished me to be -wary.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span>‘Oh, I am no sailor,’ said I, ‘in the sense -that you and Mr. Lush are sailors.’</p> - -<p>‘Not Mr. Lush!’ he cried, elevating his -forefinger and staring hard at me past it. -‘Mr. Lush, as you term him, is a hog on two -legs. Let him go on all fours, and there’s -ne’er an old sow under a longboat that wouldn’t -take him to her heart as one of her long-lost -children. Such manners, mem!’ he continued, -addressing Miss Temple, whilst with -upturned eyes and raised hands he counterfeited -an air of disgust; ‘when he ate, you -could hear the smack of his lips fore and aft. -He’d make nothing of laying hold of a bit of -cold beef and gnawing upon it as a dawg -might, head first on one side and then on -t’other; and you’d find yourself listening to -hear him growl, if you looked at him. And -then his language! I’ve been eating by myself -pretty nigh since Chicken died, but it’s entertainment -for me to have company;’ and he -bestowed another bow upon each of us.</p> - -<p>‘You will not find the manners of a nobleman -in a plain ship’s carpenter,’ said I, -thankful to believe that he had forgotten the -subject of my sea-going qualifications. But I -was mistaken. He gazed at me with a steadfastness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> -that was absolutely confusing, whilst -he seemed lost in deep thought, then said:</p> - -<p>‘I’m not going to regard you, Mr. Dugdale, -as a tip-top sailor, of course. Ye’ve knocked -off too long; but it’ll all come back very -soon.’</p> - -<p>‘Mr. Dugdale was at sea for only two -years,’ said Miss Temple. ‘It would be unreasonable -to expect anyone to know much of -a calling in that time.’</p> - -<p>‘Don’t you believe <i>that</i>, mem,’ he exclaimed. -‘After twelve months of it, there was -but little left for me to larn—proper, I mean, -to fit me to sarve as able seaman aboard anything -afloat, from a hoy to a line-of-battle ship. -What don’t ye know now, Mr. Dugdale?’</p> - -<p>He somewhat softened his voice as he said -this, and a queer sort of yearning expression -entered his unwinking stare.</p> - -<p>‘Oh, much, captain, much,’ I answered -smiling, yet feeling somewhat bothered betwixt -these questions and Miss Temple’s -glances.</p> - -<p>‘You could put a ship about, I suppose.’</p> - -<p>‘Well, I might do that,’ I replied; ‘but -there would be a chance of my getting her -into irons, though.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span>‘You’d be able to know when to shorten -sail anyway, and what orders to give. You -told me ye could take a star?’</p> - -<p>‘Did I?’ I exclaimed.</p> - -<p>‘Certainly you did, sir,’ he cried.</p> - -<p>‘I do not recollect,’ said Miss Temple.</p> - -<p>‘Ha!’ he exclaimed, with another of -his mirthless grins, ‘the lady’s afraid of -your knowing too much, sir. I don’t mean -no offence, but there’s a forecastle saying -that all the male monkeys ’ud talk if it wasn’t -for their sweethearts, who advise them to -hold their jaw lest they should be put -upon.’</p> - -<p>Miss Temple’s face changed into stone, -after one withering glance at the man, -whose countenance remained distorted with a -smile.</p> - -<p>‘Some of Jack’s sayings are first class,’ -he went on. ‘Yes, ye told me you could -take a star. Can you find the latitude by -double altitudes?’</p> - -<p>‘A few trials would recall the trick, I daresay,’ -I answered.</p> - -<p>‘And of course you know how to find the -longitude by lunar observations?’</p> - -<p>‘Pray excuse me, Captain Braine,’ said I;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span> -‘but what, may I inquire, is your motive in -asking these questions?’</p> - -<p>He eyed me fixedly for some moments, and -then silently nodded his head three or four -times. Miss Temple seemed to shrink slightly -as she watched him.</p> - -<p>‘Mr. Dugdale,’ said he very slowly, ‘on -your giving me to understand that you had -sarved aboard an Indiaman, I was willing to -receive you and the lady aboard my ship. -When you came aboard, you told me that you -understood navigation. Didn’t ye?’</p> - -<p>I felt the blood in my cheek as I answered: -‘I have some recollection of speaking to that -effect.’</p> - -<p>‘Then why d’ye want to go and try to -make out <i>now</i> that ye know nothing about it?’</p> - -<p>‘I am trying to do nothing of the kind,’ -said I, assuming an air of dignity and resentment, -though I feared it was good for very -little. ‘You have questioned me, sir, and now -I ask <i>you</i> a question. I have a right to an -answer, seeing how you expect that I should -rapidly and fluently reply to you.’</p> - -<p>‘I’ll be talking to you afore long,’ he said, -bestowing another succession of dark mysterious -nods upon me.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>‘Captain Braine,’ cried Miss Temple, breaking -with an air of consternation out of the -cold, contemptuous resentment that had -made marble of her face, ‘you have rescued -us from a condition of dreadful distress, and -I have your promise that you will not lose an -opportunity to transfer us to the first ship you -meet that is homeward bound, providing we -do not shortly fall in with the <i>Countess Ida</i>.’</p> - -<p>‘I ha’n’t broke my promise yet, have -I?’ he replied, rounding slowly upon her and -staring.</p> - -<p>‘I can only repeat,’ she continued, preserving -her expression of dismay, ‘that any sum of -money you may choose to ask’——</p> - -<p>‘I know all about that, mem,’ he interrupted, -but not offensively, and with a gesture -that was almost bland. He then leisurely -turned to me. ‘You gave me to believe this -morning, sir, that you was acquainted with -navigation?’</p> - -<p>‘And what then?’ I exclaimed impatiently.</p> - -<p>‘I hope that you didn’t deceive me,’ he -said with a dark look.</p> - -<p>‘You shall have the full truth when I -know your motive in examining me in this -fashion,’ said I hotly, ‘and not before.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>But immediately after I had spoken I was -sensible of my folly in losing my temper. -Talk as we might, vapour as we would, we -were in this man’s power: in the power of a -man who was absolutely unintelligible as a -character whether sane or mad, and the girl’s -and my own safety might wholly depend upon -our judgment and tact. He gazed at me with -eyes whose expression seemed to grow more -and more malignant, though, God knows, this -might have been my fancy, since I was in the -humour at the moment to figure all things -very blackly.</p> - -<p>‘Understand me,’ I exclaimed, wholly -changing my manner, and speaking in a -softened tone; ‘if I can be of service to you -in any direction, you have but to command -me. I owe you my own and this lady’s life; -and though it is an obligation beyond my -power of discharging in full, yet it must be -my duty and happiness to diminish it in any -direction I am equal to.’</p> - -<p>‘We will before long talk together, sir,’ -said he, and then fell silent, nor did he again -open his lips during the seven or eight minutes -in which we continued sitting together at that -table.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span>I was exceedingly puzzled and troubled by -what had passed. What did this captain -mean by his dark mysterious nods, by his -saying that he would talk to me presently, by -his insistence in ascertaining the extent of my -nautical knowledge? It was possible, indeed, -that being the only navigator aboard his -vessel, he might consider himself in serious -need of some one to take his place if he -should fall sick. But his behaviour was -scarcely reconcilable with this plain clear -want, and it seemed certain that there was -more going to his speech and manner than -the desire that I should fill the part of mate -to him.</p> - -<p>It was a fair, warm, delightful night, rich -with stars, and soothing with the dew-sweetened -wind that blew with steady freshness -over the quarter, running the pale shape of -the barque over the dark waters, as though -she were some wreath of mist that must presently -dissolve. Miss Temple and I, sometimes -walking, sometimes sitting on the skylight, -held to the deck till a late hour. She -abhorred the thought of withdrawing to the -cabin allotted to her; and short as my sleep -had been since the hour of my quitting the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> -Indiaman’s side, I was as little willing as she -to quit the silence and coolness and beauty of -the open night for the confinement of a small -hot berth.</p> - -<p>The captain had charge of the deck from -eight to twelve; but he only once approached -us to say that a lantern containing an end of -candle had been placed in each of our berths; -‘and I will ask you both,’ he added, ‘to mind -your fire, for we’re full up with dry light goods -in the steerage.’ He then returned to the side -of the deck he had crossed from, and did not -again offer to approach us.</p> - -<p>You will suppose that the girl and I could -talk of nothing but the captain’s intentions, -the probable condition of his intellect, and the -like.</p> - -<p>‘He may refuse to part with me,’ said I, -‘and yet be perfectly willing to send you on -board of the first homeward-bound ship we -sight. What then, Miss Temple?’</p> - -<p>‘I could not travel alone. It is not -endurable that such a man as Captain -Braine should compel you, against your -wishes, to remain with him! How could -he do so? How could he compel you to take -a star, as he calls it, whatever that may mean;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> -and to keep watch?’ She sighed deeply. -‘Alas! my language is fast becoming that of -the common sailor. To think of me talking -to you about taking a star and keeping -watch!’</p> - -<p>‘And why not? Jack’s is a noble tongue. -Omit the oaths, and there is no dialect more -swelling and poetic than that of the sea.’</p> - -<p>‘I detest it because it is forced upon me. -An odious and dreadful experience obliges me -to think and speak in it. Otherwise, I might -rather like it. But tell me now, Mr. Dugdale, -surely this captain could not compel you to -remain with him?’</p> - -<p>This led to a deal of talk. I did my utmost -to reassure her; I exhorted her to bear in -mind that whilst we were on board the barque, -we were literally at the mercy of the skipper, -who, down to the present moment, had certainly -treated us with great humanity, though -his behaviour and conversation in the main -were undeniably of a lunatic sort. I bitterly -condemned myself for losing my temper, and -I entreated her to be patient, to control all -resentment that the man might excite by purposed -or involuntary insult, not to doubt that -he would put her on board a ship proceeding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span> -home, and to leave me to play a part of my -own that should keep us together.</p> - -<p>‘For,’ said I, ‘since fate, cruel to you, but -not to me, Miss Temple, has placed you so far -in my keeping, I must be jealous of all interference -down to the very termination of our -adventure.’</p> - -<p>‘I wish for no other companion,’ she -exclaimed in a low voice; ‘my mother will -thank you, Mr. Dugdale.’</p> - -<p>‘And, please God, your mother shall,’ said -I, ‘trifling as may be my claims upon her -gratitude. But however my merits may turn -out before we again sight Old England, I shall -be abundantly satisfied if I believe that you -think of me with more kindness than you -did on board the <i>Countess Ida</i>.’</p> - -<p>‘Mr. Dugdale, I thought of no one on -board the <i>Countess Ida</i>. But let us avoid -that subject—you have already been very -plain-spoken.’</p> - -<p>She ceased. I made no answer, and for -some time we paced the deck in silence, -harking then back again to the old topic of -the captain’s intentions, the whereabouts of -the Indiaman, and so on, and so on. By-and-by -I looked at my watch; the dial-plate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span> -showed clearly by the starlight. It was -eleven o’clock; and as I looked the ship’s bell -rang out six chimes, which came floating -down again in echoes out of the tremorless -pallid concavities on high. Miss Temple -was still most reluctant to leave the deck.</p> - -<p>‘I am thinking of Mr. Chicken,’ she exclaimed.</p> - -<p>‘Chicken’s ghost, like a hen’s egg, is laid,’ -said I. ‘Besides, what remains of him will be -all about my bunk.’</p> - -<p>‘Oh for the Indiaman’s saloon,’ she cried, -‘for my dear aunt, for old Captain Keeling! -How welcome would be a sight of even the -most intolerable of the passengers, say Mr. -Johnson; even that horrid little creature with -the eye-glass, Miss Hudson’s admirer.’</p> - -<p>‘I fear I am tolerated for the same reason -that would render Mr. Johnson endurable to -you.’</p> - -<p>‘No!’ she answered quickly and warmly; -‘you are incessantly personal. I do not like -it.’</p> - -<p>‘Suffer me to escort you to your cabin?’</p> - -<p>She lingered yet, turning her face to the -skies.</p> - -<p>‘How rich are those stars! Such lovely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span> -jewels are never to be seen in the English -heavens. Mark how the meteors score the -dark spaces between the lights with scars and -paths of diamond dust! Oh that some -gigantic shadowy finger would shape itself up -there pointing downwards, to let us know -where the <i>Countess Ida</i> is.’</p> - -<p>She rose from the skylight with a long -tremulous sigh, and passed her hand through -my arm that I might conduct her below. -For an instant I hung in the wind.</p> - -<p>‘Why do you wait? I am now ready,’ -said she.</p> - -<p>‘I am debating within myself whether I -should offer to stand watch to-night—the -captain might expect me to do so.’</p> - -<p>‘I do believe you desire that I should -think you as mad as he is,’ she exclaimed, -exerting pressure enough on my arm to start -me towards the poop-ladder; ‘you shall do -nothing of the sort with my consent. If you -wish to resume your old vocation, Mr. Dugdale, -pray wait until this adventure is ended.’</p> - -<p>‘Anyway, we must bid him good-night,’ -said I; and with that I called out to him. -He answered: ‘Good-night, Mr. Dugdale; -good-night to you, mem. If there’s anything<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> -a-missing which the <i>Lady Blanche</i> can supply -let me know, and you shall have it.’</p> - -<p>‘You’re extremely good, and we’re very -much obliged to you,’ said I.</p> - -<p>‘Good-night, Captain Braine,’ called Miss -Temple in her rich voice; and down we -went.</p> - -<p>The cabin lamp showed a small light. -Miss Temple waited here whilst I went below -for one of the two lanterns which the captain -had told me I should find in our berths. I -was obliged to kindle a sulphur match, and I -remember cursing the tardy operation of -obtaining a light whilst I stood hammering -away with flint and steel, injuring my knuckles, -and wishing the tinder-box at the deuce. I -found the lanterns, and left one alight in Miss -Temple’s cabin, and carried my own, also -alight, into the cuddy. Miss Temple’s eyes -sparkled to the glare as I approached her, -and her face might have been a spirit’s for its -whiteness in that faint illumination vexed with -shadows as the lantern swayed to the light -rolling of the barque.</p> - -<p>‘I wish I could sleep here,’ said she.</p> - -<p>‘You will be equally comfortable below,’ -said I; ‘and what is better, quite private.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span>‘Did you see any rats?’</p> - -<p>‘None.’</p> - -<p>She took my arm with a firm clasp, and -hardly seemed willing to release me at the -hatch, though the aperture was too narrow to -admit of our descending together. When we -had gained the lower deck, she again seized -my arm and stood staring and hearkening.</p> - -<p>‘Oh, Mr. Dugdale,’ she cried, ‘it is very -lonely down here!’</p> - -<p>‘Yes; but you are not alone. You must -have courage. I would rather you should be -next me than overhead next the captain.’</p> - -<p>Yet, as I spoke, my heart was full of -pity for her. It was indeed lonely, as she -had said, with a sense of imprisonment besides, -all that way down, thinking of where we -stood, I mean, with reference to the poop. -The stowed cases in the forepart seemed to -stir as though to some internal throes to -the weak light that swung in my hand; the -atmosphere was charged with an unpleasant -smell of cargo and the mingled fumes of a -ship’s hold; and there was something of the -heat of an oven also in the air that felt to rest -with a sort of weight upon the head, due -perhaps to the fancy begotten by the nearness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span> -of the upper deck or ceiling as you may term -it. Small straining noises stole upon the -ear from round about in stealthy notes, as -though they were giants below moving warily. -I say I was full of concern for the poor girl. -Somehow the misery of her condition had not -before affected me as it now did.</p> - -<p>‘It will not last long. It will be a thing -of the past very shortly: meanwhile, keep up -your heart, and trust me as your protector -whilst God leaves me a hand to lift,’ I exclaimed -with a tenderness of which I was -insensible until a little later on, when the -tones of my voice recurred to me in memory.</p> - -<p>She looked at me as though she were about -to speak, yet said nothing; and releasing my -arm, she stepped to her cabin door and peeped -in.</p> - -<p>‘Is there anything I can do?’ said I, keeping -at a respectful distance.</p> - -<p>She peered awhile, and then answered: ‘I -think not. But that candle will not last long, -and I shall be in darkness. Or if I should extinguish -it, how am I to light it again?’</p> - -<p>‘If you want a light,’ said I, ‘knock on -the bulkhead. I shall hear you, and will -answer by knocking. But it already draws<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span> -on for twelve o’clock. The dawn will be -breaking at five or thereabouts. I trust you -will sleep. You greatly need rest.’</p> - -<p>I removed my cap to kiss her hand, and -met her gaze, that was fixed full of wistfulness -upon me. ‘Good-night, Miss Temple,’ -said I. She entered her cabin looking as -though her heart was too full for speech, and -closed the door.</p> - -<p>I was now feeling exceedingly weary, yet, as -I feared that she might need me, or, in some -nervous fit, knock if it were but to know that -I was awake, I filled my pipe, got into Mr. -Chicken’s bunk, and sat smoking. I cannot -express the peculiar character of the stillness -down here. It was very extraordinarily -accentuated by the sounds which at intervals -penetrated it: such as the muffled jar of the -rudder working upon its post, the dim wash of -water, startlingly close at hand, along with -the faint seething noise of the barque’s wake -hissing within arm’s reach, as it seemed, and -coming and going upon the hearing fitfully. -The suit of oilskins against the bulkhead -swayed to the heave of the fabric, and they -resembled the body of a man who had hanged -himself by the nail from which they dangled.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> -There was a pair of sea-boots up in a corner -with a dropsical bulging out about the foot of -them in the part where a man’s bunions would -come, and they showed so very much as if -they had just been drawn off the legs of Mr. -Chicken, that they grew ghastly presently, and -to relieve my imagination, I directed my eyes -at other objects.</p> - -<p>I sat smoking and full of thought. My -eyelids were as of lead, yet my mind continued -impertinently active. The horrors we had -escaped from lay like the shadow of a thundercloud -upon my spirits; the oppression was too -violent to suffer the continuance of any emotion -of exultation over our deliverance. Dark -and dismal fancies possessed me. I thought -of Captain Braine as a man whose reason was -unsound, and who was capable of playing me -some devilish trick; I thought of the coarse -and surly carpenter, and of the charge of -murder hinted against him by the skipper. I -thought of the convicts and of the mutineer -in the forecastle, and then my raven-like -imagination going to Miss Temple, I reflected -that I was unarmed, that I had no weapon -about me but a knife, that must prove of very -little use should it come to my having to make<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span> -a fight of it for hers and my own life. Surely, -I mused, old Chicken will not have come to -sea without some instrument of self-defence, -be it blunderbuss, pistol, or cutlass.</p> - -<p>I took an earnest view of the interior. -There was a locker against the bulkhead that -divided Miss Temple’s cabin from mine; I had -incuriously opened and looked into it when -searching for something to divert ourselves -with, being by the time I had come to that -locker too tired to continue overhauling the -dead man’s effects. Besides this receptacle -there were two chests of clothes and other -matters along with a bagful of things, and a -shelf over the bunk filled with odds and ends. -There was still about an hour of candle-light -in the lantern. I raised the lid of the locker, -and found within a truly miscellaneous ‘raffle’ -of objects, as a sailor would term it: charts, -slippers, sextant in case, a number of tobacco -pipes, bundles of papers, and I know not what -besides. At the bottom, in the left-hand -corner, was a small canvas bag very weighty -for its size. I drew it out, and found about -forty pounds in gold inside it, with three -Australian one-pound notes, dark with thumbing -and pocketing, and a five-pound note<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span> -scarcely distinguishable for dirt and creases. -I replaced the bag; and coming to the other -end of the locker, working my way to it -through a very rag-and-bottle shop of queer -gatherings, I met with the object that I was -longing for: to wit, a heavy, long, double-barrelled -pistol, with a couple of nipples and -a ramrod, and a butt massive enough to bring -an ox to earth with. There were a parcel of -bullets, and a small brown powder-flask full -in the piece of canvas in which the pistol was -wrapped; but for some time I could not find -any caps. Without them, the pistol would not -be of the least use, and my satisfaction yielded -to mortification as I continued to probe into -the locker without result. I was about to -abandon the quest in despair, when my fingers -touched a circular metal box like to those -which used to contain paste for the polishing -of boots; I fished it up, and was mighty glad -to find it filled with caps. Come, thought I, -if difficulties are to happen, I am better off -now than I was half an hour ago, anyhow.</p> - -<p>All this time there had been no noise next -door, and I could but hope that Miss Temple -was sleeping. I carefully put the pistol and -its little furniture into the foot of my bunk,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span> -and pulling off my coat and waistcoat, and -removing my shoes, I vaulted on to Mr; -Chicken’s mattress, blew out the candle in the -lantern and stretched my length. It was -hard upon two o’clock, however, before I fell -asleep. The scuttle or porthole was abreast -of the bunk, and the black disc of it framed the -low-lying stars of the horizon as they slided -up and down to the lift and fall of the hull. -My thoughts went out to the great dark ocean, -and shivers chased me, hot as the cabin was, -as I lay reflecting upon the fire and explosion -of the wreck, and upon how it would have -been with us if Captain Braine, having taken -a view of the hull, had proceeded and left us -to our fate. The noises which violated the -singular stillness down in that part of the ship -where we lay, and which had rendered me -somewhat uneasy at first, now proved lulling -as I lay hearkening to them, growing drowsier -and drowsier. There was a slumberous -monotony in the creaking and jarring of the -rudder, something soothing in the dim hissing -of the wake dying out, and then seething -afresh like the noise of champagne in a glass -held to the ear, as the frame of the barque -slightly soared and sank in delicate floating<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span> -movements upon the under-run of the dark -swell. Perhaps by this time to-morrow we -may be aboard a ship homeward-bound, I -remember thinking: and that was the last of -my thoughts that night, for I immediately -afterwards sank into a sound sleep.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span> -<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XXVII<br /> - -<small>THE BRIG’S LONGBOAT</small></h2></div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">I was</span> awakened by a knocking at the door. -The little cabin was bright with sunshine, that -was flashing off sea and sky upon the thick -glass of the scuttle. ‘Hallo!’ I cried, ‘who is -that?’ The voice of the young fellow Wilkins -responded:</p> - -<p>‘Capt’n Braine’s compliments, sir, and he’d -be glad to know if there’s anything you or the -lady wants which it’s in his power to supply -ye with?’</p> - -<p>I got out of the bunk and opened the door.</p> - -<p>‘Captain Braine is very kind,’ said I to the -veal-faced youth, who stood staring at me -with faint eyes under his white lashes and -brows. ‘What time is it, Wilkins?’</p> - -<p>‘Half-past eight, sir,’ he answered.</p> - -<p>I knocked upon the bulkhead. ‘Are you -awake, Miss Temple?’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span>‘Oh yes,’ she answered, her voice sounding -weak through the partition.</p> - -<p>‘Captain Braine wishes to know if you are -in want of anything it is in his power to let -you have?’</p> - -<p>‘There are many things I want,’ she exclaimed; -‘but they are not to be had, I fear. -I am afraid I shall have to use that comb. I -can do nothing with my hair, Mr. Dugdale.’</p> - -<p>‘All right, Wilkins,’ said I; ‘we shall be -on deck in a few minutes.’ He went away.</p> - -<p>I found the comb that had belonged to Mr. -Chicken on a shelf, and knocked on Miss -Temple’s door. She opened it, and an arm of -snow, of faultless shape, was projected to -receive the comb. ‘Thank you,’ said she, -whipping the door to, and I entered my cabin, -calling out that I would wait for her there till -she was ready.</p> - -<p>Happily, in respect of toilet conveniences -we were not wholly destitute. The water in -my can was indeed salt, but I contrived to get -some show of lather out of the fragment of -marine soap which I found inside of the tin -dish that served me as a wash-basin. I was -without Miss Temple’s scrupulosity, and found -old Chicken’s hairbrush good enough to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span> -flourish. There was a little parcel of razors, -too, on the shelf where the comb had been, -and with one of them I made shift to scrape -my cheeks into some sort of smoothness, -wholly by dint of feeling, for Miss Temple -had Chicken’s glass, and there was nothing in -my cabin to reflect my countenance. By the -time this little business was ended, and I had -carefully concealed the pistol and powder-flask, -Miss Temple was ready. She knocked -on my door, and I stepped out.</p> - -<p>I could see her but very imperfectly in the -dim light of that steerage, yet it seemed to -me that there was more vivacity in her eyes, -more life in her carriage and air, than I had -witnessed in her on the yesterday. She told -me that she had slept soundly, and that her -mattress was as comfortable as her bed aboard -the <i>Countess Ida</i>.</p> - -<p>‘I am heartily glad to hear that,’ said I. -‘You found the marine soap tough, I fear?’</p> - -<p>‘It cannot be good for the complexion, I -should think,’ said she with a slight smile.</p> - -<p>‘How shocking,’ I exclaimed, as we moved -to the hatch, ‘would such a situation as yours -be to a young lady who is dependent for her -beauty on cosmetics and powder! How<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span> -would Miss Hudson manage if she were here, -I wonder?’</p> - -<p>‘Is there anything in sight, do you know, -Mr. Dugdale? That is a more important -subject to me than complexions.’</p> - -<p>‘I did not ask; but we will find out.’</p> - -<p>It was a brilliant morning, a wide blue, -blinding flash of day, as it seemed to my eyes -after the gloom below. The sea was all on -fire under the sun, and the wind held it -trembling gloriously. A hot and sparkling -breeze in the same old quarter gushed freshly -into the wide expanded wings of the <i>Lady -Blanche</i>, whose swift pace over the smooth -plain of ocean seemed a sort of miracle of -sailing to me when I contrasted it with the -rate of going of the <i>Countess Ida</i>. The flying-fish -in scores sparkled out from the barque’s -white sides. The foam came along her -sheathing like a roll of cotton-wool to her -wake. The ocean line ran round in a firm -edge with an opalescent clarification of the -extreme rim that gave the far-off confines a -look of crystal.</p> - -<p>But I had not stood longer than a minute -gazing around me when I spied a gleam of -canvas about a point on our weather-bow. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span> -saw it under the curve of the fore-course that -lay plain in sight under the lifted clew of the -mainsail.</p> - -<p>‘A sail, Miss Temple.’</p> - -<p>‘Where?’ she cried, with her manner full -of fever on the instant. I pointed. ‘Oh,’ -she exclaimed, bringing her hands together, -‘if it should be the Indiaman!’</p> - -<p>But the captain was walking aft, and it -was time to salute him.</p> - -<p>‘Good morning, sir,’ I said as I approached -him with Miss Temple at my side. ‘We have -paused a moment to admire this very beautiful -morning. I perceive a sail right ahead, -captain.’</p> - -<p>It was a part of his destiny, I suppose, -that he should stare hard at those who accosted -him before answering. He carried his unwinking -dead black eye from my companion -to me, and then stepped out of the shell of his -mood of meditation as a bird might be hatched.</p> - -<p>‘Hope you slept pretty comfortably?’</p> - -<p>‘Yes; I passed a good night; and I am -happy to know that Miss Temple rested well.’</p> - -<p>‘Which way is that ship going?’ cried the -girl, whose cheeks were flushed with impatience.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span>‘She is not a ship, mem,’ he answered; -‘she is seemingly a big boat that’s blowing -along the same road as ourselves under a lug.’</p> - -<p>The telescope lay on the skylight, and I -pointed it. Sure enough, the sail was no ship, -as I had first imagined, though the white -square hovering upon the horizon exactly -resembled the canvas of a large craft slowly -climbing up the sea. I could readily distinguish -a boat, apparently a ship’s longboat, -running before the wind under a lugsail; but -she was as yet too distant to enable me to -make out the figures of people aboard, -considerable as were the magnifying powers -of the glass I levelled at her.</p> - -<p>‘Only a boat?’ cried Miss Temple, in -accents of keen disappointment.</p> - -<p>‘What will a craft of that sort be doing -in the middle of this wide sea?’ said I.</p> - -<p>‘She may have gone adrift, as you did,’ -answered Captain Braine.</p> - -<p>‘Is it imaginable that she should be the -corvette’s cutter?’ cried Miss Temple, straining -her fine eyes, impassioned with conflicting -emotion, at the object ahead.</p> - -<p>‘Oh, no,’ said I. ‘First of all, the cutter -had no sail; next, yonder boat is three or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span> -four times bigger than she was; and then, -even if she had a sail, I question if she could -have run all this distance in the time from the -spot she started from.’</p> - -<p>I noticed whilst I spoke that Captain Braine -watched me with a singular expression, and -that his face slightly changed as to an emotion -of relief when I had concluded my answer.</p> - -<p>‘The lady,’ said he, ‘is speaking of the -man-of-war cutter that rowed ye aboard the -wreck, and lost ye there?’</p> - -<p>‘Yes,’ said I.</p> - -<p>‘How many of a crew?’ he asked.</p> - -<p>‘Six men and a lieutenant; but the officer -was drowned.’</p> - -<p>He took the telescope from me, and brought -it to bear upon the little sail over the bow, -and kept it levelled for some moments. He -then put the glass down and said: ‘Have you -had any breakfast?’</p> - -<p>‘Not yet,’ I answered.</p> - -<p>He called through the skylight to Wilkins, -and told him to put some biscuit and tea and -cold meat upon the table. ‘I have made my -meal,’ said he, contriving one of his extraordinary -bows as he addressed Miss Temple; -‘and so, I hope, mem, you’ll excuse my presence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span> -below. Eat hearty, both of ye, I beg. There’s -no call to stint yourselves, and I’m sorry I -can’t put anything more tempting afore ye, as -Jack says.’</p> - -<p>We at once descended, both of us being -anxious to get the meal, such as it might be, -over.</p> - -<p>‘Why is he repeatedly saying, “as Jack -says?”’ asked Miss Temple.</p> - -<p>‘Ah!’ I exclaimed,‘and why does he stare -so? Yet, on my word, he seems an exceedingly -good-natured fellow. I assure you -we might have fallen into worse hands. No -man could make a homeward-bound ship to -rise up out of the sea or signal our whereabouts -to the <i>Countess Ida</i> when she is leagues -and leagues out of sight; but another captain -might not have shown half the friendly concern -this poor eccentric creature exhibits in -our comfort.’</p> - -<p>She agreed with me, but quickly dropped -the subject as something distasteful, and spoke -of her disappointment, and of the strangeness -of meeting a small boat in the middle of such -an ocean as we were sailing through. By -some trick above my comprehension, she had -contrived to smooth out her dress, insomuch<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span> -that a deal of its castaway aspect had left it. -She had also manœuvred in some fashion with -the feather in her hat; and I told her, as she -sat opposite me, that she looked as fresh as -though she had just left her cabin in the -Indiaman.</p> - -<p>‘Youth must always triumph,’ I said, ‘if -it be but fairly treated. Sleep has made your -former self dominant again: but I will reserve -all my compliments until I am able to pull my -hat off to you ashore and say good-bye.’</p> - -<p>She shot a glance at me under her long -fringes, but held her peace.</p> - -<p>The tea was so vile that I called to Wilkins, -who stood on the quarter-deck, to procure us -some coffee if there were any aboard; and in -a few minutes he returned with a sailor’s -hook-pot full of it from the galley. This Miss -Temple seemed able to sip without a face of -aversion. It vexed me to see her imperilling -her delicate white teeth with the hard fare -that was sheer forecastle stuff, and bad at -that; but it was not for me to give orders, -nor was I willing to protract our sitting by -inquiring if there was other food aboard. -Besides, every hour in such weather as this -might provide us with the opportunity we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span> -hungered for, to escape into some homeward-bound -ship with a cabin capable of affording -endurable entertainment.</p> - -<p>We rose from the table, and regained the -deck. The moment my head showed above -the companion-way, the captain called to me -hastily. There was a look of disorder in his -countenance that immediately excited my -wonder; there was the alacrity of fear in his -manner; he could address me now without -a prolonged stare and his usual tardy emergence -of mind.</p> - -<p>‘Please, take this glass,’ said he, thrusting -the telescope into my hand; ‘and look at -that there boat, and tell me what you -think.’</p> - -<p>The smooth, swift sliding of the <i>Lady -Blanche</i> over the level surface of sea that was -running in fire and foam lines to the brushing -of the merry breeze and the sparkling of the -soaring sun, had closed us rapidly with the -boat ahead since Miss Temple and I left -the deck. The little fabric was now scarcely -more than a mile on the bow, and the -captain’s glass, when I put it to my eye, -brought her as close to me as if she were no -further off than our forecastle. She was a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span> -large, carvel-built longboat; one of those -round-bowed, broad-beamed structures which -in the olden days used to stand in chocks -betwixt a ship’s foremast and galley, with -often another boat stored inside of her, unless -she was used to keep sheep or other live-stock -in. She was deep in the water, and as much -of her hull as was visible was of a dingy -sallow white. She showed a broad square of -dark old lug, before which she was running -with some show of nimbleness. She seemed -to be crowded with men, and even whilst I -stood looking at her through the glass, I -counted no less than twenty-seven persons. -They were all looking our way, and though it -was scarcely possible to define individual faces -amid such a yellow huddle of countenances, I -could yet manage to determine a prevailing -piratic expression of the true sort, suggested -not so much by the vagueness of swarthy -cheek and shaggy brow as by the singularity -of the fellows’ apparel—the flapping sombrero, -the red sash, the blue shirt, with other details—which -but very faintly corresponded indeed -with one’s notion of the coarse homely attire -of the merchant sailor.</p> - -<p>Captain Braine’s eyes were fixed upon me<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span> -as I turned to him. ‘What do you think of -her, sir?’ said he.</p> - -<p>‘I don’t like the look of those fellows at -all,’ I answered. ‘I would not mind making -a bet that they are a portion of the crew of -the privateering brig from whose hull you -rescued us yesterday morning.’</p> - -<p>‘Just the idea that occurred to me,’ he -cried. He levelled the glass again. ‘A -boatful of rascals, sir. Armed to the teeth, -I daresay, and on the lookout for some such -a vessel as mine to seize and get away back -to their own waters in. And yet, it is awful, -too, to think that the creatures may be in -want of water. What’s to be done? I can’t -allow them to board: and I’m not going to -heave to, to give ’em a chance of doing -so.’</p> - -<p>‘We’re overhauling them fast,’ said I. -‘Best plan perhaps, captain, will be to hail -them as we slide past and ascertain their -wants, if we can understand their lingo; and -if they need water, there’s nothing to be done -but to send some adrift for them to pick up. -But for God’s sake, sir, don’t let them come -aboard. They look as devilish a lot of cut-throats -as ever I saw; and besides the safety<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span> -of our lives and of the ship, we have this lady -to consider.’</p> - -<p>Captain Braine listened to me with his eyes -fixed upon the boat.</p> - -<p>‘She can’t hook on at this,’ said he, as if -thinking aloud; ‘we should tow her under -water at such a pace. By heavens,’ he shouted, -with a wild look coming into his face, ‘if she -attempts to sheer alongside, I’ll give her the -stem!’ and springing with the agility of a -monkey upon the rail, he grasped a backstay, -and stood in a posture for hailing the boat as -we swept past.</p> - -<p>Forward, the seamen had quitted the jobs -they were upon, and were staring open-mouthed -from the forecastle rail. I picked up -the glass again to look at the crowd, and -every face in the lens was now as distinct as -Miss Temple’s who stood beside me. An -uglier, more ferocious-looking set of men -never stepped the deck of a picaroon. I had -not the least doubt whatever that they were a -portion of the crew of the brig. Indeed, I -seemed to have some recollection of the boat, -for I remembered, whilst examining the brig -from the poop of the Indiaman, that I had -been struck by the unusual size of her longboat,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span> -and that the colour of her was the sallow -pea-soup tint of the fabric yonder. There -were several chocolate-coloured faces amongst -the little crowd; here and there, a coal-black -countenance with a frequent glitter of earrings -and gleam of greasy ringlets. Many of them -eyed us over the low gunwale under the sharp -of their hands; one stood erect on the thwart -through which the mast was stepped, clasping -the spar with his arm, and apparently waiting -to hail us. The steersman watched us continuously, -and now and again the boat’s head -would slightly fall off to a sneaking movement -of the helm, as though to some notion of -edging down upon us without attracting our -observation. But the barque’s keen stem -was ripping through the water as the jaws of -a pair of shears drive through a length of -sailcloth. I had no fear of the boat hooking -on; she would have to manœuvre under our -bows to do that, and it needed but a little -twirl of the spokes of our wheel to drive her -into staves and to send her people bobbing and -drowning into our wake.</p> - -<p>‘Boat ahoy!’ shouted the captain with -such delivery of voice as I should have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> -thought impossible in so narrow shouldered a -man.</p> - -<p>‘Yash! yash!’ vociferated the fellow who -clasped the mast, frantically brandishing his -arms. ‘Ve are sheepwreck—you veel take us—ve -starve!’</p> - -<p>The captain looked and hardly seemed to -know what to say.</p> - -<p>‘How long have you been adrift?’ he -bawled.</p> - -<p>The fellow, who wore a red nightcap, -shook it till the tassel danced to the violent -gestures of his head. He evidently did not -understand the question. ‘Take us!’ he -shrieked;—‘ve starve!’</p> - -<p>The boat was now on the bow, within -pistol-shot from the forecastle rail.</p> - -<p>‘Mind your helm, Captain Braine,’ I -suddenly shouted, ‘or she’ll be aboard you!’ -for my young and, in those days, keen eyes -had marked the action of the fellow who -steered the boat, and even as I bawled out, -the head of the little fabric swept round with -a fellow in the bows flourishing a boathook, -to which was attached a length of line, and -others standing by ready to help him when he -should have hooked on.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span>‘Steady as she goes!’ cried Captain -Braine.</p> - -<p>‘Oh Mr. Dugdale,’ shrieked Miss Temple, -‘they will get on board of us!’</p> - -<p>The boat’s head drove sheering alongside -into our bow just forward of the fore-chain -plates. I saw the fellow erect in her head -fork out his boathook to catch hold.</p> - -<p>‘Let go!’ roared a voice forward. The -figure of Joe Wetherly overhung the rail, -poising either an iron marline-spike or a -belaying-pin, or some short bar of metal; this -I saw. Then he hurled it at the moment that -the boathook had caught a plate. The missile -struck the man full on the head; he fell like -a statue in the bottom of the boat, and the -boat herself ground past us as the barque, -to the impulse of her great overhanging -squares of studdingsail, swept onwards at -some seven or eight knots in the hour.</p> - -<p>They were so crowded as to be in one another’s -road. I saw a dozen grimy paws extended -to catch hold of the main-chain plates -as the boat came bruising and groaning and -washing past; but the iron bars were swept -like smoke out of the wretches’ frantic grip. -Never shall I forget the picture the little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span> -fabric offered in the swift glimpse I caught of -her as she glided past. The crowd, in their -desperate efforts to catch hold of the sweeping -projections in the barque’s side, squirmed and -surged and rose and fell like rags of meat -stirred up in a boiling stewpot. Their cries, -their yells, their Spanish oaths, the brandishings -of their arms, the fury expressed in their -malignant faces, the sudden uprootal and -crash of their one mast and sail by the fouling -of it with our mainbrace, all combine into a -memory which is not to be expressed in words. -I caught sight of a number of breakers in the -bottom of the boat along with some bags, and -was instinctively assured that they were lacking -in neither food nor water. As the boat sped -under the rail on which Captain Braine was -standing, the fellow who had been at her helm, -a brawny mulatto in a wide straw-hat, loose -red shirt, and naked feet, suddenly whipped a -pistol out of his breast, took aim at the -skipper, and fired; and then, in a breath or -two, the craft was astern, tumbling in the -seething white of our wake, lessening into a -toy even as you looked, with half of her people -getting the wreck of mast and rail inboard, and -the rest of them furiously gesticulating at us.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span>Captain Braine stood on the rail watching -them with an air of musing that was incredibly -odd in the face of the wild excitement -of the moment.</p> - -<p>‘Are you hurt?’ I cried.</p> - -<p>He turned slowly to survey me, then very -leisurely dismounted from his perch, meanwhile -continuing to gaze at me.</p> - -<p>‘No,’ said he, after an interval during -which I ran my eyes over him with anxiety, -thinking to see blood or to behold him -suddenly fall; ‘it’s all right. This is the -fourth time I’ve been shot at in my life; and -be my end what it will, it is certain I am not -to perish by another man’s bullet. Rogues -all, ha!’ he continued, directing his dead -black vision at the boat astern; ‘they would -have carried the little <i>Blanche</i>, and slit our -throats. Just the sort of ship, sir, for the -likes of their trade: the heels of a racehorse -and the sober look of the honest marchantman. -Slit our throats; all saving <i>yours</i>, mem, I -expect; but only to reserve ye for something -worse than death to you, if your noble looks -don’t belie your taste.’</p> - -<p>‘They never could have held on with that -boathook,’ said I, struck more by the man’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span> -manner than his speech, strange as it was. ‘I -suppose they hoped to cling long enough to -chuck a few of their beauties aboard us. -Well, Miss Temple, let us trust that we have -now seen the very last of that confounded -privateer brig and the gallant, good-looking -chaps who stocked her.’</p> - -<p>‘When is all this going to end?’ said she.</p> - -<p>‘Every man of them,’ exclaimed the -captain, ‘will have had a firearm in his -breast.’</p> - -<p>‘No doubt,’ I answered; ‘the vessel must -have been handsomely furnished in that way -to judge by what we found remaining in the -cabin of the wreck.’</p> - -<p>‘Were they starving, d’ye think?’ he -exclaimed with a sudden troubled manner, as -he looked at the speck in our wake.</p> - -<p>‘I should say not,’ said I; ‘there were -breakers in the bottom of the boat, and -parcels resembling bread bags aft.’</p> - -<p>‘Thirst is a fearful thing at sea, sir,’ said -he, slowly: ‘it’s worse than hunger. Hunger, -whilst it remains appetite, is agreeable; but -the first sensation of thirst is a torture. I -have known ’em both—I have known ’em -both,’ he added, with a melancholy shake of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span> -his head and a profound sigh; then bringing -his unwinking stare to bear upon me, he -exclaimed: ‘Supposing that shot had taken -effect, the <i>Lady Blanche</i> would now be without -a master; and if you wasn’t on board, -she’d be without a navigator. Less than two -sea-going heads to every ship <i>won’t</i> do. I felt -that truth when Chicken went, and I’m feeling -of it every time I catch sight of that there man -Lush.’ Miss Temple and I exchanged glances. -‘Well,’ said he, with one of his mirthless grins, -‘I don’t expect those privateersmen’ll trouble -us any more;’ and in his abrupt way he walked -to the compass, and stood there looking alternately -from it to the canvas.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span> -<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XXVIII<br /> - -<small>I QUESTION WETHERLY</small></h2></div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">It</span> had now become so much one thing on top -of another with us, and everything happening -in a moment, so to speak, too: first our being -left on the wreck all in a breath as it were: -then our being picked up by this barque -without the dimmest prospect, as my instincts -advised me, of our falling in with the <i>Countess -Ida</i> this side of Bombay: then our destitute -condition aboard a craft whose skipper’s sanity -I was now honestly beginning to distrust, and -whose people, if he did not lie, were for the -most part a gang of scoundrels: then this -sudden narrow shave of being boarded by -above a score of miscreants whose undoubted -hope was to seize the <i>Lady Blanche</i> and to -use her in the room of their own extinguished -brig; I say it was so much one thing on top -of another—a catalogue of adventures scarcely -conceivable in these safe-going days of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span> -ocean mailboat, though real enough and in -one way or another frequent enough in my -time, I mean in the time of this narrative—that -I protest something of the dismay which -possessed Miss Temple visited me, though I -struggled hard in the direction of a composed -face, as we talked over the incident of the -morning, and took a view of the singular -staring figure who had charge of the barque, -and directed our eyes at the crew, all hands of -whom hung about forward, briskly yarning, -as I might suppose, about the Spanish longboat’s -attempt (and with God knows what -sympathy, I would think, as I peered at the -groups), or as we sent our eager gaze into the -blue and brilliant ocean distance in search of -any little leaning flake of white that might -flatter us with promise of escape from our -disagreeable situation.</p> - -<p>‘I have fully and immovably formed my -opinion on two points,’ said Miss Temple to -me as we continued to pace the deck together -for some half hour after the boat had disappeared -astern: ‘one is, that Captain Braine -is mad; and the other that he is firmly bent -on making you serve him as his mate.’</p> - -<p>‘I own that I now believe he is madder<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span> -than I first suspected,’ I answered. ‘His -manner and language to you just now were -extraordinary. But as to his employing me -as mate—I think this: if the man is crazy, he -may easily go wrong in his navigation; if we -sight nothing that will carry us home, we -must obviously stick to the barque, and her -safety, therefore, is ours; consequently, it is -desirable, I think, that I should know what -her skipper is doing with her from day to -day; and this I can contrive by consenting to -oblige him with taking sights.’</p> - -<p>‘I see what you mean,’ she exclaimed -thoughtfully. ‘I had not taken that view; -but it is a cruel one to entertain; it implies -our remaining on board until—until—— Oh, -Mr. Dugdale! this sort of imprisonment -for the next two or three months is not to be -borne.’</p> - -<p>‘Anyway,’ said I, ‘you now understand -that our very safety demands we should know -where that fellow is carrying his ship. If, -then, he should request me to shoot the sun -as we call it, you will not be vexed by my -compliance?’</p> - -<p>‘Who am I, Mr. Dugdale, that you should -trouble yourself about my opinion?’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span>‘You can make yourself felt,’ said I, smiling; -‘I should consider your eyes matchless -in their power to subdue. There is a little -passage in Shakespeare that very exquisitely -fits my theory of you.’</p> - -<p>‘I would rather not hear it,’ she answered, -with a slight curl of her lip and a faint tinge -of rose in her cheeks. ‘You once applied to -me a sentence from Shakespeare that was -very unflattering.’</p> - -<p>‘What was it?’</p> - -<p>‘You compared my complexion to the -white death that one of Shakespeare’s girls -talks about.’</p> - -<p>‘I remember. I am astonished that your -aunt should have repeated to you what she -overheard by stealth.’</p> - -<p>‘I do not understand,’ she exclaimed, -firing up.</p> - -<p>‘She was behind me when I made that -quotation, and I was unconscious of her -presence. She should have respected my -ignorance. I meant no wrong,’ I went on, -pretending to get into a passion. ‘Your -complexion is pale, and I sought to illustrate -it to my little friend Saunders by an expression -of striking nobility and beautiful dignity. If<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span> -ever I have the fortune to find myself in your -aunt’s company, I shall give her my mind on -this business. How am I to know but that -her repeating what she had heard me let fall -excited in you the disgust I found in your -treatment of me?’</p> - -<p>She cooled down as I grew hot.</p> - -<p>‘The extravagance of your language -shocks me,’ she exclaimed, but with very -little temper in her voice. ‘Disgust? You -have no right to use that word. You were -always very courteous to me on board the -<i>Countess Ida</i>.’</p> - -<p>‘Am I less so here?’ said I, still preserving -an air of indignation.</p> - -<p>‘Do not let us quarrel,’ she said gently, -with such a look of sweetness in her eyes as I -should have thought their dark and glowing -depths incapable of.</p> - -<p>‘If we quarrel, it will not be my fault,’ -said I, disguising myself with my voice, whilst -I looked seawards that my face might not -betray me.</p> - -<p>At that moment the captain called out my -name: ‘Can I have a word with you, sir?’ -he cried along the short length of poop, standing -as he was at the wheel, whilst we were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span> -conversing at the fore-end of the raised -deck.</p> - -<p>‘With pleasure,’ I answered.</p> - -<p>‘I shall go into the cabin,’ said Miss -Temple; ‘it is too hot here. You will come -and tell me what he wants.’</p> - -<p>I waited until she had descended the -ladder, and then strolled over to the captain, -determined to let him know by my careless air -that whatever I did for him he must regard -as an obligation, or as an expression of my -gratitude; but that I was not to be commanded. -I believed I could witness an -expression of embarrassment in his fixed -regard that I had not before noticed in him. -He eyed me as though lost in thought, and I -waited.</p> - -<p>‘Would you object,’ said he, ‘to ascertain -our latitude at noon to-day?’</p> - -<p>‘Not in the least.’</p> - -<p>He seemed to grow a little brighter. -‘And I should feel obliged,’ he continued, ‘if -you’d work out the longitude.’</p> - -<p>‘With pleasure,’ I said. I looked at my -watch. ‘But I have no sextant.’</p> - -<p>‘I have a couple,’ he exclaimed; ‘I will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span> -lend you one;’ and down he went for it with -a fluttered demeanour of eagerness.</p> - -<p>I lingered till I supposed he had entered -his cabin, then put my head into the skylight -and called softly to Miss Temple, who was -seated almost directly beneath for the air -there: ‘He wishes me to take an observation -with him.’</p> - -<p>‘What is that?’ she answered, also speaking -softly and turning up her face.</p> - -<p>‘I am to shoot the sun—you know, Miss -Temple.’</p> - -<p>‘Oh, pray, contrive to make some error—commit -some blunder to make him suppose’—— She -checked herself, and I heard -the captain say that it was very hot as he -came to the companion steps.</p> - -<p>In a few moments he arrived on deck, -hugging a brace of sextant cases to his heart. -He told me to choose; I took the one nearest to -me, perceived that the instrument was almost -new, and as it was now hard upon the hour -of noon, applied it to my eye, the captain -standing alongside of me ogling the sun likewise. -I could see the men forward, waiting -for the skipper to make eight bells, staring -their hardest at the now unusual spectacle to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span> -them of two sextants at work. For my part, -I should have been shocked by the weakness -of my memory if I had not known what to -do. During the two years I had spent at sea -I was thoroughly grounded in navigation—such -as it was in those days; and as I stood -screwing the sun down to the horizon, the -whole practice of the art, so far as my education -in it went, came back to me as freshly as -though I had been taking sights ever since.</p> - -<p>We made eight bells. Mr. Lush came aft -to relieve the deck, and I went below with -Captain Braine to work out the barque’s -position.</p> - -<p>I smiled at Miss Temple as I entered the -cuddy; she watched me eagerly, and the -movement of her lips seemed to say, ‘Don’t -be long.’ In fact, her face had that meaning; -and I gave her a reassuring nod ere -turning to follow the captain into his berth. -The apartment was small and cheerful, plainly -stocked with the customary details of a -humble skipper’s sea bedroom; a cot, a small -table, a cushioned locker, a few mathematical -instruments, a little hanging shelf of strictly -nautical books, and so on. His chronometer -was a good one, handsome for those days, of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span> -a quality one would hardly expect to find in -a little trading-barque of the pattern of this -<i>Lady Blanche</i>. There was a bag of charts in -a corner, and a small chart of the world lay -half unrolled upon the table, with a bit of the -Atlantic Ocean visible exhibiting the skipper’s -‘pricking’ or tracing of his course down to -the preceding day.</p> - -<p>‘Here’s ink and paper, sir,’ said he; ‘sit -ye down, and let’s see if we can tally.’</p> - -<p>I was always a tolerably quick hand at -figures, and had soon completed my calculations, -feeling as though I was at sea again in -sober professional earnest. The captain -worked with extraordinary gravity; his -singular eyes overhung the paper without a -wink, and his yellow countenance, with his -blue chops and chin, wore the melancholy of -a mute’s face, mixed with an indefinable -quality of distress, as though his mental -efforts were putting him to physical pain. -We agreed to a second in our latitude, but -differed in our longitude by something over -seven miles.</p> - -<p>‘You’ll be in the right, sir—you’ll be in -the right!’ he cried, smiting the table with -his fist. ‘It is clear you know the ropes, Mr.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span> -Dugdale. I’ll abide by your reckonings. And -now I want ye to do me a further sarvice.’</p> - -<p>‘What is that, captain?’ said I.</p> - -<p>‘Well, ye may reckon, of course, that I -can write,’ he answered; ‘but I never was -topweight with my pen, as Jack says, nor, for -the matter of that, was Chicken much of a -hand. There was some words which he was -always making a foul hawse of. Now, what -I want ye to do, Mr. Dugdale, is to keep my -log for me.’</p> - -<p>‘All this,’ said I carelessly, yet watching -him with attention, ‘is practically making a -chief officer of me.’ He did not answer. ‘Of -course, I don’t object,’ I continued, stimulated -more perhaps by Miss Temple’s than by my -own views, ‘to oblige in any possible manner -a gentleman’——</p> - -<p>‘I am no gentleman,’ said he, with a wave -of the hand.</p> - -<p>‘——to whom Miss Temple and myself -owe our lives. But I may take it that it is -thoroughly understood the young lady and -myself are to quit your hospitable little ship -at the first opportunity that may offer.’</p> - -<p>He regarded me in silence for I should say -at least a minute; I was positively beginning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span> -to believe that he had fallen dumb. At last -he seemed to come to life. He nodded -slowly three times and said very deliberately: -‘Mr. Dugdale, you and me will be having a -talk later on.’</p> - -<p>‘But good God, captain,’ cried I, startled -out of my assumed manner of indifference or -ease, ‘you will at least assure me that you’ll -make no difficulty of transhipping us when -the chance to do so occurs?’</p> - -<p>He was again silent, all the while staring -at me; and presently, in a deep voice, said, -‘Later on, sir;’ and with that stood up.</p> - -<p>‘How much later on?’ I inquired.</p> - -<p>He tapped his brow with his forefinger -and answered: ‘It needs reflection, and I must -see my way clearly. So far it’s all right. I’m -much obliged to ye, I’m sure;’ and he went -to the door and held it open, closing it upon -himself after I had stepped out.</p> - -<p>At the instant I resolved to tell Miss -Temple of what had passed; then swiftly -thought no! it will only frighten the poor -girl, and she cannot advise me; I must wait a -little; and with a smiling face I seated myself -by her side. But secretly, I was a good deal -worried. I chatted lightly, told her that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span> -there was nothing whatever significant in the -captain’s request that I should check his calculations -by independent observations, and -did my utmost, by a variety of cheerful small -talk referring wholly to our situation, to keep -her heart up. Nevertheless, secretly I was -much bothered. The man had something on -his mind of a dark mysterious nature, it -seemed to me; and I could not question that -it formed the motive of his interrogatories as -to my seamanship, and of his testing my -qualities as a navigator by putting a sextant -into my hand. Whatever his secret might -prove, was it likely to stand between us and -our quitting this barque for something homeward -bound? It was most intolerably certain -that if Captain Braine chose to keep me -aboard, I must remain with him. For how -should I be able to get away? Suppose I -took it upon myself to signal a vessel when he -was below: the hailing, the noise of backing -the yards, the clamour of the necessary -manœuvring, would hardly fail to bring him -on deck; and if he chose to order the men to -keep all fast with the boat, there could be no -help for it; he was captain, and the seamen -would obey him.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span>These thoughts, however, I kept to myself. -The day passed quietly. Again and again -Miss Temple and I would search the waters -for any sign of a ship; but I took notice that -the barrenness of the ocean did not produce -the same air of profound misery and dejection -which I had witnessed in her yesterday. In -fact, she had grown weary of complaining; -she was beginning to understand the idleness -of it. From time to time, though at long -intervals, something fretful would escape her, -some reference to the wretched discomfort of -being without change of apparel; to the misfortune -of having fallen in with a ship, whose -forecastle people, if her captain was to be -believed, were for the most part no better -than the company of brigands whom we had -scraped clear of that morning. But it seemed -to me that she was slowly schooling herself -to resignation, that she had formed a resolution -to look with some spirit into the face of -our difficulties, a posture of mind I was not a -little thankful to behold in her, for, God -knows, my own anxiety was heavy enough, -and I did not want to add to it the sympathetic -trouble her grief and despair caused -me.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span>All day long the weather continued very -glorious. The captain ordered a short awning -to be spread over the poop, and Miss Temple -and I sat in the shadow of it during the -greater part of the afternoon. There was -nothing to read; there was no sort of amusement -to enable us to kill the time. Nevertheless, -the hours drifted fleetly past in talk. -Miss Temple was more communicative than -she had ever before been; talked freely of -her family, of her friends and acquaintances, -of her visits abroad, and the like. She told -me that she was never weary of riding, that -her chief delight in life was to follow the -hounds; and indeed she chatted so fluently -on one thing and another that she appeared -to forget our situation: a note almost of -gaiety entered her voice; her dark eyes -sparkled, and the cold, marble-like beauty of -her face warmed to the memories which rose -in her. I gathered from her conversation -that she was the only living child of her -mother, and that there was nothing between -her and a very tolerable little fortune, as I -might infer from her description of the home -Lady Temple had kept up in her husband’s -life, and that she still, though in a diminished<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span> -degree, supported for the sake of her daughter, -though she herself lay paralysed and helpless, -looked after in Miss Temple’s absence by a -maiden sister.</p> - -<p>I recollect wondering whilst I listened to -her that so fine a woman as she, and a fortune -to boot, had not long ago married. Was she -waiting for some man with whom she could -fall in love? or was it some large dream of -title and estate that hindered her? or was it -that she was without a heart? No, thought -I; her heart will have had nothing to do with -it. Your heartless girls get married as fast -as the rest of them. And was she heartless? -It was not easy to let one’s gaze plumb the -glowing liquid depths of her eyes, which -seemed to my fancy to be charged with the -fires of sensibility and passion, and believe her -heartless.</p> - -<p>There was something wild in the contrast -betwixt the imaginations she raised in me by -her talk of her home and her pleasures with -her own beauty at hand to richly colour every -fancy she inspired—betwixt my imagination, -I say, and the realities about us, as I would -most poignantly feel whenever I sent a glance -at old Lush. He was a mule of a man, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span> -stood doggedly at a distance, never addressed -nor offered, indeed, to approach us, though -sometimes I would catch him taking me in -from head to toe out of the corner of his surly -eyes. Possibly, my showing that I had a trick -of navigation above his knowledge excited -his spleen; or maybe his hatred of the captain -led him to dislike me because of the apparent -intimacy between the skipper and me. Anyway, -I would catch myself looking at him now -with a feeling of misgiving for which I could -find no reason outside of the mere movement -of my instincts.</p> - -<p>It was in the second dog-watch that -evening; Miss Temple was resting in the little -cuddy, and I stepped on to the main-deck to -smoke a pipe. The topmost canvas of the -barque delicately swayed under a cloudless -heaven that was darkly, deeply, beautifully -blue with the shadow of the coming night. -A large star trembled above the ocean verge -in the east; but the glow of sunset still -lingered in the west over a sea of wonderful -smoothness rippling in frosty lines to the -breeze that gushed from between the sunset -and the north.</p> - -<p>The carpenter had charge of the deck; the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span> -captain was in his cabin. Whilst I lighted -my pipe, I caught sight of the man Joe -Wetherly seated on the coaming of the fore-hatch -past the little galley. He was puffing -at an inch of dusky clay with his arms folded -upon his breast, and his countenance composed -into an air of sailorly meditation. -This seemed an opportunity for me to learn -what he had to tell or might be willing to -impart about the inner life of the <i>Lady Blanche</i>, -and I went along the deck in an easy saunter, -as though it was my notion to measure the -planks for an evening stroll. I started when -abreast of him with a manner of pleased -surprise.</p> - -<p>‘Oh! it is you, Wetherly? My old -acquaintance Smallridge’s friend! No sign -of the Indiaman, though. I fear we have -outrun her by leagues. And always when -you are on the lookout for a sail at sea, -nothing heaves into sight.’</p> - -<p>He rose to my accost, and saluted me with -a respectful sea-bow, that is, by scraping his -forehead with his knuckle with a little kick -back of his left leg.</p> - -<p>‘That’s right enough, sir,’ he answered. -‘I’ve been sailing myself in a ship for six weeks<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span> -in middling busy waters, too, with ne’er a -sight of anything—not so much as the tail of -a gull.’</p> - -<p>‘Pray sit,’ said I; ‘I’ll keep you company. -This is the right spot for a smoke and a -yarn; quiet and cool and out of the road of -the poop.’</p> - -<p>He grinned, and we seated ourselves side by -side. I talked to him first about the <i>Countess -Ida</i>, explained the circumstance of my being in -company with Miss Temple, told him who she -was, and spoke of her shipwrecked condition so -far as her wardrobe went, and how eager she -was to return to England; but the old sailor -made very little of her being in want of a -change of dress.</p> - -<p>‘There is no need, sir,’ said he, ‘for the lady -to distress her mind with considerations of a -shift o’ vestments. I allow she can use a needle -for herself; there’s needles and thread at her -sarvice forrads; and how much linnen do she -want? Why one of the skipper’s table-cloths -’ud fit her out, I should say.’ He turned his -figure-head of a face upon me as he added: -‘’Tain’t the loss of clothes, sir, as should occupy -her thoughts, but the feeling that she’s been -took off that there wreck and is safe.’</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span>I fully agreed with him, with some inward -laughter, wondering what Miss Temple would -think if she had overheard his speech. One -thing led to another; at last I said:</p> - -<p>‘Wetherly, I am going to ask you a plain -question; it is one sailor making inquiry of -another, and you’ll accept me as a shipmate, I -know.’ He nodded. ‘Is not your captain -wanting?’ and I touched my head.</p> - -<p>‘Well,’ he answered after a pause, ‘<i>I</i> think -so, and I’ve been a-thinking so pretty nigh ever -since I’ve been along with him.’</p> - -<p>‘What caused his mate’s death?’</p> - -<p>‘He died in a swound,’ he answered—‘fell -dead alongside the wheel as he was looking into -the compass.’</p> - -<p>‘Have the sailors noticed anything queer -in their captain?’</p> - -<p>‘They’re such a party of ignorant scow-bankers,’ -said he, with a slow look round, to -make sure that the coast was clear, ‘that I -don’t believe they’re capable of noticing anything -if it ain’t a pannikin of rum shoved under -their noses.’</p> - -<p>‘I don’t mind whispering to you,’ said I, -‘that the captain hinted to me they were not -a very reputable body of men—talked vaguely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span> -of mutineers and convicts, with one fellow -amongst them,’ I went on, bating my voice to -a mere whisper, ‘who had committed a -murder.’</p> - -<p>He stared at me a moment, and then tilted -his cap over his nose to scratch the back of -his head.</p> - -<p>‘He’ll know more about ’em, then, than I -do,’ he responded; ‘they’re ignorant enough to -do wrong without troubling themselves much -to think of the job when it was over. Mutineering -I don’t doubt some of ’em have practised. -As to others of ’em being convicts, why who’s -to tell? Likely as not, says I. But when it -comes to murder—a middling serious charge, -ain’t it, sir? Of course I dunno—who might -the party be, sir?’</p> - -<p>‘Oh!’ I exclaimed, ‘it was a vague sort of -talk, as I told you. But if Miss Temple and -I are to stick to this ship till we get to the -Mauritius, it would comfort her, and me, too, -for the matter of that, to learn that her crew -are not the band of ruffians we have been led -to imagine them.’</p> - -<p>‘Well, sir,’ he exclaimed thoughtfully—‘I’m -sure you’ll forgive me, but I don’t rightly -recollect your name.’</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span>‘Dugdale.’</p> - -<p>‘Well, Mr. Dugdale, as you asks for my -opinion, I’ll give it ye. Of course, it’ll go no -furder, as between man and man.’</p> - -<p>‘Certainly not. I am myself trusting -you up to the hilt, as what I have said must -assure you. You may speak in perfect confidence.’</p> - -<p>He cast a cautious look round: ‘There’s -but one man to be regularly afeerd of, and -that’s Mr. Lush. I believe he’d knife the -capt’n right off if so be as he could be sure we -men wouldn’t round upon him. I don’t mean -to say he han’t got cause to hate the capt’n. -He’s a working man without knowledge of -perlite customs, and I believe the capt’n’s said -more to him than he ought to have said; more -than any gen’leman would have dreamt of -saying, and all because this here carpenter -han’t got the art o’ dining in a way to please -the eye. But this here Mr. Lush feels it too -much: he’s allowed it to eat into his mind; -and if so be there should come a difficulty, the -capt’n wouldn’t find a friend in him, and so I -tells ye, sir. I don’t want to say more n’s -necessary and proper to this here occasion -of your questions; but though the crew’s a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span> -desperate ignorant one, ne’er a man among ’em -capable of writing or spelling any more’n the -carpenter hisself, there’s only <i>him</i> to be afeerd -of, so far as I’m capable of disarning; though, -of course, if he should tarn to and try and -work up their feelings, there’s naturally no -telling how the sailors ’ud show.’</p> - -<p>‘They seem a pretty smart set of fellows,’ -said I, finding but little comfort to be got out -of this long-winded delivery; ‘the ship is beautifully -clean, and everything looks to be going -straight aboard of you.’</p> - -<p>‘Oh! every man can do his bit,’ he answered; -‘but if I was you, sir, being in charge, -as you are, of a beautiful young lady, for the -likes of which this here little barque, with -nothen but men aboard and such shabby food -as goes aft, is no proper place—if I was you, -I says, says I, I’d get away as soon as ever I -could.’</p> - -<p>I mentally bestowed a few sea-blessings on -the head of this marine Job’s comforter, but -contrived, nevertheless, to look as though I -was much obliged to him for his information -and advice; and after we had continued discoursing -on a variety of nautical topics for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span> -some ten minutes or a quarter of an hour -longer, I proceeded aft, and spent the rest of -the evening in conversing with Miss Temple -in the cabin or in walking the deck with her.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p class="center">END OF THE SECOND VOLUME</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p class="center"><small>PRINTED BY<br /> -SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE<br /> -LONDON</small></p> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="transnote"> - -<p class="ph1">TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:</p> - -<p>The cover image for this eBook was created by the transcriber and is entered into the public domain.</p> - -<p>Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.</p> - -<p>Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.</p> -</div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of My Shipmate Louise, Volume 2 (of 3), by -William Clark Russell - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY SHIPMATE LOUISE, VOLUME 2 *** - -***** This file should be named 62344-h.htm or 62344-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/3/4/62344/ - -Produced by David E. 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